M. Bison: I'm sorry. I don't remember any of it.
Chun-Li: You don't remember?!
Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
A critical event that started The Protagonist on their journey was an action by The Antagonist (or vice versa). The instigator, however, has long forgotten this event, because to them, it wasn't really notable as they have likely done many similar acts; this response shows up whenever a character is unable to remember a particular event that greatly affected someone.
This can be seen as a form of narcissism coming from the victim, who will automatically assume that the one responsible would specifically remember the event because of how important it is to them, and can go hand in hand with Unknown Rival. Sometimes the act isn't especially reprehensible, or was fairly mundane for all parties involved rather than just the one giving the response (e.g. a death during a relatively routine war or invasion).
That said, this response usually shows up to highlight just how evil a villain is. After all, if The Hero is upset over their murdered father, and the Big Bad barely remembers killing the guy, then clearly the villain has murdered a lot of people in their life, and they have a pretty callous attitude about it. It can be done in a casually hurtful manner, but a Card-Carrying Villain may even mock the hero as being nothing special, just to be a bit more of a Jerkass. Very frequently associated with The Sociopath with a Lack of Empathy; to such a person, whatever reprehensible act they just did is just like any other mundane activity to a normal person in terms of emotional impact.
The alternate scenario, where this response comes from a hero unable to remember foiling some villain's scheme or putting them in jail simply due to how many bad guys they've defeated/put away, can really tick off a villain. This is especially true if the forgotten enemy was a mook in their previous appearance(s). Alternatively, the hero may have saved someone who is now a devoted fan of them as a result, but when the rescuee later shows up to thank the hero, they could be hurt by their idol failing to recognize them.
See also A Million is a Statistic. Compare Forgotten First Meeting and He Had a Name. Contrast Reminiscing About Your Victims and Would You Like to Hear How They Died?. Not the First Victim is an unusual case that can fall under this or Would You Like to Hear How They Died?. If a character only thinks this is happening but the apparent perpetrator really didn't do it, it may be Not Me This Time.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Religion & Mythology
- Theatre
- Video Games
- Web Animation
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
Other examples:
- A heroic example in one arc of The Phantom, after the titular hero comes across a sniper who he'd previously skull-marked. Prior to the confrontation, the sniper had been reminiscing about how, in their last encounter, he'd shot the Phantom, only for the hero to get back up when by all rights he shouldn't have, and that incident left the sniper in absolute terror of the Ghost Who Walks ever since...but when they come face-to-face, Phantom admits to himself that he doesn't remember the guy at all
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