Offended by an Enemy's Indifference

For some strange reason, people tend to find negative attention preferable to indifference, to the point where they get upset when people, especially their enemies, treat them with apathy rather than bothering them. These people can take being hated, bullied, envied, insulted, feared, or any other form of negative attention, but can't stand being ignored.

The primary justification for this trope is mainly due to pride; if an enemy is giving you negative attention, it means that they consider you important enough to take time out of their day in order to try and hurt you. By contrast, being ignored by an enemy is an indication that they consider you so beneath them that you aren't worth paying attention to.

This trope might manifest itself in a number of ways; a person who desires to be hated or envied might get upset when the people who hate them decide to either purposely ignore them or move on with their lives. Someone who likes to troll people might get mad when their target(s) choose to ignore them rather than retaliate. Someone who's a bully and/or a sadist might become infuriated when their victims don't show any reaction to being bullied/tortured. Someone who cut ties with their friends might get mad that their old friends moved on rather than feel miserable.

"Romantic" variations of this trope are also fairly common. A person who broke up with their ex might get mad when their ex doesn't cry or try to win them back, not because they want to get back together, but because it insults them that someone would move on from them. Someone who's the target of a Stalker with a Crush, Abhorrent Admirer, Hopeless Suitor, etc. might get offended rather than happy when said person loses feelings for them, not because they are interested, but because they take pride in having someone be attracted to them. Someone who's a frequent target of unwanted advances might get upset at the people who don't try to get with them.

These characters tend to suffer from one of two fates; they will either make a fool out of themselves trying to get their foe's attention or they end up getting said foe's attention, but it turns out badly for them.

Super-Trope to Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?.

Often expressed by Attention Whores, Trolls, Unknown Rivals, characters seeking Fame Through Infamy, those who are considered Not Worth Killing, or characters who believe that Enemies Equals Greatness. Compare But for Me, It Was Tuesday. Compare/Contrast Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond, where a popular person is upset because one person doesn't like them.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• One Piece: Chopper combines this trope with Underestimating Badassery; a Running Gag throughout the series is that his bounties tend to be extremely low because the Marines think he's just a pet. Since pirates see a high bounty as a status symbol, Chopper is naturally upset that the World Government doesn't consider him a threat.
• Ranma ½: At one point in the story, Shampoo, who is normally obsessed with Ranma, loses her feelings for him due to a magic brooch; rather than being elated that his Unwanted Harem has one less member, Ranma feels insulted that a girl is no longer interested in him and tries to get her to fall in love with him again, despite all of the pain and misery she's caused him.

Comic Books

• Superman: In the story "The Sound of One Hand Clapping," the Joker goes to Metropolis to antagonize Superman by planting bombs in several locations across the city. Superman confronts the Joker by laughing at his jokes and eventually telling him that he's getting bored with the Joker's act. When an enraged Joker says he's going to set off the bombs, Superman says that he tracked the controller's radio signal and throws the bombs at the feet of the Joker. After Superman defuses the bombs' detonators with his heat vision, he zaps the Joker, who gives himself up, having failed to intimidate Superman. Superman then goes to the Batcave, where Batman tells Superman that he failed the test he set by zapping the Joker with a non-lethal amount of heat vision. Superman smashes the Batmobile, and becomes angry at Batman, with Superman telling him that he's not as smart as he thinks he is, and calls him out for being so nonchalant over the fact that they got lucky Joker didn't decide to set off the bombs before Superman found them or even gone on a shooting spree. Superman warns Batman not to allow the Joker to return to Metropolis, or the Joker wouldn't return to Gotham.
• In Superman (Phillip Kennedy Johnson), Manchester Black offers to let Lex Luthor, Superman's Arch-Enemy, know what the Big Blue Boy Scout thinks of him. Lex angrily asks what Superman possibly thinks of him. The answer? Nothing. The idea that Superman, whom Lex spends nearly every waking moment trying to ruin, thinks nothing of him unless he has to enrages Lex. Black spends his last moments laughing in Lex's face before the latter activates Project Blackout.

Fan Works

• In The Handling of Ash, Katsuki gets upset over how Izuku no longer flinches at his explosions, even when he sets one off inches away from Izuku's face. He complains about how his former friend turned long-time victim isn't acting afraid of him anymore, insisting that he should be scared, that that's how this is all supposed to work. Izuku calmly dismantles Katsuki's obssession with being the best, pinpointing what he suspects to be his greatest weakness: being outright incapable of dealing with failure.
  Izuku: I'm not afraid of you, Kacchan. I'm only afraid for you.
• Incidence: Both the King and Rouxls Kaard get upset with Kris acting indifferent to the King's attempts to monologue and chew the scenery.
• Ranma Club: When Ranma convinces most of Akane's admirers to move on from her by pointing out that there are other girls they could get with, Akane feels upset that most of the guys are no longer interested in her since while she was annoyed by their persistence, she also took pride in the fact that so many guys wanted to be with her.
• Synépeies - A Collection Of NTR Consequences: The cheating women usually don't take it well when the protagonists move on from them; in their eyes the protagonists are losers who should feel miserable that their beautiful girlfriend/crush/wife was stolen away, so the protagonists' ability to move on from being betrayed makes the cheating women realize that they were the real losers for throwing away a good man for a sleazebag.
• TMDDF: After Many Dates: Danny and Kim: At one point when Dash tries to bully Danny, who feels indifferent towards him, Dash demands he show fear. Danny responds by stating he's not afraid of a guy who's content to peak in high school.
• When in Doubt, Obliviate: Zacharias Smith sees himself as Harry's rival, but Harry thinks the whole custom of Hogwarts' rivalry is stupid and deflects all of Zacharias' attempts to pick a fight with him. Zacharias gets mad that Harry is not taking him seriously as a rival, and his complaints about this sound like a jilted lover.

Films — Animated

• Beauty and the Beast: The Bimbettes are all in love with Gaston and envious of Belle for being the object of his affections. When Belle rejects Gaston, rather than being relieved that their crush is still up for grabs, the Bimbettes feel offended that Belle thinks she's too good for him.
• The LEGO Batman Movie: Joker is outraged when Batman states that the clown means "nothing" to him, and enacts a master plan solely to make Batman see that the Joker is his greatest enemy.
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Played for Drama. The Spot begins the film as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who is powerful but bumbling but holds a bit of a beef with Miles Morales because his powers are the result of collateral damage from the previous film. He gets more than a little upset when Miles and the other Spider-People treat him as a "Villain of the Week" (their lingo for utterly ineffectual criminal, not even worth remembering. Miles even prioritizes getting a snack and texting his parents during their very first fight), which leads to him going to another universe, enhancing his powers to "Humanoid Abomination" levels and going back to Miles' universe with the express purpose of killing Miles' dad as revenge.

Literature

• 7th Time Loop: From the second time loop on, Rishe no longer cares about her ex-fiancé dramatically breaking off their engagement in public and accusing her of a laundry list of crimes he made up to "justify" the annulment. After all, she's stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop that starts with him sundering their engagement, and no longer being attached to a Royal Brat is quite frankly the least of her concerns. This deeply upsets him, as he really, really wanted to utterly humiliate her for his own personal entertainment, and is pissed off by how little she cares — she's not even letting him use the speech he prepared!
  Rishe: Very well. I understand.
  Dietrich: Eh? Hold on. I'm voiding our engagement. You must be worried about what will happen to you now.
  Rishe: No. Not in the least.
  Dietrich: What?
  Rishe: If you'll pardon me.
  Dietrich: Huh? W-Wait! Rishe? Where are you going? Listen to me! I spent a whole week thinking about how I'd read off your list of crimes! Listen! Hey! You! Come back here! Halt! Rishe! Listen to me when I'm speaking to you!
• Classroom of the Elite ends up having a scared by an enemy's indifference in the form of Kakeru Ryuen. When they finally get enough of Kiyotaka Ayanokouji's attention that he feels like they need to be subdued, they are less bothered by the fact that Kiyotaka is hurting them, and more freaked out by the fact that Kiyotaka is doing so without changing his usual deadpan expression, implying that Kiyotaka is exerting very little effort in taking them down and proving that he sees them as little more than a slight annoyance rather than an actual threat.
• A Monster Calls: Harry the school bully frequently torments the protagonist Conor, until he figures out that Conor wants to be bullied as it's the only thing that makes him feel normal during a time when his mother is dying from terminal cancer. Harry then decides it's not worth bullying Conor anymore and tells him, "Now you're invisible to me, too." Conor is angered by this and beats him up in front of his classmates.

Live-Action TV

• The Boys (2019): In the Season Finale of Season 3, Soldier Boy reveals that his Abusive Dad was always verbally abusive towards him by expressing his disappointment. He also mentions that his father never once laid a hand on him as it would require him to care about him enough to do so, which plays a big role in Soldier Boy having a very twisted sense of Tough Love (not helping that he was also born in a period where American society had strict gender views of Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty) by being horrifically abusive towards his former team through physical beatings if he "feels" any of them were to step out of line or "rise above their station".
• Star Trek: The Original Series: in "Errand of Mercy", the Klingon commander Kor is very upset that the Organians he's occupying don't even offer token resistance. Kirk and Spock try to fight the Klingons, much to the delight of Kor as he sees Kirk as a Worthy Opponent. The Organians are Energy Beings and abhor violence. They put an end to all the fighting.

Music

• Cher Lloyd: The song "Want U Back" is about a girl who broke up with her boyfriend wanting to get back with him because she feels upset that he not only didn't try to win her back, but he also moved on and found a new girlfriend.

Theatre

• Twisted: The Princess of the Magic Kingdom rebuffed her suitor Prince Achmed and sicced her tiger on him. This is a serious diplomatic problem. Prince Achmed returns to the Magic Kingdom to conquer it. Due to a Sustained Misunderstanding, his soldiers are convinced he had sex with the tiger and admire him for it. When Prince Achmed and the Princess meet again, she has trouble remembering who he is — until she recalls the circumstances in which he left. Unfortunately, the wording she uses is... less than helpful.
  Achmed: It is I, Prince Achmed!
  Princess: Who?
  Achmed: Prince Achmed! I visited you last week! ... I swore vengeance? I brought my army to ravage your people!
  Princess: Ohhhh, that's right! Didn't my tiger eat your ass?
  Achmed's soldiers: TIGERFUCKER! TIGERFUCKER! TIGERFUCKER!

Tabletop Games

• In Demon: The Fallen, each of the Houses of the rebel angels was struck by God with a new, derogatory name, and a curse was laid on them tailored to strike at what they care about. The rebels of the House of the Dawn, the most prestigious of the Houses of Angels, was only given the new name "Namaru" or "Devils" but not given a curse. This lack of a curse was, in fact, the worst curse God could give; the new Devils pride would have had them wear any actual curse as a badge of honour but as it was they were being treated as if they weren't worth cursing. The Devils are smart enough to realise this but that doesn't stop it hurting their precious pride.

Video Games

• Fate/Grand Order: Normally, Karna and Arjuna are rivals at best (and very bitter enemies at times). When Karna meets the Lostbelt 4 version of Arjuna, who is a Physical God, Arjuna completely ignores his presence, which uncharacteristically pisses him off.
• Mass Effect: In Krogan culture, the biggest insult one can give to an enemy is to say that they're not worth killing. This is because krogans place high value not only on the strength of themselves but also on the strength of their enemies. As such, an enemy that feels completely indifferent towards you, to the point of saying that you're not worth fighting or killing, is a massive insult to their pride and is basically their cultural equivalent of saying that someone is weak and/or worthless.
• Octopath Traveler II: Agnea's story features La'mani, an Upper-Class Twit and Big Bad Wannabe who runs New Delsta's theater. During their final confrontation, Agnea doesn't even recognize him, much to his consternation.
  La'mani: You foolish little star. You've fallen right into my trap.
  Agnea: You're... Uhh... Who are you again?
  La'mani: I am the theater manager, La'mani! Don't you dare say you've forgotten!
  Agnea: Now that you mention it, you do look familiar.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE!: What kicks off Rick vs The Doctor is, after Morty accidently rear ends the TARDIS, the Doctor merely shrugs off Rick's attempt pin the accident on him before heading off, telling the duo he's too busy to deal with this and just forgives them. Rick, being an impulsive egomaniac, took this as an insult and picks a fight, ultimately ending in not just his death, the getting completely erased from reality.
• Manga Soprano: Casino is Kanade's toxic older brother who she has all but cut ties with. During a marriage meeting between Kanade and Alto's families, Casino and his wife show up, having been invited by his mother. During the meeting, Casino looks down on Alto for his lower income and declares that he isn't coming to Kanade and Alto's wedding. During the day of the wedding, Casino calls Kanade and says that he isn't coming, expecting her to be offended. Kanade responds by saying she didn't invite him. Casino becomes enraged at Kanade, accusing her of insulting him, and shows up in order to make her look bad for not inviting her brother. Luckily, Alto's daughter had a recording of him explicitly stating that he didn't want to come.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: Upon several meetings, Roy has become enraged by Xykon's continued attitude of casual indifference if not ignorance about Xykon's evil deeds towards Roy and the people in his life.
  • Tarquin's final line in the comic is "THIS IS A TERRIBLE ENDING!!!" as he is abandoned in the desert, furious that neither Elan nor Julio will fulfill his (self-perceived) narrative role to be vanquished as the story's primary villain.
• Something*Positive: Ollie is furious that his attempts to antagonize Davan (like sleeping with Davan's ex) don't actually piss Davan off since Davan got over her long ago.

Web Videos

• I Text Pro Chloe is an ex-friend variation; she's a lazy parasite who likes playing the friendship card to mooch off of people. When Addison refuses to pay for Chloe during a group vacation, Chloe says she's done being friends with Addison, expecting her to feel devastated. Instead, Addison is relieved, making Chloe angrier.

Western Animation

• Duck Dodgers: Marvin the Martian greatly wounds Dodgers when he tells him he's not his Arch-Nemesis. In fact, he says Dodgers doesn't even rate his top ten. Dodgers spends the rest of the episode trying to get acknowledged, eventually rescuing the Martian Queen from the nefarious Doctor Woe while wearing armor clearly inspired by Doctor Doom, with Eye Beams.
• DuckTales (2017): In "GlomTales", Flintheart Glomgold spends the episode trying to assemble a villain "family" to counter Scrooge's family. When he is forced to recruit Magica de Spell, the arc villain of Season 1 (albeit depowered), Flintheart is overlooked as Magica is the one Louie and Scrooge believe to be the ringleader of the operation, which pisses off Glomgold.
  Glomgold: Not so fast, McDuck!
  Scrooge: I knew this day would come. Magica's grand revenge.
  Glomgold: (angry) I'm clearly standing in front!
• The Fairly OddParents!: The episode "Emotion Commotion" has Timmy wishing to have no emotions, which results in people freaking out when he doesn't respond to insults and threats. Trixie especially takes it badly, becoming obsessed with him now that he doesn't care about her.
• The Simpsons: Zigzagged. Mr. Burns' inability to remember Homer Simpson's name despite their many, many interactions over the course of the series is offered up as a possible motive when Homer becomes one of the suspects in the case of who shot Mr. Burns. It was actually infant Maggie Simpson, completely by accident. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Teen Titans (2003): Control Freak is pretty upset to find out that the Teen Titans didn't put his name on their Enemies List, even though Puppet King, who made far fewer appearances than him, is on it.
• A variation in Transformers: Cyberverse: When Cheetor tries asking Optimus Prime and Megatron trivia questions about each other, Megatron is offended when Optimus doesn't know who his most famous gladiatorial opponent was.

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