There are heroes who can't understand the spiteful. There are villains who don't believe in kindness. But if there's one type of person both sides can't seem to wrap their minds around, it's the ones who try to stay uninvolved with either of them or anyone in general. While it's easy to simply assume that they're a True Neutral, in actuality those characters can fall anywhere on the moral and ethical spectrum, but simply have no reason to actively get involved in anything that doesn't ultimately concern them. Unfortunately The Call Knows Where You Live and it's coming from everyone who knows them, regardless of which side they're on.
To be reasonably fair, unless you're some form of The Hermit or The Shut-In, avoiding interactions with other people is almost impossible. So, barring that, people who don't want to get dragged into something will typically keep their distance from others, both physically and emotionally, which makes it harder for others to understand them. What is less fair, however, is that from that "distance" those very others tend to fill in the gaps with their own interpretations, usually mixed in with some Psychological Projection. For example, people on the nicer side of morality will often assume the person avoiding them is simply shy and just doesn't know how to make friends. Thus, never stopping to reconsider their Condescending Compassion, they quickly become The Thing That Would Not Leave in an effort to befriend their "Aloof Ally." As for the more devious and spiteful, they'll either be an Attention Whore who feels slighted at the perceived lack thereof or a Control Freak who is Improperly Paranoid of a possible threat to their plans which, in turn for both of the aforementioned, will result in some petty excuse for them to lash out violently.
There are actually even times where the person who doesn't want to do something tries, to the best of their ability, to explain it to the ones trying to drag them in that there's no reason to do so. It's too bad that in this case everything the former says to the latter tends to go in one ear and out the other. This is especially an issue when the former actually did have a proper reason for staying out of it, such as being under a Magically Binding Contract or Geas that prevents them from doing so. So if a huge problem arises because of their involvement (and wasn't caused intentionally) either our Heroic Wannabe will be getting some looks or our villain will be having trouble shifting the blame to someone else. See kids, this is why you pay actual attention to what's being said to you.
Do note that none of this is to say that the would-be bystander(s) is a Lazy Bum, lacks empathy, or just isn't a team player (those may be a huge part of it but definitely not always). In fact, the possibility of their loved one being used against them may be one of the reasons they're staying back (or brought in by the villains). There's also the possibility where they want to help one or both sides but can only do so by making use of a technicality. Those who learn of and respect the outsider's circumstances will often be met with respect in return. Now if only everyone else could figure that out.
This is likely to come up after an Achilles in His Tent situation, where an impact player withholds himself from participating in a heroic endeavor purely as a hissy fit. His colleagues must then wheedle, cajole, or browbeat "Achilles" into joining their mission. In an even worse situation, the team ended up Removing the Crucial Teammate and now has to try to get back into said teammate's good graces, which, depending on how the removal played out, probably won't be as easy as the rest of the team wants it to be. Also almost a required trait for most stalkers, though there are a few exceptions.
Super-Trope to Heroic Neutral, Karmic Trickster, The Drag-Along, and Unwanted Harem. Compare Being Evil Sucks, Being Good Sucks, I Just Want to Be Normal, and It Sucks to Be the Chosen One. Contrast I Just Want to Have Friends and Shrinking Violet, for when they really want the "nice guys" to think they are, as well as Beneath Notice, which is what they probably want to be. Also contrast Chronic Hero Syndrome, where a "good" person will typically involve himself in a situation regardless of whether or not they were asked to. Will sometimes overlap with Neutrality Backlash, Neutral No Longer, Oblivious to Hints, Unwanted Assistance, Moral Pragmatist, Tragically Misguided Favor, and With Us or Against Us. Will usually be one of The Perils of Being the Best, most often to the point of Mandatory Unretirement.
See also Dismotivation.
Examples:
- Transformers (2019): When the story begins, the founder of the Ascenticon political movement Termagax has sequestered herself in self-imposed exile having resigned from her position as Senator in favour of her protégé Megatron. It's mentioned that her old friend Wheeljack and Autobot spymaster Starscream have both approached her in the past about getting involved once more, especially as the political situation on Cybertron becomes more volatile, but she ignored them and simply continues working on her personal projects. Megatron still visits her once in a while to let her know what's happening, but she generally doesn't appreciate his visits due to no longer being concerned. Unfortunately, this also means that there's really no one to stop Megatron from reforging the Ascenticons into a proper army, and by the time Termagax attempts to get involved Megatron rightly points out that by abandoning them, she has no right to try to tell his Decepticons what to do.
- Precious Like Starlight: On a trip to Lust, Asmodeus senses how repressed Lute is because of millennia in what was essentially an extremist cult, and tries to tempt her out of her shell by singing a very sensual song about all the pleasures that she can take part in here in Hell. Lute does not take this well, throwing a chair at him and nearly slipping into Game Face before Charlie intervenes and chews Asmodeus out for pressuring her with something she doesn't want and in fact makes her very uncomfortable. Worth noting is that Lute is absolutely an Armored Closet Gay, but she doesn't seem interested in sex even outside of her internalized homophobia.
- The Avengers (2012): Bruce Banner has gone deep into the back country of India where he lives as a simple village doctor, trying to avoid any situation that might trigger a transformation. He wants nothing to do with anyone who might want to exploit the Hulk's power. But faced with the threat of Loki, SHIELD reaches out and brings him in, after which Tony Stark treats him as a member of the proto-Avengers even though Banner has made it clear he's not interested. Banner's character arc during the film involves him slowly realizing that this time he can't stay out of it, and eventually joining the fight against the Chitauri invasion.
- Clockwise: Just after Brian has vandalised a phone box, he is greeted by his smiling ex-girlfriend Pat, who keeps him talking until the police arrive. Seeing the police, Brian persuades her to drive their car around the block, because he does not want the police to catch Laura driving without a licence. With the police on their tail, Pat ends up having to drive them further and further away. Pat becomes increasingly desperate, as her family have just sat down to lunch, and believe that she has been kidnapped. As they drive, Pat's contempt for Brian comes flooding out. After a string of Disaster Dominoes, Pat furiously drives herself back home and is stopped by the police for speeding.
Pat: It's your life, Brian. I don't want to say anything, I just don't want to get involved.
- Classroom of the Elite: Among other things this is Kikyo Kushida's Fatal Flaw. Frightened by the possibility of their true personaliy being exposed, they set out to rid of anyone who knows about it. This includes Suzune Horikita, who went to the same middle school (but ultimately doesn't recognize them at first), and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, who found out by accident. The problem with this is neither of the aforementioned two had any reason to expose them but they couldn't take that chance. Unfortunately, since they weren't as clever as they thought they were, not only do their plans end up failing spectacularly, but, while Horikita might be willing to make amends, Ayanokouji now sees them as too much of a loose cannon to be left alone.
- In the (chronologically) first volume of the Deryni series, Camber of Culdi, Earl Camber MacRorie discovers that there is a living heir to the Haldane lineage, who is the rightful king of Gwynedd. However, Prince Cinhil Haldane's mundane identity is Father Benedict, a priest in a cloistered religious order. He feels an honest calling to the priesthood, and he is completely uninterested in becoming king. But Camber and his children believe that a Haldane restoration is necessary to save Gwynedd from the current king, the brutal Imre of Festil. They're ruthless in their campaign to convince Cinhil to give up his priesthood and become king, playing mercilessly on Cinhil's sincere desire to serve his God and His people. Eventually Cinhil capitulates and agrees to lead Camber's rebellion against Imre.
- Green Eggs and Ham: The entire plot consists of the Sam-I-Am trying to convince an unnamed guynote to eat green eggs and ham even though the unnamed guy makes it very clear that he doesn't like Sam or the titular food (until he tries it at the end of the book and finds out that he does like it after all).
- The Worst Witch: In The Worst Witch Strikes Again, the new girl Enid Nightshade keeps trying to liven things up, and gets Mildred into trouble several times. When Mildred is threatened with being expelled if anything else happens that term, Mildred is determined not to get involved in anything, in spite of Enid's efforts to tempt her. On the very last day, Enid drags Mildred into a cupboard, so they can sneak off and spend the day as they like, in spite of Mildred's pleas not to. Unfortunately, Mildred's enemy Ethel sees them vanishing into the cupboard and locks them in.
- The Brittas Empire: In "Underwater Wedding", Brittas recounts how every week during his time at Loughborough University, he would ask a student specializing in politics and philosophy if he would like to join in the football for the underprivileged sessions that he was coaching. Even after the man told Brittas that he had exams and didn't even like football, Brittas remained persistent in his pestering. The student gave up and decided to play a game for Brittas, but it's clear that it was only because the student was in a vulnerable situation with his mother having recently died.
- In The King of Queens. the cast principals take it in turn to pick up the Idiot Ball and get enthusiastic about weird, crackpot, schemes and half-baked ideas, pressuring the saner cast members to join in the delusion. It can be Doug Heffernan, trying to drag Deacon Palmer into something idiotic; or else Arthur Spooner is pressuring Spence Olchik to provide time or money for his latest crackpot venture. Even the hard-bitten and realistic Carrie Heffernan is not immune to this, as her friends and workmates can testify.
- Leverage: The season 2 premiere finds Nate has completely given up crime and trying to get a legitimate job. The rest of the crew, however, can't go back to their old lives because they got too used to heroism and they want to go back to it. When they find a mark, they start using Nate's apartment to plan, while he insists they leave him out of it. He eventually relents.
Nate: Now if you will all excuse me, I have to go call the professional killer who tried to murder me, and arrange to meet him in an isolated location. Well-played.
- Fraggle Rock: In "Wembley and the Great Race", the Rockbeetle Race turns out to be a Friendship-Straining Competition when Wembley wins and Gobo claims he got lucky. Wembley, not wanting the competition to hurt their friendship, doesn't want to race anymore, but Red (who's trained Wembley to take her place in the race on account of her sprained tail) and Gobo keep insisting on rematches.
Wembley: This race is getting in the way of our friendship!
Gobo: Listen, if you're a real friend, you'll give me a chance to get even.
- One of the Sequel Hooks that The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie offers is a couple of short stories of events that happen between this game and Daybreak. One of them has Renne Bright enroll in Aramis Academy and come into conflict with Student Council President candidate, Ronald Griffith. While Renne was more than happy to keep her head down (or at least try to), her top scores and (very polite, mind you) refusal to join Ronald's campaign earned her the young man's ire. Unfortunately for Ronald, not only do all of his attempts only serve to make Renne more popular but anyone both in and out of universe who knows Renne will recall that not only is she a genius hacker but also former Ouroboros Enforcer No. XV who had the Red Baron of Angel of Slaughter. So yeah, when Renne finally decides to put Ronald in his place he suffers a full Humiliation Conga and is very lucky Renne had mellowed out by the time he met her.
- El Goonish Shive: Downplayed and justified; Grace doesn't want to take up martial arts due to trauma related to physical abuse growing up. However, her friends point out quite reasonably that given everything that happened, she will likely find herself in another fight and she needs options between complete non-violence and brutalizing her opponents, and martial arts helps with that. Grace ultimately decides her friends are right and starts taking lessons from Greg.
- Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: Zilly is the most cowardly member of the Vulture Squadron. He usually objects to Dick Dastardly's plans to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon and often tries unsuccessfully to sneak away, only to be dragged into the plan anyway. Zilly is also the only one able to translate what Klunk the inventor is saying whenever Klunk shows Dastardly his latest invention, so Dastardly considers him essential to the team for that reason.
Dastardly: You, Zilly, stop sneaking, it's not worth a chance, for you'll be returned by the seat of your pants!
- Rugrats: One-year-old Tommy Pickles is very brave and often tries to convince his two-year-old best friend Chuckie Finster to join him on whatever adventure he has planned. Chuckie is a Lovable Coward who usually objects to Tommy's adventures because he worries that something bad will happen to him (and it usually does). In "Farewell my Friend", after having a nightmare where he falls down a mountain, Chuckie refuses to go with Tommy on his next adventure when the latter tries to talk him into joining him, and decides to go his separate ways from him.
- South Park: In "Pandemic 2: The Startling," Craig serves this role after the main gang of Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman convince him (with great effort) to use a birthday check he received from his grandmother to fund their Peruvian flute band. The boys end up being deported to Peru, and Craig spends the entire episode complaining about how much he hates the situation and just wants to go home, all while the gang tries to convince him to look on the bright side. It gets even worse when Craig turns out to be The Chosen One who is destined to save the world from an an apocalypse of giant adorable guinea pigs—which he's even more reluctant to do.
- On top of not realizing that Squidward utterly loathes him, the titular SpongeBob SquarePants can't seem to process that Squidward doesn't want to take part in anything that Spongebob invites him to, such as Jellyfishing, despite the fact that Squidward has refused to do so multiple times. Even Patrick Star (at least before Flanderization kicked in) almost got the hint one time before Spongebob "corrected" him.
