Too Annoyed to Be Afraid

When it comes to life-threatening disasters, everyone reacts differently: some people are terrified beyond all composure, some are silent or even paralyzed with fear, some are gloomily resigned to the worst, and some... are ticked off.

Maybe it's a sign that they've cracked under the strain. Maybe it's because they've been exposed to so much trauma and calamity in their lives that they've been Conditioned to Accept Horror to the point that it really is just a nuisance by now. Maybe there's something weird, ironic, or just plain insulting about the crisis that's left them too angry or annoyed to be afraid. Or maybe the character just has Nerves of Steel.

Whatever the case, these people react to an ongoing cataclysm with the kind of emotion normally reserved for missing out on a parking space—at best. In extreme cases, this may even escalate all the way to outright anger, even violence, sometimes with painful results if the character is too angry to be cautious. More serious examples like this may overlap with The Power of Friendship, The Power of Family, or The Power of Love if the reason the hero isn't scared is that he's too furious that the villain dared to endanger someone important to him. Don't be surprised if Casual Danger Dialog, a One-Liner, or the words Oh, No... Not Again! are employed.

Compare The Stoic, Dissonant Serenity, This Is Gonna Suck, Tranquil Fury, Skewed Priorities, and Too Kinky to Torture for other tropes about characters not having the expected emotional responses.

See also Shut Up, Scary Thing! and Scare the Dog.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• My-HiME: Possibly crossing over into Too Dumb to Live, Haruka Suzushiro has always had a one-sided rivalry with Shizuru Fujino. When she finds out that Shizuru abandoned her duties as Student Council President to care for and dote on an injured and powerless Natsuki, it irritates her to no end. She's disgusted when she catches Shizuru kissing a sleeping Natsuki. And when Shizuru manifests a large naginata in front of her out of thin air, Haruka, instead of being scared, is further annoyed. She actually grabs the naginata by the blade end. "We saw you in a moment of weakness, so you threaten us with this big blade? That's pretty shameless." Haruka's friend, Yukino, has the good sense to be afraid, and tries to summon her Child to stop Shizuru from harming Haruka. But all it does is ensure Haruka's death, as Shizuru's Child, Kiyohime is much larger and more powerful, and killing a HiME's Child results in the death of the person they love the most. And even dying, Haruka is more ticked than scared, marching up painfully to Shizuru and headbutting her before she fades into nothingness.

Fan Works

• The Unexpected Rookie: the Delinquent Road Hazards are trying to plan an act of vandalism they can play on Radiator Springs - and accidentally get themselves caught by the Dinobots. While three of them are understandably terrified (as they're being held prisoner by dinosaur robots and Swoop is holding Boost a little too tightly), Wingo is shown to be more annoyed than scared.

Film — Animated

• In Megamind, the eponymous wannabe villain has kidnapped Roxanne so many times that she no longer acts like a Damsel in Distress and instead acts ticked off, even when surrounded by weapons and vicious animals. In fact, she insults him, yelling out things like "Cliche!".
• NIMONA (2023): After belatedly realizing that he's gravely underestimated Nimona's Kaiju-sized One-Winged Angel form, Sir Thoddeus Sureblade AKA "Todd" screams in terror, flies in the opposite direction, collides with his backup and is sent spiralling out of control... into an animated billboard of himself, who is calling for a high five. Todd's response to the imminent collision is an annoyed "bro..."
• The Twelve Tasks of Asterix: The eleventh task is to spend the night in a field haunted by a legion of roman ghosts. Obelix tries to fight them only to realize that he cannot hit them. Asterix, on the other hand, is just annoyed by the noise they're making in the middle of the night, is too angry to care about the fact that they're ghosts and goes on a rant because he is so fed up and exhausted after all they've been through until then that he just wants some sleep.

Film — Live Action

• The Cabin in the Woods: Throughout the film, Hadley remarks that he always wanted to see a Merman used in one of the Organization's rituals, even bitterly musing at how close the current batch of kids came to summoning one before resurrecting the Buckner family instead. In the finale, when the Organization's monsters are all released from containment, Hadley finds himself knocked to the ground and left helpless in the face of an oncoming threat - a Merman. Hadley can only grumble, "Aw, come on!" right before the Merman bites his face off.
• The Departed: Colin Sullivan normally reacts to the escalating danger of his predicament with the appropriate level of fear, undergoing a full-blown Villainous Breakdown complete with tears when it looks like he's going to be unmasked as Costello's mole in the police department. However, when he finds himself cornered in his apartment by a gun-toting assassin AKA Sergeant Dignam, Colin is so burnt out by everything that's happened over the course of the finale that he responds with an exasperated-sounding "okay," as if annoyed that his day somehow got worse. Immediately afterwards, Dignam shoots Colin in the head, killing him instantly.
• Happy Death Day 2U: Tree got stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop on her birthday in Happy Death Day, where she kept getting murdered by a figure in a mask until she could figure out the killer once and for all. Just when she had finally survived to the next morning and gotten her happy ending at the start of this film, she finds herself seemingly back in the same time loop again after trying to help another student who got stuck in a loop of their own due to the same quantum physics experiment. Instead of terrified, Tree is just ticked off, especially now that she knows why it's happening. It later turns out to not be quite the same loop. She instead drifted to a parallel reality.
• It (2017): In the climax, Pennywise/It attempts to frighten the Losers' Club into submission with a mixture of his usual tricks and a bit of hostage-taking... but after everything that Pennywise has done over the course of the film, the kids are too pissed-off to be scared of him. With the monster unable to feed on their fear, the team gangs up on him and beats the living shit out of him with any weapon they can get their hands on, countering every single attempt at a menacing shape with another beatdown. After trying and failing to defeat Beverly by turning into her abusive father - and getting speared through the throat for it - Pennywise is forced to retreat into the sewers until the next film.
  Ritchie: WELCOME TO THE LOSERS' CLUB, ASSHOLE!

Literature

• A House With Good Bones: When the malevolent ghost in the house reveals itself, it turns out to be the same bigoted jerk it was in life, quickly replacing Sam's fear with annoyance. The last straw comes when it insults her weight and she starts insulting the ghost right back.
• In the kids' book Monster Trouble, a little girl named Winifred Schnitzel has monsters in her room at night. However, she isn't afraid; just annoyed that they're keeping her awake.
• Otherside Picnic: Sorawo and Toriko are attempting to lead a group of U.S. Marines to safety in the Otherside, when they're confronted by a creature Sorawo knows from net lore as the kankandara. She uses her Magic Eye to try and see its true form, which usually makes the entity they're facing vulnerable. However, the kankandara is attempting to frighten her and stare her down. Sorawo finds this to be irksome, and declares to the monster, "I'm going to murder you with this eye of mine!"
• Wulfrik: The Chaos Dwarfs' fortress is protected by (among other things) statues that magically cause fear in intruders in the vicinity. However, since these intruders are Norscan marauders, they instead hurl themselves at the statues in berserk frenzy. The trap still works, in that the Norscans find themselves with weapons damaged from being used to hit stone, getting distracted allows the dwarfs time to muster their defenses, and even when Wulfrik kills one or as the dwarfs are cutting them to pieces, the Norscans are still attacking the statues.

Live-Action Television

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Discussed in "Once More With Feeling". Buffy, still feeling depressed after being forcefully pulled from heaven at the start of the season, treats fighting vampires as "going through the motions". When her beloved sister Dawn who she sacrificed her life for in the first place gets kidnapped by the Villain of the Week, she dully remarks, "Dawn's in danger. Must be a Tuesday."
• Chernobyl: Throughout the series, Boris Scherbina has been justifiably careful to avoid getting on the bad side of the USSR's authorities, to the point of only speaking candidly with the rest of the team once they're away from their heavily-bugged rooms and demonstrating open dread when Legasov dares to confront KGB Deputy Chairman Charkov over Khomyuk's arrest. However, in "The Happiness Of All Mankind", when their most promising means of clearing the radioactive debris from the rooftops turns out to be an expensive waste of time thanks to the government's mindless adherence to doctrine, Scherbina calls up the people responsible in a rage and lambasts them at length. Not only does he openly ignore attempts to warn him that "they" might be listening, but he also orders the recipient of this diatribe to "tell fucking Gorbachev" that "he's a joke" before smashing the phone to pieces.
• Doctor Who: In the finale of "Rose", the Autons are unleashed on London by a panicking Nestene Consciousness, and Clive the Conspiracy Theorist ends up being front and centre when they begin bursting out of shop windows. He's briefly ecstatic that he's finally found conclusive proof that aliens are real... only for one of the Autons to point its Arm Cannon at him. Clive appears genuinely disappointed - right before he's unceremoniously gunned down.
• Elementary: In the first season finale, Moriarty semi-kidnaps Joan, taking her to a restaurant and telling her to get Sherlock to back off. Joan's a former surgeon, so she already has Nerves of Steel, but she's so utterly furious at Moriarty for hurting her best friend so deeply that she isn't even scared to be dining with a Serial Killer.
  Moriarty: [surprised, a little amused] You're not afraid of me.
  Joan: Too angry to be afraid.
• Farscape:
  • In part three of the "Liars, Guns, And Money" trilogy, the Zenetan pirates try to take over Moya after they realize that their payment has been destroyed in the events of the previous episode, even holding Chiana at gunpoint. Aeryn responds not with the usual mixture of caution and professionalism she'd use in a hostage situation, but with utter bile - not because she's trying to shame them into helping, but because, after everything that's happened in the last two episodes, including Crichton being forced to surrender to Scorpius in order to save Jothee's life, she's just had enough.
    Even if you wanted to, I wouldn't go into battle with you now. Do you know why? Because you're a coward and an idiot! What do you think you're going to get if you steal Moya? She's a half-burned Leviathan! You have to be the stupidest pirates I've ever met!
  • "Sons And Lovers" ends with the magnetic terrorist Borlik attaching herself to the interior of Moya, intending to stay there until the storm she was attracting destroys them all. Crichton is clearly too sick and tired of Borlik to even appear mildly alarmed, and sarcastically applauds her on outsmarting them... but then informs her that the surface she's currently attached to is a detachable airlock door. He then storms off, ordering Pilot to "suck this bitch out!" as he departs.
• M*A*S*H: In "The Best Of Enemies," Hawkeye is captured at gunpoint by a North Korean soldier who forces him to operate on a wounded comrade. Hawkeye is understandably afraid at first, but when the wounded soldier starts choking and needs a tracheotomy, Hawkeye starts barking orders, even yanks the rifle out of the soldier's hands and forces him to help, sarcastically remarking that the guy can kill him later.
• Night Court: "The Birthday Visitor", Harry and Billie are tied up by an armed burglar at Billie's apartment. After he leaves, they try to get free and nearly succeed, when the burglar returns, unable to use the elevator. Harry, at that point, is annoyed beyond belief, especially as he felt he and Billie had been growing closer until the burglar's return. For added comedy, Harry is so pissed off that he seemingly convinces the burglar to kill them, much to Harry's dismay... only for it to turn out that the guy's actually suicidal, leaving Harry and Billie to talk him out of it.
  Harry: You break in here, you disrupt our lives, you bind us hand-and-foot, we damn near break our necks hopping around the place, and then, when things start getting sane again...YOU BREAK BACK IN!
• ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?: Grandmother Adela is alone in the Peña home when a burglar breaks in. She smacks him upside the head, thinking it's her grandson pranking her, but then calls for help and tries to escape. The burglar forces her to sit down, so she tries talking her way out in her best English, after figuring out incorrectly that he does not speak Spanish:
  Adela: Yo espiki Inglish. Peña family, Cuban reFOOgee, work very very hard in United States.
  (Burglar ignores her. Adela is more exasperated than scared)
  Adela: (in Spanish) This one does not give three craps about the tragedy we've had!
• Star Trek: The Original Series: In the episode "Space Seed" when Khan Noonien Singh wakes up in sickbay, he grabs Dr. McCoy by the throat and holds a scalpel to his throat. McCoy shows no fear, tartly telling Khan to "either choke me or cut my throat, make up your mind". Khan is impressed by McCoy's attitude, remarking "I like a brave man", and lets him go.

Video Games

• Battle Bears: In Zombies!, Oliver typically reacts to the bosses with annoyance and snarky remarks (like dropping his Character Catchphrase "Are you serious?"). The sole exception is when he meets the Colbear and does indeed look horrified.
• Early in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Ryder attempts to stick up a pizza parlour. The cashier not only sees right through the would-be-robber's half-assed attempt at a disguise but reacts to a gun in his face with an irritated grumble of "Ryder, not this again!" For good measure, as soon as Ryder takes his eyes off the cashier, the guy draws a shotgun from under the counter and opens fire.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Going into Castle Town as a wolf immediately prompts everyone to panic or tremble in fear (especially the city guard). The guy running the S.T.A.R. game, however, just grumpily shoos you away while sneezing — since he's allergic to canines.

Web Animation

• Animator vs. Animation: A group of Minecraft mobs descend upon Red and The Second Coming in the middle of a desert, but the two are so wrapped up in an argument that their fighting off the mobs comes off more as irritation that they're interrupting their argument than the fact that they're dangerous creatures.
• ASDF Movie: One of the skits in 14 involves a man who can turn people into eggs by pointing at them and saying "egg." Halfway through this, a man runs in from offscreen, angrily demanding that he stop turning people into eggs and seemingly too pissed off to be scared. He's immediately turned into an egg.
• In Fandeltales: The Cursed Prince (WARNING: NSFW) by Newgrounds +18 artist Derpixon, Prince Amont is captured by the shapeshifting succubus Herzha and after managing to prove himself too strong to be drained of life like her other victims, is dragged into a marathon shagging session in which the demon attempts to drain him with every single form in her repertoire. Every time Herzha appears to have been exhausted in one form, Amont tries to go for a knife on the nearby table - only to be caught by Herzha in a new form and dragged back to bed. When it first happens, he's suitably horrified; by the third round, he responds with an enraged "Oh COME ON!" and by the fourth round, he can only react with irritated grumbling. On the fifth round, he's just plain exasperated.
  Amont: [realizing he's just been caught again] ...dammit.
  Herzha: [as a Seductive Spider-person] Have you ever done this with a-
  Amont: Does it matter?
  Herzha: Wonderful!

Web Comics

• In El Goonish Shive, Sarah's response to the lights suddenly coming on in the room and her being greeted by an ancient Immortal (nearly an Eldritch Abomination at that point) is to sass the Immortal because turning on the lights while she was trying to sleep hurt her eyes.

Web Original

• Not Always Right: One story has a man pull out a knife and try to rob a gas station, only to back down when the cashier gives him an irritated look and asks if it can wait as there's a lot of customers. The would-be robber leaves, and the customers congratulate the cashier. Subverted when the cashier realizes what happened and freaks out, but by then the danger has passed.

Web Video

• Scootertrix the Abridged: Fluttershy is normally afraid of all animals, with her fear of rabbits being a recurring joke. But then she encounters a genuinely dangerous cockatrice and finds its appearance (a giant snake body with a chicken's head) too bizarre to be properly scary. She is briefly frightened when the cockatrice shrieks at her, but the creature overdoes the shrieking until Fluttershy's fear is replaced by annoyance. Since cockatrices feed on fear itself, Fluttershy's reaction kills this one.

Western Animation

• DuckTales (2017): In "The Most Dangerous Game... Night!" Louie, feeling burned out from adventuring and getting put in constant danger, tries to hurry things along by pointing out what is bound to come next in their current adventure based on past experience. Downplayed because Louie is still scared, but is just so done with the whole thing that he just wants to get the scary part over with.
  Louie: Can we just wrap up the "WHOOOA!" and get to the "Wait, what?" already? [Scrooge looks puzzled.] "WHOOOA! Some cool hidden city or treasure or whatever." "Wait, whaaat? That cool thing is dangerous or cursed or guarded by centaurs?" "AAAH! Louie almost dies!" Can we please move it along, that's how it goes.
• Evil Con Carne: Near the end of "No, No, Nanook", Hector and Skarr are abducted by an alien spacecraft. Because a lot of stuff had happened to them today, including destroying gravity, an exasperated Hector just says "Great, my day is complete."
• Kim Possible: The eponymous heroine has been put in restraints and deathtraps numerous times. Her go-to response is irritated snarking and exasperation about other activities she's going to be late for - or highlighting the cliched or ridiculous aspects of her foes' current evil scheme. About the only times Kim shows fear is if Ron is in mortal peril or if she's about to try to ask out a boy on a date.
• Looney Tunes: In "Lumberjack Rabbit", Bugs Bunny is busy mining from the giant carrots of Paul Bunyan's garden when he's picked up by Bunyan's giant dog Smidgen. Bugs seems more upset about his mining being interrupted than about to be devoured by an enormous beast, so he turns to the audience and says...
  Bugs: I'll be scared later. Right now, I'm too mad.
• In the Phineas and Ferb episode "It's About Time", the titular boys fix up a time machine and accidentally get both themselves and their sister Candace trapped in the prehistoric era. While the boys fortunately manage to send a message to their friends in the present to make a new time machine, said time machine unfortunately needed to be plugged in to work. Candace, who had been freaking out this whole time, is so angry at learning this that when a Tyrannosaurus shows up and roars at them, she just tells the large dinosaur to "put a sock in it."
• The Owl House: In "For the Future", when the Hexsquad go to confront Miki and Roka (actually Kikimora and her Abomaton mech) and the former reveals herself with an evil laugh, Luz can only respond in pure irritation:
  Luz: Noooooooo, not you!
• The Real Ghostbusters:
  • In "Beneath These Streets", Ray tells Peter, Winston, and Egon that there may be ghosts in the sewers, which could pose a danger to the city... however, instead of being scared of this, they just complain that it's too late and too hot to go out right now.
  • In "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster", there's been a dramatic rise in the number of hauntings in New York. However, the Ghostbusters aren't scared of this; they're just annoyed and tired at the increased workload.
  • In "The Copycat", a prospective client has a shapeshifting monster infesting her house... but far from being afraid, she's just irritated at the mess it's making.
  • In "Jailbusters", Peter is transported to the Netherworld, but he's not scared; just annoyed that his suit will be wrinkled.
• Solar Opposites: In the first Halloween special, Yumyulack dies and is briefly sent to Hell. However, none of the demons can psyche him out: not only is he an alien immune to many forms of torture, but he also thinks Halloween is super cheesy compared to his usual "sci-fi shit," leaving him irritated more than anything else. As such, he spends most of his time complaining and poking fun at all the cliche Hell imagery, even when Satan himself shows up.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Ghost Host", the Flying Dutchman haunts SpongeBob's home while his ship is being repaired. At first SpongeBob gets scared easily, but after some time, he gets used to the Dutchman's presence until he just considers him a nuisance, and even his most horrifying scares only elicit a bored, weary expression.
• What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In "Homeward Hound", Scooby has spent the night saving a litter of six puppies from a pair of dognappers, so when the monstrous Cat-Creature shows up to menace the pups and their mother, Scooby doesn't tremble, whimper, or cower in the slightest. Instead, he flips his lid, tackling the Cat-Creature onto a serving cart, then crashes it, immobilizing the Monster of the Week.

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