Basic Trope: Someone tries to deflect an expression of gratitude.
- Straight: Alice thanks Bob for saving her life, but Bob claims that it wasn't really praiseworthy.
- Exaggerated: Everybody tries to thank Bob for saving the world, but he insists that there's no reason to thank him.
- Downplayed: Alice thanks Bob for helping her find her car keys, but he shrugs it off.
- Justified: See the analysis page for the full list of reasons.
- Inverted: Bob gets angry with Alice when she doesn't thank him properly.
- Subverted: Alice doesn't thank Bob for saving her life, specifically because he is a superhero, and it is his job...
- Double Subverted: ...but Bob is just fine with that, and he never wanted thanks anyway.
- Parodied: Alice thanks Bob for saving her life, but Bob tells Alice that she should take the credit, since she was the one saved.
- Zig-Zagged: Some people thank Bob for saving their lives, but later in the story some just walk off without saying a word.
- Averted: Bob does nothing worth being thanked for, so nobody thanks him.
- Enforced: The author wants to teach An Aesop that a true hero shouldn't demand gratitude.
- Lampshaded: "If I say 'Thank you,' are you gonna say that it was nothing?"
- Invoked: Alice is noticing that Bob's ego is getting a little out of control, and spends a few weeks preventing him from accepting gratitude to remind him where his priorities lie.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: "You asshole. Are you seriously going to think that my life to you is... Nothing!? You're just going to turn down my gratitude after saving my life because it was nothing to you!? What the Hell, Hero?"
- Discussed: "Have you ever actually accepted gratitude, Bob?"
- Conversed: "Do all heroes tell people not to thank them for what they do?"
- Implied: Bob leaves the people he's helped with little more than a wink and they don't seem to think of offering him more.
- Deconstructed:
- People start taking this a little more to heart than Bob did ... soon, he gets the impression that people really don't think that much about what he does and that they take him for granted.
- Someone who knows Alice or Alice herself is offended: The only way saving Alice would not be praiseworthy is if Bob didn't think her life meant much.
- Reconstructed: Every now and then, though, that notion is proven wrong, and it keeps Bob's spirits up enough that he doesn't mind being humble about his work.
- Played for Laughs: Alice thanks Bob for saving her life, and Bob says "Think nothing of it." Alice immediately forgets that Bob saved her and wanders off.
- Played for Drama: Alice thanks Bob for saving her life. Doing so, however, required Bob to kill his best friend Charlie, leaving him too depressed to accept gratitude.
Here's the main page for you to return to, but you don't have to thank us for it—this is just what we do.
