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The Power of Apathy

147 statements
27 feature instances
20 referencing feature instances

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The Power of Apathy	label	The Power of Apathy
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The Power of Apathy	comment	In fiction, enthusiasm is power. But the lack of enthusiasm can also be power. It takes more than just trying to pretend your problems don't exist. You have to mean it. You have to really feel your lack of feelings about the conflicts around you, and declare to yourself and the world "I DON'T CARE!" The Power of Apathy is most commonly applied for challenges too immense for a character to realistically overcome. Perhaps the protagonist is facing against The Horde spanning infinite legions, or a giant, indestructible Kaiju parent who just won't let me hang out with my cool new friends cause he is, like, a total b-word! What is the solution? Just Ignore It. And not just ignore it; get on with your life and find something better to do. The armies and the monsters will get frustrated with your lack of attention, and either go home disappointed, or the apathy will physically hurt them as a Literal Metaphor. The Power of Apathy is usually a cynical trope, meant to be a twisted parody of The Power of Love, The Power of Hate, The Power of Friendship and whatever power you can get out of all the other emotions. It is usually Played for Laughsnote which is why serious villains often try targeting people at large, or the hero's loved ones, to force the hero to start caring, unless they're absolutely unfettered enough to stay apathetic. The times it is not is usually to counter those empowered by Clap Your Hands If You Believe. A Sociopathic Hero has a related power to apathy, but just by not caring about morals; they might still care about other things. Compare Sheathe Your Sword, which involves winning by deliberate inaction rather than apathy, and Safety in Indifference for characters who are deliberately (and usually unsuccessfully) trying to invoke the trope. They may sing an Ode to Apathy while doing it. Examples
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The Power of Apathy / int_11b7db91	comment	Lumpy Space Prince in the Adventure Time episode "The Prince Who Wanted Everything" defeats his monster parents through the power of apathy, screaming "I DON'T CARE" at them through a microphone, reducing them to a lifeless pile of lumps.
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The Power of Apathy / int_18f4b8c1	comment	In the Jreg series "Centricide", the Centrists all seem to have this ability in different flavors, all of them capable of making other ideologies less extreme. With Political Nihilist's nihilism beams and Apepolitical's brute force, they both were able to turn AnCom (the Anthropomorphic personification of Libertarian Left-Wing Extremism) into Post-Left, while the Anti-Radical nearly turned Libertarian and AnCap (Anarcho-Capitalism) into Neo-Liberals with his knife.
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The Power of Apathy / int_251c3a21	comment	In Wristcutters: A Love Story, the Crapsack World that suicides end up in has a number of rules that make it just a little worse than the real world, and one of these is that anyone can perform miracles- but only if they don't care whether or not the miracle happens.
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The Power of Apathy / int_261c8d3f	comment	In the The Simpsons episode "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores" segment from "Treehouse of Horror VI", giant billboard mascots come to life and rampage through Springfield, and the only way to make them inanimate again is by not paying any attention to them.
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The Power of Apathy / int_2841e786	comment	At the end of the Warrior #4 Linkara/Spoony Crossover review, Spoony and Linkara realize that the time and effort they took bashing the titular comic is what was causing the multiverse to collapse and that they must stop caring about it in order to prevent the apocalypse. They reach out to the audience and plead with them to announce that "these comics suck and (they) don't even care anymore." The spatial rift diminishes and the multiverse is saved, but Spoony, Linkara, and Insano end up turning into Grey Lanterns, the Guardians of Not Giving a Crap, complete with everything becoming black and white. This soon goes away when Insano asks if they want to watch TNA Impact.
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The Power of Apathy / int_2e91e43b	comment	Raise: Once he realizes that he'll never be able to fully appease the public, as the media will take and twist anything and everything he does to criticize him, Jaune gives up on doing so. For instance, he accepts Winter as a mentor because he realizes that people are already claiming that he's unfairly favoring the Schnee family and their Mega-Corp; why bother trying to convince them otherwise when they'll make completely baseless accusations regardless of what he does to disprove them?
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The Power of Apathy / int_35e05f2a	comment	In RWBY, this is the threat of Apathy Grimm. They're not particularly strong, fast, or ferocious (though they are pretty tough), and just casually meander over to their targets. They don't need to be fast or strong, because their very presence drains people of their will to survive. Get enough Apathy together, and even the most powerful of Huntsmen will just stand there and allow themselves to be killed.
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The Power of Apathy / int_3ee117f3	comment	In The Phantom Tollbooth, apathy is weaponized by the Lethargians, a group of slime-like creatures that inhabit a swamp called the Doldrums. When Milo ends up there by not paying attention or thinking about where he's going, he finds himself surrounded by the Lethargians, who sleepily explain that they don't care enough about anything to be active or even think. Milo finds himself hypnotized by their apathy and starts agreeing with their philosophy, which lulls him into a stupor. Unfortunately, when the Lethargians say they don't do anything, they mean anything—including eating and breathing.
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The Power of Apathy / int_490a7d52	comment	The Karma of Lies: Marinette discovers that cutting ties with her Fair-Weather Friends is much easier than she originally believed it would be, as by the time she transfers out of her class, she's completely given up on her classmates, having realized that they're only interested in what they can get out of the relationship.
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The Power of Apathy / int_6673d40b	comment	Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls: Weaponized by Harshwhinny. Her power, The Uncaring, produces a powerful sense of apathy in her targets that leaves them sapped of their willpower, such as their will to fight or defend themselves against attacks, leaving them vulnerable to enemy attacks. It ends working against her when fighting the Fourth Espada. While it makes him care less about his ally (which he only because of politeness) it also makes him more focused and determined to kill all threats while blocking out his deeper emotional turmoil.
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The Power of Apathy / int_885e1bec	comment	In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, apathy is a source of power for an improved variant of the Killing Curse. Whereas the basic hate-based Avada Kedavra spell can usually be cast only once during a battle, as it is difficult to hate somebody that much, the True Killing Curse only requires you not to care about somebody's life and can be cast without limit.
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The Power of Apathy / int_88aef33b	comment	Invincible: Hapless scientist David Anders is cursed to transform into the reptilian supervillain Dinosaurus whenever he becomes overly bored and apathetic. To keep Dinosaurus contained, the authorities thus put David in a Luxury Prison Suite filled with video games, movies, books, and various other activities to keep him entertained. When the heroes later need to bring Dinosaurus out, Mark sits David down and forces him to listen as Mark rambles on about boring, mundane subjects.
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The Power of Apathy / int_906bcab6	comment	Aliens (Steve Perry Trilogy): Wilks has this. Near the end of Nightmare Asylum, he recalls a psychiatrist telling him about Doc Holliday, and how he survived against deadlier gunslingers despite subpar skills because, with his tuberculosis diagnosis, he honestly didn't care if he lived or died in any given moment. Wilks embraces "Doc Holliday Syndrome," believing he's been living on borrowed time ever since Rim. Nothing the Aliens can do to him frightens him, since it should have happened to him a decade ago, just like the rest of his platoon. And if he's beyond caring what the Xenomorphs can do to him, he certainly has zero fucks to give about anything a human being could threaten him with, no matter how much rank, status, money, or power they can claim.
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The Power of Apathy / int_90a3a7f4	comment	Played for laughs in an episode of Kim Possible. Ron and Monique get paired up for a group assignment, and Ron makes it clear that he expects her to do all the work. Monique tries to refuse, but Ron weaponises this trope against her.
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The Power of Apathy / int_920bdb7c	comment	Royalty, Kill Six Billion Demons's version of enlightenment, is one part power of apathy, one part Achievements in Ignorance. The harder one tries to achieve such a state, the more difficult it becomes to reach. As such, people who don't care about such things end up becoming Royalty through little effort. This shows up in the setting's lesser metaphysics as well. Mottom, for example, has obtained eternal life by mass Human Sacrifice, but her constant brooding on her fear of death causes any youth she gains from it to fade within hours. Conversely, in her final battle, she remains young and beautiful even in the face of imminent death, because she's no longer afraid to die.
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The Power of Apathy / int_a183d57f	comment	In the Futurama episode "I Second that Emotion", Bender is implanted with an empathy chip tuned to Leela's emotions. When Bender has to save Nibbler from a monster, he can't because Leela is too emotionally distraught. So Bender has to teach her to not care about Nibbler... for the sake of saving Nibbler.
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The Power of Apathy / int_a8c95694	comment	The evil wizard Ommadon from The Flight of Dragons tries to frighten and cow the hero by expanding himself to giant size, with multiple hydra-like heads. The protagonist however, is a man of science, who refuses to believe in Ommadon's magics. Instead, he cites principles of physics and biology that refute Ommadon's powers. By remaining The Stoic throughout the contest, he sees the Ommadon expend himself entirely in fruitless bluster and theatrics.
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The Power of Apathy / int_ac377abd	comment	In the Ninja the Mission Force episode "Bruce - A Dragon Story", the knights manage to defeat the Troll by ignoring it, the troll crying out "pay attention to me" as it dies from lack of attention. Later, the hero of the episode manages to defeat Number 34 through apathy, even proclaiming "I don't care" as he stabs it.
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The Power of Apathy / int_b6773b8c	comment	In Uninvited Guests, Hitsugaya eventually snaps and takes on a very Zen-like perspective. One of the things this perspective teaches him is that he can rely on the plot to solve all his problems eventually. Since he has no internal conflicts to entertain potential readers with, the plot consequently resolves itself much faster and smoother.
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The Power of Apathy / int_b6c9037f	comment	The Magnus Archives: This turns out to be a pretty effective way to escape the Entities, which makes sense. Given that the Entities are literal manifestations of fear, it follows that not giving a crap weakens them of their power.
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The Power of Apathy / int_bcadd7cb	comment	Warhammer 40,000: The planet Aphexis is populated by people who simply do not care- Chaos forces have repeatedly conquered the place only to find that the inhabitants don't give a rat's ass about the vast displays of cruelty their captors put them through.
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The Power of Apathy / int_cefd252d	comment	Scarlet Lady: Scarlet Lady defeats Volpina's attempts to take hostages by not caring if the Akuma kills them, since she can bring them back via her World-Healing Wave. Even using her crush Adrien as the hostage doesn't faze her, since she thinks she'll either save him for a romantic moment, or bring him back after the fight. This shocks Volpina, who hadn't quite realized just how much of a Nominal Hero Scarlet was before. Something similar happens in "La Befana": when the titular akuma asks Chloé if she will try to protect Marinette or fight her, Chloé answers that she does not care, befuddling the akuma long enough to help Chat Noir take Marinette away. Of course, she proceeds to point out to the akuma that Marinette's escaping, and then, after transforming, leads La Befana to Marinette under the guise of wanting to join Chat Noir. This same attitude comes back to bite Scarlet Lady during the confrontation with "Prime Queen". Once again, Scarlet Lady brushes off the Akuma threatening her hostages, casually declaring that she doesn't care what happens to them, especially since she can just bring them Back from the Dead with the Miraculous Cure anyway. Not only does this utterly horrify Chat Noir and Marigold, everyone watching Prime Queen's live broadcast is utterly stunned to see their heroine's callousness.
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The Power of Apathy / int_d603791d	comment	Rise of the Guardians: Pitch Black finds that the town's children refuse to be cowering and fearful of his powers, those powers diminish to the point where he becomes the most afraid. The children's combined disbelief reduces Pitch to insubstantial and ineffectual, his worst scenario. As a result, his nightmare mooks, who can smell fear, turn on him.
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The Power of Apathy / int_daecb6e6	comment	The Hunt (2020) essentially ends up as a tribute in support of apathy. Crystal, the film’s primary protagonist, was kidnapped by mistake (she essentially shared a name with the person the hunters truly wanted to target), but the film goes out of its way to show that she has no political affiliation. She loathes her liberal captors and wants them dead (understandable, after what they did to her), but she doesn't follow politics or seem to have any strong beliefs about it, and is explicitly shown disagreeing with the conservative views of her fellow captives. Essentially, in a satirical war of liberals vs. conservatives, the indifferent bystander comes out on top.
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The Power of Apathy / int_f120845f	comment	In Kingdom of Loathing, there's an enemy in the Daily Dungeon called the Apathetic Lizardman. While it's not a tough opponent for its level (it's apathetic, after all), the true danger comes from attacking it in melee, which causes its sheer apathy to spread to the player, giving a huge reduction to all stats for a good few adventures.
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The Power of Apathy / int_f12f9b66	comment	One episode of Wander over Yonder has the Main Characters confront a monster called the Troll, who feeds off of negativity. He constantly insults and taunts Prince Cashmere's goat army, and he gets bigger and stronger every time he gets a rise out of them. How do the heroes defeat him? By ignoring him. Once they stop reacting to the Troll's jeers, the Troll loses his power and shrinks into nothing.
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The Power of Apathy / int_fb7c549b	comment	Feralnette AU: Marinette stops caring about the civilian side of her life, deciding it's less important than her responsibilities as Ladybug and the Guardian of the Miracle Box. Her Establishing Character Moment in the series involves grabbing an akumatizing butterfly out of the air and daring Hawkmoth to do it, declaring that "Every leash has two ends! I just have to pull until I find out where you're holding it!"
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Apathy Index
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Comedy Tropes
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Cynicism Tropes
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Magic and Powers
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Motivation Index
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	Power
The Power of Apathy	processingCategory2	The Power of Index
The Sandman Universe (Comic Book) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality / Fan Fic / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls (Fanfic) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
SV Wishes (Fanfic) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
The Fury of a Shattered Mirror (Fanfic) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
The Karma of Lies (Fanfic) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
The SCP-975 Files (Fanfic) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
The Hunt (2020) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Aluthol Of One Hundred Battles / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Lover (Music) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
BioShock (Video Game) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Kingdom of Loathing (Video Game) / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy
Rise of the Guardians / int_62ec2103	type	The Power of Apathy

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