Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Oh look. Kate's in trouble. Again. Whatever you do.....don't help her.
"WORST! RESCUE! EVER!"
—The Doctor, Doctor Who, The End of Time

Just because you saved their life doesn't mean they'll appreciate it.

Oh no, Alice and Bob about to be smashed to bits by a giant Robotic Ninja Dragon on a Muthafrickin' Plane, and it looks like nothing will save them now... until Carol comes to save the day!

Whew! That was close, but it looks like everyone is safe and sound. Now it's time for everyone to thank Carol for saving their lives and be on their merry way, right?

WRONG!

It turns out that, while Carol pulled the two away from certain death while simultaneously beheading the horrible mechanical beast, she committed the horrific crime of breaking Alice's nail and mussing Bob's hair. Never mind that Carol risked her life and saved their sorry asses, what's important is that she made them scuff their brand new shoes, and she must pay! Talk about lacking perspective.

Snippy remark made by Carol is optional. Makes use of the Law of Disproportionate Response. Compare to No Sympathy. See also Ungrateful Bastard, Think Nothing of It, Grudging Thank You and Entitled Bastard. Not to be confused with Unwanted Rescue or Embarrassing Rescue. A hero can get in on this if this Hero Harasses Helpers. Also note Hands Off My Fluffy. Can happen on a cultural level when Klingon Scientists Get No Respect.

Can sometimes be warranted in the case of a Terrifying Rescuer or Destructive Saviour.

Examples of Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like include:

Anime and Manga

  • In Claymore, Clare rescues a hostage Galatea by chopping of Agatha's arm, and Galatea comments that Clare ended up cutting off some of her hair. Clare then apologizes, and takes care of the rest of Agatha. In this case it's a mutual joke, since Clair had just said the precision of her technique had improved.
  • Bleach
    • Ichigo pulls a Big Damn Heroes when he arrives at the Repentence Cell to save Ganju and Hanatarou from Byakuya Kuchiki. He turns to speak to Rukia, who immediately protests, though in actuality, she's concerned about his wounds. Ichigo then proceeds to tell her "All of your opinions are rejected" and cracks that she should just cower in a corner and tremble "Save me, Save me!" Hilarity Ensues.
    • Rukia also complains when Ichigo halts her execution, especially when he tosses her Eyeshield 21-style to Renji.
    • Subverted later, during the Hueco Mundo Arc. Orihime hadn't wanted them coming after her, but she didn't complain when they did.
    • Averted in the "Arabian nights" episode parodying the Soul Society arc. When "Chigo" goes to save "Rukiruki," she tears up and asks why he didn't save her earlier. Chigo then pokes at her and says that's not what what she's supposed to say.
  • In the Tenchi Muyo manga series (it follows the first seasons of the OVA), Ayeka finds herself as the Damsel in Distress so the villain can lure Tenchi to fight her. Ryoko figures this is a bad idea and one suckerpunch later finds herself in the villain's ship. Ayeka complains about it until Ryoko outright slaps her for being selfish. Impressive not only in that this is Ryoko of all people, but that Ayeka is encased in a spherical, rubbery prison which Ryoko has previously had difficulty penetrating in her rescue attempt. And she still doesn't when she clocks Ayeka—she simply strikes so hard that the cocoon doesn't make a difference.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Mustang bursts in at the last second and manages to save Hawkeye and Fuery from Gluttony. As he sags in relief over the fact that they're still alive, Hawkeye promptly turns to him and practically rips his face off with the force of her anger. Bitchiness averted by the fact that she's mad not because he saved their lives, but because he came out and exposed himself as part of what was supposed to be a covert operation and now she's worried for him.
  • In Episode 7 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Fate saves Signum from a monster on a reflex. Signum tells Fate that she won't thank her, as because Fate destroyed the monster, she can't get its Linker Core. Fate remarks that in retrospect, "getting in the way of the bad guys is (her) job."
  • Spice and Wolf: When Holo is captured by the Medio Company, which threatens to turn her over to the Church, Lawrence talks the Milone Company into sending some of their own bruisers—men skilled in using violence—to rescue her. She is furious that he didn't come to get her himself... especially since she gave the first rescuer through the door a big hug (and maybe, she implies, said something a bit intimate) before realizing he wasn't Lawrence.
  • In Corsair, Canale does this to a degree when Ayace saves him from his former master but the best example is when Aura complains to Ayace about taking too long to rescue her at the end. Rather than genuine ungratefulness it's simply because they're in the habit of ribbing each other.
  • From Girls und Panzer, we have Kuromorimine Girls High School as a whole, and Erika Itsumi in particular. The series' backstory is that Miho Nishizumi saved the crew of a Kuromorimine tank from drowning, but in doing so lost a game. A game. She was ostracized for this "failure," and eventually left Kuromorimine because she couldn't stand it. This is like a school in the U.S. punishing a football player for thinking that saving lives is more important than winning the big end-of-season game. And a light novel reveals that Erika, one of the girls most contemptuous of Miho about the rescue, was in the tank whose crew she saved.

Comic Books

  • "Spider-Man: Hero or Menace" has been the headline of every issue of the Daily Bugle for the last 40+ years, and it has been justified on maybe 2 occasions when Chameleon or Venom shows up, the rest of the time it just doesn't make sense, especially after big events like "Maximum Carnage".
    • And who is the one responsible for this Malicious Slander, you ask? Spidey has had to save J. Jonah Jameson's sorry ass dozens of times, and this Trope applies every time.
  • In the Sonic X comic, after Sonic saves about a dozen or more people from getting killed by missiles, a Rich Bitch called Milan whines about him letting her father's limousine get stolen by Decoe and Bocoe.
  • In another Sonic the Hedgehog comic produced in England (Sonic the Comic) Tails would often get complaints from people who wanted Sonic to rescue them instead.
  • Batman. "'Thanks for saving my Bacon, Robin.' Why, think nothing of it!"]]
  • Marvel Universe
    • To remind us that there is still prejudice against mutants, most 90s-onward comics with X's somewhere in their titles loved to make use of this trope to such an extent that it became a major theme of more than one comic. Almost never is any character seen thanking a mutant for their rescue, despite the alarming frequency with which those rescues occur. This is made even worse by the fact that most of the dangers that X-mutants save people from are caused by other humans, who the near-victims apparently don't hate quite so much as their rescuers. Say what?
    • Also subverted in X-Men in the character of Senator Robert Kelly. Although he started off a outspoken anti-mutant activist with honest concerns about the effect of mutants in society, but over the course of many rescues by various mutants his stance began to soften, saving the X-Men's bacon on at least one occasion (during Zero Tolerance) by seeking legal action against a government-sponsored Sentinel program.
    • One extreme example had Chamber saving the life of another mutant and being called a "monster". Admittedly, said mutant was a child and was nearly murdered in cold-blood by two particularly irrational mutant haters (they blamed the failure of their dot-com company on mutants), but still...
    • New Mutants vol2 opens thusly: Dani Moonstar is meeting a new boyfriend at an upscale ski lodge. Bad guys try and hold the guests hostage. Dani scares the bad guys into submission with her powers. Boyfriend breaks up with Dani immediately for being a mutant.
    • In Banshee's backstory, a Jerkass cop shoots out Maeve Rourke's motorcycle tire while she's giving Sean a ride, and they go careening off a cliff. Banshee flies them to safety. As soon as they land, she punches him in the stomach for her bike being wrecked, even though it wasn't his fault.

Maeve: (after the punch) Well, how d'ye like that?! I save you from that brute McLanahan, and lose the best bike I ever owned in the process!
Sean: Well, how d'ye think I feel? I save a body's life, and the only thanks I get is a punch and an earful o' grief!
Maeve: ...Aye, that's a fair point.

  • Firestorm averted a particular disaster and much loss of life—and was promptly sued by a businesswoman who suffered significant property damage as a result of his actions. Compounding his woes, she was or became engaged to marry his father. She eventually dropped the lawsuit after Firestorm gave a version of the With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility speech. She also figured out he was her stepson-to-be.
  • Part of the back story of Mark Waid's Irredeemable is that the lead character, a Superman expy, got tired of people being ungrateful for his rescues. So he goes completely Axe Crazy.
  • After saving the planet half-a-dozen times, The Authority are betrayed and attacked by assorted national governments for being too powerful (and daring to have their own opinions). Once the Authority recovers, they decide to ignore the latest world threat, and order every superhero on the planet to do the same, in order to make the normal humans come up with their own damn rescue for once.

Fan Works

  • In Oh God Not Again, Ginny was quite put out by the lack of heroics involved in Harry's defeat of the basilisk (which consisted of Harry pulling out a rooster and letting it crow, making the basilisk drop dead). She's further annoyed when Harry mentions that the book Lockhart's going to write about the experience is going to be, um, embellished.
  • In With Strings Attached, the four rescue 40 people from being shrunken playthings, but the people aren't happy because they were transferred to another universe in the process. Understandable, but still....
  • In Shadowchasers Conspiracy, Sofia's way of "thanking" her former and future boyfriend Philip for saving her from imprisonment and possibly slavery is to belt him across the teeth. Entirely justified, as he is mostly responsible for her being captured in the first place, due to an Evil Plan by a Hidden Villain whom he won't even tell her about. He doesn't deny responsibility, claiming "I actually feel better now that you did that –" and she replies by saying, "C'mere, I'll make you feel great!" Sofia's fellow Shadowchasers take her side and refuse to intervene, one of them telling him, "You're on your own, Phil," as they go and wait outside.

Film

  • In the beginning of the The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible stops a train from flying off the tracks after a bomb explodes in front of it. Unfortunately, the sudden stop gives all the passengers whiplash, and they sue (jointly with the "victim" of an Unwanted Rescue). Thus this trope becomes practically the whole basic premise for The Incredibles. After the aforementioned incident, people all over the country decide to get in on the action, blaming every Super they could get their lawsuits on for anything they could possibly pin on them. The Supers are eventually forced to go into hiding as a direct result.
  • Shrek:

Fiona: This isn't right! You're supposed to charge in, Sword drawn, banner flying! That's what all the other knights did!
Shrek: Yeah! (looking at some charred remains nearby) Right before they burst into flame!

  • At the end of Ice Age 2, Scrat has a near-death experience and sees heaven full of the acorns he had been trying to obtain since the beginning of Ice Age 1. Sid, however, revives him. Scrat is understandably enraged.
  • Star Wars: A New Hope. "Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, your highness." Though she was pointedly critiquing their lack of planning rather than something irrelevant. Interestingly, Han in turn gripes about the results of Leia subsequently pulling their fat out of the fire — granted, they're in a dianoga-infested trash compactor....
  • Subverted in Hancock, when the eponymous Jerkass hero saves a man from being hit by a train by flipping his car over onto the next and derailing the train. Most of the bystanders are irate, but the rescued man points out that Hancock just saved his life! Of course... he could have done a better job. Or a good job, even. It should be noted that by that point, everyone had a good damn reason to be irate at him, even without a rescue.
  • In Titanic, Rose DeWitt Bukater's mother, Ruth, wishes for the lifeboats to be seated according to class while the ship is sinking, and hopes they aren't too crowded. Rose understandably gets pissed and delivers a Crowning Moment of Awesome that leaves her mother dumbfounded.
  • In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Bumblebee rescues Sam and his family from every appliance in their kitchen (animated into feral Transformers) and for his trouble is essentially sent to his room—just because he happened to blow up part of the house.
  • Trashy Taiwan Indy Jones rip-off Ci Ling (Treasure Hunter) (2009): female lead resents being rescued by male lead, simply because her father does not come with the rescue party.
  • In Hudson Hawk, after the title character saves the blooming love interest from a falling stone horse, she tells him he didn't have to do that. "It's what any hero would do." "No, I mean you didn't have to knock me over like that and tear my dress." - but she was only teasing.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

Harry: Promise me something.
Dobby: Anything, sir.
Harry Potter: Never try to save my life again.

    • Very justified in that (A) Dobby's method of "saving" Harry was rather destructive, leading to a broken arm (followed by an arm with no bones thanks to a particularly incompetent teacher) at one point, and (B) it was said in jest.
    • This becomes Harsher in Hindsight when Dobby sacrifices himself to save Harry in Deathly Hallows. Dobby wasn't trying then. He was succeeding.
  • Spaceballs:

Vespa: I will not be rescued in such filth.

  • In Monty Python and the Holy Grail Sir Galahad stumbles into the Castle Anthrax where he's told: "Oh, I am afraid our life must seem very dull and quiet compared to yours. We are but eight score young blondes and brunettes, all between sixteen and nineteen-and-a-half, cut off in this castle with no one to protect us. Oooh. It is a lonely life: bathing, dressing, undressing, making exciting underwear. We are just not used to handsome knights. Nay. Nay. Come. Come. You may lie here. Oh, but you are wounded!" Then Sir Lancelot "rescues" him.

Literature

  • R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt novels:
    • In Streams of Silver, while Drizzt, Wulfgar, Regis and Bruenor are running from a bunch of trolls and Gaia's Vengeance, Bruenor trips and Wulfgar picks him up and starts running again. After narrowly escaping, Bruenor angrily asks Wulfgar where his axe is, followed by Drizzt sarcastically reprimanding Wulfgar that he should have taken the axe and left Bruenor behind.
    • Drizzt has to run from his kind and was almost hunted down, shortly after (and because of) saving the young moon elf girl while participating in surface raid. He plausibly faked killing her to do so and even this bluff was very close to immediate failure. Ellifain Tuuserail turned out to be less than happy with it, especially because she remembered it poorly and was convinced that Drizzt slain her mother. Later she tried to kill him (almost successfully).
  • Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. This happens every time. Every. Goddamn. Time.
    • There's at least one scene where some of the women are rescued and immediately chew out their rescuer.
    • Rand pulled one on the Aes Sedai.

"Ah, I said only six of you could come!"
"But you were being kidnapped, and so we came and helped you out!"
"Shut up and kneel."
"But--"
"Ta'veren."
"... crap."

    • Of course Aviendha calls out the power trio for being absolute dicks to Matt after he saved them from an impregnable fortress in a situation they had no chance of escaping from.
  • The Ruins has one incredibly long example of this trope. Never mind the fact that Jeff is trying to keep everyone alive. Amy whines CONSTANTLY about the fact that he occasionally needs her help to do things, that he's rationing food and water, that he tried and failed to save Pablo after the vine eats his legs, or that he doesn't always put her comfort first. At least Stacy and Mathias will do what Jeff tells them to and come up with their own plans and Eric has the vine in him, so he's kinda got an excuse, but not Amy. The endless whining makes her death a LOT less sad and depressing than say Stacy's, Eric's or Jeff's?
  • In Harry Turtledove's Prince of the North, Gerin the Fox rescues the oracle Selatre from monsters. Trouble is, she was unconscious so he had to carry her—and she has an extreme form of Virgin Power: merely being touched by a man is enough to strip her of her prophetic ability. When she wakes up, she's almost as horrified as if he'd literally raped her. In her defense, what distresses her isn't losing the power to prophesy, but losing the constant psychic connection to her god, a comforting presence in her life since childhood.
  • Present in Snow-White and Rose-Red. The girls repeatedly save the dwarf from certain death, but each time it requires that they cut off another piece of his precious beard. Guess which part of the rescue he cares about more. Of course, the dwarf's actually an evil bastard whose magic power is all in his beard.
  • Sometimes happens for no specified reason in The Knight in Rusty Armor. "You can't please everyone" thinks the rescuing knight.
  • The ending of The Paper Bag Princess.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Shadows in The Moonlight, Olivia talks of the dangers on Conan the Barbarian's proposed route, and he reminds her that she asked to be taken along; she admits it would be better than her fate if she stayed.
  • In the Ciaphas Cain novel The Traitor's Hand, Cain saves a regiment from an enemy ambush, only to have them complain because he damaged a holy temple's garden in the process.

Asmar: We would rather have perished than have our survival bought at the price of blasphemy.
Cain: We'll know better next time.

Of note is that Cain's regiment had already proposed their aid in replanting it, while Asmar's didn't.

Live-Action TV

  • The premise of one episode of Lois and Clark: Superman saves a musician from being crushed by a falling, oversized speaker... and the guy sues him for spraining his arm. The rest of the episode features a lot of people trying to cash in. At the trial, the court room is rigged with a C12 bomb, and Superman bursts through the ceiling to fly off with it, saving everyone... and the musician claims to have gone blind from getting plaster dust in his eyes. Finally his girlfriend gets fed up, reveals that he's just pretending to be injured, and tells him to lay off harassing the hero.
  • Red Dwarf
    • "Psirens": While fleeing from shapeshifting monsters, the crew, upon letting Lister(?) back on board Starbug, discovers another Lister outside. Rather than risk leaving behind the real one, they let that Lister in, as well, and perform a series of tests to determine which one is which. The test that brings conclusive results? Give them both an electric guitar. The one that can actually play well is blasted to death. Lister resents this.
    • Kryten trys to get Rimmer acquitted of a life sentence in a penal colony through a defence based around the idea that Rimmsy is an idiot chicken soup vending machine repairman with a Napoleon complex. Rimmer complains all the way through, which Kryten just used as evidence of Rimmer's stupidity.
  • In an episode of MacGyver, Angus and this other guy are saved from being "processed" on a conveyor belt by being shunted... into a container of fish. The man's response? "Oh no! Fish! I hate fish!"
  • In one episode of Help! I'm A Teenage Outlaw, after the gang rescues the hostage from the guards, she complains about the fact she has to be running and complains "this is the worst rescue mission, ever!"
  • The Daily Show: Jon Stewart accused Wall Street of complaining about rescues they didn't like in reference to the trillion-dollar bailout, explaining the "rescuer-rescuee" relationship.

Jon: I would suggest that you don't complain about whether or not you get a window seat on the rescue boat.

  • In the cop TV show The District, Ella Farmer, on her way back from a lunch break, sees a man fall from a ladder, and when his breathing stopped, she moved him to perform CPR. The move paralyzes him, and in response the family files a lawsuit against Ella.
  • An episode of The Jeffersons featured a white man who was insanely racist, and who George obviously was not fond of. However, he suffers from a life-threatening ailment to which George reluctantly saved him. Upon regaining consciousness, he learns what George did, and says, "you should have let me die."
  • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Way of the Warrior", the Defiant saves the members of the Cardassian civilian government (Detapa Council), including Dukat, from a Klingon attack just before their ship dissolves into tiny little pieces. However, instead of being grateful for the rescue, Dukat rather complains about having to undergo blood screenings to verify his identity as a solid (non-shapeshifter). Which leads to this amusing exchange:

Dax: Looks like I won, Benjamin. You owe me dinner.
Dukat: And what is that supposed to mean?
Dax: Captain Sisko bet me that you would thank him for the rescue before you started complaining.
Captain Sisko: I lost.

  • Played for laughs in the Star Trek: Voyager "Captain Proton" holoprogram. In "Thirty Days" Ensign Kim (playing Proton's sidekick Buster Kincaid) has been captured and chained up by the Twin Mistresses of Evil (played by the ship's babes, Megan and Jenny Delaney from Stellar Cartography).

Buster/Kim: Torture me all you want, Demonica, I'll never crack!
Demonica/Jenny: Oh, but you will.
Malicia/Megan: By the time we're through with you, you'll be begging to tell us everything you know.
Demonica/Jenny: You'll be our puppet.
Malicia/Megan: Our slave.
Buster/Kim: (enthusiastically) Great! You're doing great!
(Tom Paris [playing the hero Captain Proton] bursts into the room waving a raygun)
Proton/Paris: You're done for, Demonica!
Malicia/Megan: Malicia! She's Demonica.
Proton/Paris: Whatever. You two are going to jail for a very long time.
Buster/Kim: I've got everything under control, Proton! Shouldn't you be getting back to Headquarters?

  • Doctor Who
    • The Doctor's response to being rescued in the story "The End of Time" is "WORST. RESCUE. EVER." Granted, he was tied to a wheelchair. Rather than untying him the rescuers opted to take him still tied to it and flee down a huge flight of stairs.
    • Also in "The Time of Angels", Amy fears she will have to be left behind because she believes her hand is turning to stone. The Doctor bites it to prove the sensation is all psychological, and with the angels advancing, they have this exchange:

Amy: You bit me!
Doctor: Yeah, and you're alive.
Amy: I've got a mark, look at my hand!
Doctor: And you're alive! Did I mention?
Amy: Blimey, your teeth... have you got space teeth?
Doctor: Yeah, alive. All I'm saying.

  • This reaction was somewhat helped by the fact that Karen Gillian (Amy's actress) was under the impression Matt Smith (the Doctor) would only give her a stage-bite for the camera. He didn't. He actually bit her.
  • In "The Mind of Evil", the Doctor is saved at the last moment from being shot by Mailer, the Master's current henchman. The Doctor responds with the classic line: "Brigadier! Do you think for once you could manage to arrive *before* the nick of time?"
  • In "The War Machines", when another man is hassling Polly, Ben tells him to stop. The other man picks a fight, and Ben does not retreat; the bartender has to intervene. Polly starts complaining, but Dodo urges that he was only trying to help.
  • In "Revenge of the Cybermen", a collapsing wall knocked the Doctor unconscious. Harry Sullivan, who'd caused (from the other side) the rocks to fall, started to open the Doctor's clothing to check for injuries. Started to open the Booby Trapped fastenings of the bomb the Doctor had been strapped into. It was reasonable for the Doctor to be rather unhappy about that, but laughing like a loon and then shouting, "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" was going a touch far.
  • Misfits
    • Nathan complains after Super Hoodie saved him from the clutches of the Virtue Organisation, not because he didn't want to be rescued, but because he objected to being dropped unceremoniously on the floor afterwards (which anyone would be tempted to do after five seconds in Nathan's company).
    • In season 2, Nikki, after receiving a heart transplant that undoubtedly saved her life, decides that she hates her new heart ("take it out -- I want a different one!")... because it teleported her right onto the corpse of it's previous owner! Understandable, but still a bit on the bitchy side.
  • Gilmore Girls briefly mentioned that Trix (the "original" Lorelai Gilmore) was rescued from her house during a harsh winter, but rather than gratefull she was displeased that the rescueing team stained her carpet with snow.
  • Kate, pictured above, from the third season of BBC's Robin Hood was the show's Designated Victim and Token Girl. Constantly getting captured, injured or wandering into trouble, Kate's defining attribute was her inexplicable ungratefulness whenever the outlaws dared to rescue her from torture, rape and/or death. Her attitute problem was probably the result of the writers attempting to make her a Plucky Girl that didn't need the help of any big strong men to save her, a trait that was completely undermined by the fact that she was a rather bitchy Faux Action Girl who was utterly incapable of doing it herself.
  • On an early episode of Mash, a small electrical fire breaks out in the OR. Trapper John takes a basin of water and throws it on the fire, extinguishing it. When Hot Lips rightly points out that he couldn't have easily known whether there was water or sanitizing alcohol in the basin (both would have been in the OR at the same time, and the latter would have caused the fire to have grown exponentially) and was taking a serious risk by grabbing the first basin in reach, he retorts by quipping "Maybe you'd like it better with the fire?"
  • Being, as she says, a good person, Emma of Once Upon a Time doesn't hesitate to rescue Regina's ass from a fire, even though Regina fully expected to be left behind. No sooner are they safe (and in front of the press) than does Regina start yelling at Emma for not being considerate of her hurt ankle.

Emma: Seriously? You're complaining about how I saved your life?!

Tabletop Games

  • In an Exalted supplement, a sidebar in the chapter about the conquered city formerly known as Thorns is entitled, "We Wanted To Be Saved... Just Not By You". Kind of justified, seeing as pre-conquest Thorns had been loyal to the nation that most demonized the default PCs.

Theatre

  • Wicked
    • The Cowardly Lion's reason for joining the witch-hunting mob—this after she saved him from sadistic scientists. In all fairness, there's a giant crowd hunting for blood. Claiming to hate Elphaba equals not dying. And he doesn't make light of the fact that he's a coward.

Tin Man: And the lion also has a grievance to repay, if she'd let him fight his own battles when he was young he wouldn't be a coward today!

  • And the Tin Man himself—being turned into tin saved his life. Of course, given that when he woke up she was gone and the nearest person blamed it on her, he might just not know the whole story.

Video Games

  • The The Phantom Menace game:
    • In the Mos Espa level, at one point someone standing outside their apartment asks you to deal with the thieves inside. You need to do this in order to get through the apartment and find your way to Shmi and Anakin's slave quarters. However, the person asking you to help them is ungrateful and offers you nothing in return, instead complaining "It took you long enough... hope you didn't break anything."
    • In the Theed level of the same game, you are charged with protecting Queen Amidala. Occasionally, you leave her alone for a while and she inevitably comes under attack. You hear her cry for help, return and swiftly dispatch her assailants. Her way of showing her gratitude for your service to Her Majesty: a stern rebuke, "You're stepping on my dress!"
  • Knights of the Old Republic
    • Your efforts to rescue Bastila for almost the entire first planet. She breaks out just as you are about to get her out and then starts to berate you on a sloppy job and not having found transport off the planet yet.
    • The sequel has Atton Rand's comments while on the Harbinger, culminating in "You two are the worst Jedi I've ever met!"
  • In King's Quest IV the Perils of Rosella, Rosella rescues a prince from a lifetime as a frog by kissing him and breaking the spell. Despite the fact that she is a princess, he takes one look at her disguise (a peasant girl outfit) and complains that he's been rescued by the wrong person.

Visual Novels

  • A big part of why Archer in Fate Stay Night is so pissed off is because this is essentially every rescue for him. Nobody understands why he is helping people so he has very few friends and tends to make enemies when saving people. He is even put to death by someone he just saved because the disaster is blamed on him. At one point he rescues Shirou from Caster's temple; half of the rescue involves both of them telling the other to shut up.

Web Animation

  • In Red vs. Blue, Sarge is shot in the head and is revived when Grif gives him CPR. When he's told that it was CPR that saved him, he thanks Simmons, thinking he was the one who saved his life. When Simmons tells him it was actually Grif who saved his life, Sarge immediately chided Grif about the idiocy of using CPR for a bullet wound to the head. "What would you do if I got shot in the foot? Rub my neck with aloe vera?" Guess how Doc tries to treat Caboose when he gets shot in the foot. Less successful results though, Caboose's toe falls off.

Web Comics

  • Bun-Bun from Sluggy Freelance, after falling unconscious during his fight scene in "Dangerous Days", doesn't even let Torg finish telling him that Kiki saved Bun-Bun's life or that Torg himself killed the Big Bad. As The Big Guy of the strip, he can't handle being saved by two of its wussiest characters. "My fragile little mind is on the brink here, understand?"
  • In Freefall, Mr. Kornada is upset about his rescue from a building being wrecked by a hurricane because his rescuers won't let him attend a meeting.
  • In the Delve comic here (be warned, it is NSFW and the series as a whole is often more so), a bramble (a rabbit-like Petting Zoo Person) is very upset after being rescued from a goblin who had intended to cook her, taking her anger out by chastising both Bree and the whole elven community. Of course, one can say she can hardly be blamed for being angry here - in the previous comic (which is even more NSFW) the goblin was going into very specific detail telling her how he was going to cook her.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Monty of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is given a cheese-attack-induced burst of energy by a fellow Ranger telling him they have cheese in order to get him to break out. Monty thinks that was a dirty trick.
  • In an episode of Gargoyles, the title creatures save some civilians from some extremist terrorists. The civilians react to the Gargoyles with horror and tell them to keep away. Brooklyn adds, dryly, "Don't gush over us or anything. It's kind of embarrassing."
  • In an episode of Samurai Jack, Jack and the Scotsman must rescue his wife from some robots. Upon their arrival in her cell, she begins berating them for being late. Then, due to a stubbed toe, she makes them carry her down the stairs, which is difficult, as she is almost twice as large as the two of them put together. On the way down, they must continually switch positions, as every method of carrying is either uncomfortable, embarrassing, or too dangerous. She manages to redeem herself somewhat by manhandling the entire army of robots "guarding" her all by herself after one of them calls her "the fat one". Of course, this begs the question of why exactly she needed rescuing in the first place...
  • After Green Arrow saves both himself and Black Canary from being hit by an oncoming train in Justice League Unlimited, Canary gets pissed over leaving her motorcycle behind, at which Arrow responds, "Gee, you're right. I'm sorry I saved our lives."
  • Kim Possible saves Bonnie. Bonnie complains. Repeat. Lucky for everyone, Bonnie is seldom in distress.
  • A particularaly frustrating one happens in Ben 10. Basically, the group was in space and was going to die upon reentry since they lost their ship when Ben changes into Cannonbolt and saves them. Gwen complains about the bumpy ride and the heat (ya know, the heat that would have COMPLETELY FREAKING INCINERATED HER if not for Ben).
  • A subversion in Static Shock occurs when, in attempt to move a car and its occupant out of danger, Static accidentally flings it into the air as a result of his powers being far stronger than normal. When Static manages to return the car to the ground safely, the frightened driver does berate him for a moment, but then asks him to do the same thing to get him to where he was intending to go, claiming the city's traffic to be 'even scarier'.
  • In the Tiny Toon Adventures How I Spent My Vacation, Buster, Babs and Byron go over a waterfall when Superman suddenly flies in and catches them. The response:

Buster: Hey pal, this is our story!
Babs: Yeah, get your own video!
Superman: It's your call! (drops them back down the waterfall)

Well, they were asking for it... Ironically, when they're in real danger:

Babs: Where's Superman when you need him?

  • One episode of The Fairly OddParents has Timmy rescuing Trixie from an alien plant that he had gotten her as a gift earlier in the episode that has turned out to be not so harmless. Her response when he saves her:

Trixie: Timmy, you killed my seemingly harmless plant! You are so not my boyfriend!

Lois: Oh Batman... Gee thanks...

  • Young Justice
    • Cheshire is captured and imprisoned by Red Arrow. When Sportsmaster comes to rescue her, she immediately starts griping at him and wondering why he had to be the one to come get her. Fridge Brilliance kicks in a few episodes later -- Sportsmaster is Cheshire's father, whom she hates and ran away from home years before to escape. No wonder she wasn't happy he came to get her.
    • Dr. Serling Roquette is also fairly snarky about being rescued by Red Arrow in "Infiltrator"; mostly it has to do with the lack of fancy gadgets and being rescued by an ex-sidekick.
  • From the first Family Guy Presentslaugh It Up Fuzzball episode when Chris (Luke Skywalker) tries to save Lois (Princess Leia):

Lois (Princess Leia): Aren't you a little fat to be a stormtrooper?
Chris (Luke Skywalker): Well, stay here and rot, you stuck-up bitch!

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