Playing With / Only in It for the Money

3 Following

Basic Trope: A "hero" who is entirely motivated by monetary gain.

• Straight: Bob defeats Emperor Evulz just so the people of Troperville will pay him as promised.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bob defeats Emperor Evulz to earn the trust of the people of Troperville, because he wants to steal money and possessions from them without anyone suspecting a thing.
  • Bob is a Nominal Hero.
• Downplayed:
  • Heroism is a small part of Bob's motivation, but he's mostly in it for the money.
  • Evulz stole the money in Bob's account; he just wants it back.
  • Bob won't work for Emperor Evulz even when Evulz offers him money, but he does insist on getting a promise of pay before defeating him.
• Justified:
  • Bob had no intention of becoming a hero; he was just passing through Troperville, and the townsfolk promised him a reward for defeating Emperor Evulz.
  • Bob is poor and will do anything for money.
  • Bob has rent that's soon-to-be due, student debt, or some other thing that needs to be paid off. May go hand in hand with the second Justified example.
• Inverted:
  • Emperor Evulz is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • Emperor Evulz is only threatening Troperville so they'll pay a ransom.
  • Not only is Bob's rival Clay in it purely for the sake of heroism, but he declines any cash or other reward that he is offered, even for doing the right thing, to the point where Clay suffers Perpetual Poverty in the event that he's forced to take heroism due to it being the only available job.
  • Bob is a restaurant owner who kicks Alice out for putting ketchup on one of his special burgers. Alice retorts, "You got my money! Isn't that enough?"
• Subverted:
  • Bob lied about his motivation; he wants to save the people of Troperville from Emperor Evulz.
  • Bob is only in it for the money, at first, but then he gains a soft side for the people he's saving.
  • Money is important to Bob, but only as a means to some more noble end, like paying for medicine for his ill younger sister Cathy. He couldn't care less about enriching himself.
  • While at first it seemed that Bob was getting paid fo his heroics, the money in question turned out to be operational budget, nothing more.
• Double Subverted:
  • Bob only saves the people of Troperville because several of them have offered him money.
  • His benefactor on the other hand was merely doing it for the tax benefits it gives him.
• Parodied: Bob destroys the entirety of capitalism, somehow, and demands to be paid for it.
• Zig-Zagged: Bob just wants money, but he suffers from some Forgotten Aesops about greed along the way.
• Averted:
  • Bob's reasons for heroism are purely heroic.
  • Bob is being bribed with something other than money, perhaps food.
  • Bob is no hero and never pretends to be one.
• Lampshaded: "Bob doesn't care about saving us. He just wants our money."
• Invoked: The townsfolk offer Bob money for defeating Emperor Evulz.
• Exploited:
  • After Bob defeats Emperor Evulz and claims the cash, people start bribing him for other deeds.
  • Bob aligns with whichever side can reward him best.
  • Bob claims to be in it only for money to prevent retaliation against Troperville — if he is seen as a greedy asshole then they won't think of using it as leverage against him.
  • Charlie uses Bob as an example on why he thinks humans will only do good things if you bribe them with something.
• Defied:
  • The townsfolk do not offer a reward because they don't want a greedy or selfish hero.
  • The company rejects Bob; they’ve employed mercenaries and contractors before, and it had a negative impact on the business. In their experience, some people were less committed to the job, which led to rushed work or insufficient effort. Not only that, but a few were known to be bullies who pressured others to work faster and sometimes take unnecessary risks to meet deadlines. Because of these past issues, the company is cautious about hiring someone like this, even though this may not apply to everyone.
• Discussed: "No, I'm not just in this for the money! I want to save you all from the Emperor's clutches."
• Conversed: "Bob's no hero. He's in it for selfish reasons. See? They're paying him."
• Implied: Bob never mentions his motivation, but his expression brightens when the townsfolk give him a huge sack of money.
• Deconstructed:
  • Because of the selfish motivation behind his actions, Bob goes down in history as a self-centered Anti-Hero.
  • Bob becomes so consumed by greed as a hero that he decides to stop becoming a hero in exchange for becoming a villain in the process.
  • Although Bob's motivation to be paid is fair and reasonable, his transparent greed and selfishness make him demoralizing, uncooperative, and unhelpful. Alice's side of the story shows that Bob's behavior is a detriment to workplace relationships, dynamics, and safety because of his inflexibility, stubbornness, and refusal to assimilate. After all, Alice has to deal with the collateral damage of Bob's actions and clean up after him. Whenever he's confronted over this, Bob frames himself as the only one suffering and being exploited, boiling his argument down to “Why can’t you be tolerant? Is it really that hard to make my job easier?”
    • Because Bob is so committed to his hours, he refuses to do anything that could lead to him working unpaid overtime. As such, he rushes the job, rushes his allies, and takes shortcuts, which only causes health and safety risks in the workplace that put people in danger. This makes him dangerous in other ways; for example, Bob is a dangerous driver. Because Bob is determined to finish a job within paid hours without extending his shift, he has a multitude of speeding violations and has been in trouble for aggressive driving.
    • Even if the task is trivial and easy to complete, Bob will adamantly refuse to do it because he knows he won't be paid for it and it's outside his contractual agreement. This forces his already stressed and agitated coworkers to pick up the slack. He constantly complains about being underpaid, even though he performs the same work as everyone else, yet he refuses to leave the job he clearly despises. His selfishness and disruptiveness only make him a burden, forcing responsibilities onto others while obstructing workflow and contributing nothing to improving the workplace. As Alice angrily points out, although some of Bob’s complaints are legitimate, he chooses to stay and add stress to those who actually care about their jobs, rather than leave the job he hates or do anything to fix his attitude problem.
    • Some fields of work require committed and dedicated workers, like in animal care, farming, healthcare industries, and emergency services. Bob's refusal to do more than the bare minimum of his contract makes him a burden to the workforce, unhelpful to clients, and dangerously apathetic to the well-being of others. Bob leaves vital tasks unfinished because he refuses to spend even one second overtime, resulting in issues with improper cataloging of medicines, unregistered health concerns of the client, and unfiled documents. Bob is hypocritical, making excuses for himself while criticizing others for the same errors. Bob’s refusal to contribute fairly doesn’t just hurt himself; it has a knock-on effect, making his colleagues just as frustrated, overworked, and even resentful of their jobs as he is.
    • Although Bob tries to proclaim that he's trying to protect himself from being exploited by upper management, as he correctly believes they would replace him in a heartbeat, Alice points out how deluded he is because his actions have no impact on management whatsoever, and he's only hurting his coworkers, who are just trying to get through an already stressful day and don't need an additional stressor. Every time Bob “takes a stand”, refuses a task, or refuses to do anything outside his pay grade, his coworkers have to clean up the mess and be part of the collateral damage. As Alice angrily points out, they did not ask to be part of Bob's working-class hero, anti-corporate protest. Alice then points out that Bob's actions are misdirected and ineffectual if he's never going to challenge management over his complaints.
    • Although a desire to be fairly compensated is reasonable, Bob’s behavior demonstrates the negative consequences of pursuing that goal too aggressively. He is on thin ice with his employers and widely disliked by his colleagues. Bob exemplifies why employers place importance on personal qualities such as flexibility, reliability, and teamwork. As his antithesis, he poisons the workplace, exacerbates an already stressful job, disrupts workflow, demoralizes coworkers, and endangers both lives and livelihoods. Bob illustrates precisely why companies maintain stringent workplace expectations, policies, and rules. Alice also points out that the people who usually brag about hating their jobs or only doing it for the money are either just venting, making jokes, are self-employed, or in a position where they don't care if they lose their job or not. If anyone acted the same way Bob does, it would likely lead to disciplinary action or social backlash from colleagues for refusing to do their fair share of the work and for not working as hard as other people.
• Reconstructed:
  • Bob doesn't care what people think of him, as he is neither good nor evil.
  • The people of Troperville don't care about their hero's motivation; they're just thankful that someone saved them from Emperor Evulz.
  • Bob is a character in a video game with Faction-Specific Endings. Because you're the one signing his paycheck, he will follow you no matter who you support.
  • Alice is overly committed to the job and is emotionally blackmailing Bob into submitting to corporate rules.
• Played for Laughs:
  • Bob wants Emperor Evulz dead because he sings the most annoying songs and his evil deeds seem insignificant in comparison (at least to Bob).
  • Bob finds out Emperor Evulz plans to melt down the gold taken from the town and use it to make magic armor. Bob sets out on a quest, Determinator that he is, and refuses to stop until he finally destroys Emperor Evulz. The Tropeville townsfolk try to thank him for his courage and the return of their gold, but Bob walks right past all of them with all of the gold Emperor Evulz stole. It's this point when the townsfolk realize they're not getting their gold back, but decide to cut their losses and just be happy Emperor Evulz is defeated.
• Played for Drama:
  • Bob will also do evil deeds for money; he only chose the good side because Troperville bribed him and Emperor Evulz did not.
  • The people of Tropeland were in serious need of a hero, a savior, and Bob will gladly let them all burn unless they cough up the dough. "Disappointment" does not even begins to describe the feeling the people of Tropeland feel right now.
• Untwisted: Bob acts like a big-shot hero, as if he has something to hide. When his sidekick Alice asks why he became a hero, he says, "Oh, there's a very heroic reason: they're paying me!"