It is a world of miserable, bitter, ungrateful paramecium who lash out at you in a state of perpetual rage for not solving their problems fast enough. These people may have achieved feats such as fire - breathing dragon slaying, mob boss assassination, or complete destruction beyond repair of an army base filled with hostile aliens.
They cut a swath through the land , slaughtered anything or anyone who gets in their way and spat in the face of impossible odds , being well on their way to finish the job. However, when the time for a favor comes, anybody who knows who they are and should be too grateful or too afraid to turn them down, instead treat them as mere low-level citizens.
Cue the phrase "Dude, where's my respect? The most common reason may be, as pointed out by another character, that they were the ones who caused the whole situation in the first place, thus they are unworthy of the respect they crave. If it involves a Kid Hero or someone of lesser status, the reason is that they did something better suited to those with more maturity or experience. The respect-hungry characters usually have no choice but to debase themselves and comply with humiliating requests, even though they've probably gone From Nobody to Nightmare and by rights they should just kill them and take what they need.
Also, merchants won't give them a discount or something because they're known heroes and benefactors. Hell, some will even try to charge them more because they're famous. An Ideal Hero will fetch cats from trees all day long, but then again they're probably either a Slave to PR or just plain have nothing better to do between beating the tar out of villains.
Expect villains, rivals, and some civilians to act like Ungrateful Bastards in part because of this; in extreme cases they may say " Then Let Me Be Evil. Particularly nasty ones are Impossible Task. Contrast No Fame, No Wealth, No Service , where fame is recognised and is the only reason a character makes any headway. Often crosses with Hero with Bad Publicity. See Entitled Bastard , who usually delivers this. On the other hand, someone may have this attitude when they've actually done no more than the bare minimum.
