A Shared Suffering: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

It's hard being the [[Last of His Kind|only one of your kind]]. Therefore, if a character finds that [[There Is Another]], they tend to cling to the few members of their species/group/type left. They can be surrounded by friends, but that can't compare to having someone who can really understand what they're going through. Most of the time this other person is someone they don't even like - occasionally even an enemy - but their shared history, or shared condition gives them a connection. A bond - maybe not friendship, but at least a sort of grudging respect.

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** He also tends to connect with other long-lived characters, notably the Face of Boe. He also attempts to connect with an clue Doctor Lazarus in to the woes of a long life in "The Lazarus Experiment", both having memories of the Blitz.

*** Oddly enough, he doesn't spot the connection with {{spoiler|the Star Whale in ''The Beast Below'', but luckily Amy did}}:

* Odo from ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' is sort of like this, yearning to find his people, until he does and learns they're dicks (although this doesn't stop him wishing he ''could'' rejoin them). This trope is also used as the basis for the bond that ends up forming between him and Garak who, as the only Cardassian on the station, also yearns to be rejoined with his people. His separation from his people is entirely different to Odo's (for a start it [[Mysterious Past|possibly]] may be his own fault he's in exile) but the knowledge that they'd both do almost anything to rejoin their people and that there's a line they can't bring themselves to cross (no-one is more surprised to learn [[Torture Technician|Garak]] has one of these lines than [[Hoist By His Own Petard|Garak]] himself) in pursuit of this desire which keeps them separated from their kin culminates in a [[Torture Always Works|stunning scene]] that should have driven them apart forever but which instead is the [[Despair Event Horizon|basis]] out of which their friendship forms. The look on Garak's face when he finally gets Odo to confess his deep secret about the Founders ("HOME! I want to go HOME!") says it all, followed shortly thereafter by a [[What Have I Done]] expression when he realizes how similar they are (and that he too, can't go home without crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]]).

* Kyle and Jessi from ''[[Kyle XY]]'' are like this due to both being born in the same lab and having similar abilities. It helps that their genetic donors were once lovers.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the ''[[Paradise]]'' setting, an unknown force is randomly, permanently turning humans into [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]] (and sometimes [[Gender Bender|changing their gender]]) in a way that is [[Invisible to Normals]]. Changed, especially from the early waves where they are few and far between, often fear they're alone or outright going crazy. After spending weeks, months, or even years alone, they are so relieved to find out there are others like them that they might break down and cry.

* The Golden Marvel and Ultra-Man from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' are close friends who often dine together to remember life during the Great Depression, the Spanish Influenza epidemic, World War II, and other events of the first four decades of the 20th Century.

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:A Shared Suffering]]