Children in Tow/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A parent creature followed by babies.

  • Played Straight: A mother duck crosses the road with 5 ducklings trailing behind her.
  • Exaggerated: The duck has 50 ducklings trailing behind her.
  • Inverted: The ducklings walk ahead of the mother duck.
  • Justified: The ducklings imprint on their mother, so she can protect them and better teach them how to be, well, ducks.
  • Subverted: The duck appears and crosses the street by herself.
  • Double Subverted: But then several ducklings cross the street when she calls to them.
  • Deconstructed:
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied:
  • Lampshaded:
  • Averted:
    • The duck has no babies.
    • The duck crossing the street is...a drake.
  • Enforced: Shown Their Work
  • Invoked: The ducklings hatch and imprint on their mother.
  • Defied: The mother duck never leaves the nest.
  • Discussed:
  • Conversed:
  • Played For Laughs: See "Parodied"
  • Played For Drama: Someone runs over the ducks because they're too impatient and uncaring.

Back to Children in Tow