Friend to All Children/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character is humanized by having a soft spot for kids.

  • Straight: Bob is an Anti-Hero, but he is established as a good guy overall because he frequently plays with children.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is a Type V sociopath who is only kept from being a Complete Monster by the fact that he adores and would never harm children of any species and they like him back.
  • Justified:
    • Children Are Innocent and Bob knows their innocence will keep him from becoming a full-blown Byronic Hero.
    • Or Bob's kids are dead and they remind him of them, in a good way.
  • Inverted: Bob is a Child-Hater and is portrayed as being evil for it.
  • Subverted: Bob is constantly seen playing with children, but that's only to earn their trust so he can sacrifice them to a child-eating demon in exchange for power and wealth.
  • Double Subverted: But it's actually a ruse to lure the demon out of hiding and slay him once and for all to keep his beloved kids safe.
  • Parodied: Bob is a babysitter by day and a Vigilante Man at night.
  • Deconstructed: Bob is a borderline Psychopathic Manchild who is completely incapable of socializing with those his own age.
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Zig Zagged: Bob loves children, but pretends to be a Child-Hater so he doesn't look weak. Children remind him of his own dead son, but sometimes the memories make him angry, causing him to actually hate children for brief periods, and even lash out at them verbally or even physically. But he always instantly regrets this.
  • Averted: Bob doesn't treat kids any differently than how he treats anyone else.
  • Enforced: "Bob seems like too much of a sociopath. Give him a soft spot for kids."
  • Lampshaded: "Bob's a Jerkass, but he can't be all that bad because the children love him."
  • Invoked: "If I play with kids alot, people will start seeing me as a true hero."
  • Defied: "I don't even like kids!"
  • Discussed: "I knew Bob was a good guy. Look how gently he plays with those kids."
  • Conversed: "It seems like every Anti-Hero, no matter how Badass and rude he is, always has a soft spot for kids."
  • Played For Drama: Bob's soft spot for kids is a major factor in his Start of Darkness when they are killed.
  • Played For Laughs: Overprotective parents assume that Bob is a paedophile.

Go back to Friend to All Children, they want to play some more.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Friend_to_All_Children/Playing_With?oldid=948070"