Psycho Ex-Girlfriend/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A girlfriend goes psycho after her boyfriend dumps her.

  • Straight: Bob ditches Alice, and she snaps and becomes a villain.
  • Exaggerated: Bob ditches Alice, and she decides to destroy the universe as a result.
    • Every girlfriend Bob has goes insane even if he doesn't dump her.
  • Downplayed: Alice harbors resentment for Bob, but doesn't turn into a downright bitch.
  • Justified: Bob was Alice's Only Friend, and she couldn't tolerate losing him.
  • Inverted: Bob becomes Alice's boyfriend and she snaps from it.
  • Subverted: Bob thinks Alice is psycho, but it turns out that he is simply taking her innocent behavior out of context.
  • Double Subverted: Alice's actions seem to have simply been misunderstood. And then it is revealed that she is psycho after all.
  • Parodied: Bob breaks up with Alice and assumes she is going to become this and becomes paranoid as a result. However Alice is in fact treating their break-up in a healthy well adjusted manner, but Bob continues to believe she is psycho.
  • Deconstructed: Bob gets the courts to pass a restraining order on Alice upon finding out of this.
  • Reconstructed: This doesn't stop Alice from changing her identity and pursuing him.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice only freaks when she sees certain girls around Bob, but otherwise doesn't act aggressive towards him.
  • Averted: Alice doesn't snap when Bob ditches her.
  • Enforced: Alice was originally going to take the break up well, but the creators needed a new villain, and thus they made Alice the Psycho Ex-Girlfriend she is today.
  • Lampshaded: "Oh Crap, it's my Psycho Ex-Girlfriend, Alice. She didn't take the breakup very well."
  • Invoked: Bob wants Alice to snap so he could have her target his enemies in return for being his girlfriend again.
    • Alice initially takes the breakup well enough, until her friends or family convince her that Bob was a Bastard Boyfriend and that she deserves revenge, or that she should intercede to "protect" his new girlfriend who obviously doesn't know what she's getting into.
  • Exploited: Bob realizes that despite her usually even temperament, the plot requires Alice to go nuts when he breaks up with her. So he does it by text, right after moving out with no forwarding address and changing all his contact details.
    • Alternatively, Alice realizes Bob's going to dump her sooner or later because the audience prefers Jane as a love interest for Bob. She seeks counseling or institutionalizes herself before it even happens. Or starts stockpiling weapons and planting tracking devices in Bob's clothes.
  • Defied: Bob never leaves Alice because he knows she will snap upon him ditching her.
  • Discussed: "Alice, if I were to leave you, what would your reaction be?" "Well, I will first find you and then I will kill you, just so you can never leave me again. Why do you ask?" "No reason..."
  • Conversed: "Oh God Damn It! Another Psycho Ex-Girlfriend? Can't I just play one Visual Novel without encountering one of these kinds of characters?"

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