Because You Can Cope: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 2:
A character is abandoned, neglected or thrown to the wolves by someone they love and trust, because the said person that they love and trust decided to look after someone else. There are two main variations of this trope:
* '''Type 1 - Abandonment at a critical point:''' Alice is in the middle of a battle alongside her mentor, Bob, and Bob's other apprentice, Charlie. Usually, Alice is the more powerful or competent of the
* '''Type 2 - Ongoing Neglect:''' David and Emily are siblings. David is perfectly healthy, but Emily is an [[Ill Girl]]. Their parents are constantly attending to Emily, bundling her up against the cold, making emergency hospital trips, taking time off work to look after her when she's ill and generally worrying about her. In all the fuss, however, David is practically forgotten - his mum and dad expect him to look after himself, since he doesn't technically need the same amount of care Emily does. However, should he start misbehaving or worse, voice resentment about Emily's monopoly of his parents' time, expect a massive [[Guilt Trip]] of the "you don't know how lucky you are" variety.
Line 15:
Sometimes the parent/mentor [[Karma Houdini|gets away with their act of abandonment with no ill consequences]]. However, Alice in particular may be prone to a [[Face Heel Turn]], eventually attacking those who left her to die. Even David might decide to deny help when his parents or sister need it, as payback for years of neglect. This may be an act of [[Laser-Guided Karma]] or proof of David/Alice's descent to [[Complete Monster]] territory, depending on the [[An Aesop|lesson]] the writer is shooting for.
There is a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] version of this trope, where a character volunteers to take one for the team because they are better equipped to deal with a bad
{{examples}}
Line 31:
* Subverted in the poem "Footprints". [[Glurge|You know the one]]. A dead man is walking with God, looking at the footprints of his life. There's always two sets, his and God's, except when times get hard; then there's one. Man accuses God of abandoning him at those points but God says he was carrying the man. You'd think you'd be able to tell...but yeah.
* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'', there's a point when Garion is telling Ce'Nedra about the girl he grew up with, Zubrette, and says the group couldn't have brought Zubrette along on their adventures because she wouldn't have been able to deal with, for instance, sleeping on the ground. Ce'Nedra is indignant: "You never had any problem asking ''me'' to sleep on the ground!" Garion says he supposes that's because Ce'Nedra is braver than Zubrette.
* In the "Rizzoli" series, the titular character's mother has spent years blatantly favoring her son Frankie while ignoring her daughter Jane. Suddenly, in one book, this is [[
'''{{smallcaps|Live Action}}'''
| |||