Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Difference between revisions

 

A sub-trope of [[Driven by Envy]]. The [[Dean Bitterman]] or [[Sadist Teacher]] can cross into this territory if they have it in for a specific student in particular. See also: [[Animal Nemesis]]. Contrast [[Older Hero vs. Younger Villain]], where the age relationship is reversed.

{{examples}}

* Setsuna and Ali on ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]''. Ali manipulated Middle Eastern children so that they would kill their parents, become children soldiers, and fight a jihad that would eventually destroy their own country, the Kurdish Republic. Setsuna was one of the children who survived. Years later, Setsuna has grown up to pilot a powerful mech, Ali has become a mercenary, and it goes without saying they're not too pleased to see each other.

** {{spoiler|When season 2 came round Graham got into the act as well, so Setsuna now has ''two'' people "his own size" picking on him.}}

 

 

* While the adult Green Goblin originally fixated on the then-teenaged ''[[Spider-Man]]'' because he thought Spidey would be an easy target, the Goblin soon became obsessed with the idea of making the much younger Peter Parker the "heir" to his legacy as the Green Goblin, seeing in Peter Parker the traits he wanted his heir to carry on, but found lacking in his own son.

* The Time Trapper of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' first appeared to have no reason to menace the Legion other than a severe dislike for teenage superheroes. Later, this evolved into several elaborate retcons. These retcons include that he was fighting Mordru in a game of 4th-Dimensional chess and that he was Cosmic Boy.

* While Deathstroke of the DCU is an equal opportunity criminal mercenary, he holds a personal grudge against the Teen Titans (and former Teen Titans) who are all much younger than him -- ''especially'' Dick Grayson. This all started when the H.I.V.E offered him a contract to kill the Teen Titans. He dismissed the contract out of hand, and the H.I.V.E. passed the contract onto his estranged elder son, Grant. Grant, blaming the Titans for everything that had gone wrong in his life, accepted chemical enhancements that would make him equal or surpass Deathstroke. The effects of the drugs caused Grant to die, even as Deathstroke had been trying to talk him out of the job. Blaming the job, and by extent the Titans, for the loss of his son, Deathstroke swore to take up the contract Grant had died trying to fulfil.

 

* In another rare intergender example, the [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3052814/1/Quirk_of_Fate_Part_1_The_Octopus_Strikes ''Quirk of Fate''] fanfiction series, a ''[[Spider-Man]]'' [[Alternate Universe Fic]] where Mary Jane Watson was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker, has the teenage heroine becoming first the [[Squick|object of lust]] of an adult Doctor Octopus, and then becoming his archenemy when she flatly rejects him.

** And the Brothers Grimm isn't necessarily even the only one. {{spoiler|Jack O'Lantern, alias Steven Mark Levins}}, has developed a psychopathic obsession with his teenage nemesis for continually interfering in his fun and coming to represent everything he hates about the world.

 

* ''[[The Lion King]]'': "[[Subverted Trope|Like...you?]]"

{{quote|[[Oh Crap|"Oops..."]]}}

* In ''[[Election]]'', Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a high school student who is running for school council. Her ambitious over-achieving personalty grates on one of her teachers, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), who becomes obsessed with ruining her run for election, and by extension her life.

* A female example comes from the film version of ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', when the adult Wicked Witch of the West becomes obsessed with destroying the teenage Dorothy Gale, who accidentally killed her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East. Since the Witch of the West also wants the [[Clingy MacGuffin|Witch of the East's ruby slippers, which just happen to be stuck to Dorothy's feet]], she has double the reason to want Dorothy dead.

* An intergender example occurs in the [[Jamie Lee Curtis]]/[[Lindsay Lohan]] remake of ''[[Freaky Friday]]'', where Lohan's character is being taught by an old flame of her mother. Said teacher never got over being dumped by Curtis's character, and he takes out his grudge on her daughter. Curtis's character doesn't believe her daughter's claims until their [[Freaky Friday Flip|bodies are switched]], and then experiences it for herself.

 

* Snape and Harry in the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' books, due to Harry's being the spitting image of his dead father in numerous ways, whom Snape did NOT get along with at all {{spoiler|because they both had a crush on the same girl}}. In spite of this, {{spoiler|it turns out that Snape, who has been one of the good guys after all, had been watching out for Harry and helping him all along}}.

** Lord Voldemort on the other hand ''thinks'' that it's [[Because Destiny Says So]], not realizing that the prophecy that drove him to hunt down the boy was the self-fulfilling kind, and that it's precisely his obsession with it that makes him engineer himself a perfect [[Arch Nemesis]]. His unhealthy conviction in the boy's significance and threat leads to some increasingly stupid moves, each of which makes the boy more and more dangerous, which in turn feeds the obsession, until this chain reaction explodes right in V's noseless face.

* All the adults and Sara in ''[[A Little Princess]]''.

 

* A rare adult female to male youth example comes on ''[[Married... with Children]]'', of all places, where a bitter middle-aged librarian becomes the enemy of a young Al Bundy. Thirty years later, when Al returns to the library to return an overdue book, the now elderly librarian is still there and ready to renew the enmity with the now middle-aged Al.

* Female example: [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Danielle Atron becomes obsessed with locating the teenage Alex Mack and exploiting her mutation for scientific purposes on ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]''.

* In Japanese drama ''[[Shokojo Sera]]'' based on the book ''[[A Little Princess]]'', [[Sadist Teacher]] Mimura Chieko practically takes delight in bullying [[The Woobie|Seira]], screaming and slapping Seira when she does something that she doesn't like. She even admitted right to Seira's face that she despised her. However, we can see where this irrational hate of Seira comes from. Chieko was once classmates of Seira's late mother and had an inferior complex about her. Seira's mother was well-loved, kind, pretty and popular and it really didn't help that Seira was [[Like Father, Like Son|very much like her mother in every way]].

 

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'':, Axel is initially a bit ''too'' keen on becoming best friends forever with Roxas (who is only 15- or rather, his soul is 15, Roxas himself is only less than a year old). After Roxas left, Axel goes into this trope full throttle, resulting in an amazing amount of [[Foe Yay]] between them, and many many scenes where it looks like Axel is unhealthily obsessed with defeating and taking Roxas back.

** [[Author's Saving Throw]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'': The relation between Axel and Roxas (and Xion) is shown to be more of a [[Big Brother Instinct]] of Axel's towards his younger cohorts, who are both only a few days old at the beginning of the game. By the end of the game however, Axel's role as the "big brother" of the gang starts to [[Poisonous Friend|get]] [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|rather]] [[Conflicting Loyalty|murky]] ...

* In ''every'' ''[[Pokemon]]'' game, the villains are adults who are opposed by one or more [[Kid Hero]]s.

 

* One of the stranger examples comes from ''[[Sonichu]]'', where the [[Informed Flaw|evil]] Mary Lee Walsh is obsessed with ruining the "Love Quests" of [[Designated Hero|Christian Weston Chandler]], to the extent of sending evil super-powered monsters and brainwashed mind slaves after him. Her motivation for doing this is because...because...uh...ForTheEvulz...?

 

* Slade and Robin on ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''; paralleled by Brother Blood and Cyborg, which Robin [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]]. Blood/Cyborg had a bit of irony in that Cyborg was one of the larger characters in the series while Blood was rather wiry.

** Fairly common on ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', partially due to the fact that they're [[Kid Hero|kid heroes]]. Sometimes their villains actually are old people (Mad Mod being a prime example).

** Or Mr. Crocker and any child?

* Van Kless towards the titular ''[[Generator Rex]]''.

* The whole point of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. While some of their foes are evil kids, their goal is to protect kids from evil adults, and the show has lots of them.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Arch Enemy]]