The One Who Wears Shoes/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: In a work featuring a Funny Animal cast that mainly goes bare-pawed, there will be at least one oddball that wears shoes.

  • Straight: Despite her forest friends all going shoeless, Alice the cat is always seen wearing sandals.
  • Exaggerated: Alice always wears a Spy Catsuit with built-in boots that she wears even when it wouldn't make sense, while everyone else rarely even wears so much as pants.
  • Justified: Alice injured her paw when she was younger, and now has an aversion to going bare-pawed
  • Inverted: All of the forest friends wear shoes except Alice.
  • Subverted: Alice is introduced wearing sandals while walking on the beach, but doffs them afterward and is never seen wearing them again.
  • Double Subverted: Alice is introduced wearing sandals while walking on the beach, but doffs them afterward and dons a pair of boots, instead.
  • Parodied: There's only one shoe store in the whole forest village, and it's only customer happens to be Alice, who single-handedly keeps the place in business, despite her Limited Wardrobe.
  • Deconstructed: Alice's sandals have made her the target of ridicule for the rest of the forest, who see her need of footwear as a sign of weakness.
  • Reconstructed: Despite the ridicule, Alice brushes off the teasing from her friends because she enjoys the comfort of her sandals, and because they provide an additional fashion accessory to make her the envy of her shoeless friends.

Bob: "You look like a schmuck with those things strapped to your feet."
(Alice kicks him in the shins as hard as she can.)
Alice: "You can't do that barefoot."
Bob: "Duly noted. I may need medical attention."

  • Zig Zagged: Alice has an Unlimited Wardrobe and wears a different costume each episode, some with shoes, some without.
  • Averted: Alice never wears shoes at all, just like all of her friends.
  • Enforced: Alice is played by a human actress living in an animal community populated by puppets, so wearing shoes is only natural.
  • Lampshaded: "What are those things Alice is always wearing on her feet? And how come none of us have them?"
  • Invoked: Alice wants to stand out more, so she takes to wearing fancy sandals to look more fashionable.
  • Defied: Alice has just moved into her new town, but loses the bag containing her sandals in transit, and goes bare-pawed for the rest of the series.
  • Discussed: "Sometimes I feel sorry for Alice, wearing those sandals all the time. There's nothing more refreshing than the feeling of grass beneath your paws."
  • Conversed: "You know that cartoon with the cutesy animals? It always bugged me how the cat on there was the only one who wore shoes. Where'd she even get them in the first place?"

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