The Unfavourite: Difference between revisions

Can easily escalate into [[Cain and Abel]]. May be rooted in a [[Death By Childbirth]]. May cross over with [["Well Done, Son" Guy]] if [[The Unfavorite]] wants some recognition. If the favorite of the parents isn't even a member of their family, it's a case of [[Why Are You Not My Son]].

* Jun Manjyome of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'', disowned by his brothers for his inability to live up to the family name.

* In ''[[Gundam 00]]'s'' second season, there's an unfavourite that doesn't even need a family {{spoiler|(they got killed by terrorists several years ago)}} to feel this way. {{spoiler|Lyle Dylandy thinks that several of the Celestial Being members expect him to be just like his deceased twin older brother, Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy. Lyle doesn't like it, logically, so after taking up Neil's Lockon mantle he decides to downplay his own and ''considerable'' fighting and piloting skills to make himself look different from Neil. }}

* ''[[Hell Girl (Anime)|Hell Girl]]'' episode 16 features a disturbing twist on this trope. The episode revolves around {{spoiler|a pair of twin girls in a traveling circus -- one is praised and doted upon by the ringleader, the other is kept locked in a back room and frequently abused. Initially, the audience is led to believe that the Un-Favorite has summoned Enma Ai to exact revenge upon the ringleader, only to find out too late that the real target is ''the other sister''. Ai takes the favorite girl to hell, then, giving the other twin ''her'' chance to be the favorite.}}

* Reina in [[Queens Blade]] apparently suffers from this early on, being clearly the weakest between the three Vance sisters and not being allowed to leave the palace or do anything with her life. The justification for this later on is that {{spoiler|Reina is the [[Generation Xerox]] of her mother, who died fighting in Queen's Blade, and her father was being overprotective for that reason.}}

* In the Spider-Man [[Spider-Man (Film)|movies]], ''[[Ultimate Spider Man]]'', and ''[[The Spectacular Spider Man]]'' cartoon, Harry Osborn is a rare example of being [[The Unfavorite]] as an only child, with his father preferring fellow intellectual and friend Peter Parker to his own son. This is in contrast to the portrayal of Harry and Norman's relationship in the comics: originally, Norman was portrayed as a loving, but absentee father who tried to make up for his utter lack of time for his son, via spoiling him rotten. This in turn led to Harry becoming a drug addict, as he used his dad's money to avoid working, and spend his days partying and buying drugs from his neighborhood drug dealer. Of course years later, the relationship between Harry and his father was retconned into a "[[Kick the Dog]]" scenario to make Norman (then dead and buried, with Marvel dead set on not resurrecting him) an evil person who physically and emotionally abused his son throughout his entire life. When his son died, this led to Norman seeking out a replacement heir, ultimately settling on Peter Parker largely due to editor Bob Harras's demand that Peter and Norman's rivalry be changed to be more like Professor X and Magneto's rivalry, complete with Norman wanting Peter to join with him the same way Magneto is forever harping on Xavier to join forces and conquer humanity.

* ''[[Star Trek (Film)|Star Trek]]'' has some interesting cases with Jim being the unfavourite compared to ''his dead father''. His mother couldn't stand the resemblance between them and would often do nothing to stop his stepfather from beating him, neglecting him and traveling far away just so she wouldn't have to look at Jim.

* Fanfiction often has [[Transformers (Film)|Megatron jealous of his brother Optimus.]] Whether they are actually biological brothers or simply brothers by name depends on the author. For example, [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3853153/1/The_Ties_That_Bind_Us The Ties That Bind Us] shows a young Optimus being injured by an ambush and his caretaker Ironhide had to carry him while telling Megatron to follow him. While understanding that Optimus was more serious condition, Megatron began to grow envious that he was always placed second place after Optimus.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' '''movies''', especially the 3rd, hit this trope pretty hard for Faramir. It's text, not subtext, in his father's dialog. While Faramir ''is'' a grown character and, logically, "should've gotten over it by now", his father's scathing treatment of him makes it almost impossible for anyone ''not'' to sympathize. This factor, combined with some deleted scenes present in the extended versions, helps explain why {{spoiler|Faramir initially decided to capture Frodo and the Ring, which is the opposite way he chose in the book}}. It's also notable that the favorite, Boromir, actually admires and defends Faramir, and is fed up with their father just as much as Faramir.

* Gordie in ''[[Stand By Me]]'', whose parents never forgave him for being the one to survive.

* In ''[[Ever After (Film)|Ever After]]'', Danielle gets the short end of the stick because she was the biological daughter of her deceased father. And before his death, it probably didn't help that he said "I love you" to Danielle and didn't say it to the stepmother, only increasing her jealousy of Danielle. Interestingly, the same thing happens to the youngest daughter who isn't as beautiful as her elder sister and isn't as cruel and snobbish, being more down-to-earth and kinder.

* In the new ''[[Thor (Film)|Thor]]'' movie, Loki's [[Start of Darkness]] is a result of his jealousy over the fact that his father, Odin, has always favoured his brother Thor. {{spoiler|It turns out that Odin chose Thor to succeed the throne of Asgard because Loki is adopted, and isn't Asgardian. Loki could never have ruled no matter what Odin's preference was. Odin's actual feelings towards Loki are left ambiguous -- it could be that he genuinely loves Loki as a son, or it could be that he only took the boy in to use as a political pawn.}}

* In Gru's [[Flash Back]]s in ''[[Despicable Me (Animation)|Despicable Me]]'' show his mother treating him as [[The Unfavourite]] -- even though he's an only child!

* [[Jane Austen (Creator)|Jane Austen]]:

** In ''[[Sense and Sensibility (Literature)|Sense and Sensibility]]'', Mrs. Ferrars dotes on her daughter Fanny and younger son Robert, but doesn't seem to particularly like elder son Edward.

* [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[Matilda (Literature)|Matilda]]'' has parents that are completely unappreciative of her superlative brilliance. Her father cares far more about son Mikey, a total nonentity, and the mother is more interested in bingo.

* Ebenezer Scrooge, of [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' fame is heavily implied to be this, sent away to [[Boarding School]] for years at a time by his resentful father. In some versions (at least in [[The Film of the Book]] with Alistair Sim), it's explained that Ebenezer's father blames him for his mother's [[Death By Childbirth]]. His kind-hearted and beautiful [[Fridge Logic|younger]] sister Fan is kept at home and is the apparent favorite, possibly due to an implied resemblance to her mother.

* In [[CS Lewis (Creator)|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'', the king abused all three of his daughters impartially -- until the youngest had to be sacrificed to the gods. Then he was explicitly abusive because he had lost her, being stuck with two unappealing daughters. Also, both Orual and her tutor the Fox heap praise on Istra while ignoring Orual's other younger sister, Redival.

* Josephine in [[Tim Powers]]' ''[[The Stress of Her Regard]]''. She is the disturbed and unappreciated younger sister of protagonist Michael Crawford's wife Julia; their mother [[Death By Childbirth|died giving birth]] to Josephine; the family says that they don't hold this against her but that Josephine holds it against herself. Josephine spent her youth coping with stress by becoming someone else; imitating a clockwork machine, or imitating her sister Julia (who charmingly made sure that people knew about this). Years after Julia's death, Crawford and Josephine are guests in someone else's home when Josephine slips into 'becoming' Julia for several days. Crawford then feels that he now knows Julia far better than he did when they were married - and doesn't like her much, and tries to help Josephine return to her own personality.

* Ron of [[JK Rowling]]'s ''[[Harry Potter]]'', feels like this, though it's not true (his family never shows him anything but the utmost unconditional love). Specifically he feels overshadowed by his five older brothers, '''and''' his younger sister because his mum supposedly wanted a daughter most of all, '''and''' his famous best friend, who his mum treats like another son. And, of course, Harry himself is constantly compared unfavorably to his cousin Dudley by his aunt and uncle; this becomes one of the ways the book shows Harry growing up, as "not being liked by parental figures" [[Age-Appropriate Angst|becomes less important]] than "war between good and evil".

* In [[JRR Tolkien (Creator)|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[Lord of the Rings|Return of The King]]'', Denethor clearly ladles all the work on Faramir's shoulders partly because Boromir was his favorite. It is heavily implied that at least part of this is the immediate reaction of grief; Gandalf warns Faramir against doing anything rash, because his father loves him and will remember that.

* ''[[Flowers for Algernon (Literature)|Flowers for Algernon]]'' has a rather extreme version of this, Charlie's mother Rose preferred her daughter Norma to her son Charlie due to Norma having an average IQ compared to Charlie's very low 68. This made Norma a [[Spoiled Brat]] and left Charlie mostly confused and afraid of his mother who would beat him for perfectly natural things like having an erection as would any pubescent teen boy. Terrified he would do something to Norma. Rose eventually forced Charlie's father to have him taken away by {{spoiler|threatening to kill Charlie if he didn't}}.

* In their mother's eyes at least, Anna and Jesse are clearly Un-Favorites in comparison to [[Ill Girl]] Kate in ''[[My Sisters Keeper|My Sister's Keeper]]''. As Jesse says, he's the "lost cause," a guy that spends all his time in a filthy garage apartment doing drugs and drinking. The unfavoritism leads to {{spoiler|him becoming an arsonist and causing his fireman father quite a lot of grief.}} Anna, on the other hand, was only born to donate blood to Kate, who has leukemia. It's scary how her mother seems to think of her not in terms of who she is as a person, but as the sum of the parts that could be used to help Kate. Their father, on the other hand, seems to think of all of them equally, though of course because of Kate's condition he has to put the other two in the back seat from time - especially Jesse, who started consider himself "invisible" within the family, since Kate and Anna are often the center of attention whenever Kate's condition worsens.

* In the [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] book ''Sparkling Cyanide,'' Sandra Farraday. Sandra's mother explicitly says at one point that Sandra is the most difficult and least dear to her of all her children. Also from the same book, Iris Marle seems to be rather neglected compared to her beautiful, rich older sister Rosemary. Iris doesn't really seem to resent it, though.

** Another [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] example is in ''Murder With Mirrors.'' Mildred Gulbrandson, the biological daughter of [[Miss Marple]]'s friend Carrie Louise, is [[The Unfavorite]] as compared to Carrie Louise's adopted daughter Pippa, her stepsons Alex and Stephan, and later Pippa's daughter Gina. Poor girl just can't catch a break.

* Claudia Kishi of [[The Babysitters Club]] often feels like this with her parents, due to her older sister Janine being a certified genius and good at academics. However, one of the Claudia books reveals that ''Janine'' also feels like the [[Un Favourite]] because Claudia is so pretty and popular.

* In Teresa Frohock's ''[[Miserere an Autumn Tale (Literature)|Miserere an Autumn Tale]]'', Lindsey knows that her father is never proud of her, as opposed to her brother Peter.

* [[Stephen Colbert]]'s "[[I Am America and So Can You]]" actually suggests making a conscious choice of who the favorite and unfavorite are, since it will happen anyway. On top of that, he also suggests [[Crosses the Line Twice|using it as a Carrot and the Stick approach]] to make sure the children are well-behaved.

* The Hon. Freddie Threepwood in [[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|PG Wodehouse]]'s ''[[Blandings Castle (Literature)|Blandings Castle]]'' series. As the seemingly unnecessary "second son" who's constantly piling up debts and having to be hauled out of London, he's not a big hit with his father Lord Emsworth, who'd do anything to get him off his hands.

* No matter what Det. Goren from ''[[Law and Order Criminal Intent]]'' does for his mother (including taking care of her while she's in the hospital) he still can't measure up to his brother, a homeless drug addict with an illegitimate son - or were there two brothers? Either way, Goren gets no respect.

** Jan was actually a [[Fanon]] [[Alternative Character Interpretation|interpretation]]. In her case, she was actually just [[Overshadowed By Awesome|overshadowed by Marsha]]. Now the 90's Parody movies on the otherhand, takes this trope and runs with it.

* ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]''. Despite making her brother look like a idiot child, River Tam's parents are clearly more invested in Simon's medical career. The lack of concern over her cries for help from the Academy is particularly damning...

* Lorne in ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]''. When he visits home for the first time in years, his parents say "We ate the wrong son."

* Mohinder Suresh of ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' is his father's Un-Favourite, as compared to his [[Ill Girl]] older sister Shanti. This is due to having been conceived expressly in order to be a cure for her, but born too late; Chandra half-hated him for the failure, half-didn't want to get emotionally attached again.

* Nathan Petrelli of ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' could also be said to be the Unfavorite of his family. [[Evil Matriarch|Angela]] actually told Peter he was her favorite compared to Nathan. Especially since it's later revealed in season 3 that {{spoiler|Nathan was the only one in the family to be born without powers and had to be ''given'' powers via a formula.}}

* Arnold Rimmer in ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' is a powerful example of an Un-Favourite. His brothers were all high-flyers in the Space Corps; Arnold was a technician, the second lowest in rank on a mining ship. While he's a comedic character, some of the abuse he goes through would reach [[The Woobie|Woobie]] standards, and goes a long way to explaining why Rimmer's such a git. Unfortunately, it's ''still'' difficult to side with him, given the frequency with which he [[Freudian Excuse|uses his screwed-up past as a carte-blanche excuse for being a jerkass]]. In some of the darker moments of the books, the tragic side ''does'' become clear.

* There's a bit of this buzzing around Lore, from ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', who considers Data the favourite of their father. The "older brother" of the two androids Noonien Soong created, Lore (who has emotional awareness, while Data didn't), went [[AI Is a Crapshoot|a bit off the rails]] and was deactivated (but not before he was able to call a giant life sucking entity to the colony where he was built in order to destroy it). During his first appearance in ''Datalore'', Lore spends a lot of time convincing Data that Lore was the second of the two built: to "perfect" the mistakes Soong made with Data (turned out it was the other way round. Lore [[Uncanny Valley|terrified the colonists, who petitioned Soong to make one ''less'' human]]). The whole favouritism thing comes to a head in the episode ''Brothers'' when discovering that Soong has spent the last years of his life perfecting an emotion chip for Data without the "faults" that Lore's had. Lore deactivates Data, takes his place, steals the emotion chip and murders their father before leaving.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'': Even though Dean's Daddy issues are a lot more obvious, you could say that both of them fit this trope. The only affection Dean ever gets from John is when John is possessed or about to die, a regrettable incident that happened when he was 9 gets hung over his head for 17 years. And as for Sam, he's disowned when he wants to be normal, John actually blames him for his brother's impending death in ''In My Time Of Dying'' and he gets two utterly dismal goodbyes while Dean at least gets an apology and a smile. And the worst thing? He told Dean that he might have to kill Sam if he goes bad, and Dean thought he had to basically commit suicide (just not right away) because John gave him an order and he failed and, as shown by ''Long Distance Caller'' is still devoted to his father. Oh, John. You might have been a good man but you failed at being even a halfway decent father.

* In an episode of ''[[3rd Rock From the Sun|3rd Rock from the Sun]]'', it's revealed that Mary's sister Renata was the favorite of the Albright family:

* Archie on ''[[Monarch of the Glen (TV)|Monarch of the Glen]]''.

* Eunice on ''[[Mamas Family]]''.

* On ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', [[Kid From the Future|Chris]] seems to be not just the Unfavorite of his father (for complicated backstory reasons involving an alternate future), but of the universe in general: his brother is the [[Chosen One]] by virtue of being the first child born between a Charmed One (a trio of Chosen Ones in their own right) and a [[Our Angels Are Different|Whitelighter]]. Chris is...the second such child, which is apparently less impressive in terms of destiny, and winds up with a bit of inferiority complex as a result.

* Un-favourite ''pets'' appear from time to time on the various ''[[Animal Planet Heroes (TV)|Animal Planet Heroes]]'' shows, when an irresponsible owner takes excellent care of one dog/cat/horse/whatever, while allowing another to starve in the yard without shelter or medical care.

* Elphaba in ''[[Wicked (Theatre)|Wicked]]'' was blamed by her father for her sister's condition and their mother's death. There's also his words upon seeing Elphaba for the first time. "Take it away. TAKE IT AWAY!"

* The title character of [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Electra (Theatre)|Electra]]'' is neglected and abused by her mother and step-father. She loathes them both and isn't terribly hesistant about letting it be known. Orestes is also the unfavourite, but has been in exile since childhood so it's not as obvious.

* This is the motivation of the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Drakengard]]'', Manah. Her mother showered her brother Seere with love but abused Manah, finally culminating with abandoning her in a monster-infested canyon for a cult to take. After that, she decided that the only way she could make her mother love her was if the gods themselves loved her. And since [[God Is Evil]], this entails being infused with their power, ascending to the head of the cult, taking control of [[The Empire]], and [[The End of the World As We Know It|destroying the world.]] All [[Enfante Terrible|at no older than six years of age]]. The moral of the story: [[Space Whale Aesop|don't abuse your children, or they'll destroy the world]].

* Beat in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' typically sees himself as [[The Unfavorite]] of his family, especially compared to his younger sister {{spoiler|Rhyme}}. As a result of being unable to live up to their standards, he stops trying at school altogether, which Neku notes is at odds with the [[Hot-Blooded]] personality he demonstrates.

**** [[Metal Gear Solid 2]] had Fatman, who was neglected by his parents, and apparently, even though he built a nuclear bomb at Age 10, and was rather famous (or infamous) within the bomb trade for this feat, he was hated within his own school.

* In ''[[FEAR]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|the Point Man}} was the unfavorite grandchild of {{spoiler|Harlan Wade}}, as he did not possess the same [[Psychic Powers]] of his brother, Paxton Fettel.

* {{spoiler|Sakura}} in ''[[Fate Stay Night]]'' was [[The Unfavorite]] for blood family, leading her to be given away to another family. Then her adoptive family's treatment of her was somewhere south of "holy shit" on the abuse scale. {{spoiler|Can't blame her for going batshit on them all}}.

* Roy Greenhilt from ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]''. His father's epitaph reads "Devoted Husband - Mighty Wizard - Passable Father", and his ghost keeps showing up to harass Roy about his choice in [[Character Class]].

* Mizuna of ''[[Adventurers (Webcomic)|Adventurers]]!'' '''thinks''' she's one of these, bringing up how she was always compared with Karashi when younger. When she mentions this to Karashi, the latter says that the comparisons were always ''favorable''; eg. "Mizuna is so much more advanced than Karashi was at her age!"

**** Ursa ''did'' love Azula. She was simply concerned about her budding little sociopath of a daughter. We see nothing in her onscreen behavior that says she thought Azula was "a monster". Can't help but wonder where the kid got the idea. Perhaps Ozai told her a few stories about "what your mother said when you weren't around" so he could guarantee that he was Azula's [[Well Done Son Guy|Well Done Daughter Guy]]. Also, it's possible {{spoiler|that "perception" was saying what Azula wanted it to say, not what she believed the real Ursa actually ''would'' say}}, and she knew it, which is why she got so upset. [[Word of God]] pretty much confirms [http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll305/Maylene-Autumn/Sozins%20Comet%20Novel/scan0033.jpg this]

* In ''[[Wolverine and The X Men]]'', Magneto rules Genosha with his two daughters, Polaris and the Scarlet Witch, by his side. Quicksilver, meanwhile, is back in the US running the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants until he's "proved himself" to his father.

** In ''[[X Men Evolution]]'', Magneto basically dumps Wanda in an insane asylum when she's 8 or so. His reasoning was that unlike her brother, her powers would have eaten away at too much of his time. Later when she comes after him wanting revenge, he decides to have a psychic alter her memories to make her less likely to come after him. He still never visits her though (Unlike her brother, who was given a cell phone so they can keep in touch).

* In the [[Animated Series]] of Disney's ''[[Hercules (Disney)|Hercules]]'', one episode centered around Phil, Herc's Satyr Mentor, coming to terms with his mother always raising his brother (a door-to-door shoe salesman) onto a pedastal. At the end of the episode they learn she was doing it on purpose to keep him from getting a big head, and the brother always got the same treatment.

* Before ''[[Evil Con Carne (Animation)|Evil Con Carne]]'' was cancelled, and ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Animation)|The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' became their separate series, one episode involved a father, his older and younger sons, and their pet weasel accidently finding themselves trapped on Evil Con Carne's island. Needless to say, the father had a less than favorable relationship (on his part) with his older son, whom he showed was willing to allow being potentially tortured by Con Carne and his cohorts when forcing his obedience. This is of course played for laughs. He even entrusts the pet WEASEL to drive the boat away from Con Carne's island to safety.

* Saranoia and Carl from the show ''[[Yin Yang Yo (Animation)|Yin Yang Yo]]'' are both the unfavorites to their parent(s). It caused Saranoia to go quite insane while Carl has yet to go down that road, he's just very lonely and desperate.

* An episode of ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' has Stan trying to get rid of his annoying Chinese in-laws by convincing Francine that they prefer their birth daughter Gwen to her. She really starts believing it when they find the parents' will and discover that everything goes to Gwen. But even after being thrown out, Francine's father comes back to save Stan from a burning building, and he explains the will by saying that Gwen is an [[Asian Airhead]] who needs all the help she can get, but Francine is intelligent and can take care of herself, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|and married a good man]], so they don't worry about her.