The Unfavourite: Difference between revisions

** In the 616 timeline this actually would be quite an exaggeration. It seems to have been true of Bobby Drake (Iceman), but none of the other original five (Scott's parents were actually abducted by aliens before getting to see his and his brother's powers manifest), it was not true of Colossus, Storm (her parents were killed too early), Thunderbird I, Kitty Pryde, Rogue (she ran away from home before her powers manifested), Jubilee (her parents were dead before her powers manifested), and with reference to their human adoptive parents it was not true of Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Nightcrawler or Gambit (who was actually preferred to his adoptive father's biological son).

* Huntress has at times been considered so, among the members of the Batfamily, due to her supposed violence and [[I Work Alone|unwillingness to work well with the others]], and especially Batman himself, with whom she has a conflicted relationship.

** Also in the Batfamily, Jason Todd is even more the unfavorite.

* Art Spiegelman, the [[Author Avatar]] of the biographical graphic novel ''[[Maus]]'' felt he always had to compete with his [[Dead Little Brother|dead older brother]], Richieu, who had died as a result of the Holocaust.

* In ''[[Dead Poets Society]]'', Todd is strongly implied to be [[The Unfavorite]].

* ''[[The Goonies]]''. Played for laughs in how Mama favors Francis over Jake.

'''Mama''': (''Smacks Jake'') That's right! }}

* In ''Willard'', despite being the strongest of the rats, Ben can never get the same level of affection as Socrates. {{spoiler|after he [[Love Makes You Evil|decides to stop taking it]] Willard directly states "I hate you."}}

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|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.

** Denethor himself was the Unfavourite to Thorongil/Aragorn's Favourite.

* ''[[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}}.

* ''Jacob Have I Loved'' takes this to biblical proportions, as implied by the title. The protagonist is overshadowed by her twin sister from birth, first because of the latter's frail health, then because of her beauty and musical talent. The title comes in when she parallels herself to Esau, Jacob's older, less fortunate brother, and decides she must be ''God's'' UnFavorite.

* [[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.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''The Song of the Cardinal'', the she-cardinal whom he kissed.

* The Hon. Freddie Threepwood in [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]'s ''[[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.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''A Daughter of the Land'', Kate. Mary is clearly the Favorite, but the other sisters also had their share.

"I wonder how she convinced you of it. None of the rest of us can discover it," said Kate. '' }}

 

* Curious example on ''[[Dirty Sexy Money]]''. In a first-season episode, matriarch Letitia says that Brian and Jeremy are their father's unfavorites; considering the fact that Jeremy is a drug-addicted layabout and that Brian isn't Tripp's biological son, this makes sense. But after learning about Brian's illegitimacy, Tripp starts liking him ''more,'' giving him a company job and calling him 'son' for the first time in the series.

* Possibly the example most familiar to American TV viewers, Robert from ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''. With the slight reversal that Robert is actually the elder brother himself.

''(Turns her back on Robert and walks out the door)'' }}

** Robert was originally going to be cast as ''shorter'' then Ray and being forced to ''literally'' look up to his younger brother. The actor being ''taller'' took the gag from funny to hysterical.

** There are several scenes in the show which give Rimmer a more sympathetic POV. Curiously, a deleted scene in Series 6 shows that his brothers all ended up screwed up in later life, making Arnie perhaps the least screwed up of the lot ultimately. Another source of his angst is in Series 2, where he laments that he just wanted his father to congratulate him on something, but will never get the chance now.

* 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 series)|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.

** Lampshaded by the Yellow-Eyed Demon who tells Dean that even though John argued and yelled at Sam a lot, it was 'more concern than he's ever shown you.'

** Strange version: Lucifer regards himself as this, but Gabriel points out that they all know that God loved Lucifer more than any of the other angels, more than Michael and more than Gabriel himself. The reason Gabriel believes Lucifer hates humans? He felt that God cared about them more and would demote him to this trope.

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

'''Nina''': ''[astonished]'' Wow... so you're the ''good'' sister? }}

* ''[[Young Dracula]]'': Despite being the child that most takes after him, Ingrid is consistently ignored and humiliated by her sexist father.

* Carmen in ''[[The George Lopez Show]]''. Her mother, her father and her grandmother like her brother Max more.

** It's not so much that they like Max more, he's just a lot easier for them to deal with compared to Carmen, as her problems were usually a lot more serious then Max's. Angie herself calls George on this in the episode "I Only Have Eyes For You" after George punishes Carmen more harshly then Max and she accuses him of liking Max better.

** In rhe later seasons it actually was the opposite. Carmen's problems were much more serious than Max's were, and he felt unloved and ignored.

* Archie on ''[[Monarch of the Glen]]''.

* On ''[[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.

** Later, when they already know he's the [[Kid From the Future]] and she's already pregnant with him:

'''Chris:''' WHAT?! HE HAD POWERS ''ON THE UTERUS''?! }}

* In [[Veronica Mars]] Cassidy Casablancas, the younger of two sons, was clearly the unfavourite as the victim of bullying by his father and the 'favourite', his elder brother, as the dad and sibling had competitions to see who could make him cry first. This character would also come under the [[All of the Other Reindeer]] umbrella.

* Oh god ''[[Skins]]'' loves this one; Chris became an unfavourite when his brother died, Freddie is constantly passed over for Karen, Katie's mum has always favoured her over Emily, and in Gen 3 the {{spoiler|Nick and Matty}} situation is... complicated.

* [[The Big Bang Theory]] has poor Leonard. As stated by Leonard:

 

 

* It depends on the writer, but each of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' kids has, at one point or another, been treated as the unfavorite. Lisa's most often made this (what with Bart being a hellion, Maggie an infant in need of constant care, and the whole family being average or stupid except for her), which is spoofed in the "Sherry Bobbins" episode. She sings, "I'm getting used to never getting noticed!" But there's also the running gag of Homer forgetting Maggie ''exists'' ("We have ''three'' kids!" "Marge, the dog doesn't count!") and while strangulation does ''technically'' count as giving Bart attention...

** In one flashback episode, the parents meet with Bart's school counselor to try to help him be less miserable in school, only to discover Lisa is a prodigy and immediately write Bart off.

* Lifeline from the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' series is a latecomer to this trope, having become the Unfavourite of his all-pacifist family when he joined a military organization. Never mind that he's a field medic who never carries weapons or participates in combat, the fact it's ''soldiers'' he saves is enough to earn him the permanent silent treatment from his relatives.

* Hank Venture from ''[[The Venture Bros]]''. While in the first season Dr. Venture seemed equally neglectful towards both sons, the following ones made his [[Parental Favoritism]] towards Dean more and more apparent. This has become especially prominent in season 4 after {{spoiler|the clone slugs were destroyed and Brock left}} - Dr. Venture wised up and decided to be more fatherly, but only towards Dean.