Why Did You Make Me Hit You?/Playing With

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Basic Trope: Manipulative Bastard resorts to violence, then cries and acts apologetic while getting the victim to believe they're responsible for them using violence against them.

  • Straight: Shannon has an argument with her daughter Sharon, so she slaps her, then bursts into tears, asking "Why Did You Make Me Hit You?" Sharon apologizes and complies with her mother's wishes.
  • Exaggerated: Shannon beats the hell out of poor Sharon, who's quickly reduced to a cringing, sobbing, apologizing mess begging for her mother's forgiveness.
  • Justified: Sharon either begs Shannon to hit her, or goads her into doing so ("C'mon, hit me! I bet you're too scared!").
  • Inverted: Sorry I Fell on Your Fist
  • Subverted: After Shannon hits Sharon, Sharon gets outraged and hits her back, then storms out.
    • When Shannon asks why Sharon made her hit her, Sharon starts kicking her to death and delivers a Reason You Suck Speech as the light drains from her mother's eyes.
  • Double Subverted: ...However, Sharon feels so bad about this that she comes slinking back to apologize.
  • Parodied: Shannon pokes Sharon lightly and almost instantly gets to her knees and becomes a sobbing, apologising mess.
  • Deconstructed: Shannon's emotional manipulation of Sharon causes her daughter to become just as vulnerable to other Manipulative Bastards, like Domestic Abuser Edward, who ultimately ends up killing Sharon -- and gleefully gives Shannon a Not So Different Hannibal Lecture afterwards, as he's being carted off to prison.
    • Sharon eventually grows inured to her mother's manipulation and turns her back on her, refusing to respond to any of Shannon's protests, having long since learned that Shannon only cries when it suits her and doesn't honestly care about her... only what she can make her daughter do for her.
    • Shannon hitting Sharon and subsequently crying about it does not win her the argument but merely causes the argument to escalate further.
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Zig Zagged: Shannon and Sharon have a complex, dysfunctional relationship built on emotional bonds sullied by manipulation. Shannon is honestly horrified the first time she strikes Sharon, but later wavers between that honest shock at her own actions and cynically spinning everything so that it isn't her fault. Sharon, for her part, knows that her mother relies on this, but can't quite bring herself to break all ties with her as that would leave Shannon completely alone.
  • Averted: Shannon never uses physical violence.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: ???
  • Defied: Sharon ducks out of the way of the blow and chews out Shannon for attempting it. "Oh please! Abuse is not the way to win me over you bitch!"
    • Sharon slaps her mother back and then she asks her the question.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Sharon is currently estranged from her mother. This is shown in flashbacks where Shannon uses this an excuse to hit her for trivial reasons, several times daily.
  • Played For Drama: ???

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