Zig-Zagging Trope: Difference between revisions

** Hell, it's not even clear whether the harem is unwanted! On one hand, he doesn't return any of the feelings at the moment, and probably won't for a while. One the other hand, he ''has'' become good friends with all the girls and a bunch more who aren't romantically interested in him, and does appreciate how much they are willing to help him. On the other hand, as [[Genre Savvy|Haruna]] and [[Meta Guy|Chisame]] have pointed out, love triangles rarely work out well, and unless Negi goes for a [[Chick Magnet|very elaborate]] [[Tenchi Solution]], a whole lot of them are going to be disappointed. On the ''other'' hand, this isn't just a straight romantic comedy but also an action/adventure fantasy as well, and Negi would not have gotten ''nearly'' as far as he had without all of these other characters backing him up. [[Zig Zagged Trope]] indeed...

** It does the same thing with [[First Girl Wins]], as there are about 5 girls who fit the criteria, and at least one of them could also qualify as [[Last Girl Wins|the last girl]]. And of course, Negi might not end up with any of them...

* [[Giant Robo]] does this with a [[Broken Pedestal]]. The image of Vogler keeps getting added on with new information from new character left and right, from being a vengeful [[Mad Scientist]] to a benevolent scientist. Eventually, {{spoiler|it ends with subversion}}. Too bad [[Poor Communication Kills]].

* In ''[[Kitchen Princess]]'', Sora appears to be a [[Shallow Love Interest]] as he seems to fall for Najika off the bat. {{spoiler|A side story reveals that he had already run into her and was charmed by her, though she never finds out.}}Then it turns out he was just ordered to hang out with her so that she could be used in a publicity stunt. However, it was inevitable that he'd develop real feelings for her with all the time he spent with her. {{spoiler|Then Sora dies. Not to mention it's also insinuated another reason he wanted to have a relationship with her was so that there would be less chance of his younger brother remembering how their mother died}}.

== Fanfic ==

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4876578/1/I_Want_a_Refund I Want A Refund], Kuno has forbidden anyone to date [[Ranma One Half|Nabiki]] Tendo. Nabiki invokes an inverted "I'll do anything" offer to any boy that defeats Kuno- secure in the knowledge that he will successfully defeat all the other boys in school (since Ranma isn't fighting). Kuno {{spoiler|manages to defeat himself}}, and what follows is a Triple subversion of the "I'll do anything" trope- maybe even quadruple, or quintuple depending on your perspective.

 

 

** [[Playing With a Trope|Played]] with for Kaid and his son, Dzaka.

* ''Candle'' by John Barnes does ''something'' to [[Shades of Conflict]], as one [[The Reveal|reveal]] after another changes the apparent shade of the conflict. In order: [[Black and White Morality]] ([[Hive Mind|One True]] is good, the last rebel [[Complete Monster|raped a little girl for the fun of it]]), {{spoiler|[[Black and Grey Morality]] or [[Evil Versus Evil]] (One True is [[You Will Be Assimilated|solely concerned with propagating itself]], but the representative of it who serves as the main character is only partially controlled and is a [[Lawful Good]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]), [[White and Grey Morality]] or a reversed [[Black and White Morality]] (One True lied about the rebel, and he's actually a good guy), [[Grey and Grey Morality]] or [[Evil Versus Evil]] ''again'' (the rebel is the last survivor of a benevolent [[Hive Mind]] founded to protect humanity from One True and its like, but it [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|jumped off the slippery slope]] and now what remains of it forces him to convert more people, [[And Then John Was a Zombie|just like One True]]), and finally [[Rousseau Was Right]] (the rebel himself is still an idealist, and One True is willing to learn from his example, voluntarily splitting itself into bits and becoming more of a [[Mental Fusion]].}} The sequel takes it another step: {{spoiler|One True is ''trying'' to be good, but is still driven to propagate itself, and may or may not have killed thousands of people so it could assimilate the rest into its "[[Well-Intentioned Extremist|benevolent]]" control.}}

** He's smart about certain things ... and ''only'' about those things. It's just that, unlike most characters of his type, he can find practical uses for them. But only some of the time - the rest of the time he's genuinely clueless.

** Wouldn't that make him a [[Genius Ditz]]?

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' do this with [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]. More complex than you thought.

* Sivo in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is a triple subversion of the "Knight vs. Dragon" story.<ref>To wit: A [[Our Dragons Are Different|Rogat Orjak]] smashes in Antimony's dorm roof. He introduces himself as Reynardine, and asks that Annie stay with him [[Subverted Trope|so the cruel knight won't capture and imprison him.]] The next day, Annie sees Reynardine again, and he tries to [[Demonic Possession|possess]] and kill her. Sir Eglamore--the knight from the previous evening--saves Annie. [[Double Subversion|So he was the good guy and Rey the bad guy all along.]] The triple subversion comes when Eglamore explains that Reynardine is a "[[Our Demons Are Different|demon]]"--and that the Rogat Orjak whose body Rey had stolen was an old friend of Eglamore's, named Sivo.</ref>

** Subversion 2: Later, he convinces himself that he wished for the wrong things--that he should have used them to bring back the artifacts he's looking for.

** Subversion 3: He's told that his wishes were the most damaging things he could possibly have asked a Fae Lord for {{spoiler|All debts and favors cancelled, everything stolen returned to the duchy, and barred from hunting the world again}}--and what he thought he ''should'' have wished for would not have worked as he thought.

 

 

[[Category:Trope Tropes]]

[[Category:Zig Zagging Trope]]