This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Designated Monkey: From YKTTW
see also the Discarded YKTTW, The Author's Dartboard.
From the YKTTW discussion:
- Alternate names:
- related tropes:
- Butt-Monkey, Chew Toy, The Woobie, Cosmic Plaything.
- Designated Antagonist, Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, Not So Harmless.
- Ensemble Dark Horse, Misaimed Fandom, Unintentionally Sympathetic, Unpopular Popular Character.
- Alternate Character Interpretation, Perspective Flip, Sympathetic P.O.V., Depending on the Writer, Character Derailment, Running the Asylum.
- opposing tropes:
EDIT for the sake of those who don't know: Designated Monkey was added to the Cut List - Frodo Goofball Co TV
Peteman: The Un-Favorite is in-universe and involves parents (or parental figures) not liking their children (or child figures) in favour of another. Designated Monkey seems to be the authors' own distaste of a character (or at least love of beating on them)
Nezumi: Yeah. I'm not sure if the person who added it to the cutlist on those grounds was trolling, or legitimately had no idea what they were talking about, but this is a totally different trope. The Un-Favorite is about the unpleasant side of Parental Favoritism. It could overlap a bit too much with Butt-Monkey or Chew Toy, but that's not what the person brought up.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: This is a type of Butt-Monkey Played for Drama. This entry is, strictly speaking, not necessary, but it might be nice for the list of typical Designated (Butt) Monkey Traits to be moved to that entry.
Antheia: Took out the Draco Malfoy example — the guy is a bully from the start of the books (if not at the end), and he's absolutely horrible to Harry, Ron, Hermione and others. Sure, he might turn better if given more love, but that's not really the issue here. The same is likely to be true of many other characters, Designated Monkeys or otherwise.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Had a Swiss Moment. Designated Monkey is, or should, be to Butt-Monkey as Designated Hero is to The Hero and Designated Antagonist to The Villain. The description doesn't really make this clear, so I'll see if I can clean it up.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: did a rewrite. Does this help?
Frodo Goofball: This is a much bettter wording than I and the YKTTW group came up with. Thanks for being my Wiki Magic.
