This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Lale: Since Manjyome, Ron, Zuko, and Fate aren't the main character...
Elsie Edwards of Nothing's Fair In Fifth Grade by Barthe De Clements, and two sequels. She's the unloved one, while her mother dotes on younger siser Robyn.
Lale: As horrific a story as that book was, abuse is not the same as favoritism. Singling out one child for abuse is done out of sadistic pleasure, not favoritism. Several unfavorites do find themselves abused, but it's because they're the unfavorite, not by unfortunate coincidence.
fhan: What about Lot Rs Faramir?
From the Heroes example: "This is due to having been conceived expressly in order to be a cure for her"
Ophicius: I'm confused. Why is this potholed to You Fail Biology Forever?
Kay Kay: Is it me, or is the lesson here that Unfavorites get made because off jackass parents?
macroscopic: I'm positive Magneto's children have a place on this page but I haven't followed X-Men in a long time so I'm not sure how to fix the example. As for For Better Or For Worse all I'm sure about it is the Creator Breakdown.
- April in For Better or For Worse. Her parents behave as if it's her fault she's a teenager and still living at home when they're ready to be retirees, her brother and sister-in-law frequently use her as a free baby-sitter and her sister casually dismisses her problems in favour of a narcissistic focus on her own romantic issues. Moreover, the tone of the strip implies that April is an ungrateful brat who deserves this treatment.
- Considering that the strip is largely viewed as having totally gone off the rails in favor of the writer's somewhat twisted personal views of how family life should be, fans often consider April the last sane person in the Foobiverse.
- The strip has started over from the beginning again. According to Johnston, this was to get rid of unnecessary baggage. Considering that its now running from before April was born, it can be safely assumed that she too was considered "baggage".
- This troper thinks you're seeing things that weren't there. She was frequently the focus of the strip, had big dreams that she was apparently justified having, the seemingly favorite presence of her grandfather...
- This troper recalls reading a letter posted in the strip's website where a fan supported April's parents treatment of her by claiming they were "preparing her for the unfairness of life" by making irrational demands and treating her like dirt. This troper really hopes that was supposed to be satire...
- There's also the matter of Michael and Elizabeth being based on Johnston's Real Life offspring, while April was conceived from the ground up as a fictional character, the "caboose baby" that Lynn couldn't really have.
- What strip are you reading? Because the main part of this entry doesn't sound anything like the For Better Or For Worse that I've read.
And,
- Magneto's relationship with his kids is equally screwed up, with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver being the Un-Favorite in both the regular and Ultimate Marvel Universe. In particular, in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Magneto is quite open with with his disdain for Quicksilver/favoritism towards Wanda, by "punishing" Wanda for betraying him by way of making her watch him kneecap her brother, who Magneto berated for going to work for the Ultimates.
- This Troper has always interpreted his relationship with Wanda as very abusive, relegating her to the position of 'faceless minion'. In their first panel together, Magneto, after having killed a weapons dealer, ordered Wanda to clean up the mess, while walking off with Pietro. He has her try to seduce Cyclops, which is just demeaning and skeevy to do to his own daughter, and something he did in the regular 'verse as well. And as for the punishment, it reflected the same with Xavier, who he loved, but was crippled for leaving him, while it seemed he was taunting Wanda for being powerless to stop her brother from being hurt. Magneto just does not treat his children with any sort of sane parenting.
