History Film / YoungAdult

* TheAlcoholic: Mavis. She knocks back a serious amount of hard liquor in many scenes and is shown passed out on her bed [[RunningGag every single morning]]. [[spoiler:She ultimately realizes this and confesses to her parents, but they laugh it off as a joke]].
* AlphaBitch: Apparently, Mavis in her high school days. She still acts like she is, but it doesn't fool anyone. [[spoiler:Buddy's wife reveals that she along with many other people feel sorry for her, and that's why she had made Buddy be nice to her when he didn't really want anything to do with her.]]

* [[DisposableFiance Disposable Wife]]: Averted. Mavis desperately wants Buddy's wife to be this; however, she's a perfectly nice woman and he has no intention of leaving her.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Mavis's plan to get back together with Buddy predictably fails. His and Beth's marriage is fine, but Mavis still ruined their party. Mavis destroys her 'relationship' with Buddy and everyone else in Mercury, probably including her own parents, and just when it looks like she's about to have some serious introspection, she ultimately learns nothing from the whole experience.[[note]]The last chapter of her book, in which her heroine graduates high school and is all chipper about facing adulthood, suggests that this is indeed the case.[[/note]] Then, in the parking lot, Mavis stares at her beat-up car with a troubled expression...]]
* ExtrudedBookProduct: ''Waverly Prep'', which Mavis is a {{ghostwriter}} for.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During the film's ending sequence, you get can a glimpse of Mavis's ending for ''Waverly Prep''. [[spoiler:Beyond just what she actually narrates, you can see that she showered her self-insert in multiple Ivy League acceptances and other achievements. She also condemns the Buddy and Beth stand-ins to a "horrible" death-by-drowning.]]

* HerBoyfriendsJacket: In her room back home, Mavis digs up Buddy's old football green hoodie with his name on it. She wants to get him back (and steal him from his wife) and starts wearing it. Matt ridicules her for it.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Mavis realises while talking to Sandra that other people grow up and feel fulfilled while she doesn't, and that she needs to change. Sandra, who hero-worships her, tells her that she's wrong and that everyone really wishes that they were like her. [[spoiler: Mavis then plays this trope tragicomically straight.]]

** Mavis is not a writer, she's an ''author''.

* NoAnimalsAllowed: Subverted. Mavis clearly expects the motel where she stays not to accept dogs, and so smuggles her tiny Chihuahua in a backpack. The clerk tells her that they do allow dogs, to which Mavis replies that [[RefugeInAudacity she's glad]], because [[BlatantLies she has a dog in her car.]] [[ImmediateSelfContradiction As the bag is audibly snuffling and moving.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: To the point where the film could be called “Realistic Outcome: The Movie”. Essentially, this movie is exactly what would happen if you took ''Film/HopeFloats'', ''Film/SweetHomeAlabama'', and ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'', and their tropes, and put them in the real world. Mavis thinks she is in one of those movies: the former Prom Queen coming home to rescue her first love from a loveless marriage, and will be welcomed back by the town. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mavis, the former Prom Queen, has not mellowed with age and gotten more sympathetic; if anything, she’s worse. Her first love, Buddy, is clearly {{happily married}}, gotten over her, the townspeople want nothing to do with her, one character refers to her as the “psychotic prom queen bitch”, and [[spoiler:Buddy, the love she thinks she’s rescuing from a hapless marriage, reveals that he wanted nothing to do with her, it was his wife that forced him to get back in touch with her, as the town feels sorry for her]].

* AdamWesting: A screenwriting example. Mavis' character flaws reflect virtually every criticism that had ever been hurled at Creator/DiabloCody and her writing in the past.

* AdamWesting: A screenwriting example: Mavis' character flaws reflect virtually every criticism that had ever been hurled at Creator/DiabloCody and her writing in the past.

* {{Deconstruction}}: A massive one. This is as unlike SweetHomeAlabama as you could get.

** Mavis is not a writer, she's an ''author''

* PitySex: Mavis and [[spoiler:Matt]] have a pity sex. An interesting case because the pity is on both sides.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: To the point where the film could be called “Realistic Outcome: The Movie”. Essentially, this movie is exactly what would happen if you took Hope Floats, Sweet Home Alabama, and My Best Friends Wedding, and their tropes, and put them in the real world. Mavis thinks she is in one of those movies: the former Prom Queen coming home to rescue her first love from a loveless marriage, and will be welcomed back by the town. [[spoiler: Nothing could be further from the truth. Mavis, the former Prom Queen, has not mellowed with age and gotten more sympathetic, if anything, she’s worse. Her first love, Buddy, is clearly happily married, gotten over her, the town people want nothing to do with her, one character refers to her as the “psychotic prom queen bitch”, and Buddy, the love she thinks she’s rescuing from a hapless marriage, reveals that he wanted nothing to do with her, it was his wife that forced him to get back in touch with her, as the town feels sorry for her.]]

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Mavis although there's a heavy level of BlackComedy in it. She is very depressed, extremely self-centred, and narcissistic.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Mavis is sure she's the [[TheOneWhoMadeItOut hometown girl made good]], back to fix everyone she grew up with (clear, for example, in her speech to Matt) and [[ManicPixieDreamGirl rescue her high-school sweetheart from his loveless marriage]]. [[{{Deconstruction}} This is incorrect.]] She expects Beth to be threatened by her presence. [[spoiler:On the contrary, Beth feels sorry for her and actually '''invited''' her over.]]

* TriangRelations: Type 4, with Buddy as B. Mavis thinks she's C and Beth is A, but it's the other way around.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* FutureLoser: You wouldn't necessarily know it at first; Mavis, who was queen of the high school, still looks to her former classmates like the model of popularity and success as an adult, with a cool job and a nice apartment in the big city. But it's a front; in reality she's an alcoholic wreck who's constantly on the verge of being fired and she pines for high school.