History Main / TheUnFavourite

-->--'''Dewey's father,''' ''WalkHard''

* Gordie in ''StandByMe'', whose parents never forgave him for being the one to survive.

* In ''TowerOfTerror'', Abigail feels this way toward her sister [[spoiler: Sally]], since everyone was going to something for her on Abigail's birthday. [[spoiler: That thing was going to be Abigail's suprise birthday party]].

** And again in Motherklok, appropriately enough. Pickles still seeks the approval of his mother, despite the fact that no matter what he does, even when it's exactly what she says he should do, she isn't satisfied. [[spoiler: He finally tells her to go f[[SoundEffectBleep *riff*]] herself at the end of the episode.]]

** Well, he was never actually disowned, just disliked a lot. When he dueled his brother Chosaku midway through season one, they both acknowledged at the end that he had grown up more than they thought, and in season four, it's implied that they either already have or will reconcile with each other, since Jun is insistent that he make it on his own in the Pro Leagues before he will join them officially. But during most of season one, definitely their Unfavorite.

*** Yes, but you have to remember they were babies at the time. Koji didn't know Koichi existed. It most likely they just that both parents just got a baby when they divorced

* Subverted in ''CodeGeass''. Lelouch Lemperouge spends a good portion of his life believing that not only are he and his sister Nunnally their father's unfavorites, but that their mother Marianne was too, since she was the only Imperial Wife to come from common origins; only much later on does he learn that [[spoiler:his parents practically fell in LoveAtFirstSight, and by extension, Lelouch and Nunnally were practically his favorite children. Further, they both wanted Lelouch to help them with their plan to make the world a better place... Only that, since both parents were {{Knight Templar Parent}}s * and* {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s , they thought that "making the world a better place" involved a huge XanatosRoulette leading to an {{Instrumentality}} project. Oh, and "want Lelouch to help" meant "send them into a war zone". Though there was an immortal to help them, she never introduces her self, or, you know, has weapons or anything.]]
** Further subversion: The apparent golden child who is the Emperor's right hand man and direct heir? [[spoiler: The one man that Charles' seemed to actually fear, warning that the failure of his plan means that Schneizel's would now be in play.]]

** You could go on for days about the ComedicSociopathy Peter and Lois inflict on poor Meg. Lois in particular; she tried to steal Meg's boyfriend in one episode, couldn't even say "I love you" to the girl on her own wedding day, and ''tried to get her to kill herself''[[hottip:*:She left a bottle of sleeping pills and an EmilyDickinson book next to Meg and said "Whatever happens, happens" in a bored tone of voice]]. In one memorable episode, Meg [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls them and Chris out]] on how they treat her like shit despite being disgusting, horrible excuses for human beings... but then goes right back to being their punching bag after seeing that without her as a common "enemy", the family would rip each other to shreds.

* Tonny from [[''Film/{{Pusher}} Pusher 2]]'' is this compared to his father's other son and his kid half-brother.

** You know what? The Petrelli parents are just fucking horrible people if you think about their cumulative actions for more than five minutes.

* In ''JudgingAmy'', one episode feature a large, loud, and boisterous family who did not know what to make of their youngest(?) child, a quiet, apparently unathletic, and introverted kid. Apparently, ''forcing'' him into dog piles and over-enthusiastic games of football constituted abuse so the family had to learn AnAesop about different personalities.

* Ron of JKRowling's ''Literature/HarryPotter'' feels like this, though it's not true (his family never shows him anything but the utmost unconditional love). Specifically he feels overshadowed by his five older brothers, '''and''' his younger sister because his mum supposedly wanted a daughter most of all, '''and''' his famous best friend, who his mum treats like another son. And, of course, Harry himself is constantly compared unfavorably to his cousin Dudley by his aunt and uncle; this becomes one of the ways the book shows Harry growing up, as "not being liked by parental figures" [[AgeAppropriateAngst becomes less important]] than "war between good and evil".

* [[TheBorgias Rodrigo Borgia]] heaps all of his affection on his daughter [[SpoiledSweet Lucrezia]], and his younger son [[SpoiledBrat Juan]], completely overlooking his eldest son Cesare. While Juan is encouraged to pursue the military career Cesare always wanted (despite being wildly inept and thoroughly obnoxious to boot), Cesare is forced into the Priesthood against his will, and is regularly treated harshly by his father while Juan's crimes are [[EasilyForgiven swept under the rug.]] Rodrigo does eventually reconcile with Cesare somewhat, admitting that he finds Cesare so hard to love because he is a cold, ambitious MagnificentBastard, and therefore [[YouAreWhatYouHate he reminds Rodrigo too much of himself.]]

* Oh god ''Series/{{Skins}}'' loves this one; Chris became an unfavourite when his brother died, Freddie is constantly passed over for Karen, Katie's mum has always favoured her over Emily, and in Gen 3 the [[spoiler:Nick and Matty]] situation is... complicated.

* In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Damon Salvatore considered himself to be this to his father Guiseppe, on account of his willful and rebellious nature (in contrast to his more [[TheDutifulSon dutiful]] brother Stefan) leading to all manner of sibling rivalry later on. Although Guiseppe's attitude towards his sons does at least have some basis in reality - Stefan genuinely was the better-behaved of the two - his treatment of Damon borders on ParentalAbuse. The same kind of situation arose between Klaus Mikaelson, who was somewhat arrogant and impulsive as a boy, and his more sensible elder brother Elijah - when we see a flashback of the family, their father Mikael is shown punishing Klaus incredibly severely, publicly humiliating him and actually coming pretty close to ''killing'' the boy just for pulling a dumb prank on his brother. And it only got worse when Mikael discovered that Klaus was not in fact his biological son. Some time down the road, Mikael actually devotes his life to attempting to kill Klaus - admittedly, Klaus is an AxCrazy [[BigBad vampire overlord]] by this point, but it's heavily implied that he was TheUnfavourite right from the start, whether he deserved to be or not.

** Although it turned out his father wasn't likely the favorite either.

* In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Damon Salvatore considered himself to be this to his father Guiseppe, on account of his willful and rebellious nature (in contrast to his more [[TheDutifulSon dutiful]] brother Stefan) leading to all manner of sibling rivalry. The same kind of situation arose between Klaus Mikaelson, who was somewhat arrogant and impulsive as a boy, and his more sensible elder brother Elijah - when we see a flashback of the family, their father Mikael is shown punishing Klaus incredibly severely, publicly humiliating him and actually coming pretty close to ''killing'' the boy just for pulling a dumb prank on his brother. And it only got worse when Mikael discovered that Klaus was not in fact his biological son. Some time down the road, Mikael actually devotes his life to attempting to kill Klaus - admittedly, Klaus is an AxCrazy [[BigBad vampire overlord]] by this point, but it's heavily implied that he was TheUnfavourite right from the start, whether he deserved to be or not.

** This wasn't helped by early depictions of Chad, which gave him a gleaming, perfect smile, the rest of his head unseeable, atop a perfect body to go with the notion that he could do no wrong. More recent depictions make him look...like Jeremy with a beard.

** In a recent episode, when tricked into thinking he's been kidnapped along with the boys, Dr. Venture even tells the kidnappers to torture Hank but not Dean. Later he explains that he suggested that because Hank could deal with it while Dean, the more immature of the two, would take it way too seriously. He also explains that the reason he's so hard on Hank is because he reminds him of himself when he was younger (after hearing this, Hank doesn't quite seem to know how to feel about it). Also it should be mentioned that being his dad's favorite is probably screwing up Dean worse.

** A recent study--yes, an actual, academic study--indicated that most parents do, in fact, have favorites. Equal treatment or attempts at same aside, most people are people and just relate more to one kid or the other, and therefore prefer to spend time with him or her and pursue their shared interests. In order to have a favorite/unfavorite dynamic at least two siblings must exist. Therefore, all other things being equal (though perhaps this is unrealistic), you have exactly a 50% chance of being the favorite. Doing the math to figure out what the actual probability of being the favorite assuming there must be at least one favored and one non-favored for larger sets of siblings is left as an exercise to the reader.

[[folder:Film]]
* Much of the plot of ''Ordinary People'' revolves around Conrad (Timothy Hutton) being disfavored by his mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), who preferred his older brother, Buck.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' '''movies''', especially the 3rd, hit this trope pretty hard for Faramir. It's text, not subtext, in his father's dialog. While Faramir ''is'' a grown character and, logically, "should've gotten over it by now", his father's scathing treatment of him makes it almost impossible for anyone ''not'' to sympathize. This factor, combined with some deleted scenes present in the extended versions, helps explain why [[spoiler: Faramir initially decided to capture Frodo and the Ring, which is the opposite way he chose in the book]]. It's also notable that the favorite, Boromir, actually admires and defends Faramir, and is fed up with their father just as much as Faramir.
** However, a good reason not to get over it: while in an ordinary family, grown adults are supposed to be independent of parents and get on with their life, this is a ''ruling'' family, and therefore Faramir will remain defined by his relationship with the present ruler for the rest of his life. He could not get over it, however much he might have wanted to, unless Boromir had become regent and treated him differently.
*** Well, one does have to take into account that Faramir's appearance in the movies is set only days after his beloved brother was found dead and his father's dickery toward him has been turned UpToEleven. Yeah, the man has a right to some puppy-dog eyes.
* As the movie ''WalkTheLine'' showed, Johnny never could quite match up to his dutiful dead brother in his dad's eyes.
** Spoofed in ''WalkHard'', where Dewey Cox's father shouts "The wrong kid died!" even in completely inapplicable situations.
* The mother in ''[[Film/{{Crossroads 2002}} Crossroads]]'' quite batantly tells her high school graduate daughter who she abandoned years ago that she was a mistake and that she never wanted to have her. She is remarried and has two sons.
* Kevin [=McCallister=] in ''HomeAlone'' seems to be this, as most of his relatives either ignore him, bully him, or regularly accuse him of being a troublemaker.

* Gordie in ''StandByMe'', whose parents never forgave him for being the one to survive.
* Conrad's mother in ''Literature/OrdinaryPeople'' is pretty much incapable of loving him after he survived the boating accident that killed his brother.
* ''KabhiKushiKabhieGham'' actually manages to play this trope compassionately ''without'' villifying the parents for it. This is arguably attributable to the fact that the Unfavorite in this case is mostly so by default, rather than actually being unloved or undervalued.

* In ''{{Willard}}'', despite being the strongest of the rats, Ben can never get the same level of affection as Socrates. [[spoiler: after he [[LoveMakesYouEvil decides to stop taking it]] Willard directly states "I hate you."]]
* In ''TowerOfTerror'', Abigail feels this way toward her sister [[spoiler: Sally]], since everyone was going to something for her on Abigail's birthday. [[spoiler: That thing was going to be Abigail's suprise birthday party]].
* In ''Film/EverAfter'', Danielle gets the short end of the stick because she was the biological daughter of her deceased father. And before his death, it probably didn't help that he said "I love you" to Danielle and didn't say it to the stepmother, only increasing her jealousy of Danielle. Interestingly, the same thing happens to the youngest daughter who isn't as beautiful as her elder sister and isn't as cruel and snobbish, being more down-to-earth and kinder.
** Jacqueline's treatment as the unfavorite of the stepsisters is lampshaded by her, when she predicts that she'd be the one treated as a servant, if Danielle weren't around. When Danielle falls ill and can't wait on her family, the stepmother sure enough orders Jacqueline to do their chores. Jacqueline is not pleased.

* Tonny from ''Film/{{Pusher}} Pusher 2]]'' is this compared to his father's other son and his kid half-brother.

* In some ''HarryPotter'' fics, Harry is treated like this when it is mistakenly prophesied that his little/older sibling is the Chosen One and everyone either downright hates him or ignores him.

* Ron of JKRowling's ''HarryPotter'' feels like this, though it's not true (his family never shows him anything but the utmost unconditional love). Specifically he feels overshadowed by his five older brothers, '''and''' his younger sister because his mum supposedly wanted a daughter most of all, '''and''' his famous best friend, who his mum treats like another son. And, of course, Harry himself is constantly compared unfavorably to his cousin Dudley by his aunt and uncle; this becomes one of the ways the book shows Harry growing up, as "not being liked by parental figures" [[AgeAppropriateAngst becomes less important]] than "war between good and evil".
** Molly has shown some unfavorite sentiments toward Fred, George, and Ron. More than once she's compared the three of them unfavorably to their three older brothers. When Ron needed dress robes for the Yule Ball in ''Goblet of Fire'' his mother coldly left him with ugly, feminine looking hand me downs while making sure Harry got a nice green set that matched his eyes (granted she may have bought them with someone else's money), and she treated him rather nastily when he objected. Later, when Ron is appointed a school prefect (like Bill, Charlie, and Percy), Molly squeals, "That's everyone in the family!" prompting George to quip, "What are Fred and I? Next door neighbors?" She also apparently didn't have much faith in Ginny becoming a prefect either. Granted, Fred and George can be extremely annoying, but even so...

** And let's not forget Petunia's outburst about her sister in the first book.

** In case there weren't enough examples from Harry Potter already (did Rowling have issues with this?), the Dumbledore family had this in spades. Ariana, the youngest member of the family, was mentally ill and required constant care and supervision to the partial exlusion of her older brothers out of necessity. Because of this, Aberforth seemed to wind up the unfavorite of the family, being neither ill like Ariana or a prodigal genius like Albus, and remains rather bitter toward his brother even when they're both old men (although for different reasons). Strangely, Albus himself seemed to feel like the Unfavorite as a boy, since he didn't think his mother gave him the proper attention he deserved due to his brilliance, and resented having to waste his time taking care of Ariana when he had many other ripe possibilities before him. As an old man, he admitted that it was all ego and he needed to get over himself.

*** Heck yes, Rowling had issues with it. In the documentary "J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life" she says that when she was little, her parents told her she was supposed to be a boy, and when she asked if they had also been disappointed when her sister came along, they said no. She then went upstairs and cried. It is heavily implied they favored her little sister. About her father she had the following to say: "I was very frightened of my father for a very long time. But also tried - well, it's a common combination, isn't it? - I desperately tried to get his approval and make him happy, I suppose. And then there came a point quite shamingly late in life where I couldn't do that anymore." She hasn't had any contact with her father since.

* Nathan Petrelli of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' could also be said to be the Unfavorite of his family. [[EvilMatriarch Angela]] actually told Peter he was her favorite compared to Nathan. Especially since it's later revealed in season 3 that [[spoiler: Nathan was the only one in the family to be born without powers and had to be ''given'' powers via a formula.]]

** Ron eventually gets everything he wants. In the first book we see that his heart's desire is to win the Quidditch Cup and be Head Boy, surpassing all his brothers: he does indeed win the cup and probably ''would'' have gotten to be Head Boy if he'd stayed at Hogwarts for his seventh year. As if Fate's trying to make up for it, he gets the girl of his dreams instead while his best friend marries his younger sister.

* The titular [[NeverwinterNights Bastard of Kosigan]], whose situation at home was so uncomfortable for him that he ran off and became a mercenary after his father (the only person defending him from his uncle's abuse) died.

* In Creator/CSLewis's ''TillWeHaveFaces'', the king abused all three of his daughters impartially -- until the youngest had to be sacrificed to the gods. Then he was explicitly abusive because he had lost her, being stuck with two unappealing daughters. Also, both Orual and her tutor the Fox heap praise on Istra while ignoring Orual's other younger sister, Redival.

* Curious example on ''DirtySexyMoney''. In a first-season episode, matriarch Letitia says that Brian and Jeremy are their father's unfavorites; considering the fact that Jeremy is a drug-addicted layabout and that Brian isn't Tripp's biological son, this makes sense. But after learning about Brian's illegitimacy, Tripp starts liking him ''more,'' giving him a company job and calling him 'son' for the first time in the series.