History Main / TheUnFavourite

** This was quite the plot point of the first {{Rugrats}} movie. After Dil's birth, Tommy felt abandoned by his parents and attempted to return him to the hospital with the help of his friends, only to later grow fond of Dil and accept him.

* Chris from ''EverybodyHatesChris'' is treated far worst than both his younger brother and sister throughout the whole series.

** Nale for his father Tarquin. In Tarquin's eyes, Nale is nothing but an incompetent over-reaching upstart who cares more about satisfying his ego than about results. Nale is equally contemptuous of his father, seeing him as nothing but an old man too afraid to grasp ultimate power. When Nale finally makes it absolutely clear that he wants nothing from Tarquin and will never be a willing pawn [[spoiler:Tarquin kills him on the spot.]]

** It's not without justification. Tori has a nice, caring and generous personality. While Trina tends to act like a whiny brat to get her way who has to hanfg out with her sisters friends because she can't make any on her own.

** And it doesn't stop with Jacob's wives. All his sons except Joseph were considered TheUnfavorite, as Jacob lavished Joseph with a special coat that made his other sons jealous.

* Practically the first thing we learn of Leah in Literature/TheBible is that "Leah was not loved." [[FromBadToWorse Things don't really improve for her, either]]. [[ThrowTheDogABone This does not escape God's notice He blesses her with strong fertility, resulting in many children.]]

* In ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', football player Michael Sandero gains a second head and supernaturally enhanced abilities and his mother announces that she likes the new head better and updates her billboard "Which Of My Children I Like Best." Michael is The Unfavorite versus his other head. It becomes an ExaggeratedTrope when in a later episode, [[spoiler: his mother has the original head amputated.]]

* In ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', football player Michael Sandero gains a second head and supernatural abilities and his mother announces that she'll have to update her billboard "Which Of My Children I Like The Most." She later decides she likes the new head better, and Michael becomes The Unfavorite versus his other head.

In the NFL, Eli Manning was treated this way by the sports media, compared to his older, record breaking, SuperBowl winning brother Peyton Manning whom the sports media praised like a Quarterback God. This became subverted, after Eli lead the Giants to a Superbowl victory against Tom Brady's New England Patriots, when the team seemed unbeatable and was one win away from completing a perfect season. He did it again against the same team in 2011, surpassing his older brother and finally getting the sports media's respect.

** Another episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'' first focused on a Latino girl whom might have been raped by a rich, white, politician's son. At first, the detectives look to charge the son, meanwhile we learn about a Latino boy who was best friends with the rich boy, and his mother whom used to be the house servant for the rich political boy's family before she suddenly quit her job. Her son was in love with the same girl as the rich boy, but the rich boy (whom we find out was a jerkass) got her drunk and took her virginity. Later the rich boy is suddenly murdered and found in a ditch. After many dead ends, the detectives start believing that the mother's son might have done it. They were right, but the reason why, wasn't solely because of the girl alone. The boy found out he was the rich boy's half-brother from an affair the father had with his mother. This was the reason the mother suddenly quit her job. She was also paid not to talk about the affair and cause a scandal. The last scene shows the Latino boy pleading to his political white father, asking why he got rejected and not accepted like his half-brother.

* Los Angeles also has the Dodgers. 6-Time World Champs and another of Baseball's most celebrated squads. And then they have the Angels, a sad-sack expansion team who, for four decades, could never catch a break. This gets subverted in the 2000s when the Dodgers were ripped apart by the ''McCourt'' divorce scandal and got another black eye when a Giants fan was nearly beaten to death at Dodger Stadium. Meanwhile, The Angels hired former Dodger Mike Scoiscia as it's manager and he led the club to it's first World Series title and several pennants over that decade. The Angels, needless to say, are no longer the Unfavorite in the L.A. area.

* Chris from ''EverybodyHatesChris'' is treated far worst than both his younger bother and sister throughout the whole series.

** Another episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'' first focused on a Latino girl whom might have gotten raped by a rich, white, politician's son. At first the detectives look to charge the son, meanwhile we learn about a Latino boy who was best friends with the rich boy, and his mother whom used to be the house servant for the rich political boy's family before she suddenly quit her job. Her son was in love with the same girl as the rich boy, but the rich boy (whom we find out was a jerkass) got her drunk and took her virginity. Later the rich boy is suddenly murdered and found in a ditch. This lead detectives into believing that her son might have done it. They were right, but the reason why, wasn't solely because of the girl alone. The boy found out he was the rich boy's half-brother from an affair the father had with his mother. This was the reason the Mother suddenly quit her job. She was also paid not to talk about the affair and cause scandal. The last scene shows the latino boy pleading to his political father, asking why was he rejected and not accepted like his half-brother.

* Empath of ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' believes this of himself since he sees Papa Smurf focus most of his efforts on raising a hundred of Empath's fellow Smurfs instead of getting his [[spoiler:only biological]] son out of Psychelia.

** In truth, it frequently zigzags between the two of them. Dr. Venture seems to prefer Hank in an adventuring context, and Dean in a scientific context. Needless to say, he's not the greatest father.

* Poor Shui Long of ''Manga/HaouAiren''.

* In the ''{{Mazinger}}'' series, Kenzo Kabuto had two biological sons (''[[Anime/MazingerZ Kouji and Shiro]]'') and two adoptive children (''[[Anime/GreatMazinger Tetsuya and Jun]]''). Although Tetsuya was clearly his favorite, he still showed he cared for Kouji and Shiro. However, he got Jun completely neglected, treating her like a soldier, not making anything about her feelings of abandoment and her inner tensions, and he seldom shown he cared for her. It went so far that, before [[spoiler:[[KilledOffForReal dying]]]] after his [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]] he pleaded Kouji that he treated Tetsuya like his brother and took care of Shiro... but he did not mention Jun at all. Nonetheless, his attitude drove Jun to think she could not be dependant on someone else and to develop a very strong-willed and self-reliant personality.

** Subverted[=/=]ZigZagged with Sasuke. At first it appears that Sasuke, while being fairly intelligent and very talented, is constantly being neglected in favor of his [[ChildProdigy genius]] [[AloofBigBrother older brother]] Itachi, whom his father always praised with the words "as expected of my child", while Sasuke only ever got an unimpressed "Become more like Itachi." But later we see that this only applies to his father, while his mother is shown treating Sasuke with great kindness while only line we ever see her speak to Itachi is "Do your homework!", so its looks as if every parent favours one of the two. Later in the story, some dissent arises between Itachi and his parents [[spoiler: as Itachi didn't think too highly of their plan to take over the village and start a world war]] and it becomes apparent that his parents cared more for his incredible talent than for Itachi as a person. Their father soon turns his interest to Sasuke, tells him ''not'' to be like Itachi, complains about his older son to the rest of the family and Sasuke's mother states that when they're alone, all her husband and her ever talk about is Sasuke, cementing that ''Itachi'' was the ''actual'' unfavourite all long. [[spoiler:But ultimately, their parents loved them both very much.]]

* Seta Sōjirō from ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' is a particularly tragic example of this trope. [[spoiler: So much that his half siblings try to ''kill'' him for being an illegitimate child. [[SelfMadeOrphan He kills]] ''[[SelfMadeOrphan them]]'' [[SelfMadeOrphan instead]].]]

** Practically anyone who is born as one of the Zodiac.
*** Not necessarily. Kagura is loved by her mother, as well as Yuki (in a way), Hiro, and Kisa, but Momiji and Kyo definitely fell into this trope. As Momiji says, mothers of Zodiac children either become overly protective or reject their child completely.

** This is bizarrely inverted with Yuki's family. Ayame is the unfavorite, which means that he was more or less free to do as he wanted which led to him being a self-centered {{jerkass}} in school, but ultimately meant he could move out on his own and start his own business. Yuki was the favorite (at least in the sense that his parents thought him more likely usable to get money and move higher in society), so he was forced to be Akito's playmate, was psychologically tortured, implied to have been hit by his mother for trying to avoid it, and was generally so screwed up that he couldn't interact with other people at all.

* Subverted in ''ThePrinceOfTennis''. Yuuta Fuji feels he's the unfavorite since his middle brother Shuusuke is talented, handsome and popular at their school, so he leaves and transfers into another school and its dorms. But that genuinely ''hurts'' Shuusuke, who [[BigBrotherInstinct really loves and cares for Yuuta]] and ''just didn't know'' what his brother was going through, becoming a huge StepfordSmiler out of the hurt he feels upon Yuuta abandoning him. [[spoiler: It'll take more than a year to reunite them.]]

** Hong Long could be argued to be this. His father favored Wang Liu Mei, his little sister, and made ''her'' the head of the Wang family instead of him, Hong Long instead becoming a BattleButler to his little sister. However, Mei never wanted the responsibilities of leading the clan and blamed Hong Long for "forcing" her to take charge. Hong Long, being an ExtremeDoormat, would go on to serve his sister faithfully for years while she treated him like crap and bitched him out [[NeverMyFault for a situation her selfishness had gotten them into]] [[spoiler: shortly before he sacrificed his life to save her from Nena. For the second time that day.]]

** [[spoiler:Nope; when Raizo is exonerated and thawed out in the final episode, he tells Domon that he's proud of him and always has been, and Domon's being a fighter rather than a scientist like himself or Kyoji was never an issue.]]

* Also played with in ''GundamSEED'', with AcePilot Mu la Flaga. [[spoiler: His father Al de Flaga was so peeved with Mu being a normal child instead of a perfect vehicle for his father's ego that he disowned the boy and [[CloningBlues cloned himself]], the result being Rau le Creuset.]]

* In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', Miho is the less favored daughter of Shiho Nishizumi, compared to Shiho's older daughter and heir Maho. Shiho considers Miho a disgrace to the family who does not do tankery the Nishizumi way. Shiho berates her for saving her teammates from drowning in a river at the cost of a tournament win, and [[spoiler:plans on disowning her]] after hearing about her becoming captain of the Oarai tankery team. [[spoiler:After Miho wins the tournament against Maho, Shiho sighs and begins clapping while smiling, which could indicate a change of heart]].

** And not to mention, FateZero explains that the girl's blood family gave her away '''not''' because she was TheUnfavourite, but because [[spoiler: her magic potential was about to be wasted away due to old family rules that only allowed the eldest kid to be trained in magic]], so they wanted her to develop into [[spoiler: a good Magus]] even if it meant she should be raised by others (therefore they were trying to play around with the trope itself). [[spoiler: ''And'' neither Daddy Tokiomi nor Mommy Aoi had '''any''' idea that [[BitchInSheepsClothing Zouken]] and [[JerkAss Shinji]] would treat Sakura THAT badly. Only Rin aka the eldest daughter and the "favorite" was ''somewhat'' aware of how something was ''wrong'' with the Matous, and that was '''after''' Daddy Tokiomi died and Mommy Aoi went the FateWorseThanDeath way; [[BrokenBird the damage to Sakura]] [[BreakTheCutie was already done back then]].]]
** A better example would be Shinji, his uncle, and perhaps even his father. His grandfather held them in contempt and treated them horribly because they did not possess any sort of magic circuits and was therefore useless to him. His uncle, Kariya, is perhaps the biggest and most tragic example of this but Shinji was also full of insecurities and developed into such a pathetic person that he's even the unfavorite among the fans.
* Subverted in ''{{Tsukihime}}''. Shiki really was the unfavorite of Makihisa and upon being wounded was promptly disinherited and kicked out. However, that's because not only were they not related - therefore making Shiki incapable of becoming the Tohno family head - Shiki was the son of the guy whose family he just killed off. He was kept around to take care of SHIKI (Makihisa's favorite) if he happened to Invert.

* Helga Pataki from ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' is the poster child for this trope, with her prettier, more intelligent, and away-at-college older sister Olga. Ironically, Olga herself confesses to Helga that '''she'd rather be this trope''': [[StageMom her parents' excessive attention]] and ''ridiculously'' high expectations (especially Bob's) actually pushed her [[NervousWreck into a permanent neurosis]] and becoming an ExtremeDoormat, while Helga might be ignored by them but is free to do whatever she wants.

** Don't forget this was quite the plot point of the first {{Rugrats}} movie. After Dil's birth, Tommy felt abandoned by his parents and attempted to return him to the hospital with the help of his friends, only to later grow fond of Dil and accept him.

** In ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men Evolution}}'', Magneto basically dumps Wanda in an insane asylum when she's 8 or so. His reasoning was that unlike her brother, her powers would have eaten away at too much of his time. Later when she comes after him wanting revenge, he decides to have a psychic alter her memories to make her less likely to come after him. He still never visits her though (Unlike her brother, who was given a cell phone so they can keep in touch).
** Which of the twins are the Unfavourite changes with the medium and writer... though generally it doesn't really matter who is less loved because Magneto is almost always a ''terrible'' father to both of them, regardless of writer or medium. To be ''somewhat'' fair, in the original continuity, he didn't even meet them until they were almost adults, and didn't discover that they were actually his children until even later... but that poofs away because he ''still'' treated them like crap even before knowing it. Only in the animated 90's series he is given a consistently more sympathetic POV about it.

* David Pelzer, author of 'A Child Called It', was this until he was removed from his family. His mother took out her rage on him, resulting in one of the worst cases of child abuse in California history, and took care of the other children. Sadly, her anger didn't end when Dave was removed from the home...she started abusing his brother Richard when her favorite target was gone.

* Empath of ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' believes this of himself since he sees Papa Smurf focus most of his efforts on raising a hundred of his fellow Smurfs instead of getting his son out of Psychelia.

* Nuka from ''Disney/TheLionKing II: Simba's Pride''. The scrawny, barely a mane growing lion voiced by Andy Dick. Little cub Kovu gets picked over him to take on Scar's heritage (Kovu not even having been sired by Scar, though it's implied Nuka is, being the son of Zira, who was apparently one of Scar's mates. Everybody got that? Good. Moving along...), and gets treated unfairly by the lionesses just cause... just cause. This makes [[spoiler: his death even more tragic, when he chases Simba up a dam, proclaiming he's doing it for his mother, and that this'd be his moment of glory, with a mad driven look in his eyes. Just before the footing gives away from underneath him, and he ends up crushed by a bunch of logs. His mother for the first time in the movie shows she actually ''does'' care and frantically tries to dig him out. He ends with a whimper. "Sorry... I tried..."]]