[[TheBradyBunch http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jan_brady.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width:203:"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! It's always about Marcia!"]]-]

->''What kind of father has a favourite daughter? And if you do, you should label them: favourite and un-favourite!''
-->--Dave Foley in ''The Wrong Guy''

->'''Hank Hill:''' You can't call him Good Hank, that will make people think I'm Bad Hank!\\
'''Cotton Hill:''' Well, you burnt my burger, didn't you, B.H.?
-->--''KingOfTheHill''

The nasty end of ParentalFavoritism. Where there's an Alpha wolf, there's got to be an Omega -- someone at the bottom of the pecking order, the family {{Buttmonkey}}. This is the child who's an [[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent embarrassment]] to their parents, the daughter that was supposed to be a son (or vice-versa), the child the parents had when they'd already decided the family was complete and really didn't need another mouth to feed.

Frequently, being The Un-Favourite is a FreudianExcuse for a character who's a particularly pathetic loser. If the ParentalFavoritism was garden variety (or even a product of his imagination), PG-rated {{Wangst}}, this is probably being played for comedy, a weak excuse for being a failure. If the favoritism was particularly vicious, however, up to and including abuse, TheUnFavourite becomes a more tragic character -- most probably TheWoobie. Sometimes, however, the Unfavourite is almost suspiciously well-adjusted.

A variant is where The Un-Favourite is actually highly successful and [[TheDutifulSon dutiful]], but can never get the [[WellDoneSonGuy approval of his parents]], simply because their sibling will always be "better" in their parents' eyes. ("Hey look, dad, I won the Nobel Prize for Physics!" "That's nothin' -- your brother won Employee of the Month at Shop 'n Go last April!"). The Un-favorite doesn't need to play second fiddle to an actual sibling, and can even be an only child. Un-favorites without a sibling are often unwanted or unexpected children and can even be passed over for the family pet.

The audience's attitude towards the un-favourite is often based on [[AgeAppropriateAngst what age the character is]]. There's a common perception that an adult character should really have gotten over this by now, even if the viewers/readers empathize with them. A child character, on the other hand, is likely to get the audience's unreserved support.

Age notwithstanding, this is usually a sympathetic character, because we're supposed to root for the disadvantaged; expect the favorite either to be rubbing their status in their sibling's face, be an AloofBigBrother, or completely unaware of the situation. It is, however, completely possible that the character is interpreting some behavior as favoritism -- and the other character also regards himself as TheUnFavorite. (Cue Sibling Rivalry.)

And Heaven help the poor kid if [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth the favorite child is dead]]. (Possibly having received the status of "favorite" by dying.) See also YouShouldHaveDiedInstead.

Can easily escalate into CainAndAbel. May be rooted in a DeathByChildbirth. May cross over with WellDoneSonGuy if TheUnFavorite wants some recognition.

----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* Jun Manjyome of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'', disowned by his brothers for his inability to live up to the family name.
* Variation: In ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', DarkMagicalGirl Fate [[spoiler:is a clone of Precia Testarossa's deceased daughter, Alicia. Fate has Alicia's memories of Precia being a loving and kind mother, but Precia is abusive to Fate and sees her only as a tool for bringing Alicia back to life.]] The LotusEaterMachine in season two reveals that Fate sees Alicia as the parental favourite older sister.
** This is especially horrible in that most philosophers would agree that Fate ''is'' Alicia. Same body, same mind - so they're both copies; so what?
*** Fate herself, however, states that she is ''not'' Alicia.
*** [[spoiler: In spite of their identical origins and memories, Precia claims that Fate and Alicia have very different personalities. Of course, Precia was more-than-slightly unhinged by Alicia's death, so it apparently never occured to her the Fate might have turned out more Alicia-like if it weren't for the, you know, ''horrible abuse'']].
* Hinata Hyuga from ''{{Naruto}}'' starts off as The Un-Favourite of her family, due to her apparent 'lack' of talent and how her little sister Hanabi apparently had it all.
** Hiashi's disappointment in Hinata does not necessarily translate into favoring Hanabi, as earlier in the scene when he denounces Hinata as inferior, he expresses disapproval for Hanabi's performance in training.
** Sasuke feels treated that way compared to his aloof - and psycho big brother Itachi when their parents still lived. The situation reverses after Itachi is suspected [[spoiler: (correctly)]] of murdering Shisui.
** Gaara, because everyone in his family (and his entire city) is scared of him, or at least of the demon sealed inside him. [[spoiler:He was conceived only to be a container for the demon and be a living weapon, and his mother died giving birth to him and his father, the Kazekage hated him because of this.]]
**Heck Naruto himself could fall under this due to the fact at the start no one in the village thinks much of him. But as the series goes on, his actions start to gather respect.
* Seta Sôjirô from ''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]].]]
*Sakura in ''FateStayNight'' was {{The Unfavorite}} for blood family, leading her to be given away to another family. Then her adoptive family's treatment of her was somewhere south of "holy shit" on the abuse scale. [[spoiler:Can't blame her for going batshit on them all]].
*Machi Kuragi from ''FruitsBasket'' is such an unfavorite that her parents automatically assume she attempted to ''kill'' her little brother, despite her (more or less believable) claim that she was just trying to keep him warm.
*Somewhat averted in ''{{Digimon Adventure 02}}''. Ken Ichijouji is revealed to have originally been the butt of this trope, but when his more-liked and more-talented older brother Osamu was killed in a car crash ([[IWishedYouWereDead after Ken thought and wished for that to happen]]) it began a chain of events that lead to him [[FaceHeelTurn turning to the dark side]], becoming more skilled than his brother ''ever'' was (thanks to evil powers), and becoming the series' BigBad temporarily before joining the team.
* 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 [[BigBrotherComplex 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.]]
* 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.]]
* In ''{{Gundam 00}}'s'' second season, there's an unfavourite that doesn't even need a family [[spoiler: (they got killed by terrorists several years ago)]] to feel this way. [[spoiler: Lyle Dylandy thinks that several of the Celestial Being members expect him to be just like his deceased twin older brother, Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy. Lyle doesn't like it, logically, so after taking up Neil's Lockon mantle he decides to downplay his own and ''considerable'' fighting and piloting skills to make himself look different from Neil. ]]
* ''JigokuShoujo'' episode 16 features a disturbing twist on this trope. The episode revolves around [[spoiler:a pair of twin girls in a traveling circus -- one is praised and doted upon by the ringleader, the other is kept locked in a back room and frequently abused. Initially, the audience is led to believe that the Un-Favorite has summoned Enma Ai to exact revenge upon the ringleader, only to find out too late that the real target is ''the other sister''. Ai takes the favorite girl to hell, then, giving the other twin ''her'' chance to be the favorite.]]
** Season 3 features a boy who becomes his parents' unfavorite before the sibling is even born.
* Played with in GGundam. It's implied that, due to being ''much'' younger as well as BookDumb, Domon felt inferior to his BadassBookworm older brother Kyouji in the eyes of their father, TheProfessor Raizou Kasshu. Unlike other cases, though, Dr. Kasshu doesn't show deliberate cruelty towards Domon, who finds another father figure in his martial arts teacher Master Asia and leaves home to train with him... [[spoiler: Fast forward 10 years and Domon finds himself with a BrokenPedestal of a mentor, a dead mother, a [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] father, and an ''evil'' AloofBigBrother who's become a wanted criminal... [[OrIsIt Or are things REALLY like this?]] .]]
* In the recent DragonballZ special it is revealed that Vegeta has a younger brother, who was exiled from their homeworld because he was too weak to be any good as a fighter.
* 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.]]
** ...who is ''himself'' an Unfavorite [[spoiler:due to his short telomeres giving him frail health and a limited lifespan. Adaptations of ''SEED'' state that Rau was abandoned by Al de Flaga when he was very young, once Al found out.]] This is part of why Mu empathizes with him very late in the series.
* Abo Ozawa in the baseball manga ''Stripe Blue''. His older brother Bantarou is the closing pitcher on a professional team that owes its recent success solely to him. Being that Abo is ''also'' a baseball pitcher, he has to work extra hard to stand out, even to his own parents, despite frankly having not very formidable skills.
* [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji]] gets this so damn much.
** Not quite. You need to have siblings to be an unfavourite. Shinji was just suffering from plain old {{Abusive Parents}}. Or parent, in this case. (At first Gendo was just neglectful, but sticking your son in a walking death machine he has no control over with the threat of sending another child of the same age to certain death unless he did so definitely comes under abuse.)
* Played with in regards to Belarus of AxisPowersHetalia, who ''thinks'' she's TheUnFavourite of her older brother Russia because of their older sister Ukraine and Russia's subordinates, the Baltic brothers (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia). This leaves the girl, well... [[BrotherSisterIncest rather]] [[{{Yandere}} unstable]].
** [[RomanticRunnerUp Canada]] might as well be invisible next to his brother [[LargeHam America]].
** England is hated by his older brothers (Scotland, Wales and most likely Ireland as well).
* [[spoiler: George]] from ''ParadiseKiss'' is the [[HeroicBastard ilegitimate son]] of a rich, influential man and a former model. His father pays for his and his mother's expensive lifestyle, but has [[LonelyRichKid no actual relationship with them]], and his mother is very vocal about how much she resents him because becoming pregnant ruined her modelling career.
* Kyouya from ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' Certainly fits this troupe, being his fathers youngest son, with no chance of inheriting his company.
** That has nothing to do with being the unfavorite. That's just the order of inheritance.
***Except it's obvious he's the unfavorite anyway. His father never considers anything he does right, compares him to his brothers all the time, and even slaps him when he tries to explain something to him.
* Definitely Ageha from ''Papillon - Hana to Chou'': as an infant, her mother sent her to live with her grandmother in the country because she couldn't stop crying; her twin sister Hana/Kana (the translators kept switching) is popular and glamorous and steals her potential boyfriend; she's even screwed over by her only [[PoisonousFriend "friend"]]. No wonder she's almost DrivenToSuicide. [[spoiler: Fortunately her relationship with her mom improves dramatically when they finally start talking to each other. Kana/Hana, however, is becoming uneasy with her sister's newfound confidence...]]
* Asagi Ayase of ''{{Yotsubato}}'' gets far more than her share of crap from her mother. It's played for laughs, since Asagi tends to retaliate in kind, but at least one flashback has shown she's gotten this treatment for years.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* In the Spider-Man [[Film/{{Spider-man}} movies]], UltimateMarvel, and ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' cartoon, Harry Osborn is a rare example of being TheUnFavorite as an only child, with his father preferring fellow intellectual and friend Peter Parker to his own son. This is in contrast to the portrayal of Harry and Norman's relationship in the comics: originally, Norman was portrayed as a loving, but absentee father who tried to make up for his utter lack of time for his son, via spoiling him rotten. This in turn led to Harry becoming a drug addict, as he used his dad's money to avoid working, and spend his days partying and buying drugs from his neighborhood drug dealer. Of course years later, the relationship between Harry and his father was retconned into a "KicktheDog" scenerio to make Norman (then dead and buried, with Marvel dead set on not resurrecting him) an evil person who physically and emotionally abused his son throughout his entire life. When his son died, this led to Norman seeking out a replacement heir, ultimately settling on Peter Parker largely due to editor Bob Harras's demand that Peter and Norman's rivalry be changed to be more like Professor X and Magneto's rivalry, complete with Norman wanting Peter to join with him the same way Magneto is forever harping on Xavier to join forces and conquer humanity.
** There was another period of Peter being the favored one, with Johnny Storm as the UnFavorite. While they eventually got over it and became buddies, for awhile, Johnny resented the fact that Peter seemed closer to his family than he was, due to Peter's shared scientific aptitude with Reed and ease at being friends with Sue.
* [[{{X-Men}} 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.
* The {{X-Men}} have a lot of this going on:
** Emma Frost was TheUnfavorite to her successful brother until he revealed he was gay. Then both kids were unfavorites.
** Sam Guthrie's other siblings are all Unfavorites in comparison to him.
** Charles Xavier and Cain Marko, stepbrothers, were both unfavorites to a degree.
** Alex Summers was Unfavorite to Scott in the eyes of Nathaniel Essex.
** James Proudstar was Unfavorite to his brother John, who died heroically on his first mission as X-Man.
** Deathbird is Unfavorite to her half-sister Lilandra. Lil's brother D'Ken was the Unfavorite, driving him to go nuts and steal the M'kraan crystal.

* The Ultimate (man, family relations ''suck'' in this universe) [[FantasticFour Reed Richards]], a bespectacled young genius, was never the ideal son his father wanted. It's shown in the ''first issue'' that his father showed more affection to Ben Grimm, the tough football star of the school, than to his own son. Fortunately the situation isn't visited often in later issues; what with Reed finding a new father figure in Sue and Johnny's scientist father and being faced with matters more important than getting paternal approval, such as cosmic mutations and alien invasions every other week.
* On a planet where twins are the norm, Mekt Ranzz (Lightning Lord), older brother of twins Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass of the ''LegionOfSuperHeroes'', felt like he was ''everyone'''s unfavorite. Which is why he eventually became a supervillain who terrorized his younger siblings.
* Vivisector in ''X-Statix''. He's an only child, of course, but there's nobody in the world that Myles' father hates more than Myles himself. Why? Simple. His dad is a New England old money Ivy League college professor, and Myles is a gay mutant.
* It wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that, in the Marvel universes (both 616 and Ultimate), every mutant born to mostly non-mutant families end up being unfavourites when their mutations manifest.
* Huntress has at times been considered so, among the members of the Batfamily, due to her supposed violence and [[IWorkAlone unwillingness to work well with the others]], and especially Batman himself, with whom she has a conflicted relationship.
-->'''Oracle''', speaking about Huntress: And what about the least favourite daughter?
**How can you mention the Batfamily without mention Jason Todd the least favourite.This is largely because he always tries to prove he is better than anyone else mainly Dick and Tim but even Bruce to some degree.
* The protagonist of ''Mauschwitz'' is TheUnFavourite. The Favourite died in the Holocaust.
** Are you reffing to {{Maus}}?
* ''{{Bone}}'' has this with one of the primary antagonists saying [[spoiler:"Mother always liked you best." before trying to strike her sister down.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fairy Tales} ]]

* Many a ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' [[NaiveEverygirl heroine]] with a WickedStepmother and step-sister. Men sure had rotten taste in women back then.
** Yet apparently every woman has wonderful taste in men...strange, isn't it?

[[/folder]]

[[folder: 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.
** 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.
* Film/Real Life example: Johnny Cash. 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.
* Nuka from ''Lion King 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..."]]
**A deleted storyboard set continues with Nuka saying [[spoiler: "I got your attention now . . . " and then expiring.]]
* Gordie in ''Stand By Me'', whose parents never forgave him for being the one to survive.
* Conrad's mother in ''Ordinary People'' 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 ''DeadPoetsSociety'', Todd is strongly implied to be TheUnFavorite.
* ''TheGoonies''. Played for laughs in how Mama favors Francis over Jake.
-->'''Jake''': You always take his side, Mama. You always liked him better than me.
-->'''Mama''': (''Smacks Jake'') That's right!
* 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."]]


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In JaneAusten's ''PrideAndPrejudice'', Elizabeth is her father's favorite, Lydia and Jane are their mother's, and Mary is almost [[IsntItSad universally ignored]], but the second-youngest Bennett daughter Kitty is perpetually told to shut up and stop getting in everyone's way.
** Similarly in ''Persuasion'', plain, sensible and sensitive Anne is ignored and dismissed by her family while her beautiful but vain sister Elisabeth is admired by all.
** Similarly in ''Mansfield Park'', Fanny's mother only cares about her sons and babies her youngest daughter, but ignores her older two daughters. Fanny only realises this when returning for a much anticipated visit after years away from home.
* [[VorkosiganSaga Aral Vorkosigan]] got a bit of this from his father. His older brother had been one of the first casualties of Mad Emperor Yuri's Civil War, and his father sometimes acted as if the wrong brother had died.
* Thomas Raith in JimButcher's ''TheDresdenFiles''. In ''Blood Rites'', it is revealed that he is Lord Raith's only surviving son, because Raith always kills his sons when they are old enough to become a threat (although he keeps his daughters around him). Thomas is still alive only because he was clever enough to avoid his father's earlier indirect attempts to get him killed.
* RoaldDahl's ''{{Matilda}}'' has parents that are completely unappreciative of her superlative brilliance. Her father cares far more about son Mikey, a total nonentity, and the mother is more interested in bingo.
* Ebeneezer Scrooge, of CharlesDickens's ''AChristmasCarol'' fame is heavily implied to be this, sent away to BoardingSchool for years at a time by his resentful father. In some versions (at least in TheFilmOfTheBook with Alistair Sim), it's explained that Ebeneezer's father blames him for his mother's DeathByChildbirth. His kind-hearted and beautiful sister Fan is kept at home and is the apparent favorite, possibly due to an implied resemblance to her mother.
* In TeresaEdgerton's [[{{Celydonn}} Green Lion Trilogy]], Ceilyn. His parents were KissingCousins in a notoriously strait-laced segment of society, and felt that their marriage was all right only if it were platonic, so they were ashamed to have had him. Sometime after Ceilyn's birth, his father had a vision and felt that he and his wife had been absolved and blessed, so Ceilyn's younger siblings are beloved but he is seen as a reminder of shameful behaviour.
* Taken to new and extreme heights of Southern Gothic in Gillian Flynn's debut novel, ''Sharp Objects''; the narrator, Camille, is her AxCrazy mother's Unfavorite, which is how she managed to ''survive'' to adulthood as [[spoiler:nothing more than a self-harming, self-destructive alcoholic]]. Her more tractable younger sister [[spoiler:died in childhood as the end result of their mother's Munchausen's by proxy]], and her ''much'' younger half-sister is [[spoiler:a sex-and-death-obsessed psychopath]] after thirteen years of the same treatment. Fun book.
* TomHolt has a tendency to do this - the most obvious example is the protagonist Malcolm in ''Expecting Someone Taller''. Like all of Holt's male leads, Malcolm is a total git, and his parents unabashedly compare him to his super-perfect sister Bridget. Becoming the heir to practically unlimited power makes Malcolm immediately think that it was originally meant for Bridget. [[spoiler:In fact, Malcolm's lack of self-esteem and desire to do good make him the perfect person to inherit said power; Bridget would totally mess it up.]]
**ThisTroper thinks that a better example would be Kevin Christ, in Only Human, being the younger brother to Jesus and the second son of God.
* In Sharon Lee's and Steve Miller's ''[[LiadenUniverse Scout's Progress]]'', Aelianna Caylon, despite being acknowledged as the foremost mathematical mind on Liad and the indirect saviour of many starship pilots, is TheUnFavourite of her mother's children, and has been a target of her [[DomesticAbuse brother's abuse]] ever since they were children, when they overheard a conversation in which Aelianna was recommended to their mother over her brother as the best candidate for being her heir. Her brother was chosen instead, but has abused the position by taking out his resentment on Aelianna ever since; their mother [[ParentalObliviousness refuses to recognize the situation]].
* In 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.
* Tyrion Lannister of George RR Martin's ''{{A Song of Ice and Fire}}'': his mother died giving birth and he is a dwarf. No, not the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame fantasy kind]].
** Jon Snow is treated this way by Catelyn Stark. Although he is actually Ned Stark's bastard son, Ned treats him like all of his children. Catelyn, on the other hand, treats him coldly and at one point wishes to his face that a near-fatal accident had happened to him rather than to one of her own children.
*Central to the plot of Katharine Paterson's classic teen-angst novel ''Jacob Have I Loved''. One sister is beautiful and feckless and adored; the other is smarter but plain and quiet, hence taken for granted.
* TamoraPierce's ''Circle Of Magic'' series had Tris. She was disowned and disposed of by her parents, who sent her to live with various relatives who used her as a live-in servant while constantly berating and bullying her. Particularly strange was that she seems to have been an only child -- it was when she was moved away from her own parents that she encountered a "sibling rivalry" situation (her cousins, who got [[ParentalFavoritism preferential treatment]] from their parents -- Tris' aunts and uncles).
**It's noted that at least part of the reason why this happened is that Tris's powers - which cover control over pretty much all weather - were unknown and uncontrolled at the time...which meant that they tended to synchronize with her emotions. They thought she was possessed, and it terrified them - but Tris does still think they could have handled it better. Also notable is that no one in her family is ever mentioned to have tried to make contact with Tris after she becomes known as one of the youngest and most powerful mages of her generation.
**There's also Daja, whose whole ''culture'' banished her, after she was the only survivor of a shipwreck that killed the rest of her family, due to the association of a lone survivor being bad luck. She understands the reasons behind it, but it still [[BerserkButton upsets]] her until they bring her back in.
* Josephine in TimPowers' ''{{The Stress of Her Regard}}''. She is the disturbed and unappreciated younger sister of protagonist Michael Crawford's wife Julia; their mother [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth]] to Josephine; the family says that they don't hold this against her but that Josephine holds it against herself. Josephine spent her youth coping with stress by becoming someone else; imitating a clockwork machine, or imitating her sister Julia (who charmingly made sure that people knew about this). Years after Julia's death, Crawford and Josephine are guests in someone else's home when Josephine slips into 'becoming' Julia for several days. Crawford then feels that he now knows Julia far better than he did when they were married - and doesn't like her much, and tries to help Josephine return to her own personality.
* 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 sister because his mum supposedly wanted a daughter most of all, '''and''' his famous best friend. 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".
** Ron eventually gets everything he wants, anyway. 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.
** It's implied that Tom Riddle was one of these in his youth: the woman running the orphanage was glad to see the back of him. Possibly justified in that it's also implied that he was a Damien-esque nightmare even as a child, but whether this was a cause or an effect is left to the reader.
*** Voldemort's mother, [[ShrinkingViolet Merope]], to such an extent that it stunted the growth of her magical abilities.
** Percy is a better example in the Weasley family. His mother loves him, his father's indifferent, and the other siblings gang up on him with their dislike, including Ron and Ginny (both of whom he shows a great deal of attention to, even if they don't like that attention -- the only one who noticed that Ginny was acting strangely whilst possessed, and also wrote Ron the patronizing letter when the wizarding world thought Harry was bad news. Irritating but well-intentioned.)
*** And then the family wonder why he defected to a faction that ''Actually took him seriously''.
** Sirius Black may be another example. His younger brother Regulus was 'the good son'. However, it's debatable whether or not Sirius took the 'unfavourite' role on himself by deliberately doing things he knew his family disapproved of, implying that he did not actually care whether or not his parents preferred him or his brother because he so deeply disapproved of their expectations and political views.
** And let's not forget Petunia's outburst about her sister in the first book.
* ''The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things'' is a great insight of being TheUnFavorite. The narrator is a chubby, brown-haired, high-schooler with average grades living in a glamorous upper-class family of beautiful slim blond people.
* In JRRTolkien's ''[[LordOfTheRings Return of The King]]'', Denethor clearly ladles all the work on Faramir's shoulders partly because Boromir was his favorite. It is heavily implied that at least part of this is the immediate reaction of grief; Gandalf warns Faramir against doing anything rash, because his father loves him and will remember that.
* ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' has a rather extreme version of this, Charlie's mother Rose preferred her daughter Norma to her son Charlie due to Norma having an average IQ compared to Charlie's very low 68. This made Norma a SpoiledBrat and left Charlie mostly confused and afraid of his mother who would beat him for perfectly natural things like having an erection as would any pubescent teen boy. Terrified he would do something to Norma. Rose eventually forced Charlie's father to have him taken away by [[spoiler:threatening to kill Charlie if he didn't]].
* ''Jacob Have I Loved'' takes this to biblical proportions, as implied by the title. The protagonist is overshadowed by her twin sister from birth, first because of the latter's frail health, then because of her beauty and musical talent. The title comes in when she parallels herself to Esau, Jacob's older, less fortunate brother, and decides she must be ''God's'' [=UnFavorite=].
* {{Dragonlance}} has Raistlin Majere, apparently TheUnFavorite of the universe. On the other hand, twin brother Caramon is well-liked by damn near everyone he meets; he's ''Raistlin's'' Unfavorite, although to be honest it's not like Raislin cares much for others to start with.
* Jochi in the ''{{Conqueror}}'' books is disdained by his father, Genghis Khan, due to suspicion he was conceived as a result of Borte's rape by Tartars. In RealLife, this resulted in tension between Jochi and Chagatai, which in turn was part of the reason the great khan named his third son as his successor.
* ''OutboundFlight'' features a minor character who hates his Jedi sister because, since she wasn't around to do anything less-than-perfect, he was forced to endure an entire childhood of "[[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent Why couldn't you be more like your sister?]] I bet ''she'' never [INSERT CHILDHOOD HIJINK HERE]."
** Survivor's Quest has him, much older and as one of the main characters, realize that it wasn't quite like that.
* In their mother's eyes at least, Anna and Jesse are clearly Un-Favorites in comparison to IllGirl Kate in ''[[MySistersKeeper My Sister's Keeper]]''. As Jesse says, he's the "lost cause," a guy that spends all his time in a filthy garage apartment doing drugs and drinking. The unfavoritism leads to [[spoiler:him becoming an arsonist and causing his fireman father quite a lot of grief.]] Anna, on the other hand, was only born to donate blood to Kate, who has leukemia. It's scary how her mother seems to think of her not in terms of who she is as a person, but as the sum of the parts that could be used to help Kate. Their father, on the other hand, seems to think of all of them equally, though of course because of Kate's condition he has to put the other two in the back seat from time - especially Jesse, who started consider himself "invisible" within the family, since Kate and Anna are often the center of attention whenever Kate's condition worsens.
* Prince Roger of John Ringo's Empire of Man series is the Un-Favourite due to his resemblance to his father (and, to be fair, his complete lack of accomplishment compared to his fleet-admiral sister and senior-diplomat brother.)
* ''DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' includes this but the role is split between Rodrick and Gregory, mostly because the favourite is ''obviously'' the much younger Manny.
* [[TheSouthernVampireMysteries Sookie Stackhouse]] was unfavorite in comparison to her JerkAss brother Jason, because of her telepathy making her too weird for their little southern town. Although their grandmother was loving, she was weirded out by Sookie's ability and only acknowledged it as a gift when it would be helpful or useful for Sookie to put it to use.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Similarly, no matter what Det. Goren does for his mother (including taking care of her while she's in the hospital) he still can't measure up to his brother, a homeless drug addict with an illegitimate son - or were there two brothers? Either way, Goren gets no respect.
** One episode portrayed a wealthy family patriarch who had two sons, one favorite (talented, handsome, successful), the other un-favorite. The un-favorite son married the patriarch's favorite daughter-in-law (dutiful and responsible), while the favorite son married the un-favorite ("total screwup"). The favorite son is murdered, and the un-favorite is the prime suspect. [[spoiler: Ironically, the favorite daughter-in-law planned and executed the murder; the "screwup" in-law was in on the plan but chickened out.]] The ending implies that the patriarch has already picked his favorite and un-favorite ''grandsons''.
* An episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'' had the detectives visit a doctor who has a huge portrait of him, his wife, and his two daughters, a doctor and a lawyer, in his office. Later, they discovered the doctor also has a son... who was working as his ''janitor''. Three guesses who turns out to be the violent rapist they're searching for.
*Played for laughs with GOB of ''Arrested Development''. Despite being the eldest son, GOB is loathed by both his parents for his often idiotic behavior, and as such is extremely jealous/admiring of his younger brother Michael, the family "favourite".
* Kara "Starbuck" Thrace of the new ''BattlestarGalactica'' was TheUnFavourite and apparently an only child. We learn that Starbuck's mother Socrata was in the Colonial military and Starbuck joined up largely to win her approval. When she graduated Viper school and earned her commission, her mother berates her for not being first in her class, despite managing to become an officer rather than an NCO like Socrata was.
** Not quite a straight example. Socrata was bastardly and abusive to Kara because she knew Kara had a special destiny and didn't think she was trying hard enough to live up to her natural ability.
* ''TheBradyBunch'': Marcia, Marcia, MARCIA!
* Curious example on ''{{Dirty Sexy Money}}''. 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.
* Possibly the example most familiar to American TV viewers, Robert from ''EverybodyLovesRaymond''. With the slight reversal that Robert is actually the elder brother himself.
** Robert was originally going to be cast as ''shorter'' then Ray and being forced to ''literally'' look up to his younger brother. The actor being ''taller'' took the gag from funny to hysterical.
*''{{Firefly}}''. Despite making her brother look like a idiot child, River Tam's parents are clearly more invested in Simon's medical career. The lack of concern over her cries for help from the Academy is particularly damning...
** Unlike his parents, Simon Tam is still a sympathetic character due to the fact that he does admit to her superior intelligence, albeit somewhat grudgingly in his younger years, abandons aforesaid medical career and status as the 'beloved child' to help her, and in the flashbacks seems to show her more affection than the parents did.
** The parents' investment is more in their lives as wealthy, law-abiding supporters of the system; naturally it's easier for them to deny everything than admit that the government is doing evil things to their daughter. Even Simon had moments of resentment at having to give that life up.
* An interesting example in ''{{Frasier}}'': ''both'' Crane brothers considered themselves to be TheUnfavourite, though in reality neither was. Though this gave birth to a destructive competiveness between them and rendered them utterly incapable of working together for any length of time, they both concede in one episode that their competiveness motivated them to excel academically and professionally.
* Monica on ''{{Friends}}'' is treated like this by her mother, while her brother can do no wrong. Possibly why she is so screwed up.
** Though when her dad realises that they've been doing this, he gives her his Porsche to make up for it, so, you know, "every cloud".
* Chuck Bass on ''{{Gossip Girl}}'' is a strange example, as he is an only child for two-thirds of season one. Sadly, once his step-siblings [[spoiler: Serena and Eric]] move in, he still obviously takes a back seat to everyone else.
* Mohinder Suresh of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' is his father's Un-Favourite, as compared to his IllGirl older sister Shanti. This is due to having been [[YouFailBiologyForever conceived expressly in order to be a cure for her]], but born too late; Chandra half-hated him for the failure, half-didn't want to get emotionally attached again.
* 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.]]
** Although [[spoiler: Arthur Petrelli does claim that Nathan is his favorite, but given that he previously tried to have Nathan killed, the truth of this statement is debatable.]]
** And Angela's claims that Peter is her favorite are somewhat suspect [[spoiler: given that Angela spent the whole of Season One helping BigBad Linderman manipulate things so that Peter would become a living bomb and Nathan could eventually become President of the United States, allowing The Company the defacto ability to rule the world.]]
** And also in the first season, when Angela tells Peter he's her favorite, she goes on to add that she knows it never looked that way when he was growing up, as he often ignored while his parents focused on Nathan. In "Six Months Ago", Peter also mentions having never gotten along with his father and being unsurprised that he wanted nothing to do with his graduating from nursing school. The Petrelli parents ignoring Peter while he was growing up, leaving Peter to turn to his big brother every time he needed help, seems to form the crux of the brothers' unusually close relationship.
** Apparently this has been retconned or reverted, because Angela begins to treat him with respect in season four. It culminates in her horror when she discovers that [[spoiler:Nathan has had his throat slashed open by Sylar. She even closes his eyes as a sign of respect for both him and for the dead. She goes so far as capturing Sylar, burning a dead shapeshifter who looks like Sylar in order to throw off suspicion, getting shapeshifter Sylar to turn into Nathan, and then having Matt Parkman alter Sylar's memories and personality to actually BECOME Nathan Petrelli. Creeeeepy. It's implied at the brief part of season five we're shown that Sylar's personality is resurfacing.]]
** The Graphic Novel "Truths", it's revealed that the only reason Nathan was given powers synthetically was because Arthur felt that powers had been given to the wrong son. This mostly stems from his belief that Peter is too soft-hearted. Moments before his death though, Arthur expresses pride in the fact that both his sons are willing to do what needs to be done, so Peter may no longer qualify. At least not from his father.
* 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.
* An episode of ''LoisAndClark'' featured the [[EvilMatriarch mother]] of a deceased criminal known as "Bad Brain Johnson". To try and get her attention, her Un Favourite second son built a fully functional mind control machine, to offer her the whole world as a gift. Not only was he met with equal disdain as usual, but ''not even the machine at [[ExplosiveOverclocking full power]]'' could force her to tell her son she loved him.
* Arnold Rimmer in ''RedDwarf'' is a powerful example of an Un-Favourite. His brothers were all high-flyers in the Space Corps; Arnold was a technician, the second lowest in rank on a mining ship. While he's a comedic character, some of the abuse he goes through would reach [[TheWoobie Woobie]] standards, and goes a long way to explaining why Rimmer's such a git. Unfortunately, it's ''still'' difficult to side with him, given the frequency with which he [[FreudianExcuse uses his screwed-up past as a carte-blanche excuse for being a jerkass]]. In some of the darker moments of the books, the tragic side ''does'' become clear.
** Not least in the story which shows just how small the difference in history between him and [[TheAce Ace Rimmer]] (what a guy!) is.
* There's a bit of this buzzing around Lore, from ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', who considers Data the favourite of their father. The "older brother" of the two androids Noonien Soong created, Lore (who has emotional awareness, while Data didn't), went [[AIIsACrapshoot a bit off the rails]] and was deactivated (but not before he was able to call a giant life sucking entity to the colony where he was built in order to destroy it). During his first appearance in ''Datalore'', Lore spends a lot of time convincing Data that Lore was the second of the two built: to "perfect" the mistakes Soong made with Data (turned out it was the other way round. Lore [[UncannyValley terrified the colonists, who petitioned Soong to make one ''less'' human]]). The whole favouritism thing comes to a head in the episode ''Brothers'' when discovering that Soong has spent the last years of his life perfecting an emotion chip for Data without the "faults" that Lore's had. Lore deactivates Data, takes his place, steals the emotion chip and murders their father before leaving.
-->'''Lore:''' You didn't fill Data with substandard parts, did you? No, that honour was bestowed upon me. You owe me, old man. Not him. ''Me.''
* ''{{Supernatural}}'': Even though Dean's Daddy issues are a lot more obvious, you could say that both of them fit this trope. The only affection Dean ever gets from John is when John is possessed or about to die, a regrettable incident that happened when he was 9 gets hung over his head for 17 years. And as for Sam, he's disowned when he wants to be normal, John actually blames him for his brother's impending death in ''In My Time Of Dying'' and he gets two utterly dismal goodbyes while Dean at least gets an apology and a smile. And the worst thing? He told Dean that he might have to kill Sam if he goes bad, and Dean thought he had to basically commit suicide (just not right away) because John gave him an order and he failed and, as shown by ''Long Distance Caller'' is still devoted to his father. Oh, John. You might have been a good man but you failed at being even a halfway decent father.
* In an episode of ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]'', it's revealed that Mary's sister Renata was the favorite of the Albright family:
-->'''Mary''': The minute she was born, my life changed. I mean, she was showered with attention, she was given everything, she was supported endlessly and I had to stand by and rinse out her things!\\
'''Nina''': ''[astonished]'' Wow... so you're the ''good'' sister?
* ''YoungDracula'': Despite being the child that most takes after him, Ingrid is consistently ignored and humiliated by her sexist father.
* One of the most famous routines of the ''Smothers Brothers'' involved them arguing about which one their mother loved most.
* Carmen in TheGeorgeLopezShow. Her mother, her father and her grandmother like her brother Max more.
* Archie on {{Monarch of the Glen}}.

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[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* 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 [[CreatorBreakdown totally gone off the rails]] in favor of the writer's [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop somewhat twisted]] [[AuthorTract personal views]] of how family life should be, fans often consider April the [[OnlySaneMan 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 RealLife 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 ForBetterOrForWorse that I've read.
* When his older brother Chad is visiting from college, Jeremy from the strip ''{{Zits}}'' seems to fall into this.
** This wasn't helped by early depictions of Chad, which gave him a gleaming, god-like countenance (god-like in that you couldn't see it for the gleaming, not because he looked like an old bearded guy) to go with the notion that he could do no wrong. More recent depictions make him look...like Jeremy with a beard.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* {{Warhammer 40000}} backstory has strong vibes of this in the Primarchs-while Horus was clearly the Emperor's favorite, Perturabo, Alpharius, and to a lesser extent Angron and Magnus all suffered from this trope. Fulgrim also got a great deal of favoritism for his charm (his legion was dubbed the Emperor's Children after the Emperor heard Fulgrim give a particularly masterful speech).
** Konrad Curze, on the other hand, was by far the best contender for the title of unfavorite, as the Emperor [[spoiler: had already sent assassins to kill Curze ''even before'' the HorusHeresy broke out. He used Curze, who had a knack for keeping people in line through fear, to pacify rebelious populations, even going so far as to subtly encourage the more than a little bit insane Curze to utilize more and more extreme tactics and provided him with the resources to do so while turning a blind eye to the slaughter that ensued. Eventually, though, Curze grew a bit to wild for the Emperor's taste and he dispatched Callidus assassins to put him down and set him up as a scapgoat for the atrocities. Unfortunately, the one who eventually succeeded did not do so until well after Curze had led his legion to side with Horus to overthrow the Emperor.]]
** Ironically all of them would go on to betray the Emperor and try to put Horus on the throne in what became the bloodiest war in human history. After all, he was the one who [[PromotiontoParent served as a father figure]] for most of them (Alpharius and Mortarion in particular) and treated many of them (like Curze) better than their real father.

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[[folder: Theater ]]

* The Broadway show ''Next to Normal'' features this trope spectacularly with the song "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" after it is revealed that [[spoiler: the son has been dead the whole time, died when he was 8 months old, but the mother, and possibly the father, hallucinates him throughout the show as a perfect beautiful shining son, leaving the living daughter a wreck.]]
* Happy Loman in ''DeathOfASalesman''.
* Elphaba in {{Wicked}} was blamed by her father for her sister's condition and their mother's death. There's also his words upon seeing Elphaba for the first time. "Take it away. TAKE IT AWAY!"

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

*This is the motivation of the BigBad of ''{{Drakengard}}'', Manah. Her mother showered her brother Seere with love but abused Manah, finally culminating with abandoning her in a monster-infested canyon for a cult to take. After that, she decided that the only way she could make her mother love her was if the gods themselves loved her. And since GodIsEvil, this entails being infused with their power, ascending to the head of the cult, taking control of TheEmpire, and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying the world.]] All [[EnfanteTerrible at no older than six years of age]]. The moral of the story: [[SpaceWhaleAesop don't abuse your children, or they'll destroy the world]].
* Beat in TheWorldEndsWithYou typically sees himself as TheUnFavorite of his family, especially compared to his younger sister [[spoiler:Rhyme]]. As a result of being unable to live up to their standards, he stops trying at school altogether, which Neku notes is at odds with the HotBlooded personality he demonstrates.
* In ''SilentHill Homecoming'' Alex's younger brother Joshua is clearly the favourite of his parents, to the extent that Alex tells his mother to "stop pretending you care about me" at one point when she tries to apologize to him. It's later revealed that [[spoiler: Alex's parents had to choose one of their children to be sacrificed to Silent Hill's god in order to keep it from destroying Shepherd's Glen. They chose Alex and, knowing he was doomed, purposely remained distant with him to make the inevitable sacrifice easier]].
* Subverted in {{Tsukihime}}. Shiki really was the unfavorite of Makihasa 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 (Makihasa's favorite) if he happened to Invert.
* Liquid Snake from {{Metal Gear}}. He was so much of an unfavorite of his clonedaddy Big Boss that he swore revenge against his 'superior' twin, commandeered a walking nuclear death-tank, and held the world for ransom for the remains of Big Boss. Talk about family issues.
* Though it may not be confirmed as we never see his parents,Nozomi Suemitsu aka the Gourmet King,[[spoiler:he constantly in his older and less rotund bother's shadow]]

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[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Roy Greenhilt from ''OrderOfTheStick''. His father's epitaph reads "Devoted Husband - Mighty Wizard - Passable Father", and his ghost keeps showing up to harass Roy about his choice in CharacterClass.
** Although it turned out his father wasn't likely the favorite either.
*** Albeit almost entirely by his own choice. Roy's grandfather reveals that he tried numerous ways to try and relate to his son (Roy's father), both to get him interested in more physical pursuits Grandfather Greenhilt enjoyed or to in some way understand his son's more intellectual pursuits, but that the middle Greenhilt always insulted and dismissed him. Let's face it, Roy's father was just [[strike:chargenned]] born a {{Jerkass}}.
**** Eugene harasses Roy chiefly because he doesn't get to go to Lawful Good Heaven until Roy (or another Greenhilt descendant) fulfills the blood oath Eugene made as a younger man. The middle Greenhilt is then supremely incensed when he learns that ''he's'' Lawful Good Heaven's Unfavorite because he abandoned the oath for other pursuits.
* Wally from ''ZebraGirl'' is a subversion -- while he's at the bottom of his pack of werewolves (and explicitly referred to as the Omega), and constantly teased and berated by his pack-mates, Doyenne, the pack leader, confides in Jack that she feels he has the most potential out of any of the pack, and derides the others as brutish murderers who use their animal sides to excuse the evil in their all-too-human hearts. Of course, in her next breath, she matter-of-factly states how she's going to have to kill them...
* Rayne for ''LeastICouldDo'', says that he was look in a cage and fed newspaper as a child. However his roommate, John does says to their friend Mick "You do realize he making this up right?" To which he replies "I know but his stories amuse me so."
*Played with in ''{{Narbonic}}''. Dave's brother Bill is actually a pretty boring, ordinary guy, but Dave is stubbornly convinced that Bill is cooler, better looking, and otherwise superior to him in every way. There's no indication whether this is related to parental favoritism.
* ''DominicDeegan'': Miranda Deegan has pretty much disavowed any knowledge of her oldest son Jacob. Her reasons aren't entirely unjustfied, though; [[spoiler: Jacob took up necromancy after one of her oldest enemies attacked her home and gravely wounded her youngest son, Gregory, whom Jacob would use as a guinea pig for several horrible experiments - one of which almost killing Gregory in the process.]] [[SoYeah And, uh...yeah.]]
** Earlier on, we have Luna Travoria, youngest of four daughters and [[HollywoodHomely (slightly) deformed]]. Her older sisters and bitter crone of a mother abused her day in and day out. [[spoiler:As the second story arc starts up, [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning her mother plans to have Luna commit suicide while a royal knight is visiting in order to claim a huge compensation payoff from the kingdom.]]]]
*Liquid Snake, in the AU MetalGearSolid fancomic series [[http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Les-Enfants-Terribles-38063076 "Les Enfants Terribles."]] [[http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Les-Enfants-Terribles-14-96287462 Solidus gets this treatment too]], but to a lesser extent.
** This also occurs in the webcomic {{The Last Days of Foxhound}}. Hell it occured in the games as well.
* Black Mage from ''EightBitTheater'', [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/02/22/episode-518-iced/ apparently]]
** Red Mage too, although technically that was [[spoiler:entirely concocted and implanted in his mind by Thief]].
* Riff from ''SluggyFreelance'' is the Unfavorite to his stepbrother (who is apparently his mother's new husband's son). When said stepbrother asks if he is better than Riff, his mother tells him that it's not nice to "rub it in". Riff is thus somewhat pleased, albeit humiliated, when Bun-bun and Kiki's attempt to stand in for him at a party with a mechanical look-alike fails and results in him getting disowned.
* Mizuna of ''{{Adventurers}}!'' '''thinks''' she's one of these, bringing up how she was always compared with Karashi when younger. When she mentions this to Karashi, the latter says that the comparisons were always ''favorable''; eg. "Mizuna is so much more advanced than Karashi was at her age!"
* [[CainAndAbel Isaac Jenner]] from Demonology 101, both in the eyes of his father and The Powers That Be. This is his primary reason for his numerous attempts to murder his brother Gabriel.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Zuko of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': "My father says [my sister] was born lucky -- he says I was lucky to be born..."
** Azula, Zuko's little sister, is also an example, at least in her own mind: "My own mother...thought I was a monster." She tries to laugh it off at the time, but this perception of her relationship with her mother [[spoiler:contributes heavily to her VillainousBreakdown in the series finale]].
** Ozai himself, father of both of the above, used to be this too. After his older brother Iroh's son died, his father ordered him to kill Zuko to let him know what it feels like. To put this into perspective, though, Fire Lord Azulon only ordered this after Ozai tried to use his nephew's death as an excuse to steal his brother's birthright, and after he openly scoffed at Iroh's grief for his lost son causing him to abandon the siege of Ba Sing Se. Still...ouch! Let's face it, [[RoyallyScrewedUp that whole family is a mess.]]
* Helga Pataki from ''HeyArnold!'' is the poster child for this trope, with her older, more intelligent, and away-at-college older sister Olga. Ironically, Olga herself says she'd rather be the Unfavorite: her parents' excessive attention and ''ridiculously'' high expectatives (specially Bob's) push her into a permanent neurosis and becoming an ExtremeDoormat.
* [[TheLibby Bonnie]] from KimPossible is an example of this. They consider her older sisters to have been given the brains, and the other beauty, implying that Bonnie got neither. It's part of her motivation for her jealously and anger towards KimPossible.
* ''{{Rugrats}}'' played with this a couple times. In one episode, Angelica convinces the twins Phil and Lil that every family has a Favorite and a Reject; each one spent the rest of the episode convinced that they were the Reject, and mistaking normal parental behavior as signs of this, until, in the end, they make up and decide to be Rejects together. In another, Angelica's parents are going to have another baby, and she has a horrible dream about being rejected in favor of it (until it [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever grows gigantic]] and tries to eat her).
** 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.
* An example of the second variant is in ''{{Metalocalypse}}'': Pickles, the drummer of the most famous and successful band in history, is still second in his parents' eyes to his brother, an ex-con who lives in their attic.
* Sometime between the original run of ''FamilyGuy'' and the [[UnCancelled current series]], Meg Griffin went from mildly ignored to outright hated by the rest of her family (caused in part by the running joke that Meg may or may not be the result of an affair Lois had behind Peter's back, which in turn cost her a chance to become an Olympic swimmer. Subverted in that the show itself has pointed out her unpopularity via doing an entire episode around the family being the subject of a reality tv show. In the episode, the people filming the Griffins point out that Meg is the least liked member of the family, resulting in her being replaced with an attractive actress.
*[[MadScientist Dr. Doofenschmirtz]] on [[PhineasAndFerb Phineas and Ferb]]. His mother perferred his brother Rodger, while his father preferred the family dog.
* In ''WolverineAndTheXMen'', Magneto rules Genosha with his two daughters, Polaris and the Scarlet Witch, by his side. Quicksilver, meanwhile, is back in the US running the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants until he's "proved himself" to his father.
**In 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).
* In the AnimatedSeries of Disney's Hercules, one episode centered around Phil, Herc's Satyr Mentor, coming to terms with his mother always raising his brother (a door-to-door shoe salesman) onto a pedastal. At the end of the episode we learn she was doing it on purpose to keep him from getting a big head, and the brother always got the same treatment.
*It depends on the writer, but each of the Simpsons kids has, at one point or another, been treated as the unfavorite. Lisa's most often made this (what with Bart being a hellion, Maggie an infant in need of constant care, and the whole family is average or stupid except for her), which is spoofed in the "Sherry Bobbins" episode. She sings, "I'm getting used to never getting noticed!"
* Lifeline from the ''G.I. Joe'' series is a latecomer to this trope, having become the {{Unfavourite}} of his all-pacifist family when he joined a military organization. Never mind that he's a field medic who never carries weapons or participates in combat, the fact it's ''soldiers'' he saves is enough to earn him the permanent silent treatment from his relatives.

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[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'' has Lyn "Laeil" Burbank. While actually a niece rather than a daughter, her uncle and aunt still give her the same unfavorite treatment, treating her like something that just has to be tolerated, while lavishing all their attention on her JerkJock cousin, Anthony, who regularily makes her life hell. Once she's on the island, though, it isn't long before she gets [[CainAndAbel bloody revenge]] on him.

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[[folder: Real Life ]]

* A lot of kids have suspicions that they might be this. Most of them eventually realize it's not true.
**That being said, in all likelihood there are probably a number of Unfavourites in the big bad world.
**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, you have ''at most'' a 50% chance of being the favorite. Doing the math to figure out what the maximum 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.
**This troper's younger brother was informed, in so many words, that he (the brother) was their father's favourite. This troper considered it kind of a relief, as he had always suspected as much.
*** To put it simply, this trope is played depressingly straight in some familys, averted in others (parents who have favorites, but avoid treating their other child/children as unfavorites), and subverted with people who FEEL like they're the unfavorite due to their own insecurities and/or sibling rivalries.
* According to the history... Date Masamune, despite being the rightful heir of the Date clan and is quite liked by his father, he is TheUnfavorite for his mother, who thanks to him [[EyeScream plucking his eye out]] has deemed him unworthy to inherit the clan and favored his younger brother. This has gotten so bad that at one point [[EvilMatriarch his mother tried poisoning his food just so he dies and his brother took over]]. Masamune's response? [[KickTheDog Kill his brother]] just so his mother can see him rule, like it or not. After his father's death, he ends up banishing his mother to her home clan (his allies, which also goes on to be one of his most trusted allies in Sekigahara).
* Ashlee Simpson. 'Nuff said.
** Ashlee Simpson was a decorated dancer growing up; Jessica was picked on at school, and cheated out of her first chance at recording an album. To this day, people prefer Ashlee solely due to this misconception.
* In certain cultures, daughters.
** In some countries, it is common for women to have abortions if the child is the "wrong gender."
** Hell, any aborted baby is this if their parents kept some of their kids.
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