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All of the Other Reindeer

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"Hey, it's that kid."
"Eww. Let's get out of here."

"All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games!"

A character is surrounded by people who constantly put them down, usually because of some trait that is integral to them being a hero or villain. It seems the only responses they can make to this are the extremes: "Guess I'll put up with it silently" or "Guess you don't need me." Or, worse yet, taking the Irrational Hatred to heart and starting to hate themselves. All the other Muggles will look down on the hero even as they're being slaughtered.

If a hero, the character will constantly show their virtue by putting up with it and saving their tormentors' lives again and again. Said tormentors will be grateful for about five seconds (that is, until the end of the episode), and then start it up again. There are only two settings for the hero. Stiff upper lip, or abandoning his tormentors completely. The hero who is putting up with this borders on being masochistic. Few attempts are made to truly change their situation, unless it's "going too far and abandoning people entirely," (which they'll regret considering and go right back to it again.) It's not uncommon for a disillusioned hero, however, to undergo a 10-Minute Retirement as a result of such poor treatment. As a result of this, crime and mayhem will usually skyrocket, the Muggles and mundane authorities will be unable to cope, and a slightly humiliating backtracking will be necessary as they beg the hero to come back and clean the mess up. Of course, once the hero does come back, they had better not expect gratitude; the Ungrateful Bastards may immediately start picking on them again as soon as the mess is cleaned up. This is, unfortunately, sometimes Truth in Television.

If a villain, they'll inevitably explode and slaughter their tormentors, to the barely disguised envy of the audience, who may end up on his side. Oh, the hero will stop them eventually, but not before most of those who wronged the villain are taken out. Afterwards the villain will ask the hero why he didn't use their powers for evil given the rough treatment.

One of the usual problems facing a Plucky Girl. Fear of this happening is a common motivation for I Just Want to Be Normal. Compare the parental Why Couldn't You Be Different?. Often collides with Fridge Logic when you realize people are Bullying a Dragon. This is also a major problem when Individuality Is Illegal. Compare Of the People and My Species Doth Protest Too Much.

Bonus points if the character in question is actually a reindeer like Rudolph.

Related Fantastic Racism, Never Accepted in His Hometown, Internalized Categorism, Klingon Scientists Get No Respect, and Pulling Your Child Away. Possible cause for Driven to Suicide. If this is played in a positive aspect, then it's Enemies Equals Greatness. If this is part of someone's backstory, then it is a Friendless Background. As seen in the page image, Symbolic Distance is commonly used to achieve this effect. Contrast Karmic Shunning, for characters who's isolation is deserved.

Not to be confused with Olive, the Other Reindeer. Nor with Dream-Crushing Handicap. Nor the trope about actual reindeer.


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Asian Animation 

    Fairy Tales 
  • In "The Egyptian Cinderella", an adaptation of an Ancient Greek fairy tale, Rhodopis, a Greek girl sold into slavery in Egypt, is mocked for her light skin and her perpetual sunburns by her Egyptian fellow servants.
  • The Hans Christian Andersen story "The Ugly Duckling". Every animal mocks the duckling for the way it looks. Even the ducklings siblings call it ugly. In some versions, even the mother duck avoids the duckling. The poor little fella. As anyone who knows the tale knows, the "duckling" is not a duckling at all, but a cygnet, a baby swan.

    Film — Animation 
  • The Angry Birds Movie: Because of Red's temper, the entire community (with some exceptions) treated him like this. He was also teased as a kid for having very large eyebrows.
  • In Arthur Christmas, this is how Santa's elves treat the titular Arthur, who is Santa's younger, much clumsier son. Late in the film, when circumstances fill him with despair, Arthur reveals that "I know what you all say about me!" It's particularly harsh because Arthur's defining trait is that he wants everyone to be happy and he goes to great lengths to try to help them be so.
  • Both humans and dogs alike would put down Balto for being part wolf. The humans would drive him off out of fear of him, while the dogs would ridicule and taunt him for having a dirty bloodline. It's sad to learn in the sequel that while Balto had rescued a town of humans from a deadly epidemic, he is still living as a stray and is still ridiculed by some dogs in the community.
  • In Beauty and the Beast, Belle and her father are socially shunned by the members of the village where they live — Maurice for his inventions and generally unconventional ideas, Belle for the fact that she enjoys reading and daydreams a lot. All of them join Gaston in the climax to kill Beast and his servants.
  • In The Book of Life, Manolo’s "I Want" Song, "Creep", emphasizes how practically the whole town sees him as a "creep" or "weirdo".
  • In A Bug's Life, Flik is regularly ridiculed and insulted for wasting his time on creative thinking and inventing instead of gathering food for the Offering. It's this ability that eventually saves the day.
  • At the beginning of Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, Wilbur befriends a lamb named Cardigan, who is rejected by the other sheep due to Cardigan having black wool.
  • In Chicken Little, the titular character is seen as a fool by the entire town after he caused a mass panic when he believed the sky was falling, the only people who support are his friends and his father (who is trying to not reject his only son).
  • Dumbo is probably the animated Trope Codifier. His unusually long ears are reviled by the other elephants.
  • In "Elemental", not only is poor Ember feared by her own costumers, not only is she an outcast in her town, but she's also ostracized from the rest of Element City (just like other fire people, so in a way it's sort of Downplayed).
  • In Happy Feet, poor little Mumble is eyed with disapproval and disgust from everyone (except for the Amigos, his love interest Gloria, his mother and eventually his father) due to his abnormal inability to sing and affinity to dance.
  • As a young teenager, Hercules is openly mocked, bullied and called "Jerkules" by the people at the market, including his own peers, on account of his Super-Strength and clumsiness, especially after he accidentally destroys the place.
  • Home (2015):
    • After moving from Barbados to America, Tip was treated different from other kids and had trouble fitting in.
    • Oh is so disliked among his people, his name was the way people reacted to his presence. An annoyed, exasperated "Oh..." sound.
  • In the Animated Adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon, the entire Viking community is this towards Hiccup, the protagonist. The community places a high value on brawn and physical bravery, and Hiccup is on the small and scrawny side. He has exceptional intellect and skill when it comes to mechanics and building things, but until his dragon-taming abilities are finally showcased, he gets mocked. Even his father...
    Stoick: Just be a little less... this.
    Hiccup: You just gestured to all of me!
  • Inside Out:
    • Downplayed with Sadness, as She's not hated by the other emotions, they just don't know what role she plays in Riley's emotions. Since she tends to make her happy moments turn sad, the only emotion that actively keeps her away is Joy, who is unfortunately also The Leader.
    • After Riley cries out of homesickness in front of her new class, both Fear and Disgust fear this is what is going to happen to Riley. Subverted, as Riley's classmates are concerned for her and don't mock her. In fact, they accept her pretty quickly once she allows herself the chance to get to know them.
  • The titular character in Khumba is ostracized and shunned by the rest of his herd who consider him to be only "half a zebra" because he was born without the stripes on his hindquarters and back legs. They even believe he is responsible for the severe drought that is depleting the water supply.
  • Downplayed in Kung Fu Panda in that long before the climax of the film, Po had already gone a long way earning the respect of most of the Furious Five because of his Heroic Resolve facing his hopeless Training from Hell without complaint.
  • Greenie from Leafie, a Hen into the Wild was bullied for most of his childhood because his mother is a chicken. When he meets other wild ducks as a teenager they tease him for looking like a tame duck, due to the string around his ankle he received when a farmer caught him and tried to clip his wings.
  • Lilo & Stitch shows that Lilo is rejected by her peers for being "weird," while Stitch is rejected by the entire Galactic Federation. (This is at least marginally understandable, however, given Stitch's destructive powers and fondness for anarchy.) The trailers and print advertising played around with this, showing Stitch being rejected by various members of the Disney Animated Canon; the tag line was "There's one in every family." The animated series shows that Lilo continues to be ostracized by her peers, particularly Alpha Bitch Mertle.
  • The Lion King (2019) has Simba being mistrusted by many of the other animals in Timon and Pumbaa's jungle due to being a lion and them being prey. It doesn't entirely go away, but the jungle animals do start getting used to Simba when he adapts to a diet of grubs.
  • Inverted in Meet the Robinsons: When recounting his backstory, Bowler Hat Guy claims that his classmates "all hated [him]." However, the footage clearly shows that, in reality, said classmates were trying to invite him to be their friend, but he shut them out. When you consider that a real-life Child Hater may have had such a bad experience with All Of The Other Reindeer as a child that they cannot see when kids, or any other people, are trying to be genuinely nice, you'll realize that even the inversion of All Of The Other Reindeer is Truth in Television.
  • Megamind ends up giving super powers to Hal Stewart, who then uses them to exact revenge on society for treating him like a loser. Megamind himself counts as well. His being ostracized and bullied in school is what initiates his Start of Darkness.
  • Mike Wazowski was always singled out by everyone, from his elementary school classmates to the fraternities in Monsters University.
  • My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): Tempest Shadow was feared and avoided by other unicorns because her broken horn shot sparks and scared them.
  • Norman Babcock in ParaNorman is treated as an outcast by just about everyone in his hometown, since he's capable of talking to ghosts, to others it seems like he's just talking to the air. Even the townspeople were willing to attack Norman when they saw him helping the zombies.
  • Maruti from The Return of Hanuman was hated because of his superhuman abilities and "bringing danger" to his friends, despite being the reincarnation of Hanuman himself.
  • Sahara: Ajar the cobra is looked down upon by the other cobras because he hasn't even shed into his adult skin yet. As it so happens, by the end of the movie, Ajar finally sheds his skin.
  • Spies in Disguise: Ever since he was a kid, Walter has had to deal with being called "weird". Even among his fellow scientists at the agency, he is still labelled this, due to his odd, non-lethal gadget.
  • Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay has Captain Boomerang, who's hated by everyone in a team of villains, not because he's evil, but because he's a colossal douchebag.
  • The Trumpet of the Swan has Louis the trumpeter swan, who is mute. The original novel doesn't show much of Louis' interactions with the other swans, but this trope is definitely played up in the animated film adaptation.
  • Unicorn Wars: Downplayed. Tubby was shown to be made fun of because of both his weight and immaturity in his unit. While all his unit was admiring their bodies, he was insecure about his fat body, and with his brother making fun of him, the unit joined in. Later when Bluey revealed to the unit that Tubby had wet the bed, they all made fun of him, and finally, when do unit learned that Tubby was joining them, they were skeptical about how useful he would be on the mission. Despite this, it appears that Tubby is not constantly mistreated and is mostly accepted by the unit; it's notable that even though his unit was skeptical of his usefulness on the mission during the mission itself, he was never mistreated or an outcast from the unit.
  • Wreck-It Ralph:
    • The titular character is, in contrast to his fellow game characters, large, in poor control of his powers, and temperamental. Unfortunately for him, he's just a Punch-Clock Villain and a genuinely good person who only wants to be recognized for his importance in the game the way Felix is. The Nicelanders, unfortunately, have developed an irrational fear/hatred of him. Felix, who is the only one in the game who doesn't hate Ralph, is also too much of an Extreme Doormat to either stand up for Ralph or side with the Nicelanders, instead trying to play peacemaker and failing miserably. Really, can anyone blame Ralph for leaving?
    • Played to a tragic degree with Vanellope; she is treated with disgust by all the other racers due to her glitchy state, though to be fair, it's because Turbo broke into their game, Sugar Rush, and tampered with everyone else's codes so he could usurp the throne from Vanellope, the rightful princess.
  • Zootopia: As a child, Nick was brutally bullied by Junior Ranger Scouts Troop 914 on his first day because foxes are seen as untrustworthy.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Chuck and his family get this treatment during Amazing Grace and Chuck, with most of his former teammates turning on him, kids picking on his little sister, and his mom and dad both getting harassed by the other adults in town.
  • In Black Patch, it does not take much for the entire town to turn against town marshal Clay Morgan after he is accused of shooting Hank Danner In the Back while Danner was trying to escape.
  • Blame (2017): Abigail is called a psycho, Sybil (due to the film character with multiple personalities) and mocked generally as a result of her unspecified mental illness. She endures all this stoically.
  • The original film version of Stephen King's Carrie as described in Literature, as well as the 1999 sequel, the TV movie and the 2013 remake. Carrie have is an outcast thanks to the way she has been raised by her religious fanatic of a mother.
  • Disobedience is about a London woman who returns home after she was shunned when she was younger for being attracted to a female friend.
  • Elf: Played with. Although he doesn't really fit in, the elves all treat Buddy warmly. When he dubs himself a "cotton-headed ninnymuggins", they immediately insist that he's not. Later a couple do admit he doesn't fit in and drags down their production, while thinking he's pretty stupid for not realizing he's a human. This isn't particularly mean-spirited, but Buddy is still devastated to overhear them.
  • Eloïse's Lover: Eloïse is shunned as a weirdo and "dyke" by other students. Initially it doesn't seem to affect her, though after Àsia comments about it she says of course it does, as she'd have to be inhuman otherwise. Eloïse simply keeps her pain about it hidden.
  • Frieda: At first, the townspeople are bitterly hostile to Frieda, and Robert is forced to give up his job as a schoolteacher.
  • The Getting of Wisdom: The other girls at the boarding school are resentful of Laura due to her lower-class background, and give her no small amount of grief over it.
  • Giant Little Ones: Franky is shunned and mocked as gay after Ballas tells other students. A gay boy there also gets harassed and mocked as well. Natasha meanwhile is shunned as a "slut", when she was actually raped.
  • John Hancock in Hancock is a superhero who's also a filthy bum and a drunk. Although he saves people's lives and stops criminals, because he does it while causing truly epic amounts of property damage, he gets nothing but criticism for it, until Ray Embrey comes along, Ray being the first person to ever thank him for his help (saving Ray from being hit by a train). The public start coming around once Embrey teaches Hancock how to be a more likeable, more personable and less insanely destructive hero.
  • Double subverted in A Hard Day's Night. At first, Ringo Starr takes his teasing from the other Beatles all in good humor, then he gets tired of it. That simmering dissatisfaction is what Paul's Grandfather ends up exploiting.
  • In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Hellboy shoots a rampaging plant elemental to save a packed street full of people, all while carrying a baby he saved from a car that was about to be crushed. 10 seconds after he's done saving the people, the baby's mother starts yelling at him, "What did you do to my baby!" and a policeman pulls a gun on him. The people almost riot right then and there, until Liz steps in front of Hellboy and bursts into flames, which gets everyone to shut up.
  • Holidays: In Valentine's Day Maxine is cruelly teased by all of the other girls, who call her "Maxi Pad". Their leader Heidi even mocks her dad's suicide.
  • In How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), the Grinch was bitterly teased as a child for being green and ugly. This turns him into a mean and nasty monster with a hatred for joy, especially Christmas, after he snapped and hurled a Christmas tree at his classmates. This is a complete reversal from the baseline book, in which he's just nasty and the Whos represent the spirit of Christmas in its purest form.
  • It's a Wonderful Knife (2023): For no clear reason, Bernie's mocked and shunned. Kids her age mock Bernie by referring to her as Weirdo.
  • In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Eggsy is ostracized within the trainee group because he's from a poor, working-class background, in contrast with the public school rich kids.
  • In Man of Steel, Clark was frequently marginalized as a child because of the unusual behavior caused by not being able to control his powers, and his isolated nature from trying to keep them a secret.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • After being transformed into a Super-Soldier, Steve Rogers is turned into Captain America, the face of the USO's war bonds campaign. This doesn't exactly endear him to the soldiers he performs in front of during a tour in Italy, who think of him as a fool in star-spangled tights. However, once he successfully rescues an entire regiment of soldiers from HYDRA's clutches, Cap becomes a respected icon in his own right.
    • Also the Hulk generates as much hate and fear as any rampaging green monster would naturally warrant, both from his enemies and allies.
  • Piggy (2022): Sara is mocked by her peers in her village on account of her weight. When she goes to the pool at a time she expects it to be deserted, a Girl Posse walks by and decides to mess with her, calling her "Piggy" and nearly drowning her with the pool skimmer, and running off with her clothes for the final touch.
  • In The School for Good and Evil (2022), Agatha and Sophie are seen as weirdoes by the rest of Gavaldon. Agatha slightly more than Sophie because she and her mother fit the Witch Classic profile. The one person who is nice to them is the bookstore owner.
  • In Sky High (2005), you're either a hero, or a zero; "Hero Support" = Sidekick = social inferior.
  • Star Wars: Jar Jar Binks. No, really. This wasn't the only reason in The Phantom Menace that he was shunned by other Gungans; he was a clumsy fellow who kept causing accidents, no matter how easy the task was that he was assigned. What caused Boss Nass to exile him was when he crashed the latter's heyblibber submarine (not his first major accident). However, by the Battle of Jakku, Jar Jar is scorned by everyone he comes across not only for his quirks, but for understandably helping a dictatorship come into play.
  • The Truth About Jane: Most of Jane's school mates mock her after she's been outed as gay.
  • The World of Kanako: The narrator is widely hated by everybody for no other reason than because he's weak.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • X-Men: First Class:
      • Angel Salvadore's motivation for joining Shaw.
        Angel: We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
      • Havok bullies McCoy even though they're both super-powered. Hank has a visible mutation while Alex doesn't.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse: The other students at Xavier's school are terrified of Jean Grey because whenever she has a nightmare, the entire mansion shakes. Writer Simon Kinberg addresses the irony of a mutant being discriminated by mutants on the Blu-Ray's "Answering the Call: Assembling the New X-Men Team" segment.
      Kinberg: She's like an outcast within the outcasts, so there's nowhere for her.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24, to the point that it becomes a Running Gag:
    • Despite helming numerous rescue and counter-terrorist operations prior to the start of the series, Jack Bauer begins the first season of the show on the outs with his CTU co-workers due to a vaguely-mentioned incident in the past (the books and Season 5 chalk it up to a pair of internal investigations he took part in to root out misappropriated funds). As such, he is functionally treated as persona non grata throughout the first season, up to Only Sane Man levels — his co-worker, Tony, completely distrusts him, his supervisors (with the exception of Richard Walsh) treat him as a potential turncoat, and some of the allies he meets in the field (i.e. Teddy) treat him with scorn for past actions, despite the fact that he's trying to save the life of a major politician.
    • As the seasons continue, it becomes clear that no matter how many times Jack Bauer saves America from terrorists, almost everyone shuns him or threatens his life. At this point, he's portrayed as a living martyr — of torture tactics.
    • This also applies to CTU. The government's thanks for six seasons of stopping the most dastardly plots against America is to... shut down the whole Unit.
  • Angel: The Groosalugg's "cow blood" ensured a lifetime of loathing.
  • The Korean Series Boys Before Flowers focuses on a poor Ordinary High-School Student who goes to an exclusive academy for rich kids and gets bullied.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Buffy is constantly ridiculed for her strength, even by those students whom she saves. However, at the Prom, she is given a "Class Protector" award by her classmates, recognizing how she always saved them from the strange things that happen in Sunnydale. Willow and Xander are her only friends in school, and everybody seems to consider her a violent and dangerous person with violent and dangerous friends (i.e. the vampires she fights) for most of the time. But by the end of school she's saved enough people for this to become common knowledge, and people realize they misjudged her. Part of it is because Buffy set her last school's gym on fire (it was full of vamp- asbestos).
    • Also Giles, who's shunned by his fellow Watchers and not allowed to attend the retreat in the Cotswolds. This is a Justified Trope : before Giles was as we currently see him, he was part of a group of magic-abusing rebellious youths, who did things like ''summoning demons and getting high on the possession'' as a fun, everyday activity.
    • The girl in "Out of Mind Out of Sight'' who was shunned so much she turned invisible.
    • Wishverse "Puppy" Angel is another good example of this. And regular 'verse Angel from time to time as well.
  • ControlZ: Sofia mostly keeps to herself, viewed as a freak or "psycho" because of her mental health issues by most students. However, it doesn't seem to affect her much, and she still cares about the students' welfare (even those who are cruel to her). Some of those who previously put her down realize they were wrong to as a result. The rest however appear unmoved.
  • Jim Brass gets this treatment on CSI after being accused of killing a cop-the other officers at the funeral turn their backs on him literally.
  • Dash & Lily: Lily has no friends her own age and is mentioned to have been the weird girl in middle school.
  • Dead Man's Gun: After a Frontier Doctor saves the life of a wounded outlaw and keeps him as a patient in his home in "The Healer", the meek townsmen turn against him and start making veiled threats about storming his house and lynching the outlaw.
  • In Doctor Who, the Doctor never seems to get any respect. If his own people, the Time Lords, aren't hounding him for being a renegade they're recruiting him to save them from their own incompetence or corruption. Many of the societies of planets he saves, including Earth's, are also lacking in gratitude and acceptance. This may be partly explained, however, by the fact that the Doctor has a tendency to suddenly show up out of nowhere at roughly the same time that weird things start happening and people start dying, and people tend to put two and two together to come to the conclusion that the Doctor's somehow responsible. Once he successfully proves that he is on the side of the angels and saves the day, in the classic series at least he generally tends to get a bit more respect and gratitude.
    • The Torchwood Institute was formed specifically to police the Doctor's activities, even though every time he comes to Earth, he saves the planet from alien destruction.
    • The Doctor's interactions with UNIT (and, specifically, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) seem to have smoothed the way for him in the classic series. However, with UNIT being less prominent in the newer series (and without a regular point of contact with an Earth government) the Doctor does seem to be treated more as a loose cannon at best.
  • In Everybody Hates Chris, Chris is antagonized by 99% of his school. Hell, even the title says it.
  • First Day: Hannah is bullied by other kids for being transgender, while Isabella takes the lead.
  • Flesh and Bone: Claire's mocked by many other ballet dancers at the company, except for Daphne (who she befriends), largely because her bust is bigger than average for ballerinas.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Tyrion is treated as evil incarnate by the populace of Westeros mostly because they believe Beauty Equals Goodness and he only entered politics after times started getting bad, a fact not helped by his drinking, whoring, and snarking. His own family (except Jaime) also largely excludes him because of Maternal Death? Blame the Child!. Despite all of the heroic actions he did to protect King's Landing during the Battle of Blackwater Bay, nobody stands in his defense in his trial for the crime of regicide. Not one kind word, with everyone automatically believing Cersei's rather obvious scapegoating and lying witnesses:
      Tyrion: I am guilty of a far more monstrous crime. I'm guilty — of being a dwarf!
      Tywin: You are not on trial for being a dwarf.
      Tyrion: Oh, yes I am! I've been on trial for that my entire life!
    • Stannis, despite fighting steadfastly for his brother, is relegated to lord of a few rocky islands in the Narrow Sea and widely disliked for his rigid justice and humourless demeanor.
    • Walder Frey knows the other noble houses look down on his family and him personally for being tardy to the Battle of the Trident, so he demands a good reason why he should waste a single thought on any of them.
  • Melinda on Ghost Whisperer is implied to have hidden her "gift" during her teens to avoid this (it's implied that she occasionally failed). One episode even reveals that when she told the truth to her first love in college, he broke up with her and called her a liar.
  • Hell's Kitchen Season 3 gave us Julia; while most of the contestants are professionally-trained chefs, caterers and the like, she was a Waffle House line cook. For most of the season, her teammates treated her like garbage, marginalized her abilities, and pushed her off to the side. Then, after Gordon sees the women shove Julia off to peel potatoes during one challenge, he orders them to give her a shot. As it turns out, a Waffle House cook is pretty well-equipped to handle a breakfast themed challenge and cook quail eggs pretty well. However, most of the other women continued to treat Julia like crap because they didn't think she deserved to be there. However, the majority of the teammates had karma bite them in the ass. There was Tiffany, who noted in an interview that "she [Julia] works in a fucking Waffle House" being the first to be eliminated. Know-it-all Joanna was the second to be booted off (who was at least three years younger than Julia and a sous chef. Melissa degraded her for causing the team to lose a challenge but Julia pointed out that Melissa caused them to be screwed over. And though she never won the challenge, Julia is still the only contestant from the show that Ramsay has shown respect and was given an opportunity to go to Culinary School.
  • Heroes typically averts it. However, Jeremy Greer, a recurring character in Season 4, has the ability to control life and death. After causing the accidental murders of his parents, he falls into a deep depression, believing himself to be a monster (a rare case of this trope happening to one's self.) After Bennet and Peter teach to control his power, Bennet arranges a cover-up so no suspicion will be cast on Jeremy, but the town sheriff, a Small-Town Tyrant Smug Snake, refuses to listen to anything. When he finally allows Jeremy to walk, half of the town is waiting outside, ready to crucify Jeremy. One of them attacks Jeremy, seeking vigilante justice. Jeremy falls back into his depression, kills the attacker, and refuses to heal him. The cops re-arrest him. After taking him back inside, the deputy takes Jeremy out back, ties him behind a truck, and drags him to death through the streets. Which prompts Season 4 Big Bad Samuel to bury the whole town in a gigantic sinkhole.
  • The Hexer: Due to his unorthodox views on combat, Geralt is hated both by other students and his instructors (except the Old Witcher). Geralt's uniqueness is a direct result of Vesemir purposely interrupting the process of mutations for the purpose of creating a new type of witcher that, not being deprived of higher feelings and deeper thought associations, would be able to adapt easily to new situations and to coexist with humans. Vesemir dies without revealing this information to Geralt and Jarrow kept it secret - it is not until the final episode Geralt learns from old Jarrow about his origins. Geralt turns out to be the only surviving witcher from his generation, which proves that Vesemir was right.
  • Both Duncan and Connor MacLeod in the flashbacks to their villages in Highlander.
  • Ice Fantasy:
  • In Merlin, the titular character has to hide his magical abilities from the people of Camelot, despite the fact he saves their lives with it every single episode. Morgana would also count, considering Uther's attitude towards magic and her feelings of isolation and fear.
  • In superhero drama Misfits, shy and nerdy Simon is ostracised by the rest of the group — especially the cocky Jerkass Nathan who taunts and belittles him constantly — because of his social ineptitude and perceived "weirdness". note  But he puts up with it silently, and uses his ability to help the others when necessary. Until the time comes when Simon and Nathan are in danger, and the latter has the gall to demand that Simon use his power to save them. After Nathan starts hurling some really fool-hardy abuse (yes, even in a life-threatening situation he can't muster a shred of humility or tact) Simon simply turns invisible and saves himself, leaving Nathan to face the music.
  • Oz: Beecher endures a lot of this in Season 1 before he finally takes a stand against all the abuse. He continues to endure various degrees of abuse/torment, mostly at the hands of Schillinger and the Aryans, for the rest of the series. However, Beecher isn't the only victim in this show...
  • Sanctuary: Before the series began, Will Zimmerman lost his job with the FBI because of his outlandish theories about certain cases. He's been right all along.
  • The School Nurse Files: The titular school nurse, Ms.Ahn was not liked when she was young, as she was rumored to be able to see ghosts
  • In Sherlock, the titular consulting detective is not very well-liked or respected by the police, despite the fact that he often solves their cases for them. He's called a "freak" numerous times by various people, and is viewed with suspicion due to his sociopathic tendencies; it doesn't help that he's not exactly easy to get along with. It's also heavily implied that John Watson is his first real friend and the only person who actually appreciates him for his brilliance and his character, and not just for what he can do to help catch criminals. This becomes a major plot point in the Season 2 finale, "The Reichenbach Fall". He admits this in his best man's speech with those pathetic social skills.
  • The Shield has Duch Wagenbach, who is generally treated like dirt by just about every cop in the precinct except for his partner Claudette Wyms.
  • Smallville: Season 10 is all about costumed vigilantes coming out of the shadows and into the public eye in response to the constant "anti-hero" mud-slinging. The general public distrusts the heroes' motives for no other reason than because they can, despite the numerous times the Blur saved their lives. When Oliver Queen comes out as the Green Arrow, he goes on TV and delivers a stinging Take That! to all the anti-hero nonsense. It's now been said that Darkseid himself was behind the anti-hero business, manipulating people's minds and increasing the hate.
  • Stargirl (2020): Yolanda was shunned and mocked cruelly by most other students after topless photos she took for her boyfriend began to get shared around. She lost her friends as a result. Her parents too are cold with Yolanda afterward, believing she shamed her family (they're all devout Catholics), leaving her quite cynical, withdrawn and alone when the series starts.
  • The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Hollow Pursuits" introduces us to Lt. Reginald "Reg" Barclay, a highly neurotic engineer. During much of the episode, Geordi wonders why Barclay is incredibly hard to work with until he talks with Guinan about him.
    Geordi: Barclay, he's always late, he's nervous, nobody wants to be around him.
    Guinan: If I had the feeling that nobody wanted to be around me, I'd probably be late and nervous too.
  • Star Trek: Picard: Elnor feels out of place among his fellow Romulans, who contemptuously label him as a "sisterboy" because he grew up among nuns. Even within the Qowat Milat monastery that he calls home, his gender sets him apart because the order only accepts women.
    Picard: It can't be easy being the only boy in a house of women. [Elnor] must get lonely sometimes.
    Zani: Yes. He is loved, but he does not belong with us.
    • Narissa, who treats Elnor as a Category Traitor because of his affiliation with the Qowat Milat, doesn't even consider him to be a proper Romulan because she refers to him as a freak to one of her underlings.
  • Stargate Command in Stargate SG-1. Senator/Vice-President Kinsey started a witch hunt to shut down the program, even though it was a no-brainer that without them, all of the Earth would be slaves of Apophis, Anubis, Ba'al, or somebody worse.
    • With Kinsey, he wants it shut down so that it can be run by people he can control or by like minded people.
    • Similar to the Sanctuary example above, Dr. Jackson was ridiculed by the archeological community because of his theories about aliens and the pyramids. He was, of course, right, not that he can tell anyone.
  • The premise of the first season of Veronica Mars is that Veronica has gone from being a slightly silly blonde popular girl to being the slightly outcast character she is because of the mystery that drives the first season (the murder of Lilly). The second season is also driven by a Big Bad who becomes evil and twisted as a result of the same crowd's exclusion and abuse, providing a contrast between what spurs one character to heroism and the other to depravity.
  • The titular hero of Wynonna Earp grew up the town pariah, ridiculed and bullied by her peers and law enforcement for her trouble-making ways, her insistence that demons killed her family, and because she accidentally killed her own father. Even when she returns as an adult to purge the town of aforementioned demons, it's clear most people still hate her. This is even used against her when in the Season 1 finale, Bobo turns the town into an Angry Mob against her to slow her down.
  • You Me Her:
    • Everyone who knows Jack, Emma and Izzy are a throuple disapprove of this initially. Lori in particular tries all that she can to punish them for it. Granted this is partly over Emma threatening to break her daughter Ava's leg when Ava had attempted blackmail over it.
    • Lori has a grudge against Emma and Jack because they have excluded her from community activities.

    Manhua 
  • Retired Heroes: Tifa gets ostracized a bit due to being the daughter of a demon, but not too much. It helps that the mayor's daughter has declared her The Rival, and refuses to let anyone else look down on her.
  • Zui Wu Dao: Wu Di is not held in high regard by the Lei Jia school due to his inability to use vigour. Virtually everyone looks down on him and actually nickname him "Trash".

    Manhwa 
  • Lark from Crepuscule was bullied by his peers when he was five for having red eyes which were supposedly signs of being a vampire.

    Music 
  • The title character in Bob Rivers and Twisted Radio's "Rudolph" parody "Teddy the Red-Nosed Senator." "All of the other senators / Wondered how he got his dames / They thought he drank too many / To play in any bedroom games. ... Teddy the red-nosed senator / He's a drunken S.O.B."
  • Eminem was a victim of this for being a white kid in an all-black neighborhood, to the point he was beaten into a coma and had to re-learn all his basic functions when he woke up.
  • Hello! Project member Mitsui Aika.
  • Insane Clown Posse advertises themselves as "The Most Hated Band in the World."
  • The title character in Madness of Duke Venomania is this before he gains his power. In fact, this is the reason why he makes the Deal with the Devil that grants him his power to begin with.
  • Paul Tripp and George Kleinsinger's 1945 song "Tubby the Tuba" — Tubby wants to play a melody, but is laughed at by his orchestra because "people don't write pretty melodies for tubas." After a bad rehearsal, Tubby encounters a large frog who offers a low, catchy tune for him to try. When Tubby starts playing it in front of a famous conductor, the orchestra is worried he'll disgrace them — but the conductor wants to hear the rest, and once complete, the rest of the orchestra is awestruck and eager to contribute to Tubby's song.
  • Primus used to use "Primus Sucks!" as a catchphrase.
  • This trope is the fuel for Radiohead's "Creep."
  • Naturally, Rudolph himself, who experiences this until he saves Christmas, whereupon he's hailed as a hero.
  • "Saint Joe On The School Bus" by Marcy Playground is about being bullied on the school bus, which frontman John Wozniak had personal experience with growing up.
    Saint Joe, he said he's never been
    Dressed up like a woman
    Saint Joe, they said your dad is gay
    They said your mom she's a whore
    They said it 'til you were raw, yeah
    They said your mom she's a bore
    And they made her beg them for more
  • This seems to be the situation of the person addressed in TV on the Radio's song "Hours" from Return to Cookie Mountain:
    You walked around, thought yourself beautiful
    Just too bad they stared, Just too bad they stared
    Broke up your crown, called you "unusuable"
    See how well you fared.
  • Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" is about a gay teen being ostracized from his hometown:
    Pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy
    You were the one that they'd talk about around town as they put you down
    And as hard as they would try, they'd hurt to make you cry
    But you never cried to them, just to your soul
  • Russian singer Nyuta was a victim of this, having been severely bullied by other kids and mistreated by teachers for being different. She wrote her song "Prinadlezhu" ("I Belong") about how despite all the bullying and abuse she endured during her youth, she overcame it and stayed true to herself.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The Chick Busters on WWE SmackDown were disliked by the rest of the divas for being nerdy rookies, and while they started out with the support of Natalya, she eventually turned on them too, out of disgust for their losing ways. Kaitlyn would get a little better but AJ would descend into insanity that saw all the male wrestlers wanting nothing to do with her either, except Big E. Langston.
  • Kimberly had this problem in the first 13 volumes of Shine. While all the other wrestlers she approached had alibis for not being able to associate with her, that was lucky coincidence and the one who had no out later declared her a psychopath. However, the crowd started cheering for her after Kimber Lee's return from a six volume absence, which lead to a spot in Daffney's All Star Squad.
  • Raven claimed that in direct contrast to how popular Tommy Dreamer was as a wrestler, Tommy Dreamer was a misfit turned outcast as a child. Raven's plan was to recreate that "nightmare" for grownup Dreamer.

    Radio 
  • The Six Shooter: In "Jenny", the conversation between The Sheriff and his Posse indicates that the whole town of Lead Creek has mocked and ridiculed Jenny her entire life for being unnattractive, tall and clumsy. And the sheriff and his men don't see anything wrong with this; laughing as they remember some of the jokes played on her. Hearing this, Britt suddenly understands why Jenny has chosen to live in a remote cabin far out of town.

    Religion & Mythology 
  • The Bible, making this Older Than Feudalism.
    • The Hebrew Bible:
      • Joseph's treatment at the hands of his brothers in Genesis would also fit this trope.
      • Jephthah, in the Book of Judges, for being the Son of a Whore.
      • David's treatment at the hands of King Saul, after he singlehandedly killed Goliath.
      • Moses at the hands of Israel whenever things got bad, despite ten plagues, water from a rock, manna and quail from heaven, etc.
      • All of the prophets fell into this trope, with Jeremiah being the exemplar.
    • The New Testament:
  • Hephaestus, the Greek god of the forge, fire and blacksmithing, was shunned by the other gods because unlike them he was... *drumroll* ...ugly. Despite him being the creator of practically every Applied Phlebotinum / Iconic Item / MacGuffin / Amulet of Concentrated Awesome / similar object in the mythos; from Zeus's lightning bolts, to Athena's shield and spear, to the gods' thrones, to the first human woman, Pandora; merely because of his appearance he was never treated with anything other than pity if not outright mocked. But this did not stop him from continuing to make these wonderful things for them. For a long time his wife, Aphrodite, cheated on him, yet he uttered nary a complaint, and when she did it with Ares he finally sought an ounce of vengeance by trapping them in a net and bringing them before the other gods in hopes that they would be shamed; but instead the other gods mocked him again about his wife being unfaithful to him. Then he just went right back to making things for them. Poor guy. He did try to rape Athena though. But even that only happened because Poseidon played a cruel prank by telling Hephaestus that Athena wanted him to make passionate love to her. Also, he failed to do it. Which would have made the other gods mock him even further.
  • Loki, is disliked by a large majority of the Aesir (and three of the Vanir) for being a trickster god instead of a war god and preferring mischief over fighting. They put up with him because Odin, the Aesir king, considers Loki his brother. Even that doesn't last though, either because Loki crashed a party, killed the waiter everyone liked and made fun of all the gods failing, exaggerating them with malicious lies, or because Loki killed Baldr, who everyone liked more than him. Or maybe both, since Loki took responsibility for Baldr's death in order to get a rise out of the gods while he was taunting them at the party he crashed. (If that makes him sound like a villain, it should also be noted that when allowed, Loki always made up for all his mischief and often made things better for the gods than they were before, these same gods who imprisoned three of his children for turning out to be ugly monsters, making them examples as well).

    Tabletop Games 
  • Warhammer 40,000: Tech-Marines are never made to feel welcome by either side they're loyal to. The Adeptus Mechanicus see them as mere cogs to the Machine God, and don't truly welcome them as members of the Machine Cult. While their Space Marine brethren see them as untrustworthy cyborgs. Hence they tend to work in isolation.
  • Warhammer Fantasy: Due to their sinister magic, ominous dress, solitary and taciturn natures and preoccupation with places of death, Amethyst wizards are often seen as the most strange and frightening of their kind in an Empire that already doesn't trust magic users. Even the other Colleges find them off-putting and alarming.
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Most metis experience this from homid and lupus Garou. Metis may simply be disliked, expected to work harder for status, or, in the case of the most warlike tribes, abused and neglected by their fellow Garou.

    Theatre 
  • Wicked: In most of the first act, Elphaba is mistreated due to her green skin, including by her future best friend Galinda and her future Love Interest Fiyero. Her father hates her, her sister is ashamed of her, and until Galinda's conscious catches up with her, poor Elphie's only friend is her teacher (and look how that turns out). She's still shunned even after she makes friends with Galinda and Fiyero, but manages to bring it to a "screw you all" at the end of the first act... right before the government turns on her and condemns her. Poor thing can't catch a break, even when she tries to save her crazy sister's lover, the Animal population in general, and Fiyero.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Akatsuki no Goei Tsuki is hated by the other servants and Tominori. It's never stated why, but it's hinted that the other maids know she's from the prohibited district and consider her filthy. As for Tominori, it's probably just that she's pretty similar to Kaito. Even if he doesn't like her, he still makes himself look like a complete scumbag for her sake, so he's not that bad.
  • From Little Busters!, Haruka received this from her extended family. This was because her mother gave birth to twins from two different fathers after one of those fathers had assaulted her and her other husband. Therefore it was decided that the 'superior' twin would be considered the daughter of the good father and would receive all the benefits of the family. Haruka, unfortunately, was deemed to be inferior and so the child of the violent man, and therefore was constantly put down and mistreated. Later, Kanata invokes this at school by spreading around the details about her father. As a result the other kids at school start bullying her and spreading even worse rumours which clearly upset Haruka, but depressingly this is still much better than life at home used to be so she endures it without real complaint.
  • In Nameless ~The one thing you must recall~, Shinbi's diary reveals she was like this before meeting Soi.
  • While not exactly abused, Arcueid from Tsukihime was extremely isolated by the other True Ancestor vampires, even from themselves. They were glad she was around to kill Demon Lords, but she was so incredibly powerful that she unnerved them a bit so they never taught her anything and tended to reset her memory every now and then. Just when she finished wiping out the Demon Lords and they were getting ready to accept her and teach her, Roa comes along aaaaand... now there are no more True Ancestors except for her.

    Webcomics 
  • Irya from Bits Fair is ostracized by the other warrior-boys from his village, while his cousins are always either mean to him or outright bully him.
  • Bob and George: Dr. Light made X deliberately different from the others — including a distaste of ice cream among ice-cream fanatics — producing this trope.
  • In Charby the Vampirate, Zeno was forced to wear 'the loincloth of shame' and ostracized by the other Scotodino as a child.
  • In Endstone, Cole hears murmurs about her being a Half-Human Hybrid.
  • Cedar the Mudkip in Finding Your Roots is mocked and ostracized by all her peers for enjoying mud more than water.
  • Ferris and Demos of Fishbones both endure this, for being Jewish and Nerdy and for having an intimidating family, respectively.
  • In The Guide to a Healthy Relationship, Julian is permanently shunned for being "weird" — actually intersex and mentally ill. They've stopped to care at some point, preferring solitude.
  • Invincea from Invincea and the Warriors from Hell is believed by most to be a witchling, the cursed offspring of witches and demon lords, and her inability to speak makes it a difficult claim to argue with. As a result she experienced a very lonely childhood, and even as she grew up she only met one friend, Merris. In spite of all of the harassment, bullying, and unfair treatment, Invincea strives to stay above it, putting up with the ridiculous treatment of others in her mission to prove she is deserving of respect and admiration.
  • minus. The problem with powers is that they make playing with you rather unpleasant. So they don't.
  • Rarity cops this from the rest of her friends in Friendship is Dragons due to being a Rogue. This was so severe that during a rescue attempt, Twilight couldn't copy Rarity's simple jewel-finding spell because her player realized it wouldn't be in-character for Twilight to spend any more time around the thief than was strictly necessary.
  • In Nebula, Pluto is ignored and excluded from the rest of the solar system. Right as he had gotten over his shyness and was about to introduce himself.
  • The closest thing we've ever seen of an explanation for Belkar's behavior comes from this Order of the Stick, in which he tells of his desire to grow up and brutally murder all of the other reindeer "in their dreamless sleep."
  • It is implied in Pacificators that people who have powers are not very well-liked by the regular, powerless people. Turns out there's history behind this: one of the best Pacificators they ever had went mad and killed thousands of people before she was finally stopped.
  • Jeremy from Platinum Grit. His entire family treated him as a disappointment and an idiot from early childhood, an attitude shared by his college professor and by the staff of the family asylum. But because he's never known different and he's so impossibly nice, he thinks it's all perfectly normal.
  • Steven in The Sanity Circus reveals that his damaged Instruman form means that he has less power and abilities than other Instrumen, and so he was ostracized and teased by them leading to him wanting to be useful to someone. He could be playing his grief up, though.
  • Tales of the Questor: Quentyn the Questor is treated as joke by most of his community. However, the trope is subverted when Quentyn calls a meeting to tell the town he doesn't care what they thought of him. Furthermore, when he agrees to go on what seems a permanent exile to undertake an apparently impossible quest in order to save the town, the whole community is stunned at this sacrifice. After it sinks in, the town's opinion changes overnight to mark Quentyn as a hero.
    • It is also lampshaded and subverted in the "Old Secrets" storyline where Quentyn's chief tormentor, Rahan, drunkenly whines how Quentyn is able to get away with anything because of this trope while he has to work for any reputation while everyone is jealous of his father's money.
    • Arguably Quentyn's respect starts much earlier and builds up gradually as he proves his abilities. He also seemed to get plenty of respect until he decided he wanted to be a Questor, which was generally considered to be an outdated tradition with no appointed Questors for decades.
  • Wilfreda The Wanna Be Witch: The title character gets this at the start because her insistence on being a witch has weird-ed out the other kids.

    Web Original 
  • Vinnie of AJCO fell victim to this when they were younger, due to being the only human in a class of Plant Aliens and spider people. The bullying got so bad that at some point they had plastic surgery to make their ears pointed so they were less obviously human.
    • Egg also felt the effects of this trope in her youth once her village found out she was Sighted. Slightly justified in that those with the Sight are much, much more likely to be possessed by evil spirits, and very unjustified in that there were no evil ghosts around. She kept the fact hidden when she left for the city, and it remained hidden until Curls summoned a ghost by accident and it tried to go on a murder spree from within Egg's body.
  • The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: It's heavily implied that Jane was ignored, bullied or abused by nearly everybody all her life. She is a nice, slightly weird girl, yet she doesn't have any friends. Her step-family was horrible. She mentioned in Episode 8 that she and Helen, her only close friend, were considered misfits at the Private School. She encountered some good teachers at university, but she didn't bond with any of them. When she comes to tutor Adele, it gets better as she's respected and Adele likes her, but it's not all great because the house is isolated, Grace is distant, Susanna-Maria is not too fond of her after their awkward encounter, other servants probably don't have time to talk to Adele's teacher, and Mr Rochester appears intimidating... Poor Jane.
  • In The Backwater Gospel, the town gives the Tramp this sort of treatment. Not that the Tramp seems to mind, finding joy in messing with them, especially the Minister. That is, until he becomes The Scapegoat, and the Minister orders an Angry Mob to stone him to death.
  • In Chadam, Viceroy, born deformed, was ostracized from the start, even as a baby.
  • Echo Rose: The people of Nettlebrook are...not very welcoming to Echo, to say the least; at best the people stare, and at worst they outright bully her.
  • In The Gamer's Alliance, the half-elf Shyralis was bullied by other elves because of her mixed blood and scary looks. She took the abuse for as long as she could, but eventually she snapped and lashed out with her magic, killing a group of young elves who had been tormenting her. She ran away and eventually ended up on a dark path of full-blown villainy.
  • Tissues from Inanimate Insanity is generally disliked by everyone in-universe. Soap and Trophy in particular are the worst cases; the former fears Tissues and avoids him like the Plague (or dare we say...the condishawn?), while the latter bullies him and even wished death on him in the first episode! Even the viewers disliked him, leading to his early elimination. That said, in recent years, he's gained a small following due to his sympathetic nature.
  • The Moon Moon meme portrays a mentally challenged wolf as this to the rest of his pack.
  • The Onion:
    • Entire Fourth Grade Class Hates Jeremy Halcote: Even the reporter doesn't like him.
      "I'm not sure whether Halcote's eccentric behavior results from or is the reason for his ostracism," Newcomb said. "Frankly, I don't care."
    • Deciding Vote On Wetlands Preservation Bill Rests With The Littlest Senator transfers this kind of children's book setup into the world of US Politics.
      Ever since he was sworn into Congress in January, Peabody, who represents the nation's littlest state, has not been taken seriously by his Senate colleagues, many of whom are big, important politicians from big, important states like Texas and California. When Peabody arrived at the U.S. Capitol for the first time, the bigger senators took one look at him and laughed.
      "That's a senator?" Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) said. "Why, he could get lost in my shirt pocket! What a pipsqueak!"
      "I can't see how he could possibly influence legislation," Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) said. "One thing's for certain: We won't let him join in any Senate games."
  • SCP Foundation: A now-deleted earlier version of SCP-1926 consists of over five dozen Living Toys known as "the Mewts", who apparently live to watch over children and serve as "protectors of everything we hold dear". One of the Mewts, known as "Flopsy", is ostracized by the others because "Flopsy failed to protect us."
  • Damien Carter-Madison is a villainous example from Survival of the Fittest. He even made a hit list of all the people he wanted to take out.
  • Happens repeatedly to teenagers in the Whateley Universe who become mutants. Aquerna couldn't even go home for Christmas vacation because her family didn't want her around. She looked perfectly normal and has low-end powers. But it works the other way too: Phase seems to be ostracized by a lot of the students at Whateley Academy because he is a Goodkind, and his family are the most famous, most influential mutant-haters on the planet.
  • In Worm, trigger events nearly always have an element of isolation to them. Unless the superpowers came from Cauldron. Of particular note is the protagonist's trigger event, which came about from being trapped in a locked full of used tampons and pads after being bullied incessantly by her former best friend. Said former best friend would enlist the rest of the school to help bully the protagonist, and as a result she had no friends for over a year prior to the events of the story.
  • In Wormwood Institute, the "foreign exchange students" (read: students who transfer into Wormwood from other schools, regardless if they're from outside the US or not) are treated as outcasts by the other students due to their non-conformity.


Alternative Title(s): All The Other Reindeer

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All Of The Other Reindeer (Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 1948)

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games!

How well does it match the trope?

4.85 (13 votes)

Example of:

Main / AllOfTheOtherReindeer

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