Basic Trope: A blended family doesn't get along.
- Straight: Alice Alton, a single mother, marries Bob Boone, a single father. Alice's son Allen and Bob's daughter Beatrice don't get along, while Alice and Bob struggle to connect to their spouse's child.
- Exaggerated: Allen and Beatrice regularly attempt to kill each other because they’re stepsiblings.
- Downplayed: The Alton-Boones have some struggles, but no more then any normal biological family.
- Justified: Allen and Beatrice were classmates who didn’t like each other, so when their parents got married, they had problems getting adjusted to the new situation.
- Inverted: The blended family of Alice, Bob, Allen, and Beatrice get along swimmingly, and are much healthier than any of the "traditional" non-blended families in the work.
- Subverted:
- When Alice brings Allen to meet Bob and Beatrice, Allen and Beatrice glare at each other before proceeding to hug...
- Upon learning Allen has a stepfather and stepsister, Carol and Dennis assume that he doesn't get along with them, but Allen assures them that they get along fine...
- Double Subverted:
- ...and then Beatrice judo-flips Allen to the ground, and they keep bickering.
- ...until Carol and Dennis pay the Alton-Boones a visit and catch Allen and Bob yelling at each other, and Alice off to the side with her head in her hands.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: Depending on the Writer, some days the Alton-Boones have trouble adjusting to their new setup, other days they are perfectly functional.
- Averted:
- No blended families are present in the work.
- The Alton-Boones don't have any trouble getting along as a functional family.
- Enforced: The editors think Alice's personal life is too boring, so they have the writers add a blended-family angle.
- Lampshaded: "Why is getting along in a blended family so hard?"
- Invoked: Allen and Beatrice bicker because they think it's the "proper" thing for stepsiblings to do based on the Dom Coms they've been watching.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice and Bob give their children separate lectures about getting along with their new stepparent and stepsibling, because they "don't want to be like those blended families on TV who are always fighting."
- Discussed: "Don't give up hope, Alice. In Dom Coms, the blended family always gets along eventually."
- Conversed: "Ever notice how blended families in Dom Coms never get along right away? What's up with that?
- Implied: Alice tells Allen that "it's so good that you get along with Bob and Beatrice now," but doesn't elaborate beyond this.
- Played for Laughs: The family's dysfunction is ramped up to Black Comedy violence.
- Played for Drama:
- The tension between the Alton-Boones comes to a boiling point that strains Alice and Bob's marriage and takes a toll on their mental health.
- The Altons had a very ugly divorce, complete with abuse and infidelity. Allen is still scarred from that ugly chapter of his life, and is dismayed by his mother's attempt to pretend it never happened. Beatrice for her part has no idea why Allen is so resentful towards her.
- Played for Horror: Allen is uneasy about his mother's marriage to Bob...because he knows Bob is secretly an Humanoid Abomination and Beatrice is his loyal servant posing as his daughter.
Back to Blended Family Drama.
