Playing With / Hypocritical Heartwarming

Basic Trope: Person A heaps abuse on Person B, but when Person C tries the same thing on Person B, Person A leaps to their defence.

• Straight: Alice is constantly calling Bob lazy and fat, but when Charlie calls Bob fat? Alice springs up, saying, "Hey! Only I can call Bob fat!"
• Exaggerated:
  • Alice never says a single good thing about Bob. Ever. But when someone remarks, fairly neutrally, "You're awfully tall..." Alice springs up, saying, "Nobody is allowed to talk about my Bobby-wobbykins that way but me!" And then gives said person a Megaton Punch.
  • All of Bob's so called friends do nothing but heap insults on him, but will ruthlessly attack anyone else who says anything slightly rude about him.
  • Alice doesn't even let Bob says nasty things about himself.
  • Alice goes on a rant about Bob, but gets mad at Charlie for casually agreeing with her.
• Downplayed: Alice sometimes complains about Bob's weight, but gets angry when Charlie insults him about it.
• Justified:
  • Alice knows Bob well, and knows he'd rather hear the tough truth than a white lie. But while Alice does it out of genuine concern, Charlie is just trying to be insulting.
  • Alice knew Bob never took offense on her insults. After all, Bob had no qualms in dishing out barbs of his own.
  • Alice's name calling is affectionate despite sounding rude at first glance. Bob knows it and he's also into it. However, she has no patience with those whom are genuinely rude with her friend.
  • Alice just has Moral Myopia.
  • Alice is Bob's sister and messing with each other is pretty standard among siblings; anyone else trying to partake in the dynamic unprompted is an intruder that sparks the Big Sister Instinct.
  • Alice is a strict classist; she wouldn't allow a commoner like Charlie to insult a noble like Bob.
  • Alice is a Tsundere.
  • Bob is willing to throw Alice's barbs back into her face but not Charlie's, thus Alice must insult him instead.
• Inverted:
  • Everyone else insults Bob mercilessly, but when Alice offhandedly mentions that Bob's getting a little chubby, a random stranger stops to defend him.
  • Alice is always polite to Bob, but is glad when other people insult him and might even encourage them when he isn't around.
• Subverted: Charlie insults Bob. Alice goes, "HEY!...Charlie, buddy! I haven't seen you in ages!"
• Double Subverted:
  • She then punches him. "And that's for saying nasty things about Bob!"
  • Alice let Charlie insult Bob because Charlie is part of the group. Any outsider will endure her wrath.
• Parodied: Charlie calls Bob a "Fat, lazy slacker!" Alice's response: "HEY!...Bob's not a slacker!"
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: Charlie insults Bob, but Alice doesn't say anything.
• Enforced: "We need to show the audience that Alice cares about Bob, possibly in that way/ Having her get angry when someone else taunts Bob is the perfect way to show that."
• Lampshaded: Charlie says, "Oh—I point out how you've put on maybe five pounds, and I'm Satan himself, but she calls you an obese warthog and it's all good? What's up with that?"
• Invoked: ???
• Exploited: Crystal and Dean are Shippers on Deck for Alice and Bob, and know that Alice likes him, so they intentionally create a situation where Alice forces herself to admit that she has some sort of soft spot for him (while Bob is in earshot) in order to bring the two closer together.
• Defied:
  • Alice refuses to defend Bob, because she knows Charlie's criticisms are true and she thinks Bob needs to hear it from someone who doesn't always harp on him so he gets the point.
  • Bob: "Oh, the hell with both of you, piece-of-shit bullies!"
• Discussed:
  Alice: "Hey! You can't say those things to Bob!"
  Bob: "And what makes you think you can?! I didn't like it when he did it, and I certainly don't like it when you do it!"
  Alice: "But you never react to it, though..."
  Bob: "Because I can't complain about it every time you do it. If I could, I'd have been hoarse by the third time I met you."
• Conversed: "It's kinda funny how Charlie calling me 'chubby' bothers me, but you calling me an 'obese warthog' never does."
• Deconstructed:
  • When Alice is defending him, Bob realizes her hypocrisy—she insults him all the time! Why should she get away with it? Realizing that he's fed up with her treatment of him, he:
    a) Stops hanging out with her.
    b) Sees right through Alice, and, although he has flaws as she points out, that doesn't outweigh Alice's flaw - hypocrisy. Knowing they enjoyed insulting him together, Bob begins to snap and gives both Alice and Charlie the brutal, well-deserved beatdown of a lifetime. c) Give his "friend" some mild insults, or very harsh criticism. Surprised at this, Alice breaks down into tears, leaving Bob remorseful for his actions.
  • Alice doesn't care if Bob gets insulted, just that only she can do so because of authority or power. So if someone says something mean to Bob that she said, she doesn't care about his feelings, only that someone's stepping on her territory.
• Reconstructed:
  • ...But then he realizes that no one else is ever honest with him about his flaws, leading to his interactions with other people becoming awkward. He and Alice reconcile, and she agrees to tone it down (while still being just blunt enough).
  • After the beatdown, Bob is taken to prison, while Alice and Charlie rejoice, only for Alice to beat up Charlie because she should be the one to rejoice at Bob's sentence.
  • Bob comes to apologize to Alice, but Alice says that Bob was right and both aren't so different after all. They become best friends again and start to help each other with their flaws from that point on.
  • ...Alice, during her breakdown, blames Charlie for destroying her friendship with Bob, even though she was the one who killed it by her hypocrisy.

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