Basic Trope: An outsider questions why one person has a friend that the other regards as less respect-worthy in some fashion.
- Straight: Steven Ulysses Perhero is a Flying Brick; his best friend Charlie is a Muggle. A lot of people wonder why Steven hangs out with Charlie.
- Exaggerated:
- Steven Ulysses Perhero is a nigh-omnipotent Reality Warper; his best friend Charlie is Delicate and Sickly. The whole world pressures him to dump Charlie and find someone more impressive.
- The above, but it's more like what does Steven see in his loser lover Charlie that even keeps the two together as a couple?
- Downplayed: Steven Ulysses Perhero is a Flying Brick; Charlie is a Muggle, but a very Badass Normal Muggle. A few people still wonder why Steven hangs out with Charlie.
- Justified:
- Charlie doesn't contribute at all and even gets in the way whenever Steven tries to help the greater good. People try to talk Steven out of being Charlie's friend because all Charlie does is drag him down.
- Conversely, Charlie is very helpful to Steven — but in ways that aren't obvious (e.g. being a secret keeper, providing emotional support, offering brutal truths when every else is too scared of Steven's superpowers to do so). But because the public doesn't see that, they think he's useless.
- Dr. Evilstein, who's wondering about the friendship, is a sociopath; Charlie is too weak for Steven to need him for pragmatic reasons (at least, most of the time) and Dr. Evilstein can't think of any reason Steven would want to hang around Charlie unless he can use him somehow.
- Inverted: Charlie is seen as "crazy" and "reckless" for being friends with Steven, a Flying Brick.
- Subverted: Then Charlie develops a number of superpowers of his own that make him just as formidable as Steven, earning everyone's respect and approval.
- Double Subverted: But then he sacrifices them to save Steven from a Death Trap. Now the populace feels just the way they always have about him.
- Parodied: Steven has never actually done anything with his superpowers, but he takes all the credit whenever his Badass Normal friend Charlie stops a supervillain - about every week or so. Charlie's friends wonder why he's still friendly towards Steven.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Their friendship doesn't draw any questions and no one thinks Charlie is any less of a badass than Steven.
- Enforced: In the original script, Steven doesn't have any friends besides other supers. The producers mandate that Charlie be rewritten as Steven's friend to make Steven more of a "people's hero".
- Lampshaded: "Yeah, I get those questions all the time - he's a badass, I'm not, why are we friends again?"
- Invoked: Charlie sets out to become the superhero Steven's friend because he himself is an attention whore and wants to be in the spotlight no matter what it takes or what exactly people think of him.
- Exploited: Alice the ace reporter finds Steven & Charlie's friendship odd and uses it as an excuse to interview Steven to learn what their relationship is like, suspicious that Charlie's actually up to something and may be taking advantage of Steven.
- Defied:
- People actively promote Charlie's friendship with Steven.
- Charlie and Steven put their feet down hard and make clear that, yeah, they're an Odd Couple but they are friends, what's it to you people? People decide it's not a good idea (especially for the sake of their health) to continue to question this relationship.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: Steven and Charlie are normal roommates, and while reading Superman, Charlie remarks to Steven, "Why exactly is Superman friends with Jimmy Olsen again?"
- Implied: Nobody says anything, but they always give Charlie weird looks whenever they walk away from him and Steven.
Ew, you hang out with Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders? How are you even friends with such a mouthful?
