Basic Trope: Two species ordinarily in a predator/prey relationship become friends with each other.
- Straight: Harry the hyena makes friends with Zoe the zebra.
- Exaggerated:
- Harry the hyena and Zoe the zebra are in a romantic relationship.
- Predator Turned Protector
- There are several predator and prey animals that are best friends with each other.
- Downplayed:
- Harry the hyena and Zoe the zebra are casual acquaintances and mostly get along okay, but aren't necessarily friends.
- Pete the polar bear becomes friends with Zoe the zebra. The two species don't actually share a predator/prey relationship on account of them not even living in the same ecosystem, but the scenario still plays out.
- Justified:
- In this setting, animals have grown beyond the need to hunt each other for food, so them becoming friends can occur.
- Harry and Zoe have known each other since pup/foalhood, as far as they can see they are part of the same pack/herd.
- Inverted:
- Animal Jingoism
- Two species that are ordinarily in a symbiotic relationship are bitter enemies.
- Subverted: Harry and Zoe are mistaken for friends, but it turns out they don't actually know each other.
- Double Subverted: They become friends later on.
- Parodied: Clara the cow makes friends with a sentient blade of grass.
- Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Harry and Zoe are friends seems to depend on the writer.
- Averted: No predator/prey animals make friends with each other.
- Enforced: The story wants to set up An Aesop on how it's okay to have friends different than you.
- Lampshaded: "Hyenas and zebras living together! Mass hysteria!"
- Invoked:
- Someone introduces Harry and Zoe to each other, and tells them about how much they have in common.
- Harry doesn't want to be seen as "bad" because of his species, so he makes friends with a prey animal to make himself look better.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: "I'm not making friends with a predator! What if he tries to eat me or something?"
- Discussed: "I guess it's a good sign when they haven't tried to eat each other yet."
- Conversed: "How come the zebra and the hyena are best friends in that one cartoon? I thought hyenas ate zebras in real life!"
- Implied: A hyena and a zebra are recurring extras that receive little to no characterization, but they are often seen acting friendly with each other.
- Played for Laughs: Harry still keeps his natural hunger, and on occasion tries to take a bite out of Zoe. Zoe always manages to elude him, and the two maintain a friendship as if nothing were abnormal about it.
- Played for Drama:
- Harry and Zoe want to be friends, but Fantastic Racism looks down on positive interspecies relationships - especially between animals that have predator/prey relationships in reality.
- Zoe finds out that Harry is only friends with her in order to make himself look better (as described in Invoked), and this strains their friendship.
- Played for Horror: Harry is trying to be friends with Zoe, but has a nearly irresistible Horror Hunger and keeps trying to eat her.
Back to Predator-Prey Friendship
