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The Un-Favourite
aka: The Un Favorite

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And the father prefers his dog, Only Son. Poor, poor Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

"You ever hear Dad introduce us to people? [brightly] 'This is our daughter, Dottie. [disgustedly] And this is our other daughter... Dottie's sister.' Should have just had you and bought a dog."

The nasty end of Parental Favoritism is when one child is neglected over the other(s). When there is a first banana, there is a second banana. That's The Un-Favorite — the child in the family who can just never seem to catch a break.

This is the child who's the big let-down to their parents, the daughter that was supposed to be a son (or vice-versa), the child the parents had by accident when they'd already decided they didn't need another mouth to feed or they wanted to be done raising children, the adoptive, foster, or stepchild that came before the parents had a biological child, the illegitimate child conceived by infidelity on the part of one of the parents (if not even worse). But all in all, this is basically the kid who is always getting the short-end of the stick. In some extreme cases, this may cause Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling, especially if one sibling is forced into service to the other.

A regular line that may be entailed with this is a variant of, "Honestly, [name], why can't you be more like [favorite's name]?"

Frequently, being the Unfavorite is a Freudian Excuse for a character who's a particularly pathetic loser. If the Parental Favoritism was garden variety (or even a product of his/her imagination), PG-rated Wangst, this is probably being played for comedy, a weak excuse for being a failure. If the favoritism was particularly vicious, however, up to and including abuse, the Unfavorite becomes a more tragic character — most probably The Woobie. Sometimes, however, the Unfavorite is almost suspiciously well-adjusted.

A variant is where the Unfavorite is actually highly successful and dutiful, but can never get the approval of his parents, simply because their sibling will always do "better" in their parents' eyes. ("Hey look, Dad, I won the Nobel Prize for Physics!" "Only one? That's nothin' — your brother won Employee of the Month at Shop 'n Go 3 times!"). The Unfavorite doesn't need to play second fiddle to an actual sibling, and can even be an only child. Unfavorites without a sibling are often unwanted or unexpected children and can even, in perhaps an extreme case, be passed over for the family pet.

The audience's attitude towards the Unfavorite is often based on what age the character is. An adult character who's an Unfavorite will be treated by the audience with empathy, albeit with the implication that they really should have gotten over this by now. A child Unfavorite, on the other hand, is likely to get the audience's unreserved support.

Age notwithstanding, this is usually a character you sympathize with on some level or another, because we're supposed to root for the disadvantaged; expect the favorite either to be rubbing their status in their sibling's face, be an Aloof Big Brother, or completely unaware of the situation. It is, however, completely possible that the character is interpreting some behavior as favoritism — and the other character also regards himself as the Unfavorite. (Cue Sibling Rivalry.) Also, another possible situation is that the favorite is indeed aware of the situation, sympathize with the Unfavorite, and may even start the "talk with the parents" scene about how this is supremely unfair.

And Heaven help the poor kid if the favorite child is dead (possibly having received the status of "favorite" by dying). See also You Should Have Died Instead. The same thing goes if the Unfavorite was a result of Death by Childbirth, where the family hates the kid for "murdering" their mother.

A middle child can feel like this. Can easily escalate into Black Sheep or Cain and Abel, or in particularly nasty cases, one or both of the parents having a go at offing the Unfavorite offspring. May be rooted in a Death by Childbirth. May cross over with "Well Done, Son" Guy if the Unfavorite wants some recognition. If the favorite of the parents isn't even a member of their family, it's a case of Why Are You Not My Son?. When each parent has one favorite and one Unfavorite, it's Jacob and Esau. In a workplace situation, see Boss's Unfavorite Employee. When the parent(s) die, can become the Disinherited Child. When even the family pet is preferred over the unwanted child, they are Treated Worse than the Pet. If this causes bad blood between the parent and their child, see Hates Their Parent.

These types are viewed as concrete and unchanging. However, if Abusive Parents are brought into the equation, there's a Popularity Cycle involved, where one kid will be elevated above the other in a circular motion. If the un-favorite child ends up winning in life while beloved siblings end up in less favorable positions, they are the Dark Horse Sibling.


Examples:

Works with their own subpages:

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    Comic Strips 
  • April from For Better or for Worse was the Black Sheep and completely ignored by almost her entire family (the main exception being her grandfather). The fact that she's regarded by much of the Hatedom as being the strip's Only Sane Man is probably very much related to this fact.
    • Making this even harsher, creator Lynn Johnson admitted that the Patterson family was based on her own, and that April represented the second daughter she wanted but never had. Apparently that went out the window, since as noted above, April is often the victim of Informed Wrongness.
  • Peter Fox from FoxTrot tends to be this in the Fox Family.
    • All three of the Fox kids do crazy things. Peter, being the oldest, tends to draw more attention since his zany antics include things like driving like a maniac, skipping homework, playing a guitar loudly and badly, and wrecking the house by throwing a football around indoors. In comparison, Paige's obsessive shopping, Jason's scientific screw-ups, and their mutual back-and-forth teasing is kind of small potatoes.
  • When his older brother Chad is visiting from college, Jeremy from the strip Zits seems to fall into this.
    • This wasn't helped by early depictions of Chad, which gave him a gleaming, perfect smile, the rest of his head unable to be seen, atop a perfect body to go with the notion that he could do no wrong. Later depictions make him look... like Jeremy with a beard.

    Fairy Tales 
  • Many The Brothers Grimm'''s like "Cinderella" or "Mother Holle" feature a Wicked Stepmother favoring her biological daughters over her unfortunate and abused stepdaughter.
  • Tales like Charles Perrault's "Diamonds and Toads", Andrew Lang's "Tritill, Litill, and the Birds" or Alexander Afanasyev's "Morozko" take it even further by having biological parents doting on one of their children while mistreating their remainder offspring.
  • There are a number of tales where the youngest daughter of a king becomes the unfavorite of her father when she does something that displeases him (compares her love of him to salt in bread, refuses to acknowledge that he is more fortunate and rich than God, etc). This inevitably results in him banishing her, her setting off to seek her fortune, and eventually meeting her father again, after he has to eat his words and forgive her.
  • In certain fairy tales, a king and queen have many sons, all of whom become unfavorites in favor of a soon-to-be-born daughter, to the point of them being planned to be killed. They escape, and eventually are joined by their innocent sister.

    Music 
  • The premise of the song "Better Version of You" by Paul and Storm is the parents informing The Unfavorite that his unborn sibling will be the favorite.
  • The song "Lonely Boy" by Andrew Gold is about a boy who believes he's this after his younger sister is born and his mother tells him they need to attend to her needs because she's a baby. He ultimately leaves home six months after his eighteenth birthday "to find the love he had lost." (Many of the details match up with Andrew Gold's own life, but Gold has denied the song being autobiographical.)
  • Jonathan Aaron Steel, the protagonist of WASP's epic concept album The Crimson Idol is this, forever unfavourably compared to his brother Michael, and the problem intensifies after Michael's tragic death.
  • "Jesse Younger" by country musician Kris Kristofferson deals with a man named Jessie Younger who is in all but name disowned by his parents over a disagreement over his differing lifestyle and beliefs and as a result his younger brother is treated as if he is his parent's only son.
  • Song "Remember Everything" by Five Finger Death Punch is about a person feeling unloved by their family:
    Oh, dear mother, I love you
    I'm sorry, I wasn't good enough
    Dear father, forgive me
    'Cause in your eyes, I just never added up
    In my heart I know I failed you
    But you left me here alone
    If I could hold back the rain
    Would you numb the pain
    'Cause I remember everything
    If I could help you forget
    Would you take my regrets
    'Cause I remember everything.

    Podcasts 
  • Jake quickly becomes this for McGonagall in the Cool Kids Table Harry Potter-themed game Hogwarts: The New Class for doing the most stupid antics during their Diagon Alley trip.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • CHIKARA: Crossbones in The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, as UltraMantis Black would fawn over Hydra, Tim Donst and Delirious while ignoring or belittling Crossbones, as seen in this promo from CHIKARA Three-Fisted Tales, November 22, 2009. This is despite the fact that Crossbones was the only one who was loyal, as Hydra left, and Delirious and Tim Donst (disguised as Vökoder) both turned on Mantis and joined Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes, and that Crossbones was usually the Only Sane Man of the group.

    Religion & Mythology 
  • Classical Mythology: Among the children of Zeus and Hera, Hephaestus easily wins the prize for "least favored". This is illustrated in Hera throwing him off Olympus at birth because he was so ugly. Ares is a close second, hated for representing war's violence and bloodshed while Athena is heralded for embodying the leadership and tactics of warfare.
  • The first book of the Pentateuch, the Book of Genesis could practically be retitled The Book of the Unfavorite.
    • Cain and Abel is one of the oldest Trope Namers.
    • Noah made Caanan his Unfavorite grandson.
    • Abraham treated Ishmael as a Red-Headed Stepchild, and Sarah treated him as a usurping bastard, despite the fact that he was conceived legitimately (for the time) and it was Sarah's idea. He didn't treat his six sons born to Keturah, the wife he took after Sarah died, any better, sending them "to the east" out of the Promised Land. Isaac was not only his parents' favorite, he was God's favorite too. To be fair, God did send an angel to save Ishmael and his mother from dying in the desert.
    • Isaac either learned nothing or learned too well; he and Rebekah literally gave birth to another Trope Namer, Jacob and Esau.
    • And Jacob keeps the pattern going. All his sons except Joseph were considered The Unfavorite, as Jacob lavished Joseph with a special coat that made his other sons jealous. When Jacob believes Joseph has been killed, Joseph's other full brother Benjamin became the center of their father's attention. In Jacob's case, he's furthering Polygamous Favoritism: practically the first thing we learn of Leah, his first wife, is that "Leah was not loved." Things don't really improve for her, either. This does not escape God's notice, for He blesses her with strong fertility, resulting in many children.
    • Even Joseph tries to uphold the family tradition: when Jacob, now Israel, starts to give his right-hand (i.e. primary) blessing to Joseph's younger son Ephraim over the older, Manessah, Joseph tries to stop him. Israel doesn't listen; apparently, YHWH is still favoring one kid over the others.
  • King Saul of Israel viewed himself as this when compared to David. In this case, however, Saul had actively made himself this by disobeying God repeatedly and even then God still made it clear that Saul was to be treated as his anointed king until he personally removed him. David never over-stepped his bounds and, despite having many opportunities to do so, never tried to kill Saul lest he also lose God's favor.
    • David himself was this among his brothers, as his father Jesse didn't even invite him to the sacrifice that Samuel the prophet was hosting until Samuel looked through the sons and, the Lord not finding one among them that was to be anointed as the future king of Israel, asks Jesse if he still has another son.
    • The elder son in the parable of the Prodigal Son, feeling bad because his father was rejoicing over the lost son returning safely.
  • In Catholicism, Saint Therese of Lisieux's sister Léonie was always the odd one out. Sickly, learning-disabled, possibly autistic, she'd been repeatedly beaten by a servant as a toddler. She was regarded as an embarrassment to her own family. The other "perfect" sisters all went into the Carmelite order. Finally making it as a sister of the Visitation of Caen after several tries at various convents, Léonie completed her life happily. There is a movement now to make her a saint of unfavorites, marginalized people, and autistics. There is even a mission of sisters called the Léonie League, which proposes to found a new religious order especially for autistic monks and nuns.
  • In His famous "Sermon on the Mount", Jesus states that even those who have been saved can be this in the eyes of God if they only do the bare minimum by accepting Him as their savior but fail to do good works in life or properly follow His teachings. You'll still be recognized as His child and allowed into Heaven, but as the "Least in Heaven". You don't get any of the Five Crowns from God, none of the additional honours The Son may want for you. You end up little more than a servant in paradise, and don't inherit any authority or treasures that the proper children of God do. Still preferable to the alternative, however.

    Sports 
  • New York baseball has two teams. The Yankees, perennial playoff contenders, 27 time world champions, famous as all hell...and the Mets. Note that for a large number of New Yorkers, this makes the Mets the favorites, because of their historical status as pitiable, lovable losers most of the time, while the Yankees have been perpetually successful. It's also worth noting that the Mets' fandom originated out of the fanbases of New York's old National League teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. After the Dodgers and Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively in 1957, the heartbroken fanbases were given the Mets as a Consolation Prize in 1962, eventually evolving into the Mets fandom we see today.
  • New York is much worse when it comes to their basketball teams. The Manhattan-based New York Knicks are the most valuable team in the NBA, get a ton of press, and regularly sell out all of their games no matter what their record is. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets are largely an afterthought in the media and they've often struggled to get fans in the seats. The reason for this is mainly due to them historically being marketed as a New Jersey team (leaving the Knicks to have free reign of the city) before they relocated to downtown Brooklyn in 2012. This dynamic was best displayed during the 2020-21 season. The Nets became one of the favorites for the championship following their acquisitions of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden and NYC largely did not care because the Knicks experienced a resurgence under a core of young players the team drafted and just made the playoffs for the first time in a decade. When playoff tickets went on sale to the public, the Knicks sold theirs out in ten minutes while the Nets had to resort to offering discounts in order to fill their arena, even with limited capacity due to the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • Chicago has traditionally been the opposite. While the city itself is arguably split between North Siders favoring the Cubs and South Siders favoring the White Sox, the Cubs have generally been more popular nationwide in part because of their "lovable loser" perception. The White Sox broke their long World Series drought first, in 2005, and were almost immediately relegated back to second-tier status long before the Cubs finally ended their drought in 2016.
  • Los Angeles has two pro basketball teams: The Lakers, 17-time league champions and home to some of the greatest players in the game's history... and the Clippers, who have long been one of the biggest jokes in sports.
    • That was until Clippers owner Donald Sterling's infamous meltdown, resulting in the team changing hands and securing real talent and a strong head coach. This change came about right when Lakers star Kobe Bryant began to decline and his team fell out of contention, and with the Clippers becoming regular playoff contenders, they began selling out.
  • Los Angeles also has the Dodgers. 6-Time World Champs and another of Baseball's most celebrated squads. And then they have the Angels, a sad-sack expansion team who, for four decades, could never catch a break. The Angels came out of nowhere and won the 2002 world series which brought the team to prominence. Both teams are now respectable draws and sell out most of their games.
  • Then there's Los Angeles and the NFL. The Rams, who had been in town since 1946, won a title in 1951, and had re-emerged as title contenders in the 1970s, quickly became the unfavorite when the Raiders came to town in 1982 and won the Super Bowl in just their second season. The Raiders were so popular that the NHL's Los Angeles Kings replaced the purple and gold they had shared with the Lakers (who were still in the midst of their Showtime dynasty) with the Raiders' silver and black color scheme. The Raiders and Rams only left town in 1995 because neither team could get public funding for a new stadium, and the Rams returned in 2016 because their current owner decided to build one with his own money.
    • The Chargers were immediately the unfavorite to the Rams in 1960, drawing less than 10,000 to games and having to play the AFL Championship Game on the road as a result, prompting their move to San Diego in 1961. Their move back in 2017 has them as second-class citizens to the Rams once again, as the only venue willing to take them on a temporary basis is a 27,000-seat soccer stadium (the NFL had to waive its 50,000 minimum capacity rule), plus they'll be tenants to the Rams once the Hollywood Park stadium is completed.
  • In the NFL, Eli Manning was treated this way by the sports media, compared to his older, record breaking, Super Bowl winning brother Peyton Manning whom the sports media treated like quarterback royalty. This became subverted, after Eli lead the New York Giants to a Superbowl victory against Tom Brady's New England Patriots in the 2007-2008 season, when the team seemed unbeatable and was one win away from completing a perfect season. He did it again against the same team in 2011-2012 season, surpassing his older brother and finally getting the sports media's respect. Unfortunately for Eli, that respect didn't last very long, as the Giants quickly fell out of contention, while Peyton was able to close out his career leading the Denver Broncos to victory in Super Bowl 50, earning his second ring.

    Tabletop Games 
  • BattleTech has Kathrine Steiner-Davion. The second child of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner-Davion, she grew up thinking that Hanse favored her older brother Victor over her (despite the fact that Victor was raised on another planet from her and her father). In fact, she was a spoiled Royal Brat who was indulged by both her parents while Victor joined the military as soon as he was old enough and lived a fairly austere lifestyle. This wasn't enough for her, as she wasn't the heir to the kingdom (despite her actively avoiding meeting the mandatory military service needed to become eligible).
  • Warhammer has the Beasts of Chaos, the first children of the Dark Gods. Since they are unable to do anything not Chaos-related, while the humans who offer their devotion to Chaos do so willingly, the Dark Gods provide boons and power to the humans while the Beastmen are left to squat in the mud and kill things. Unsurprisingly, they are not happy about this.

    Theater 
  • In Eugene O'Neill's Brighton Beach Memoirs, the main subplot centers around a prolonged spat between the main protagonist's cousin Nora and Nora's mother, apparently about Nora wanting to audition for a Broadway play and her mother saying no. At the end of the play, Nora finally admits that the audition was just the final straw, and that the real root of her anger and frustration is that she feels like ever since her father died (and really even to some extent before that), she's been an afterthought to her mother, who focuses a disproportionate amount of attention on Nora's sickly sister Laurie.
    Nora: I can’t even talk to you. I don’t exist to you. I have tried so hard to get close to you, but there was never any room. Whatever you had to give went to Daddy, and when he died, whatever was left you gave to [Laurie]... I used to pray I’d get some terrible disease or get hit by a car, so I’d have a leg all twisted and crippled and then once, maybe just once, I’d get to crawl into bed next to you on a cold rainy night and talk to you and hold you until I fell asleep in your arms.
  • Cinderella (Lloyd Webber): The Queen makes it no secret in "Man's Man" that she favors Prince Sebastian's brother Charming over him, but now that Charming's disappeared, the kingdom has to make do with him.
  • Happy Loman in Death of a Salesman.
  • The title character of Sophocles' Electra is neglected and abused by her mother and stepfather. She loathes them both and isn't terribly hesistant about letting it be known. Orestes is also the unfavorite, but has been in exile since childhood so it's not as obvious.
  • Cordelia becomes this in King Lear when she refuses to kiss up to her father. Of course, he realizes she's the only one who really loves him after all three of his daughters die, and just before he dies himself of grief.
    • Edmund, the younger, illegitimate son of Gloucester, uses a forged letter to discredit his older half-brother Edgar and seize control of his father's estate and position.
  • In The Lion in Winter, Richard is Henry's Unfavorite. John is Eleanor's Unfavorite. Geoffrey, poor guy, is the Unfavorite to both.
  • The Broadway show Next to Normal features this trope spectacularly with the song "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" after it is revealed that the son has been dead the whole time, died when he was eighteen months old, but he haunts the mother throughout the show. She perceives him as a perfect son (while he really has just as many issues as the rest of the family), leaving the living daughter a wreck.
  • In The Taming of the Shrew, Baptista obviously prefers Bianca to Katerina. However, it's not clear whether Katerina's Hair-Trigger Temper caused this or was caused by it.
  • Elphaba in Wicked was blamed by her father for her sister's condition and their mother's death. There's also his words upon seeing Elphaba for the first time. "Take it away. TAKE IT AWAY!"

    Visual Novels 
  • In Fate/stay night Shinji is unwanted by Zouken, who views him as an amusing toy at best because he isn't a magus, making him largely worthless to his grandfather's plans. Shinji's resentment is why he's turned into such a bastard in the present instead of just being kind of annoying like he was in middle school. The weird thing is that he knows perfectly well that being the favorite is actually much, much worse, but he doesn't really care.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry: Shion Sonozaki, though much of her ill treatment comes from Oryou, her cruel grandmother. It doesn't end well for her as she becomes Shion's first target in the Cotton Drifting and Eye-Opening chapters.
    • Saddest part? She's supposed to be the favorite. She and her twin sister Mion did the Twin Switch at the wrong time, causing the wrong twin to be tattooed with the mark identifying her as the family heir.
  • Shizune Hakamichi turns out to be this in Katawa Shoujo, due to being deaf-mute and thus "not normal" in the eyes of her Jerkass father Jigoro.
  • Little Busters! has Haruka compared to her twin sister, Kanata. Though it turns out eventually that even if they were favored, the other sibling wasn't much happier.
  • Subverted in Tsukihime. Shiki really was the unfavorite of Makihisa and upon being wounded was promptly disinherited and kicked out. However, that's because not only were they not related - therefore making Shiki incapable of becoming the Tohno family head - Shiki was the son of Nanaya, the guy whose family Makihisa just killed off. He was kept around to take care of SHIKI (Makihisa's favorite) if he happened to Invert.

    Web Original 
  • Tacoma from Demo Reel has a big family, and just about all of them abuse him emotionally for being a White Sheep who brought down his dad's ponzi scheme.
  • Cooler in Dragon Ball Z Abridged takes what Cooler implied about himself in Z and makes it explicit he is this compared to his younger brother Freeza, who was always favored and spoiled by their father King Cold. Goku actually shows sympathy for how his father treated him, and one of the few ways to get under his skin is to compare him to Freeza in any way, shape or form.
    "My brother would have stood around postulating and claiming his victory like some haughty greenhorn child. I know what it takes to get the job done. Which is why father should have...!"
  • The Faceless Ghost in Escape from Eden Park is an angry, spiteful spirit, holding onto her anger and jealousy at her older sister, who overshadowed her while they were both alive.
  • A common trope in many Gacha Life videos, to the point where it's become its own genre.
  • Strong Sad serves this to Strong Bad from Homestar Runner
  • In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, Magnus the Red is pretty clearly Emperor's least favorite son (aside from Fucking Horus). Magnus certainly feels that way.
    Custodian: Oh! So... Everything is Magnus's fault?
    God-Emperor: DEFINITELY. IF I COULD, I'D BRUTALLY SPANK MAGNUS UNTIL HIS ASS WOULD TURN SO RED THAT HIS FACE WOULD LOOK PALE IN COMPARISON.
    • He also seems to hate his other son, Roboute, ordering to have his life support cut the moment he hears that he's still semi-alive.
    • In fact, he seems to hate all his Primarch sons, save Sanguinius. Compounding the massive issues the Emperor had with his children as stated above in the canonical universe, he sees himself as a great father and fails to realize why any of them should have rebelled (he fondly recalls the above incident with Angron as fucking hilarious, just for starters) and when bitterly discussing the issues with the Custodes Captain-General, he skewers loyalist and traitor alike; from his viewpoint, every Primarch was massively flawed.
  • In Mother of Learning, Zorian's parents disapprove of his lack of interest in the family business and by his poor charisma.
  • Both The Nostalgia Critic and Ask That Guy with the Glasses were told regularly they weren't wanted, giving them mass issues. The Other Guy, the older brother, is fairly normal in comparison and seems to have been treated better.
  • RWBY: Jaune Arc harshly suffers this trope throughout most of the series, poor guy...
    Jaune: I'm tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree, while these friends fight for their lives. Don't you understand?! If I can't do this on my own, then what good am I?
  • Survival of the Fittest has Lyn "Laeil" Burbank. While actually a niece rather than a daughter, her uncle and aunt still give her the same unfavorite treatment, treating her like something that just has to be tolerated, while lavishing all their attention on her Jerk Jock cousin, Anthony, who regularily makes her life hell. Once she's on the island, though, it isn't long before she gets bloody revenge on him.
  • Viral Texts:
    • Shigeto was mistreated and treated like an idiot by his parents in favor of his sister Miyoko. They even kicked him out of the house and forced him to send them money. Shigeto and Miyoko eventually cut ties with them with Miyoko moving away from them, fooling them into thinking they were moving to a fancier house.
    • Heidi was looked down upon by her mother in favor of her sister Kasia. She even went along with Kasia's plan to steal Heidi's fiancee.
    • David was unfavorably treated by his mother in favor of his younger sister Karen, who only helps with housework while he was working as a pro gamer. When he moved out one month later, she finally believed he was the one depositing money. Moreover, Karen revealed that David was the one doing housework after her prospective rich husband found out she was incapable of doing it.
    • Marvin was unfavorably treated by his mother in favor of his sister Kara, because of the latter's illness. She avoided him and eventually disowned him claiming that Kara wanted to be an only child, but Marvin took Kara away from her.
  • In Welcome to Night Vale, football player Michael Sandero gains a second head and supernaturally enhanced abilities, and his mother announces that she likes the new head better and updates her billboard "Which Of My Children I Like Best" accordingly. Michael is The Unfavorite versus his other head. It becomes an Exaggerated Trope when in a later episode, his mother has the original head amputated.
  • Amy Dallon of Worm is well aware that her adoptive mother Carol greatly favors her biological daughter, Vicky, and in fact has never truly accepted Amy due to her massive trust issues. Her adoptive father Mark at least tries but his chronic depression renders him unreliable.
  • The "A makes breakfast for B and C" meme, where Character B's breakfast is a teddy bear head-shaped sandwich with fresh fruit and a smoothie, and Character C's breakfast is just the bear head-shaped bread crust left over.

    Web Animation 
  • Etra chan saw it!:
    • Tsutsuji was not praised for anything by her parents, though they spoil her little sister Yuzuriha. One time, Yuzuriha skipped field day so that she can play video games, Tsutsuji snapped and slapped her. Ironically their praise of her led Yuzuriha to be a deliquent and she eventually went to juvie. They did all this just so Tsutsuji could be a 'perfect child'.
    • Tokusa was the unfavorite. He was financially abused by his parents while his older brother gets everything. He cut off ties with his parents after being married to Yuri.
    • Akamatsu is abused his parents while his older brother, Hiiragi, gets all the praise. This causes him to hate his family growing up and cut ties with them after he finds his brother dating his girlfriend.
    • Akane was abused by her mother Azami, simply because she didn't want a daughter. Meanwhile, Azami lavished all her love and attention onto her son Tokusa instead. Despite this, Akane didn't let this taint her love for her little brother and continued to act like a kind older sister to him. Tokusa was unaware of his mother's abuse of his sister, but he eventually found out after Akane became delinquent in high school in an attempt to rebel and he read her diary to figure out why his sister seemed to change so suddenly. Naturally, he was horrified and confronted their mother over it.
  • ETU - Animated Stories:
    • Josh was ignored by his parents in favor of his brother Brody. Despite Brody failing his exams and not being eligible for a scholarship, his parents still paid for it while ignoring Josh's pleas for a scholarship despite him getting excellent grades.
    • Violet was not treated well in favor of her sister Lily, because the latter is prettier than her. Their parents forced Violet to do art for Lily and have her take all the credit. When Lily was exposed as a fraud and Violet became successful in the end, Lily and their parents tried to ask for a loan, but Violet declined.
  • Gossip City:
    • Toya is a downplayed case. While his sister Karin gets all the attention from their parents, they are still decent to him. However, Karin ended up becoming this when their younger sister Miko was born, leading the former to abuse the latter.
    • Mizuki is a straight example. Her parents dote on her sister Haruka while ignoring her, and the only one who does care for her is her grandfather.
  • Manga Angel Neko Oka: Shizuka was financially abused by her mother and her older sister, Hikari. She was hated just because she resembled her father while her mother was giving all her love to Hikari instead, by using Shizuka's paycheck for their selfish needs. One day, a Yakuza group led by Akira, comes to their house to demand the money Hikari was borrowing from them, they then decide to sell Shizuka to him as the payment for their debt. They eventually come back to ask Shizuka for more money, though they find out that she is married to Akira and are also driven away by his Yakuza group, causing them to not come back anymore.
  • Manga Rabbit HoméNoba: Yuuta Kusunoki is viewed unfavorably by his parents, while they spoil his brother Akuo for being more talented than him. They also refuse to let Yuuta to go to college and kick him out of their house.
  • Manga Room: Hisashi is neglected by both of his parents in favor of his younger brother Akira, they often ask him to the chores in their house. Hisashi's parents and Akira eventually cross the line by leaving him alone in the middle of nowhere. They eventually track Hisashi down to beg him for his help after his father's company gets a bad reputation because of Akira's troubles, predictably, he refuses to help them, and he will be the one who is going to abandon them.
  • Manga Soprano:
    • Ram was always ignored in favor of her sister Karin. When the latter found out the former was marrying Kairi, she decides to steal him from her. However, the guy she hooked up with turned out not to be Kairi, but his brother Baccarat.
    • Kanade was adopted by a couple who loved her until they gave birth to their biological daughter, Milano. After that, they started to neglect her, forced her to work jobs since they won't pay for her school and even went as far as to steal her hard-earned money for Milano.
  • Manga-Waido:
    • Kaede is favored more than her sister Mao by her parents. They pushed her hard to be an entertainer and even sold Mao to a dangerous man to pay their debt.
    • Tatsuma Mitsui was neglected by his parents in favor of his brother Soma since they wanted both to be models. The only one who cared for him is Uncle Ken, who encourages him to become a doctor after saving the life of an elderly man afflicted with heatstroke.
  • Mani Mani People:
    • Michiru was neglected by his parents in favor of his older brother. He tried working hard but it wasn't working, and the parents decide to fully focus on Michiru's brother. He tried to buy his parent's love using money borrowed from Moroboshi, but he soon stopped and realized that his parents weren't going to change and decided to cut all ties with them.
    • Daichi was neglected by his parents in favor of his older brother Kaito because of the latter's good looks and fame. They even forced Daichi to live in the shed.
  • Otakebi: Bob was treated coldly by his mother while his two older brothers gets spoiled by her. It is later revealed the reason Bob was neglected by his mother because he was his father's only biological son and his brothers turned out to be his half-brothers due to his mother's affair with another man. Bob's father was also aware of his wife's affair, causing him to give the most of the inheritance to Bob when he dies.
  • Refreshing Stories: Rin's adoptive parents neglected her in favor of their biological son. It escalated to the point where they asked Rin to quit high school because they want to send their son to a private university. When Rin quit, she joined a motorcycle gang and her friends helped her into gaming. Eventually she became a pro-gamer while her brother quit his job after only a year and became a shut-in. When her adoptive parents begged her to help them, she refused and pulled their son out of the house and took him in.
  • Revenge Films:
    • Ali was spoiled by her parents in contrast to the protagonist who they ignored despite her achievements. They even asked the protagonist to take the fall when Ali was caught shoplifting.
    • In this story, Ali is the protagonist and her family starts to leave her out when her sister returned for cheating on her husband Bob. Things escalated when Ali's husband cheats on her with her sister, for which their parents ask Ali to divorce him so her sister will marry him.
    • Karen McCall was ignored by her mother in favor of her sister Minnie for not being as talented at the piano as her, despite Karen herself being the best at sports.
  • Tanabata Manga: Natsu was treated unfavorably by her mother and sister Rie for having a similar appearance to her aunt, whom her mother disliked. Natsu's mother tells Natsu to not come to Rie's wedding and she even says that she only have one daughter, this causes Natsu and her aunt to expose the mother-and-daughter duo by ratting them out to the rest of their families, the groom eventually finds out about Natsu's mother's lies, causing the wedding to be cancelled.
  • Trouble Busters:
    • Hikari was ignored by her parents in favor of her sister Kazuya during their childhood. Years later, after Kazuya had an accident, they tried to contact Hikari and begged her to take care of them. In the end, both daughters ended up cutting ties with them.
    • Lucy was ignored by her mother in favor of her younger sister Sheila, because she was smart and her mother felt that smart children are disrespectful. They even asked Lucy not to bring her construction worker husband to Sheila's wedding on account of his job.
    • Melanie's husband and his mother preferred boys to girls and mistreated his daughter Sarah in favor of his son Kevin. When an earthquake hit, the two men refused to save the girls and left them in the rubble. However, Melanie exposed this misdeed, and the three became social pariahs and Melanie divorced her husband.

 
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Faramir

While Faramir is a grown character and, logically, "should've gotten over it by now," Denethor's scathing treatment of him makes it almost impossible for anyone not to sympathize. This factor, combined with a couple of scenes present in the Extended Editions, helps explain why Faramir initially decided to capture Frodo and the Ring, which is the opposite of how he behaves in the novels. It's also notable that the favorite, Boromir, actually admires and defends his younger brother, and is fed up with their father just as much as Faramir is.

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5 (13 votes)

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