Basic Trope: Claiming to feel sorry for someone for having an "inferior" trait.
- Straight: Ellani is a member of an alien species that don't require sleep. She says to Alice, a human, "It must be so inconvenient for you poor humans, having to lie down and go unconscious for eight hours."
- Exaggerated: Ellani's species don't only not need sleep, they're faster, more agile, more intelligent, and more technologically advanced than humans, and have telekinesis. Zeenog, another alien, insults Alice, but Ellani says, "It's not her fault that humans are slow, clumsy, technologically-incompetent idiots who need to lie unconscious for eight hours a day and can't use their minds to move things with."
- Downplayed: When Alice explains sleep to Ellani, the latter briefly says, "Isn't that a bit inconvenient?".
- Justified:
- Ellani's arrogant and a bit prejudiced against humans.
- Ellani didn't mean to be rude, the idea of sleep is just so foreign to her and she can't imagine needing it and not minding.
- Inverted: Ellani's species need more sleep than humans, so she says to Alice, "Wow, you lot only need eight hours of sleep! That must be so convenient!".
- Subverted: Ellani thinks sleep is something only Alice needs and says that it must be inconvenient. When Alice tells Ellani that sleep is something all humans need, she figures we must be used to it and no longer pities Alice.
- Double Subverted: Ellani's species also has telekinesis. When she learns that we don't, she decides it must be unfortunate for them.
- Zigzagged: Ellani tells Alice that it must be inconvenient needing to sleep, but at the same time, she wishes she could run as fast as a human. On the other hand, not having telekinesis would be pretty unfortunate.
- Averted:
- Ellani's species has no special traits to consider themselves superior to humanity.
- Despite Ellani's species not needing sleep, this is never brought up.
- Ellaini forgoes the compassionate part, bluntly telling humans how inferior they are.
- She forgoes the condescending part, and talks about a trait without making it seem like it makes humans inferior.
- Lampshaded: "I don't know whether to say, 'thanks' or 'hey!'"
- Invoked:
- Alice deliberately tries to gain sympathy from Ellani by saying, "I mean my species needs to go unconscious for eight hours a day!".
- Ellani and Alice are adversaries and, knowing how prideful Alice is, Ellani pretends to pity her as a stealth insult.
- Exploited: Alice asks Ellani favours, knowing that Ellani would do anything to help "those poor, unfortunate humans" out.
- Defied: "I wonder if they find it inconvenient... Nah, they'd be used to it."
- Discussed: "If there were these aliens that didn't need sleep, would they feel sorry for humans for needing it?".
- Conversed: "I remember that scene where the alien feels sorry for the human for needing sleep!"
- Deconstructed: Ellani's rude comments alienates her from Alice.
- Reconstructed: While rude, Ellani genuinely likes humans.
- Played for Drama: This causes an interplanetary conflict.
Back to Condescending Compassion and I'm so sorry you have to click this link instead of accessing the page with your mind.
