Basic Trope: A character misses another character for shallow, selfish reasons.
- Straight: Alice only misses her dead husband Bob because he used to give her expensive gifts.
- Exaggerated: Adelaide, the President Evil of the People's Republic of Tyranny, is devastated when she hears that the Evil Empire has nuked her allies Troperia and Wikipedistan... because she wanted to launch a surprise invasion on them, take all their resources and enslave the surviving citizens.
- Downplayed: The late Bob was Alice's favourite artist, but she never actually interacted with him. As a result, Alice only misses him because she misses his performances.
- Justified: Alice only married Bob for the money, and he didn't care much for her beyond her status as a Trophy Wife.
- Inverted: Bob is an abuser. Alice is happy when he dies... because that means she inherits his money.
- Subverted:
- While taking about Bob, Alice mentions that she misses the gifts he used to give her. Later, she makes it clear that she appreciated them for their sentimental value as symbols of their love.
- Death Is Such an Odd Thing, and Alice can't yet process her husband's death. She talks to Charlie about Bob's gifts because she can't bring herself to talk about Bob himself.
- Double Subverted: She made up the whole "sentimental value" thing because she didn't want to be seen as shallow.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Alice misses Bob because she loved him.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Geez, Alice... is that why you miss him?!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Carl brings up Bob's best qualities, which makes Alice admit that she misses him for non-selfish reasons.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Misplaced Sorrow.
