Basic Trope: When being handed a lot of things makes a character corrupt.
- Straight: Paul is born in a wealthy family and lives in a large fancy house. This made him a self-centered, greedy, and power-hungry ruler.
- Exaggerated: All of the privileges Paul receives automatically turns him into a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath.
- Downplayed: Paul is born rich, and it makes him a little selfish, if not outright evil.
- Justified:
- Being given riches and possessions can cause Paul to demand more as well as prevent him from considering those who are less privileged.
- Paul is a firm believer of the Just World Fallacy. He believes everyone less wealthy than him deserves to be mistreated and abused.
- Paul's elite upbringing has caused him to become entitled and selfish.
- Paul is used to being indulged, and has never learned any self-control.
- Inverted:
- Freudian Excuse — Paul grew up in an abusive and poverty-stricken household, and is mistreated by others in school. This develops him into a vengeful, misanthropic, cold-blooded killer.
- Paul is born into poverty and is mistreated by his family. This turns him into an All-Loving Hero.
- Privileges made Paul kind-hearted and compassionate to everyone.
- Misery Builds Character
- Subverted:
- Paul seems selfish and entitled because of his riches, but it turns out he's a lot nicer and compassionate than one would think.
- People assume that Paul's wealth is what corrupted him into a self-centered sociopath, but in reality he was born a psychopath to begin with, and his privileged life simply compounded that further and enabled his vicious impulses.
- Double Subverted: Paul was only pretending to be that way just to get whatever he wants.
- Parodied: Paul is an All Loving Homeless Hero. Then he gets rewarded for all his good deeds by a wealthy benefactor and instantly begins kicking puppies and tying women to train tracks.
- Zig Zagged: Paul is a Wild Card who constantly swings between wicked Spoiled Brat and affably Spoiled Sweet.
- Averted: Privileges makes neither a character evil nor good.
- Enforced: "Characters becoming evil because of a Dark and Troubled Past is a bit overdone. Let's create a character who is evil because of being given a lot of privileges."
- Lampshaded: "Sounds like someone has been handed too much things."
- Invoked: Paul is Lord Evulz's Tyke Bomb. Lord Evulz spoils Paul to both ensure his absolute loyalty and to build contempt towards all those "lesser" people who deserve to be dominated and enslaved.
- Exploited: Alfred catches wind of how abusive Paul is towards his butler. He then tempts the butler to assassinate Paul, goading him into it by telling him how no one will miss that spoiled monster.
- Defied:
- Paul decides not to let all of the privileges get into his head.
- Paul's parents decide to not give him too much privileges and teach him right and wrong.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- A closer look at Paul's family life reveals that his problems are far more complicated than being "spoiled". The fact that his parents shower him with fancy toys? They do that so they don't have to deal with him. His mouthing off to the wait staff? They treated him like crap first solely because of things his parents did. He tried to find a therapist, only for said therapist to take advantage of him because his family is loaded. His brattiness ultimately hides the fact that he has lived his entire life in a Gilded Cage.
- Paul learns that privilege doesn't guarantee him long-term happiness.
- Reconstructed:
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse. He still did those awful things. Others had it worse and didn't turn out as bad as he is.
- But because no one wants to help Paul and everyone assumes his bad behavior is solely because he is rich, he gives in to corruption anyway.
Back to Privilege Makes You Evil
