dave bowman but worse
The Unwitting Pawn does mention that the pawn may bumble into being a pawn, but honestly? I can't tell the difference either.
The Pawn wants to be an extreme form of Unwitting Pawn with years of preparation (probably the whole lifetime of the pawn). Similar to a Tyke Bomb, I guess. There is only little overlap in works associated with both tropes.
It just feels like The Same, but More Specific. The only possible examples that wouldn't fit on Unwitting Pawn are the Theater example (missing some context and seems to be a generic Chess Motif), and the Zelda example (doesn't actually state manipulation, but it's also a subversion).
A past TRS thread decided that The Pawn is a missing supertrope, but no action was taken. That makes sense to me, but I also think the two could just get merged.
Foreign Troper
Yeah, if anything the Unwitting Pawn page could just mention a lifelong pawn being the most extreme version of this trope.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
So between The Pawn and Unwitting Pawn, I don't really see much difference, if any at all?
I mean, aren't ALL pawns, by definition, unwitting of their status?
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian