Ambiguous Name: A Shared Suffering

Note: This thread was proposed by Adept.

According to its (admittedly barebones) description, A Shared Suffering is a subtrope of Last of Their Kind, where a character finds that There Is Another, and the two form a deep bond over this fact. The laconic agrees with this. However, this definition is a lot narrower that what the name implies, which simply sounds like any Commonality Connection that two (or more) people share over a similar trauma, hardship, or any other kind of suffering.

Results (wick check)

• Correct: 1/50 (2%)
• People bonding over misfortune/struggles unrelated to being the Last of Their Kind: 32/50 (64%)
• Just Commonality Connection: 3/50 (6%)
• ZCE: 13/50 (26%)
• Unsortable: 1/50 (2%)

Analysis:

As expected, the majority of the examples use the trope for any instance the characters commiserate over similar struggles, with only one of the 50 wicks check actually meeting the Last of Their Kind requirement. There are some partial-context examples where the entry doesn't adequately describe that the characters actually bond over the hardship, but again the Last of Their Kind aspect is almost never discussed. Even the entry on the Trope Namer doesn't adequately describe how the Doctor himself fits the narrower definition, only telling how the character is really lonely.

Proposal:

Expand the trope to fit misuse.

1. Freedom Planet: As she spent the rest of her life believing herself to be the last water dragon on Avalice, when she discovered the existence of Merga, she felt a connection with her and tried to reason with her whenever she saw a possibility, being the most determined to try to make her see the light. In fact, in response to Neera calling Lilac out on still trying to reason with Merga while Neera briefly considered her to be Beyond Redemption, Lilac explicitly states that maybe it is because of their shared status as the last water dragons to exist that Lilac wishes to help Merga, as opposed to ending her outright. In her turn, Merga actually reciprocates in her own way, trying to convince Lilac to turn her back on the Royal Magister and his people instead.

1. Case Closed: Shiho Miyano: She has confessed to Conan that having him around in the same situation as her is why she can stand being an eight-year-old.
2. Insomniacs After School: A prickly boy and a Genki Girl bond over their respective struggles with insomnia.
3. Survivor: Ghost Island: Bonded with Donathan over the fact that both have ailing mothers waiting for them at home.
4. Advice and Trust: In the first chapter, Shinji blurts out that his father sent him away after his mother's death. Stunned, Asuka replies she also was abandoned by her father after her mother's death. A little exchange later, they realize they do understand each other perfectly and become a couple.
5. Belgravia: Anne Trenchard and Lady Brockenhurst originally converse over the fact that each of them has lost a child.
6. Revolving Door: Felix seeks out Adelaide right as soon as he finds out there's someone else in the city with inexplicable powers. They then bond over their mutual unfamiliarity with San Francisco.
7. Saga: Petrichor and Hazel quickly become friends thanks to the struggles they face as a transwoman and a Landfallian-Wreather hybrid, respectively.
8. Codex Equus – Iustitian Pantheon: Part of why she got adopted by Princess Winter Opera is because the latter sympathized with her bitter, angry mindset that resulted from her mistreatment and drove her to commit spiteful acts.
9. Celibate Hero: Like Prince Shamrock Bloom, she's asexual and aromantic, and thus never married even after Ascending to godhood. Her oldest daughter, Baby Glory, was created using the Foal-Making Mirror, and all the children she had after Baby Glory were adopted. Following her Eldritch Transformation, she proceeded to adopt several Tulpas as her children after she made her kingdom's arcane environment more likely to birth Tulpas by her mere presence. This led to her befriending Shamrock himself, understanding the pain his sexuality caused him.
10. Hunger Games Simulation Lore Villains The Mawkin And Dark Stanford: He also offered to help the 'Brijes in their survival despite his loyalty to his tribe, seeing a bit of himself in their struggle to stay together.
11. Codex Equus Redeeming Six: The Redeeming Six are flawed yet good people who seek to break cycles and help people grow meaningfully because they all know what it's like to be stuck in a toxic cycle themselves.
12. The Final Podblem: Nick and Casey both went to the same conservative Baptist school, though they didn't become pals until a decade afterward, and frequently bond over the way their psyches can't seem to be bent quite back into the shape they were before attending.
13. The Sleeping Beauty Killer: Casey says that one of the things she and Hunter bonded over was losing a loved one to cancer; Hunter's mother succumbed to cancer three years before he met Casey, while Casey's beloved aunt Robin died from the illness about thirteen years prior when Casey was twelve.
14. Star Wars – Core Worlds: Many people in the Alderaanian diaspora gather together in a flotilla of starships in the Alderaanian graveyard and continue to survive and uphold Alderaanian culture, with support from other worlds.
15. GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse.Tropes Q To Z: The Golden Marvel and Ultra-Man are close friends who often dine together to remember life during the Great Depression, the Spanish Influenza epidemic, World War II, and other events of the first four decades of the 20th Century.
16. Codex Equus Kerajaan Pantheon
    • Part of the reason why he befriended Temnobog is because they're both victims of parental abuse for something completely out of their control, which he greatly sympathizes with.
    • He sympathizes with Cinder II a great deal due to both of them being hybrids (he's a Dhampyr while Cinder II is a unique Wraith-Dragon hybrid) and suffering tremendous grief over the fact. This is what drove him to help her figure out what traits and abilities her heritiage gives her.
17. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ⁠— The Horde: In Season 2, she bonds with Sea Hawk, as both she and Sea Hawk feel used and unappreciated by their respective crushes.
18. Codex Equus Fourth Age Heroes: She does end up getting along with Mercy, however, due to both of them being forced by people to become what they're expected to be.
19. Game of Thrones - Cersei Lannister: Shows a short-lived sisterly attitude towards Tyrion after Tywin reminds them both of the joy of living under his domineering thumb.
20. The X's: In "You Only Sneeze Twice", both Tuesday and Lorenzo have to deal with caring for the sick members of their respective teams. She assures him that she "totally get[s] it" when their one-on-one fight gets postponed, and they even vent their mutual frustration when they do get to fight each other.
21. Game Of Thrones S 5 E 2 The House Of Black And White: Varys invokes this in an effort to get through to Tyrion, lampshading how they're the No-Respect Guy, despised due to their deformities.
22. Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul What IF: Invoked in the scenario where Hank is killed by Marco where Gus brings Walter and Jesse onboard to wipe out the cartel since both have lost people they care about to the Salamancas (except that Gus got Hank killed).
23. Infinity Crisis Tropes L To Z:
    • Every Earth in the multiverse has lost people, and hence all the heroes have lost people they love.
    • In a lighter version, Tomorrow's Guardians has Black Siren and Nebula bonding over how they're each the only sane person on a ship of nutjob idiots.
24. Solomon's Perjury: In one of the most heart-wrenching scenes ever, Ji-hoon reveals the truth about his abusive biological father to help convince Woo-hyuk he very well understands where he is coming from, having gone from the same, if not more horrible, experience.
25. Inmost: One can find happiness and bring it to others by simply being there: sharing hardships, easing loneliness, and making stories together — both happy and sad.
26. CodexEquus.Tropes I To J: he was unable to let go of his resentment and bitterness over dying early, influencing his friend Moon Ray, who sympathized with his troubles, to become almost as bad as him
27. Codex Equus: The Changeling Courts (Spring Court): Living among mortals in disguise opened her eyes to how others felt about being on the receiving end of the Changelings' activities and manipulations, including the Autumn Court Changelings, who were often persecuted by the Summer and Spring Courts for being different. This led to her aiding the Autumn Court in secret, seeing herself in them for how she was similarly treated by the Old Orosian Pantheon.
28. Paradise: Changed, especially from the early waves where they are few and far between, often fear they're alone or outright going crazy. After spending weeks, months, or even years alone, they are so relieved to find out there are others like them that they might break down and cry.
29. Project Sekai More More Jump: She strongly relates to Riho, MORE MORE JUMP!'s fan and composer when Riho finds herself unable to compose after getting a negative comment on a song of hers that had suddenly gone viral, complaining that it was painful to listen to but impossible to get away from. The fear of making people suffer with her music makes her hands shake uncontrollably whenever she tries to compose, no matter how much she wants to.
30. Angel S 05 E 21 Power Play
    Spike: You can't enjoy haunting this place. Less than what you were, not knowing what to do with yourself. Believe me, I've been there.
    Illyria: And what do you know of it?
    Spike: Long and fascinating tale. Ghost story, in fact.
31. PoorCommunicationKills.Literature: Brambleclaw doesn't fully explain why he wants to be friends with Hawkfrost and refuses to listen to Squirrelfight's warnings not to trust him, believing it be a sign of the discrimination that he and his half-brother endured as the evil Tigerstar's sons.
32. Mortal Kombat 11: Cyrax beseeches Sub-Zero to find a way to restore his humanity. Sub-Zero, knowing all too well what it's like to have his humanity stolen from him, assures Cyrax that it doesn't matter if he is man or machine: he is still a proud warrior and the Lin Kuei will always welcome him.

1. Sailor Moon R Ep 40 Saphir Dies Wisemans Trap: The blue prince convinces Petz to let him leave by pointing out that he cares for his brother and wouldn't want him to go down a path of destruction, just like Petz cares for her sisters and wouldn't want them to fall down similar paths.
2. Whateley Universe Team Kimba: The original six characters (plus Bladedancer, Carmilla, and Heyoka) are all transgender in some way, some of them because of their powers, so they have a commonality. Doesn't mention how the characters' transgender-ness negatively impacts them. Also doesn't really establish a connection between the characters over this commonality.
3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Tanjiro Kamado: after a tirade of berating comments over Tanjiro being too weak to protect Nezuko in his eyes, Gyutaro actually offered Tanjiro the chance to become a demon, so they could be big brother "buddies"; naturally Tanjiro refuses and their battle resume. The anime even expanded the narrative where Tanjiro sees himself in Gyutaro, as a possible bad turn of events where he and Nezuko had become terrible demons only looking out for themselves.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2E19 "I Only Have Eyes for You": He picked me. I guess I was the one he could relate to. He was so sad.
2. Doctor Who – Tenth Doctor: Ten carries the weight of this title - the responsibility and inherent loneliness - throughout his arc. It hits him particularly hard and is a defining element of his psyche, to the point where he's the Trope Namer for A Shared Suffering.
3. Person Of Interest S 04 E 11: How Shaw talks down the bomber.
4. Quest for the Rest: Another oddity is that, if The Rest actually show up, the character often sides with them by merit of being one of them, in the face of any other logic (e.g., that they are bad guys).
5. Sword Art Online - Shino Asada: Whereas in canon her feelings were a bit more ambiguous, with them being presented more as Platonic Life-Partners who bond over A Shared Suffering with only occasional Ship Tease, the gameverse makes her more blatantly interested in him romantically.
6. Supernatural S 04 E 10 Heaven And Hell: Dean can relate to Anna's angst re: her father.
7. The Flash (2014) S3E8 "Invasion!": Oliver tells Barry about his parents' deaths, in detail, while discussing how he'd have taken the chance to rewrite history too. Doesn't show that the two bonded over this misfortune.
8. Game of Thrones S4E10: "The Children": Both Clegane brothers. Sandor is left to bleed to death with several bodily wounds, a bitten off ear and a broken leg with the bone protruding from the flesh, whilst his brother Gregor suffers from the wounds he sustained whilst fighting Oberyn along with slow acting Manticore Venom running through his veins and is left under the care of Qyburn (whose experiments are known as, whilst effective, monstrous).
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
   Faith: Definitely getting my own place.
   Fred: Take me with you.
10. Codex Equus Deti Uzhasov: Despite their differences, they became friends due to how similar they are, which is what Golden Scepter intended so Varázsló can snap out of his obsession with what could've been and improving his own life via chronal/dimensional experiments. Asserts that the two character are similar without clarifying how.
11. Final Fantasy VII: Aerith's whole life is one long Tearjerker. Born the daughter of the sole remainder of an ancient race and her scientist lover, her only family was tortured and eventually killed at the hands of the Shinra Power Company. Doesn't mention who she shares this suffering with.
12. Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 14 "Alliances": Janeway assumes their own situation is similar to that of the refugee Trabe.
13. DethroningMoment.Family Guy: At the end of the episode, I thought that after going through what they've put themselves through that night all for petty revenge they would find a new found respect for each other as the realized that they were not so different. Instead, Quagmire commits what's basically murder with a smirk on his face.

1. Commonality Connection: Supertrope of Bonding over Missing Parents and A Shared Suffering.