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This friend might be the Butt-Monkey?
Maybe, but wasn't really what I was going for, as it's very rarely Played for Laughs when it gets brought up.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
The Chew Toy is the Butt-Monkey Played for Laughs — the Butt-Monkey can have darker tones:
"While the trope is often played for laughs and we are encouraged to find the misery at least somewhat amusing, some portrayals go for a much darker presentation, deconstructing the idea and showing what an emotional and psychological wreck such a person would be like in real life."
That said, I'm not sure that we have a trope specifically for someone who tends to get dicked over by their friends. We have With Friends Like These..., but that generally implies equal ground and the characters are more openly vitriolic towards each other. Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick sort of works, especially if the hero is rude to the sidekick, and the mistreated friend might be The Woobie because of this treatment and/or a Cosmic Plaything, but neither of those tropes encompasses the specifics of "this guy has shitty friends". Maybe they're a Horrible Judge of Character? Maybe we need a new trope?
Sounds like the target of Innocently Insensitive.
Let me hear a specific example.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
Sounds like it might be Unpopular Popular Character.
EDIT: Never mind, this actually doesn’t fit, considering you said the friends like the person even though they mistreat them.
Edited by CyokieRevott
Here's just one example:
- In Awkward., Ming was Jenna's best friend since they were children, even before meeting their third friend Tamara. Despite this, Jenna didn't tell Ming anything about her relationship with Matty, wanted to hang out with Matty at an event more than Ming who had to sneak out to go, and had generally ignored her in favor of giving Tamara all the information. Ming made it very clear how hurt she was to feel like Jenna didn't care about or trust her, and broke off the friendship until Jenna gave a sincere apology and agreed to tell her everything from now on.
I guess you could call it a neglected friend more than an outright mistreated friend, as the examples I've seen revolve around one friend feeling, well...neglected. Ignored. Underappreciated. Secondary. If the frustrations become vocalized, they're usually resolved once the other friend(s) realize they've been bad friends and try to do better to incorporate them.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
There's Forgettable Character
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
A friend that, while liked by their friend(s), is generally neglected or mistreated by them. It's usually unintentional, but doesn't stop the friend from feeling hurt and rejected- especially if they've been loyal.