Abusive Parents/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character's parents were not good to them.

• Straight: Carl's mom forgets to feed him while his dad whips him every other day.
• Exaggerated: Offing the Offspring
• Downplayed: Carl's parents verbally abuse him, insulting him and demeaning him every chance they get, but other than that, treat him well.
• Justified:
  • Carl is part of a warrior race and this is part of his training.
  • Social Services Does Not Exist.
  • Truth in Television.
  • The Unfavorite
• Inverted:
  • Carl is domineering and the Big Bad of the story who denounces his parents at every waking moment.
  • Alternately, Carl is a Self-Made Orphan.
• Subverted:
  • Carl's parents seem to be abusive towards their son at first, but when he is in actual danger through outside forces, it turns into a Papa Wolf and Mama Bear team up.
  • Or, Carl's parents seem neglectful at first only because they are Hippies, and as the story progresses, it becomes obvious that they all love each other very much.
  • Carl claims he is brutally abused by his parents, but it's all a lie for attention.
• Double Subverted:
  • ... But when the threat is gone, the reset button is pushed.
  • While Carl's claims of physical abuse are false, psychological abuse and neglect are plentiful.
• Parodied: Carl's parents are stated to deliberately abuse him to make him grow up to be an angsty superhero. Carl kills them and becomes a villain.
• Deconstructed:
  • The constant abuse from his parents leads Carl to believe that Humans Are the Real Monsters and he is either Driven to Suicide or grows up to be the Big Bad of the current story.
  • Alternately, Carl's bruises just couldn't not be noticed by someone else, and abusive parents were quickly deprived of parental rights.
• Reconstructed: He instead grows up to try to be different from his abusive parents and becomes a loving and caring father, raising/becoming the next hero
• Zig Zagged: Neither Carl nor the audience can tell which days his parents will abuse him and which days they won't.
• Averted: Carl's parents are at least competent and fair.
• Enforced:
  • Carl is an antagonist, and the writers are writing an Anti-Villain.
  • The writer is writing to vent about his childhood and his own abusive parents.
• Lampshaded: "Man, your parents suck, Carl." "I know. Though it's kinda funny, in a way."
• Invoked: "HIT ME!"
• Defied:
  • Carl solves his problem by calling child protective services
  • Carl solves the problem by murdering his parents.
• Discussed: "That villain must have been abused as a child."
• Conversed: "What is with all this stuff? If they did that to their son in Real Life, they'd be locked up!"
• Played For Laughs: Hilariously Abusive Childhood
• Played For Drama:
  • One or both of Carl's parents were abused as children themselves, spurring them to abuse Carl in turn.
  • Carl's Panicky Expectant Father antics take a turn for the dramatic when he voices concerns about hurting his child like his parents hurt him.
  • Carl does end up being as bad a father as his parents.
• Plot Foundation:
  • Carl breaks under the abuse, and brutally murders his parents. He's aquitted, on the grounds of being an orphan who watched his parents get brutally murdered by a stark-raving madman.
  • Or... Someone calls child protective services, and, while the parents are serving time (or whatever they do after CPS does their job), they see other parents treating their children right. After a while, they see the error of their ways, and do what they can to patch things up with their child, tearfully apologizing for what they've done and explaining why they did it.

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No! Please don't hit me! I'm sorry...