Creator's Pet/Playing With

Basic Trope: The writer's beloved pet, who everyone else hates.

• Straight: Charlie's an irritating know-it-all hated by fans of the show, but gets into every episode anyway because the writer adores him.
• Exaggerated: Charlie appears in almost every shot, literally crowding the rest of the cast out of frame whenever possible, while they gush about how great he is. Ratings plummet.
• Downplayed:
  • Charlie doesn't get a lot of Character Focus, but when he does, about half the Fandom will complain.
  • The fans don't hate Charlie, they just wish he would give the other characters the spotlight.
• Justified:
  • The viewers may hate Charlie's guts, but the show feels somewhat empty without him there.
  • The writer is trying to help restore the character from derailment, but has not quite gone the way about it.
• Inverted:
  • Charlie is the Ensemble Darkhorse.
  • Charlie is beloved by anyone who watches the show, almost to a Just Here for Godzilla head, yet the writer despises him and he only shows up once every season.
• Subverted: The show's creators get wise and work on him to make him better, or dispose of him outright, possibly causing an Alas, Poor Scrappy
• Double Subverted: The show's creators get wise, but can't quite bring themselves to do anything more than drop the occasional Take That, Scrappy! on him.
• Parodied:
  • An over-the-top Creator's Pet is intentionally created on a Show Within a Show.
  • Charlie is an extra, but the writer loves him as if he was the show's main protaganist and all the fans hate him as if he was the show's main antagonist.
• Deconstructed: Charlie, a character in a Show Within a Show exists within the writer's blind spot because he's what the author always wanted to be: confident, outgoing, witty, with lots of friends... the writer put so much of himself into Charlie that he doesn't want to acknowledge the character's Hatedom, as it strikes a little too close to home. So when the fans are torturing and murdering Charlie in Flash animations on the in-universe equivalent of Newgrounds, the writer sinks into depression and takes his own life.
• Reconstructed: Charlie from the Show Within a Show isn't the author's idealized self image, as much of a Marty Stu as he may be. Rather, he's what the writer thinks all of humanity should live up to, and thus doesn't sink into a depression when the fans hate Charlie but rather treats it as the fans being intimidated by how great he is. They crucified Jesus, you know.
• Zig Zagged: The show's makers are constantly veering between rescuing him from the scrappy heap, then getting overconfident and causing him to fall back into it.
• Averted: The writers don't get too attached to any characters.
• Enforced: The Deconstructed example, but in Real Life, not a Show Within a Show.
• Lampshaded: Take That, Scrappy!
• Invoked: Deliberately treated like this for the purpose of killing them off merrily.
• Exploited:
  • As Charlie becomes aware of his status as the Author's favorite character, he decides to use his immunity to...
  • ...Deal with situations that would be outright suicidal for other characters to handle. (If he's noble)
  • ...Indulge into all sorts of detestable actions with no consequences for him whatsoever. (If he's wicked)
• Defied: The writer is a big fan of Anyone Can Die; his characters don't last long enough to become a Creator's Pet.
  • The author freely admits to Charlie being the Creator's Pet, but treats the character the same as all the others, to the point that he doesn't seem like a pet at all.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: "Oh, man, not this guy again..." "Who, Charlie?" "Yeah, him. He's taking over the show, and it's really hurting the quality."
• Played For Laughs: Charlie is set up by the other characters as over-the-top perfect so that when he fails (Once an Episode or more), we laugh at the disconnect between his public acclaim and how he actually sucks.
• Played For Drama: Charlie's awesome perfectness overshadows his little brother Daniel, who is the show's actual protaganist. Granted, Charlie gets more air time even when the fans want to see Daniel more often, but Daniel's conflicts are that much more poignant because Charlie is just that much better at everything.
• Plotted A Good Waste:
  • Turns out the writer was just settling Charlie up for a major fall in a Wham! Episode where all his faults come to the forefront and have disastrous consequences, causing him to lose his friends' respect and setting him up as The Atoner.
  • OR: Charlie is deliberately written to be annoying...so the audience will root against him when he betrays the team.

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