Basic Trope: Kids easily being moved by seeing something suffer/appear to suffer.
- Straight: Alice and Bob, who are children, come across a stray kitten and feel sorry for it.
- Exaggerated:
- They come across a stray kitten and feel sorry for it. They bring it to Alice's parents, who both say they hate cats.
- Alice and Bob are the only people who are capable of empathy.
- Downplayed: They come across a stray kitten and feel mild pity.
- Justified: Alice and Bob have developed empathy.
- Inverted:
- They come across a stray kitten and feel a lot of sadistic pleasure.
- They come across a happy cat and feel a lot of mental pain.
- The adults are the ones who feel sad because of someone/something suffering, likely due to having a better understanding of what's happening, while the children don't seem to care.
- Subverted: Bob and Alice come across a stray kitten. Bob offers the kitten some of his food, but is actually just teasing it.
- Double Subverted: The teasing was a failed attempt to play with it. The food is then given to the kitten with no further complications.
- Parodied: Alice and Bob cry when they see someone else get a papercut.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice feels sorry for the stray kitten, but Bob doesn't care.
- Averted:
- Bob and Alice are adults.
- The kids don't care about the kitten.
- The kitten is adopted before Alice and Bob could meet it.
- Enforced: The creator wanted to make the kids realistic.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked:???
- Exploited: A stray kitten makes Puppy-Dog Eyes at Bob and Alice to get them to give it their food.
- Defied: Alison punts the kitten and encourages the children to do the same.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Children Are Tender-Hearted.
