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Playing With / Dismissing a Compliment

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Basic Trope: A character responds to a compliment by minimizing its sincerity.

  • Straight: Aurora is told she is the most talented wizard in her class; she retorts that Bernand has not lost his touch for flattery and that he probably tells all his students that.
  • Exaggerated: Bernand finds out the hard way that the compliment was Aurora's Berserk Button.
  • Downplayed: Somebody comments on how awestruck they are by Aurora's magic skills. While she does claim it's not as hard as it looks, she does say thanks for the compliment.
  • Justified:
    • Aurora has self-esteem issues.
    • Aurora is a shy Humble Hero.
    • Aurora has reasons to doubt Bernand's sincerity.
    • While the compliment is sincere, Aurora knows that it says more about how isolated Bernard (and by extent the town he's from) is, than about how good she is.
  • Inverted:
    • Bernand says that Aurora must be The Ditziest woman he has ever met, but Aurora shrugs it off with "I bet you call all the girls that at some point."
    • Bernand tells Aurora that she's the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, and Aurora tells him to tell her more. She's just really vain.
  • Subverted: "I bet you tell all your students that — to practice up to tell it to me."
  • Double Subverted: "... I really don't deserve it, though..."
  • Parodied: When Aurora hears any praise of anyone or anything (like "Nice weather we’re having"), she always says "I bet you say it to everyone."
  • Zig-Zagged: Aurora thanks Bernand for his congratulations on her accomplishment, but then he praises her for another thing she did but wishes she hadn't. Then he commends her skill in an unrelated field and she doesn't respond, and then he commends her skill in another unrelated field and she thanks him.
  • Averted: Aurora accepts the compliment without any fuss.
  • Enforced: "We can't have people praising Aurora and her accepting that; she'll come off as arrogant!"
  • Lampshaded: "Aurora, would you just accept the good parts about yourself already?!"
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: Bernand compliments Aurora in front of somebody they need to impress. That way, they'll know how modest she is.
  • Defied: While Aurora doubts that the compliment is sincere, she makes an effort to thank Bernand for it anyway.
  • Discussed: "Believe me, I've tried telling Aurora how beautiful she is! But she just pushed that aside..."
  • Conversed: "Ah, great, another character who Does Not Know His Own Strength and comes off as a classic Mary Sue."invoked
  • Implied: We don't hear Aurora's reply to the compliment, but we do hear Bernand asking his coworker whether he thinks he is too generous with his compliments or not.

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