Basic Trope: An alleged "friend" who disappears when difficulty arises.
- Straight: Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane are True Companions. They think of Ethan as their friend, even though he only accompanies them in good times. When Emperor Evulz shows up, Ethan abandons the other four, telling them that they are on their own.
- Exaggerated:
- Ethan acts friendly toward Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane, but then turns around and joins Emperor Evulz.
- As soon as Emperor Evulz shows up, Ethan murders Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane.
- When Emperor Evulz confronts his friends, Ethan immediately flees the country, changes his phone number, changes his name, and gets plastic surgery on his face, so nobody can find him.
- Ethan abandons his friends every time something goes slightly wrong, no matter how trivial, such as Alice tripping and scraping her knee
- Downplayed: Ethan is their acquaintance and only shows up once.
- Justified:
- Ethan is selfish.
- Ethan only cared for his friends due to the fact they are providing him the Power of Friendship, but the troubles his friends faces causes the power of friendship to fade away leading to Ethan believing that his friends had outlived their usefulness.
- Inverted:
- Fair-Weather Foe.
- Ethan is normally a jerkass toward Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane, but helps them fight Emperor Evulz. Then he realizes that they are his friends after all.
- Fred is a Fair-Weather Friend to Emperor Evulz, and betrays him when Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane storm the castle.
- George is a "Foul Weather Friend", and only friends with Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane during the tough times. At all other times he's either a jerkass (in which case they may be Vitriolic Best Buds) or just vanishes Batman-style when he doesn't think he's needed.
- Subverted: Ethan considers abandoning Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane, but changes his mind.
- Double Subverted: …He murders them instead.
- Parodied:
- Whenever it looks like there is going to be a conflict, Ethan literally vanishes.
- Ethan misunderstands the concept of a "fair weather" friend, and is only friendly to Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane when the weather is pleasant.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- All friendships are true.
- No one has any friends, real or fake.
- Enforced: "We need some drama here. Let's have one member of the group reveal that he was never really their friend."
- Lampshaded: "Sorry, guys. You knew the deal. I was only ever going to be your friend until the war broke out."
- Invoked: Ethan decides to trick Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane into thinking he's their friend, only to abandon them later on.
- Exploited: After Ethan's Face–Heel Turn, Giselle joins the heroes as Ethan's replacement.
- Defied:
- Ethan stays away from Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane.
- Ethan becomes their true friend.
- Discussed: "You thought I'd betray you? No way! We're real friends, not fake friends!"
- Conversed: "What kind of sicko pretends to be someone's friend, then betrays them?"
- Deconstructed:
- Both heroes and villains distrust Ethan because he has betrayed many of his former "friends".
- Ethan's friends eventually decide to leave him for good, as he never shows them any support when they need it most.
- Reconstructed: Ethan is charming enough to convince people that this time, they can trust him.
- Played For Laughs: When Ethan abandons them, Bob acts as if he knew that this was going to happen.
- Played For Drama: Thanks to Ethan, Emperor Evulz defeats Alice, Bob, Charles, and Diane.
Back to Fair-Weather Friend
