Basic Trope: Characters consider each other to be family in absence of real blood ties.
- Straight: Alice, Nastasia, Nicky, Ginger and Reuben have lived without their families for years and think off each other as the closest people to them.
- Exaggerated: The quintet have a whole family tree consisting of biologically unrelated people they consider family.
- Downplayed:
- Nastasia and Nicky are actually cousins, but the others have no family.
- It's more out of convenience. They all looked similar and decided to roll with it in crises.
- Justified:
- None of them have any family they can go back to.
- The five of them were the only supernaturally gifted kids they knew growing up.
- Their parents were in a criminal gang, thus they were naturally associated with each other by their caretakers.
- They were all a Doorstep Baby when their current provider found them, giving them a common connection.
- The other kids outcasted them at the orphanage, so they were the only other kids they interacted with.
- The five of them all had Abusive Parents, and have decided to support each other to help themselves work through the trauma.
- Inverted:
- The Washingtons treat each other as close friends despite being family.
- Not Blood, Not Family
- Subverted:
- After the others discover Reuben was actually a Self-Made Orphan they keep away from and cut their ties with him.
- Ginger's real family are discovered and want to see her again. Naturally she goes back to them.
- The quintet decided to do a DNA test on a whim and discover that they are actually the siblings of each other.
- Double Subverted:
- It was actually Rudy impersonating Reuben. Once they realize this they quickly bond back together.
- Her real family turn out to be horrible, so she goes back to being with Alice, Nastasia, Nicky and Reuben.
- Or so it was meant to. Rudy rigged it to give that result, meaning it's not true they're related.
- Parodied:
- As they get older the five start to realize how much they actually looked like siblings, even pointing out how their faces were back then compared to now.
- When Nastasia and Reuben get into a heated argument Nicky tries to stop it, saying "I don't like it when my siblings fight!" Awkward silence ensues.
- Averted: Alice, Nastasia, Nicky, Ginger and Reuben never see each other as more than friends.
- Enforced: The writers wanted to make the tone of the movie Lighter and Softer from the source book, so they have the main characters act like family.
- Lampshaded: "I guess we're kind of like a generation of siblings sometimes... It's not that hard to infer."
- Invoked: The orphanage manager tries to pull this off with her wards so when they leave they won't feel alone in the world.
- Implied: When Alice is talking about her closest, she doesn't say "siblings" or "parents", just "family".
- Exploited: The sinister Brainjoltz is after Alice, and decides to use the others as bait and hostages, realizing they could work just as well as a parent.
- Defied: The quintet are barely seen together despite any connection.
- Discussed:Blake: "So babe, we've been dating for a year now. Will I be meeting the family soon?"Alice: "Yes... I mean no, you've seen them already- well... It's a little complicated..."
- Conversed: "Ah, I love it when a film like this makes unrelated but mutually compassionate characters feel like an equal to a biological family."
- Deconstructed: Alice, Nastasia, Nicky, Ginger and Reuben face hurdles because the government doesn't legally recognize them as a family. When Alice ends up in the emergency room for a serious injury, the hospital won't allow the other four to visit her because they don't have paperwork proving that they are related to her.
- Reconstructed: Alice legally adopted the other four to avoid legal issues and because of this they're allowed to visit her in the hospital.
Back to Family of Choice.
