Basic Trope: A speech detailing a character's positive aspects, with the intent of cheering them up.
- Straight: Bob suffered an episode where he brutally manhandled an enemy out of rage and is beginning to doubt his integrity. Alice reassures him that he isn't evil.
- Exaggerated: Bob saved almost everyone, except for a few people who were required to sacrifice their lives, leaving him depressed. Alice gathers a crowd of grateful people so that they can all talk some sense into him.
- Downplayed: Bob failed a job interview. Alice says that he has the right skills and a strong work ethic, so if he has more confidence, he'll succeed next time.
- Justified: Bob is a true Hero with a few self-esteem issues, and Alice knows it.
- Inverted:
- Alice forces Bob to give himself a pep talk.
- Alice tells Bob that You Are Worse Than You Think You Are.
- Subverted: Alice looks like she will encourage Bob, only to frown and tell him to suck it up.
- Double Subverted: She elaborates that she knows Bob well enough to know he can get over it, and never-the-less still praises him for some of his deeds.
- Parodied: Bob jumps between Whiny Load and Comically Invincible Hero, depending on whether Alice has remembered to compliment him today.
- Zig Zagged: Alice's speech to Bob varies from comforting and encouraging to demeaning and harsh.
- Averted:
- Nobody says this to Bob... or nobody needs to. Bob actually does suck as much as he thinks he does.
- Enforced: The message of the work is that the audience is better than they think they are, so a scene is included to have the characters address the idea directly.
- Lampshaded: "You would make it really easy to fish for compliments."
- Invoked: Charlie directs Alice toward Bob, knowing that the latter's been feeling down and Alice is the team's Heart.
- Exploited: Bob tends to be more willing to do chores and favours while he's happy...
- Defied:
- Bob tells Alice that she's full of shit, and her words only mean that she wants to feel self-righteous about expecting better of him than he's actually capable of.
- Alice refuses to stroke Bob's ego, and feels that it's up to him to do something that gains him his sense of self-worth.
- Discussed: Alice: "Time to show Bob how badly he's underestimating himself."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Bob's self-loathing is so severe that the only reason he hasn't been Driven to Suicide already is that he thinks he deserves to suffer and/or doesn't think he deserves the mercy of death. Alice's pep talk convinces him that he has done enough good, or tortured himself enough already, and finally has made himself deserving of putting himself out of his misery.
- Bob's doubts about himself are momentarily put off by Alice's speech, but his mental scars are too deep to disappear after one feel-good speech, and after a while, Bob goes back to thinking of himself as worthless.
- Reconstructed: Alice manages to pep talk Bob down from committing suicide, too.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice, crippled by her own insecurities, can't quite bring herself to talk to Bob. He promptly Jumps Off The Slippery Slope.
- Bob is too stubborn and upset to listen to Alice until she ultimately hits him to emphasize how serious she is.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice gives Bob an Innocently Insensitive speech that's meant to be this. It either works or gets a deadpan response from Bob.
- Alternatively...
Alice: Bob, you're not actually that bad. I've seen worse. - Implied: Bob was depressed, but appears to be doing much better in his next appearance. When asked, he says, "Someone said I was better than I thought."
Back to You Are Better Than You Think You Are. (Which is true, believe it or not.)
