The Un Favourite / Webcomics

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• Black Mage from 8-Bit Theater, apparently
  • Red Mage too, although technically that was entirely concocted and implanted in his mind by Thief.
• Mizuna of Adventurers! thinks she's one of these, bringing up how she was always compared with Karashi when younger. When she mentions this to Karashi, the latter says that the comparisons were always favorable; eg. "Mizuna is so much more advanced than Karashi was at her age!"
• Batman and Sons play around with this a bit. What's clear is that Terry is the favorite, being Batman's biological son. At first glance, any Robin could be the unfavorite, considering how Batman treats them but there are Pet the Dog moments between Batman and the Robins. The true unfavorite is Damien, who Batman flat out refuses to acknowledge as his unless Talia produces a positive DNA test.
• Concession: Joel's father preferred his older brother Julian and left him the entire company in his will. While the author claims these implications were just meant as gags, there are hints that his mother would have preferred a daughter; Joel's twin sister Miranda died when they were young, so it's possible he feels his mother would rather he had died. According to Joel, the situation is even worse; he was so traumatised by the death that he was put in a mental hospital. While there, Joel became convinced that their older brother Julian had killed Miranda and their parents thought Joel had done it. Understandably, he's severely messed up by the time the main storyline starts.
• Cursed Princess Club: Prince Frederick of the Plaid Kingdom is rather disfavored compared to his two older brothers Blaine and Lance. While they became athletic aces at military academy, he was a bookish nerd who started off homeschooled due to a weak constitution and was bullied when sent to a standard, less prestigious school because of his "wimpy" hobbies. He deliberately underperformed to keep from standing out anymore and eventually graduated from that school with no accolades or honors, disappointing his father King Leland. He's initially elated that he and his brothers are getting Arranged Marriages to the princesses of the Pastel Kingdom, especially thanks to his obsession with a fairy tale he read about a man in a pit who was rescued by a beautiful "angel of fortune" and who achieved many great deeds with her by his side. But when he discovers that his betrothed is the ugly and frightening Gwendolyn, he thinks he's once again getting the short end of the stick. The fact that Leland angrily berates Frederick, roughs him up, and assigns physically strenuous tasks to him over jeopardizing the Altar Diplomacy (while also openly declaring eldest son Blaine to be his favorite) doesn't make the poor prince feel any better. It isn't until he gets to know Gwen (who, among many other displays of kindness, makes quite an effort to appeal to his hobbies that got him bullied) that he starts to realize that she could be his "angel of fortune" after all.
• Isaac Jenner from Demonology 101, both in the eyes of his father and The Powers That Be. This is his primary reason for his numerous attempts to murder his brother Gabriel.
• Dominic Deegan: Miranda Deegan has pretty much disavowed any knowledge of her oldest son Jacob. Her reasons aren't entirely unjustified, though; Jacob took up necromancy after one of her oldest enemies attacked her home and gravely wounded her youngest son, Gregory, whom Jacob would use as a guinea pig for several horrible experiments — one of which almost killing Gregory in the process. And, uh...yeah.
  • Earlier on, we have Luna Travoria, youngest of four daughters and (slightly) deformed. Her older sisters and bitter crone of a mother abused her day in and day out. As the second story arc starts up, her mother plans to have Luna commit suicide while a royal knight is visiting in order to claim a huge compensation payoff from the kingdom.
• Sil'lice of Drowtales was not even acknowledged by her mother Diva'ratrika as someone worthy of even being in the line of her throne and she was largely ignored by her mother. In the end, when Diva'ratrika is betrayed by her three of her daughters, who try their best to kill her and completely undermine her role, Sil'lice is the only one of her daughters who stays true to her mother and her and her entire army of children and grandchild are nearly wiped out for it. Diva now works with Sil'lice in her attempts to take down her sisters, while not revealing she is her mother reborn in a different body.
  • Vy'chriel was absolutely and understandably despised by her adoptive mother Zala'ess Vel'Sharen. This is because Vy'chriel was adopted into the Vel'Sharen household as a "Protector Twin" who act both as sisters and guardians to the true Vel'Sharen children. Vy'chriel, angered by her twin's disobedience to Zala'ess' orders, killed the real Vy'chriel in single combat, turned her body into a golem and took up her name. Zala'ess, who loved her actual daughter, despised Vy'chriel for doing this. Eventually Zala'ess pulled off a Uriah Gambit on her false daughter to avenger her real one.
• Dumbing of Age:
  • Sal Walkerton has always felt overshadowed by her twin brother, who is both Brilliant, but Lazy and "whiter" than her — they're mixed-race, but Walky himself considers her black and himself "generically beige".
  • It's strongly implied that Jordan Brown is straight up disowned by his mother because of his 'disobedience' and refusal to toe the line.
• Ann "Bootsie" Khoeler in Friendly Hostility; her parents praise her brother for doing so wonderfully at college, and continue to praise him when he reveals he sold her as a slave to cover his poker debts.
• Main character, Mary Prosa, feels this way in Henchgirl since her family are the famed superheroes Flame Girl (Mother), El Romantico (Father) and Photo Girl (Sister) and the former two are heavily imply they're disappointed Mary didn't gain any flashy superpowers (Mary at best has some partial super strength but they view it as Boring, but Practical). Showcased when they write an autobiography but make no mention of her in book in the slightest, even in the acknowledgements (Claiming it was "Due to the editors"). Seem very dismissive of her when they do interact and, during a trip to the past, we see her mother showing relief that Mary supposedly gained psychic powers and deflected Mary asking her that they would still love her if she hadn't gain any. Heck they can't even be bothered to come to the hospital when she's injured near the end of the series claiming they're too busy with hero work. Mary sister, Paige, at the least notes this is and tries to be a supportive sister to Mary.
• In Instant Classic, when Author is born, he has an unexpected twin brother. His parents are dismayed, the father going so far as to name the boy Xauthor, declaring him to be the evil twin at birth and treating him accordingly through his entire childhood and early adulthood, despite him not doing anything remotely evil until he snaps due to being told he's evil for YEARS He's also got a goatee.
• Kevin of Kevin & Kell faces this, exacerbated by being one of 38 siblings, meaning that he only stands out in the worst possible ways. As a child, he was looked down upon for being fearless (which is considered Too Dumb to Live by rabbits), and when he got older, he was disowned for marrying Kell, a predator. Kevin does eventually reconcile with his parents who got over the 'marrying a predator' thing.
• Rayne from Least I Could Do claims in one strip that he was locked in a cage and fed newspaper as a child. His friends know it's BS, but Mick remarks "his stories amuse me so."
• Liquid Snake, in the AU Metal Gear Solid fancomic series "Les Enfants Terribles." Solidus gets this treatment too, but to a lesser extent.
  • This also occurs in the webcomic The Last Days of FOXHOUND. Hell, it occurred in the games as well.
• Played with in Narbonic. Dave's brother Bill is actually a pretty boring, ordinary guy, but Dave is stubbornly convinced that Bill is cooler, better looking, and otherwise superior to him in every way. There's no indication whether this is related to parental favoritism.
• Roy Greenhilt from The Order of the Stick. His father's epitaph reads "Devoted Husband — Mighty Wizard — Passable Father", and his ghost keeps showing up to harass Roy about his choice in Character Class.
  • Although it turned out his father wasn't likely the favorite either. Though he only has himself to blame since he looked down on his own father for being a fighter too.
    • Eugene harasses Roy chiefly because he doesn't get to go to Lawful Good Heaven until Roy (or another Greenhilt descendant) fulfills the blood oath Eugene made as a younger man. The middle Greenhilt is then supremely incensed when he learns that he's Lawful Good Heaven's Unfavorite because he abandoned the oath for other pursuits.
  • Nale for his father Tarquin. In Tarquin's eyes, Nale is nothing but an incompetent over-reaching upstart who cares more about satisfying his ego than about results. Nale is equally contemptuous of his father, seeing him as nothing but an old man too afraid to grasp ultimate power. When Nale finally makes it absolutely clear that he wants nothing from Tarquin and will never be a willing pawn Tarquin kills him on the spot as. That said, Nale did kill his best friend Deader than Dead, and made it clear he did not want his father's favor, the only thing that has kept Tarquin from killing him for years. A fact Tarquin tried to get through to him, but Nale's ego wouldn't let him grasp.
• In this◊ Pokémon X and Y comic, a shiny Eevee is abandoned by its mother and siblings because its unusual coloration will attract predators. Because of this, it thinks of itself as ugly and an abomination. It is eventually adopted and cared for by Calem, who bonds with it strongly enough that it evolves into a Sylveon.
  He told me I was special. And I was so happy. Because I finally found someone...who loved me just the way I am.
• Similarly, in the Pokémon Black and White comic Same Colours, an Oshawott is rejected by two starting Trainers who call it weak and stupid-looking, choosing its friends Snivy and Tepig instead. But it is finally chosen by Hilbert, who excitedly points out that they're wearing the same colours (his shirt matches Oshawott's blue fur).
• Shotgun Shuffle focuses on the misadventures of Ellie Buckingham, the 5th of 7 daughters in an eccentric family. While Ellie's laziness gets her kicked out the house at the start of the comic, the undisputed Unfavorite of the family is her older sister, Juniper, who is a slutty, alcoholic train wreck. One comic even features Juniper bursting into tears of joy when Ellie said she'd done a good job, because apparently no one ever said those words to her before.
• Riff from Sluggy Freelance is the Unfavorite to his stepbrother (who is apparently his mother's new husband's son). When said stepbrother asks if he is better than Riff, his mother tells him that it's not nice to "rub it in". Riff is thus somewhat pleased, albeit humiliated, when Bun-bun and Kiki's attempt to stand in for him at a party with a mechanical look-alike fails and results in him getting disowned.
• Monette of Something*Positive was the Unfavorite of her biological father (we're not quite sure where her mother is in all of this). When her father gained custody of her and her sisters, he dropped her off at her grandmother's house. While Grandma was on vacation. Grandma also kept pit bulls. And her father tied raw steaks to her head. Oh, and did we mention that at the time she was less than a year old? Of course, being Something*Positive, this is generally played for laughs; however, it's given genuine emotion when her father visits her for Thanksgiving at the MacIntire residence in Texas. His ill treatment of her is what prompts Faye and Fred to adopt her and make her their daughter.
• Til Debt Do Us Part: Yejun's new family basically pretended he didn't exist growing up, with his mother and stepfather openly preferring his younger siblings. It seems to have cooled down somewhat in the present since Yejun has a high rank in the Family Business, but they're all still far from a happy family.
• What Birds Know has Dores, stuck in the shadow of her brother Ian. Her family completely fails to recognize her talents, seeing her instead as a lazy, irresponsible and ill-tempered brat. Her mother is by far the worst about this, to the point that when the parents are worrying about their daughters taking several days too long to return from their errand, she argues against sending help, muttering that she'll just ground Dores later, and freaks out when Ian volunteers to help. "This is not going to happen!"
• Brisbane of You Say It First is one of these. We never see his parents, but hear that they seem to hate him. They didn't attend his wedding and the fact that all they did was sign the card Brisbane's brother added to his gift is treated like a huge step in repairing the relationship. He also sadly told his wife that she would be able to meet them, but he wouldn't be allowed to be there.
• Wally from Zebra Girl is a subversion — while he's at the bottom of his pack of werewolves (and explicitly referred to as the Omega), and constantly teased and berated by his pack-mates, Doyenne, the pack leader, confides in Jack that she feels he has the most potential out of any of the pack, and derides the others as brutish murderers who use their animal sides to excuse the evil in their all-too-human hearts. Of course, in her next breath, she matter-of-factly states how she's going to have to kill them...

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