Bully and Wimp Pairing



In fiction with child heroes, it's common to have a bully and his most frequent victim as supporting characters. While the bully might feature as a villain, in stories where they are on the main characters' side, they are frequently paired up with the wimp as a sort of Brains and Brawn, Big Guy, Little Guy double act.

Usually played for comedy: Either the wimp is unhappy at being paired with the intimidating bully, the bully is unhappy that he's not allowed to beat on the wimp while they're supposed to be working together, or embarrassed to be seen with him, or the two get along surprisingly well considering their normal relationship. The latter type may grow up to be a Sensitive Guy and Manly Man.

In a completely different kind of fiction, Seme / Uke pairings may feature this.

Anime and Manga

 * Chrona and Ragnarok from Soul Eater.
 * Dumb Muscle Gian and Spoiled Brat Suneo in Doraemon could be considered this as they generally appear together.
 * Kendo Team Captain Kuno and the pale outcast Gosunkugi frequently team up to defeat Ranma ½. Though Kuno is shown in some stories to be unpopular himself and just oblivious to it.

Comic Books

 * Punisher MAX Presents Barracuda. The story had Barracuda paired up with a young man with haemophilia (Which resulted in the nickname Hemo).

Film

 * Scut Farkus and Grover Dill in A Christmas Story are a villainous variation.

Video Games

 * In Bully, the game starts out with Gary and Petey playing this role, although it's not a perfect fit since Gary is more into mind games and emotional manipulation than physical bullying. When Jimmy takes Gary's place, the trope works better as Petey and Jimmy work as a Brains and Brawn team, although of course how much Jimmy acts like a typical bully is purely up to you.

Western Animation Series

 * The Simpsons: Whenever a group of kids includes Nelson and Martin, it seems the two end up paired together. "Team Discovery Channel!" Nelson is usually rather unhappy about this.
 * Before that, in Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic, a strip featured the 64 different types of elementary school students. Two of these were "The Bully" and "The Bully's Little Pal."
 * Phineas and Ferb: Bulford and Baljeet regularly get paired together.
 * South Park has Cartman and Butters.

Western Animation Film

 * In Disney's version of Beauty And The Beast Gaston and Lefou would fit this.