Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A situation where an adult villain [[It's Personal|fixates]] on a teenager as his [[Arch Enemy]] because of some twisted logic that only makes sense to them. It's not a smart reason, but it's there, and it's convincing. It's not because of some past personal grudge, not [[Because Destiny Says So]], not because he wants the hero's [[MacGuffin]], and definitely not because [[Luke, I Am Your Father]] ([[Fanfic|Fan Fiction]] notwithstanding). Somehow, someone half their age has really gotten under the villain's skin, so the only thing they can do is return the favor. This trope may exist to ensure that the audience takes the villain [[Serious Business|seriously]], rather than laughing it off as merely two kids fighting.

 

A sub-trope of [[Driven by Envy]]. The [[Dean Bitterman]] or [[Sadist Teacher]] can cross into this territory if they have it in for a specific student in particular. See also: [[Animal Nemesis]]. Contrast [[Older Hero vs. Younger Villain]], where the age relationship is reversed.

{{examples}}

* Setsuna and Ali on ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]''. Ali manipulated Middle Eastern children so that they would kill their parents, become children soldiers, and fight a jihad that would eventually destroy their own country, the Kurdish Republic. Setsuna was one of the children who survived. Years later, Setsuna has grown up to pilot a powerful mech, Ali has become a mercenary, and it goes without saying they're not too pleased to see each other.

** {{spoiler|When season 2 came round Graham got into the act as well, so Setsuna now has ''two'' people "his own size" picking on him.}}

** Also, what about Team Rocket's obsession with defeating Ash and stealing ''his'' Pikachu? He's a ''ten year old'' for god's sake.

*** [[Pokémon Special]] is logically better since it's actually Team Rocket's Leader offering Red a lieutenants position in Team Rocket since Giovanni realizes that Red kicks ass and would be a valuable asset.

* In ''[[D.Gray-Man]]'', Tyki is noticeably older than Allen (who is 15), but is ''very'' obsessed with killing him. Sure, [[Big Bad|The Earl]] ordered him to eliminate Allen, but he is quite noticeably very eager and excited with the idea of fighting and killing him; during their fight on the Ark, he said, "This is giving me the thrills! [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|I'll break you, one more time, with this hand!]]" Of course, there are probably [[Foe Yay|other reasons]] why he's so interested in [[Even the Guys Want Him|Allen]]...

** An interesting case shows up with Road and Allen. In terms of appearance, she looks younger than him, but in reality, she's actually older than him. And [[Foe Yay|has kissed him once on the lips]]. A bit of [[Squick]] there.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', since Luffy is just a teenager, many of his opponents are usually much older than him. There's Buggy the Clown, who in addition to despising Shanks (Luffy's [[Intergenerational Friendship|friend/mentor]]) also hates Luffy for beating him in battle once.

* [[Straight Man|Moriaki-sensei]] sees [[Genki Girl|Hotori]] as her "second natural enemy" in ''[[Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru]]''

 

 

* While the adult Green Goblin originally fixated on the then-teenaged ''[[Spider-Man]]'' because he thought Spidey would be an easy target, the Goblin soon became obsessed with the idea of making the much younger Peter Parker the "heir" to his legacy as the Green Goblin, seeing in Peter Parker the traits he wanted his heir to carry on, but found lacking in his own son.

* The Time Trapper of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' first appeared to have no reason to menace the Legion other than a severe dislike for teenage superheroes. Later, this evolved into several elaborate retcons. These retcons include that he was fighting Mordru in a game of 4th-Dimensional chess and that he was Cosmic Boy.

* While Deathstroke of the DCU is an equal opportunity criminal mercenary, he holds a personal grudge against the Teen Titans (and former Teen Titans) who are all much younger than him -- ''especially'' Dick Grayson. This all started when the H.I.V.E offered him a contract to kill the Teen Titans. He dismissed the contract out of hand, and the H.I.V.E. passed the contract onto his estranged elder son, Grant. Grant, blaming the Titans for everything that had gone wrong in his life, accepted chemical enhancements that would make him equal or surpass Deathstroke. The effects of the drugs caused Grant to die, even as Deathstroke had been trying to talk him out of the job. Blaming the job, and by extent the Titans, for the loss of his son, Deathstroke swore to take up the contract Grant had died trying to fulfil.

 

* In another rare intergender example, the [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3052814/1/Quirk_of_Fate_Part_1_The_Octopus_Strikes ''Quirk of Fate''] fanfiction series, a ''[[Spider-Man]]'' [[Alternate Universe Fic]] where Mary Jane Watson was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker, has the teenage heroine becoming first the [[Squick|object of lust]] of an adult Doctor Octopus, and then becoming his archenemy when she flatly rejects him.

** And the Brothers Grimm isn't necessarily even the only one. {{spoiler|Jack O'Lantern, alias Steven Mark Levins}}, has developed a psychopathic obsession with his teenage nemesis for continually interfering in his fun and coming to represent everything he hates about the world.

 

* ''[[The Lion King]]'': "[[Subverted Trope|Like...you?]]"

{{quote|[[Oh Crap|"Oops..."]]}}

* In ''[[Election]]'', Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a high school student who is running for school council. Her ambitious over-achieving personalty grates on one of her teachers, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), who becomes obsessed with ruining her run for election, and by extension her life.

* A female example comes from the film version of ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', when the adult Wicked Witch of the West becomes obsessed with destroying the teenage Dorothy Gale, who accidentally killed her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East. Since the Witch of the West also wants the [[Clingy MacGuffin|Witch of the East's ruby slippers, which just happen to be stuck to Dorothy's feet]], she has double the reason to want Dorothy dead.

* In a distinctly non-humorous example, Christabella, the leader of the [[Religion of Evil|evil cult]] in ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'', is revealed near the end of the movie as having had an extreme vendetta against her sister Dahlia's daughter, who was born out of wedlock. After ten years of her daughter [[All of the Other Reindeer|being put through hell by the children of other cult members]], Dahlia decides to allow Christabella to 'purify' her daughter. This ends [[Burn the Witch|exactly how you would expect.]]

* Taken to an extreme extent in ''[[Kung Pow]]: Enter The Fist'', which initially features the villain against a newborn baby.

** The 2007 remake turns this into an intergender example by adding Jim's girlfriend Grace Andrews to the mix. Ryder eventually murders Jim and puts all his focus on Grace.

* The film ''[[I Know What You Did Last Summer]]'' features an intergender example with the crazed fisherman killer Ben Willis obsessed with killing the teenage Julie James and her friends for accidentally hitting him with their car.

* An intergender example occurs in the [[Jamie Lee Curtis]]/[[Lindsay Lohan]] remake of ''[[Freaky Friday]]'', where Lohan's character is being taught by an old flame of her mother. Said teacher never got over being dumped by Curtis's character, and he takes out his grudge on her daughter. Curtis's character doesn't believe her daughter's claims until their [[Freaky Friday Flip|bodies are switched]], and then experiences it for herself.

 

* Snape and Harry in the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' books, due to Harry's being the spitting image of his dead father in numerous ways, whom Snape did NOT get along with at all {{spoiler|because they both had a crush on the same girl}}. In spite of this, {{spoiler|it turns out that Snape, who has been one of the good guys after all, had been watching out for Harry and helping him all along}}.

** Lord Voldemort on the other hand ''thinks'' that it's [[Because Destiny Says So]], not realizing that the prophecy that drove him to hunt down the boy was the self-fulfilling kind, and that it's precisely his obsession with it that makes him engineer himself a perfect [[Arch Nemesis]]. His unhealthy conviction in the boy's significance and threat leads to some increasingly stupid moves, each of which makes the boy more and more dangerous, which in turn feeds the obsession, until this chain reaction explodes right in V's noseless face.

* All the adults and Sara in ''[[A Little Princess]]''.

 

* A rare adult female to male youth example comes on ''[[Married... with Children]]'', of all places, where a bitter middle-aged librarian becomes the enemy of a young Al Bundy. Thirty years later, when Al returns to the library to return an overdue book, the now elderly librarian is still there and ready to renew the enmity with the now middle-aged Al.

* Female example: [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Danielle Atron becomes obsessed with locating the teenage Alex Mack and exploiting her mutation for scientific purposes on ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]''.

* In Japanese drama ''[[Shokojo Sera]]'' based on the book ''[[A Little Princess]]'', [[Sadist Teacher]] Mimura Chieko practically takes delight in bullying [[The Woobie|Seira]], screaming and slapping Seira when she does something that she doesn't like. She even admitted right to Seira's face that she despised her. However, we can see where this irrational hate of Seira comes from. Chieko was once classmates of Seira's late mother and had an inferior complex about her. Seira's mother was well-loved, kind, pretty and popular and it really didn't help that Seira was [[Like Father, Like Son|very much like her mother in every way]].

 

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'':, Axel is initially a bit ''too'' keen on becoming best friends forever with Roxas (who is only 15- or rather, his soul is 15, Roxas himself is only less than a year old). After Roxas left, Axel goes into this trope full throttle, resulting in an amazing amount of [[Foe Yay]] between them, and many many scenes where it looks like Axel is unhealthily obsessed with defeating and taking Roxas back.

** [[Author's Saving Throw]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'': The relation between Axel and Roxas (and Xion) is shown to be more of a [[Big Brother Instinct]] of Axel's towards his younger cohorts, who are both only a few days old at the beginning of the game. By the end of the game however, Axel's role as the "big brother" of the gang starts to [[Poisonous Friend|get]] [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|rather]] [[Conflicting Loyalty|murky]] ...

* The ''[[The DCU|DC Universe]] Online'' trailer has Black Adam shouting this to [[Green Lantern]]. The person Lantern was fighting? [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Giganta]].

* The hero in ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]'' says this to Andre, a giant farmer who was trying to grow enough food for his family, after breaking his necklace and snatching the key from it because he/she thought he was going to have the villagers for dinner. Andre, of course, responds with "Pick on someb- '''[[You're Insane!|THIS IS INSANE!]]'''"

 

* One of the stranger examples comes from ''[[Sonichu]]'', where the [[Informed Flaw|evil]] Mary Lee Walsh is obsessed with ruining the "Love Quests" of [[Designated Hero|Christian Weston Chandler]], to the extent of sending evil super-powered monsters and brainwashed mind slaves after him. Her motivation for doing this is because...because...uh...ForTheEvulz...?

 

* Slade and Robin on ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''; paralleled by Brother Blood and Cyborg, which Robin [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]]. Blood/Cyborg had a bit of irony in that Cyborg was one of the larger characters in the series while Blood was rather wiry.

** Fairly common on ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', partially due to the fact that they're [[Kid Hero|kid heroes]]. Sometimes their villains actually are old people (Mad Mod being a prime example).

* Zhao and Prince Zuko on ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. What, does Jason Isaacs just hate [[Harry Potter (novel)|kids with scars]]?

* Present but with a twist with Dr. Drakken and ''[[Kim Possible]]''. The gender relationship is quite uncommon, and Drakken discovered much later that she's the daughter of the former best friend who was [[Start of Darkness|the main cause]] of his descent into villainy. This doesn't come to light until Kim's self-starting heroism has made her his [[Arch Enemy]] on her own merits.

* Female example: Vexus' obsession with Jenny on ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]''.

* An intergender example occurs in the ''[[Phantom 2040]]'' cartoon with the heroic young [[Legacy Character|Kit Walker Jr.]], son of the previous Phantom, and the villainous adult Rebecca Madison, widow of the man who killed Kit's father. To be fair, Kit does pose her a serious threat once he becomes the Phantom himself.

** Or Mr. Crocker and any child?

* Van Kless towards the titular ''[[Generator Rex]]''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Arch Enemy]]