Wanda: You've been very bad, Maryann!
Maryann: You two deserted me!
Wanda: Oh, sweetie, we didn't desert you. You abused our magic, took out Archduke Ferdinand, and plunged the world into World War I!
Maryann: Yeah? Well, now I'm gonna take you out! What do you say about that?!
Maryann: You two deserted me!
Wanda: Oh, sweetie, we didn't desert you. You abused our magic, took out Archduke Ferdinand, and plunged the world into World War I!
Maryann: Yeah? Well, now I'm gonna take you out! What do you say about that?!
You, Bob, and Alice are escaping from the Emperor Big Bad's Inescapable Fortress of Inescapability... but you're too slow and get stuck behind a locking door. But it's okay, you know that Alice and Bob are your True Companions! They'll come back! No One Gets Left Behind, right? Right? Umm... guys?
This trope is when the villains or heroes leave a member of their party behind (either intentionally or not), and the abandoned turns on them as a result. Maybe The Dragon or the Big Bad managed to convince them to switch sides using this reason. Maybe the abandoned doesn't change sides, but simply decides that they want to get even. Maybe the villain doing this to one of their mooks causes them to join the heroes in retaliation. If/when the abandoned sees their former allies again, expect a "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed at the abandoners.
Compare/contrast Left for Dead. Subtrope of Cynicism Catalyst and Freudian Excuse (especially if this trope is a villain's Start of Darkness). A subversion of No One Gets Left Behind. May involve Rejection Projection. If the heroes realize what they've done but are too late to go back or apologize to the abandoned, then a My God, What Have I Done? moment may occur, possibly followed by a What the Hell, Hero?. If the Big Bad was shocked/appalled at the heroes for doing this, then see Even Evil Has Standards. If the abandoner left the abandoned due to their unhealthy fixation on them and/or belief that they're entitled to have the abandoner, then the abandoned might have a If I Can't Have You… mentality. Being left behind may also result in a Tragic Villain.
See also Tragic Abandoned Toy, Parental Abandonment, Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You, Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil, and Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Transformers: Armada: Wheeljack was once an Autobot who looked up to Hot Shot and became good friends with him. However, their friendship was tragically broken when during a fire, Wheeljack was trapped under rubble, and Hot Shot, unable to pull him out, left to get help but was prevented by his superior officers to go back and save him. Despite his efforts to go back anyway, Megatron beats him to the punch and saves Wheeljack instead, who in turn switches allegiance to the Decepticons and harbors a deep hatred towards Hot Shot for seemingly abandoning him.
- This is Played Even Straighter in the original Japanese version of the show, Micron Legend, where Hot Shot does genuinely abandon Wheeljack out of cowardice for his own life and only attempts to go back and save him when he realizes his superiors aren't going to send in a rescue team. And him claiming he was going to get help? That was used purely as an excuse here as opposed to being genuine in the American release.
Fan Works
- This trope is essential to the plot of ~99% of all Revenge Fics.
- Ben 10: Unlimited: Ben, when Verdona (the last surviving relative he has) finds him in the DCAU, he is fairly cold to her at first, asking her where she was when their family needed her most (in other words, when they were all being killed by Vilgax). She admits her mistakes and gives a sincere apology, swearing that, from then on, she'll be there whenever he needs her. Knowing that losing their family hurt her as much as it hurt him, Ben can't stay mad and forgives her.
- In the fanfic Farther's Day
(a Doki Doki Pre Cure story), it is revealed that Sharuru's father Marcel cheated on his wife Leverett and then divorced her, leaving the family as a result. Sharuru begged him not to leave her, but he just harshly shoved her to the ground, claiming that she was no longer his daughter. Because of this, Father's Day is a very heartbreaking day for Sharuru, as it reminds her of what she has lost.
- Downplayed. In The Humanity of Spider-Man, Spider-Man admits to Iron Man that one reason he doesn't want to join the Avengers is because he's a little upset that neither they nor SHIELD were around to help when the Lizard attacked NYC (and killed Captain Stacey). Iron Man admits that he has a point.
- If Wishes Were Ponies: Harry Potter learns upon his return to the Wizarding World that Dumbledore had left him with the Dursleys and had all but ensured that he have no contact with the wizarding world until he was old enough to go to Hogwarts. Thus, no one helped him when the Dursleys were abusing him; the Equestrians and (much later) Muggles did. This leads to Harry having a serious problem trusting wizards/witches (along with human adults in general). He admits to truly trusting no one but children and Equestrians.
- Null: Jaune becomes pissed at one of his former allies for abandoning him in a pretty vile way during the fic. Blake, who is one of Jaune's closer comrades while he's allied with the White Fang against Chivalric Arms, all but throws him to the wolves in the middle of Vale, expecting him to be killed or recaptured by the conspiracy (though she doesn't voice it since that would involve admitting she ironically did wrong when she was trying to make a Heel–Face Turn). Needless to say, Jaune is utterly pissed when he and Blake cross paths again following the formation of Team RWBY. Throughout Jaune's later Enemy Mine with Team RWBY, he's resisting the strong temptation to put a bullet through Blake's skull, and he doesn't miss an opportunity to needle Blake on her moral hypocrisy.
- Owl's Hell That Ends Well:
- Played for Drama with Octavia. Due to gaslighting by her cruel kidnapper and a couple later factors, Octavia believes that Stolas abandoned her out of the blue one night when she was just seven, and as a result, several years after she last saw or heard from her original parents she's disowned Stolas and grown to despise him and fear ever crossing paths with her once-idolized original father again. The belief that her parents suddenly gave her away to her former captor purely for "being a bother", and that Stolas replaced her with a hellhound girl who was initially less well-behaved than she ever was, has also given Octavia lots of abandonment-related anxieties and issues which cause a lot of drama between her and the rest of I.M.P.. Even when Octavia finds out that Stolas didn't abandon her at all, she still can't quickly shake all her sore feelings towards him, particularly her feelings that he replaced her by adopting and growing close to Loona in her absence.
- Loona too has a case of this in her backstory. Her original emotional pillar was an older hellhound named Claw who took her in for years, until the latter betrayed and attacked her while they were stealing food, damaging Loona's ear, and leaving her lying prone and wounded to be caught and enter the hellhound adoption system. Loona makes it clear that she's cut all her ties to Claw as a result, and that she hopes it hurt Claw if she felt any remorse for her betrayal.
- Pokémpanions: In Mon in the Moon, Mewtwo's flashback reveals that he was abandoned by his parents before he even opened his eyes for the first time. This is one of the many reasons he feels like all living beings are cruel and hateful, and he wants to throw the planet into the sun (until his Heel–Face Turn, that is).
- Riding a Sunset: Hot Rod, when he and Bulkhead get to Earth, are happy to see Bumblebee after several hundred years. However, a miscommunication leads Hot Rod to believe Bumblebee, after all their time apart, has replaced him with Charlie as his best friend. This leads to him being fairly antagonistic to 'Bee and Charlie for a while, until Ironhide and Optimus manage to tell Charlie why Hot Rod feels the way he does.
- Shards of a Memory: Karai was raised to believe that Tang Shen (who, in this AU, lived while Hamato Yoshi was killed) abandoned her when she was a baby. Hence, every time she sees Master Shard, she's out for blood (especially because she believes that Shard replaced her with the Turtles and April).
- In the Encanto fic The Two Seers, Mirabel holds animosity towards her birth parents (but mostly Alma) for throwing her out when she got the same gift as Bruno and forcing her and the only father she's ever known to live in the walls.
Film — Animated
- Bolt: Mittens is a major version of Cats Are Snarkers and she's generally grumpy and cynical. When Bolt says he still wants to go back to his owner Penny, Mittens loses her temper and tells him that Penny never loved him. Bolt refuses to believe this, and then Mittens reveals that her former owners declawed and moved away, leaving her behind in the process.
Mittens: (sighs) They leave her, wondering... what she did wrong.
- Coco: Mama Imelda was so heartbroken by her husband abandoning her and their daughter for his music career that she banned music from the house and enforced the ban for generations. It took five generations until someone (Imelda's great-great grandson) challenged the rule. This leads to the revelation that Hector tried to come back, but Ernesto de la Cruz poisoned him and stole his songs. Once the Riveras knew the truth, music was reintroduced to the family.
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: After Rex Dangervest ended up stranded at Undar of the Dryar System, he came to the realization that he couldn't trust anybody else. This is because he's actually a version of Emmet from an alternate timeline where he failed to make it through the Stairgate and his friends were too distracted partying at the Systar System to rescue him.
- Puss in Boots (2011):
- Kitty Softpaws' owners declawed and abandoned her. This is the reason she has trust issues (and a nasty habit of backstabbing people), though it turns out that once you gain her trust, she's quite loyal.
- Humpty Dumpty, it turns out, is pretty sore at his titular childhood blood brother and old friend for abandoning him during a botched robbery years ago; albeit one which Humpty outright deceived Puss into accidentally committing, which ruined Puss's old life, and Puss only abandoned him once he realized what Humpty did to him. And he makes it known with several of his actions to manipulate Puss in the movie's present, like getting him unconscious in the desert and drawing the attention of buzzards to him.
- Steven Universe: The Movie: Spinel used to be the playmate and best friend of Pink Diamond. So it's no surprise that, upon learning her "friend" abandoned her for six thousand years, Spinel is less than pleased. This trauma led her to seek revenge on her son Steven.
- This happens once or twice in the Toy Story films:
- In Toy Story 2, Jessie wants to go to a museum and not be played with anymore because she feels betrayed by Emily, her former owner (who stopped playing with her and eventually gave her up for donation).
- In Toy Story 3, Lotso's hatred of humans and any toys loyal to them stems from his child, Daisy, accidentally leaving him at a park and replacing him when she couldn't find him again.
Film — Live-Action
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: When Forge became Kira's caretaker after Edgin and Holga got arrested, he convinced Kira that her father abandoned her to go treasure hunting and was caught, heavily implying that he abandoned her. Hence, when her father and Holga finally make it back to her after two years of imprisonment, she's cold towards him. It's only at the end does she learn the truth; that her father was trying to get an artifact to bring her mother back and was captured because he'd been betrayed.
- Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey: After being abandoned by Christopher Robin when he moved away, Pooh and the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood were forced to eat Eeyore in order to survive. This traumatic act caused them to despise humanity and seek revenge against Christopher.
- In X-Men: The Last Stand, Mystique takes a cure dart to save Magneto, and loses her powers as a result. Instead of thanking her or helping her, Magneto simply abandons her (as she's not a mutant anymore). This kills any loyalty she had for him and turns her into one of his enemies (eventually having her join the X-Men).
Literature
- In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the memory of Tom Riddle (while explaining why he changed his name to Lord Voldemort) blames his father (also named Tom Riddle) for abandoning him before he was born, because the father discovered that the mother was a witch.
Live-Action TV
- Boardwalk Empire: When the Commodore backs Jimmy's play to take over Atlantic City, most of Nucky's wards go over to their side, leaving only meek Damien to meet with Nucky to pledge his allegiance. Nucky promises him that after he deals with Jimmy, he'll remember who stayed... and who didn't.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In one of the show's most heartbreaking moments, Will (despite acting nonchalant about his father leaving him as a child and trying to bond with Lou) finally tells Uncle Phil about how angry and devastated he is over the fact that his father doesn't care about him. No wonder we never saw Lou again...
Will: (crying) How come he don't want me, man?
- Friends: In "The One With Joey's Bag", Phoebe finally meets her father, and makes it clear that she's hurt and furious at him for abandoning her and Ursula as a child. He admits that she's justified in feeling that way.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer Fantasy: The Chaos Dwarves came about after a group of dwarfs were trapped in a cave-in. Praying to the Ancestor Gods got no results, and they became increasingly desperate until they were aided by an evil fire god named Hashut, dedicating their lives and their descendants' to his service. Now mutated almost beyond recognition (most of them have tusks and their sorcerers slowly turn to stone), they specialize in binding daemons into weapons (including cannons) for other Chaos factions, forming a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the Babylonian Empires.
Theatre
- Be More Chill: Downplayed. After Michael is abandoned by his best friend Jeremy due to the SQUIP convincing him it will be better for his popularity, Michael is initially reluctant to help Jeremy, even as Jeremy's father begs him. Even after agreeing to help, he refuses to give Jeremy the Mountain Dew Red to deactivate the SQUIP until Jeremy apologizes (in spite of the fact that multiple students' free wills are in danger at the time).
Michael: (singing) Everything felt fine, when I was half of a pair. But through no fault of mine, there's no other half there.
- In Shrek: The Musical, Farquadd states that his father abandoning him is the reason why he wants to be a powerful ruler. The end of the show reveals not only was Farquadd half-dwarf (his father is Grumpy), but that he wasn't abandoned, he was kicked out because he was a twenty-eight-year-old loser mooching off of his parents.
Video Game
- Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Towards the climax, Talion and Celebrimbor have a falling-out when Talion decides to Mercy Kill Isildur instead of Dominating him, and learns that his partner plans to enslave and replace Sauron instead of killing him like they originally planned- and after that, he'll take over Mordor and all of Middle Earth just like Sauron wanted to. Talion bluntly refuses to help Celebrimbor anymore, whereupon the Wraith coldly states that Talion is only an expendable host, and offers both himself and the New Ring to their new Elven ally Eltariel. Eltariel, who has grown bitter and desperate to finally end her war with Sauron's Nazgul servants and go home, accepts Celebrimbor's offer, and both Elves leave, whilst Talion, deprived of both things keeping him anchored in the living world, starts bleeding out from the Slashed Throat that originally killed him. Years later, in the Blade of Galadriel DLC, it's made clear in several exchanges of dialogue that Talion still resents Eltariel and Celebrimbor for abandoning him to die, and that bitterness is exploited by Sauron to finally break Talion's willpower and corrupt him into a full Nazgul.
Eltariel: Talion, do not betray the man you were.
Talion. You speak to me of betrayal? You abandoned me. You and Celebrimbor. I have fought this war alone.
Web Animation
- Dingo Doodles: In Fools Gold, Erina, despite having a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Sips, still gets pissed off when he decides to leave the team, calling him selfish even though he's doing it to protect them from his curse. Once reunited, Erina constantly shuns Sips for abandoning them (despite doing the same thing to Gothi moments after Sips left). Later discussed and justified when Erina reminds Gothi that she had just gone through a Trauma Conga Line (which included learning her father was executed and getting dumped by her girlfriend) when Sips decided to leave, and reveals this wasn't the first time she'd been abandoned. So, she left Gothi before Gothi could leave her too.
Webcomics
- Brat-Halla uses Nordic mythology as the starting point for humour, concerning Odin and Freya's frequently despairing attempts to raise their divine children. The mythological story of Odin sacrificing one of his eyes for greater wisdom takes on a new twist when the discarded eye takes on a life and sentience of its own and swears vengeance on Odin for discarding and abandoning him, thus setting off an arc of tales in which Odin's Eye is the protagonist.
Western Animation
- Futurama: In the "Round Wheels" segment of "The Prince and the Product," Zoidberg is sick of constantly being left behind on missions (as their transporter has only six slots and their crew consists of seven cars), so he lures all his friends to their deaths and modifies himself with their spare parts.
- Infinity Train: One of the reasons why Simon developed his hatred and mistrust of the Train's denizens is because his companion and Parental Subsitute, Samantha the Cat, left him to die when they were running from a Ghom monster. He only survived because Grace intervened. The cat never returned even after it was clear Simon was alive. Years later, seeing or being reminded of the cat, triggers Simon's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and he bares resentment for her abandonment. Samantha for her part, somewhat feels bad, but refuses to own up and apologize even years later, at most, giving Simon gifts as a shallow way to hold off her guilt.
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Starlight Glimmer was abandoned by her best friend Sunburst when he got his Cutie Mark before her and got sent off to Canterlot to study. This made Starlight believe that the only way to true friendship is to get rid of all differences, including Cutie Marks, which she accomplished in "Our Town" through forcing her ideas on others, secretly keeping her own talent in order to take others' talents away. After the Mane 6 reveal the truth, turning the town ponies against her, she returns a whole season later to take her revenge, almost breaking Equestria to split the Mane 6 apart until Twilight makes her realize the damage she's doing. Subverted when she actually reunites with Sunburst himself, as by then she has had a Heel–Face Turn and is more embarrassed by her past villainy than angry at him.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Catra's Start of Darkness comes from the fact that Adora left the Horde (and her) for the Princesses and a magic sword. She carries the sting of Adora's defection for a long time after.
- During a rescue mission to save Glimmer and Bow from the Horde, Entrapta is accidentally left behind (they didn't look for her because it had looked like she'd gotten caught in a burst of flame and incinerated). Catra is the one who tells Entrapta that the Princesses left her behind, heavily implying that it was because they didn't like her. Entrapta is heartbroken by this realization, and agrees to defect to the Horde as a result.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: In the episode "Trusted Sources", it's revealed that the Ornarans (who were addicted to drugs supplied by the Brekkians when we last saw them in Star Trek: The Next Generation), have managed to rebuild their society after kicking their planet-wide addiction. However, because Starfleet essentially abandoned them to deal with the withdrawal symptoms with no help, the Ornaran government politely tells Captain Freedman that they don't want anything to do with Starfleet.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
- When it's discovered that Echo may be alive and is possibly giving battle strategies to the enemy, several people believe that the clone has pulled this trope due to being left for dead on a mission. Ultimately subverted; Echo had survived the explosion and had been turned into a living science experiment to help the Separatists. The second he's freed, he immediately starts helping the Republic again.
- This trope was ultimately why Ahsoka left the Jedi Order. When she was accused of a crime, no one other than Anakin stood up to defend her, and the Council practically abandoned her to face execution. Even though Anakin found the real perpetrator and cleared her name, she was too hurt by the Council's abandonment to want to remain in the Order.
- Star Wars Rebels: Kallus eventually defected because of the events on the ice moon; while Zeb's friends didn't stop looking for him until they found him, the Empire gave up on Kallus within a day, and he would've been left to freeze to death he hadn't managed to hitchhike with a trader. The fact that they were ready to abandon him after all he'd done for them eventually leads to him leaving the Empire.
- Transformers: Animated: Blackarachnia, formerly the Autobot cadet Elita-1, was accidentally left behind on a planet infested with giant spiders that she, Optimus and Sentinel were visiting without permission. When left alone with the spiders, she was infected with their venom and turned into a techno-organic hybrid. She left the Autobots (letting them think she was dead) out of fear of being dissected for study note and joined the Decepticons (while they hate her organic half, she at least knows where she stands with them). She hates what she's become, but she hates Optimus and Sentinel even more because of what happened.
