On Monday, I posted an article about parental favoritism, said a bunch of words, and left off with more thoughts about how to spice up your parental favoritism plots stirring in my head. These are those thoughts. Please enjoy them.
4. Have the favorite feel bad about it
Most of the time in fiction, when a character finds out that they're the favorite they're super smug about it--they lord it over the other characters and do their best to make them as miserable as humanly possible. OR, the favorite is totally oblivious to the favoritism, and feels neither one way nor the other about it once they do find out--maybe they aren't a dick about it, but they kind of just accept it as the status quo.
And yeah, that's ONE way to think about it, but there's also another, perhaps more realistic alternative--delicious, delicious guilt.
Whether it's because they love their siblings and don't want them to feel left out, or because their siblings treat them poorly because of their heightened station in the home, let the character feel bad about their position of privelege, whether they're the protagonist or not. If they are the protagonist, this is a perfect way to shoehorn in your childhood angst without falling back on the age-old (and so oft poorly done) abuse tropes that clutter every genre in the history of man, and it makes them out to be a more sympathetic character than the Raging Doucheholic many favorites turn out to be.
If they aren't the protagonist, it can help subvert the sibling rivalry trope and adds a further depth to their relationship and the general dynamic of the home; it makes for a more complex narrative and gives the protagonist more than just straw men to wail against--maybe they still hate them, but even so, at least we're seeing a character in a universe that is not protagonist-centered.
Which is just another reason why you should
5. Make the other siblings sympathetic characters
They don't have to be heroes, and they can even be antagonists, but your protagonist's siblings are people, too; they have hopes and dreams and aspirations, wants and needs and motivations, ones that include your protagonist and ones that don't. Their world does not revolve around bullying your protagonist for being better/smarter/worse/dumber than them. I actually have a lot to say about sibling relationships that I won't put here (that's a post for another day), but as far as this article goes, it boils down to; it's (probably) not any of the siblings' faults that they're favored or disfavored. Maybe your characters don't see it like that, and that's fine, but show that and then show why.
No matter how antagonistic, let each sibling have something in them that's redeeming--a soft spot for cute things, a special affinity for helpless people, a shocking capacity for generosity, or even just a particularly witty scathing tongue. Throw the audience a bone and give us a reason to like the favorite or least favorite--better yet, give the protagonist a reason to like or even love their sibling(s)! Relationships are complicated, and it can be a love-hate thing if you want, but chances are good, after spending so many years together, there are at least some things the little brother likes about his older sister, and vice versa.
6. Make the impact of the treatment realistic
A lot of the time in fiction you see kids being treated unequally by their parents, and they either turn out right as roses when they should be dealing with some shit, or they get totally fucked up for years over the smallest of transgressions.
If your character is their parents' favorite child, they're going to either grow up feeling entitled, because they get whatever they want and never have to work for it, and won't last long in the real world, or they will grow up walking on eggshells in a desperate bid for perfectionism, ever afraid that they could, at any moment, fall from grace. They could be egotistical and think they're all that, or they could be neurotic about doing things The Right Way so as not to disappoint their dear dear parents.
If your character grows up as their parents' least favorite child, they're likely to wind up with a lot of self-esteem issues and either pent-up aggression or open resentment, depending on the situation; they're more likely to suffer from depression and less likely to do well in school. These may be the kids who end up throwing themselves into relationships with much older people later on in life, looking for the parental approval they could never get.
Of course, these are only a few ways that parental favoritism could affect your characters, and I recommend doing research into how favorites and least favorites turn out, and figuring out how your character would blossom in the station they currently maintain and under whatever form of pleasure/displeasure their parentals dish out.
Again, this isn't all I have to say, but I'll finish up this series on Friday. If you have any thoughts on writing parental favoritism, feel free to drop some dialogue in the comment section!
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