The closest we get to a response is when the son's rage persona freaks out and screams at the father. He goes on about how weak, helpless and pathetic his son is before leaving. Here we have the abusive, alcoholic, jerkass of a father berating and calling out his own son while in the hospital.
Maybe the child is hoping that Daddy may still turn out to be good after all, despite the abuse, and is therefore holding back on giving him the what-for. Maybe they want to show that the child figure is still so thoroughly whipped by the abusive parent that they are still incapable of facing them. Maybe they want to keep the child figure Really Nice, so nice they won't even yell at an abusive parent. Sometimes, the writer may not want the child figure to be the one doing the calling out. Of course, the parent may be happy either way. Penalty points are awarded if they have tragically repeated exactly the same mistakes with their own offspring.
If the child figure is not at least somewhat justified in their accusations, it's not Calling The Old Man Out - it's just throwing a temper tantrum.īonus points are awarded if the child is able to (correctly) point out that they have managed not to repeat the parental mistakes with their own offspring. Also, for this trope to come into play, the parental figure must truly have transgressed, or the child figure must have good reason to believe the transgression has happened.