Bob may have opinions, but he doesn't act on them if someone disagrees. Instead, he will follow their instructions or advice. This someone might be anyone, a single person that he is dependent on, or the prevailing attitudes in society. Then Bob starts to trust and act on his own judgment, and begins to go his own way. Bob earlier had no independent judgment in relation to some external factor, and this is the growth and expression of his own judgment: he's growing a spine.
This is a form of Character Development
, and often a defining moment in a Rite of Passage
. It's also a staple of a Coming-of-Age Story
, where it does not necessarily mean that Bob has more resolve
than earlier, but rather that he has learned to follow his own independent judgments. It might be lousy judgment, but at least he has started to develop and act on it.
As a trope, this can take two forms:
- A plot arc for a character. This is the long and slow variety.
- A single scene, where the character unambiguously chooses their own way in a plot-relevant fashion.
Grew a Spine is normally a big part of a Coming-of-Age Story
, and can be assumed to be included as part of that. Please only include such examples if Grew a Spine is the major part of the Coming-of-Age Story
Some starting points for Grew a Spine is Extreme Doormat
or Shrinking Violet
, but the character might just be inexperienced and unsure of themselves. After all, this is all part of growing up. May coincide with Took a Level in Badass
or Sudden Principled Stand
. Has nothing to do with the evolution of vertebrate animals.
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- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji tries to be more self-assertive and confident throughout the series. It backfires horribly until the very end, where his determination to live no matter how much life sucks finally lets him earn a happy ending. note
- In Rebuild 2.22, Shinji both grows a spineand takes several levels in Badass during the battle against Zeruel. It doesn't end well for Zeruel, who becomes Unit-01's dinner. The repercussions of Shinji actually growing a spine for once, however, include humanity being reduced to a fraction of that it used to be.
- In Rebuild 3.33, Shinji has his newly-grown spine broken and grows a new one by the end, as he tries to undo the damage done by Near-Third Impact. In true EVA-style, however, he ends up starting Fourth Impact in the process, and further reduces humanity to what is implied to be the cast of FINAL. It remains to be seen how horribly things will truly turn out in FINAL, though.
- Yukiteru of Mirai Nikki. Quite appropriate since he is an Expy of Shinji. And exactly like Shinji, this backfires horribly, until he manages to earn his almost happy ending.
- Hiroko in AKB49 - Renai Kinshi Jourei opposed her Fantasy-Forbidding Father for the first time in her life after he demanded her to quit her aspirations as an Idol Singer and she refused, which led to her father estranging her and her gaining even more resolve than before to pursue her dreams.
- In the "Outer Dark" arc of The Authority, Swift, who's normally more gung-ho, decides to oppose one of Jenny Sparks' orders, as following it might lead to the unnecessary deaths of aliens that might be considered civilians. In "The Nativity", she also forces a truce between the Authority and Krigstein that gives the latter control over the Southeast Asian government that the Authority recently overthrew, in order to avoid a long, drawn-out conflict in which Krigstein's forces were more than willing to kill civilians.
- Klak from Pocket God is a Butt Monkey who gets no respect from the tribe. However when he starts hanging out with the more assertive Moon, he starts to stand up for himself more often.
- Luke leaving Yoda's training in The Empire Strikes Back to save Han and Leia.
- This is a big part of Raven's character development in X-Men: First Class. The downside is she joins the wrong side in doing so, foresaking the only family she's ever known.
- Todd in Dead Poets Society goes from extremely shy and incapable of speaking up for himself to the first student to stand on his desk in support of Mr Keating when the latter is fired.
- Near the end of School of Rock, Ned the perpetual pushover is getting chewed out by his girlfriend for his spinelessness. Right when she asks if he's ever going to get around to standing up for himself, he interrupts her by heading off to the concert that she didn't want him to go to. Many of the kids also grow spines in a more gradual way, by learning to defy their overly strict parents.
- At the end of The Hangover, Stu finally stands up to his overbearing girlfriend Melissa, even going so far as to dump her.
- In Separate Tables, this is the conclusion of the character arc for Sybil, the Shrinking Violet dominated by her bitchy My Beloved Smother. Her hesitant romance with Major Pollock, a fellow guest at the hotel, is wrecked when her mother humiliates Pollock, exposing him as a Phony Veteran and a Covert Pervert who was caught hitting on women in darkened theaters. After Major Pollock comes down for breakfast, Sibyl's mom makes a show of leaving the hotel dining room, and demands Sibyl leave with heróbut for the first time Sibyl defies "Mummy", remaining at her seat and insisting on welcoming Major Pollock for breakfast.
- In one episode of Head of the Class Jawarhalal (an Indian student) is suddenly well known for agreeing with everyone about everything. Then the class goes to see Mr. Moore's off-off-off-Broadway post-post-Modern production of Hamlet. Everybody hates it except Jawarhalal, who defends it to everyone. They're so caught up in trying to prove him wrong that until the end of the episode they never ask him why he likes it and don't notice that he's disagreeing with them, counter to his personality.
- In Katawa Shoujo, this happens to Hisao in Shizune and Lilly's routes. In Shizune's route, while attempting to stand up to Shizune's father in an argument over the Student Council, he reflects on how much he has changed, wondering why he was so resistant to joining the Student Council at first despite his general apathy about life. In Lilly's route, he realizes in the Good Ending that he has relied on her for everything, and so decides to confront her one last time before her departure for Scotland in order to apologize for not being there when she needed him.
- Also happens for Hanako in her route: slowly through awkward relationship-building in the Good path, and abruptly in the Bad one. In the latter, Hisao gets excessively pushy, so she furiously tells him how much she hates it when people treat her like she's helpless...and how much she hates Hisao and Lilly for failing to understand that. Some people think her "Neutral" ending is the worst one, because it's the only version where she doesn't grow a spine.
- Little Busters! is largely the story of how Riki—a rather nervous, passive, and feminine boy totally content to live in the shadow of his friends—manages to, over the routes, grow into a more independent and strong person. In fact, it's the very basis of the story—Kyousuke created this world specifically so he and Rin could become strong enough to live on without him after he and the others died in a bus crash.
- Tavros Nitram from Homestuck finally stands up to Vriska and actually goes to fight her when he learns she created Bec Noir. Too bad it gets him killed.
- Taylor in Worm becomes a lot more able to assert herself after she begins kicking large amounts of ass in her supervillain identity, Skitter.