Basic Trope: Whenever a bear shows up, things turn very messy.
- Straight:
- While roaming on a forest, Bob is attacked by a bear that leaves him seriously injured.
- Alternatively, Bob the Bear is the Serial Killer, and the Big Bad of the story.
- Exaggerated:
- While roaming on a forest, Bob is attacked by a bear that intentionally cripples him and leaves him on the brink of death. Then the bear steals his identity and proceeds to systematically ruin his life and kill all those dear to him. Finally, the bear makes him wear a stupid hat and has a good laugh at his expense.
- The military is called in to remove the bears, but they refuse to go. Even with tanks.
- The bears come out of the forest with their own tanks.
- Armoured attack bears!
- The bears are Always Chaotic Evil creatures who love to kill everything.
- Bob the Bear is a Complete Monster and other bears are horrified by him.
- Downplayed:
- The bears are merely pranksters or thieves (a la Yogi Bear) but not necessarily vicious.
- The bears are only a danger when provoked.
- Bob the Bear is Faux Affably Evil.
- Justified:
- Bob was wielding a hunting rifle and getting close to the bear's cubs, so it attacked him out of preservation instinct.
- Bears are genuinely dangerous in real life.
- Inverted:
- Bears tremble when they hear Bob's name, because he pummels them with his bare hands to show how unstoppable he is.
- Alternatively, the bear drastically improves Bob's situation.
- Bears are shown to believe that Humans Are Bad News.
- Subverted:
- Confronted with a puma, Bob is cornered and in serious danger until a bear shows up and scares the feline. Then he thinks "Out of the frying pan and into the fire! That bear is gonna kill me!", but it turns out it was a docile bear that just wants to befriend Bob.
- Bob is taken out into the countryside by the villain, who is about shoot him until he's mauled by a bear while Bob escapes.
- Bob is confronted with a bear, but he realises (or it's revealed) that the bear is just the local team's mascot,a fursuiter, or a prankster. Hilarity Ensues.
- Bob is about to go camping and a bear storms into his camp to maul him. While everyone else is terrified, Bob came prepared and starts banging pots together to scare it away. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Alice gets the bear mace out of the bag and sprays it at the bear.
- Double Subverted:
- Confronted with a puma, Bob is cornered and in serious danger until a bear shows up and scares the feline. Then he thinks "Saved by a bear. Who would have thought it? I guess they aren't so b- AAAAAAAaaaaaaa...!!".
- But when bear finished with the villain, it immediately follows Bob.
- The loud noises only make the bear angrier and the bear mace does nothing.
- Parodied:
- Bob and a group of friends are roaming the forest when they found an adorable bear cub. One of the guys tries to pet it, but the cub turns vicious and starts to shred him before going against the rest of the group. The slaughter is so horrible that the audience isn't allowed to see it.
- Alternatively, one of the guys tries to pet the cub, and mama shows up.
- Alternatively, Bob is confronted by a bear...who gives him a wedgie.
- A bear shows up as a Funny Animal and says hello at Bob. Everybody in a hundred mile radius panics, and runs for cover under the idea there'll be a slaughter.
- The Bear is instead a really buff and hairy gay lumberjack. Who's also fucking psychotic.
- Zig Zagged:
- Turns out it was a bi-polar bear, you just never know how they are gonna react.
- The bears act as Laser-Guided Karma and only show up to maul anyone whose recent actions mean they deserve it.
- Bears are just as moral as humans- some are evil, some are good.
- Averted:
- Bears are just another animal, not treated as more or less dangerous than any other large predator.
- The only bear that appears is Beary Friendly.
- Enforced: "We needed a way to justify Bob's absence on this season, so we thought a bear attack would be more dramatic than just making him falling from the stairs"
- Lampshaded: "First there were the mosquitoes, then the beavers and now a friggin' bear?! WHY?! Why does nature hates me so much?!"
- Invoked: A villain installs mind control devices on several bears with the hope of getting Bob while he's roaming in the forest.
- Exploited: Bob is chasing/being chased by his archnemesis, Alice the Nefarious. One or the other of them steers the chase into the deep forest, hoping that a sudden bear attack might dispose of the other for them.
- Defied: Before venturing into the forest, Bob coats himself with a substance used to repel bears and other wild creatures.
- Discussed: "This is horrible! Bob is being attacked a furious bear... And I don't have a camera to record it!"
- Conversed: "The situation has just turned even more unBEARable than usual, don't you think?" "Enough with the bear puns!"
- Deconstructed:
- We see the horrible psychological consequences of the attack, as they have turned Bob into a shadow of what he used to be. The incident also ignites a sentiment of hatred that eventually leads to the systematic extermination of every single bear in the forest.
- Bob becomes a hermit, roaming the wilderness for the
white whalebear that attacked him. - Bob wasn't the first person in his community to suffer a bad bear attack, but he was one too many. In retaliation the people in this area start systematically killing every bear they come across until there are none left in the region. This proves detrimental to the environment and the community due to bears no longer being around to fulfill their role in the food chain.
- Reconstructed:
- Despite his bitter experience with the bear, Bob feels lucky to be alive and turns his story into An Aesop about why mankind should respect nature's power.
- After realizing the error of their ways, the community transplanted some bears of the same species back into the old environment and work to encourage them to repopulate. Meanwhile they learn about their behaviors and learn how to avoid provoking them as well as how to non-lethally ward them off.
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