Basic Trope: The protagonist tries to defeat a powerful supernatural being, but despite his best efforts, it backfires hideously.
- Straight: Bob defeats Cthulhu in combat, but it costs either his life or the life of everyone and anything Bob cares for.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob kills Cthulhu, but it turned out that Cthulhu is an essential part of the universe, and without him, the existence will collapse.
- Bob kills Cthulhu, but his minions and family now want revenge upon Bob.
- An entire civilization sacrifices itself to destroy a God of Evil. Although they are destroyed, they have also rendered the God of Evil Deader than Dead.
- Downplayed:
- Bob defeats Cthulhu in battle, but Bob becomes injured in the process.
- Bob kills Cthulhu, but has to take his job to avoid the Evil Power Vacuum that will follow after his death.
- Bob gives his life, if not more, to destroy Cthulhu forever. It works, and is a bittersweet victory for humanity as a whole.
- Bob literally breaks his arm punching out Cthulhu, he's completely healed in six months.
- Justified:
- Cthulhu is an Eldritch Abomination and therefore isn't bound by the laws of physics, and even if destroyed, only his physical form will die.
- Cthulhu has a very important function in the fabric of reality, so killing him would upset the balance of reality since no one else can do the job.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family, meaning that killing Cthulhu earned Bob the wrath of Cthulhu's minions, friends and his father and mother.
- Cthulhu has the ability to speak an all-powerful death curse that set to do this for him automatically.
- Inverted: Cthulhu tries to take on Bob, and he gets his ass handed to him.
- Subverted:
- Taking Cthulhu's job seems to be terrible at first, but Bob soon realizes that he can use his new found powers and resources to create a better world and gain everyone's respect. Besides, godlike powers are awesome.
- Cthulhu's minions try to get revenge over Bob, But he, his friends, and the army soon defeat them with modern weaponry.
- The Universe seems to be entering in collapse, but it just reforms itself into a new reality without Cthulhu with everyone sound and happy.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob's newfound powers position take a great toll on his soul, making him becoming far more cruel, mentally unstable, and even if he doesn't become evil, Bob will soon become alienated from humanity and do nothing with his powers to improve the world.
- Bob, his friends and the army start to become the monsters that they just defeat and has to commit suicide to avoid endangering the world around them.
- The new reality is controlled by an even worse Eldritch Abomination that forces people to be happy. And even if not, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs and Bob can't fit in this new reality where history is vastly different from what he learned in his original timeline.
- Parodied:
- Bob spanked Cthulhu on the playground and made him cry, so Cthulhu's parents take revenge on Bob by forcing him and his family to watch an extremely boring video of their vacation in another dimension.
- Bob attempts to take down Cthulhu with a can of pepper spray. The can is simply swatted out of his hands, and he acts as though he slayed Cthulhu and everyone he knew of just died.
- Bob literally breaks his arm punching out Cthulhu like in the downplayed example. After Cthulhu wakes up, before he retreats he says "let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to punch me out, my skull is thick as fuck so you're in for a world of hurt".
- Zig Zagged: Bob defeats Cthulhu, and a worse entity takes his place, but Bob also defeats it, creating a massive Evil Power Vacuum within the entity's minions, giving Bob no other choice but to take the job of the entity and the command of his minions to avoid the apocalypse.
- Averted: Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?
- Enforced:
- The author is sick of stories where the hero easily defeats a god or hideous demons and decides to write a story that shows that defeating a entity that can manipulate reality around itself is not as simple as it looks.
- The producers want a horror movie and force the writers to create either a sad or imperfect ending where the hero is against repercussions upon defeating the Big Bad.
- Lampshaded: Bob, are you telling me that you didn't realize that killing a god could destroy the country and would infuriate its parents if you succeed? Really?! Way to go, Bob.
- Invoked: For all his power, Cthulhu is still a Dirty Coward, and set several plans into motion to ensure that anyone striking him down would pay dearly for it.
- Exploited: Bob expects there to be major ramifications to the fabric of reality if he's successful in killing Cthulhu. This is exactly what he wants.
- Defied:
- Bob expects this to happen should he dare strike such a being, and instead works to thwart its plans any non-combative way he can.
- Bob punches Cthulhu's soul out into the sun to ensure its total destruction.
- Discussed: "There is no possible way that can end well, even if you win. ESPECIALLY if you win."
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob simply breaks his arm trying to punch Cthulhu. Cthulhu doesn't even care. Doubles as subverted.
Back to Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu.
