Basic Trope: Angering powerful beings has painful or lethal consequences.
- Straight: Bob calls Cthulhu ugly, as a result Cthulhu brutally kills him.
- Exaggerated: Not only does Cthulhu kill Bob, he is irrevocably erased from the space-time continuum in such a thorough way that it's like he had never existed in the first place.
- Downplayed:
- Bob insults Cthulhu, who breaks his arm in response.
- Bob insults Cthulhu, and receives an unexpected Armor-Piercing Response that shocks him into horrified silence.
- Bullying a Dragon
- Justified:
- Bob is Too Dumb to Live.
- Bob has no fear of any kind of monster.
- Cthulhu has a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Bob has never heard of Cthulhu, and Cthulhu isn't obviously dangerous-looking.
- Bob knows he's screwed, and decides to taunt Cthulhu anyway as a last act of defiance.
- Bob is a prick and insults people all the time. Cthulhu is just another walking target for his wit.
- Taunting Cthulhu feels just like another day at work for Bob, but Cthulhu is having none of Bob's antics.
- Cthulhu is an Omnicidal Maniac who can, and will, destroy the world. Bob's stupidity in mocking Cthulhu cost him and the world.
- Inverted:
- When Bob insults Cthulhu, the following events are good.
- Cthulhu insults Bob, and Bob kills him.
- Bob compliments Cthulhu, who decides to reward him.
- Subverted:
- Bob insults Cthulhu, who looks like he's about to smash Bob, but at the last moment decides he's Not Worth Killing.
- Bob insults Cthulhu, but Alice stabs him from behind while he's distracted, and the two run escape...
- Double Subverted:
- That was just a ruse. Cthulhu brutally kills Bob as soon as he breathes a sigh of relief.
- ...and Cthulhu kills them later.
- Parodied: Bob calls Cthulhu a a childish insult. Cthulhu then proceeds to beat him to a pulp.
- Zig Zagged: Certain powerful beings have brutal consequences up their sleeves if you decide to insult them... but if you insult other beings they don't attack.
- Averted: Cthulhu never attacks anyone who insults him.
- Enforced: "We need to kill off Bob, and Cthulhu hasn't attacked anybody yet... Maybe we should make Cthulhu kill Bob off?"
- Lampshaded: "Didn't anyone tell Bob that insulting giant, bloodthirsty monsters wasn't a good idea?"
- Invoked: Bob insults Cthulhu, hoping that the latter will attack him.
- Exploited: Bob insults Cthulhu so he can use his blind fury to lure him into a trap.
- Defied: Cthulhu considers brutally attacking Bob after Bob insults him, but Cthulhu decides even he has standards and backs off.
- Discussed: "What's with deities attacking people that insult them?!"
- Conversed: "Why does Bob insist on shouting taunts at Cthulhu? Doesn't he know that he'll just get killed doing that?"
- Implied: Bob sticks his tongue at Cthulhu. The next time Bob is seen, he has bandages all over his body.
- Played For Laughs: Bob calls Cthulhu ugly and as punishment, gets turned into a toad.
- Played For Drama: Bob calls Cthulhu ugly and gets his body brutally mauled, which leads to Bob getting PTSD after just barely being rescued.
Click here to return to Do Not Taunt Cthulhu. And if you even think of insulting the link, you're not getting there in one piece.
