Basic Trope: Everybody draws the line somewhere.
- Straight:
- Ulysses, a cynical, self-interested "salesman", wouldn't swindle an old person, even if no one saw him do it.
- Eugene is described as a massive potty mouth who casually uses swears liberally, but even he won't use slurs of any kind, fantastic or realistic, and goes out of his way to reprimand others for saying derogatory or offensive words.
- Exaggerated:
- Ulysses, who has killed men for muscling in on his business, considers swindling the elderly beyond the pale.
- Everyone on Earth, including dictators, serial killers, and bank robbers, thinks Ulysses swindling the elderly is too far and are disgusted.
- Even Evil Has Standards
- Downplayed: Ulysses won't fleece an old person, but he won't go out of his way to stop it from happening by someone else's hand.
- Justified: Recognizing total depravity makes for bad business, Ulysses retains a shred of moral fiber.
- Ulysses doesn't particularly care for old people, but as a protected class, he would do well not to abuse them for his own sake.
- Senior citizens remind Ulysses of his now-deceased grandparents whom he loved dearly.
- Seeing what goes down in certain circles has thoroughly immunized Ulysses against taking advantage of the elderly in any way.
- Inverted: Ulysses prioritizes swindling the elderly. "They're too confused to use their money properly anyway."
- Subverted: Ulysses won't swindle an old person... unless the payoff is ginormous.
- Double Subverted: But then he feels guilty about it later on.
- Parodied: Ulysses makes a big show out of not robbing the elderly.
- Zig Zagged: Ulysses used to swindle the elderly regularly, until a sudden change of heart resulted in his current aversion to the practice.
- Averted: The question never comes up whether Ulysses would rob an old person or not.
- Enforced:
- The show's executives want Ulysses to be a Lovable Rogue, so the writers add an "in" for Ulysses' redemption arc or being A Lighter Shade of Black by giving him an (at first apparently unreasonable) code against stealing from the elderly.
- Lampshaded: "If I wanted to mooch off an old man, I'd visit my grandpa."
- Invoked: Gina regularly employs the elderly to disrupt Ulysses' business model.
- Exploited: Victor, Ulysses' rival, capitalizes on the untapped market of seniors Ulysses refuses to touch.
- Defied: Ulysses goes as low as he needs to go to get what he wants. If an old person has money, he's in.
- Discussed: In an extended session with his priest, Ulysses tries to understand why he won't go for the elderly.
- Conversed: Alice and Bob muse at how Ulysses draws the line at swindling elders yet he'd do it to a teenager without any second thought.
- Implied: Ulysses pick targets at his discretion only.
- Deconstructed: Ulysses' conscience is too anemic to overcome his love for money. He swindles the elderly frequently and gets off scot-free, but the acts steadily corrode his soul nonetheless.
- Reconstructed: Ulysses uses his guilt to become both a more scrupulous businessman and a better person.
- Played for Laughs:
- Ulysses admits the disconnect between his profession and his preferences is absurd.
- Ulysses is the Hate Sink of the story, but he still agrees with Jim at one point that Pinky just said one non-sequitur or is performing one weird action too many.
- Played for Drama: Ulysses' blind spot makes him overlook Mr. Parsons, who deserves to be parted from his money as soon as possible.
- Played for Horror: Ulysses' moment of standards is not humanizing enough in comparison to what kind of being he is.
"Even I wouldn't try using this link to head back to the main page."
