Basic Trope: A large crab plays an antagonistic role.
- Straight: In Tropetales (NES): Remastered, Crabulous Maximus, a twenty foot wide crab, is the third boss.
- Exaggerated: Crabulous Maximus is the size of the multiverse, and flings universes as an attack.
- Downplayed: Crabulous Maximus is 6 feet, the size of a real eurypterid, but much bigger than any present crabs.
- Justified: This is a fantasy realm where building-sized crabs are a natural species.
- Inverted: The protagonists are huge crabs, and the villain is a party of adventuring ducks.
- Subverted: The crab appears, only to be eaten by a giant fish, who is the real boss.
- Double Subverted: Upon the fish's defeat, the crab bursts out and takes his role as the boss fight's second phase.
- Parodied:
- You see a giant crab walk onto the scene, only for the camera to reveal that that was a view through a magnifying glass, and the crab is tiny. Everyone still acts scared.
- Otherwise, you're starving so badly that you imagine everything as food; then Crabulous Maximus comes in. YOU'RE SAVED! THANK THE GODS FOR BRINGING YOU SUCH A MIGHTY FEAST! IT'S SIMPLY OUTRAGEOUS!!!
- Every boss eventually evolves into a crab at one point.
- Zig-Zagged: The crab boss changes sizes as a gimmick. It alternates between huge and tiny form.
- Averted: The game doesn't feature any crustaceans.
- Enforced: "Alright, how do we make this shooter set in Nazi Germany more cool? I I know! Let's have the nazis build a huge friggin crab!
- Lampshaded: "Holy Crab! That's one big crustacean"
- Invoked: The main villain pulls a Make My Monster Grow on a normal crab, designing a boss with the hopes of destroying the heroes.
- Exploited: The hero uses his knowledge of crabs to take out the boss.
- Defied: The crab appears, only to be cut in half by an antihero side-character, with the remark, "I hate crabs"
- Discussed: "Ah Great. A beach level. Watch the boss be some huge crustacean."
- Conversed: "Awww. Such a cute crab. I'm just glad it isn't godzilla-sized."
- Implied: At the end of the Tropetales movie, you see the shadows of pincers arrive on screen, and the heroes gearing up for a fight.
- Deconstructed: The giant crabs cannot survive due to the lack of oxygen.
- Reconstructed: The setting is a very oxygen-rich environment.
- Played for Laughs: The big bad has a quirky miniboss squad, each with different color schemes, but their final forms are all various neon colors of crabs.
- Played for Drama: The crab is redeemed, and sacrifices himself to save the heroes.
- Played for Horror: The crab is a boss in a horror game, and is actually a monstrosity made of rotting flesh and bones.
I won't even bother trying to be clever in the link back to Giant Enemy Crab.
