Basic Trope: A character never gets drunk for some reason.
Sober, Serious, Calm
Explanation: A character is The Stoic, so they like to stay in control and sober.
- Straight: Bob is always calm, cool and collected, even after 15 beers.
- Exaggerated: Bob stays calm even after emptying a bar.
- Downplayed: Bob has an above-average tolerance, but not too extreme.
- Justified: Bob likes to stay in control, plus he is the Team Dad, so he resists getting drunk to take care of others.
- Inverted: Can't Hold His Liquor
- Subverted: Bob's calm, cool and collected - until you get a few beers in him. Then he's the life of the party.
- Double Subverted: But as soon as he's needed, he snaps right back to sobriety and is in command.
- Parodied: The Femme Fatale tries to get Bob drunk so she can rob him. Eight hours and several bottles of 100 proof whiskey later, he's still sober as a judge and she's passed out on the floor.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is normally the stoic, but becomes the life of the party when drunk. However, when he's in danger, he snaps back to sobriety...or at least acts like he's sober, as the swaying and slurring demonstrate otherwise. He can still kick ass however.
- Averted: Bob has a reasonable, if not extreme, tolerance.
- Enforced: Bob's actor can't drink for medical reasons and can't act drunk convincingly.
- Lampshaded: "Didn't you drink 20 beers? How are you not passed out?" "Someone's gotta look after everybody."
- Invoked: Bob underwent some sort of special training to remain sober no matter what.
- Exploited: Bob drinks at every opportunity, knowing that no-one will be able to tell the difference.
- Defied: Bob mentions he's cool and collected specifically because he's doesn't drink.
- Discussed: "Bob's too cool to get drunk. No matter how hard he tries."
- Conversed: "Bob sounds like the kind of guy who'd take shots in a pint-glass."
- Implied: Bob's reaction to alcohol is not shown, but he is the only one who didn't get into trouble after a night of heavy drinking.
- Deconstructed: Bob's heavy drinking causes him to experience the negative health consequences of excessive drinking because he can't restrain himself from feeling drunk.
- Reconstructed: Someone else limits the number of drinks Bob can have so he doesn't have the negative effects of excessive alcohol.
Strange To Begin With
Explanation: A character is already weird, so they don't really act differently when drunk.
- Straight: Alice is a Cloudcuckoolander, whether sober or drunk.
- Exaggerated: Alice is a paranoid, ranting insane nutjob whether sober or drunk.
- Downplayed: Alice gets more crazy when drunk, but not by that much.
- Justified: The mental disorder that makes Alice the way she is doesn't go away just because she's drunk.
- Inverted: Can't Hold His Liquor
- Subverted:
- Alice is crazy when sober, but really takes it up to eleven when she's wasted.
- It turns out Alice is crazy all the time specifically because she's constantly drunk.
- Double Subverted:
- But after you get a few more beers in her, she goes back to her baseline level of crazy.
- Getting her more or less drunk is an exercise in futility, however.
- Parodied:
- Alice is crazy when sober...and downright reasonable and logical while drunk.
- Alice doesn't even know what alcohol is, and is convinced that Vodka is just a russian brand of spring water.
- Zig Zagged: Certain liquors do different things to her. Give her wine and she remains the same. Margaritas, however, make her ten times crazier.
- Averted: Alice has a reasonable, if not extreme, tolerance.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Bob charms Alice's into getting into a drinking contest, knowing she'll floor the opposition.
- Defied: Alice is a sleepy drunk, and one beer is enough to send her to sleep.
- Discussed: "Wow, Alice is dancing on the table. How many has she had?" "I dunno, but I can tell you she'd be doing that anyway."
- Conversed: "So if you add crazy to crazy, the end result is just more crazy. "
- Implied: Alice is never shown drinking, but she seems dismissive of drunk antics.
Bizarre Physiology
Explanation: A character can't get drunk - or has an insane tolerance - because of their alien physiology.
- Straight: Charlie isn't from Earth, and his physiology is highly tolerant of our liquor.
- Exaggerated: Liquor has absolutely no effect on Charlie whatsoever.
- Downplayed: Charlie requires about twice what a normal heavy drinker of his size would take to get drunk.
- Justified:
- Charlie's body is made up differently than a human's, so it stands to reason it would handle liquor in a different way.
- Charlie's Skill Scores and Perks put him at a 99% Poison Resistance Rating, and Alcohol is a poison.
- Inverted:
- Can't Hold His Liquor
- Charlie's physiology makes him extremely susceptible to liquor.
- Charlie's body naturally secretes alcohol into his brain, so he's drunk 24-7.
- Subverted:
- Charlie doesn't get drunk on liquor, but he does get Drunk on Milk.
- This facet is mentioned about Charlie, and then we see him stagger out of a bar.
- Double Subverted:
- But it still takes a lot of milk to even get him buzzed.
- He was only pretending to be drunk to better fit in with his drunk friends.
- Parodied: Charlie complains about not being able to get drunk - despite being a robot.
- Zig Zagged: Charlie can't get drunk off earthy beverages, and while he can get Drunk on Milk it takes a lot, even by the standards of his own species. However, his Kryptonite Factor, the Fantastic Drug Pesh, will push him into rowdy drunkenness in an instant.
- Averted: Charlie has a reasonable, if not extreme, tolerance.
- Enforced: A quirk of the ratings system prevents showing people drunk but not drinking. To make up for not being able to show Charlie being drunk they show him down insane amounts of liquor.
- Lampshaded: "Alcohol is just another seasoning to our people."
- Invoked: Charlie is an Artificial Human, and his creator is Straight Edge Evil, who doesn't want him to even have the option to get drunk.
- Exploited:
- Charlie is a con artist, so he gets drunk with his marks, knowing he can resist the liquor and then scam them.
- Charlie takes straight shots of methanol because he enjoys the flavor.
- Defied: Charlie mentions that as his biology is compatible with earth foods it's also compatible with earth alcohol and so he can get drunk.
- Discussed: "So he's immune to alcohol because he's an alien?"
- Conversed: "Chocolate kills dogs, but we can eat it just fine. I guess it make sense that Charlie can drink all the alcohol he wants with no effect."
- Implied: Charlie is at the bar with his drunk friends. He has a near-empty glass of beer in his hands, yet does not look remotely drunk.
- Played For Laughs: Charlie doesn't even know what alcohol is, and accidentally serves alcoholic drinks to his human friends. Intoxication Ensues.
Back to Never Gets Drunk and...how are you still standing after 20 drinks?
