Basic Trope: A character who is unreasonably rigid in their principles, refusing to see the big picture.
- Straight: Alice cares a lot about upholding moral standards such as never tell a lie, even if she will get herself in serious trouble for it, never break a promise, even if situations force her to do so, and always refuses to be offered with money, even if she needs it.
- Exaggerated: Alice cares so much about principles that she outright refuses to kill anyone, even if killing is truly the only option, always forgives others of heinous acts, even if they will continue to do them, and never engage in a sexual relationship because even one hug will violate her forever.
- Downplayed: Alice cares a lot about upholding moral standards, but is willing to bend them if the alternative is bad enough. She Will Not Tell a Lie, but if truth is bad then she will resort to Half Truths and avoid giving the answer about this specific detail unless asked; she will never break a promise, but will actively work on finding alternate ways to fulfill it if necessary, and possibly even plan for the possibility before the need arises; she refuses to be offered with money even if she needs it, but she is only hard-core about this rule when it comes to criminals and will accept being lent money or being given money in exchange for doing hard enough work when it comes to friends.
- Justified:
- Alice feels that not following moral principles will brand her as a bad person from those around her, including her family and friends, so she feels that the best way to do to follow them no matter what the situation.
- Alice doesn't want to be seen as a Hypocrite.
- Inverted: Totalitarian Utilitarian
- Subverted: Alice appears to be a Principles Zealot at first, but swiftly breaks one of her stated principles when it is inconvenient.
- Double Subverted: Because it conflicted with a more important principle which she will never break.
- Parodied: Alice stands on the most important principle that she always uphold: never download music from the internet.
- Zig Zagged: Alice has very few rules but those rules are completely unbreakable, and she uses her common sense for other occasions. Sometimes Alice is called an idiot for sticking to her guns too much and sometimes she's called an idiot because she was too lean with her principles.
- Averted: Alice isn't fanatical with her principles.
- Enforced: The writer decided to make Alice completely incorruptible but, not wanting to make her a boring Invincible Hero, gives her a flaw that she sometimes can't see the forest for the trees when it comes to enforcing the rules.
- Lampshaded: "Alice sure loves those principles that everyone's been taught since we were children."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Evulz gives Alice a Logic Loop by pointing out the minute, imperceptible moments she deviated from her principles because she didn't paid enough attention.
- Defied: "Oh, fuck this! I'm not going to be one of those maniac enforcer-types who are worse than the criminals because they blow away jaywalkers. Rules will never override my common sense."
- Discussed: "Alice is going overboard with following principles!"
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alice's principles turn her into a Knight Templar, and begins seeing anyone that goes against her principles as evil.
- Reconstructed: Alice realizes getting caught up in upholding her principles can make her a zealot, and tones down the rigidness of her principles while still making sure she upholds moral standards in doing so.
- Played For Laughs: The principles Alice is fanatical about enforcing are stupid "order" concepts like placing the toilet paper facing outwards.
- Played For Drama: Alice is The Friend Nobody Likes because she called the cops on the rest of her circle repeatedly over actions that, while admittedly unlawful, shouldn't have merited more than a stern "dude, stop".
- Played For Horror: Alice's principles are so twisted she's okay with killing people because that's what happens to lawbreakers.
Back to Principles Zealot
