Basic Trope: A character who has done a particularly cruel thing is called a monster.
- Straight: Alice calls Bob a monster after learning that he killed her parents and ensured that their demise was slow and painful to satiate his sadistic tendencies.
- Exaggerated: Serial Killer Alice calls Corrupt Politician Bob a remorseless, cruel, spiteful monster in response to learning that Bob has murdered, tortured, and/or raped a countless number of people. Even Evil Has Standards.
- Downplayed: Alice calls Bob a monster for making a callous remark about someone who recently died.
- Justified: Alice is completely appalled by what Bob has done, and Bob's actions were so inhuman even for a genocidal monster that "monster" seemed to be the most appropriate insult.
- Inverted:
- Alice calls Bob a saint after learning that he uses his spare time to read to children at the hospital.
- I Am a Monster.
- You Rebel Scum!
- As a monster, "You Human!" is considered the very worst insult you can tell somebody, because in monster society, Humans Are the Real Monsters.
- Subverted: Alice looks like she's going to call Bob a monster, but can't get past saying "You..."
- Double Subverted: Alice gains the nerve to finish her accusation when Bob reveals another atrocity he was responsible for.
- Parodied:
- Alice calls Bob a monster for cutting in line during the last screening of a movie playing in theaters.
- Bob is literally a monster and acts as if Alice was being Captain Obvious.
- Zig Zagged: Alice calls some of the horrible people she meets a monster and some she either refers using a different insult or doesn't bother insulting at all.
- Averted: Alice doesn't bother saying anything about Bob's horrible misdeeds.
- Enforced: "Let's have Alice yells 'You monster' after she finds out about Bob's crimes. It'll make it clear to the audience how disgusted and outraged she is by what Bob has done."
- Lampshaded: "Yes, I called him a monster. After what he's done, calling him a human being feels like a stretch."
- Lampshaded AND Parodied: "What's wrong with monsters?"
- Invoked: Bob wants to be called a monster, so he does enough cruel things that no one would be willing to think of him as human.
- Defied: "I know what Bob did was barbaric, but I'm not going to call him a monster just because he acted like one."
- Discussed: "Isn't it funny how some characters have the kneejerk response to learning of an atrocity by calling the guilty party a monster?"
- Conversed: "Go ahead and call me a monster. It still won't bring back the people I butchered, Alice!"
- Deconstructed: Bob has been called monster enough times for the phrase to become a Trauma Button that reminds him of how he became the person he was. As such, it induces an intense rage when Alice calls him this as he sees himself as misunderstood and just a character who achieves his goals at any cost.
- Reconstructed: Alice recognizes that Bob was more morally complex than she realized, but still calls Bob out for doing terrible things regardless of his intentions, benevolent or not.
It's your fault the orphans starved? And you don't regret it? You Monster!
