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1'''Basic Trope''': A bureaucrat who hinders the protagonists with paperwork.
2* '''Straight''': Alice is working for an alien hunting agency. When she needs a weapon, she has to fill out a form and give it to quartermaster Bob first.
3* '''Exaggerated''':
4** Even though there is currently an EldritchAbomination rampaging in the headquarters, Bob insists that Alice fills out a weapon requisition form before she takes a gun and shoots it.
5** Paperwork is required for every activity and use of resources. Bob stops Alice outside the restroom to ask if she's got the proper papers.
6* '''Downplayed''': Bob knows better than to stop Alice during an emergency, but still insists she fill out the proper paperwork afterwards.
7* '''Justified''':
8** The organization is very big and its supply of weapons is severely limited. The bureaucracy has to make sure that agents only carry weapons when they have a good reason to do so.
9** People have been stealing/not returning supplies, so they need to keep careful track of where everything is.
10** The reason Bob is so strict about the kind of pencil Alice uses is because the agency computer can't read the form unless it's filled out in #2 Yellow pencil lead. TruthInTelevision, at least before TheNewTens. The computers that read standardized tests literally could not see any marks on the paper unless they were made in #2 pencil lead.
11* '''Inverted''': Bob is frequently bending the rules and uses his influence to make Alice' job easier.
12* '''Subverted''':
13** When Alice explains that she doesn't have time for filling out forms right now, Bob cooperates and gives her a weapon without the paperwork.
14** Bob's work is shown to have a purpose. While annoying to deal with the forms and meticulous tracking along with him spotting and reporting irregularities has resulted in the discovery of three spies and four embezzlers in a year. He isn't quite enough to be a BadassBureaucrat but he is far from useless.
15** Bob's insistence on it turns out to be ProperlyParanoid - as "Alice" turns out to be the escaped shapeshifter Charlie who wouldn't know the information.
16* '''Double Subverted''':
17** But then Bob complains to Alice' boss that Alice took a weapon without permission and demands that she is punished.
18** One of the main purposes for Bob and his fellow bureaucrats is ''to be'' obstructive - they act as a legal and procedural MoralityChain on an organization full of [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder chronically demented geniuses]], TheMenInBlack, or other dodgy-by-default employees who might otherwise be prone to [[DrunkWithPower abuses of power]] and JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.
19** Bob's obstructiveness goes off the charts when a suspected shapeshifter or [[TheMole an obvious plant]] comes up to him with a request, because in those moments he feels fully justified in it - but he's still obstructive to everyone else, if even a bit.
20* '''Parodied''':
21** Bob puts his big red DENIED stamp on Alice' weapon requisition form with an EvilLaugh.
22** Bob is actually helpful most of the time, but Alice is furious when he asks for her quick signature on a form.
23** Every few seconds, Alice has to fill out a form requesting to breathe.
24** [[MindScrew Every time Alice wants to fill out a form, she has to fill out a form requesting to fill out the form.]]
25* '''Zig Zagged''':
26** Bob will sometimes be pretty lenient and at other times very nitpicking about following proper procedures.
27** When Alice explains that she doesn't have time for filling out forms right now, Bob cooperates and gives her a weapon without the paperwork. But then Bob complains to Alice' boss that Alice took a weapon without permission and demands that she is punished. However, Alice's boss understood that the situation was an emergency, and punishes Bob instead. The boss then makes a change to the official guidelines of the organization to prevent this from happening again, but Betty does it anyway to Alex, using LoopholeAbuse to avoid punishment and punish Alex.
28* '''Averted''': The organization avoids wasting the time of their agents with unnecessary paperwork and tries their best to provide them with everything they request without asking questions.
29* '''Enforced''': Due to a restricted special effect budget the writers have to find a way to make the characters use their flashy equipment less often. So they introduce an obstructive bureaucrat who stops them from using it.
30* '''Lampshaded''': Alice complains that Bob's obstructive bureaucracy is a bigger danger for the organization than all the ScaryDogmaticAliens who try to destroy it. Nobody listens to her.
31* '''Implied''': Productivity remains the same or unchanged during a strike.
32* '''Invoked''':
33** Bob is hired when the organization notices that it needs more stringent management to deal with Alice' abuse of resources.
34** Eager to do his part in taking down the villain's organization, Bob the bureaucrat infiltrates it and makes the villains' lives hell with his obstructiveness.
35-->"I'll put them through so much red tape, they'll come out looking like ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}."
36** Bob knows Alice is actually TheMole, and is BotheringByTheBook to buy time.
37* '''Exploited''': After the villain broke out of prison he takes his time, because he knows that it will take days before Alice gets the authorization from Bob to pursue him.
38* '''Defied''':
39** Alice quits the organization and works for it as an independent contractor to avoid Bob's bureaucracy.
40** Alice kills or brutalizes anybody who tries to prevent her from saving lives by means of paperwork. [[TheDreaded People learn to get out of her way... eventually]].
41** Alice proves herself to be a better bureaucrat then Bob could ever be. When he hands her paperwork to be filled out, she presents to him the same paperwork already filled out.
42** Bob tells Alice to forget about the paperwork because [[ItsPersonal he wants her target dead]] more than [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem he wants to follow protocol]].
43* '''Discussed''': While the organization grows bigger and bigger, Alice fears that she will soon be unable to do her job because of the red tape involved.
44* '''Conversed''': "Geez, Alice could've stopped the aliens years ago if Bob wasn't so strict."
45* '''Deconstructed''':
46** Bob has obsessive compulsive disorder. It causes him severe emotional pain when something isn't in order.
47** The oppressive government requires paperwork for everything to help keep citizens under control.
48** There actually are good reasons for bureaucracy, and Alice allows killers to steal weapons by attempting to bypass the forms.
49** Navigating the bureaucracy is the InUniverse reason behind the TechTree, and ReinventingTheWheel and/or YouHaveResearchedBreathing upgrades it unlocks.
50* '''Reconstructed''':
51** Bob's obsession is the only thing which holds the extremely disorganized organization together.
52** The government is so dependent on its bureaucrats, they can help subvert the government themselves.
53** This is a necessary risk to fight evil, so bypassing bureaucrats is still a good idea.
54* '''Played For Drama''': Alice is trying to get forms to prove Charlie's innocence and save him from a wrongful execution.
55* '''Played For Horror''': Bob utilizes his expertise of rule-fu to turn Alice's life into a hell fraught with terrors that [[RealismInducedHorror are close to the audience's homes]]: losing her work, her home, all of her life savings, her friends and family, and maybe even her freedom.
56----
57To get back to ObstructiveBureaucrat please fill out forms 65B, 65C and 176D-4 and let your superior officer sign them.
58----
59%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
60%%
61%%* '''Implied''': ???
62%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
63%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

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