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 | ---- |
57 | To 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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FollowingContext PlayingWith / ObstructiveBureaucrat
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