Basic Trope: A learned character, often a scientist or mage, marvels at the destructive power of a dangerous creature.
- Straight: “This is incredible – an orange Abomineldritch! I have to study it!”
- Exaggerated:
- The scholar ultimately keeps the Abomineldritch as his pet.
- The scholar falls in love with the Abomineldritch.
- Alternately, he is obsessed with constructing a menagerie full of Abomineldritches
- The scholar is literally enamored with the Orange Abomineldritch...
- This is the scholar's normal behavior.
- The "Abomineldritch" is a deadly virus and the scholar is perfectly okay with the potential results of it breaking free of containment just to expand his knowledge of what it can do to a human body outside of controlled conditions.
- Downplayed:
- The scholar is interested by the Abomineldritch's anatomy, but stops pursuing his interest in it once he realizes how much danger he is in.
- The scholar marvels at a more mundane creature, like a tiger or a crocodile.
- A professor of criminal justice is fascinated by a serial killer or a very prolific con artist.
- Justified:
- The orange Abomineldritch happens to be the Last of Its Kind.
- The scholar is a villain who wants to weaponize the creature's power.
- The Abomineldritch is benign and is in control of it's power enough so as to be less of a threat then it appears.
- The scholar is the only person in academia who believed the Abomineldritch exists and is very, very determined to prove he's right, even if that means risking an awful death.
- The scholar is correct that this is a scientific marvel that needs to be at least recorded so a better-equipped expedition can come back to research it. Pity that he sounds crazy to the other people who want to run away or kill it.
- Inverted:
- The Abomineldritch is highly interested in the scholar.
- The scholar is an Absolute Xenophobe.
- The scholar begins explaining all of the reasons that the orange Abomineldritch is inferior to the far more impressive blue Abomineldritch.
- Subverted: “Amazing! An orange Abomineldritch!...and it’s headed right for us! RUN!!
- Double Subverted: “…But you have to admire how fast it is!”
- Parodied: The scholar is a bit too enamored with the Orange Abomineldritch...and the feeling is mutual.
- Zig Zagged: The scholar is interested by the Abomineldritch's anatomy, but stops pursuing his interest in it once he realizes how much danger he is in. However, after he gets to a safer place he becomes interested again.
- Averted: No one stops to marvel at the Abomineldritch.
- Enforced:
- The work has a associated toy line and the executives want a character to gush about how awesome the new ORANGE abomineldritch is.
- The creators decided to use (a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of) Steve Irwin to give exposition on the monster's capabilities.
- The writers are creating an Homage to Alien and it just didn't felt like it was working without adding the science guy who thinks the creature is cool (Ash/Bishop/David et al) as a foil to the people tying to kill it/run away.
- Lampshaded: “ I SWEAR TO GOD, Doc, you just have to study every one of those things you find, dontcha?”
- Invoked: The Evil Overlord unleashes his orange Abomineldritch, knowing the heroic scholar will be too enthralled by it to notice as it tears him a new one.
- Exploited: The heroic scholar is enthralled by the Abominelritch...for three seconds, before demonstrating how it can be completely incapacitated by common table salt.
- Defied: Upon seeing the orange Abomineldritch, the rest of the party intentionally distract the scholar so they never see it, knowing their squees will attract unwanted attention.
- Discussed: “Incredible…an orange Abomineldritch!” “That’s nice, Doc, now do you know how to KILL IT?!”
- Conversed: “Dude, how much longer is that guy gonna stand there drooling at it?”
- Implied: After the battle against the orange Abomineldritch, the scholar is seen happily recording observations of the creature in their journal.
- Deconstructed: While caught in rapt contemplation, the scholar is eaten by the Abomineldritch. The Captain decides to get The Smart Guy with less scientific curiosity next time.
- Reconstructed: The daughter of the eaten scholar makes it her life's work to study them, so she can publish the definitive work on Abomineldritches and no one will have to get that close to them again.
- Played For Laughs:
- The scientist is Eaten Alive by the orange Abomineldritch...and gladly studies his digestive tract.
- The scientist's obsession with the Abomineldritch has some deliberate parallels with a stalker pursuing a Hollywood starlet, up to and including the Abomineldritch showing It Can Think... by going to a judge to file a restraining order.
- Played For Surprise: An Abomineldritch? Here? In Florida? That's a bit shocking.
- Played For Drama: The scholar's obsession with the Abomineldritch ruins his sanity and life, causing him to become an Axe-Crazy Mad Scientist
- Played For Horror: The scholar's obsession with the Abomineldritch is such that he allows it to go on murderous rampages (even killing people trying to stop it) just to keep beholding its amazing capacity to kill, and sacrifices people to it to keep it fed/allow it to breed. It also looks, rather disturbingly, less like scientific curiosity and more like religious fanaticism.
Isn't the Admiring the Abomination page just extraordinary?
