Basic Trope: A dangerous character prone to random violence.
- Straight: Alice is obviously nuts and runs towards Bob swinging a large shard of glass.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice spends all day doing nothing but sharpening her knives and singing sinister versions of nursery rhymes.
- Alice always carries some kind of firearms or edged weapons with her, goes into a frenzy after hearing any comment in her address, even if it is good, collects human limbs and blood, enjoys the screams and cries of frightened and suffering people, is completely devoid of empathy and conscience, and has fun in gorns, Sadistic Shows, arson, murders, terrorist acts and other atrocities. "The bigger and more blood, the better," she says.
- Omnicidal Maniac
- Insane Equals Violent
- Downplayed:
- Alice is mentally unstable, however, she isn't particularly dangerous.
- Hot-Blooded
- Alice is a dangerous person prone to violence towards others and Disproportionate Retribution, but she's calculating and decisive, rather than impulsive and thoughtless.
- Alice is not exactly violent but is prone to say death threats in No Indoor Voice.
- Justified:
- Alice was intentionally shaped into a homicidal maniac by the cult that raised her.
- Alice is diagnosed with a serious mental illness In-Universe (such as Paranoid Schizophrenia).
- Alice becomes violent because she can't control her anger (aka. Intermittent Explosive Disorder).
- Alice has irrational mood swings and anger that cause her to act out in violence (aka. Borderline Personality Disorder).
- Alice suffers from Split Personality where one of her personalities or alter egos is crazy, unstable and insane.
- Alice is completely insane and doesn't have restraints.
- Alice hears voices that tell her to kill things.
- Alice is possessed by a demon.
- Alice loses control to a Superpowered Evil Side.
- Alice becomes insane over love because Love Makes You Crazy.
- Alice was injected with a Psycho Serum.
- Alice gains superhuman powers and abilities and becomes Drunk with Power.
- Alice is Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Alice is a paranoiac, and thinks that everyone's out to get her, so she violently lashes out at them.
- Inverted:
- Alice's insanity makes her meek and ineffectual to an unhealthy degree.
- Alice is a Suicidal Pacifist, unwilling to take up arms even when confronted by her most ruthless enemy and choosing to Face Death with Dignity instead.
- Adorably crazy Alice is imprisoned in a Bedlam House, where she is tortured by a Mad Doctor.
- Alice is the most sane and peaceful person, who is surrounded psychotic and sadistic people.
- Icily logical Alice is a Professional Killer who always does her murders with cold rationality and detachment, thinking only about completing her mission.
- Subverted: The insane Alice runs towards Bob swinging a large shard of glass; Bob prepares for the worst when suddenly Alice holds the shard out and asks Bob to please clean Mr. Shimmers for her.
- Alice was faking it so she can expose her boyfriend, who is Ax-Crazy for real.
- Double Subverted: ...and as soon as Bob is distracted, Alice takes out some piano wire and proceeds to murder him horribly.
- Parodied: Somebody calls Alice "Ms. Poopypants". She proceeds to grab an axe and kill everyone within a five-mile radius in an extremely over-the-top manner, screaming "Heeeeeeeeere's Alice!"
- Zig Zagged: Alice frequently needs to take meds to keep herself stable. Thanks to Rule of Funny and/or Negative Continuity, what exactly the pills do varies wildly from episode to episode; in episode 3 she was merely annoying without them, but in episode 56 she forgot to take them and subsequently attempted to murder Bob.
- Averted:
- Alice's insanity does not have any significant impact on how violent she is...
- ...or Alice is not insane at all, just an old good Blood Knight.
- Alice is fully aware of what horrid actions she's doing (regret optional).
- Professional Killer
- Enforced: Alice's ax-craziness, combined with her good looks, is meant to appeal to a certain viewer demographic.
- Lampshaded: "Woah, Alice, you're looking pretty creepy holding that shard of glass. You're not going to murder me in a bloody and incredibly painful manner, are you?" Cue Gory Discretion Shot.
- Invoked: The irredeemably assholish Big Bad that Alice owes her life to attempts to drive her insane in order to make her a more efficient killer for The Empire (The Mafia, The Syndicate, Murder, Inc., whatever).
- Defied: "Alice, I think it's time for you to talk to a psychiatrist."
- Exploited: Alice acts insane, but is in fact perfectly normal and just likes to freak people out.
- Discussed: "What about Alice?" "I don't trust that Alice. Sure, she acts nice and all, but it just seems like a cover for a ticking time bomb..."
- Conversed: "In a horror story, right now would probably be the part where Alice has a mental breakdown and murders, everyone, graphically." "Yeah, good thing we're not fictional characters, right?"
- Deconstructed:
- Alice suffers from a genetic disorder that causes frequent hallucinations, bringing back memories of her traumatic, abusive childhood; she reacts violently, striking down anyone in her path and believing it all to be in self-defense.
- Her sociopathic elements do not stem from genetic issues or a Freudian Excuse; it stems from her raw determination to do whatever it takes to achieve a goal. However, others fear the fact that this person is really not any different from themselves; thus, they call her "insane" as a way to make it more "acceptable" to kill her.
- Under the mentality that Insane Equals Violent, the public ostracizes anyone with a psychological disorder as they believe "psychological disorder" automatically means "insane serial killer in waiting." This deprives the individual of crucial social support that would help them recover from or cope with the disorder.
- Alice tries to join the villains after getting ostracized for her actions. However, she could barely contain herself from killing anyone who provoked her. Unfortunately, the villains didn't like this and abandoned her for causing so many problems.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice realizes her problem and isolates herself from society, unwilling to face the consequences should she go berserk in the middle of a crowd.
- Alice is known in-universe unique case in the psychiatric community and is only made more terrifying by the fact that no one understands what drives her insane rampages or how they're triggered.
- Played For Laughs: Once an Episode, Alice escapes from the asylum and attempts to murder Bob in increasingly flashy and ridiculous ways. Due to some trick of fate, Bob somehow manages to escape unscathed and none the wiser every time, and Alice is promptly captured and thrown back in the loony bin.
- Played For Drama: To protect the people that she loves, Alice attempts to control her homicidal impulses, but her will grows weaker with each passing day...
Come with me to Ax-Crazy. I'd like you to meet my best friend, Mr. Knifey...
