Basic Trope: A character who has "Chaotic" (and usually Neutral, too) in their alignment overemphasizes that and does stupid things in the name of being a Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
- Straight: Mad Maxine paints her dog purple just because she can. She is very impulsive.
- Exaggerated:
- Mad Maxine paints herself purple and cartwheels naked in front of the Big Bad just because she can. She is very impulsive and does not (or cannot) control her impulses.
- Mad Maxine hops up onto the royal dining table in front of the king, drop her knickers, and takes a piss right in his face.
- Downplayed:
- Maxine paints the front of her house purple one day for no reason. And then wears a yellow dress because it goes so well with the freshly painted purple house. She always asks her neighbors if she can paint their house purple, even the king at one point, because she loves painting and still has leftover paint.
- Just for the hell of it, Maxine asks the Big Bad about his favorite color.
- Justified:
- Maxine has some kind of mental disorder or disability that prevents her from having the awareness or self-control necessary to control her impulses.
- 'Mad' Maxine is the Player Character of "that" guy. You know, that guy — the one who rarely gets invited to RPG sessions because he only cares about goofing off in ways only he finds funny... which could also make him an example of this.
- Inverted:
- Lawful Stupid
- Maxine is of a chaotic moral alignment as well as a very focused, intelligent, rational, and unimpulsive woman who makes clever schemes in the name of intellectual pursuits and rebels because she spent so much time deconstructing and analyzing rules that she sees right through them. So she, not only is she smart, but rebellious because of it. As opposed to a Chaotic Stupid character, who is portrayed as just plain old chaotic because they're stupid.
- Subverted:
- Mad Maxine can be impulsive and wacky, but is capable of controlling her impulses when the situation calls for it.
- Mad Maxine is a Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
- Double Subverted: Most of the time. This time, however, she took off her clothes in the middle of a battle and did cartwheels in front of the Big Bad just because she felt like it.
- Parodied: Mad Maxine's behavior gets her killed off. Or Put on a Bus. And There Was Much Rejoicing.
- Zig Zagged: Maxine's personal life choices are bizarre, but she's rational enough to not jeopardize her allies because she felt like it. But on the other hand, she agreed to join an epic quest in the first place just because she saw a butterfly land on Alice's hair.
- Averted: Maxine is not stupid.
- Enforced: "Let's show how crazy Maxine is. Having her break rules for no reason is a good way."
- Lampshaded: "Um, wow. Mad Maxine sure lives up to her name there, Pal."
- Invoked: The DM has this campaign on the rails and the other players are a bunch of Munchkins. Maxine's player has damn well had enough of this. She CAN play a more rational character, even a more rational Chaotic Neutral character, but when everyone else is so serious, where's the fun in being logical?
- Exploited: Mad Maxine's enemy chucks a fish at her, hoping she'll be distracted and run off to dance with it or something.
- Defied:
- Mad Maxine is ashamed of her behavior in the past, and does the best she can to control her impulses for the good of the party she's with now so she won't be "that" person again.
- Someone decides on Offing the Annoyance. And Maxine is "the annoyance" in question.
- Discussed: Mad Maxine's behavior is going to get her in trouble. Not to mention she's annoying!
- Conversed:"Mad Maxine is crazy!""What would you expect from 'Mad' Maxine."
- Deconstructed:
- Mad Maxine acts this way because she wants attention. Any attention. She's also bored and wants to shake things up a little.
- Mad Maxine's antics distract and annoy her teammates while having little to no effect on their enemies. She also can't be depended on to fulfill her role in The Plan or even in battle. As a result, the team's first battle with the Big Bad doesn't go so well.
- Mad Maxine is an utterly broken individual. Whether it's because she saw something she shouldn't have, or life simply broke her down, she's decided that ultimately, the only thing in the world that matters even slightly are her own whims, because they're the only things that are 'real'. Her motto is to 'live without fear or regret', meaning shutting down her senses of self-preservation and empathy for others and doing whatever strikes her fancy at any given time without hesitation. Sometimes it's harmless, other times she commits acts of astonishing villainy.
- Mad Maxine has spent her entire life being abused and tormented for any reason imaginable. She has absolutely no impulse control or self-preservation instincts because of her horrible childhood, and is genuinely incapable of functioning on her own.
- Reconstructed:
- Maxine learns when it's OK to do crazy things, and when it's not. She might still exhibit impulsive behavior, but will stop if asked or reminded.
- She is crazy, stupid, and loves to cause chaos, but she still maintains some principles and doesn't actively want to cause evil. The measuring stick other characters use to see if some act is unforgivably evil, then, is ask Maxine if she would do it.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The story starts with a number of heroic characters on a journey. There's a Knight in Shining Armor, a Paladin, and a Beastmaster who are all strong and majestic, striding through a forest with the sun on their faces and the wind in their hair… and a Child Mage who keeps summoning a bunch of stupid fish, turning things purple, and summoning slime to fall on her teammates. Then it turns out we're seeing a dramatization of a Tabletop RPG, and she's the Annoying Younger Sibling who insisted on joining the game.
- Played For Laughs: The creators of the show want Maxine to be Plucky Comic Relief, but really overdo it. But it actually works, and everyone loves Maxine.
- Played For Drama:
- Maxine has to learn to control herself. It's easier said than done, but she does her best.
- Maxine's lack of impulse control is her Start of Darkness.
- The Plague is spreading rapidly, and people like Maxine ruin attempts to keep it under control because their idea of "chaotic" means "always disregard what you're told and just go off doing whatever". Furthermore, many of the things they go off to do get many of them hurt or killed because they forgot that just because there is no longer a law that says "don't do that" per se, it doesn't means they can disregard things like gravity or lacking the necessary skills.
- While driving her friends, Maxine impulsively decides to, "let's see how fast this thing can go" just because she can. The car crashes into a tree, killing all the passengers and leaving Maxine with massive Survivor Guilt.
- Played For Horror: People die horrible deaths when Maxine does an impulsive thing. Always.
Back to Chaotic Stupid
