Basic Trope: A character or group is inaccurately depicted in a monstrous or villainous fashion.
- Straight: Bob makes an unflattering poster of Alice, depicting her as an ugly and evil woman who hates children, hates other women, is a racist, and has ties with criminal people.
- Exaggerated: Bob makes a poster that depicts Alice as the mastermind to numerous tragedies, who Eats Babies, and makes her look like an actual demon.
- Downplayed: Bob makes a poster of Alice with a scowling face, but doesn't blame her for any fictitious crimes.
- Justified:
- Bob is Alice's enemy and wants to make her look bad.
- Misinformation and lies that were spread about Alice before she came into town led Bob to put up a poster treating these rumors as the truth about her.
- Alice really is or was a bad person who did some horrible things, but her reputation among the people is greatly exaggerated from the truth, even though she's still not someone you want to interact with if you don't want something very bad happen to you.
- Inverted: A poster of Alice is put up which lists all the good things she's done, though in reality, Alice is a really bad person who's never done a good thing in her life.
- Averted:
- Bob has a change of heart and decides not to post the demonized propaganda about Alice.
- Bob is legally prohibited from slandering Alice, lest he wants to be arrested for defamation of character.
- Lampshaded: "Bob, stop talking shit about Alice at every turn. Just say you can't stand the sight of her. We don't have to share your opinion."
- Defied: "I don't even need to paint Alice black. You will all see for yourselves the kind of person she is."
- Subverted: "Alice. She has many names: liar, thief, and murderess. But those are all lies..."
- Double Subverted: "...truth about her is much worse: SHE'S A PLAGIARIST!"
- Parodied: Seeing Bob's unflattering portrayal of her, Alice turns into a literal demon, much to Bob's horror.
Do you really want to head back to Demonization? I heard they kicks puppies there!
