Basic Trope: A character has a crisis of conscience personified as an angel and a devil.
- Straight: Alice has a crisis of conscience. A good angel with wings and a halo dressed in a white kimono with gold trimming appears on her right shoulder, appealing to her good or nice side. A bad devil with horns and bat wings, dressed in a black bikini with red heels, appears on the other, appealing to her selfish or mean side.
- Exaggerated: Other Exposition Fairy-type characters (representing all aspects of Alice's personality) appear to offer their two cents.
- Downplayed: Alice either has only one angel or only one devil. She can choose to agree or disagree with either.
- Justified:
- Alice is having a crisis of conscience; caught between what she should do and what she maybe wants to do, and this is set In a World… where everyone's thoughts are little animals when required.
- Alice lives In a World… where little angels and devils really exist, follow people around, and try to influence their behavior.
- This is the result of Alice consciously visualizing her internal debate so she can make better sense of it.
- Inverted:
- The Devil is the one who gives good advice The Angel is the one who gives evil advice
- The angel and the devil go to her for advice.
- Subverted:
- Alice has a crisis of conscience. An angel and a devil appear on her shoulders and start arguing about what she should do, but Alice can't see or hear them.
- The angel and devil appear but they say nothing.
- Diabolica raises a valid point, and Angelica takes her side. Alternatively Angelica raises a valid point, and since Even Evil Has Standards, Diabolica sides with her.
- Alice assumes they're an angel and a devil but they're actually Order Versus Chaos.
- Both Angelica and Diabolica are morally good, Diabolica just has a sassy personality and is more of a daredevil. In other words, Lawful Good and Chaotic Good.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice is pretending she's unaware of them.
- The simple appearance is their argument. It is intended to make Alice think of the choices she has available.
- The one that shrugs says "Just kidding".
- The argument of "society's rules" vs "personal freedom" boil down to similar arguments as if they were an angel and a devil.
- Angelica and Diabolica still represent contrasting options, such as Hope Bringer or Good Is Not Nice, to achieve the same morally good result, so Alice still has to choose between them.
- Parodied:
- The appearance of the angels is set up like the beginning of a wrestling or boxing match: "In this corner, from the Superego, representing virtue and selflessness, Angelica! And her opponent, from the Id, representing vice and selfishness, Diabolica!" *ding, ding!*
- The ensuing battle sets Alice's head on fire or douses Diabolica in holy water, and thisone runs away screaming.
- The two characters' fighting literally gives Alice a headache.
- The only character to appear is Diabolica. (Angelica is duct taped to a chair and gagged.) note
- To present Alice as a Heroic Comedic Sociopath, she has two shoulder devils in Pragmatic Villain Lucy and Stupid Evil Diabolica. Her former shoulder angel is out of her head due to things she can't comprehend in her former vessel's head.
- Inversion of the above: To present Alice as an Incorruptible Pure Pureness, she has two shoulder angels Stupid Good Angelica and Pragmatic Hero Gabriella. Her former shoulder devil is out of her head due to being horrified by the things in her head, like hugs, rainbows, and friendship.
- The shoulder angels have shoulder angels of their own advising them.
- The shoulder angels that appear aren't Alice's.
- The two angels represent opposite ends of a Blue-and-Orange Morality scale, baffling Alice.
- Alice informs the Angels that she is an atheist, which causes them to be replaced by the hero and villain of a show she likes to watch.
- The angel and the devil both give the same advice to Alice.
- The devil wins the argument by doing a handstand, which has nothing to do with Alice's moral dilemma.
- The angel and the devil get bored and drunk, and switch places for a laugh.
- The angel's advice is only slightly less immoral than the devil's: "Don't kill him! ...Just wound him, and you'll be out in a few years!"
- Either that or the devil's advice are slightly less moral than the angel's: "Don't give away all of your money, you buffoon! ...Just give away like 50% of it and you'll at least have some leftover cash."
- Alice's shoulder devil wins by default because her shoulder angel got stuck in traffic and couldn't be there (or vice versa).
- Zig Zagged: The angel and the devil don't represent obvious good and evil per se; rather, they represent generosity and ulterior motives, respectively. Sometimes, they'll argue over Alice's moral crises, other times, they'll give the same advice for different reasons (e.g, when Alice is debating whether she should sneak out of the house, the angel warns her to stay at home for the sake of her mother, while the devil warns her not to sneak out because she'll get punished severely and her reputation is on the line).
- Averted: No conceptual representations of conscience appear on Alice's shoulder or anywhere else.
- Enforced: "We need to show an abstract concept like a crisis of conscience in a way the audience can understand."
- Lampshaded: "Hey Angel, Devil, what advice do you have for me?"
- Invoked: Alice is faced with a tough moral decision to make.
- Exploited: The angel and devil are illusions cast by a low-level mage looking to manipulate Alice.
- Defied: Alice decides for herself, rather than letting an Exposition Fairy make the choice for her.
- Discussed: "Man, I wish we had those shoulder angel things that help you with moral decisions."
- Conversed: "Alice is just staring off into space, muttering to herself. You think she has those two things on her shoulder that tell her what's good or bad?"
- Deconstructed: Alice has a mental disorder. When she tells her family that there is an angel and a devil telling her what to do, the family gets worried and puts her on medication.
- Reconstructed: Alice has a mental disorder and receives counseling from her parents. She just happens to think of her mother as an angel and her father as a devil or vice versa.
- Played For Laughs: The two characters have an Escalating War going on, and focus on attacking each other more than helping Alice think.
- Played For Drama: Both raise equally valid points, and so neither one is particularly helpful.
- Go back to Good Angel, Bad Angel, and add some wonderful examples!
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