Basic Trope: A character constantly puts him/herself into dangerous situations because they enjoy the excitement.
- Straight: Alice is a soldier who always asks for the most dangerous missions and would never be content with retirement.
- Exaggerated: John Paul and Sir Thomas are naval captains who actually quit their native navies and volunteered to fight for others because their own nations were not at war enough to keep them entertained.
- Downplayed: Alice is often in dangerous situations. While she doesn't appear to seek out the most hazardous assignments, it's implied she's stuck with it this long because she enjoys it.
- Justified: Bob is a war veteran who saw extensive combat. When he rotates back to friendly territory, he finds nothing in his mundane life is as exciting as the thrill and terror of combat and nobody but his fellow veterans understand him, so he re-joins the military and actively seeks out dangerous assignments to try to re-capture that feeling and be around like-minded people.
- Inverted: Alice is a rear-echelon soldier who actively avoids combat or field work of any kind.
- Subverted:
- Alice seeks out dangerous assignments and appears to be an adrenaline junkie, but later reveals to Bob that she actually hates this work and does it just to encourage the other soldiers she leads.
- Bob is a military officer widely known for his heroism and the dangerous assignments he routinely undertakes. However, this is in spite of the fact that he actively tries to avoid danger and heroism at all costs—his good reputation causes his superiors to keep assigning him to dangerous missions, and his luck is just bad enough for him to always be in peril but never bad enough to get him killed.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice was lying to Bob about hating the work because she didn't want him to think she was some kind of crazed Blood Knight. But actually, she does enjoy it.
- Alice does herself enjoy the dangerous work, she just discourages others from developing this mindset because she doesn't want to see young, impressionable soldiers take unnecessary risks.
- Parodied: The harm Alice enjoys... is papercuts.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- The protagonists never encounter dangerous situations.
- Our heroes are police officers that encounter dangerous situations at about the baseline rate for their profession. They do not seek out any more trouble than required and all retire on time.
- Enforced: The show is unexpectedly successful, and the executives authorize a new season. However, the writers had resolved the show's driving conflict at the end of the last season, and need a reason for the protagonist to continue adventuring. Thus, in the new season opener, the protagonist discovers that he really enjoyed the adrenaline rush from the danger in his life and decides to wander the earth looking for wrongs to right.
- Lampshaded: "Don't you ever get tired of all this fighting and running for your life?" "Nope."
- Invoked: Charlie hears a prophecy foretelling the birth of the savior who will deliver his people from bondage and realizes that his son Dave is The Chosen One. In order to prepare him for those duties, he deliberately creates adventures for Dave from a young age while secretly preventing any real harm from coming to him. Over time, Dave grows to love adventure and eventually seeks it out on his own.
- Exploited: Bob's evil plan requires that Alice be unavailable to help her allies. Knowing Alice's love of adventure, he sets up a Batman Gambit by creating a dangerous situation in a remote location and drops clues for her about it, knowing she will jump at the opportunity for peril. This ensures she will be out of the picture for long enough for him to benefit.
- Defied: Instead of Charlie, Dave's mother Alice hears the prophecy regarding his being a savior. In an effort to keep him safe, she deliberately sets out to create dangerous but survivable situations for Dave that is traumatizing enough that he never wants to go on an adventure again.
- Discussed: “Another Suicide Mission? Again? I'm beginning to think that you enjoy this kind of thing!” “No, just doing my job.”
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice doesn't seem to go looking for this adventure in her life, but she doesn't seem too put out about it whenever she gets the Call to Adventure, either.
- Deconstructed:
- Charlie always jumps at the chance to throw himself into a dangerous situation. However, this prevents him from ever having a stable relationship, he regrets the deaths of those who risked and lost alongside him, and he has accrued a large variety of scars and injuries. When he becomes too old and debilitated by injury to continue his active lifestyle, he falls into a deep depression.
- It turns out that Alice is not just an adrenaline junkie, she is actively suicidal.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob's risk-seeking life certainly brings him plenty of strife into his life, and it has definitely left its physical and mental marks on him. However, he's been able to use this lifestyle to accomplish better than he could have otherwise, and has found friends and companionship among a small but close-knit community of like-minded adventurers.
- Alice eventually decides that the thrills she experiences make life worth living, and she continues taking risks while no longer wishing for her own death.
I'm always willing to go back In Harm's Way! Let's go!
