Basic Trope: A character's greatest work.
- Straight: After a lifetime spent slaving in obscurity, Orson makes his greatest film, The Work, about his experiences as an artist, earning him well-deserved accolades and lucre.
- Exaggerated: The Work is hailed as the greatest film of all time, netting a record 18 Academy Awards and cementing Orson as one of the all-time greatest film directors, as well as a luminary with no limitations on what he can make next thanks to the boatloads of cash he's brought in for the studio.
- Downplayed: Orson makes a slightly better film than his usual efforts, which for him counts as a win.
- Justified: Orson's films have gotten steadily better over time, and he's conquered most of his demons in the process of making them. The Work represents not only the capstone to a successful career, but a personal triumph.
- Inverted: In the process of hitting rock bottom, Orson churns out his worst film for a paycheck before driving his car off Highway 101 into the Pacific.
- Subverted: Despite The Work receiving excellent reviews and a more-than-modest box office take, Orson doesn't consider it his best film.
- Parodied: Orson's film is printed on gold-flecked celluloid to highlight its value.
- Zig Zagged: As a journeyman director helming his first major picture, Orson didn't start out wanting to make a masterpiece, until the arduous process of filmmaking steels his resolve and causes him to pull out an absolute winner... according to the audience, not his reviewers. Still, it's show-business; if the audience loves you, you're golden.
- Averted: Orson never gets the chance to make an opus due to dying young.
- Enforced: The Work is Orson's last film, and he pulls out all the stops in the hopes that it will be his greatest.
- Lampshaded: The marketing for The Work hails it as "A film that makes every other film look like it was made by brain-damaged monkeys."
- Invoked: As an "artist's artist", Orson would be doing his profession a disservice if he never produced an opus.
- Exploited: Orson hedges his bets against being replaced by the studio, churning out decently made, low-budget fare to garner funding for what he considers his passion projects.
- Defied: Orson never makes anything that lives up to his full potential, which isn't much.
- Discussed: In a conversation regarding his oeuvre, Orson points out that dark, complex, or otherwise sophisticated films tend to be considered masterpieces over humorous or more fantastic works, a comparison he considers unfair.
- Conversed: "With this film, I am going to eat cinema and shit excellence."
- Implied: The Work is five hours, has over 10,000 extras, and covers some of the most dramatic incidents in human history.
- Deconstructed: Orson never tops himself after The Work, leading most people to believe he's lost his touch.
- Reconstructed: Orson's other films either survive long enough to become reevaluated as masterworks later on or as hilarious additions to the average B-movie night.
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