Basic Trope: A character is subjected to a harsh punishment to serve as a warning to others.
- Straight: After being found guilty of agitating for labor rights in Pitfield, Timothy is sentenced to ten years hard labor by Judge Stonegavel to punish not only him, but also his supporters.
- After being found guilty for stealing other people's work to use as his own, supporting Nazis and other fascist groups, and gleefully enabling his followers' acts of cruelty towards minorities, Judge Graves has Drake and all of his followers sentenced to life in prison. There are protests of this being too extreme of a sentence, but Graves is firm on this matter.
- Exaggerated:
- Timothy is given a life sentence for jaywalking to help teach Pitfield's citizens not to do it.
- Judge Stonegavel orders the execution of Timothy, a very public and violent affair that traumatizes anybody who is not The Sociopath, to show everybody what happens when you steal, even if it is a pack of gum, in Stonegavel's territory.
- Downplayed: Timothy isn't punished harshly, but he is remanded to a cozy little cell where the judge's cronies can keep an eye on him and measure the response his imprisonment has on his supporters.
- Justified: Judge Stonegavel believes in ruling through intimidation, and uses his position as judge to act on those beliefs.
- This is not the first time that Drake and others like him have proven themselves to be despicable and cruel monsters, and any attempts to get them to stop through reason and decency have failed because Drake is too hateful, cruel and egomaniacal to listen to reason. Hard punishment is the only thing that stops him, and the fear of facing actual consequences is the only thing that makes fascist cowards like him consider otherwise. Additionally, the protests come from Drake's fellow fascist sympathizers, which does not improve their image to the public at all despite their claims of being righteous and justified in their hateful beliefs.
- Inverted: Timothy is freed from his sentence and Judge Stonegavel removed from the bench by Governor Goodman.
- Subverted: Timothy receives a harsh sentence, but the unfairness of it only serves to make his devotees angrier and agitate harder for their rights.
- Double Subverted: Judge Stonegavel removes their rights and either goes with or extends Timothy's sentence.
- Parodied: Judge Stonegavel orders Timothy to walk around Pitfield in a clown suit while wearing a sandwich board that says I HATE UNIONS.
- Zig Zagged: Timothy is subjected to an initially fair and equitable sentence for his crime, but under the hand of Warden Whiplash it morphs into a torturous nightmare.
- Averted: Timothy is never punished for agitating, or receives a sentence proportionate to his crime.
- Enforced: Pitfield has had gruesome riots over labor rights in the past; Judge Stonegavel is doing what he believes is necessary to keep the peace.
- Lampshaded: Judge Stonegavel packs the court with Timothy's supporters so they can listen to him read the verdict.
- Invoked: Stonegavel is represented by big business interests who put pressure on him to throw the book at Timothy.
- Exploited: Timothy planned to be martyred by a corrupt system to highlight its unfairness and lack of moral authority.
- Defied:
- Stonegavel gives Timothy two days in jail.
- Whatever "example" Stonegavel tried to supply by sentencing Timothy, the townsfolk are extremely driven to not learn it.
- Discussed: Timothy and the union agitators in Pitfield meet to plan out a course of action for the movement if Stonegavel sends him down the river.
- Conversed: "You can imprison me, but my spirit will wander free!"
- Implied: The trial and jury are both heavily biased in the prosecution's favor.
- Deconstructed: Stonegavel's zeal in sentencing only serves to reinforce how petty and cruel he is, and since the people of Pitfield knew that already there's nothing he can do to make them fear him more or make their lives worse. The town erupts into a riot upon news of Timothy's conviction, and Stonegavel is torn to pieces by an angry mob.
- Reconstructed: Stonegavel may be gone, but his last sentence stands, along with a long history of jurisprudence in favor of the mining industry. Timothy is made to serve his time by Acting Judge Rockhammer with time added for the riot.
- Played for Laughs: Stonegavel has a bingo chart for crappy sentencings that he keeps beneath his desk. Timothy's sentence completes a row.
- Played for Drama: Timothy comes close to dying during his unfair sentence.
- Played for Horror: Stonegavel orders the execution of Timothy and his supporters, anybody who has any issues with it - with brutality proportionate (so to speak) to how vocal their protesting was - and anybody who has an issue with the first two. He then sits back and very calmly watches as the entire town of Pitfield is massacred to show all neighboring towns that he's not a man to be fucked with and his laws to not be broken.
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