Basic Trope: A Curse which acts as Laser-Guided Karma, usually cast by a wise woman of some sort.
- Straight: Bob gets a Gender Bender Curse for dissing women around Alice of the Arcana.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob gets a Gender Bender curse for telling one sexist joke at a rowdy party with a lot of political incorrectness going around. Alice just happened to hear him specifically.
- The Gypsy inflicts all sorts of horrifying Body Horror and Fates worse than death on anyone who does anything that annoys her even slightly.
- Downplayed:
- Bob gets turned into a girl for a day.
- The curse will break when Bob learns his lesson.
- Justified: Alice's immense magical power and hair-trigger vindictiveness are character elements from day one.
- Inverted:
- Bob is overheard by Alice calling Charlie out on his sexist joke. Bob scores with a Magical Girlfriend, thanks to Alice's magic.
- Alice of the Arcana overhears Bob making sexist comments... so she turns herself into a man to see if being male really is better.
- Bob tells a sexist joke. Alice is unamused... So Bob puts a curse on her that makes her laugh constantly as a way of forcing her to "lighten up". (Bob is a jerk.)
- Bob is the resident Butt-Monkey, and Alice takes pity on him... so gives him a week where everything goes right for him, through magic.
- Subverted: Alice threatens Bob with a Gender Bender Curse, then casts a spell which... makes a flashy lightshow. Bob is unaffected.
- Double Subverted: Bob wakes up a girl the next day.
- Parodied: Alice is proud a member of Ruritania and is about as stereotypicaly Gypsy as you can get. Crystal balls, terot cards, the works.
- Zig Zagged: Bob insults women around Alice, who threatens him with a Gender Bender Curse and casts a spell on him. It does nothing. Bob wakes up female the next day. After Hilarity Ensues, he seems to learn his lesson, and the Curse reverses itself. Bob then gets a case of Aesop Amnesia, and makes another insulting sexist comment to Claire. *Poof* - he turns into a girl again.
- Averted: Nobody gets cursed.
- Enforced: The writers want to teach An Aesop.
- Lampshaded: *Poof* "Oh, don't tell me, she was a gypsy." Bob checks his chest. "DAMMIT!"
- Invoked: Alice wants to test her new Laser-Guided Karma spell, so she uses it on the first person she sees doing something "wrong", no matter how minor.
- Exploited: Bob tricks Charlie into saying something rude around Alice, so that she curses him.
- Defied:
- Bob minds his manners around Alice of the Arcana, knowing her reputation.
- Alice considers cursing Bob, but then decides against it.
- Discussed: "I don't think it's a good idea to tell sexist jokes around Alice. They say she will curse you, if you piss her off."
- Conversed: "Does every gypsy in this movie have magical powers and uses them to curse people?"
- Deconstructed: Bob calls What the Hell, Hero? on Alice, and challenges her on her own morality for the Disproportionate Retribution. Violence may also ensue.
- Reconstructed: Alice reveals her Blue-and-Orange Morality, and fades away into the shadows before Bob can turn his wrath on her.
Back to Gypsy Curse.