Basic: Vampires (and sometimes other supernatural creatures) need an invitation from the inhabitants to enter a home.
- Straight: Baroness Alice of Ravengoth needs to be invited by Bob before she can enter his home.
- Exaggerated:
- Baroness Alice needs to be invited by everyone currently inside Bob's home before she can enter his house.
- The Baroness also needs permission to get out.
- Bob demands for Baroness Alice to leave and she immediately disappears.
- Downplayed:
- Baroness Alice needs permission to enter any person's sanctum which includes where they sleep regularly or are important to them to be considered an aspect of who they are such as a dedicated mechanic's garage.
- Baroness Alice becomes sick and weak whenever she enters a house univited.
- Opening the door for Baroness Alice counts as an invitation inside.
- Justified:
- The people of Ravengoth are religious, and every home has a holy symbol in it, which Baroness Alice is weak to. The holy symbol is rendered powerless only if people willingly invite evil beings into their home.
- Baroness Alice doesn't necessarily need to be invited in, but she does it to be polite. She may be a vampire, but she's still nobility, and refuses to resort to petty breaking and entering.
- Inverted:
- Bob needs an invitation from Baroness Alice to enter her Chateau de Blunderstein.
- Alice the Shadow-Walker can only enter places when she isn't invited.
- Alice is the vampiric equivalent of that rude/annoying friend who always enters to your home without permission nor warning.
- Subverted: It's just an Urban Legend made up by Baroness Alice herself so people won't leave Ravengoth en-masse (thus starving her) and blame her victims for their own stupidity.
- Doubly Subverted:
- But to enter the home of those truly faithful, Baroness Alice DOES need an invitation.
- It turns out only Alice can ignore the restriction; because she invites ''herself'' in. Other vampire who haven't figured this out need to find their own ways of entering homes.
- Parodied:
- Alice uses a ridiculous Paper-Thin Disguise whenever she stands at someone's doorstep, denying that she's an undead bloodsucker.
- People of Ravengoth build their homes right in front of every door and window of Chateau de Blunderstein, thus imprisoning Baroness Alice in her own home.
- Baroness Alice cannot enter someone's home until they send a hand-written RSVP invitation to Chateau de Blunderstein.
- Baroness Alice finds a loophole in her restriction in that she can write her own invitations to people's houses to invade them—she has to be invited, but there is no mention she cannot invite herself. To that extent, she starts furiously writing invitations for every house in the village and keeping them in a secure, hidden location.
- Zig Zagged:
- Sometimes Baroness Alice needs an invitation, other times she simply barges into people's homes.
- Baroness Alice is fully subject to the invitation rule, but the peasants live on her land, so at least in Ravengoth this rule means nothing.
- Averted: Vampires don't need any invitations, they can freely trespass into any home they wish to.
- Enforced: The movie Reign of the Rapacious Ruler of Ravengoth is sponsored by a construction company.
- Lampshaded: "How come she can't take a step past that door?!"
- Invoked: Knowing that Baroness Alice is pursuing him, Bob makes sure that he only travels through safe neighborhoods with unlocked doors.
- Exploited:
- When Baroness Alice suddenly appears in front of them, Bob and company immediately run to the nearest inhabited home.
- The towns inhabitants flee fron Baroness Alice to what they think is a safehouse, little do they they know it is occupied by Alice's minions who are waiting to invite her in and slaughter them.
- Alice is imprisoned inside a courtyard, the only escape is through the building she needs to be invited into.
- Defied:
- But Baroness Alice has destroyed the only bridge that connects Blunderstein forest to the Ravengoth village over Blackfeather river.
- Baroness Alice goes to solve her ancient problem by using modern technology...by using bulldozers, wrecking balls, and C4 so that there won't be a home to hide in.
- Discussed: "This is not Bram Stoker's Dracula, we have to find a more sound defense than simply running into someone's home!"
- Conversed: "Maybe if I simply put 'vampires are welcome here' in front of my window, my love life will be more interesting." said Diana, the protagonist of the romance-comedy show 666 Things I Hate About You.
- Implied: Alice stalks Bob looking for the perfect moment to strike but she always gives up when he enters his home. Either it is this trope or the home is too defensible.
- Deconstructed:
- The people of Ravengoth are extremely paranoid, and won't invite anyone inside their homes, even old friends.
- An invitation is only needed if not getting one could potentially get you arrested for trespassing- corporate property, construction zones and shop backrooms count, but a tent doesn't if it's not set up on the owner's land.
- Reconstructed: But that's the right way to live in Ravengoth, because this area is haunted by too many vampires.
- Played For Laughs: Whenever Baroness Alice appears on their doorsteps, the people of Ravengoth starts ridiculing her.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob and company must stop a mail deliveryman from delivering an invitation letter to someone who is Baroness Alice in disguise, otherwise she will appear in Bob's wedding party.
- Baroness Alice is a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire. When she stumbles upon Bob being attacked in his own home by another monster she tries to call out to Bob to invite her in so that she can rescue him, but he's too busy dying and can't do so, leaving Alice unable to do anything but watch her friend get torn apart. In a Downplayed situation, Alice rushes inside anyway and rescues Bob by pulling him outside despite the act causing her immediate pain and heavy injury, leaving her in a difficult fight outside against the monster now chasing both of them.
- Untwisted: The American tourists visiting Ravengoth expect some kind of scientific explanation for Baroness Alice's quirk... but no, she REALLY can't enter a home unless invited, and that's that.
Back home to Must Be Invited, and don't let strangers in. You shall be safe... or not.
