Basic Trope: An animate, quasi-sapient plant that, nine times out of ten, hungers for your nutrient-rich flesh.
- Straight:
- Paul Bunyan is beset by deadwoods, undead walking trees that use their many flailing limbs and woody toughness in an attempt to beat the crap out of him.
- Or he is attacked by the mobile Lernaean cactus, with quills so poisonous even their vapor trail can kill.
- Exaggerated:
- Yggdrasil uproots itself and tries to smash Bunyan into bits.
- Not only is the Lernaean cactus mobile, huge, and multi-limbed, it can shoot its quills with pinpoint accuracy, has explosive fruit, and can regrow from a single chunk of its flesh.
- The entire forest charges at Paul Bunyan.
- Downplayed: The trees attempt to slowly grow and choke Paul Bunyan while he sleeps.
- Justified:
- It’s not a tree, just something that looks like one.
- Paul is in Soviet Russia, where tree chops you!
- The trees fight for their mistress/creator Poison Ivy.
- Inverted: Paul attacks the trees. Well, he is a Lumberjack!
- Subverted: An inordinate amount of focus is given to a gnarled, evil-looking tree in a field… which never gets up to attack Bunyan.
- Double Subverted: The grass, on the other hand…
- Parodied:
- The trees are attacking...very slowly.
- Bunyan is beset by the legendary AmBush!
- The trees are dressed in lumberjack outfits and swing axes and wield chainsaws.
- Zig Zagged: Some trees attack; some do not.
- Averted: No walking trees appear, evil or otherwise.
- Enforced: The director is phobic of trees, and wants to inspire this fear in the viewer.
- Lampshaded
- “…I’m beginning to think that trees hate me.”
- “…This is karma for becoming a lumberjack, isn’t it…”
- “MAKE LIKE YOURSELF AND LEAF!”
- Invoked: A general makes his solders carry cabers decorated like trees in order to hide their numbers and scare the crap out of the resident lord, knowing the prophesy around his death.
- Exploited: Emperor Evilz directs his leafy minions to attack Paul Bunyan while he’s in the forest, knowing that the camouflage from the backdrop will mean he won’t be able to see the deadwoods for the trees.
- Defied: Paul fries the trees before they can get to attack.
- Discussed: "Relax, trees can't directly hurt you. Even if they ARE sapient, they have no muscles with which to move."
- Conversed: “What sort of tree do you think would be the most dangerous should it become animate?”
- Deconstructed: The combined assault from all the world’s trees results in a genocide against their kind, which ends up starving the world of oxygen and permanently destroying the ecosystem.
- Played For Laughs: Knock-wood is a goofy super-villain that bases his crimes entirely around this trope and horrific puns.
Th’ trees are coming! TH’ TREES ARE COMING! Hide back at th’ page while ye still can, laddie!
