This Index Means Trouble

This is an index of people, places, things, and tropes that will almost always lead to conflict, whether it be a Flame War, Bar Brawl, Blast Out, or even a full scale actual war.

These Stock Characters and people are looking for trouble.


This place is just bad news.

  • Bad Guy Bar: a place where troublemakers of various sorts congregate
  • Diners: because why just have dinner when you can have a fight with dinner?
  • The combination of Crapsack World and Empathic Environment: everyone feels like crap and wants to take it out on someone else
  • Wretched Hive: a lot of very bad people centered in one very bad place.
  • Vice City: a lot of very bad people and a lot of money circulating around one place.


That thing looks dangerous.

  • Arab-Israeli Conflict: No one can touch this without starting a fight.
  • Berserk Button: Don't Touch It, You Idiot!!
  • Any Chekhov's Gun: why yes, they will be fired
  • Hate Plague: If someone (or some group of people) contracts this, fighting will ensue.
  • Happy Fun Ball: Because someone will discover that it is nowhere near as innocent as it looks.
  • Misplaced Nationalism: Whenever this gets invoked online or offline, run for your life. Sometimes, literally.
  • Politics: There is a reason why it's banned or heavily restricted as a topic of discussion pretty much anywhere that it's not the only topic of discussion. Religion is very, very close to it. Combining the two will almost always lead to fights.
  • The Deadliest Mushroom / Nuke'Em /nuclear weapons in general: if one ever gets set off, war (and The End of the World as We Know It) will ensue
  • The Plague: A devastating disease can drive societies to chaos as people left and right drop like flies.
  • Post-Peak Oil: Restricting modern society from one of the most, if not the most important substance can lead to a complete breakdown and collapse of it.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Probably one of the very first examples. Opening it is not a good idea. And yet of course someone will...


Why did you have to invoke that?:

  • Any of the "All X are Y" tropes. This includes such tropes as All Gays Are Pedophiles - stating straight belief in them around anyone who is part of the X group but not the Y group will almost always start a fight (or at least lead to very uncomfortable silence)
  • Axes At School: Unless it's a school of warfare (and even then sometimes) bringing a weapon into school will cause major trouble.
  • Commie Nazis: Conflate "Commies" and "Nazis" to a Russian, get anything from slapped to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Guns in Church: In some settings, and in MOST settings in Real Life, openly carrying or especially brandishing a firearm will lead to an arrest, a fight, or sudden death.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: If someone decides to invoke this, of course there will be conflict.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Invoking this to most women who don't believe in it will start a fight
  • Strawman Political: Invoking this will almost always start a fight
  • Violence Is the Only Option: Obviously, if someone thinks this, there is gong to be violence.