Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?/Playing With
Basic Trope: A godlike Eldritch Abomination is beaten by comparatively-lowly beings.
- Straight: Bob, your typical somewhat-empowered hero, manages to defeat Cthulhu.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob, a weak Muggle, defeats Cthulhu by poking it in the side.
- Bob defeats God.
- In-Universe: Bob, a weak Muggle, defeats Author Avatar in a way it kills the author beyond the fourth wall.
- Downplayed: Bob deals just enough damage to Cthulhu to send it back to R'lyeh... for now.
- Justified:
- Badass
- Bob was blessed by other divine beings with the power necessary to defeat Cthulhu.
- Alternately, Bob was an Eldritch Abomination himself.
- Bob claims that: "Anything can be defeated if you hit it hard enough."
- Or, Cthulhu is weaker than Bob.
- Bob is Crazy Prepared enough to exploit any weakness and shortcoming, and/or has Cthulhu's weakness.
- Inverted:
- Cthulhu defeats Bob.
- Or, Bob tries to defeat Cthulhu and fails utterly.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu
- Subverted:
- Bob thinks he's defeated Cthulhu... nope, it's back, and stronger than before, too.
- Bob launches everything he has at Cthulhu but doesn't make a dent.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob defeats Cthulhu again, this time for good.
- Bob hits Cthulhu again harder and defeats him.
- Parodied:
- Bob's job is officially "Destroyer of God-Like Eldritch Abominations".
- Bob is an exterminator and takes out Cthulhu with a 'roach bomb.
- Bob literally punched out Cthulhu in a boxing match.
- Complete with super-slo-mo shot of the knockout punch.
- And the referee was Nyarlathotep, so Cthulhu was really punched-out: the referee declared so!
- Deconstructed:
- Bob's victory over Cthulhu gives him a God complex.
- Alternately, Bob broke his arm punching out Cthulhu.
- Cthulhu is the weakest among the Eldritch Abomination pantheon. With him defeated, the whole group change their opinion about humanity from "insignificant" to "must eliminate threat".
- Reconstructed:
- The world still turns out to be a much nicer place without Cthulhu haunting it all the time.
- Bob just punches out every deity that appears after Cthulhu.
- Cthulhu is the weakest among the Eldritch Abomination pantheon. With him defeated, the whole group decide their safest option is to leave humanity alone.
- Zig Zagged: Bob faces a long sequence of One-Winged Angel forms of Cthulhu.
- Averted: Cthulhu really is invulnerable, so Bob never tries.
- Enforced: "We should inspire our readers/viewers to do great things... how about the main character is able to defeat a god?"
- Lampshaded:
- "Oh, are you some kind of super-Badass that can even defeat gods?" "Allow me to demonstrate."
- "In strange aeons, even Death may die...but once he's dead, your destruction isn't so hard to wrap my head around!"
- Invoked: Upon hearing that Cthulhu is unbeatable, Bob says "Screw Destiny!" and makes it his mission to defeat it.
- Defied:
- Cthulhu makes it so Bob never gets the strength to defeat him.
- Alternatively: "Cthulhu? He's invincible! No way am I gonna try and face that thing!"
- Discussed: "We're just ordinary human beings. Do you think we have a chance against Cthulhu?" "Don't know until we've tried!"
- Conversed: "I'm so going to end up going against Cthulhu at the end of this game, aren't I?"
In strange aeons even Death may die, but the Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? page endures!