Depopulation Bomb/Playing With

Basic Trope: Something wipes out large chunks of the human race.

• Played Staight: In the past, a virus wiped out 90% of the human race, leaving only the protagonists and a select few others.
• Exaggerated: After the virus hits, people start randomly disappearing and buildings suddenly become abandoned.
• Downplayed: ???
• Justified: That was the point of the virus. The heroes were just resilient.
• Inverted: The virus causes a sudden boost in population.
• Subverted: The government creates a near-lethal virus, then says that it only kill mosquitoes.
• Double Subverted: That was a cover story - they're only using the virus to kill dissidents.
• Deconstructed: After the virus hits, humanity gets hit hard. All of the millions of essential personnel who disappeared will never return, meaning their skills will never be recreated. The basics of a society's infrastructure - like agriculture, farming, and construction - go unfulfilled, meaning society itself collapses.
• Reconstructed: The survivors have to learn to adapt - which is what happened in the past anyway.
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Enforced:
  • The writer wanted to write an After the End story.
  • The writer didn't want to have to deal with Loads and Loads of Characters.
• Averted:
  • There is no virus.
  • Alternatively, the virus doesn't depopulate the earth.
• Invoked: A terrorist group creates the virus and unleashes it on the countries they hate most.
• Exploited: ???
• Defied: Doctors work around the clock and find a cure before it's too late.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???

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