Mad Scientist/Playing With

Basic Trope: A Scientist that uses his profession to do morally questionable things.
 * Straight: Professor Drachenstein lives in a castle, performs experiments that don't make sense, and cackles maniacally when he feels it necessary.
 * Exaggerated: Professor Drachenstein. Lives in a castle on top of a hill with a perpetual thunderstorm. He performs experiments with strange green liquids just to see the explosions. He has an army of robot warriors at his command and cackles maniacally anytime he speaks, and sometimes when he doesn't.
 * Justified: Drachenstein is a misanthrope who got his multiple doctorates with the eventual goal of world domination.
 * Inverted: Drachenstein is the most levelheaded character in the cast.
 * Subverted: All of Drachenstein's experiments look strange, but have believable premises and do follow the scientific method. Drachenstein's just a little eccentric.
 * Double Subverted: The experiments follow the scientific process properly... with the eventual expected result of yielding a new kind of nerve gas.
 * Parodied: The mad "scientist" has no real education, and is just a schizophrenic in a lab coat with food coloring and some beakers.
 * Drachenstein is actually the most level-headed character, despite his experiments being so crazy.
 * Deconstructed: The mad scientist is a misanthrope whose dislike of people allowed him to concentrate on his research. His dislike of the human race lets him guiltlessly hoard miracle cures and super energy sources. His plans are much more horrifying and effective than one would expect.
 * Reconstructed: The mad scientist has a Science-Related Memetic Disorder.
 * Zig Zagged: Drachenstein is seen performing experiments in a dark room - but then he heads out to talk with his colleagues in the well-lit laboratory next door about the light-sensitive reactions he's working on, then heads back in to finish up. When he comes out, he oils his robotic colleague, and cackles about how he'll show the university fools. He shows them by creating a drug that cures cancer. But then, we start to see hints of strange behaviour are seen in people cured by it... But the people displaying the symptoms were all eccentric already. ...Or so says the first person cured.
 * See Parodied
 * Averted: All scientists in the story are sane.
 * Enforced: Dumb Is Good, Science Is Bad
 * Lampshaded: "Und now, der cackle. It is important to der experimenten!"
 * Invoked: Prestigious universities have scholarships for the neurotic.
 * Defied: All universities have required psych sessions for their doctorate students.
 * Discussed: "I think Drachenstein might be off his medication again. He's talking about switching Bob's brain with a chicken's. Now, Bob got an F in his class, but I still don't think it'll improve things. Now, if he handed Bob over to me... Mwahahaha!"
 * Conversed: "So, there's one old scientist, and two young ones. How long do you think it'll take before the old one's cackling while holding a beaker?"
 * Played For Laughs: A mad social scientist.
 * Played For Drama: A mad scientist in love.

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