Angst Coma: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Dryden explained that Van had gone into something called an "[[Trope Namer|angst coma]]," which is what happens when the brain shuts down as it rapidly approached the [[Naruto|Sasuke]] Limit."''|'''Hitomi''', ''[[Vision of Escaflowne Abridged]]''}}

 

 

A subtrope of the more general [[Heroic BSOD]], this refers specifically to a comatose state to the exclusion of other forms of mental breakdown. A milder form is [[Deep Sleep]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'', Van goes into an [[Angst Coma]] after going berserk and killing a number of minor villains. Hitomi enters his mind to try to bring him out of it, but it is ultimately Merle's heartfelt pleas that do the job.

* In ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', after the return to Earth, Kira Yamato goes into a coma, partly from the stress of re-entry, and partly because he failed to prevent the destruction of a shuttle full of refugees.

** Subaru has experience in this, as in [[Tokyo Babylon]] he pulled a childhood friend from the one she fell in after being brutally raped. {{spoiler|And ''he'' fell into one after Seishirou revealed that he was the Sakurazukamori, going catatonic until his sister Hokuto pulls a [[Thanatos Gambit]] and perishes at the hands of Seishirou.}}

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', Asuka suffers her infamous [[Mind Rape]] by the fifteenth Angel (not to mention that her life was already going down the drain before that). That puts her in an increasingly severe State of [[Heroic BSOD]] for the reminder of the Series. She ends up catatonic by episode 24. She gets better. For about five minutes.

* Fate Testarossa from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' faints when her mother makes it clear beyond any terms that she rejects her. Fate herself [[He's Back|comes back]] when she realizes [[You Are Not Alone|she is not alone.]]

* {{spoiler|Fumika}} of [[Shigofumi]], after {{spoiler|shooting her father.}}

* Ken Ichijouji from ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' slept for several days when he returned home after his defeat in the Digital World. In this sleep, he recalled memories of his deceased brother and resolved his feelings of abandonment and neglect.

* Margery Daw from ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'' goes into this after {{spoiler|discovering that the demon she was chasing for all her life was in fact a piece of herself.}}

* [[Naruto]] goes into an [[Angst Coma]] when he can't come to terms with how hopeless Sasuke's situation is, though "coma" is something of an overstatement as it only lasted a couple hours and ended without any mental journey.

 

 

== Films ==

* Happens to Anne Wiazemsky's character in the [[Le Film Artistique|highly stylized]] ([[True Art Is Incomprehensible|but good!]]) Pasolini film ''Teorema.''

* [[The Dark Knight Saga|"Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment..."]]

 

 

* Ender enters one for a few days near the end of ''[[Ender's Game]]'' when {{spoiler|he discovers that he unwittingly <s> won the war</s> committed mass genocide against the buggers while believing he was only undergoing training for it.}} Possibly justified in that he was physically and mentally exhausted at the time: the angst was just what pushed him over the edge.

** Not to mention {{spoiler|that he was psychically/spiritually/emotionally connected to the Bugger Queens at the moment he killed them all. They had been trying to reach out to the mind of their enemy in order to understand him and try to communicate in some way.}}

* Talia of the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Arrows]]'' trilogy lapses into a self-induced coma after {{spoiler|being tortured nearly to death}}. Naturally, [[The Power of Love]] brings her back.

** The coma was {{spoiler|more due to an overdose of smuggled-in poison. Not that the torture didn't ''help'', it meant that none of the Healers could convince her she wasn't being revived for another session or 15 with Ancar.}}

* Happened to Myn Donos in the [[X Wing Series]]. He'd led a squadron of X-Wings into a trap. He, and his astromech, were the only survivors; after that he was emotionally dead but functional. Until his astromech was destroyed - the last Talon. His failure became complete. There's mention that his squadmates tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't respond.

{{quote| "Myn just lies there, staring off into nowhere. He'll eat if you put food in his hand, drink if you put the cup to his lips. But he's gone somewhere."}}

* In the Book of Mormon, Alma the Younger got up to a lot of anti-church antics as a kid. After an angel appeared to chastise him for this behavior, Alma fell into a deep sleep that lasted two days and during which he faced his sins and was forgiven.

* Happens to Martini in ''[[The Alien Series]]'' a lot, as whenever his empathetic abilities overload, his body shuts down in self-defense.

* Seen in French [[Sci Fi]] novel ''[[Malevil]]''. The cast barely survives [[World War III]] inside a castle cellar. The next day everyone mopes around in a silent daze. When one staggers to his feet to leave, convinced his wife is waiting for him, Emmanuel is angry that he has to leave his ''comfortable'' [[Angst Coma]] to stop his friend from killing himself.

* Subverted in the [[Dragonlance]] novel, Dragons of Spring Dawning. The [[Badass in Distress|captive Golden General]], Laurana seems to go catatonic after hearing that [[Fate Worse Than Death|she is going to be tortured to death and have her soul given to a death knight]] and seeing her [[Love Interest]] Tanis Half-Elven serving her [[Arch Enemy]], the Dragon Highlord Kitiara. In fact Laurana is just luring her enemies into a false sense of security and, as soon as Kitiara has completely disregarded her as a threat, she breaks free, [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomps Kitiara]], and makes her escape.

 

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In ''[[Carnivale]]'', Apollonia is in a vegetative state through which she can only communicate telepathically after giving birth to Sofie {{spoiler|who was conceived via rape at the hands of Justin Crowe, thus bequeathing Sofie an avataric nature, which means her birth is traumatic to her mother, as per the show's mythology. Whew!}}.

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]] spends most of the episode "The Weight of the World" in one of these after Glory kidnaps Dawn.

 

 

== Videogames ==

* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', Main character Luke falls into one of these due to the shear amount of trauma brought about by the [[The Reveal]] / [[Wham! Episode]] / [[Break the Haughty]].

* Desmond is stuck in one of these during the events of ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations]].''

 

== Western Animation ==