Fainting: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

If people in [[Real Life]] actually do faint when presented with a shocking development, it is an extremely rare occurrence. So rare that you may not have actually ever seen anywhere [[Reality Is Unrealistic|but on TV or in the movies.]]

 

* '''The Corset Faint''' - One of the oldest forms of the trope hanging around from the late unlamented days of [[Of Corsets Sexy|the corset]], when women were a deep-inhalation away from being cut in twain.

* '''Anemia Faint''' - An affliction which seems to strike a very high proportion of Japanese ''shoujo'' heroines, causing them to black out at inopportune times and thus, give their love interests a convenient excuse to hold them and act all manly and protective. This is also true for people who have recently been [[Kiss of the Vampire|Kissed by a vampire]].

** [[Truth in Television]] to an extent. This is why you get an iron test when you give blood and the necessary threshold is set above what counts as anemic - you can faint while giving even if your iron is only slightly down. It's also one of the reasons why the nice folks at the donation center tell you not to do any heavy exercise for the next 12 hours.

* '''Fake Faint''' - A character pretends to lose consciousness in order to create a distraction. Tends to overlap with '''Corset Faint''' above, although it can be done by anyone in just about any time period.

 

{{examples}}

* This is both played straight and parodied in the first ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movie. Early on, Elizabeth faints from her overly-tight corset; near the end, she pretends to faint in order to distract the local guards. In the sequel, it's parodied again as she pretends to faint in an attempt to break up a fight between her current and former fiancés, and they both ignore her.

 

 

* The [[Cowardly Lion]] (naturally) does this (minus scream) when he faces [[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]].

* Guy's girly-faint upon seeing the evil reptilian aliens for the first time in ''[[Galaxy Quest]]''.

* Captain Spaulding does this in ''[[Marx Brothers|Animal Crackers]]'' as Mrs. Rittenhouse is hailing him for fearlessly journeying through [[Darkest Africa]].

 

* In the ''[[X Files]]'' episode "The Unnatural", Dales faints away upon seeing Exley's true alien form, and then faints again (and again, and again) when the alien revives him.

* Gomez in [[The Addams Family|Addams Family Values]].

* Gilligan in [[Gilligan's Island]].

 

 

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Sokka faints (without screaming) upon seeing the pregnant woman give birth en route to Ba Sing Se.

* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', the museum curator does one of these in "Monkey See, Doggy Do".

* Vernon from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''.

 

 

* Miki seems to suffer from this quite a bit in ''[[Marmalade Boy]]'', giving ''two'' of her potential love interests a chance to get closer to her.

* Brutally parodied with Hyatt in ''[[Excel Saga (manga)|Excel Saga]]'', who has the tendency to ''die'' at random moments, only to get up a moment (or a week) later as if nothing happened.

* Nagisa in ''[[Strawberry Panic!|Strawberry Panic]]'' has fainted a few times in romantic scenes, apparently because [[Onee-Sama]] Shizuma's presence is just that powerful. Usually it's only for a few seconds - just long enough to be caught by another character (who, surprisingly, is not always Shizuma), or fall to her knees but recover. However, the first time kept her out long enough to be moved from the field to her room quite some distance away, and for her roommate to have [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|watched her for long enough for it to be creepy.]]

* Sailor Jupiter from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' gives blood up for her injured friend earlier in the episode, and then faints while fighting. She fights through the pain to rescue Sailor Moon and defeat the youma alone.

* Yuki faints in episode 11 of ''[[Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru]]'' due to exhausting himself from healing Tsukumo.

* In [[Magical X Miracle]], [[Shrinking Violet|Merleawe]], as the shojo heroine, faints; [[The Big Guy|Vaith]], as the [[Love Interest]], catches her; and [[The Smart Guy|Yue]] lampshades it.

 

* Yoko Tsuno Faints all the time in comic books, usually after being struck on the neck.

 

* Kimberly of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' has done this a time or two.

* Scully in [[The X-Files]] episode "Redux" faints in a meeting with Skinner and other FBI higher-ups after her cancer progresses to a dangerous point. She was about to tell the board who the mole was working in the FBI, and as Skinner catches her before she hits the floor, she whispers "You", implying that she believes he is the mole.

* In ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'', Jasmine's briefly fainting and being caught by Umeko (not a love interest... [[Ho Yay|theoretically]]) replaces the usual [[Psychic Nosebleed]].

 

* Miho from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' has this shortly after being introduced.

 

* Mio Kisaragi from ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]] 1'' has this as one of her main traits. Suffering from anemia, she can faint at any moment. When she utters the [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] words "Memai ga..." (= "I'm feeling dizzy..."), it's the signal of an impending black-out.

 

 

* In Kingsley Amis' ''Lucky Jim'', Bill Atkinson faints loudly and dramatically during a public lecture in order to aid the lecturer's escape. It doesn't quite work, as the lecturer (and title character) faints for real seconds after.

 

 

* Doctor Cox does this an episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' to "demonstrate" how boring J.D.'s story is.

"Totally worth it!" }}

* In ''[[Frasier]]'', Niles pretends to faint into a man's arms in the last of a long string of attempts to stop said man from throwing Frasier out of a party before he can seal an important deal vital to Niles and Frasier's latest [[Fawlty Towers Plot]].

* In the ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' episode "Gourmet Night", Basil is forced to introduce a man named "Twitchen" to another man who had a facial tic. He frantically tries to get out of it, and eventually pretends to faint for a moment.

 

* A Fake Faint also occurs in the [[Shakespeare]] play ''[[Macbeth]]'', pulled off by Lady Macbeth in an attempt to draw suspicion away from her murdering husband. Macbeth is being asked some ''very'' awkward questions about why he killed King Duncan's supposed killers (instead of keeping them alive so they can tell who put them up to it). Her fainting diverts the attention of the questioner, and by the time everything is sorted out the king's sons have fled and Macbeth can put the blame on them.

* A ploy frequently employed in opera:

** In Act II of Puccini's ''La Fanciulla del West'', the heroine throws a poker game by pretending to faint so she can retrieve a winning hand from [[Victoria's Secret Compartment|somewhere about her person]].

 

* Princess Adora, in the pilot of ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]]'', pulls off one of these to convince Skeletor and his cronies that she's a helpless, timid royal. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Humiliations ensue]] for the poor creeps when the ruse is revealed.

 

 

* Yoko Tsuno the Japanese action girl frequently faints after being subjected to a neck chop, L'or du Rhin being one example.

 

* Zira fainting in the movie ''Escape from the [[Planet of the Apes]]''.

 

* Happens several times in ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Requiem", which ends with Scully's pregnancy being revealed.

* Chloe from ''[[24]]'' discovered her pregnancy this way.

* Phoebe in [[Charmed]] fainted twice because of demonic pregnancy.

 

* Roxie Hart from ''[[Chicago]]'' faked this to attract media attention and help influence the jury in her murder trial.

* Parodied in ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]'', where President Wintergreen's impeachment proceedings are interrupted by his wife bringing the news that he's going to have a baby. ''He'' faints, and the Senators have no choice but to exonerate him, since they would never impeach an expectant father. (If you wonder how on earth a show from 1931 could parody a musical from 1975, see [[Adaptation Displacement]].)

* Lorraine Hainsberry's ''A Raisin in the Sun'' has Ruth fainting at the very end of the first act for this exact reason.

 

* In ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'', your wife faints on the trip to Gotha. Eventually, it's revealed to be this trope when she faints again while meeting King Albert.

 

* Happened to Shannon in ''[[Queen of Wands]]'' due to {{spoiler|gestational diabetes}}.

 

 

* Played painfully straight in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|Uncanny X-Men]]'' issue 148, when Kitty Pryde (thirteen years old if even that at the time) faints when kidnapped by Caliban (whom we were meeting for the first time, and who was much creepier than his later appearances would make him, but ''still...'')

* Even more painful in ''Uncanny X-Men'' issue 11, where after ''The Stranger'' walks on air and through a wall, someone utters these gentlemanish words:

 

 

* In ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'', we get a nice [[Gender Flip]] with ''Jonathan Harker'' pulling one of these fairly early on. Just as equally an emotional faint, however, as he had just been [[Fetish Fuel|overtly harassed by three beautiful vampire-ladies]] ''and'' [[Ho Yay|apparently his own host.]]

 

* This phenomenon popped up in several ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' movies, like ''[[Eegah]]'', ''[[The Phantom Planet]]'' and ''[[The Blood Waters of Dr. Z (Film)|The Blood Waters of Dr. Z]],'' which contains probably the most egregious example of this trope, with the kidnapped heroine managing to remain unconscious while being roughly carried through a hot, noisy, fetid swamp for ''several miles.''

* ''[[The X-Files]]''. Although Agent Scully is hardly the frail heroine, even she keels over when a ghost removes his hat to reveal a large shotgun hole through his head. Also played for laughs in "The Unnatural" when the cop protagonist in 1947 Roswell sees a Grey alien (who's been posing as a Negro baseball player) for the first time. The alien keeps trying to wake him up to explain things, but as soon as the cop does so he passes out again.

 

 

* In nearly every version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', April O'Neil does this on her first sight of the turtles, whereupon they pick her up and take her home. In a possible [[Running Gag]], Michelangelo asks "Can we keep her?" in both the first movie and the second series just after she faints.

** Splinter elicited a fainting reaction from Keno and Kenshin in the second and third movies, the latter being lampshaded.

'''Splinter:''' Hmmmm...out cold. }}

 

 

* Emma of ''[[Victorian Romance Emma]]'' faints at a ball, partly due to the fact that her corset is laced too tightly and from seeing William with Eleanor.

* Albert of ''[[Gankutsuou]]'' faints from when he accidentally drank water that was laced with poison.

* Barnaby in [[Tiger and Bunny]] faints in episode 19. With good reason, as because he's been plagued by recurring nightmares about his parents' death (which he thought he'd begun to put behind him after {{spoiler|seemingly finding their killer}}), and as a result has barely eaten or slept recently. When trying to discuss his fears with Kotetsu, Barnaby breaks down in tears and then passes out.

 

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's mother, who was until this point mentioned several times how she doesn't want Kyon to become a [[Japanese Delinquents|delinquent]], faints when she is told about her son's relationship with a [[Yakuza]] family. A relationship of which, ironically, she was a strong supporter.

* John faints in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' when he sees himself in the mirror for the first time and realizes that he's grown wings. He'd kind of worked himself up to it, given that he'd awakened in a strange bed, starving to death, with a growing panicky awareness that something was terribly, terribly wrong with him....

 

* In ''[[Jumanji]]'', Sarah faints when she realizes Alan is standing on her doorstep. (And like the Sherlock example above, it's because she had thought he was gone forever)

* ''[[The Incredible Mr. Limpet]]''. When George Stickel hears the supposedly drowned Henry Limpet's voice coming from the sea, he faints dead away - probably because he thinks he's hearing Henry's ghost.

* ''[[Thumbelina]]''. Mocked mercilessly by [[The Nostalgia Chick]]: "And like all animated heroines she has a tendency towards fainting. ''Boom''! Unconscious!"

* Doc Brown faints at the end of ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II'' after Marty (whom he had just sent away in the time machine) reappears behind him --

'''Doc:''' ''[[Catch Phrase|Great... Scott!]]'' [faints dead away] }}

 

* Subverted in ''[[Narnia|The Silver Chair]]'': Jill collapses to the ground when Eustace falls off a cliff and hopes she'll faint, but the author comments it's not that easy.

* Doctor Watson faints when [[Sherlock Holmes]] reappears in his office after a long absence. (He has good reason to faint, though, since he thought Holmes had died in the battle with his nemesis, Prof. Moriarty, ''three years earlier.'')

* In ''[[The Inheritance Trilogy]]'', Eragon faints when his mentor, Brom, is fatally stabbed. But then, he faints at the end of almost every chapter, as well.

* This happens to ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'s'' Bella ''a lot.''

** Actually he only fainted twice in the Inferno. Once when he first enters Hell, due to a sensory overload, and another time in the circle of Lust, where he meets a couple that is basically the Romeo and Juliet of his time. That one was from empathy, due to his being in love with a woman from afar his whole life. (And a possible fangirl episode... they were pretty famous)

* Tamaris in [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "A Witch Shall Be Born". Nearly being feed to a monster and finding yourself in the middle of a battle after months of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] and [[Go Mad From the Isolation|isolation]] do make a good excuse.

** In the book 'Double Star' the heroine faints quietly and without fuss after an intense scene which probably means the ruin of all they've been working for. Later another character reveals precautions have been taken and they're safe - whereupon she faints ''again''. Still, given what's at stake and the extended strain she's been under it's hard to blame her.

* In the [[Dragonlance]] novel, Dragons of Winter Night, the elven princess Laurana faints at a public banquet after her father calls her a whore, and her older brother gives her a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]].

* Parodied mercilessly by Jane Austen in ''[http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/lovfrnd1.html Love and Freindship]'' [sic], from which the opening quote is taken.

 

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' has featured this version in a couple of episodes: Rimmer does it in "Psirens" after viewing a graphic demonstration of how and what the eponymous monsters eat, while in "Nanarchy" The Cat freezes up and keels over after seeing Kokanski apparently chop off her own arm. (Amusingly, in the latter case, he's just left lying on the floor, incredulous index finger still extended.)

* Olive does this in the fifth episode of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' when it seems a dead horse jockey's ghost is out to kill all the other jockey's from that race, which includes her. Justified-ish in that Pushing Daisies never pretended to be realistic medically or otherwise - {{spoiler|later the "dead," jockey shows up really tall, because he was paralyzed so the doctors cut off his dead horse's legs and put them on him.}}

** At the end of "Basil the Rat", he also faints from the pressure.

 

* Thoroughly justified in [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' - In the course of the first act, Elsie Maynard is A. Forced to marry a condemned criminal to buy medicine to save her mother. In one of the other plots, Fairfax was framed in order that his cousin can inherit his fortune, but, by the terms of the will, he can shift the inheritance to another branch of the family if he's married, so he arranges with his guards to sort out a marriage with anyone whatsoever, for cash. B. She witnesses the highly-charged leadup to his execution by beheading, and, C. She then finds out he's escaped, meaning she, as a poor woman in Tudor times, is now permanently a criminal's wife. And being a moral woman, love is now forbidden her, because loving anyone else would be adultery. It is at this point she faints.

** At the end of Act II, the jester Jack Point, who is in love with Elsie Maynard, faints because Fairfax is pardoned and is married to Elsie.

 

* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, Miles Edgeworth loses consciousness due to his extreme seismophobia. He developed a fear of earthquakes after a traumatic experience in his past that resulted in the murder of his father.

* [[Intrepid Reporter|Tae Asakura]] of [[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]] appears to either have a problem with this or the Anemic Faint, not sure which. Troper thinks it may be this. Or, who knows, she may be wearing a badly-designed corset or something. It's never even discussed in-game, she just has a fainting problem that nobody seems to think about. Whatever it is (if not this, please move to proper section), it certainly must be aggravating for her, since she's trying to represent a feminist (the perfectly-sane kind, thanks, not the Hollywood kind) push (setting: 1931 Japan).

* Fiona in ''[[Haunting Ground]]'' {{spoiler|upon learning that her pursuer, Riccardo, and her father, Ugo, are clones of the game's main antagonist and that Riccardo killed her father.}}

 

 

* The highly girly [[The Nostalgia Critic|Nostalgia Critic]] does this in his review of ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. He even does the hand to the forehead thing.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Body Language]]

[[Category:Women Are Delicate]]