Fear of Thunder: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Tidus:''' Are you that scared?
'''Rikku:''' Mm-hm. When I was little, a [[Aquatic Mook|fiend]] attacked me while I was swimming at the beach. My brother tried to beat it back with a spell. ''*Squeaks at another thunderclap*'' [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood|But he missed and hit me instead!]] It was a Thunder spell -- "[[Saying Sound Effects Out Loud|Bzzzzzzt!]]"
'''Tidus:''' Ouch!
'''Rikku:''' I've been
Your otherwise capable or serious character has an inordinate fear of thunderstorms. This is a primal, almost childish fear that surprises other characters, although it's not always played for laughs. The actual name of this fear is "Brontophobia" or "Astraphobia." However, the former suggests a fear of incorrectly-named, four-legged sauropods while the latter, a horror of affordable German family cars. It also happens to animals, especially dogs.
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Augustus had a particularly strong fear of thunder because a slave was once struck by lightning right in front of him while traveling. Emperors are recorded as doing any number of things to avert the danger: wearing a bit of sealskin, wearing a laurel wreath, and even (most practically) going underground. (It certainly didn't help that Romans, ''as a whole'', had lots of beliefs and superstitions related to gods of nature. I.e.: Thunder and lighting were associated with Jupiter, the Father of the Gods, and being on the bad side of a pissed off Jupiter was something you ''really'' did ''not'' want, according to their mentality).
Note that fear of thunder is often treated as silly; after all, it's just a lot of noise. Fear of lightning, on the other hand, is [https://web.archive.org/web/20080720121349/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040827.html absolutely justified.] (And confirmed by [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/phone.asp Snopes.])
A subtrope of [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]], especially common in [[Anime]]. Would be logical in settings with [[Dramatic Thunder]], but the tropes seldom combine.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Tomboyish [[Bottle Fairy]] Tina Foster in ''[[
* Haruhi Fujioka in ''[[
* [[Kid Samurai]] Motoko Aoyama in ''[[
* [[Samurai]] Sakura Shinguuji in ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' is in fact deathly scared of lightning. Motoko's phobia may be a reference to, or parody of, this.
* Chiyo-chan, from ''[[
** In the manga, one of the [[Yonkoma]] shows that Sakaki is also scared of lightning.
** Osaka is scared of lightning too, but she enjoys it. She even peers closer to the window. If this doesn't make sense, remember, this '''is''' [[Cloudcuckoolander|Osaka]] we're talking about.
** After having to endure a rather traumatic car ride with [[Drives Like Crazy|Yukari-sensei]], Chiyo-chan is asked by [[Jerkass|Tomo]] if she thinks lightning or cars are worse during a particularly bad storm, and [[Thousand
* Elie, from ''[[Rave Master]]'', is a young female [[Badass Normal]] who [[Guns Akimbo|dual wields two high-caliber guns]] (with highly explosive ammunition too, apparently) and other dangerous ballistic instruments, faces demonic threats with relative frequency, and carries the world's most powerful magic inside her... and is so scared of storms a little zap is enough to send her to the ground quivering and unable to act. In her defense, though, this fear comes from the trauma of being almost killed by extremely powerful lightning spells -- ''twice''.
* Usagi Tsukino in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' had a touch of this throughout the series, though it was particularly played up during an episode of ''Sailor Moon R'' in which [[Generation Xerox|Chibi-Usa was revealed to have the same fear.]] The villains used a [[Monster of the Week]] to create a massive thunderstorm as a way to ferret out Chibi-Usa, which works when the poor girl becomes so frightened she loses control of her powers after being left alone during the storm. Usagi spends the whole episode freaking out as well, and when she fights the monster later, she's particularly upset with it for ruining her day. This trope is also one of many clues ([[Anvilicious|as if you]] ''[[Anvilicious|really]]'' [[Anvilicious|needed them]]) that Chibi-Usa was Usagi's [[Kid From the Future]].
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* It's played up for [[Fan Service]] and [[Brother-Sister Incest]] Mikan Yuki of [[To Love-Ru]] is scared of storms and Rito used to comfort her.
* In the Detectives Koshien arc from [[Detective Conan]], a storm starts when the four teenaged detectives are gathered in an old mansion {{spoiler|and one of them has actually ''been killed''}}. Once thunder breaks in, Natsuki "Detective of the South" Koshimizu [http://www.mangareader.net/139-8612-8/detective-conan/chapter-565.html screams in utter horror and collapses to the floor.] {{spoiler|She was actually ''faking'' it, to distract the others while she was searching for a piece of lost evidence that could potentially reveal her as the [[Sympathetic Murderer]] of the arc - and the one who killedher fellow sleuth. Conan and Heiji weren't fooled by her act, though, and later use it to unmask her.}}
* Filicia Heideman of ''[[So Ra No
* In the first episode of ''[[Stitch!]]'', Yuuna is shown to be afraid of lightning.
* Nano is shown to be afraid of lightning in ''[[Nichijou]]'' when she walks her Professor to the bathroom during a storm.
* Aria from ''[[Hidan no Aria]]'' is quite afraid of thunder. This does present problems in missions where it's raining.
* [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Ramba Ral's]] Zeon crew are completely ''freaked out'' when they land on Earth in the middle of a thunderstorm, actually thinking that it's some sort of Federation defense system until Ral corrects them and explains what's going on. A [[Justified Trope]]: most of them were born and live in massive, climate-controlled colony stations, and have never been to Earth before.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In a Sliver Age Supergirl story, [[Supergirl]] dreams a [[What If]] in which she was raised by [[Superman]]'s parents. In one part of the dreams, she wrecks the Kents' house during a thunderstorm.
* Fanfiction authors usually invoke this trope in [[Shipping]] fanfics.▼
* If it is not invoked in a shipping fanfic, it will usually be invoked in a [[WAFF|family-fluff]] fic as an excuse for a child or younger sibling to cuddle with someone.▼
== [[Film]] ==
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* In the film ''Top Hat'', a clap of thunder momentarily causes Ginger Rogers to drop her haughty manner towards Fred Astaire.
* One of the many phobias/unreasoning terrors that the heroine experiences in Hitchock's Marnie.
* In ''[[Arashi no Yoru
== [[Literature]] ==
* Subverted in ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', where [[Magnificent Bastard|Cao Cao]] assesses Liu Bei and says that the two of them are the only true heroes; Liu Bei is immediately mortified by the possibility that Cao Cao might see him as a rival and, thus, someone who the shrewd and powerful Cao Cao will eventually have to kill. Thankfully for him, a bolt of lightning happens to strike at this time, and Liu Bei pretends to cower in fear...thus causing Cao Cao to dismiss him as coward. Cao Cao would eventually regret this; Liu Bei managed to walk off unscathed, and would later become the ruler of one of the rival kingdoms to oppose Cao Cao.
* In the ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' books by Arthur Ransome, Peggy is afraid of thunder, much to the scorn of her sister Captain Nancy (who isn't afraid of anything). This comes to a head in ''Missee Lee'', where the girls are in a ship under attack by Chinese pirates with cannon, and Nancy comforts Peggy: "That's guns, not thunder!"
* Josefina from the [[American Girls Collection]] (although it's actually the lightning she's afraid of).
* Fami, from M.A. Bell's Spyhunt, is terrified of thunder, mostly due to the fact that his father died and he went blind during a thunderstorm. {{spoiler|They get better. Both of them}}.
** Despite this, Fami crosses a roof during a storm in the first book.
* Marley in ''[[Marley and Me]]'' is terrified of thunder and the frequent south Florida thunderstorms cause him to frequently destroy the house in fits of fear.
* The lesser-known character Monks in [[Oliver Twist]] is afraid of thunder, and has a good old rant about it at one point. However, in his case it is a pretty legitimate fear.
* In [[
* In [[Kate
* [[James Joyce]] had a fear of thunder and lightning, which he bestowed upon Stephen Dedalus, who serves a Joyce's [[Author Avatar]] in and [[Ulysses]]. Dedalus, even though he is an atheist, sees thunderstorms as a manifestation of God's power, and believes that thunder is God's punishment against him for failing to meet the last wishes of his dead mother.
* The official iOS app of the ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
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*** Hell, he doesn't just forget to say his little mantra, he even MOCKS the thunder itself by declaring "Who's afraid of a little thunder?!"
** Oh, and his subordinate/boyfriend's last name is either a clever way to reinforce said subordinate's resemblance to Raiden or a really jerk-ass bit of bilingual humor. Anyone who disagrees with the previous designation is [[Ho Yay|clearly lying.]]
* Tails from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series is afraid of lightning in some versions. Especially in [[Sonic the Movie|the anime OVA]]. Though the games seem to have removed this character trait, as his [[Elemental Powers|element power]] in ''[[
* Rikku in ''[[
* Shion in ''[[
* Despite the subversion in the novel, this is played straight in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 4'' in one of the Shu Endings. Liu Bei is eating with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei when a bolt of lightning strikes, causing Liu Bei to dive under the table in panic while Guan Yu and Zhang Fei Watch.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Scooby
* In both an original storybook and an episode based on it, Franklin Turtle was afraid of thunderstorms. He was worried that his friends would make fun of him, since in most other matters he was normally pretty courageous, but they turned out to be quite understanding.
* Lola on ''[[
* Subverted on ''[[
* Dudley from ''[[Tuff Puppy]]'' is afraid of thunder. He got over it the same episode that it was introduced.
* In ''[[
* Martha and Skits from ''[[Martha Speaks]]'' are both afraid of thunderstorms. Martha deals with it better than Skits does.
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
▲* Fanfiction authors usually invoke this trope in [[Shipping]] fanfics.
▲* If it is not invoked in a shipping fanfic, it will usually be invoked in a [[WAFF|family-fluff]] fic as an excuse for a child or younger sibling to cuddle with someone.
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]
[[Category:
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