Major Injury Underreaction: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Black Knight:''' 'Tis but a scratch.

 

{{examples|suf=s}}

* One [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82yZVB7IDlE "Got Milk?" commercial] had a mother telling her kids to drink their milk when they refuse to. One of the kids tells her that their next door neighbor, who was outside working, never drinks milk. Then, when the neighbor attempts to lift up a wheelbarrow, his arms ''[[Nightmare Fuel|snap off from their sockets.]]'' While the mother and kids scream in horror, the old man simply replies "Oh, that's not good..."

* A whole campaign for Mike's Hard Lemonade revolved around these; one, for instance, had a guy impaled with rebar. It gets used as a bottle opener.

 

* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'': Yuki Nagato's reaction to six sharp poles passing through her body: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqJw6S-SSXo&t=3m50s "I am fine"]. Shortly after, she {{spoiler|turns her opponent into a pile of sand.}}

* [[Dragon Ball]] Z - [[Badass|Piccolo's]] reaction to having his arm blown off by Radditz's attack? "Don't worry about it. It's not as bad as it looks. I'm not out of this fight yet." Granted, it was later revealed that he could [[Healing Factor|regenerate lost body parts]] but we didn't know that at the time.

* In ''[[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]]'', Vector, a powerful half-ghast, barely survives getting crushed by the Hands of Hades, which results in him bloodied and having [[Blood From the Mouth]]. He remarks that he's glad the rest of the Magical Law practitioners he's up against aren't as powerful as Muhyo.

* ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' gives us [http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu328/Smokie1/logh25.jpg?t=1289772072 this]. If you haven't noticed yet, Reuenthal is kind of badass.

* ''[[Claymore]]'': Lose an arm? Don't worry: Claymores will look shocked for a moment and continue fighting. If they're offensive, they can easily reattach the limb, or even better, if they're a defensive type, [[Healing Factor|they'll just regenerate]] [[Good Thing You Can Heal|the limb later]]. Legs are a different deal entirely - [[Captain Obvious|because they won't be able to escape without them!]] Also when they lose both arms, [[Captain Obvious|so now they can't hold their sword or reattach their other arm]]. [[Oh Crap|The realization hits them at that point]].

** Perhaps best exemplified by Roxanne's reaction to {{spoiler|Awakened Cassandra biting off and eating}} her left arm: "Oh?" Her facial expression at that moment amounts to what one usually has upon someone calling out to you by name.

** Also Lan Fan for {{spoiler|when her arm is cut off}} she cares nothing of hers own safety. Further reinforced by the fact {{spoiler|''she'' was the one who cut her own arm off without a second thought}}.

** Major Armstrong gets into a bit of this as well, while fighting Sloth; Sloth dislocates his shoulder. His response? He lets Sloth continue to hit him there until Sloth knocks it back into place.

** Also Riki who is rather calm and even ''understanding'' when he wakes up to find out he got an impromptu {{spoiler|penectomy}}.

* In episode 20 of ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'', {{spoiler|Uryuu Minene gets her hand blown off.}} Her reaction? {{spoiler|"My hand..."}} Spoken in a whispered voice, with only a slight wince.

 

* [[Marvel Universe|Thanos' reaction]] as he sees his own heart being torn out by Drax the Destroyer ?

{{quote|'''Thanos''' : Interesting...}}

'''Cassandra Cain:''' [[Abusive Parents|My... dad and I played something like that.]] }}

 

* In ''[[Halo: Halos in Space]]'', Joe Chief leaps at the Spines Alien and gets pierced by the spines, but breaks them off in the process. Both respond with an "Ow."

* In ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/163260272-astral-journey-it's-complicated Astral Journey: It's Complicated]'' has [[Brandy Norwood|Brandy]] suffering an arm injury but focuses on freeing [[Spice Girls| Geri and the narrator (Emma)]] after they're crushed under the car. [[Celine Dion| Celine]] has her fair share of burns from the electric bolt but leads in the rescue efforts.

* ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/186178291-spice-fortress Spice Fortress]'', Melanie the Fighter is [[Meatgrinder Surgery| operated]] by Victoria the Medic while alive and ''without pain killers''.

 

* In the first ''[[Shrek]]'', after Fiona fights off Robin and his Merry Men, both she and Shrek are surprised to discover he'd sustained an injury:

{{quote|'''Fiona:''' There's an arrow in your butt!!

* In ''Moana'', Maui gets hit in the buttocks by a swarm of blow-darts, to which is rather annoying.

{{quote| '''Maui''': Really? A blow-dart in my buttcheek?}}

* ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'': Grace looks down at her blood-drenched hands and the bleeding wound in her side. Voice deadpan, she says "This is gonna ruin my whole day." Quaritch also only deigns to acknowledge that his shoulder is on fire once his walker is deployed.

* Played for dark comedy in ''[[Chopper]]'', when the title character is shanked multiple times by his friend in an effort to kill him. After each stab, Chopper's only reaction is to talk about how hurt his ''feelings'' are that his friend is attacking him.

* ''[[Mickey Blue Eyes]]'' provides a subversion. Frank is aiming a gun at Michael, and the latter asks if this is going to hurt. Frank says, "Not a bit." BANG BANG! Two red spots appear on Michael's chest, while he calmly says that it actually did hurt quite a lot. The subversion? They were practicing for a fake assassination. The gun was loaded with blanks, and the bullet holes were fakes rigged by a mechanism Michael was carrying.

* In ''[[Friday the 13th (film)]]'', a teen gets his arm chopped off, has his wound sealed temporarily, and then is brought back to the medical bay to have the limb reattached. Granted, he's a bit of a stoner, and it's far enough in the future that painkillers are probably excellent, but seeing him ''carry his own arm'' back with him (and crack jokes about it while doing so) is definitely this trope.

* In ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'', the Green Goblin, played by Willem Dafoe, spends much of the film [[Large Ham|chewing as much scenery as he can]]. At the end, when he is about to be impaled by his own glider, his only reaction is a soft "Oh".

* In ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]'', a gangster gets shot, but his only reaction is to note that he's got a hole in his suit. Soon after, he keels over from ''smoking''. Don't smoke, kids!

 

== Jokes ==

"Well, it helps to pass the time." }}

 

* In ''[[Redliners]]'', [[David Drake]] has a character mention that a bad sunburn can cause more pain than some combat injuries. Doubtless due to the sunburn being restricted to nerve-rich skin.

* In ''[[Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor]]'', X-wing pilot [[X Wing Series|Hobbie Klivian]], disabled in combat, has a shot fired through his cockpit that takes off his hand. He sighs, the narration says that it's been quite some time since he had a real left arm, and sticks the sparking stump into the new hole in the ceiling so that his pilot's suit will seal off the hole. Then he sticks his right foot into the new hole in the floor, and although his boot gets sucked off this gets sealed too. At some point he collides with something and thinks that his foot may have just been sheared off, but that's okay. It's been a long time since he's had a real right foot.

* In ''[[Lolita]]'', pedophile Quigley is shot to death but continues to speak to his killer politely.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the Greatjon insults Robb Stark and has two of his fingers bitten off by Robb's direwolf. Defeated, the Greatjon grips his bleeding hand, makes a wisecrack and laughs it off. Bran, who watches the whole thing, is flabbergasted.

** Later followed up with [[Aint Got Time To Bleed|"Ain't got time to ooze."]]

** From the same novel, Vetinari trying to dismiss the gunshot that's just shattered his thigh with ''"No need, it's just a flesh wound."''

 

* In the [[SNL]] sketch, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QFWYvRi2s Gift Wrap] someone gets a small paper cut. Not what most people would typically regard a major injury. And being cavalier about a paper cut would normally be an appropriate reaction. However the guy was [[Bloody Hilarious|just squirting out blood]]. {{spoiler|When asked if he was on blood thinners, he said "a few." And from there things just get worse.}}

* In one episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'', Jordan gets her face Botoxed so much that she isn't able to make facial expressions. At one point, another character accidentally hurts her and she says with a straight face (and a fairly monotonous voice): "I think you separated my shoulder. The pain is excruciating."

{{quote|'''Mr. Trick:''' ''(indignant and mildly shocked)'' Oh. No. No, this is no good at all...}}

* In a ''[[Monty Python]]'' sketch, a British soldier in Africa played by Eric Idle barely seems annoyed that his leg has been eaten by a tiger. At first it seems to be a case of extreme [[Stiff Upper Lip]] until he reveals that he expects it to grow back.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' did a parody of [[Dark Age]] comic books, in which a character having a huge hole blasted through his torso says: "I could feel my spine shatter. It hurt... a lot."

 

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* Not to be outdone, Vader had his eyeball pop out of its socket during a match. He popped it back in and continued.

 

* In ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', Mercutio says his wound from Tybalt is "just a scratch" before dying.

** Not sure this qualifies. It appears to be but a scratch, even prompting Romeo to essentially tell him to man up "Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much," to which Mercutio admits that while it's just a scratch "'tis enough, 'twill serve."

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the shock he would've been in.

 

* Slowpoke from ''[[Pokémon]]''. It takes ''a full 5 seconds'' before it feels the pain!

* ''[[Persona 4]]'': "I think mine cracked too... [[Groin Attack|Critical Hit to the nads..."]]

* Cultists in the original [[Dawn of War]] have the tendency to announce "Oh! My spleen!" after being slammed by a Space Marine (as in, 7 feet of equal parts cybernetics, genetic engineering, and extreme prejudice, with power armor overlaying the whole mix) hard enough to land a good thirty feet away.

 

* Whenever something like this happens to Richard in ''[[Looking for Group]]'', he nearly always makes a snarky comment or just ignores it unless it gets utterly annoying. Loses both his arms? Steals a bear's. Gets his back full of arrows? "Is there something on my back?" Axe in his forehead? [[Non Sequitur Thud|"Good was shot a that. Toast. HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!"]] (he then goes on with his day as such). Justified because he's undead.

** {{spoiler|Recent developments have shown that Richard is not undead, and something actually hurting him is a sign that he needs to recharge his powers.}}

* [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|Nancy]] from ''[[Ow, My Sanity]]'' gets [[Is This What Anger Feels Like?|a little annoyed]] [http://owmysanity.comicgenesis.com/d/20101025.html when you cut her in half].

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', it takes four panels for Higgs to react to getting stabbed straight through his torso (Needless to say, gore warning) [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101027\].

 

* When the [[Yogscast]] attempted to teach [[Jesse Cox]] how to play Minecraft, one of them falls in lava while explaining spelunking. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpVkSAEtnCI#t=4m54s His reaction?]

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', Sarge is shot in the head. Upon appearing in the afterlife, he is only annoyed that he didn't get to screw with Grif one last time. This situation also fits because Grif's response to the injury is to perform CPR, which strangely works. Sarge berates Grif once he regains consciousness.

* In the ''Super Planet Dolan'' Episode, '''[https://youtu.be/Cz_myvqfeKQ What If The World Were Square?]''', Doopie has her left arm bit off by SacredSnewpee. Doopie gets annoyed by this, though she eventually has her arm reattached, as she considered Snewpee’s puns even worse.

 

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', after a faulty Swedish particle accelerator blows up, we see Fry (and Zoidberg) in a hospital, seeming rather nonchalant, then it pans down to show he's been [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|impaled with a pipe]].

{{quote|'''Zoidberg''': Oh, the hypochondriac's back! So what is it this time?

* Happens all the time in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''. For example, when Ed's [[My Little Panzer|toy]] makes a hole in Eddy's belly, he just complains that his toy ate his breakfast.

* A subplot on one episode of ''[[Mission Hill]]'' had Wally attempting to persuade his boyfriend to go to the hospital after getting a knife stuck in the top of his head. Gus continues to act like everything is perfectly normal, the only concession to his injury being a giant hat so he stops frightening customers.

** In the very next scene, his face is back to normal, with only a pair of bandages on his nose to show for it.

* A cutaway gag in [[Family Guy]] shows what the family would be like if they were stereotypical high class gentlemen. Halfway through the scene, Peter spontaneously combusts and calmly says "Oh dear." then describes it in an incredibly casual manner.

'''Iroh:''' When the rash spreads to my throat, I will stop breathing. }}

 

* [[Truth in Television]], in some instances. Superficial wounds tend to hurt more than deep ones, both because of the greater concentration of nerve endings near the surface of the skin and because injury makes the body release natural painkillers. Handgun bullets for example are very likely to kill you but on the whole don't hurt much more than a mild burning sensation. People can often be completely unaware of multiple gunshots to the trunk and instead will complain about the graze (which hurts like hell).

** Some people [[Blessed with Suck|do not possess the ability to feel pain]]. This can lead to them suffering serious injuries and only realizing it when their bodies stop functioning. The condition is called Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis or CIPA. (Very rare, and the victims don't often survive to adulthood.)

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Injury Tropes]]

[[Category:Badass]]