Minor Injury Overreaction: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In dramatic settings, no matter how much punishment a villain takes all that seems to really get them [[Berserk Button|riled up]] is [[It's All About Me|deliberate albeit minor injury]], especially across their face. Extremely potent with [[It's All About Me|egotists]], this tends to send the [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]] and [[The Fighting Narcissist]] into a foaming rage. Can also occur with characters who are [[Nigh Invulnerable]], where the overreaction is due to the fact that even inflicting a minor injury on the character is supposed to impossible; it might even be the first time that character has ''ever'' been injured.

* [[Death Note|Light]] in ''[[The Prince of Death]]'' Justified: [[Nightmare Fuel|because he is undead his wounds never heal and he has to be sewn back together.]]

 

* ''[[How to Train Your Dragon]]'': Tuffnut reacts this way to a very small dragon biting his nose.

{{quote|"Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"}}

* Louis the alligator in ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' goes into death throes when he gets a single bur in his finger.

* A hair-related version in ''[[Spaceballs]]'': After refusing to handle a gun, saying she hates them, Princess Vespa's hair is shot... the resulting reaction? "My hair! He shot my hair! Son of a bitch." Followed by her mowing down her opponents. Her 'droid-of-honor' calls the victory "pretty good for Rambo".

* In more ways than one, this Trope is a driving force behind the events of ''[[Death Becomes Her]]''. Helen Sharp's childhood "friend" Madeline Ashton is always ruining Helen's serious relationships by stealing her boyfriends, {{spoiler|including Helen's fiance near the film's beginning}}, even though Madeline herself has no feelings for them. This prompts Helen to {{spoiler|hatch an elaborate plot to KILL Madeline, a goal she is still pursuing obsessively fourteen years later}}. As extreme as THAT may seem, it somehow manages to pale in comparison to Madeline's amazingly petty motive for repeatedly hurting Helen (arguably ruining her life multiple times) in the first place: {{spoiler|Helen thought Madeline was cheap, and by all indications merely in the sense of not being classy... BACK WHEN THEY WERE SCHOOLGIRLS!!!}}

 

== Literature ==

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In ''[[The Iliad]]'', Aphrodite gets cut by Diomedes. As a goddess, she cannot die, but she's completely unaccustomed to pain, causing her to run screaming to her brother Ares and plead with him to teach Diomedes a lesson. With the aid of Athena, Diomedes cuts Ares as well, and he has the same reaction, literally running home to cry to this mama.

* In [[Gordon Korman]]'s ''The Zucchini Warriors'', one of the [[Macdonald Hall]] football players (who has ironically given himself the nickname The Beast) gets a bruised elbow. He then insists that it's actually a compound fracture and walks around with his arm in a sling for nine weeks.

* The short-lived sketch show ''Fridays'' had a sketch in which guest star [[William Shatner]] played a man at a disco who overreacted to minor pain. When his dance partner (played by cast member Brandis Kemp) accidentally steps on his foot, Shatner's character reacts so violently that he tosses Kemp onto the ground and accidentally exposes her butt [[Thong of Shielding|clad only in thong underwear]] (when the episode that had that sketch reran, the shot of Kemp on the ground with her thong exposed was cut).

* In ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'', [[Big Bad]] Oiles Gill freaks out when Gokai Red manages to graze his arm with a single bullet, and spends the rest of that episode (as well as the next one) whining about how much it hurts and how he'll make the Gokaigers pay. This is, of course, done to show how much of a [[Spoiled Brat]] Gill is.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Pretty much any move ever taken by Shawn Michaels, Marty Janetty, or Curt Hennig.

* A lot of the finishers are essentially sold to the crowd by doing this. The Stone Cold Stunner is a notable example (as is the hilarious way The Rock always flopped across the ring after receiving one).

* Almost anytime someone uses a grapple in pro wrestling, it's this. Grapples are usually applied lightly without using too much pressure, while the other wrestler screams and writhes as if it's agonizing. It's done for the [[Kayfabe]].

* In WWE, this was the basis for Cody Rhodes's former character. After [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.|Rey Mysterio]] broke his nose, the narcissistic Rhodes believed his good looks were forever ruined, and went insane. He's no longer a smug pretty boy, but destructive and perpetually brooding (while a broken nose is no picnic, it's nothing big in pro wrestling terms).

 

== Video Games ==

* The pedestrians in ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' will occasionally [[Artificial Stupidity|trip on the sidewalk or other low obstacles]] and then ''lay there squirming in pain'' until the player heals them.

* In [[Wild ARMs 2|Wild Arms: Second Ignition]], after you fight Judecca in his Devil Spire, he notes that he's bleeding and [[Driven to Suicide|shoots himself]].

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[Awesome Series|PokeAwesome - Just a Pokemon Battle]]'', [[Pokémon|Ash's Pikachu]] is hit by a Solar Beam, causing him to hurt his knee. Half of the short is just Pikachu cussing out his opponent and Ash in his anger. This happening after [[Hypocritical Humor|whaling on a Venusaur with his "Thunder Smash."]]

* In [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged]], Joseph was stabbed through the throat and bleeding to death. His complaint that was making him wail in pain? ''He sprained his ankle''.

 

== Real Life ==

* In [[Association Football]], players often try to draw free kicks, etc. by "diving" - falling to the ground and pretending to be much more seriously injured than they actually are. The trope is effectively [[Lampshaded]] when, more often than not, said player gets up and runs off at full tilt when their pleas are ignored.

** This is known as "flopping" in basketball circles. Former Laker and Hornet Vlade Divac was considered the best around at drawing fouls from fleeting or non-existent contact.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Injury Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]