Trigger: Difference between revisions

'''Do not put trigger warnings on any All The Tropes pages other than [[Fan Fic Recommendations]].''' Works that have full pages should already indicate the existence of triggering content in the description or trope list in a natural way, and a trope's description should be a good indication of whether or not there will be any significant triggering content in its examples.

{{noreallife|we don't want to paint targets on people's backs for [[Troll]]s.}}

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', Kotomi sees a bus crash and hearing that Ryou might have been on the bus caused her to have a [[Freak-Out]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB40_Vxd2Fw Observe].

* Frank, from ''[[Minimonsters]]'' is normally a cool, calm and collected [[Gadgeteer Genius]]. When someone calls him "ugly", [[Stepford Smiler|his confident façade]] ''[[Broken Ace|cracks]]'', and his [[Nervous Wreck]] nature and [[Inferiority Superiority Complex|poor self-esteem]] come to the surface.

** A more comedic version is [[The Rival|Morty]]. Mention "brains" around him, and he'll turn from [[Faux Affably Evil]] to just plain crazy.

== Film ==

* In the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] movie ''[[Spellbound]]'', an amnesia victim becomes uncomfortable every time he sees a pattern of wavy dark lines against a white background, because it reminds him {{spoiler|of the event which caused his amnesia - he had witnessed a murder at a ski resort, the dark lines were ski tracks in the snow}}.

* The original version of ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]''. Actually one of the first films to explore triggering in depth, before the term was even generally used to describe it. While there's plenty of [[Critical Research Failure]] and such to go around and using triggers to create an assassin is likely impossible in [[Real Life]] (thankfully), and while it is definitely [[Played for Drama]], the idea of using emotional triggers to manipulate people into doing things they would not otherwise do or act against their own self-interest is actually [[Truth in Television]].

== Literature ==

* The protagonist of [[Use of Weapons]] refuses to sit in chairs. It almost feels as if this [[Played for Laughs]] at first, until the references to a white chair and "the Chairmaker" pile up more and more often. It isn't until the end of the book that you learn he has [[Complete Monster|very good reasons]] for it.

* On ''[[Cheers]]'' when Woody's old girlfriend shows up he constantly goes out eating with her. He reveals that he used to be obese back in Indiana but since he moved to Boston he's thin. The other guys realize his old girlfriend is his eating trigger, but don't know how to break it to him.

* ''[[True Blood]]'':

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209180606/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3577 Slick sees the pit leading to Hell, and remembers when he was in Hell.]

* In ''[[Goblins]]'', Kin is triggered [http://www.goblinscomic.com/04132012/ by being trapped under a tree], since she used to be raped nightly be [[Complete Monster|Dellyn Goblinslayer]], who was part-tree.

== Western Animation ==

* Played for laughs (inevitably enough) in ''[[Family Guy]]'', where Peter's impersonation of Ralph from ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' triggers Lois' brother's memories of walking in on their mother's affair with Jackie Gleason (an event which put him into an insane asylum and turned him into a serial killer).

* From [[Thomas the Tank Engine]]:

'''Douglas:''' Don't use that word! You're making my wheels wobble! }}

* Mrs Puff from ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' freaks out when he shows up and talks to her when he's at work.

{{reflist}}