History Main / Freakout

* For 21 episodes of ''[[Manga/LuckyStar Lucky Channel]]'', [[WideEyedIdealist Minoru Shiraishi]] calmly endures the ''[[ButtMonkey constant abuse and disrespect]]'' of his diva of a co-star, [[HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight Akira Kogami]]. Then he gets roped into trekking two weeks through the wilderness to retrieve a fresh bottle of spring water for her, getting [[BearsAreBadNews mauled by a bear]] in the process. When he returns to find himself replaced as co-star by Creator/DaisukeOno and ''then'' has Akira throw the water back in his face for being too warm, he goes ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes completely berserk]]''. He tells off Akira, trashes the set, clobbers crew members who try to restrain him, [[CameraAbuse attacks the cameraman]], and is last seen chasing Akira off-stage with presumably murderous intent. He eventually calms down, but in the concluding episode, he is a completely different character.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': Happens on numerous occasions to several characters. Most notable are Kouta after witnessing his sister and father being slaughtered in front of him by Lucy; happens again later on after he starts to remember bits and pieces of his traumatic past, and again when he sees Lucy slaughter people in front of him. Lucy during the event where a particularly [[KidsAreCruel nasty group of bullies]] KickTheDog that she had come to care for and beat it to death, forcing her to watch. Mayu after running away from home because of her [[AbusiveParents stepfather's sexual abuse]] and her mother's refusal to believe that her ''own daughter is being raped'' because she's jealous of her. Mayu gets another in the manga when she's about to get raped by The Unknown Man, which is directly related to the aforementioned abuse.

* In the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' duology, the bad ending of ''Dawn'' involves [[spoiler:Soma Cruz completely losing it in response to [[KillTheCutie one trauma too many]], resulting in a FaceHeelTurn]].

** Done even more epically with Suzaku after [[spoiler:he nukes Tokyo thanks to his "live" Geass]]. After spending an episode in a HeroicBSOD [[spoiler:at ground zero]], out of the blue he goes full-on LaughingMad, drops any [[TheFettered moral reservations]] he had about [[HonorBeforeReason using "dishonest" methods]], and adopts a new, much more [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans ruthless]] [[TheUnfettered mindset]] that lasts for the rest of the show.

** Nina Einstein is the page image provider: she puts the "[[AxCrazy psycho]]" [[FaceHeelTurn back in]] PsychoLesbian after the [[spoiler:"Euphinator"]] incident late in the first season, which leads to her trying to draw Zero, [[spoiler:the man who killed Euphie]], with a prototype F.L.E.I.J.A.
nuke. When she sees [[spoiler:how many people her F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead killed]] in R2, she makes a similar but slightly less appalling face as she quietly stares in disbelief at the names of the people she's killed.
** Then there's Suzaku after [[spoiler:Euphemia]]'s death and Lelouch when he [[spoiler:kills his father the first time]].

** Nina puts the "[[AxCrazy psycho]]" back in PsychoLesbian after the [[spoiler:"Euphinator"]] incident late in the first season. When she sees [[spoiler:how many people her FLEIJA warhead killed]] in R2, she makes a similar but slightly less appalling face.

** In [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]], Ed has one when he realizes that he has killed Greed.

** Sasuke has a massive one after finding out that Itachi killed their parents among many others, as well as when he gets put under MindRape. He also experienced a [[TranquilFury very controlled version]] when [[spoiler: Tobi revealed the cause of the Uchiha massacre, leading to Sasuke's [[KillEmAll new life goal]]]].

** Anakin Skywalker's turn. Yeah, there was the thing with the Tusken Raiders, and [[LoveMakesYouEvil his obsession with saving Padme Amidala]] but the actual turn happens when Mace Windu tries to execute Emperor Palpatine. After Anakin chops off his arm, Windu gets blown out the window by Palpatine's lightning. This is apparently Anakin's DespairEventHorizon, as he's completely a different person, changing from GoodIsNotNice to a mass-murderer who WouldHurtAChild. To explain further: he knew that once he turned on Mace Windu, he had gone too far and would never be accepted back into the Jedi Order. At that point, allying himself to Palpatine was the only thing he felt he could do. It's firmly established in ''Star Wars'' canon that EvilFeelsGood and [[TheCorruption it also corrupts your mind]]. Once you allow just a taste of the TheDarkSide, you start JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope like it was going out of style.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': Happens on numerous occasions to several characters. Most notable are Kouta after witnessing his sister and father being slaughtered in front of him by Lucy; happens again later on after he starts to remember bits and pieces of his traumatic past, and again when he sees Lucy slaughter people in front of him. Mayu after running away from home because of her [[AbusiveParents stepfather's sexual abuse]] and her mother's refusal to believe that her ''own daughter is being raped'' because she's jealous of her. Mayu gets another in the manga when she's about to get raped by The Unknown Man, which is directly related to the aforementioned abuse.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': Happens on numerous occasions to several characters. Most notable are Kouta after witnessing his sister and father being slaughtered in front of him by Lucy; happens again later on after he starts to remember bits and pieces of his traumatic past, and again when he sees Lucy slaughter people in front of him. Lucy during the event where a particularly [[KidsAreCruel nasty group of bullies]] KickTheDog that she had come to care for and beat it to death, forcing her to watch. Mayu after running away from home because of her [[AbusiveParents stepfather's sexual abuse]] and her mother's refusal to believe that her ''own daughter is being raped'' because she's jealous of her. Mayu gets another in the manga when she's about to get raped by The Unknown Man, which is directly related to the aforementioned abuse.

[[quoteright:250:[[Anime/CodeGeass https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_code_geass_nina_freak_out.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Nina just had a very bad day.]]

* Happens to Kerrun, the Raleka leader, at the end of her VillainousBreakdown in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. She wasn't too stable to begin with, and the seeds are sown when she first realizes that the four are not on her side, as she'd originally thought. What really sends her over the cliff is when John is seen flying over the warehouse, having lured hundreds of skahs there. She completely cracks, screaming that all the skahs are actually Idris and that the Raleka should kill them all, and John if he reappears. This has the unintended effect of getting ''all'' the Raleka guarding the warehouse to focus on the skahs, who after all are mobbing the outside of the warehouse, and not to keep an eye out for John and Ringo, who are lurking about trying to sneak into the warehouse via the roof.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' hints on a couple of occasions throughout the first book that Harry isn't quite as stable as he appears. Then HYDRA attack Hogwarts, killing [[spoiler: Luna Lovegood]], and {{ComicBook/Daken}} baits him, luring him close and [[spoiler: (temporarily) killing him]]. This did not do wonders for his mental state, and it was immediately compounded when a follow-up attack nearly killed his father and put him in a coma, while also destroying Avengers Tower and kidnapping or crippling the Avengers. After that, Jane barely manages to talk him down from re-enacting Magneto's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIcTr-m-R9U "You homo sapiens and your guns"]] moment, and his chillingly cold demeanour during the attack on HYDRA's base - including a rematch with Daken - is disturbing. He snaps out of it shortly after, but it seeds the full-blown example when being [[spoiler: tortured, sexually abused, and turned into a LivingWeapon]] by the Red Room drives him to the very brink of insanity, turning him into [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]].

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3504327/12/Between-Deception-and-Truth Between Deception and Truth]]: Naruto and Hinata go through this when they find out they're having a child. The reason being that both are currently in hiding as a runaway couple and (for added security) under a GenderBender jutsu, so this means NARUTO is the mother. After their initial FreakOut (Naruto runs away for some alone time and gets a pep-talk from Tsunami, Hinata tries DrowningMySorrows), both eventually sit down, [[SorkinRelationshipMoment freak out together and ultimately decide to press on with their very unusual situation]].
* Happens to a young Flaky in ''Fanfic/HappyTreeFriendsOrigins''. To sum it up, she was walking into the forest one day when she found something strange. What she found as a pile of corpses along with [[spoiler:a flipped-out Flippy]] standing next to it. She tried to run away, but he ended up stabbing her to death. She woke up in bed the next day and thought the events was just a nightmare, but then she finds herself and her friends dying and coming back to life the next day. She tried to tell her friends their fate, but to no avail.

* In ''Fanfic/AtTheFoodCourt'', after numerous horrible beatings delivered on a regular basis, [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash]] completely snapped after James told him he was a Pikachu, and came to actually believe it. This started a dissociative delusion from which he never recovered.
* ''Fanfic/DearJournalImCrazy'': After weeks of not taking his medication, Doug has an extremely violent psychotic episode on April 22nd, 1994, where he, believing to be superspy Smash Adams, had pushed Roger down the steps of the school thinking he was rescuing Patti from the clutches of "Dr. Klotzenstein". Doug doesn't remember what happened in the days afterwards, however.

* ''Fanfic/DearJournalImCrazy'': Doug has an extremely violent psychotic episode on April 22nd, 1994, where he, believing to be superspy Smash Adams, had pushed Roger down the steps of the school thinking he was rescuing Patti from the clutches of "Dr. Klotzenstein". Doug doesn't remember what happened in the days afterwards, however.

* ''Fanfic/DearJournalImCrazy'': Doug has an extremely violent psychotic episode on April 21st, 1994, where he, believing to be superspy Smash Adams, had pushed Roger down the steps of the school thinking he was rescuing Patti from the clutches of "Dr. Klotzenstein". Doug doesn't remember what happened in the days afterwards, however.

* In psychology, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(psychology) metanoia]] (a word which literally means "changing one's mind").

** Naruto had one when he thought Sasuke had been killed by Haku. He had another one when he'd gone into his 4-tailed form after Orochimaru goaded him to a breaking point. He had his ''[[DespairEventHorizon worst one ever]]'' when he was ForcedToWatch Pain, the man who killed [[BadassTeacher Jiraiya and Kakashi]] and blew up his village, almost fatally stab [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Hinata]] with [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice a giant spike]] right after [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove she sincerely confessed her love to him]] -- which was the first time Naruto ''ever'' heard ''anybody'' say that to him genuinely. The Freak Out was of such proportions that it allowed him to ''instantly'' go to [[SuperpoweredEvilSide his 6-tailed form]] for the first time ever, then [[UpToEleven an 8-tailed monstrosity]], and then [[DarkestHour left his will so badly battered]] that [[FromBadToWorse he was ready to release the Kyuubi]].

* [[TheGambler Daniel J. D'Arby]] suffers an impressive one in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', in an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame of poker against [[TheHero Jotaro]]. At one point, Jotaro makes ludicrously high bets on a hand that he ''doesn't even look at,'' while using his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Star Platinum, to nab a cigarette and a drink [[SuperSpeed faster than D'Arby can see]]. This leads him to believe that Jotaro had switched out the cards in his hand without him noticing, and his panic only ramps up further when Jotaro demands that he match his raise by promising to reveal the capabilities of [[BigBad DIO]]'s Stand if he loses. [[TheMobBossIsScarier The mere thought of being punished for his betrayal of DIO consumes D'Arby with fear]], to the point that he ''passes out'', thus forfeiting, and wakes up a LaughingMad wreck who's too loopy to interrogate. To top it all off, he was normally [[TheStoic tranquil and cool-headed]], which made his nervous breakdown all the more enjoyable to behold.

* This seems to be the main reason why Tetsuo from ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' became a villain. Years of bullying had given him an inferiority complex, and when he crashed into a psychic and had [[PlayingWithSyringes experiments done to him by the military to unlock his own psychic abilities]], when those powers awakened, [[ComesGreatInsanity they quickly drove him insane]].

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A well-done Freak Out makes the [[WhamEpisode audience freak out as well]], and provides more CharacterDevelopment than an entire season could in the same. Sadly, this is rare — all too often, it is used as a desperate gimmick to "revitalize" a show. Viewers should beware if a FreakOut comes due to ExecutiveMeddling, if it comes after several seasons, if it makes the character DarkerAndEdgier, or [[HotterAndSexier if it makes the character hornier]]. If all four happen at once, chances are high that the show is JumpingTheShark.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': In "Murder Most Maris", Niles spends several days with things going from bad to worse - his ex-wife Maris is being charged with murder, the press is hounding him, Frasier's attempt to help ends with him accidentally saying Niles should be executed (he ''meant'' exonerated), and neither Daphne or Martin are any help at all, with Daphne outright blaming him for what's happened. Niles claims he's taking it in stride because, well, what's the alternative? Then Cafe Nervosa runs out of straws. Niles suddenly goes a little nuts, ending with him calmly sitting there completely naked.

* WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse: