Misused: Berserk Button

Also, just wondering, is this trope mutually exclusive with Trauma Button or can they overlap? It says they're closely related but can it be both if the traumatic reaction is to go into an angry rant?

I like the criteria in and . And I think that examples that are trying to say something like “threatening to murder loved ones” or “their house being destroyed” is a “berserk button” should still be considered misuse.

Does anyone have ideas on how “recurring” could be relaxed if that one wins? Wouldn’t that just be eliminating that rule altogether?

I think it can be both although I would only list one or the other on a trope list.

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 2nd 2022 at 10:37:36 AM

Hmmm, I guess the "recurring" aspect being relaxed would just make it a Rant Inducing Slight dupe, since I think we already allow examples where it's an Informed Attribute even if we only see it described as a Berserk Button in one episode, as long as it's said to be recurring.

Don't know if this is relevant to anything since I haven't been following this discussion intensely but Rant Inducing Slight is also a TRS candidate (and is on the TRS Queue actually).

Eh, maybe that could be merged into this, but I'd rather decide that when it gets its own thread.

I agree that dropping the "recurring" rule entirely would make it too much of a dupe. It should be something that acts as a consistent trigger, not just a one-time thing.

As mentioned before, Berserk Button intersects with quite a few (more common) anger and emotion tropes, so I think overlap is inevitable whether we expand or not.

As for the proposed expansion ideas themselves... I don't know if expanding/relaxing the definition in general will do much but I guess I'll wait and see what happens if we decide to do that.

Expanding Rant Inducing Slight would kill two birds with one stone since it would cover the misuse of this trope, so maybe that should be moved up as a priority then.

I like the sound of that.

I don't think the wick check for that one is done.

How is Disproportionate Anger Trigger for a rename?

We're not renaming. The mods have taken it off the table.

And honestly, the name's fine when seen as an equivalent to, say, Trauma Button. "Berserk" implies disproportionate anger and "Button" implies repetition. The Trope Decay is more due to prominence than name ambiguity.

Well here's the wick check for Rant Inducing Slight if anyone wants to complete it. Paging ~nw09 who was wick checking it.

I also agree for the record that removing the "recurring" requirement would make this too similar to other tropes.

EDIT: Nevermind it's apparently now done.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Mar 3rd 2022 at 8:24:19 AM

I agree with removing the "irrational" and keeping the recurring, but I wonder if adding "uncharacteristic" would work? I think a lot of the "rational anger trigger" misuse is for characters who are generally nice/calm/etc until their family is threatened/their dreams are mocked/etc

As the OP says that definition is covered by Beware the Nice Ones. Anger is a natural response to threats against something/someone a person loves.

That being said, "irrational" needs to be better defined. Being mocked about your insecurities (e.g. height) is annoying, so would a person getting angry over that be considered a misuse since it's not irrational to get angry about that?

I think the response should matter just as much as the cause.

Shouting at someone or maybe punching them once over being mocked heavily is pretty understandable.

Going full Unstoppable Rage over it and literally tearing someone apart over it though? That's a bit more extreme and pushes it further towards irrational.

That's the kind of thing that I think should be considered okay post-expansion, unless we actually already have a trope that covers that kind of emotional trigger. Being teased about your height/weight/anything is genuinely really shitty, but there are a lot of different responses that people can reasonably have to something like that, so it's indicative of something about a character if their reaction is explosive rage.

Now, something that's culturally "taboo" to tease someone about (e.g. the death of a parent), I think could reasonably be considered out of bounds for this trope.

EDIT: I actually don't totally agree on that. At least in my experience, if you were to shout at or punch someone for teasing you about your height whenever that happened that would absolutely be seen as a disproportionate reaction. And if it's something that only happens once after a long period of not reacting that way at all, I'd argue that fails the recurring aspect of the trope anyway.

Edited by Nightshade92 on Mar 3rd 2022 at 11:27:13 AM

It's why I made it clear it was mocked heavily. If the slightest bit of teasing or mention of something makes someone flip (like Edward Elric and his height), it's a good example of this.

The response proportionate to the cause is kind of what makes the trope to me, Edward Elric flips out at the mention of being short, which is a Berserk Button because even innocent or small references to it upset him. But if he were to only get that angry over it when it was persistent or long duration teasing, it wouldn't qualify, as anyone would get upset over getting picked on that long or heavily.

I guess I'm just skeptical that that's a thing that happens a lot in fiction anyway ("that" being recurring heavy teasing that a character responds to with noticeable but not disproportionate anger every single time it happens). But that doesn't mean it's never happened, and if someone presented an example of it I wouldn't mind if it got cut as misuse.

Happening in a lot of fiction doesn't make it less tropeworthy. It usually ultimately says something about the character and their sensitivities.

I agree that the response should be disproportionate. It might actually be possible to have family-mocking examples if the reaction is severe compared to the actual jokes. Like someone going into a blinding rage over a Yo Mama joke.

Edited by WarJay77 on Mar 3rd 2022 at 12:45:51 PM

Something like that could be tropable—I've actually seen that exact scenario in a video from Quackity HQ.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Mar 5th 2022 at 10:10:25 AM

So what would the dividing line be?

To compile crowner options?