Discussion Main / MinorInsultMeltdown

mistake post, ignore

The thing is, it's something of a no-win situation for the nice guy. On the one hand, everyone will have No Sympathy for the nice guy (it's part of him or her being a put upon comedy protagonist [comedy optional]), no matter how deservedly and tactfully the "stop it!" is. The annoying person is usually treated by the story as an annoying but innocent little kid, anything but gentle coaxing in response to their disruptive behavior is a big no-no.

That said, other people may sympathize and understand the nice guy, but point out that no matter how justified the reaction was they still have to apologize to little miss tornado-with-fragile-feelings. I've met more than my share of people in real life that are like that, unable to process criticism, so you have to be the bigger person and make a heartfelt apology despite knowing they probably can't return the favor in kind. Life isn't always fair that way.

I don't know, in my mind the Ditz should either Took a Level in Badass or the trope is half-way to Break the Cutie. Call me jaded, but I don't think I could stand being around a well-meaning tornado of destruction for too long.

But, then again, this is a trope ;) Not me. I'll just chalk it up to Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Isn't this trope about a minor insult making another character melt down, and not about the straight man getting vilified for a much-deserved "stop it" to a naive character? I think the latter should have its own trope.

Isn't this trope about a minor insult making another character melt down, and not about the straight man getting vilified for a much-deserved "stop it" to a naive character? I think the latter should have its own trope.

Isn't this trope about a minor insult making another character melt down, and not about the straight man getting vilified for a much-deserved "stop it" to a naive character? I think the latter should have its own trope, and the description of this trope should focus more on the melting down over a minor insult.

I have no idea what kind of bug ended up getting me to post that question 3 times in a row, so sorry about that.

The Minor Insult Meltdown trope main page describes a specific Double Standard situation where Alice has been causing lots of trouble and irritation, Bob's been patient, Alice does another irritating thing, Bob snaps and says a somewhat-harsh thing telling her to stop. Alice is super hurt, and Bob is seen as the party firmly in the wrong. Alice had a meltdown over a minor insult.

Laconic is just "A character hurts another character more than they had intended with their choice of words," which basically means the Double Standard example on the main page isn't integral to the trope at all, even though most of the main page gives you related tropes for that Double Standard example, the part about mean characters approving which hammers in how much we're supposed to side against Bob. Going just off the laconic page, the only important part is hurting someone more than you intended with your words and not the double standard bit.

Playing With just says the basic trope is just "A character gets very worked up over a minor insult."

So which one is right? Is the trope just a character being worked up over a tiny insult like Playing With says, which is different from Rant Inducing Slight because Rant Inducing Slight also requires that this tiny insult be the straw that broke the camel's back while this trope, according to Playing With and Laconic, allows just getting worked up and overly hurt over minor insults, no need for a "straw that broke the camel's back" aspect like Rant Inducing Slight needs?

Is it a character hurting one with words more than intended, like Laconic says, no need for them to even intend it as a minor insult (like "Quit it" isn't actually an insult and probably wasn't intended as one, but it still hurt Alice), just a need for a character to unintentionally seriously hurt another with their words?

Or does it need the Double Standard aspect, since the main page focuses on that? (The main page's example, about Bob taking heaps of abuse before snapping on Alice, fits Rant Inducing Slight, and the only thing that makes the situation on the main page different from Rant Inducing Slight is the part where Alice is super hurt and Bob is viewed as the bad guy even if Alice kind of deserved to be told the non-insult "Quit it" in a somewhat harsh tone after all she's done)