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Author: Psuliin

Sep 3rd 2012 at 4:05:40 PM

Rodney, the Hulk has several fairly broad Berserk Buttons. Just annoying him isn't enough to cause him to change. You have to frighten him, make him very angry, or cause him a good deal of pain. I consider "making him angry" to be a Berserk Button because if you do it then he becomes really, really angry.

"Getting angry isn't a trope."

No, but many tropes are associated with anger, and if a Berserk Button ALWAYS triggers one of those tropes then it would also be a Trope Trigger. Basically if the Berserk Button always causes someone to get angry in the same way, and that way is a trope, then the Berserk Button is a Trope Trigger.

"Do you mean 'this is like a Berserk Button, but for stuff besides getting angry'?"

That's one way to think of it, yes, with the exception that it can involve anger. The Berserk Button causes extreme rage (hence the name). Something that involved an anger trope but not the violent fury of a Berserk Button could be a Trope Trigger.

Remember, the Trope Trigger always involves another trope. And, as you noted, anger per se is not a trope. A Trope Trigger could trigger an anger trope, but it's much broader than that. It could potentially involve any trope that can be written as resulting from a specific trigger.