Way too close to Only a Flesh Wound and I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, all three of which boil down to "character is seriously injured but shrugs it off" with no real distinction. I think either all three articles should be merged into one or two.

Looking at the laconics, they're very similar.

Anyways, opened.

I was just thinking about this yesterday.

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed is definitely redundant with Major Injury Underreaction, and I suspect a lot of the related tropes need sorting out, too.

Looking at how the trope is used in spite of the laconics, Only A Flesh Wound seems to be when certain areas are targeted and treated as minor injuries in spite of realism. Shoulders, legs, etc. That there's a fictional precedent that getting shot in the shoulder is completely safe.

The trope name doesn't imply it, but it's the impression I got from reading the trope description.

As for the other two, Ain't Got Time To Bleed and Major Injury Underreaction seem identical. That and Ain't Got Time To Bleed has very few entries and most just appear on MIU anyway.

My opinion is to delete Ain't Got Time To Bleed and re-name Only A Flesh Wound to something that signifies the distinction. Like "Non-threatening Injury Zones" or something.

Edited by Stage7-4 on Mar 30th 2020 at 10:59:53 AM

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed seems to be the worst off of the three. It seems to be the one that's most inexplicably identical to the Major Injury Underreaction. Just a Flesh Wound though, I'm not sure about. It seems to be describing something different but in a roundabout way is my gut feeling, but I'm not entirely sure what that different thing might be. However, A.G.T.T.B. does not seem sufficiently different from the other two, so merge that with the others in some manner.

Edited by Florien on Mar 30th 2020 at 11:23:05 AM

Can we get a wick check to see how the tropes are being used?

Reading the wicks, I'd say nearly half of Only A Flesh Wound's entries are subversions, when getting shot in the shoulder or leg is portrayed as dangerous and life-threatening instead of ignorable.

I think it's worth noting that Only a Flesh Wound seems to be "writer took artistic license" while the other two are "character is stubborn"

Yeah, we're gonna need a wick check here before we can move on.

I, too, demand a wick check.

These are clearly not the same concept on the face of it.

• Major Injury Underreaction: A joke where a character under-reacts to an injury.
• Only a Flesh Wound: A major injury does not affect the character realistically. Reality Is Unrealistic is in play, as the injury would realistically stop normal movement due to its severity.
• I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: The character does not register the injury until a later time. Truth in Television may be in play, as many injuries in real life aren't noticed initially.

I think this should have been discussed in the Duplicate Tropes Cleanup thread on Trope Talk first. If everyone agreed there was an issue with the tropes being too similar, then a wick check and then maaybe a TRS thread can be done after.

But anyways, doing a wick check for 50 wicks right now so will post that later. In general, so far,people use it as "Character under-reacts to a serious injury" either for comedy or for drama which I think is the correct usage.

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 30th 2020 at 5:00:45 AM

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed honestly sounds more like a title for a trope about ignoring an injury in favor of something considered more pressing.

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed seems far too similar to Major Injury Underreaction, but Only a Flesh Wound seems distinct enough that it can be considered a sub trope of Major Injury Underreaction.

As Water Blap said, the basic concepts of the tropes are distinct, but we need to do a wick check in order to see how these tropes are being used so we can determine if some of them need to exist or not.

Edited by jandn2014 on Mar 30th 2020 at 10:49:02 AM

My first thought is that Major Injury Underreaction could be the supertrope. But we should probably get some wick checks before trying to sort these too much, so we know how they're actually being used.

Little bit of context:

Edited by Discar on Mar 31st 2020 at 1:19:39 AM

The low wick viability and utter congruency of I Ain't Got Time to Bleed with the other two contested tropes seems to favor getting rid of it.

Major Injury Under Reaction wick check: 50 wicks.

Correct/Character under-reacts to a major injury: 38 wicks

1. Beyond Despairs Bounds: "After being stabbed by Monokuma, her response is a few choice swears. Later on, when she wakes up, she just asks Ryuu if she looked cool."
2. Beavis And Butthead: "He said it was cool when he got ran over by a school bus rather than realizing he almost got killed."
3. Archipelago Exodus "Scene One, where a bullet straight into the ribcage elicits nothing but a cheery smile"
4. One Piece: Big Mom Pirates:"He takes the loss of his right arm pretty well all things considered, only getting angry at the thought of his new candy prosthetic melting whenever he tries to drink tea, rather than the injury itself. Later on, however, he pays for it dearly, having to walk out of the fight's climax because he couldn't ignore the wounds anymore".
5. Mirror World: Zeil shot in the shoulder with an arrow and seems to have no reaction to just ripping it out."
6. Dreaming of Sunshine: Somewhat lampshaded by Sasuke after Shikako's fight with Muku.
   Sasuke: [irritated & exasperated] Shikako! You can't just stand around and have a conversation while your arm bone is sticking out! You have to say something!
   Shikako:' It's called a humerus. But I don't suppose it's that funny.
7. The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: The Main Trio: Most of the amusing injuries he sustains, he makes little to no reaction to any of them, which isn't really much of a surprise since he's probably too stupid to realize he got injured.
8. South Park S10 E1 "The Return of Chef": "The horrific injuries Chef endures over the course of his grueling death scene are accompanied by notably muted voice samples that make it sound like he's only stubbing his toe."
9. Fate/EXTRA: Major Injury Underreaction: If you save Rin, he doesn't really have much of a reaction to Rani's Servant taking off "his entire right side" with one hit.
10. Greta Garbo: Harpo Marx tries giving her the hotfoot, only for her to react very slowly, with one single deadpan "Ouch."
11. The Lost Battalion: Capt. McMurty doesn't even notice when he takes a piece of shrapnel to the shoulder, and when he does, he just makes some offhand remark about how his mother always said he needed a place to hang his hat.
12. Doctor Who – Other Supporting Cast: "When re-encountered as a living head in a box, he briefly trolls the Doctor by pretending not to be aware of how bad his injuries were. He then admits not to being that bothered with his new state, since the media chip in his head and the excellent wi-fi in the catacombs lets him stay entertained."
13. Characters.Ever17: "When Takeshi begins bleeding heavily and gets lightheaded, his reaction is to laugh and assume it’s nothing serious. Tsugumi, on the other hand, is obviously frantic." There is another example on the page but its used the same way so I won't link it.
14. Project Super Powers: Towards the end of the series, Sparky loses one of his feet. By this point, he is so far out to lunch that his only reaction is to wonder if he left the bottom part of his boot at home.
15. Sunday Without God: "His first reaction on being shot through the lung? Complain that his outfit is ruined. Although being immortal certainly helps"
16. Friday the 13th: Even while alive, he hardly ever reacts to wounds or pain, to the extent that he barely reacted at all to Trish Jarvis splitting his hand down the middle with his own Machete in The Final Chapter.
17. Roanapur Connection: Oboro in her thoughts of her past, merely shrugs off going through the roof of her dojo shrine when she tried to fly a umbrella, breaking her legs for a year with a simple Awe.
18. Pet Sematary Two: —>Gus: (upon getting shot) Owww... I hate it when that happens.
19. A Fox In Paradise: Ayumu has a tendency to not notice or care about grievous injuries to himself.
20. Legend of the Three Caballeros: Dark Signs of the Sun: (Sen) Kaibaman gets a hole pierced through his chest but he's still grinning and laughing like nothing happened. Damballa even puts a hand through the hole as an example.
21. Violence Jack: Jack is king of this trope. In the third OAV, the Hell's Wind gang shoots him with automatic weapons for nearly a good five minutes. He turns to yell at the kid watching about getting used to the sight of blood.
22. Un Chien Andalou: The male protagonist (if that's even what he is,) sports a gaping wound in the palm of his right hand that is infested with a swarm of ants. Although this injury fascinates him to no end, it neither alarms nor impairs him in any way.
23. Where the Wild Things Are:

    Carol: How can you say that? How dare you say that? [rips Douglas' arm off]

    Douglas: That was my favorite arm!

24. Disgaea: "Idle" Sages will always say "Come on..." in a calm, lazy tone whenever they're the victim of an attack or debuff. Even if they lose 95% of their HP, they sound less like they're in pain and more like they're mildly annoyed that they can't get their unreasonable amounts of sleep.
25. Sword of the Stranger: Standard for the Chinese due to their drugs, but the elderly, frail Lord Byakuran probably sets the record. Cutting off his arm only makes him annoyed at you. Even worse is Fuu walking around after fighting Nanashi, trying to find his sword, which is currently sticking out the back of his neck.
26. Tokyo Ghoul:re Goat: When he's impaled through the stomach, he notes that it doesn't bother him since he's used to that kind of thing.
27. Sin City: His hand chopped off and all he does is mutter angrily the entire time.
28. Mo Dao Zu Shi - Yi City Group:"Wei Wuxian observes that Xue Yang has a high pain tolerance, and thus would laugh off normally severe injuries as if it were nothing. Xue Yang lampshaded this himself when he told Xiao Xingchen that he's used to getting terribly wounded."
29. Star Wars Paranormalities Trilogy: "His reactions are very subdued when he gets his arms cut/torn off, his face is burned, is cut in half, digested alive by Xixixix and zapped by Force lightning. Partly justified to due to his regenerative abilities and the latter because his homeworld is littered with lightning-shooting trees."
30. Arad's Stardust: "In chapter 21, Lana takes losing her left arm surprisingly well. The fact she's bleeding out, in physical shock and dies moments later probably helps her keep her cool."
31. The Book of the Dun Cow: Lord Russel is not particularly upset when his jaw is puffy and swollen from biting Basilisks to death. As it turns out, his injuries were much more serious than he thought.
32. Chopper:
    • Chopper barely reacts to being shanked several times because he is too busy trying to make the man shanking him see reason.
    • Later on, after he's cut off his own ears (or rather, had someone else cut them off for him), he sits in a chair smoking, waiting for the prison officers to come and transfer him to the hospital.
33. Call of Duty: Ghosts: Doesn't even yelp when he's shot in the stomach, stabbed in the stomach, or gets his arm broken
34. The Key of Awesome: A No-Holds-Barred Beatdown doesn't illicit much of a reaction from Justin Bieber, who mostly just keeps singing about his injuries as they happen. The closest it gets to a normal response is instances of quick blows making his singing stutter.
35. Supernatural S 05 E 13 The Song Remains The Same Played straight with Cas when he takes them back in time, severely weakening him.

    Dean: Are you all right?

    Castiel: I'm fine. I'm much better than I expected. (spits blood and passes out)

36. Girl In Space: The Girl's reaction to having large swathes of her back and upper arm burned away by acid sprayed from combat drones? "Ow."
37. Magi - Kou Empire: In Chapter 191, Kouen keeps calm even after the skin on his face, torso and legs was melted off, exposing the muscles beneath.
38. Arrowgram: Concorde receives a note for Lancelot]] by getting an arrow to the chest. Concorde doesn't appear very upset about the whole thing,

Possible Misuse 6

1. The Simpsons S9 E23 "King of the Hill": After Homer compresses five pounds of spaghetti into one bar and eats it, he calmly picks up the phone and says, "Hospital, please.
2. Lighter Than Heir: "Hertz was rather blase about his brig guard firing his weapon toward him for annoyingly asking to be let out repeatedly which instead exploded and killed guard." It doesnt look like this Hertz character got injured himself so dont know why its under Major Injury Under Reaction
3. Degrassi The Next Generation Season 14 Graduates: "He was really hurt when he was shot in the shoulder, but suffers a remarkable lack of trauma/PTSD from afterwards, which is surprising considering, well it's Degrassi." It sounds like he did visibly show pain when the injury happened so don't think it is an example.
4. Akame ga Kill! - Night Raid: "She's hardly slowed down by injuries no matter how gruesome thanks to her Healing Factor. She even carries on for quite a while after being fatally shot by Minister Honest.": I think this belongs somewhere else.
5. Dance Moms: "Brooke is constantly seen suffering from chronic back and hip pain throughout her appearances over the series, caused by performing excessive amounts of acro and contortion at the age where most people stop doing it, she's often encouraged to dance through the pain.
   • In Season One, while learning her solo "Metamorphosis," she thought her shoulder kept popping out and couldn't apply pressure to her hands during her tricks; Gianna told her to pop it back in and keep dancing." No under-reaction mentioned.
6. Devil May Cry - Other: reaction to Nero getting his arm ripped off is to ask him what happened in a tone that sounds like he backed the van through the garage door.
   Nico: I leave you alone for two minutes! What the hell happened!?

Other/ "Character gets injured but keeps going and doesnt slow down. 4 wicks

1. Child's Play "Sure he's clearly in agony when he loses his limbs, gets set on fire, shot repeatedly, etc. However, it hardly slows him down." : I feel like this belongs somewhere else.
2. Bat Girl: "Sample exercise from her childhood training program? Getting shot, then being punished if she flinched. The lessons stuck." Is this Major Injury Under Reaction played with in some way?
3. Who Even Needs a Brain? A rare inverted example was The Major from an old Time article. The man shot himself in the head with a .38 revolver.... He then went downstairs and cooked himself breakfast.
4. Munich "The Dutch assassin (called Jeanette in the credits) who tries to distract with her sexy the Mossad agents. She pulls open her robe, beneath which she's naked, and immediately gets shot in the chest and throat. Rather than be blown backwards or cry out in pain, she stumbles vaguely around her houseboat while the agents disassemble their one-use weapons, gives her cat a hug, sits down in a chair, and just wheezes horribly while blood finally starts to pour out of her wounds. Then Hans finishes her off with a headshot." This sounds like Only a Flesh Wound.

Insufficient/unclear context/ZCE: 1 wick

1. Paixao

I guess we have to do wick checks for I Ain't Got Time to Bleed and Just a Flesh Wound too?

Edited by MacronNotes on Apr 1st 2020 at 8:49:34 AM

Definitely need a wick check for Only a Flesh Wound, but I'm not sure we need to bother with I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, with its low wick count and everything.

Though for the sake of doing everything right we should, I'm just not sure it's really worth the effort.

I'm not doing anything, I can tackle Only a Flesh Wound if you guys want.

After a day of procrastination, my Only A Flesh Wound Wick Check is up.

It's...not that badly misused. I mean there's misuse, for sure, but...

It does seem to be misused a bit more than Major Injury Underreaction. Not by an unsalvageable amount, but something to keep in mind.

A bit, yeah. Not in the same way though; most of the misuse seems to be people using it as the exact opposite of what it should be, or for when the characters think it'll be fine even if it's very clearly not.

However, the valid examples are all very clearly defined and distinct, as they're more about when characters can keep going despite having injuries that should be debilitating; not when they just under-react to something that, in-universe, does deserve medical attention.

As for I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, according to the description, it looks like its supposed to be "A character doesnt notice they are injured/bleeding until the conflict/fight they are in is resolved. Theres some examples of that on the page but there's also examples of "A character keeps going despite serious injuries" which seems to either belong on Only a Flesh Wound or Implacable Man / The Determinator.

I think I might do wick check of it if it's deemed necessary.

Edited by MacronNotes on Apr 3rd 2020 at 5:18:00 AM

Forgot to say in my first post, but laconics are really not the best way to summarize a trope — a lot of the time they miss the mark.

Major Injury Underreaction (character underreacts to a serious injury) is definitely not the same as Only a Flesh Wound (a character can keep going despite an injury that would be life-threatening IRL). They can overlap, but not always — for example, if someone snarks, "That tickles" upon getting stabbed in the shoulder but faints shortly after, that's the former and not the latter.

Judging from the wick checks (thanks, Macron and Warjay), these two tropes seem to be misused, but not egregiously. I think they're ok where they are for now.

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, though, I'm less sure about. I agree the name could potentially be unclear. "Shrugging off pain until the battle is over" could be confused for Only a Flesh Wound... I'm inclined to say 'adrenaline rush' is a potential justification for OAFW.

Edited by Synchronicity on Apr 3rd 2020 at 4:57:43 AM

Dont Notice Their Injuries, maybe?

Edit: Made a minor tweak to my Wick Check, I noticed one of the examples in my "proper usage" folder should've been in the misuse one, and vice versa for something in the "misuse" folder.

Edited by WarJay77 on Apr 3rd 2020 at 6:01:57 AM

Screw it, I started doing a wick check for I Ain't Got Time to Bleed.

Question though: I have wicks that are along the lines of "character is up and about a day after getting shot in the shoulder". That's not I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, since they got treatment for the injury at presumably a good time, right?