Rename: Freak Out

This trope is the victim of a huge amount of misapplication (both in wicks and in examples on the page), and I'm pretty sure the title is to blame. Freak Out's trope description is clear enough about what the trope is - a permanent personality change brought on by trauma - but it sounds like an Exactly What It Says on the Tin trope: the character freaks out, i.e. gets hysterical and panicky. (The latter might be a valid trope in its own right, but it's not this trope.) The important thing about a Freak Out is that it's permanent, or at least takes more to recover from than simply calming down or relieving stress. However, it keeps getting used to refer to temporary bouts of panic, bouts of rage, or personality changes for the worse.

I'm not sure what to rename it to, but I'll toss out a suggestion: Mental Scars Are Forever.

edited 6th Oct '10 3:26:26 PM by Cameoflage

Freak Out already encompasses temporary disorders, note the parenthetical bits.

If anything, it may need some slight tweaking to the description to make this more obvious, but that's it.

I've never seen this misused that way - to describe someone being panicked and freaking out thusly.

Well, maybe I'm just not explaining it very well, but the temporary examples seem to outnumber the permanent ones a hundredfold and the description makes it sound like it's supposed to be the other way around. I think some cleanup is needed, but if a rename isn't what's called for then maybe it should be split or have the description revised.

edited 6th Oct '10 4:57:16 PM by Cameoflage

What about "Post Dramatic Stress Disorder" (not to be confused with the existing article called Post Dramatic Stress Disorder)? The pun is Made Of Win.

edited 9th Oct '10 11:09:29 AM by Stratadrake

I agree it needs work. The laconic version say "One bad day changes a character forever."

That's clear and unambiguous (though "bad day" is oddly mild.) The main text vacillates back and forth, first by implying that it includes trauma that doesn't permanently alter the character, then claiming all trauma causes permanent changes. Which is not true: there are plenty of fictional characters that undergo great trauma without lasting changes to their nature.

I think it would be a stronger trope if we stick to the laconic version and ditch the parenthetical bits.

Trauma Tranformation?

edited 9th Oct '10 8:15:02 PM by Camacan

Aside: The "bad day" is probably a reference to The Killing Joke.

@Camacan: "Trauma Transformation" should not be confused with Transformation Trauma (a.k.a. Body Horror). The word "transformation" is already well established by its usage in Shapeshifting tropes....

edited 9th Oct '10 11:40:01 PM by Stratadrake

Trauma Transformation is probably not a good choice, because I can just see it being constantly confused with the completely different trope subcategory of Body Horror Transformation Trauma. And it's unintuitive - it sounds like it's about a physical transformation - and kind of clunky anyways. Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder would work well if the trope currently using that name were to be renamed (which is already under discussion - I'm in favor of calling that one Victory Thud). Or maybe something like Indelible Trauma.

edited 11th Oct '10 12:34:06 AM by Cameoflage

^ Yep, I can see now we can't use transformation. I was hunting around for equivalents: I've only got clunky things like Traumatic Character Development — too long and too positive. I like Indelible Trauma — can't be mistaken for a passing freak out.

edited 11th Oct '10 3:37:45 AM by Camacan

Incidentally, what made me start this thread was the way the trope was applied on the Homestuck character page, where it was used to describe the way John reacted to baked goods and Dave reacted to creepy puppets. So if you want examples of misuse you can refer to that. (I've seen the trope misapplied in that way a million times, usually via pothole, but that's the only one I can cite.)

...and on the Super OCD page.

edited 14th Oct '10 3:00:45 AM by Cameoflage

Er... more input, please? Particularly since it has just under 600 wicks and I don't think I have the time to check how all of them are using the term.

I got time for some sampling...

Of punctuated titles:

• Dhux's Scar: Possible misuse; character freaks out and explodes, so there is no "long term" for consequences to ensue.
• Don't Look Down: Misused
• Genius:The Transgression: Unclear, possible misuse
• He's Back: Unclear. Reference to Sasuke after the Tsunade arc, before the Retrieval arc kicks in.
• Hulk's Cooldown Hug Corollary: Misused: a temporary freak-out that unleashes a dormant Superpowered Evil Side. Resolved by end of episode with little to no long-term consequences.
• iCarly: Possibly misused. Freak-outs caused by pre-existing claustrophobia.
• Spongebob Squarepants: Possibly misused, but I've never actually watched this series. The given context of "most of the characters" just plain smells off.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Misused, potholed as "temper tantrum"
• Yosh!: Misused — Freak Outs are not "momentary"

This is approximately 8 of 21, about 40%. Not exactly a large sample, but I'm short on time atm.

edited 16th Oct '10 9:26:24 PM by Stratadrake

Also note that several of those aren't blatant misuses as much as not exactly fitting the criteria. Not not being permanent, for example. Which until now I wasn't aware was a criteria in the first place.

edited 17th Oct '10 12:56:25 AM by KnownUnknown

I made an Alternate Names crowner.

I don't know if the traumatic personality change has to be literally permanent to qualify, but if it is temporary, it should at least stay in place in the long term. (A short-term personality change caused by trauma is a Heroic BSoD, isn't it?)

edited 17th Oct '10 5:07:23 AM by Cameoflage

BTW, there used to be a redirect for Freak Out called "Mental Scars Are Forever" or something like that. Permanence is part of the trope description and definition.

A Heroic BSoD is a generally short-term condition with little to no permanent effect on the character once they "reboot".

If they never actually snap out of the BSOD, or it starts to haunt them in the long term, then it's a Freak Out (or, in my opinion, Post Dramatic Stress Disorder).

edited 17th Oct '10 9:15:46 AM by Stratadrake

This investigation sponsored by the letter A.

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Unclear, probably correct. Character discovers they're a Tomato in the Mirror, but is subsequently Kicked Upstairs so it doesn't matter.
• Ace Attorney: 3 mentions, all misused: momentary freak-outs.
• Acts Of Gord: Misused
• A Date With Rosie Palms: 2 mentions, unclear. One looks misused.
• After War Gundam X: Unclear. Context of a teammate Taking the Bullet, cue Unstoppable Rage as a result.
• Akai Ito: Unsure. Looks correct, mentions the character is Driven to Suicide as a result, but this is also an interactive work where player choices mean the character can also recover.
• Alone in a Crowd: N/A. Part of a See Also context.
• American Psycho: Unclear. Looks to be a momentary freaking-out.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Unclear: Potholed simply as "goes wrong", but the context looks otherwise correct.
• Anger Montage: Correct, describing Selina Kyle's mental shift into Catwoman.
• Angst? What Angst?: Unclear. Appears to be used literally.
• Armor Piercing Slap: Unclear, context is the APS being parodied for laughs.
• A Sinister Clue: Misused. Luke's Unstoppable Rage was triggered by Vader's threatening of Leia; recovers quickly once he realizes that the right hand he chopped off of Vader was mechanical.
• A Streetcar Named Desire: Correct, but does it really need to emphasize "the permanent kind" ?
• Atomic F-Bomb: Misused. Potholed dialogue, context is a Big "NO!" Atomic F-Bomb

The results? Out of 23 articles checked...

• 4 misused
• 6 ambiguous

That makes the misuse ratio over the letter A about 20-40%.

Necessary disclaimer: I didn't include other namespaces like JBM, CMOA/F/H, HONF or YMMV in this check.

edited 17th Oct '10 9:56:41 AM by Stratadrake

^ Actually, I'd say the Star Wars example is misused because it's not a personality change - Luke just went into a rage - not because it was momentary or temporary, which I'd argue isn't a critical part of this trope.

^ More or less what I said already. Of the ones I've checked, there is a small percentage of them misusing Freak Out as a "cue the Unstoppable Rage".

You also imply that it being nonpermanent is a misuse - you do that for some of your earlier ones as well, and, again, I'd argue against that.

I remember creating a YKTTW called No Holds Barred Breakdown before someone linked to Freak Out. Just throwing that out their as a potential alternate title.

I honestly can't tell if the use of Freak Out in the description of Broken Bird fits or not, because that sounds like it could be intended to describe either a personality change or an emotional breakdown.

The use on Don't Look Down is definitely a misuse, though.

Also, I added No Holds Barred Breakdown to the crowner... although that seems like it applies to a different trope than the other three on there, so maybe I shouldn't have. (I'm really starting to think that there are two tropes here and they need to be split.)

edited 23rd Oct '10 8:04:11 PM by Cameoflage

Even if everyone knew what it meant from reading the page, would you make Gag Boobs about the size of people’s feet? (You know, unless it referenced something, like some famous show/film/etc. used it as a joke or something. I don't think there's anything like this in this case.) Sudden and lasting personality changes just isn’t what ‘freaking out’ is.

I say rename it “One Bad Day.”

One Bad Day might be a popular reference at the moment because of The Dark Knight but it's too mild: this is trauma that is bad enough to change a character forever. One Bad Day sounds like losing your mobile phone, finding someone has backed into your car, those sorts of things.

edited 29th Oct '10 2:07:42 PM by Camacan

All It Takes Is One Bad Day - clunkier, but gets around that particular objection