Basic Trope: A character, usually a tough one, is afraid of needles.
- Straight: Neal is a Made of Iron Action Hero who often gets beaten up and wounded in fights without problems, but he's afraid of needles.
- Exaggerated: Neal can handle almost any form of combat, injury, or torture without any problem, but faints if anyone even says the word "needle".
- Downplayed: Neal finds needles unpleasant, but doesn't mind them that much.
- Justified:
- Neal once caught a horrible disease through needles.
- Neal lives in a setting where needles are difficult to sterilize properly.
- Neal has had a very bad experience involving needles, so seeing them brings back bad memories.
- Sgt. Neal can struggle against his other fears and prevail. He can tell an enemy platoon to go fuck themselves, toss a grenade and dive for cover and make it out alive. He can't escape medical procedures in the same ways.
- Inverted: Neal doesn't mind needles, but is also the opposite of badass.
- Subverted:
- Neal is horrified when he's told that Alice is going to give him an injection. It turns out that Alice is a Mad Scientist, and Neil fears her experiments.
- Neal isn't actually scared of needles, but is instead worried that his Alien Blood will expose him as a non-human.
- Double Subverted: However, when Bailey the cute nurse gives him an injection, he faints.
- Parodied: Neal is completely fine with injecting heroin multiple times a day, but he freaks out when he's told he needs a tetanus shot.
- Zig Zagged: Every time Neal is about to receive an injection, he's afraid, but it later turns out that he has a reason to be afraid that's not the needles themselves, such as Mad Scientist experiments, untrained doctors, etc.
- Averted: Neal isn't afraid of needles.
- Enforced: The producers want to make Neal's pains recognizable for the audience.
- Lampshaded: "Neal, you're such a badass fighter, so why are you so afraid of a little sting?"
- Invoked: The Big Bad puts Neal through a horrible Playing with Syringes session, hoping to invoke a permanent fear of needles and medical procedures.
- Exploited: The Big Bad fills his fortress with needles and Mad Scientists with needles because he knows it's Neal's worst fear.
- Defied: Neal gets help for his fear of needles.
- Discussed: "I hope my patients aren't afraid of needles."
- Conversed: "Why are all the badasses in Neal's Adventures afraid of needles anyway? I mean, they're badasses!" "Hey, be a little more respectful, it's a very real phobia in Real Life too."
- Implied: Neal is seen running screaming out of the doctor's office. The doctor tries to tell him to go back and get his vaccine, but to no avail.
- Deconstructed:
- Neal's extreme fear of needles causes him to avoid all medical attention. This leads to his injury or death.
- Neal skips vaccination due to his fears. Later he catches a nasty disease, which would be easily prevented by said vaccination.
- Reconstructed: When Neal's fear of needles almost gets him killed needlessly, he realizes that he needs to get his injections despite his phobia.
- Played For Laughs:
- Hilarity Ensues when Neal tries to get away from a vaccination.
- When Neal shows his fear of needles, he makes up increasingly bizarre excuses for it.
- Played For Drama: Neal was once the victim of a Playing with Syringes Mad Scientist, but nobody in-universe takes his fear seriously, and everyone tells him to stop acting like a "big baby". This only makes his problems worse.
- Played For Horror: Neal is a Person of Mass Destruction in a sheer blind panic. Just leveling the entire clinic is a very good outcome in comparison.
Back to Afraid of Needles.
