Basic Trope: A character hates taking baths.
- Straight: Alice hates being bathed.
- Exaggerated: Alice is scared of baths, or is not scared but believes they are a Fate Worse than Death.
- Downplayed:
- Alice finds taking baths boring.
- Alice finds taking baths uncomfortable.
- Justified:
- Alice is scared of water, or she doesn't like taking baths as they take too much time.
- Alice is a cat, and therefore, hates water.
- Alice has an annoying skin condition whose treatment involves regular baths, rigorous scrubbing and smelly medicine.
- Alice is a phone or some other electronic device. Immersion in water could be fatal.
- Inverted: Alice thinks Baths Are Fun.
- Subverted:
- Alice starts off hating baths, but realizes Baths Are Fun.
- Alice appears to hate baths — it is more that she hates being dropped into one. She will happily climb into a warm bath on her own initiative and wouldn't even mind being scrubbed — when she feels like doing so.
- Double Subverted: Alice goes back to hating baths due to Aesop Amnesia.
- Parodied: Alice does a musical number about hating baths.
- Zig Zagged: Alice voices her hatred for baths, but it turns out she just had a bad day and was letting off steam at everything. Next day, she vociferates about having to take baths, but it's probably just that time of the month. Then comes a third day with no bad events or periods, yet she still voices her hatred for bathing, that is until she calms down inside the bathtub....
- Averted: Nobody takes baths in the setting, or everyone believes Baths Are Fun.
- Enforced: To set up An Aesop about how Baths Are Fun.
- Lampshaded: "I hate bathing!"
- Invoked: Alice's jealous sister Britney decides turning one of her sibling's routine into something she utterly despises out of sheer spite. She substitutes Alice's shampoo with one whose smell she hates, makes sure hot water is scarce whenever she needs to clean, and places rough loofahs only for her to use.
- Exploited: The local Alpha Bitch, Alice's nemesis, wants to spite the latter while keeping a facade of kindness. So she throws a big party everyone is invited to, on the condition they take a big shower first, which she knows Alice would never do.
- Defied: Alice's parents decide to ensure their daughter doesn't develop poor personal hygiene by making sure she enjoys her baths.
- Discussed: "Seriously Alice? We don't see what's so bad about mere soap and water! Maybe you're just overreacting?"
- Conversed: "Why do these TV shows always have a character who Hates Baths?"
- Implied: Alice is seen trying to escape from the bathtub.
- Deconstructed: Alice Hates Baths so much she gets very dirty and becomes The Pig-Pen.
- Reconstructed: But she doesn't mind sponge washing and showering.
- Played For Laughs: The Monster of the Week tries to get Alice to bathe.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice has to either take a bath or spend the rest of her life without eating her Trademark Favorite Food.
- Alice's father used to take advantage of Alice's baths to molest her, causing her to hate baths to the present day.
- Played For Horror: Exaggerated version of above: Alice either has to take a bath for the rest of her life or else she will die a Cruel and Unusual Death.
Back to Hates Baths
