Angst? What Angst?: Difference between revisions

The [[Opposite Tropes|polar opposite]] of [[Wangst]], this is when a character has every right to be depressed or [[Ax Crazy]], but isn't, and life goes on. They aren't [[The Stoic]] or the [[Determinator]] -- they—they aren't supposed to be so strong-willed. And they are not expressing [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]. The number one example is children's adventure stories, where the young heroes rarely [[Freak-Out]] about having to pilot a burning biplane into a [[Tyrannosaurus Rex|T-Rex's]] mouth. They either don't react much, or they think it's a cool adventure and they wish it would never end. Most real children would react much worse. But it isn't ''fun'' for those real children to read about people like themselves screaming in terror as their lives fall apart, so the fictional children don't.; Of course,the [[Plot Armor]] probably helps. Not to mentionBesides, [[There Are No Therapists]] to talk to anyway.

But it doesn't have to be an adventure story; any genre with horrible suffering will do it (except the ones that thrive on the characters angsting, like [[Soap Opera|soap operas]]). [['''Angst? What Angst?]]''' can lead to huge [[Fridge Logic]] moments, especially when the character who has survived killer bees and cancer [[Law of Disproportionate Response|throws a fit]] because somebody [[Forgotten Birthday|forgot their birthday]].

* In ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'', the girls are [[Trapped in Another World|summoned to Cephiro and cannot return home to their families until their task is complete]] -- which—which, for all they know, could take the rest of their lives (if they aren't killed first). [[Genki Girl|Hikaru]] and [[The Smart Guy|Fuu]] have [[Jumped At the Call|very little trouble with this]], and [[The Ojou|Umi]] doesn't angst, but she ''whines'' a lot about missing her fencing tournament and because there's no H?en-Dazs in Cephiro.

* ''[[Slayers]]'': Given that she belongs to a royal family that's full of members constantly at each other's throats and will do morally questionable things for the sake of power (especially with her cousin Alfred, who requests help from two members of an [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] race of demons), [[The Pollyanna|Princess Amelia]] doesn't seem very phased by the tragedies that happened to her: when her uncle Randionel is killed in the first season after a botched act of treason, she moves on as if nothing happened. However, it's implied that the [[Missing Mom|assassination of her mother]] and her sister's disappearance upset her greatly, but the angst implied behind it is appropriate and never [[Wangst|exaggerated.]]

* In the ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' manga, interestingly enough, the series depicts Train's [[Character Development|progress of maturity]] to be going from [[Wangst|wangsting about the past]] to becoming very carefree. In the second half of the series, Train gets over Saya's death and stops stressing about a lot of things (most of which are pretty important and angst-worthy). For example, when shot accidentally by Creed with the Lucifer bullet, while everyone else (including [[Stalker with a Crush|Creed]]) panics and tells Train that he'll transform into a monster, Train [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|just brushes it off and says he'll handle that when it comes]]. When Train turns into a kid, everyone stresses about it while he actually thinks it's kind of ''fun'' (his more immediate thoughts being whether they can save money on kid's meal and metro ticket prices). This is even [[Lampshaded]] later by one of his past [[Nebulous Evil Organization|Chronos]] superiors, who asks him if he even ''cares'' that [[Big Bad|Creed]] is trying to bring about the [[EndoftheThe End of the World Asas We Know It]]. Train's answer of course is no, and that he only cares about [[Big Eater|what's for lunch tomorrow]].

** It's especially jarring compared to her best friend Yui, who spends half the series thinking she's been gang-raped, and becomes a something of a [[The Scrappy|scrappy]] from the resulting [[Angst Dissonance]]..... while Miaka is something of a [[The Scrappy|scrappy]] because of her aforementioned ''lack'' of angst! [[Unpleasable Fanbase|Confusing, isn't it?]]

* [[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|]]: Judau Ashta]] goes through hell. First of all, he inherits a battle he never had any interest in. Second, he seemingly loses his little sister even when one of his friends promised to keep her alive. Third, nearly every attempt he has at keeping his enemies from throwing their lives away fails miserably. Fourth, his primary love interest is the ''leader'' of the enemy faction and he has to not only kill her, but also the fact she deliberately threw the duel. Fifth, he is appalled by the sheer lethargy the Federation suffers from when they had a genuine chance to attack Zeon. He does a very good job getting over the various problems with only short instances of depression, but in the end he finally his the breaking point. Bright Noah uses a [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!|reverse Brightslap]] to get him out of it.

* Saito of ''[[ZeroThe noFamiliar Tsukaimaof Zero]]''. He is trapped in a world which is the complete opposite of his own, demoted to something akin to a dog, ''whipped and beaten'' by his [[Tsundere]] mistress Louise, for who he gave up his only chance to return to Earth. His reaction? To drool over other girls' tits, even though he's been beaten black and blue for it.

* Gohan of ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Four years old, kidnapped by screaming crazies twice in one day, learning second-hand that his father was dead, gets abandoned in the wilderness for months, then goes through [[Training Fromfrom Hell]] until he develops what a particularly cruel critic might identify as Stockholm Syndrome. He then loses a father figure in a hideous battle against space aliens, battles some more space aliens in an attempt to revive him, loses biological father ''again'' when he gets lost in space and won't come home and doesn't tell anyone why. Biological father finally comes home a year and a half later, they go through three more years of [[Training Fromfrom Hell]] (four, if you count the time chamber) and then Dad dies again and decides to ''stay dead''. This is six or seven years of consistent, repeated emotional trauma, yet Gohan ''never stops acting like a happy, well-adjusted little nerd boy''. ...Except for that whole ''"Saiyaman"'' phase...

* ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' takes this to its logically absurd extreme, but probably for the better. Shu is quickly abducted from his world and his main beef with the new world is its war. For eleven episodes, his abduction doesn't faze him in the least and any mention of "Earth" is mere background information or due to the introduction of Sara Ringwalt. He returns to Earth in episode thirteen and--thatand—that's all. Fortunately, almost everyone else in the show balances out his vacuous optimism.

** This is one of the more notable traits of the series in general. Several protagonists have [[Dark and Troubled Past|Dark And Troubled Pasts]], but they tend to have very little angst in the present. [[Dark Magical Girl|Dark Magical Girls]]s like Fate and Lutecia overcome their tragic circumstances and become much happier after being [[Defeat Means Friendship|befriended]]. Nanoha herself ''loves'' being a magical girl, despite how dangerous and difficult it is. No matter how daunting the opposition, she never once wavers or bemoans her situation, and the only time in the series she broke down was {{spoiler|when Vivio was kidnapped}}. Even then, she didn't let it affect her performance. All in all, ''Nanoha'' is refreshingly light on angst. Well, up until ''[[Darker and Edgier|Force]]'', anyway.

* Deconstructed with Elmer Albatross from ''[[Baccano!]]!'', whose perpetually cheery attitude in the face of everything and blithe expectation that everyone else will act the same comes across to other characters as callous and sometimes downright creepy.

* In ''[[Runaways]]'', six teenagers discover that their parents are supervillains and have to go on the run. They handle it remarkably well, barely complaining about being betrayed. But there are hints dropped that they've been traumatized like real teenage runaways -- theyrunaways—they just show it less. (Their motto is that no adult, ever, is to be trusted, and some of the kids -- especiallykids—especially Karolina and Molly -- approachMolly—approach [[Stepford Smiler]] territory in the early issues.)

* Strong Guy of ''[[X-Factor (Comic Bookcomics)|X-Factor]]'' is one of the "hurts on the inside" variety. He's always cracking jokes, despite emotional pain and even physical pain (because of the way his powers warped his body).

* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)|Harry Potter]] and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', we see {{spoiler|Sirius die}}, in a super dramatic, [[Tear Jerker|Tear Jerking]], gut-wrenching scene. Then we finish the battle. Then we see Harry and Dumbledore have less than a five minute conversation. Harry barely looks upset. And that's pretty much it for the rest of the series. In [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and Thethe Order of Thethe Phoenix (novel)|the book]] however, Harry trashes Dumbledore's office and yells at him. He then spends most of the remainder of the year in solitude, until Luna comforts him.

* In ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (film)|The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy]]'', Arthur Dent watches as everyone he ever loved or cared about (except Trillian) plus the entire human race destroyed right before his eyes. He is quite literally half of the entire existing human race, with absolutely no hope (at that point) of rebuilding the species or ever going home. All over a bureaucratic snafu by an uncaring galactic government, and he receives absolutely no sympathy from other characters for the genocide of his race. And this is played ''for laughs''. The story rolls on, Dent doesn't seem too broken up about it (it might not have even happened as far as Trillian is concerned) and its all [[Handwaved]] at the end.

{{quote| She felt the emotions well, felt them threaten to spill out in tears, but she fought it. She was Leia Organa, Princess of the Royal Family of Alderaan, elected to the Imperial Senate, a worker in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Alderaan was gone, destroyed by Vader and the Death Star; the Imperial Senate was disbanded; the Alliance was outmanned and outgunned ten thousand to one, but she was who she was. She would not cry.<br />

She would not cry.<br />

{{quote| Leia had been too busy right then to react much, but ever since Yavin she'd had more than enough time for the grief and horror of her world's destruction to start weighing in.<br />

* ''[[They Live!]]''. The hero learns that the world is a vast lie created by aliens in human guise that live among us. So of course he stares one of them in the face and says, "you look like your face fell in the cheese dip back in 1957!"

* A minor problem with ''[[Mars Attacks (Film)!]]'', as the President's daughter is seen at the end, only days after her parents have been killed, presenting Richie with his medal and seems unaffected. She even starts to ask him out. Arguably, Richie himself, who is only briefly affected by the death of his brother.

{{quote| '''Austin:''' I can't believe Vanessa, my bride, my one true love, the woman who taught me the beauty of monogamy, was a fembot all along...wait a tick. That means I'm single again! OH BEHAVE!}}

* In ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians|Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief]]'', Percy's mother is killed right in front of him by a Minotaur. {{spoiler|It's later revealed that she's [[Faking the Dead|not really dead]] and is eventually [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|brought back]], but during the time he thinks she's really gone,}} Percy is remarkably blasé about it and just throws himself into learning about his powers and his sea-god father. Admittedly, it's a kids' movie, and a boy breaking down in grief over his mother's death wouldn't be too friendly, but come on.

{{quote| '''Silver''': "Just a lifelong obsession, Jim. I'll get over it."}}

{{quote| Well, that about does it. {{spoiler|I killed my cousin, my heart is broken, my sister's dead}}. Dammit, I love this job.}}

* ''[[The Outsiders]]'' -- A—A gang of boys who get into fights for their life with a rival gang of spoiled rich kids on a daily basis, with no parents, no money, and no angsting allowed. When Ponyboy starts complaining once, Two-Bit tells him to shut up because life isn't fair.

* ''[[Peter Pan]]'' is legendary for this. Pirates and Indians are fun to read about, and some children would want to have adventures with them. But most children would decide enough was enough after the third time they nearly get killed. The Darlings, by contrast, are having the time of their lives in Neverland, and never wanted to go home until they realized their mother was feeling awful. Not everybody would want to be a kid forever, either -- theeither—the ending suggests that being eternally young isn't [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|all it's cracked up to be]].

* Jeb Batchelder in ''[[Maximum Ride]]'' has every reason to angst -- hisangst—his son dies, ''twice'', once practically ''in his arms'', his daughter would gladly kill him if given the chance, and he regularly gets [[Chew Toy|slapped around]] by his superiors -- andsuperiors—and yet he never says a word.

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Small Favor'', Murphy points out that Harry is a basket case for good reason -- {{spoiler|Lash}}'s [[Heroic Sacrifice]], taking a bullet for him, would be tramatic -- andtramatic—and he shouldn't expect to live up to this trope.

* Imagine that every child in the world and a not-insignificant chunk of the adult population vanishes in a single instant. This being a billion or so people (not counting the collateral deaths) with no plausible explanation, you'd probably be terrified, shell-shocked, if not suicidal. It's unusual then, that in ''[[Left Behind]]'' everyone manages to continue running the world so quickly afterward -- withafterward—with governments and airlines and such remaining unaffected.

{{quote| '' 'Now my dears,' said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, 'you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; [[Black Comedy|he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor]].' ''}}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' tends to have this as a result of the [[Reset Button]]. In a typical episode, [[The Captain|Picard]] experiences the planet he grew up on destroyed and everyone he loved killed via implanted memories. There's a brief shot at the end when he looks sad, but then it's like it never happened.

** T'Pol in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Star Trek Enterprise]]'', after her mother's death. [[The Stoic|Then again, she's a Vulcan, so she was probably repressing it.]] On the other hand, Trip still feels the death of his sister several episodes later and has nightmares about it.

*** Hoshi is [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]]d by the Xindi Reptilians but suffers for no more than an episode after this.

** Brutally averted in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', with the episode "Family", which aired right after "[[Wham! Episode|The Best Of Both Worlds]]". Noted ''Trek'' reviewer Tim Lynch in his [http://protovision.textfiles.com/sf/STARTREK/family.rev review] expressed his concern that the traumatic events of Picard's stint as Locutus would be pushed by the wayside. Just the reverse, especially considering later storylines including the pilot of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' and especially ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''.

{{quote| '''Robert:''' You're going to have to live with this a long, long time, Jean-Luc.}}

** Averted, though, in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'', at least with the overall premise of the series -- Janewayseries—Janeway, in particular, suffers from [[Break the Cutie]] syndrome through most of the series' run, going from a wide-eyed scientist to a hardened warrior in mind-bogglingly short order.

* On ''[[True Blood]]'', perhaps as a result of the break-neck pace of the series (they're halfway through Season 3 and it's been--justbeen—just over a month?--since Bill first met Sookie), no one really has the opportunity to deal with traumatic events for more than half an episode before the plot train comes to take them to the next station. Not that there aren't noteworthy moments of angst (e.g., {{spoiler|Eric's response to Godric's suicide}}), but they rarely have any long-term effects.

* In ''[[Firefly]]'', [[Cloudcuckoolander|River]] does not angst anywhere ''near'' as much as one would expect her to, considering [[Mind Rape|what]] [[Playing with Syringes|the]] [[School for Scheming|Academy]] [[Training Fromfrom Hell|did]] [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|to]] [[Super Soldier|her.]] That isn't to say she doesn't have her moments, but she doesn't appear to fall into depression or constantly whine or complain about her situation or the horrible things that were done to her. She does have a couple of sobbing fits, but these have as much to do with her mental instability as they do with her experiences. In fact, she gives off an impression of someone who is trying, in her more lucid moments, to move on from the horrible experiences she's had. [[Southern Gentleman|Simon]] even notes in one episode that she seems to be happier on Serenity than she was anywhere else.

{{quote| '''Sparrow''': Your brother was abducted by aliens?<br />

'''Sam''': Yeah.<br />

'''Sparrow''': Oh my god!<br />

'''Sam''': It's ok, I've had time to adjust.<br />

'''Sparrow''': Did it happen when you were kids?<br />

** Especially considering [[Wraith: The Oblivion|its predecessor]], the entire setting of ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' manages this trope quite nicely. To whit: in order to become a Sin Eater, you have to 1) start out with some kind of connection to death, [[I See Dead People|such as through some kind of psychic power]]; 2) [[Posthumous Character|you need to die]]; and 3) you need to make a deal with a Geist to come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]. Though one would think this would lead to tons of [[Supernatural Angst]], most Sin Eaters seem to believe that, now that they've already died once, there's no reason they shouldn't enjoy themselves till Death gets them again.

{{quote| If your sister got turned into a zombie and showed up at your front door, you wouldn't grab a baseball bat and cry havoc. You'd shit your pants.}}

* All ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' media include this trope as a matter of course, for two main reasons. Firstly, due to the particularly nasty version of natural selection on which the setting operates, if a character isn't able to mentally shield themselves against tragedy and horror then they won't last long. Secondly, when the types of enemies faced is such that the [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat]] ''starts'' with things that can kill all life on a planet, then having a [[Doomed Hometown|Doomed Homeworld]] really ''isn't'' something worthy of angst.

* Jude Maverick, main character of ''[[Wild ArmsARMs|Wild ARMs 4]]'', {{spoiler|prior to [[Heroic BSOD|his mother's death]], anyway}}.

** There's some sort of Law of Diminishing Grief at play in the ''AA''-verse. Maya reacts somewhat realistically to Mia's death in the first game, and is similarly shown to still carry grief for her missing mother. However, when {{spoiler|her mother not only appears but is brutally murdered}}, Maya seems far more hand-wavey. This is explained as her being strong for Pearl's sake, and after multiple installments showing that Maya has kind of a crazy threshold for emotional and physical trauma ({{spoiler|being kidnapped and held for ransom, diving in front of a taser, etc.}}), it's believable. However, in later games, both {{spoiler|Trucy}} and {{spoiler|Kay Faraday}} seem to immediately recover from the deaths of their fathers at breakneck speed -- inspeed—in the former case, the character had been estranged from her father for years, but in the latter the two characters were apparently inseparable and the father had died about two hours before, creating a strange jarring effect. Like... seriously, we're talking about Swiss rolls right now? Your dad is dead.

* Ann of ''[[Jurassic Park: Trespasser]]'' does have a few reasonable worries when she realizes she's crashed on Site B--but deals remarkably well with being attacked by a Velociraptor out of seemingly nowhere.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'': [[The McCoy|Sora]] is worried for his parents (and the rest of Destiny Island civilization) for all of five minutes before setting out to save the world with a big grin on his face. It doesn't hurt that [[Donald Duck|Donald]] and [[Goofy]] [[Lampshade Hanging|specifically ask]] him not to angst, and in Sora's defense many people have a pretty high level of optimism at his age -- theage—the old "you're a teenager, you can solve any problem" thing. He does slip into momentary depression throughout the series in response to events (before being cheered up by friends/distracted by task at hand), and it is implied that everything that has happened is slowly taking a toll on him.

** In [[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2A2]], the protagonist is dragged alone (at least Marche had his friends dragged with him), he kind of goes with it. At one point, he rather cheerfully admits to forgetting that the whole point of him traveling and adventuring was to go home; he was having to much fun, you know, traveling and adventuring.

{{quote| '''Nathaniel:''' For a dead woman you're remarkably perky.<br />

'''Sigrun:''' I could be less perky if you like. 'The darkness of the Deep Roads is seeped into my soul! The world is dead! My heart is black! Alas! Woe! Woe!'<br />

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Shepard seems to take finding out s/he has been dead for two years rather in stride. While its talked about briefly at the beginning -- andbeginning—and again when characters from the last game react to seeing their old commander alive -- Shepardalive—Shepard seems to completely avoid any of the angst or existential crises that one might expect from someone who has literally killed and brought back to life; and, depending on your dialogue choices, seems downright chipper for most of the story. However, at the end of Lair of the Shadow Broker, s/he can let his/her suffering be known to Liara. There is also a scene in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' where, depending on who's present and dialogue choices, s/he can reveal that s/he has actually thought about the serious questions of identity in the aftermath of her/his resurrection, and wonders if s/he might just be an extremely advanced computer programme that ''thinks'' it's Commander Shepard. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|If the LoveInterest is present, they provide extremely heartfelt reassurance on that issue.]]

** Used interestingly by your crew if you {{spoiler|save them from liquefaction at the hands of the Collectors}}. Most seem just fine later, a little shaken up but generally fine. But when you ask Kelly Chambers if she's all right, she goes into a horrified flashback and is clearly, obviously ''not'' -- and—and yet [[The Pollyanna|she pushes this back and doesn't show it otherwise.]]

* Played with in [[Mass Effect 3]]; a lot of the humans, Shepard included, seem superficially OK about the fact that Earth is being invaded and subjected to brainwashed genocide by [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s. The same can be said for the turians' reaction to the same thing happening to their homeworld. This is partially justified, as some characters will openly admit that they're deliberately stopping themselves thinking about it, and throwing themselves into things they ''can'' control as a distraction from their feelings of pain and helplessness. In fact, the only character who has a major reaction to their homeworld being destroyed is {{spoiler|Liara, when Thessia is attacked}}. She does have a severe, if brief, [[Heroic BSOD]], but, like the other characters, she is helped out of it by her [[True Companions]], and joins the rest of the galaxy in ''not thinking about it'', and focusing on things she ''can'' do. Various characters will have brief moments where cracks will start to show, but the general consensus among them seems to be that the current disasters must take priority, and they must just ignore their feelings, [[The Power of Friendship|with their friends to help them stay in control.]]

{{quote| '''Haken:''' In the end, all we discovered here was the shocking secret of my birth.<br />

'''Reiji:''' You don't seem to be too shocked about it, though.<br />

* In the little known game ''[[Brave the Search For Spirit Dancer|Brave: The Search For Spirit Dancer]]'', the main character Brave sees his [[Doomed Hometown|home destroyed]], his best friend Meadow Flower turned into a [[Buffy-Speak|sort-of zombie... thing]], has his mentor, Grey Bear, [[Mentor Occupational Hazard|die]] [[Died in Your Arms Tonight|in his arms]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|after shielding]] [[Taking the Bullet|Brave from an attack]], and is forced to flee for his life. ''All in the same scene.'' Brave is upset about it for about a scene or so, but then cheerfully goes on his way to find the Spirit Dancer.

* In stark contrast to many other vampires, Valvatorez from ''[[Disgaea 4: aA Promise Unforgotten]]'' spends very little time on brooding over tragic events. He's even cheerful about his fall from Tyrant to the lowly position of Prinny Instructor.

{{quote| '''Valvatorez:''' Plus, by falling into Hades, I discovered [[Trademark Favorite Food|sardines]]: an excellent source of nutrition. Actually, I should be thanking you for that.<br />

'''{{spoiler|Artina}}:''' Oh, Mr. Vampire... I'm trying to be serious right now.<br />

** Slick's been in jail for ''six years'' for a crime he didn't do -- thoughdo—though there's at least a couple on the list he probably did do, he most definitely didn't kill his own father.

{{quote| '''Horribus:''' Why can't we use his fears against him?<br />

'''Psyk:''' The long of it is, he does not explore consequences in depth, so he has no unknown fears to confront. And his memories are limited, so he has no fears from his past. The only things he seems to "fear" stem from simpler things we would not even regard.<br />

'''Torg:''' ''Hey'', are you saying I'm too stupid to be afraid?<br />

* ''[[Sabrina Online (Webcomic)|Sabrina Online]]'' has Sabrina learning that Zig Zag had a difficult childhood with [[Abusive Parents]]. However, Zig Zag has put that behind her and is adamant that she doesn't want to talk about it; she's doesn't want her sexual appetites to be treated as a source of pity.

{{quote| You slip into the fabled blackdeath trance of the woegothics, quaking all the while in the bloodeldritch throes of the broodfester tongues. You advise the members of your Complacency not to be alarmed, as they chronicle the event in tomes bound in the tanned, writhing flesh of a tortured hellscholar, with runes stroked in the black tears bled from the corruption-weary eyes of fifty thousand imaginary occultists. But they fail to not be alarmed. This is because, as is now painfully obvious to anyone with a brain, you have basically gone completely off the deep end in every way. You have officially gone [[Grimdark]].}}

{{quote| Oh my god! I'm a vampire? COOL! <3}}

* Chaka of the [[Whateley Universe]]. Turned into a mutant, the mutation changed him from a he to a she, had to leave home and go to [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]], targeted by more than one campus [[Big Bad]], has fought supervillains who kill people, and never angsts. A lot of the reason is because the old Tony hated his life, because he knew he was [[Transgender|transgenderedtransgender]]ed, so the change to Toni is everything he'd ever dreamed of. Everything else is just side-issues to her.

* ''Metamor Keep'', a story universe that shares several authors with the ''Winds of Change'' often has this too. There are people who're transformed into anthropomorphic animals, some are [[Transgender|transgenderedtransgender]]ed, and others are regressed to a child. This obviously doesn't stop anyone from enacting acts of the Renaissance in the Keep valley or enjoying themselves! Some start out whining about how they can't return to normal society or am now a woman or something, but they get over it and there are some who came to Metamor specifically so they could be transformed.

{{quote| '''[[The Cinema Snob|Cinema Snob]]:''' Weren't you {{spoiler|Doctor Insano?}}<br />

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. [[The Hero|Aang]] discovers that he's [[The Chosen One]], ''every single person he's ever met''- heck, all the animals too - have either been murdered or died of old age save for [[The Wonka|one wacky genius king ]] and a pet bison (and home? [[Doomed Hometown|a long abandoned ruin]]); his [[Refusal of the Call]] gets him and said bison frozen for a century and leads to him waking up clueless about the fact the world is engulfed in war and he has [[Race Against Time|about nine months to master three elements and save the world from utter doom]]. Oh, and he's [[Kid Hero|twelve years old]]. Most twelve-year-olds wouldn't cope very well with all that, and wouldn't be pleasant to watch, either (like real-world [[Child Soldiers]]). The writers dealt with it by making Aang [[The Pollyanna]]. In a reminder of why this trope exists, whenever Aang goes through a [[Rant-Inducing Slight]], fans complained about how whiny, mean and OOC he was and made cracks about [[Fan Nickname|"Aangst"]], even though he'd dealt with much worse without whining.

** To be fair, it ''does'' say "Two Weeks Later." That's enough time to angst over such losses for a couple of days, and afterward adjust to having a loving replacement family, since she's shown to be staying at the Kents' house (and Ma and Pa Kent are two of the best foster parents anyone could have--justhave—just ask Superman himself).

** There are examples of this, but the Return of Savanti arc-- thearc—the Cretaceous incident, mentioned above-- wasabove—was pretty much par for the course at that point (April even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it in-episode: "I can't take you guys anywhere!") and, as to Back to the Sewers, it depends on which character you're talking about. Don most certainly ''did not'' take the cyberspace thing in stride-- almoststride—almost a forth of the season passes before he snaps out of his fervor, and it takes a variation of the [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]] to do so.

{{quote| '''Gnome''': Holy crap, we killed your friend. That's all you have to say?}}

* In ''[[Sherlock Holmes in Thethe Twenty Second22nd Century]]'' Sherlock is resurrected two hundred years into the future but doesn't think much of it. He doesn't react in any negative way, instead just going on being [[Sherlock Holmes]].

* This is the basis of the Japanese cultural ethic of ''gaman'' -- endurance -- of—endurance—of keeping a stiff upper lip in times of great hardship.