Angst? What Angst?: Difference between revisions

** Earlier, Leia watched her ''[[Earthshattering Kaboom|entire planet]]'' get [[Doomed Hometown|blown to smithereens]] before her eyes. Leia's only subsequent (onscreen) comment on the destruction of her home, her family, most of the people she's ever known, everyone she's ''never'' known, all that history, all that culture, all those ''people'' is "We have no time for our sorrows." Granted, Leia already had a certain amount of time to grieve in her cell, and maybe force herself to put the matter aside for the time being.

*** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] talks about it; Leia turns any angst into hating [[The Empire]] even more, and`at one point flips out meeting an Alderaanian Stormtrooper. It's illustrated by this quote from ''[[Shadows of the Empire]]'':

She would get even. }}

*** There's also a moment in ''[[Star Wars/Allegiance|Allegiance]]'' when Han, feeling annoyed by Leia and Luke, reminds himself that

And if it came to that, Luke had had a couple of recent kicks in the teeth, too, what with first losing his aunt and uncle and then watching old man Kenobi get killed right in front of him. The least Han could do was cut them some slack. Both of them. }}

*** Lois as Leia [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this hilariously in ''[[Family Guy]]'''s ''Star Wars'' [[Homage]] episode, as does ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' in their own ''Star Wars'' special.

* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] in ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]''. The film opens with Bond hunting down his wife's murderer, [[Big Bad]] Ernst Stavro Blofeld, with the permission and support of [[MI 6]] and apparently getting his revenge by making Blofeld drown headfirst into superheated mud. While that should have given him some satisfaction to help him recover, the fact remains that his wife has just been killed on their wedding day, and yet he's back to his old [[The Casanova|womanizing]] and [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpanning]] days in an instant, even laughing at [[Gallows Humor|a few cracks]] Miss Moneypenny makes about engagement rings. Of course, this could be due to the [[Negative Continuity]] of the series.

* At the beginning of ''[[Austin Powers]]: The Spy Who Shagged Me'', Austin's new wife and heroine of the previous film Vanessa Kensington is almost immediately revealed as a [[Robot Girl|fembot]] who tries to kill him before Austin soon subdues her. He is initially heartbroken, reflecting on the loss of his first true monogamous love, before realizing he is once more single and free to womanize in a recovery so sudden it's somewhat [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]].

* ''[[The Room]]'': "I got the results of the test back... I ''definitely'' have breast cancer". This is never mentioned again, leading many to just assume the woman is straight-up lying.

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'', Elsa is severely traumatized, screaming her head off, {{spoiler|as Donovan dies right in front of her eyes due to something she ''delibarately did'',}} and yet in the next scene she acts as if nothing happened.

* Portrayed in the most [[Narm|unintentionally hilarious]] way ever in ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'': during the [[Alien Invasion]], [[Military Superhero|Nantz]] gives a ''long'' [[Rousing Speech|speech]] in which he reels off the [[The Dead Have Names|names and serial numbers]] of all of his men who were killed on the last mission, making it clear he remembers each one of them. After a [[Melodramatic Pause]], he [[Guttural Growler|growls]] "But none of that matters now" because they can't dwell on the past and have to get back to killing aliens. Cue laughter ''and applause'' from the audience.

* In ''[[Treasure Planet]]'', Silver gives one of the best lines that describes this trope {{spoiler|After he left almost all of the treasure behind to save Jim}}

** Given his expression, he did seem to be internally angsting. The fact that the planet was about to blow up probably contributed to quashing any angst opportunities, as well.

* Lampshaded and subverted in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' when Jack Slater (whose onscreen character plays this trope straight) confides in Daniel: "Let's throw his son off a building. Oh sure, it will give you nightmares for the rest of your life, but you're fiction, so who cares?"

* Parodied by Officer Doughy in ''[[Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth]]''.

* Even though the message of ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' was to move on with your life after past failures/tragedies, Picard seems unusually subdued about the fact that ''the Enterprise'' was destroyed in his absence. He even picks up a priceless artifact he got from a friend [[Continuity Nod|during the series]] that was completely ruined and sets it aside as if it meant nothing.

 

* [[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|Huckleberry]] [[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Finn]] has an [[Abusive Parents|abusive]], [[The Alcoholic|drunken]] father, a [[Missing Mom|dead mother]], and [[Walking the Earth|no home whatsoever]]. For him, this is all just business as usual.

* ''[[The Tale of Peter Rabbit]]'':

* In Sharon Creech's ''The Wanderer Sophie'', a 13 years old girl, is sailing in a small boat across the Atlantic, with her two cousins (both also 13) and three uncles. The story is given to us as her and Cody's (one of the cousins) diaries. When they are caught by a nasty storm. Cody whines in his diary about how he was a bad son and how hopeless their situation is. Sophia whines... about how the uncles won't let her do a ''real'' job, like, say, climbing masts during the storm. Then this gets [[Double Subverted]] when {{spoiler|Cody reveals Sophhie has regular noghtmares, which she [[Unreliable Narrator|doesn't mention in her diary]]. However, they aren't about their ''current'' predicament, which Sophie describes (and sees) purely matter-of-factly. She is flashing back to another such storm that she survived, but which killed her biological parents, though Sophie has no conscious memory of this. It is THAT storm that scares Sophie, not the current danger.}}

* In ''Those nearby'' by A. Afanas'ev, Sofa, an alien girl with psychic powers, is [[Brought Down to Normal]] and captured by the [[Big Bad]], along with the main protagonist. When they are interrogated, Sofa's snarky comments drive the [[Big Bad]] nuts. His threats of violence (including thinly veiled [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture threats]]) have no effect on her, even though she clearly takes them for real. She even misses her chance to escape when doing so would leave the protagonist alone.

*** Hoshi is [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]] 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]]''.

** The ''TNG'' episode "The Wounded" introduced Chief O'Brien's former CO, Captain Maxwell, whose wife and children were killed [[During the War]] with the Cardassians. Picard believes Maxwell's current unauthorized attacks on Cardassian ships are [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|motivated by vengeance]], but O'Brien insists Maxwell remained [[The Stoic|stoic]] and [[Sad Clown|in good humour]] after his family's deaths and he must have a good reason for attacking the Cardassians. {{spoiler|Turns out they're both right.}}

** Averted, though, in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'', at least with the overall premise of the series -- 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.

* Frequently in [[Professional Wrestling]]. Your brother turns on you, destroys your entire life, kills your dog? Some little creep from your past tries to cripple your entire family? Your best friend mauls you to the point of hospitalization and tries to steal your son from you? Some freak with a beard killed your unborn baby? Eh, within a [[Three Month Rule|few months]] you'll have forgotten all about it and probably be best friends again (and again and again). Maybe you can even get Beard-Boy to read a poem at your wedding!

* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' season six, {{spoiler|souless}} Sam is a good example of this.

'''Sam''': No, like, a half hour ago. }}

 

** A different, darker take on this trope comes from the Spring Court of ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]''. After being kidnapped by [[The Fair Folk]], horribly abused, and escaping, they decided they would live it up as best as they could, if only to spite their former captors. Subverted in that they really ''are'' still heavily traumatized by what happened to them in Arcadia, they're just in heavy denial and/or trying to sublimate their psychological issues through partying.

* ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]'' counselled players to avoid this:

* All ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' 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.

 

* {{spoiler|Zevran}} of ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' hides [[Stepford Smiler|behind a facade of this]] unless he trusts the main character enough to reveal his true feelings.

** Likewise, Sigrun of ''Awakening'', despite being the [[Sole Survivor]] of a sect of [[Death Seeker|Death Seeking]] Dwarves refuses to wallow in angst and is about as upbeat as someone in her position can get.

'''Nathaniel:''' Let's stick to perky. }}

** What about the Grey Warden his/herself? First there's your origin, which can have such lovely events as being tainted by a cursed artifact, having your younger brother murder your older brother and pin the crime on you, or having your family's castle assaulted and your entire family down to your young nephew killed. Then there's [[It Got Worse|the battle where you're double crossed and one of only two survivors]]. You'd think that would result in some issues, which it does with Alistair.

** Carefully subverted in any [[Video Game|games]] where the graphics allow emotion to show on [[Heroic Mime|Link's]] face, however. To give two specific examples, he's incredibly devastated by what befalls Tetra in ''[[Phantom Hourglass]],'' and ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' actually gives him a gorgeous range of emotions. There is also one moment in ''Ocarina of Time'', when Link returns from the temple of time to {{spoiler|a Hyrule Castle transformed into [[Big Bad|Ganondorf's]] fortress base, surrounded in lava and unrecogniseable as the cheerful scene from seven years ago.}} The expression on his face is a mixture of shock and despair.

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]], [[Discussed Trope|discussed]], and turned into a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in ''[[Endless Frontier]]''. When Haken learns [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prR2x-gKGOI the shocking secret of his birth] ({{spoiler|that he's an artificially-created [[Super Soldier]] made to wage war in alternate universes}}), he spends all of zero seconds angsting about it before moving on to the task at hand. His companions actually have to press him on the subject before he finally just says [[I Am What I Am]] and compares it to boobs.

'''Haken:''' Sorry about that. Should I faint and start screaming a little? [[Hidden Depths|...If I did something like that, it'd just make Kaguya and the others worry more about me, right?]] }}

* Dwarves in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' have an odd way of measuring their moods; it's a strict positive/negative thing. Did their wife and children just get killed by a [[Our Monsters Are Weird|Forgotten Beast]]? This can be balanced out by a eating in a ''really'' nice communal dining room, sleeping in a nice bedroom, and obtaining a well-made pair of socks, leaving them at least "quite content" overall.

* Two of the three playable Servants in [[Fate Extra]], [[The Empress|Red Saber]] and [[Genki Girl|Fox Caster]] have shades of this, (the third servant is [[Deadpan Snarker|Archer]] [[Fate/stay night|yes, that one]]) despite having [[Broken Bird]] level histories neither one of them really laments on their past lives. It might be because they have had time to deal with it, but even over the course of the game, which is a case study in [[It Got Worse]], they are the rock that keeps the protagonist going.

* In stark contrast to many other vampires, Valvatorez from ''[[Disgaea 4: A 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.

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

'''Valvatorez:''' I'm being serious too. }}

** Emily just lost the last ''two years of her life''. Oh, and all of her former "friends" didn't make the jump back. So, she's isolated, stressed, and confused, and she rarely complains about it. She even says so, which pisses off Ash since he's NOT happy with the change. Then they have a big "I want to help you, but I like my own life" thing, where she probably was about to admit she'd love for Ash to be a boy again, because she wants in his pants, but not as a girl.

* It takes something major to keep the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' cast down for long. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] with Bun-Bun, who is noted for his great emotional resiliance, and Torg, [http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980505 for different reasons]:

'''Psyk:''' That's the short of it. }}

** Averted with Angela, who has to be committed to an insane asylum after the "[http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000626 KITTEN]" adventure, while the main characters go off to have [[Beach Episode|fun in the sun]].

** In a couple panels, Nepeta is ''smiling'' even as she's sitting next to {{spoiler|the corpse of her beloved lusus crushed in a cave-in.}} She may have known by then that {{spoiler|she could resurrect Pounce, in a way,}} but ''still.''

** And ultimately averted: it seems that the news of {{spoiler|her mother's death}} has finally pushed Rose over the edge.

* Hanna from ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'' seems to be this way with his illusive past. (Unless he's a [[Stepford Smiler]].)

* In ''[[DMFA]]'', the fae are [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_833.php suggested] to be like this in-universe (somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] by [[We Are as Mayflies|their incredibly long lifespans]]).

* In ''[[School Bites]]'', Charlotte's first words after discovering with shock that she's now a vampire: "[[Cursed with Awesome|Kewl!]]''

** Heather from ''[[Vampire Cheerleaders]]'' has the same reaction:

* Anyone and everyone from ''[[Sonichu]]''. When two characters are killed off panel, they mourn all for about ''one panel'', before they instantly get over it and return to doing whatever they were doing. They don't even linger on it. Of course, to be fair, this is because the author just can't write anything that affects his characters

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'': Elliot has to use his [[Gender Bender]] power every few hours, or it'll [[Power Incontinence|trigger]] at a random time. He also has to sleep as a girl, for the same reason. For [[Chaste Hero|him]], this is more inconvenient than it would be for [[Man, I Feel Like a Woman|other people]]. He has never once complained about this.

* Because of [[Rule of Funny]] and [[Negative Continuity]], [[That Guy With The Glasses]]. [[Phelous|Dying all the time?]] [[The Spoony Experiment|Being killed and made into a zombie]]? [[The Angry Joe Show|Having your post-rape trauma spill out live on camera]]? [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Having a robot stalk you for months]]? Not to worry, it'll be totally okay the next week. Besides, you can always rely on the [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls|fanfic fandom]] to fill in the gaps.

** [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] spends most of [[Kickassia]] absolutely terrified at the thought of {{spoiler|becoming Doctor Insano}}. Then it finally happens, and later when he {{spoiler|shows up as himself again}}, we get this exchange:

'''Spoony:''' Eh, I got better. }}

** Very rarely, it's sometimes averted. Being led to believe that he fathered a girl and tortured her nearly drove [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] to a guilt-induced [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]], while [[The Nostalgia Critic]], [[The Nostalgia Chick]] and [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses]] are all consistently a therapist's wet dream.

** There are examples of this, but the Return of Savanti arc-- the Cretaceous incident, mentioned above-- 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-- 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.

* The main characters of ''[[South Park]]'' embody this trope. They never show any emotion, besides their trademark line, when [[They Killed Kenny|Kenny is killed]]. This is even noted in the episode "Gnomes":

** In later episodes, they even say their lines with boredom more than anger. They probably just get tired of it happening ''[[Crossing the Line Twice|every single week]]''.

** A recent episode reveals that [[The Chew Toy|Kenny]] is the only one aware he ever died. Everyone else forgets it ever happened the next morning. And Another episode had one of the boys feeling very angsty over another one being near death. [[The Chew Toy|Kenny]] is, of course, pissed that they never feel this way about him. And yes, he dies 10 seconds later, but no one notices.