Emotionless Girl: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

An enigmatic [[The Stoic|emotionless]] female character.

 

Thus, it just comes with the territory that any woman who ''isn't'' an emotional wreck draws attention to herself simply by being dispassionate and collected.

 

 

Sometimes used by animators as the [[The Comically Serious|comic foil]], especially in noisy, chaotic situations.

In certain instances, she may be an actual [[Robot Girl]]. See also [[The Quiet One]], [[Strange Girl]], and [[The Snark Knight]]. Often [[Foil|contrasted]] with a more [[Hot-Blooded]] partner to form a [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]] pair. Despite the name, the trope isn't [[Always Female]] and male characters also apply but, due to men being expected to have [[A Real Man Is a Killer|no emotions other than anger]], they're less noticed.

 

 

They may suffer from [[Bad Dreams]] and/or find it difficult to [[Does Not Know How to Say Thanks|express gratitude]]. Contrast [[Sugar and Ice Personality]], who may initially appear emotionless but in fact has a cute inner side. Will often be the subject of [[Must Make Her Laugh]] and/or [[When She Smiles]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Yuki Nagato, from ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', is also the [[The Spock]], [[The Stoic]] and the [[Badass Bookworm]]. {{spoiler|The tenth novel reveals that she's surprisingly bitter about being designed to be so unemotive and that the IDTE ''could'' have made her more expressive like they did Asakura, but didn't. This largely confirms the point below, which prior to this were based mostly on [[Unreliable Narrator|Kyon's]] interpretations.}}

** Yuki smiled at one point in the movie, and it was completely visible. It was a major event, as {{spoiler|it was what made Kyon consider staying in the [[Alternate Universe]].}}

* Eureka from [[Eureka Seven]]. The girl is literally close to emotionless since her birth until she met her destined partner Renton and gradually fell deeply in love with him. Although 3 years ago she did experience her first emotion which is "surprise" when she realized she orphaned the three children she would later adopt.

* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'': Emotionless Boy Hong Kong. Belarus is a female version, who mixes it with [[Yandere]] as well.

** There's also Egypt, who could have doubled for a [[Cute Mute]] (though he does speak one sentence).

* Ai Enma from ''[[Hell Girl]]''. Subverted in that she ''does'' have emotions, but she must repress them to carry out her atonement for {{spoiler|the revenge she carried out on the villagers who buried her alive.}}. Or else, she'll wind up in Hell. {{spoiler|We first see it when she snaps before Hajime towards the end of the first season, and [[Nightmare Fuel|it's not a nice sight to behold]]}}.

* R. Dorothy Waynewright from ''[[The Big O]]''. She's an actual [[Robot Girl]]. On at least one occasion, she expresses relief on never being programmed with emotions, although arguably she didn't need to be—she demonstrates disgust, loyalty, nostalgia, and numerous other emotions, just not at what a human would call full intensity.

** Nemu may not be able to disobey direct commands but she does have free will as shown when she {{spoiler|cures Uryruu after he was poisoned during his fight with Mayuri}}.

* Six year-old Rin Kaga of ''[[Bunny Drop]]'' appears as such at first, but she's actually a [[Deconstruction]]. She is only like this because of shyness and anxiety around people she does not know. Around other children and Daikichi, Rin is anything but emotionless.

* Vanilla from ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]''. Used in the anime to comic effect. In [[Galaxy Angel (video game)|the games]], her [[Story Arc|story arcs]] deal with her coming to terms with expressing emotion.

* Feldt Grace from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', though she later starts to become more emotional.

* Kanna from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' most certainly fits this trope, as she was created to be emotionless so that she would be undetectable by any trace of Demonic Energy or Scent. In fact, the translation of her name quite literally means 'void'.

** By the end, it is subverted as she actually has emotion as her heart can feel.

Bge: "Yes, you are. Your voice doesn't crack. Tears don't fall. But all the same, you're crying." }}

* Another Anju—the maid Anju Rika, in ''[[Magikano]]''.

* Kirika from ''[[Noir]]'' acts emotionless, but hides deep concern about her apparent amnesia. {{spoiler|She becomes truly emotionless when her memory is restored.}}

* Most of the eponymous warriors in ''[[Claymore]]'', though that makes them more like [[The Stoic]].

* ''[[Angel Densetsu]]'''s expy to ''[[Claymore]]'' (Ikuno/Claire) is a [[Deadpan Snarker]] too.

* Ritsuko from ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]]'' hides secret feelings for Chihiro behind an emotionless exterior.

* Lumiere from ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' is both this and [[The Spock]].

* A very, very rare male version of this trope: Mytho from ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', who is ''literally'' emotionless, thanks to a spell that shattered his heart.

* Akira Takano from ''[[School Rumble]]''.

** Male example: Oddball Karasuma. Yeah. He {{spoiler|had been repressing his feelings from the very beginning in an attempt to distance himself from everyone}}. When he finally snaps very late in the manga, his bouts of emotion are so expressive, he becomes almost unrecognizable.

* Fate in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Fate actually does have emotions, but keeps them suppressed as a defense mechanism against her [[No Sympathy|mothers insane demands]] and even [[Abusive Parents|more insane punishment for failure.]] Although she recovers later, Fate remains quieter and more reserved than the rest of the [[Fundamentally Female Cast]], albeit also considerably more sensitive.

** Lutecia in ''StrikerS''. Likely a result of [[Mad Scientist|Jail's]] experiments and/or of growing up without her mother. She becomes more emotional by ''ViVid''.

** Zazie Rainyday is emotionless to the point of [[Cute Mute]]. Although she speaks up in the endgame of both the first anime and the manga, she still shows very, very little emotion. The manga makes you ''think'' she's showing a playfully humorous side- but no, she isn't. {{spoiler|That's her twin sister. She herself}} is still mildly altruistic, infuriatingly mysterious, and as emotional as a dead yak.

** Chachamaru is a justified Emotionless Girl, being a robot. Even so, she's a very caring person whose main fault is [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]. Notably, while she ''is'' emotionless, she emotes a ''lot'' more than any of the above, mostly due to her ongoing Pinocchio syndrome. She is less 'emotionless' and more 'expressionless'. She [[Ridiculously Human Robot|has emotions]], but her face don't display it very well.

* Otome from ''[[Koi Koi 7]]''. It probably comes from being the oldest of the group, but stuck at a young age, since she was the first to become a cyborg.

* Ayuki of ''[[Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl]]'' seems to be one of these in the anime. However, in the manga, she just seems [[The Stoic|quiet and calm]]. However, even then she never shows much emotion other then some casual comedy moments. {{spoiler|Except in a later chapter, where she cries and screams at Hitoshi when she learns that Hazumu will die in 29 days. This only fuels the theory that she is in love with Hazumu, which was never really hinted at in the anime (instead, it was hinted she likes ''Tomari'')}}

* Sara Werec of ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' is an example of an Emotionless Girl main character.

* Latune Subbota from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]: Original Generation''. Then she gets a crush on the [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Ascended Fanboy|Ascended]] [[Super Robot]] [[Ascended Fanboy|Fanboy]], and clears all that right up.

* Michiru from ''[[Uta Kata]]''.

* Echo from ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'' although later on in the manga she changes to more of a [[Sugar and Ice Personality]]

* Laila from ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'', in contrast with her somewhat livelier twin sister, Lola.

* Miyabi "Professor" Oomichi of ''[[GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class]]'' is extremely subtle in her expression of emotion, but her friends seem able to pick up on her emotions sometimes: during the yaminabe arc, there's a panel with a closeup of Miyabi's face looking stoic as ever, yet Tomokane can tell she looks happy. Also, the reader can see an expression of sadness—mostly in the eyes—when she realizes that {{spoiler|the chick she had been caring for had fallen silent.}}

* Marie Kagura of [[Tona Gura]]. Subverted somewhat in that this state hides a desire that {{spoiler|her older brother Yuuji revert to his pre-puberty self and pay attention only to her}}.

* Aki Izayoi from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]''.

* Dou Haguro from ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen]]'' is an amoral emotionless guy who occasionally wonders "how his face looks" and casually leaves the keys to his sizable arsenal in front of a vengeance-crazed lackey {{spoiler|who he provoked by secretly unplugging the lackey's brother's life support}}. Not even being ambushed and shot several times while in the fifth grade can break him, until he encounters the [[Anti-Hero]]-Protagonist Akira Inugami during [[Our Werewolves Are Different|that time of the month]] and [[Fan Nickname|Smugwolf]] makes it very clear that, despite being a [[Complete Monster]], Dou is still just a human and that surviving the ambush was pure dumb luck. Dou is so overwhelmed after feeling fear for the first time that after Smugwolf leaves [[Villainous Breakdown|he laughs and cries uncontrollably at the same time]]. And then [[It Gets Worse]].

* Lucy from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' before {{spoiler|the children at her orphanage kill her puppy right in front of her.}}

* Kanade Tachibana, the titular Angel of ''[[Angel Beats!]]'' is, at least on the surface, an example of this. She's quiet, and impassive seeming even when dishing out violence or receiving grievous injury. She has emotions, but she rarely shows them.

* In the first ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' movie, Syaoran's mom is usually this, though she does become a [[Defrosting Ice Queen]] around [[Moe|Sakura]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' has Sage, a mutant whose brain works much like a computer, and as such, approaches Rei Ayanami level emotionlessness at times, though occasionally shifting to [[The Stoic]] level when really, ''really'' worked up. (Naturally, she's such an expert at [[Perp Sweating]] that her gaze alone accomplishes what Wolverine's famed "claw on either side of neck; dare me to pop the middle?" approach cannot.) Surprisingly, "computer brain" simply describes her brain works. Despite the functions of her mind often being described in computer terms, it, and the rest of her, are a hundred percent organic.

** She can still say her name in [[Rainbow Speak|gigantic, colorful letters]], though.

* [[Sin City|Miho]] combines this with [[The Voiceless]].

 

* Pretty much ''any'' Jack Rudd-written ''[[Neighbours]]'' fanfic starring Lisa Jeffries.

* The [[Mary Sue|eponymous heroine]] of ''[[Legolas By Laura|legolas by laura]]'' seems remarkably unconcerned about being tortured and raped by orcs, [[Squick|even though she's only ten]].

* In [[X-Men]] fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7779403/4/Guilt_Trips Guilt Trips], Northstar (Jean-Paul) is an Emotionless Boy, having asked his empathic friend Manuel da la Rocha to prevent him from feeling strong emotion. His reasoning for this is because here Manuel is an [[Emotion Eater]] and needs to fed off something, and he himself doesn't have the energy to deal with emotions.

 

== Film ==

* Wednesday forcing a smile in ''[[The Addams Family|Addams Family Values]]'' evokes horror in onlookers.

** Even in the audience...yet the [[Genre Blind|camp councilors]] [[Adults Are Useless|cluelessly delight]] in finally getting her to smile.

* Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) in ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]''.

* Emily in ''[[The Final]]''. {{spoiler|Until Ravi is killed.}} Then she goes right back to this.

* In ''[[The Happening]]'', Zooey Deschanel is actually given the line "I don't like to show my emotions," which many suspect was a late addition to the script to try to cover up her less than enthusiastic performance.

 

== Literature ==

* Estella from ''[[Great Expectations]]''.

* Susan Calvin from [[Isaac Asimov]]'s many robot short stories.

** Adora Belle Dearheart in the "Moist Von Lipwig" novels also comes across as emotionless, when she's actually repressing a mountain of rage. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternatively]], she comes across as a woman burying her issues under [[Deadpan Snarker|a mountain of bitter sarcasm]].

* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novels, Winter Celchu (an aide and childhood friend of Leia's), an Intelligence agent with a [[Photographic Memory|holographic memory]], has lost her composure perhaps once in the entirety of her appearances—when she thought her boyfriend had been killed ''and'' his fellow pilots ''didn't seem to care'' (because, of course, he was still alive).

* Thérèse herself of ''[[Therese Raquin]]'' becomes emotionless over the course of her childhood due to living with her overbearing aunt and her sickly, petulant cousin Camille. Then [[Kissing Cousins|she and Camille get married]] and it gets worse.

* [[The Hunger Games (novel)|Katniss Everdeen]], probably as a direct result of being a [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] (and that's ''before'' [[It Got Worse|she enters the arena]]).

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' sports a couple examples, such as:

** Seven of Nine from ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' is a former Borg drone, so underplays emotions while focusing on efficiently completing tasks. However, she does annoyance really well.

** T'Pol from ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' is a Vulcan whose frustration with humans isn't veiled as well as it could be, but otherwise fits this trope. (Jolene Blalock has claimed this is intentional, but (YMMV) it does tend to come off as a half-baked Seven Of Nine impression.)

** The first officer of Captain Pike, known only as [[Number One]], was one of these.

* Cameron, the female [[Terminator]] of ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' fits this quite accurately, though she is quite capable of ''simulating'' human emotions when she needs to. The rather sudden shift from emotionless blankness to a laughing, smiling teenage girl is....[[Creepy Child|creepy.]]

 

== Manhwa ==

* Vera Linus, in the [[Manhwa]] ''[[Veritas]]'', generally shows no emotion except when dealing with something that has to do with Lightning Tiger, the guy who taught her the meaning of "fear".

 

== Video Games ==

* A plot point in the ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' series of fighting games. Donovan, a half-vampire monk meets Anita, a young girl who is also a half-vampire, who has lost the ability to feel emotions. He decides to try to slay the world's supply of monsters to cure her. He succeeds in restoring her emotions and humanity, but becomes a full vampire himself. This leads to a climactic flash forward cliffhanger showdown between her as the messiah of the human race and him as her main opposition. Especially notable because the creators of the series were sometimes criticized in interviews for using this trope, which was in its peak at the time.

* Gamall in ''Thief 2'' is an example of this trope played to perfection.

** This may be reversed to some degree in the ending, as she sheds tears over {{spoiler|Albus finally passing away}}.

* Somewhere in between this and a fully fledged [[Robot Girl]] is Aki Zeta-Five, leader of the Cybernetic Consciousness in the expansion pack to ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''. She would pretty much count as a [[Suzumiya Haruhi|Nagato]] [[Expy]] if the game wasn't 8 years older. She's fully human (born Aki Luttinen in Norway—don't ask why she has a Finnish name) who was [[Cyborg|merged with/possessed by an artificial intelligence]] like the rest of [[Robot Republic|her faction]].

* Vasilios Cosmos (a guy) of ''[[Space Colony]]'', withdrawn and doesn't consider himself human.

* Jacqli of [[Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica]] semi-subvert this. Main plot wise, she looks and acts like one, but when you're getting to know her in Cosmosphere or in synthesis scenes, she's become a sarcastic [[Tsundere]].

* Eleanor, the "Cold Princess" in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' - the least developed of the Aristocrats, almost nothing is known about her except that she loves birds and fantasizes about flying away from everything. When her beloved pet bird dies in Bird of Happiness-chapter, she just throws its corpse back in the cage without tiniest spec of visible emotion, and walks off.

* Valentine of [[Guilty Gear]] 2 Overture counts as one, and regularly speaks in a calm, monotone voice without changing it. However, when she gets her [[Villainous Breakdown]] once Sol stops the process of the Key by destroying it, that's where she gets [[Berserk Button|her first emotion ever]].

* Eifer Skute of ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]'' could also count as an Emotionless Girl, since she often appears to be cool-headed and mature and rarely smiles. However, she can sometimes get violently-fluctuating emotions and therefore sometimes act out of character. Plus, she for reasons unknown seems to carry strong emotions towards Freudia.

 

* Aselia and the minor spirit Nanaru in ''[[Eien no Aselia]]'' are both rather emotionless. The latter isn't even an exaggeration or merely based on her behavior, since her profile indicates that her sword has eaten away most of her personality. She genuinely feels very little until she gets to know Yuuto.

* Mai from ''[[Kanon]]''.

* Unan of ''[[Under the Moon]]'' is a [[Spear Counterpart]], although his looks, and often his mannerisms, are [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|very feminine]].

 

* Antimony from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is both [[The Stoic|stoic]] due to [[Parental Abandonment|a recent tragedy]] and unflappable in the face of weirdness due to a very unusual childhood. {{spoiler|She soon begins opening up to her best friend, but her unnervingly emotionless demeanor shows no sign of abating.}}

** Recent events suggest that the appearance of emotions on Antimony's face is directly related to her friendship with [[Gadgeteer Genius|Kat]]. [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=460 Because she gets ''really creepy'' when Kat is in trouble.]

** Then there's Jones, who is even more of a blank slate. Whether she's [[Exposition|expositing]], flirting, [[Trickster Mentor|intentionally ticking her student off]], or even affirming that something was "hilarious", her expression ''does not change''. Antimony herself has speculated that Jones might be a robot masquerading as a human, but Jones denies this.

* Sara Amraphel from ''[[Errant Story]]'', often lampshaded.

** And made disturbing in a recent sequence where for the purposes of subterfuge, she assumes an appearance and attitude that are very OOC.

{{quote|'''Wanda''': "I ''don't'' laugh."}}

* Aradia in ''[[Homestuck]]''. {{spoiler|Because [[The Untwist|she's dead]].}} Later on, she seems to be recovering {{spoiler|after being transplanted into a robot body}}, but this ends up not particularly helping: most of the time she's just as flat as before, but occasionally she'll [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry|get angry]] and [[Unstoppable Rage|violently flip the hell out]]. Even later, {{spoiler|however, her dreamself's awakening and [[Came Back Strong|ascension to the God Tiers]] causes her to genuinely begin feeling and emoting again.}}

* Ozy of ''[[Ozy and Millie]]'' has been mistaken for this at times. He tries to be [[The Stoic]], although part of it may be that he just enjoys playing a [[Foil]] to Millie. And sometimes his father. And then there's his family...

* ''[[Archipelago]]'': Lucinda, after a powerful tragedy, [[Deal with the Devil|agreed to serve the Raven if he would remove her emotions.]]

* After [[The Reveal]] in ''[[Flipside]]'', {{spoiler|Maytag herself}} is shown to be this. The story of how she got this way is currently (November 12, 2012) still being written.

 

== Web Original ==

* Alysia Morales from ''[[Arcana Magi]]'' must remain emotionless or she will suffer physically.

* Pathologist Madeline Frost in [http://www.shadowunit.org Shadow Unit] is the adult version of this trope; no one knows if she's autistic, sociopathic, deeply PTSD, or what, but the hospital where she works has a standing rule about letting her talk to actual living people. (Another character calls her "Cthulhu's Dream Date.")

* Since [[The Erotic Mind Control Story Archive]] features, well, [[Captain Obvious|mind control]], this trope appears a lot. (See also "Real Life" below.)

* Electra in [[Greek Ninja]]. She shows little emotion even when she's informed of the death of her sensei. During stressful situations, such as battles, she remains cool and stoic.

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] blames her tiny husk of a heart on years of repression. In her review of ''[[Daria]]'', as a [[Shout-Out]] to the main character, she dials her psychopathy down and discusses how good the show was in a [[Creepy Monotone]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* Raven from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' (emotionally repressed out of necessity more than choice). She becomes more and more open as the series progresses.

** Giving a look of genuine sadness is even rarer; she's only done it once.

** She's also shown shock and confusion, but that's understandable given the kind of people/things she hangs out with.

 

== Real Life ==

* The [[Brainwashed]] trope, and several [[Mind Control]] tropes related to it, is an example of this trope. When you hypnotize someone, this is almost always what you eventually achieve. The subject is just too deeply relaxed and her mind is too focused on the hypnotist to emote, hence the stereotypical blank stare and mouth hanging open.

* Alice Glass of the band Crystal Castles acts like this quite a bit. See their music video for the song "Crimewave"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Harem Genre]]

[[Category:Ice Queen Characters]]

[[Category:Emotion Tropes]]

[[Category:Introversion Tropes]]