Emotionless Girl: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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

 

 

{{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.}}

* 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.

 

== Literature ==

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

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

* 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.

 

== 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.

** You also learn in the first route that [[Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire|Arcueid Brunestud]] started out as one, until Shiki killed her and, by her own admission, broke 'something' inside her, resulting in the [[Genki Girl|energetic]], [[Badass Adorable|friendly]] version we're familiar with.

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

 

== Webcomics ==

* 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.]

 

== 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.")

 

== 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.

** Though Raven can actually be ''intensely'' emotional- you do ''not'' want to see her angry. She needs to stay repressed in order to avoid losing control of her powers and/or unleashing her [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].

 

== 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"