Manly Tears/Playing With
Basic Trope: A male character cries.
- Played Straight: Bob sheds a tear.
- Exaggerated: Bob breaks down and starts bawling.
- Justified: Something really bad has just happened, is happening, or is about to happen. And, yes, men have feelings too.
- Inverted: Bob is The Stoic or a Kuudere, and doesn't really express much emotion.
- Subverted: Bob's eyes are watering from seasonal allergies...at least, that's what he says.
- Double Subverted: But he really is sad about whatever went down.
- Deconstructed: Alice sees Bob crying and thinks him less of a man because of it.
- Reconstructed: ... but Carol likes him more because he can express his emotions.
- Parodied: Bob is literally crying over spilled milk.
- Exploited: The Big Bad uses the Post-Rape Taunt ploy to make Bob too upset and emotional to fight him properly.
- Intended Audience Reaction: Someone asks "What's wrong?" and it's shown that Bob is chopping onions.
- Lampshaded: "Look what you did! Even Bob's crying!"
- Averted: Bob doesn't cry.
- Enforced: Trying to show that a) the event was a really tragic one or b) that Bob is a wuss.
- Invoked: Alice, the love of Bob's life, dies suddenly, just when Bob was going to ask her to marry him.
- Defied: Bob doesn't want to be seen as a wuss, so he holds back his tears and feelings, no matter what.
- Played For Laughs: See "parodied" and "intended audience reaction".
- Played For Drama: See "justified" and "invoked".
Back to Manly Tears