Not So Stoic/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The Stoic is horrified/cries/rages/smiles after some shocking/tragic/wonderous event.

  • Straight: Bob has seen many things good and bad, and has never show a hint of emotion. When sees his daughter, Alice, die, he cries.
  • Exaggerated: Bob has seen The End of the World as We Know It, the death of his parents, the birth of Alice, his daughter, and he's never shown anything but a stony face, until he sees Alice in a pool of her own blood, at which point he has a complete breakdown.
  • Downplayed: Bob has always been a stoic sort of person, and when he sees Alice die, he sheds a Single Tear.
  • Justified: Bob is a Reality Warper, whose powers are tied to his emotions. he maintains his stoicism, lest he harm those around him, but when the big bad kills Alice, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, powers and all.
  • Inverted: Bob is a highly emotional man, most of the time, but after seeing Alice die he is stone cold stoic.
  • Subverted: Bob sees Alice die, and it looks like he might betray some feeling, but it doesn't come.
  • Double Subverted: Until he's alone.
  • Parodied: Bob gets slapped in the face, a bucket of paint dumped on him, is involved in a car crash, and yet never shows emotion, until Alice knocks his coffee out of his hand. At which point he lets out a Big No
  • Deconstructed: Bob's one break from stoicism, a raging anger towards Alice, makes her decide he doesn't love her, ultimately driving the person he cares about most away from him.
    • OR: Bob works for the police department, and after crying at his daughter's death he is deemed too close to the case, and too emotionally involved, and is taken out of it.
  • Reconstructed: Until he proves that he cares about her, by saving her from a life or death situation, while showing the same righeous anger towards her attacker.
    • Afterwards, Bob pursues the case independently, and solves it, before anyone else could, because his burst of emotion gave him a single minded resolve to see his daughter's killers brought to justice.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob seems to be about to show emotion after Alice dies, but he holds it in. When he's alone tries to let the tears flow but still they don't come, but the next time he's with his companions, the water works open up.
  • Averted: Bob, stonefaced as ever tries to save Alice from her horrible fate, but cannot. Even after this, his face shows no emotion, and his voice wavers not at all.
  • Enforced: "Bob's seeming lack of emotion is driving viewers away. We need to show that he does have feelings and he does care."
  • Lampshaded: "Wait, I thought Bob didn't have feelings."
  • Invoked: Knowing that Alice is the person Bob cares about most, the Big Bad arranges for her to die in front of him, while he can do nothing about it.
  • Exploited: During Bob's moment of emotion, the enemy attacks and defeats him.
  • Defied: Bob, knowing that Alice is about to die and there's nothing he can do about it, actively suppresses his emotions, so he can keep his focus on getting the job done.
  • Discussed: "Don't assume I don't have emotions, just because I don't show them. If you push me hard enough, you'll know more about my emotions than you ever wanted to."
  • Conversed: Wow, Bob is crazy Badass when calm. Imagine what he would be like if he lost his cool!
  • Played For Drama: When Bob's stoicism melts into a face of absolute horror, everyone knows that the heroes have failed, and they are doomed.

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