Tranquil Fury: Difference between revisions

[[File:tranquil 1368.jpg|link=Equilibrium|frame|[[The Stoic|For the record, that glare is his standard face for most of the movie]]. His actual level of anger is expressed by how dreadfully he kills you. ]]

 

 

In every [[Badass]]'s life, there may come a time when going berserk simply does not work. In this case, many people choose to turn to Tranquil Fury. This state of mind allows much whoop-ass to be uncanned without undue stress. When the time comes for the showdown between the [[The Hero|Hero]] and the [[Big Bad]], do not expect to see furious angry rage. Instead, expect [[The Hero]] (or [[Anti-Hero]])'s face to be serenely, eerily calm. They will not appear to be even slightly put out with the villain. Of course, that won't stop them from trying to hack the villain to hundreds of tiny pieces. A defeat by someone in the grip of Tranquil Fury is likely to be more comprehensive than others, as the job ''will'' [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|be done in a properly thorough fashion.]]

* If [[Change 123|Motoko Gettou]] is in tranquil fury mode, then that means {{spoiler|[[Super-Powered Evil Side|Zero]] has come out to play.}} And if that said tranquil fury is directed at you, you had better start praying. ''Fast.''

* Though his signature reaction to most serious situations is [[Unstoppable Rage]], Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'' often starts out with Tranquil Fury. Before he [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|confronts]] the man who {{spoiler|tortured and mutilated Griffith for a year}}, Guts [http://www.mangakong.com/manga/Berserk/048.058/139 gives an expression that is on the same level of creepiness] as his signature [[Slasher Smile]], just to show how dangerously enraged he is inside.

* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'' Black*Star, a [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Idiot Hero]], is most dangerous when [[Out-of-Character is Serious Business|he's not yelling at you]].

* In episode 22 of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', after [[Playing with Fire|Natsu]] learns that Lucy has been kidnapped, he captures a mook and drags him across a mountain trail. While dragging the guy, he orders him to reveal where Lucy is being held. When the mook won't answer, Natsu sets him on fire, then calmly declares that if he doesn't answer, the flames won't go out until he's ash.

* In ''[[Genshiken]]'', [[Nice Guy|Sasahara]] enters this when [[Smug Snake|Haraguchi]] starts badmouthing [[True Companions|the Genshiken club]]. He [[Stepford Smiler|keeps himself composed]] as he listens, with the only visual hint being [[Cross-Popping Veins]] around his face.

 

* [[The Punisher]] will vary between Tranquil Fury and [[Unstoppable Rage]], depending on the situation and writer, although sometimes one hides the other. ({{spoiler|The point of the infamous Nicky Cavella incident was to cause him to mess up, and it worked -- once he could no longer hide the [[Unstoppable Rage]] under the veneer of Tranquil Fury, Frank knowingly walked right into the trap, only surviving through outside intervention, and it was only by returning to Tranquil Fury that he successfully ends the arc... and Nicky, ever so slowly.}})

** Everyone keeps referring to the Nicky Cavella incident as [[The Punisher]] in [[Unstoppable Rage]] mode, but it is actually [[The Punisher]] in Tranquil Fury mode. {{spoiler|If he was truly in [[Unstoppable Rage]], he would have charged straight towards Nicky, but instead he just goes from [[Bad Guy Bar]] to [[Bad Guy Bar]] massacring unconnected criminals until the city officials rebury his family. Then he goes after Nicky.}} Tunnel vision is a side effect to Tranquil Fury.

* ''[[Paperinik New Adventures]]'' has Xadhoom. It doesn't look that way, as you usually see her killing Evrons in the most painful way she could think of, but at the end of her introductory story she revealed that if she ever lost control she'd become a ''nova'', and that's when you realize she's in full Tranquil Fury. A later story reveals that Xadhoom is ''unable'' to go into [[Unstoppable Rage]] mode (in the occasion she was mad beyond reason and tried to let her control slip, but she survived and produced a relatively small explosion), and another showed she's actually able to ''weaponize'' her hate when she killed an Evron cyborg capable to absorb emotions by letting her control slip just a little for a single moment, killing the cyborg by indigestion.

 

* Emily Hastings from ''[[An Entry With a Bang]]'' does this when a friend of hers gets killed, toying with the ASF pilot responsible and taking him out methodically weapon-by-weapon.

* These lines from ''[[Team 8]]'' after {{spoiler|Neji demolishes Hinata in the Chuunin Exam preliminaries}} demonstrate both this trope and his knowledge that Naruto will not take this lightly.

* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5945419/1/A_Month_as_Naruto_Uzumaki A Month as Naruto Uzumaki], Sarutobi [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|spends a month as Naruto]] to see how bad the village really treats him. In less than 3 weeks he decides he's seen enough and recalls something the First Hokage told him, "A Hokage must never give into rage. But, should your anger be too much to contain, you must make sure that your anger be three things. Your rage must be cold. Your rage must be reasoned. And your rage must be legendary." In the end, Naruto owns roughly 30% of Konoha, the Uchiha clan is down to six children, and the entire main branch of the Hyuuga clan has been wiped out except for Hinata (Hiashi had told Hanabi about Sarutobi's law).

* In ''[[MSLN Test Dummies]]'', [[Four-Star Badass|Roland]] goes into this when he learns about the screwed-up training battle Crash has gotten into.

 

== Film ==

'''Bruce Banner''': [smiling] "That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."}} }}

** This trope is the reason why Bruce creeps out almost everyone he meets who knows he's the Hulk. On the outside he's calm, soft-spoken, and agreeable, but there's still...something off about his demeanor that makes it clear that a raging beast is lurking right below the surface.

 

== Literature ==

She put a finger to her lips, and he shut up. A thought was coming in the distance. She waited, patiently, skin rippling in brief shivers, until it reached her: [[Big Bad|Ozorne]] had to pay. }}

 

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Tenth Doctor, in contrast to the [[Unstoppable Rage|Ninth Doctor]], is very fond of doing this. At the big showdowns against the Sycorax (Christmas special 2005), the Racnoss (Christmas special 2006), the Family of Blood (2007), and the Vashta Nerada (2008) he has displayed very little emotion. [[No Indoor Voice|Then again, loud is his normal state.]]

** In "The Christmas Invasion", the Doctor kills the Sycorax leader by arising open the floor beneath his feet, announcing "No second chances. I'm that sort of man." Moments later, he has a second moment against the Prime Minister, after she shoots down the retreating fleet, killing thousands needlessly, as he sees it. He talks over her pleas, saying "I could bring down your government with a single word... No... six words. Six." He whispered to her aide, "Don't you think she looks tired?" This ''alters the course of history'' and strongly reverbarates all the way through to the end of series 3 of ''Doctor Who'' and the ''[[Torchwood]]'' miniseries ''[[Torchwood: Children of Earth|Children of Earth]]''.

* Vulcans in every incarnation of ''[[Star Trek]]'' are pictures of perfect tranquility, even when fighting. Whether they take someone out with a nerve pinch, fight hand-to-hand or blast it out with phasers, they always have a blank look of complete calm.

** Sometimes that calm slips a bit, and we get a glimpse of the Hot Green Blood that made them choose this path as an alternative to ''completely destroying themselves.''

{{quote|'''Wilson''': I say, would you mind awfully if you could stand up.

''He stands and Wilson promptly lands a punch on his face.''

* ''[[Chuck]]'', since Intersect 2.0. When he is upset, he is a rather harmless geek as he cannot flash in that state. When he is calm, [[Curb Stomp Battle|run!]]

* Played with hilariously in an episode of ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' . While on court ordered happy pills, Joy turns from blonde bitch to annoyingly calm, even putting up with some obnoxious neighbors who park their trailer right next to hers... until they tag Earl Jr. with a beer can. Even the pills couldn't turn off her [[Mama Bear]] instincts. She explains in a scary happy voice that she's gonna come back in a few days, when the chemical calm wears off, and thrash them in several unpleasant ways. They decide to move before she does.

* Kim from ''[[Yes, Dear]]'' did this once in one episode—by swinging a bat and vandalizing the truck of a contractor with inefficient work performance ''while whistling to herself''.

* On ''[[Babylon 5]]'', when [[Magnificent Bastard|Alfred Bester]] learns that Captain Sheridan may have used his lover (and the mother of his child) as {{spoiler|a living weapon in the liberation of Earth}}, he drops his usual [[Deadpan Snarker]] persona completely and replaces it with blunt threats on Sheridan's life. But he never once raises his voice.

'''Wash:''' "Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die"? }}

* In the ''[[Sherlock]]'' episode "A Scandal in Belgravia," the title character returns to 221B Baker Street to find a number of American agents holding his landlady Mrs. Hudson at gunpoint. He coolly tells Mrs. Hudson to "stop snivelling" and shows little outward change in demeanor; however, his trademark [[Sherlock Scan]] of both Mrs. Hudson and her captor shows, among other things, indications that the man had given her a nasty backhand across the face, and the on-screen text that would normally show Sherlock's various deductions about him is replaced by crosshairs pinpointing possible kill-shots. He then disarms him and coolly calls him an ambulance for injuries hasn't sustained, yet…

 

== Music ==

Opened fire like a lunatic from Vietnam }}

* Scottish traditional song ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v15wEsHg3gY Jock O'Braidosly]'', which describes a Scottish poacher who is ambushed and fatally wounded by a party of English foresters while sleeping in the forest. Leaping to his feet, he props himself against a tree, calmly strings his bow and proceeds to kill six, driving away a single grievously wounded survivor.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Even the home-brew Angry Marines aim for this. While their motto is "Always Angry, All the Time", it's a ''focused'' anger.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'' the Lunar charm Relentless Lunar Fury, a key warrior-type technique that enables a keyword on other Lunar charms, specifically suggests tranquil fury as one of the ways to portray the effect.

 

== Theater ==

* Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of ''[[Shakespeare|Othello]]'' in the BBC TV show, during the climax, was mostly like this.

* In Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy", Shaffer even writes this into the stage directions. The main character has surreptitiously borrowed his neighbor's very expensive furniture to impress a guest, but then there is a power outage and the neighbor comes home unexpectedly, prompting the lead to scramble about replacing the furniture while his girlfriend stalls the neighbor. At some point, the lead accidentally drops a priceless sculpture at his neighbor's feet—and the neighbor, who finally figures out what's going on, simply says to the lead, "I think I'm going to have to smash you." On top of this, the stage directions say that he is speaking "in the quiet voice of the very, very dangerous."

 

== Video Games ==

'''Batman:''' You're about to find out. }}

* Do ''not'' let [[Magical Diary: Horse Hall|Ellen]] find out that you decided to forgive [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Da]][[Bastard Boyfriend|mi]][[Noble Demon|en]]. She will quietly, emphatically back Virginia up as the born-witch kicks you out of the room, stating that you can come back at night to sleep, but otherwise they don't want to see your face. She will then wait until the final exam where she will attempt to blackmail you into dumping Damien, threatening to throw the exam if you refuse to comply. Think you can just break your [[Magically-Binding Contract|promise]]? {{spoiler|Doing so gives you the absolutely darkest ending in the game, as you lose your magic and would lose your memories of all your time in the magical world if not for Damien carrying you off to safety as he promises you he'll help you regain your powers...netting you the "Walking in Darkness" achievement, as his methods are strongly implied to be less than morally pure.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] getting angry is shouting and speaking in an immature tone. [[Mean Character, Nice Actor|Lewis Lovhaug]] getting angry is deathly cold and collected. As ''Cry For Justice'' and ''Holy Terror'' found the hard way, you don't push him to that point.

* ''[[Ink City]]'' saw [[Transformers Prime|Optimus Prime]] go into this when [[Aeon Flux|Trevor]] kidnapped [[The Secret of Kells|Aisling]]. Trevor's insistence on [[Blatant Lies|blatantly lying]] about her presence reminded him all too much of the Decepticons, causing him to very calmly and methodically tear Goodchild's compound apart.

 

== Western Animation ==