History Characters / GunslingerGirl

* StudentTeacherRelationship: With the woman who recruited him into the intelligence services.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Henrietta has a face like dip whenever her handler Jose pays attention to someone other than herself.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Averted. Alessandro actively dislikes redheads and is frustrated when his cyborg arrives with a luscious scarlet mantle.

** Mauve is a dull colour, which might suit her lack of personality.

* IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: After discovering Hilshire only joined the Agency to protect her, Triela decides to run away so he'll have a chance for a normal life. [[spoiler:She barely makes it out the door before running back inside to [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove announce she's going to stay with him till she dies]], though Hilshire doesn't hear this because he's [[DudeLikeShesInAComa unconsious at the time]].]]

* BerserkButton: When a terrorist starts hitting Jose and threatens to do worse "while making your sister watch", this creates a subconscious reminder of her own trauma -- Henrietta responds by beating the man to death with her violin case then killing every terrorist in sight, despite direct orders from Jose not to act until they'd spotted their target.

* TheGlassesComeOff: literally! Her former handler instructed her to be calm and composed while wearing her glasses, so she has to actually remove her glasses in order to remove the mental block and let her fight.

* {{Dojikko}}: Trips often enough in missions and in training, likely due to her not adjusting well to her implants.

* AnyoneCanDie: After Angelica's death, we were led to believe that Beatrice was becoming an AscendedExtra to replace her. Beatrrice started to make several more appearances where previously she had barely featured... then an anti-aircraft gun pits her like an olive. And she's vaporised by a cruise missile.

* FluffyTheTerrible: When Triela was learning hand-to-hand fighting with the [=GIS=], she picked up a nickname. What did the Special Forces call the little killing machine? Lepretto (roughly "bunny") after a child's doll that shares her twintails.

* MeaningfulName: Triela is named after the city of Trier in the German wine-making region of the Mosel Valley, where her handler Hillshire originates from.

* SnuffFilm: She was found in Amsterdam before she was brought to the Agency.

* {{Tsundere}}: Increasingly so to Hillshire, but never to the extent most examples of the trope display.

* GirlishPigtails: Interesting because on duty she is always DressedToKill.

** Her handler could just be pleased to have someone who will silently endure the relentless verbiage her inflicts on those around him.

* GottaHaveBlueHair: Most of the characters in Gunslinger Girl have fairly conservative realistic hair colour and style (Triela's pigtails notwithstanding) - but despite being in all other respects an unexpressive character, Beatrice has ''mauve'' hair.
** Mauve is a dull colour, which might suit her lack of personality.

* SatelliteCharacter: Given less focus than the girls talked about above, however she has a somewhat larger role in the second season of the anime.

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[[quoteright:100:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/henrietta3_2399.jpg]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: Henrietta has a face like dip whenever her handler Jose pays attention to someone other than herself. A significant representative scene from the first series of the anime: Marco is supervising Henrietta and Angelica on the shooting range. Jose arrives - but does not immediately speak to Henrietta, instead greeting Marco and complimenting Angelica on her improving accuracy. Henrietta watches the conversation - and praise - with a silent scowl, and then starts deliberately throwing off her aim to falsely suggest that her own technique is poor. She thus gets rewarded with private tuition with Jose all afternoon!

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: cf. EmotionlessGirl above. She recognises a make of pistol, but not her sister-cyborgs.

* {{Shorttank}}: while Rico's personality is well away from that of a tomboy (cf. PluckyGirl above), neither can she be said to be especially feminine. She has a boy's name, a permanent cropped haircut, and a wardrobe consisting entirely of sweatshirts, jerseys and trousers. This is a reflection of her handler, who treats Rico in a utilitarian way.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Henrietta has a face like dip whenever her handler Jose pays attention to someone other than herself.
** A significant representative scene from the first series of the anime: Marco is supervising Henrietta and Angelica on the shooting range. Jose arrives - but does not immediately speak to Henrietta, instead greeting Marco and complimenting Angelica on her improving accuracy. Henrietta watches the conversation - and praise - with a silent scowl, and then starts deliberately throwing off her aim to falsely suggest that her own technique is poor. She thus gets rewarded with private tuition with Jose all afternoon!

MeaningfulName: Rico is speculated to be named after the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisations Act in U.S. anti-mafia legislation. Closer to home, it is also derived from Enrica, her handler's DeadLittleSister.

* Shorttank: while Rico's personality is well away from that of a tomboy (cf. PluckyGirl above), nor is she especially feminine. She has a boy's name, a cropped haircut, and a wardrobe consisting entirely of sweatshirts, jerseys and trousers. This is a reflection of her handler, who treats Rico in a utilitarian way.

BodyguardCrush: Strong but likely platonic.

* {{Yandere}}: She cannot abide a world where Jose has no affection for her, and would destroy him and her rather than endure it. Must be part of why Jose finds it increasingly difficult to placate her affections, at least until he re-conditions her.

** A significant representative scene from the first series of the anime: Marco is supervising Henrietta and Angelica on the shooting range. Jose arrives - but does not immediately speak to Henrietta, instead complimenting Angelica on her improving accuracy. Henrietta watches with a silent scowl, and then starts deliberately throwing off her aim to falsely suggest that her own technique is poor. She thus gets rewarded with private tuition with Jose all afternoon!
* CulturedWarrior

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: cf. EmotionlessGirl above.

* {{Yandere}}: She's similar to Elsa in their feelings towards their handlers, where she basically says that she also feels towards Jose: "If you don't love me, I'll shoot you." Must be part of why Jose finds it increasingly difficult t placate her affections, at least until he re-conditions her.

* PluckyGirl: Rico has a bright, sunny, genial and bubbly disposition that nothing can seem to dull. Arguably ThePollyanna given that she has a harsh handler and is effectively a slave warrior, but unlike the classic Pollyanna the entire universe is not conspiring to make Rico's life a misery, and she enjoys friends and many benefits too.

* CulturedWarrior

** The most recent manga collection in Japan nails down her origins a little [[spoiler:by revealing that Triela is from, and is at least part ethnically, Tunisian, fitting with the trope in being of mixed ethnicity.]]

* CulturedWarrior
* {{Meganekko}}: Her glasses are sort of a memento of her [[TheHandler handler]], who she can't remember. She does remember his request that she be kinder with them on, so [[TheGlassesComeOff she takes them off when she needs to get work done]].

* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Claes literally goes catatonic after learning of her handler's death and loses memory of him, although it's uncertain whether that is because of her 'systems failure' or if the Agency re-conditioned her to make her operable again.

* IllGirl: Gets injured in the anime and takes the brunt of a large explosion in the manga, she never fully recovers from either. Much is also made of her steadily decline from faulty conditioning before these events.
* LossOfIdentity: Occurs enough to her due to conditioning.

* AnyoneCanDie: After Angelica's death, we were led to believe that Beatrice was becoming an AscendedExtra to replace her, with her starting to make several more appearances where previously she had barely featured... then an anti-aircraft gun pits her like an olive. And she's vaporised by a cruise missile.

* {{Gimmick}}: In the sense of a defining trait, before beliefs or personality Beatrice was distinguished chiefly by her abilities as a bomb-sniffer, being able to literally smell traces of explosive.
* HeroicSacrifice: The one time Beatrice raises her voice beyond a monotone is her scream at Triela to hit the deck as she, mortally wounded, heaves a warhead set to detonate imminently out of a window, and herself along with it.

* LossOfIdentity: Occurs in the final terminal stages of her conditioning posioning.

* SuperPrototpe: After Raballo's death makes her unsuitable for normal combat operations, Claes literally becomes the Technology Department's test bed, outfitted with and testing each new iteration of cybernetics.

ClingyJealousGirl: Henrietta has a face like dip whenever her handler Jose pays attention to someone other than herself.

EmotionlessGirl: inflicted on Henrietta at a later stage when she is reconditioned to take on the late Beatrice's role as a bomb-sniffer following the battle in St. Mark's Campanile. The process 'resets her to factory settings', so to speak, wiping her memories and reducing her to a robotic personality.

LaserGuidedAmnesia: cf. EmotionlessGirl above.

NeuralImplanting: Alongside the EmotionlessGirl above, Henrietta has new skills programmed into her.

AngstWhatAngst: Most cyborgs have their memories or their pre-Agency lives erased in order to remove the pain of past traumas (or make them easier to control, if you're cynical). Rico is unique in that she has full recollection of her time before she was given over to the Agency - which was not in itself a happy experience, with years crippled by birth defects and beset by quarreling parents - and is not at all troubled by years wasted in a hospital bed or being possessed by the Agency.

BadDreams: For all of her bouncy demeanour, Rico has a paralysing, mortal terror of losing the gift of movement that the Agency has given her, and has nightmares about it.

FriendlySniper

PluckyGirl: Rico has a bright, sunny, genial and bubbly disposition that nothing can seem to dull. Arguably ThePollyanna given that she has a harsh handler and is effectively a slave warrior, but unlike the classic Pollyanna the entire universe is not conspiring to make Rico's life a misery, and she enjoys friends and many benefits too.

CoolBigSis: Triela is described as a 'mother hen' to the other cyborgs by her English voice actress, CaitlinGlass.

DarkSkinnedBlond: However she is probably the most level-headed of any character in Gunslinger Girl.

EnsembleDarkhorse: Generally more popular than Henrietta (who is ostensibly the protagonist).

MeaningfulName: Triela is named after the city of Trier in the German wine-making region of the Mosel Valley, where her handler Hilshire originates from.

CalledToAgriculture: She no longer fights, so Claes has a lot more free time than the other cyborgs - she likes to spend her time building a garden.

HumanGuineaPig: This is Claes's role in the Agnecy after the death of her handler makes her unsuitable for combat operations - she literally becomes the Technology Department's test bed, outfitted with and testing each new iteration of cybernetics.

{{Meganekko}}: Her glasses are sort of a memento of her [[TheHandler handler]],someone she can't remember.

PunchClockHero: prior to the death of her handler, Claes compartmentalised her life thoroughly: fighting for the Agency and leisure time spent with her handler were hermetically sealed from one another and she would never let the aspects of one intrude in on the other.

TraumaInducedAmnesia: Claes literally goes catatonic after learning of her handler's death and loses memory of him, although it's uncertain whether that is because of her 'systems failure' or if the Agency suppressed it to make her operable again.

WiseBeyondTheirYears: How many twelve year-old girls do you know with an advanced knowledge of Balzac? She also carries herself primly.

IllGirl: Gets injured in the anime and takes the brunt of a large explosion in the manga, she never fully recovers from either. Much is also made of her steadily decline from conditioning poisoning before these events.

LossOfIdentity: Occurs in the final terminal stages of her conditioning posioning.

TheWoobie: As a consequence of IllGirl above, Angelica excites a great deal of sympathy from many readers - to the extent that many were actually dissatisfied with her appearance in ''Il Teatrino''. Although Angelica was alive at the equivalent point in the manga, the first series of the anime ended with her implied death and many considered her reintroduction to have spoiled a beautiful tragedy.

AnimeAnatomy: When the character is introduced, she is naked underneath a sheet in a hospital recovery room; when Alessandro removes it, the nipples are airbrushed out.

DreamBallet: there is a dream-sequence where Petrushka witnesses her pre-cyborg self, aspiring ballerina Elisabeta, practise her dancing.

GreeneyedRedhead: she does literally have green eyes and red hair! Petrushka also does fulfil the further characteristics of the archetype - she is much more acquainted with hand-to-hand combat than the other cyborgs (FieryRedhead) and does become a LoveInterest (GreenEyes).

HeroesWantRedheads: Averted. Alessandro actively dislikes redheads and is frustrated when his cyborg arrives with a luscious scarlet mantle.

[[MasterOfDisguise Mistress of Disguise]]: this is Petrushka's specialty, trained in it by her handler.

TeacherStudentRomance: Petrushka falls in love with her handler Alessandro; Alessandro, after initially resisting her increasingly obvious affection (incorrectly believing her to be driven by [[BlessedWithSuck cyborg conditioning]] and not wanting to [[HypnotiseThePrincess take advantage of her]]), eventually acknowledges her feelings to be real and genuine and forms a relationship with her. This is not a MentorShip because the pairing is not implicit but actually occurs.

AnyoneCanDie: After Angelica's death, we were led to believe that Beatrice was becoming an AscendedExtra to replace her, with her starting to make several more appearances where previously she had barely featured... then an anti-aircraft gun pits her like an olive. And she's vapourised by a cruise missile.

EmotionlessGirl: Is less expressive than most of the handlers.

{{Gimmick}}: In the sense of a defining trait, before beliefs or personality Beatrice was distinguished chiefly by her abilities as a bomb-sniffer, being able to literally smell traces of explosive.

HeroicSacrifice: the one time Beatrice raises her voice beyond a monotone is her scream at Triela to hit the deck as she, mortally wounded, heaves a warhead set to detonate imminently out of a window, and herself along with it.

SatelliteCharacter: Given less focus than the girls talked about above, however she has a somewhat larger role in the second season of the anime.