Mellow Fellow

"Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming jasmine tea?"

Have you ever noticed that guy who never really gets mad or excited, or shows any emotion outside nonchalance? Meet the Mellow Fellow. These people are easy-going and content with their position and... nearly everything around them. Often a benevolent or at least affable character due to rarely being confrontational.

What differentiates this character type from his more serious cousin The Stoic is that while the latter rarely conveys real emotions outside blunt seriousness, the Mellow Fellow is usually more along the lines of being very positive and relaxed in nature, to the point it nulls out any other emotion. They are laid-back and not here for conflict and dealing with unnecessary drama. Usually, this trait has the side effect of making Mellow Fellows seem rather slow or dim. Though don't always mistake their nonchalant attitude in life for idiocy or carelessness, as they can be incredibly perceptive, intelligent, or even show a more serious side when they decide it's a Matter of Life and Death and get down to business.

Their inability to take offense very frequently gets exploited and makes them an Extreme Doormat. They are often very flexible, used as The Chew Toy, due to their ability to suffer endless abuse without expressing much harrowing pain to the ordeal. Don't think one is incapable of biting back, however; after all, you can still be assertive without losing your cool.

Interestingly, in a Red Oni, Blue Oni duo, the Mellow Fellow can be either one. If they are paired with a serious and straitlaced character, they'll be the Red Oni. If paired with a hot-tempered and reckless character, then they'll be the Blue Oni.

Characters with this trait are often Phlegmatic in Four-Temperament Ensemble, and their Character Alignment is neutral on the law-chaos axis (i.e. Neutral Good, True Neutral, or very rarely Neutral Evil). Compare with the Nerves of Steel, who's calm even under pressure, and Dissonant Serenity, for when someone is oddly undisturbed by a disturbing situation. Contrast the Nervous Wreck, who has likely never known the concept of "calm" in their entire life, the Large Ham who's incapable of being poised and mellow, and the Drama Queen. A possible cause of this is a character being The Stoner.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Osaka from Azumanga Daioh is such a space-case that she mostly comes across as blissfully unaware of what's going on around her.
• Bleach: Kyoraku is affable to both allies and enemies alike, rarely raises his voice and would really prefer not to have to fight anyone, being of the belief that the moment two factions engage in war they both become evil. Even as Chad tries his damn hardest to attack Kyoraku, he simply settles for dodging in the hopes that Chad will get the hint and give up without a fight; when that doesn't work, Kyoraku knocks him out and has him sent to the Fourth Division for medical assistance before he's locked up.
• Makoto from Free! is the laid-back, good-natured, perpetually smiling Team Mom who holds the team together through his mature, understanding manner. He only deviates from this trope by being very easily frightened.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
  • Lucoa's carefree demeanor hardly ever strays. Unless if you bring up her Old Shame involving her sister and alcohol.
  • Likewise, Takiya is always laid back (except when he's drunk). He even stays calm when Tohru reveals she's a dragon.
• My-HiME: Shizuru, is a very laid-back person, but she also effectively runs the Student Council. She tends to trick Haruka into taking on larger workloads, but when Searrs invades the school, she performs her duties with quiet efficiency. She also enjoys tea and is very skilled at the Nonchalant Dodge. Just don't threaten Natsuki's life or well-being. That will earn you her considerable wrath.
• Admiral Kizaru from One Piece is very laid-back and easygoing, speaking rather slowly and occasionally drawing out the last word of his sentences, which is strange considering that such behavior is very contradictory with his Devil Fruit power. No matter what happens he never gets angry or raises his voice. Ever. Nor does he ever lose his cool under stress. All of that begins to crack during the Egghead arc, where he not only faces off against Luffy's Gear 5, but he's also forced to fight Sentomaru and kill Vegapunk, two of his oldest friends.
• Persona 4: The Animation. The main character Yu Narukami is no doubt adapted this way with his nonchalant, and idealist traits. This is largely because he's supposed to be an Everyman that the audience, (and all the characters) can connect to. His calmness and positiveness are used to bring out a dry sense of humor from the MC while also invoking a theme of "bonds between people" with the other characters. The only times his easy-going attitude breaks are when his friends and loved ones are threatened or something goes against his morals.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Meliodas is a very calm and relaxed individual despite being the Sin of Wrath. When he isn't mellow, though, is when you should be scared.
• Judai/Jaden, the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, is this when not dueling, when he becomes more Hot-Blooded. Motegi/Bellowski, the Moke Moke duelist, on the other hand, is so laid back, he puts himself, and nearly everybody else, to sleep.

Fan Works

• Between Dreams and Memories Universe: Bear Hybrids and Ancestors are described to be typically "very calm and collected people who are mostly at peace with themselves". However, given the fanfic series chronicles events that primarily take place in a Crapsack World via the source material, they aren't given much focus in the overall plot.

Films — Animation

• In Turning Red, contrasting Ming's Drama Queen tendencies, Jin is a lot more patient, calm, reserved, and supportive of his daughter learning to be her own person.

Films — Live-Action

• Rudy Cox from Bagdad Cafe never gets caught up in Brenda's histrionics, instead offering mild commentary. He seems like nothing would ever upset him.
• The Dude from The Big Lebowski IS this very trope. Circumstances, and a wanted man with the same name just won't let him be, though.
• The titular dad from Dad, the Beard Gorilla and I is a very laid-back guy who used to space out a lot and doesn't seem to care that his attitude attracts bullies. He thinks getting emotional because of others is stupid and says that he'll be fine no matter what happens to him. According to his Big Little Brother (the beard gorilla) says the only time he saw his older brother cry was at his wife's funeral.

Live-Action TV

• Jeff Winger on Community subverts and deconstructs this trope. He wants you to think that he's permanently laid-back, cooler-than-cool and that nothing ever bothers him. However, the only reasons that's ever true is because he's utterly self-obsessed and doesn't really care about other people's problems even if he causes them, a ditherer who avoids committing himself to anything so that he doesn't have any potentially troubling obligations, and a Control Freak who tries to manipulate everything and everyone around him to be exactly the way he wants them to be so he doesn't have to worry about anything. The frequently absurd lengths he often ends up going to in order to make sure everyone thinks he's cool and above everything, and how tense and edgy he gets whenever things look like they're getting out of his control, ultimately just serve to prove how uptight and incapable of truly relaxing he really is.
• Bret of Flight of the Conchords is easygoing, nonchalant, and near-impossible to upset or rile up. His bandmate and best friend Jemaine, meanwhile, is likewise chill and unemotional, but so gloomy and snarky as to be The Stoic rather than in any way mellow.
• Marshall Mann of In Plain Sight, in strong counterpoint to his highstrung partner Mary Shannon. The only time we ever see him less than confident was the episode featuring his father, who doubted his son was cut out to be a U.S. Marshall.
• A sketch on Saturday Night Live early in Barack Obama's first term shows Obama (Fred Armisen) as someone who never gets mad, and his chief of staff Rohm Emmanuel is irritated by this. Emmanuel has an Imagine Spot where Obama Hulks Out and runs roughshod over some obstructive congresspeople as "The Rock Obama," who defenistrates his enemies.
  • Key & Peele had a similar idea in their series of "Obama's Anger Translator" sketches, in which the mellow, diplomatic pronouncements of Obama (played by Peele) were "translated" into raging tirades by his translator Luther (played by Key). The real Obama liked it, and invited Key to translate for him in 2015.
• Joel Robinson from Mystery Science Theater 3000 is pretty laid back, mostly taking his situation in stride and seldom getting upset. As the KTMA Opening Theme theme says: "When you got lemons, you make lemonade." It makes the select few times over the course of the show where Joel actually raises his voice or expresses outright anger and frustration over the movie he and the 'bots are watching that much more noticeable.
• In The Serpent Queen, King Henri II is generally shown to be very passive and indecisive, and also Super Gullible and easily influenced.

Podcasts

• Wooden Overcoats: Georgie Crusoe is a female version. Nothing ever gets under her skin, which is fortunate, given who she works for. Antigone spends much of "Flip Flap Flop" trying to "flap" the utterly unflappable Georgie, but eventually admits that it's hopeless. Until the other visiting undertakers disrespect Rudyard and Antigone. Then, Georgie completely loses it, and puts several people in the hospital with the ensuing rampage.

Video Games

• Kagura Mutsuki of BlazBlue: Chronophantasma is a laid-back Nice Guy who just seems interested in wooing ladies, drinking booze and having fun, to the point where you'd be amazed, he could even function as head of the Duodecim and third-highest ranking member of the library. As the main page states, however, Kagura is actually very competent and has a lot of Hidden Depths.
• Coffee Talk:
  • Despite being a werewolf who goes through monthly "Furies," Gala is easily the calmest and most easygoing of the cast. While he displays an average range of emotions his expressions are always subdued, and he never raises his voice... with one major exception: when he appears in the coffee shop on the night of the full moon after not being able to restrain himself in time.
  • In Episode 2, Lucas is chill new customer who enters the café with a big smile on his face and talks casually with the other patrons.
• Devil May Cry: It's Dante's chief characterization. While he doesn't really like his job, he takes it all in good fun, and he always has his calm smile most of the time. Contrast this with his twin Vergil, who's very serious and strait-laced.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Rex is a chill, easygoing colonist who disassociates himself from the Helios and hangs out at the bar with the people he loves, platonically, romantically, or sexually.
• In the Dysfunction Junction of Pillars of Eternity, Edér stands out as being pretty easy-going and relaxed, even if his humor is pretty bleak. He has his issues — the Saint's War left its scars — but mostly manages to keep them under control. How much of it is a general good nature, and how much of it comes from the pipe he is never seen without, is unclear.
• Pokémon:
  • Quagsire is an extremely laid-back and easygoing Pokémon. It doesn't even care if it bumps its head on rocks or boats while swimming.
  • White striped Basculin are gentle-natured and are even classified as the "Mellow Pokémon." This is in sharp contrast to their red and blue-coloured counterparts.
  • As far as human characters go, Marlon, the Water-type gym leader from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, is very easygoing, and chooses to not get involved with Team Plasma or hold a grudge against them because "the ocean accepts all rivers."
• Potion Permit: Contrasting his diligent but uptight twin brother, Dean is laid-back and more trusting towards the Chemist than Derrek.
• Sig from Puyo Puyo is this to the point that his mellowness frequently talked about by characters in-universe. It's apparently at least partially caused by him having been born with only half a soul.
• October from the Richman series is usually mellow when something happens to him, even when something is stolen from him, he just calmly scolds the stealer.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic is thoroughly easy-going and hard to break, rarely holding grudges against even antagonistic characters.
  • Big the Cat, who is portrayed as a very easy-going character who's content with his quiet and simple life.
• South Park: The Fractured but Whole: The New Kid will almost always remain chill in the face of danger.

Visual Novels

• Blake from Daughter for Dessert is never shown to get angry or excited about anything, even when surprised or when people make jokes at his expense.
• The Fruit of Grisaia: Sachi’s mood never varies from a low-level polite friendliness. No anger, no joy, no sadness, no stress. It starts to worry Yuuji.
• Accel in SC2VN doesn't show much besides mild amusement, even if he's talking about snoring bunkmates and awful practice conditions.

Web Comics

• How to be a Werewolf: In stark contrast to most other werewolves Isaac seems perpetually chill when not pulled into in an active fight. Doing such things as floating relaxing on his back in the lake rather than participate in his pack's constant bickering. His reaction to Thomas chasing off Ella and thus ensuring their pack will miss an important meeting with the council is a mild "play stupid games win stupid prizes" instead of the worry, frustration and panic the others display.
• Bob Smithson from The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! is this, enduring all manner of insane situations and generally maintaining a calm, optimistic demeanor. One tends to doubt he really understands everything that's happening to him, but he proves remarkably sensible when decisions have to be made.

Web Video

• Caduceus Clay from Critical Role is by far the most even tempered and easy-going member of the Mighty Nein. His calm, unflappable demeanor leads many of the Nein to turn to him when they need moral guidance, and even when he's genuinely upset, he tends towards Tranquil Fury, rather than open hostility. Occasionally played for laughs when it's his turn to be the Butt-Monkey.
  Caduceus: I don't mean to raise my voice... (tone and demeanor are exactly the same as usual)
• JC Caylen from Escape the Night. Despite being in a life-or-death situation, JC stays composed and upbeat, never losing his calm demeanour. Him being The Stoner may have something to do with it as well.

Western Animation

• Jake the Dog from Adventure Time is as laid back as his best friend Finn is a Hot-Blooded Determinator.
• Air Programmes International produced Around the World in Eighty Days, which features Phileas Fogg attempting to circle the Earth in eighty days to win the hand of Belinda Maze. No matter what circumstances nor what deviltry Mister Fix concocts, Fogg remains unflappable. Fogg routinely cites an apt maxim and is always Crazy-Prepared.
• Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender fits this trope to a "T": Soft-spoken, gentle, approachable, patient, and always calm and collected, regardless of the situation. Case in point: during his segment in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," he's confronted by a mugger. Anyone else would either turn tail and run or try to fight off the thief. But Iroh? He just casually points out his weak stance, gives him some pointers, and then gives him some life advice over a cup of tea.
• Bugs Bunny seemed to gradually evolve into such as the Looney Tunes series progressed, especially under Chuck Jones's pen.
• Cleveland Brown was this in his earliest appearances in Family Guy. When he gained center focus in The Cleveland Show, he became more of a Cloudcuckoolander.
• Pildit of The Dreamstone acts as such Depending on the Writer. His speech is perpetually deadpan, and he is prone to Wasn't That Fun? observations whenever the villains outright attack him.
• Bo Sheep from the U.S. Acres segments of Garfield and Friends, only punctuated by his hippy mannerisms. His comics incarnation, though similarly good natured, is more of a Keet.
• The Huckleberry Hound Show. Huckleberry Hound's defining shtick is from his perpetual nonchalant and deadpan reactions to suffering slapstick abuse from the universe around him.
  • Repeated in Yo Yogi!. One of Huck's limelight episodes is even named this trope and is naturally centered around his hard-to-anger persona.
  • The very same guy who voiced Huckleberry Hound also voiced an unnamed wolf character who showed up in three Droopy cartoons and one cartoon of his own that had a very similar relaxed personality. No matter what emotion he is feeling he almost always speaks in the same mellow drawl. And despite being the villain in two of the Droopy cartoons his voice completely lacks malice. He often doesn't even exhibit pain from injuries that would have other cartoon villains screaming and tends to just snark or calmly walk off whistling instead.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Luka Couffaine is a fairly relaxed young man, in contrast to Marinette's other love interest Adrien Agreste, a Broken Ace Stepford Smiler. That being said, Luka does have his limits, as seen in "Silencer".
• From My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Tree Hugger follows all the credentials of a cliché hippy. She doesn't seem to take Discord's threats all too dramatically either.
• Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: In “Tuning In”, the Jazzberries hire a “relaxation expert” named Lebowski who definitely fits this trope. Under Lebowski’s tutelage, bandleader Louis also briefly becomes one himself, although this lasts all of five minutes before something stresses him out enough that he returns to his normal persona.
• Jackie-Lynn Thomas from Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a laid-back skater girl.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Shadow Weaver might not have changed morally since joining the Rebellion, but Shadow Weaver has become fairly relaxed and laid back, rarely losing her temper even when her new allies vehemently disagree with what she does. Still, this is a stark contrast to her behavior in the first season, where she would always lash out and threaten Adora and Catra whenever they misbehave in her eyes.
• Steven Universe:
  • Sour Cream, one of Steven's and Lars' friends, is very laid back, though he also has issues with his stepfather.
  • There's also Flourite, a permafusion of six gems ^note For reference, the three remaining original Crystal gems, one of whom is a two-gem fusion, can't keep their resulting four-gem fusion stable for very long at all, who takes time even in a crisis to say things calmly and slowly. It's implied that this is due to the amount of time it takes for six gems to co-ordinate their thoughts, though (despite Gems being The Ageless) it fits with her general "grandmother" aesthetic.
• In Taz-Mania, Taz's father Hugh is hardly ever seen without a laid-back demeanor and a half-eyed smile on his face.
• Droopy from the Tex Avery MGM Cartoons. No matter what happens to him, he never gets the slightest bit agitated, even when beating up on his opponents. Early episodes have him breaking character and becoming excited at the end, but that was quickly dropped.
• Jerry Gourd from VeggieTales appears to show shades of this most of the time, in mild contrast to that of his brother Jimmy Gourd. It all comes from the fact that Jerry seems calmer and more sensible than Jimmy, as well as not being quite as talkative.
• Wander from Wander over Yonder is a unique combination of this trope and a Keet, making him both a Red, and a Blue Oni, to his saner best friend with a Hot-Blooded streak, Sylvia.
• In Disney's incarnations of the Winnie the Pooh stories:
  • Eeyore is an odd deconstruction of this trope. While his trademark characteristic is how endlessly miserable he is, it actually rarely seems to harbor him, his demeanor being completely deadpan and tending to fall to breakdowns a lot less often than his more enthusiastic friends. In the original A.A. Milne books, however, he leans more toward a Grumpy Old Man.
    Pooh: Are you all right, Eeyore?
    Eeyore: Been better... been worse too.
  • Pooh himself is an easygoing, laid-back fellow who never lets anything get him down. He's never even gotten angry.
• Work It Out Wombats!: Sammy generally has an easy-going, relaxed personality. He inherited this trait from his dad, Quique. Quique stands out for remaining patient with Mr. E, even when he kept throwing tantrums in his square-drawing class.

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