Basic Trope: A sniper who is emotionally detached, grim, and determined.
- Straight: Gustav is the team's sniper. He is emotionally detached and lives farther down the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism than all of his allies.
- Exaggerated:
- His side just suffered a massive, massive loss, and they lost the war and they're all going to die horribly. Gustav doesn't bat an eye.
- Gustav snipes with literal shards of ice and never express himself unless its in a cold and rational way.
- Downplayed: Gustav is a Cold Sniper and Consummate Professional when working. Outside of it he's a Nice Guy.
- Justified:
- Sniper doctrine (or any sort of killing) — detach yourself from the enemy. You're often alone or with a spotter too.
- Gustav is a literal sniping machine! Emotions aren't only irrelevant to him, they would get in the way of the duty he was built for.
- Gustav follows a religion that mandates Stoicism.
- Inverted:
- Gustav is positively outright bonkers.
- Or he's a Hot-Blooded Boisterous Bruiser who knocks back a pint every time he scores a headshot.
- Or he's a Friendly Sniper.
- Or he's actually kind of nervous and high-strung when people, friend or foe, are within twenty feet of him, but functions well as a sniper because it keeps him away from the bulk of the combat and lets him work alone.
- Or he's a Heroic Comedic Sociopath inflicting hilarious misery and torment on the enemy force of Sociopathic Soldiers.
- Subverted:
- Gustav is set up as a Cold Sniper, but upon meeting him, we learn that he's a Friendly Sniper.
- Or, when the new guy meets him, he's cold and distant, but that's because he's a Sugar-and-Ice Guy.
- Gustav isn't actually a sniper, the rifles he carries is actually a Teleport Gun that he uses to get up and personal with his enemies.
- Gustav does not emote very expressively, but five minutes into the conversation with the new guy, it becomes clear that's just a personality trait, and he is positively indignant at the way the enemy army invaded his country, blew up his house, and derailed everyone's lives, and he is not going to let them just continue unopposed.
- Double Subverted:
- Gustav is set up as a Cold Sniper, but upon meeting him, we learn that he's a Friendly Sniper... in social situations. When he's later seen in combat, he's utterly cold and remorseless (which is possibly why he's relaxed and friendly outside of combat; it just doesn't get to him at all).
- When Gustav does get up close and personal by teleporting from his sniper position, he fights them one-versus-ten with the tranquility of a wise old master of martial arts.
- Parodied:
- Gustav, who regularly destroys enemy aircraft with a single shot of a rifle, laments failing the sniper test numerous times for not being stoic enough.
- Gustav is normal. He's just from a particularly cold place.
- Gustav is an airsoft or paintball player. He still plays out exactly like a Cold Sniper.
- Zig Zagged:
- When heroes meet Gustav, he is very cold... but that's because his girlfriend ditched him. His mood swings rather unpredictably from that point on.
- Gustav is cold towards non-snipers because he feels unable to relate to them and their experiences as opposed to his own, and vice versa. As such, he comes off as cold and distant to them. With fellow snipers, because he is able to relate to them better, he is a lot more convivial. His mood varies depending on who he's with.
- Gustav is outwardly cold as ice. Secretly, he is a Warrior Poet. If he has a Sniper Duel with a Worthy Opponent he respects, he will write an elegy for him, burn it in a private ceremony and bury the ashes when no one is looking.
- Gustav is a Cold Sniper in the field when he's busy sniping and a Friendly Sniper outside of it.
- Averted: Snipers are just like every other soldier.
- Enforced: "I think we need The Stoic for our True Companions, and it also seems to be missing characters effective at long range. Hmm".
- Lampshaded: "Oh, that's Gustav. Don't try to make him change his expression - it never works".
- Invoked: Gustav convinces some villagers to spread the rumor that he's a heartless bastard to scare the enemy soldiers.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- "I'm not the Terminator with a sniper rifle. C'mon, I'll introduce you to the rest of the squad".
- Gustav doesn't like sniper rifles, and prefers to get up close and personal.
- Discussed: "Are all snipers that emotionless?"
- Conversed: "Five bucks says the guy with the scoped rifle is an ice-cold hardass".
- Deconstructed:
- Gustav is a war criminal and an unquestioning lapdog for his side, which regularly commits genocide.
- Or he's suffering from PTSD... and he eventually cracks.
- Gustav's comrades don't like him much, thanks to his coldness and cynicism.
- Reconstructed:
- That's just enemy propaganda.
- "If I had PTSD, I would have been shipped home".
- Gustav is a sociopath, so he doesn't feel anything when he kills people. But he knows he should stay out of trouble too.
- Gustav isn't the social type, but he does care about his squad and proves it by providing the intel they need from afar while also covering their backs. His cold demeanor reminds them that war is a serious matter that he takes seriously, including helping to make sure they can all return home alive and well.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Gustav is cold not because of the stereotype, but because the author is making a point about the horrors of war.
- Played for Laughs: Gustav is The Comically Serious member of the team.
- Played for Drama: Gustav is a stone-cold sociopath with no remorse nor care about who he's shooting.
- Played for Horror: Gustav is a Spree Killer-for-hire. He will accomplish the assassination his employers hired him for, as long as they don't mind him racking a large body count and toying with his targets (shoot the kneecap off one, force people to try to rescue him, kill the wounded, wound the new guy, rinse and repeat).
Targeting Cold Sniper...
