Basic Trope: A character is cute and cannot speak.
- Straight: Shantae is a cute little girl who is mute. Everybody adores and dotes on her.
- Exaggerated: Shantae cannot speak or make any sound, even her coughs and sneezes are utterly silent. She is super sweet, and everyone around her uses Baby Talk, and gives her whatever she wants(usually a lollipop or candyfloss so she can get even MORE diabetes!). She is seventeen.
- Downplayed: Shantae is a mute high schooler and the Speech-Impeded Love Interest(or speech-impeded hero with a love interest).
- Justified: Since babies can't speak, silent characters are seen as charming through their association with babies.
- Shantae is cute, sweet, and charming, and just so happens to be mute.
- Inverted: Silent Snarker
- Shantae is cute, mute, but a nasty piece of work.
- Jennifer is an ugly Jerkass Fiery Redhead with a Motor Mouth.
- Cute, but Cacophonic
- Subverted: It turns out that Shantae CAN speak.
- Shantae is not as cute and friendly as she seems.
- Double Subverted: But barely, due to a rare vocal condition. It's why she sticks to sign language, or actual signs. Alternatively, she's an Elective Mute.
- But that was just a bad day, or she was standing up to someone who deserved it. We all have one of those.
- Parodied: Shantae CAN talk, but nobody lets her because of how cute she is, and stick to mollycoddling and babying her, and don't wanna own up to the fact that she can talk because they don't want to shatter the illusion.
- Zig-Zagged: Shantae can't talk because she lost her voice, but then she can talk, but then a traumatic event happens and she loses her voice forever, but maybe someday she'll get it back. Still, some boys make fun of her voice, so she prefers to be an Elective Mute.
- Averted: Shantae is neither cute nor mute, or is one but not the other.
- Enforced: "Shantae's cute, but not cute enough. Let's take away her voice. Sorry, Jamaica, but it looks like we don't need you for a voice actress after all."
- Lampshaded: "You must be Shantae! Is it true that you can't speak?" *nods* "Aww, I knew it! You're just sooo cute!"
- Invoked: Shantae is mute and is aware of the effects of this trope, so she plays up her cuteness to get what she wants. Or, she is naturally cute and stops speaking entirely so as to seem even cuter!
- Shantae loses her voice and is delighted to be seen as a Cute Mute.
- Exploited: Shantae's matchmaking best friend gets her to go out with her crush by priming her for her muteness.
- Defied: "Sis, I know you can speak just fine. Cut the crap." "But I really am mu--oh wait..."
- Discussed: "Shantae is so cute. I wonder if she would be nearly as cute if she weren't mute."
- Conversed: "Anyone else think that the portrayal of mute people as innocent babies is infantilizing towards those with disabilities?" "Maybe sometimes, but you can be cute and still take care of yourself."
- Implied: Derek talks about how he met his cute girlfriend to his best friend Denise, and throughout the story Derek tells, Shantae doesn't appear to have said a word("I asked her out and she nodded her head," "She kissed me on the cheek and I said 'I love you too, babe.'").
- Deconstructed: Shantae feels like she's being infantilized or isn't taken seriously because of her muteness. It's harder to do many things that require speaking, such as ordering coffee at Starbucks or calling out to someone far, far away. Worse yet, some people aren't as patient as others.
- Reconstructed: Shantae learns to make the most of her disability, and finds workarounds these problems, and others learn to give her space(and the ones who don't are simply told to fuck off.). And though she remains cute and innocent, she's still competent and doesn't need anyone to baby her(even if her boyfriend still finds her silence charming in its own way.).
- Played for Laughs: Characters keep forgetting that Shantae is mute, and when they are reminded of it, they go "Awwww!" and give her a hug and a kiss. Shantae facepalms.
- Played for Drama: Others see Shantae's silence as haughtiness, thinking she sees herself as too good to waste her breath talking to people, rather than a legitimate condition.
- Played for Horror: A pedophilic rapist kidnaps Shantae. Because she is nonverbal, she can't cry for help.
- Plotted a Good Waste: The writer wanted to represent mute children.
*blinks*
