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Basic Trope: A character is quiet and reserved, but also soft and emotional. This character's emotional side that is more prevalent when they are with people that make them feel comfortable, like their not-love-interest.

  • Straight: Alice appears to be The Quiet One, but she has deep emotions she lets out only with people she feel safe with.
  • Exaggerated: Alice is a stuttering, fretful Nervous Wreck when any sort of social interaction is involved. But through The Power of Friendship, she becomes a natural-born leader, and maybe even grows a spine in the process.
  • Downplayed: Alice can be kind if she doesn't know you. She just shows it more around her friends.
  • Justified:
    • Alice is a Shrinking Violet.
    • Alice needs to stay focused and to control her emotions.
    • Alice has No Social Skills and doesn't know how to properly express herself toward other people. The closest she usually gets to most people is typically from behind a corner.
    • Alice doesn't have the power of trust going well for her.
  • Inverted: The Baroness.
  • Subverted: She turns out to be The Social Expert, and appearing quiet and unnoticed was the best way to test the hero and put her scheme right.
  • Double Subverted: But it was very agreeable for her, because that's how she would naturally be if she relied on something else than manipulation. And now that she has told the heroes, she can genuinely behave that way.
  • Parodied: Charlie is in love with Alice. His friends tell him that she is not going to pay attention to him, and she seems uninterested. Charlie's friend Dany successively convinces him that Stalking is Love, that All Girls Want Bad Boys and that he should just eat more peanut butter, because peanut is somehow linked to the bee's pollination, and bees are linked with spring, and Saint-Valentine comes in spring. Alice seems unimpressed, and remains stoic, until he kindly asks her to go out with him... at which point she squees and reveals to have been just as much interested.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice is that way because she's traumatized, but then she heals, but then she realizes it's useful, but then decides just to be natural.
  • Averted: Alice has no problem talking about her feelings.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded:
    Bob: "Look, I know Alice may seem a bit apathetic and withdrawn at first but if you take the time to get to know her, you'll find she's actually a sweet, wonderful person."
    Charlie: "You only say that because you're the only one Alice ever acts 'sweet' and 'wonderful' around."
  • Invoked: Bob wants to know if generally pleasant and peaceful heroine Alice is interested in him, but finds her general distant kindness hard to interpret.
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Deconstructed: It takes her a lot to talk about her feelings...
  • Reconstructed: ...But ultimately she does, and everyone succumbs to her Shrinking Violet charm.
  • Played For Laughs: Alice is a quiet, emotionless Stalker with a Crush for Bob, who at first sees her as one Relationship Upgrade away from psycho girlfriend. Then he finally says hi to her, and she suddenly smiles and reveals she's always wanted someone to talk to her... and finally glomps him.

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