Basic Trope: The Stoic visibly expresses emotion after some significant event.
- Straight: Bob has seen many things good and bad, and has never shown a hint of emotion. When he sees his daughter Alice die, he cries.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has seen The End of the World as We Know It, the death of his parents, the birth of Alice, his daughter, and he's never shown anything but a stony face, until he sees Alice in a pool of her own blood, at which point he has a complete breakdown.
- Bob seems totally stoic, but when we get into his head we learn it is entirely a façade.
- Downplayed: Bob has always been a stoic sort of person, and when he sees Alice die, he sheds a Single Tear.
- Justified:
- Bob is a Reality Warper, whose powers are tied to his emotions. He maintains his stoicism, lest he harms those around him, but when the Big Bad kills Alice, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, powers and all.
- Every trauma that Bob suffers pushes him closer to the edge; watching his daughter die is the final straw for his self-control.
- Bob’s not a robot, and is just as capable of emotion as other people. He doesn't usually express said emotion, but watching his own daughter die was just too much.
- Inverted: Bob is a highly emotional man, most of the time, but after seeing Alice die he is stone cold stoic.
- Subverted: Bob sees Alice die, and it looks like he might betray some feeling, but it doesn't come.
- Double Subverted: Until he's alone.
- Parodied: Bob gets slapped in the face, a bucket of paint dumped on him, is involved in a car crash, and yet never shows emotion, until Alice knocks his coffee out of his hand. At which point he lets out a Big "NO!".
- Zig Zagged: Bob seems to be about to show emotion after Alice dies, but he holds it in. When he's alone trying to let the tears flow but still, they don't come, but the next time he's with his companions, the waterworks open up.
- Averted: Bob, stone-faced as ever tries to save Alice from her horrible fate, but cannot. Even after this, his face shows no emotion, and his voice wavers not at all.
- Enforced: "Bob's seeming lack of emotion is driving viewers away. We need to show that he does have feelings and he does care."
- Lampshaded: "Wait, I thought Bob didn't have feelings."
- Invoked: Knowing that Alice is the person Bob cares about most, the Big Bad arranges for her to die in front of him, while he can do nothing about it.
- Exploited:
- During Bob's moment of emotion, the enemy attacks and defeats him.
- The only way to activate the MacGuffin is through a powerful show of emotion. Bob's friends stage a really convincing murder scene, involving Alice so he can activate the MacGuffin.
- Defied: Bob, knowing that Alice is about to die and there's nothing he can do about it, actively suppresses his emotions, so he can keep his focus on getting the job done.
- Discussed: "Don't assume I don't have emotions, just because I don't show them. If you push me hard enough, you'll know more about my emotions than you ever wanted to."
- Conversed: "Wow, Bob is a crazy badass when calm. Imagine what he would be like if he lost his cool!"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob's one break from stoicism, a fit of raging anger towards Alice, makes her decide he doesn't love her, ultimately driving the person he cares about most away from him.
- OR: Bob works for the police department, and after crying at his daughter's death he is deemed too close to the case, and too emotionally involved, and is taken out of it.
- Reconstructed:
- Until he proves that he cares about her, by saving her from a life or death situation, while showing the same righteous anger towards her attacker.
- Afterwards, Bob pursues the case independently, and solves it, before anyone else could, because his burst of emotion gave him a single-minded resolve to see his daughter's killers brought to justice.
- Played For Laughs:
- It's a series where the characters keep trying to crack each other up, but Bob can keep a straight face through every joke he hears. One person tells a really funny joke, and then Bob is visibly trying really hard not to laugh.
- On the other hand, Bob tries not to laugh when Alice says something really stupid.
- Played For Drama:
- When Bob's stoicism melts into a face of absolute horror, everyone knows that the heroes have failed, and they are doomed.
- When Bob's stoicism melts into the face of Unstoppable Rage, everyone knows that the Big Bad is a dead man, and it's not going to be pretty.
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