Basic Trope: A character, who speaks very little, if at all.
- Straight: Gregor only rarely speaks, his words carrying a lot more weight.
- Exaggerated:
- Gregor can effortlessly go on months/years/centuries without speaking a word.
- The Voiceless.
- Downplayed:
- Gregor addresses what's necessary, although like Hemingway.
- Gregor doesn't talk much unless the people around him are talking about something that he's interested in.
- Justified:
- Gregor dislikes pointless small talk.
- Gregor has low self-esteem and feels he hasn't anything important to say.
- Gregor is a foreigner and hasn't learned much of another language. Bonus points if he's Eloquent In His Native Tongue.
- Gregor acknowledges all too clearly how many people can talk their heads off and never say anything with substance. He prefers to say a lot with very little, because it has plenty more weight.
- Gregor has a Compelling Voice But since he suffers from Power Incontinence, he therefore doesn't speak unless he wants to use his power, or has some way to turn it off.
- Gregor has grown up in a family, community or culture where silence and brevity are revered.
- Gregor grew up in a whole family of Motor Mouths, so he couldn't get very many words into family discussions without being interrupted.
- Gregor is a Humanoid Abomination which still doesn't grasp human language.
- Gregor's speech borders on The Unintelligible, so he feels there's not much point to him talking a lot.
- Gregor prefers to observe and listen to others, figuring that he can learn more that way.
- Gregor's vocal cords were ripped out in order to save his life from a deadly lung disease in his childhood.
- Gregor has taken a vow of silence for religious reasons.
- Gregor has severe social anxiety.
- Gregor is mute.
- Inverted: Gregor is a Motor Mouth, meaning that he talks quite fast and quite a lot.
- Subverted: Gregor starts out quiet, but when he finds a good friend in Johnathon, he starts talking a lot more.
- Double Subverted: That is, until Johnathon quietly tells him that it's really not like him to talk so much. Gregor then goes back to being quiet.
- Parodied: Gregor says absolutely nothing, communicating only with speech bubbles that other characters can apparently see, and find completely normal.
- Zig Zagged: Depending on his mood, Gregor either barely speaks at all, or talks almost constantly.
- Averted: Gregor likes to speak just for the joy of it.
- Enforced:
- Gregor's actor doesn't speak English, or knows very little of it.
- Gregor's actor is mute.
- Can't have Beware the Quiet Ones without, you know… a Quiet One.
- Lampshaded:
- "What do you know, Gregor finally said something for the first time in four episodes."
- Or:
Gregor: ...
Danny: That's what you always say. - Invoked: Gregor, normally a chatterbox, decides to speak only when absolutely necessary, as he wants to be taken seriously whenever he says something to avoid Poor Communication Kills.
- Exploited: The big bad Tim knows that Gregor doesn't talk much. He incorporates this into part of his Hannibal Lecture to Gregor, claiming that Gregor doesn't talk much because he feels his opinions don't matter to his True Companions. This provokes Gregor into being both noisy and evil.
- Defied:
- Gregor realises he is quiet and decides to start talking more, to see if he likes it.
- Gregor's friends try to get him to open up more.
- Discussed:Alice: Bob, how can we get Gregor to open up more?
Bob: That's a hard thing to do, Alice. - Conversed: "It's always these guys in the show to always have less lines than the others."
- Deconstructed:
- Gregor does have many important things to say, but is never given the opportunity to say them. This creates frustration in Gregor, and Poor Communication Kills in everyone else.
- Others start to view Gregor as rude, arrogant, and apathetic because of his quietness or view him as a weirdo.
- Reconstructed:
- Gregor learns how to keep his sentences short and sweet, while at the same time delivering them with maximum impact. So now when he tries to tell the others something, everybody listens.
- Gregor's companions know his quietness means he simply doesn't have anything to say so they agree not to misjudge him.
- Gregor agrees to only talk whenever he feels like it.
- Played For Laughs: Gregor's inner thoughts are very intricate, poetic, and philosophical, but when he actually speaks, it's about something ridiculously mundane.
- Played For Drama: When Gregor says more than one or two sentences at a time, his friends realize that something serious is going on.
...let's go back to The Quiet One...
