Troperville
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Johan, trapped in a burning building with the only two people he cares about pointing guns at him.
"I'm calmer than you are."
There's maiming and killing afoot. Screaming and cursing, clatter of swords, bang of guns. Faces distorted with pain and hate. It's terrifying, but it is to be expected.
But what, when you see peace in the middle of horror? One is smiling — not vicious, not insane, not stoic — but calm, gentle... seeming almost enlightened. As they slit throats left and right. They are the eye of the storm, the calm center of destruction and their serenity is so off that it's more terrifying than any fury.
Villains and heroes can be dissonantly serene in battle mode, but it's rarely the main character who does that. Mysterious and frail-looking characters of whom one wouldn't expect such prowess often make it look like the easiest thing in the world to vanquish the enemy.
Another deceivingly harmless state of mind, although uncomprehending: Psychopathic Manchild. Also likely to overlap with While Rome Burns. Unfunny is this trope played for laughs. Tranquil Fury seems similar on paper but is very different in practice.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Many of the eponymous warriors in Claymore, but especially Teresa of the Faint Smile, who is named for her habitual demonstration of the trope.
- Naruto has a group of characters raised on Tranquil Fury (ANBU), but Sai seems to be a special exception that falls into this.
- The Fifth Mizukage appears to maintain a smile at all times, even when threatening to kill her bodyguard because she thinks he called her "old" (he didn't by the way).
- Suigetsu fits this partially: as Kisame noted, ever since he was a kid he's always smiled even while he's mutilating people, but if something bad might happen to him he'll display a more normal range of facial emotion.
- Phantom Thief X from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro.
- Grove from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, when he does that spirit attack thing. In his case, it can be justified: When not in his spirit form, Grove is immensely weak and bedridden; using the power nearly kills him every time, but he's free from his crippled body while it's active.
- Crusnik 02 (aka Abel Nightroad) in many scenes of Trinity Blood.
- Soujiro in Rurouni Kenshin.
- Ultimo from the manga of the same name, is a robot boy that embodies good and is always smiling. Even as he tells he is threatening his mortal enemy, ripping off one of his arms or indirectly killing nearby civilians during their fights, the smile never leaves.
- From Code Geass, I give you Schniezel. Seemingly a kindly, reasonable fellow, greatly different from his siblings, he maintains a calm, serene demeanor throughout the entire series. He continues to have this serene manner even while ordering the deaths of millions, announcing to his sister his plans for global domination, and gunning that sister down when she tried to stop him from nuking every major city on the planet, killing billions. What's that about reasonable again?
- Rolo fits this trope, as well. In one sequence, he greeted some childhood friends with a warm smile before slaughtering them mercilessly.
- Ryoko Asakura in Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu has the unnerving habit of still being the sweetest, nicest girl you've ever met, while attempting to slice you up with a knife. She was also unusually cheerful afterwards, smiling as she politely delivers a stern but calm warning to Kyon while her body was being disintegrated.
- Itsuki as well, often creeping out Kyon due to his constant smile capable of resisting the possibility of an End Of The World Special.
- To a certain extent, Hisoka in HunterXHunter.
- Seishirou in X1999 and Tokyo Babylon.
- Johan in Monster is this trope. To the most frightening degrees possible.
- Kaworu in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Lust and others in Fullmetal Alchemist.
- King Bradley. Holy shit, King Bradley. Even when stabbing a poor little chimera girl (who was hiding inside Al's hollow armor body, with blood trickle out the joints) he had that gentle smile on his face.
- Shizuru from Mai-HiME manages to maintain her calm demeanor even when she goes a-huntin' for blood. This change also comes with what appear to be a pair of colorless Mind Control Eyes.
- Mitsukuni Haniozuka (Hunny) from Ouran High School Host Club, a cute, innocent loli shota who, when disturbed, becomes vicious and violent.
- The Lord of Nightmares from Slayers Next embodies this trope, dishing out apocalyptic destruction while never once raising her voice above an emotionless monotone.
- Nurse Takano from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.
- Legato Bluesummers in Trigun.
- And in some scenes of the Trigun Maximum manga, Knives butchers entire communities without any apparent emotion.
- Sosuke Aizen from Bleach is the embodiment of this trope.
- Kenpachi Zaraki is typically a boisterous and noisy cackling Blood Knight most of the time, but when he discovers an opponent who will give him a true challenge he suddenly turns into this. Usually lampshaded by adorable sidekick and cheerleader Yachiru who says things like "You'd better watch out, Kenny's smiling!" or "Heeheehee, Kenny is smiling, he's really enjoying this!" The smile he produces is like a beefy male balerina about to land a hard leap. He is more renowned for the nearly unremovable Slasher Smile he wears the rest of the time, however.
- Several characters in Kara No Kyoukai show this, including the protagonist.
- Akira Hojo from Sanctuary.
- In between fluctuations from unbridled fury to calm brutality to psychotic glee, Rob Lucci gets a couple moments of this in his fight with Luffy in One Piece.
- "I will not return you to the darkness... You, I will burn to ashes".
- And one short battle involved Miyu against a Fetish Fuel clad schoolgirl Shinma with a flute who sported a similar grin.
- Hakkai in Saiyuki is like this most of the time, utterly calm with a cheerful smile in battle and all other situations.
- One of Evangeline A.K. McDowell's crowning moments of awesome during the Kyoto Arc involved this. Give that girl her powers back for a little while and she'll freeze the world with the snap of her fingers and a smile on her face.
- The lead Negi Springfield does this during his Unstoppable Rage against Wilhelm.
- Hansel and Gretel from Black Lagoon. Seriously, they rival Johan when it comes to cheerfully and politely committing unthinkable atrocities.
- While Revy normally displays a wide range of emotions, all the way from affection to psychotic rage, she seems to settle on a mix of tranquility and boredom whenever she comes down with Whitman Fever.
- Balalaika even more so. Nothing says "I love my job" like grinning while snapping a Yakuza leader's neck, stopping to engage in a philosophic debate about the nature of the human condition with a would-be assassin whom she has just had shot or politely apologizing to Lagoon Company for any inconvenience they may have experienced during their last mission which ends with some unlucky bastard's apartment exploding.
- Mr. Tick Jefferson from Baccano! is genuinely happy so long as he gets to use his scissors to cut something. This "something" can be anything from hair, to paper, to human flesh.
- Let's not forget Ladd's girlfirend Lua who has a perpetually vacant smile on her face, despite her lover's frequent promises to murder her.
- Shiro from Deadman Wonderland. She's shown completely ripping apart a bunch of guards, and smiling an extremely childish and happy smile.
- Takeru (TK) has a touch of this in Digimon Adventure 02. Normally his reaction to seeing Digimon attacked or manipulated by evil is outright anger and fury (a result of the childhood trauma of watching his own Digimon die), but in his confrontation with the Digimon Kaiser, he suddenly gains a strange Dissonant Serenity and calm smile, while catching a whip in his bare hand and turning Crusader From Hell on everyone.
- Altena from Noir. Her creepy-ass village of Noir worshippers/sacrificial lambs that suddenly pull out guns and start killing elite members of the Soldats could also qualify.
- Shou Kano in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple has a tendency to occasionally laugh cheerfully and apparently without malice while utterly destroying his opponents. Generally these are the fights that don't really have any personal meaning to him: other fights reveal something more along the lines of a slasher smile or at least a businesslike attitude.
- Later on, we're introduced to one of the assistant instructors of Diego "Laughing Fist" Carlos, the Meatman, a rather large warrior who was charged with insuring that a bomb on the ship that several of the characters are riding goes off. When asked what he thinks will happen to HIM when the bomb goes off (by the characters who were trying to disarm it and therefore have to get past him first), he responds that he'll "calmly defeat" them and then run away before the bomb blows up.
- Kasumi Tendo tends towards this in Ranma One Half as the varying antics, feuds and outright wars brought on by Ranma's various fiancees and insecurities take their toll on the Tendo household she never, ever seems to break a sweat or be anything but utterly sweet and smiling (occasionally looking worried when something truly disastrous occurs).
- Fumio from Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo: "When I started this chainsaw today... my heart stopped working."
- Ogami from Code: Breaker, while burning a bunch of people to death. To quote Sakura, "He looked cold and peaceful... yet cruel."
- Seen on several occasions in HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi. Takano Miyo is a particularly frequent example, talking in a calm, friendly tone about ritualistic murders.
- "Big sis, big sis, my arm came off."
- In Kuroshitsuji, the demonic butler Sebastian is a master of Dissonant Serenity.
- Carol of Project ARMS is a cute little girl with the power to break and twist things with a thought. When she fights Ryo, she happily sets about breaking every bone in his body while laughing. "Yay!" Keith White would also count, when he gently hugs Alice while she cries to him about how she is under so much pressure and just wants to be free for once. He kindly tells her that it's clear that he needs to change how she and the other children are being treated - before signaling for the kids to be shot.
- Kamui from Gintama is like this sometimes.
Comic Books
Fan Fiction
Film
Literature
- Chiun from the book series The Destroyer matches this. An 80 year old Korean man, he is calm and gentle... as he rips open throats and kills anyone who messes with him.
- In the Star Trek novel Vendetta, a survivor of a Borg attack on his world describes having seen the personification of death. Much like many cultures on Earth, his had portrayed death as a skeletal figure in black, but instead he describes death as a smiling child walking and skipping through the scenes of destruction.
- Captain Tushin and Prince Bagration exhibited forms of Dissonant Serenity during the Battle of Schöngraben in War And Peace. Captain Tushin might have briefly lapsed into Psychopathic Manchild for his disturbing calm though.
- Lara and Thomas Raith in The Dresden Files.
- Warrior Cats: Pretty much everyone. They aren't outright happy or excited (except maybe Lionblaze), but no one seems to be at all fazed by all the bloody battles in the series. Noteworthy quotes from various characters:
"I'd welcome any cat who'd help me rip out their entrails."
"Just a few scratches. Mostly WindClan blood."
"Is there any blood?" (Said by an excited little kitten)
- It should be noted that, most of the time, their battles are non-lethal. They fight to prove their superiority and defend their homes, not to kill, which even in battle is considered outright murder. When a cat accidentally dies during a border skirmish it is a huge deal. When a life-or-death battle actually happens, they are much more serious about it.
- Sol is probably this series's Most Triumphant Example. He stays calm and composed all the time, even when surrounded by enemies and accused of murder. He is so calm, other cats often find it unsettling. The only times he's lost his cool is whenever he's making a speech (and he's really more "incensed" than angry), and when Hollyleaf apparently pushes his Berserk Button, and even then he recovers in less than half a second.
- Jonah in The Bible, with the boat he's on going through a storm and the pagan crewmen about him frantically praying to their deities... is asleep. So, pretty old trope eh?
- So was Jesus, one of the times they were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Another time he was so zen he was able to Walk On Water.
- Over the course of countless pressures, near death experiences, sacrifices and losses and manipulations, Rand Al'Thor, The Dragon Reborn of The Wheel Of Time had become increaisngly volatile, prone to losing his temper at the drop of a hat (oh, and he heard voices a lot), but in book 12 his slow building pschosis reached its zenith when he is almost captured by Semirhage and forced to almost kill the woman he loves, and he becomes this trope for the rest of the book, greatly freaking out those already familiar with his building insanity.
- Mace Windu in ''Shatterpoint." "I don't like Windu...he has the same look cleaning his weapons as he does using them."
- In the NUMA Series novel Sahara, at one point the hero Dirk Pitt is desperately throwing stuff at The Brute, but gets his clock cleaned. In steps his friend Al Giordino. The Brute tries to crush Giordino; his response is to reach out and start strangling The Brute, cool as you like. Eventually The Brute, running out of air, is forced to concede.
Live Action TV
- From Doctor Who: Information: Kill. Kill. Kill.
- From Joss Whedon's Firefly: River Tam displayed this trait in a few episodes. But then, she was batshit, so that is also to be expected.
- At one point, she playfully announces that "No power in the verse can stop [her]," after casually gunning down three of Niska's soldiers.
- Literally playfully; the line was an Ironic Echo to when she was playing a game with Kaylee earlier in the episode, and Kaylee herself thinks River still thought it was a game.
- Gem and Gemma from Power Rangers RPM have the same cheerful smiles on their faces whether they're talking about friendship, explosions, military strategy, or the horrible conditions at a forced-labor factory they spent several months imprisoned in.
- Charlie Crews in Life. Most of the time. When he thinks he's on to the people behind his framing, however, he chucks all that Zen stuff out the window. Literally, in one scene.
Tabletop Games
- Bound to happen in Warhammer 40000, where it's mainly the province of the Eldar and, presumably, the Necrons.
- This is less to do with the aforementioned factions fitting entirely into the trope (plenty of Eldar are quite Axe Crazy in battle and when they speak at all Necrons are more Creepy Monotone) and more to do with how every single other faction is ALWAYS SHOUTING! ALL THE TIME! and as a result they seem postively catatonic in comparion.
- Friend Computer in Paranoia can embody this trope, depending on how the game-runner decides to depict its voice.
- Friend Computer just wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Have a nice day.
Video Games
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Slade of Teen Titans.
- From The Simpsons: As an epic Mafia war unfolds on their front lawn, Marge urges Homer into the house, but he points out that the one of the Yakuza is just standing in the middle of the fighting, arms crossed, not doing anything. "The little guy hasn't done anything yet! He's gonna do something, and you know it's gonna be good!" Homer still gets pushed inside, and immediately afterwards we hear the sounds of one loud karate yell, one connected blow, and about three bodies hitting the ground. Cue Homer's disappointed groan.
- Not to mention the same little guy's reaction to being hurled through their window - calmly getting up. brushing off the glass, bowing to them, apologizing and walking out the front door.
- Futurama: Bender's cigar starts a fire in a museum exhibit containing very rare (and inflammable) silk tapestries. Soon the whole room is ablaze, with everyone cowering in fear. Except for Fry, who spent the whole episode drinking coffee (spending his $300 rebate on 100 cups of coffee). He drinks the last of the 100 cups and turns from a gibbering mess into a paragon of peace and serenity. He is able to put out all of the fires and rescue everyone while moving in extreme fast motion (Leela would later say seeing only a bright, orange blur).
- Overlapping with their casual danger dialogue, in the Kim Possible episode "Ill Suited" once they sort out their relationship problems Kim is all smiles while fighting a battle-suited Ron, even though the person remote-controlling the suit is trying to kill her.
Other
- Title of a Sports Illustrated article: "Tom Maure Will Politely, Serenely Crush You."
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