Ah, Alice. She's beautiful, but she always looks really sad. On the inside she's really just one insult away from bursting into tears.
A fragile flower is that one character who always looks like they're just about ready to cry. In fact, they probably are. Sometimes, they will to try and keep their emotions inside, but ultimately fail. One small incident and they are crying. It is possible for anything to cause them to cry, but it is most often a harsh insult directed at them.
There may be a few reasons for a fragile flower's behavior. They might just be super sensitive by nature. There might have been something in their past such as emotional abuse from peers that caused them to be this way. Most characters who know the fragile flower are careful not to upset them when talking. Other more
Jerkass characters will most likely try to make them cry, in which case the fragile flower may eventually force themselves to become desensitized towards insults. Most often female, though it can be a male in order to be
Played for Laughs.
Pretty popular in Japanese media since it's often played as
cute.
Also known as the "Sad Girl In Snow".
Compare
The Ingénue and
Shrinking Violet.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Live Action TV
Literature
- Beth Ellen Hanson of Harriet the Spy is described as "Always look[ing] like she's about to cry". In a subversion, Harriet writes that this just makes her want to kick her and get it over with.
- Every single darn character in The Tale of Genji male or female. The Shining Prince himself is incredibly lachrymose. Of course this was considered an attractive characteristic in Heian Japan.
- Enid Blyton's Malory Towers school stories feature Mary-Lou, who is this trope to a T. She gets a lot better.
Theatre
- Mélisande in Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelléas and Mélisande.
- Hamlet in Shakespeare's play has been played this way, in a production starring Kevin Kline in the title role. While no one can fault Kline's talent as an actor, both the number of times he bursts into tears during the production and his reputation as a comic actor makes it unintentionally comic (at least to this viewer).
Video Games
- Yoriko in Da Capo at first has great trouble interacting with people and, of course, always seems close to tears. Oddly enough, having rocks thrown at her apparently didn't bother her in the slightest.
- Kotomi in Clannad is more or less exempt from Tomoya's normal teasing due to her reaction of starting to tear up and ask if someone is a bully when feeling at all threatened. Naturally, learning to deal with Kyou takes her a little while.
- Hanako Ikezawa from Katawa Shoujo. Having burn scars that cover the entire right half of your body will do that to you. Or not. Treating her like one ends very badly
- According to one of his less-effectual titles in Yggdra Unison, Nessiah—despite his status as the local Magnificent Bastard—cries very easily when hurt or frustrated. If the player's performance is substandard, this happens often enough that his enemies start to mock him for being childish, and his subordinates have to devote a lot of time to taking care of him. As Nessiah's social skills are strange at best, he never really becomes cognizant of the burden he's putting on them.
- Evanine in the Neverwinter Nights mod Tales of Arterra.
- Neimi of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is pegged a crybaby right from the start. Being childhood friends with Colm doesn't help much. Amusingly subverting in their final support conversation, where he hears he howling and asks why, rattling off a long list of reasons. Neimi tells him she's in a good mood and just had something in her eye this time, much to his consternation.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Fluttershy in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. Note that, however, she is growing out of this big aspect of her, as she has become noticeably more assertive in season 2. There was, in fact, a whole episode based on it and she has repeatedly shown herself able to break out of this attitude in emergencies.
- Amy Wong and Dr. Zoidberg in Futurama temporarily turn into Fragile Flowers in a one-shot joke:
Bender: Man, I guess it's harder than I thought to make someone cry.
Amy: You did your best, Bender.
Bender: Up yours, bimbo!
(Amy runs away crying)
Zoidberg: Let's face it, we're in hot butter here. We should call Leela for help.
Bender: Cram it, lobster!
(Zoidberg runs away crying)
Bender: That is a good idea. I'll go call her.
- Stacy in Daria.
