|
|
|
|
Is This What Anger Feels Like?
|
Ekaterin Vorsoisson: Oh. Drat.
Lord Auditor Vorkosigan: Madame Vorsoisson, has it ever occurred to you that you may be just a touch oversocialized?
Giselle: "No!" "No! "No!" Over and over again! Every word out of your mouth is "No!" It just makes me so... Oh, sometimes you make me so...
Robert: Make you so what?
Giselle: You make me so... so... angry! (laughs) I'm angry! (laughs)
When the all-too-innocent girl (for some reason, it's always a girl) who's always cheerful and sweet to everyone finally gets pushed too far, it's almost always played for laughs, and one of two things will happen. Either she'll go totally postal, or she'll vent her frustration in polite, often somewhat embarrassed words, without any rage whatsoever, which almost always comes across as "cute."
Two people arguing in this manner will usually take the form of Politeness Judo.
May overlap with That Makes Me Feel Angry, which is the practice of just saying what one feels without showing it, and is usually is due more to bad writing than the character simply lacking experience with the emotion.
Compare and contrast Beware the Nice Ones, Let's Get Dangerous, and Berserk Button.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
Film
- In Enchanted, when the militantly cheerful Giselle, frustrated by Robert's feet-firmly-planted-on-the-ground attitude, finally gets in a big fight with him, she eventually realizes what this strange new feeling inside her is:
Giselle: "Sometimes you make me so... angry!" *laughs with surprise*
- Invoked intentionally by Del Spooner in I, Robot. Del Spooner is a human cop interrogating a robot accused of murder, a robot that is also supposed to have emotions.
Del: "I think you murdered him because he was teaching you to simulate emotions and things got out of control.
Sonny: "I did not murder him."
Del: (in a mocking tone) "But emotions don't seem like a very useful simulation for a robot. Hell, I don't want my toaster or vacuum cleaner to get emotional."
Sonny: "I DID NOT MURDER HIM!" *slams hands on the desk so hard that the metal table buckles* *looks down in astonishment*
Del: (back to a calm tone) "That one's called anger."
Literature
- The page quote from Komarr, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Although Ekaterin isn't an all-too-innocent girl but a 30-year-old married woman possessed of such unfailing reserve that she refuses to show visible anger or frustration even after falling headfirst into a pond.
- Happens to Miss Bates in the film adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, after the eponymous character throws her an unintentional insult. Of course, with the film being set in Georgian England, it makes the tension thick enough to absorb radiation.
- There's an interesting variant in C. S. Lewis's novel Perelandra. The hero, Ransom, has of course felt anger before during his life, but it's only when he's fighting the actual physical incarnation of Evil that he understands what anger is for.
Live-Action TV
- While far from sweet and innocent, when Jerry Seinfeld is told that no one's ever actually seen him angry he tries to prove that's not true by shouting at Kramer. Kramer thinks it's part of Jerry's comedy act and just laughs his ass off.
- Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H in several different episodes when he's getting screwed over in some way or another.
- Neelix in Star Trek: Voyager. Possibly PTSD-influenced, as he's characterised as a war survivor.
- This happened to Dick the first time he felt anger on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Of course, it's due to him being an alien rather than being innocent or timid.
Theatre
- Wicked: What Is This Feeling? Loathing. Unadulterated loathing.
Video Games
- In the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion Mask of the Betrayer, you can gain a party member named Kaelyn the Dove. If you use voice commands and select "cuss," she'll sputter for a moment and end with "I don't know any profanity, how embarrassing." It is adorable.
- Colette Brunel from Tales Of Symphonia has a case of this every now and then. "I'M MAD NOW!!"
Webcomics
- Jade from Homestuck, though normally bubbly and cheerful, finally flips out after Karkat bothers her far too many times.
Web Original
Western Animation
|
|