Quit Your Whining - Television Tropes & Idioms

Hey, man what is this? Sounds like the wail of a wimp!
Did you let loser side take command?

—Lost Horizon - "Sworn in the Metal Wind"

The demons of Wangst have possessed Bob, sending him spiraling into a Heroic BSOD. He begins to spill out all of his sorrows to Alice, who promptly informs Bob that she does not give a shit. Bob has a job to do, and he had better not let his Wangst get in the way of performing his duty.

This trope comes in many flavors. If the viewers/readers perceive Bob to be The Scrappy, this trope will make it seem as if Bob is getting what he deserves, and Alice is doing what she should be doing. If the viewers/reader perceive Bob to be The Woobie, this trope will make Alice seem like a Jerkass. Or, if Bob is entering a Wangst storm that seems uncharacteristic of him, and this trope manages to make him snap out of it, neither characters will be viewed negatively. Or, it could backfire spectacularly, causing Bob to remain in his Heroic BSOD and making Alice seem like an idiot.

Bob does not need to explicitly tell Alice what it is he is Wangsting about—if Alice can infer, or has been informed of, what the subject of the Wangst is, she can perform this trope anyway.

These can be delivered by any member of the Five-Man Band, though The Lancer to The Hero seems to be the most prevalent. Compare Get A Hold Of Yourself Man, in which it's physical.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

In the early Saiyan Saga of Dragon Ball, when Piccolo starts training Gohan, the little boy is such a cry-baby that the green guy threatens to snap his neck should he continue to cry.
In Bleach, Rukia does the infer version of this trope to Ichigo after he enters a Heroic BSOD as a result of the first Arrancar Invasion. It works rather spectacularly.
- Isshin to Ichigo in chapter 407.
- And Rukia gives it to him again in chapter 460.
Happens in Code Geass. Kallen does this to Lelouch during his Heroic BSOD brought about by the reopening of the SAZ. Played with in that she is exactly as unsure as he is.
- Suzaku does this to Lelouch, with a mixture of Get A Hold Of Yourself Man, when Lelouch finds out that Nunnally is alive, and begins to despair. Suzaku tells him to suck it up and remember Zero Requiem.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Misato tries one of these to snap Shinji back into action. It semi-works, in the sense that he tries to do something, and then fails. Stupid Bakelite.
In chapter 50 of Mirai Nikki Kousaka does this to Yukiteru, mixing it with "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
"Yukiteru, do you know just why I hate you so much? It's because your crying face resembles my stupid dog at home! Even now...! *punches Yukiteru* That face you're making right now! Don't go crying when you made this choice yourself! You're just a damn lowlife who killed his friends for his own convenience! You don't have a right to cry!"
In Hot Gimmick this is constantly Ryoki's response whenever his girlfriend Hatsumi wangsts or puts herself down.
Usually in Sailor Moon it's Rei slapping Usagi, but in season one's finale the demure Ami gives a huge slap in the face to Usagi after she decides to give the villains whatever they want, because she just saw Sailor Jupiter die.
Frau Bow tries to do this to Amuro in Mobile Suit Gundam. Doesn't work much except if Bright Noah is around.
In One Piece during the Davy Back Arc, Zoro gives Chopper a speech on this, when he starts complaining about being forcibly recruited into Foxy's crew after the Straw Hats' team of Usopp, Robin and Nami loses the first round of the Davy Back Fight. This also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Zoro.
" Shut your mouth, Chopper! You are disgraceful! It was your choice to get a life on the sea. Dead or alive, the choice was yours alone. Don't blame it on others. We accepted the challenge. Usopp and the others tried their best. In the pirate's world, tears won't get you anything. If you are a man, then sit tight and quietly watch the game!"
In Bakuman。, Takahama frequently complains about his editor, Miura, trying to get him to make his series have more humor, even at the expense of the story, and the main characters often view Miura similarly. He meets with the editor in chief to request a different editor, only to have his request denied, and told that if he can't write what he wants, it simply means he isn't good enough yet. Takahama leaves, chastened, and the main characters admit that they've been blaming Miura too much.
Naruto delivers this to Inari in the Land of Waves arc, tired of hearing Inari constantly insist that they can never defeat Gato. After Inari runs off in tears, Kakashi follows him, and notes that Naruto had a hard childhood, but decided to do something about it rather than pity himself, which is why he said what he did. He also does this with the princess in the Land of Vegetables filler, telling her he doesn't like her viewing people as expendable even if she was used as a hostage in the past.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Signum's reaction to Teana protesting and saying that Training from Hell is the only way to stand out compared to the rest of the forwards is to punch her, telling Nanoha that Teana will get spoiled if people listen to her whining.
In Mai Otome, Arika, having a Heroic BSOD after events during and after the Wham Episode, including her friend Erstin's death declares she quits being an Otome and runs off, only to get swallowed by a sand monster along with Mashiro. Arika complains about some of her troubles, prompting Mashiro to say that she's not the only one suffering, leading to a discussion that causes both of them to renew and refocus their resolve.

Comic Books

This was done with Captain America when Stan Lee and Jim Steranko realized that his moaning about the death of Bucky was getting really old. So, they had Rick Jones appear in a copy of Bucky's costume and tells Cap that other people have lost loved ones and it's past time he move on like any soldier.

Film

In The Incredibles, Edna does this to Elastigirl after the latter realizes that her husband has lied to her and is now on an island in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, she thinks that he's having an affair, and breaks down. Edna pretty much tells her to kick his ass. It ends well.
Galadriel seems to do this to Gimli in the movie-version of The Lord of the Rings. While in the book she's overwhelmingly sympathetic, and even shuts down her bigoted husband in defense of the Dwarves (causing him to apologize profusely), in the movie she seems to say something more like "We've all got problems."
Mother Mary gives Elwood one during Blues Brothers 2000 after he says "The orphanage is gone, Jake's gone, Curtis is gone! I've got no brother, I've got no roots, I've got no life, I've got nothing for the Christ's sake!".
Lt. Colonel Strobl is guilt-stricken due to the fact that when the war in Iraq kicked off, he volunteered for a staff position stateside so he could spend more time with his family, while others (including the young Marine he volunteered to escort back home) are fighting and dying. An old war vet sets him straight after he starts verbalizing his angst.
Charlie Fitts: Want to be with your family every night... you think you have to justify that?

Literature

Jake does this to Marco in Animorphs #35, helping him to recover from his Shapeshift Crisis. Marco also does this to Rachel in #37 (in what many people see as a Crowning Moment of Awesome) snapping her out of Heroic BSOD.
This happens to an aspiring soldier in Starship Troopers, after he's failed to obey orders. (He was supposed to freeze during a drill. He froze on top of an anthill, freaked out and punched his instructor in the face.) His commanding officer, recognizing the fact that the kid would make a good soldier, tries this trope on him and refuses to hear what really happened... until the recruit insists on telling the full story and being tried by the book, not realizing that proper procedure results in him being publicly whipped and kicked out of the army.
Garion gets told this a lot in David Eddings' Belgariad.
Marcus snaps at Esca after being fed up with his moodiness in The Eagle of the Ninth.
In Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, Harry gets multiple ones. While he's Wangsting over his ill-treatment at the hands of the Daily Prophet and the student body, Hermione tells him to quit painting Ron and her with the same brush when they're actually trying to help him. Ron delivers one of these to Harry after Harry has been sulking and snapping at him and Hermione, telling Harry that while he does have a lot to be annoyed about, taking out his temper on his friends won't solve anything. Later, after Harry goes into full Heroic BSOD mode and tries to run away after hearing that he might be possessed by Voldemort, the portrait of Phineas Nigellus calls him an idiot and says he is too busy wallowing in self-pity to realize that the world does not revolve around him.
- ...Followed quickly by Ginny telling him off for locking himself away and then complaining that no one talks to him and for forgetting that she's the only one who could determine whether or not he's being possessed by Voldemort.
- Dumbledore delivers one to Snape after the latter wishes he were dead in place of Lily Evans:
"And what use would that be to anyone? If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."
Mogget in the Old Kingdom books is prone to responding to Wangst on the part of those around him by drowning them in sarcasm.
In Warrior Cats, Graystripe is with his mate as she dies giving birth to his kits, and he wails his grief to the skies. Cue Tigerclaw coming along, cuffing him, and ordering him to "Stop that moaning".

Live-Action TV

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Weight of the World," Willow does this to Buffy.
In Dead Like Me, Rube has this attitude toward George. He's a Jerkass. Although he is supposed to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, sometimes you wonder.
Bobby, to Sam & Dean, at various points during Supernatural.
You stupid, stupid son-of-a-bitch! Well, boo hoo. I am so sorry your feelings are hurt... princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good? Make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family.
- At the end of season 5, Castiel has been stripped of his angelic powers. When he starts to angst about the loss, Bobby basically shames him out of it—Castiel might be only human now, but hey, so are the rest of them, and Bobby, who's in a wheelchair, has a lot more reason to feel useless.'
In The West Wing, when the President is raging against God the injustice of Mrs. Landingham's death and wondering what he did to deserve it, she appears as a figment of his imagination, telling him that it's unfair to blame God for her death and other disasters and telling him of problems he has yet to solve, concluding that she "(doesn't) want to know" him if he refuses to run for re-election out of fear.

Video Games

All of BioWare's games—from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect—have conversation options similar to this when talking to your fellow NPC adventurers. The NPC will begin talking about their "main issue" (getting her wings cut off, being an unwilling test subject, being the king's bastard, killing Jedi, etc.), and the Player Character can either show his or her interest and help them resolve their issues or tell them to suck it up.
- Note that, in most examples, doing this is a bad thing. Though you actually have to snap at Aerie at one point during her romance.
There comes a point in almost every route in Canvas 2 where the current heroine will tell Hiroki he really needs to get over his angst and start painting again.
While hanging with Dwayne Forge, a friend from Grand Theft Auto IV, he has a bad habit of whining about his shitty life(Freshly out of prison, broke, no longer respected in the drug game). While a normal person might feel bad for him, he happens to be talking to Niko Bellic, the practical definition of Iron Woobie. He manages to silence him during one conversation, with this.
Niko: Back where I was from, we didn't have electricity until I was twelve.
In Final Fantasy IV, Rydia hits Edward with this when he's overwhelmed by the death of his beloved Anna, followed by a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! from Cecil after this only makes Edward more distraught.
Sora gives this to Aladdin in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, when he's depressed after losing the lamp and Jasmine to Jafar. He then comes up with a plan to get both back.

Webcomics

In Homestuck, Jack Noir shows a feeling besides omnidirectional rage when he tries to help Karkat deal with Sollux's death.
There, there, you blubbering goddamn pansy.
- Vriska is also guilty of this, largely to Tavros. Sure, she mind-controlled him to jump off a cliff... but the real problem is he is just too damn weak!
In Jack the titular character does not wish to remember his past life, as the little he knows at that point has made him psychotically unstable. Reck, in a Moment of Awesome , promptly punches him in the face and yells at him to stop being pathetic. here and here. This is followed by a prompt Curb Stomp of the enemy who had, up until then, been beating them up, so it obviously worked.

Web Original

The episode "Suicide hotline" from Neurotically Yours has Mahmed tell Germaine, in no uncertain terms, to quit whining, shut the fuck up, and get a real job.

Western Animation

Hey Arnold: In the episode "Olga Gets Engaged" Olga collapses into tears upon learning at the last minute her fiance decided not to marry her. Helga's response is "Alright, that's enough! Suck it up, you big crybaby!"
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: The Diamond Dogs try to do this to Rarity when she proves an unwilling slave. Her response:
Rarity: I am not whining, I am complaining. Do you want to hear whining? (dials up her voice several pitches) Thiiis is whiiiniiing. Oooh, this harness is too tiiiight, it's going to chafe. Can't you loosen it? Oooh, it hurts, and it's so nastyyy, oooh, why couldn't you clean it first, it's going to leave a staain. Oh and the waagons' getting heavy, why do I have to pull iiiiiit!?
Diamond Dog: Nnngh! Make it stop! Stop whining!
Rarity: BUT I THOUGHT YOU WANTED WHIIIINNINNG!

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