The Stoic

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Matt of Three Panel Soul knows how to stay young.

"...How wasteful... Such emotions are but mere illusions. And, like all illusions, they fade over time until death banishes them forever. That is why I have abandoned all emotions as useless sentimentality."

— Cyrus, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

He can be in the middle of a gunfight, his best friend's bachelor party, or a helpless witness to the death of everyone and everything he holds dear... and he'll show all the emotional reaction of a victim of a Botox overdose. They can be heroes, villains or anti-heroes. On The Team he will contrast the Hot-Blooded. His quiet demeanor tends towards the brusque or outright rudeness, though there are a few polite Stoics. Some stoics may try to give the impression of a lot going on inside, cultivate an air of mystery and confuse other characters with cryptic one-liners.

The Stoic sometimes displays emotion when under extreme stress or in other highly emotional situations, but their usual repertoire consists of mild boredom, detached interest, Dull Surprise or dignified disdain. He may be a Deadpan Snarker, or have No Sense of Humor. If he ever shows true emotion, it's likely to be explosive in its intensity or incredibly subtle. The tougher sort of stoic may hide it so thoroughly that only his Past Experience Nightmares show any of it. Curiously, a Stoic can sometimes visually express emotion through a smile or frown. But don't be deceived, for underneath they will very much be lacking the true intention of these feelings, which isn't always a bad thing. Opposed to Frozen Face, where the emotions appear absent because they do not alter his expression, even in highly emotional situations. A few stoics might calmly pipe up that they have feelings and opinions too, they just aren't effusive about it.

Masculine pronouns are used throughout this trope because quiet women in fiction tend to be the Emotionless Girl or Stoic Woobies. Men who use stoicism to hide their pain are more likely to indulge in mangst. Either way, expect them to be the phlegmatic member of their group.

The Stoic is not necessarily The Quiet One. While the Stoic may be low key, taciturn and quiet, more often than not he's just as talkative as anyone else. Another difference is that while The Quiet One does feel and display emotion (albeit less vocally and regularly, and makes up for it with deeper pathos), the Stoic is so devoid of any semblance of human emotion that he borders on being a true Tin Man. Whether he has emotion or not varies, but he will invariably refuse to ever show it.

Stoics can have all alignments, but if they're not evil but really don't care about anyone and anything, they're True Neutral. They're hardly ever ch ao tic, however.

There are three types:

The Aloof Big Brother type, seen mostly in anime, chooses to act this way either as a personal philosophy or as an outgrowth of his base personality.
Some Old West, pulp, and action heroes who are Made of Iron complement physical toughness with stoicism to show mental invulnerability as well. It's cool to be blasé while kicking around Faceless Goons, delivering one liners and foiling the Evil Plan. Watch out for needles, though!
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Either before the series or during it, the character suffers a particularly nasty case of Heroic BSoD, after which he reboots in Safe Mode and never leaves. The computer's running, but all the games and fun stuff are offline. (Not to be confused with the Heroic Safe Mode trope, which uses the same metaphor to describe something different.)

This last one has real world examples in Flat affect, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Shell Shock.

The silent warrior has roots stretching back to The Drifter in Westerns and farther back. The Stoics in ancient Greece were philosophers who believed that self-control is the highest virtue, and detachment from strong emotions and passion would give them greater insight in their quest for truth. They also thought that emotional reactions to the inevitable were silly; given that We All Die Someday, what is grieving over death but a judgment that the inevitable was somehow wrong? Stoics would later be criticized for fatalism and apathy. Examples of these tend to be The Spock. They may show Cracks in the Icy Façade.

Compare Cynicism, another philosophical movement that advocated detachment from worldly pleasures, but has been criticised so much that it became a synonym for pessimism.

Note: Just because the person is Stoic doesn't necessarily mean that person is a jerkass or cynical.

Often beset by The Troublemaker.

Contrast/Compare with Loveable Rogue, Become a Real Boy, The McCoy and Gentle Giant. On the far end of Emotions vs. Stoicism. If a person deliberately inflicts pain on himself to show it doesn't bother him, that's Macho Masochism. See Emotionless Reptile for a type of animal often depicted as being this.

Contrast Rage Breaking Point, Drama Queen, Prone to Tears, Large Ham, Nervous Wreck, No Poker Face. If someone attempts to be stoic but fails and breaks up into laughter, that's called Corpsing.^note

Characters of this type include:

Other tropes associated with stoics include:

Example subpages:

Other examples:

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Art

Oni Embodiments: "Embodiment of 'Um's" name is a reference to its position, being frozen in a contemplative pose.
The Last Supper: Of the thirteen individuals in the painting, the only one without an emotional reaction to the upcoming betrayal of Jesus is Jesus himself, who remains calm among the chaos of the scene. Jesus appears to be reaching for the bread in front of him, as if moving on from the matter.

Asian Animation

Careful S. of Happy Heroes does not display many noticeable emotions, with one major exception being when he reacts to Kalo's Heroic Sacrifice in Season 7.

Comic Books

Most of the heroes from the Age of Apocalypse lean this way, due to the inherent Crapsack World nature of the reality they live in.
Batman, generally.
- There was a Justice League story where the League helped the universe's first race pass into the afterlife. As thanks, the precursors caused everyone in the universe to experience a brief moment of perfect euphoria. While everyone was all smiles, Batman still refused to smile, despite Superman's teasing.
- In the Static Shock/Batman Beyond crossover:
  Terry: What was Batman like when you knew him?
  Virgil: Taller.
Kate Kane, the second Batwoman, has been one her whole life. Becoming a soldier essentially locked in that aspect of her personality, and she generally avoids showing much emotion while on duty unless extremely stressed.
Black Panther is very stoic, usually only getting particularly emotive in private or around those close to him. This is a consequence of his tragic upbringing, as he was forced to begin training to become the new king of Wakanda at a very young age after his father was murdered.
Erik Killmonger: And that's your biggest problem, isn't it? I've spent a lifetime hating you—you've spent a lifetime repressing your emotions! A childhood lost to diplomatic training and global concerns! You learned how to be king, but at the cost of your own humanity!
As the son of Cyclops below, it should come as no surprise that Cable is one of these. A pedigree like his probably would have resulted in a serious personality no matter how he grew up, but being sent into one of the X-Men's many Bad Future timelines and growing up there turned into into the "shell-shocked veteran" stoic archetype when he came back. Also, he's usually played as the straight man to Deadpool.
All artificial humans in Copperhead are engineered to be this, preventing their emotions from reducing combat effectiveness. Most of them consider it an advantage.
Judge Dredd: Dredd is so stoic that he is immune to fear from both the Dark Judge of Fear and Alien Fear Guns.
In Magekiller, Marius seldom lets his emotions show.
Martian Manhunter expresses little emotion, despite being internally warm and humorous. This makes sense considering that Martians spoke telepathically and didn't rely on facial expressions to convey their emotions.
Adam Warlock of the Marvel Universe, even before he became completely devoid of both good and evil.
The New 52 version of Superboy. He's largely introspective and calmly rationalizes everything around him.
Control of DC' O.S.S. stories in G.I. Combat. His emotional detachment from his work as a spy is precisely why FDR personally appointed him head of the O.S.S. — specifically the instance where he allowed his own wife to be executed rather than reveal intelligence secrets.
The Punisher doesn't talk much. Smiles rarely. And since his introduction in the mid-1970's, you can count the number of times he's laughed on the fingers of one hand.
Subverted in Quantum and Woody by Quantum. He wants to be the Stoic, but inevitably fails when his partner Woody goads him into overreacting.
Wallace from Sin City is probably the only protagonist in that series that doesn't lose his cool. Miho comes in at a close second but she is more like The Voiceless.
Star Wars: Purge: His Blank White Eyes help, but Justus Farr shows no notable facial expressions as he discusses ancient Jedi philosophy about the danger of falling to the dark side and questions it’s veracity.
Rorschach of the Watchmen becomes this after his investigation of the missing girl. At least until the end.
In a sharp contrast to Wilq, Entombed rarely expresses any emotions, and when he does, it's usually just winking.
Laura "X-23" Kinney from X-Force tends to be this, no matter what the situation. Until someone she cares about is threatened, then not so much. She has four basic emotional states: stoic, sad, angry and confused.
- Fans prefer to consider it: Happy, Sad, KILL and Confused.
In X-Men, Cyclops. To such an extent that he was able to beat an evil psychic in a mind fight through sheer self-control.
Professor X: Amazing. Scott, you've... you've completely contained the Void in some kind of psychic prison.
Cyclops: What can I say? I'm an expert at repression.
- Also from the X-Men is Exodus, the Knight Templar villain who usually leads the Acolytes in Magneto's absence. This stoicism comes from him being an actual Knight Templar from the days of the Third Crusade.
Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Magnus in particular has gone so long without smiling that the mechanisms for doing so have rusted in place. Whirl shows more emotion than either of them, and Whirl doesn't even have a face.
Magnus: (while drunk) I'm a serious person, Swerve! I can't help it! I only have two facial expressions, and the second is just an angrier version of the first!

Fan Works

Alien/Species Crossover: Return to LV-426: Pike, owing to his life as an AW (Artificial Womb soldier). Even after attempts are made to make him a more well-rounded human being, he remains extremely difficult, if not impossible, for people to read unless they know him well. His facial expressions are minor-verging-on-nonexistent, he does not speak often, and tends to stick to terse statements when he does. (This is all based on the characterizations presented in Soldier, from which the Artificial Womb Soldier Program detailed in Alien: The Roleplaying Game derives substantial inspiration.)
Orion Black from The Black Sheep Dog Series has a iron-clad control over his emotions, and is able to maintain a calm and collected façade most of the time. Even among his family, he's known to be cold-hearted and inscrutable.
Lucretia: "You know, I think that's the real reason other wizards rarely warm up to you, 'Rion. They never know what you really think—and probably assume the worst."
Maddie Pryor a.k.a. Rachel Grey from the sequel of Child of the Storm has been conditioned to behave like this, favouring Spock Speak that she learned from her Evil Mentor/Parental Substitute, who stole her from her cradle to shape her into a Living Weapon. However, as she progresses towards a Heel–Face Turn, this slowly fades, and when she learns the truth about herself (i.e. that she's not, in fact, an Artificial Human), she completely breaks down. She retains a moderated version of these traits afterwards, but in a more human and less robotic fashion.
In Chrysalis Visits The Hague, the pathologist Edith is described like that by other characters, even getting nicknamed "Pokerface". Noticeably, this even becomes obvious in the parts told from her own perspective:
"It was obvious that [Princess Luna] had expected more of a visceral reaction out of the forensic.
'I’ve… seen worse.' [Edith] repeated, all while trying not to sound too heartless."
Code Geass: Colorless Memories Rai the main character he tends to remain calm, act in a sedate manner and seems to be generally introverted Rai gives off more than a hint of this trope in general. Though Rai has a few Not So Stoic moments sprinkled in the fic, most potently in Chapter 17 when he is finally reunited with E.E his contractor whom he smiled and rushed over to her which threw E.E off track for a second.
Domoverse: Isaac. Having grown up Amish, he learned that fighting back was evil and to trust in God. So after being kidnapped he quietly worked for the villain believing that it wouldn't be too bad, and once he was done he could go home. When he learned he wasn't going home and he was working for a mass murderer, he simply refused to work, prayed until he collapsed from exhaustion, didn't resist being beaten and only drank water. Even after Sadist got creative and forced Isaac to work, he kept his stoic resolve. He was eventually broken, but even then a glimmer of the stoicism remained as he planned the destruction of Sadist.
In the Eleutherophobia series, many ex-hosts have a flat effect because they find it difficult to emote, which causes people out-of-the-know to think that they're unemotional.
Minato in Fairly English Story has brain damage from the car crash that left him orphaned. It results in his face being unable to react to his emotions and show them so he has to actively make the face that he is feeling. These also leads to the more emotion/pain he's in the more stoic he is.
Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Like in canon, Japan is this in this story too. Germany points this out in a not-so-positive fashion.
Germany: "You're too cold and calculating. You hardly ever speak your mind."
Later on: "BULLCRAP! YOU'LL JUST HURT HIM IN THE END YOU COLD AND CALCULATING MACHINE! YOU LACK ANY SORT OF WARMTH! YOU'LL FREEZE ITALY TO DEATH!"
Monsters In Paradise: Ellen Harrison, daughter of the Rustboro Public Library's librarian; she keeps her cool well enough that not even a rampaging bicycle in the library and a youkai crashing onto her desk back-first will dent her half-lidded stare. However, her stoicism is quickly shown to hide her frustration at both being unable to leave Rustboro, and her constant desire to learn being completely unnatural.
The Night Unfurls:
- The Hunter hardly emotes^note. He often speaks in a way that conveys disinterest and detachment. He often reacts with a blank look, a measured voice, minor irritation, and maybe a sigh or two in situations where it would be reasonable to behave more emotionally (e.g., in a stenchy place, in a festive party, in a fight against 300 people, finding someone who ended up in his private abode, getting kissed, etc.). Most of the time, his visage is obscured by a wide tricorn hat and a bandanna, making it even harder for people to discern how he truly feels. This, along with his talent for slaughter, invokes an image of a cold, merciless killer. The Hunter refuses to be ruled over by emotions in order to do his job better, always bouncing back to his normal, impassive self even after the rare occasion of briefly smiling or being Not So Stoic, but there are a few times where he blandly tells people how he feels to get his point across (just because he doesn't show emotion doesn't mean he lies about how he feels). The Hunter's stoicism complements his other characteristics, namely his uncanny effectiveness in combat, his status as a feared enigma, and his inclination for serene solitude.
- Just because Evetta is a living doll doesn't mean she is an outright Emotionless Girl. While it's true that she almost never changes her facial expression or tone, her stoicism comes off as unruffled and peaceful, something that differs from her Good Hunter's aloofness.
- Invoked frequently by Olga, who often attempts to put on a brave face. In practice, her "stoicism" is a facade as fragile as glass, making her more of a Tin Man than anything.
In Nightblade, Nick, by virtue of being a sociopath. While he literally can't feel guilt or remorse for things he's done, up to and including murder, the rest of it is learned as a coping mechanism with abandonment.
The Nightmare House subverts this with Luan Loud's nightmare audience. They never laugh, groan, boo, or anything at her jokes, but then it turns out that they're just statues.
Special Agent Charlotte of Numberjacks Advanced is a cold-faced girl who rarely smiles, and is the most serious of the Special Agents. Only on rare occasions does she smile.
She's far from rude and manages the occasional, but Caitlin strives to be this in Pokemon Black & White: Tale of a Legend. She must remind herself not to become overly excited, as she fears that getting too emotional will lead her to make rash decisions and jeopardize her team's safety.
The puppet Cedar from Queens usually has a distant expression and speaks in monotone.
Helyse Blake from the A Nightmare on Elm Street fanfic "Tainted Dreams". At the beginning she was really unable to feel many emotions. Recently she is able to feel more than in the earlier chapters, but she still doesn't show them much. The author has confirmed that there is a reason for her to be like this (not just because "it is cool") and that it will be told in future chapters.
Sonata from Turnabout Storm; a cold and straight-to-the-point unicorn. Phoenix remarks how she's incredibly intimidating for a pony.
The titular badger from The Urthblood Saga. This is one of Urthblood's main traits, and he almost never shows any strong emotions, or any emotions at all, throughout the saga.
Lieutenant Commander T'Var in The Wrong Reflection reacts with typical Vulcan stoicism to being involved in a battle where the fleet her ship was in suffered 92% casualties^*. She basically says they gave as good as they got and that she's satisfied with their performance.

Films — Animation

In Barbie: Mariposa, the fairy in the Cave of Reflection is stoic and to the point.
Tía Victoria from Coco, probably as a reflection of her strict nature.
King Malbert from Igor.
The Warden from Megamind.
The "I'll make a man out of you" Training Montage from Mulan glorifies stoical attitudes in several places.
Stoick the Vast from How to Train Your Dragon. Literally.
Toy Story 2: Andy becomes this in Woody's nightmare among realizing and remembering Woody's arm is broken. He says in a Creepy Monotone with a blank look on his face, "I don't wanna play with you anymore," right before dropping Woody, and the last thing Woody sees in his nightmare is Andy saying in the same emotionless monotone "Bye, Woody..."
In Turning Red, Priya wears a heavy-lidded, lightly sneering facial expression at all times, even when audibly excited or powerfully gesturing. She lets this fall away at certain moments — such as when screaming at the sight of Mei's panda form or smiling at Mei in reassurance — but even then, the stoic subtlety stands out against the over-the-top expressions of Mei, Miriam, and Abby.

Films — Live-Action

Robert De Niro in his roles as the Big Bad of the film he's in.
Tommy Lee Jones in several of his movies.
Buster Keaton. There's a reason why he was called The Great Stone Face. His whole schtick was never cracking a smile or changing expression despite how absurd whatever comic situation he found himself in. Keaton was so identified with The Stoic that it is downright startling to watch some of his early short films with Fatty Arbuckle and see Keaton laughing and mugging for the camera.
Any role Keanu Reeves has ever played. (Except Ted "Theodore" Logan. And Johnny Mnemonic, during the "I WANT ROOM SERVICE!" rant.) John Wick switches back and forth between stoic killer and frothing-at-the-mouth anger.) Come to think of it, all the (main) characters of The Matrix movies are the Stoic. Unless they've taken off their glasses, or don't own any.
Pick any movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger shortly after he switched from body building to cinema. However, since Arnold is from Austria, this might be more because he still had to polish his English, so this is more like one of those times when Real Life Writes the Plot.
Good luck getting Addison DeWitt from All About Eve to lose his cool.
Brazil, in Assassination Games, has an entirely flat affect throughout the film, only shedding a tear at the very end of the film, as he lights a candle for October.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen: Even with his army destroyed and his life practically in ruins, General Yen takes it with grace and his characteristic calmness.
Blondie Johnson: Blondie is this for the majority of the film.
Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard.
Many characters in Brick, a detective noir set in a Southern California high school, but especially Iron Woobie Brendan, from the time he discovers his dead girlfriend until he finds the killer.
Lampshaded in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Castle of Fu Manchu. The title character is utterly impassive, even when his castle starts exploding around him.
Crow: You know, if he were ever going to express an emotion of any kind, this would be the time.
Silent Bob is played this way in Clerks. This changed when the character became more prominent in the other films in The View Askewniverse.
"The Man with No Name" (Clint Eastwood) from the "Dollars Trilogy".
The titular character of Dredd, very much, and Anderson in the same film becomes one over the course of the story. Dredd in Judge Dredd, not so much, because of the actor' Large Ham tendencies. Best exemplified with his "I am the Law" catchphrase; in the former it's threatening and soft-spoken, in the latter loud and unintelligible.
In Edge of Darkness (2010), the protagonist Craven is a former Vietnam vet who can't understand why others "make such a big deal" out of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and shows little outward signs of his emotions during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge aside from a brief breakdown after his daughter Elle's murder.
Subverted by John Preston in the movie Equilibrium. He starts the movie feeling no emotion, but by the end, when he goes off the emotion-inhibiting drug, he feels the full spectrum of human emotion while having to hide it from his superiors.
Not only are most of the pilots in First Man stoic (particularly Neil, who was famously quiet and enigmatic in real life), but their wives are as well, even during funerals (justified by Janet when she mentions that she and Neil got "good" at attending funerals do to a number of pilot deaths in previous years). When Janet finally sees Neil in quarantine after he comes back from the mission, she hardly changes expression.
Godzilla: Dr. Serizawa — both his original incarnation and his MonsterVerse counterpart — have this kind of disposition, as does Admiral William Stenz in the latter continuity.
The Good Shepherd: Edward Wilson is almost emotionally dead. This was possibly the result of witnessing his father's suicide, but as an adult he's closed off to his wife (whom he doesn't love anyway) and his son, barely has a reaction when his mentor is killed, and even sends his son's lover to her death with no remorse.
Thorin is this in The Hobbit films.
- Same goes for Legolas in The Lord of the Rings' films.
Inglourious Basterds: Hugo Stiglitz, at least until the scene where he dies, where he begins to show some visible anger.
The Iwi tribe in the MonsterVerse movie Kong: Skull Island. When their decades-long guest Hank Marlow departs to fight his way through the island's dangers back to civilization, and he solemnly says farewell, the Iwi don't say or facially emote anything, but they're gathered to see him off from their village and their elders bow their heads in goodbye.
Subject of an amusing bit in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where Sylvester's unnamed girlfriend maintains a perfect stone face while go-go dancing in a bikini.
An example of a female protagonist who is both stoic (badass) and emotionless (otherworldly) simultaneously: Matsu from the Joshuu Sasori series. In this case, she's the type whose stoicism complements her mental invulnerability.
The Man Who Fell to Earth has Alien Among Us Thomas Jerome Newton, who is much more stoic than in the book. Despite him slipping into alcoholism, failing his planet, letting his family die, and losing the only thing he has left to love he never sheds a tear; when emotions crack his façade they are most often borne of fear and/or physical pain.
Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk (2008), for all emotion, not just anger. Because otherwise... y'know...
- In Iron Man 2 Ivan Vanko is extremely calm and collected, even when held in captivity or being scolded by his billionaire employer. When Hammer tells his guards to start taking Ivan's bird and other comforts away, you can see when he stops protesting and when he starts just going with it silently. It's like flicking a switch.
Tom Regan in Miller's Crossing is the only one to remain deadpan throughout, even when he's nearly puking from terror.
Owen Davian in Mission: Impossible III. He doesn't even register emotion when Ethan dangles him out of an airplane and starts cutting the straps holding him in.
- Solomon Lane from Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation spends almost all of his screen-time speaking in the same monotone voice and showing virtually no emotion whatsoever. Until the climax of the movie, that is.
In Pacific Rim, Marshall Pentecost is calm and controlled.
- When Gipsy Danger's Plasma Caster activates, the Russian pilots, who are standing right in front it, calmly and unhurriedly walk away.
Cutler Beckett from Pirates of the Caribbean shows little emotion other than cold-blooded condescension, even when he's got a loaded gun pointed at his face by someone who very clearly wants to have any excuse to pull the trigger. This stands out in particular compared to the rest of the cast.
Prospect: Downplayed. Cee isn't very emotional, showing little reaction even at her dad's death, and gets over Ezra killing him pretty easily. She does show rational fear sometimes, but is mostly quite unflappable when faced with dangers.
Invoked (yes, really) in Robocop 2014. When the police database of unsolved crimes gets downloaded into Alex's brain, he freaks the hell out when he comes across the car bombing that mutilated him. In order to make him get over it, his brain chemistry is tinkered with, which has the side effect of suppressing the rest of his emotions.
In Robot Holocaust, Neo, The Hero & Jorn...and both are acted so woodenly that they seem comatose.
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) in The Shawshank Redemption rarely shows any emotion despite having one of the best excuses to be unhappy. This is part of the reason why he ended up convicted of murdering his wife as he expressed no sign of regret or sorrow in the courtroom.
The Twilight Saga has Bella. You can count her different facial expressions on one hand and she raises her voice a grand total of twice during the first movie. It's probably because in the book she's a self insert character. As a result, in the film, she's left as blank as possible so the viewer can watch and project their own feelings into the character.
Reg in Vera Drake. He shows hardly any emotion at any point — even after his soon-to-be father-in-law gives him his blessing — and it's strongly implied that Shell-Shocked Veteran is the cause.
In Vice (2015), Roy keeps a grim face and rarely reacts to anything that goes on with much emotion, even as he gets engaged in shootouts.
In X2: X-Men United, Lady Deathstrike barely changes expression or talks. Justified since she was being mind-controlled by Stryker.

Music

"Big Bad John", a 1961 country-pop smash by Jimmy Dean, about an emotionless, quiet loner — all 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds of him — who works in the coal mines. Averted when he comes to the rescue of his fellow miners during a cave in, and sacrifices his life in doing so.
Kraftwerk always played up their robotic personas to their fullest, never breaking character. They were less stoic in the early 70's, but this was just Early-Installment Weirdness .
- Their reputation for onstage stoicism wasn't aided by the long running rumour, that Fernando Abrantes, who was a member for a brief period around 1990, was sacked for being too active on stage.
Minimalist pop artist Lorde performs with a cold, indifferent tone in her music, and her attitude especially shines through in her videos.
This is the main idea of the Ramones video "I wanna be sedated"
Ron Mael of Sparks. The man could have invented this trope. For Sparks' nearly 50-year career, he has remained emotionless and stiff on stage, this being part of what scared so many children back in the early 70s when Sparks made their way onto television. In interviews, however, he's friendly, smiles, and talks just about as much as Russell does.
Lindsey Stirling's "orchestra face" is a deadpan, focused expression that she used to use when playing the violin. It's clear that she's gotten rid of that habit, though!
The Buggles and Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes hardly emotes in his performances.
George Harrison of The Beatles was often known for his quiet demeanor.

Podcasts

In The Hidden Almanac, Mord's measured deadpan is unaffected by corporate shenanigans, interference by eldritch abominations, or, on one occasion, being set on fire. Although he has a few berserk buttons, mostly with regard to disrespect for his garden, he addresses them with barely a change in tone.

Roleplay

Irene from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues. She has a polite demeanor, a refined manner of speech, and generally restrains her emotions. As a result, she can come off as stiff and robotic. This is especially apparent with her inner thought process, which is very clinical.

Tabletop Games

Warhammer 40,000:
- The Dark Angels, a chapter of Space Marines, exemplify this trope, along with The Atoner. They have a long-standing feud with the Space Wolves that stems from their differences in personality inherited from their Primarchs. The two Primarchs did, however, get over their differences and became really close friends. Not many members of either chapter is aware of that fact, but they do put aside their differences when a larger threat is around.
- Imperial Guard regiments from Valhalla are described to generally be like this, able to shrug off even the largest losses and focus on the objective at hand, not even surrendering until the very last moment, and sometimes not even then. For a good example of this, see Gunner Jurgen, aide to Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!). Where the majority of the Valhallan 597th Ice Warriors have very differing personalities, Jurgen fits the standard description for Valhallans as described in the Imperial Guard Codex pretty well.
- In general, stoicism is a very good idea if you're a human in the 40K-verse. Not only will it help you get through the horrors of day-to-day life in the Imperium, it is also the only way to not feed the Chaos Gods.
- It's not just the humans, either. The Craftworld Eldar are into this big time, and for good reason. On top of being aware that emotions feed the Chaos Gods, the Aeldari in general feel their emotions much more strongly than humans. Thus, those emotions resonate in the Warp that much more intensely, and thus if they express too much emotion, their souls are more easily corrupted by Slaanesh, one of said Chaos Gods. Stoicism is a survival tactic for them.
- Among the Chaos Space Marines, the Iron Warriors have a reputation for this. Not for them the crazed excess of the Emperor's Children or the maniacal cackling of, well, most other Chaos forces; instead, if they're showing emotion, it's usually murderous anger or deep resentment. Otherwise, they're cold and calculating.
Legend of the Five Rings:
- Samurai are expected to be stoics as a tenet of Bushido, and the internal conflict of a Samurai's emotions and his adherence to Bushido is one of the game's many challenges the Samurai face, with Outbursts happening once the inner turmoil of his emotions become too great to hide behind a stoic facade.

Toys

Mixels has Mesmo, who apparently won't, if not can't, show expressions at all. Exaggerated in his "Upset" video in Calling All Mixels game where he just says "Meh."

Visual Novels

The Nobles of Ascension (2013) are this, and the Moon elves are very close. It's not that the Moon elves don't feel anything, they repress their emotions because showing emotions is considered rude in their culture.
Danganronpa:
- Kyoko Kirigiri of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a stone-faced in the presence of crime scenes and corpses, rarely smiling. One of the few instances where she manages to get shaken up are quite serious.
- Peko Pekoyama of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair follows in Kyoko's footsteps. Unlike her, however, Peko is much easier to snap out of her stoicism; she has a wide range of expressions when actually, well, expressing herself.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony has Ryoma Hoshi, whose more extreme emotions only consist of mild shock or tranquil fury. It’s implied that this is because of his depression.
Fate/stay night:
- Saber, generally.
- Rider. First she's an antagonist that smiles one time at the fact that Shirou isn't as big of a Jerkass as Shinji, then she dies without expressing anything but a mild disdain for Saber's much stronger distaste for her. No part in UBW. HF gives her the emotional range of emotionless (and unnerving to Shirou with it) to mild frown to very slight smile. The strongest reactions are when people are honestly appreciative/complimentary of her where she becomes almost flabbergasted. But then again, she has a backstory that turned Medusa into a woobie, so yeah. Even then she masks it. She's more outgoing in the True End of HF though.
The Fruit of Grisaia: Most of the girls take note of Yuuji's normally-taciturn demeanor, to the point that Michiru tries to nickname him "Mr. Standoffish Man." In fact, he's so deeply rooted in this behavior that, when he does finally laugh at something, he bursts into a coughing fit due to being so unused to it.
Jake Hunter, who is so dead-serious that his signature frown barely even moves much, even when showing compassion to his clients or innocent civilians. On the flipside, his perpetual calmness helps to solve every case.
Mio from Little Busters! has a poker face to rival a grand master's. She begins to let her guard slip once she starts to befriend the others, though.
M in Shikkoku no Sharnoth. The only times he displays strong emotions is when he is destroying his foes. He does not really appear to understand emotion in some way.
Spirit Hunter series:
- In Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, Shuuji Daimon's character sprites always have a very emotionally neutral face.
- Outside of the Judgement system, Akira from Spirit Hunter: NG doesn't emote much, and is noted even by his friend to have a permanent poker face. Ban describes him as having Nerves of Steel, which he proves when he reacts nonchalantly to Rosé breaking into his aunt's bar.

Web Original

Belkinus Necrohunt: Nathaniel has a habit of intentionally showing no outward emotion. At one point, he convinces himself that he doesn't actually care about an ally's fate when their life is on the line, though it's in order to concentrate on the act that will save them.
Dreamscape: This series seems to love this trope.
- Keela rarely ever shows any emotion and always has a monotone voice.
- Melissa doesn't shift from her distant prideful demeanor...usually.
- Kai has a serious, almost commanding tone about him that he never drifts from.
- Eleenin is a stoic, but not as much as Kai. Its more serene than commanding.
- Drake's somewhere between Kai's and Eleenin's level.
- Jenna speaks with a grumpy, uncaring voice.
- Aseir speaks with a deep, uncaring tone. However, he's not as much of one as Jenna, because he's got a bit of a temper.
DSBT InsaniT: Killer always speaks with a deep monotone, and barely emotes.
Wyn from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes seems to slip in and out of this trope: sometimes he feels like talking, and other times he'll simply stand around and look cool.
Donut from Dusk's Dawn doesn't emote outside of assertiveness, inquisition and disappointment.
The Guild has Vork, although due to it being a comedy web-series, it's more in the vein of The Comically Serious.
The description from Mommy implies Toki is this, a Perpetual Frowner, or both, as, she's content being in that picture with her daughter, Orchid, however, she's not expressing it.
Vinkle in No Evil rarely talks or emotes beyond a faint smile or a bit of gentle snark; some of the most intense emotion he shows in the series is a Flat "What". In one outtake, his voice actor concludes that Vinkle's reaction to finding Huey in his kitchen cabinet out of nowhere would be "Hand me the trail sauce."
Petscop: Despite all the crazy stuff he sees, Paul manages to keep a calm attitude most of the time. Key word being most.
Blaire from The Secret Life of a Mermaid life is hard: her mom abandoned her and her dad at one years old and she's used as a personal information guide to the others about her mom, (which is a very tough subject for her). When her dad gets suspicious of her, he bans her from seeing her only friends, which promote her to run away with Terra, probably forever and yet, she goes through all this with no expressions except for a smile!
- Kelsey is the most level-headed member of the group, although she is sometimes Not So Stoic.
- Brenna became practically an Emotionless Girl in Wildfire, to the point where Kelsey points this out.
  Kelsey: Okay, first you lash out when we were playing yesterday. Then, you turned all emo. And, now you hair's purple!
  Brenna: [in a monotonous voice] It's purple? [looks at her hair] Huh. Guess it is.
Shrooms has Blue Shroom, who is consistently light on emotion, a great contrast to Red's histrionic personality and antics. Which makes sense, as Blue is the only character in the series without animated facial expressions.
Bobby Jacks of Survival of the Fittest very much embodied this trope, at least in pregame. During version 3, he has, however, shown emotion a couple of times. On the other hand, most of these occurrences happened either when he was alone or internally - so other characters wouldn't be privy to the same knowledge as readers. The three occasions where Bobby shows real emotion are justified however. Once because he had just been shot, the other two times because his Berserk Button was pushed.
- Amy Barrows-Shaw from SOTF Mini: TV3 is described as having a perpetual poker face.
To Boldly Flee has Sad Panda, who as multiple commentaries note, reacts visibly to absolutely nothing.
Greg from The Wolf's Will has his moments of stoicism, but he has absolutely nothing on Free Flower from the same book, or on Beatrice from Demonic Symphony. Word of God has it that the last two are actually incapable of feeling emotion.

Characters of this type include:

Other tropes associated with stoics include:

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Tenma Blushes

Alternative Title(s): Stoic

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The Stoic

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Characters of this type include:

Other tropes associated with stoics include:

Example subpages:

Other examples:

Video Example(s):

Tenma Blushes

Alternative Title(s): Stoic

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Index

Next

Tenma Blushes