Basic Trope: An animal cries, even though its species cannot actually cry in real life.
- Straight:
- Leo the lion is the Team Pet, who is portrayed as a Talking Animal. He cries during Lance's Disney Death along with the rest of the Five-Man Band.
- Leo cries Tears of Joy when it's revealed that Lance survived.
- Exaggerated: All of the animals in the work can somehow cry.
- Downplayed: Leo cannot cry tears, but makes sounds resembling weeping when something sad happens.
- Justified: Leo is an Uplifted Animal; while he isn't fully anthropomorphic, he can still understand emotions and feel them in a fairly humanlike way.
- Inverted:
- When faced with the apparent death of Lance, Hiro makes animal-like sounds in despair.
- When faced with the apparent death of Lance, Hiro is visibly crying but no tears can be seen.
- Subverted: Leo seems to be crying during a sad moment, but it turns out that his tear ducts were just irritated.
- Double Subverted: It turns out that he really was crying, and using a Sand In My Eyes excuse.
- Parodied: Bacteria can cry in this setting, somehow.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Leo cannot cry. When he's sad, he expresses his sadness in ways that are appropriate for his species.
- Leo is a Funny Animal or is otherwise anthropomorphic enough to the point in which he could logistically cry.
- Enforced:
- Artistic License – Biology
- The writer doesn't know that animals cannot cry like humans.
- "We need a way to show that Leo is sad. Even though he's a lion, maybe he should cry. He can already talk, anyway."
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Why is that cartoon lion crying?"
Back to Crying Critters
