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Shrinking Violet / Western Animation

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  • Alvin and the Chipmunks:
    • Theodore has trouble standing up for himself. The episode "Dave's Wonderful Life" shows that he used to be shy and would have become a hermit without Dave's influence.
    • For the Chipettes, Jeanette. She is actually more like Theodore than Simon in a sense, as they are both sweet, timid, and shy.
  • A rare male, yet non-Butt-Monkey example: Austin from The Backyardigans also embodies this trope. Not only he's purple (violet), during season 1 he was very shy and didn't speak a lot (he had songs about that). Over the course of the series, he becomes more outgoing and gets dynamic lead roles.
  • Male example: Shifty Dingo in the 2nd season of Blinky Bill after his Heel–Face Turn easily qualifies as one of these. He's much more quiet than the rest of the gang and also has a Lovable Coward side to him.
  • Downplayed with Bingo from Bluey; she's usually just as cheerful and exuberant as Bluey and she doesn't have a hard time socializing with others, but compared to her more vocal older sister, she's a bit more sensitive and often has trouble speaking up whenever she feels upset or gets ignored. Justified, since she's the younger sister.
  • The Brothers Flub a non-permanent male example. While Guapo is normally loud and obnoxious, he was soft spoken in "Double Feature" due to feeling guilt for hurting Fraz's feelings and letting Francis abuse him.
  • Crumley Cogwheel, from the Paramount cartoon of the same name, is a desk worker for Michigan Nuts and Bolts who is so shy and reserved that he's never asked his boss for a raise. The boss threatens to fire Cogwheel if he doesn't ask for a raise within the week. It's after Cogwheel spends his lunch hour at a bar (instead of his usual tea room) and goes three sheets to the wind that he obtains the courage to ask for his raise.
  • Stacy from Daria, the shy and sweetest member of Quinn's Fashion Club.
  • Dinosaur Train: Leslie Lesothosaurus was very shy at first, using her natural camouflage to hide from everybody.
  • Dodo has main character Joe Connolly's love interest Lily Scott, who is usually very shy and quiet, and tends to limit her social circle to Joe and her two friends Kayla and Jo.
  • Doug Funnie, the title character of Doug, is a more subtle male example. However, it usually depends on the episode.
  • Cassie in Dragon Tales, literally. She shrinks if she feels bad about herself. Not only that, in one episode, Emmy and Max are shrunken by Shrinking Violets (violets that shrink people and dragons to the size of bugs).
  • Fluffy Gardens: Chuckles the Rooster is painfully shy (the narrator himself uses these words) to the point where he's afraid to be seen by anyone.
  • Another male example is Mac from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, as he's the shyest, smartest, and sweetest boy on the show.
  • The Funny Company, a syndicated series from the early 1960s, featured a girl named Shrinkin' Violette who really did shrink down to doll size when she felt self-conscious.
  • Futurama:
    • Another male (kinda) example from Futurama would be Kif Kroker, who is usually a Deadpan Snarker when dealing with his boss Zapp Brannigan, but seems to show this side when his Love Interest Amy is around. In the episode that brought them together as a couple, she kept getting phone calls of someone breathing and panting heavily on the other end; she assumed they were prank calls, when it was really Kif calling to tell her how he feels, but too scared to say anything, thus hyperventilating until he hung up.
    • Along with Kif, there's Mom's second eldest son, Larry. Who is a spineless, Nervous Wreck and finds it difficult to even say aloud words like "bra".
  • PJ from Goof Troop is a rare male variation: He's way too shy to make friends with anyone other than Max (who opened up to him first), and Bobby in the movies (who seemed to meet him through Max). He's highly timid around everyone else, including (or perhaps especially) his own father. When he got a crush on a girl in his class they were Twice Shy. This is played entirely sympathetically, and often seems to be trying to make him pathetic enough that the audience doesn't think of Pete as a Designated Monkey. In the second movie, he gets a Love Interest... because she asks him out. Then this trope disappears.
  • Eugly the rabbit from Kaeloo is a shy but extremely sweet girl who barely says anything.
  • Boo from Mighty Orbots.
  • Molly of Denali: Willow from the episode "The Story of the Story Knife" gets shy when she meets new people. She spent the entire flight to Qyah practicing saying "it's nice to meet you," then forgets everything the moment she lands.
  • Thunder from My Friend Rabbit. He is the shyest character in the series.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Ready Jet Go!: Mitchell really wants to belong to the main group, but he has No Social Skills. Couple that with an Inferiority Superiority Complex, and you've got a major Jerkass Woobie.
  • Recess: Gus. Luckily, he has True Companions.
  • Filburt from Rocko's Modern Life. He's even a turtle (as well as being named after a nut) with a literal shell to go along with it, which he will often retreat into in times of social stress. In one episode, he manages to get past this and become a lounge singer, although not without first feeling incredibly self-conscious even that Rocko heard him singing in his own trailer, and suffering from a very intense amount of stage fright. He does eventually get a Love Interest, though when he plans to propose to her she succeeds in proposing to him first.
  • Schoolhouse Rock! has an example in Mr. Morton (the subject of the sentence; and what the predicate says he does) who is played entirely sympathetically. His entire song is about how he's trying to get his neighbor, Pearl, to like him but is way too scared to ask her out or even talk to her, including two lines that explicitly state "Mr. Morton was very shy" and "Mr. Morton was very nervous". Eventually, she ends up proposing to him, and they live Happily Ever After.
  • Princess Vivian from Sofia the First was shown in her debut episode, "The Shy Princess", to be so introverted that the other kids started spreading rumors about her that said, among other things, she lived in a cave with bats. Fortunately, Sofia gets to her, and she becomes much more open in later episodes.
  • Stan Marsh from South Park is generally a shy, reserved kid who doesn’t really get involved in the town’s madness, when he does, it’s usually to solve a problem. He has shown several signs of being this, especially in the earlier seasons. For example, his interactions with Wendy. Back then, whenever Wendy tries to talk to him, Stan is too shy to say anything, so he ends up vomiting on her. In “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride”, when Stan tries to make a speech, he seems hesitant and doesn’t really know what to say. And in “Chef Chocolate’s Chocolate Salty Balls” while Stan and Wendy are seeing a movie, Stan keeps attempting to hold Wendy’s hand but when she looks at him he puts his hand away. However, while it doesn’t happen often, Stan also has been shown to have an angry side when he’s at his limit.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Queen Celena the Shy earned her title by being so painfully shy that she avoided public speaking and looking directly at people, and even apologized to inanimate objects if she accidentally bumped into them. She also seemed to be extremely endearing for it, as Glossaryck refers to her in the defictionalized Magic Book of Spells as "adorable" and "precious".
  • Teacher's Pet: Leonard Helperman fits this trope. His mother is a teacher and his dog is a new student in school, and is taunted by his classmates. He has difficulty in communicating with his girl classmate Leslie, whom he has a crush on.
  • Flora from Winx Club. While not that reserved, she was very shy when she had a crush on Helia and was reluctant to confess her feelings.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: JunJun is a little shy, but very talented when it comes to music.
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Brad really struggles with his social skills (in one episode, he couldn't even start a conversation with a ride-on duck). It is implied that he didn't have any friends prior to meeting Xavier and Yadina.

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