Markup View

Author: LordGro

Feb 19th 2012 at 7:58:31 AM

I think there might actually be several tropes in this description that are mixed together; or maybe some things that aren't tropes.

As I wrote above: The current write-up emphasizes the negative aspect, implying that "weakness" is bad and that a character that sheds such tears as this trope is about is overly sensitive, self-absorbed, immature, and unsympathetic to the audience.

But that disregards that characters can legitimately cry when they are in a really hard situation, or reach a major low-point, and yet not be presented unsympathetic or come across as childish, immature etc.

There's also the fact that what constitutes a legitimate or illegitimate reason to cry has a subjective dimension. Different viewers/readers may react differently to the same scene.

Maybe we should split the current description into different tropes, such as:
* TearsOfDespair -- A character's crying demonstrates, or underlines, that he/she has hit rock bottom.
* CryingAlone, LonelyTears -- A character is shown crying without someone watching, revealing the degree of his despair to the audience.
* PublicCrying: A character cries publicly and thus loses respect in the eyes of other characters.
* TurnOffTheWaterWorks: A character's crying makes another character help him so that s/he stops crying. Different from the WoundedGazelleGambit in that there is no deception involved.
And possibly others.