History Main / EnthusiasmVersusStoicism

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1638114751022456600 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13222107430A61495000&page=1#1 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]

Another sliding scale like SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. Where characters are plotted on this line depends on how emotive they are.

Is the hero calm and collected, or wild and HotBlooded? Does the villain [[LickingTheBlade lick blood from his knife]] with relish, or dispose of bodies stone faced?

Positions on this scale aren't static; characters shift with their moods but can still be placed by their baseline.

If he's not smiling, is he sad or is that his normal face? If he is smiling has something good happened, or is he just a happy person? Enthusiasm overlaps with discord, change or denial.

Stoicism parallels continuity, repression, and law. Everyone feels, so the criterion is how much they display the emotion. The brooder who'll betray the friends he secretly hates is stoic (however great his wrath). Manipulators are stoics because they're suppressing their genuine emotions to display fake ones.

An OddCouple or RedOniBlueOni will occur when these two are specifically side-by-side. The StockShonenHero and the StockShonenRival are an especially common pairing to this effect.

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!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

!!Enthusiastic:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Kazuhiko Shimamoto's works. His characters are HotBlooded, prone to suddenly bursting into tears, exploding into rage or cheering wildly and they '''Never. Stop. Sweating.'''
** ''Moeyo Pen''
** ''Gyakkyou Nine''
** ''Anime Tenchou'' (which you may recognize from ''Anime/LuckyStar'')
** ''Manga/BlazingTransferStudent.''
** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''
* SuperRobot pilots
** ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Kouji Kabuto
** ''Anime/GreatMazinger'': Tetsuya Tsurugi.
** ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'': Duke Fleed.
** ''Manga/GetterRobo'': Ryoma Nagare.
** ''Anime/KotetsuJeeg'': Hiroshi Shiba.
** ''Anime/{{Gaiking}}'': Sanshiro Tsuwabuki.
** ''{{Anime/Raideen}}'': Akira Hibiki.
** ''Anime/CombattlerV'': Hyoma Aoi.
** ''Anime/VoltesV'': Kenichi Go.
** ''{{Anime/Daimos}}'': Kazuya Ryuuzaki.
** ''Anime/{{Zambot 3}}'': Kappei Jin.
** ''Anime/{{Daitarn 3}}'': Banjo Haran.
** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': Domon Kasshu
** ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'': Guy Shishioh
** ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' Simon
* ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'': Onizuka-sensei.
* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ComicBook/XMen's ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}. Just try to find a picture where he's not screaming his lungs out while gleefully shredding something.
** Easy, just look for any time he's paired with Jubilee. He'll go Blue Oni quick enough then.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'': Most characters are bursting with feeling. Their conversations end up in hysterics.
* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' Tash and her uncle Hoole are both intelligent and like to research things, and particularly by the end of the series they both tend to know ''something'' about wherever they've gone and whatever they're seeing. But while Tash tends to be enthused and animated about it, Hoole is known for being TheStoic, even when he's very interested in something. Tash's brother Zak is BookDumb and is similarly more inclined to showing emotion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Selphie Tilmitt is a GenkiGirl with some [[BewareTheNiceOnes bloodthirsty streaks.]] Zell Dincht is just really loud and doesn't stop moving.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'': Sonic when he gets worked up, Knuckles ''all the time''.
** Rouge, as an anti-hero-ish variation.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': Kasumi Goto.
* Onion Knight, Tidus, Barts and Zidane (to the extreme) Prishe, Laguna Loire, Vann, and Tifa on the heroic side for Dissida.
* Kuja, Jecht, and [[AxCrazy Kefka]] on the villainous side in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/OctopusPie'': Hannah Thomspon is giddy, angry or something. There is no calm.
[[/folder]]

!!Stoic:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' has TheStoic Heero as its protagonist and CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Duo as his [[TheLancer Lancer]]. The show doesn't lean one way or the other in serious contexts, but more often than not Heero's cool head will allow him to flummox Duo for comedic effect.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ComicBook/XMen's ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}. Renowned for his stiffness and abnormal self-control (paired with his ironically uncontrolled eye-beams he can't turn off).
** While it might seem like his tight self-control is the result of dealing with being unable to control his destructive mutant ability, it was at one point revealed that his inability to control it was a subconscious decision he made as a child out of guilt for being unable to save his family (or even accidentally making the situation worse when their plane was crashing)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'': Plainview smolders with hatred for humanity he fights to contain. He leaves a town with oil reserves because the populace is too disorderly. He walks away from his son without a word when delivering him to a school for deaf people. Eli has to work him up to a yell in the Church of the Third revelation because Plainview's used to restraining his emotions and talking in conversational levels. [[ChewingTheScenery Stoicism has clearly taken a hike by the end of the film.]]
* ''Film/HalfBaked'': The guy on the couch. Steven Wright has made a comedy career out of his unnaturally mellow stage persona.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Harald}}'': One of the major traits of David D. Friedman's fantasy novel is that all of the major characters are stoic, especially the titular protagonist.
* Sasha in ''Literature/GreekNinja'' appears stoic, as oppose to the whole group surrounding her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Squall Leonheart and this is a constant source of conflict throughout the game.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'': Though [[spoiler: you're Their only present chance of freedom,]] Dormin is mellow.
* VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog. Unless he's angry, because then he becomes a raging psychopath.
* Cloud, Squall (on par with his ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' persona), and Lightning on the heroic side, and Sephiroth, The Cloud of Darkness, and to an extent Golbez on the villainous side of ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''.
* [[VideoGame/{{Shinobi}} Joe Musashi]], all the time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Greg from [[Website/BecomingABetterWriter The Wolf's Will]] is a far more composed person than his partner Tony Tony. Look at the start of [[http://becomingabetterwriter.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/the-wolfs-will-scene-004/ this]] scene to see what I mean.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Raven from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''
* Mandy from ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' so much so her not smiling is a law of reality. In the episode she smiles, physics breaks down.
* Scruffy the janitor from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''.
[[/folder]]

!!Works With This Scale as a Theme:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is exceptional; Lelouch hides his humanitarian motivation to be the villain he thinks people need.
* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', generally an enthusiastic series as shown above, includes Meikyou Shisui, Clear Mirror Still Water, which requires the user to channel both enthusiasm and stoicism at once.
* Many manga and anime, particularly shounen series, implicitly contain this scale as a theme because the characters must reach ever-greater emotional extremes to power-up but control their emotions to limit the area-of-destruction to enemies.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': The Joker wants to destroy peoples mind-numbing plans, the routines of job and duty, so they'll wildly grapple with the pointlessness of existence.
* ''Film/CoffeeAndCigarettes'': The opening sketch airs terminally lethargic Steven Wright with hyperactive Roberto Benigni -- switching their characters.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe, the two sides of the force each represent one end of the sliding scale with the DarkSide being the enthusiastic, yet murderously evil end, and the Light side being the well intentioned, disciplined end.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where Chaos feeds off of emotion (the four main gods embody rage, desire, ''love'' and ''hope'') and ruthless stoicism is the main alternative. Go ''too far'' on the scale and you get the Necrons, sentient robots who exist only to destroy life and serve the literal GrimReaper. [[CrapsackWorld Did we mention the Grim and Dark future is not a nice place?]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'': In ''The Shivering Isles'', those blessed by Sheogorath with Dementia may emote but rely more on keeping their feelings secret, the better to surprise enemies with. Maniacs lose themselves in sensation.
* Whenever Shadow tends to be paired up with any other character in the Sonic cast (Sonic and Rouge being good examples) he's usually the more serious of the pair. While Rouge invites him to go treasure hunting with her, he completely rejects the idea and wants to stay focused on the main mission. When he and Sonic team up briefly in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', he's annoyed at how much fun his blue counterpart is having.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' absolutely LOVES this trope.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', this trope is epitomized by [[TheChick Rinoa]] and [[AntiHero Squall]] (Enthusiasm and Stoicism, respectively) and is a big source of conflict between them.
** In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', this happens for both the villains and the heroes. The previously mentioned Squall ends up teamed with [[KidHero Zidane]] and [[TheFool Bartz]]. HilarityEnsues.
** Also, [[BrokenHero Cloud]] is the more quiet of his gang of four, which just happens to include [[{{Keet}} Tidus]]. Again, HilarityEnsues.
** [[IceQueen Lightning]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is a Stoic who has to put up with an ''entire team'' of Enthusiasts, composed of [[PluckyGirl Tifa]], [[FearlessFool Laguna]], [[LovableRogue Vann]] and [[WideEyedIdealist Yuna]], who are all fairly optimistic and enthusiastic. She snaps at Laguna and Vaan constantly for their optimism and carefree natures. That said, she at least has fellow Stoic Kain for company.
*** Even ''the villains'' have this. When [[LargeHam Jecht]] is paired with [[TheChessmaster The Emperor]] this can be seen clearly. Double for the one time [[TragicMonster Sephiroth]] has a conversation with [[MonsterClown Kefka]], but Sephiroth arguably was just as enthusiastic as facing Cloud and Tifa. He just has a [[DissonantSerenity different way of showing it.]]
[[/folder]]
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* In the StarWars universe, the two sides of the force each represent one end of the sliding scale with the DarkSide being the enthusiastic, yet murderously evil end, and the Light side being the well intentioned, disciplined end.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'': Sonic when he gets worked up, Knuckles ''all the time''.

** [[IceQueen Lightning]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is a Stoic who has to put up with an ''entire team'' of Enthusiasts, composed of [[PluckyGirl Tifa]], [[FearlessFool Laguna]], [[LoveableRogue Vann]] and [[WideEyedIdealist Yuna]], who are all fairly optimistic and enthusiastic. She snaps at Laguna and Vaan constantly for their optimism and carefree natures. That said, she at least has fellow Stoic Kain for company.

* ''HalfBaked'': The guy on the couch. Steven Wright has made a comedy career out of his unnaturally mellow stage persona.

** ''Blazing Transfer Student.''

An OddCouple or RedOniBlueOni will occur when these two are specifically side-by-side.

!!'''Examples:'''

** ''VoltesV'': Kenichi Go.

** [[IceQueen Lightning]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is a Stoic who has to put up with an ''entire team'' of Enthusiasts, composed of [[PluckyGirl Tifa]], [[FearlessFool Laguna]], [[LoveableRogue Vann]] and [[WideEyedIdealist Yuna]], who are all fairly optimistic and enthusiastic. She snaps at Laguna and Vaan constantly for their optimism and carefree natures. That said, she at least has fellow Stoic [[{{Badass}} Kain]] for company.

* ''Coffee And Cigarettes'': The opening sketch airs terminally lethargic Steven Wright with hyperactive Roberto Benigni -- switching their characters.

* ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'s ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}. Renowned for his stiffness and abnormal self-control (paired with his ironically uncontrolled eye-beams he can't turn off).

** ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' Simon

* Whenever Shadow tends to be paired up with any other character in the Sonic cast (Sonic and Rouge being good examples) he's usually the more serious of the pair. While Rouge invites him to go treasure hunting with her, he completely rejects the idea and wants to stay focused on the main mission. When he and Sonic team up briefly in ShadowTheHedgehog, he's annoyed at how much fun his blue counterpart is having.

* ''ShadowOfTheColossus'': Though [[spoiler: you're Their only present chance of freedom,]] Dormin is mellow.
* ShadowTheHedgehog. Unless he's angry, because then he becomes a raging psychopath.

* [[{{Shinobi}} Joe Musashi]], all the time.

* SamuraiChamploo

* ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'s {{Wolverine}}. Just try to find a picture where he's not screaming his lungs out while gleefully shredding something.

** ''{{Raideen}}'': Akira Hibiki.

* ''OctopusPie'': Hannah Thomspon is giddy, angry or something. There is no calm.

* ''GGundam'', generally an enthusiastic series as shown above, includes Meikyou Shisui, Clear Mirror Still Water, which requires the user to channel both enthusiasm and stoicism at once.

** ''{{Zambot3}}'': Kappei Jin.
** ''Anime/{{Daitarn3}}'': Banjo Haran.

** ''KotetsuJeeg'': Hiroshi Shiba.

** ''MazingerZ'': Kouji Kabuto
** ''GreatMazinger'': Tetsuya Tsurugi.
** ''UFORoboGrendizer'': Duke Fleed.

** ''GaoGaiGar'': Guy Shishioh

** ''{{Gaiking}}'': Sanshiro Tsuwabuki.

** ''{{Daitarn3}}'': Banjo Haran.