Not So Stoic / Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Zachary is a very quiet, steady, and stoic fellow, especially in contrast with the more colorful crew he's commanding. It makes it all the more powerful when it slips.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Mai comes across as the Emotionless Girl most of the time but blows up in the episode "The Beach", where she actually shouts.
  • "The Beach" is the one time in which Azula is caught off the battlefield and she's a colossal dork.
  • The Legend of Korra: In Season 2, Eska's reaction to Bolin's break-up shows her true possessive and horrifying nature.
  • In Season 4, Kuvira seems genuinely broken up by her decision to Shoot the Hostage and nuke the building where her fiance and the Avatar are hiding.
  • Played for Laughs (most of the time) with Tenzin; he tries his best to appear as the stoic, wise Airbending Master. When Korra's acting too much like a Bratty Teenage Daughter, or his older siblings start picking on him, or when he's run ragged by his young children, that composure fractures.
• In the Batman Beyond film Return of the Joker, what the Clown Prince does to Tim Drake and the resulting retaliation taint the entire Bat Family's demeanor forever.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • "Pretty Poison." It's rare to see Batman startled, but the vine he used to swing out of Ivy's trapdoor cacti pit suddenly coming alive and wrapping itself around his wrist, revealing sharp, chomping fangs too, does the trick.
    • In the episode "Harlequinade", Harley Quinn pushes a button in the Batmobile, thinking it will turn on the radio. Instead, it deploys the drag parachute, causing Batman to lose control of the Batmobile as it swerves left and right. Batman hits the brakes... loses his cool and gives Harley a well-deserved scolding.
  • "The Clock King". Even before his Start of Darkness, Temple Fugate was The Stoic. It's justified because he is The Sociopath whose only interest in life is to be a Schedule Fanatic. But there is a theme that makes him emote:
    Counselor Hill: Do you take a coffee break?
    Fugate: Of course. Every day at 3 on the dot.
    Counselor Hill: Then take it at 3:15.
    Fugate: (he grinds his teeth while the subway wheels grind by slowly stopping, giving the illusion that the noise is caused by Fugate) But my schedule!
• Cellbound has the ever-serious jail warden,◊ who nevertheless begins doing an incredibly goofy dance◊ upon hearing some Dixieland jazz (then goes back to serious and stoic within a single animation frame).
• On his earliest cartoons, the typically unemotional Droopy would suddenly explode in an exuberant display of emotion at the end, only to revert to his usual composure and calmly state "I'm happy."
• A comedic example during the Family Guy DVD special, "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story." Tricia Takanawa, Token Minority news reporter for Channel 5 goes to interview David Bowie on the red carpet. It takes one sentence from Bowie to turn Tricia from deadpan reporter to shrieking, leg-humping fangirl.
  Tricia: Oh, make love to me, Ziggy Stardust! I take you home, I make you fishball soup! Fishball!
  Tom: [Beat] Thank you, Tricia, for setting your people back 1000 years.
• Final Space:
  • Avocato. He's one of the tougher and more serious members of the Team Squad, but he has his emotional spots when it comes to his son Little Cato. He'll freak when his son is in danger, his Heel–Face Turn away from willingly serving the Lord Commander was even jump-started by him refusing to kill his own son to prove his loyalty, and the truth about Little Cato's parentage and the deaths of his birth-parents is implied to be one of Avocato's greatest, if not his single greatest shame. Darkly enough, Invictus exploits Avocato's weak spots for Little Cato to make him go psycho when Invictus possesses him.
  • Nightfall ultimately turns out to be this in "The First Times They Met". She's been presented throughout most of the series as a Stoic Woobie, hardened by twenty years of traveling through hundreds of Alternate Timelines and watching Gary and all her friends die in every one, but in this episode, she implicitly hits the Despair Event Horizon when she uses the ship's virtual simulator to create a duplicate of her world's Gary from her memories, even though this is heavily draining the ship's power and will likely kill her and the rest of the squad.
• Scruffy the janitor Futurama rarely shows emotion, even once showing no concern to dying. However, in "The Prisoner of Benda," his washbucket (who is in Amy's body) confesses her love for him. While he reciprocates, he turns her down on the basis that she's a robot. After she leaves, he breaks down in tears.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Mandy is normally emotionless, but in the episode featuring Pandora's Box, upon realizing that she had unleashed it, she is overwhelmed with fear/shock. Also, the episode when her nerve is stolen from her.
  • And the episode "Heartburn", when she finds out she may actually like Irwin.
  • In "My Fair Mandy", Mindy makes her feel bad by calling her ugly, and she looks sad over the thought of losing a beauty pageant.
  • "Billy And Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure" features no fewer than three examples of this. First, when the Boogey Man puts her to sleep and turns her dreams into a Psychological Torment Zone. Second, she brushes tears from her eyes when she thinks the Kraken has eaten Billy, despite knowing and stating that he was always fine, no matter what happened to him. And third, Horror's Hand causes her to experience her greatest fears. She was confident that nothing could scare her…as were many of the viewers. But when she comes face to face with the adult version of herself, a plump Pollyanna, and sees her kissing a grown-up Irwin, she runs away screaming.
• Justice League has yet another example of Batman breaking his stony expression, in the episode "For the Man who has Everything". Batman gets attacked by an alien parasite that presents you with a vision of your greatest desire but leaves you catatonic - a classic Lotus-Eater Machine. Batman sees a vision of the night his parents were shot by Joe Chill, except this time Thomas Wayne goes Papa Wolf, rushes and overpowers Chill, and begins beating the crud out of him. This is the only time you see the caped crusader with a look of sheer unbridled bliss. Of course, it doesn't last...
• Quack Quack from Kaeloo has shown real emotions at times when necessary, like when he sees Mr. Cat destroying his precious yogurt. However, this is extremely rare, as in one case he was completely stoic when Kaeloo was about to die.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: When Kipo confronts Wolf over hiding a clue from her Dad, Wolf breaks down crying and admits that she really doesn't want to lose Kipo, having come to accept her as a friend.
• Looney Tunes: The Roadrunner is a Perpetual Smiler who is usually unfazed by most of Wile E. Coyote's attempts to catch him, but the titular machine in The Solid Tin Coyote manages to genuinely spook him.
• This applies to Wind-Whistler from My Little Pony. "I do have feelings — I merely refrain from expressing them at the drop of a hat," as she says.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Towards the end of "Lesson Zero", after all the brainwashed characters are cured and give up fighting over the Smarty Pants doll, we see the normally stoic Big Macintosh grin childishly and run off with it complete with little love-hearts around his head.
  • He gets another one in "The Last Roundup": we see quiet giant Big Macintosh's lip quivering when he gets the note that Applejack's not coming home.
  • Done for a humorous role reversal in the episode "Ponyville Confidential". The town is mad at the Cutie Mark Crusaders for their gossip rag. They try seeking forgiveness from Applejack and Big Mac, but Applejack only responds in Macintosh's usual "yep" and "nope"s, while Macintosh chews them out for what they did.
  • In the episode "Maud Pie", Pinkie's eponymous sister spends most of the episode as a drab, monotone Emotionless Girl, until Pinkie is in danger of being crushed by a boulder. This causes Maud to run faster than any of the other ponies with a determined expression, punch the boulder to dust with her bare hooves, and after bringing Pinkie down from the rock slide, hug her out of relief and raise her voice when scolding her. She also smiles at the end of the episode, saying she loves Pinkie Pie.
• Phineas and Ferb: Ferb is one of the most stoic cartoon guys you ever hope to meet. The look on his face is 99% of the time, entirely blank, and he speaks, on average, once an episode. He does, occasionally, get moments of emotion, but his first true Not So Stoic moment happened in his first movie: When he and his brother meet their other-dimension counterparts, the alternate Phineas sees Perry and immediately hugs him, thinking he's their Perry, finally come home. When Phineas tells him that it's the wrong Perry, he then asks "Wait...can I hold him a little longer?". Cut to Ferb, along with his other dimension counterpart, shedding a single, small tear. Another instance occurs in his second movie, where he screams in terror with the rest of the kids when they encounter Norm the giant robot for the first time. He is also visibly sad and hurt after being told by Candace that she's better off without him and Phineas.
• Rick and Morty: Despite how serious he's played as a threat, he's not above falling into Buffy Speak or trolling Morty by offering him a ride off the exploding Citadel only to admit he was lying because the second seat on his ship is just a toilet. Also, if one were to attribute Evil Rick's actions to Evil Morty as the former was quite literally a puppet to the latter, he can be outright childish at times, saying he invented Sarcastic Clapping in one dimension and stops C-137 Rick from doing it himself, saying "That's mine!", provided that wasn't an act.
• Samurai Jack has Jack himself, who is usually a calm and composed individual. The two things that have made him lose his temper were the Scotsman and Ashi. Notably, in both instances, he finally lost his temper after being insulted for an extended period of time.
• Craig from South Park briefly loses his temper during an argument with Tweek in "Put it Down". He lampshades it himself right afterwards.
  Craig: Well, I'm sorry that I'm actually in control of my goddamn emotions, you baby! *Beat* Oh, see? Now you made me lose control of my emotions. Goddammit.
• Star Wars Rebels:
  • It transpires that ISB Agent Kallus has a tendency towards Inopportune Voice Cracking when he's scared, injured, or very angry.
  • Grand Admiral Thrawn is a very calm and collected man, playing his cards so close to the chest that they're under his jacket. When Slavin suggests destroying the Syndulla family's Kalikori—an extremely important heirloom to Twi'lek families and culture—Thrawn grabs him by the collar and snarls in his face for a moment before releasing him and apologizing for his outburst, making Slavin look as scared as if he'd just insulted Darth Vader's mother to his face. As practically the only non-human officer in the very speciesist Imperial military and an art lover besides, Slavin's suggestion hit two of Thrawn's Berserk Buttons at once.
• Steven Universe:
  • Garnet tends to be unfazed by most things. She becomes more expressive as the series progresses, ranging from desperation (when Steven nearly ages himself to death in "Too Many Birthdays", or when he endangers himself during "Future Vision" because of something she told him), to unrestrained joy (seeing that Steven and Connie have pulled off a successful Fusion Dance in "Alone Together", or fusing back together herself in "Jail Break"), to rage (after Pearl violates her trust in "Cry For Help", or when Peridot squanders what little goodwill she had in "It Could've Been Great"). The most dramatic case comes in "Keeping it Together"; confronting the artificial gem assembled from the shards of fallen comrades elicits absolute horror.
  • Sapphire, one of Garnet's component gems, is always calm and emotionless to the point of appearing apathetic, a side effect of being able to look into the future. This comes back to haunt her in "Keystone Motel"; when she and Ruby are upset by Pearl's actions in the previous episode, she refuses to acknowledge her own present emotional state, as well as Ruby's. When she realizes how much it's affected the pair (as well as Steven), she breaks down:
    Sapphire: I keep looking into the future when all of this has already been solved. As if it doesn't matter how you feel in the present. (voice cracking as she starts crying) No wonder you think I don't care!
    • When she (as part of Garnet) learns that Rose Quartz was actually a shapeshifted Pink Diamond for all the millennia she had known and followed her, Sapphire understandably, yet rather uncharacteristically, flips out in rage and warps out of the temple, leaving Ruby and the other Crystal Gems behind.
      Sapphire: SHE LIED TO US!!! SHE LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING!
  • In a different vein, Peridot is introduced as a technician on a routine assignment, and her inflections and expression border on mechanical. In subsequent appearances, she gets rather amusingly flustered when others meddle in her business ("I'M REPORTING THIS!"), and she becomes slowly unhinged after being stranded on Earth, ending up a nervous wreck by the time the Crystal Gems finally track her down.
  • When Peridot's finally able to contact her leader, Yellow Diamond reprimands her for falling behind schedule, losing her ship and her escort, and using an emergency contact rather than proper channels, but then goes on to calmly thank her for completing her report, and offers to arrange transport to bring her home. Only after Peridot stumbles across her Berserk Button (suggesting they spare Earth from the Doomsday Device they'd planted, and questioning her motives when she dismisses the idea) does her vindictive streak become apparent. By the end of their conversation, after Peridot denounces her in a moment of desperation, she is furious.
• Storm Hawks: Discussed by Piper in "Best Friends Forever", who indicates that for all of Cyclonis' efforts to be a merciless dictator devoid of empathy, at heart she's more vulnerable. There have been a few hints over the series that Piper is right.
  Piper: You can't hide who you really are. A lonely girl who desperately wants a friend!
• In Sym-Bionic Titan, Lance starts out as quiet, serious, and aloof, but goes through this trope as more of a gradual change as opposed to facing consequences that briefly put him into this. Octus, a robot, is stoic throughout most of the show, but when all organic life becomes still due to a Mutraddi, he attempts to use his electricity to bring Ilana and Lance "back to life." When it does work, he actually smacks his hand across this face, making this pained expression as if he was going to cry.
• Charlie of Smiling Friends is mostly a Deadpan Snarker and Only Sane Man of the group, doesn't stop him from reacting like a normal person would to certain situations like someone springing out from the TV or being overjoyed that a magic potion worked to cure his hangover.
• Raven of Teen Titans (2003) strives for utter calm and control over her emotions—making it that much more frightening when she lets her temper show. The episode "Nevermore" begins with Raven torturing a villain, and the fourth season's Trigon arc features her angrily attacking and yelling at both Slade and Trigon.
  • Justified, though, because it was mentioned once in a "Freaky Friday" Flip episode "Switched" that her powers are controlled by her emotions. Cue Starfire exploding things without noticing when she had Raven's body, or Raven accidentally kidnapping all other Titans and creating an army of monsters when she was scared by a horror movie.
• In Total Drama Noah was an emotionless, sarcastic Deadpan Snarker, however, in World Tour he gets some Character Development and focus that reveals that he's quite enthusiastic and friendly when he wants to be. Evenly as early as Island, he seems quick to start dancing when the team is celebrating their first victory.
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race also shows that he gets very goofy when he has a crush.
• Transformers:
  • Very few things can make Prowl of Transformers: Animated lose his composure. Unfortunately for Prowl, one of those things is his annoying teammate Bumblebee, who can provoke uncharacteristic displays of frustration in Prowl without even trying.
  • It is rare to see Optimus Prime from Transformers: Prime show any sort of emotion. He only really loses it twice: once when Raph is injured by Megatron, and once when Starscream steals the Omega Keys.
• In Young Justice (2010), Batman is still The Stoic, but he shows a lot more emotion around Dick and the rest of the team, at least moreso than most of his other appearances. The most heartwarming is the moment after Dick gets jealous of Aqualad, he "trains" Dick by playing a one-on-one game of basketball with him.

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