Basic Trope: A character in a profession that deals with death never really builds up a tolerance to death.
- Straight: Dr. Thomas Roper, despite having been in the medical profession for years, still gets broken up every time he loses a patient.
- Exaggerated:
- Every time it looks like a patient might be in the slightest danger, Dr. Roper starts sobbing inconsolably and it gets worse every time.
- Thomas can't stand seeing people die... even though he's a hitman who's usually responsible for most of the deaths he sees.
- Downplayed: Dr. Roper is The Stoic, and while it always gets to him to lose a patient, he certainly doesn't show it well.
- Justified:
- He's a doctor who's proud of his skills, as well as deeply compassionate — he doesn't like to lose patients if he can't.
- He's in a field where success is closer to saving lives than to taking or losing them.
- Roper's had to deal with so many patients dying back to back lately that he hasn't had a chance to emotionally recover in between them, so he finds himself being put through the wringer.
- Inverted:
- Dr. Roper is a pediatrician or some type of professional who would be expected to have tact. Instead, he's as cold and callous as possible.
- It Gets Easier - Roper becomes more and more accustomed to patients dying, and over time he starts regarding such a thing with indifference.
- Subverted: He was only broken up about one case because he knew the person who was dying.
- Double Subverted: ...At least, that's the justification he gave to his coworkers...
- Parodied: Dr. Roper yells out "IT NEVER GETS ANY EASIER!" every time he loses a patient, then goes about his business as if nothing had happened.
- Zig Zagged: Some cases still hit him pretty hard. He takes the others very well.
- Averted: Roper's pretty well-adjusted.
- Enforced: "Those idiots watching this medical drama wouldn't sympathize with the main character if he didn't tear up after every lost patient!"
- Lampshaded: "No...not again! Why...why do my patients keep dying?!"
- Invoked: Dr. Roper's mentor was a Jerkass who prepared him for the physical part of being a doctor, but not the emotional part.
- Exploited: Seeing Roper in so much anguish over the loss of his patients, his colleagues use that as evidence that the administration need to take care of their staff in turn.
- Defied: "It may be painful now, but if I want to succeed at this, I'm going to have to accept that death is a part of life."
- Implied: After repeatedly losing patients, Roper disappears for a while. He comes back, looking haunted, but won't discuss what caused him to leave for some time.
- Discussed: "Oh god, Roper lost another one. Here come the waterworks."
- Conversed: "You'd think by this point in his career that he'd built up some tolerance to the emotional pain that comes with death."
- Deconstructed: Dr. Roper is completely ineffectual as a doctor because he's always getting too emotionally attached.
- Reconstructed: Dr. Roper tries his best to keep his emotions in check until he can get alone.
- Played For Drama: Dr. Roper's work has proven to be very taxing for him mentally speaking. He starts to suffer from depression, which gets progressively more crippling.
Oh god, why? It Never Gets Any Easier to edit tropes!
