Sandbox / Mr Mister 04

Bubble Boy Wick Check

Bubble Boy, as one might infer from the examples, is a trope about people having to be quarantined in a rather general sense. The description and Laconic however imply a very limited scope, only about living in plastic bubbles specifically. This trope also applies to quarantining that isn't bubble related I.E. stuff like White Knight from Generator Rex, so I believe these descriptions are very outdated.

My Wick Check showed that 32% of examples are technically not valid according to the description, a very much not-insignificant amount

Wicks Checked^note Side note, the Quarians from Mass Effect and Cameron from Total Drama made this a really annoying wick check, because I had to weed out all the redundant instances of Total Drama and Mass Effect.: 50/50

Examples that the description/laconic would unambiguously agree with (30/50) 60%

• Characters.Animated Inanimate Battle: When Team 5 caught wind of Chip Bag's deadly Running Gag, they resorted to stapling her shut and wearing an overly-large, movement-restricting bubble-wrap suit. This didn't help in the slightest in preventing her death.
• Characters.Fanboy And Chum Chum: Boog in his childhood. Fanboy and Chum Chum later buy his bubble and wreak all kinds of havoc with it.
• Characters.Infinite Dendrogram: Her appearance is a young woman wrapped up in a protective film-like layer shaped like an egg.
• Characters.Legion Of Super Heroes Legion Of Super Villains: Comes from an aquatic world and breathes a methane atmosphere.
• Characters.Legion Of Super Heroes Other Villains: In the 5YL continuity, he's an extreme germaphobe who lives in a plastic bubble.
• Characters.Mass Effect Race Tropes Non Citadel Space: They have to stay in their environmental suits at all times or risk getting very sick. In fact, Shala'Raan actually mentions that quarian children do indeed spend the first few years of their lives in bubbles, before they receive their first environment suit.
• Characters.PS 238: What the Blessed with Suck aspects of her Barrier Warrior powers have effectively turned her into.
• Characters.Total Drama Mutant Maggots: Raised like one. He also leaves in a bubble when he is eliminated in All-Stars.
• ComicBook.Jinty: "Girl in a Bubble" was Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• ComicStrip.Dogs Of C Kennel:
  • A story arc starting here has Iggy being put in a plastic bubble (thanks to Will) so that he won’t have to worry about being afflicted by germs.
  • In this strip, Iggy is seen unzipping a plastic bubble he is sitting in. He was hiding there to avoid the messy excesses of the kennel's Halloween party.
• Fanfic.The Loud Sim Date: Lola puts Lana inside a bubble in order to protect her from Lynn. It doesn't last.
• Recap.American Dragon Jake Long S 02 E 26 A Ghost Story: One of Jake's cabin boys, Benny, intentionally sealed himself up to avoid having to interact with people due to his constant bullying.
• Recap.The Good Doctor S 3 E 7 SFAD: One of the Patients of the Week has weak immune system, forcing her to live in a bubble.
• Recap.Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia S 09 E 07 The Gang Gets Quarantined: Charlie apparently never got the flu as a child since Mrs. Kelly made him wear a bubble boy suit every year during flu season. Both he and Mac later end up wearing them during a trip to the convenience store.
• Recap.Kim Possible S 4 E 14 Mathter And Fervent: After being turned into anti-matter, Ron has to remain in a containment bubble until he can be returned to normal.
• Recap.The Loud House S 1 E 11 Butterfly Effect The Green House: Lana goes around in a hamster ball to protect herself after seeing what has become of Lola.
• Recap.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 4 E 11 Threes A Crowd: At the end, Discord is quarantined in a bubble after being sneezed on by the Tatzlwurm and becoming sick for real.
• Recap.Odd Squad S 1 E 7 A Case Of The Sing Alongs Ms O Uh Oh: The reporter from the Yellow Gazette is forced to be isolated in a bubble during the Mayor's press conference due to her dressing in yellow, which is presumed to be the cause behind the Mayor's Sing-Alongs, much to her annoyance. The Mayor gives special apologies to her, as does Otto (albeit nonverbally in the latter's case).
• Recap.One Hundred And One Dalmatian Street S 1 E 20: Dylan is overprotective of the Triple D sisters to such an absurd degree that Dolly claims that he'd bubble wrap everyone if he could. On cue, Dawkins walks in and reveals that Dylan actually commissioned a "Puppy Bubble Wrapper," a gun that shoots bubble wrap balls that trap people inside and bounce them around. Later gets bricked as Dylan uses it to save Dallas and himself from falling to death in a plane stunt, sending him bouncing around the city.
• Recap.Paradise PDS 03 E 07 Blind Drunk: Karen gets trapped in a "pregnancy bubble", which is essentially just a giant inflatable bubble meant to keep her safe from anything that could disease or damage her baby.
• Recap.Seinfeld S 4 E 7 The Bubble Boy: The title character. Not technically a ZCE because of the context of the rest of the article.
• Recap.Sponge Bob Square Pants S 5 E 3 Rise And Shine Waiting Fungus Among Us: SpongeBob is contained in a plastic bubble to prevent the spread of the "ick". When Patrick rips it up with a game of "Pirate Wrestling" (waving a sharp pirate hook around), he has the smart idea of making a bubble big enough to contain his friend while letting him go to work.
• Recap.We Bare Bears S 4 E 30 Bubble: The basic concept of the episode is Panda isolating himself in a bubble to stay germ free.
• Series.Delocated: Jon makes himself invulnerable by walking around in a multimillion-dollar bulletproof bubble in "Jon Done Gone Nuts".
• Series.The Last Man On Earth: Mike in "Smart and Stupid", when the others fear he might have the virus.
• Series.Neds Declassified School Survival Guide: Ned spends half of a day inside a plastic bubble to prevent himself from getting sick and being sent home before the last period, in which he'd get to meet Mat Hoffman. Unfortunately, he gets sent home anyway because the bubble heats up and the nurse takes the temperature of the bubble as Ned's body temperature.
• WesternAnimation.Camp Lakebottom:
  • In "It Came From My Nose", McGee is sealed in a bubble for not staying in bed while he's sick.
  • In "Smells Like The Holidays", Squirt seals himself inside a bubble after he vows never to fart again as a result of one of McGee's pranks.
• WesternAnimation.Father Of The Pride: "The Lost Tale" has a Running Gag which Inverts this. One of Hunter's friends is a Bubble Boy named Wendell, the orphan bubble monkey, who ever stops bringing up the fact that he's in a bubble despite Kate's efforts to treat him like anyone else.
• WesternAnimation.Get Ace: Bubble girl, actually. Claudia, Ace's next door neighbour, lives in a bubble due to being allergic to almost everything.
• WesternAnimation.Recess: The main six ended up together in a big plastic dome when they faked the symptoms of a severe illness (they were aiming for a more minor one but Gretchen messed up).

Examples that do not literally involve bubbles (14/50) 28%

• Characters.Generator Rex Providence: He has a good justification for this in "The Plague". Being the only person on the planet free of nanites, he's the only living human who can be unquestionably trusted not to go Evo and turn on his own people at a bad time. What's ironic about it is that he wasn't always uninfected; he was stuck in a molecular deconstruction chamber which should have killed him, but Rex shut it off just soon enough for it to remove only his nanites.
• Characters.God Of War Series Baldur: Deconstructed and the magical variant, Baldur was cursed with invulnerability because Freya learned that he was destined to die a needless death and she overcorrected the problem by removing all of his senses. Because of Freya, Baldur can't feel anything (from sexual pleasure to the very ground he walks on), he's infertile, and he's driven mad by rage, deprivation, and depression. He's been estranged from Freya for over 100 years and was corrupted by Odin's need to hurt Freya.
• Characters.Imperium Nova: Qwib-Qwibs have incredibly weak immune systems from the generations of inbreeding, though that practice has stopped
• Characters.Legion Of Super Heroes Bronze Age: The "bubble" in question being a spaceship he can't leave for long unless possessing something (at least in our dimension).
• Characters.Marriagetoxin: A very dark gender-swapped variant of this. Ushio possesses airborne contact dermatitis, and the diving suit she wears doubles as a way to keep her skin in check as well as a tool for killing. After getting defeated by Gero, he prescribes her some medication as a power play.
• ComicBook.Witch Doctor: Vincent references this when dealing with a possessed boy. He eventually builds magic sigils around the boy's house to keep out demons until a proper cure can be found.
• Creator.George RR Martin: Royd Eris, the captain of the ship in "Nightflyers", is this trope in space. He was born on his ship and has never set foot outside it, and when he takes on passengers (which is rare), the section of the ship that they are allowed into is totally cut off from his own section.
• Fanfic.One Hell Of An Afternoon: Taylor is from a world where there isn't any magic, so she lacks resistance in regards to mystical powers. Wonder Woman's lasso temporarily eliminates her filter entirely and allows her to honestly realize that she was a bit suicidal when she faced Lung, among other things.
• Film.Shorts: Nose and his father live in a completely sterile house, afraid to travel outside without full-body suits.
• Literature.Bubble 2016:
  • Joe has spent the bulk of his life confined to his room in the hospital.
  • There's also his American friend with whom he chats online. He's also been confined to a single hospital room until he gets his suit.
• Literature.Haunted 2005: Inverted. Miss Sneezy describes herself as the opposite of this phenomena: cut off from society in a maximum-security medical facility, so that her fatal disease (of which she's an asymptomatic carrier) won't spread.
• Literature.Newsflesh: The reason why the CDC has stopped working on a cure. The virus binds itself too strongly to the immune system. The CDC has developed ways to remove the virus from a test subject, but each time the subject's immune system gets destroyed in the process and the person dies from exposure to any kind of infection, even ones that'd normally be harmless.
• WesternAnimation.Batman Beyond: Scientists develop a special iso-field to envelope people like this. Unfortunately, someone weaponizes it into an impenetrable force field.
• Wrestling.The Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Figuratively. Bryan is constantly accused of living in a wrestling/MMA bubble and has little to no knowledge of the goings on of the world outside it. Even Dave, who has reportedly spent up to 20 hours a day working during busier seasons, has time to go out with his family or watch other television (such as Dallas).

Misuse: Unrelated to quarantining (2/50) 4%

• Characters.Bolt: Some gags reminiscent of this trope, although he can leave his ball when necessary. This is an example of Sphere Factor.
• Recap.The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh S 2 E3a Bubble Trouble: Or rather, bubble bear. Not only is this a ZCE, but it's misattributing Floating in a Bubble to this trope.

ZCE's and Unsures (4/50) 8%

• Characters.Greys Anatomy: At the end of Season 15 she fires Meredith, Alex and Richard when the first commits an insurance fraud and the other two cover for her, while Bailey herself in Season 10 treated a Bubble Boy against his parent's consent and this is not only illegal but also contrary to the Hippocratic Oath. Haven't seen this show, don't know the context for why this unnamed character is refered to as a "Bubble Boy."
• Characters.V Shojo English Ironmouse: She admits to being one IRL, due to her real-life condition (CVID, an immune disorder). Don't watch her, so I don't know if she literally lives inside of a plastic bubble or lives strily some other way.
• Characters.Total Drama Letterz: To some degree. ZCE, and to be clear, this isn't in reference to Cameron, so no redundancy.
• WesternAnimation.Freds Head: Nino. ZCE

---

Empty Shell Wick Check

Empty Shell, according to it's description, Laconic, and Playing With page, is specifically about emotionlessness. The problem I've noticed, which I assume is due to the trope's misleading name, is that a lot of examples attribute it to literal hollowness, as in no mind or conciousness left in there at all. This runs contrary to the description which says "There is still something there — they move, talk, eat, sleep — but they have no drive, ambition, or capacity for emotion."

My wick check showed that out of a random sample, not even a supermajority of correct usage was found. I blame that entirely on the title, an artifact of when tropes could be named after examples from media, so it was taken from Battle Royale assuming everyone would get the reference.

Wicks Checked: 54/54

Correct Use (31/54) 57%

• Characters.Battle Royale: He is completely without emotions. Justifed in the novel, Kiriyama suffered a major brain injury when he was a fetus, resulting in him to be born without emotions whatsoever. In the manga, he suffers this injury as a child.
• Characters.Blaz Blue Calamity Trigger 2: As a result of the injuries Hakumen inflicted on her and losing the one thing that gave her life meaning, her memories of Ragna, Nu is reduced to this state in the end of Central Fiction. She is seen lying in bed, not responding to anything, in a near-catatonic state.
• Characters.Cinderella Phenomenon: In Waltz's bad ending, Hildyr completely drains her of her magic and she becomes an obedient, practically lifeless doll.
• Characters.Cruelty Squad: As his fan nicknames would suggest, he's so beaten down by the dismal state of his life that he responds to every situation he encounters with apathetic silence.
• Characters.Dragon Age Organizations: The original purpose of the Rite of Tranquility was to serve as the Seekers' initiation. Permanent Tranquility was supposed to be the price of failure. No one knew that it stripped mages of their magic until one tried and failed to join the Seekers to gain their immunity to possession.
• Characters.Fate Extra Humans: In Meltryllis’s dungeon. Caster was turned into a doll and torn apart by Meltryllis, and because Alice's connection with her Servant is like a mirror, this left Alice as helpless as the torn doll. She’s described as “the soul leaving from [her] eyes, even though she’s still alive,” after making her last words a plea to give Caster back. Only by returning the real Caster to Alice can she can finally pass on.
• Characters.Guardian Tales: In the Old Diary story bit found by progressing through the first Expedition, he gives Clara a feather-shaped location emitter that she can use to call for him whenever she needs him, doubling as an I Will Find You. Cue in Kaden's disappearance and Clara's descent into becoming an Empty Shell. I double-checked Clara's page, and it's used correctly there.
• Characters.Guardians Wizards And Kung Fu Fighters Phobos Court: After being raped by Rhouglar, she pretends that the trauma has turned her into an Empty Shell, so that her rebel captors will eventually drop their guard around her, allowing her to rescue her husband and escape.
• Characters.Gushing Over Magical Girls: Claims to be emotionally deadened during her fight with Baiser, and her reactions to things not having to do with Imita do tend to be quite shallow.
• Characters.The Haunting Of Bly Manor: The oldest ghosts lose so much of themselves that they become nothing more than patterns and habits without minds. They may sing along to a song they hear, but they barely do anything more than simply exist.
• Characters.Higurashi When They Cry Protagonists: In the PS2 exclusive Taraimawashi-hen, Mion survives the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, but her trauma has left her in a vegetative state. She still hasn't recovered in her late twenties.
• Characters.In Cryptid: After having his mind accidentally wiped and becoming an Empty Shell, Sarah tries to reconstruct his mind from everyone else's memories of him, but not having his own original memories makes him a little...off.
• Characters.Kamen Rider Black Sun: By the time its heart gets ripped out by Kotaro, the Creation King has effectively become this, showing very little free will, and only defends itself due to insticts
• Characters.Magic Knight Rayearth: When captured by the Cephireans in the second season, the poor woman is seen vacant and despondent to almost anything. Lantis is the only one who can make her react, and that's just because she thinks he is Zagato.
• Characters.Marvel Comics Symbiotes: Ultimately leaves with Tel-Kar's ship (and his brain-dead body) to explore the universe on its own, though it returns in Absolute Carnage.
• Characters.Moribito: He loses his mind after the Giving Ceremony, which is a fitting end for him as it renders him no longer capable of deceiving and manipulating people.
• Characters.The Nostalgia Chick: She takes pretty good care of the Critic in the Moulin Rouge! crossover, being the one to tell him that it's okay to like parts of the movie (even though she herself has problems with that) and looking visibly unhappy after he hits Empty Shell mode after killing Floss.
• Characters.Persona Q 2 New Cinema Labyrinth: What she basically is at the beginning of the game. Everything inside her has been hollowed out by the series of emotional abuses dealt by people around her...and ultimately by herself.
• Characters.Pillars Of Eternity Races: A creature without a soul is comatose, unable to move or react, devoid of anything but basic biological function. The (very technical) term for this in-universe is Hollowborn, with a plague of children in the Dyrwood being born Hollowborn, called Waidwen's Legacy, kicking off the first game.
• Characters.The Silver Case: When Kodai and Akira discover Kamui, they find a silent man who lacks any potential to kill anyone.
• Characters.A Song Of Ice And Fire Essos The Free Cities: Being made a Sex Slave has turned her into an Empty Shell of a person. And unlike Jeyne Poole, nobody's coming to save her.
• Characters.Soul Edge: Post-resurrection, he's described as feeling a "long emptiness" only brought to an end by joining with Soul Edge once more.
• Characters.Steven Universe Pink Diamond: "Together Alone" revealed that she had a friend in Pink Pearl, her first Pearl. The two shared a casual yet close friendship that was frowned upon by the other Diamonds; when the two were caught, White Diamond permanently turned Pink Pearl into an Empty Shell that served only as her current Diamond's mouthpiece, White Pearl. She then gave Pink Diamond a new Pearl, one who was made to be a Sycophantic Servant… the Pearl who would become a member of the Crystal Gems.
• Characters.Tales Of Arise: The people of his realm, both Renan and Dahnan alike, have been reduced to empty husks of their former selves thanks to his cruel abuse of them.
• Characters.Tales Of Crestoria Alternative Tales Counterparts: Laphicet in Berseria was a Empty Shell upon first being introduced, and developed a sense of self through interacting with Velvet and the others. Here, he already has a defined personality and is more upbeat and cheerful at the start of the game.
• Characters.The Unexpectables Non Playable Characters: His current three headed state is noted to have soulless eyes and at one point only stares at Obby blankly while he tries to get himself freed from the dragon cult's treasure hoard, essentially operating only on instinct and Darkus’ orders.
• Characters.Valkyria Chronicles 4 Squad E: Stopping Riley from entering the burning Miller Company factory to save her family in their youth. This left him an Empty Shell until a fight with Raz snapped him out of it a few years before the game, and it drives him to prove to his childhood friends, especially Riley, that he has changed for the better.
• Characters.X Men Rogues Gallery S To Z: Being possessed by him. As revealed by Karma, victims are completely aware the whole time, unable to stop Farouk from his systematic degradation of their bodies and, indeed, are suffering from ceaseless psychological torture in their own heads as Farouk works to make them empty shells. The harder a victim fights back, the more Farouk enjoys it and the longer he draws out their suffering.
• Characters.Yu Gi Oh VRAINS Bohmans Faction: The Hanoi Project and all the hell and torture he went through made him suffer even worse than Yusaku, shaken over the incident and unable to leave. He gets better after he is informed that the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project was brought to a closure... only for Bohman to appear shortly after and suck his soul away, leaving Jin a lifeless husk. His consciousness is then suppressed and he is made into Lightning's aide. He gets much better in Season 3 after losing all his memories of the Lost Incident and is no longer a lifeless shell.
• Zekkyou Gakkyuu: Becomes this at the end of the story due to her latest capsule prize making her completely nonresponsive to anyone.

Misused: Not Emotionless (1/54) 1%

• Characters.Danny Phantom Stranded The Traville Family: By the end of "Visited", Beatrice has become a timid wreck and shut-in who lives in fear of Danny's return. Fear and Paranoia are still emotions that motivate a character

Misused: Completely Hollow (7/54) 13%

• Characters.Child Of The Storm Non Aligned Villains: He's characterised as someone playing with action figures and dolls. Which gets especially chilling when it's some person's Empty Shell after he's slowly eaten their soul.
• Characters.Eleutherophobia: The Yeerks used her body to conceive babies that would subsequently be used as hosts, creating an Empty Shell that wouldn't develop the brain power to fight back. part of the description implies that this state is the result of some sort of shift, so examples where there was never any mind to begin with probably shouldn't count.
• Characters.Grrl Power Antagonists: Downplayed. Her true form is the flame-eye thing floating at her brow, and she can transfer it from body to body. However, she only truly "possesses" the body if it's an Empty Shell. When she jumps into a body with a prior occupant, she has to share.
• Characters.Kirby Other Major Antagonists: The crown normally does this to its wearer, slowly corrupting them with hate until they become an Empty Shell for the Master Crown to manifest its powers and desires through. We see this in action with Magolor Soul, who has been completely possessed by the crown and is helpless to stop himself from destroying everything.
• Characters.Prototype: There's nothing human left in her any more; all that remains is the virus in an empty human host.
• Characters.Puella Magi Tart Magica: Her body is just a puppet being used by her witch when we meet her.
• Characters.Samurai Shodown Warriors Rage: In Samurai Shodown 2, Hattori Hanzo goes to rescue Shinzo's soul to merge it back with his body, after it's stolen by Mizuki. He succeeds, but at the cost of his wife's life.
• Characters.The Thorium Mod: When you hire him, the actual Weapon Master NPC remains where he was. However, trying to talk to him just results in this, implying that the NPC you normally interact with is just an Empty Shell inhabited by the more obviously demonic form that appears when you hire him. This sounds much more like Astral Projection.
  <Name of Weapon Master> blankly stares through you, as though he's not entirely there...

Misused: Example of a different trope (2/54) 3%

• Characters.Big Brother 20 The Jury: By the time of her eviction, her alliance is gone, she can't win any challenges, and she's officially given up all hope, now just begging to be sent home. Better fit for Despair Event Horizon, also this trope was declared No Real Life Examples, Please!, which I'm pretty sure also applies to Reality Shows?
• Characters.Final Fantasy Record Keeper: Because he was corrupted by the Shadowsmith, Odin split himself into two forms: Dark Odin which could physically manifest but his Magicite held no power, and the true Odin that still held great power in his Magicite, but couldn't manifest. I don't understand how you could possibly derive this example for this trope if you did anything but just take a glance at the title and assume what it was about. Much better fit for something like Literal Split Personality

Zero Context Examples (8/54) 15%

• Characters.Alice In Borderland: The next time Usagi sees Arisu, he is lying in a street even as it's raining, following the loss of his friends in 7♥ Hide and Seek. As described, fits better for Heroic BSoD.
• Characters.My Gym Partners A Monkey: Became this, when getting sued in "Leaf of Absence". zce
• Characters.Samurai Flamenco: What he's become by the time he meets Masayoshi. zce
• Characters.Spaghetti Ice: Her original motive for possessing Solana's Empty Shell and pretending to be her, as she wasn't able to talk to others or feel warmth staying tethered to her talismans. The protagonists eventually work out a solution. Solana's character page tells me literally nothing, so this is a zce for Empty Shell, works fine for I Just Want to Have Friends.
• Characters.Star Trek Deep Space Nine Federation And Bajor: Bashir saves his life after a shuttle accident, but it leaves him as a shadow of his former self. zce
• Characters.The Story Of Black Pearl: The Stain grants her the ability to weaponize this; she can forcibly fuse with others by overpowering their will, ravaging their body, and leaving them an shattered shell of their former self. zce for Empty Shell, fine example for Fusion Dance, what it's listed under.
• Characters.Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: There was something weird about him as a kid. It is later revealed at that time he had a small heart which R Syaoran gave him. what was weird about him? the explanation doesn't explain how he was weird.
• Characters.Werewolf The Apocalypse: Fomori become this when they exhaust their Autonomy score. zce

Unsure (5/54) 9%

• Characters.Persona 2 Party Members And Protagonists: Should the party leave Yukino to mourn, after her Shadow kills herself and Anna, when the party meets with Philemon, he will reveal to them Yukino, who has literally become a mindless, empty husk of her self. Given what I know about shadows from Persona 4 and 5, I'm pretty sure this is referring to hollowness rather than emptiness as defined by the trope. Can't confirm entirely because I haven't played Persona 2.
• Characters.Pony POV Series Antagonists: Feeding at maximum tends to leave her victims this. Her first victims were her parents. Her ultimate goal is to do this to all of Equestria. As written, could refer to Empty Shell portrayed correctly, or complete hollowness.
• Characters.Rune Scape Gods: All that remains after her "daughter" Seren mercy kills her is an empty husk of what could have been a powerful being. From context I'm led to believe the example refers to a corpse left behind, but it refers to a god and I haven't played Runescape so I'm not sure.
• Characters.The Saga Of Tanya The Evil: Of the people who have received his "blessings", Tanya is the only one who has not been twisted into an unrecognizable, fanatical Empty Shell of their former self, and only because she recognizes the danger and avoids overusing her orb, and has a strong reticence towards Being X's influence. From the way he offers power at the cost of one's sanity, you could easily take Being X for a Satanic Archetype rather than the god he supposedly is. Featured as a qualifier for The Corruptor. Haven't read it but from context seems redundant to bring up here having already brought up Reforged into a Minion
• Characters.TNO Southern Africa: Ramanantsoa has no ideological values, beliefs or convictions, his primary goal as the new president of Madagascar is to give the OFN the membership they need for his country. I don't know if lacking motivation in terms of political ideology qualifies for this trope's explanation of emotionlessness. Leaning towards misuse because the character in question does have a stated motivation.