Characters.Octopath Traveler The Eight Protagonists: He's a very compassionate man who won't hesitate to heal another's wounds. After Miguel Twinspears takes advantage of his kindness for his own selfish purposes—leaving Alfyn with a crisis of faith in being an apothecary—and later wounds a child because he found his crying annoying, Alfyn decides that he's Beyond Redemption and kills him. As Miguel lays dying, asking for help, Alfyn doesn't say a word and silently turns around to help the wounded child. Notably, every other antagonist in Alfyn's story survives.
Creator.Dave Barry: When he writes a non-humor column, it's usually because something horrible has gone down.
Recap.Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia S 11 E 10 The Gang Goes To Hell Part 2: Mac is so devastated by the revelation that his father has been writing to him and Dennis threw away the letters that he says he doesn't even have the energy to attack Dennis for it and instead simply sits down in the rising water. It's out of character enough that the others are visibly unnerved.
WesternAnimation.Tales From The Cryptkeeper: In "The Works ..in Wax", William is a playful, fun-loving janitor. When Craig wonders why Mr. Rottmucker's museum has changed, William becomes very somber, telling the audience that something terrible happened to Mr. Rottmucker as of late.
Fanfic.Belladonna Lilies: Not So Stoic: Once Weiss confirms a small detail about a pair of crimes, Johannes Schnee ends up panicking and reveals what caused Cinder's plans to Weiss, Blake, Yang and Ruby.
Film.Flight Of The Navigator: Max stops being fun-loving the moment David requests to return to the past, fearing his fragile human body would be vaporized.
Fanfic.The Camera Eye Series: Any time either Serena or Ash gets honest about their emotions is a guarantee that drama is about to ensue.
VisualNovel.Slay The Princess: In "The Nightmare" ending, you get to the cabin only to find the door is already open and the Princess has transformed into an Eldritch Abomination with no discernible human features aside from a seriously messed-up face. The normally unflappable Narrator panics and asks "What did you do?! She's supposed to be an ordinary Princess!". It's also one route where The Narrator uses "kill" instead of "slay", which the Hero comments on.
Film.A Christmas Carol 1938: Martha knows something's wrong with Bob when he describes Scrooge as giving him the day off quite jovially.
Characters.Doctor Who Eighth Doctor: At the end of "To The Death", he promises the Daleks he'll kill all of them if given the chance, he can't forgive a fellow Time Lord (the Monk) anymore, and he's absolutely roaring with anger and grief. The first steps towards the Last Great Time War.
Characters.Himitsu No Hanazono: In the Grand Finale, Colin, upon seeing Archibald, instantly steps out of the wheelchair to confront him. Mary expresses shock for him and tells him it's too dangerous, but Dickon stops her for intervening and says that it's something Colin has to do on his own. Seeing Colin walk for the first time shakes Archibald as he has a Jerkass Realization.
Characters.Vivo: She's very regal and classy, as befitting a singer. Management is worried for her when news of Andres's death causes her to sob in her dressing room and she refuses to perform.
Characters.Tale Spin: It is his series goal to buy his beloved plane, the Sea Duck, off of Rebecca. In "From Here To Machinery" however, after Baloo loses a competition to a automated pilot and leaves Higher For Hire and several other cargo businesses obsolete, Rebecca notes she'll need to sell the Sea Duck to keep a roof over her and Molly's heads. While Kit is mortified by this, a guilt-ridden Baloo just solemnly accepts it and slinks away.
Recap.Pokemon S 1 E 63 The Battle Of The Badge: Gary hardly ever needs his Pokédex whenever he encountered a (anime) new Pokémon. Here, he does when confronted with Mewtwo, the first sign that things are about to go very wrong for him in his gym battle.
Characters.The Never Mythos Seers: Eliza is loving and gentle, so when she decides someone needs to die, you know things are serious. Just ask Heydrich and Dietrich.
Characters.Daimos Earthlings: Badass Pacifist: Kazuya is generally opposed to using violence to solve conflicts, unless his buttons are pushed one too many times. After Miwa attempts to utilize a hydrogen bomb on an innocent populace, Kazuya is so enraged, it results in a major O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment where Kyoshiro and Nana have to restrain him from beating him into a pulp.
Recap.Stargate SG 1 S 5 E 7 Beastof Burden: Talking Your Way Out: Discussed and ultimately averted. After the team's attempt to rescue Chaka without taking any human lives fails, O'Neill warns that he doesn't think they'll be able to talk themselves out of this one, to which Daniel replies that for once, he isn't asking them to. O'Neill then authorizes Carter and Teal'c to use lethal force in breaking them out, though they do try to minimize casualties where possible.
Characters.Digimon Ghost Game Antagonist Groups: The Gwappamon note that Shawujinmon used to be a kind Digimon before a high-tech factory was built next to their lake and polluted it, causing him to act erratically because one of his beads on the necklace restraining him was broken.
TearJerker.The Incredible Hulk 1977: If David crying is already sad, things get sadder when the Hulk cries. It happened in the pilot episode, after the Hulk realizes that Elaina Marks is dead, despite his efforts to save her.Similarly, he cries when he arrives too late to save a murdered girl in "Of Guilt, Models and Murder". And in "Married", when David's wife dies as a result of a disease. The only situation in which Hulk's tears aren't related to death is in "Homecoming", as his father, with whom David had just made peace after years of estrangement, tells Hulk to go away (in order to protect him from persecution), but Hulk wants to be with his father.
Characters.The Old Guard: The normally good-humored, warm, and expressive Joe goes into full Tranquil Fury mode when confronting Keane, who brutally (though temporarily) killed Nicky shortly prior, flatly telling him, "You shot Nicky. You shouldn't have done that," before snapping his neck by judo-throwing him into the concrete floor.
NightmareFuel.Big Mouth: Nick's mother gets uncharacteristically vicious when Nick spends too much time on his phone. When she's finally had enough, she takes his phone and impales it with a fire iron.
Heartwarming.Final Space: At the beginning of the episode, Gary is so worried about Quinn's condition that he doesn't even resist when KVN comes to give him a hug. Hell, Gary even smiles when KVN hugs him. This alone speaks volumes about how much Gary needed some comfort at that moment.This bears repeating: Gary. Smiled. When KVN hugged him.
Characters.Deltarune Berdly: When you encounter him in Chapter 2's Weird Route, he drops all of his Insufferable Genius behavior and simply warns Noelle to get away from Kris/the Player.
Pantheon.Fields Of Magic: The Lich has warned the Grand United Alliance of Destruction to leave her alone, which is rather telling. Of course he might just have some sort of respect for her as the source of primal chaos. After all, he's come to believe that GOLB is some sort of contemporary of hers, given they share certain natures. Nekron, as head of the group, is trying to come to terms with L-sama. Yes, he believes she may as well be an incarnations of the original darkness he is the champion and guardian of. And yet she seems too chaotic, a force of creation and destruction at the same time. Perhaps she is something else, and he wants to know what exactly that is.
Characters.Skyrim Factions: Honor Among Thieves: They're outlaws, but they certainly have a code of honor and morality, especially in their own ranks.One member, Thrynn, will tell the story of how he was a member of your standard bandit brigade, until the leader once, for no rational reason, ordered his men to kill the women and children of a caravan they had knocked over. Thrynn turned on him instead. One of their main rules is "We take care of our own." When it's revealed that Mercer Frey, their own guildmaster, has been screwing them over for years and thoroughly disbelieves in this trope, the rest of the guild mark him for death.
Characters.No Sympathies: Pug only once gets really angry with his friends when they deem the trip to Heaven impossible.
Characters.Tekken: He raises his voice only once in the entire story, when he begs Heihachi to tell him what the war means to him.
Characters.Buffyverse Scooby Gang: He approaches almost every situation with his trademark stoicism, even when he's in danger. The only time he ever loses his temper is when his werewolf's carnal desire gets the better of him, he shags Veruca (although, to be fair, part of the reason he did it was to lock her in with him so she couldn't be loose to hurt any innocents), and the two are caught by Willow. When Veruca tries to snark at Willow, Oz screams at her to leave.
NightmareFuel.Kamen Rider Ex Aid: Parado's OOC moment comes in full circle. He's not amused at Emu's reprogramming of Poppy and is even shown threateningly choking her.The scariest part about the above is that as Poppy starts to voice that she doesn't want to fight humans, Parado turns around incredibly fast and grabs her by the throat before pushing her back and holding her by her neck as he pushes her towards the edge of the roof they were conversing on as a Scare Chord goes off, in no uncertain terms threatening her to stay the course. It shows the viewer exactly the kind of person Parado is. Parado: You'd better enjoy the game more.
Characters.Child Of The Storm X Men: Is usually the model picture of a calm, collected and polite young man. So it says something about how much he resents his grandmother for never bothering to contact him since his parents died that upon her visit, his anger is visible to the other students. Even Emma is shocked when he is the first to start snarking at her expense rather than his brother Gambit.
Literature.Mordants Need: When Geraden and Barsonage visit Havelock late in the second book, Havelock has cleaned his entire quarters, arranged all his mirrors neatly, swept and cleaned his chasuble. He's normally an extreme Pig Pen. He knows that events are coming to a head.
Recap.Star Trek Enterprise S 03 E 19 Damage: Archer realizes that something is seriously wrong with T'Pol when she voices her objection to piracy...by smashing a padd on his desk while Suddenly Shouting. T'Pol: I WON'T LET YOU DO IT!
Characters.Arrowverse West Allen Family: She drops her giddy disposition twice, first when Caitlin wishes her luck on her "meeting" and then when she sees Iris after delivering diapers to Cecile and Joe.
Characters.Kengan Ashura Kengan Association Fighters Left Block: After taking pro-wrestling, Haruo became one of the nicest characters in the series. That being said, upon hearing that his fellow colleague, Jose Kanzaki, was brutally injured in a Purgatory match, Haruo is shown going berserk and being restrained by his fellow gym mates.
VideoGame.Friday Night Funkin The Origami King: Throughout the story, Boyfriend is a lot more cautious of everything going on, especially with Girlfriend having been turned into origami herself, and even breaks into tears from the possibility that she may never be turned back to normal again.
Recap.Doctor Who S 20 E 3 Mawdryn Undead: The Brigadier, despite seeing the TARDIS in-action multiple times, says to Ibbotson that it's impossible for something to dematerialize. This is the first clue that something's wrong.
Characters.The Following: After their mother's death, Mark is too devastated to keep up his and Luke's usual habit of conversing with their dead victims.
Recap.Succession S 02 E 07: Kendall washes out a glass at the Dodd's house, wanting to make it look like he was never there at all and not knowing what else to do, when he's always had people to clean up after him before.
LetsPlay.Pokecapn: Big "SHUT UP!": Done by Kaz to medibot in Mario Party 5 after the latter accidentally removes the former's Chain Chomp capsule from the game. It's Played for Laughs initially, but coupled with the painful-sounding slap they receive from Kaz in the same video, it actually causes medibot to grow despondent and eventually to stop talking altogether. medibot: You can't use capsules anymore. No more capsules for the rest of the ga- Kaz: Shut the fuck up!
Characters.Wakfu: After merging with the Eliacube, he has outbursts of anger at Yugo and his siblings for their perceived past betrayal of him, but they rarely last more than several moments due to his Mood-Swinger tendency. After Yugo hits his most tentative Berserk Button, Qilby's smirks and laughs disappear and don't come back for the scene's remainder.
NightmareFuel.Steven Universe Season 2: On top of that, Sugilite, the fusion between Amethyst and Garnet was completely SILENT when she smashed the Communication Hub to pieces. Sugilite, an entity even Garnet admits from the last time she was formed "went berserk" was resorted to without worry of backlash. And considering her usual flamboyant, head-strong, destructive 'the world is my playpen' attitude, seeing her be so quick and efficient like that makes perfect sense for Pearl to look like she's fearing for her soul.
Characters.A Song Of Ice And Fire House Lannister: Several members of the Lannister family note his cold demeanor in AFFC when he realizes just how much Tywin's offspring (and his own son) have screwed everything up. His refusal to be his great-nephew's Hand of the King causes his sister Genna to smell a rat, as he refuses to be Cersei's Yes-Man. Genna: Kevan always did what was asked of him. It is not like him to turn away from any duty. Something is awry here, I can smell it.
Fanfic.Harmony Theory: While the group debate, whether they should finish off Max Cash, while they have him dead to rights and only Applejack and Column beg the others to just take him in, you know this is serious when the normally very forgiving and Friend to All Living Things (even the Jerkasses) Trail Blazer plainly says he with the "kill him now" group.
Characters.Gorillaz: The Friend Nobody Likes: The band's fondness of him has gradually cooled over the course of the Phases. He has certainly achieved this status with his other bandmates by Phase 6 (except maybe 2-D), and it absolutely devastates him when they all leave him behind to go have fun together in the "Désolé" music video, to the point of curling up in the fetal position on the couch and breaking down sobbing when he realizes. Considering his frequently terrible behavior, it isn't exactly a surprising outcome that after over 20 years of it the band is rather fed up with him never making much of an effort to change.
Recap.Duck Tales 2017 S 2 E 10 The 87 Cent Solution: Worrying about stolen money, no matter how small, is perfectly in-character for Scrooge. However, offering a significantly larger sum of money as reward for the capture of the thief is a clear sign that he's losing it. How can you tell Roxanne Featherley's upset about Scrooge's death? She was at the funeral without a camera crew.
Recap.Mash S 10 E 15 Pressure Points: Potter, normally a Reasonable Authority Figure, snaps on two separate occasions; once during a briefing on how to treat wounds caused by white phosphorus, and again when he finds out Hawkeye's authorized one of his patients for release.
Literature.Jeeves And Wooster: Accidental Athlete: In "The Purity of the Turf", Jeeves explains how he came to appreciate a local servant boy's amazing speed thusly: Jeeves: I happened to pursue him one morning with the intent of fetching him a clip on the side of the head - Wooster: Great Scott, Jeeves! You? Jeeves: Yes, sir. The boy is of an outspoken disposition, and had made an opprobrious remark regarding my personal appearance. Wooster: What did he say about your appearance? Jeeves: I have forgotten, sir. But it was opprobrious.
SirSwearsALot.Literature: Avasarala from The Expanse is known for excessive swearing and throwing Freudian threats upon Freudian threats, especially at her peers in male-dominated field of politics. In fact, when she stops swearing, it's a sign things have gotten really serious.
Characters.Twisted Cogs: Usually inverted. Since he's almost always serious, his OOC moments are usually happiness and cheer when things are going well.
Characters.Yakuza 6: As Lo said, when Hirose starts staring you down and issuing threats, the room's temperature will drop. Hirose: Look. Just move already. Ain't askin' again.
Characters.Monthly Girls Nozaki Kun: The thought of Ryousuke having a girl he likes is enough to fluster and agitate her to the point where she's in danger of missing her deadline because she's too distracted to get any work done. She even notes that this has never happened before.
Characters.Tsurezure Children: "Spending Time" has him punch Katori because he doesn't tell Akagi about his Ambiguous Situation until Akagi discovers it on his own.
Foreshadowing.Yu Gi Oh Arc V: Kurosaki's dream was given a minor foreshadow when we first see him in the Synchro Dimension, smiling as he wins a duel.
YMMV.Spooksville: Tear Jerker: Watch's death, and subsequent funeral at the end of The Dangerous Quest.Adam finding his mother's grave in the episode of The Dark Corner. Granted, it turns out she isn't dead in the end but it's still a sad moment. The ending of The Maze, where The Mayor has lost all his memories. At one point in the book version of "The Dark Corner" the kids are chained up by the demons, and Sally actually apologizes and admits the whole thing is all her fault, and is very clearly Trying Not to Cry, both of which are rather unusual for her. A small one in The Creepy Creature: Olos says she does not have a mother, to which Watch says he knows how that feels.
Recap.Community S 4 E 03 Conventions Of Space And Time: When Britta gets confrontational about the (unpopular) female Inspector to Abed, after a moment of tension Abed — claiming that he is trying to be more relaxed about such matters — cheerfully replies that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Troy begins to panic.
WesternAnimation.Angry Birds Stella: The minion pigs are known for their Blind Obedience and relentless optimism, no matter how bad they being mistreated by their higher up. So, when they decide to strike back against Gale by taking her golden egg away behind her back in "Glided Cage", it proves how abusive she's become towards them as Gale decides to use the egg to turn them into gold one by one as a punishment.
Characters.Hololive Takanashi Kiara Ch: After seeing comments speculating that Calliope was genuinely bothered by her Abhorrent Admirer behavior, Kiara partially broke character to point out that she and Calliope are friends who've discussed these things off-stream. They've already established what is and isn't crossing the line, and if Kiara ever accidentally went too far Calli can just tell her and she'd stop.
WebVideo.Luigi Fan 00001: In the Garden episode, Peashooter notices something is up regarding the zombies, as they seem legitimately terrified of him (except for Duckweed). He's also terrified of the pitcher plants surrounding the area.
TearJerker.Critical Role Mighty Nein: Jester sits outside of Beau and Keg's room, and starts trying to draw... but can't think of what to draw after her captivity, so she just writes in her sketchbook a note to the Traveler: "Well, why didn't you come?" She then sits in silence for a little bit before going back to her room. The effect seems to nearly bring the rest of the cast and even Matt to tears.
Manga.Nozo X Kimi: Love Hurts: Mami’s resentment of Mahiru is exacerbated by the fact that every guy Mami has ever liked, up to and including her own boyfriend, eventually left her because they preferred Mahiru. The Valentine’s arc shows heartbreak afflicting both Mahiru and Nozomi. For the former, she becomes uncharacteristically distant and insecure after finding out that Nozomi’s relationship with Kimio is much more intimate than Mahiru could have imagined, while the latter experiences the unfamiliar sensation of heartache after witnessing Mahiru and Kimio’s kiss.
Fanfic.Gold Poisons: Xichen, normally unflappable, showing pain is enough to show how bad the Qi-deviation really is.
Characters.Suicide Boy: Soorim is a Perpetual Smiler that's always cheerful and relaxed, In chapter 52 however after he tried to wake up Hooni to go to class and not to get an answer like the usual he believes he simply left earlier, later on when Jaehoon tells him he didn't went to class he abandons his usual calm behaviour and runs to Hooni's apartment desperate.
Characters.Komi Cant Communicate School Friends: When it comes to food and restaurants, Agari is an utter no-nonsense professional and connoisseur, which greatly contrasts with her everyday demeanor at school.
Characters.Americas Next Top Model The Panel: Tyra stylizes herself as a Cool Big Sis style mentor, being gentle and encouraging to the contestants. In Cycle 4, she is offended when eliminated contestant Tiffany Richardson seems to be joking around, she calls Tiffany back and unleashes a furious rant.
NightmareFuel.Digimon Tamers: There's also Yamaki's Villainous Breakdown once the Deva shows up in spite of his efforts. He actually assaults Henry in his rage! Who knows what he would have done had Rika not shown up? Also not helping is Steve Blum's performance in the dub; hearing the same voice that came from Spike Spiegel and Roger Smith utterly lose it just feels like a scarier version of O.O.C. Is Serious Business.
Heartwarming.Castle 2009: Plus there's how Castle gets stone-cold serious as he and Alexis figure out the truth behind her murder by listening to the lyrics of her last song, "Threshold". When they confront Hayley's co-sponsor and producer, Ian Bree, about forcing himself onto her and then murdering her, Castle's tone loses its usual jovial attitude and turns ice-cold. He's likely not happy for Alexis's sake about discovering the truth, and as a loving father, he's definitely not happy about what this man did to her.
CurbStompBattle.Anime And Manga: All of Thorfinn's attempts at 'duels to the death' against Askeladd are shown to clearly favour Askeladd, but their last 'duel', when Askeladd has had enough of indulging him, isn't even much of a 'duel', more 'Thorfinn being manhandled like a rag-doll'. Thorkell: Gotta make a 'lil retraction... This ain't much of a fight.
Recap.Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 04 E 15 Sons Of Mogh: A subtle example. Kurn's first full conversation with Worf begins with Kurn criticizing Worf's "comfortable" lifestyle. But when Kurn is convinced to join Odo's security forces to give his life meaning, he complains that the uniform is "uncomfortable." He later attempts suicide again, showing that his headspace is seriously warped.
Recap.Bobs Burgers S 4 E 22 World Wharf II The Wharfening: Bob manages to text "tired yo" to Linda. With "yo" being something he would never, ever say, the Belchers realize he actually meant to type something else, and after running through the possibilities Louise lands on the correct answer of "tied up."
Characters.Steven Universe Blue Diamonds Court: The moment Steven tells her he's Rose Quartz, she drops her mocking attitude and says "no way" in a hushed tone while looking legitimately shocked and angry. When Topaz manages to overpower her and pin her while threatening to use a destabilizer on her, the look on her face as she's talking her down subtly indicates that she is terrified. Her tone and expression when telling Topaz to unfuse and that they'll never speak of the incident again seem almost somber. It's undeniably a stark contrast to how she usually says everything with an at least mildly jerkish or insulting manner to it.
NightmareFuel.The Truman Show: Even worse: considering how hardcore Christof is about protecting the Truman and the world he's built for him to live in... if Truman had really begun to hurt Meryl, and she screamed for help, would Christof have actually had anyone step in? Or would he have simply allowed Truman to continue, potentially murdering another human being, as long as it protected the illusion he had built? Meryl: (to the camera) DO SOMETHING!
Characters.Koihime The Three Kingdoms: Shortly after defeating Enshou in the Guandu Campaign in Son Go no Ketsumyaku, she rushes the conquest of northern China and starts with an invasion of Go, but many of her advisors question her decision as most of her soldiers aren't trained against Go's ambush tactics, and she eventually realizes her mistake after a series of crushing defeats.
Series.Aqui No Hay Quien Viva: During a Vacation Episode in the last season, Isabel, Juan, Natalia and Yago go on holiday to the Canary Islands, leaving Josemi and Pablo alone at the house. When Isabel calls them to see how things are going, her stepson finishing the call with a rare "I love you" makes her think something's off. And indeed it is: the stepbrothers are throwing a party and things start going off the rails soon after.
Characters.Nimona 2023: If she ever seems quiet or dispirited, bad things are afoot. If she's actually been reduced to a Heroic BSoD, worry. Also, she rarely seems helpless or vulnerable - to the point of almost never needing help in combat; she can even have an arrow removed from her leg without flinching. As such, it's a sure sign that something has gone horribly wrong when she's so shell-shocked that Ballister has to rescue her. In the finale, the fact that her monster form is screaming in grief and seeming genuinely wounded by the Institute's bombardments is a telltale sign that she's all but crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
Recap.The Walking Dead S 08 E 10 The Lost And The Plunderers: After the loss of all of her people, Jadis drops the particular way of speaking she's used up to this point and speaks in complete sentences, driving home how devastated she is.Negan opens the call to Rick doing his usual heckling, but immediately grows somber when he learns about Carl's death, and his first question is to ask Rick if the Saviors were responsible.
Characters.Discworld Wizards: Normally, it just complains to the incumbent Archchancellor that things used to be better. In Sourcery, it takes a direct hand in events, manipulating Conina into stealing it, Rincewind into helping it, and Abrim into putting it on, allowing it to challenge Coin directly.
Manga.Re Kan: When Hibiki is plunged into a depression by the loss of her powers in episode 12, Kana and Kyouko are so subdued that they don't even bother punching Kenta.
Series.The Sandman 2022: Despite his seeming age, Gilbert is shown quite capable at combat, and courageously pledges himself to be Rose's bodyguard. He panics at first sight of the Corinthian.
WebVideo.Breaking Bad VR But The AI Is Self Aware: Played for Laughs. Skyler, who has been talking in a chipper yet robotic demeanor the entire time, breaks down into realistically upset tears when she thinks she's figured out why Hank is missing: Skyler: You... you... you fucked Hank!
YMMV.Tomorrows Pioneers: Tear Jerker: The death of Assoud, since this is the first and perhaps only time that Saraa (in contrast to Farfour and Nahoul's deaths) expresses any form of sadness about the lost of her co-host.
Recap.Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 17 Fourth CHILD: When Misato directly asks Kaji for his help and doesn't respond to his joking flirting or buy his attempts to play dumb, he releases that she is actually serious about needing to talk shop with him, so he quickly drops his usual mellow and jovial attitude and turns stone-cold serious as he begins answer her questions in a straight-forward and honest manner.
Characters.Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: The instigator of a rant about serious people telling jokes, starting when she joked about going on maternity leave. Because she's a relatively serious character who's never told a joke before in the series and did it with a deadpan delivery, everybody takes it completely seriously.
Fanfic.Mass Effect The Iron Heart Of Man: It becomes clear the Elcor are seriously ticked off when they discard their slow approach and instead start to take risks. The Council does notice, but there's little they can do against it.
Recap.Community S 2 E 15 Early21st Century Romanticism: Jeff says the group normally sends him a few dozen texts about situations that are coming up. He gets worried when they don't send him any the night of the dance. Considering that Britta humiliated herself and Pierce overdosed, Jeff's fears were proven right.
VideoGame.Kirby Star Allies: Dramatic Irony: The pause screen description for King Dedede's boss fight questions why he would steal and hoard all the food in Dream Land, calling it something he "would never do". The irony is, of course, that this is the same scheme he attempted in Kirby's Dream Land, only after 25 years of Character Development, it's now horribly out-of-character.
Characters.Kira Kira Precure A La Mode: Yukari is usually one of the hardest shells to crack in the team due to her aloof and trollish personality, which makes the moments when she acts otherwise all the more prevalent. She deliberately acts vulnerable in Episode 16 to goad Julio into exposing his true identity, but Episode 25 has her acting like this for most of the episode, revealing some of her hidden insecurities to Akira.
Characters.Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon Hestia Familia: Hestia is usually very upfront and unashamed in her flirtations towards Bell. However one instance has her being flustered, when Bell is so tired that he agrees to Hestia's teasing suggestion to sleep in the same bed. Hestia had expected Bell to become embarrassed, but he was so tired he didn't care.
Characters.Maken Ki Other Students: Property of Love: Espada. As far as Komine's concerned, her heart and her body both belong to her mistress whom she affectionately addresses as, "Espada-sama" (lit. translation - Mistress Espada). The feeling appears to be mutual, given Espada took it personally when Red "Desire" tried to take Komine away from her.
Characters.DCAU Batman: Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: In Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, flashbacks show Bruce starting as a vigilante but not having become Batman yet. He's able to foil a heist but notes that his methods are still missing something and ponders over how to make his crimefighting more effective. During this time he meets and falls in love with Andrea Beaumont, whose presence in his life leads him to consider giving up on his vigilante aspirations. When she leaves Gotham and ends things with him he fully commits to his crusade against crime. In the newly created Batcave Bruce dons his cowl for the first time and Alfred's shocked response makes it clear that Batman has risen.
Characters.Hopes Road To Despair: Sometimes, she seems to completely go out of character. Most of the time it involves her warning students about something out of her reach, or silently helping them and disappearing, or just getting emotional when a student is too nice to her. It happens more often as Marbas gets more unstable.
Characters.Robo Cop The Series: Finch's nanomachine scheme in "Nano" is meant to hijack control of assorted technology in the city, but it also unknowingly damages Diana's mind. She begins acting like a drunken flirt towards Robo and exerts control over machines just because she can. When she's restored to normal, she's mortified over how she behaved.
Fanfic.Total Drama Action All In: LOTS of examples, but some are bigger than others.After finding out that Noah voted Izzy off the show, jolly and optimistic Owen gets incredibly angry to the point that everyone's scared of him, and he takes his anger out on Noah. Peaceful and compassionate Bridgette becomes much more aggressive and judgemental when facing Eva in her efforts to stop Eva from trying to make DJ more aggressive.
Characters.Fire Emblem Three Houses Golden Deer: Her big brother gets badly injured trying to stop the final boss' advance shortly before the last stage of the Verdant Wind route. After she learns that, the others are surprised to see her actually pumped for the final battle.
OffscreenTeleportation.Video Games: God of War (PS4): When Kratos uses an item that requires Atreus like the boat or a climbing rope, Atreus will sprint to him to not delay the player. If he's too far, the unbroken camera quickly moves to hide him so he can teleport closer. Sindri and Brok also do this, demonstrating it and even abusing it from time to time while directly talking with the two, but this is noted as an actual ability dwarves have that lets them travel quickly and unseen. In God of War Ragnarök it's considered a sign of extreme emotional turmoil when Sindri stops bothering with the "offscreen" part.
Recap.Jaune Arc Lord Of Hunger Fear: During Pyrrha and Nora's fight with the terentatek, Ren's normally calm demeanor completely dissipates as he yells at Nora to shoot her grenades up into the sky. It's Ren acting so uncharacteristically that convinces Nora to actually do as he says.
Fanfic.Weight Off Your Shoulder: The whole class is shocked when Ms. Bustier steps into Alya and the girl squad's attempted 'intervention' and defends Marinette. Prior to this point, their teacher has always preached the importance of Marinette "leading by example" and placating others. It's even noted that if not for Shadow Moth being arrested, her students might have attributed this to a sneaky akumatization. Nino is similarly concerned when Alya pulls a seemingly inexplicable about-face and begins criticizing how Ladybug dealt with Hawk Moth and Chloé, asking her outright what brought this on.
Characters.Dream SMP Las Nevadas: Death Seeker: Implied. In the livestream where Sam is let out of the prison by Dream, he barely even shows any resistance towards him. Most glaringly, during their tour of the Vault, Sam could have easily taken armour and weapons from the guards' supplies to fight back against Dream, but he never did that, and was killed by Dream at the end of the lore stream with him practically barely protesting.
Characters.Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer: While he is reading the letter Santa wrote explaining what happened, he gets angry for the first time ever. The look on Cousin Mel's face when she realizes she got Grandpa mad makes it clear she knows she's beyond screwed.
Characters.Fleabag: She says "please" not once, but twice, when she asks Fleabag and Claire to go find Dad when their wedding is about to start and he's nowhere to be found.
Characters.Dragalia Lost Antagonists Campaign: When he meets up with Phares and Beren in the Chapter 14 side story, he makes pleasantries with them, only for Phares to cut to the chase, as despite being a master planner Harle's defense startegy is shockingly sloppy. He only used a single electric barrier to stop the New Alberia assault, and somehow missed the rebel faction in his own ranks, eventually revealing that he intended for all that to happen, with the implied purpose of making sure the Prince reached Morsayati. He tries to downplay it with his bootlicker routine, but Phares isn't falling for it for even a second. But what really seals the deal is the fact that Phares manages to actually anger him.
TearJerker.Dimension 20: Fabian has always expressed the desire to put his name on the face of the world. However, we learn in the Nightmare Forest that he fears more than anything to be helpless, and his friends not even remembering him, leaving the proud half-elf screaming Gorgug's name in fear. Tying into his greatest fear, he then has to confront Chungledown Bim, a living reminder of his weakness. It marked him so much that he hugs Gorgug harder than he's ever hugged anyone before.
TearJerker.Duckman: "Role With It" sees Duckman take a lot of abuse during a group therapy session, but in the end, he calmly calls the others out on their faults. Some of it's satisfying, but what he says about Bernice really says a lot about their rough relationship through the series and how he feels beneath the back-and-forth insults. The various ways Bernice insults and humiliates him are bad enough, but her being Beatrice's identical twin (actually turns out to be a triplet later on) causes Duckman to devalue memories of Beatrice that meant a lot to him.
Wrestling.Roman Reigns: Literally during his Leukemia announcement in late 2018. He began his speech by introducing himself with his real name, Joe.Roman forgoing his usual Tranquil Fury to scream at Sami on the first Smackdown of 2023 demanding to know if Sami was looking to be the Tribal Chief was a big indicator that Sami’s popularity with the crowd is eating Roman’s already tenuous sanity.
Literature.Death Masks: Bobnote Who is a spirit of intellect and doesn't really get the whole good/evil thing is terrified when he sees a sigil of a Fallen and urges Harry to burn the piece of paper it's drawn on.
Fanfic.The Rest Of The Pieces: Phoenix and Maya got to switch their usual roles several times in the story as Maya started to take her duty too seriously and Phoenix began to worry she was letting herself being pushed around by her family's expectations.
YMMV.Imitation Of Life 1959: Tear Jerker: Annie discovers that Sarah Jane has been passing when she arrives at school to drop something off - and Sarah Jane tries to hide behind a book. Sarah Jane imitating an Ethnic Scrappy when Lora has guests. Annie overhears the whole thing, and even Sarah Jane seems to realise she went too far. To say nothing of Annie and Sarah Jane's final scene together. Annie pretty much gives up and lets her daughter live with her choice, and when a colleague of hers comes to the room she just pretends she's an old friend rather than her mother. The colleague assumes Annie was Sarah Jane's Mammy.
TearJerker.Amanda The Adventurer: It's also really clear that Amanda is extremely hurt if Riley tells her they don't want to hear her secret, and while she doesn't start screaming, crying, or siccing the entity on them, she does become very uncharacteristically calm and subdued, immediately closing herself off from them by turning the TV off and sending them a note simply saying, "LEAVE". Amanda: I thought you were different.
Creator.Marx Brothers: Watch Harpo when he sits down to play the harp. All traces of his usual goofy clown suddenly disappear as he becomes intent on the music, and then reappear as soon as the music ends. Chico at the piano is sometimes this as well, but Chico mixed up the clowning and the serious music more than Harpo did.
Series.Buck Rogers In The Twenty Fifth Century: Just as Hawk is about to be sentenced to death in the two-parter Time of the Hawk, Buck cuts them off, approaches the stand and whispers to Hawk, desperately trying to get him to speak up and not resign himself to his fate. This is the first time Buck utters any form of swear word on the show. Buck: Damn it, Hawk! Do you understand they're going to sentence you to death?
UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: "Lesson Zero", in which Twilight Sparkle goes disturbingly nuts in trying to maintain her perfect track record as Princess Celestia's top student, culminating in her brainwashing the whole town (albeit accidentally as the end result of a Disaster Dominoes), just so she has a problem to solve (and Celestia getting angry at her for the first time in the series).
Characters.Star Wars High Republic Era Jedi Masters 232229 BBY: When faced with the threat of the Nameless on the falling Starlight Beacon, much of his goofier demeanor drops, which highlights just how serious this new enemy is. However, that doesn't stop him from undressing in front of Emerick, giving him his blood-stained robes to study, and then going off to stall the Nameless in nothing but his underwear.
Characters.Find Me In Paris: Bree and Kennedy are genuinely shocked to see Thea have actual fun with Lena in season 1 episode 9. Her seeming totally happy and fine before the midseason showcase, having lost out on the leading part to Lena and Max, is a big indication she has something up her sleeve. Bree and Kennedy see it as a bad sign that she's wearing a different shade of lipstick.
Characters.The Butcher Bird: When Garp, famously uncaring for protocol or paperwork, opens a snail call with a perfectly by-the-book report, Sengoku knows that something is horribly wrong. Considering the situation was the Lily Carnation being Buster Called.
Fanfic.Diary Of An Analog: MagnaAngemon rarely backs down from an opponent out of fear, at least nowadays he doesn't. Chapter 3 and 4, on the other hand, showcases MagnaAngemon doing just that, but at the very least overcoming it quick enough to deal with the situation. The Analogs display severe cases of extreme cowardice if forced into a confrontation with Lady Sigma, as they practically scream bloody murder as Lady Sigma mows them down like they were nothing. Lady Sigma is the one Digimon they fear alone above all others, when normally they're a bit notorious as Fearless Fools every other time...
Recap.Doc Mc Stuffins S 1 E 33 Un Bur Able: After Doc gets all the burrs off of Stuffy and he can go back to playing he refuses to do so because he doesn't want to get hurt again. Doc gets really worried about him since she doesn't know what's wrong. Doc: You always love to play. So why don't you wanna play today?
Recap.Due South S 1 E 20 Victorias Secret Part 1: The normally-unflappable Benton is reduced to an emotional wreck the moment he thinks he spots Victoria in a crowd, leading him to spend an entire night mulling over whether he actually saw her or not.
Recap.Kamen Rider Zi O Ep 16 Forever King 2018: When Sougo comes home and tells Junichiro that he plans to stop being a king and instead take a college entrance exam, Junichiro tells Sougo a story of how he almost came to work for a famous watch company and instead chose to settle down in his own shop.
TemptingFate.Western Animation: "Applebuck Season" has this happen when the mayor gives a speech about Applejack, calling her "a pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity. Ponyville's most capable and dependable friend: Applejack!" But then... she doesn't show up on time.
Heartwarming.The Mandalorian: The Mandalorian choking up when Omera tells him that he and the child can stay and have a peaceful life together, but he insists on leaving without the kid so that he can grow up normal and safe. He insists that a life with him "is no life for a kid" and he wants the child to have something better.Cara pointing out that Mando could have a nice quiet life here with the boy, especially with Omera, who seems to taken a liking to him.
Recap.Blakes Seven S 2 E 2 Shadow: With Cally in a coma, a nervous Blake starts snapping at everyone as they prepare to teleport down to Zondar.
Recap.Warrior Cats Sky: Nightheart thinks that if the short-tempered and sarcastic medicine cat Jayfeather sounds worried, then things must be serious. When Tigerstar comes to RiverClan and tells them they need help, several cats tell him to more or less back off and go home. Including cats who keep to themselves like Sneezecloud, or cats who are generally level-headed like Splashtail.
Recap.Parks And Recreation S 04 E 21: Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It says something that Donna, who had utterly freaked out crying over a window getting shot and broken in "Hunting Trip", is willing to really dent up her beloved Mercedes Benz to not only get back at a Jerkass but also make sure Leslie gets her votes.
Characters.One Piece Cipher Pol: Lucci very rarely shows any kind of emotion, but even he is completely shocked when Stussy betrays CP0 by biting into Kaku and sucking his blood. Lucci is usually cold and dedicated to his job, but while captured in Egghead, Lucci is so incensed after being beaten by Luffy yet again and being betrayed by Stussy that, when Luffy offers to free Lucci so that they can fight the Seraphim together (on the condition that Lucci doesn't target his weaker crewmates first), Lucci agrees and reveals his intentions to kill Luffy first and then slaughter the rest of his crew. Even Zoro is shocked that Lucci would fall for such an obvious bait.
Characters.Gotham Knights 2023: Nothing speaks more to how terrifying the Court of Owls is than how the normally wacky Duela is dead serious when talking about how dangerous they are.
ComicBook.Batman And Robin 2009: In the first arc, Dick shocks Comissioner Gordon by dragging a villain through the streets to get him to tell him where Damian has been taken. It clues the reader in as to how worried he is about him.
