Hitting the Uncanny Valley with an Emotionless Girl, in-text and relying, at least initially, on the Iceberg Principle

I'm assuming that makes sense to everyone on here.

The circumstances are extremely spoilerrific, but in the final portion of one of my planned canons (NOT the one The First Light is in, as least at this point), one of the main characters loses her emotions, or at least the ability to express them. Any suggestions on how to turn this into an Uncanny Valley situation without actually outlining her thought processes (which would be another spoiler)?

Capital-d Depression. You basically turn into a shell of yourself.

That's... sort of appropriate actually, mixed with a Heroic BSOD. But my issue is not "how does she get there" and more "how do you show it without being anvilicious".

EDIT: Nope. Not this time.

edited 19th Sep '17 11:20:05 PM by DeusDenuo

No want to be bad, but I feel this go better into writer block, dosent it?

That occurred to me literally just now.

edited 15th Sep '17 12:18:27 PM by TroperOnAStickV2

... now how the heck do I move a topic.

Typical, really. I really don't know why I bother. Fine - from now on, 10-word answers.

Just because I didn't comment on your post doesn't mean I didn't read it. Thing is, the circumstances are explicitly supernatural, although the trigger is technically not. I know how I'm getting there, I'm just not quite sure how to shift the character into the uncanny valley.

She becomes a shell of herself, from her perspective.

That's inward, not outward, I'm intentionally being coy so as not to spoil too much, but part of my intent is to stop doing story bits from her perspective for a while after the inciting incident, which should be a red flag for the attentive reader, which I don't mind in the slightest. Ergo, the descriptions of her actions and implied thought processes are what would do the work here, and I'm asking for suggestions on how to make those feel very off.

edited 20th Sep '17 11:45:13 AM by TroperOnAStickV2

Well, think about the typical outward signs that someone is not feeling emotions. Flat voice, neutral expression, objective language, a lack of response when something emotional is happening, etc. It isn't uncanny valley, because we have all seen it. Everybody has met someone like this. The main thing is to create a contrast within your narrative. You have to have an establishing scene or two where she acts as her normal, pre-cursed self. Then the change in her personality will become obvious, without being too extreme. You can even have another character comment on it.

edited 20th Sep '17 3:28:11 PM by DeMarquis

It's... not a curse, but a severe emotional reaction that interacts with her powers. That said, making her post-breakdown behaviour contrast with her normal self would be the most natural way to do it. THAT said, her prior characterisation is/was essentially that of a kuudere, but by that time she's had four-five seasons covering two years to warm up to more than just her initial best friend. And yes, I would have an establishing scene within the season and even within the episode, considering the trigger for her breakdown wouldn't happen until the end of the (multi-part) season premiere.

edited 21st Sep '17 3:47:36 PM by TroperOnAStickV2

Her facial expressions become overly theatrical, because she's 'playing' herself?

...

... nah. At this point, she wouldn't even try to maintain the appearance of her old personality. The part of her that cares is subsumed by her powers.

Which would make it all the more 'uncanny valley', no?

In the "flesh robot" sense, I suppose. My issue is conveying that without getting into her head.

edited 23rd Sep '17 7:32:55 AM by TroperOnAStickV2

OK, sorry I'm late, I've got two important questions. My first question is, what exactly is the Iceberg Principle?

Second, on a scale of zero to ten — zero being "everyone's bored out of their minds" and ten being "Damage Control from Disaster Dominoes" — how much outside chaos is distracting all the other characters from noticing that this one character has lost her emotions?

edited 18th Feb '18 8:13:51 PM by Miss_Desperado

The Iceberg Principle (or Theory) is an idea put forth by Hemingway that basically says to reveal a character's mindset through implications and actions rather than explicitly.

Everything around the characters at that point has fairly literally turned into some Evangelion-level shit. That said, the other main characters/her friends would easily notice that she's not acting like she used to, although they all have their own problems at that point.

edited 20th Feb '18 9:07:09 PM by TroperOnAStickV2

Hmm, okay, I understand the Iceberg Principle now.

I am not familiar with Evangelion, so your comparison to that chaos tells me nothing. But from everything else you said, at least I can narrow down where the chaos lies on the scale - somewhere around five to seven.

If there's a repeated type of Random Event or Random Encounter — like a skirmish with zombies (for a completely random example) — repeated throughout your story and handled in a routine manner, you can use those repeated mini-battles to highlight what's stayed the same and what's changed in your characters. If your characters are in the habit of Casual Danger Dialogue or Body-Count Competition or whatever, and one character (who is still fighting) stops participating in the banter, that's one way to do an Out-of-Character Alert.

Casual Danger Dialogue would be common, and that's a good point. That said, probably everyone would be bantering less at the point in the story I'm discussing because of mass Freak Out. The fact that she would be barely reacting at all is a good thought, though. Not sure if that falls into the Uncanny Valley though.

Not every clue needs to contribute to the Uncanny Valley. I'll still help you brainstorm for it, but my contributions aren't going to focus exclusively on the Uncanny Valley, which is subjective anyway.

I want her actions to come of as... dissonant, I guess as possible at that point, so I'm trying for a relatively objective thing. There would be opportunity to contrast her with the other characters.

One thought that occurs to me is to have her treat her best friend/les yay partner differently. Said character is the Only Sane Man for the entire series and could be a good contrast.

The fact that at that point I want to shift to a heavily ergodic style might help.

edited 21st Feb '18 9:09:54 PM by TroperOnAStickV2

Goodness, I'm sorry I've been away from this thread for so long. Does your afflicted character commonly read books? If so, would being afflicted cause her to just stare at the inside of a book instead of reading? It would take a watchful eye from the other characters to realize your afflicted character isn't turning pages under that circumstance.

She's more of a computer person, and at this point in the story none of the characters really get much downtime.

edited 30th Apr '18 1:05:40 PM by TroperOnAStickV2