Name a character, any character, from your many stories that you’ve written where you used this trope down here below? If you plan on using this trope below, mention that as well.
I plan on using this in my second story project called Project RG. My main character is the Stepford Smiler and his name is Kardinal Lionheart.
The gist of the story is pretty much a story about how an heir to the Lionheart Clan whose nearly loses everything during a war, gets his chance by marrying a woman who ends up being a Steelcrest and from there her family ends up claiming his family and takes over Kenorland.
The story is how Kenorland really became the powerful and greatest nation in the world. Kardinal, his wife, and their two children are the real reason as how a small kingdom once ruled by Kardinal’s family ends up become the massive empire that it is today…by pure mistake.
Kardinal’s greatest mistake ends up being the reason why Kenorland is so damn powerful and the favorite of the Sovereign and her court.
Before this, Kardinal was a bitter and miserable prince who only wanted to distant himself from his boring and irksome life. He places a smile and shows everyone that he is as happy as he can be. He is not happy, he is bored, and he hates having things given to him. This slowly drives him into a state of depression and sheer madness as the story progresses. He ends up becoming a villain, though that is a bit questionable, because it’s more anti-villainy while his children and wife become the villains.
But enough about me, tell me all about your own Stepford Smilers in your stories?
Thoughts and feelings?
None that I know of. I don’t like using full-on tropes. I might sometimes use frankentropes, where I take parts of a trope and use it, and then another trope. Or else I might pick a trope or two to subvert. There may be elements of the “cheery character, who hides sadness”, but it’s never full on.
Having said that, out of all my characters, I reckon that Julio is the closest to that. He is overly positive, happy, and joking but he had a rough childhood. He was an orphan who got adopted, but something happened and he went back into the system, Max’s Mom, Yelena took him in for two years when he was sixteen. He has a lot of rage and sadness that he hasn’t been able to process yet at 21.
Nope, I’ve got a character who’s depressed after his parents die, but he’s visibly sad and grieving. In fact, I’m thinking of giving him prolonged grief disorder, but I have to read up on that first. ﾍ( ´Д`)ﾉ
I have a few characters that might fit that trope. For my first two novels, the closest match would be Naida. A nineteen-year-old AWOL Siberian conscript. By unfortunate luck, Naida meets the main characters (i.e. Ashley and Zorik) while she is amongst a group of young girls being smuggled into Europe.
Naida often appeared as a friendly, confident, supportive, and assertive (esp. with new friendships) young ginger girl, and quite a strong one too, but these are symptoms of her flaws and past failures. For example, her phone-book sized list of equally intimate and brief relationship attempts. By the first novel’s end, Naida had another catastrophic failure added to her ever-growing list; her inability to protect Uric (Ashley’s young brother, and Naida’s latest relationship attempt).
During the second novel, Naida’s outward (overly friendly, confident, assertive, generous) personality doesn’t change. Although there are a few differences in her nature / habits. Naida always wore a shirt under her army uniform (she had joined the IDF reserves in between the novels), and she was always the last to change clothes at the barracks. Naida also remained single during her time in the reserves, and in Israel overall. These were symptoms of her severe trauma and guilt over Uric’s loss. She refused to let anyone except the doctors, or Ashley, see the cratered opaque scar covering her left breast (a sniper shot Naida and Uric with a single “large game” bullet), and she was terrified of risking another failed relationship.
Can I just say, Kardinal of Kenorland has such a cool ring to it
I can name some.
Henry from The Facade of Quad in Nimrod (has a sad little smile)
Argenton Woodman from There Lives a Beast in the Burning Heart (acts like a charismatic person who likes to be around people and is upbeat or smiling)
Danlen Gallows from the same world as Argenton (Danlen is a people pleaser)
Cerenti Segnoshua from Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound (she’s Pinti’s mother who tries to stay positive and smiley)
Celeste Gilmore/Bethany Mosspetal from The Rat Girl (not two people but they’re the same person and Celeste is a mask of smiley “I’m fine” popular girl)
xD
