Stoic Cops!
bookelfe knows me well, as demonstrated by her request for, among other things, my top 5 stoic cops! As this is the easiest of the lists that have so far been requested of me, it is the first one I'm putting up! ...I will let the fact that it is easier for me to think about cop characters rather than, say, pairings, speak for itself.
5. Inspector Lunge, BKA
Monster, by Urasawa Naoki
Lunge is very disturbed man in very many ways. He notices all sorts of crime scene details and remembers them perfectly, but doesn't notice when his daughter gets pregnant. And he is completely obsessive, unwilling to let anything stand between him and the truth (or what he believes the truth to be). But he gets through all of that will cool composure and a smile designed to make you very nervous. And you should be nervous. Because he will not stop. Ever.
Incidentally, that is his "I may be bleeding out but I totally have you right where I want you" face.
4. Major Kusanagi, Section 9
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, do I credit Shirow here?
The Major's stoicism may come from deep-seated philosophical doubts about her own humanity. Or it may come from the fact that really, she just doesn't see why she should give a damn about you. Either way, she will cooly hack your brain/infiltrate your secret base/shoot you in the head because you're being an idiot.
See why Section 9 is respected?
3. D.C.S. Foyle, Hastings Police
Foyle's War, created by Anthony Horowitz
Foyle is a different kind of stoic than the others on this list. You may think he is not stoic at all! He is unfailingly polite, and he is most likely to smile politely and wish you a good day, rather than give you a stony, stoic look. But that polite exterior hides the fact that he knows you are guilty, and you are going down for it, no matter what. It also hides things like the fact that he still misses his dead wife. Foyle is stealth stoic. And, actually, a master of deadpan snark.
Foyle nearly made number 2 on this list, but his front mainly hides incredible depths of badassness, while the next entry's stoicism hides incredible depths of pathos. ...Also badassness.
2. Inspector Gesicht, Europol
Pluto, by Urasawa Naoki and Nagasaki Takashi
"Robots don't make unnecessary motions."
While the Major is a human becoming a machine and straying farther from human emotion, Gesicht is a machine arguably becoming human, and certainly coming closer to the emotional aspect. Gesicht has learned humor, love, sympathy, and pain (god, has he learned pain). But he's taken it all in so quietly, and usually displays it in such a subdued way, that it constantly takes humans by surprise. "Gesicht" is German for "Face," and one of the most impressive things about Pluto really is Gesicht's face, how his expression when, say, someone says that robots can't feel emotion, is barely distinguishable from the expression he had a panel before, and yet you can tell there's more pain in it now.
Gesicht was literally made not to care much. But he does. He just cares very stoically.
1. Commander Vimes, Ankh-Morpork City Watch
Discworld, by Terry Pratchett
How could it be anyone else?
"Old Stoneface" himself, the watchman who watches the watchmen and puts the law where it should be. Faced with highway robbery? He'll light a cigar.* Faced with a psychopath threatening everything he holds dear? He'll arrest him. Faced with idiots? He'll use deadpan sarcasm that strikes fear into the hearts of his subordinates. Vimes is the copper's copper, and the stoic copper's stoic copper.
*And close his eyes while doing so while you watched the light, which means that he can still see while you can't, which is a shame because it would have been really useful to see that fist.
Not on this list because I couldn't in good faith claim he is enough of a cop (though he is certainly enough of a stoic): Alberich of Lackey's Valdemar books.
Incidentally, I am open to further requests.
5. Inspector Lunge, BKA
Monster, by Urasawa Naoki
Lunge is very disturbed man in very many ways. He notices all sorts of crime scene details and remembers them perfectly, but doesn't notice when his daughter gets pregnant. And he is completely obsessive, unwilling to let anything stand between him and the truth (or what he believes the truth to be). But he gets through all of that will cool composure and a smile designed to make you very nervous. And you should be nervous. Because he will not stop. Ever.
Incidentally, that is his "I may be bleeding out but I totally have you right where I want you" face.
4. Major Kusanagi, Section 9
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, do I credit Shirow here?
The Major's stoicism may come from deep-seated philosophical doubts about her own humanity. Or it may come from the fact that really, she just doesn't see why she should give a damn about you. Either way, she will cooly hack your brain/infiltrate your secret base/shoot you in the head because you're being an idiot.
See why Section 9 is respected?
3. D.C.S. Foyle, Hastings Police
Foyle's War, created by Anthony Horowitz
Foyle is a different kind of stoic than the others on this list. You may think he is not stoic at all! He is unfailingly polite, and he is most likely to smile politely and wish you a good day, rather than give you a stony, stoic look. But that polite exterior hides the fact that he knows you are guilty, and you are going down for it, no matter what. It also hides things like the fact that he still misses his dead wife. Foyle is stealth stoic. And, actually, a master of deadpan snark.
Foyle nearly made number 2 on this list, but his front mainly hides incredible depths of badassness, while the next entry's stoicism hides incredible depths of pathos. ...Also badassness.
2. Inspector Gesicht, Europol
Pluto, by Urasawa Naoki and Nagasaki Takashi
"Robots don't make unnecessary motions."
While the Major is a human becoming a machine and straying farther from human emotion, Gesicht is a machine arguably becoming human, and certainly coming closer to the emotional aspect. Gesicht has learned humor, love, sympathy, and pain (god, has he learned pain). But he's taken it all in so quietly, and usually displays it in such a subdued way, that it constantly takes humans by surprise. "Gesicht" is German for "Face," and one of the most impressive things about Pluto really is Gesicht's face, how his expression when, say, someone says that robots can't feel emotion, is barely distinguishable from the expression he had a panel before, and yet you can tell there's more pain in it now.
Gesicht was literally made not to care much. But he does. He just cares very stoically.
1. Commander Vimes, Ankh-Morpork City Watch
Discworld, by Terry Pratchett
How could it be anyone else?
"Old Stoneface" himself, the watchman who watches the watchmen and puts the law where it should be. Faced with highway robbery? He'll light a cigar.* Faced with a psychopath threatening everything he holds dear? He'll arrest him. Faced with idiots? He'll use deadpan sarcasm that strikes fear into the hearts of his subordinates. Vimes is the copper's copper, and the stoic copper's stoic copper.
*And close his eyes while doing so while you watched the light, which means that he can still see while you can't, which is a shame because it would have been really useful to see that fist.
Not on this list because I couldn't in good faith claim he is enough of a cop (though he is certainly enough of a stoic): Alberich of Lackey's Valdemar books.
Incidentally, I am open to further requests.