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Characterizing Sitting Pose - TV Tropes

  • ️Mon Jun 13 2022

Characterizing Sitting Pose (trope)

A character tends to sit in a strange position. In many cases, this indicates their Cloudcuckoolander status and general informality. In particular, this is a common characteristic of Bunny Ears Lawyers, Wonkas and Ditzy Geniuses who are confident in themselves enough not to care about social conventions.

Some particular poses may also telegraph specific character traits, for instance:

  • A preference for sitting in a Lotus Position or its variations like half—lotus and sukhasana (jointly referred to as "sitting cross-legged") point towards a spiritual or New Agey mindset, or a meditative mood even in everyday situations.
  • Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting can be a sign of rebelliousness or hidden insecurity.
  • Slouch of Villainy indicates how badass and nonchalant the villain is.
  • Disrespectful Feet on Furniture mean that the character is cocky and overconfident, and flouts the rules everybody else lives by. This is a standard sitting position for delinquents and gang members; the Hardboiled Detective is also often depicted relaxing with their feet on the desk.

Compare Character Tics and Rebel Relaxation.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

  • Death Note: The detective L has a penchant for sitting with both of his feet on the chair, which helps him to think and demonstrates his eccentricity.
  • Kagurabachi: The Tou get a moment where all four are casually waiting around during their guard duties, having each been brought a chair, with how they sit on it indictive of their individual quirks. Soya slouches forward and absent-mindedly stares ahead, Tenri leaves the chair vacant to impatiently lean against the wall, Tamaki turns it backwards and sits on her knees, while Enji is the only one who sits at attention with proper posture.
  • Moriarty the Patriot: Sherlock Holmes seems unaware of how to properly use a chair much of the time, including crossing his legs on it, propping his feet up on the seat, sprawling across them untidily, sitting on tables — all of which is in stark contrast to William's fairly formal posture and underscores how little Sherlock cares about conventions. And, once he shows up after the Time Skip, he sits neatly with crossed legs to showcase just how much he's matured.

Arts 

  • Medici Chapels:
    • The Medici brothers' sculptures have them in vastly different sitting positions. Lorenzo, who got to live longer and had an academic disposition, is depicted with his legs crossed at the ankles and his head resting pensively on his hand; hence the statue's nickname "Il Pensiero". Meanwhile, Giuliano, who died younger and had more artistic interests, is portrayed in a more relaxed but still proper position, and holding a Staff of Authority.
    • In "Madonna and Child", Saint Mary is sitting very primly, with her legs open just enough to allow her son to sit on her lap. This reflects her role as a sacred mother.
    • While not sitting by any means, the particular way the "Allegories" sculptures lie conveys a lot of information about what they represent. "Dawn" lazily lifts her head, "Day" is full of energy, "Dusk" looks exhausted, and "Night" is sleeping.

Films — Animation 

  • Heavy Metal: Ard, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, is seen slumped across his throne. His legs dangle over the left armrest, while his shoulders rest on the right armrest. He greets the muscular Den flippantly, and seems unperturbed when Den overpowers his guards, then aims a firearm at Ard. Even after Five Rounds Rapid, Ard merely giggles at his bullet holes, which heal in seconds. "I could see why they made this guy their leader," Den thinks to himself.
  • Zootopia: The Yak at the Mystic Spring Oasis is first seen at the reception desk in a Lotus Position sitting pose, humming the "ommm" mantra. He's an absolute mess, with circling flies galore, and a goofy voice: almost a classic The Ditz. Thing is, he also has an eidetic memory, recalling minute details about Emmet Otterton that even the yoga instructor (an elephant) doesn't recall.

Films — Live Action 

  • Five Easy Pieces: Rayette has two scenes where she is shown grooming herself while sitting on top of bathroom sinks. And not wide countertop-style sinks either, but basic sink basins jutting from the walls. It shows how she is preoccupied with how her boyfriend Bobby and others see her, but also how she is ignorant of social etiquette that those above her class would know about.
  • The Prophecy: All angels tend to sit like perching birds, implying the presence of their wings even though they are usually not seen in their winged forms. This is particularly noticeable in The Prophecy 3: The Ascent, with the angel Gabriel, who had been turned human and thus stopped perching, regains his angelic nature in the end and is last seen sitting perched on an overturned car.

Literature 

  • In The Kingkiller Chronicle, the eccentric girl Auri has a penchant for sitting cross-legged, which gives her a monk/hermit-like appearance, and highlights her similarity to characters like Elodin, Teccam, and the old Listener from Jax's story (all of whom also share her aversion to shoes).
  • Mr. Men: Mr. Clumsy always sits "in a not-so-neat and tidy fashion" (depicted with one leg over the arm of the chair).
  • In The Master and Margarita, Woland tends to sit with one leg tucked underneath him. Being Satan in human form, he couldn't care less about social norms.
  • Sherlock Holmes listens to those that come to him for help by sitting in his chair, head tilted back, eyes closed, elbows on armrests, and fingertips touching. One might assume that Holmes holds little interest in the client's tale until Holmes asks such pointed questions that it's clear he was analyzing every detail.
  • The Three Investigators: In The Mystery of the Invisible Dog, a young man called Sonny Elmquist is into meditation and Hindu spirituality, and tends to sit in the lotus position even in everyday situations.

Live-Action TV 

  • Doctor Who: Whenever he's sitting down, the Fourth Doctor tends to prop his feet up on the nearest elevated surface he can find, ranging from a desk to the windshield of his car, tying in with his more rebellious and informal nature compared to the Third Doctor.
  • Kung Fu (1972): Kwai Chang Caine routinely adopts a Lotus Position sitting pose when he has nothing to do at the moment, being a Shaolin monk and a Martial Pacifist. Often, he'll sit quietly after being captured, to conserve his strength. Too late, his captors learn it was part of an I Surrender, Suckers! gambit, and that they've brought a One-Man Army into their midst.
  • In Mork & Mindy, Mork often sits upside down, with his head on the chair. The reason is that he is an alien, but since he is disguised as a human, this does look weird.
  • One of the posters for Psych features Shawn crouching on a table-like structure while fist-bumping Gus, which perfectly showcases his off-the-wall personality.
  • Saturday Night Live season 1 episode 8 (host Candice Bergen). In one sketch, Chevy Chase plays an elf. During the sketch, he repeatedly crouches on a sofa and a table in an odd manner to show his elf nature. After his father is revealed to also be an elf, the father crouches on the couch too.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: William Riker likes to sit on a chair leaning to a side in a way that looks like a slouch and he sits down by walking to the back of the chair and stepping over it, reflecting his occasional Cowboy Cop tactics. Also a case of Real Life Writes the Plot because Jonathan Frakes has spinal problems and this was the most comfortable way he could sit on the chairs designed for the "Enterprise" sets, especially since for the first few seasons the costumes were excessively tight thanks to Gene Roddenberry insisting that they not have any wrinkles or folds ever show in the costumes.
  • Succession: Roman Roy has a habit of either sitting on things that aren't chairs (like a bathroom cabinet) or sitting on normal chairs in bizarre ways (like sitting on the top of a chair, his feet on the seat). It's a visual reminder of how little he cares about professionalism or manners.

Video Games 

  • ANNO: Mutationem:
    • The Masked Woman tends to sit with one leg crossed over the other, hinting her mysterious nature.
    • C is seen at times sitting with his legs on the top of desks, which signifies himself as a Smug Snake to his subordinates.
  • Castlevania:
    • In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, when Alucard sits on chairs in Dracula's castle, he always leans back and crosses one leg over the other. This probably demonstrates that he feels relaxed in his father's home, or his disdain for the evil forces inhabiting the castle.
    • Soma Cruz sits the same way in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, and likely for a similar reason: He's the reincarnation of Dracula, and so the castle is his, in a way.
  • In Persona 5, socially awkward computer genius Futaba Sakura often sits with both feet on the seat, though she can sit normally as well.
  • In Skies of Arcadia, Vyse sits with one leg over the chair's armrest, presumably to show his informality.

Western Animation