What Is This Feeling?



So you have a character who's usually defined by a certain mood. Maybe they're always calm and inexpressive, or cheery and upbeat, or brimming with rage, or moping; whatever it is, this mood defines them to the audience and the cast. But every once in a while the planets align and something happens that brings this person a momentary change of heart. This can come as a shock to the audience, the rest of the cast, and sometimes even the character himself! They were so used to their normal state of mind and they're not sure what's going on when that smile starts to spread across their face or their eye starts to twitch in that odd way. They can only ask - "What is this feeling?"

Bound to happen at least once to any Emotionless Girl and in the Defrosting Ice Queen scenario.

For specific types of feelings that can evoke this, see What Is This Thing You Call Love?, and Is This What Anger Feels Like?

Compare Not So Stoic.

Anime
": What have you done to me?! Why does my heart hurt so much?
 * Light in Death Note is always very confident and powerful. However,  Light is shocked that he is deathly afraid and has a fantasy where he is still.
 * Checkmate from Ultimate Muscle was trained by Sunshine not to feel pain. He experiences an odd sensation after his opponent attacks his knee for an entire episode, at which point Sunshine is forced to reveal that he only thinks he can't feel pain.
 * Something of a regular plot point in Darker Than Black, as it's assumed by everybody (including Contractors themselves) that Contractors are inherently unemotional, selfish, and amoral. When those pesky emotions do finally show up, most aren't exactly sure what to do with them.
 * In Full Metal Panic, Sousuke's whole Heroic BSOD during TSR. Pretty much everyone was shocked and surprised at how depressed he of all people became when he was split up from Kaname. Mao is shown to especially be exasperated with him when he uncharacteristically almost gets them killed because he's so out of it.
 * Arcueid in Tsukihime after Shiki fails to show up for their meeting. She's incredibly angry because to her it feels like she got stood up on a date. After she calms down, she realizes its not like her to get so upset and asks Shiki why he thinks she got so angry. She's not used to feeling emotion towards people and will be vaguely accepting of the idea that she's selfish or that she hates him.
 * Warrior race Zentradi in Macross feel strange when confronted with culture.
 * Towards the end of Simoun, the following dialogue takes place:


 * This is love."


 * Happened to Haruhi Suzumiya, after she helped the schoolband ENOZ out. They were very grateful but Haruhi didn't really know to handle it and becomes sort of melancholic. Kyon then figures that it is because she's not used to being thanked by other people.
 * Mytho from Princess Tutu asks this question constantly throughout the series. It makes sense, because he shattered his heart (and thus lost his emotions) to seal away the evil Raven, and slowly regains emotions with each piece of his heart he is given by the title character.
 * Saber of Fate/stay night has spent her entire life suppressing her emotions, so her feelings for Shirou leave her confused and angry. She realizes that he's important to her, but it takes a while for her to figure out why.
 * Ren of Elemental Gelade has to be taught jealousy. It works!

Comics

 * In Peter David's "Earth Angel" version of Supergirl, the demon Buzz feels a horrible pain when he tries to leave her. At first he thinks this is God's doing, but it turns out that, for the first time since he was a human, he's feeling guilt.

Film
"Emma Watson: Hermione doesn't realize what it is that she's feeling, but it's probably just insane jealousy."
 * In The Producers, Leo Bloom "feels strange" while spending an afternoon in the park with Max Bialystock. Bialystock suggests that maybe he's feeling happy.
 * In the play version, Leo gets that same feeling or similar after his first encounter with sexy foreigner Ulla. In this case, Max calls it an 'erection'. Or in some modern performances, 'swine flu'.
 * In the full length movie version of The Grinch, The Grinch has this reaction when the Who's song fills him with joy. He also suffers from what looks like a heart attack caused by his heart rapidly growing.
 * Giselle's first experience with anger in Enchanted.
 * According to Word Of Actress, Hermione went through this regarding her feelings about Ron dating Lavender in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:

Live Action TV
"Jordan: I may have screwed up Blond stick’s relationship and now I have this really weird feeling...
 * From an episode of Scrubs:

Dr. Cox: It’s called "guilt", ya Vulcan."

"Hedford/Companion: Loneliness... this is loneliness. Oh, what a bitter thing. Oh Zefram, it's so sad, how do you bear it, this loneliness?"
 * Profit, when Jim Profit is confused by tears in his eyes
 * Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass when he first comes upon feelings of love. "I feel sick, like there's... something in my stomach. Fluttering." Poor fellow, the object of his affection promptly informs him that the butterflies have got to be murdered.
 * Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now". Jerry's current girlfriend challenges him to openly express his feelings, in this case, anger. This backfires as he becomes overly angry about everything, leading to the girlfriend eventually dumping him. For the first time, Jerry actually reacts to this not-too-uncommon turn of events, to which Elaine responds "Jerry, you break up with a girl every week!" Jerry, mystified by his own emotions, touches his eyes and says "W-what is this salty discharge?" Elaine: "Oh my God, you're crying." "That's horrible. I care!"
 * Gob in Arrested Development is puzzled to feel something that he can't identify as either 'angry' or 'hungry', when coming to terms with the fact that
 * On Angel Illyria, an Eldritch Abomination stuck in human form, is not comfortable with a lot of emotions. While she's familiar with grief and rage, even if she does feel unsure how to express them properly, feeling betrayed is a new one. In her time anyone would betray anyone else if they showed weakness, and didn't take it personally.
 * In the Star Trek episode "Metamorphosis", the Companion doesn't understand what Zefram Cochrane means when he complains about being lonely. After she becomes human, she understands.

Theater

 * Draco does this in A Very Potter Musical, experiencing... certain feelings and sensations for the first time when he sees the cleaned-up Hermione. It becomes one of the show's Crowning Moments of Funny because Draco is played by a girl. Ron has a similar but much more subtle reaction during the scene.
 * Uttered by Galinda, the spoiled Alpha Bitch who occasionally borders into Cloudcuckoolander in the musical Wicked, when she is denied entrance to the Sorcery Class she craves: "Something's wrong here. I'm not getting what I want." Later, she utters, in grief, "Is this what other people feel like?"
 * And then there's the song that would be the Trope Namer if the phrase wasn't Older Than Television. For humor, the description of the mutual feeling Elphaba and Galinda have for each other is described to imply Les Yay before revealing what it really is: Loathing.
 * Loathing, eh? Word of God has said..

Visual Novels

 * In an interesting meta-example, the VN Katawa Shoujo, when released, turned out to be the one thing on the internet that could make 4chan cry.

Web Comics

 * As demonstrated by the page pic, Tycho's tainted, twisted, mutant soul severely limits the situations in which he can feel things like joy.
 * In Megatokyo, Ed feels ph34r for the first time in this strip. Cue manic laughter.
 * The Parking Lot is Full plays with this one, with a woman who is suddenly struck with an emotion no one has ever felt before.

Web Original
"Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw: But after I'd played for a couple of hours, a strange thing happened; I was actually having fun. I know, it was a weird and frightening realization."
 * Strong Sad, of Homestar Runner, claims that "Something weird is happening to the sides of my mouth!" when he smiles in the Halloween special.
 * In Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Captain Hammer apparently feels pain for the first time after being hit with an explosion, and the experience drives him to psychiatry and sobbing like a little girl.
 * Zero Punctuation:

Western Animation
"Grandpa: I tried to be a good babysitter, but I failed. I'm a feeb. A useless, old, worn out...
 * The Grinch Who Stole Christmas "And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!"
 * The Simpsons:

Bart: Lisa, I have this strong unpleasant feeling I've never had before!

Lisa: It's called "remorse", you vile burlesque of irrepressible youth."

"Bart: I thought I'd be jumping for joy the day Skinner got fired, but all I have now is this weird, warm feeling on the back of my neck.
 * Subverted in another episode when Bart inadvertently gets Skinner fired.

Lisa: It's called guilt, you feel guilty that your little stunt cost a man his job!

Bart: Yeah, maybe

Camera zooms onto Bart's neck, showing a tick feeding on the back of his neck."

"But what is this feeling I am feeling? It is not a happiness. It is a feeling that I have not done all I should have done! I do not like it! How do I make it go away?"
 * Batman had to be told once in The New Batman Adventures that a warm, fuzzy feeling was called happiness.
 * King Julien when he feels guilt for the first time, in The Penguins of Madagascar, "Assault And Batteries":


 * Plankton in The Fun Song.
 * Wally in an episode of the Dilbert TV show had an experience like this. He had been hypnotized to do work. When it wore off, he mused to the effect of "What is this? I feel unclean. More so than usual."
 * Luna in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. "Your princess enjoys this 'fun'. In what other ways may we experience it?"