I still don’t understand people who call Senku or Xeno cold, emotionless, logical, stoic, or even attempting particularly hard at any of those things.
None of Dr. STONE’s scientists are any of those things, but no one calls Chrome or Suika or Chelsea or Byakuya or anyone that. It’s always Xeno and Senku.
I think at least part of it is that it’s just The Trope, you know? Senku and Xeno are the smartest scientists, the most educated scientists, the Best scientists, so they’re the least emotional and the most logical (and consequently end up denigrating people like Byakuya, who is an extremely smart man and an extremely skilled scientist in his own right). (The fact that Senku is very aroace coded does not help).
But that’s just not what they are. In like. Episode 3 or something. Senku makes a comment about the “least logical part of himself” (his gut/instinct) telling him to send off a smoke flare even thought it will also attract their enemy. And he does that instead of what “logic” tells him to do.
His entire catchphrase is a call to emotion! “This is exhilarating/get excited,” is him being emotional about science and wanting everyone else also to be. When Whyman is like “It is Logical to stay a rock in order to stay alive,” he doesn’t respond with the frankly metric ton of reasons why that’s actually stupid af, he responds with basically, “That’s boring/not exciting/not any fun.”
He also explicitly states that, yeah, he gets angry, he just doesn’t want to act on anger. He is aware of and acknowledges his own anger when it happens. Therapists would swoon.
He openly gets sad and lonely during things like Treasure Island’s petrification when he’s the only one awake.
And Xeno. Xeno says he thinks aesthetics are important. I think he suffers a little here from Viz making shit up about what he said about Byakuya, but I think he would have gotten this treatment regardless. Senku at one point says he’s too logical to kick up an entirely futile fuss when he’s kidnapped, but that doesn’t mean he’s pure logic, it just means Xeno is calm, thoughtful, and rational enough to have actually considered the impact of what he’s doing.
Xeno says aesthetics are important (this is not logical or practical or efficient. We get that in Senku). Xeno’s catchphrase is “elegant” which can be neat and clean and efficient and logical, but it’s about seeing beauty in that and admiration and awe and being enamored and touched by something.
Neither of them are the type to be showy about their emotions. They tend to hide them a lot because they both find it kind of embarrassing to be soft and sappy around anyone. But that’s not them being logical. Senku is literally a teenage boy, oh my God. Being reserved and private is not the same thing as being cold and logical. Senku is so warm (and to some extent, so is Xeno, really).
I submit that if they did not know they were very emotional people, they would not be able to carefully tuck it away. They’re both even-keeled enough to not react impulsively based on emotion, but they’re both motivated by emotion, and they know it.
And, you know, Xeno even gave Senku some private time alone to be emotional (with Stan’s help, and Gen’s acknowledgment of it) because he understands innately that Senku needs to be able to be emotional and that he needs privacy for it. Because so does he.
Volume 27 drives this home even harder by having Chrome talk about Whyman stomping all over Senku’s heart, and Senku convincing himself of complete nonsense because he wanted it to be true so badly any part of him questioning it turned completely off. And Whyman even mentions the evolutionary benefit of emotions, and the fact that they can and do turn it off when humans can’t is a pretty key aspect of the plotline.
Xeno and Senku both get so excited and happy about science and rocks and rockets and their friends and each other and everything! They’re both very passionate guys, and passion is the opposite of cold and emotionless.
Sometimes some of the other characters say things like this, but it’s pretty clear from the narration, and Gen, our mental state expert, that it’s not remotely true, and Senku even protests that characterization of him on multiple occasions.
It’s one of the things I love most about the series, really. That none of our scientists are and emotionless, and none of them pretend to be, and none of them even have the same personality.
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