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{{trope}}
[[File:agentscully.gif|link=Pictures for Sad Children|
Sci-fi/fantasy character who insists that events be interpreted according to <s>logical</s> <s>rational</s> mundane explanations. Never wavers from this view even though crazy things happen in episode after episode demonstrating how illogical or otherwise bizarre the universe is, prompting lectures from the protagonist to this effect - if they're not busy lecturing everyone else, that is. Once convinced that something is a [[Windmill]], she will never step down from this belief no matter the [[No Mere Windmill|evidence to the contrary]], thus becoming a [[Windmill Crusader]] herself.
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The character is often an adult, but in some cases may be a child who is trying too hard to ''act'' mature, or how he/she thinks mature people act.
Derives its name, obviously, from the ''[[
An Agent Scully may also, obviously, be a [[The Spock|Spock]], and sometimes even a [[Straw Vulcan]]. Can be something of a [[Strawman Political|strawman]] of those who currently doubt supernatural phenomena because of lack of evidence, placing them in a world where evidence of the supernatural is abundant and having them persist in their doubt.
A point that most ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'' fans miss (or chose to ignore) is that the ''[[Unbuilt Trope|original]]'' '''Agent Scully''' is a deeply religious woman who is staunchly devoted to her Christian faith in spite of her scientific and logical view on the world and life in general; in other words, it wasn't always so much logic vs. illogic as two spiritual belief systems in direct opposition to each other. And when the explanation was actually a miracle, Mulder turned into the skeptic. Also noteworthy is that Scully did, over the course of the series, [[Giving Up on Logic|become more and more inclined to believe in whatever theory Mulder came up with]], eventually becoming the [[Agent Mulder|Mulder]] to Dogget's Scully.
Compare [[Flat Earth Atheist]] and [[Stupid Scientist]]. Contrast [[Agent Mulder]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Seto Kaiba in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. He's a Scully to such a degree that ''traveling back in time and meeting his own ancestor'' doesn't convince him that the supernatural exists.
** Less so in the original, where he still scoffs at the supernatural but overall just doesn't seem interested in it.
* Kyon from ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' is a Scully with an underlying [[Agent Mulder]]: although he says he just wants everything to be normal, deep down he wants everything to be weird and fantastical, as he says in the second chapter's opening narration that he still sort of wished it would be cool if aliens, time travelers and espers existed. Only problem is, being an Agent Scully in a world that actually has aliens, time travelers and espers eventually turns him into an [[Unfazed Everyman]].
* Nodoka of ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]''. Jun's ability [[Combat Clairvoyance|to read the flow and react accordingly so targeted opponents will never win]]? It's just coincidence! Hisa's strategy revolving around her [[Million-to-One Chance|Hell Waits cropping up nine times out of ten]]? It's just her getting swept up by random deviations and interpreting them as flow or jinxes! Though, this strict worldview actually proves useful in the finals, as it allows her to ''[[
* Kirie of [[Uzumaki]]. Every week something new and horrifying happens, her boyfriend always saves her...and she's always surprised when something new and strange happens.
* On a certain degree [[Jerkass|Hyena Bellamy]] in ''[[One Piece]]''.
* Hercule/Mr Satan of ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Despite the fact that he has personally witnessed and even been on the receiving end of countless energy attacks since his very first appearance, and the world martial arts championships having used them extensively just a decade prior to his appearance on the show, he still stubbornly refuses to believe in them, calling them tricks, special effects, dreams, whatever justification for them that he can come up with.
** In the dub at least, he privately admits that all of it may be real, but ''really'' hopes that it's not, since he's understandably terrified of the idea of people with the power to singlehandedly destroy the Earth.
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** Some of the later depictions, however, have him as a complete idiot - who, for instance, remains convinced that he's not on a ghost pirate ship fighting gorilla nazis because that yeti he saw earlier was a vampire, not a yeti, and if yetis don't exist then this must all be a vivid dream.
** For more irony points, his own daughter is also a mage—a trait she inherited from her mother. His own life has been full of magic for years.
** In his defense, Dr. Thirteen is effectively a walking anti-magic zone -- his disbelief is so strong (and possibly backed up by latent mage-talent) that he actually ''cancels out'' magic in his vicinity, unconsciously. The man can
** Also, he exists in a super-hero universe, where there are perfectly valid non-magical explanations for even the most fantastical things.
* Ted Knight, original 1940s Starman, firmly disbelieves in the supernatural or religious despite having served on the same team as both Dr. Fate and The Spectre. When this is pointed out to him by other characters, he relates their powers to unknown scientific energies.
* Mr. Terrific of the current [[Justice Society of America]] has also shown to be an avowed atheist, giving the same explanations as Ted Knight before him despite having attended a church ceremony conducted by an actual angel.
* Iron Man fits this role in the Marvel Universe. There is too much weird stuff around the universe: aliens, superpowers, time travel, magic, gods, cosmic entities, women, etc; but he always strives to find a scientific explanation or solution to the problems.
** Reed Richards used to be this for a while but eventually relented, admitting that magic did exist and also that it was something he would never be able to fully analyze and understand. It admittedly took a ''tremendous'' amount of effort to get him to admit that.
* Pugs in ''[[Beasts of Burden]]'' had doubts about ghosts, black cats and everything else. Mostly, he's just grumpy. When something "out of it" does happen, he finds it highly annoying — then again, usually it is. He was first of the pack hit by a falling frog… then it turned out to be the first from a ''rain of'' frogs, and his reaction was "[[Oh Crap]]… looks like stupid's back in season".
{{quote|'''Whitey''': W-witches?
== [[Fan Fiction]] ==▼
'''Pugs''': Yeah. An' demon cats. An' later we'll have werewolves.}}
* The girl codenamed Nahga at [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy in the webfiction ''Whateley Universe''. Her friend and teammate Akira has found a girl who looks like Ryoko of ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]''. The girl has similar powers. The girl apparently has a cabbit exactly like Ryoko's (it's actually a prank by Tennyo's roommate). Nahga is not going to believe. As for the real truth, that may be even weirder...▼
* [[Stargate Verse|Sam Carter]] is often cast in this role in crossover fanfiction.▼
== [[Film]] ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* In the early ''[[Discworld]]'' books Rincewind shows similar traits. He learns later.
** Susan is also a bit of an Agent Scully in her first appearance. Commander Vimes' distrust of magic occasionally leads him here, especially in ''[[
* In the ''[[Old Kingdom]] Trilogy'', Nicholas Sayre reacts to the strange things that occur in the Old Kingdom this way, partly because for much of the story, {{spoiler|he's being influenced by [[Sealed Evil in a Can|The Destroyer]].}} However, later, when he's thinking a little more clearly, he realizes how stupid it is that he's been ignoring the fact that his best friend beat off zombies with glowing blades of magic right in front of him and {{spoiler|his "local guide" has gradually turned into a dark-magic-shrouded flaming corpse}}.
* [[Bailey School Kids]]: Eddie, and sometimes Melody.
* Hermione Granger from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' occasionally fills this role. The most grating example comes up in the seventh book when Xenophilius explains the Deathly Hallows to the trio. While she does bring up a valid point of on how one can't simply claim something exists simply because no one has proven it doesn't exist, her sheer hardheadedness in denying that they could ever possibly exist is simply baffling given that according to everything she was ever taught in the first eleven years of her life, the last seven years of her life did not exist.
* In Stephen King's ''[[IT]]'', a kid named Eddie Corcoran doesn't believe in monsters. When a (very real) monster attacks him, he assumes it's just an actor in a costume, and he's still searching for the zipper on the 'costume' - even while he's being eaten alive.
* In ''[[That Hideous Strength]]'', MacPhee, a die-hard atheist scientist, remains implacably skeptical of all the supernatural events that take place even though he's fighting on the side of the supernaturalists.
== [[Live
* [[Trope Namer|Agent Scully]] of ''[[
▲* [[Trope Namer|Agent Scully]] of ''[[X Files]]'', as stated above. In later seasons she actually became an [[Agent Mulder]], and the role of the skeptic was taken over by Agent Doggett. (Even before then Mulder and Scully would occasionally flip roles in conversation, and for whole episodes when the subject was related to Scully's spirituality.)
* Charles Dickens himself, in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' new series episode "The Unquiet Dead".
* In the Swedish TV-series ''[[
* Jack Shephard on ''[[Lost]]'' is a strong example of this character type. As the leader of the survivors, his one goal is getting everyone rescued, and so he seems to avoid or completely ignore the more supernatural phenomenon on the island. This puts him in repeated conflict with [[Meaningful Name|John Locke]], who is a strong believer in faith and destiny. No matter what oddities happen on the island (smoke monster, {{spoiler|time travel}}, etc), Jack either has a logical explanation or simply doesn't care. This culminates when Jack {{spoiler|and seven other characters are rescued from the island}}, having ''just seen the {{spoiler|island disappear in front of his face}}'', getting him berated by the normally soft-spoken Hurley:
{{quote|'''Hurley:''' Locke. He {{spoiler|moved the island}}.
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** Eventually, Jack becomes a man of faith after {{spoiler|Eloise Hawking's convoluted, supernatural plan to return to the island works}}.
* Tony Vincenzo, [[Intrepid Reporter]] Carl Kolchak's editor in ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker|Kolchak: The Night Stalker]]''.
** That's because [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|the force of his disbelief]] is so strong it acts as [[Anti-Magic]].
* There's an interesting twist to the trope in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', which, in a first-season episode, [[Person as Verb|turns it into a verb]].
{{quote|'''Giles:''' Xander's taken to teasing the less fortunate?
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** Of course, as it turned out Xander actually ''was'' demonically possessed but Giles doesn't start believing this until Xander's behavior moves beyond the normal range of adolescent jerkassness and into things like eating a pig... while it's still alive.
* Professor Arturo from ''[[Sliders]]'' is like this, until he finally settles on a theory that some of the alternate worlds they land on have slightly different laws of physics.
* T'Pol on ''[[Star Trek:
* An interesting subversion in an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
* Nick Cutter in ''[[Primeval]]'' takes this role during his first encounter with Connor. After he sees a truck torn to shreds by the [[Monster of the Week]], he [[Agent Mulder|changes his tune]] by the time he runs into Claudia in the bar, who assumes the role of the Agent Scully:
{{quote|'''Nick''' (to Connor): This is just a hoax. Forget it.
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'''Claudia''': People always say that as though it's such a good thing. }}
** (Whoever assumed the role of the [[Agent Mulder]] turns out to be right here.)
* On ''[[Mystery Hunters]]'', a Discovery Kids show which used science to explain things like supposed alien abductions and ghosts, Doubting Dave, Araya, and Christina all have this as their default mode.
* On ''[[Fringe]]'', Peter Bishop is the resident Agent Scully, at least early on. Eventually he just became the guy who [[Lampshaded]] whatever weirdness was going on that week by way of a pithy comment. And then he mostly stopped doing even that.
** Olivia was often skeptical of Walter's theories and methods in the first few episodes, but she quickly learned that he's almost always right.
* Played for laughs by [[The Goodies]] with their episode on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8SRrlbbN0 Arthur C Clarke]
* [[Castle]] features Becket as the Scully role with Castle fufling the Mulder role. [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|Their other dynamic]] is also similar to Mulder and Scully.
* An interesting twist in ''[[Psych]]'', where Scully is Shawn, who pretends to be psychic, while Mulder is Gus, the "Non-Psychic" one.
* Jonathan MacKensie of ''[[Shadow Chasers]]'' was an anthropology professor with no belief whatsoever in the supernatural. Unfortunately his department head dragooned him into investigating the paranormal—paired with his own personal [[Agent Mulder]], a flamboyant tabloid reporter—placing him firmly in this role.
* Emma Swann of ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' is ''highly'' dubious about the idea that she's in a town full of amnesiac fairy-tale characters, but she's definitely realized by now that something's not right about the place, and definitely not right about the mayor.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Linus from [[Peanuts]] has a conflicting set of viewpionts similar to Agent Scully's. Normally, he's a perfectly calm and reasonable person - except when it comes to his belief in the Great Pumpkin.
* In ''[[Dilbert]]'', Dilbert takes this role when trying to disprove Ratbert's [[Psychic Powers]] in one storyline. He takes it to the Agent Scully extreme when he continues to deny everything even after Ratbert correctly guesses ''100'' coin flips in a row -- ''[[Heads-Tails-Edge|all edge]]''—and another one that ends with ''inexplicable hovering''. He even predicts Dilbert's reaction.
* Doctor Noodle, the psychiatrist of ''[[Candorville]]'', has dismissed supernatural phenomena as hallucinations even when said phenomena is threatening to eat him. At one point, he says it's a matter of rejecting wish fulfillment—it would be just too perfect for supernatural vengeance to [[Dark and Troubled Past|bring down on him the retribution]] [[Karma Houdini|he's always felt guilty for avoiding]].
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Victor Mordenheim of the [[Ravenloft]] setting is a solid devotee of this trope, either dismissing the supernatural as nonsense or as a product of as-yet-undocumented, but rational physical laws. This trope is also [[Planet of Hats|the Hat]] of many Lamordians.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* Keats from Folklore is an example of this trope. Even when being BOMBARDED in the face with the supernatural, he just either insists there's a logical explanation or shrugs and says he's probably going crazy.
* Pascal Curious from Strangetown in ''[[The Sims 2]]'' has a biography that reads like Scully. He believes there is a logical explanation for everything... and he's the one [[Arbitrary Skepticism|pregnant with an alien]] when you first start playing his family.
** That has a perfectly logical explanation: Aliens impregnated him.
* Battler from ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' is practically the embodiment of this trope. He refuses to believe any of the murders were committed by magic, and goes the whole series to deny witches, despite the fact that he's interacting with them all the time.
** The whole point of at least half of ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' is to force the player to disprove that the assassinations on Rokkenjima were made by a witch, despite the perfect closed rooms and everything that would appear impossible for a human. The wittiest players that unveil the mystery before time are forced to disregard anything magical, as well as question themselves about Beatrice's Red Truth to the point of accepting the truths after a meticulous analysis of the wording and what did the witch really meant with her truths.
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* Lucy Reubans from ''The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure'' was clearly designed to play the Agent Scully role alongside Nigel Danvers' [[Agent Mulder]], although she's less pig-headed about accepting things she's witnessed firsthand.
* In ''[[Diablo III]]'', Leah dismisses her adoptive uncle Deckard Cain's warnings about the imminent demonic invasion as just more of his "crazy stories". Even though she personally witnesses signs of said imminent demonic invasion. She finally accepts the truth {{spoiler|after Cain is murdered by a demon-worshipping cult and a [[Fallen Angel]] confirms Cain's warnings.}}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is a bit of a hypocrite in this regard. He demands perfect logic in the movies he reviews, but acts on his own pure emotion almost constantly.
** The Critic does act in an internally consistent manner in spite of his emotional outbursts. He doesn't for example praise one movie for certain qualities and then condemn another for the same thing—at least not without major [[Lampshade Hanging]]. He doesn't demand movies to explain the supernatural either, just not change the rules under which the supernatural phenomenon operates halfway through.
▲* The girl codenamed Nahga at [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy in the
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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*** Sokka was this so much that, according to [[Word of God]] , he should have been a water bender but was to much of a skeptic to be able too.
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode where they go to Africa, Lisa briefly becomes this with a bit of Fourth Wall Lampshading. "What did you just see, Lisa? What did you just see?"
* Velma from ''[[Scooby Doo]]'', and Daphne in [[A Pup Named Scooby
** Played straight in the ''Pup'' episode "Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner" in which the gang spend almost the entire story interacting with a real ghost, but at the end Daphne still doesn't believe in ghosts.
** Also notable that they saw ''nothing'' unusual in meeting [[Our Genies Are Different|Jeannie,]] [[The Addams Family]], or [[Speed Buggy]] the talking car.
* On ''[[Invader Zim]],'' ''[[Agent Mulder|Dib]]'' actually has this role among the other paranormal investigators---while the likes of [[Cloudcuckoolander|Bill]] are willing to believe anything, Dib manages to believe in aliens but ''also'' realizes that guy on the cereal box isn't a real vampire.
* Diana in ''[[Martin Mystery]]'', even though she works for an organization dedicated to fighting aliens and so forth. Her brother, of course, is the [[Agent Mulder]] of the show.
* Twilight Sparkle from ''[[My Little Pony:
** One of Twilight's character flaws is intellectual arrogance -- as she is legitimately one of the most brilliant ponies in history, she almost never encounters anything she is not able to comprehend with sufficient study. This sometimes leads to a tendency on her part to assume that if she can't figure out how something works,
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]
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[[Category:The War On Straw]]
[[Category:Seekers]]
▲[[Category:Agent Scully]]
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