Agent Scully: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

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.

* 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.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* 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.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Sargent Mooney from ''[[Killer Klowns From Outer Space]]'' insists on believing that the eponymous clowns (or [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|Klowns, if you want to be technical]]) are merely a publicity stunt designed to sell ice cream. No matter how many individual 911 calls are made.

* Dr. Silberman in ''[[The Terminator]]''. Even more so in ''Terminator 2'', that is, until he sees the T-1000 walk ''through'' a barred door.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the early ''[[Discworld]]'' books Rincewind shows similar traits. He learns later.

* 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.

* 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.

 

* [[Trope Namer|Agent Scully]] of ''[[The 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".

* 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.

 

* 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]] ==

* 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.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* 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.

** 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, it's because the data set she's working from is flawed or falsified (as opposed to it just being legitimately beyond her ability to reverse-engineer). She gets better about this as her character development progresses.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]

[[Category:The War On Straw]]

[[Category:Seekers]]