# Characters who are just too perfect. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546 "2012-05-01T19:00:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/1 "2012-05-01T19:00:28Z")
There was Melanie in “Gone With the Wind”, Beth in “Little Women”. Now there’s Castle’s daughter in the tv show “Castle” (but I can’t quite hate her.) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/2 "2012-05-01T19:37:08Z")
Phylicia Rashad? Bill Cosby’s TV wife? ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/3 "2012-05-01T19:39:43Z")
Spenser during many of the books written during the late 80s & 90s. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/4 "2012-05-01T19:47:28Z")
Lance White ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/5 "2012-05-01T19:48:38Z")
Dickens’ good characters tend to be sickeningly good. Agnes Wickfield in _David Copperfield,_ Lucie Manette in _A Tale of Two Cities,_ and of course Tiny Tim. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/6 "2012-05-01T19:53:26Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Lance White Oh, no doubt about it. Lance is perfect. It’s his only flaw. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/7 "2012-05-01T20:00:07Z")
All good examples, but what is this type of character called? A [Pollyanna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna). ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/8 "2012-05-01T20:09:19Z")
I’m taking a class on Arthurian legends, and oy, the glut of perfect knights to contend with! I really want to punch that Lancelot in the face some time. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/9 "2012-05-01T20:31:41Z")
Don’t you mean Galahad, “The Pure”? Lancelot had a pretty serious fall from grace, which balanced out his other accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/10 "2012-05-01T21:19:09Z")
Him, too. But Chretien’s Lancelot in _Knight of the Cart_ is still the worse offender. Ugh. P.S. everyone in Malory with their own sub-book (so far). I’m looking at you, Tristram. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/11 "2012-05-01T21:23:33Z")
Roger Moore’s James Bond. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/12 "2012-05-01T21:25:20Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > All good examples, but what is this type of character called? A [Pollyanna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna). The term [Mary Sue](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue) would probably be used, but it is a everchanging and vague term. See the linked article. (Warning: TV Tropes!) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/13 "2012-05-01T21:26:46Z")
[Buckaroo Bonsai, Across the 8th Dimension] Buckaroo: Okay, let’s get her out of that cell. Perfect Tommy, give her your jacket. Perfect Tommy: Why do _I_ have to give her my jacket? Buckaroo: Because you’re perfect. Perfect Tommy: (taking off jacket) You do have a point there. [/Buckaroo Bonsai, Across the 8th Dimension] In **Top Gun** , Val Kilmer’s Iceman was set up as being too perfect…but he ended deciding that Maverick could ride his tail any time…😉 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/14 "2012-05-01T21:40:44Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > …In **Top Gun** , Val Kilmer’s Iceman was set up as being too perfect…but he ended deciding that Maverick could ride his tail any time…😉 I’ve heard tons of stuff about the gay undertones of that movie, but this reference escaped me entirely. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/15 "2012-05-01T21:45:11Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I’ve heard tons of stuff about the gay undertones of that movie, but this reference escaped me entirely. I think it comes from either Pauline Kael’s discussion of the movie, or that clip where Quentin Tarantino, in cameo in another movie, breaks down the gay undertones and ends his story with that line… Here it is: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyN8VN4BSzM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyN8VN4BSzM) at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/16 "2012-05-01T21:58:11Z")
I always found Hawkeye in MASH nausea inducing. He was a brilliant surgeon, a rebel, cared about little children, cared about the Koreans, cared about the soldiers fighting the war, treated the enlisted people as equals, was fancied by all of the nurses;including army barmy Hotlips. He was also brave, amusing… I’m sorry, I can’t go on without a bucket. Also George Clooneys character in some U.S. hospital soap where he played a paedeotrician and was forever agonising over the “children”, was pretty vomit inducing, though IRL he’s a really decent bloke. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/17 "2012-05-01T22:09:47Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I’m taking a class on Arthurian legends, and oy, the glut of perfect knights to contend with! I really want to punch that Lancelot in the face some time. I guess this is a hijack, but I have to recommend \*Arthur Rex \*by Thomas Berger as a palette cleanser for you. It is a strange, wonderful, and very funny version the Arthurian cycle, mostly based on Le Mort. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/18 "2012-05-01T22:17:28Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I always found Hawkeye in MASH nausea inducing. > > He was a brilliant surgeon, a rebel, cared about little children, cared about the Koreans, cared about the soldiers fighting the war, treated the enlisted people as equals, was fancied by all of the nurses;including army barmy Hotlips. > > He was also brave, amusing… > > I’m sorry, I can’t go on without a bucket. This. Of course, as Alan Alda wrote and directed more episodes, he became even more unbearable. The only one even MORE unbearable was BJ! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/19 "2012-05-01T22:32:19Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I think it comes from either Pauline Kael’s discussion of the movie, or that clip where Quentin Tarantino, in cameo in another movie, breaks down the gay undertones and ends his story with that line… > > Here it is: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyN8VN4BSzM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyN8VN4BSzM) at the end. Plenty of references to homoerotic Top Gun scenes on this very board: [And the most homoerotic movie ever made is…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=480201) [Top Gun (1986)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=356242) [Gayest Scene in a Non-Gay Film](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=613129) [Gay Subtexts I Probably Missed In Films](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=329065) ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/20 "2012-05-01T22:33:48Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I always found Hawkeye in MASH nausea inducing. > > He was a brilliant surgeon, a rebel, cared about little children, cared about the Koreans, cared about the soldiers fighting the war, treated the enlisted people as equals, was fancied by all of the nurses;including army barmy Hotlips. > > He was also brave, amusing… > > I’m sorry, I can’t go on without a bucket. He _did_ call black people “Negroes,” but that may be a sign of the times more than anything else. Sorry, I got nothin’. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546.md?page=2)