# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/21 "2012-05-01T22:44:44Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 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. I think Agnes is more just sickening, rather than sickeningly good. She was obviously written to be a complete waste of flesh. Strike that - I was thinking of Dora. My bad. I’ll leave this up here anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/22 "2012-05-01T23:45:57Z")
Sara Crewe in A Little Princess. I didn’t notice when I first read the book as a very young girl, but as I got older I saw how nauseatingly perfect Sara was and it repelled me a bit. Then again, I don’t know if I would’ve had as much sympathy for her had she been less perfect. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/23 "2012-05-02T00:01:22Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 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. That’s who I was going to mention, too. Little Nell, Mr Pickwick, John Jarndyce, Mr Brownlow… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/24 "2012-05-02T00:37:16Z")
Paladin from **Have Gun Will Travel**. In one episode he stumbles into a ranch in his underwear, having been ambushed. By the end he has taught the cook gourmet cooking, out poetried the widow owner of the ranch and of course caused her to fall for him, did forensic accounting to prove the foreman was ripping her off, and of course beat the snot out of the bad guys. In other shows he judged a wine contest, reduced a chess grandmaster to a quivering heap of frustration (while Paladin read the paper) showed how to hunt tigers, and fed Oscar Wilde most of his most famous lines. I’m happy to say that the writers were well aware this was funny. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/25 "2012-05-02T00:57:03Z")
A lot of retro TV Moms are portrayed as nearly perfect. June Cleaver Mama Walton Ma Ingalls ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/26 "2012-05-02T08:00:11Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > He _did_ call black people “Negroes,” but that may be a sign of the times more than anything else. Sorry, I got nothin’. Back in the time of the Korean war/police action/freshman mixer, “Negroes” was considered the POLITE term for that particular segment of the population. It was far more common to refer to them as coons, niggers, and other similarly delightful names. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/27 "2012-05-02T08:35:32Z")
Wesley Crusher ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/28 "2012-05-02T08:37:26Z")
א is almost too sexy, but π is just obsessed over and abused to such a horrifying degree by [its fans](http://gc3.net84.net/pi/pi_e4.htm) that I’d call it too perfect. D&R ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/29 "2012-05-02T09:47:34Z")
Well, there’s Captain Awesome from _Chuck_. That’s why they called him Captain Awesome. > [@Lust4Life](#): > > 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. Are you referring to the character of Doug Ross from _ER_? The man was a reckless, self-centered, insubordinate, impulsive, self-destructive philanderer, and one of the least “perfect” characters on the show; his dedication to his patients was just about his sole redeeming quality. I suspect you may have been blinded by Clooney’s good looks. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/30 "2012-05-02T10:05:02Z")
The main character in Chocolat - fortunately, I don’t remember much of this movie, but she was so vomit-inducingly good to everyone that it stuck in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/31 "2012-05-02T11:21:01Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Well, there’s Captain Awesome from _Chuck_. That’s why they called him Captain Awesome. > > Are you referring to the character of Doug Ross from _ER_? The man was a reckless, self-centered, insubordinate, impulsive, self-destructive philanderer, and one of the least “perfect” characters on the show; his dedication to his patients was just about his sole redeeming quality. I suspect you may have been blinded by Clooney’s good looks. DAMN ! you just see right through my he man persona ! I’m flogging that closet right now ! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/32 "2012-05-02T12:46:23Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > 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!) It’s a Mary Sue if it’s seen as an author insertion character, mostly, whereas Pollyana is more generic, I think. One is a subset of the other, almost. The Vampire Lestat always struck me as this. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/33 "2012-05-02T13:17:29Z")
Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) in “Casablanca”. And Henreid knew it, reluctantly taking the role because it would cast him as a stiff forever. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/34 "2012-05-02T13:22:03Z")
That pretty boy from Criminal Minds. Has the worst of Wesley Crusher’s “oh, I just happen to have an encyclopedic knowledge of this thing that is required at this exact moment”. He has the same half assed flaws as the protagonist of Twilight. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/35 "2012-05-02T18:10:08Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s a Mary Sue if it’s seen as an author insertion character, mostly, whereas Pollyana is more generic, I think. One is a subset of the other, almost. > > The Vampire Lestat always struck me as this. No a Mary Sue is _usually_ an author insertion character, but need not be. A Pollyanna is just a girl (or character, regardless of gender) who’s overwhelmingly, sickeningly optimistic regardless of character flaws or the world around them. Half the characters in Candide are Pollyannas (that’s practically the premise – it’s a deconstruction of a philosophy that essentially promotes being a Pollyanna), but very few of them are “too perfect” or Mary Sues/Marty Stus. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/36 "2012-05-02T18:20:11Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > In **Top Gun** , Val Kilmer’s Iceman was set up as being too perfect [Different trope](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TechnicianVersusPerformer), actually. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/37 "2012-05-02T18:56:19Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 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. I thought Esther Summerson in Bleak House was the most sickeningly sweet of the whole lot. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/38 "2012-05-02T19:13:17Z")
Steve McGarrett from _Hawaii Five-Oh._ After a while, you wish he’d take a day off and go play the ponies. And his hair! You just wanted to reach through the screen and muss it up! ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/39 "2012-05-02T19:17:38Z")
The Hunger Games has Prim, Cinna, and, to some degree, Peeta. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546/40 "2012-05-02T19:33:00Z")
Tara from “Buffy.” Did she have any flaw that was not meant to make her endearing? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-who-are-just-too-perfect/620546.md?page=3)