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"Dear God - there is an actual skip in her step."
— Dr. Cox, Scrubs, describing Dr. Molly Clock.
I heard it was you
Talkin' 'bout a world where all is free
It just couldn't be,
And only a fool would say that
—Steely Dan, "Only A Fool Would Say That"
A character who is far too idealistic for his or her own good.
It may be the Naive Newcomer who Jumped At The Call — he or she has a huge stack of comic books/movies/bards' tales, and thinks they're pretty Genre Savvy. Unfortunately, their universe is more toward the cynical end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism than the stories they know. Alternatively, it might just be a generally nice person whose idealistic attempts at solving the problems of their world turn out to go horribly horribly awry as no one else plays by their rules. Usually used as nothing more than a device to highlight the realism/grittiness/cynicism of the setting.
This character either dies horribly or acquires a coat of jade post-haste. Often a victim of Trauma Conga Line or Break The Cutie. In particularly anvilicious cases, expect deployment of Diabolus Ex Machina to deal with them.
When The Hero appeals to a group of people, often Least Is First falls under this.
Contrast the Grumpy Bear, the cynic in an idealistic setting. Compare The Pollyanna. See Turn The Other Cheek and The Farmer And The Viper.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Now And Then Here And There is based around this trope.
- Judai of Yu-Gi-Oh GX was once an Idiot Hero Ace who believed life was one big game and the only thing worth caring about was having fun. His journey of deconstructing The Ace is not a pleasant one.
- Kanzaki Nao in Liar Game. Almost every chapter. You'd think that one of these days she'd learn...
- Rock from Black Lagoon is one of the only grey characters in the series' Black And Gray Morality — despite his expectations being basically crushed one by one by the realities of the series, he still maintains by the series' end that he wishes to observe the whole thing "from the twilight" because it allows him to see things better than the rest of the cast who have given in entirely to their villainous natures.
- Despite that, he has been getting blacker in the manga, being much more ruthless as time went on
- Rachmann, the commander of the Neo-Nazis from the third major arc of the series is an example of a villainous Wide Eyed Idealist. After he and his men are defeated by the Lagoon Company, he learns that his would-be ally, Alfredo, a former Nazi, was playing both sides against the middle in a ruthlessly pragmatic Xanatos Gambit, and when it was apparent that Rachmann had lost, all Alfredo had to say was that Rachmann had outlived his usefulness. He's given one of Revy's guns to kill himself with, but when he tries to kill Dutch with it instead, he finds out that Revy had unloaded the weapon beforehand, just before Revy and Dutch finish him off.
- Ichiro Yamada from the manga Freesia. He very much initially thinks that he can help the country by punishing ex-convicts and such, until he realizes quickly that the Vengeance Proxy Enforcer firm that he works for is nothing more than a group of contract killers for people who have massive grudges.
- Both Suzaku Kururugi and Princess Euphemia Li Britannia from Code Geass genuinely believe they'll be able to reform the shockingly racist Britannian Empire and be facilitators for the peaceful integration of the Japanese people into the empire's fold. Cue Diabolus Ex Machina on a national scale.
- Not so wide-eyed in Euphemia's case, even though she starts out as such. She planned ahead and cashed in a lot of political capital. If it had just been the shockingly racist empire, she could have pulled it off. Diabolus Ex Machina indeed, but there was also the Dark Messiah and his Power Incontinence to consider. Suzaku, on the other hand, plays it straight. He has no capital to cash in, and thus merely expect change to come because he plays ball.
- This is subverted in the second season, where Suzaku forms a reasonable, if rather myopic, plan to free Japan (the rest of the world isn't his concern) and begins suffering from a bad case of Motive Decay until his ideals are nothing but smoke.
- In the manga Fullmetal Alchemist Scar's brother, and the Rockbell family are wide-eyed idealists who believe in the basic good nature of man. The Rockbell leave their practice so they can heal the Ishvalans being massacred by the Amestris army, and Scar's brother wants to learn alchemy so that he can better understand the bonds of humanity. During an attack Scar's family is killed, and Scar's brother tries to shield Scar, but is unsuccesful, and Scar loses his arm, Scar's brother sacrifices an arm, and his life to save Scar, and Scar wakes up in the Rockbell's hospital. Finding out that his brother's arm is now attached to him causes Scar to go temporarly insane, and kills the Rockbells.
- Roy Mustang is the other side of the coin. His borderline dumb faith in human nature helps him sometimes (when he took for granted Dr Knox would cover his scheme to save Maria Ross, because they were war buddies) and other times dooms him (when he believed overthrowing the Fuhrer would be a piece of cake when people found out he was a Homunculus. It turned out the brass knew and couldn't care less). Still, his idealism is precisely what makes his subordinates so loyal to him.
— Havoc - He's stupid! How can such a naïve thing keep climbing up in this country?
— Hawkeye - I think it's good that there are idiots like that, once in a while.
- Ai Tanabe, the newest member of Section 7 in Planetes. Her first name means "love," and it just picks up from there. She's taken to task for it countless times by fellow Section 7 crewman Hachimaki and Claire, Hachi's former Love Interest, the latter of which causes her to doubt her own ideals. And yet, although she's set up for a particularly cruel Diabolus Ex Machina, which she could avoid by betraying her convictions, she stands by them to the absolute, heart-wrenching end, to Claire's shock. Given the nature of the series, she's proven right at the end.
- Yuna Kagurazaka is one of the rare examples of this trope not to suffer either of the standard fates.
- This is what makes Alice L. Malvin of Pumpkin Scissors stand out from many of the other nobles of the setting. She firmly believes in her cause to "eradicate evil" and that others will push for it too. This is what got Machis and Oland to join in the first place.
- Albert from Gankutsuou, along with having Horrible Judge Of Character. He is undoubtedly the most naive and idealistic of all the characters in that series. He truly believed for a long time that his friends' (and his own) families were perfectly rosy, and that the Count is a wonderful person. (He was very wrong, by the way - they were all insanely messed up.) Not to mention how he manages to go on about "true love". However, despite all hardships he goes through, Albert ends up taking the route A and becomes a better person who not only saves the Count's soul from Gankutsuou but also fixes his father's wrongs by becoming an envoy of peace.
- Negi of Mahou Sensei Negima starts out as one of these, but he eventually starts to realize that good and bad aren't quite as clear cut as he thought they were. Evangeline actually deliberately discourages his idealism (despite the fact that she's a Noble Demon who's constantly sliding towards Anti Villain territory). Negi eventually admits that he can't always be the good guy, although he still tries to go with most "good" option available.
- Sailor Moon is a pretty huge Wide Eyed Idealist if the series has shown us... But the Live Action just shows what happens when she becomes possessed the power and stops being so wide eyed.
- Subverted in Baccano!, specifically in Druge & the Dominoes: turns out that even the widest-eyed of wide-eyed idealists can be provoked into trying to blow your head off if you push the right buttons. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that Luck got to him first.
- In Death Note the reason Light became so evil was because he was such a nice idealistic guy to begin with.
- Tenma and Nina from Monster, despite being frequently subjected to horrific trauma.
Film
- Will Proudfoot in Son Of Rambow in spite of having lost his father and being raised in a repressively conservative religous household
- Alice, the innocent younger sister from Last Of The Mohicans.
Literature
- Sansa Stark from A Song Of Ice And Fire, who bases her whole life around singers' tales, is a perfect little lady, gentle and trusting. Until the person she is starry-eyed over cuts off her father's head in front of her. And then MUCH misfortune followed
- Dangerous Beans in the Discworld book The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents, who finds his dreams of a rat utopia all but dashed, and learns that on Discworld, you have to Earn Your Happy Ending.
- Subverted by Carrot Ironfoundersson. He starts out as a wide-eyed idealist... Except that for some reason, his idealism somehow works. He can talk anyone into behaving like a friendly, reasonable person. If any other character tried it, they'd be dead.
- Well almost any other character. In The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic, Twoflower, if anything, has an even more rose tinted view of the world, to the endless irritation of his traveling companion Rincewind - and likewise comes to no harm. Admittedly, this is probably because he travels with a Cosmic Plaything, so all of the trouble they run into goes goes after Rincewind rather than him. After they part ways, he does get thrown in a dungeon to rot for being so wide-eyed, which supports that theory.
- Moomin- 'all I want is to grow potatoes and live in peace'-troll of The Moomins
- Jane Bennet of Pride And Prejudice. Her younger, more cynical sister, Elizabeth, is convinced that Jane's new friend, Caroline Bingley, deliberately sabotaged her romance with Caroline's brother in order to hook him up with his best friend's sister—all to increase her own chance of getting hitched to said best friend. Jane remains convinced that Caroline is her affectionate friend and would never do anything to hurt anyone, and more importantly, never do anything less than beneficial to her brother's happiness. Obviously he must prefer Georgiana... It takes a surprise face-to-face meeting with Caroline for Jane to admit Elizabeth was right about her, but she displays the same naivete and belief in love and the innate goodness of man when Wickham seduces their youngest sister, Lydia—despite Jane and Elizabeth knowing that he's tried the same technique on at least two other girls.
- Dorden, The Medic of Warhammer 40000: Gaunt's Ghosts has aspects of this, in trying to adhere to Thou Shalt Not Kill and preventing Gaunt from carrying out necessary Shoot The Dog despite their World Half Empty.
- How is Voltaire's Candide not included on this page?! Among many, many other examples in the book is Dr. Pangloss's thoughts on having caught syphilis, and having had an eye and an ear removed as part of the treatment:
"O sage Pangloss," cried Candide, "what a strange genealogy is this! Is not the devil the root of it?"
"Not at all," replied the great man, "it was a thing unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not caught in an island in America this disease, which contaminates the source of generation, and frequently impedes propagation itself, and is evidently opposed to the great end of nature, we should have had neither chocolate nor cochineal."
- The main character of Invisible Man is both this and a Love Freak, albeit with (absolutely desperate) followers. Since he's also a Horrible Judge Of Character, he runs into a few problems . . .
- Colin Creevey in Harry Potter falls under this with his cheerful, naive, and innocent loyalty to Harry at all costs.
- Hermione also has her moments, with her working for House Elf rights even though they have Happiness in Slavery, much to the patronizing amusement of others who 'know better'.
- In Outbound Flight, the smuggler Maris Ferasi fit this trope pretty well. She had the utmost trust in and adoration for the Chiss commander Thrawn. Unusually, she wasn't disillusioned within the book - Thrawn lied about what he had done to resolve an extraordinarily prickly conflict, letting her leave without knowing just how much of a Downer Ending the whole issue became. Why?
Thrawn: There are all too few idealists in this universe, Car'das. Too few people who strive always to see only the good in others. I wouldn't want to be responsible for crushing even one of them.
Car'das: And besides, you rather liked all that unquestioning adulation coming your way?
Thrawn: All beings appreciate such admiration.
- Drizzt Do'Urden in Homeland; he gets mildly bitter during the later portion of the novel when he finds out that his favorite mentor Zak kills clerics by the dozens,not that he always enjoys it....
- The young baby-faced soldier boy in All Quiet On The Western Front definitely qualifies. as should be completely obvious given the nature of the book and this page, he dies.
- What about the most obvious example, in all of his Wrong Genre Savvy Cloud Cuckoolander glory, Don Quixote?
- God-King Susebron from Warbreaker - his entire experience of life outside his palace consists of having been read a book of fairy tales by his mother as a child. Semi-subverted in that while he does develop a more realistic view of the world, he never loses his almost childlike sense of straightforward goodness.
- I'd say Toglio in Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead. Always thinking to himself about how he and his squad are "The good ol' boys", hard-working and patriotic. Then, of course, he gets his leg shot up to hell and sent home.
Live Action TV
- Hiro of Heroes is a careful treatment and examination of this trope.
- Dr. Molly Clock in Scrubs. Partially subverted, however, in that her incorrigible optimism is undaunted in the face of the naked cynicism of Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso, and even allows her to triumph against them.
- J.D. himself might fit too, at least at the beginning.
- And then there's the one-episode character from season one, who is eternally optimistic about the chances of a little boy in his care, until finally he suffers a Heroic BSOD as he realizes nothing he's tried is working and the kid is going to die.
- Sam Seaborn in The West Wing. Often, he creates idealistic scenarios and goals that sound wonderful, but when he presents them to Leo or the President, they are shot down because of being impractical, a waste of time, or just plain dangerous. He also is very trusting and naive, which gets him into trouble on a frequent basis. Often, as in the case of a public education plan he developed that would have been revolutionary, he completely forgets to factor in a budget, accidentally assuming that there are no limitations. Ironically, this makes utter sense, as this seems to be the most glaring problem with entire American Dream.
- New correspondent Kristin Schaal is currently playing this (along with The Woobie) on The Daily Show - it remains to be seen how long it will last, as she is cruelly disillusioned in just about every appearance.
- Lieutenant George in Blackadder Goes Forth, despite having spent three years in the trenches of World War I, is still mindlessly optimistic about giving the Germans a good bashing, and readily believes all war propaganda to be true. The grim reality of his situation (in particular, the event of 'going over the top' he's been looking forward to for all the series) dawns on him when he realises that he's the only one of his class group left, all the rest having been killed. He goes over the top shortly afterwards in a Bolivian Army Ending.
- His response to realizing all his friends are dead is "Well, I guess I'm the only one left... oh.... I mean, if it wasn't for the excitement of going over the top tomorrow, I might be a bit down!"
- Edith Keeler in The City on the Edge of Forever. If she had lived, her peace movement would have delayed America's entry into World War II and Hitler would have won.
- Naive, gentle Tora Ziyal, despite growing up as a prisoner of the Breen, despite being rejected by Bajorans and Cardassians for her hybrid status, still remains trusting and hopeful that she can somehow help, with her art that resembles that of both cultures, in proving that the groups aren't so different after all. She knows her father, Dukat's past, but loves him anyway, sincerely believing he's changed, and keeps right on forgiving him. Too bad that choosing saving her friends over staying with her father gets her shot by her father's Dragon as a traitor. Dukat goes mad as a result.
- David Shephard and Michelle Benjamin both fit this trope to a T in Kings although David seems to be growing out of it.
Musical
Newspaper Comics
Tabletop Games
- The Tau in Warhammer 40000 started out pretty close, before the inevitable grimmification.
- They still qualify in that galaxy, even though in any other they'd be the bad guys the heros have to stop at all costs.
Video Games
- Tahlkora from Guild Wars: Nightfall. "I signed on for the heroic songs and the praise. I did not sign on for the blood-sucking bugs."
- Flonne in Disgaea falls under this trope. She never ceases to be an overoptimistic idealist who believes that demons can love, and that Seraph Lamington is a good guy.
- In the best ending she's absolutely right.
- Shirou of Fate Stay Night, who wants to follow in his father's footsteps to become an "ally of justice" and enters the Holy Grail War to prevent civilian casualties and abuse of the Holy Grail. The end result depends somewhat on the route: idealism remains unscathed in the first route, he chucks away the 'Wide-Eyed' part after a thorough examination of his ideal in the second route, and chucks away it all as meaningless to who he really is in the third. The latter ones are foreshadowed in "Fate" when he couldn't come up with a real answer about if what he was doing actually brought him happiness.
- Then again, judging by Archer's comments, the past he went through seemed similar to the Fate route, so there may be a pair of Jade Colored Glasses waiting for Shirou there...
- Aerie from the Baldur's Gate series, as becomes apparent if you put her in a party with Keldorn, Haer'Dalis or Jaheira.
- PJ in Ace Combat Zero. Given Ace Combat tries to use "War Is Hell" as An Aesop, and he mentions his girlfriend back at the base... He dies.
Web Comics
- Lisa from Mechagical Girl Lisa ANT is one of these... only thing is, not only she still firmly believes her life is a Magical Girl anime despite all she's been through, but she doesn't even cares about her robot outfit being actually a Humongous Mecha for ants.
Western Animation
- Silverbolt of Beast Wars started out as a starry-eyed idealist. He was so thoroughly chivalrous that he refused to hit or fire upon a female (Blackarachnia) even if his own life, or the lives of his comrades, depended on it. His naivete took its toll in the three-part second season finale where he refused direct orders from Optimus to capture Blackarachnia, instead going after her to help her dig up the Ark. This enabled Megatron to make it to the Ark easier and gain the access codes from Blackarachnia after threatening Silverbolt's life. Then he went into the Ark and fired a fatal blast into the still dormant Optimus Prime's head, triggering a cataclysmic time storm that nearly destroyed all the Maximals and wiped out time and space. All thanks to Silverbolt's refusal to capture Blackarachnia. Later on, of course, everything gets cleaned up but Silverbolt's actions nearly led to the destruction of time and space due to his wide-optical idealism. In Beast Machines, this trope becomes subverted as Silverbolt is transformed into the villainous Jetstorm. Blackarachnia does bring him back but once Silverbolt returns, he no longer has the rosy outlook on life that he used to, becoming a bitter Anti Hero for the remainder of the series.
- Wally from the Where's Wally cartoon series fits this trope to a T but manages to avoid the horrible death part. He's too cheery for his own good and his dog Woof has more common sense than he does yet he always escapes unscathed from his dangerous journeys.
- The Fantastic Racism of Manhattan is particularly painful for Angela of Gargoyles, who was raised on Avalon where humans and gargoyles live in harmony. She also hopes more than is wise or reasonable that her mother Demona can change or be redeemed.
- Subverted with Yoink from the "Yoink Of The Yukon" short on What A Cartoon Show. Oddly enough, he survives and his cynical partner gets to be The Chew Toy.
- Felicity in Felidae who seems to believe good in everyone despite being blind. Unfortunately...
Web Original
- Himei of Sailor Nothing was once a Genre Savvy Ascended Fangirl of Magical Girl anime... starring in a Deconstruction of Magical Girl anime. She quickly learned (by the beginning of where the story picks up) that the job is not so much fun as it looks. Aki fills the role after Himei has become thoroughly jaded.
- A toned-down version of Penny in Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog. "...a generally nice person whose idealistic attempts at solving the problems of their world turn out to go horribly horribly awry..." Do I detect a bit of irony?
- Emma Babineaux of the Battle Royale based RP Survival Of The Fittest arguably fits this. After winning a fight against J.R. Rizzolo, instead of shooting him, she tries to convince him to stop killing and escape the island with her - this being after he attempted to murder her twice.
- And then she gets killed for her troubles. Poor, foolish Emma.
Real Life
- Human Nature and the Natural State of the universe, according to Enlightenment philospher John Locke, is basically good, selfless, peaceful, and blissful. Though Locke outlines this theory with great logic and genius in his momunmental work Two Treatises on Government, it is marred by a glaring flaw: he accidentally assumes that the earth's resources are infinite.
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