Those who see themselves as the One Sane One in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In Alliance of Amazons and Izuku
, Ryukyu is the only heroine interested in Izuku who calmly explains what's going on rather than try to lie about the situation, monopolize his time, or push him into situations he's uncomfortable with. Notably, while Mirko forces Izuku to keep sparring with her for hours after an already trying day and pulls a There Is Only One Bed to make him cuddle with her, Ryukyu offers to let him use her own bed while she does paperwork downstairs. - Haruka Urashima in The Beast That I Am is the only one to realize the status quo seriously has to change. Naru, Koalla, Motoko, and Kitsune are their canon selves, Keitaro is too spineless to think of standing up to anyone despite knowing the consequences, and Shinobu is too tempted to turn back into Jade so she has the power and confidence to do the things she's always dreamed of.
- Black Sky has Squalo Superbi. Between the Varia, the main Vongola Alliance and magical hijinks, this poor shark is also quite the Butt-Monkey.
- As per canon, in Child of the Storm, McGonagall is often noted as feeling like this amongst the Hogwarts staff. Given that her boss is Albus Dumbledore and her comrades include Snape, and in the sequel, Great Gazoo Doctor Strange, while Harry - whose canonical Doom Magnet tendencies have been taken up to eleven - is one of her students, this is pretty justified.
- Pepper and Bruce take turns playing this role to the Avengers (since Steve has issues all of his own, especially after finding out that he and Peggy had a daughter, an event which has resulted in two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren (four living) thus far, from one of said great-grandchildren. Now remember that in terms of life experience, he's not even thirty. Given that almost all of them are mischievous Cloudcuckoolanders to a greater or lesser extent, and their associates (mainly Sirius Black, Darcy Lewis, and the Warriors Three) are as bad, if not worse, this is entirely necessary.
- The Difference One Man Can Make has some of those when it comes about dealing with the Norfolk.
- When they start crying "White Walkers", Dorne and the North are the only ones amongst the Seven Kingdoms to realize the threat is real and pledge their support for the war.
- Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and First Ranger Benjen Stark have to sue for peace while the Night's Watch is all for destroying the Norfolk, the former because a war against a well-prepared, well-armed host with a competent leader is nothing short of suicide, the latter because he met the leader and saw the guy only wants his people to be left alone. A shame the Black Brothers don't want to listen.
- Stannis Baratheon condemns his royal brother for wanting to conquest an innocent nation only by desire of a break in his dull existence. Jon Arryn also points it would endebt the crown further.
- A Divine (Romantic) Comedy (The Owl House and Hazbin Hotel):
- Masha is the only one to think that maybe Luz and Vee shouldn't spy on Camila's date, the other two just staring in confusion at them when they suggest that maybe they shouldn't.
- Tom is the only member of 666 News to object to the network declaring that Lucifer is probably dead despite no solid evidence and it being less than a day since he was last seen. Predictably, his coworkers ignore him.
- Stolas is this among the Goetia Royal Convocation. Unlike his fellow royals, who couldn't care less about finding Lucifer out of laziness and actively inflamed Charlie's Anger Born of Worry, Stolas goes out of his way to placate her and offer his house's support in finding her father. This levelheaded approach helps calm her then-ensuing meltdown.
- Even though Kyon and Chisame have had their backstories revised when they're brought into The Emiya Clan, they retain their personalities perfectly. Everyone else in the Clan is insane, weird, perverted, or otherwise, while these two struggle but usually succeed to keep their sanity amidst a household where random explosions, Eldritch Abominations, and harem antics are considered normal.
- Going by Nasuverse stats, Kyon has EX rated Common Sense. Chisame has A+.
- Lindy in the Negima! Magister Negi Magi/Lyrical Nanoha crossover Equal & Opposite Attraction. She is often seen binging on tea and facepalming while trying to control Negi, Fate, Arf, and all the shenanigans they get into.
- TheInvertedShadow's Lyrish series: Compared to her happy-go-lucky roommate and said roommate's loyal robot companion, Bon Bon is a paragon of sanity. Of the three, she's the only one to realize that having anything to do with the Fazbear's Fright establishment is a terrible idea. And next to the thoroughly twisted Magic Mare and Painset Shimmercakes, both of whom become tentative allies of the trio by series' end, there's just no comparison.
- Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Alice and Adrian serve as this amongst the rescue team, often having to be the ones relied upon to maintain order between the team's reckless and short attention spanned leader Drew, the emotionally guarded and desperate for approval team animal expert Leon, and Alice's thrill seeking and excitable younger brother Jack. And even Adrian proves occasionally capable of being quite zany himself.
- Yu in The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor is the only Goa'uld to consider they might lose against the Celestial Empire along with being the only one to not engage in a civil war over Ra's holdings after the Supreme System Lord is killed, citing that they're still at war with the Celestial Empire. Finally, when Naruto is taken prisoner, the other System Lords are too busy reveling in his capture to notice what Yu does: Naruto is far too calm for a prisoner. Yu promptly leaves and as a result is one of the few to survive.
- The Reactsverse: The eponymous characters of Weiss Reacts and Lucina Reacts are this, and Sayaka is the Only Sane Woman in Homura Reacts.
- Weiss Reacts also has Jaune, Ruby, Cardin and Melanie, but all of them have their own issues instead.
- Lucina Reacts has Kellam, Cordelia, Lon'qu and Libra. The Justice Cabal have Severa.
- The renegade hero!!!....Invader Zim?:
- Sparky is literally the only member of the Galactic Guardians who doesn't buy into the myth of Zim's heroism and sees him for the threat he is. Unfortunately, his aggressive attitude about it means no one is willing to listen to him.
- Similarly, Pleakley is the only member of the Pelekai household who views Zim as a threat, but everyone brushes off his concerns as just his usual neurosis.
- And of course, there's Dib, who continues to be the only person in his hometown (except for Gaz and Jinmay, who don't care) who knows that Zim is an evil alien trying to Take Over the World.
- Atomic Roger and some cadets are later also shown to be among the few Galactic Guardians who refuse to believe Zim is heroic, but since the former is an egotistical blowhard and the latter are viewed as simply being uninformed, Betty is quick to dismiss all their concerns.
- The RWBY Loops has Weiss Schnee, who has taken it upon herself to counterbalance her fellow loopers' various quirks and keep them from actually becoming mentally unstable instead of merely odd. She is sometimes, but not always, joined in this effort by Glynda Goodwitch and her own sister; most of the other loopers merely accept the insanity or decide to do their own thing.
- Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: Ranma Saotome thinks he's the sane and sensible one of the Kamikaze Pirates crew and that's why he's their leader. Evidence suggests he may be deluding himself on that.
- In The Wizard in the Shadows this alternates between Emrys, Boromir and Aragorn, though mostly Emrys and Boromir, both of whom regard most of the cast (particularly Harry) as batshit insane.
- In Wonderful (Mazinja), when Taylor, Sophia and Emma are together, the latter remains level-headed and rational while their friends are busy bickering and arguing.
- Zuko in the The Boiling Rock definitely fits it. If he's not breaking the Fourth Wall, he's mentioning how the story is nothing but a world of madness that he is trapped in.
- Hitsugaya in Uninvited Guests is the only one who doesn't operate under Insane Troll Logic or alcoholic madness. Well, before he snapped that is.
- Andy from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series eventually became this after initially being The Generic Guy. He's usually the only one who can keep everyone in the group from arguing. Hobbes and Sherman also act like this, but have their own moments of insanity as well.
- Cool Cat Saves Vietnam:
- Butch the Bully is the only one who questions the morality of using child soldiers in war. However, Cool Cat dismisses him.
Butch, whose eyes looked wet and puffy, turned to see his classmate standing right next to him. “Oh no,” he muttered. He looked rough with rips in his pants and a few dark red stains on his shirt. Mud was caked on his bare arms and his hands looked calloused. “Why are you here? This isn’t a place for kids like us.”Cool Cat pointed both thumbs at his chest and laughed. Then he gasped. “This is the setting for the new movie I’m gonna be in! I’m gonna be the hero who saves Vietnam!” He sounded proud but tilted his head and placed his hands on his hips. “What are YOU doing here, Butch the Bully? Here to bully the troops?”- Daddy Derek also falls into this near the end of the fic.
“Daddy Derek,” cheered Cool Cat. “I’ve come back from Vietnam and we won!”Daddy Derek toppled over onto the other side of the bed and pulled his discarded shirt up to his chest while Mama Cat ducked under the sheets. “Wh-What?” Daddy Derek looked confused and panicked. “B-But the first one took twenty years. How did you win the war in one day?”Cool Cat shrugged. “I was just playing tag and everybody ran off! When everybody else caught up, they said we had won! The other team had given up! I saved Vietnam!”Daddy Derek grimaced. “Glad to have you back, Cool Cat…”
- Junko Enoshima finds herself unwittingly becoming this in The Ultimate Hope when everyone else's hope prevents them from seeing the despair in her actions (besides Mukuro, who plays along just to annoy her). And before long, after trying everything in her power to convince them of her villainy, she's instead being hailed as a hero for all the hope she inadvertently created.
- Less Than Zero (Kenchi618) has for Villain Protagonist the apathetic, self-centered and greedy thief-in-training Null. But the other members of the Secret Six are so utterly bonkers he's automatically declared "the responsible one" — and he's absolutely horrified over it.
- Naomi Misora and her son Duck in All You Need Is Love-when the paranoid neurotic and the Enfant Terrible play this role, it's saying something.
- In I Won't Say Light Yagami ironically plays this role when the cast visits Wammy's House.
- Disgaea Jewel of the gods: Adell typically serves as this, since Laharl and Mao are usually caught up in their near-constant arguments or otherwise acting crazy. Mao takes over the role whenever Laharl and Adell are being too Hot-Blooded.
- In episode 2 of Lanipator's Abrigimon, Matt was the only Digidestined sensible enough to actually focus on the battle at hand against Apocalymon while everyone else had their own Skewed Priorities.
- The Bolt Chronicles: Mittens (relative to Bolt and Rhino) serves as the straight man when they function as a typical Comic Trio. In most cases, she grows sufficiently angry and becomes Not So Above It All, participating equally in the dog and hamster's bad behavior.
- In "The Cakes", Mittens initially tries to keep Bolt and Rhino from eating the title pastries until she is pushed into one of them and gets covered in frosting. She responds to Bolt's continued angry insistence for cake by dropping one on his head, initiating an all-out food fight with the dog.
- In "The Ski Trip", Mittens repeatedly tries and fails to stop Bolt and Rhino from hopping a chair lift, snitching a pair of skis, and slaloming down a mountain trail. When the three pets end up crashed into a snowbank, the cat starts a Snowball Fight out of exasperated anger.
- In the Frozen fanfic Frozen Wight, Elsa feels this way after listening to advisors who would like her to use her ice powers in ways that make money, like selling said ice directly to the public without the middleman (which Elsa refuses because that would put Kristoff and his ice harvesting crew out of business), opening more ice rinks, or creating more of the fabric she uses in her sky-blue ice dress, and other things. But Elsa gets really pissed off when her advisors suggest she create sentient snowmen to overthrow other countries.
- Honor Trip: Poor Kaji, forced to constantly be in close proximity to Hagala, Hufeh, Ignai, and Kataba.
- Between Dreams and Memories: Tommy serves as this for Pogtopia. While Techno and Wilbur (having undergone some serious Adaptational Jerkass) are violent and clearly unstable and Dream is actively encouraging their worst impulses, Tommy desperately tries to play damage control by encouraging them to reach out to their allies and trying to convince them to abandon their plan to blow up L'Manberg. As with canon, it doesn't work.
- In Soldier of Zero, only one of the nobles who challenge Saito to a duel during a party rescinds it afterwards. While two of them are arguing over who gets to duel Saito first, the third easily admits that he was drunk at the time and was willing to let things go if Saito was.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- In call it what you want, Song Lan is considered the only sane one in his polycule, compared to the slightly scary Xue Yang and the clueless Xiao Xingchen. Neither of them are invited to the Competent Adults group chat.
- In Gundam Abridged by Gutted Wren Studios, the role is shared by Sayla Mass and Bright Noa. However, both have their crazy moments; Sayla's moments being set off by any mention of her brother, and Bright's moments by any display of utter stupidity (which occurs often with Amuro around).
- In The Death Eaters' Disney World Trip, Severus Snape appears to be the only "Death Eater" with any ounce of common sense and pragmatism. He lampshades his status as this in Chapter 7.Was he [Snape] the only sane one remaining in this perilous party?
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
- Harry himself, due to being an outsider for wizard culture and a rationalist.You're giving me a time machine to treat my sleep disorder.
You're giving me a TIME MACHINE to treat my SLEEP DISORDER.
YOU'RE GIVING ME A TIME MACHINE IN ORDER TO TREAT MY SLEEP DISORDER.
"Ehehehehhheheh..." Harry's mouth said. He was now holding the necklace away from him as though it were a live bomb. Well, no, not as if it were a live bomb, that didn't begin to describe the severity of the situation. Harry held the necklace away from him as though it were a time machine. - Played With, in that the rest of the characters are perfectly normal, and Harry is simply significantly more sane than the average person. (Most of the time, anyway.)
- By Word of God, characters intended to meet this trope include Harry, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell, Draco, Neville, Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones, Mad-Eye Moody, Amelia Bones, and Fawkes. Note that in many cases, these are the same characters whose madness is being contrasted against.
- Harry himself, due to being an outsider for wizard culture and a rationalist.
- How Hogwarts Became a Nudist Colony. After a battle with Voldemort, Harry returns to Hogwarts only to find that it's now a nudist colony:Dumbledore: You may have noticed a few changes around school?
Harry: A FEW! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED WHILE I WAS AWAY? WHERE'S EVERYONE'S BLOODY CLOTHING? ARE YOU ALL MAD!?
Ron: 'arry, that's just not polite. - In Oh God, Not again! Neville, out of all people, is the most sane character in the entire cast.
- In the parody fic Xtremly Scray this role is at one point filled by Voldemort.
- Switzerland and Austria in the Alternate History 1983: Doomsday Stories make an effort in trying to be paragons of sanity in the post-apocalyptic wasteland... except that the former is doing a better job (though more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold) while the latter is much closer to being a Broken Bird.
- Becoming a True Invader: Tel is this for the Heboadians, who otherwise easily go along with following Pel, Dibship, or Zim, without second thoughts.
- The Tenn Duology: Comms is the only Irken on the Massive (Tallest included) who is presented as having any competency.
- The Ultimate Evil: Valerie Payne is a young university student who's hired as an assistant at Uncle's Rare Finds and becomes involved in the Chans' adventures. As she tries to balance her new of life of magic and danger with her university studies, she's exasperated by her extended family at times. She even wonders if they'll turn her grey before she reaches her thirties.
- Sora in Kingdom Hearts The Short and Honest Version fanfic and its sequel. To Quote said Character:Sora: AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THE MASSIVE ORB OF PURE EVIL ABOVE US RIGHT NOW? AND HOW THE HELL DO YOU HAVE AN ANY IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? I'M THE ONE WHOSE BEEN HAVING PROPHETIC, MATRIX-LIKE DREAMS!
- In no grave can hold my body down, Chloe is the only person who thinks that maybe the goddess causing visions of death and destruction is bad news. A few cultists fear the goddess...but not enough to actually stop worshiping her.
- In An Alternate Keitaro Urashima, Shinobu is the only resident of the Hinata Inn who recognizes how Granny Hina's attempts to force Keitaro to become manager aren't very nice. Later on, Haruka comes around following her Break the Haughty arc, and Urumi moves in to provide another voice of sanity.
- In Inglorious Bosh'tets, Tali'Zorah has the unenviable task of trying to manage a crew of idiotic and insane Quarians, all of whom blame her for pretty much everything.
- Sparatus in Mass Effect: Synthesis proves to be the only Councilor who doesn't get indoctrinated by Sovereign, making him the only one arguing against an irrational war against the relatively unknown human race. Unfortunately for him, his resistance gets him killed. The spin-off story reveals Sparatus was immune to Sovereign's indoctrination because he was the one Sovereign needed for synthesis.
- In Mega Man Recut, Proto Man and Elec Man are this.
- Cain:
- Inverted by Katsuki; though he believes that the world has effectively gone mad after discovering that All Might has made 'worthless Deku' his secret successor, he's actually suffering Sanity Slippage from sheer jealousy, proving to be an increasingly Unreliable Narrator.
- Played straight with All Might. While practically everyone around Katsuki can see that he's spiraling, the majority opt to avoid confronting or doing anything about it. All Might is the only one who reaches out to Katsuki and tries to help him recognize the logical flaws in his Doublethink and work him past his Irrational Hatred of Izuku. Ultimately, it doesn't work.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Pinkie Pie of all ponies, in Asylum (Daemon of Decay) is the only one of Twilight's friends who is more or less like her canon counterpart and much more stable than her other friends in the asylumnote , but unlike her friends outside of the asylum, she is still willing to listen to her.
- Beyond the Wall: Fairy Dust is just a filly, yet the only pony in the village to even consider the possibility that not everything beyond the wall is a forest monster.
- In Button Mash Isn't Dead, Button Mash's Mom, Maternity is the only pony who can see and hear her (not quite) dead son.
- In Equestria: A History Revealed, this trope is somewhat juxtaposed in that the only logical pony around seems to be Crazy Larry. This is given that he often points out the inaccuracies and Insane Troll Logic of the text sometimes, and while still somewhat crazy himself, he's still leaps and bounds more sane than the Lemony Narrator.
- The God Squad: The Squad, made up of Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, Queen Chrysalis, Oceanic Creature Lord Tydal, and Shining Armor, tend to be the only sane ponies when they role into a town. However, when left on their own... everyone other than Shining is revealed to be nuts and Shining acts as their Only Sane Man.
- Loved and Lost, an extended retelling of "A Canterlot Wedding":
- Subverted majorly with Prince Jewelius. During the wedding preparations, he's the only pony who bothers to talk seriously with Twilight Sparkle about her misgivings regarding "Princess Cadance" and acknowledge something doesn't feel right. He tries to nicely convince the Mane Five to consider if their sudden promotion to bridesmaids is strange and cautions Twilight not to do anything drastic… all for naught. When everypony turns on Twilight at the wedding rehearsal for "upsetting" the bride, he tries to suggest that Twilight's actions were born out of a serious misconception and not real spite, but Celestia immediately shushes him. He secretly stays around to witness Twilight's imprisonment in the caverns and makes secret preparations to help her and the real Cadance to expose the impostor (Queen Chrysalis) in the midst of the wedding. When Twilight has stopped the Changelings with the spell Jewelius showed her and is told by Celestia that she has a real wedding to put together, Jewelius openly calls all the other heroes but Twilight out of their mistakes, pointing out rather rudely that due to the casualties and damages born out of the invasion, the time is not appropriate to start planning a new wedding. While doing this, however, he overthrows the princesses and acts as the Big Bad for the rest of the story, gradually proving himself to be The Caligula. The eleventh chapter reveals that he originally allied with Chrysalis to take over Equestria with her and all along played things in his own favour, double-crossing the Changelings to gain from Twilight a valuable pawn.
- Played straight with Fancy Pants when it comes to Canterlot's population that has been tricked to revere Jewelius. He's never shown reviling the heroes Jewelius has denigrated, and he's one of the first ponies to protest against the Public Execution of Celestia after the dismantled princess has made a final statement in the form of a heartwrenching apology speech to everypony in Canterlot. After the heroes and all the Changelings have escaped, he actually argues against Jewelius when the latter wants to focus on finding the escaped heroes at the expense of preparing against a new Changeling invasion.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: Bogocu Yangin, a djinn, sees herself as the only sane one among Corona's forces. Which given that includes a zebra who's only there Because Destiny Says So, a mad actor, a special effects artist who's only there because of her crush on said actor and a griffon prince with severe dad issues and a stupid name... Yangin isn't exactly wrong (it helps she doesn't want to be there anyway).
- The Reading Rainbowverse has Trixie point out how utterly crazy Ponyville is, and assume staying away assures she remains sane. Unfortunately, she has this revelation a little bit too late.
- In The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments, during the prank war between the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle takes this role.
- Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in Twillight Sparkle's awesome adventure, in two very different ways. Fluttershy is the only character whose personality isn't completely warped and who doesn't worship the metaphorical ground Admiral Awesome treads on, as well as being the one most likely to come up with good plans (which are then ignored because the author doesn't like her). Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, is a Fourth-Wall Observer in the story and therefore is the only one who realizes that the whole thing is just a terribly-written fanfic.
- In Ultra Fast Pony, Scootaloo tries (and often fails) to dissuade the other Cutie Mark Crusaders from completely gratuitous destruction. Whenever the subject of racism comes up, Twilight Sparkle is the only voice of reason. And when Twilight Sparkle goes off the deep end herself, Spike tries (and often fails) to talk some sense into her.
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison: Tenten invokes this as a Commonality Connection between her and Sakura, declaring that they're both the sanest members of their respective teams.
- Uzumaki Kurama is the most grounded amongst the cast from Blackkat's Reverse. For the record, he's a Shell-Shocked Veteran Humanoid Abomination with a hell of a Hair-Trigger Temper. THAT's how much everyone else is screwed up.
- Ffreire's NaruFox AU:
- Kakashi sees himself as the sanest member of Team Seven, as all three kids are perfectly willing to encourage each other to engage in shenanigans.
- Played With when Sakura wonders whether Iruka was trying to imply something by putting her on a team "full of weirdoes".
- Temari is the most no-nonsense member of the Sand Trio, and has little patience for her younger brothers' antics.
- The Peggy Sue fanfic I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again! has Sasuke, especially when compared to his wife, Sakura. Which is ironic, considering that when the protagonists were actually this age, Sasuke was the most mentally unbalanced out of all of them, while Sakura was the most well-adjusted.
- Played With in Three's A Crowd. Sakura is secretly possessed by Inner Sakura and Naruto, who wound up inside her head after being murdered at ten years old. Yet she is the only functional member of Team Seven — both Sasuke and Uo act insanely arrogant and refuse to work with anyone, while Kakashi dismisses their issues and expects Sakura to do all the hard work of pulling their team together.
- Anybody who knows anything about the Peggy Sue fanfic Yet again, with a little extra help knows that everyone in that fic is completely insane - except for Kurenai.
- Lampshaded in Doing It Right This Time, when designated Meta Girl Asuka has a moment of slightly horrified realisation that the person to come through the end of the world and the subsequent inexplicable do-over with the least amount of mental trauma might be her.
- Evangelion 303: Asuka feels like this often due to being -in her opinion- Surrounded by Idiots and weirdoes.
- Nobody Dies: Shinji Ikari is basically a well-adjusted and sane version of his canon self. Everyone else is totally weird.
- Rise of the Minisukas:
- Ironically, Asuka herself serves as such since most of the cast have swiftly adapted and become desensitized to the bizarre presence and absurd antics of the Minisukas.
- Also ironically, since it is implied she is the original series' Asuka, Leader is the only Minisuka who tries to remain rational and cool-headed at all times, encouraging her minions to behave as adults and focus on the task. This is best seen when Asuka and Shiki are busy flipping the bird at each other as Leader tries to de-escalate the situation.
- Meanwhile: When looking at Ash's Pokémon back in Oak's lab, Buizel is presented as feeling that he is this compared to the rest of Ash's Water Pokémon, as he finds them overly hyper or dramatic where he's calmer and more serious. It reaches a point where he relocates to live with Ash's Grass types, as he finds that Sceptile and Snivy are just easier for him to personally get along with.
- In The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas, Brooke Tessmacher is this for Becky Lynch's Ragtag Band of Misfits, as Becky is impatient and juvenile and Nikki Cross is a sociopathic sadist.
- Actually, the only sane men in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World are the four, who seem to be the only ones on C'hou who notice the sheer insanity of how the world works; for example, they explore the monster-filled Gothmarik Citadel and ask reasonable questions, like "Why don't the monsters eat each other? What do they live on? Why did they design the place so crazily? Why are treasure chests just lying around?" When they do manage to ask these questions of others, they get answers like "it's magical" or "we're under a curse." The answers are acceptable to the four because they really have no basis for questioning the entire structure of the world.
- Not until later, anyway.
- Later, it turns out there are plenty of other sane people; it's just that they have a reason for pretending not to notice the insanity.
- Vigilante Tendency: Tsuna for the Peaceful Namimori Committee.
- White Sheep: As in canon, Cinder Fall is a ruthless manipulator willing to do anything for power. However, here she is stuck between Jaune (a half-Grimm abomination who wants to become a Knight in Shining Armor) and his mother Salem (an Evil Overlord and Doting Parent who really wants Cinder to marry Jaune). Cinder has little time for her own plans as she has to balance Jaune causing a scene by running around the city in his "Hentacle" form and Salem trying to send an army of Grimm to destroy the city in order to get Jaune back.
- Lita in Sailor Moon Abridged, sometimes... and 'she' is a Jive Turkey somehow dressing as a Japanese schoolgirl. Of course, compared to Serena, Raye or Mina...
- Inspector Lestrade in the Deliver Us from Evil Series, whether among his own colleagues or Sherlock Holmes and his friends.
- In almost any Sonic fanfic that stars Team Chaotix, Espio will be this.
- Tails suffers for being the only non-airhead in Sonic the Other Movie.
- In Etruscan Philosophy, by Gariand, Stan plays this role to the hilt:For what seemed like the millionth time, Stan was forced to act as peacemaker. "Cartman, shut up. Kyle, calm down. Kenny, this isn't funny." He pinched the bridge of his nose.
- Future Shock: This role is given to Susan Vasquez, whom Kara dubs 'Adult Supervision', noting that the explosive mix of personalities needs someone who will call them all on their bullshit. Notably, Susan is not thrilled with this position, especially when everyone starts deferring decisions to her, leading to one of the few times she loses her temper when the nearly 100-year-old former interplanetary general wants Susan to act as adult supervision.
- On Trial: When she's recovering from her ordeal, Cassandra is assigned two psychiatrists...whose practices would make any real psychiatrist scream in horror and frustration. They don't treat Cassandra like the traumatized adult she is, but like a misbehaving child. Only the nurses attending to Cassandra suspect what's going on, and it's because of them that the two women are fired before Cassandra's mental state gets any worse.
- The Ouroboros: When the spacefarers return to Earth, Casey contacts his alternate to warn him that they've learned about how they were tricked into leaving, suggesting that they're willing to Kill and Replace in order to reclaim their lives. It's all a ruse — or at least, the part where he wants to work with his alternate to stop them is.
- Played straight in Bagenders with Legolas (and possibly Sam), Aragorn being somewhat neurotic, Frodo being insane, Gandalf being a Dirty Old Man, as are Merry and Pippin, Gimli is rarely seen, but has installed anti hobbit defence mechanisms in his room. Of course knowing the crap that Merry, Pippin, and Frodo do that's an example of Properly Paranoid.
- Reimu in FREAKIN GENSOKYO, to most of the main cast. Considering what she has to deal with, it's amazing she can keep it up.
- In this doujin, among the four characters featured, Mikazuki and Juzumaru are definitely the saner half of the quartet as opposed to Ishikirimaru and Nikkari and their not hesitating to go lovey-dovey every other chance. However, even Juzumaru exhibits many goofy and clueless actions in the comic, leaving Mikazuki the only truly sane one.
- Armada - The REAL Story: Despite him being aware of plot devices and his being in a narrative, Jolt is the least loony of the characters in the comic: Optimus Prime belittles his men and loses track of his own feet, Hot Shot is several spoons short of a full drawer and mistakes pie filling for jam, and Crumplezone and Cyclonus attempt to kill Hot Shot for stealing their pie filling.
- The Road Roller Rampage: Luka frequently lamenting the fact that she's the only normal person from the cast. When something bizarre happens, she's the only one that lampshades such in snarky way and she's also the only one who has any sort of common sense. Even then, sometimes they get on her nerves.
Luka took a deep breath and opened her eyes, observing the trashed room. Leeks were covering the floor in a sort of vegetable carpet. The beds were completely wrecked, and the springs were squeaking from Rin jumping on one of them. Kaito was sitting in the corner eating his ice cream, which would be normal on its own, but he had bought seventy three tubs of ice cream, thirty of which were melted on the floor, staining the (formerly) blue carpet.
"You do realize we're going to pay for this, correct?" Luka managed, trying to hold back her rising urges to throw Kaito off the balcony.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
- In The Other Abridged Movie, The Only Sane Man is Gary Stu, who can't understand why people are so obsessed with card games - until he falls for them at the end of the movie anyway.
- Perhaps due to a Near-Death Experience in the previous season ("I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO DIE IN A SHOW ABOUT (BLEEP)ING CARD GAMES!"), Duke Devlin becomes more or less the Only Sane Man in season 3.
- In Marik's Evil Council videos, Bakura considers himself the only member who sees how ridiculous Marik's schemes are, to the point that he finally defects to Dartz' Evil Council.
Unsorted
- Chapter 43 of the Choosing Love has some irony of this trope with Chad Charming of all people. When Audrey begins ranting about how Mal is an awful person for Ben, Chad tries to rebuke her claims but they fall on deaf ears. During the whole rant, Chad even lets Audrey know that she is sounding insane as she is complaining that her ex, Ben, didn't propose to her right in front of her current Ex him. Chad even thinks to himself how he is the sane one between them when he has been suffering from a foggy mind. He even thinks his sister will have a jaw drop because of this.
