Basic Trope: A character is irrepressibly sweet-natured and optimistic, whatever comes their way.
- Straight: Polly is unappreciated at work and taken for granted by her husband, but she always seems to look on the bright side.
- Exaggerated: Even as buildings crumble around her and she gains an infectious, life-ending disease, Polly's happy optimistic spirit is never broken.
- Downplayed: Polly is more optimistic than average, but has a breaking point.
- Justified:
- Polly is a Fisher King, and knows that her getting into a bad mood will only make the world worse.
- Polly is The Fundamentalist, and believes that whatever befalls her on Earth will be compensated a thousandfold in the afterlife.
- Polly is a very broken girl and continues to be happy, no matter what happens, because she doesn't know anything else.
- She finds thinking positively a useful coping mechanism.
- Inverted:
- The Eeyore
- Polly is loved by her peers and is pretty lucky, but she never thinks positive.
- Subverted:
- Polly is revealed to be a Stepford Smiler.
- Beware the Nice Ones - she might seem lovey-dovey, but she can kick ass if she needs to.
- Double Subverted: Polly's cheery facade may have cracked, but her optimism is sincerely felt - everyone has their off days.
- Parodied: Polly skips, smiling, through a Crapsack World, singing duets with turkey vultures and blowing kisses to Disaster Scavengers.
- Zig Zagged: The work veers all over the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, while Polly's characterisation switches from Princess Classic to Stepford Smiler Depending on the Writer.
- Averted: Polly's fairly realistic in her worldview.
- Enforced: "This is a kids show, but we've made it into a bit of a Crapsaccharine World. We need the hero to look on the bright side or the kids might start noticing the Nightmare Fuel"
- Lampshaded:
- "Do you ever stop smiling?"
- "So let me see if I get this straight; Your friends regularly use you as a human punching bag and wake up every day knowing you might just get executed...and yet, you're always so chipper! What's wrong with you?" "I just Think Happy Thoughts!"
- "Someone so chipper, in spite of all the crap she goes through? Her problem, not mine."
- Invoked: Polly believes in karma - if she's nice to everyone else, they're more likely to be nice to her.
- Exploited: Polly's optimism makes her lovable in-universe, and she's a surprisingly effective peacekeeper for that reason... She can talk people down from desperation, nobody wants to risk making her upset for any reason (not that it's easy to do), and even hardened villains turn Because She Was Nice To Them.
- Defied: "Just because I'm a Nice Girl doesn't mean I'm going to keep all your spirits up! This place sucks!"
- Discussed: "Why couldn't my sidekick be one of those irrepressible happy little girl sidekicks? I'm sick of this Deadpan Snarker following me around."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Polly tries her hardest to maintain an upbeat disposition despite going through the Trauma Conga Line, but the emotional and mental strain of her sufferings eventually take their toll on her, and the results are quite devastating.
- Polly's insistence on staying upbeat no matter the situation isn't always appropriate and her saccharine sweetness ends up making people that are going through a hard time emotionaly feel even worse.
- Reconstructed: Maybe the world isn't perfect. Maybe all isn't for the best in the best of all possible worlds. But Polly sees no point in despairing or giving in to cynicism, and honestly finds comfort in looking on the bright side of whatever happens.
- Played For Laughs: (immediately after being shot) "Ooh! Free bullets!"
- Played For Drama: Polly's sunny outlook doesn't stop the world trying its best to Break the Cutie. It's revealed to be a struggle for her to constantly pretend to be in a good mood, putting her under even more stress than simply riding out the storm would have done.
Wasn't that fun? And this one little link will take you straight back to The Pollyanna. Yay!
