History Main / AgentScully

* Seto Kaiba in the dub of ''Anime/YuGiOh''. He's a Scully to such a degree that ''traveling back in time and meeting his own ancestor'' doesn't convince him that the supernatural exists. A vision of his ancestor and an ancient Pharaoh dueling? Obviously a hallucination. A group of lifelike monsters smashing up the town? Obviously a bunch of faulty holograms. Magically being able to read ancient Egyptian text that his most advanced computers struggle to translate? Obviously, it's simply because he is meant to wield the god cards. An opponent who can see into the future and destiny using a Millennium Item? His response amounts to ScrewDestiny. Only during the final episode of the anime (in a scene exclusive to the anime) does he admit that there might be ''some'' truth about all this mystical junk, but when teased about it by Joey he quickly (and half-jokingly) falls back to saying it's all smoke and mirrors. It's ''mostly'' a Dub-induced example; in the Japanese anime and the [[Manga/YuGiOh original manga]], he still scoffs at the supernatural but overall just doesn't seem interested in it while accepting it exists. At any rate, he fully grows out of it by ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' (Dub included) where he desperately tries to pull Atem back from the afterlife by completing the Millennium Puzzle once more.

* In ''Literature/{{Spoonbenders}}'', Destin Smalls is a government agent who believes that not only are psychic powers real, but he salivates at the thought of using them for military purposes. It also makes him very gullible to Teddy and Archibald's scams, convincing him that the micro-lepton gun can actually suppress psychic powers.

* ''{{Series/Castle}}'' features Becket in the Scully role with Castle fulfilling the Mulder role whenever a case appears to have a supernatural element. Unlike many of the others if this type she is only truly wrong [[TimeTravel once]] and even that one is debatable. [[UnresolvedSexualTension Their other dynamic]] is also similar to Mulder and Scully.

* Steve on ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' believes that Hill House wasn't haunted and that his father and siblings are just suffering from mental illness. Even when he starts seeing ghosts after [[spoiler: Nell's death]], he thinks it's the family sickness. This is despite the fact that he is a best-selling horror writer who wrote a book about their experiences titled ''The Haunting of Hill House''.

-->-- '''Creator/KurtVonnegut'''

** Eventually, he completely grew out of it (and without descending into IfJesusThenAliens). The sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a flash-back of him weighing his opinion in court on the "impossible" crime of [[spoiler:blood-bending without a full moon]]. Adult!Sokka points out that there is precedent for unique bending abilities, citing Combustion Man as an example, so the feat can't be ruled out off hand and he passes sentence based on overwhelming witness testimony since first hand evidence is unavailable.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' , Miles Edgeworth (who has a ''strong'' prejudice against spirit mediums) completely fails to notice when Maya or Pearl channel a spirit in court. He unbends so far as to use and believe Phoenix's magatama, but only for one case because it's an emergency. The rest of the time, he presumes that spiritual or magical happenings have rational or scientific explanations, e.g. in the same case where he used the magatama, he instantly dismisses the very idea that a woman flew over a bridge.
** Arguably nearly the whole world in this regard, considering the channeling technique not only works in summoning spirits of the dead, but the channeler PHYSICALLY changes to look like the person they're summoning. The only reason this technique isn't used in court is when they first tried, the summon worked correctly...the spirit just gave a bad testimony, so they took it as a failure for the whole thing.
*** Weirdly, the series repeatedly mentions that the Kurain channelers once enjoyed massive popularity and major connections to government officials and the like, implying that they ''were'' widely believed in, to some degree. One would presume the abovementioned failure in court somehow caused untold years of ''correct'' spirit channeling to be disavowed. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the fact that Misty's connections were able to get her a new identity would suggest that the channelers still have powerful supporters, but current social views just make it unwise to publicly voice said support.]]

* ''Fanfic/WitchesRangersAndThe141'': Agent Jones, a CIA intelligence agent who ''flat-out refuses'' to acknowledge that a magical anomaly could teleport Hunter 2-1 away and instead believes that they somehow intentionally went AWOL. Even the testimonies of at least ''thirty other soldiers'' is not enough; the Agent threatens to court marshal ALL OF THEM thinking they're all in on the conspiracy. Only when satellite photo evidence comes up do the agents soften their approach, but Jones is still skeptical of magic. [[spoiler:Even after witnessing a new bunch of Witches teleport into the base, he still believes them to be some kind of new Russian deception tactic. His stubborn worldview finally cracks open upon witnessing their magic first-hand and he threatens to court marshal Sgt. Lambert and thirty other witnesses despite all of them corroborating the same story.]] Only when satellite photo evidence comes up do the agents soften their approach, but Jones still insists on his "Hunter 2-1 intentionally went AWOL" angle for some reason. Then later when more witches appear, Agent Jones tries to justify their existence as some kind of new Russian psyop.

* ''Fanfic/WitchesRangersAndThe141'': Agent Jones, a CIA intelligence agent who ''flat-out refuses'' to acknowledge that a magical anomaly could teleport Hunter 2-1 away and instead believes that they somehow intentionally went AWOL. Even the testimonies of at least ''thirty other soldiers'' is not enough; the Agent threatens to court marshal ALL OF THEM thinking they're all in on the conspiracy. Only when satellite photo evidence comes up do the agents soften their approach, but Jones is still skeptical of magic. [[spoiler:Even after witnessing a new bunch of Witches teleport into the base, he still believes them to be some kind of new Russian deception tactic. His stubborn worldview finally cracks open upon witnessing their magic first-hand.]]



threatens to court marshal Sgt. Lambert and thirty other witnesses despite all of them corroborating the same story. Only when satellite photo evidence comes up do the agents soften their approach, but Jones still insists on his "Hunter 2-1 intentionally went AWOL" angle for some reason. Then later when more witches appear, Agent Jones tries to justify their existence as some kind of new Russian psyop.

* Sokka in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', with his sister Katara as AgentMulder. Although later he stops denying the fantastical things he witnesses and instead accepts that the rules of reality are completely different around Aang.

* When he declares AGodAmI and is smitten with the Ten Plagues, Peter from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' starts giving logical explanations for the first few plagues, namely the power going out (Darkness) because of a power surge, Chris having acne (Boils) because he's going through puberty and Brian having fleas (Locusts) from not bathing. He gives up when Meg reveals the water in Stewie's bath turned to blood, followed by frogs appearing in Peter's shirt.

* Twilight Sparkle from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has shades of this despite being a talking purple unicorn with magic powers. She's not as quick as her friends to believe in things like curses or predicting the future, though she's right ("Bridle Gossip") as often as she is wrong ("Feeling Pinkie Keen"). It makes sense since, on the show, [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic magic is really more like a science than anything else]], going outside of well documented feats means you're more likely just using superstition and coincidence to explain something (most of what they assumed about zebras really were just rumors).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Lisa Simpson, full stop. Her skepticism for matters is such that, every time Springfield encounters something that they suggest might be of supernatural origin, she is ''so'' desperate to find a logical explanation that she makes suggestions that actually make even less sense, even if they could theoretically happen. (Example, in the appropriately named "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E8LisaTheSkeptic Lisa the Skeptic]]", the idea of a fossilized angel skeleton may be absurd, but her suggestion that it was the skeleton of a Neanderthal who had been bitten on the arms by two sharks only proved she had no idea what it was, and only wanted to convince everyone it wasn't an angel, especially since the skeleton's arms were clearly folded across its chest, and the "wings" were on its back, not the arms, debunking her "theory". Of course, as it turned out, [[spoiler:it was actually part of an advertising campaign for the new mini-mall, meaning, perhaps, that she [[YouWereTryingTooHard was just trying too hard]]]].) In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E17SimpsonSafari Simpson Safari]]", the family witness a giraffe living in a borough and a rhino hatching from an egg and Lisa briefly becomes this with a bit of Fourth Wall lampshading. "What did you just see, Lisa? What did you just see?"

* The Phone Guy from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''. He doesn't outright state it, but he doesn't believe that the pizzeria is being affected by paranormal activity. He believes that the animatronics are [[CruelAndUnusualDeath stuffing you into a suit]] because they think you're a naked endoskeleton without a costume (despite the fact that that the bare endoskeleton is untouched by the animatronics). He doesn't seem to have an explanation for the blood-covered animatronics or the changing posters on the walls. This trope could be justified if he's forced to keep quiet about everything.