Application
Name: Mr. Bean
Fandom: Mr. Bean (Live-action series)
Gender: Male
Age: 40
Time Period: Some time after the original series ends.
Wing Color: A violety, purply colour, much like potassium permanganate.
History:
For what it's worth, his Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Bean#Characters_and_recurring_props
Mr. Bean is very mysterious, and not much is known about him at all. He generally refuses to reveal his first name and dislikes personal questions, which makes information about him generally not well-known. However, it is his mystery that adds to his character and I don’t believe a lack of history is an obstacle in roleplaying him. I’ve outlined below what little conclusions I can draw about his life, mostly based on clues from Mr. Bean’s Diary.
Bean was most likely born September 15th 1955, a date which is suggested in his diary and the year coincides with his leaving school when he was 16 in 1971. It’s known that Bean at least had his mother in his life during his childhood. However, before he starts his diary in 1992 she has already passed away, though it’s not known when. His father is never mentioned, suggesting that he was most likely brought up only by his mother, or his grandfather who is alive and in contact with Bean until his death in 1993. His mother and grandfather are both buried in South London, suggesting that he may originally have lived there with them. He attended Chadwell Boys’ School until 1971, but his school life before that is unknown.
Bean currently resides in Highbury, North London, renting a small flat from an elderly lady, Mrs. Wicket.
Personality:
One of Mr. Bean’s most prominent personality features is his childlikeness. He displays many traits associated with children, and could even be described by some as a child trapped in a grown man’s body. He enjoys reading comic books at times, and couldn’t resist playing with the toys and nativity figurines at the department store during Christmas shopping. He also has children’s bedcovers and sleeps with and sometimes travels with a teddybear, aptly named Teddy. He often pretends that Teddy is alive, trying not to wake him up or speaking to him.
As for actual friends, Mr. Bean seems to have none, as evidenced by the fact that he writes birthday and Christmas cards to himself (and they seem to be the only ones he gets). At one point he did manage to make a couple of friends and invited them for his New Year’s party, although they left early because of how dull and strange it was.
Mr. Bean doesn’t tend to speak much, being shy and awkward around others and preferring to stay silent. When he does speak, he generally does so in a low, quiet voice, only speaking short words and phrases. His communication is generally done through gestures and muttering. However, he has been known to make light, if brief, conversation with people he encounters on occasion, in a quieter atmosphere, though it’s generally only to exchange pleasantries rather than a full conversation. This behaviour, along with his generally bizarre nature, may be a contributing factor to him not having made any friends.
He will often go to lengths in order to get his own way in the pettiest of situations, having no regard for other people in the process. This is often due to his impatience - he will go to lengths to ensure that he’s the first person if he’s waiting in line, for example, stealing a ticket from a person in a full body cast in a hospital waiting room. He also takes amusement in the misfortune of others, showing off to the aforementioned patient that he can move, or giggling when he thinks a fellow student is about to fail an exam. He also has little guilt about framing others for things he has done wrong, letting others take the blame in his place.
Bean loves to challenge himself and other people, starting rivalries with other people on a whim, for instance, initiating an eating contest with another person, but can also get into long-running feuds with people he hates. He once had a long-running feud with his neighbour, all because he didn’t want to pay the neighbour a reward for finding his lost diary.
He will often vent his anger with other people by drawing childish drawings of them being killed, for example, by falling weights. He’ll also, in fits of anger, angrily write threats directed at them, though he generally keeps them to himself. However, he’s been known to commit acts of revenge against people who anger him, ranging from stealing his neighbour’s milk to buying an air-rifle and poison to attack someone. Worst yet, he will attempt to go through with these plans of physical violence, although he’s generally foiled by the police before he can achieve anything. He also has pet peeves about other people, including smokers and dog-owners (due to dog mess in the park) and has devised plans for revenge against them too.
However, he isn’t completely without caring for other people. Bean has made effort to cheer up a child who was feeling unwell on a plane, as well as saving the life of a man who had a heart-attack.
He has also had a girlfriend, and despite often being mean to her because he found her angry reactions funny, he did seem to have at least some caring for her. He has been fiercely jealous of other men on several occasions and did make an effort to buy her dream Christmas present one year, although he got it wrong.
Mr. Bean is very lonely and actually does desire friendship and companionship, as well as marriage, despite the way in which he often treats others. He sinks into depression when he’s feeling particularly lonely, and reacts particularly badly to rejection, which makes him extremely angry and then depressed. Although not a drinker as a rule, he has been known to hit the bottle when feeling particularly down and rejected before. His loneliness and desire for friendship may be what makes him gullible and easily taken in. He’s once conned out of money and his car by someone pretending to want to be his friend and support his park cleanup cause.
He is unable to be left alone in a room for a moment without causing some kind of trouble. His curiosity and boredom will quickly lead him to wander about any room and investigate and fiddle with any object that strikes his interest, for example, testing out dental equipment while waiting for the dentist.
Bean has embarrassment regarding nudity, of people seeing him naked and seeing others naked. He has no problem with wearing swimming trunks, but anything regarding “private parts” will make him shocked or embarrassed. For example, he couldn’t change into his bathing costume at the beach when others were around, nor could he stand to look at a nude model in an art class. This likely stems from his upbringing and being made to be ashamed of nudity, something he probably never grew out of (like his other childlike traits). This is also just part of his morals, though - he shows disgust at people using sexual innuendo, for example. He seems to have a view that there should be no intimacy before marriage, though his knowledge of such subjects is also highly limited.
Bean doesn’t like to approach simple problems in the way that most other people might. He is constantly looking for new, interesting or lazier ways to perform everyday tasks and chores. This can range from trying to find a more interesting order to put his clothes on in, to detonating a large firework in a tin of paint so he doesn’t have to manually paint his entire room. He will go to extraordinary and even dangerous lengths to achieve tasks, such as the aforementioned firework, or getting dressed in his car while driving in order to avoid being late for his dental appointment.
He’s also a keen inventor, often doodling plans for wacky inventions to help with everyday tasks. These are usually elaborate, complicated and unlikely to work, although there have been a few examples that function. They’re generally built out of household objects and items one could get from the hardware store. A working invention, for example, might be a series of tubes linked to a hot water boiler to wake Bean up in the morning with scalding water (functioning, but ineffective since Bean really loves his lie-ins), but other inventions are much cartoonier - for example, a miniature bed to serve as a foot rest.
Bean is shown to be talented at mathematics, as proven by his school report card of 1971 which shows a high grade and a comment from his teacher begrudgingly admitting he is brilliant. This passes into his adult years when he is seen attending a trigonometry exam and appears to be knowledgeable on the subject.
He has an interest in poetry, once attending a poetry class where he was very enthusiastic about reading his poetry to the rest of the students. He is always writing down new rhymes and poems in his diary, which assumedly end up in his final work. However, his poetry isn’t generally considered to be that fantastic, to the point where he was actually kicked out of the class.
He also developed an interest in botany and etymology, becoming knowledgeable about the scientific names of plants and insects, although his methods for catching and displaying specimens is far from scientific, having different types of plants and bugs crushed between the pages of his diary, a behaviour which disgusts his peers. However, his interest in these subjects comes and goes. He will often change his mind about what he wants to do and what he’s interested in.
Mr. Bean seems to have a fondness for cars, specifically his Mini, which he cherishes enough to cry when it’s destroyed and becomes very angry and upset when it’s stolen. He seems to have a disdain for a specific car, though - a Reliant Supervan which he will go out of his way to run off the road whenever he can. This could be because he dislikes the car’s design, three-wheelers being considered unreliable. He loves to drive over the speed limit and recklessly, indicating a love for extreme speed and danger which is also demonstrated by his habit of falling asleep from boredom on rollercoasters.
Bean is a big fan of Shirley Bassey, likely having a crush on her as well, considering some of the things he writes in his diary and the picture of her he keeps by his bed at all times. He also seems to watch a fair amount of television in his spare time, always noting down reminders not to miss certain programmes and being upset if he does. He also enjoys reading, mostly comic books but also regular novels and other books too.
Mr. Bean is a Christian, attending church sometimes, although he doesn’t attend every Sunday and can’t bring himself to keep awake for an entire service. However, he still believes in the existence of God, he just isn’t very religious about it.
The short version? Mr. Bean is weird.
Strengths:
Comedy Character: Being a comedy character is clearly a power in itself. Bean doesn’t always have to abide by the rules. If it’s funny for him not to be hit in the face with a guided missile, he’ll probably find a way to avoid it, and be funny to boot. Who else could actually paint an entire room by putting fireworks in a tin of paint? Only Mr. Bean. It helps when escaping from car wrecks without a scratch, too!
Bouncing Back: Sure, things get Mr. Bean down and he might be depressed sometimes, but nothing keeps him down for long. It’s very easy for him to cheer himself up and carry on. Getting his car crushed by a tank was very heartbreaking, but the man was delighted when he realised the door’s bolt lock had survived.
Determination: Nothing stops Bean when he decides he wants to do something. He never lets a problem get in his way. He’ll always think up a solution to whatever is stopping him and does so without fear of silly things like being arrested or dying.
Math and Inventing Skills: So Mr. Bean might not be qualified to build anything mechanical or electrical, but he tries anyway. Sometimes, some of his inventions even work, such as his machine to pump hot water onto his foot to wake him up in the mornings. Sure, it wasn’t effective, but it still sort of worked. However, only about one in ten of his inventions are actually effective, so let’s call this a power 10% of the time.
Oh, and he’s also good at Mathematics. That might come in handy some time. It really might.
Weaknesses:
Being a Human Being: Unfortunately, Bean is not armour plated. Despite his ability to avoid injury if it’s funny enough, he’s also made of flesh and bone. If he gets into a situation where lots of sharp things are heading his way and he can’t dodge, he’ll pretty much be cut to shreds like the rest of us.
Silliness: Mr. Bean is childish, sometimes selfish and petty. He may throw tantrums if things aren’t going his way, he may become jealous of others or decide to start a rivalry on a whim. Generally, if you’re around Mr. Bean he’s going to make a nuisance of himself, which will hamper him somewhat in Luceti if he manages to make everybody hate him.
He also has the habit of getting into ridiculous situations, usually through his own stupidity, or just through awkward circumstances and bad luck. For example, accidentally stealing a baby and having to try and take care of and return it…
In short, being Mr. Bean in general is a weakness in itself.
Communication Problems: Mr. Bean isn’t very good at communicating, especially verbally. Often, he can get into awkward situations as a result of not being able to speak up. Other times, he just plain doesn’t consider the idea of talking out his problems and decides to take revenge first. For example, in Bean: The Movie, he gets into plenty of situations, including being mistaken for a surgeon, because he can’t speak up loud enough to correct people. After he’s failed to say no, he’ll generally just go along with the situation, which is also a problem for him.
As for talking things out, Bean will often enact revenge rather than ask someone to resolve a problem. For example, instead of saying “Excuse me, sir, but I believe you’re wearing my trousers,” he instead decides to forcibly remove them from the pants-thief by force.
Samples
First Person:
1. What is your greatest fear?
One of my all time greatest fears is of going to the toilet only to find that all of the toilet roll has been used up.
2. What is your most valuable possession?
If I had to choose one thing it would definitely be my lovely Mini. [In case it's not clear what that is, Bean proceeds to mime holding a steering wheel.] Vroom! [And he snickers profusely.] I think it's absolutely marvellous.
3. Describe what you might call a good day.
A particuarly good day would be if I went to the shops and got something scrumptious for dinner, or won the lottery. That sort of thing.
4. What's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
[Mr. Bean thinks for quite some time, a look of deep concentration on his face as he does so. After several minutes he gives an awkward, shy smile and just shrugs, making an odd squeaky noise that could mean "I don't know".]
5. Have you ever been in love? How did it feel?
Well I'm quite in love with Shirley Bassey. [Bean snickers.] Other than that I am currently unattached. [Completely avoiding the question.]
6. If Doctors and lawyers always practice, when do they do the real thing?
Well, certainly not on NHS patients, that's for sure! It's absolutely appalling the kind of service they provide to the taxpayer, I tell you- [And at this point, Bean descends into a rant made up of low mutters, irritated 'tsks' and other assorted sounds.]
Third Person:
On this particular autumn day, the citizens of Luceti found themselves being treated to a very special surprise, as yet another clueless New Feather was fooling about in the village with absolutely no idea of what was going on whatsoever. Now, Mr. Bean had been confused when he initially woke up. After all, Teddy wasn’t there beside him, and neither was Shirley Bassey. Also, he didn’t remember having fallen asleep in nothing but white cotton pajama trousers in the middle of a quaint countryside village, either. But the weirdest thing, by far, was when he had tried to rub his back to soothe that nasty pain around his shoulders only to feel something decidedly feathery.
The obvious solution was to give the objects a little tug. Whatever it was that Bean had got glued to his back would no doubt come off with a little tug, or so he thought. But that didn’t work. So he tried a little harder, and harder, wincing and whimpering from the pain it caused. Finally, in a last ditch effort to remove the thing, Bean pulled extra hard, causing himself to fall sideways, flailing his arms in a desperate attempt to balance as he sidestepped across the square and finally toppled to the ground.
After a momentary groan of pain, the man dragged himself back to his feet and stood by the fountain, stroking his chin in deep thought. There was only one way to figure out those things on his back and that was to take a good look at them. So, away Mr. Bean went, trying to look over his shoulder to get a better view of the feathery appendages. However, it was proving difficult to get a good view, so he continued to strain his neck, eventually resulting in what was a very good impression of a puppy chasing its tail. And just when he thought he was so close to getting a look at his back, disaster! Dizziness and lack of balance kicked in, sending Bean once again into close contact with the ground.
This was going to be a long day.