We Bare Bears is a TV show series original to Cartoon Network, created by Daniel Chong. The plot follows a trio of anthropomorphic bears, Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear, interacting with human society in San Francisco Bay Area, which unleashes a boatload of bizarre and comedic adventures and scenarios one would not to expect to witness.
Who are the Candidates?
Ranger Tabes
Ranger Tabes is a professional park ranger who is very energetic, ambitious, confident, optimistic, yet a bit too dramatic, persistent and obsessive (more especially in her introduction to the show), which gives her quite an eccentric personality. Ever since her childhood, Ranger Tabes was on a long-lasting quest to hunt down and investigate a mysterious creature, revealed to be Charlie the Bigfoot (one of the Bears' closest friends and Panda's best friend) since she encountered it as a child. Overtime, however, thanks to Grizz and the Poppy Rangers' positive influence to Tabes, her once quirky personality has been toned down to a significant extent, and instead of continuing to hunt him down, Tabes instead befriends Charlie.
What Makes Her Close to Pure Good?
In Ranger Tabes' debut episode, the namesake Ranger Tabes, she assists the three bears in finding their undelivered package, and in the process, the group comes across a number of packages that had gone missing.
In Citizen Tabes, she challenges the villainous Homewrecker (who desires to kidnap Little Buck's Lady Friend from Little Buck for its own heinous intentions), and she successfully defeats him with the assist of Little Buck.
In Ranger Games, Tabes allows Grizz to play with the Poppy Rangers in the annual Peewee Ranger Games after Wallace gets injured to substitute for the latter, and to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the annual Peewee Ranger Games.
In Beehive, she saves the Bears from being under the influence of the honey from a beehive.
In Rescue Ranger, she rescues Charlie from a villainous game hunter, Courtney.
In Ranger Norm, she saves the Bears from being killed by Norm and summons the Ranger Con Rangers to prevent him from annihilating the forest to materialize a golf course, and arrest Norm for his villainous actions.
In Poppy Rangers, Wallace saves Wallace from a falling stalagmite, and gets Grizz and the Poppy Rangers, along with herself, out of the Howling Mountain Cave before it collapses onto them.
In Bear Squad, Tabes assists the Bears with catching a thief by deputizing them.
In the series' film adaption, We Bare Bears: The Movie, Ranger Tabes (alongside Chloe, Lucy, Darrell and her fellow Poppy Rangers) team up with the three bears (Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear) in defeating Agent Trout for his cruelty towards the bears and imprisoning a boatload amount of endangered and helpless bears, leading to his deserved imprisonment.
Although Ranger Tabes was introduced as quite too persistent and overconfident right from the start, Tabes wholly reforms herself from/wholly subverts her questionable factors that she potentially once had from the start, especially in her titular debut episode, Ranger Tabes, leaving her with virtually no corrupting factors at all, and being among the few characters in We Bare Bears to be virtually devoid of corrupting factors, along with being immune to moral corruption.
Ranger Tabes is the one who raised the team of girl scouts, the Poppy Rangers, into heroes.
What Prevents Her From Being Pure Good?
She does still slightly fail the admirable standards to Grizz, who saved dozens of endangered grizzly bears from a wildfire.
Poppy Rangers
Note: I will be specifically analyzing information of the Poppy Rangers together, as well as Diaz, Parker, Murphy, Nguyen and Wallace individually.
The Poppy Rangers are a group of brave and adventurous little girl scouts, consisting of Diaz, Parker, Nguyen, Murphy and the leader, Wallace. These girls are close friends with Ranger Tabes and the three bears (Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear), more especially Grizzly, whom the girls adore and affectionately refer him as "Bear Guy," even though they are well aware of Grizz's flaws, especially his incompetence (which prevents Grizz from being qualified as Pure Good). These girls have been together ever since their earlier childhood, before they became the Poppy Rangers to this day. Outside of their careers as rangers, the Poppy Rangers typically play with each other and have fun during their casual days, either by throwing tissues at each other, having pillow fights or flying kites. The Poppy Rangers also serve as the arch-rivals of their villainous counterparts, the Ivy Rangers.
What Makes Them Close To Pure Good?
In General
The Poppy Rangers are supportive, benevolent and very loyal little girls who have a pure bond towards one another and more especially, Ranger Tabes and Grizz Bear. Plus, the Poppy Rangers are almost never overconfident and incompetent in their heroism compared to the two (Tabes and Grizzly), respectively.
The Poppy Rangers always follow Tabes and Grizz's commands, even if they are too risky to do so, such as Diaz eating poisoned berries from Grizz's hand while she, Grizz and the Poppies are hunting for food in the episode, Lord of the Poppies.
Despite being very aware of Grizz's moral flaws and incompetence, the Poppy Rangers have a pristine friendship towards Grizz, even though the girls were astonished to encounter him for the first time, which is equivalent to Chloe's first interaction with the three bears (Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear). To make this even more affectionate, the Poppies always call Grizz "Bear Guy," "Mr. Bear Guy" or at least "Mr. Bear" rather than just calling him a normal bear animal by simply calling him "Bear," which references Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear's philanthropic interaction with the human society.
Their Actions
Together
The Poppy Rangers have saved Wallace from the Hurricane Hal, along with Grizz, even if it endangered themselves.
The Poppy Rangers offered both Ranger Tabes and Grizz a positive influence that made them subvert themselves from their corrupting factors or (in this case of Ranger Tabes) wholly reform themselves from all of their corrupting factors as a whole. Examples include: when Ranger Tabes encouraged the Poppies to explore the Howling Mountain Cave to be awarded the Spelunking Badge (in the Poppies' titular debut episode, Poppy Rangers), the Poppies were reluctant on doing so and tried to reason with her, fearing the danger the group will get themselves, along with Tabes and Grizz, into (even Wallace sided with the other Poppy Rangers as she was reluctant on exploring the Howling Mountain Cave and decided to take the safer route of the cave, like Grizz, even though she was especially after the Spelunking Badge), such as being eventually stranded in the aforementioned cave, and Ranger Tabes became hopeless and heavily insecure when the group did get stranded, blaming herself for being a "terrible leader" and making this adventure about herself instead of about the Poppies, but the Poppy Rangers encourage her that she is still an excellent forest ranger, motivating Tabes into getting herself, Grizz and the Poppy Rangers out of the Howling Mountain Cave before it collapsed; in the episode, Ranger Games, despite being initially dismissive of Grizz and his incompetence in the annual Peewee Ranger Games, and foiling the Poppy Rangers' winning streak in the Peewee Ranger Games to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao, the Poppies instantly became remorseful of dismissing Grizz, and eventually, the Poppies motivate and encourage him to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the Peewee Ranger Games, through cheerleading.
The Poppies' aforementioned positive influence on Grizz and Tabes have led to more positive outcomes throughout the series:
Grizz reforms himself from his traditional incompetence over the course of the series, including the series' film, We Bare Bears: The Movie, and is more wise, careful and less misguided in his heroism.
Ranger Tabes' once quirky, persistent and overconfident personality has been drastically toned down to the point that instead of continuing her long-lasting quest to hunt down and investigate Charlie (one of the Bears' closest friends), she instead lets him go and befriends Charlie.
The Poppy Rangers team up with Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear (along with Chloe, Lucy, Darrell Saragosa, and their fellow scout leader, Ranger Tabes) in defeating Agent Trout, getting the latter rightfully into life imprisonment and preventing Agent Trout from capturing and torturing the three bears, as well as causing even more chaos with the other bears he imprisoned before Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear. After Trout gets imprisoned, the Poppies gratefully reunite with Grizz and his brothers, even despite all of the chaotic scenarios Grizz had drive them through, such as the events of Lord of the Poppies.
While Ranger Tabes and Grizz are more admirable than the Poppy Rangers, both of them have far more resources than the Poppies; Tabes and Grizz boast almost superhuman physical strength, and the latter has sharp claws and the ability to unleash a loud and devastating roar, which knocked back the pack of vicious wolves in the episode, Brother Up. Meanwhile, the Poppy Rangers are just little girl scouts with genius-level intelligence and, in Lord of the Poppies, expert usage of spikes, and Parker gaining additional physical strength in the same episode.
Diaz
While saving Wallace from the Hurricane Hal, Diaz was the one to offer Grizz his kite to save Wallace from the aforementioned Hurricane Hal, prompting Diaz, Grizz and the other Poppy Rangers to take advantage of the powerful lasso within Grizz's kite, even though Diaz and the Poppy Rangers made fun of it for looking childish.
Diaz is the first one to come up with the idea to motivate Grizz from his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games (as well as his overall incompetence) and to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the aforementioned Peewee Ranger Games, which led to the Poppy Rangers cheerleading for Grizz as a positive influence to Grizz in order to make the latter reform himself from his traditional incompetence and to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the Peewee Ranger Games. Additionally, even before the Poppies cheerleaded for Grizz to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao (as well as offering Grizz a positive influence to reform himself from his traditional incompetence), Diaz still had the passion to encourage Grizz through his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games by reassuring him that Grizz will still succeed in the end, as shown in the end of the episode, Ranger Games, where he finally and successfully wins the game against the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao thanks to Diaz and the Poppies' positive influence to Grizz.
Diaz seemingly lacks most of the corrupting factors the other Poppies have, such as Wallace and Nguyen's arrogance. More than that, Diaz does not have a huge grudge against Grizz and his incompetence, as even though Grizz managed to unintentionally start dangerous fires while attaining previous Poppy Camping Badges, repeatedly saying that "he didn't do it," Diaz ultimately forgives Grizz for being an unintentional nuisance in such instances, smiling thankfully to Grizz for starting the campfire after Diaz attempted to fruitlessly start it herself.
Parker
Parker lacks most of the corrupting factors most of the Poppies have, such as arrogance (Wallace and Nguyen), being dissociative (Murphy) and lethal (Diaz). Additionally, Parker shows the least amount grudge against Grizz and his incompetence (aside from Murphy) and had more patience with him and his flaws than the other Poppy Rangers. Thus, Parker arguably shown to be the most welcoming of the Poppy Rangers to Grizz in terms of friendship. To make this even better, even before the Poppies cheerleaded for Grizz to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao (as well as offering Grizz a positive influence to reform himself from his traditional incompetence), Parker still had the passion to encourage Grizz through his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games by yelling out to him, "You can do it, bear guy!" in a sign of pure kindness.
While the other Poppies became psychotic from too much starvation in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, Parker, on the other hand, attempted to withstand herself from insanity and hallucinating Grizz as a hamburger (which prompted her and the Poppies to almost devour him), saying that her stomach can "eat itself."
When Nguyen lost his patience with Grizz after failing to feed her and the other Poppies food, and she finally became psychotic from starvation, Parker comforted and reassured Nguyen that "everything will be okay."
While reassuring Tabes after getting stranded in the Howling Mountain Cave with her, Grizz and the other Poppies, Parker says to Tabes kindly that she is the "coolest" park ranger in the world, motivating Tabes into getting herself, Grizz and the Poppies out of the cave before it collapses onto them.
Murphy
Murphy is the one who is constantly aware of danger ahead among the Poppies, and she is typically the one who warns the bears and Ranger Tabes to be aware of it as well, shown when Murphy fearfully warned Tabes that "crumbling walls are a sign of erosion" (which indicates that the Howling Mountain Cave is possibly polluting, and is not safe to roam around in for a long time), and she almost always equips a flashlight in case of darkness and something threatening about to endanger her and the other Poppies, as shown when she and the other Poppies embark through the darker route of the Howling Mountain Cave with Grizz and Tabes in paranoia.
While reassuring Tabes after getting stranded in the Howling Mountain Cave with her, Grizz and the other Poppies, Murphy says to Tabes kindly that she and the other Poppies want to be "just like her" (a professional and heroic park ranger), motivating Tabes into getting herself, Grizz and the Poppies out of the cave before it collapses onto them.
Among the rest of the Poppy Rangers, Murphy has the most patience and least grudge with Grizz and his incompetence, has the least amount of corrupting factors among the Poppy Rangers (aside from Parker), and is not as heavily lethal as the other Poppies, even in their primeval and psychotic states in Lord of the Poppies. Furthermore, what increases the level of Murphy's pure friendship with Grizz is that even before the Poppies cheerleaded for Grizz to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao (as well as offering Grizz a positive influence to reform himself from his traditional incompetence), Murphy still had the passion to encourage Grizz through his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games by saying to him, "From now on, we'll root for you no matter what!" in a sign of pure kindness, which outright shows Murphy having the least amount of grudge against Grizz's traditional incompetence, and this line is so affectionate that Grizz returns to facing the villainous Ivy Rangers and successfully wins the game against them and Ranger Zhao.
The only time Murphy shows visible grudge against Grizz is his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games and foiling the Poppy Rangers' winning streak to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao, saying that she and the other Poppies "might have had a chance without Bear Guy," in which she immediately becomes remorseful of afterwards.
Nguyen
While Nguyen likely sounded a bit too arrogant on bragging about Grizz's incompetence and how he managed to start a series of flames that were otherwise impossible to do so while attaining the other previous Camping Poppy Badges before attempting to attain the Island Camping Badges, as well as having a very wrathful outburst towards Grizz for foiling the last-ditch effort to hunt for food by attempting to shoot a bird with a flare gun to use it for nutrition, both instances are very understandable because both moments are for Grizz to reform from his incompetence, as Grizz started a fire while attaining the Forest Camping Badge, which would have started a forest fire.
Nguyen (along with Wallace) prepared the fire extinguisher while Diaz and Grizz are preparing the campfire in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, in case if Grizz unintentionally causes another fire and says that "he didn't do it," which would possibly cause an island fire if the campfire spreads everywhere.
While remaining indoors from the Hurricane Hal, Nguyen was the one to alert Grizz that Wallace is outside flying her kite in the Hurricane Hal, prompting Grizz, Nguyen and the other Poppies to save Wallace from the aforementioned hurricane.
Wallace
Although this was caused indirectly, Wallace saved Ice Bear and Chloe's lives from an incoming Subway Train by getting her kite blown away by the Hurricane Hal, causing it to land onto the windshield of Charlie's "house" (with Panda in it) that led the latter into crashing into an electrical tower, causing a chain reaction that triggered a city-wide blackout, stopping the train and saving Ice Bear and Chloe's lives. If this did not happen, the Subway Train would run Chloe and Ice Bear over.
Although she was mostly after the Spelunking Badge, Wallace sided with Grizz on taking the lighter and safer route of the Howling Mountain Cave, which would prevent her, Grizz and Tabes from eventually getting stranded in the cave as a result of taking the darker and riskier route of the cave.
While Wallace likely sounded a bit too arrogant on bragging about Grizz's incompetence and how he managed to start a series of flames that were otherwise impossible to do so while attaining the other previous Camping Poppy Badges before attempting to attain the Island Camping Badges, questioning how he managed to start a fire underwater, and being disappointed at first that Ranger Tabes left Grizz with the Poppies in while Tabes sets off to return back to the Ranger Station to bring their lunch back to them after she forgot due to Grizz distracting her by getting bug spray on his eyes (which Wallace blames Grizz for such nuisance, without knowing that it was a mistake in the first place), these instances are completely understandable because those aforementioned moments are for Grizz to reform from his incompetence, as Grizz started a fire while attaining the Forest Camping Badge, which would have started a forest fire, and Grizz likely got bug spray on his eyes out of his traditional misguidance.
While Wallace did sneak out of the Poppy Station to fly her kite in the Hurricane Hal, not cooperating to Grizz's multiple pleads to return back to the Ranger Station nor even being aware of the aforementioned hurricane being very dangerous to remain outdoors until her "Mighty Eagle" kite got blown away, along with herself as well, prompting Grizz and the other Poppies to save her, this was out of huge misguidance, so this is completely justifiable. Plus, Wallace did eventually cooperate with Grizz to return back to the Ranger Station after her kite got blown away, stating that it is "kinda crazy out here."
Furthermore, while she had all rights to be upset about her "Mighty Eagle" kite getting flown away by the Hurricane Hal, Wallace is very grateful of Grizz's savior for her from the Hurricane Hal, as she knows that having Grizz as her dearest friend and her fellow Poppies as her dearest childhood friends are far more important in life than kiting.
While working for the Underwater Camping Badge, as Grizz somehow managed to accidentally set his swimming suit on fire underwater through unknown means, Wallace saved his life by using the fire extinguisher on him to prevent Grizz from being burnt, even though she was disappointed over Grizz's incompetence in such instance.
While thinking of an idea to motivate Grizz from his lack of skill in kickball during the Peewee Ranger Games (as well as his overall incompetence) and to defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the aforementioned Peewee Ranger Games, Wallace is the one to come up with the idea of her and the other Poppy Rangers cheerleading for Grizz as a positive influence to Grizz in order to make the latter reform himself from his traditional incompetence and to successfully defeat the villainous Ivy Rangers and Ranger Zhao in the Peewee Ranger Games.
While reassuring Tabes after getting stranded in the Howling Mountain Cave with her, Grizz and the other Poppies, Wallace says to Tabes kindly and selflessly that she would lose her other eye for her (even though she had already lost one), motivating Tabes into getting herself, Grizz and the Poppies out of the cave before it collapses onto them.
Wallace tried to break up the heated argument between Grizz and Tabes on deciding to cross the narrow path that leads to the way out of the Howling Mountain Cave to prevent the cave from collapsing on them, Wallace herself and the other Poppies.
While hunting down for food in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, Wallace tried to prevent Grizz from feeding Diaz the wrong berries, which caused her to vomit.
What Prevents Them From Being Pure Good?
The Poppy Rangers do still slightly fail the admirable standards to Grizz (who saved dozens of endangered grizzly bears from a wildfire) and Ranger Tabes (who prevented Norm from destroying the forest, and summoned the Ranger Con Rangers to imprison Norm to prevent the latter from causing even more chaos, and performed even more admirable acts throughout the series).
Even though the Poppies have high loyalty to one another, the Poppies are still arrogant or at the very least (in this case of Parker, Murphy and Diaz) jerkish to eagerly argue and bicker with each other, shown in the episode, Lord of the Poppies.
The Poppies are lethal and dissociative, shown in the Lord of the Poppies, where the Poppies become psychotic from starvation and had enough of Grizz's incompetence in attempting to hunt down food for them to eat, the girls go as far as hallucinating Grizz as a "walking hamburger" for them to eat, and the Poppies turn against him, kidnap him, and attempt to devour and cannibalize him. To make their level of being lethal worse, the Poppies are also shown to be control freaks, in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, as when Grizz influenced Nguyen that she is more qualified than Wallace as the leader, the Poppies instantly switched their attention from Grizz as "food" to against each other, which leads to a heated and toxic quarrel against each other that involved the girls brutally insulting each other, and this outright escalates into a brutal Ranger War that involved the Poppies brutally fighting one another for the Elite Ranger Guidebook for leadership and ruthless abuse of power, sabotaging the Poppy Rangers' pure friendship with each other to a heavily destructive hostility against one another.
Diaz
As the Poppies become psychotic from starvation and hallucinate Grizz as a "walking hamburger" for them to eat, Diaz was the first of the Poppy Rangers to take action on Grizz by biting onto the latter's leg in order to tear it off and eat with her own teeth, which traumatized Grizz.
During the Poppy Rangers' heated argument in Lord of the Poppies, Diaz threatened Wallace that she will "rip her butt off."
During the brutal Ranger War, Diaz went as far as using bug spray towards Murphy and Nguyen over the guidebook to temporarily stun them (as bug spray is only meant for bugs and is poisonous to humans). Even then, Diaz was the one to initiate the aforementioned Ranger War by attacking Wallace for the Elite Ranger Guidebook for abuse of power.
Parker
Parker traumatized Grizz by jumpscaring him while wielding a fork and a spoon to devour him while she and the other Poppies become psychotic from starvation and go after Grizz as they hallucinate him as a "walking hamburger" to eat in the episode, Lord of the Poppies. To make this even worse, the fork and the spoon Parker was wielding was intended to impale and cut Grizz as a "hamburger" into pieces to devour.
Murphy
Like Parker, Murphy traumatized Grizz by jumpscaring him while aggressively taking a huge bite from an otherwise inedible wooden log while she and the other Poppies become psychotic from starvation and go after Grizz as they hallucinate him as a "walking hamburger" to eat in the episode, Lord of the Poppies.
Nguyen
Along with Wallace, Nguyen has the least patience with Grizz and his incompetence, outright angrily lashing out at Grizz for foiling the lash-ditch effort of hunting for food in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, moments before she and the other Poppies become psychotic from sheer starvation and target Grizz as a "walking hamburger."
During the brutal Ranger War, Nguyen went as far as tossing wooden spikes toward Diaz for the Elite Ranger Guidebook for abuse of power, which heavily endangered the latter's life, all while gives Diaz a sadistic and brooding smile over it before stealing the book from her hands.
Upon turning primal and imprisoning Grizz as a "hamburger" to eat (along with the other Poppies) in Lord of the Poppies, Nguyen remorselessly threatened to boil Grizz into stew.
Wallace
Along with Nguyen Wallace has the least patience of Grizz's incompetence, going as far as bragging about Grizz constantly goofing up with achieving the other Poppy Badges and asking how he managed to start a fire underwater.
She was disappointed at first that Ranger Tabes left Grizz with the Poppies as their leader in the episode, Lord of the Poppies, while Tabes returned back to the Poppy Station to retrieve their lunch to them after she forgot due to Grizz distracting her, which Wallace remorselessly blames Grizz for such nuisance, not knowing that it was a mistake in the first place.
Wallace stole the Elite Ranger Guidebook from Grizz after Diaz bit onto the latter's leg, and instead of giving it back to Grizz, she commanded Diaz and Nguyen to kidnap and devour Grizz, while Wallace remorselessly and quite sadistically watched Diaz, Nguyen, Parker and Murphy psychotically pursue and ambush Grizz to kidnap and devour him out of immense starvation, moments before Wallace herself would be the one to kidnap and imprison him in her own hands. However, this was due to Wallace hallucinating Grizz as a "walking hamburger" from too much starvation and insanity, so this is justifiable.
Upon turning primal and imprisoning Grizz as a "hamburger" to eat (along with the other Poppies) in Lord of the Poppies, Wallace remorselessly threatened to grill Grizz until he is "extra crispy," while giving Grizz a sadistic smirk.
During the Poppy Rangers' heated argument in Lord of the Poppies, Wallace threatened Diaz that she will "tear her apart." Additionally, even before the brutal Ranger War, Wallace arrogantly talked down to Nguyen because she was the one holding the Elite Ranger Guidebook for abuse of power, and Wallace furiously lashed out at her while rejecting her idea of boiling Grizz into stew, thus making Wallace a control freak that is after the abuse of leadership.
Final verdict
A solid yes for Tabes and the Poppy Rangers. Yes, these rangers do fail the admirable standards to the bears to a degree, but their level of admirability within their aforementioned heroic actions listed above throughout the series is quite far enough for them to qualify, and with the Poppy Rangers' signs of being lethal and dissociative holding them back from being PG.
Plus, the Poppy Rangers' positive influence on Grizz and Tabes comes effective brilliance.
