Perfect Peter (Horrid Henry)

Peter, often referred to as Perfect Peter, is a main character in the Horrid Henry series created by American author Francesca Simon and British illustrator Tony Ross. He is the younger brother of the series' titular main character, Horrid Henry. Like his name suggests, he constantly acts tidy, well-behaved and friendly, though he can often also be an annoying tattletale and a giant Gary Stu - as his name makes him.

Why He's (Intentionally?) An Absolute Worm

 * 1) Two words: Gary Stu. That's it. That's the primary reason why he is terrible. Everyone in the family (with the exception of Henry, of course) loves him because of his goody-goody behaviour such as eating vegetables, watching kids shows like Daffy's Dancing Daisies or Happy Hippos, always cheering at anything Horrid Henry dislikes and because of that, Henry is ignored. Heck, even his name makes him a Gary Stu - Perfect Peter is not only an unoriginal name but it truly defines a Gary Stu. And the parents really wonder why Henry hates him that much.
 * 2) *In fact, he isn't even that "perfect" in the first place as he did a lot of bad things on purpose. In the episode "Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge" he told on Henry when paint is accidentally spilled on him despite of it being his own fault. Worse, he even had a sadistic smile when his parents punished Henry.
 * 3) *He also became horrid in "Perfect Peter's Horrid Day". Mum and Dad never punished him for being horrid, and blamed Henry instead. At least in the ending, Peter got yelled at, so that was not too bad.
 * 4) * He is addicted to attention as well, as seen in "Horrid Henry's Comic Caper" and "Horrid Henry Takes the Blame". In the former, after Peter starts crying a practical flood when Henry leaves the kitchen, he (Peter) appears happy a split second afterwards, SIMPLY BECAUSE HENRY JUST SAID "Thanks for nothing worm!" In the latter, the same thing happens when Henry calls him a "Joke".
 * 5) **Another major example of attention seeking was in both "Horrid Henry's Perfect Day" and "Perfect Peter's Horrid Day". In the first mentioned, Henry decides to be good so he can go the funfair, yet Peter for some reason wants him to turn horrid again, most likely so he could get the good kid spotlight. And in the latter, Peter decides to become horrid so his parents would give attention to him. A "perfect" kid would not do this.
 * 6) **He often tells on Henry for the shallowest or most trivial things. (like lifting his spoon, eating his beans, etc.)
 * 7) **He also wastes food he considers "not healthy" for example, in the episode "Horrid Henry's House Party", he threw all the pizzas Henry ordered right in the bin!
 * 8) **Speaking of, one part of his goody-goody behaviour is always eating healthy stuff like fruit and vegetables. However, it's important that you have a varied diet and not just eat fruit and vegetables. Besides that you should also consume proteins, fibre, carbohydrates, sugars and fats, alongside others.
 * 9) Although Emma Tate does a good job as the character, the voice she gives Peter can be extremely annoying and ear-piercing at times, especially when Peter is crying.
 * 10) He was very unlikable in the episode "Horrid Henry Takes the Biscuit". In it, he was debatably at his absolute worst. He blames Henry for the biscuits falling on the ground. Yes, it was kind of Henry’s fault for putting his backpack on the floor, but that doesn’t mean Peter has to rub the fact that he behaves better than him in Henry’s face. Plus he lied to Mum and tries to sell copies of the recipe when everyone in the school wanted to know what it was, soon he pulls a copy of the recipe in front of Henry’s class revealing to be carrots, making Henry the laughingstock of his class and Peter never got comeuppance for his actions. Oh, and his infamous line “He has no idea”.
 * 11) * He was also a total snitch and hypocrite in "Horrid Henry's Household Chores", in that episode, he constantly tells on Henry just for doing his own chores! Despite the fact Peter isn't helping or guiding him.
 * 12) He was also at his worst in "Horrid Henry: Mi Casa Es Tu Casa", putting tape around the house so he and Henry have separate sides, which makes Henry's life harder. He even goes as far to make Henry pee in the bath and builds a giant wall in front of the TV while he watches it and changes the channel to Number Gnomes.
 * 13) His infamous wailing catchphrase, "MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM", can get on your last nerve, especially in the television series.
 * 14) He never lets Henry do anything. Whenever Henry is doing something, he will go straight to tell his mother so that she grounds Henry (even for the shallowest or stupidest reasons).
 * 15) He likes everything that Henry hates and because of that, Henry is forced to do to the same thing such as in one of the stories, "Horrid Henry Rocks" from the book of the same name, Peter likes a show called Daffy and Her Dancing Daisies, the show that Henry hates with a burning passion. Because of Peter's childish behaviour, Henry is forced to go to the live show whereas all his friends watched a concert for "The Killer Boy Rats" (Henry's favourite band).
 * 16) He's also quite petty as shown in the first story from the "Horrid Henry Rocks" book called "Horrid Henry's Invasion" when he sneaks into Henry's room (whom at the time was taking a shower) and just puts a wet twig under his pillow, thinking that's the ultimate plan of evil.
 * 17) *How about the "Detention Diva" episode where Peter goes onto a full on antagonist. He kicks a bucket on Soggy Sid's head (whether or not he deserved it is up to you), gets himself detention and is called "Impertinent Peter". And why did Peter turn to the dark side? Because Henry accidentally got his candy floss eaten by a dog.
 * 18) His crying and wailing in the television series would make some want to wish they were deaf. He starts whining whenever Henry says "No" or "Silence, worm!" whenever he tries to express his love to that thing that Henry hates. However, his parents are so brainwashed they should also discipline Peter and tell him not to speak when Henry wants to ignore. In other words, Peter himself asks for it.
 * 19) When he isn't being a Gary Stu, he's a complete Butt-Monkey, especially in the episode "Perfect Peter Pumps Up", despite being a good episode (although he sometimes deserves it for his horrendous actions).
 * 20) In Horrid Henry Joins The Best Boys Club, he's being selfish when he cannot Henry to joined the club and make him cry.
 * 21) The show can never decide whether to make him a hero or an antagonist - he helps Henry in some episodes, but in others he antagonizes his brother. Talk about inconsistency!
 * 22) * Even when Peter does decide to help out his brother, he often resorts to doing horrid things to do so. One example is found in the episode “Horrid Henry and the Go Kart”, in which Peter helps Henry cheat in a go kart race by throwing fairy dust on the race track, which obscured Margaret’s vision. Peter is never punished for this, and nobody even called him out for this action!
 * 23) Through his “perfect” behaviour, Peter sometimes teaches bad morals to viewing children such as helping other people cheat in games is good as shown through his fairy dust stunt we just mentioned. He also teaches children that you should throw away unhealthy food! Which is wasteful and a cause of pollution.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) It's not easy having a Horrid brother at home like Henry, but it still doesn't excuse his treatment of him that much.
 * 2) Despite how spoiled and annoying he can be, the fact that Henry is often disgracefully cruel to him (especially in the books), such as that time Henry tried mailing Peter to China, might also earn him a bit of pity (depending on who you ask) - but that also does not excuse his behaviour.
 * 3) On that note, there are some episodes where he's sympathetic (a good example being in "Who Stole Mr Kill", where Henry not only falsely accused him of stealing Mr. Kill, but also trashed his room and destroyed his cello strings)
 * 4) At least he doesn't misbehave with adults and does everything his parents tell him to do (if done right).
 * 5) There are some occasions where his tattling on Henry is justified (e.g. Henry tricking him, refusing to take turns or playing with his things without asking).
 * 6) He's also well-behaved and likable in many episodes such as:
 * 7) * "Horrid Henry and the Time Capsule"
 * 8) * "Happy Birthday, Peter"
 * 9) * "Who Stole Mr Kill?"
 * 10) * "Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy" (despite the ending)
 * 11) * "When I'm King"
 * 12) * "Perfect Peter's Pen Pal"
 * 13) * "Horrid Henry Meets the Queen"
 * 14) * "Horrid Henry and the New Best Friend"
 * 15) ** He was actually helpful for Henry in some episodes as well.
 * 16) Although extremely annoying and super loud, Emma Tate did a good job voicing him.
 * 17) He does get comeuppance for his actions sometimes.
 * 18) Horrid Henry most likely wouldn't be great without him.
 * 19) * He's probably meant to be loathed for his Gary Stu status.
 * 20) His book counterpart is probably the more tolerable out of the two, though given some of the things said on this article, that isn't really saying much.
 * 21) Finally, there were times where Peter got comeuppance for his actions, meaning he isn't a complete Karma Houdini:
 * 22) *In the main show:
 * 23) *#"Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge" - Peter and his friends paint their faces and the whole exterior of the house blue, and proceed to cover Dad in paint as well after they all got tricked by Henry, Ralph, Margaret and Susan. They are punished offscreen with Gordon, Sam and Ted being sent home and Peter being sent to his room by Dad.
 * 24) *#"Horrid Henry's Sports Day" - Miss Battle-Axe cancelled the egg and spoon race and Henry told her Peter brought the eggs which weren't hard boiled getting him sent home.
 * 25) *#"Horrid Henry's School Trip" - Peter was taken away to the naughty children's room by the security guards at the museum by mistake judging by the same t-shirt he was wearing like Henry whom they were looking for.
 * 26) *#"Horrid Henry's Fairy Dance" - Peter is tricked by Henry into climbing a tree late at night to see fairies, and gets stuck up there. Mum and Dad help him down but are disappointed at him for going out late and send him to bed. However, Peter had told the truth about seeing the fairies and Mum also decided to embarrass Henry in front of his enemies as his punishment. (Peter didn't get punished in this episode.)
 * 27) *#"Perfect Peter's Revenge" - After confessing he wrote the love notes to Margaret, Peter gets detention from Miss Battle-Axe for running into her while being chased by Henry.
 * 28) *#"Horrid Henry and the Best Boy's Club Sleepover" - Henry, Peter, Gordon, Ted and Sam get in trouble after the bath crashes through the ceiling, breaking the TV. Both Henry and Peter are banned from having any more sleepovers alongside Gordon, Ted and Sam's parents being called to take them home.
 * 29) *#"Horrid Henry's Smelly Stuff" - Peter along with Henry getting detention after school from Miss Battle-Axe for selling perfume in the playground but she makes it double detention when Peter begged her they can't be late to see their parents go on their anniversary dinner.
 * 30) *#"Horrid Henry on Trial" - Mr Soggington drags Peter out of the courtroom after Tiddles (Miss Oddbod's cat) chose Henry because he kicked the ball and hits the padlock on her shed door freeing him in the first place. He was presumably taken off-screen to be punished and put in detention.
 * 31) *#"Horrid Henry and the King of Bling" - Peter was banned from the TV for a whole week after he used Mum's mobile phone to order a bling ring from the DJB Store, even though Dad (absent-mindedly) told him that it was alright. His punishment suggests that he had made unauthorised purchases without permission.
 * 32) *And in the books:
 * 33) *#"Horrid Henry's Perfect Day" - Peter is sent to his room after his spaghetti hits Mum.
 * 34) *#"Perfect Peter's Horrid Day" - Henry jumps out of the cupboard and scares Peter, causing him to smash all the china plates he was carrying. Mum and Dad see this and send Peter to his room.
 * 35) *#"Horrid Henry's New Teacher" - Mr Nerdon sends Peter to Mrs Oddbod's office after Henry tricked him into believing he had fallen from the school window.
 * 36) *#"Horrid Henry and the Comfy Black Chair" - Dad bans Peter from watching TV for a month because he was sitting on the Comfy Black Chair before 7 AM.
 * 37) *#"Horrid Henry's Revenge" - Peter is tricked by Henry into seeing fairies, and is stuck up the tree. Mum and Dad help him down, but they punish him with no stamp collecting for a month.
 * 38) *#"Horrid Henry's Computer" - Peter is sent to Mrs Oddbod's office and banned from the computer for a week after Miss Lovely reads his rude essay, which Henry forged.
 * 39) *#"Horrid Henry's Sports Day" - Peter is disqualified from the games and sent to Mrs Oddbod's office after he tells Miss Battle-Axe he brought the eggs, which Henry had swapped for raw ones.
 * 40) *#"Perfect Peter's Revenge" - Peter bumps into Miss Battle-Axe, who then sends him to Mrs Oddbod's office.
 * 41) *#"Horrid Henry Peeks at Peter's Diary" - Henry makes a few changes to Peter's diary, and Peter reads it out loud in front of everyone. Mrs Oddbod sternly tells him that she'll see him and his parents later.