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''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' (1990 to 1996) underwent several small revisions over the course of its run -- it was renamed ''The New Adventures of Captain Planet'' during its 1993 to 1996 run, which co-incided with a change in production companies -- but the tone of the show always focused on the environment, often with an [[Aesop]] [[Green Aesop|about the environment]] <ref> though other topics like violence or AIDs received their aesops as well</ref> near the close of each episode. Prevalent in the show's theme was the concept of personal responsibility: Captain Planet's [[Catch Phrase]] was "The power is ''yours!''"
 
The villains -- who all had [[Obviously Evil]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]] like Duke Nukem ([[NamesName's the Same|not]] [[Duke Nukem|that one]]), Hoggish Greedly, and Looten Plunder -- were [[Strawman Political|strawmen]] who often seemed to want to destroy the planet [[For the Evulz|just because it was the eeevil thing to do]] (though there was often a perfunctory profit-motive involved). This was a sincere, if ''exceptionally'' hamfisted, way of avoiding offense: if the villains had been given [[White and Gray Morality|grayer morality]], then kids might have compared them to their parents or their parents' employers, who are only trying to do their jobs in an efficient manner. To avoid friction, the writers created villains who were intentionally exaggerated and made to be symbols of the planet's environmental problems (rather than representative of the actions of individuals).
 
Surprisingly enough, while this was a [[Green Aesop|Green-Heavy]] children-oriented cartoon during [[The Nineties]] (remember we are talking about the [[Dark Age]] here), it was quite popular. Probably it has a lot of to do with how much this show was promoted, since it was clearly [[Adored By the Network]].
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* [[Absolute Cleavage]]: Linka and Gi in their swimsuits.
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Wheeler's stepfather is the whole reason he left home.
* [[The Ace]]: Captain Planet himself, which is kind of unusual for a [[Five -Man Band]] type show in that he himself is not technically part of said band.
* [[Achilles in His Tent]]: "Kwame's Crisis"
* [[Actor Allusion]]: One episode had Kwame (LeVar Burton) trying on a [[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|futuristic visor]].
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** Also, with a range covering almost every habitable inch of the planet and a population well into the billions, humans don't seem to be in much danger of going extinct any time soon, which further undermines the aliens' position.
* [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]]: The Planeteer Alert segments.
* [[And Then What?]]: How they sometimes reasoned with polluters.
* [[Animation Bump]]
* [[Apocalypse How]]: The episode "Planeteers Under Glass" has the Planeteers and a female scientist (Dr. Derek) enter a virtual planet where pollution is sickening the planet in centuries (sped up in minutes), starting from Class 0 up to Class 3. But then Dr. Blight traps them all in the rapidly wasting virtual planet, bringing the Apocalypse Class up to 4 and closer to Classes 5 and 6 before destroying them all (not even Captain Planet can save them)... or so Blight thinks. Fortunately, the team of Planeteers have a backup spot before they vanish so they can return safely to stop Blight.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: The doctor informs the kid with HIV that he could have gotten it from intravenous drugs, unprotected sex, or ''maybe'' a blood transfusion.
* [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics]]: Ted Turner does not like nukes, and Duke Nukem is the walking embodiment of why we should never use nuclear technology. Actual technical errors include having mushroom clouds form from any explosion of nuclear materials, including a bomb detonating in space, and a highly innacurate portrayal of a nuclear power plant in one episode, which displayed radioactive particles coming from a cooling tower after Duke Nukem blasted a hole in it.
* [[Author Avatar]]: Eco-conscious TV tycoon Fred Learner in "Who's Running The Show?" {{spoiler|Ted Turner}}
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* [[Captain Obvious Aesop]]: Given the show's reputation, is it really any surprise that it was guilty of this?
* [[Captain Superhero]]
* [[Card -Carrying Villain]]: Most of the of the villains would love to see the Earth covered in a pile of sludge out of the sheer joy of...covering the Earth in sludge. Even if, for some of these characters, this would severely impact them as well. Two of the villains, being monsters that thrive off disease and radiation (Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem, respectively), at least have some sort of ''benefit'' to turning the planet into a wasteland (since for ''them'', it would be better).
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "The Power Is Yours!"
* [[Chain of People]]: Kwame and Wheeler form one after Ma-Ti falls off the Capitol while being pursued by zombie drug addicts. It... [[It Makes Sense in Context|makes sense in context.]]
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* [[Clear My Name]]: One episode ("Jail House Flock") engages this when Captain Planet is sent to jail.
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Linka is a [[Tsundere]] who always denies her crush on Wheeler, but openly shows jealousy and possessiveness when he has a [[Girl of the Week]] in the figure of Teresa, a homeless Mexican girl.
* [[Clueless Aesop]]: The show provides at least three stellar examples. Many have questioned whether it was really appropriate for a show about kids and their superhero buddy fighting supervillains and saving the world to tackle gang violence, AIDS, and [[The Troubles]] in Northern Ireland. Not to mention the episode about Wheeler's birthday, wherein he learns the myriad evils of having too many children. On a ''children's show.'' Also, a literal [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop]].
* [[Combined Energy Attack]]: Captain Planet, down to his elements. The Planeteers themselves would frequently combine their powers in smaller form, for example, Linka and Wheeler creating a laser by combining Wind and Fire.
* [[Commander Contrarian]]: Wheeler exists to say or do something stupid or jerkass and then be corrected by his wise non-American teammates. Oh, and to have his power of fire fail to get them out of the latest tight spot.
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* [[Evil Redhead]]: Hoggish Greedly.
* [[Evil Twin]]: Captain Pollution was an evil version of Captain Planet who was summoned by the villains, could be defeated by beams of sunlight since he's all dirty and stuff, and [[Valley Girl|talked like a surfer]]. Because surfers, like, totally hate the environment, dude! [http://www.surfrider.org Uh...wait]...
* [[Family -Friendly Firearms]]: While some episodes showed the villains wielding lasers, this trope was actually averted in many episodes that depicted real fire arms, mostly by minor thugs or soldiers not associated with any of the Eco-Villains.
* [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]]: "An Inside Job", in which Kwame drinks water polluted from raw sewage, which [[Idiot Ball|Wheeler]] of course didn't boil or dispose of when he realized Sly Sludge was pumping out tons of effluent straight into the seemingly clear mountain water. Fortunately, the Planeteers and the Geocruiser were shrunk down in the water by Dr. Blight while Kwame was consuming it, allowing them to fight the parasites inside.
* [[Fertile Feet]]: Gaia, in "No Place Like Home," turns a lifeless construction site into a thriving grassland full of flowers simply by walking through it.
* [[Five -Bad Band]]
** [[Big Bad]]: Zarm
** [[The Dragon]]: Looten Plunder
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** [[The Brute]]: Duke Nukem
** [[Dark Chick]]: Verminous Scumm
* [[Five -Man Band]]
** [[The Hero]]: Kwame
** [[The Lancer]]: Wheeler
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** Duke Nukem wanted to irradiate the planet because he thrived in heavy radiation conditions and basically didn't give a flying wet slap about anyone else or their needs.
* [[Freaky Friday Flip]]: Gaia and Dr. Blight switch bodies in one episode, and end up switching powers too. Dr. Blight uses her powers over nature to cause all kinds of ecological chaos...which Gaia then starts fixing using Dr. Blight's technology.
* [[Free -Range Children]]: Do any of their parents care that their children are fighting against evil doers about the world? Only Ma-Ti and Wheeler were explicitly explained as having no parents to speak of (Ma-Ti is [[Conveniently an Orphan]]; Wheeler ran away from home), so what about the others?
* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Ma-Ti, from ''before'' getting his "lame" heart powers. Linka and Gi are also good with animals.
* [[Fur and Loathing]]: Although it only shows up a couple of times with Looten Plunder and Dr. Blight, and isn't given any real focus. Both surprising and refreshing for this show.
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** The episode Utopia features a drive-by shooting, in which a family is shot to death on screen and you can clearly see blood on the floor visible.
* [[Generation Xerox]]: The episode where the bad guys form a [[Legion of Doom]]-type setup (see below) also sees ''a second'' alternate timeline where a new generation of Planeteers drop in to make the save. Look close enough and you'll notice the future Wind user looks a lot like Wheeler and the future Fire user looks a lot like Linka. The characters even point this out, though Linka and Wheeler refuse to ruminate on it.
* [[G -Rated Drug]]: In the episode "Mind Pollution", Verminous Scumm handed some drugs called Bliss to everyone. Of course, it doesn't turn out well for the users.
* [[The Gods Must Be Lazy]]: Gaia could easily restore barren land with her [[Fertile Feet]], but chooses not to because [[An Aesop|humans need to learn to take care of their own world]] ([[Broken Aesop|except when we can't and need magic]]). Fair enough. But why can't she just choose another fire ring user when Wheeler [[Refusal of the Call|Refused the Call]] and went back in time to stop himself from accepting it? Okay, maybe the Planeteers are [[The Chosen One|chosen by a higher power]] that even she can't change. It's a guess, but whatever. Now, explain why she decides to take a hundred-year nap in the middle of the goddamn ''industrial revolution,'' then relies entirely on five teenagers to fix a century of her neglect? What the hell, Earth Mother?
** Addressed in "The Unbearable Blightness of Being," where Gaia!Blight's attempted radical ecological alterations (first on her list being to turn the Sahara into a garden) would ultimately end up being just as destructive as the stuff Blight usually does, addressing why Gaia didn't do that herself. Yet this creates ''another problem'', because the Sahara Desert is a natural part of the environment and of course turning it into a garden would be bad. But there's plenty of places ruined by man that she ''could'' be affecting that she just...doesn't. Like cleaning up Chernobyl, or putting out the coal fires in Centralia or refilling the Aral Sea.
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* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Hoggish Greedly and Rigger plan to obtain colossal amounts of crude oil in a very short amount of time with a mobile oil rig in the first episode, "A Hero For Earth". It towers over the trees and [[Kick the Dog|almost smashes a rabbit]] who is ant-sized in comparison, but it still proves to be no match for Captain Planet, and Greedly and Rigger move on to operate smaller yet still destructive machines with a pig-motif instead.
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: Captain Planet, in the heat of battle.
* [[I Ate What?]]: In "Horns Aplenty", Wheeler eats some authentic Chinese food, where Gi warns him that this isn't the kind of Chinese food he's used to.
{{quote| '''Wheeler:''' (eating) "What do you mean? It's great!"<br />
'''Gi:''' (looking at food) "Really? I didn't know you liked duck feet soup and squid in its own ink."<br />
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** ''All'' the villains, including "[[Adolf Hitler|The Führer]]" himself in the infamous World War II episode.
** Captain Planet ''rules'' this trope, in addition to being a fine example of how [[Incoming Ham]] is done.
* [[Last -Name Basis]]: Wheeler's first name is {{spoiler|Joey}}, and Dr. Blight's first name is {{spoiler|Babs.}}
** {{spoiler|This explains Wheeler's [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: theThe Abridged Series (Web Video)|accent and hot temper. A temper, that could be called rage. Rage, from Brooklyn.]] }}
* [[Legion of Doom]]:
** One episode depicted an alternate timeline in the future after the regular [[Rogues Gallery]] formed a proper evil alliance and conquered the world.
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* [[No Fourth Wall]]: "Hog Tide", in which Captain Planet sings a part of the show's theme song.
* [[No Matter How Much I Beg]]: Gaia, while in Dr. Blight's body, eventually fools MAL into doing this to Dr. Blight.
* [[Non -Human Sidekick]]: Suchi the monkey.
* [[Noir Episode]]
* [[Obviously Evil]]: Played straight with Hoggish Greedly, Sly Sludge, Verminous Skumm, and Duke Nukem. Averted by Looten Plunder, who was actually good looking and well dressed. Subverted by Dr. Blight, whom other than the scars in half of her face (which were always covered by her hair) was an attractive woman. YMMV on whether Zarm plays this trope straight, averts it, or subverts it.
* [[Off -Model]]: That guy's eyes just moved!
** Sometimes they'd forget to draw the captain's boots.
** In the very first episode, at a close up on Greedly's face, one of his eyes was slightly off-kilter. It was... kinda creepy, even for this show.
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** Averted in the Wild West episode, where only Wheeler, Gi, and Linka are permit to go into a shop, while the others have to stay outside.
* [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]]: The show itself.
* [[Politically -Incorrect Villain]]:
** Hoggish Greedly in the episode "OK at the Gunfight Corral". He hired a bunch of racist white men to attack the local Native Americans so he could claim their land as his and sell it to Sly Sludge, but otherwise he never even commented on anybody's race.
** Verminous Skumm harrassed and lied about a boy who had HIV, and he gave nuclear detonators to people fighting in the [[The Troubles]], [[The Apartheid Era]], and the [[Useful Notes/Arab -Israeli Conflict|Arab Israeli Conflict]], in an attempt to discredit the entire human race. Both episodes went down in infamy, unsurprisingly.
* [[Pop Star Composer]]: The theme song was written by [[Phil Collins]].
* [[Pre -Ass -Kicking One -Liner]]: The Planeteers, when turned into gang members.
* [[Private Detective]]: In the episode "The Big Clam-Up", Ma-Ti gets engrossed by a book about a private eye and tends to match the Planeteers' actions to the story he reads.
* [[The Psycho Rangers]]: Five of the show's major villians team up with evil versions of the Planeteer's rings.
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* [[Sailor Earth]]: [http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a323/aaronhong/Misc/Planeteers02.jpg One Captain Planet figure] has him donning an additional suit of armor. Where did it come from? Why, Kylie from Australia, with the Power of Light, of course!
** More likely Stark Industries? That particular toy looks a lot like the Iron Man toys that were coming out at the same time.
** The show had lots of potential for this type of thing. Even without the potential Planeteers with rings coming from Australia, Oceana, and Antarctica ([[EverythingsEverything's Better With Penguins|Penguin Planeteer ahoy!]]), the show does induct new planeteers all the time. They're almost always kids who help in one episode, then never show up again, and they don't have any rings or powers. Given that there are about six or seven '''billion''' humans, almost all of whom could probably join the planeteers in this same limited capacity, you have an entire '''species''' of Sailor Earths!
* [[Science Is Bad]]: Though played straight with the character of Dr. Blight, all the other scientists are good. In fact, the show promotes the use of science and technology in a good way.
** Supposedly the technology on the island is perfect eco-technology from the future that lets a supersonic jet fly off solar power. [[Reed Richards Is Useless|However, they don't share this technology with anyone else]], nor do they go into how the mining for rare earth elements for solar power isn't actually sustainable)
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Hoggish Greedly, Looten Plunder, and Sly Sludge.
* [[Secret Test of Character]]: Greedly's grandfather, green industrialist Don Porkaloin, fakes his bloody death and leaves a bogus fortune to his grandson to test if Greedly could be taught to be environmentally conscious. [[Captain Obvious|Nope]].
* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Ma-Ti and Wheeler.
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** Wheeler also makes a comment about ''Alien'' after hearing a researcher's plan to naturally kill off Scumm's mutated weevils by using wasps to lay their eggs in them and their young burst out of them.
{{quote| '''Wheeler:''' "Cool! Just like in ''Alien''!"}}
* [[Sibling Yin -Yang]]: Bambi Blight actually cares about the environment unlike her sister, Babs Blight.
* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: [[Belligerent Sexual Tension|Linka and Wheeler]], of course.
* [[Small Reference Pools]]: We have Linka from Europe, Wheeler from North America, Kwame from Africa, Ma-Ti from South America, Gi from Asia . . that's all the continents, right? Oceania? Never heard of it . . . (Oh yeah, and the Soviet Union is a continent, isn't it?)
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** [[Comically Missing the Point|Since when does]] [[Fantastic Four|The Thing]] [[Comically Missing the Point|have radioactive blasts? And he's more orange than yellow...]]
* [[Speaks Fluent Animal]]: Possibly the one really useful power given by Ma-Ti's Heart ring.
* [[Step Three: Profit]]: Hoggish Greedly and Looten Plunder can pretty much cause wide-scale ecological damage and get big profits just by changing a few things around them after signing a few contracts...if they even do that. Sly Sludge also seems to get money by dumping trash and toxic waste in ''populated areas'', like in "Kwame's Crisis".
* [[Strange Minds Think Alike]]: In one episode, we saw Verminous Scumm working in his lab, humming "I've Been Working On The Railroad" to himself. Later in the same episode, Cap is singing his own version of the song -- while tearing apart Scumm's lab, no less!
* [[Strawman Political]]: Too many to list, but taken to ''ridiculous'' extremes with Looten Plunder. In one episode in the future, he even promised tax-cuts for the rich while running for President, because "The more you have, the less you should share!". Hoggish Greedly counts too, being a [[Deep South]] style CEO who partially represents the damage caused by obtaining and using fossil fuels.
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* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: Yes, in that ep which sent the characters back to World War II, where they met Hitler himself.
** Hitler himself was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdRjVI0wzAY not impressed with the episode].
* [[Timey -Wimey Ball]]: Wheeler jumps into a time portal and makes his past self [[Refusal of the Call|refuse the call]]. This destroys the world. Wheeler travels back in time and stops his other self from stopping his past self. Then both of them are sucked back to present, '''fusing together''' en route. What?
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Linka and Gi.
* [[Too Many Babies]]: In one [[Bad Future]] episode, Linka is shown living in a deeply impoverished town in Hope Island with over half a dozen kids...all fathered by Wheeler.
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** Though in a display of [[Genre Savvy]], the planeteers were able to invert this with [[Evil Twin|Captain Pollution]] and were able to repulse his initial attack by... spraying him with water. Captain Pollution was also shown to be vulnerable to fresh air and concentrated sunlight.
** Also, volcanoes put out millions of tons of what can be termed as pollutants. Toxic gas, carbon dioxide, particulates... and yet lava heals him.
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway]]: [[Trope Namer]]. Ironically, [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Linkara]] pointed out in his review that Heart was actually [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|more useful than the other elements,]] especially Fire, as it could allow [[Telepathy|reading of minds]]. It also worked [[Spider Sense|as a communicator]], and [[Friend to All Living Things|could control wild animals]]. It also gave Ma-Ti the chance to see through the illusions casted by the [[Master of Illusion]] Zarm. Basically, if Ma-Ti were ''evil'' or [[Anti -Hero|more ruthless]] in the use of his Ring, he could potentially [[Brainwashing|brainwash]] almost anybody he wanted by manipulating the good in their hearts and using that to his advantage. Good thing (for us!) that Gaia was [[Genre Savvy]] and picked a more innocent, younger Planeteer...
** In the alternate future created by Wheeler not joining the Planeteers, Ma-Ti does exactly that... using the power of Heart to brainwash people passing by into giving their money to the less fortunate.
** It also works with Heart's opposite power: Hate. In a time travel episode, [[Adolf Hitler]] emanates so much Hate his mere presence harms Captain Planet the same way toxic substances do.
* [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?]]: "Hollywaste" and "You Bet Your Planet".
 
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