Establishing Character Moment/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

* [[Daffy Duck]]'s "I'm just a crazy ol' darnfool duck" line from his debut in "[[Porky's Duck Hunt|Porkys Duck Hunt]]".

* Azula's first appearance (as a named character) in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' is one of these. We can tell from her first appearance that she is a vicious creature, and that is pretty much the truth all the way through the series. We also get a more subtle hint of her vanity when she blows a loose strand of hair out of her face with a peeved look, which only makes her {{spoiler|[[Villainous Breakdown]] much later all the more epic}}.

'''Azula:''' Well then, maybe you should worry less about the tides, who have already made up their minds about killing you, and worry more about me, who's still mulling it over. }}

** Another is her arguable ''actual'' first appearance, during Zuko's flashback in "The Storm". All you can guess about her is that she's family by the fact that she's standing next to Iroh, has yellow eyes, and is dressed in very similar robes, but when she's seen ''smiling'' as Zuko gets disfigured, you ''know'' she's going to be trouble whenever she'll show up. True enough...

*** Similarly, Ozai's first talking-and-doing-things appearance (as opposed to the brief silhouette he got a few episodes earlier) features him burning Zuko's face. His own son. In public. As the thirteen year old boy begs for mercy. That's pretty much all we need to know about the guy.

** Toph's entrance, which consists of her effortlessly beating a man about five times her size in the Earth Rumble ring without breaking a sweat also qualifies her as a [[Little Miss Badass]]. Did we mention that she's also [[Disability Superpower|blind]]?

'''Toph''': [[Little Miss Snarker|Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder!]]<br />

'''The Boulder''': ...The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings and now he's ready to bury you in a rockalanche!<br />

* Terry McGinnis' first scene in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' had him defending monorail passengers from a Jokerz gang member harassing them. Later scenes showed him with a bad attitude and temper, but [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|established his character arc]] for the first few episodes.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'''s first appearance has the [[The Napoleon|vertically-challenged megalomaniac]] recalling how he single-handedly thwarted his species' previous attempts at universal conquest by directing his [[Humongous Mecha]] on a planet-wide rampage ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|while he was still on his own planet]]''. Though what really establishes his personality is that he brings this up ''proudly'' and doesn't seem to understand why his bosses aren't pleased with him about it.

'''Zim''': Worse...''or better?'' }}

** Then there's GIR...

'''GIR''': [[Cloudcuckoolander|I don't know]]...(''suddenly begins giggling and hitting himself on the head'') }}

* Used with Shego in the pilot of ''[[Kim Possible]]'', where she instantly shows off how [[Genre Savvy]] she is.

** Averted with Drakken in the very same episode, when he disabled an outside camera by rope gliding. [[Early Installment Weirdness|He never did such feats ever again.]]

** Ron Stoppable's first moments establish him as the Goofy Best Friend:

'''Kim''': Something not naked. (Rufus [[Blowing a Raspberry|blows a raspberry]] at Kim)<br />

'''Ron''': (dramatically) Never be normal, that's the Ron Stoppable motto! }}

*** Very true. A deleted scene gives him a very different ECM... with him executing Shaak Ti. Being a deleted scene this was retconned {{spoiler|and her death was saved for a much later [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Vader's Apprentice.}}

* ''[[Family Guy]]'''s Glenn Quagmire and his dealings with a woman he picked up earlier that night:

'''Quagmire''': ''(wearing a lecherous grin)'' And I have a question for you: ''why are you still here?'' }}

* The first episode of ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' was full of this. Some memorable ones were Owen's excitement, Cody's [[Casanova Wannabe]] entrance, Leshawna starting a fight with Harold, and Tyler and Bridgette's [[Dojikko]] behavior. Courtney's adherence to rules and order, strategic [[Alpha Bitch]] status were also partly revealed in the second episode.

* The [[Transformers]] franchise has plenty of these:

** Dinobot enters ''[[Beast Wars]]'' by [[Defector From Decadence|defecting from the Predacons]] and challenging the Maximals' leader, Optimus Primal, to a duel to the death for leadership. Up to now, he's been portrayed as a back-stabbing villain, fully subscribing to his race's [[The Starscream|tradition of treachery and dishonor]]. Then, when Optimus Primal slips and nearly falls off the narrow bridge they're fighting on, Dinobot helps him up, revealing himself to be a decent, honorable guy, for all that it's worth. This quote illustrates it;

'''Dinobot:''' You slipped. To defeat you in such a manner would be [[Honor Before Reason|lacking in honor]]. ''I'' would not have earned the right to lead. I prefer to defeat my opponents the old fashioned way--''BRUTALLY''! }}

** Blitzwing from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' gets a particularly epic one in his first scene, firmly placing him as a [[Ensemble Darkhorse|fan favorite]] for the new series:

'''[[Dark Action Girl|Blackarachnia]]''': Blow it out your [[Unusual Euphemism|actuator]], three-face.<br />

'''[[The Ahnold|Hothead Blitzwing]]''': Ze name is Blitzwing, insect! Remember it! Cause it's the last thing you will hear before I-<br />

*** The first thing Cliffjumper does in ''Prime'' is boast about freaking out some cops. The second thing he does is jump into a fight alone with several Vehicons. {{spoiler|The third thing he does is die.}}

* In the first full-length ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' episode ever broadcast, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", Lisa's intelligence and precociousness are demonstrated by her eloquently telling off her Aunt Patty for badmouthing Homer.

'''Patty:''' Mm hm. Go watch your cartoon show, dear. }}

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': When we first meet Twilight in "Friendship is Magic Pt 1", she's studying with her friend/assistant Spike, who's trying to get her to relax. After being sent to Ponyville, she meets the rest of the main cast through a series of these. Pinkie Pie jumps in the air and promptly runs away. Applejack invites her to brunch with her large family. Rainbow Dash crashes into Twilight and sends her into a mud puddle, tries and fails to clean her up, proudly declares her ambition to join an elite aerial team, and clears the sky in ten seconds. Rarity is decorating for the Summer Sun festival and gives Twilight a makeover. Fluttershy is helping small animals and is painfully shy. And Pinkie Pie wasn't scared of Twilight; she just left to throw her a party. Yes, ''the second they met''.

** In "Luna Eclipsed", we finally get to see how Princess Luna normally acts. The answer? '''[[Incoming Ham|VERY LOUD]]'''!

** In "Return of Harmony Part 1", Discord first appears in the stained glass windows, demonstrating a sense of humour and mystery, as well as great knowledge of the Mane Six.

*** Another part of this that helps establish him is Princess Celestia's (the only one present that actually knows him) reaction to Discord in the scene. She takes him dead seriously and tries her best to stop his [[Hannibal Lecture|Hannibal Lectures]] from getting started, showing him to be a very serious threat.

* [[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]] briefly appears in the ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' episode "Breakout", the first to air on [[Disney XD]]. Her appearance can be summed up as "[[Male Gaze|buttshot]], [[My Eyes Are Up Here|full-length bodyshot]], [[Male Gaze|walking away buttshot]], exit".

* Looking back at the first episode of [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|the 2003 TMNT series]] it's hilarious how straightforward this was. As the first scene was a practice session, we were treated to, in order, Donatello and Michelangelo being berated for their failed attempts to [[It Makes Sense in Context|put out a candle]] with some amount of fondness from Splinter, "Poor choice, Raphael", and Leonardo succeeding where his brothers failed. That pretty much sums up the entire series, with, perhaps, more jokes and [[Techno Babble]] from Mike and Don, respectively.

** There's also the first verbal exchange between Raphael and Leonardo, right after the training session:

'''Mikey & Don''': [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu|Oooooooh!]] }}

* Although a well-established character in other media and previous shows, even if you didn't know anything about the character, the opening theme for ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/04/ask-chris-78-why-the-batman-the-animated-series-opening-is/ told you pretty much all you needed to know about Batman in 30 seconds].

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' establishes the three main characters pretty well in the first episode. Jackie in his first scene is shown [[Adventurer Archaeologist|dodging flying arrows in a Bavarian castle]] as well as using [[Improvised Weapon|improvised weapons]] to do so. Uncle first appears like a sweet, caring old man before going straight to his trademark [[Dope Slap]] and his [[Catch Phrase]] "... [[And Another Thing|and one more thing!]]" Jade is shown breaking into the underground military base of one of the most elite police organizations and hijacking a mopeds in her first attempt to "help" Jackie.

* The first appearance Dr. Rockzo The Rock n' Roll Clown on ''[[Metalocalypse]]''. Try to guess what he does {{spoiler|He does cocaine.}}:

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' young [[Catfolk]] Prince Lion-O is introduced [[King Incognito|sneaking]] cloaked and [[In the Hood|hooded]] into the [[The City Narrows|worst part]] of Thundera's slums, only to catch the eye of a gang of "Alley Cat" muggers who've just finished beating a hapless [[Dogfaces|Dog]]. He manages to [[Mugging the Monster|fight most off]] but has to be bailed out by [[Action Girl]] Cheetara, to whom he reveals his reasons for being there: to find rare and obscure pieces of "[[Lost Technology|technology]]," which everyone else believes to be a myth.

* In his second appearance in the [[DCAU]], [[Darkseid]] establishes exactly who he is to [[Superman]] on their first meeting. Superman demands to know who he is and Darkseid just stands there, not saying a thing. After a little pushing, Darkseid uses his Omega Beams to torture Superman and forces him to bow down and finally responds with "''THAT'' is who I am." And thus the relationship between arguably the two most hated enemies in the entire [[DCAU]] was established.