Throw the Dog a Bone: Difference between revisions

** {{spoiler|Then ''End of Evangelion'' yanks it, horrendously.}}

*** {{spoiler|Not really. End of Evangelion is more of an [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] counterpart to the TV series' [[Bittersweet Ending]]; Shinji goes through a bit more hell, but he gets to spend quite a bit of time with Asuka, and it's strongly implied, if not outright stated, that everyone else can come [[Back From the Dead]].}}

** A less-mind-screwy example for Shinji came in the series, where he lead an assault that stopped a particularly-large angel from destroying Tokyo-3 and NERV. Upon reading the report, and learning how Shinji was by-and-large the person responsible for the day's rescue, Gendo tells him "Good work, Shinji." It's very brief, and done by "Sound Only" video screen, but means the world to a [["Well Done, Son" Guy]].

** a similarly less-mind-screwy example is from the episode where they defeat the angel that was found in a volcano. After they've completed the mission, we briefly get to see Shinji relaxing in the hot-springs afterwards. In the English dub he even says, "this feels like Heaven..." with an almost goofy-looking grin plastered across his face. It's hard not to feel happy for him in the warm-fuzzies sense for that one brief moment. [[Too Good to Last|Too bad it doesn't last for him]].

* ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'': James tends to enter a lot of [[Filler|minor competitions]], and usually declines or outright tells off Jessie and Meowth's idea of "assistance." Most of the time [[Yank the Dog's Chain|it doesn't end well]]. [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Off_the_Unbeaten_Path Sometimes] it does.

* ''[[One Piece]]'''s Sanji has endured a great deal of suffering due to being the Straw Hats' resident [[The Chew Toy|Chew Toy]]. Not content to make him a [[Chivalrous Pervert]] who generally lucks out with women, Oda's killed his fantasies of mermaids with Kokoro, a fat old lady mermaid; dashed his dreams of getting a bounty with a [[Facial Composite Failure|horribly drawn Wanted Poster]]; stole his hope to exploit the [[Power Perversion Potential]] of invisibility through a villain with a one-of-a-kind invisibility Devil Fruit; and, finally, he was stuck on an island of transvestites for two years, where he was briefly forced to go native. However, with the crew's arrival at Fishman Island, Sanji has finally gotten to meet real life, ''attractive'' mermaids, and they ''like'' him. Granted, the [[Nosebleed]] that eventually resulted nearly kills him, but for him it was [[Worth It]].

* [[No Sense of Direction|Ryoga]], the resident [[The Woobie|woobie]] of [[Ranma One Half]] was given one of these when his virtually perfectly suited and accepting girlfriend Akari showed up near the end of the series.

* After thirteen episodes of being Sternbild's [[Chew Toy]], things start looking up for Kotetsu/Wild Tiger in the fourteenth episode of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'': he manages to finish the season fourth in the rankings, people start treating him as Barnaby's equal instead of his sidekick, his boss stops acting like a total dick towards him, and {{spoiler|he seems to have gotten an unexpected power boost}}. Of course, given the ominous foreshadowing of {{spoiler|said power upgrade}} and the fact that there's still another twelve episodes to go, [[Yank the Dog's Chain|his luck probably won't last long]]...

* The above quote comes from the series finale of ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', where Waspinator, [[The Chew Toy]] [[Cosmic Plaything|of Fate]], is left on earth after leaving the Predacons where he becomes the leader of a village of Protohumans. It's obviously more significant if you [[Fanon Discontinuity|ignore]] ''Beast Machines'', though he wasn't nearly [[The Chew Toy]] there that he was in ''Beast Wars'', as he spent most of the time sharing a body with Thrust, and was one of the only three characters to survive the entirety of both series.

** Waspinator was originally scheduled to die, but because he was popular, one of the writers convinced the executives to let him change it to him surviving the [[Dropped a Bridge On Him|bridge-dropping]] that killed Scorponok and Terrorsaur by the [[Contrived Coincidence]] of falling into a CR Chamber instead of a pit of lava.

** Also, whenever he fights Silverbolt. Silverbolt ''never'' beat Waspinator in combat or even landed a real hit. Waspinator, on the other hand, beat him three separate times.

** And now he's an official member of the Transformers [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_Hall_of_Fame Hall of Fame], through ''fan votes''. Happy at last Waspinator, Happy at last...

**** The Tiki Island episode is pretty much dedicated to this. Even when it looks like it's undone in the end, it turns out that it's not.

** Another example occurs in an episode where he falls in love with a female Squid. Squidward turns to Spongebob for advice, but it goes wrong. When Squidward finally has enough, he starts yelling at [[SpongeBob]] right in front of his girlfriend. At first, Squid thinks she's going to break up with him for said outburts, but it ends up making her more attracted to him.

** There was also had Rita and Runt being adopted by Dr. Scratchinsniff and Brain getting a position of significant power.

** The [[Acceptable Targets|Mime]] still got the shaft though. In fact {{spoiler|dropping a safe on him was ''Yakko's'' wish}}.

[[Category:Tropey the Wonder Dog]]

[[Category:Throw The Dog A Bone]]