History AscendedFridgeHorror / WesternAnimation

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Meg is quite a dark example of a ButtMonkey, being horribly abused by her parents yet it's always played for BlackComedy. The episode "Seahorse Seashell Party" deconstructs the abuse as a serious issue, turning her into TheWoobie. Even Meg mentions that if people on the outside ever saw how Peter treats her, he would've been put in jail a long time ago. One would think Meg finally catches a break as her family breaks down in tears from the revelation, but Meg later realizes that the reason her family treats her like shit is because they need someone to expel all their negative energy into and without Meg for that, they would turn on each other. Meg decides to apologize for what she said and lets her family abuse her again for the sake of keeping everyone slightly sane.
** Ironically, the episode after that one involves domestic abuse and it's definitely not played for laughs!
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' did this with the concept of Robotnik [[UnwillingRoboticisation turning innocent creatures into evil robots]]. The prior video games did not explore the process of roboticization in much depth, other than implying that the animals inside robots worked like organic batteries while ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' sidesteps the issue by having Robotnik build the robots from scratch. ''[=SatAM=]'', on the other hand, thoroughly explores the BodyHorror and loss of identity implicit in the robotic transformations; Uncle Chuck stated that roboticized people [[AndIMustScream actually know what they are doing, but cannot do anything about it]]. Granted Bunnie eventually gets her original organs back in the comics, but the process must have been painfully gruesome.
** In ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'', Sonia's friend Rafi has the entire lower half of his body roboticized. He claims that they "did him a favor". Take from that what you will.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The series is built on the premise that about 1/10th of the population can telekinetically manipulate, or "bend", one of the [[ElementalPowers four classical elements]]. It's also demonstrated several times that benders can affect things that are partially of their element (for example, waterbenders bending mud or plants, earthbenders bending metal, firebenders bending lightning). Well, the human body is 70% water, isn't it? So what would happen if a waterbender were to bend ''that''? [[spoiler: We find out in the episode "The Puppetmaster" that this is indeed a thing. Its inventor Hama calls it bloodbending, and uses it to create PeoplePuppets, and the results are '''exactly''' as horrifying as fans had imagined.]]
** The SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has many of its major and minor plot points based on the Fridge Horror of what if the special talents exhibited by the main characters became widely used. Ty Lee's [[SheFu chi-blocking]] is the main combat form of [[FantasticRacism anti-bender terrorists]], [[spoiler:two major villains]] can Bloodbend, and [[BigBad Amon]] plans to rid the world of benders via [[spoiler: a combination of the two.]]
** The anti-bender movement of Season 1 in itself points out the downsides of being a normal guy in a world full of people who can tear steel and shoot lightning.
** ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise'' confirmed several fan theories that ending a hundred years war did not suddenly fix all problems created because of that war. In particular, colonized Earth Kingdom territories.
** Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has new Airbenders popping up after [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Harmonic Convergence]]. Now, while the ''original'' Air Nomads were pacifistic, developing their bending into a primarily defensive art, FridgeHorror has long abounded among the fans since discovering Monk Gyatso's body and those of the soldiers who tried to kill him regarding what an [[LethalHarmlessPowers airbender could do]] if the airbender had lethal intent, especially since there isn't much that can easily stop an airbender. These fears have now been realized as the apparent BigBad of the season is one of the new benders, and he is ''not'' holding back with his new powers. In a later episode, he even uses his powers to [[SupernaturalSuffocation suffocate]] someone by bending the air out of their lungs. In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler: Jinora leads a small group of relatively untrained airbenders into making a ''tornado'' to help Korra defeat the ArcVillain. A small tornado, granted, but the fact they were able to create something like with minimal training really drives home how powerful and dangerous an airbender could be if they weren't pacifists]].
* ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' liked to play around with some of the implications of various Creator/HannaBarbera cartoons, the one most following this trope being that WesternAnimation/TheJetsons really do live above a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wasteland]] (as well as that commuting everywhere on moving sidewalks instead of walking means that even moving across a room under their own power is a monumental feat).
** FurryConfusion in Hanna-Barbera cartoons (and in the show itself) is somewhat addressed in an episode where WesternAnimation/AugieDoggieAndDoggieDaddy appear. Turns out sentient anthropomorphic dogs have no more rights than regular ones; Doggie Daddy is arrested for not having a license, sentenced to obedience training, ''neutered'' (try not to think of the many people in RealLife who have been sterilized against their will), and winds up so brainwashed from his ordeal that he is basically lobotomized. All PlayedForLaughs of course.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' explore the dark idea of how messed up a boy adventurer would grow up to be and verbally expresses it through Rusty's despair of the gloomy future that awaits his boys only because they were born with the Venture name.
** In this, the series as a whole can be considered Ascended Fridge Horror following on from ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', since the format and characters were originally conceived as loose parodies of that show. Rusty is of course the grown-up Jonny. However, later on the producers discovered that they didn't have to rely on parody, since the rights to Jonny Quest were owned by Cartoon Network. So in the second season they re-ascended the fridge horror far more directly by introducing Jonny Quest himself as the recurring character of "Action Jonny". Jonny's characterization is dominated by two features: substance abuse, and deep mental scarring from his father. Basically, the same traits Rusty has, but dialed up so high that Rusty looks normal by comparison.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
%%** The Ice King's AesopAmnesia and rampant sociopathy led to the idea that he is physically incapable of learning his lesson or changing in any way, and that he will be forever doomed to repeat the same behavior no matter how many times it fails. Cue the reveal of his [[ArtifactOfDoom back]][[WasOnceAMan story]], which among other things shows this is exactly what happens.
%%** The post-apocalyptic setting of the entire show sort of counts. Originally it was just sort of vaguely implied, but as the series progressed it gradually became more explicit until it became ''fully'' explicit, with {{Whole Episode Flashback}}s and other front-and-center undeniable things dealing with it.
* Many ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' fans have pointed out the disturbing implications of the show's premise--specifically, that it's [[ContrivedCoincidence a rather odd coincidence]] that the ''Scooby-Doo'' universe is filled with adults who all decide to [[ScoobyDooHoax dress up like monsters]] to pull off [[ComplexityAddiction weirdly complex criminal schemes]] for their own unrelated reasons. [[note]] ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' somewhat famously theorized that the series took place in the aftermath of a disastrous economic collapse, explaining why none of the crooks ever [[CutLexLuthorACheck use their considerable talents to get real jobs]].[[/note]] Well, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' finally explained it. It turns out that it ''isn't'' a coincidence, and the crimes ''aren't'' unrelated: there's an [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] EldritchAbomination under the kids' hometown that's been exerting its psychic influence over people for centuries, inspiring them to take the form of monsters and commit evil acts. Also, at least some of them base their appearances on ''real'' monsters that inhabit an alternate dimension that can be glimpsed through dreams.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has Foop, who, from the start of his introduction episode, had a ThereCanOnlyBeOne mindset with regards to Poof. However, it has been hinted that fairies and their anti-fairy counterparts are connected and anti-fairies rely on their counterparts to exist, leaving many to wonder what would happen to Foop if he ever succeeded in eliminating Poof. The answer comes around in "Timmy's Secret Wish" when Foop manages to get Timmy branded as the worst Godkid to exist and have all his wishes erased, including Poof. In the middle of celebrating his success, Jorgen tells Foop that as Poof's Anti-Fairy, his existence is erased as well. [[ResetButton Following being restored]], [[VillainDecay Foop went from seeking Poof's destruction to being]] TheRival, since he realized that killing Poof would kill himself.

** It showed that Bill was planning to kill Dipper by throwing his body off the water tower when done with him after the events of "Sock Opera", and staging it as a suicide.
** It also confirmed fan theories that [=McGucket=] had had multiple bad experiences working with Ford even before the portal incident.
** Also revealed where all the bodies that became zombies in "Scary-oke" came from: [[spoiler: the lumberjacks who drowned in the flood described in "Northwest Mansion Mystery"]].
** One early entry conforms that some of the anomalies in the series have actually ''killed people.''
%%* In the backstory of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', there used to be hundreds of Gummis living in Gummi Glen, whose numbers have dwindled to seven. There's always been the subtle implication that Cubbi might end up alone someday, and this was addressed in the episode, where we meet another Gummi by the name of Chummi. Chummi was the youngest of his clan, and now the last, and it's outright stated that if something isn't done, all Cubbi has to look forward to is eventually being alone.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'': In the original film, Mufasa spoke about how the kings of the past lived on in the stars, which was confirmed by his later appearance in the sky, and how in the sequel, he still spoke to Rafiki through the winds. Kovu also wondered if Scar was in the stars as well. While Kovu's question was a tragic display of the brainwashing Zira had put him through since childhood, he still had a valid question. As the cobra Ushari realizes early into Season 2, if Kion and Rafiki can speak to the lions of the past, surely there's a way to speak to Scar. [[spoiler:"The Rise of Scar" ends with Ushari and Janja's hyenas successfully raising Scar from the dead as a fiery spirit from the franchise's equivalent of hell, and Scar becomes the main antagonist of the season.]]

** The episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess Secret Of My Excess]]" applies ascended fridge horror to the implications of a dragon living in a pony community, even though most other episodes before it stepped around it. Later, though the issue isn't explicitly dwelt on for very long, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]" addresses the fact that Spike is an orphaned child and neither he nor Twilight knows where his egg came from or who/where his real parents even are.

** Despite the show itself [[AngstWhatAngst glossing over it]], fans quite reasonably speculated that Celestia being forced to banish [[CainAndAbel her sister]] to the moon for a thousand years, to save Equestria from [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Nightmare Moon]], would have been devastating to her. Cue Twilight's vision of the past in "Princess Twilight Sparkle", which shows Celestia desperately pleading with Luna to stop, tried to stop her by herself, only using the Elements of Harmony when it was clear Nightmare Moon was too powerful, and when she makes that decision she starts crying.

** Princess Celestia largely serves as the BigGood of the series, often treated as a PhysicalGod with power over the Sun itself. As such, fans became confused at how [[TheWorfEffect quickly and easily she was defeated]] in several episodes, ranging from the pilot to "A Canterlot Wedding," when Queen Chrysalis overcomes her in a BeamOWar. The most commonly-accepted explanation was that Celestia is [[AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength terrified of her own power and deliberately holds herself back]] to keep from hurting others. This became canon in "A Royal Problem," when it's revealed that Celestia has a SuperpoweredEvilSide called "Daybreaker" whom she ''constantly'' has to ward off in her own head. She struggles endlessly with the temptation to tap into her full potential and become an untouchable, unconquerable warlord, and thus [[ToughLeaderFacade puts on a brave face]] to her subjects (to the point of being a StepfordSmiler) while deliberately only using a fraction of her powers.

* The ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' episode "Chickens" actually addresses the issue of where meat comes from in a world where [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist]]. Certain species of animals are set aside to be bred as unintelligent livestock, and everyone accepts this as normal.
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' began as dark comedy satire of Fundamentalist Christianity/Leave it to Beaver-type innocence with the basic formula of Orel taking flawed advice from his authority figures and turning them on their heads, causing much more problems than intended. That was until the episode, "Nature", which completely turned the show from a dark comedy to essentially a drama. Now, all the characters who had previously been seen as caricatures of fundamentalist types were shown to have several mental scars and dark psyches which made them more three dimensional then they were shown in their debuts. A perfect example was Orel's father, who was introduced as a parody of a Standard 50's Father, who eventually was shown to be an alcoholic, abusive, DepravedBisexual, narcissistic and unapologetic man who resented his family. If anything, the show still displayed the dangers of hypocrisy in faith, just no longer through the lens of comedy, and showed the more dark, seedy, and unfortunately realistic side effects of it.
* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersAtWork'': Many fans have pointed out over the years that Monsters Inc. switching from Scream to Laugh Energy would be a very messy transition for the Scarers. They would either have to adjust to the new system, abandoning the skills they've spent most of their lives developing, or be put out of work.[[note]]Compounded by the prequel ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'' and showing just how hard they worked to get there[[/note]]. Tylor's role in the series revolves around this fear, as he arrives at Monsters Inc. fresh off graduating at the top of his scaring class, only to learn that [[ADegreeInUseless they don't need Scarers anymore]].
* In the early seasons of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny died in every episode]], and no one ever commented (beyond a few jokes here and there) about him simply showing up in the next episode completely fine. Some fans began to wonder if Kenny himself could remember all of those deaths and theorized about how he came back so easily. Sure enough, the "Coon and Friends" saga revealed that Kenny [[spoiler: is the literal spawn of Franchise/{{Cthulhu|Mythos}}]], and with every death (which he feels and remembers in agonizing detail), his mother becomes pregnant with and gives birth to him as a baby who wakes up fully-grown the next morning. To make matters worse, [[spoiler: Cthulhu's curse]] means that people ''can't'' remember the deaths--only Kenny (and possibly his parents) do, meaning that he has to watch his friends treat him like nothing's wrong despite his constant brutal fates (itself a bit of a {{Retcon}}, since they sometimes remember about his deaths as mentioned earlier). As such, it's made him a DeathSeeker to the extreme. When Kyle (thinking Kenny was just playing superhero) commented that immortality sounded "pretty cool," Kenny [[WhoWantsToLiveForever quickly corrected him]]:
-->'''Kenny''': PRETTY COOL? Do you know what it feels like to be stabbed? To be ''shot?'' Decapitated? Torn apart? Burned? Run over? It's not "pretty cool," Kyle; it ''fucking HURTS!'' And it ''won't go away'', and ''NO ONE WILL BELIEVE ME!'' ''(Taking out a gun)'' Remember this time! ''''' Try and FUCKING REMEMBER!''''' ''(Shoots himself)''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' explore the dark idea of how messed up a boy adventurer would grow up to be and verbally expresses it through Rusty's despair of the gloomy future that awaits his boys only because they were born with the Venture name.

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' began as dark comedy satire of Fundamentalist Christianity/Leave it to Beaver-type innocence with the basic formula of Orel taking flawed advice from his authority figures and turning them on their heads, causing much more problems than intended. That was until the episode, “Nature”, which completely turned the show from a dark comedy to essentially a drama. Now, all the characters who had previously been seen as caricatures of fundamentalist types were shown to have several mental scars and dark psyches which made them more three dimensional then they were shown in their debuts. A perfect example was Orel’s father, who was introduced as a parody of a Standard 50’s Father, who eventually was shown to be an alcoholic, abusive, DepravedBisexual, narcissistic and unapologetic man who resented his family, and has a severe OedipusComplex. If anything, the show still displayed the dangers of hypocrisy in faith, just no longer through the lens of comedy, and showed the more dark, seedy, and unfortunately realistic side effects of it.

** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn Keep Calm and Flutter On]]" confirms the popular theory that Discord was [[AndIMustScream still aware of everything]] while in his [[TakenForGranite stone prison]].

** [[http://porpoiseoflife.org/my-little-dv-survivor-761/ It's been suggested by some]] that Fluttershy's ShrinkingViolet characteristics are at least partially the result of childhood trauma. "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles The Cutie Mark Chronicles]]" establishes that she was bullied, but Rainbow Dash seemed to get it about as badly as her (at the hooves of the same bullies, no less), and [[BoisterousBruiser look how she turned out]]. But then "Hurricane Fluttershy" shows us just how pervasive the problem ''really'' was, and how it affected her to the point that its resurgence is enough to provoke graphic, demonic hallucinations well into her adulthood. This is to say nothing of how crappy a lot of the townsfolk treat her in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E19PuttingYourHoofDown Putting Your Hoof Down]]'', preying on her quiet tendencies to push her around and take advantage of her, implying that unlike Rainbow Dash who would fight back Fluttershy is ''still'' regularly bullied.

** Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has new Airbenders popping up after [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Harmonic Convergence]]. Now, while the Air Nomads were pacifistic, developing their bending into a primarily defensive art, FridgeHorror has long abounded among the fans since discovering Monk Gyatso's body and those of the soldiers who tried to kill him regarding what an [[LethalHarmlessPowers airbender could do]] if the airbender had lethal intent, especially since there isn't much that can easily stop an airbender. These fears have now been realized as the apparent BigBad of the season is one of the new benders, and he is ''not'' holding back with his new powers. In a later episode, he even uses his powers to [[SupernaturalSuffocation suffocate]] someone by bending the air out of their lungs. In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler: Jinora leads a small group of relatively untrained airbenders into making a ''tornado'' to help Korra defeat the ArcVillain. A small tornado, granted, but the fact they were able to create something like with minimal training really drives home how powerful and dangerous an airbender could be if they weren't pacifists]].

** The series is built on the premise that about 1/10th of the population can telekinetically manipulate, or "bend", one of the [[ElementalPowers four classical elements]]. It's also demonstrated several times that benders can affect things that are partially of their element (for example, waterbenders bending mud or plants, earthbenders bending metal, firebenders bending lightning). Well, the human body is 70% water, isn't it? So what would happen if a waterbender were to bend ''that''? [[spoiler: We find out in the episode "The Puppetmaster" that this is indeed a thing. Its inventor Hama calls it bloodbending, and uses it to create PeoplePuppets.]]
** SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has many of its major and minor plot points based on the Fridge Horror of what if the special talents exhibited by the main characters became widely used. Ty Lee's [[SheFu chi-blocking]] is the main combat form of [[FantasticRacism anti-bender terrorists]], [[spoiler:two major villains]] can Bloodbend, and [[BigBad Amon]] plans to rid the world of benders via [[spoiler: a combination of the two.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersAtWork'': Many fans have pointed out over the years that Monsters Inc. switching from Scream to Laugh Energy would be a very messy transition for the Scarers. They would either have to adjust to the new system, abandoning the skills they've spent most of their lives developing, or be put out of work.[[note]]Compounded by the prequel ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'' and showing just how hard they worked to get there[[/note]]. Tylor's role in the series revolves around this fear, as he arrives at Monsters Inc. fresh off graduating at the top of his scaring class, only to learn that [[ADegreeInUselessness they don't need Scarers anymore]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersAtWork'': Many fans have pointed out over the years that Monsters Inc. switching from Scream to Laugh Energy would be a very messy transition for the Scarers. They would either have to adjust to the new system, abandoning the skills they've spent most of their lives developing, or be put out of work. Tylor's role in the series revolves around this fear, as he arrives at Monsters Inc. fresh off graduating at the top of his scaring class, only to learn that they don't need Scarers anymore.