History CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot / WesternAnimation

-->'''[=Spongebob=]''': Good thing I always keep a spare key- (realizes his mistake, becomes frustrated) -under... the... mat! ({{Angrish}})
** In "Squid's Day Off", Squidward appoints [=SpongeBob=] as the boss of the Krusty Krab so he can enjoy peace and quiet at home. However, he starts fearing that [=SpongeBob=] will destroy the place while he's gone, and repeatedly runs back and checks on him, unable to relax. At the end of the day, [=SpongeBob=] points out that the whole time, the restaurant's "Closed" sign was never changed to "Open", and they both could have had the day off.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The special "Save Royal Woods!" has the citizens of Royal Woods, Michigan find out their town is about to get destroyed to make way for a new Great Lake. They try to come up with something special about the town to save it from destruction, and after several failures, the citizens end up singing a song about how their experiences make Royal Woods special to them. Except midway, Lisa abruptly interrupts the song to point out that Royal Woods is abundantly rich in several minerals and located on a large oil deposit. Lynn Jr. immediately complains that Lisa could have brought that up earlier.

* In the last episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jumanji}}'' Alan finds out that to leave the game permanently he had to [[AndroclesLion remove a thorn from the paw of a lion that had been chasing him since the moment he was pulled into the game]]. He succeeds and is free from the game, but is momentarily stunned that he could have been free within minutes instead of spending most of his life inside if he had confronted the lion instead of running away.

** In "Lost!" (later adapted into the book "Arthur's Lost and Found") David does ask why Arthur didn't just tell the bus driver what happened after he woke up before the last stop on the route. Arthur says he was worried the driver would get mad at him for messing up. He finds out from the waitress that Sam is a NiceGuy, who lets Arthur ride the bus without a fare and goes the extra mile to call his parents and the bus company, knowing his "folks" must be worried.

** "Arthur the Wrecker" sees Arthur wanting to play a game on his mother's computer, despite her telling him not to until after dinner. When Buster persuades him to do it anyway, the boys end up making the screen go black. They can't fix it and assume the worst, so Arthur desperately tries to cover up the mistake and lies to his mother even further. When she finally ''does'' find out, though, she fixes the problem in seconds (there's a reset switch on the back of the computer) and tells Arthur that if he'd called her sooner or told the truth, he'd have saved himself a lot of unnecessary grief. As punishment for lying and disobeying her, Jane forbids him from playing any computer games for a week, which only adds to the trope -- had Arthur just listened to her instead of letting Buster convince him to break the rules, he would have avoided any kind of punishment.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' episode "[[Recap/MollyOfDenaliS1E18IceSculptureTaleOfTheTotem Tale of the Totem]]," if Molly and Randall had gone to Uncle Jack right away and admitted they lost the abalone shell, he would've told them about the extras he keeps stocked, and the two of them wouldn't have made a panicked search around town for a replacement.

** In "Spatula of the Heavens", [=SpongeBob=] goes to visit legendary spatula forger Guru Greasetrap for help fixing his spatula; when Guru's hands get injured and cannot help him, his word of advice is simply, "Your true spatula is inside you." [=SpongeBob=] does not get it and his attempts to fix his spatula fail, until near the end when he shapes his hands like spatulas so he can resume work. Guru reappears and tells [=SpongeBob=] his advice was literal, and opens [=SpongeBob=]'s body like a closet to reveal a spare spatula inside him.

** In "Spatula of the Heavens", [=SpongeBob=] goes to visit legendary spatula forger Guru Greasetrap for help fixing his spatula; Guru's word of advice is simply, "Your true spatula is inside you." [=SpongeBob=] does not get it and his attempts to fix his spatula fail, until near the end when he shapes his hands like spatulas so he can resume work. Guru reappears and tells [=SpongeBob=] his advice was literal, and opens [=SpongeBob=]'s body like a closet to reveal a spare spatula inside him.

* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower:'' In "Big Air Dare", Reggie and Otto [[SiblingRivalry compete against each other]] to see who is better at snowboarding. A guard escorts them off "The Big Air", a slope meant for experienced adult snowboarders only. They return to have the challenge the following morning where Otto [[InjuredLimbEpisode breaks his leg]]. The same guard from before tells Ray that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome if Otto had listened to him in the first place, he wouldn't have gotten hurt]], especially with an imminent hockey game in its sister episode "Otto's Big Break", where the rest of the group needs to find another player to fill in for the injured Otto.

*** Boimler spends the episode switching between quarters because his original new quarters have light from the ship shining blindingly into them and ends up sharing quarters with Rutherford that turn out to have the same problem. Rutherford then casually filters out the light with one computer command, leaving him with the frustratiniog realization he's gone to all the trouble and forgone getting his own quarters for nothing.