History EstablishingCharacterMoment / WesternAnimation

** [[IronLady Chief Lin Bei Fong]]. She's introduced by grilling Korra in the interrogation room. [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist She's dead serious, pissed off, and 100% focused on her job.]] Even though the one in custody is none other than the Avatar. We've got a hardass over here, folks.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': King makes his introduction with his shadow looking like a monstrous creature and him asking "Who dares?" in a deep booming voice...until he steps out in bath towels to show that he's not as evil and malicious as Luz thought he'd be.

** When Tenzin's entire family is introduce we get a good description of each of their personalities Ikki was introduced as asking "AreWeThereYet" ad nauseum, while her little brother Meelo chews his father's head.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** [[CuteAlienGirl Starfire's]] first appearance has her very cheerfully proclaiming that she is stronger than she looks...and proceeding to escape from the grasp of a villain made of cinder blocks.

** Comicbook/BlackWidow briefly appears in the episode "Breakout", the first to air on Creator/DisneyXD. Her appearance can be summed up as "[[MaleGaze buttshot]], [[MyEyesAreUpHere full-length bodyshot]], [[MaleGaze walking away buttshot]], exit".
** Similarly, Comicbook/IronMan first appears in "Breakout" (following some scenes in promotional shorts and a compilation of those shorts) as he effortlessly breaks up a weapons sale, tells off Doctor Doom's representative, blows off ComicBook/NickFury and SHIELD, and dismisses a request that soon comes back to massively bite him (and everyone else) in the ass. If you ''do'' count the shorts and their compilations, Iron Man's establishing moments come when he fights a giant robot and shrugs off advice that he'd be better off making weapons than fighting evil directly and alone.

** With Black Widow at his side, ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} makes his debut in "Hulk vs. The World" by striking the [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] with two arrows, descending from a plane on a zip line, and quipping, "Tick tick boom!" right before the arrows explode.

* [[BigBad Darkseid]] gets this moment in his first speaking appearance in ''Franchise/{{DCAU}}'', the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Father's Day". Superman arrives for a final confrontation with MonsterOfTheWeek Kalibak, only to see Darkseid (who has just given a YouHaveFailedMe speech out of earshot) disintegrate Kalibak. Superman demands to know who he is and Darkseid just stands there, smiles at superman, and then uses his Omega Beams to torture Superman to the ground before answering "''THAT'' is who I am." And thus the relationship between arguably the two most hated enemies in the entire DCAU was established.

** Cheryl gets hers in Episode 5, when she goes on a long tangent about her disturbing love for fatal erotic asphyxiation. Up until this point, she was shown as being only moderately weird and occasionally baby crazy, but this cranked it UpToEleven.

** The first two episodes quickly show Prince Zuko's obsession with capturing the Avatar in order to return from his exile. He also gets a more subtle one when he gets Aang to surrender to him in exchange for him sparing the Southern Water Tribe - most villains would [[ILied level the place anyway]] [[ForTheEvulz for their own amusement]], but [[NobleDemon Zuko proves to be as good as his word]], the first sign of his many [[EvilVirtues virtuous qualities]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'': In the first episode, Orel hears a bizarrely detailed sermon from Reverend Putty about how it's important to use the gift of life that God gave you, and [[LiteralMinded interprets this to mean that dying is a sin.]] He then proceeds to [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom steal the Necronomicon and raise all the dead in Moralton]], after which Clay chides him... [[SkewedPriorities for taking the clothes off the corpses before raising them]], violating the "commandment" to be ashamed of your body.

** When Jackie suffers LiteralSplitPersonality for the first time in "[[Recap/JackieChanAdventuresS1E12TheTigerAndThePussycat The Tiger and the Pussycat]]"; Yin Jackie accidentally steps on a bug and cries over it, while Yang Jackie steals and eats some of Jade's candy, all the while rubbing it in her face. This gives us a good idea of what the talisman did to Jackie.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': The first episode to focus on Francine (and the second overall) sees her trying to refrain from playing kickball long enough to look especially nice for her school picture, but Francine is unable to help herself. By the time the picture is taken, she looks scruffy and grungy, while wearing a dress and a relaxed hairstyle.

** Mai is established as a DeadpanSnarker EmotionlessGirl and formidable {{Ninja}} and KnifeNut in less than a minute.

** Due to ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1's]]'' LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, these usually take the form of an IntroDump, but Starscream's is particularly notable -- the ''first thing he says'' is how the Autobots would have lost a long time ago if he was in charge, establishing him as, well, TheStarscream.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 Return of Harmony Part 1]]", Discord first appears in the stained glass windows, demonstrating a sense of mystery and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny even humour]] through his antics amongst the window displays, as well as great knowledge of the Mane Six that [[TheOmnipotent by all rights he shouldn't have]], what with being [[TakenForGranite sealed in stone]] for over a millennium now.

* After being played up as TheAce by Eddy throughout ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'''s run, Eddy's brother's first act in TheMovie is [[ComedicSociopathy to beat up Eddy and Edd]]. So instead of the great guy Eddy's portrayed him as, Eddy's brother is a monster who tortures children for fun. [[FridgeHorror And he works at an amusement park]]. [[spoiler: He's defeated by Ed.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn'':

** The very first episode, "The Rise of Voltron" has one for each of the five paladins plus Allura and Coran:
*** Shiro is first shown as being the responsible pilot of the Kerberos Mission. After he escapes one year later, the experience is shown to have changed him, as not only is he more of the TeamDad (he is the most experienced of the five, who all have never finished training barring himself), he acts this way because he does not want to lose his crew like the last time.
*** Lance is established as a complete MilesGloriosus, whose arrogance gets the better of him as he botches a simulator mission. The fact that he also is an UnknownRival to Keith also serves to cement his nature as such. He is also later on shown to be a CasanovaWannabe, as he finds a woman scientist at Shiro's crash site attractive and attempts to flirt with Allura several times.

*** Hunk is shown to have relatively poor hygiene and clumsy due to his rotund figure, but is noted as being quite smart by Lance. He's also shown to be a bit of a CowardlyLion (no pun intended) as well, as there are several times when he suggests retreating or backing down when the other Paladins feel they have no choice but to go forward or make a stand.
*** Lastly, Keith is indirectly alluded to at the start as having a discipline problem that caused him to wash out of the Galaxy Garrison, but is properly introduced when he causes a explosion to draw away everyone from Shiro's crash site before rushing in to rescue him. Later on, when the future paladins are escaping from the Galaxy Garrison, he shows traits of being a DeadpanSnarker towards Lance, Pidge, and Hunk (who he was not expecting to interfere) by remarking that they could dispose of "unnecessary weight" (pertaining to them).
*** Allura awakens and falls into the arms of Lance, only to immediately turn the tables on him as she forcibly interrogates him as to her current whereabouts. This establishes her to be rather forceful and decisive despite being a princess and TheHeart, a character that is reinforced when the flashbacks show her begging her father to assemble Voltron and fight the Galra when he wants to send them away into hiding.
*** Coran awakens from stasis to mistake Lance for an intruder, to which he performs a wacky, over-the-top battle stance before settling into a more joking banter once he figures Lance is not a threat. This serves to establish him as a QuirkyMentor and a source of ComicRelief.
** The first episode of Season 3, "Changing of the Guard" is one for Prince Lotor. The ECM begins with two Galra commanders, who are watching a new masked gladiator compete in the arena, discussing the line of succession following [[spoiler:Zarkon's injuries at the end of Season 2]] and how Lotor would not be qualified for the throne due to his more tolerant policies and being a half-breed himself. Then, the gladiator unmasks himself as Lotor and challenges Throk, the Galra commander who sought to contest the throne against him, to an honorable duel, backed by his own BodyguardBabes who revealed themselves among the crowd to confront the would-be usurper. After effortlessly defeating Throk in the ensuing duel, Lotor surprisingly offers his opponent clemency in front of the entire Galra Army, arguing that only through such can the Galra hope to consolidate their position in the galaxy. The next scene has Lotor confiding to his BodyguardBabes in private to [[ReassignedToAntarctica transfer Throk to the Ulippa System]] to "rot with the ice worms", all the while remarking how "the masses are easily fooled". In this moment, Lotor cements his reputation as both a [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent]] ''and'' ManipulativeBastard all at the same time.

*** Shiro is first shown as being the responsible pilot of the Kerberos Mission. After he escapes one year later, the experience is shown to have changed him, as not only is he more of the TeamDad, he acts this way because he does not want to lose his crew like the last time.

*** Pidge is shown to be very secretive about his past and gets very defensive over any mention of the Kerberos Mission. This serves to set up the bulk of his character arc for the series, as he [[spoiler:[[GenderFlip or rather]], [[SweetPollyOliver she]], is dedicated to finding what happened to her brother and father who got lost on the Kerberos Mission]].
*** Hunk is shown to have relatively poor hygiene and clumsy due to his rotund figure, but is noted as being quite smart by Lance.

** The first episode of Season 3, "Changing of the Guard" is one for Prince Lotor.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' opens with our antagonist, Zordrak, chewing out his minion Captain Crigg for screwing up one too many times before dropping him into a pit filled with ravenous Frazznats and promoting Sargent Blob as the new commander for his plan to steal the Dreamstone. This highlights that he is a BadBoss who clearly doesn’t care about the lives of his Urpney minions.

*** The first quarter establishes Fry's personality and status in society quite well; a kid mocks him for losing a video game, his girlfriend dumps his stuff out on the sidewalk([[IdiotHero and he still doesn't realize that he's been dumped]]), and to top it all off he realizes that he's been prank-called. When he's finally unfrozen in the future, his first reaction to his predicament is to cheer.

** [[IronLady Chief Lin Bei Fong]]. She's introduced by grilling [[spoiler:Korra]] in the interrogation room. [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist She's dead serious, pissed off, and 100% focused on her job.]] Even though the one in custody is none other than [[spoiler:The Avatar]]. We've got a hardass over here, folks.

** Showing that ''Transformers'' loves this trope, ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]]'' has Knock Out and Breakdown, AKA ThoseTwoBadGuys, showcasing the former's vanity and the latter's bruiser status, and then they [[BashBrothers manage to work in tandem]] to overpower ''Optimus'' and the rest of the Autobots, showing that they aren't normal Vehicon {{mooks}}.