History PsychologicalProjection / WesternAnimation

** In "Lost in Language", AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight calls [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions. Amity herself [[CondescendingCompassion talked down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog stomped on King's cupcake simply to spite Luz]], and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly got her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]], which is [[NeverMyFault what got Amity into those difficult scenarios in the first place]]. Not to mention that she [[NoListeningSkills refused to hear Luz's perspective on what actually happened]], [[MustMakeAmends wanting to clear up the misconceptions and reconcile]]. It isn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually starts to see this and has a HeelRealization.

** In "Eclipse Lake", Hunter believes that Luz's strange emoji messages to Amity are a cryptic warning to come back with results or there will be consequences, because that's what [[BigBad Belos]] would tell him. Amity initially believes him not only because of her own self-worth issues, but also because [[PoorCommunicationKills Luz never told Amity how to read the messages]]. King helps Amity realize Luz's messages have no ill intent, and Hunter's views are based on his own twisted experiences with Belos.[[note]]While Hunter is wrong about the messages' meaning, the ''way'' he interprets them (based on the images themselves) is admittedly more logical than the way they're supposed to be interpreted (turning the message sideways so the emojis look like letters, spelling out a written message)[[/note]]

** In "Lost in Language", AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight calls [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions. Amity herself [[CondescendingCompassion talked down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog stomped on King's cupcake simply to spite Luz]], and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly got her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]], which is [[NeverMyFault what got Amity into those difficult scenarios in the first place]]. Not to mention that she [[NoListeningSkills refused to hear out Luz's perspective on what actually happened]] and [[MustMakeAmends wanting to clear up the misconceptions and reconcile]]. It isn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually starts to see this and had a HeelRealization.
** In "Keeping Up A-fear-ances", a moping Lilith bums King out by projecting her issues with her negligent mother onto his missing father, denouncing King's father for not being there to see his son hatch--even though, at the time, she had no way of knowing the circumstances behind the disappearance of King's father [[spoiler:and indeed it does turn out to be nothing like that]].

** In "Lost in Language", AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight calls [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions, even though we see Amity [[CondescendingCompassion talking down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog stomping on King's cupcake simply to spite Luz]] and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly getting her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]] which is [[NeverMyFault what got Amity into those difficult scenarios in the first place]] and [[NoListeningSkills refused to hear out Luz's perspective on what actually happened]] and [[MustMakeAmends wanting to clear up the misconceptions and reconcile]]. It isn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually starts to see this and had a HeelRealization.

* In "WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug" episode "Protection" Lila uses this as a manipulation tactic towards Kagami in order to purposefully cause mental distress in her and subsequently make her susceptible to akumatization by claiming that her best friend Marinette is actually a toxic and manipulative liar who takes advantage of everyone's kindness and trust in her and who should be avoided at all costs, all things which describe Lila herself to a T.

* In "WesternAnimationMiraculousLadybug" episode "Protection" Lila uses this as a manipulation tactic towards Kagami in order to purposefully cause mental distress in her and subsequently make her susceptible to akumatization by claiming that her best friend Marinette is actually a toxic and manipulative liar who takes advantage of everyone's kindness and trust in her and who should be avoided at all costs, all things which describe Lila herself to a T.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Twilight's Kingdom" (Parts 1 and 2). Discord ends up assuming Tirek appreciates their "friendship" as much as he does, but it turns out Tirek only wanted to use Discord for his own benefit.

** In "Lost in Language", AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight calls [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions, even though we see Amity [[CondescendingCompassion talking down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog stomping on King's cupcake simply to spite Luz]] and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly getting her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]]. It isn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually starts to see this and had a HeelRealization.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Some of the stuff Rick Sanchez accuses his opponents of doing (while valid) could equally be said of his own actions and behaviour:
** In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", he mocks Mr. Needful (The Devil) for his Faustian JackassGenie shtick but most of Rick's own devices and contraptions work in similar ironic fashion, such as giving a device that can make Snuffles understands humans while knowing that it would eventually lead the dogs to be TurnedAgainstTheirMasters. The Mr. Meeseeks box meanwhile does create a friendly fellow to help you out, though Rick warns it only does simple errands (it only became problematic because Jerry was not that good at golf though one could assert that he was ''too'' specific for his request while Summer and Beth's were more open-ended.) Most of the times his simple contraptions to help the family only complicates their lives. However, the big difference is that while Mr. Needful does it out of a sense of pleasure for ironic punishments, Rick's contraptions seem to be more his carelessness.
** In "Vindicators 3", he mocks the superhero group for keeping a sidekick as a TagalongKid just to make themselves look cooler in the eyes of the gullible, but that applies to his dynamic with Morty, where he drags Morty against his will into crazy adventures mostly to prove how awesome he is and prevent his grandson from idolizing anyone but himself. Toxic Rick proves this to Toxic Morty by openly invoking AGodAmI and insisting how dumb Morty is in comparison to him. To be fair, unlike the Vindicators, Rick actually needs Morty in his adventures, due to the fact that Morty's brain waves block Rick's thus making Rick impossible to be tracked down, and Morty TookALevelInBadass from partaking in Rick's adventures. Though the reasons why Rick drags Morty along are mostly selfish.

** Stan also projects onto Dipper, believing he has to target Dipper specifically with the difficult and painful household chores, open mockery, and a denial of positive reinforcement to toughen him up and make him worth something, in contrast with Dipper's sister, whom he very obviously treats better. We later learn that Stan sees his own childhood self in Dipper and this is a projection of how he sees his past worth. His replicating aspects of the favoritism with Mabel and ToughLove with Dipper is further implied to be part of his denial over his father's own harsh treatment of him when he was a kid, because he's convinced himself it was necessary for him to grow up and therefore is necessary for Dipper. [[spoiler:Unlike Ford, he never really gets better about this or accepts that his father was just cruel.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': In season 2, Harley and crew have to deal with Mr. Freeze. When Harley finds out that his wife, Nora, is sick, she projects her MadLove issues with ComicBook/TheJoker onto the two of them. She assumes that he is a misogynistic ControlFreak like Joker and that Nora's not really sick. She thinks that he doesn't really love her and that he just keeps her as a HumanPopsicle to control her. It's quite telling that most of everyone around her, including fellow villains, think she's nuts. Of course, the truth is that Mr. Freeze loves Nora more than anything else in the world and respects her as an equal. When Harley's involvement jeopardizes her health and he has to [[HeroicSacrifice give his life to cure Nora]], Harley realizes she was projecting her own failures onto them before a distaught Nora tells them to GetOut.

** Stan also projects onto Dipper, believing he has to target Dipper specifically with the difficult and painful household chores, open mockery, and a denial of positive reinforcement to toughen him up and make him worth something, in contrast with Dipper's sister, whom he very obviously treats better. We later learn that Stan sees his own childhood self in Dipper and this is a projection of how he sees his past worth. His replicating aspects of the favoritism with Mabel and ToughLove with Dipper is further implied to be part of his denial over his father's own harsh treatment of him when he was a kid, because he's convinced himself it was necessary for him to grow up and therefore is necessary for Dipper.

** Stan also projects onto Dipper, believing he has to target Dipper specifically with the difficult and painful household chores, open mockery, and a denial of positive reinforcement to toughen him up and make him worth something, in contrast with Dipper's sister, whom he very obviously treats better. We later learn that Stan sees his own childhood self in Dipper and this is a projection of how he sees his past worth. His replicating aspects of the favoritism and abuse with Mabel and Dipper respectively is further implied to be part of his denial over his parents' own abusive behavior, because he's convinced himself it was necessary for him to grow up and therefore is necessary for Dipper.

** In "Lost in Language", AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight called [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions, even though we see Amity [[CondescendingCompassion talking down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog stomping on King's cupcake simply to spite Luz]] and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly got her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]], in reality Luz was trying to help her friends, stand up for them and make up with Amity, only for the latter's Jerkass behavior escalated the situations, [[NeverMyFault blame Luz for all those incidents instead of seeing that she did that to herself]], [[ItsAllAboutMe focused solely on how she was affected]] and [[NoSocialSkills refused to talk to Luz]] or even [[NoListeningSkills listen to her perspective]], it wasn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually started to see this and had a HeelRealization.

** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow Good Witch Azura]]'', usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode "Thanks to Them", where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler:being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fearing her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler:was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and the world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura 2: The Betrayening'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler:fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abandon her]]. This is contrasted within the same episode with [[spoiler:Hunter]] who manages to work out some of [[spoiler:his own issues about being a Grimwalker created by Belos]] by projecting on ''[[WhereNoParodyHasGoneBefore Galactic Frontier]]'' character Chief Engineer O'Bailey and his own struggle with [[spoiler:being a clone]].

** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow Good Witch Azura]]'', usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode "Thanks to Them", where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler:being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fearing her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler:was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and the world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura 2: The Betrayeing'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler:fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abandon her]]. This is contrasted within the same episode with [[spoiler:Hunter]] who manages to work out some of [[spoiler:his own issues about being a Grimwalker created by Belos]] by projecting on ''[[WhereNoParodyHasGoneBefore Galactic Frontier]]'' character Chief Engineer O'Bailey and his own struggle with [[spoiler:being a clone]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' Silco adopts orphan [[spoiler: Powder]] in part because he is projecting his past self onto her, seeing [[spoiler: Powder being abbandonned by her sister, Vi]] as the same as [[spoiler: himself being betrayed and almost killed by Vander, a man who was like a brother to him]]. He raises her clearly trying to make her strong, so the world won't hurt her, like he himself has become, going so far to even [[spoiler: baptize her in the same toxic waters where Vander almost killed him, as means to help her kill all remaining love for Vi the way he had to kill all positive feelings towards Vander]]. While she would claim [[spoiler: Silco did not mold her into Jinx, it is very clear he helped her adopt this MadBomber persona and his actions caused further deterioration of her mental state]].

** In "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", while offering Dipper a chance to be his apprentice, [[spoiler:Stanford]] ends up projecting his issues with [[spoiler: his twin brother, Stanley]] onto him. While he's not wrong that Dipper has a right to be his own person separate from Mabel, he also doesn't see how different their relationship is compared to his own broken relationship. [[spoiler: Ford gets better in the GrandFinale, deciding to work on reconnecting with Stan rather than run away from his issues.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Twilight's Kingdom" (parts 1 and 2). Discord ends up assuming Tirek appreciates their "friendship" as much as he does, but it turns out Tirek only wanted to use Discord for his own benefit.

** In "Lost In Language" AcademicAlphaBitch Amity Blight called [[NiceGirl Luz]] a bully due to her getting in trouble and embarrassed during their previous interactions, even though we see Amity [[CondescendingCompassion talking down]] to [[WeUsedToBeFriends her former best friend Willow]] for failing in school, [[KickTheDog smashed kings cupcake simply to spite Luz]] and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking nearly got her killed twice]] for the sake of [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex satisfying her own ego]], in reality Luz was trying to help her friends, stand up for them and make up with Amity, only for the latter's Jerkass behavior escalated the situations, [[NeverMyFault blame Luz for all those incidents instead of seeing that she did that to herself]], [[ItsAllAboutMe focused solely on how she was affected]] and [[NoSocialSkills refused to talk to Luz]] or even [[NoListeningSkills listen to her perspective]], it wasn't until the end of the episode that Amity gradually started to see this and had a HeelRealization.
** In "Keeping Up A-fear-ances", a moping Lilith bums King out by projecting her issues with her negligent mother onto his missing father, denouncing King's father for not being there to see his son hatch--even though, at the time, she had no way of knowing the circumstances behind the disappearance of King's father [[spoiler: and indeed it does turn out to be nothing like that]].
** In "Eclipse Lake", Hunter believes that Luz's strange emoji messages to Amity are a cryptic warning to come back with results or there will be consequences, because that's what [[BigBad Belos]] would tell him. Amity initially believes him not only because of her own self-worth issues, but also because [[PoorCommunicationKills Luz never told Amity how to read the messages.]] King helps Amity realize Luz's messages have no ill intent, and Hunter's views are based on his own twisted experiences with Belos. [[note]] While Hunter is wrong about the messages' meaning, the ''way'' he interprets them (based on the images themselves) is admittedly more logical than the way they're supposed to be interpreted (turning the message sideways so the emojis look like letters, spelling out a written message) [[/note]]
** In "Follies at the Coven Day Parade", Luz projects her worries about the promise she made to her mother onto Kikimora's FamilyVersusCareer issue, and becomes firmly convinced that if she can solve Kiki's problem then that'll be proof that her turmoil can be resolved. [[spoiler: It's only when Kikimora gladly abandons her family over the chance for a promotion that Luz realizes their situations are NotSoSimilar.]]
** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Good Witch Azura]]'', usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode ''Thanks to Them'', where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler: being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fear her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler: was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and the world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura The Movie 2: the Betrayeing'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler: fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abbandon her]]. This is contrasted within the same episode with [[spoiler: Hunter]] who manages to work out some of [[spoiler: his own issues about being a Grimwalker created by Belos]] by projecting on ''[[WhereNoParodyHasGoneBefore Galactic Frontier]]'' character Chief Engineer O'Bailey and his own struggle with [[spoiler: being a clone]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' Silco adopts orphan [[spoiler: Powder]] in part because he is projecting his past self onto her, seeing [[spoiler: Powder being abbandonned by her sister, Vi]] as the same as [[spoiler: himself being betrayed and almost killed by Vander, a man who was like a brother to him]]. He raises her clearly trying to make her strong, so the world won't hurt her, like he himself has become, going so far to even [[spoiler: baptize her in the same toxic waters where Vander almost killed him, as means to help her kill all remaining love for Vi the way he had to kill all positive feelings towards Vander]]. While she would claim [[spoiler: Silco did not mold her into Jinx, it is very clear he helped her adopt this MadBomber person and his actions caused further deterioration of her mental state]].

** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Good Witch Azura]]'', usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode ''Thanks to Them'', where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler: being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fear her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler: was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and the world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura The Movie 2: the Betrayeing'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler: fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abbandon her]].

** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Good Witch Azura]], usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode ''Thanks to Them'', where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler: being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fear her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler: was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and the world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura The Movie 2: the Betrayeing'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler: fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abbandon her]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' Silco adopts orphan [[spoiler: Powder]] in part because he is projecting his past self onto her, seeing [[spoiler: Powder being abbandonned by her sister, Vi]] as the same as [[spoiler: himself being betrayed and almost killed by Vander, a man who was like a brother to him]]. He raises her clearly trying to make her strong, so the world won't hurt her, like he himself has become, going so far to even [[spoiler: baptize her in the same toxic waters where Vander almost killed him, as means to help her kill all remaining love for Vi the way he had to kill all positive feelings towards Vander]]. While she would claim [[spoiler: Silcon did not mold her into Jinx, it is very clear his actions caused further deterioration of her mental state]].

** Over the course of the series Luz often projects situations from her favorite book series, ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Good Witch Azura]], usually projecting the titular character onto herself. Then comes Season 3 episode ''Thanks to Them'', where Luz is spiralling into guilt over [[spoiler: being tricked into helping Emperor Belos]] and fear her friends will hate her if they ever find out. We see how bad has her mental state gotten when she first projects on an unnamed hero of a book discussed in the classroom, ranting how he [[spoiler: was always someone else's UnwittingPawn, made things worse wherever he'd go and world would be better off if he was never born]] and then, watching ''Good Witch Azura The Movie 2: the Betrayeing'' starts projecting on treacherous character, Villainous Lucy [[spoiler: fearing that just as Azura swears to never forgive Lucy's betrayal, her friends will see her as Belos' willing accomplice and abbandon her]].

** In "Keeping Up A-fear-ances", a moping Lilith bums King out by projecting her issues with her negligent mother onto his missing father, denouncing King's father for not being there to see his son hatch--even though, at time, she had no way of knowing the circumstances behind the disappearance of King's father [[spoiler: and indeed it does turn out to be nothing like that]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E2GrowthSpoutStuckInTheWringer Stuck in the Wringer]]", the [[ApatheticCitizens townspeople]] get defensive when SpongeBob furiously berates Patrick for ruining his day by gluing him in the wringer and claim he "was born mean", [[{{Hypocrite}} despite ridiculing him over something that wasn't even their business]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Stuck in the Wringer", the [[ApatheticCitizens townspeople]] get defensive upon witnessing [=SpongeBob=] berating Patrick for ruining his day by gluing him in the wringer and claim he "was born mean", [[{{Hypocrite}} despite ridiculing him over something that wasn't even their business]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "Stuck in the Wringer", the [[ApatheticCitizens townspeople]] get defensive upon witnessing [=SpongeBob=] berating Patrick for ruining his day by gluing him in the wringer and claim he "was born mean", [[{{Hypocrite}} despite ridiculing him over something that wasn't even their business]].