History WesternAnimation / BraveStarr

* CatsAreMean: Klawto, an evil, [[PettingZooPeople felinoid]] alien wizard, and the felinoid Krang warriors.

* PettingZooPeople: Half of the alien races in the show are just anthropomorphic versions of Earth animals; The Equesteroids are horses (albeit cyborg ones), the Dingos are coyotes, the Krang are cats, the Fuffta are sheep, Hawgtie is a pig, etc. Several one-off and background characters have also appeared as various anthropomorphic rodents and reptiles.

* {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s: The Krang, a race of [[PettingZooPeople cat guys.]]

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: [[MisplacedWildlife Dingo]] Dan, one of the series regulars, is an [[PettingZooPeople anthropomorphic dingo]] who can magically disguise himself as a human.

** Evidently, the Prairie People {{do not like shoes}}.

* BadassGrandpa: The Shaman, when he needs to be.

* [[BarefootCartoonAnimal Barefoot Cartoon Aliens]]:

* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: In "Night of the Bronco Tank", Stampede creates a mechanical monstrosity to destroy Bravestarr and finally take over New Texas. Once the Bronco Tank becomes powerful enough, it decides to go after Stampede as well and rule New Texas itself.

* UngratefulBastard: A Fuffta parent chastises Bravestarr for using weapons and violence to rescue him and his people in ''The Ballad of Sarah Jane'' instead of thanking him for saving his life and the lives of his fellow Fufftas.

** Again, "The Price". Unlike most 80's examples it makes it point but doesn't pull any punches while doing it.
** Not to mention how Outlaw Scuzz is a heavy smoker who practically wheezes every time he talks.[[note]] This was intentional though; [[WordofGod Erika Schiemer]] on the movie's commentary track, mentions that they wanted to show kids the dangers of smoking, so they frequently had the other bad guys berate Scuzz for his habit (see below) and showed him coughing or wheezing to show that smoking isn't cool.[[/note]]

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsright: One episode has a prospector stake a claim on Star Peak after he finds the Kerium deposits under the mountain. Tex Hex attempts to steal the claim for himself and evict Shaman. Bravestarr is torn between the law and his friendship to Shaman, and is unsure what to do, even quitting as marshal. To help Bravestarr, Shaman reminds him of a time as a child when he got into trouble for swimming in a lake sacred to the tribe. Young Bravestarr states he wasn't swimming for fun, he saw a young bird had been injured and was drowning and swam in to save it, even questioning if a life is more important then the tribes rules. Shaman tells the adult Bravestarr to think again about if the rules are more important then a drowning bird.

* SoreLoser: "Fallen Idol" showed how the Pride of one made a BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: Jingles Morgan lost a fighting match and fell off a bridge into mud. People laughed at his defeat, even his victorious opponent (which seems too close to UnsportsmanlikeGloating). In a moment of UncontrollableRage, he grabbed his nearby disintegrator pistol and blasted the opponent with it, killing him.]]

** Again, "The Price".

* DownerEnding: "The Price".

** In "Nomad is an Island", Queen Singlish character design looked every bit the stereotypical BDSM dominatrix.

** Somewhat in "Nomad is an Island" despite the fact that Queen Singlish's "only two subjects" didn't really seem to respect her much to begin with, their [[IKissYourFoot superficial token groveling]] notwithstanding. Also, they seemed well aware of the fact that she needed them more than they needed her. [[WhosLaughingNow It hardly come as any shock]] that at the end of the episode after her defeat, there's a slight [[TheCoup change in how things are done]] aboard the island.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Somewhat in "Nomad is an Island" despite the fact that Queen Singlish's "only two subjects" didn't really seem to respect her much to begin with, their [[IKissYourFoot superficial token groveling]] notwithstanding. Also, they seemed well aware of the fact that she needed them more than they needed her. [[WhosLaughingNow It hardly come as any shock]] that at the end of the episode after her defeat, there's a slight [[TheCoup change in how things are done]] aboard the island.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In "Bravestarr and the Law", Tex Hex's claim is fairly adjudicated in court, and this is as it should be. This said, he is a wanted criminal. Not an alleged one. He is minimally a person of interest in dozens of cases - one known to the judge since she was a kid - to be detained on much firmer ground than many people in real life are for much less. Even if his claim had been legit and judged in his favor, he should have been hearing about this victory while indictments flowed like prospectors to a kerium strike.

** Judge [=MacBride=] often rides out with Bravestarr. Judges aren't supposed to take part in the policework so they can remain impartial during the trial.

* BrokenAesop: The episode "Bravestarr and the Law", in which the AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment has Bravestarr talking about how one should always obey the law even if you don't agree with it. However, in the episode (in which Shaman is about to be evicted), he's ready and willing to quit his job as a lawman, but stops short of (and anguishes over) actually ''breaking'' the law up until the true facts are revealed and Shaman's home is no longer endangered. On top of this, the intended message is brought across in a confusing way. Bravestarr goes back to his job not so much because of a respect for the law per se as because he realizes that without him as Marshal, not only Shaman but all of society is in danger from Tex Hex. Furthermore, there is a strong dissonance between the very explicit message at the end of the episode that we should obey the law even if we don't agree with it and the shaman's invitation to Bravestarr to consider for himself what he should do in the situation he was in, accompanied by the arguably confusing and morally ambiguous analogy of Bravestarr having had to ponder as a boy whether it was justified to rescue a bird by disturbing the sacred water it was drowning in. On the whole a rather difficult story to digest for an adult, let alone for a kid.

* CourtroomEpisode: Used in "Tex But No Hex", where the people of Fort Kerium finally take Tex Hex to court for his crimes after Stampede strips him of his powers to teach him a lesson. Tex manages to get his minion Hawgtie onto the jury, which essentially guarantees a hung jury. [[spoiler: Hawgtie votes him guilty after Bravestarr reminds him what a dick Tex is to him.]]

* DrugsAreBad: Again, "The Price".

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the first episode, Bravestarr notices and becomes interested in J.B. the first time he sees her... which is while she's facing away from him and slightly bent over.

* GRatedDrug: Subverted in "The Price".

* TheUndertaker: In "Bravestarr: The Movie", a corpse-like robot wearing a top hat takes an unsolicited measurement of Handlebar after he threatens to deal with Tex Hex's gang himself. Then, when Tex Hex appears and tells the crowd that he is now the law, the undertaker starts offering his business card.

** Exceptions: Skuzz speaks perfect English in a few episodes ("The Witnesses" and "Who Am I?") as well as his anti-smoking AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment. He even manages to snark at Thirty-Thirty in "Fallen Idol" when the latter [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collapses the tunnel the pair are using by being trigger-happy]], saying "There; now you happy? From now on, leave digging to ''experts'': me!" in clear English albeit with his standard accent.

** Exceptions: Skuzz speaks perfect English in a few episodes ("The Witnesses" and "Who Am I?") as well as his anti-smoking AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment.

* TheUndertaker: In "Bravestarr: The Movie", a corpse-like robot wearing a top hat takes an unsolicited measurement of Handlebar after he threatens to deal with Tex Hex's gang himself. Then, when Tex Hex appears and tells the crowd that he is now the law, the undertaker start offering his business card.

* Undertaker: In "Bravestarr: The Movie", a corpse-like robot wearing a top hat takes an unsolicited measurement of Handlebar after he threatens to deal with Tex Hex's gang himself. Then, when Tex Hex appears and tells the crowd that he is now the law, the undertaker start offering his business card.

* WhamEpisode: "The Price". You think you're in for another preachy DrugsAreBad episode, but then the ending ''hits you like a '' ''[[TearJerker nuclear blast of feels]]''. [[spoiler: The episode deals with a kid who is turned onto a topical controlled substance called Spin. The perps are caught but the tag is tainted: The boy is found in his treehouse, dead of a Spin overdose. The episode ends with the boy's mother in agonized hysteria, with the final "pro-social message" scene showing Bravestarr laying a wreath at the boy's grave.]]

* WeirdWest: Drop that the setting is InSpace and you have a cartoon about a MagicalNativeAmerican marshall and his belligeraet talking horse fighting a zombie cowboy wizard, his posse of outlaws (one of which [Hawgtie] is an orc), and their dragon boss.

* {{Homage}}: The series homages many old classic [[TheWildWest Westerns.]] Most notably, the whole set-up of a a single Marshall and his somewhat comical deputy defending a [[CityOfAdventure little frontier town,]] full of quirky locals and regularly visited by interesting characters passing through, is from ''[[Series/{{Gunsmoke}} Gunsmoke]];'' and the regular flashbacks to Bravestarr's youth spent learning from an exotic wise man, the Shaman, are from ''Series/KungFu.''

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler: Subverted in "The Price." Jay, a pre-teen/teenage boy, dies.]]

* {{Homage}}: The series homages many old classic [[TheWildWest Westerns.]] Most notably, the whole set-up of a a single marshall and his somewhat comical deputy defending a [[CityOfAdventure little frontier town,]] full of quirky locals and regularly visited by interesting characters passing through, is from ''[[Series/{{Gunsmoke}} Gunsmoke]];'' and the regular flashbacks to Bravestarr's youth spent learning from an exotic wise man, the Shaman, are from ''Series/KungFu.''

** In "Big Thirty and Little Wimble", when Thirty-Thirty is teaching Wimble how to use his gun Sarah Jane, as he is saying "And this here is how you cock it", there is a big, cactus-like plant behind him that looks distinctly phallic.

* WeirdWest: Drop that the setting is InSpace and you have a cartoon about a MagicalNativeAmerican sheriff and his belligerant talking horse fighting a zombie cowboy wizard, his posse of outlaws (one of which-Hawgtie-is an orc), and their dragon boss.

** Exceptions: Skuzz speaks perfect English in several episodes ("The Witnesses" and "Who Am I?") as well as his anti-smoking AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment.

* WeirdWest: Drop that the setting is InSpace and you have a cartoon about a MagicalNativeAmerican marshal and his belligerant talking horse fighting a zombie cowboy wizard, his posse of outlaws (one of which-Hawgtie-is an orc), and their dragon boss.