Cowardly Lion / Western Animation

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• The Adventures of Figaro Pho: Figaro is afraid of everything, but that doesn't stop him from fighting back against the villains, especially when his Canine Companion Rivet is put in danger.
• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers has the Rangers' informant Geezy. He's frequently protesting about how the "hummings" willingly put themselves in danger, even more frequently protesting that Humanity Is Insane... but if the chips are truly down? He'll put his oversized trunk on the line and get the job done.
• The Brothers Flub: Fraz constantly panics over the thought of dying or having bad luck, but when his brother is in danger he faces it in stride.
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: For someone who's frightened of pretty much everything (on top of being The Load, The Dragalong, and their resident Butt-Monkey), Brenda Chance is a textbook example.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage may be scared of the many horrors he comes across, but he always comes back to save his family and home. It's to the point that he's even called "Leone" (Italian word for "lion") in the Italian dub from the saying "courageous like a lion".
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: Zilly was hypnotized into being brave in the episode ''Zilly's a Dilly,' but he only made things worse.
• Dave the Barbarian is this in its purest form. Best demonstrated in the episode Red Sweater of Courage, where upon donning the eponymous garb he loses all sense of fear and becomes a Blood Knight, faces most of his Rogues Gallery at once, and gets his butt kicked. Upon losing the sweater, he immediately cowers as normal before immediately coming up with a creative plan that uses one of his many, many girly hobbies to defeat the villains and save the day.
  • Lampshaded right in the theme song: Dave the Barbarian,/Huge, but a wimp...
• Filmation's Ghostbusters featured Eddie Spencer. Eddie was always a lot more timid and uncertain about taking on Prime Evil's minions than his teammates Jake and Tracy, but they knew he'd always be there when they needed him.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Eduardo is easily frightened, but when someone he loves is in trouble, he shows that his muscular upper body and huge horns are not there for show. He was actually created by a little girl to protect herself from street kids, but when he ended up becoming afraid of them, she ended up becoming the one protecting him. She credits his existence as how she became braver (and eventually, a cop).
• Futurama portrays Fry this way when he isn't a Dirty Coward. He’s scared of almost everything (when he's not being too brainless to understand that there's something to be afraid of) and tends to hide behind Leela or run away when things get hairy, but when it comes down to it will do anything, up to and including sacrificing his own life more than once, for his friends.
• Wade Duck from the U.S. Acres segments of Garfield and Friends is a cowardly craven duck. However, he can show to have courage and face his fears, when he puts his mind to it. And at times, when his friends are in trouble, he tends to put his fears aside and help them. In "Rainy Day Robot", he even forgot at first, that he's afraid of rain, when hanging out with Roy.
• Gumby: Unlike his best friend Gumby, Pokey would rather not go on adventures. That being said, he never leaves Gumby's side.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): Cringer arguably qualifies (well, cowardly tiger) although his bravery is usually in his Battle Cat persona.
• The Herbs has a Literal example in Parsley the lion who is, by his own admission, "not particularly brave"; he's very shy around new people and will run at the first sign of actual trouble. But when the other Herbs are in actual trouble, he displays not only bravery but a fair bit of cunning, too.
• Inspector Gadget: Brain the dog has been known to cower on more than one occasion, though he acts quite brave at other times.
• Johnny Test: Dukey is always the reluctant voice of reason but when he puts his mind to it, he can be pretty brave if Johnny is in danger.
• Kim Possible has Kim's sidekick (and eventual boyfriend) Ron Stoppable. Kim's younger cousin Joss originally idolized her as The Ace, but eventually comes to see her as somewhat of an Invincible Hero, and shifts her admiration to Ron instead, specifically because he's terrified of everything yet still fights alongside Kim anyway.
  • One-Shot Character Quinn runs and hides as soon as Junior displays a weapon in "And the Mole Rat will be CGI," but at the end of the climax, he leaves his hiding place to dramatically knock the gun out of Junior's hand.
• Lambert the Sheepish Lion: The titular lion is a literal example, until he becomes fully aware of his condition and scares the shit out of a hungry wolf threatening his adopted mother.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: Keyleth is a bit of a klutz who constantly doubts herself, frequently comments how terrified she is, and often instinctively curls up into a ball when things go south. She's also potentially the most powerful member of the team when she steps up, and they trust her to do so when it counts.
• Little Wizards: Boo is a Shrinking Violet who struggles with anxiety and a naturally nervous disposition, to the point of having invisibility as Personality Powers. But he always finds the courage to aid his friends when they need him, and is just as likely to stand up to Gump when he tries to be The Bully as he is to submit to him.
• The Lion Guard: One episode has a cowardly leopard named Badili, who is good-natured and hates to fight. He gets chased out of his own territory by a bigger bullying leopard plenty of times. But once he gets training from the Lion Guard, he comes back confident and ready to take back his territory.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Sunil is afraid of a large number of things, most of them with no explanation. However, on more than one occasion, he finds himself in a dangerous team situation and the only one in a position to do anything. In these situations, he invariably will find a way to resolve the matter and rescue his friends all by himself.
• Looney Tunes: The Shakespearan dog in the cartoon "A Ham in a Role" quotes from act 2, scene 2 of Julius Caesar:
  "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."
• The Magic School Bus: Arnold always complains that he "should've stayed home today." Was once willing to face a Tyrannosaurus rex to save his friends.
• Motorcity has Chuck, the Shaggy/Ron Stoppable-esque member of the Burners. He practically has a Stock Scream for whenever he's in the car with Mike Chilton. Also R.O.T.H., the Team Pet / Cute Machine.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Fluttershy. In "Dragonshy", she's literally paralyzed with fear at the thought of having to confront a grumpy full-grown dragon and convince him to leave Equestria. However, after the dragon attacks her friends, she forgets to be afraid and gives him such a talking-to he breaks down crying. To clarify the scale; she could easily have stood in the dragon's eye socket. Another time, she stared down and verbally berated a cockatrice, which had already turned her friend to stone, while it was in the process of turning her into stone as well. Good thing it started from the back.
  • And outside the realms of life-threatening fauna, Fluttershy can summon great reserves of self-confidence whenever her friends are in need while usually being very timid and, well, shy. While normally her reaction to public attention ranges from self-conscious awkwardness to full-blown panic attacks, in "Green Isn't Your Color" she continued to work as a very successful fashion model because she thought that's what her friend wanted, even though it made her extremely uncomfortable.
  • And, she has major confidence issues when it comes to flying, largely due to being bullied when she was young. If she's ever in a position to forget those issues, such as saving a baby bird falling out of a nest, or saving all of Equestria, she can keep up with or even out-fly RAINBOW DASH.
• Nature Cat: For a nature explorer, Nature Cat is shown to be afraid of danger around him, especially water. However, he has many moments to shine whenever the situation calls for it, such as helping his friends out in some episodes and overcoming his fear of water in others.
• The Octonauts: Peso is always weary of dangerous missions and often acts nervous and timid. He never, however, shies away when there's a sick or hurt creature who needs his help.
• Recess: Gus Griswald.
• Rick and Morty: Jerry Smith bounces between this and Dirty Coward depending on the circumstances. There are times when his family's safety is in danger that he takes up arms to save them, like in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez where he cowers for most of the episode only to take up arms and rescue Beth being held captive by her monstrous counterpart.
• Rugrats: Chuckie Finster. This might be why the second movie was enjoyed more by moviegoers (it focuses on him)... well, that and a good chunk of it was a Tear Jerker.
  • He definitely takes after his father, Chas Finster, who, while normally a seemingly spineless Nervous Wreck, has proven time and time again that he has a backbone. One notable example occurs towards the end of the episode "Family Feud," where Chas notices that the babies have wandered off unnoticed by their parents (as usual), only this time, it's because the Pickles and the DeVilles are having a feud, which Chas savagely tears apart! He, like most of the other fathers, has also been known to go Papa Wolf when he perceives that his son Chuckie is in grave danger. The fact that Chas' own father is much more conventionally badass doesn't hurt.
• Scooby-Doo: Shaggy and Scooby sometimes come across as this. They're cowards, but they'll never abandon their friends. ^note  Funnily enough, a Scooby actor, Frank Welker, once played the Cowardly Lion in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz before getting into voice-acting. Jack O'Lantern points this out in Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King...
  Jack: Are you kidding? You guys rescued me from the 'Brainless' Horseman, hello? That took real courage! And everybody knows courage is the most powerful magic of all.
  Shaggy: Like, I hate to tell you this, but that wasn't courage. That was panic!
  Jack: Hey, whatever you call it, it's working for you.
  • This was averted at one point in the first live-action movie, where Shaggy was perfectly willing to leave Fred and Velma behind to save himself. It's then played straight, though, as Daphne talks him out of it, and after the other members of Mystery Inc. get captured, Shaggy is the one who ultimately sets it right. And as soon as he learns Scooby is going to be sacrificed, he's the first one to decide to save him.
  • The theme song of the original show even acknowledges Scooby's potential for great courage.
  Scooby Dooby Doo, here are you
  You're ready and you're willing
  If we can count on you, Scooby Doo
  I know we'll catch that villain
  • What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In "Homeward Hound", Scooby has to protect himself and six innocent puppies from dognappers. When a monstrous Cat Creature menaces the pups and their mother, Scooby doesn't waste any time being afraid, and tackles the beast onto a cart, then crashes it to immobilize the monster. Scooby may run to save himself, but don't menace puppies in font of him.
  • Played for Laughs in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Nightfright" with Vincent Price expy Vincent Van Ghoul. He's shown to be an even bigger chicken than Shaggy & Scooby, but when it comes time to trap the Monster of the Week haunting him, he effortlessly uses his acting skills to act completely disinterested in the threat twice his size to its face, even telling it off for being rude as it's reduced to pathetically begging him to be afraid. Once the ordeal is over however, he confesses he came close to wetting himself.
  • in Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur has Shaggy hypnotized for part of the movie, but it wears off at a critical moment when Shaggy has to make an absolutely massive jump over a raging river in a collapsing cave. Despite having lost his bravery, Fred convinces Shaggy to make the jump to save everybody. Absolutely terrified, Shaggy makes the massive jump and manages to get to safety over a crumbling cave wall and gets help, saving everybody.
    Fred: If you don't to it, we're all gonna die!
    Shaggy: Look how far it is, Fred! I'm not gonna make it!
    Fred: You can do it! You made a bigger jump than that a few minutes ago!
    Shaggy: Whatever! That's when I was the other guy! You know, the brave one!
    Fred: I don't know much about hypnosis, Shaggy, but I know one thing: It cannot make you do things you couldn't do without it! All that stuff you did when you were brave, it was you! It's inside you, you just have to let it out!
• She-Ra: Princess of Power: Kowl and Sorrowful the Dragon.
• Sofia the First: In "Make Way for Miss Nettle", Desmond is afraid of many things, but with Sofia's encouragement, he overcomes them to help her and James take the spell book back from Miss Nettle.
• Tweek Tweak in South Park. His excessive fear comes from his paranoia.
• Steven Universe:
  • Lars had given into fear every time he'd had to face it up until the episode "Off Colors". After Steven tells him it's okay to be scared, he gathers his courage and — after seeing the Rutile Twins being targeted by the shattering robonoids — leaps into battle. He gets the robonoids away from the Rutiles, gets Padparadsha out of harm's way and stops the scanner from seeing Rhodonite by holding himself in front of her gems (the scanners can't see him due to his lack of gemstone). He leaps onto the final robonoid and jams a pointed rock into its eye, causing it to explode. Unfortunately, human bodies don't take well to getting caught in the center of an explosion. Lars dies on the spot. Luckily, Steven manages to resurrect him, and Lars Comes Back Stronger mentally as well as physically, displaying far more (self-)confidence in his subsequent appearances.
  • Peridot as well after she joined the Crystal Gems, a good example is when she is being hunted by a ruby squad after insulting Yellow Diamond (Or at least that's what she thinks) she spends most of the encounter hiding in the barn but when the rubies fuse into a giant and are about to fight the Crystal Gems she immediately runs out and offers herself to them in exchange for the safety of the gems. However, her ego is such that once she gains some power and self-confidence, she skips straight to being a Boisterous Weakling.
• Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters: Wingspan evolves from a total worrywart, to one who'll willingly take some risks, both in and out of battle.
• Early TV star Tom Terrific had the ironically-named Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, who always suggested avoiding the adventure of the day.
• The Transformers: The Sweeps are sometimes portrayed this way, especially in the episode Starscream's Ghost.
  Cyclonus: (hunting for Octane in the Decepticon Crypt) How dare you disgrace your ancestors by cowering like a pocket computer!" (to himself) "He's worse than the Sweeps!
  • Justified in that a few episodes ago they went to the Autobot Mausoleum, and got their skidplates kicked by Zombie Optimus Prime. So who knows what would have been lurking in the Decepticon Crypt?
• The Venture Bros. has Dean Venture, in contrast to his Fearless Fool brother, Hank.

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