Fire Forged Friends / Western Animation

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• Angel Wars:
  • After a dangerous mission where Eli and Kira have to work together to destroy a monster, they admit they make a good team despite their contrasting personalities. This was after a heated argument where Kira declared she wanted to ask for another partnet.
  • It's heavily implied The Maker King Himself invoked this trope by putting the two of them on missions together, based on a discussion Michael had with Arianna after he sent them on their first mission.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang and Zuko are literally Fire Forged Friends, since both of them can firebend. Unlike typical instances of this trope, their progression from enemies to allies was more gradual, involving several battles where they ended up saving each other. It basically went like this:
  • Up until "The Blue Spirit," Zuko had been single-mindedly pursuing Aang, because he believed he had to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor. Once Aang was captured by Zhao, however, he knew that all his hopes would be ruined if he didn't do something. Not one to take things lying down, Zuko disguised himself as the Blue Spirit and helped to liberate Aang from his prison, with the ulterior motive of capturing the Avatar himself once they escaped. Near the end of the episode, Aang asks Zuko if he thought they could have been friends had circumstances been different.
  • In "Siege of the North, Part 2," despite Zuko having battled with Katara and knocked her unconscious before absconding with Aang's body while he was in the Spirit World, Aang refuses to leave Zuko out in a blizzard to die. This allows Zuko to escape with his uncle.
  • Almost an entire season later, in "Lake Laogai," Zuko frees Appa from the Dai Li, enabling Appa to swoop in at the last minute in a Big Damn Heroes moment, saving the Gaang. It was at his uncle's insistence, but still, he's the one who made the choice.
  • In "The Crossroads of Destiny," Aang and Iroh team up in order to save the people dearest to them, Katara and Zuko, who are being imprisoned by Zuko's younger sister, Azula. This was supposed to mark Zuko's Heel–Face Turn, but Azula convinces him to join her side with the promise of securing their father's love, which was the one thing Zuko always (thought he) wanted. This delayed the "friends" part for over half of the following season.
  • In "The Western Air Temple," Zuko, having stood up to his father and proudly declaring that he is going to join the Avatar and his friends, tries to do so, offering to teach Aang firebending. They completely reject him. Near the end of the episode, he proves his intentions are true by helping to save them from Sparky Sparky Boom Man Combustion Man, the assassin that he hired at the beginning of the season. When Aang sees that Zuko understands what a tremendous responsibility he has vowed to take on, he seals their friendship with: "I think you are supposed to be my firebending teacher."
  • Similarly, Zuko's going on "field trips" with Sokka and Katara, to break their father out of prison and find their mother's murderer, respectively, help them overcome their distrust out of them.
• Code Lyoko: in the beginning, the kids weren't very loyal to each other, and worked more like a team of convenience than friends. They never hesitated to kick someone out of the group when they crossed a line, such as when Ulrich used the Time Travel program to cheat on the lottery, and when XANA convinced them Jérémie was toying with their safety. In fact, XANA's plots frequently involved trying to break the team up, and worked quite well each time, for a while. Played straight later on thanks to Character Development, things have changed, especially in the Season 2 finale. On the up-side, this provides a pleasant break from The Power of Friendship message that's reiterated Once an Episode in most Five-Man Band shows. It's worth noting that before coming together as a team, Jeremie and Yumi were friendless social outcasts and Aelita was trapped in a computer for ten years. Although the fact they're doing it all to help Aelita in the first place brings them right back into Power of Friendship territory. As the flashback episode shows, the reason they are antagonistic to Sissi is because she betrayed that trust. Otherwise, she might be a part of the group or at least a Secret-Keeper.
  • The group's status as this is cemented in the finale of the original series when Jeremie confides in Yumi that the reason he doesn't want to shut off the computer despite having defeated XANA is because he fears the rest of the group abandoning him; she's immediately sympathetic at this reveal as opposed to her earlier irritation and reassures him that that will never happen.
• Delta State, Martin, Luna, Claire, and Phillip do not know each other well at first and it shows due to them snarking at each other more, as time goes on, they become quite close to each other. This is also true for Brodie, as the others had to learn to trust him.
• In this case, reforged in Hilda. Frida was friends with Hilda and David before (with the latter already before the start of the series), until the debacle with the ghosts in episode 9 severely strained that friendship. But when the Marra ditch her and Hilda and David rescue her from the Black Hound, Frida finally admits they were right and reconciles with them.
• In Josie and the Pussycats, the Pussycats, their manager, and roadie towards Alexandra.
• Justice League, "The Terror Beyond": Solomon Grundy fights against the Eldritch Abominations alongside the League, and strikes up a friendship with Hawkgirl in particular. He gets mortally wounded fighting Ichthultu and indirectly rescuing Hawkgirl. She comforted him in his final moments. Hawkgirl still considers him a friend in the much later episode "Wake the Dead".
  Solomon Grundy: Bird-nose help Grundy? But Bird-nose and her friends hate Grundy.
  Hawkgirl: Grundy help Bird-nose, Bird-nose help Grundy, okay? Excuse me, Hawkgirl smash.
  • In the first episode this is the way the league is formed.
• Subverted in the second season finale of Megas XLR. After the Glorft commander and Coop work together against Coop's evil alternate universe self, the Glorft commander extends his mech's hand in friendship. Just as Coop is about to accept, he trips in his giant mech, and because of that activates a weapon that destroys most of the Glorft's mech army. Naturally, the friendship is called off.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Twilight Sparkle didn't want anything to do with five other quirky ponies who want to be friends with her, even the fact that they're all willing to accompany her through the forest. However, the ensuing adventure helps her connect with them and actually start regarding them as her True Companions.
  • This also applies to the rest of the Main Six. Although they previously had a broad knowledge of each other's existence, with some of them even explicitly shown to have a prior connection, many of them (like Applejack and Rarity) would probably not have been friends before the events with Nightmare Moon.
  • In Season 9, Grogar forces this upon the other villains, as he believes this is the only way for them to succeed.
• Pluto the Pup and the armadillo in Pluto and the Armadillo. When they first meet, the armadillo messes with Pluto by pretending to be a ball (she's rolled up into one when Pluto first finds her), and once she unfurls, she makes it clear that she likes Pluto. Pluto is initially suspicious of it, but the armadillo wins him over by batting her eyes at him, and the two dive underground and chase after each other. When the armadillo laughs at Pluto, he becomes angry and pursues her, but she's apparently still having fun. The armadillo turns into a ball and rolls into a small cave, leaving Pluto's identical-looking rubber ball in plain sight. Pluto mistakes the ball for the armadillo and attacks it, popping it, then becomes convinced that he tore apart the armadillo and is horrified. Eventually the armadillo shows up again, and Pluto is so happy that it licks her face. The armadillo then proceeds to turn into a ball again, and after watching her roll around for a few seconds Pluto promptly turns into a ball himself. The two balls rolls around bumping into each other a few times, then unfurl back into a dog and an armadillo and continue to dance. The armadillo eventually ends up joining Pluto and Mickey on the plane ride home.
• Early in the first season of ReBoot in the episode "The Tiff", Bob and Dot get into an argument so bad that they both refuse to ever see each other again. Their friends panic that Bob might leave Mainframe so Enzo enacts a series of Zany Scheme meant to get them to either apologize or invoke this trope, failing utterly on both counts. Eventually they get trapped together in a game, the trope taking full effect and their teamwork saves both the day and their friendship (to say nothing of their unresolved sexual tension)
• Samurai Jack: Jack and the Scotsman first meet halfway across a ridiculously long (and thin) bridge, each man going in the opposite direction. A fight breaks out as they try to decide who should turn back first to let the other cross, before they are set upon and chained together by bounty hunters. The resulting Enemy Mine results in a rather strong friendship, and they meet again a few times through the series to engage in some Back to Back Badassery.
  • Season 5 has Jack with Ashi, one of the Daughters of Aku who tried to kill him.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Despite being on opposite sides of the war, Scorpia and Seahawk bond during a battle against a robotic monster that threatens both sides, the two becoming close after discussing how they feel under appreciated by their respective friends.
  • In the Crimson Waste, Adora and and Huntara battle each other after Huntara betrays them. During the fight, Huntara realizes how similar she is to Adora, and betrays her former allies to save Bow and Glimmer. She later joins the Rebllion.
  • Nearly all of the princesses come from kingdoms who are skeptical of a new Princess Alliance, usually only joining Adora after fighting alongside her in battle.
• Averted in the "Mountain of Madness" episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer and Mr. Burns are trapped together in a cabin by an avalanche, when Mr. Burns says, "...once you've been through something like that with a person, you never want to see that person again."
• Zeb and Kallus begin Star Wars Rebels as bitter enemies, each harboring deep resentment over the conflict they fought in on Lasan. When circumstances force them to work together, they develop a degree of respect for one another. Then Kallus pulls his Heel–Face Turn and the two are once again forced to work together. Over the next two seasons, they grow closer, and by the time of the series finale they’ve effectively become Heterosexual Life-Partners. Notably, when the rest of the Ghost crew goes their separate ways, Zeb and Kallus instead stick together and head off to Lira San.
• Steven Universe:
  • When Peridot is forced to work with the Crystal Gems to survive the Cluster, she grows close enough to them to try to get Homeworld to spare Earth, and join the Crystal Gems permanently when that fails.
  • While Lars' opinion of Steven had greatly improved by the fourth season finale, after he and Steven escape being captured by Homeworld together, Lars is outright willing to put his life on the line for him.
• Ilana and Lance are this in Sym-Bionic Titan. While Octus is more willing to cooperate with them, they hardly know each other at the beginning of the show and conflict with their battle methods in the third episode. It's Octus teaching them how to cooperate, then defeating Mutraddi together that allow them to get along much better.
• Superman: The Animated Series had the episode "Girls' Night Out," where Supergirl must team up with Batgirl to take on the Terrible Trio of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Livewire (who'd escaped from Metropolis and headed to Gotham). Kara and Barbara admit they have Mutual Envy for each other's circumstances: Kara likes the energy and excitement of Gotham, Barbara likes the simpler life of Smallville that also has fresh air and blue skies. The Justice League episode "Comfort and Joy" have Ma and Pa tell Clark that Kara went with Barbara skiing for Christmas.
• In the Thomas & Friends episode "Down The Mine", Thomas and Gordon become one after Gordon helped Thomas from the mine accident, and when the two engine realized that they are in disgrace for their misbehavior (Gordon had fallen into a ditch after refusing to pull trucks, which Thomas teased him about it previously on said episode). This is even intriguing considering the two engines had a disagreement in "Thomas and Gordon", the pilot episode. In "Paint Pots & Queen", Gordon even reminded Thomas of their alliance as the two returned to the sheds.
  • Gordon and James became this in "James and the Express" after the former teased the latter about his incident with the coaches and that a passenger's bootlace was used to mend their pipes. It only took Gordon's embarrassing incident in being reverted back to the station for him and James' success in pulling Gordon's Express for him to gain the big blue engine's respect.
• Duncan and Beth become friends in the Grand Finale of Total Drama Action.
• Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime of Transformers: Animated. Since Sentinel is a Jerkass to the nth degree, this trope is more or less the only thing keeping them friends.

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