Friend Or Idol Decisions made in Western Animation.
- Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: In "Krumm Gets Ahead", Krumm gets a prosthetic head to hold his eyes so that he has better use of his arms, but this causes problems, between both his newfound vanity for it and it interfering with the scares that he, Ickis, and Oblina are assigned to. Near the end of the episode, Ickis and Oblina get trapped in a car full of tin cans that's about to get crushed in a compactor. When Krumm comes to save them, he loses his prosthetic head, which is in danger of being crushed by a car suspended above it. Krumm has to choose between saving his friends or saving his prosthetic head, and inevitably ends up doing the former.
- Adventure Time: Finn, Jake, and four Hot Dog Knights go into a labyrinth searching for wishes, the first two hoping to get a psychic double-head war elephant. Jake stretches his body to have a lifeline back to the start and by the time they get a chance for a wish each two of the hot dogs had died and Jake was dying from overstretching himself. Finn was hoping to use his wish to bring Jake back to life while Jake wished for the elephant, but then the two hot dogs and Jake wished for a box, to blow up (he meant to get big but that didn't matter), and for a sandwich, respectively.
Faced with deciding whether to save his friend or get what they came for, Finn wishes for the elephant, by Jake's suggestion, then convinces the elephant to use ITS wish to revive everyone then fly out of there to the Labyrinth guardian's great frustration.- Aquandrius: No! You weren’t supposed to have your wishes come true! You were supposed to die!
- Amphibia:
- Near the end of "Prison Break" once all is taken care off, Sasha is finally released from Grime's prison but he surprises her with an ultimatum: either she can go off free, or stay with him as his lieutenant. She chooses the latter, setting her up as the secondary antagonist for the show.
- In "Wally and Anne", Anne has to pick whether to take a picture of the moss man or save Wally from falling off the cliff. She chooses the latter.
- Arcane: A villainous example. Jayce offers Silco a deal, giving in to every single one of his demands in return for the end of Shimmer production and Jinx to face trial for her crimes. Despite being The Unfettered with everything he has ever wanted within reach, Silco finds that he cannot go through with it if it means betraying his daughter.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Zuko has a choice between going after the Avatar, whose capture would restore his honor, or saving his uncle Iroh who has been imprisoned by the Earth Kingdom. After much agonizing, he chooses Iroh.
- Zuko later faces the same choice, between joining Azula against the Avatar (thus restoring his honor) and helping his imprisoned uncle. He chooses Azula, although he has a Heel Realization in the next season.
- It seems to run in the family. His great-grandfather Sozin had to choose between saving his former best friend's life or letting him die to the poisonous gases of a volcanic eruption to pursue his dreams of conquest. Said friend was Avatar Roku, who had previously spared his life when he first began his world conquest and saved his life again during their joint efforts to stop said eruption. He chose ambition, though he would realize near his own life's end that it wasn't worth it.
- The Legend of Korra: Team Avatar manage to kidnap Kuvira's fiancé, Baatar Jr., and demand that she stop her conquest of Republic City and give herself up or she'll never see him again. She feigns the first choice, but sneakily aims her Wave-Motion Gun at their building in an attempt to Shoot the Hostage. Everyone survives but it results in Baatar Jr. turning against her when he sees Kuvira was fully willing to sacrifice him in pursuit of her Earth Empire.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Plastic Man (who is obsessed with money) has to choose between taking the villain's gold/jewels or saving Batman, who was a great friend/mentor and kept giving him chances to better himself, even helping him get out of prison. He saves Batman of course but is distracted by the loot for a bit, so by the time he reaches Batman, he had already been turned into an ape. Luckily, the treasure helped him fight off the villain and his henchmen and the transformation was reversed.
- Ben 10: Max Tennyson experiences one of these in the episode "Ultimate Weapon". The episode centers around Max chasing after the only object he failed to acquire during his time as a Plumber. Near the end he has the choice of grabbing it or saving Ben. Obviously he saves his grandson. The artifact later is revealed to have aged to the point of crumbling into dust when the leader of the Forever Knights holds it.
- Big City Greens:
- In "Steak Night", Cricket decides to leave the steak behind and get sploshed by the incoming subway train, finally learning that it's not the steak that matters, but the family who eats it.
- In "Photo Op", Bill tricks the family into thinking they were going to the food court at the mall, only to lure them to a photo studio so they could get a family portrait, and he doesn't have enough money for both. The rest of the family, furious at Bill for tricking them, tries to escape, but fail. After dragging the family back to the studio for the portrait, Bill decides not to buy it after seeing how sad they were and takes them to the food court instead, learning that it's best to see his family naturally happy rather than make them happy himself. Tilly decides to get the family portrait anyway in a photo booth.
- In "Blood Moon", Cricket decides against spending the candy he earned in favor of sacrificing himself with Bill, because he wouldn't spend Halloween without him. Naturally, the blood moon ends right when they are about to accept their fates.
- In "Elevator Action", Gloria has to pick either to return her apartment key or not. She chooses the latter, upon realizing how much the Greens have done for her.
- In "Green Christmas" when Cricket realizes the error of his ways and faces the prospect of not getting any presents, he encounters the real Santa who presents him with a gift which will grant him anything he desires. However, he rejects it, as he decides to use the wish for Tilly to be back on the nice list, as the best gift doesn't come from a box. The wish is granted, and because of this selfless act of putting Tilly's needs before his, it puts him on the nice list as well.
- Implied in "Friend Con" as Gramma was forced to decide between her swag and her son, ultimately choosing the latter.
- In "Dolled Up", Bill is forced to pick either the dollhouse he built, or Cricket; after some hesitation, he chooses the latter.
- In the climax of "Bleeped", Cricket is given the choice by Bill to pick whether or not to drop the cuss word "blort" during the children's choir's big finish; he chooses the latter, as he realized being a foul mouth is not the person he wants to be.
- Bobby's World: In "The Best One of the Mall", Bobby is trying to get a weedwhacker for his father, Howard for his birthday, and eventually partakes in a raffle drawing. He wins it and is given the choice of either a weedwhacker or a video game based on Captain Squash, his favorite superhero. He is torn between these two prizes, with a devil trying to convince him to choose the video game, and Captain Squash trying to convince him to choose the weedwhacker. Bobby chooses the weedwhacker, not wanting to let his family down.
- The titular BoJack Horseman was forced into this midway through Horsin' Around, after Herb, his best friend and show's creator, was caught in a gay sex scandal, and Herb wanted him to threaten to walk out if Herb got fired. BoJack chose the Idol.
- Brandy & Mr. Whiskers:
- In the climax of "Lame Boy", Mr. Whiskers saves Brandy from falling into the collapsing cave rather than the gameboy he had been obsessing over throughout the episode.
- In "One of a Kind", Brandy has to pick between returning to civilization with Tiffany or saving Whiskers from his malfunctioning robot; she chose the latter, because her friendship with him is much more important than anything and Tiffany wasn't the kind of friend she thought of.
- Code Lyoko, "Cruel Dilemma": Somehow, Jérémie has stumbled on a solution to Aelita's materialization he's been working on for the past 8 eps... however, Yumi falls through a pit into the Digital Sea on her latest mission against XANA, and Jérémie has to use it to bail her out instead.
- Codename: Kids Next Door, "Operation C.A.K.E.D.F.O.U.R.": Numbuh 2 is out to win the Tube-A-Thon for his winless dad. He ends up saving the other competitors from being baked into a cake instead. Of his family members, his younger brother, Tommy, takes first place, as do the other kids in a 634-way tie.
- In the Dragons: Riders of Berk episode "Shell Shocked Part 2" Viggo captures Astrid to use her as a hostage to get Hiccup to hand him over the Dragon Eye. Hiccup chooses to Take a Third Option and tosses the Dragon Eye away, forcing Viggo to let go of Astrid and chase after it.
- In one episode of Duck Dodgers Dodgers is shown to be obsessed with winning prizes (whether they are useful or not). Dodgers wins a game show later on and has to choose between two prizes. The mystery grand prize or the lives of his fellow competitors (which include his friends and frenemies). He choose the prize, but pressed the wrong button and set his friends free.
- In the DuckTales (1987) episode "The Golden Fleecing", Scrooge twice has to make a decision between saving Launchpad and successfully taking the fleece. The first time, he ditches his friend in an attempt to escape with the treasure, but ultimately he can't sit by and watch Launchpad be killed.
- The cast of Dungeons & Dragons (1983) would refuse to take a portal home until the people who had helped them were safe.
- Dynomutt, Dog Wonder: During "Factory Recall", Blue Falcon prepares to capture Mr. Cool with a net, until Cool points out that the frozen Dynomutt will fall off the rafter he was perched on in a few seconds. Blue Falcon chooses to save Dynomutt, and Mr. Cool escapes in the meantime.
- A subversion occurs in Ed, Edd n Eddy, "Don't Rain On My Ed": with less than a minute before the candy store closes and the Eds miss Customer Appreciation Day, Eddy must choose between free jawbreakers and rescuing Edd from an unexpected chicken stampede. Eddy, being the greedy jerk of the trope, goes for the jawbreakers, but by the time he stops hesitating, the store's closed.
- In the El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera special "The Good, The Bad, and El Tigre", the Big Bad Sartana of the Dead and her grandson Django force Manny to choose between their We Can Rule Together offer or his family. Obviously he chooses the latter, although an alternate ending was made in which he accepted their offer, betrayed them both, and turned the planet into his own personal playground while accidentally keeping his father and grandfather imprisoned for 60 years.
- In the Fancy Nancy Christmas Episode "Nancy and the Nice List", Nancy gets the bike she was asking for, but when she is reminded of the poor girl Daisy and her desire to just have "a nice Christmas", she selflessly decides to give the bike to Daisy.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Near the end of "Affair Weather Friends", Berry ties Mac to a set of toy train tracks and tries to run him over with a toy train so she can have Bloo all to herself. To ensure Bloo won't be able to save Mac, she gives him an automatic paddle ball that he's been wanting to play with for so long. As Mac begs for Bloo to save him, Bloo has to choose between saving Mac or the playing with the paddle ball. He chooses the paddle ball... and uses it to save Mac.
- It wasn't something he had been looking for, per se, but in Freakazoid!, Cosgrove's girlfriend Mary Beth offers to share immortality with him, which, the secret being drinking the essence of a superhero, means Freakazoid will die. A chorus sings 'What will Cosgrove do?' as he ponders the decision, before he tells them to cut it out and turns Mary Beth down.
- Gargoyles had Lexington locked-on to the escaping bad guys' hovercraft with a laser cannon, but he gives up the sure shot to rescue Brooklyn.
- Noteworthy because the baddies in question are the Pack, Lex's former heroes, who used his admiration and naivete to trap and nearly kill Goliath. Lex has harbored an intense hatred since (which he's not completely over by the time the clan moves back in with Xanatos and Fox). In fact, that episode largely concerns Lex's lust for revenge clouding his judgment, so the fact that he gave up that kill shot to save his rookery brother says a lot.
- Gravity Falls:
- In "The Love God" when all is taken care of, Mabel gets a hold of the Love God's anti-love formula and is about to use it on Robbie and Tambry to break their induced bonding over each other. However, upon seeing how happy they are to be together, she decides against it and lets them remain a couple.
- In "Not What He Seems", Mable has to decide whether to listen to Dipper and turn off the portal to prevent the potential apocalypse from happening, or listen to Stan and leave it on. She ultimately chooses the latter, which in turn leads to the surprise Twist Ending.
- Hey Arnold!: In "Arnold's Christmas", Arnold tries to reunite Mr. Hyunh with Mei, his long-lost daughter, so he makes a deal with Mr. Bailey, the head of the office of missing people, to do his Christmas shopping for him in exchange for him finding Mei. Arnold and Gerald manage to find all but one of the items on Mr. Bailey's list, a pair of Nancy Spumoni snowboots. The two look everywhere, but are unable to find them. When Helga arrives home, Miriam gives her the very same snowboots as a Christmas present, which makes her happy, as it was a genuine act of kindness from her otherwise neglectful parents (Miriam even mentions having to wait in line for eighteen hours to get them, as they must be the last pair in the city). Helga's torn between keeping the snowboots for herself or having to give them to Mr. Bailey to help Arnold find Mei, and ultimately goes with the latter.
- In the Iron Man: The Animated Series episode "Hulkbuster", a freak accident sends Tony, Julia, Bruce Banner and the Leader to the day Bruce becomes the Hulk. After the Leader is dealt with, Tony tries to fly in to save the past Bruce, but Hulk leaps at him, not wanting to be unmade. The distraction proves to be enough for Tony to abort the attempt and gets himself, Julia and the Hulk back to their time when a portal opens back up.
- In the Karate Kid cartoon, anytime they got near the idol (it was even called that) they would inevitably have to give it up to save somebody. Its nature meant that it would inevitably be gone by the time they got back to it.
- The first season finale of Littlest Pet Shop (2012) has Blythe having to decide whether or not she should leave her family and friends to go to a prestigious summer camp. She goes through with it, and the first episode of season 2 is her realizing it's not all it's cracked up to be.
- The Loud House:
- The Loud House: "You Auto Know Better" has Lana wanting to purchase a new bicycle and deciding to start a repair service to earn money for it. With her siblings needing the garage for one reason or another, Lana rents Flip's garage, to which she ends up learning how to be cheap and dishonest like he. When Lana finally earns enough money for the bike, she can only realize what a terrible mistake she made taking advice from Flip when she sees the Fox Family's minivan and Scoots' scooter break down; at this point, she decides not to buy the bike, and instead, uses her ill-gotten gains to pay for the necessary supplies for both vehicles that broke down and run her repair service the honest way.
- The Looney Tunes Show: In "We're In Big Truffle", after a harrowing adventure trying to track down a rare mushroom worth half a million dollars, Porky falls into some rapids. Daffy offers a stick for Porky to grab, but Porky threatens to slip away as he's still holding the truffle in his other hand.Daffy: Let go of the truffle!
Porky: A-are you sure?
Daffy: I'm not going to say it twice! I can't believe I said it once! - In an episode of The Magic School Bus, Arnold forces his cousin Janet to make one of these, more or less so she won't end up dead on Pluto when her oxygen runs out, as she had refused to leave without the souvenirs she had collected from around the solar system; the bus couldn't hold everything she had taken. Bringing back only ''some'' of her interplanetary plunder and still most likely becoming famous apparently didn't occur to anyone. Then again, you try convincing Janet.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the second part of the two part pilot, Nightmare Moon tempts Rainbow Dash to abandon her friends for the chance to live her dream and lead the Shadowbolts (dark versions of her idols, the Wonderbolts, but the idol part still plays in). Rainbow Dash quickly refuses and sides with her friends.
- In the ninth episode of the second season, Rarity gets put in this position, being forced to choose between maintaining some important upper-class connections, and hanging out with her lower-class friends. She ends up splitting the difference. Also, unlike most cases, when the Friends found out, they encouraged her to go for the Idol since it really was a genuinely good opportunity for her.
- Throughout Season 4, each of the mane characters gets A Day in the Limelight, leading them to experience a Secret Test of Character about her particular Element and what she should do:
- In "Rarity Takes Manehattan", Rarity lets her generous spirit go too far when she lets Suri Polomare take advantage of her generosity and forces her friends to work double time in trying to outshine her. Realizing she wasn't being generous at all, Rarity apologizes to her friends for overusing them.
- When competing to qualify for the Equestria Games in "Rainbow Falls", an injured flyer and a technicality mean Rainbow would qualify to join the Cloudsdale team with her idols, the Wonderbolts, instead of the ragtag Ponyville team. Her indecision leads her to fake an injury, but Twilight points out that "Choosing not to choose isn't really a decision." When she learns the Wonderbolts had lied about their teammate Soarin's recovery so they could get a better flyer, Rainbow tells them she realized it was wrong to ditch a teammate, and the Wonderbolts offer Soarin to rejoin the team.
- In "Pinkie Pride", Pinkie Pie goes to great lengths to plan the perfect birthday party for Rainbow Dash and prove she's a much better party planner than Cheese Sandwich. However, she is soon tested between proving herself better and seeing her friend happy; when she realizes she went out of control and broke her Pinkie Party Promise, she forfeits to Cheese.
- In "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies", Fluttershy takes in a group of Breezies lost from the storm who refuse to listen to their leader, Seabreeze, but her kindness gets better and she must decide if caring for them is best for them. Realizing what has to be done, she shoos them away against her will.
- In "Leap of Faith", Granny Smith becomes hooked on the Flim Flam Brothers' tonic which is said to heal anypony, but is clearly a hoax; Applejack sees how much she needs it and keeps shut about the truth, to the point of even lying. She soon realizes her mistake and exposes the brothers' scam.
- In the climax of "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2", Twilight Sparkle is forced to make a Deal with the Devil with Tirek whether to give him her magic in exchange for setting her friends free, or not and leave them trapped. Realizing this is the same kind of test her friends encountered, she accepts the deal.
- The episode "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" has Gilda make a literal Friend or Idol Decision between saving Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash from falling, or saving an ancient griffon artifact called the Idol of Boreas. Gilda chooses to save Pinkie and Rainbow, letting the idol fall into the Abysmal Abyss, symbolically casting off her greed.
- In "Shadow Play", Twilight Sparkle has to choose between following Star Swirl the Bearded, her idol whom she has just brought back from limbo in banishing the Pony of Shadows, or listening to her friend and student Starlight Glimmer's suggestion that this is a friendship problem.
- In "What Lies Beneath", Rarity and Rainbow Dash invite Sandbar on a friendship mission but he has to abandon his friends to do so. After he ultimately chooses his friends, they are revealed to be illusions as part the Tree of Harmony's Secret Test of Character.
- In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Traffic Cam Caper", Candace has to save either a disc that would let her finally accomplish her goal of busting her brothers, or Phineas; she chooses the latter at the expense of the former. When it seems like Ferb retrieved the disk seconds later, he flies away with disk in hand, only for the real Ferb to show up coming over the bridge, and the first Ferb turned out to be Perry in a costume.
- In "The Lemonade Stand", Candace is forced to decide between busting her brothers or taking an opportunity to make up with best friend Stacy after an argument. She chose the latter.
- In "The Beak", Khaka Peü Peü gives Phineas as the Beak the choice between either saving Isabella who is about to fall off City Hall, or the citizens about to be crushed by a Bango-Ru billboard. He manages to do both; he leaves the suit to save Isabella, while Ferb pilots the suit alone to save the citizens.
- The Halloween episode of Pinky and the Brain has Brain give up not only the world domination he's been magically granted, but the possibility of trying to take it over again in the future (a big deal to someone whose entire purpose in the world revolves around trying to Take Over the World) to save Pinky's soul from
HellHades. Fortunately for Brain, there's a problem with the original contract, and Pinky is let off the hook anyway. - The Punky Brewster episode "Be My Glomley" has Glomer and a female glomley called Glomine using their combined magic and some gadgetry by Punky and her pals to create a rainbow gate to their home land of Chaundoon. But a rope in the hot air balloon Punky is in snaps, leaving Punky dangling from the side. Faced with whether to finally return home or rescue Punky, Glomer sends Glomine back ("Tell momly and dadly I love them!") and effects the rescue. By that time, the rainbow disappears and Glomer remains stranded. But he's not too disappointed—he joyfully leaps into Punky's arms and hugs her.
- Rocket Power:
- In "The Big Day", Otto is out to win a skating tourney, with a training trip with Shaun White as its top prize. He ends up having to convince his father's bride-to-be that he's ready for a new mother, even though he's been against it all this time, instead.
- In "Race Across New Zealand", Otto decides to stop to help Twister, with his sprained knee, cross the finish line in a race, instead of racing for the finish line and winning the title of Prince Waikikamukau. Later, when it turns out that the 1st place winner, Theodore McGill cheated in the race by taking a shortcut, which is how his father, Chester, cheated against Raymundo when they competed in the first Waikikamukau games, he is awarded the title in a tie with his sister Reggie, as well as Chester's medal being revoked and rightfully awarded to Raymundo as he should've been years earlier.
- Samurai Jack suffered from severe Chronic Hero Syndrome where every single time he found some MacGuffin or magic portal that could take him back to his own time, he would always sacrifice it to save someone in danger. Even though the whole reason he's trying to go back to his own time is to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and prevent the Bad Future he is currently trapped in from ever coming to pass. Therefore, if he took the out and went back to his own time, that person would never need to be saved in the first place, or quite possibly never even exist in the first place. The samurai code of honour must not be very "big picture" oriented.
- In the first episode of The Secret Saturdays, the main character, Zak, was forced to choose between saving the life of a cryptid he had befriended or stopping the villain from getting a piece of the Kur Stone. He saved the cryptid.
- The Simpsons
- Used in "Three Men and a Comic Book", where Bart has to choose between rescuing Milhouse and rescuing the copy of Radioactive Man #1 that has caused them so much trouble. Given a particularly fine comedic twist with Martin Prince calmly pointing out "If you hadn't tied me up, I could be saving the comic book right now..."
- In "Round Springfield", Bart is sent to the hospital for an appendectomy after accidentally ingesting a jagged metal Krusty-O, where Lisa meets up with her idol, Bleeding Gums Murphy. Bleeding Gums dies on the night of Lisa's recital, and Lisa wants to keep her idol's memory alive buy buying the only album he ever released, Sax on the Beach, but it has doubled in price from $250 to $500 due to Bleeding Gums' death. Bart wins $500 from his lawsuit against the Krusty corporation and goes to the Android's Dungeon to spend it. He is torn between buying a Steve Allen pog for himself or the Sax on the Beach album for Lisa, but ends up buying the album because Lisa was the only one who believed him when he said his stomach hurt.
- In a flashback in "Lisa's Sax", Homer manages to get enough money to buy his own air conditioner, but he is torn between buying it or a saxophone for Lisa so she can express her musical talents. He chooses to get Lisa her saxophone. He does this again in the present day to get a replacement saxophone after the original gets destroyed.
- Sofia the First: In "Cedric's Apprentice", Cedric prepares to use his invisibility potion to turn himself invisible so he can take Sofia's amulet (which she is completely unaware of since their first meeting), which she refuses to take off due to a promise she made with Roland. However, when he takes one look at Sofia giving him a genuine smile, he is reminded by her kindness to him throughout the episode and the fact that earlier, he’s proven to Roland what a great sorcerer he is with her help, so he uses the potion on Clover instead for her sake. For bonus points, if he did use the potion on himself as intended and took the amulet, this would've triggered its safeguard and cursed him for taking it away from its chosen bearer without warning.
- In the Sonic Boom episode "Fuzzy Puppy Buddies", Amy puts Eggman in one of these: Either he returns the Fancy Poodle he stole, or she'll call off their Fuzzy Puppy friendship. Eggman chooses "friend" and returns the stolen Fancy Poodle.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "Squirrel Jokes", SpongeBob finds success as a stand-up comedian, but his only funny jokes are at Sandy's expense. When Sandy tells him to can it, he finds himself having to choose on-stage between his friend or his career. He drops the microphone, walks away... then returns for one last squirrel joke. Sandy does eventually "convince" SpongeBob to change his material, however.
- In "Born Again Krabs", to stop the Flying Dutchman from taking Mr. Krabs' soul, SpongeBob bets the Dutchman that Mr. Krabs wouldn't sell his soul for several dollars. The Dutchman lets Mr. Krabs choose between SpongeBob and all the money in his pocket ($0.62). Being the penny-pincher he is, Mr. Krabs chooses the money to SpongeBob's shock. Squidward, who absolutely hates SpongeBob, calls Mr. Krabs out on this, reminding him that SpongeBob stood up to the Dutchman for him. This gives Mr. Krabs a Jerkass Realization, and he begs for SpongeBob's return. His wish is granted, as The Flying Dutchman willingly gives SpongeBob back, as he couldn't stand having him for thirty seconds due to SpongeBob talking about all the things he likes to do.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
- In the first season finale "Storm the Castle", Toffee has Marco in a Death Trap that even Star's magic can't bust him out of. When she realizes this, without a moment's hesitation Star hands over her magic wand, the very thing she's been fighting to protect for the entire series up to that point.
- In "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown", Ludo grabs Star's spell book and tries to escape. Marco grabs him, but Ludo points out Star is about to get sucked into a portal. Marco chooses to save Star.
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show:
- In the episode "Brooklyn Bound", the group finds another plumber that got stranded in the Mushroom Kingdom. He had finished building a machine that could get back to Brooklyn, but it had a short window of use. The Mario brothers have to choose between going back home or saving Princess Toadstool and Toad from King Koopa (whose theme of the episode was Genghis Koopa). Here's a hint on what they chose: this isn't the series finale.
- "Flatbush Koopa" has them actually get back to Brooklyn... only to find out that King Koopa and his Koopa Pack had followed them and were taking over the city. They end up having to lure Koopa and his minions back to the Mushroom Kingdom and destroy the pathway to Brooklyn, thus returning to the old status quo.
- Several times in TaleSpin, an opportunity for Baloo to buy his beloved plane, the Sea Duck back from his boss, Rebecca, comes into view, when another character (usually Kit Cloudkicker, his adopted son and trusted navigator) will come into harm's way. As much as Baloo wants his plane back, it can wait a little longer.
- An episode of Taz-Mania has a dream sequence in which Taz, as a super hero, is forced to choose between rescuing his family or rescuing his comic book collection. He finally chooses his family and the time spent rescuing them leaves him unable to save the comics.
- A rather odd variation was used in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)'s season "Back to the Sewers". As the goal of that season was to save Splinter from being lost in cyberspace the MacGuffin actually was a friend (to say the least). The episode "Hacking Stockman" featured a Friend or Idol Decision in the sense that Donatello was forced to choose between the data bits he'd been tracking for the entirety of the episode and saving his brothers... which, naturally, made it a difficult decision. Hint: everyone's still alive and well at the end of the episode.
- In "Freeze Tag" from Trash Truck, Donny has to choose between hanging on to the smartphone that everyone's been fighting over or rescuing Walter from falling from a tree. He hesitates only briefly before rescuing Walter.
- The Wild Thornberrys:
- Eliza had to make a Sister or Idol Decision during a volcanic eruption. Debbie needed help freeing a trapped foot, but Eliza had been hoping to make off with a chest of gold coins for herself. Three guesses.
- Another instance occurs in The Movie. Eliza has to choose between saving her sister or keeping her powers. She ends up saving Debbie by revealing the fact that she can talk to animals, and ends up losing her abilities. She gets them back in the end though.
- In the Winnie the Pooh Valentine's Day Episode "A Valentine For You", Pooh has to decide whether or not to give Christopher Robin the Smitten for a second bite to cure his potential lovesickness. He chooses the latter, because seeing how happy he is to have a new friend is for the best.
- Winx Club had Aisha earning her Enchantix through such a decision (heal her eyesight or the dying mermaid queen, she chose the latter). But considering how they are earned (through a sacrifice), perhaps there should have been more.
