Hidden Depths / Western Animation

Hidden Depths in Western Animation.

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The following have their own pages:

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• The Loud House
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
• The Owl House
• Rick and Morty
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• Total Drama
• Villainous (Cartoon Network)

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• Many characters from Adventure Time. The Ice King has a lot of cool hobbies and is actually fairly intelligent and easy-going, when princesses aren't involved. In fact, newer episodes show him as being capable of surviving on a desert island without even using his magic.
• Anytime in The Amazing World of Gumball where Banana Joe's Sad Clown side shows up.
  "If a banana tells a joke and no one hears, does that banana even exists?"
• Parodied in American Dad! when he revealed the bartender did gay porn to pay off his gambling debts.
  "Yup, you have quite the backstory."
• Arcane: Silco is introduced as the Big Bad menace to Vi and Powder's childhood. His willingness to do anything in the pursuit of power leads to the death of the rest of their family. But despite his genuinely monstrous nature, he is still capable of compassion and empathy, sparing Powder's life and taking her under his wing after seeing how similar the two are in how they were both betrayed and abandoned by an elder sibling they had trusted. And after the Time Skip, he shows genuine care for her and is understanding of her childhood trauma still affecting her.
• Later episodes of The Backyardigans imply that resident tough guy Tyrone gets motion sickness.
• Ben 10 and the sequel series.
  • Ben Tennyson is frequently depicted as some combination of dumb and cocky, with how much of which he is varying from season and series to season and series. However, it's hinted at a few points that a lot of his cockiness is a coping mechanism (which is eventually confirmed in The Forge of Creation) and even at his dumbest he is pretty cunning at on the fly strategies and knows more about his aliens than he often lets on. His alternate self Ben 23 is similarly so, though more so after improving after meeting Ben Prime and getting a wake-up call.
  • It's not always the most apparent, but Ben's father and uncle (Gwen's father) do have issues with both his father (Max) and mother (Verdonna) for not being the most involved in their childhood due to their job (Plumber) or nature (being an Anodite).
  • Vilgax the Big Bad actually does value the safety and well-being of his home planet more than it might be obvious at first glance.
• Blinky Bill: Along with being the series' fanservice, Daisy Dingo shows off her acting prowess in "Blinky And The Film Star", resulting in her providing a stunning Mae West impersonation, and is also the lead singer of a band in a later episode.
• Bluey: Both "Mums and Dads" and "Seesaw" show that Bluey is rather strong for her age, being able to lift and carry Rusty and Snickers without any strain.
• Gene Belcher from Bob's Burgers loves to play music using his keyboard that ranges from "bad" to "full of fart noises". But make no mistake, he's not at all a bad musician—when he actually tries, he's shown to have enough talent to write not just one, but two musicals that even characters in-universe admit are pretty good.
  • Zeke seems to be no more than a Boisterous Bruiser with hints of Dumb Muscle, but Season 4 reveals he's got a perfect palate, meaning he's able to get the hang of cooking in such a short span of time that it impresses Bob, who's been cooking for nearly his entire life. Amusingly, Zeke actually tries to deny that he has this talent, and curses out Bob when he attempts to get Zeke to recognize it.
• Bojack Horseman:
  • The main character himself at first seems like the typical Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist of the average animated Sitcom. Fat, alcoholic, abusive. But as the series progresses more sides are shown to him, including crippling depression, surprising intelligence and insightfulness, and very occasional moments of deep caring.
  • Diane's lazy, dismissive father is eventually revealed to have been a tenured professor of Vietnamese History at Tufts University, to which it makes it clear that she's pretty much the only one in the family to have inherited his intelligence.
• In CatDog, all three of the Greasers have hidden depths, despite being generally little more than hostile thugs.
  • Cliff, the leader, is a skilled ballet dancer, which he's unabashed about — he actually practices it because it helps make him stronger, tougher and more agile due to the physical demands, which means it makes him better at being a thug. He's also got a number of Embarrassing Secrets, like having the middle name "Maurice" and a bed-wetting problem.
  • Token female Shriek is actually from a rather wealthy family. She just chooses to run with the Greasers because they understand her better.
  • Lube is shown to be a very talented singer and skilled mechanic, despite being dumber than a rock. Like Cliff, he also has an Embarrassing Middle Name — Ignatius. The Movie also revealed his long-lost parents are hillbillies and one of them is a cat.
• Camp Lazlo: Clam is The Quiet One and seems like the dumbest member of the Jelly Cabin trio given his Simpleton Voice, but he's actually a prodigy who is skilled at drawing, puzzles and playing music on a bottle.
• Kendra from The Cleveland Show used to be an international casino hustler.
• Black Steve on G4's Code Monkeys. This actually seems to be a bit of his gimmick on the show with fact he is well, black. He constantly gets angry and goes into angry black man rage when people expect him to go with a stereotype or things he is not something cause he is black. So far it's shown he is a Harvard graduate, a former professional wrestler known as "The Black Shadow," and speaks Japanese while he also manages the money of the company, as well as having developed a couple games of his own on the side.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: The cool, calm, and collected Numbuh Five is known as "the coolest, the sanest, and quite often the smartest of the gang", and yet she's also the only one with a My Greatest Failure in her past that still haunts her. Make of that what you will.
• The titular main character of The Cuphead Show!. Despite his insistence to the contrary, the beginning of "Sweater Off Dead" implies that not only is he really scared of the Devil claiming his soul, but that both Mugman and Elder Kettle will end up hurt because of his debt.
• Later episodes of Daria show that Quinn is more than a brainless, fashioned-obsessed bimbo. She just dumbs herself down to retain her popularity. As early as Season 2 she admits that she doesn't feel capable of anything but being popular and pretty, which is why she's so defensive about her social standing and doesn't bother trying to do anything more substantial. The later seasons are just when she started to realize she really was smarter than she thought.
  • Some episodes invert this, showing us that Daria has Hidden Shallowness: despite her claims otherwise, she does care about her appearance as shown when she gets contacts and spends a day refusing to wear her glasses despite the contacts burning her eyes, she is easily swayed by Trent due to her crush on him (to the point that she lied about her age and got a navel piercing), and she even ends up stealing her best friend's boyfriend due to a mutual attraction they develop.
• The Dragon Prince
  • Callum
    • Near the end of episode 4, Callum demonstrates that he too knows ASL and uses it to convince General Amaya to let him, Ezran and Rayla proceed with their journey.
    • He's a good dancer, as shown with the "jerkface apology" dance. He's got rhythm and presence, even entertaining the spider illusion.
  • While Viren generally comes off as cocky or prideful at worst, he is actually quite insecure about his place in the whole world, seen when he uses a true-sight potion to try and see what's really in the mirror. When nothing comes up, he starts yelling that he thought the mirror would be something special, something important, but it's just useless. However, he slowly comes to realize that he's actually yelling at himself.
    • Then in season 5 he realized he isn't the selfless saint he thought he was, he was using the war and suffering of humanity as an excuse to kill innocents, poach all the magic creatures he wants and deny is his fault things got worse.
• Eddy from Ed, Edd n Eddy of all people. At first he seems to be a greedy, selfish con-artist trying to follow in the footsteps of his brother whom he idolizes, but The Movie tears all of it that apart, revealing that his brother actually physically abused him, and only became a jerk because he wanted to impress his brother and the rest of the cul-de-sac.
• Mr. Crocker from The Fairly OddParents! is a crazy teacher obsessed with catching a fairy. His past was explored in depth in the special episode The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker, which revealed that Mr. Crocker not only had fairies himself in his childhood, but he had Cosmo and Wanda, and was quite sane and similar to Timmy Turner, the main character, at age 10. Most later episodes support this fact, but exactly which fairies Crocker had are contradicted.
  • One episode shows Trixie actually enjoys a lot of boy stuff like comics, and hides it because she's afraid of not being popular. Some fans are annoyed that this wasn't explored further.
• Family Guy's Glenn Quagmire is usually easy going but is incredibly competitive, promiscuous but never sleeps with married women, does volunteer work for the homeless (to pick up women), didn't know that The Internet Is for Porn, comes from a family with a proud military heritage, is an improv comedy enthusiast, and is the only one who genuinely likes Meg.
• Futurama
  • Zoidberg's doctorate is in Art History. Since he's employed as a medical doctor, it doesn't come up much. And later, in "The Tip of the Zoidberg", it's established he's actually a very good doctor - but only when it comes to aliens, which is utterly useless on a crew where he's the only alien. Not to mention that his Perpetual Poverty stems from his deep friendship with the Professor because they are True Companions.
  • Zapp Brannigan deconstructs this in his debut episode. According to Leela, there is a small part of him deep down that doesn't disgust her, but the rest of him is no less real- and offensive- for her to care.
• An episode of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero involved an alien device that accidentally tossed a team of Joes and their Cobra opponents back in time to pre-Classical Greece. One of them reveals the ability to speak a little Ancient Greek. The highly skilled and multilingual infiltrators Lady Jaye or the Baroness? No. The well-read Lifeline? No. The genius Dr. Mindbender? No. Sergeant Slaughter. It even gets lampshaded when Lifeline expresses utter disbelief.
• Gravity Falls:
  • In her first few appearances in Season 1, Pacifica Northwest seems like a typical "walking one-dimensional bleached-blonde Valley Girl stereotype". But after Season 2 reveals that her parents hold her to very high standards, and are strict to the point of being abusive, Pacifica starts to look a bit more sympathetic, especially when she defies her family's history of ruthless, shameless villainy and lifts a century-old curse. And according to one of the "secret files" found in an Easter Egg web page from Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, she harbors a secret love of first-person shooters, puns, and deep-fried food.
  • Lost Legends also has a file on Old Man McGucket's son Tate, who is secretly a mathematics prodigy able to accurately predict weather patterns, stock market trends, and even lottery numbers.
  • This is a very minor example, but it says something about Bud Gleeful that he never used his connections in the Society of the Blind Eye to Gideon's advantage. Sure, the Society isn't exactly noble, but Bud didn't see it that way.
  • In both "Scary-Oke" and "Into The Bunker", Mabel Pines‘s sweaters light up and in the former, play music. Because she hand knits all of the sweaters seen on the show, Mabel also seems to possess skills in electrical wiring, sound machinery and safely installing them in knitted garments.
  • Journal 3 shows that Dipper Pines is a rather talented artist. Which is a trait he shares with Ford.
• Hamster & Gretel: Lauren, who is thrilled to be the super villainess The Destructress and was implied to be a mean girl before she got powers, shows a surprising caring side when she takes a job as a babysitter to support herself and her brother because she can’t make money off of crime. While she had a practical reason for being nice because she needed the job as a babysitter, she showed a genuine interest in being a good babysitter and ensuring they were happy under her care, showing a kind side that was not seen before and caring for children.
• Hey Arnold!: As confirmed by The book six of the series Hey Arnold! Arnold's E-Files Brainy is in love with Helga and he is as eloquent (and as manipulative) as Helga… only that he cannot talk because his asthma, also, he's allergic to cats.
• Inside Job (2021)
  • Brett Hand's actually well aware that it's his looks and desire to please others that have gotten him as far in life as they have as opposed to any real capabilities. What's more, graduating from Yale is no easy feat, even when you can coast by on looks and legacy.
  • Dr. Andre Lee
    • Feels insulted everyone sees him as a one trick Stoners Are Funny guy and admits he knows Latin.
    • When lamenting where he went wrong in his life, he admits he wrote slam poetry as a kid and believes he could’ve written screenplays easily.
  • Gigi Thompson admits she feels like everyone ignores her, showing she has some personal insecurity.
• Iron Man: Armored Adventures - Though really, really hard to see beneath her excessively annoying exterior this show's version of Pepper Potts hides perceptive, intelligent depths - on one occasion she demonstrates her superb button-pushing skills:
  Pepper: Quick, Tony, insult his mom!
  Tony: Pepper, I don't think this is the time—
  Pepper: No, really! This guy has serious issues. Use it. Push him.
• In Jackie Chan Adventures, Tohru turns out to be surprisingly kind after his reformation, and becomes a Genius Bruiser when he becomes Uncle's apprentice. Also, Jade is impulsive and a bit rebellious a lot of the time, but is surprisingly intelligent and cunning, often being the one to suggest actually USING the Talismans, and is a bit of a Guile Hero, once pulling a Batman Gambit on the Demon Sorcerers, and has on occasion shown a talent for chi magic^note and it's heavily implied that she might be The Chosen One.
  • As a Season 2 episode reveals, Jade actually has a decent amount of scientific knowledge.
  • Ratso of the Enforcers actually turns out to be a Genius Ditz, as he actually studied theoretical physics at one point.
• Kaeloo:
  • Kaeloo is apparently really good at martial arts and can speak a variety of European languages.
  • Mr. Cat is capable of single-handedly fighting off hordes of zombies and reversing a zombie apocalypse, and he's apparently a brilliant inventor.
  • Eugly is capable of singing like a professional.
  • Pretty is apparently an excellent fighter, as shown in Episode 120.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: The Disney Acid Sequence in the Season 1 finale hints that Kipo realizes how precarious her friends' lives are and worries about her ability to protect them.
• Masters of the Universe: Revelation
  • Though Adam's a Nice Guy through and through, it is implied that he does have some ill feelings towards his father for constantly calling him a disappointment. After being transformed by the untempered power of Grayskull into a hulking wild man driven by pure rage, the mere mention of his father causes him to go on a warpath to his father's location. He comes very close to killing him before Randor manages to calm him down by apologizing for treating him poorly and telling him that he's proud of him.
  • Queen Marlena is an ace pilot, which was implied back in a couple of the 1983 series' episodes.
• Molly of Denali: In "Have Canoe, Will Paddle", the kids find out that Connie, the town mechanic, has won awards for canoeing and has even been in the Olympics.
• At first glance, it would seem that Clay of Moral Orel is just a jackass. A flashback to his childhood would reveal that, due to the quirks of his abusive father, he only feels loved when his loved ones are hurting him. However, he accidentally goes too far several times and becomes so pathetic that he fails to provoke an angry response.
  • Most of Season 3 was this. The episode "Alone" was simply about three well-established characters sitting alone in their apartments, thinking about how they'd been sexually abused. The story of Orel's teacher, in particular, is disturbing— She's in love with her rapist, who has just died in prison. Another one, a ditzy airhead nurse, is incapable of having a healthy relationship, ever, because she's been a disposable whore so long she can't even think about sex without crying. It's also implied she's been raped. It's not really a funny episode.
• My Little Pony (Generation 5): Zipp Storm has more to her than her tomboyish personality:
  • The Make Your Mark special shows as having a talent for investigation. By the end of the special, she's become an official detective, dedicated to investigating the mysteries of magic.
  • The Tell Your Tale short "Secret Ad-Mare-Er" shows her having an interest in botany, enthusiastically raising a venus flytrap.
  • "A Little Horse" reveals that she's a Bookworm when she lets Pipp borrow her complete collection of The Chronicles of Chevalia, her favorite fantasy series. She also gushes about its lore and supplementary material.
• On Phineas and Ferb, local "bully" Buford can speak fluent French and quote Voltaire. He also has a tendency to go into odd philosophical statements, though these usually break down into Sophisticated as Hell.
  • He was only an actual antagonist once, since all of the other characters recognized this almost instantly.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): The Mayor of Townsville isn't particularly known for his intelligence but he has occasionally shown signs of it:
  • In "Collect Her," when a Loony Fan who collects Powerpuff Girls merchandise abducts the girls, the Mayor summons the whole population of Townsville under the belief that the kidnapper will be the only person who doesn't show up, and his plan works.
  • In "Ploys 'R Us" when the girls take advantage of the Professor's sleepwalking to get free toys, the Mayor is in the plan to trick them into seeing how wrong they are. He says that a good politician must be able to lie.
  • In the episode "Him Diddle Riddle," when the girls need to solve the riddle, "Where is boiling and freezing at the same time?", the Mayor is the one who figures out it was about coordinates.
  Mayor: The freezing point of water is thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, while the boiling point is two hundred twelve degrees. (Cut to the girls, greatly surprised, and pan back to him as he continues.) Two hundred twelve degrees west of the Greenwich Mean Time on the longitudinal axis, by thirty-two degrees north of the equator on the latitudinal axis, maps a specific point on the globe, that point being right here in the city of Townsville, the intersection of Lincoln and Main, to be exact. (Pause; he continues in his normal manner of speaking.) Or it could be there’s an ice cream truck on fire somewhere. Have a nice day, girls!
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Sunspot is revealed to have many talents. He can pull objects out of Hammerspace, and can play several instruments, including concertina and pan-pipes.
  • Jet has these, too. He turns out to be very handy with tools, and a great musician.
  • Carrot is revealed to be a great cook, and "Castaway Carrot" reveals that he taught himself ballet.
  • "Eye in the Sky" reveals that Mitchell is an expert on weather.
  • In "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet 2 is revealed to have adapted to the Mars environment when he was stranded there, and also learned how to play checkers. Meanwhile, Dr. Rafferty is revealed to have a rock collection.
  • Sydney's knack for engineering and mechanics, first implied in "Sydney 2", are greatly shown in One Small Step, as she was able to fix the super saucer.
• Little Enzo Matrix from ReBoot starts off as a typical young, bratty, rather annoying kid who gets a few spotlight episodes to show he can be competent, but is very clearly not anywhere close to being a hero. Come Season 3, The Hero gets Put On A Pod straight into the Web and Enzo is booted into the hero role, becoming an in-universe Replacement Scrappy before finally showing that, while young and inexperienced, he is still very capable of defending the system. Then he gets trapped in a game and level-grinds in badass.
  • And then because that wasn't enough, instead of all that level grinding leading him to being a stereotypical Anti-Hero Substitute, he becomes the Deconstruction of one. He's disgusted at what he had to become to survive and his recklessly hot-headed tendencies are often criticized by others.
    • Not as much as he hated the naive, "stupid kid" he used to be.
• Regular Show has delved into this for pretty much all characters. Mordecai and Rigby have developed full-fledged relationships with other surrounding characters, everyone has hidden skills and relationships as the series progressed, and the park coworkers develop into True Companions.
• Everybody in The Simpsons has some sort of hidden depths. Makes some sense, considering it's been on for over 20 years.
• South Park:
  • Eric Cartman is hinted to have depths that are overshadowed by his Comedic Sociopathy. One such trait, shown subtly but repeatedly, is that Cartman is a very gifted photographer. He is seen in "Christian Rock Hard", "Cartman Sucks", and "Imaginationland" to have prodigious skill behind a camera. He is an excellent negotiator and strategist and is seen at least twice speaking flawless Spanish and passable German. He also honestly likes cats and harbors them when South Park bans cats (long story). And he regularly writes his own songs and is not half-bad with a violin.
  • The episode "Tweek x Craig" reveals that resident Nervous Wreck Tweek Tweak is actually a very gifted improvisational actor once you boost his self-confidence with a quick pep talk. The episode "Put it Down" also reveals that he can play the piano (at least when he's not overwhelmed with panic) and bake.
  • Randy Marsh is a gifted guitar player.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: It's revealed in "Temporal Edict" that Brad Boimler can play the violin incredibly well, although his songwriting skills need some improvement because he bored the audience during his performance.
• Pearl from Steven Universe first appears to be a prim and proper variant of My Beloved Smother with good skill with a spear. Later, hidden depths are revealed, such as her crippling insecurity and devotion to Steven's late mother, Rose Quartz.
  • Amethyst starts off as the comic relief, but we soon learn she has deep-seated issues with her self image, much like Pearl.
  • Jasper, despite being "the ultimate Quartz warrior," has a chip on her shoulder because she was created on Earth; most of the others who came from here turned out malformed or incompetent in some way. She also has a burning hatred for Rose Quartz, since she freed Jasper's home planet from the empire and apparently killed her leader, Pink Diamond.
  • Garnet starts off as The Stoic, unflappable, Comically Serious leader. Later episodes show that, not only does she feel emotions just like the others, but also that she's under a lot of stress to act stoicly so she can be the calm, levelheaded leader even though she was just as traumatized by the loss of Rose as the other gems were. We also see that she tends to panic when things don't go the way she predicts they will, or when she can't come up with a good enough plan.
• Transformers:
  • Using the Transformers: Animated motto of being More Than Meets The Eye in more ways than one, Gentle Giant Bulkhead is revealed to be a Genius Bruiser who is the best space bridge technician in the universe.
  • In Beast Wars, Rattrap is sarcastic, eternally pessimistic, once lived the life of a gambler and womanizer, and can be quite the asshat at times. However, he showed over the three seasons that he may be the second most loyal member of the Maximal squad, behind (obviously) Optimus Primal (and maybe Rhinox) and has also shown some pretty decent fighting skills as well as quite the remarkable skills in demolition and sabotage, such as when he infiltrated the Predacon base and when he, well, infiltrated the Maximal base (this time in an attempt to shut down a psycho computer).
  • In Transformers: Prime, Agent Fowler starts out as a no-nonsense rough agent whose been assigned to act as the liaison between the Autobots and the government... and isn't happy about it. However, after the first few episodes, it's revealed that he actually cares about the Autobots (and the kids they've taken under their care) far more than he initially lets on. Also, he's fond of creature features.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • Hank. On the surface, he's a cheesy parody of Jonny Quest, Fred from Scooby-Doo, and The Hardy Boys, but if you put a few bits and pieces together, Hank has some major daddy issues.
  • Practically the whole cast has turned out to have some Depths. Dr. Girlfriend started as a one-note Dark Mistress Love Interest before being revealed as the Gadgeteer Genius who invented all of The Monarch's gear.
  • Likewise, 21 and 24 seem to be generic idiot mooks at first, but over time they developed into perhaps the show's two most genre-savvy characters, with their own subplots, agendas and tragic deaths.
• Work It Out Wombats!: "Talent Turmoil" reveals that many of the Treeborhood residents have hidden talents. For example, Ellie can juggle, Zadie can do tricks with a soccer ball, Gabriela can spin plates, and Mr. E can make art with soup cans.

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