Rewatch Bonus / Western Animation

• Adventure Time: A flashback in "Jake the Dad" had a young Jake showing off his stretching powers to his overprotective mother Margaret, who seems almost horrified that her son can do such things. "Joshua and Margaret Investigations" reveals that she had a good reason to be concerned, as Jake's Rubber Man and Sizeshifter powers are because he's actually a half-dog, half-alien baby who grew from an egg implanted in his father Joshua's head.
• Amphibia:
  • Sprig's sadness when Sylvia joins the family fishing trip in the episode of the same name hits harder when you realize that trip was one of the only paternal connections to Hop Pop after his parents were attacked by the herons.
  • The reveal that King Andrias is a ruthless genocidal tyrant instead of The Good King takes on a whole meaning throughout Season 2, thus putting all early appearances before the S2 finale in a new light. The part where he shows Anne and the Plantars how to recharge the gems on the Calamity Box is what especially takes the cake, as charging the gems also causes the girls to lose their connections with them, therefor rendering them powerless against Andrias' dimensional conquest and are unable to fulfil the ancient prophecy to defeat him as displayed in his book about the box.
  • Speaking of the three temple episodes, the episode where Anne goes to the second temple ends with her only getting her gem charged partially; doing so allows her to retain her connection with it, which grants her a Super Mode and gives her the power to fight against Andrias and his deadly weapons against her.
• The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im" sees Joker, Penguin, Killer Croc, Two-Face, and Poison Ivy getting together for a game of poker in a seedy bar and chatting about their previous attempts to kill the Caped Crusader. Each villain shares a story about a time they "almost got him", with the Joker going last and revealing that he's kidnapped Catwoman, who saved Batman from a death trap the previous night, and is planning on killing her as his ultimate prank... and that's when Killer Croc stands up and reveals that he's actually Batman in a perfect disguise, and that all of the other bar patrons are undercover cops. Batman set the whole thing up to goad the Joker into bragging about his scheme and thus save Catwoman. Upon rewatching, viewers see how "Croc" steers the conversation—for example, he's the one who brings up the question of which villain has gotten closest to defeating Batman—and even directly asks Joker about where he's hidden Catwoman (it helps that Croc is largely Dumb Muscle, so it would make sense that he'd be "confused" about the plan).
• Big City Greens:
  • The first time watching "Reckoning Ball", when Chip is forced by his dad to apologize to the Greens for his antics toward them, they accept and he appears to make a potential Heel–Face Turn. It feels like a good moment until you find out in the end that he only tricked them into thinking he was sorry so he can seize the CEO position and further his revenge against them now that his dad's no longer around, making the previous apology take on a more sinister air. It takes on an even worser turn several episodes later when Chip seizes control of Big Coffee, fires Cricket and Gloria, and destroys the café along with the apartment building next door, placing a magastore right over the Green house, and plans to destroy it to make room for the parking lot. Cricket totally feels sorry for himself once he realizes what their actions had done.
  • In "Blood Moon", the reveal that Bill was the one who let the animals out so they can attack the Greens becomes much more poignant when rewatched with the knowledge that he doesn't want the kids to trick-or-treat without him and did it for the sake of not letting them.
• Watching the first half of season 2 of Big Hero 6: The Series with the knowledge that "Liv" Amara isn't actually the real one, but a clone of her named Diana makes things make sense, including why it doesn't jive with her characterization in the first season. It also helps to explain why in "Lie Detector," when asked if she's responsible for mutating the villains, it's revealed that she's telling the truth, despite evidence to the contrary. Because under Metaphorically True, she is — she said "Liv" wasn't responsible for the monsters, and she's not actually Liv.
• Carmen Sandiego: The show heavily uses Red/Green Contrast for its lighting, to the point that one can use this knowledge to easily tell which situations will have things go well for Carmen and her allies based on the dominant color of the scene (red means good things, green means bad things). With that in mind, a rewatch of the first season has them use this to subtly foreshadow Shadow-san's Heel–Face Turn, as scenes heavily featuring him are in red.
• Centaurworld: After all the revelations of the Grand Finale, everything involving the Woman, the Nowhere King, and the General in previous episodes gets completely recontextualized and is a lot more meaningful as a result, especially the Woman's song "Nothing Good" which contains a lot of foreshadowing.
• If you watch Detentionaire with the knowledge that Lynch is Radcircles, all of his behavior prior to The Reveal makes a lot more sense.
• The Dragon Prince:
  • Combined with Alternate Character Interpretation, but in the first few episodes a lot of Harrow's anger toward Viren and dislike for Dark Magic takes on a different light after the backstory given in season two, where his wife Sarai died on a mission to get Viren an important magical supply.
  • Also from the second episode, Rayla hesitates before trying to break into the castle, which involves climbing a sheer cliff above a river. Aside from the general danger, a few episodes later you learn that she has hydrophobia.
• Dragons: Riders of Berk: During one of the flashbacks in the Race to the Edge episode "Have Dragon Will Travel, Part II", a laughing child runs past a very young Heather. After The Reveal at the end of the episode, it becomes obvious that this child was Dagur, who is really Heather's older brother.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • With The Reveal in the Season 1 finale that Lena is Magica's shadow, rather than an actual niece, every interaction between them is put in a new light.
  • Invoked with the Season 2 episode "The Most Dangerous Game... Night", which has Louie lampshade how adventures usually go in the Cold Open. After the episode aired, producer and story editor Francisco Angones challenged fans to rewatch the first season to find every time the characters really did respond to such moments with "Oooh!" and "Wait, what?".
  • The reveal in the Grand Finale that Webby is Scrooge's Opposite-Sex Clone puts everything about their relationship with the rest of the cast in a different light. In particular, their interactions with Scrooge and fangirl-ish obsession with his life and exploits are heavily recontextualized and take on a major layer of Dramatic Irony.
• In one episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy, Eddy claims that his mysterious older brother is coming to the cul-de-sac and will beat up anyone who hurts Eddy. However, when Sarah decides to one-up him by showing up disguised as his brother, he reacts with horror instead of excitement. At the time this seems like a comical overreaction, but it takes a far different meaning after Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show reveals that Eddy's brother is abusive.
• Futurama:
  • It takes multiple viewings to fully understand the several complex Time Travel subplots and the boatload of foreshadowing in Bender's Big Score.
  • "The Why of Fry" features the revelation that Fry was intentionally frozen for 1000 years by Nibbler in the pilot episode. When watching that episode (and the various others that show that scene as a flashback) again, it's possible to spot various subtle hints towards Nibbler's presence in 1999.
  • In "Fear of Bot Planet", when Leela is sentenced to death on the robot planet for being a human, she protests that she's not human; she's an alien. The computer judge never addresses this, and with good reason: Leela is revealed to be a mutant, but still human.
• Gargoyles:
  • Everything that Owen Burnett does becomes more interesting when you learn that he's actually Puck.
  • In the episode "Legion", Coldstone is behaving erratically and reacts in confusion when Goliath addresses him as "brother". Later on, it's revealed that Coldstone is actually controlled by three different gargoyle ghosts who are fighting for control. The reason Coldstone reacted strangely when Goliath called him brother was because the female gargoyle was in charge at the time.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: Season 2's "The Many Lives of Scratch" has Molly and her family thinking up a "death day" (the anniversary of the day someone died) for Scratch when he reveals that he doesn't have one. After seeing "The End", that episode takes on a whole new meaning after the reveal that Scratch is not really dead and is the wraith of someone who gave up the ghost.
• Gravity Falls:
  • A keen eye may notice the time traveler Blendin Blandin in the background of several episodes before his official debut in "The Time Traveler's Pig".
  • Several actions and quotes of Grunkle Stan (such as his shocked reaction to the wax statue of himself in "Headhunters") take on new meaning after The Reveal of his twin at the end of "Not What He Seems".
  • Revisiting "The Time Traveler's Pig" after "A Tale of Two Stans" makes it clear to the viewer that the person in what would become the Mystery Shack when Dipper and Mabel briefly travel to the distant past in the former episode is not Stan, but Ford.
  • In "Dreamscaperers", we see that part of Stan's mindscape is made up of a creepy, decaying swingset. Given that most of Stan's mindscape is based on the Mystery Shack, this doesn't make much sense. Fast-forward to the credits of "Not What He Seems", where we see Stan and his brother as children, sitting on a similar swingset, quietly watching a sunrise.
  • Throughout the series, several blink-and-you-miss symbols can be spotted as per a big Zodiac wheel surrounding Bill Cipher, foreshadowing The Chosen Many. Bill even calls Dipper and Mabel "Pine Tree" and "Shooting Star" a few times, foreshadowing their symbols.
• Infinity Train: Much of One-One's dialogue in Book 1, while initially coming off as a collection of non-sequiturs, turn out to be a case of Exact Words and foreshadowing after the reveal that he’s the true conductor. His odd and unnerving responses to Tulip's questions such as "you're in a bad place right now" and "you'll be gone forever" are actually logical, straightforward answers that explain the purpose and basic functions of the train. Meanwhile, his search for his "mother" is him attempting to recall the control panel in the engine room, where he can regain control of the train and effectively perform a system restore to recover his memories.
• In Season 2, Episode 3 of Invincible (2021), an alien attempting to make contact with Mark tries assuming A Form You Are Comfortable With by shapeshifting into Séance Dog, a in-universe comic character that Mark has loved since he was a child. While that was the first episode that explicitly mentioned Séance Dog, going back and rewatching Season 1 and a viewer will notice Mark reading Séance Dog comics, having Séance Dog posters, and various other things in the background.
• Kaeloo: In several episodes, during serious and important scenes where emotions are running high, Stumpy interrupts by making jokes, which both the other characters and the viewers would attribute to him being The Ditz and not understanding the gravity of the situation. 234 episodes into the series, Cramoisie reveals that Stumpy intentionally makes stupid jokes when other people are sad or angry because he knows what's going on and he wants to lighten the mood and make them feel better, which recontextualizes these scenes in earlier episodes.
• The Legend of Korra: In light of the Grand Finale, most if not every personal interaction between Korra and Asami gains new significance as their relationship subtly progresses from aloof romantic rivals, to close friends that would come to trust each other the most out of the team, and eventually, something more.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): As part of his official introduction in episode 6, the Beyonder has his name displayed in graffiti on the side of the subway car in Lunella’s lab. Lunella ask how long it has been there. Of course, rewatching the season from the beginning will confirm that the graffiti was there the whole time.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • After Twilight becomes an alicorn, and eventually the Princess of Friendship, much of the actions that her mentor Princess Celestia took can now be seen as her preparing her student for the role.
  • In "Swarm of the Century", the first time viewers see Pinkie trying to round up some random instruments while the titular Swarm are eating everyone's homes and possessions, it appears she's being her usual random self, but it turns out there's reason behind it — she knows about the Parasprites and how to get rid of them.
  • Everything learned about Chrysalis being Cadance in disguise in the Season 2 finale become important in rewatches since the audience knows why "Cadance" acted evil from the start, as opposed to it being wedding day nerves.
  • In the Season 8 finale, once you learn that Cozy Glow turned out to be the season's Arc Villain, it casts her earlier appearances in the season in a new light.
  • After the reveal that Ahuizotl was a Good All Along guardian spirit who had been misjudged by Daring Do, some very minor details about his past "villainy" become a lot more relevant on rewatch. His first time being explicitly evil is taking place in one of Daring Do's books, and his second time of being "evil" involves unleashing a centralized heat wave on a valley where, if you pay close attention, all the native animals and ponies of the valley are freely helping him accomplish.
  • The reveal that Discord was disguised as Grogar in the Grand Finale becomes much more relevant throughout the season since it was all a test for Twilight to see if she is ready to become the new ruler, and he gives plenty of hints throughout.
• Over the Garden Wall:
  • The very first shot of the series is Greg's frog playing the piano, which cuts away the instant before the vocals for "Into the Unknown" and narration of begin. On rewatch, you can tell it was precisely-timed to obscure the frog himself singing because he was the Narrator All Along.
  • The opening of episode one shows various little scenes with no context, but provide an Early-Bird Cameo for different characters and hint at what's going to happen in each episode. The one right before the title screen is just some blurry, shadowy figures, sort of like what you'd see opening your eyes underwater...
  • Wirt and Lorna are blushing and smiling around each other, while Wirt's little brother Greg looks on in annoyance. At the time you think it's because Girls Have Cooties, but after the Whole Episode Flashback you realize that it's actually because he's a Wirt/Sara shipper.
• The Owl House:
  • At the beginning "Eclipse Lake", Luz (who’s semi-delirious from a fever) sends Amity a seemingly random string of emojis in a message, which Amity assumes to be some sort of request. Once it's revealed how to read the messages (turn it on its side and the emojis will resemble letters) you can see that what Luz actually wrote was "U R PRETTY", explaining why she looked so confused by Amity responding with "You got it."
  • All of Raine's actions in "Follies at the Coven Day Parade" read very differently after the reveal in "Them's the Breaks, Kid" that they're Pretending To Be Brainwashed. When they seem to blow on the mind altering potion Terra gave them to cool it off, they're clearly casting their whistling spell to neutralize it, and their frustration with Eda during their fight was actually because she was at risk of blowing their cover. And on a less spoilery note, Eda's file on Raine in the former episode featured a picture of an IFWOT ribbon.
  • In "Clouds on the Horizon", the final fight is so intense and hectic it's easy to miss the hints that Luz and Hunter have swapped places using one of Gus's illusions. The more obvious hints include "Luz" inexplicably using Hunter's Flash Step ability with no hints at her having learned it, "Hunter's" extremely out-of-character behavior ("he" makes no attempts to escape from Kikimora and looks more annoyed than scared at being captured, even though Hunter is a Nervous Wreck who has had multiple panic attacks at the mere idea of being captured and sent back to Belos), and some minor Glamour Failures that give the game away to those looking out for them ("Hunter" has Luz's curled lip, while "Luz" has Hunter's tooth gap).
• The Patrick Star Show: In "Best Served Cold", it's difficult to notice on first watch, but when Gladys is first seen, she's reading the Easter Bunny expose that she brings up later. Also, while Squidward, Fentin, and the Grim Reaper specifically mention their enemies as "[X] Star," Gladys just says "Ooh, that Bunny!" This hints that she wasn't actually in on it for revenge like the others.
• Watching The Replacements with the knowledge that Conrad Fleem is actually Todd & Riley's uncle makes certain things regarding the titular replacements make sense. After all, why else would a successful businessman allow two kids he doesn't know to replace people for any reason?
• Rick and Morty: Many, due to episode "Rickmurai Jack" revealing so many critical lore details about Rick's past.
  • When looking back at "Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind", it becomes clear that the reason Rick C-137 was the prime suspect in Evil Morty's Rick-murder spree was because of his earlier Roaring Rampage of Revenge against many alternate Ricks. If there was a single Rick that could kill so many of them, it would be him.
  • Also, the shocked murmurs that ripple through the courtroom when Rick decries the very concept of the Citadel are almost certainly in part because C-137 was the one who established the Citadel (or at least the most recent version at the time).
  • Rick's catchphrase, "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub" meaning "I am in great pain, please help me." is first interpreted by Morty as just a silly one mocking his surroundings. This episode reveals Rick never quite got over the fallout of his wife and daughter's death in the first place and fell into depression and nihilism after failing to avenge them, and was behind the Citadel of Ricks just to leave him alone, and Birdperson most likely knew all this.
  • Rick's deep contempt of the Citadel and declaring himself "the Rickest Rick" makes sense when looking at his backstory — unlike all the other Ricks at the Citadel, C-137 didn't want to dedicate his life to science, instead opting to spend more time with his family. He was forced into science when one of the Ricks killed his family, and C-137 was determined to get revenge. The other Ricks learned of C-137's Roaring Rampage of Revenge and made unsuccessful attempts to assassinate him, eventually leading into the establishment of the Citadel just to get them to stop. Lastly, C-137 also created an alliance of alternate versions of himself that have endlessly manipulated the daughter he loved into hooking up with Jerry, just for the sake of giving them the perfect sidekick. And he's the "Rickest Rick" because he is the most ruthless, determined, smartest of them all, able to casually kill untold legions of Ricks without resistance.
  • The episode puts Rick and Jerry's relationship in a whole new light. Rick could easily Kill and Replace Jerry with a better pick for Beth, but he knows the latter is a victim of the Citadel. Particularly his rant in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" where he says Beth had options: he's talking about how Beth's been manipulated to fall in love with the same loser and have her life shackled to him for the purpose of breeding.
    • When looking back at "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", you'd realize that Glaxo Slimslom was unknowingly right in so many ways when he said that the marriage between Beth and Jerry is the single worst marriage he's ever witnessed and more importantly, that this marriage shouldn't exist. The Ricks of the Citadel pretty much brought this marriage into existence for the sake of breeding the perfect kid sidekick (Morty).
    • To say nothing of his cloning Beth. He wants his family to choose their own path, but when Beth asked him to make that choice, Rick buckled not just because he couldn't handle a choice that big, but because she, unwittingly, was asking him to manipulate her life again.
  • Between the "dome of Mortys" that Evil Rick and Evil Morty had to protect themselves, and a dedicated school at the Citadel for Rickless Mortys, there seem to be a lot more Mortys than Ricks out there, even accounting for an infinite multiverse. The reveal that Mortys are cloned and mass-produced at the Citadel confirms there are more Mortys than Ricks.
  • Any mention of the "Central Finite Curve" in earlier episodes becomes this given The Reveal about what it is here.
• The Simpsons' "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" features a significant number of subtle hints towards the The Reveal of the shooter which the viewer won't pick up on until future viewings when they start paying attention to the character's actions throughout both episodes.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man notably has several bits of foreshadowing that aren't as noticeable on the first viewing. In particular, the twist that Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin all along and framed his son to take the blame has several bits that subtly hint at the reveal long before it occurs.
• Star Wars Rebels: The series finale "Family Reunion — and Farewell" provides a significant amount of this from the reveal of Hera and Kanan's son Jacen.
  • In the episode "Jedi Knight", Hera confesses her love to Kanan, who performs a Heroic Sacrifice minutes later. In the next episode, Hera is grief-stricken over the fact that she waited so long to tell him. The series finale indicates that Hera was really trying to tell Kanan about her pregnancy, but was unable to.
    • Alternatively, it’s entirely possible that Kanan knew about it via the Force, which would make his sacrifice even more meaningful.
  • Also, in the opening scene of "Family Reunion — and Farewell", Hera overhears Ezra talking to a picture of his parents, and telling them how much he looks up to them. On the first viewing, it’s easy to think that Hera was simply happy for Ezra. But the reveal at the end of the episode gives that scene a whole new meaning, evidenced by a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Hand on Womb from Hera.
• Steven Universe often has hints in the dialogue and background that can be connected to things that are revealed later.
  • For example, "Alone Together" provides some interesting hints at Garnet being a fusion of two gems, Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet is the most gleeful and encouraging of Steven and Connie fusing into one person, calling it an experience that is meant to be enjoyed. Also, when the other Gems say that fusion is hard for them to comfort Steven's initial failed attempts, Garnet deadpans that it isn't for her. She's right, it isn't since she spends her entire life as a fusion.
  • In "Message Received", all of Peridot's dialogue from the beginning of the episode ends up being an example of Poor Communication Kills when we learn that her plan was to convince Yellow Diamond to spare the Earth.
  • The Reveal in "A Single Pale Rose" that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person not only casts a whole new light on her relationship with Pearl, the Gem War, and several of her and Steven's powers, but the entire series in general.
  • The Movie:
    • On a second viewing, the shot of a dark, abandoned location (later revealed to be Pink Diamond's garden) that appears during the broadcast of Steven's message blatantly has Spinel's foot in the middle of it.
    • The first time you listen to "Other Friends", it sounds like a bunch of confusing threats and demands. The second time you listen to it after watching the movie you realize it's Spinel listing all the ways Pink Diamond hurt her.
    • During the brief montage where Steven and Spinel look for Amethyst, Onion appears in each visited area.
• Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters. After the villainous reveals of Jonathan Rook and Malcolm Kane, their behavior throughout the whole series takes on a whole new meaning, particularly how Rook just happened to benefit from Stretch Monster's actions, how Rook was in awe of Stretch Monster's feats, and how Kane seemed incompetent when dealing with the Tech Men.
• Tangled: The Series:
  • In the final season, it was revealed Rapunzel's Hair Reboot was caused by the Moonstone granting a fraction of its power to Rapunzel when she touched the black rocks, putting that special in a new light.
  • Also in the final season, it was revealed the blizzard that nearly destroyed Corona when Rapunzel was put in charge in "Queen For a Day" was actually an alternate form of Zhan Tiri, making that episode her true first appearance and putting her motives in a whole new direction.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • In "Sisters", Starfire says fireworks remind her of when the Gordanians would attack her planet. Upon the first watch, this seems like one of many offhand comments she makes about her past on Tamaran, but then the Origins Episode reveals Starfire arrived on Earth after escaping from Gordanian captivity, and suddenly it becomes clear that she’s afraid they’ve come back for her.
  • A couple of moments in "Titan Rising" make more sense once you have the knowledge that Terra is a double agent working for Slade, especially her being vocally relieved that the Titans actually trust her.
• The Toonsylvania episode "WereGranny" has Igor and Phil believe they've turned Dr. Vic's visiting grandmother into a werewolf and they both desperately try to cure her of her lycanthropy while doing whatever they can to prevent her grandson from seeing her transforming. One scene has Dr. Vic show his grandmother his telescope and ask if she'd like to see the moon, Granny replying that he knows how she is and giggling. This scene doesn't seem important at first, but after a second viewing stands out as an early hint that Granny Frankenstein was already a werewolf before she visited and that Dr. Vic was already aware of his grandmother being a werewolf.
• The first two seasons of Transformers: Animated have many retroactive moments that foreshadow Sari's true heritage.
• Young Justice. Various details revealed over the course of the seasons make past character behaviours a lot more interesting in retrospect- most notably M'gann being a White Martian, Roy being a Manchurian Agent and clone and the fact that Kaldur is actually The Mole, not a traitor at all.

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