Shows with their own pages:
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- Adventure Time:
- While "Stakes" was well received, it was panned for Finn being next to useless against the vampires and being reduced to a comedic side character alongside Jake, not to mention its Status Quo Is God ending. Both of these issues are fixed in "Islands" and "Elements", with the former having a more serious focus on Finn as he tries to find the remaining survivors of the human race, as well as his mother and the latter having Finn and Jake actually doing something to save Ooo with Ice King and Betty. Not only that, but both miniseries ends with significant changes that would affect the rest of the series until its final episode.
- Everyone expected Finn to lose his arm since "Mortal Folly", to the point where it became an recurring element through the series, as it show alternate versions of Finn (from other universes, past incarnations or alternate futures) with his right arm either missing or replaced with a robotic one. When it finally happened during the Season 6 premiere, despite the shocking moment, no one was surprised. And then, four episodes later, Finn recovers his arm at the end of "Breezy", which angered a lot of fans. This issue was later addressed in the Season 7 finale "Reboot", where not only Finn loses his arm for good, which unites itself with the Finn Sword, fusing together and becoming Fern in the process, but he also gets a robotic arm in the Season 8 premiere.
- Adventure Time: Distant Lands: Despite "Come Along With Me" receiving critical acclaim by critics, it is considered one of the most divisive finales of the decade, with the number one reason being Finn and Jake's role in it: reduced to secondary characters, having no major role whatsoever during the second half, Finn not partaking in the final battle against GOLB and spending the majority of the episode Eaten Alive alongside Simon and Betty, no closure to his love life and having no significant scenes during the ending montage other than the end. The third special of the Distant Lands miniseries, "Together Again", addresses most of the criticism from the finale, being advertised as the definitive finale to Finn and Jake's adventures, as the special is centered around Finn and Jake reuniting themselves after their deaths in the Death Worlds, culminating in a final battle against the returning Lich before their reincarnation. However, most is the keyword: while it addressed a lot of the issues from the finale, some of the issues from it, like the lack of closure to Finn's love life and what happened to Ooo after the finale, aren't addressed.
- As mentioned above, Finn's love life, after years of constant teasing and sinking down ships over the course of the show without giving any closure whatsoever, left fans a sour taste in their mouths, as they didn't want to see Finn left out unlike every major character in the show. Come Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake and not only confirms right from the start that Finn is still together with Huntress Wizard, but also their alternate counterparts, as long as they're alive, are destined to be together in the multiverse, with one example being Farmworld Finn, who had five children with his version of HW. And at the end of the series, the show starts teasing Fionna with Hunter.
- Amphibia: Marcy's Journal seemingly offer many characters inside and how they truly felt during the event of the series.
- Many fans didn't take kindly to Anne not reacting much to Marcy's supposed death and seemingly having fun on Earth. When it's her turn to write the journal, it reveals that Anne has been angsty not only for returning the Plantars home (feeling like she's the only one to take it seriously) but legit guilt and fear her friends, Sasha and Marcy, may not be alive. Anne even reveals she hopes Marcy is okay because if she, for a moment, believes she's dead, she would break down and be unable to help her family.
- The journal reveals more details about Sasha and Marcy's family. Sasha's father remarried with a new wife who already has kids, and her mother has a steady boyfriend. And Marcy's parents, mostly her dad, were strict with her, leading to a heavily strained relationship and the decision to move out to be the last straw for her.
- While the ending was well-received, some fans thought that Anne and everyone being separated was too much sadness for a found family story. By the end of the journal, Terri called them with big news. It wasn't revealed what the news was, but the last time they spoke, Terri and X planned to get the portal working, and this could be that news.
- Bluey: The episode "Tina" faced criticism for more directly explaining its message of why you should listen to your elders instead of showing children the consequences. "Show And Tell" repeats the same message, but this time Bandit shows the girls the consequences of not listening to those who know better by ignoring his GPS in the car and then ending up completely lost as a result. This was seen as a vast improvement.
- Bob's Burgers:
- The episode "Best Burger" is one for the much-maligned "Family Fracas", giving us another competition between Bob and Jimmy Pesto, with Chuck Charles overseeing the event. While Bob still does not win, Jimmy crashes and burns hard, the contest between Bob and a famous chef is an incredibly close run, the winner was a deserving Nice Guy, and the restaurant picks up a significant amount of business on the back of it.
- As a whole, the reaction to this episode made the writers learn that it's just not fun for the audience when the characters they root for lose for no reason and the Hate Sink wins. Subsequent episodes show Jimmy Pesto and Hugo either as laughably incompetent or losing for their efforts to do things in the most jerkish way possible.
- "All That Gene" serves as one to "Gene It On" by being another episode about Linda and Gene's relationship. "Gene It On" had Linda desperately wanting to live vicariously through Gene's cheerleading and smothers him in attention to do just that until Gene finally snaps at her and she declares he's "not her favorite anymore." "All That Gene" shows Linda genuinely wants to help Gene get the part of Quiet Eli because she believes in him, but the lengths of bribing the director undermine her best interests and causes a rift between them before Linda makes amends. The problem with "Gene It On" being Linda doesn't really learn why she was wrong to treat Gene the way she did, while "All That Gene" has Linda making a well-intentioned mistake for the sake of supporting something Gene really wanted to do and then making a better effort to offer him true support.
- The episode "Best Burger" is one for the much-maligned "Family Fracas", giving us another competition between Bob and Jimmy Pesto, with Chuck Charles overseeing the event. While Bob still does not win, Jimmy crashes and burns hard, the contest between Bob and a famous chef is an incredibly close run, the winner was a deserving Nice Guy, and the restaurant picks up a significant amount of business on the back of it.
- BoJack Horseman: Despite its public and critical acclaim, many fans felt that Season 3 was unreasonably punitive of BoJack, and that he didn't deserve most of what happened to him, despite his previous actions. The Downer Ending to his plotline while everyone else's ended on a positive note didn't help. Season 4 appears to be made with this in mind; BoJack makes major strives in more positive Character Development, makes some amends with his mother, finally manages to not destroy a relationship with his half-sister Hollyhock, and several of his broken friendships are, if not mended, then at least patched up. BoJack even gets to drop the season's sole F-bomb. His own ending is an unambiguous Hope Spot, while the overall angst is about evenly divided by the Ensemble Cast, with Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter's marriage breakdown, Princess Carolyn's miscarriages and Todd's sexuality issues.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: Adulthood being equated to a "disease" by a representative of the Galactic KND was seen by a few viewers as seeming just a bit too outlandish for the series. The April Fools' Day Viral Marketing has since revealed the Galactic KND to be Scary Dogmatic Aliens, somewhat amending this particular complaint.
- Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood had the episode "Daniel Can't Ride Trolley; Daniel Can't Get What He Wants". Both segments in the episode had a moral of "stomp your feet when you get angry and you will feel better". Unfortunately, this seemed very similar to a temper tantrum in the eyes of most parents. A recut version of this episode was made in 2019, with some scenes edited and the line "stomp three times" redubbed with "Take a deep breath".
- The Dragon Prince:
- The flashback in season 2 to the early days of Harrow's rule and the circumstances surrounding Queen Sarai's death goes a long way to explain Harrow's actions before his death, particularly his hatred for dark magic as an "easy solution," his use of the term "servant of Katolis", the rift between him and Viren, and that he never truly recovered from losing Sarai and looks forward to being Together in Death with her.
- While Amaya and Janai's subplot in Season 4 was considered rather disconnected from the overarching story, Season 5 would rectify this and grant the subplot more importance by linking up the subplot with Callum's team's story, introducing Kim'dael from Bloodmoon Huntress into the show to further this subplot and link up the show's lore with said graphic novel, and setting up more potential plot points to play later down the line that could easily play into the overall story.
- Dragons: The Nine Realms: After some people complained about the lack of familiar dragon species in Season 1, Season 2 features a Razorwhip and a Skrill, two species who have made regular appearances in the Dragons: Riders of Berk TV series. Season 3 continues this by bringing back the Fireworm, Hobgobbler, Catastrophic Quaken, Monstrous Nightmare, and Gronckle, species that are very recognizable to fans of the movies and previous TV series. In fact, in the 6th season, most "new" dragons are returning ones: The Deadly Nadder, the Deathgripper and the Shellfire all feature in prominent roles throughout the season.
- Dragons: Riders of Berk:
- A common complaint aimed at the second film was that Hiccup was being uncharacteristically naive and illogical for trying to reason with Drago Bludvist, especially since this indirectly gets Stoick killed. Race To The Edge frequently lampshades the disadvantages of Hiccup's overly-trusting nature, but also heavily focuses on how he succeeds with it. Hiccup's pacifistic influence gradually prompts a Heel–Face Turn from nearly every antagonistic force in the show, including Dagur and even Viggo, retroactively explaining why Hiccup was so confident that he could reason with Drago.
- Ruffnut in the first season got less screentime and dialogue because her voice actress couldn't keep up with TJ Miller's improv, much to a lot of fans' ire. Come season four, she has about several episodes focusing on her relationships with the other riders.
- Likewise, the viewers noticed that Hiccup had little to no leg problems given his amputation and it sometimes doubles as a Disability Superpower. In season four, one episode has a Running Gag of Hiccup getting his prosthetics damaged.
- The hints that Dagur killed his father at first seemed to be a case of "you know what we mean, but the censors won't allow us to say it outright", particularly after Dagur mentions 'disposing' of his father so he could rule in Defenders of Berk. So the revelation in Season 5 that Dagur did not kill his father seems like a Retcon to make his character more sympathetic and to make his deep respect for blood ties regarding Heather not seem blatantly out of character. Some are quite unforgiving of this and his subsequent character arcs whilst others view Dagur being so evasive in earlier seasons about the fate of his father to be a case of Fridge Brilliance when Dagur admits he leaned into the rumors he killed him so he'd be feared but never claimed to have actually done it, which is something his psychotic younger self would've boasted about if he weren't so loyal to family.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: The episode "Here's Mud In Your Ed" seems to be more of an apology to fans who hated "If It Smells Like an Ed" due to the fact that Jimmy went too far with his retribution and framed all three Eds when it was only Eddy who humiliated him. In the former episode, Jimmy tells Rolf that only Eddy tricked him out of his money, and they both come up with a funnier, more harmless joke to play on Eddy, and only Eddy, in retaliation.
- Family Guy:
- After the backlash Season 7 got for portraying Brian's ultra-liberal preaching in the right, following seasons will usually have characters point out the absurdity of a dog lecturing people about politics.
- After Quagmire was rewritten into a Take That, Scrappy! avatar who loathed and called out Brian on a regular basis, some fans complained it was overdone or skewed due to Quagmire's own shortcomings. Later episodes Took a Third Option and made Brian hate Quagmire back, with both characters trading equal blows and calling out each other's hypocrisies, usually with neither character portrayed as particularly more moral than the other and often mutually screwing each over.
- One of the show's most contentious running gags is the family's poor treatment of Meg, which many have felt comes across as overly mean-spirited and disturbing. Starting around season 14, jokes about Meg being abused were almost entirely phased out, with the family becoming far more sympathetic and caring towards her. When she is occasionally shown to be mistreated by people, she is just as likely to fight back against them (sometimes even initiating the conflict). In "Pawtucket Pat", Meg randomly throws her shoe at Peter's face; in "Hefty Shades of Grey", she mischievously ignores her father's pleas for help after the latter is locked in the basement; and in "Fecal Matters", she pulls painful pranks on the family after being granted Super-Speed.
- In Season 1 of Final Space, One of the things Gary was criticized for by a half of the fanbase was his habit of Suddenly Shouting. By Season 2, he doesn't scream his lines nearly as often.
- Godzilla: The Series does this for Godzilla (1998) by way of Contrasting Sequel Main Character. Zilla Junior, unlike his father, possesses a more traditional atomic ray and shows himself to have a higher degree of sentience than his predecessor, as well as having the regenerative capabilities and durability of the original Godzilla. Though he is still drastically different from any japanese Godzillas (and a fair bit more heroic), this helped make the character and the cartoon more popular than the original movie.
- Gravity Falls:
- Fans gave a great deal of backlash at "The Time Traveler's Pig" for Dipper and Mabel's Protagonist-Centered Morality in getting Blendin' Blandin in trouble while they get off scot-free of the trouble they caused to the timeline. "Blendin's Game" has Dipper and Mabel feeling bad for what they did to him and helped him get back his job, and got him a head of hair.
- In "The Time Traveler's Pig" and "The Deep End", Dipper has to sacrifice his potential happiness for Mabel, causing fans to complain that she never even considers doing the same. In "Sock Opera," Bill Cipher actually uses this argument, and Mabel's treatment of him in that episode, to trick Dipper into letting Bill steal his body. When Mabel confronts "Bipper" at the end of the episode, he almost talks her into sacrificing Dipper for her own happiness...only for her to remember how often he helped her and refuse, saving the day.
- "Into The Bunker" was written to rescue Wendy from the Scrappy heap. She's shown to be an Action Girl who's a huge asset on a dangerous mission; she also lets Dipper down gently when he confesses his crush.
- Hazbin Hotel:
- In the years in between the pilot's debut and the show's release on Amazon Prime, a combination of rampant theorycrafting and Hellaverse companion show Helluva Boss caused a large degree of skepticism to emerge within the fanbase that Charlie's desire to reform demons was going to be a Broken Aesop of some kind, especially as Helluva Boss began showing more and more demons who were perfectly decent if slightly amoral people and depicting Hell as an ok place to live. The show proper dispels all such worries, as it firmly establishes that Charlie's goal is the salvation of her people first and their redemption is a means to an end born out of her naivete and lack of understanding of Heaven's prejudices. This makes the show remain internally consistent with Helluva Boss and its depiction of Hell, which fans had feared was beginning fall out of line with Hazbin's premise.
- Similarly, the Helluva Boss episode "C.H.E.R.U.B" had long been the subject of controversy and Wild Mass Guessing within the Hellaverse fandom because what little it showed of Heaven portrayed it as being an uptight, draconian bureaucracy where the slightest mistake condemned a soul to damnation, leading to there being much discourse surrounding whether ascending to Heaven was even a worthwhile goal and whether Charlie was completely delusional in her aspirations and she should simply be fighting against them. "Welcome to Heaven" conclusively shows that Heaven is an ideally attainable afterlife which happens to be run by myopic Well Intentioned Extremists (and at least one Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist, Adam), and Charlie's primary conflict with Heaven is convincing them that Sinners are worthy of getting into it in the first place rather than a Rage Against the Heavens.
- Justice League:
- In the three-part episode ("The Savage Time") revolves around the Justice League trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong after Vandal Savage usurps control of the Nazis and uses them to conquer the world by way of time travel. They succeed, but the episode ends with Hitler about to be cryogenically defrosted and restored to power. This led to a massive fan-outcry, to the widespread Fridge Horror that this implied the Justice League had blithely ensured that the Holocaust would still happen in the process of returning to their own world. It got so bad the producers publicly stated that Vandal's manipulations meant that Hitler had neither the time nor the resources to enact the Holocaust, having been frozen before he could start and then put back in charge during the end of the Nazis' reign over Germany.
- When Brainiac makes his return, he creates a skullship. It's design is closer to the comics and is meant to address complaints some people had with the other skullship that appeared in Static Shock.
- During the first season, Superman had the tendency of being defeated by a number of villains frequently, sometimes in ways that wouldn't logically incapacitate him, which netted complaints. The writers caught on and the second and Unlimited seasons brought him more in line with how he was back in Superman: TAS, which resulted in him not being knocked down as easily.
- Kaeloo:
- In the first season, there was a Courtroom Episode where Kaeloo wins against Mr. Cat by emotionally manipulating him and then harshly punishes him despite him being nice to her for once. This episode was hated by nearly the entire fandom, who thought the episode was too unfair to Mr. Cat. Then, Season 3 had another Courtroom Episode, and this time around, Mr. Cat won by hoisting Kaeloo by her own petard, which the fans thought she deserved.
- Episodes like "Let's Play Golf" and "Let's Play Danger Island Survivor" prove that Kaeloo is not a Karma Houdini after all, assuaging the wrath of fans who watched the episodes where Kaeloo does get away with some pretty shitty stuff.
- Fans of the series who felt like Mr. Cat and Stumpy got too much screen time were pretty happy with Episode 149, where Mr. Cat does not appearnote and Stumpy is relegated to a minor/supporting character while Kaeloo and the bunny twins get more focus.
- Many fans of the show felt annoyed by Kaeloo's constant manipulation of Mr. Cat's emotions and her using his love for her against him. In Episode 108, we get to see her emotional blackmail backfire on her while Mr. Cat watches with a confident smirk.
- In Episode 171, we find out that Mr. Cat's constant tiredness is his own fault for staying up late at night instead of sleeping, assuaging fans' fears that he was sleep deprived because of the other characters bothering him while he tried to sleep.
- Kid vs. Kat: Season 2 fixed many of the issues people had with season one. Coop's Butt-Monkey status was toned down while giving him some victories over Kat, the supporting characters became much more likeable and active (and in some of The Scrappy characters weren't as dislikable compared to Season 1), Coop's new ally and love interest Fiona added more variety to the show and the writing overall improved.
- The Legend of Korra:
- The extensive Love Triangle subplot between Korra, Mako, and Asami in Book 1 was widely panned as bring rushed, getting in the way of the real story involving the Equalists, and ultimately feeling shallow and unsatisfying. Season 4 featured a Clip Show episode with the first segment exclusively dedicated to Mako's messy love life, with side characters pointing out all the mistakes that Mako made. Mako ends up agreeing with them and admitting his mistakes, in what was basically an apology to the fans.
- In general, Book 3 was this to Book 2 in correcting numerous mistakes from re-railing several characters that had been turned into jerks, idiots and/or were made weak, giving a proper reason for why Korra had been secluded instead of the White Lotus messing up Aang's wishes, more compelling and cooler villains to overall getting back to the franchise's Central Theme that meant the women were rivaling the men in competence again.
- The Lion King (1994):
- The spin-offs series The Lion Guard's very first episode addressed the long term criticism of The Lion King promoting "segregation" of the hyenas and the portrayal of them as evil. Jasiri is the first non-antagonistic hyena introduced in the series (the second if you count book canon), and she mentions that the roles hyenas play are just as much a part of the Circle of Life as the lions. It goes so far as to retcon away the evil nature of hyenas; apparently, they're mostly good as a species, it's just The Pride Lands have coincidentally seen more evil ones than good ones.
- A common discussion among Lion King fans is the identity of Nala's father—Mufasa and Scar seem to be the only male lions in their pride, but either one of them would have troubling implications for her and Simba's romance. The show has an episode confirming that he's some other male lion who isn't around for some reason. (We also learn that there used to be a bunch of other male lions whom Scar killed, so that might explain it.)
M-Z
- My Little Pony: Make Your Mark: A criticism of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was earth ponies seeming lack of the well-defined magic like unicorns or pegasi, as their Word of God-stated connection to nature wasn't clearly demonstrated and Super-Strength shown only by a few individuals or inconsistently. Make Your Mark rectified this by granting earth ponies Green Thumb abilities, even making it a plot point that magic has evolved to explain why earth ponies never had this power before.
- A lot of people (especially parents) hated Nina Needs to Go! because Nina kept saying it would never happen again but it did. Later episodes would have her learn additional lessons that did stick.
- The Owl House: After the first season ended, there were many fans who didn't like how Lilith came across as Easily Forgiven for kidnapping Luz and cursing Eda, which ultimately led to Eda losing all of her magic, even if she did try and rectify it by helping Luz break her out of prison and, eventually, splitting the curse with her to return her to her normal form. "Separate Tides", however, makes it clear that this is not the case, as Luz says that they still don't completely trust Lilith and Eda very casually guilt trips her about the curse, showing that she's still upset about everything. Lilith herself admits that she can never make up for what she did, but wants to start by helping Eda with the tasks she can do with no magic, hence why she tells Hooty she has to get the scrying potion ingredients alone. Hooty is the only one who has forgiven Lilith, telling her You Are Not Alone and she doesn't have to let her pride and shame get in the way of common sense.
- The Patrick Star Show: The Quasar and Pat-Tron segments get a major revamp in "Blorpsgiving" through both characters' recharacterization. Quasar goes from being an obnoxious Miles Gloriosus to a more emotional and dramatic Fish out of Water compared to Pat-Tron's family, making his character more entertaining and sympathetic. With most of the conflict focusing on Quasar's misguided attempts to impress one of Pat-Tron's relatives, Pat-Tron's Lethally Stupid nature is dialed down. While he does cause trouble at the start, he's mostly out of the story after it and even manages to save Quasar in the end. It also helps that their appearance is the main story this time around, rather than being padding to a completely unrelated one. In the end, the episode did a lot to redeem both characters for most fans.
- The Powerpuff Girls: Many fans did not like Rainbow's fate at the end of the Season One episode "Mime For A Change", where in the girls beat him up and send him to jail after he was reformed. To rectify this, he is seen again at the girls' birthday party in the season two episode "Birthday Bash" as a free and happy clown. What helps is that the writers never intended to hurt Rainbow at the end of "Mime".
- The Real Ghostbusters: Janine, Sassy Secretary Trope Codifier, was given a very bad case of Chickification mandated by Executive Meddling. But then J. Michael Straczynski was able to throw the override switch. The episode "Janine, You've Changed," gave Janine an In-Universe explanation; a demon had been influencing Janine the entire time, playing on her insecurities and unrequited crush on Egon. When she and the guys find out about this, Janine steps up and turns the demon's own powers back on her, banishing the demon and rejecting the influence it had on her.
- In Season 4 of Rick and Morty, Beth and Jerry's "relationship" is barely even touched on, and when it is it's typically very briefly to set up a joke. This is in direct response to fans coming to dislike the two and how their marriage problems were focused too much on, particularly in Season 3 where they bordered on taking the spotlight from the titular Rick and Morty, and fans complaining that Beth and Jerry are much more interesting and entertaining characters when they're not constantly padding episodes with their relationship drama.
- The Simpsons:
- In the episode "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" was hastily developed and tacked onto the end of Season 3 after the negative response to the Downer Ending of Season 2's "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", and specifically overrides said Downer Ending, with Herb regaining his fortune and reconciling with Homer.
- The episode "The Principal and the Pauper" was widely derided for its revelation that Seymour Skinner was actually a former petty thug named Armin Tamzarian who assumed the real Skinner's identity after the latter went missing in action in Vietnam, made even worse by the fact that the real Skinner ends the episode expelled from Springfield while the impostor carries on with his life. "Boy Meets Curl" made all that Canon Discontinuity, firmly establishing that the Principal Skinner we've been following is in fact the real Seymour Skinner.
- Skull Island (2023): A common criticism of the MonsterVerse is that, too often, Godzilla and/or Kong need the human cast's help to finally take down the Big Bad Kaiju. While Kong does struggle against the Kraken, he manages to overcome it using his own strength and intelligence to prevail.
- South Park:
- "Time to Get Cereal" was widely seen as a repudiation of and apology for the climate-change-denial message of "ManBearPig", to which it is a Sequel Episode.
- The good future shown at the end of South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid shows Cartman's ultimate fate as a drunken, miserable hobo. While many fans interpreted his fate to be Karmic Overkill, subsequent episodes show Cartman paving his own path to his miserable destiny. "City People" ends with him forcing his mom to quit her job as a real estate agent, causing them to move out of their home and live in an abandoned hot dog stand while irreparably damaging their relationship. Meanwhile, "DikinBaus Hot Dogs" has Cartman show himself to be too lazy and selfish to work hard to his future, while scheming to rob Butters out of the money he had earned through hard work.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: In "Running with Scissors" Marco enters another universe where time flows differently, living 30 years before being returned to 14. However, the episode strongly implies that he remained 30 years old mentally, which many fans saw as giving some...disconcerting implications to his many love triangles with the teenage cast. In the live streams, they clarify that while he's aware of his time in Hekapoo's dimension, the memories are blurry and dreamlike rather then personal, confirming he is indeed still mentally 14 rather then a 30 year old in a 14 year old's body.
- Steven Universe:
- Many fans began to feel that Steven was becoming flanderized as an All-Loving Hero, and were getting weary of Steven simply talking many of his foes out of hostilities (with the worst example being from "Gem Drill"). Season Three rectified this by having Steven's Story Arc revolve around him learning the harsh truth that there are many foes who simply can't be talked down and won't listen to reason. Not only that, but Steven is forced to fight back in self-defense in three of those instances and forced to temporarily shed his pacifistic morals to survive them, finally learning what his father Greg really meant when he lamented the severity of war. And when Jasper is finally defeated during the last episodes of season 3, she rebukes any chance of redemption Steven gives her and refuses to let him save her from succumbing to The Corruption. All of this gives Steven some vital Character Development and also gives the show, with its setting being the aftermath of a brutal war, even more depth and realism and satisfied many fans who felt as if Steven's qualities were being taken to unrealistic levels.
- One aspect of Gem fusion that made many viewers uncomfortable was the idea of romantic partners giving up their personal autonomy to live full-time as a combined being like Garnet. The Steven Universe: Future episode "Together Forever" addresses this by revealing that Ruby and Sapphire sometimes willingly split (as opposed to when they're arguing or on a mission that requires their separate selves) to pursue their own separate interests. Garnet explains to Steven that a healthy relationship isn't about people completing each other, but complementing, and that her two component Gems still live their own lives independent of each other.
- Steven Universe: Future:
- After many complained about the rather excessive amount of A Day in the Limelight episodes for the relatively mundane human characters in the original series, this series spices them up considerably by adding a good variety of Gem characters interacting with the humans as well as getting just as much focus. Even some of the ones who haven't been getting enough attention yet, like Peridot and Bismuth, have now gotten episodes focused on them.
- The original series got a lot of flack for the resolution of the Gem War being far too neat and tidy, with the entire Empire seeming to change from millennia of conquest after just a few speeches. After the movie already poked some holes in the idea, this series goes even further in showing there are quite a few Gems who still aren't happy with Steven and the new rules.
- Instead of the Diamonds pulling an easy Heel–Face Turn and calling it a day, "Homeworld Bound" shows all three actually hard at work undoing the countless ages of harm they caused. The reveal in said episode that shattered gems can be revived thanks to Yellow Diamond's new powers and with her planning to fix the gems in the Cluster also puts relief over the fact that the finale of the original series was criticized because of the Diamonds being redeemed despite their genocidal history too much to forgive.
- For those who think White Diamond was too Easily Forgiven at the end of "Change Your Mind", "Homeworld Bound" shows that Steven still hasn't forgiven her completely and holds a lot of suppressed resentment towards her, which surfaces when White allows Steven to control her body as a form of therapy and leads to Steven attacking her.
- The season as a whole addresses the frequent complaint to the original series of Steven not having healthy boundaries when it comes to his friends, and that their Character Development were entirely dependent on Steven being present. The final season reveals that Steven has both a complex and obsession with being his friends' Living Emotional Crutch, and when he realizes that he is no longer needed in this capacity, he undergoes an emotional breakdown and an identity crisis.
- In Teen Titans, Cyborg was always shown firing his sonic Arm Cannon from his right arm, until one day he used his left. Fans pointed out this apparent plot hole, and some time later, during a crucial fight, he simply converts both arms to cannons.
- Timon & Pumbaa: The original film didn't give Simba a good reason on why he should be king, as he didn't seem to have any of the necessary skills to rule the Pride Lands. However, the episodes "Congo on Like This" and "Shake Your Djibouti", both of which presumably take place some time during Scar's reign, show that while Simba is living a Hakuna Matata life with Timon and Pumbaa, he is beginning to show the qualities needed to be King of Pride Rock, such as loyalty, bravery, and strength.
- Voltron: Legendary Defender: Season 8 brings back Ezor and Zethrid and gives them a better ending, after Season 7 appeared to killed the two of them off in the same episode that implied they were a couple, adding to the show's bad reputation on LGBT issues. This change also addressed the backlash they received that their Relationship Upgrade coincided with them becoming Depraved Homosexual, as Zethrid and Ezor both undergo a Heel–Face Turn and redeem themselves explicitly due to their love for each other. In contrast to the extremely controversial response to Shiro's epilogue, although this change has also been subjected to heavy criticism for being extremely clumsy due to being so obviously last-minute that the edits to accommodate it suffer from Special Effects Failure, and hinges on Ezor doing a complete 180 from her last appearance, it's generally still considered an improvement over the original plan.
