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Satanic Archetype / Western Animation

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"A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future where everything you care about will change... Until then I'll be watching you! I'll be watching you..."
"All was well until we reached the end of the universe, a place of endless darkness where an unconquerable evil named Invictus dwells. [...] Invictus poisoned the Titans. Chaos reigned. Only one Titan remained uncorrupted; Bolo. [...] With Bolo's help, we imprisoned Invictus and the Titans in Final Space. [...] When Mooncake left Final Space, he left a cosmic inbalance that weakened the walls of Final Space, letting your world vulnerable to the onslaught of Titans and their master Invictus. As we speak, the walls holding them back are crumbling. Unless the balance is restored, all will be lost!"
An Arachnitect, Final Space, "Arachnitects"


  • General Morando from 3Below is this to a T. Once a general in the Akiridion-5 military, he was exiled by the King and Queen for his treachery, only for him to stage a coup d'etat against them and usurp the throne, turning the planet into a fascist dictatorship. His primary color motif is deep, seething red, his head is shaped in a manner that evokes horn imagery, and his goal is to become a god and remake the universe in his own image. Morando's favorite cardinal sin seems to be treachery, as he not only betrayed his King and Queen, but also convinced Varvatos Vex to betray them for him, even having engineered his family's death to make him more willing, and he promises to help Colonel Kubritz defend the Earth by providing advanced weaponry with every intention to destroy the Earth when he is done with it. It even gets to the point where Kubritz's Sergeant describes their deal with him as "a Deal with the Devil."
  • Adventure Time:
    • Hunson Abadeer, Marceline's father, is the (self-identified) Chaotic Evil ruler of the Nightosphere, a realm identical to Hell (with Hellfire and screams of the damned, and such).
    • There's also GOLB, the Greater-Scope Villain of the series, who may be even closer to Satan than Hunson. He's responsible for the creation of The Lich and likely the other monsters from before time. He's also contrasted with Grob Gob Glob Grod, and his presence alone causes an apocalypse.
  • Amphibia: The Core, the true Big Bad of the series. It's a monstrous being which dwells "below" in a dark basement, is essentially imprisoned by the borders of another world which it holds domain over, and seeks to escape from its confinement to reach the Earth with a legion of inhuman minions at its beck and call, so that it can conquer and ruin our world as we know it and then the whole of creation. The Core usually has a Red and Black and Evil All Over appearance, yet its assimilee-populated inner mindscape contrasts this image with a grand and Light Is Not Good aesthetic, bringing to mind Satan's origins as a bright angel. It prefers to use trickery and deceit over a direct confrontation with the heroes in order to get its own way with them, and in Marcy's case it tries to tempt her with superficial gifts into being assimilated (essentially selling her soul and becoming damned). The Core's tentacles carrying the previously-assimilated Aldrich into the darkness after he's finished talking with Andrias in their mindscape gives the impression that he's being dragged off to Hell. The Core is also responsible for playing The Corrupter to Andrias to make him the very worst version of himself who then acts as the Core's servant, and the revelation that the position of king and the title's past holders are nothing more than figureheads for the Core's will brings to mind the kings of Revelation whom serve the Beast. The Core's forcible possession of Marcy's body to act as its vessel has demonic connotations, often moving in a jerky, almost puppet-like manner and outright making her bones pop when it first took possession.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Fire Lord Ozai fits this trope to a T. Aside from his devilish goatee, tall height, and the fact that he is almost always is surrounded by fire, there's the fact that he wants to burn the world clean and build it again from the ashes as The Phoenix King. He sees nothing wrong in giving his son a permanent facial burn, banishing his wife, and twisting his daughter into someone almost as insane as he is. He also gained his power through an act of rebellion, murdering his (admittedly also evil) father and seizing the throne that should have passed to his elder brother. Ozai is everything Aang the Avatar stands against.
    • Vaatu, the manifestation of Chaos from The Legend of Korra, does hit closer to the Satan mark than Ozai, as he is the Arch-Enemy of Raava and will cause The End of the World as We Know It if he wins. He also tricked Wan, the first Avatar, into releasing him, and it was due to letting Wan live that he lost in the first place. However, he's more notable in that he's a closer match to Ahriman than the biblical Satan, being a primordial The Anti-God opposite and equal to the light spirit Raava.
  • Fowler from Blue Eye Samurai. Just as Mizu is almost a literal onryo, whose rage and hatred regularly lets her accomplish the impossible while leaving a trail of carnage and mayhem in her wake, he's a near-supernatural Satanic presence. He's a cruel, hedonistic, ruthlessly talented polymath whose corruptive influence is felt across the nation, his colours are red, black, and white, and he even has a scene where he casually attempts to bargain with Jesus himself in a twisted parody of prayer.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Zarm was originally a Spirit of Earth, either before or alongside Gaia. However, after some unknown events, he left the planet, presumably due to being exiled. Zarm functions as the antithesis of Gaia and has since dedicated his immortal life to destroying everything she values. Much like modern depictions of Satan or demons, Zarm manipulates people numerously. Examples include granting them with gauntlets that gradually corrupt them ("The Conqueror"), and making wishes come true by converting their natural resources into whatever their hearts desire ("The Dream Machine").
  • Castlevania: Nocturne has Erzsebet Bathory. She's a Prideful being with a Sadistic streak that make other vampires in the setting look benevolent by comparison who desires to be worshipped as a God and gets that worship from slave-masters and classist aristocrats, believing that she will ensure that they will prosper in a new age of privilege and subjugation. She makes a faustian bargain with a priest with weak morals, using him to create an army of night creatures made from the souls of the damned as her army.
  • Red Guy from Cow and Chicken plays this front and center. Big Red Devil? Check. Disguises himself to make deals with people? Check. Is the Big Bad of the show? Check. The pilot script even calls him the Devil.
  • In Cyberchase, we have the Hacker. The Hacker was initially created by Dr. Marbles to be an assistant for Motherboard. However, Hacker would eventually begin to feel that he should be the one ruling Cyberspace, and attempted to destroy her. For his efforts, he was banished to the Northern Frontier only to be freed, and he creates a virus that partially damages Motherboard, thus kick-starting the series.
  • Danny Phantom gives us the titular hero's evil future counterpart, Dark Danny, who appeared in The Ultimate Enemy. He is a Fallen Hero who has brought destruction and suffering to the entire Earth and has a fiery motif. Not to mention that him being imprisoned in the Fenton Thermos mirrors the Devil's own imprisonment in Hell. If one looks closely during the Final Battle, they will see that he has the forked tongue of a snake, an animal commonly associated with Satan.
  • The Dragon Prince has Aaravos: A once beloved and respected being formerly residing in the heavens above before being thrown off them, is imprisoned in a place without exit which he still has some dominion over, is incredibly powerful and cunning, has whispered in the ears of others to drive them to dark deeds and had a deal with Viren to further both their goals. It's clear to see Aavaros is an elvish version of Lucifer. Heck, he's a Startouch Elf, and Lucifer is known as the Morning Star. Word of God has even stated that Aaravos was intentionally made to be seen as either a Lucifer or Prometheus-like figure.
  • The Dreamstone has Zordrak, the Lord of Nightmares. He was once a member of the Council of Dream Makers, but they banished him to the Land of Nightmares for using his powers to create nightmares. He now rules over an army of monsters, and is obsessed with destroying the Dream Maker and taking over the world. His name was originally going to be "Nasta Shelfim," an anagram of "Satan Himself," but this was changed out of fear of making the Satan connection too strong and offending religious groups.
  • Final Space: Invictus, the true Big Bad of the series, is a malignant demonic entity of "inconquerable evil", which is positioned opposite divine and light-aligned creator beings (not unlike Satan's opposition to God and Heaven), and it has been imprisoned deep at the heart of Final Space since the early days of the universe (not unlike Satan's special imprisonment in Cocytus within the final circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno). Before Final Space was walled off, Invictus corrupted the Titans into rebelling against their original benevolent creators and seving Invictus as omnicidal destroyers instead (forcing the Titans to also be imprisoned alongside Invictus); whch is not unlike Satan's corruption of his fellow angels in Heaven which led to them falling to Hell with him. Although Invictus' true form and its full power are locked away, it can still manifest a demonic, ram-horned astral form which can forcibly possess others. Further making Invictus Satan-like is that it's incredibly skilled at manipulating people and using their worst traits against them. Invictus has "children" in the form of normals it empowered, whom it expects to serve it and help it bring about the end of all reality as we know it, not unlike the modern pop-culture depiction of The Antichrist (although not necessarily accurate to the actual biblical lore). In fact, the Season 3 finale is literally called "The Devil's Den".
  • Futurama has an in-universe example in the form of the Robot Devil, apparently created for the sole purpose of torturing sinner robots who transgress against the tenets of Robotology (which he's referred to as "our religion"). He's a tempter, a deal-maker, and a talented fiddle player (probably a Shout-Out to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" above), but not too smart.
    Bender: You may have to metaphorically make a deal with the devil. And by "devil," I mean Robot Devil. And by "metaphorically," I mean get your coat.
  • Gravity Falls has Bill Cipher (the picture above). For starters, there is the Cipher part of his name, which is obviously connected to the algorithm of encryption, but also to Louis Cypher. He also uses a lot of common tropes associated with Satan and devils, including Deal with the Devil, Demonic Possession, Voice of the Legion, and is even outright called a "demon". His association with light connects him directly to Lucifer, and the "Eye of Providence" symbol that he is based on is connected to God and His angels, who often are described manifesting as strange, geometric shapes (including a whole choir called Wheels). On top of all that, the actual Stanford Pines mentions in his backstory that a friend of his referred to a "beast with one eye" when he accidentally peeked into an Alternate Universe.
  • Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy fits this trope to a T. In fact, there's even a theory that suggests the fact she is really a spawn of Satan and/or even a reincarnation of Satan's only child, The Antichrist, given the fact she has Devilish Hair Horns, befitting her demonic personality, and is even more cruel and sociopathic than Grim himself. Further cementing the incredibly Satanic elements of her character, aside from her aforementioned demonic personality, is that she's an exceptional manipulator, plans to take over the world just to turn it into a living hellhole out of pure will, corrupts people by tempting them, has a rather inhuman strength and When She Smiles, she causes reality itself to break apart, heavily implying her to be a Reality Warper. Not to mention is her personality embodying the Seven Deadly Sins very accurately, the whole nature of her actions pulling off a Nothing Is Scarier feel to them, her demonic voice whenever she gets angry, and as the nightmarish cherry on top of the hellish icing of this cake belonging to the darkest and deepest depths of the Nine Circles of Hell of The Divine Comedy, is her demonic form that greatly resembles any monster from the Cthulhu Mythos. There's a very good reason The Grim Reaper (you know, the very personification of Death itself) is absolutely scared shitless by this little girl after all.
  • Hazbin Hotel:
    • Although Lucifer exists in the setting (he's the main character's father), it's Alastor the Radio Demon who fills this role for story purposes, as a stylish, red-clad dealmaker with unbelievable power over the physical and political landscape of Hell.
    • The leader of the Angelic Exorcists Adam also fits the bill pretty well. Besides his large horns giving him a Big Red Devil appearance, he fills a similar role of the Satans in Hebrew mythology, being divinely ordained to punish the wicked. He also has a luciferian bent, while he isn't a Fallen Angel he has extreme pride and even demands to be worshipped.
  • Hilda's Grand Finale gives us the Fairy Entity. Unlike other fairies in the show that resemble ordinary humans, the Entity is a towering spirit in a night sky-like cloak with a glowing circle for face and a creepy, eerie voice that can change into the Voice Of Legion. It acts as the ruler (or even the embodiment) of the Fairy Country, where majority of the fairies were abducted as humans from the Human World in the past, while all other magical creatures were droven away. The most definite trait is the Entity's love to make a rather sadistic bargains for lifes even when they don't benefit, being too stubborn to let go of its Good Old Ways.
  • Tarakudo from Jackie Chan Adventures. He has red and black colors in addition to horns and fangs. He also holds command over nine other demons and their infinite armies from the Shadowrealm as their Lord and King. Oh, and any mortal who marks themselves with his face is corrupted into a demon.
  • Hawk Moth in Miraculous Ladybug fits this fairly well. He corrupts people with his akumas in a way very similar to Demonic Possession. He tempts those he corrupts and grants them power based on emotions so they can get him the Miraculous.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • King Sombra from the two-parter "The Crystal Empire". His initial takeover of the Crystal Empire (stated to be Equestria's Cosmic Keystone kingdom) was similar to Lucifer's first rebellion in Heaven from Paradise Lost; his subsequent exile (to be sealed underground in ice) reflected the deepest part of Hell from The Divine Comedy; his Taking You with Me curse upon the Empire reflected Lucifer/Satan's Revenge by Proxy introduction of sin among humanity, and his fearful and depressing Present Absence over the Crystal Ponies was similar to how Satan is described as "prowl{ing} about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour", both examples being in The Bible.
    • The High School AU movie My Little Pony: Equestria Girls gives us Sunset Shimmer. She was once a student of Princess Celestia, again, the closest thing to a deity in this setting, but her pride and ambition leads to her being stripped of her position. Towards the end of the movie, she makes plans to send over brainwashed humans into Equestria to take it over. And furthering Satan parallels, when she puts on the Element of Magic crown, she transforms into a red-skinned demon. Unlike most examples though, she pulls a Heel–Face Turn in the end and truly regrets what she's done, spending much of the sequel attempting to help against the Dazzlings and convincing everyone else that the change is genuine, which is obviously quite difficult to do. She succeeds though, and even becomes a new student and friend of Twilight Sparkle, another alicorn.
    • Then we have Lord Tirek. According to the backstory he came to Equestria to conquer it and steal the magic of every pony (in this land, ponies are responsible for the cycles of the sun and moon and creating the weather, so he would control the forces of nature through this). This includes the alicorns, the closest thing to deities in this setting. Defeated and imprisoned in the series' Alcatraz, which is named after the Greek underworld, he broke free to become the villain of Season 4, picking up his plan where he left off originally. He also tricks Discord into making a deal with him for power, then screws him over on it, cementing the similarities. What really sells the comparison, though, is his appearancehe even has cloven hooves, horns and red skin!
    • The last season of the series gives us Grogar. While he is not a Big Red Devil like Tirek, he is hands down the oldest evil in Equestria who is responsible for the creation of many of its foulest evils. In addition, although he is officially a ram, he very much resembles a goat, an animal often associated with Satan. The Grogar we see in the show is actually Discord impersonating him, hoping to set up the villains to be destroyed by Twilight in order to make her feel comfortable about inheriting Equestria, echoing the Jewish Satan's loyalty to God and handling of sinners.
  • The Overlord is the closest thing to the devil in Ninjago, as he’s described as a spirit older than the land of Ninjago itself, who had to be banished to an island by the First Spinjitzu Master in much the same way Lucifer was cast out of heaven. His manipulation of Lord Garmadon definitely makes him the Corrupter, and in the penultimate episode of Season 2, he takes over Garmadon’s body through Demonic Possession. In Season 15, he returns as the Crystal King, in a more demonic-looking form, no less, to offer a chance at revenge to six of the series’ previous villains, forming a Legion of Doom.
  • The Beast from Over the Garden Wall is a monstrous entity that manipulates people into giving up all hope or drives them to exhaustion so that their lost souls can serve as fuel for his Soul Jar, which is a lantern, likely a reference to the fact that Lucifer means "light-bringer". Not only does he personify depression and suicide, he's treacherous, dishonest, and makes one-sided deals with the desperate and gullible. The Beast also makes others commit terrible acts, like tricking the Woodsman into grinding people's souls into oil to keep the lantern burning. The fact that this series has a lot of parallels to The Divine Comedy and is implied to be the protagonists' Dying Dream, taking place in some sort of afterlife or purgatory, adds to the effect.
  • The Owl House
    • Emperor Belos is the ruler over the Boiling Isles. At best a Humanoid Abomination, Emperor Belos is known as a deal maker who can grant the wishes of anyone that seeks his power as well as remove curses like with Eda's. However, joining his coven entails that the wisher is forever indebted to him. Plus, him being a human and arriving and ruling over the horrific and macabre Boiling Isles could be considered the equivalent to Lucifer, an angel, arriving and ruling over Hell. Deepening this is the fact that he is also a False Prophet who claims to be conveying the Titan's will, but is really a zealous madman turning the people of the Boiling Isles against the Titan's true teachings in order to corrupt and destroy them all. The dark irony of this all is that he is also a 17th century Puritan (or was when he was still human) and still genuinely thinks he is saving humanity from evil by killing witches and demons, despite being a Holier Than Thou Knight Templar who has committed so many evil deeds in the name of his so-called defense of Earth (many of them direct violations of Puritan beliefs) that any sane Christian would consider him a sinner of the worst magnitude.
      • He also used to be quite handsome, but has devolved into a horrific monstrosity, much like Lucifer was once the brightest angel, but has become something worse. Furthermore, his Ambiguously Christian background recalls the old adage "even the devil can quote scripture," and like Satan he becomes a Draconic Abomination (that despite its draconic appearance is actually a mocking version of the Titan) to bring about the End Times. Said Draconic Abomination, formed around the Titan's heart and his old palace, is even rooted to the ground like Lucifer is in Dante's Inferno, symbolizing that like that Lucifer, Belos is ultimately trapped by his own actions and refusal to give up. Perhaps the greatest parallel is that much like Satan is considered to be the Greater-Scope Villain behind all wickedness on Earth, almost all the evil and suffering in the series that doesn't predate him or happened too far away from him (The Archivist, the Titan Trappers, the Witch Hunts and the mean kids that bullied Luz) can be laid on his feet in one way or another.
    • The Collector is an incredibly powerful entity from beyond the stars and the enemy of the Titan (whom the inhabitants of the Boiling Isles worship as a god, having been spawned from him) who had banished them to a realm described as "below" where they remained imprisoned for an eternity. There they manifest as a Living Shadow, making Faustian pacts and espousing rare, incredibly dangerous knowledge to characters with low morals and Ax-Crazy dispositions (Belos) and is worshiped by a cult with a penchant for child sacrifices in exchange for power (the Titan Trappers). Even their Cosmic Motif has allusions to the Archangel Lucifer, who was described as being the "Morning Star". Kikimora calls them a "Child from the Stars," which relates to Lucifer being a Fallen Angel. They later turn out to be a subversion, as they're actually a child who just wants to make friends but fails to understand how their games are hurting people due to being unable to grasp the fact that death is permanent to mortals (instead thinking that they can simply "fix" any damage they cause the same way one might mend a broken toy).
  • HIM of The Powerpuff Girls is essentially as close as you can get to Satan while maintaining a TV-Y7 rating. He's got a tutu and a high, reverberating voice (alternating with enraged shouting), and is probably the creepiest bad guy on the show. In a Bad Future, he caused the whole world to go straight to Heck!
  • Evil Morty from Rick and Morty. Evil Morty is a calculating and conniving mastermind, who puts on a facade of charisma and wisdom, but works from the shadows and manipulates everyone around him, willing to kill off anyone who stands in his way. In the end, he secures a position of power purely to kill off all the other Ricks and Mortys in the citadel and escape the Finite Probable Curve. His motivation? The fact that all the versions of Rick have put a gated community around a corner of the multiverse where Rick is the supreme genius and any given Morty is bred to be a loyal servant and tool. Defying Rick is, in this sense, defying the God of the Finite Curve.
    "That's what makes me evil- being sick of him. If you've ever been sick of him, you've been evil, too."
  • Rocko's Modern Life gives us "Peaches", ostensibly the overlord of Heck. Then it's revealed that he's only a minion of the real overlord of Heck, who is only seen as a beanie-wearing shadow.
  • Aku of Samurai Jack. He's a demon overlord, who in the future turned the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and lives in a hellish underworld (the Pit of Hate).
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The Evil Entity (which, like the denizens of Zombie Island, is a real monster) is a dark-themed and exceptionally-malevolent member of an otherworldly, normally-benevolent species associated with celestial objects and the stars called the Anunnaki, and he was imprisoned in a can which is in turn sealed underground to contain his evil. His presence has had a corrupting effect on people for centuries, driving people who demonstrably would have otherwise been upstanding and decent into committing wicked deeds out of their greed and selfishness and to submit to their worst impulses, and he's furthermore implied to be the entire reason In-Universe why the show itself is so much darker than the Scooby-Doo franchise norm. Once the Entity is freed from his can, he possesses a physical host for himself and mutates the host's body into a monster while subsuming their soul, then he summons an army of other, lesser evil Anunnaki to act as his minions, and he turns Crystal Cove into an apocalyptic, volcanic hellscape whilst attempting to violently destroy humanity and the Earth before he turns his attention to conquering and ravaging the stars themselves. Finally, when the Entity is defeated and destroyed for good amid the apocalyptic event, the old world is erased, and a new, much more idyllic and happy world free of his dark influence takes its place.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has Horde Prime. To begin with, Horde Prime talks of bringing light to the universe, which is evocative of Lucifer (whose name means "light bringer"), and he's charismatic, manipulative, and narcissistic. That being said, he can make deals with lesser beings and will grant them certain privileges as long as they are useful to him, but will dispose of them once they're no longer useful. At the end of the day, Horde Prime is ultimately an incredibly selfish and evil being who massacred billions, if not trillions of lives to bring what he calls peace and order. And how does he commit mass genocide? By setting worlds on fire, another motif associated with the devil.
  • Since Satan on South Park isn't so bad, other characters fulfill this role:
    • A close equivalent of the Devil is Eric Cartman. For starters, Eric is a machiavellian who is motivated by his selfish desires, and makes deals that ultimately only benefit him and screw everyone else involved over. Last but not least, Cartman's personality embodies all the Seven Deadly Sins, further enhancing his Satanic qualities.
    • ManBearPig is revealed to be a demon that is summoned to the world whenever one makes a Deal with the Devil with him, in return, with the results being a lot of people die at the hands of him. Satan is one of the casualties.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has the Flying Dutchman, who is known for tearing out souls and placing them in his soul bag. He makes deals with people such as with Mr. Krabs when he threatened to send him to Davy Jones' locker if he were to return to being cheap. In that same episode, he inadvertently sells SpongeBob's soul for sixty-two cents.
  • Zhan Tiri from Tangled: The Series is a demonic being with a motif of orange or green fire. She seeks nothing but destruction and takes on the form of the "Enchanted Girl," an innocent-looking child (though later implied to be her younger self), and uses said form to manipulate and corrupt Cassandra into essentially becoming The Antichrist by betraying Rapunzel, taking the Moonstone, and releasing Zhan Tiri from her prison.
  • Trigon the Terrible, Big Bad of Teen Titans (2003) Season 4 and father of Anti-Anti-Christ Raven, is very clearly a Satan Expy. In the original comic storyline Trigon was supposed to be Satan, no ifs ands or buts about it, but the writers got concerned that the Moral Guardians would object. Apparently changing the name and adding an extra pair of eyes gets you off scot-free, though...
  • Total Drama gives us Mike's alternate personality Mal. Mal is an evil entity usually surrounded by flames, desires control, and was once sealed away due to his malevolence. He also corrupts Mike and manipulates the other contestants by disguising himself as Mike and makes deals that will screw them over. Ex-Big Bad, Alejandro, even draws Mal as the devil, highlighting his role as such.
  • Transformers has The Fallen, who comes halfway between this and Judas. He was one of the first 13 transformers God — er, Primus created, and went evil. And is on fire.
  • Black Hat from Villainous is a sadistic God of Evil who spends his days tormenting his underlings and promoting evil out in the world by helping supervillains fight heroes, usually in return for their immortal soul. Also, the "orientation video" promotional shorts apparently make up only 1 volume of 666.
  • Winx Club's Lord Darkar is a pretty clear Satan-type figure, referred to as the antithesis to the Great Dragon (the source of all things good and light in the universe, as well as Bloom's powers). He's also responsible, in some way or another, for every villain featured in the first three seasons, as well as both movies.
  • Miss Power from WordGirl checks all the boxes. Carries a motif of light ("Lucifer" is Latin for "light-bringer") and presents herself as a bringer of goodness? Check. Makes our heroine do evil by convincing her that evil is good, and slowly desensitizing her conscience? Check. Makes our heroine feel worthless and unforgivable when she turns against her? Check. Is completely powerless when others see through her tricks? Check, check, check. She even has a snake eye hidden under her bangs. By the way, this character is from a kids' edutainment show.

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