Secretly Selfish motivations (or accusations thereof) in Western Animation.
Examples:
- Hayley of American Dad! was portrayed very similarly to Brian in early episodes, though despite her hypocrisies, she still stood for far saner views than her right-wing extremist father Stan.
- Amphibia: "True Colors" reveals that on Anne's birthday, Marcy Wu's parents told her that her father got a job in another state and that she would have to move away. After running out of the house in tears and anger, she eventually ended up at the thrift shop where the Calamity Box was being kept, and convinced Anne and Sasha to steal it so she and her friends would be teleported to another world to have adventures forever. While she initially tries to claim she did it for the group, only for a hurt Anne and Sasha to pull away from her, she ultimately admits that she did it just because she didn’t want to be alone.Anne: How could you? I've been missing my parents! My life!
Marcy: But look at how much fun we've had! Look at how much you've both grown! Look at Sprig! I gave you this! I gave you everything! - In the As Told by Ginger episode "Trouble In Gal Pal Land", Courtney and Miranda get into a big argument and all of their friends side with Courtney. Afterwards, Miranda latches onto Ginger and her friends since the fight was concerning Ginger. While Ginger is initially upset about this development, as she didn't want to take sides, Dodie points out that without Courtney, Miranda is desperate for friends, so they will in a position of power and be the ones able to boss Miranda around for once. When this proves untrue and all Miranda does is browbeat Ginger, Dodie and Macie into doing what she wants, Ginger complains about it to Lois, who points out Ginger doesn't have a right to be mad about how Miranda is treating them when she was planning on doing the exact same thing to her. Ginger realises she's right and decides the only way to solve things is get Miranda and Courtney to be friends again.
- Rumor, the titular villain of the episode "Rumors" from The Batman is speculated to be this way by Hugo Strange after Rumor launches into a tirade against the Rogues Gallery, as his motive involved failing to save his boss from the Joker crippling him.
- Bob's Burgers: In "It Snakes a Village", the Belchers visit Linda's parents in Florida and, much to Linda's horror and Bob Belcher's amusement, it turns out that the retirement community is inhabited by elderly swingers. Unfortunately, Al and Gloria get a notice warning them they'll be evicted from the community if they don't start attending the community's events, so Bob decides to help them out with getting them out of their comfort zone and convinces them to attend a potluck so they can stay. However, Bob also had the ulterior motive of not wanting Gloria and Al to move into his restaurant since he knows they wouldn't be able to afford to live anywhere else if they got kicked out. Later episodes would vindicate this decision by showing how awful Gloria and Al really are, constantly taking advantage of Linda's kindness and driving Bob up the wall, showing he's got very good reasons to keep them out of his house.
- Subverted by Darkwing Duck, who isn't shy at all that at least part of his motivation for superheroics is the glory.
- The Dragon Prince: While Viren main goal is to help humanity, to a degree, he is also heavily motivated by his own ego. He enjoys the idea of gaining political (not to mention magical) power and raising to the throne and the fact that people will follow him in battle.
- Family Guy:
- Brian Griffin often conveys himself as a firm liberal against corrupt or fascist dictations. A lot of the time, however, he is revealed to be a pretentious Attention Whore who only has a barebones idea what he's preaching about so he can look smart. One episode had him switch completely to conservatism on the grounds he could get in more people's faces, lending to Lois accusing him of simply being a contrarian who chooses whatever position makes him feel superior to everyone else.
- In "Ocean's Three and a Half", Peter Griffin and his friends decide to rob Carter's mansion when he refuses to help them pay back a loan shark. While discussing their plan, Peter mentions that they're going to rob the vault clean, only for Cleveland to remind him that all they need is $20,000. Peter then reveals that he's actually taking this opportunity to get back at his father-in-law for treating him like crap for so many years.
- Justice League: In "A Batter World", President Lex Luthor accuses Superman of keeping Lex around to be a villain against whom he could play the hero, and this was why Superman would never kill him or do anything that could stop him from coming back to cause problems again. This, alongside the fact that Luthor had Flash executed, prompted Superman's Face–Heel Turn and the creation of the Justice Lords.
- The Biskit twins from Littlest Pet Shop (2012) act like this in the episode "Winter Wonder Wha?" where they invite Blythe and Zoe to their fancy cottage in the mountains. Blythe thinks they're doing it to be nice, but then Zoe overhears the twins talking about how they were actually just using Blythe to prove to their dad that they can do a good deed and think that he'll shower them with gifts for it.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic gives Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, a group of young ponies who have not received their Cutie Marks (a special marking that manifests when a pony finds their true purpose in life and dedicates themselves to it). They decide to form a club—The Cutie Mark Crusaders—in the name of learning their destinies and finally getting their Marks. Many of the episodes that feature the CMC have them ostensibly solving problems for people, but it's clear that their only goal is finding a way to win their Marks rather than actually be useful to anyone. It's only when they stop trying so hard and genuinely begin helping other "blank flanks" find and understand their own destinies—to the point of saying that they no longer care about getting their own Marks so long as they can continue to help other ponies find theirs—that they finally achieve their goal.
- Many episodes of South Park have one of the adults or the kids performing something they see as good for the community only for everybody else to try (to comically very little avail) to tell the character in question that what they are doing is simply shoving their beliefs on everybody's faces and ruining people's lives. Which makes one episode where Eric Cartman (who is one of the biggest examples of The Sociopath) takes in all the cats of South Park out of actual unselfish love of them a very surprising inversion, In-Universe and out.
- Steven Universe:
- On a general level, The Crystal Gems dote on and care for Steven, and are perfectly willing to risk their lives for him...but that's partly because Steven is their Living Emotional Crutch, and their behaviour often forces Steven to handle issues that, as a child, he shouldn't really have to cope with. Something that Amethyst directly admits to Steven as being wrong of them in the latter half of the show's run, especially considering that the Guilt Complex Steven had developed by that time means if they don't actively seek him out to serve as their emotional crutch, he will. However, that does not mean that they're bad caretakers, even if they think this is the case.
- Pearl, the most maternal Gem, wouldn't let so much as a cold wind blow on Steven if she could help it...but a big part of that is the psychological hangover from being his mother, Rose's, self-proclaimed protector. She's been utterly bereft after losing that part of her identity and really wants it back.
- Garnet falls foul of this in "Future Vision". Letting Steven know how her power works initially seems to be her usual humoring of Steven's curiosity, but at the end of the episode, she admits that really, she wanted Steven to understand her better so that she could be closer to him.
- Steven Universe Future does this to Steven Quartz Universe himself, with a healthy dose of Condescending Compassion. After successfully ending the Great Diamond Authority's reign and establishing a galaxy-wide peace, he finds himself without a purpose anymore, and throws himself into project after project in the name of assisting others. It's quickly apparent, though, that his goal is to boost his own mood and feel useful again rather than genuinely helping people.
- On a general level, The Crystal Gems dote on and care for Steven, and are perfectly willing to risk their lives for him...but that's partly because Steven is their Living Emotional Crutch, and their behaviour often forces Steven to handle issues that, as a child, he shouldn't really have to cope with. Something that Amethyst directly admits to Steven as being wrong of them in the latter half of the show's run, especially considering that the Guilt Complex Steven had developed by that time means if they don't actively seek him out to serve as their emotional crutch, he will. However, that does not mean that they're bad caretakers, even if they think this is the case.
- The Young Justice (2010) episode "Antisocial Pathologies" sees Oracle calls Bruce out on this, saying the Benevolent Conspiracy between themselves, Dick, Tim, Justice League co-chairs Aquaman II and Wonder Woman and the League's covert team leader Miss Martian is really about furthering Bruce's own personal mission, not the League's, even pointing out that all but one are used to deferring to Brucenote —and the one who isn't, Diana, is in space, where she can't actually do anything but criticize.
