open/close all folders
R
- Race Against the Clock: One episode had the girls forced to solve a series of riddles set by "Him" within the time limit set for each riddle. They had to succeed or, otherwise, the Professor would have to pay... for the pancakes he ate at "Him"'s restaurant "Otto Time". It was all a bet between "Him" and the Professor.
- Rain, Rain, Go Away: "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever". Also the title of a story in issue #66 of the comic book.
- "Rashomon"-Style: In one episode, the Mayor is kidnapped by Mojo Jojo and blindfolded. The girls save the Mayor and beat Mojo Jojo, but can't stop laughing after. The Mayor asks why. The girls each tell the story of how they saved the day today differently, accompanied by Art Shifts. What they neglect to mention? The Mayor was naked all along.
- Reflective Eyes:
- Done in the climax of "Octi Evil" as a feuding Blossom and Buttercup wonder who will save Bubbles. When they are interrupted by her screams for help, this happens again, but they smile to show they're putting their differences aside for their sister's sake.
- Done in "Abracadaver" as Blossom is being hypnotized.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Blossom gives one to Buttercup after Buttercups acts ungrateful after getting a bath:Blossom: You know Buttercup, you may be clean but your attitude still stinks.
- She's pretty good at giving these. One of her best examples is after the first time she defeats Princess.
Blossom: Because you're just a spoiled brat. And being a Powerpuff Girl isn't about getting your way, or having the best stuff, or being popular or powerful. It's about using your own unique abilities to help people and the world we all live in. And you, little girl, have done nothing worthy of the name "Powerpuff".- The Professor gives a big one to the Mayor on Toast Of The Town, calling him out on his childish behavior:
Professor Utonium: Wowie zowie indeed! Have you no shame? A grown man your age gallivanting around like a little child, not doing what you're told! "Mayor wanna this! Mayor wanna that!" You, Mr. Mayor, are nothing but a baby! A big, big, big baby!- The Zen master from "Makes Zen To Me" gives one to Mojo Jojo when he wants to take over as the master.
Master: You came seeking only violence. You were impatient. You would not look inside yourself. I could only guide you; the journey was yours to make. I did not fail you nor the teachings. You failed yourself. And another thing: You're not a monkey, you're a chimp. There's a difference. - Red Eyes, Take Warning: Brick of the Rowdyruff Boys, as he's colored red to contrast with Blossom's pink.
- Earlier, in "The Rowdyruff Boys", Mojo Jojo briefly gains these at the start of his Villainous Breakdown mentioned below.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Buttercup and Blossom. Their personal colors may not match this trope, but their personalities sure do.
- Red Scare: We are given one of these in the musical episode "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey".
- Resurrected for a Job: HIM brings the Rowdyruff Boys back to life to defeat the Powerpuff Girls.
- Retool: At one point, CN tried marketing a line of the series with an overstyled grown up versions of the girls.
It sank just as quickly as it begin. - Reunion Show:
- 2009's "Powerpuff Girls Rule", a PPG special made three years after the show ended, featuring nearly every main character within the series, as well as all the original voice actors.
- The 2014 special "Dance Pantsed" also brought back every actor for the characters used.
- Rhyming with Itself: In "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey", this trope is rather egregious when the PPG join in Professor Utonium's "Freedom Beef" song, as they rhyme "peace" with itself rather forcefully, directly after rhyming "powers" with itself.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Bullet, the superpowered baby squirrel.
- Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: In "Telephonies," the Gangreen Gang makes prank calls to various different Townsville citizens. Lil' Arturo convinces Professor Utonium, he just won a ten-million-dollar sweepstake and asks him to remain on hold, which Professor does for the rest of the episode, despite Arturo hanging up.
- Right-Hand Cat: Subverted in "Cat Man Do", where the cat was the mastermind.
- Rock Opera: "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey".
- Rogues Gallery: Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, The Gangreen Gang, Him, Princess Morbucks, Sedusa, The Rowdyruff Boys (to a lesser extent), and The Amoeba Boys (if you consider irritation to be roguish). Mister Mime (the alternate personality of Rainbow the Clown) has also appeared in the background.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: HIM
- Rule of Three: The episode "Super Zeroes" with the line, "Better heroes, huh?" (Said by the Professor, the Mayor, and even the Monster of the Week itself!)
- Rule 63: The Rowdyruff Boys.
S
- The Sandman: The Sandman appeared as a being who just wanted some time to sleep, but kept being called to put to sleep children from every region before he could. So he magically put everyone into an eternal sleep so as to give him time to get some shuteye. He is able to get plenty, but the girls are able to enter his dreams through their own and convince him to return to his job.
- Saving the World With Art: The nefarious Mr. Mime is restored to a happy-go-lucky clown after the girls put on a concert of how "Love Makes the World Go Round". And then they beat the crap out of him anyway just for the heck of it.
- Say My Name:
- "Helter Shelter" begins and ends with the Professor doing this to Bubbles when he finds out she's an animal hoarder and when she releases a bunch of critters from the zoo. He apparently shouted it so loudly that Bubbles heard him in outer space.note
"BUUUUUUBLEEEEEEES!!!!"- Bubbles screams out the Professor's name after he blabbed about her bedwetting secret in "Powerprof."
- Scantron Picture: Him once gives the girls such a test in a challenge, and although Blossom and Buttercup take the test seriously, they fail as a result. Bubbles passes, and it turns out she filled in the bubbles in the shape of a flower.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Mojo Jojo after Moko Jono is revealed to be a chimp from the zoo.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Princess Morbucks.Princess: I have the most powerful power there is! Cold! Hard! Cash!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mojo Jojo in The Powerpuff Girls Rule after having victory literally swept from under his nose.
- Second-Person Attack: Used and abused; in certain cases, the viewer can suffer the virtual effects of getting punched and kicked DOZENS OF TIMES IN A ROW.
- Secret Pet Plot: Played for laughs in "Helter Shelter". After being lectured about bringing home so many animals, Bubbles brings home a whale, which she and her sisters make an attempt to keep hidden from the professor before settling with flooding his lab due to the whale starting to dehydrate.
- Security Blanket:
- Bubbles' doll Octi.
- Buttercup's blankie in "Cover Up".
- Blossom's hairbow in the comic book story "Bow Jest" (issue #20). It's Bubbles, of all people, to light a fire under Blossom's butt about it.
- Series Continuity Error: In the 2014 special, Bubbles has Blossom's Ice Breath and the Professor's motivations for getting into science are altered. To be fair, Blossom's ice breath became fire breath in the first episode she used it (and Bubbles demonstrated fire breath in at least one episode) and Utonium may have been sidetracked from his goal of creating superpowered girls by the Stable Time Loop in his adult years.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mojo Jojo. In one episode, he's left in charge of an adult education English course, and the whole town starts talking like this. Society comes to a screeching halt (even bank robberies cannot be finished because the robber and the teller start arguing with each other this way).
- Sexy Secretary: Sara Bellum.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Parodied in "Collect Her" — we see shadows of children ripping open the comic book guy's collectors items.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Him Diddle Riddle."
- Shooting Superman: In "Stuck Up, Up and Away", a group of bank robbers attempts to shoot the Powerpuff Girls.
- Shout-Out: So many, it has its own page! See here.
- Sickeningly Sweet: The Show Within a Show "The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy" from Neighbor Hood revolves around an absurdly cutesy and saccharine kids show that features horses with happy meters, maids making happy stew, talking squirrels, and all hosted by a clowny man who throws on happy and sad masks.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Professor Utonium and Miss Keane in "Keen on Keane".
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: So, once again, the day is saved, thanks to The Powerpuff Girls!"
- Single Specimen Species: Apparently most kaiju in the series, and possibly some villains.
- Single Tear:
- Buttercup cries one in "Little Miss Interprets" when she and her sisters think that the Professor wants to abandon them.
- Robin during the song "Signal In The Sky" in "Super Friends".
- Sissy Villain: HIM dresses like a transvestite and acts rather effeminate (at least until he gets angry).
- Sixth Ranger: The girls try to create one with Bunny. It doesn't really work out.
- In "Powerprof", Professor Utonium designs a power-rangeresque suit that lets him become one.
- Skyward Scream: Bubbles performs a Big "NO!" in "Mime For A Change".
- The comic book story "Steal A Meal" (Cartoon Network Block Party #26) has the girls doing a tearful Big "NO!" upon learning that after all the breakfast cereal in town had been stolen the only thing left was oatmeal.
- Four words: ''WHO ELSE WANTS SOME??!!!''
- "Parent teacher conference!? NOOOOOO!"
- "BUUUUUUUBBLEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!"
- Sleepwalking: The episode "Ploys R Us" had Professor Utonium sleepwalking and the girls using this to get him to steal toys for them. Eventually, it turned out the whole thing was a plan by Utonium and everyone in Townsville to test the girls' honesty.
- Sliding Scale of Seriousness Versus Silliness: The show surpassed even its sibling Samurai Jack in how all-over-the-scale it was. Episodes could range from straight, even surprisingly dark superhero fare (Speed Demon, Power-Noia) to outright comedy (Mo'Linguish) to Aesop-driven kids' show (Substitute Creature) and any combination in-between.
- Smart Ball: Done for laughs when
out of nowhere the Mayor determines that the riddle about where freezing and boiling meet is a set of coordinates for where HIM has the Professor, or there's an ice cream truck on fire. - The Smurfette Principle: In Cartoon Network's "Staylongers" interstitials (spoof of "Survivor"), Blossom is the only female member of the "Cartoon Cartoon" tribe.
- Snake Charmer: A small-time villain, Salami Swami, used his flute in the episode "Slave the Day" to control long sausages.
- Snap Back:
- Towards the end of "Slumbering with the Enemy", Mojo Jojo douses the Powerpuffs with the Antidote X to remove their powers. They're back to normal without explaination in the next episode.
- Mojo Jojo is turned into a dog twice. No explanation is given as to how he turned himself back into an ape.
- Sneaking Out at Night: Ima Goodlady (who is actually a disguised Sedusa) makes the girls go to bed. Shortly after she leaves the room, the phone rings, so the girls leave through the window to fight crime. Unfortunately for them when they come home, Sedusa is waiting for them, and she's not pleased.
- Solve the Soup Cans: "Go to a place where it is freezing and boiling at the same time! You have 45 seconds!". And who, of all people, solves it? The Mayor!
- Soap Punishment: "Curses" has Ms. Bellum inflict this on the girls when they swear in front of the Mayor. Later in the same episode, the girls wash the potty-mouthed monster's mouth with soap after Professor Utonium explains to them that it is wrong for them to swear.
- So Once Again, the Day Is Saved: Trope Namer. Frequently played with in that the girls are not always the ones who save the day and some episodes end with no clear resolution.
- Space Is Noisy: The few times the girls go into space, they can communicate with each other just fine.
- Spear Counterpart: The Rowdyruff Boys, Brick (red color scheme), Boomer (blue color scheme), and Butch (dark green color scheme) to the Powerpuff Girls, Blossom (pink color scheme), Bubbles (cyan color scheme), and Buttercup (green color scheme).
- Speed, Smarts and Strength: There's Bubbles as the fastest (particularly proven during her race with E-Male in the episode, "Members Only"), Blossom as the Child Prodigy, and Buttercup as the toughest fighter.
- Spoiled Brat: Princess Morbucks whines until her father lets her have her way.
- Squashed Flat:
- In the episode "Down 'n Dirty" Buttercup gets slapped between the hands of a cyclops. When he opens his hands, Buttercup is flattened by them.
- In the episode "Mask Scara", the titular villain slaps Bubbles and Buttercup into a face press, flattening them together so that Blossom has to unstick them.
- Squick: In-universe. In the episode where the Professor sets out to study Fuzzy Lumpkins, the monster mistakes a pile of mud and manure for a female of his own species, retreats into a cottage with it and leaves a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging from the doorknob. Deeply disturbed by that sight, Utonium destroys his notes and begins reassuring himself that the episode's events never happened.Utonium: "On a side note, never speak of this incident again".
- Sssssnake Talk: Snake of the Gangreen Gang speaks with a lisp, appropriately enough.
- Stable Time Loop: "Get Back Jojo" has Mojo Jojo go back in time in an attempt to kill Professor Utonium when he was a kid to erase the Powerpuff Girls from history, apparently not caring that his history would be altered as well since he was mutated in the same accident that created the girls. In the end, the girls follow Mojo and prevent him from killing young Utonium, in the process revealing themselves to the nearly unconscious boy. This was the moment that motivated him to become a professor and indulge in science, in an effort to create what he saw that day. Because of this chain of events, Mojo ends up being pivotal in the creation of The Powerpuff Girls once more, before the actual accident that spawned them.
- Start of Darkness: Mojo Jojo's origin, as revealed in "Mr. Mojo's Rising" and The Movie.
- Status Quo Is God:
- The 2009 special The Powerpuff Girls Rule has Mojo Jojo succeed in taking over the world and surprisingly making it into a utopia. It isn't long before he decides to turn to crime again and the Powerpuff Girls get back to kicking his butt.
- No matter how destroyed Townsville gets, it always goes back to normal by the next episode.
- Zig-zagged in "Ice Sore"; Blossom suddenly gains an ice breath power, and continues using it in subsequent episodes, even though she says she's lost it at the end of this one (and starts breathing fire instead which never comes up again).
- Buttercup gets anger management in "Makes Zen To Me", but she goes back to being the always angry grouch right after.
- Stealth Pun:
- The episode "Members Only" is about the girls trying to get into a superhero guild that only allows men. Let that sink in a bit.
- Two words: "Forced Kin".
- HIM is dressed as Santa, and has lobster claws. Also, Santa and Satan are pretty obvious anagrams of each other.
- Stock Scream: The "Howie Long" scream appears in "Paste Makes Waste."
- Straw Feminist:
- Femme Fatale in "Equal Fights", who uses feminism as an excuse for her crimes. Along with her usual physical beatdown, the Girls also give her a verbal beatdown as "real" feminists. Uniquely, Ms. Bellum and Ms. Keane call her out on this before the girls defeat her, as she'd previously convinced them that harming her would harm the cause of all women.
- Ironically, Blossom's idea of a perfect world in "The Powerpuff Girls Rule" involves women being in charge of everything and all men being forced to stay at home and do housework.
- Straw Hypocrite: Again, Femme Fatale in "Equal Fights".
- Strong as They Need to Be: Sometimes the Powerpuff Girls are able to defeat their enemies effortlessly and sometimes villains actually succeed in defeating them.
- Students Playing Matchmaker: In the episode "Keen on Keane", the girls try to set up Professor Utonium with their teacher Miss Keane on Valentine's Day. It works, but things take a turn for the worse when they spend too much time on the telephone, leading to the Mayor being unable to reach the girls to save the day.
- Stupid Crooks: The Amoeba Boys want to be Townsville's greatest criminals, but they can't think of any crime worse than stealing oranges, littering, or standing on grass where there is a "Keep off the grass" sign.
- Sunglasses at Night: Ace of the Gangreen Gang never takes off his Cool Shades. Not even at night, when fighting, or when sleeping.
- The Boogie Man also does this, although he takes his glasses off from time to time.
- Super-Scream: The Girls' Sonic Scream. Bubbles uses it the most frequently, however.
- Super-Speed:
- The girls can fly faster than the speed of light. At top speed, they have been known to bend the time-space continuum and perform Time Travel, thus creating an Alternate Universe where there has been no Power Puff Girls to save the day for fifty years.
- Gangreen Gang member Lil Arturo temporarily gains this ability in "Power Lunch".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- In "Powerpuff Bluff" while the girls are able to defeat their impostors and prove their innocence of any wrongdoings after the mayor mistakenly arrests them? They still broke out of prison, which is still a crime as Blossom tries to point out. The Powerpuff Girls end up getting arrested again.
- A milder case. In "A Very Special Blossom", Blossom steals a set of Golf Clubs for the Professor for father's day because he really wanted them, and it lands him in jail. When she admits it at the end, everyone is heartbroken and argue for letting her off easy. But nope, 200 hours of community service.
- Surrogate Soliloquy: Bubbles conversing with her stuffed octopus Octi.
- Suspicion Aesop: In "Substitute Creature", Mr. Green fills in for Ms. Keane. Because he's a monster, the Girls fear that he's eaten Ms. Keane and that he wants to poison the students, so they attempt to attack him. The kids stop the girls and Mr. Green says he really does love the students. The Girls apologize and say they've learned not to judge a book by its cover.
- Swiss-Army Tears: In "The Rowdyruff Boys" and "Knock It Off", the girls are revived from their apparent deaths by being cried on.
