We Used To Be Friends / Western Animation

We Used to Be Friends in Western Animation.

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• Danny Phantom: Danny's main villain Vlad Plasmius and his own father Jack Fenton, used to be best friends in college, until the day Jack, in his typical reckless fashion, ruined his life with his first ghost portal prototype, infecting him with ghost DNA and ecto-acne, which lead him to isolate from the world in bitterness for years while Jack went on to marry Maddie, the love of his life, another insult to the injury. He'd eventually get better and use his powers to build his fortune but he wouldn't forgive Jack. Years later he'd come back to their lives pretending stil to be friends, but intent on separating Maddie and Jack, even if it meant killing him. This all leads to the eventual revelation on his true self to his friends and the world during the Disasteroid event in Phantom Planet, with their last interaction being a confession of how he blames Jack for all the bad in his life after he asled "How hold the world hostage like that, Vlady? And with all the good fortune you had in your life?" Their final exchange after the realization that his plan wouldn't work was actually: "Jack, you have to help me! You wouldn't turn your back on an old friend, would you?" "An old friend? No. You? Yes". Jack's heart break was all over.
  • Maddie would also turn against Vlad after one of his most forwards attempts of getting her love in Maternal Instincts, but it was all good for her after he "rescued" Danny in the aftermath of Storm Reign.
  • He has, as of the graphic novel Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time, come to accept the "larger part" in his comeupance and decided to make amends. Luckily for him, Jack had already forgiven and forgotten how he blamed him for his misfortune and was happy to see him again.
• Amphibia: Anne Boonchuy and Sasha Waybright used to be best friends until Anne discovered how controlling Sasha was towards her, resulting in them drifting apart. Despite this the two still care deeply about each other with Anne vowing to find her and make things right.
• Arcane:
  • Though more emphasized in the accompanying MV Enemy, Ekko was close friends with Powder and her adoptive family. They became intractably pitted against each other as Powder becomes Jinx. Flashbacks to Ekko and Powder happily playing as children with wooden sword and paintball gun play right before Ekko attacks Jinx with a metal pipe while she's trying to nail him with real bullets. He ultimately can't finish the beating because of his memories.
  • Silco and Vander used to close enough to refer to each other as brothers, but by the present, both of them are at odds with each other, especially considering Vander's attempt to murder him, and Benzo similarly doesn't take kindly to seeing him again.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender reveals that Aang's predecessor Avatar Roku used to be best friends with Firelord Sozin, the man who started the Fire Nation's war for world domination, and committed genocide against the Air Nomads.
• As Ethan Bennett/Clayface is an expy for Two-Face, he and Bruce had this in The Batman between having Ethan's breakdown over how people saw him in "Meltdown" and his redemption in "Clayfaces", with Bruce being upset in the former episode that his attempts to help his friend failed, treating him as an outright villain in "Grundy's Night", and being concerned when Ethan returns in "Clayfaces".
• BoJack Horseman:
  • In Season 1, BoJack and Herb Kazzaz. The latter never forgave BoJack for not coming to his aid when he was blacklisted from the entertainment industry for being gay.
  • Season 3 ends on a particularly friendless note for BoJack. Todd has had it with BoJack's selfish, self-destructive behavior and gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in the third-to-last episode of the season. BoJack has fired Princess Carolyn as his agent. Things are weird between him and publicist/occasional lover Ana Spanakopita. Add to his former co-star/friend/sometime lover Sarah Lynn overdosing in his arms in the second-to-last episode, and BoJack is in a really bad way as far as friendships go.
  • The series finale features Diane making a clean break from Bojack.
• Brace Face. Sharon and Arch-Enemy Nina Harper used to be real good friends until the second grade, when someone mysteriously chopped off the heads of Nina's dolls and she blamed it on Sharon.
• In the Captain N: The Game Master episode "The Most Dangerous Game Master," Mother Brain creates an android based on Kevin's bully, Mike Vincent. Kevin befriends the android by reminding him that he and Mike used to be friends.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • The second-to-last episode of the show, "Operation: T.R.E.A.T.Y.", shows that Numbuh 1 and the former Numbuh 274, Chad Dickson, used to be quite close. Chad had apparently mentored Nigel back when he was a cadet, and Nigel was close enough to him to call him "old friend". Thus, Chad's betrayal was a cut so deep that the two developed a huge rivalry that lasts the rest of the series. It eventually boiled down to this episode, where a Chained Heat situation strains their already tenuous relationship to the breaking point, and by the end, they're trying to kill each other. Even after it's revealed that Chad was a Fake Defector, his disappearance afterwards and his behavior throughout the episode makes it evident that the bridge is burnt and that there's no salvaging their friendship.
  • Numbuh 5 and Heinrich Von Marzipan were once good friends and partners in candy hunting. An incident in Guatemala destroyed their relationship and resulted in Heinrich having a deep hatred of Numbuh 5. Eventually it was explained in the episode "Operation: C.A.R.A.M.E.L." that Heinrich was originally a girl named Henrietta who, during an adventure she and Numbuh 5 were on, fell victim to a curse that took away her femininity in exchange for magical caramels. Some urgent business came up and Numbuh 5 was forced to leave Henrietta (now Heinrich) alone. Heinrich blamed Numbuh 5 for not stopping him from eating the caramels, and believed the curse became permanent as a result. But Numbuh 5 had secretly kept one caramel, which she would use to help Heinrich break the curse and turn back into a girl. Henrietta and Numbuh 5's friendship was then restored.
• Daffy Duck gives Bugs Bunny mad ups in "Porky Pig's Feat." When they get paired up over ten years later, Daffy becomes the Iago to Bugs' Othello.
• In Gargoyles this occurs between Macbeth and Demona, as seen in "City of Stone": best of friends when they first fought together against Duncan and won Macbeth his kingdom, things go south when Demona, mistakenly believing that Macbeth was about to betray her and her clan, betrays him first, causing him to lose his kingdom, family, and identity.
• Generator Rex: Agent Six and White Knight used to be partners back when they were fresh recruits to Providence. The arrival of Rex and his ability to cure EVOs caused a rift between them, with Six wanting to have Rex cure the world one at a time and White Knight wanting to vivisect Rex to find out how to reverse engineer his curing powers. White Knight proved too stubborn to ever accept Rex, implying that he now views Six as a traitor to humanity for his attachment to Rex.
• Gravity Falls: Ford used to be close friends with both Stan and Bill. But external circumstances have him falling out with them:
  • For the latter, Ford was lulled by Bill's flattery, believing that Bill was a muse looking to inspire a brilliant mind. It broke after he realized that the demon only used him to create a portal to enter Gravity Falls and remake the world in his image.
  • Stanford's relationship was torn with his brother when Stan accidentally ruined his chance to go to his dream college. Since Stan benefitted from this, nobody believed that it had been an accident, and Ford continued to hold resentment for the accident for the next forty years despite Stan working hard to bring him back from another dimension, and insists that Stan gives his identity and house back, and quit the Mystery Shack business for good, mutually disowning each other as the latter declares the kids to be the "only family" he has left. Luckily, the older twins reconcile after the events of Weirdmageddon after realizing that they were both petty towards each other.
  • Ford was also college buddies with Fiddleford McGucket, and the two collaborated on Ford's portal until an accident saw McGucket learn the full scope of Bill's plan and leave in terror, eventually causing his Sanity Slippage.
• Baloo and Bagheera and Shere Khan and Kaa were originally best friends during their childhood as revealed in Jungle Cubs.
• In Justice League, after Shayera was exposed as a mole for the Thanagarians, she was welcomed back into the League, but Wonder Woman felt betrayed and held a grudge for some time, refusing to speak to her. It got so bad at one point, Flash tried to step in and patch things up between the two. It took the two of them being forced to work together to stop Felix Faust from usurping Hades' throne in order to settle their differences.
• Played with in Batman Beyond when "Big Time" Bigelow, one of Terry's old buddies from his delinquent years, gets released from prison and tries to reconnect with him. Terry is conflicted and wants to trust and help the guy since they used to be friends, while Big Time completely focused on himself and views Terry as an accomplice at best. It takes a couple of episodes for Terry to accept that the guy is Beyond Redemption and, unlike he who honestly was just a "stupid kid who made some bad mistakes", a genuine criminal through and through who can't be helped since he won't help himself and couldn't care less about Terry beyond what he can use the guy for.
• Jacob and Kane (along with Dr. Hudson, although he's not really a bad guy) in Motorcity. Jacob now fights KaneCo with the Burners and helped design their bots, which gives him some inside knowledge.
• In Kim Possible episode "Attack of the Killer Bebes", Kim's father Dr. James Possible tells her a story about how in college one of his friends Drew Lipsky offered to get dates for their group, but instead of live women, built a bunch of clunky robots. The gang thought that this was patently ridiculous and laughed at Drew for days, after which Drew dropped out of college and disappeared entirely. The end of the episode reveals that Drew Lipsky became Dr. Drakken, Kim's arch-foe, and his turn to evil descends from the betrayal and resentment he felt for the disrespect he got from his "posse".
• My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "The Ice Cream Wars", Rocky Ripple and Fudgy McSwaine used to be close friends and business partners, but fell out when Rocky accused Fudgy of stealing his secret recipe and are now bitter enemies.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The alicorn sisters Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to jointly rule Equestria together until Luna became bitter and resentful when their subjects favored Celestia over her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. After Luna is defeated and returned to normal centuries later, however, the two sisters reconcile.
    • "Griffon the Brush Off": Rainbow Dash and Gilda used to be childhood friends, but their friendship is broken off after Dash finds out that Gilda has been bullying her other friends behind her back. This bitterness carries over into their reunion in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", though Pinkie Pie proves that Gilda has a heart of gold and helps them make up in the end.
    • "The Return of Harmony": Discord attempts to invoke this in order to keep them from using the Elements of Harmony against him, using a combination of mind control and mind tricks to get Twilight's friends to behave opposite of their respective elements. He very nearly succeeds in pushing Twilight over the Despair Event Horizon with her corrupted friends, but Twilight overcomes his mind games with help from her old friendship reports and lifts his spell on her friends to take him down.
    • "Amending Fences": Twilight is shown to have drifted so far apart from her old friends at Canterlot that she can't even remember their names. As soon as this dawns on her, she immediately sets out to fix things. While most of them are willing and eager to reconnect, her closest friend Moondancer wound up holding a deeply seated grudge because Twilight brushed off her one attempt to be more social and then left without saying goodbye, which caused Moondancer to isolate herself in her books and studies much like Twilight herself used to do. After Moondancer finally vents her pent up frustrations at Twilight, the two patch things up.
    • "School Raze": At the end, everyone Cozy Glow has ever "befriended" and exploited is no longer fooled by her innocent act and turns against her.
• The Owl House:
  • Amity and Willow were best friends when they were children before Amity spontaneously ended their friendship because Willow's magic was weak. Or at least, that's the excuse that she gave. In reality, Amity's parents disapproved of Willow and threatened to prevent her from attending magic school if Amity didn't cut ties with her immediately. Once the truth comes to light, they slowly start to rekindle their friendship.
  • Speaking of Amity, both of her parents were friends with Darius during their school years, but by the present day he has become her father's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. Exactly what caused their falling out has yet to be explained, though whatever it was seems to have happened at some point during the seven months between Eda first meeting Raine and her duel against her sister.
• In Paw Paw Bears, the elderly Wise Paw used to be good friends with the wicked Aunt Pruney during their school days.
• Recess: T.J. and Menlo, of all people used to be friends. However, even though they don't hang out anymore, they made an agreement that T.J. would come to Menlo's birthday party every year.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has former best friends Adora and Catra. The series starts out with both of them as soldiers in The Horde, having grown up together as orphans raised in the military group. Adora learns the true nature of the Horde shortly after being promoted to force captain and defects to the rebellion, with Catra angrily rejecting the offer to join her. Later on, in "Promise", Catra explains in greater detail why she doesn't want to join the rebellion despite both of them knowing that she doesn't necessarily agree with what the Horde is doing: she's always been second best, trapped in Adora's shadow for as long as she can remember, suffering abuse and constantly being underestimated. Given the choice between continuing to work for the bad guys and finally getting all the respect, recognition, and power she's always wanted in life now that Adora is gone, and working for the good guys where she'll again find herself Overshadowed by Awesome at very turn by both Adora and her cavalcade of magic princesses, she's going to stick with the former. It doesn't happen as often, since they weren't as close originally and don't run into each other as often, but Lonnie — who was in the same squad as both of the above — has also been known to bring up their former friendship when she and Adora face off.
• In Skunk Fu!, Dragon and Panda used to be the best of friends until Dragon was punished and imprisoned for his arrogance. Now Dragon is a dangerous monster who seeks vengeance on all the animals in the valley.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man:
  • Over the course of season 1, Eddie Brock and Peter Parker go from being bros to mortal enemies. An entire seasons worth of Peter apparently betraying Eddie and everyone around them for personal gain and Peter becoming a selfish aggressive jackass because of the Symbiote was already enough to fizzle that friendship for good, but then the Symbiote got onto Eddie and just made things even worse. It's made even more depressing for poor Pete that most (though admittedly not quite all) of said "betrayals" were actually Peter saving everyone as Spider Man. Great responsibility sucks sometimes.
    Mary Jane: I know you got a lot on your mind, but me and Eddie went out on a date. He only asked me out because he thought you and I were a thing. He wanted to hurt you, and he didn't mind using me to do it.
    Peter: Well... it has been pretty rough between us but, I, no, no! He's still my bro!
    Mary Jane: Be careful, Tiger. I don't think he's your bro anymore.
  • Peter and Flash Thompson of all people were best friends in nursery school. It was even revealed that it was the former who coined the latter's nickname. And no, it wasn't because he could run fast. When this was revealed at the latter's party, everyone present is shocked.
• Plankton and Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants. They used to be best friends much like SpongeBob and Patrick, but are now mortal enemies because of the Krabby Patty formula.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil
  • The Deep Trouble comics show that a falling out with Star was the in-universe reason for Alfonzo Dolittle & Ferguson O'durguson being Demoted to Extra in Season 2 — Star stopped taking them with her and Marco on adventures because of their immature behavior. She gets even more reason to distance herself from them when she finds out that they've been breaking into her room and screwing around with her stuff, and she speaks of them rather disdainfully even before learning about that. Star's offhand line about how Marco would still be hanging out with them if she were never born implies that Marco spends much less time with them. He doesn't look too happy to see that they've been breaking into his house to raid Star's room either. Finally Subverted when the episode "Sophomore Slump" reveals that Marco is still friends with them and hangs around them. Though they did get annoyed at Marco when he keeps talking about Mewni, they accept Marco's apology for his behavior and they present him with their lucky dice as he leaves for Mewni.
  • Rhombulus and Star established a friendship after bonding over their shared flaws, but she comes to lose respect for him and the other Commission members upon learning that they erased all records of Meteora's existence. And whatever leftover friendliness she had for him completely disappears after he tried to frame Eclipsa for releasing Globgor.
• The Steven Universe episode "Maximum Capacity" reveals that Greg and Amethyst used to be good friends who enjoyed watching tapes from an old sitcom together. Their relationship is more strained now due to Amethyst's resentment over Greg monopolizing Rose Quartz's attention when they started their relationship and Greg spending less time with Amethyst as a result (leaving her feeling even more alone). Greg admits he would like them to be friends again, but not if it means he has to put up with her hurtful behavior.
• The Back Story of the Storm Hawks had The Dark Ace as friend and co-pilot to the original Storm Hawk's captain. He's the reason why the original Storm Hawks are all dead.
• Sym-Bionic Titan: The King of Galaluna and Modula. Lance's Whole Episode Flashback shows them getting along amicably but most of the show is Modula holding the King hostage. The King is surprised when he discovers Modula was behind his planet's invasion.
• Tangled: The Series
  • The first season has a rather sad example between Rapunzel and Varian. The clumsy Varian started out as a close friend of Rapunzel's and provided a lot of help for her, Eugene, and Cassandra with his inventions. Then came the episode "Queen For a Day", which marked the downward spiral of his and Rapunzel's friendship: Varian inadvertently causes his father to start getting encased in crystal. In a panic, Varian travels to the castle of Corona only to find Rapunzel and the others with too many other problems on their laps (a cataclysmic snowstorm is threatening to tear Corona apart and her parents are missing) to just drop it all and help Varian out. Varian comes back to find his dad completely encased in crystal and, in his anguish, blames Rapunzel for not coming to help him. By the end of the season, Varian has slowly but surely severed almost all ties between not only Rapunzel but the entire kingdom (to the point of kidnapping the Queen), and Rapunzel is clearly hurt by this by the end of "The Alchemist Returns", admitting she "[doesn't] even know what he is anymore". Rapunzel, however, still has hope that the friendship could be salvaged, given that she asks for Varian to be treated with care and given the help he desperately needs following his arrest. Fortunately, early on in season 3, it's shown that Varian has come to regret his actions, and he and Rapunzel soon forgive each other and become friends again.
  • An even worse example occurs between Rapunzel and her handmaiden Cassandra in the final season. The two were shown to be such good friends from the start, but once they reach the Dark Kingdom, Cass decides to go out of her way and steal the Moonstone right before Rapunzel could take it, becoming corrupted by its power in return. She reveals she did that because her mother, Gothel, abandoned her in favor of kidnapping Rapunzel as a baby, and ever since then, she became secretly jealous of the princess always getting the attention and shunting her behind, so she claimed Rapunzel's destiny as her own. This fortunately becomes resolved near the end of the season, when Cass's actions were all revealed to be planned out by the evil Zhan Tiri, and the two soon reconcile to save Corona.
• Occurs in the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon between Leonardo and the Shredder's adopted daughter Karai, who in previous seasons had developed a rapport of sorts with him, despite their Feuding Families. When the turtles successfully stop the Shredder's plan to leave Earth to conquer the Utrom homeworld, and end up getting him imprisoned and exiled, Karai takes it as a betrayal, and vows to avenge her father. Later, after Karai destroys the turtles' lair and believes she's killed the other turtles and Splinter, she heads into April O'Neil's shop and asks her to give Leonardo a message. When April asks Karai (whom she's never met before) how she knows the turtle, she responds with the trope name.
• The Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Citizen Max" shows Buster and Montana Max used to be the best of friends when they were younger, they shared whatever they had because Max was poor, then his parents won the lottery and Max became a selfish, greedy jerk and cut off his friendship with Buster.
• Total Drama
  • It vaguely implied that Bridgette and Geoff's friendships with Gwen broke apart during Action's Aftermaths as a result of Gwen's breakup with Trent.
    • During Island, Bridgette and Gwen were close friends, but Bridgette turned against Gwen during Action, blaming her for breaking up with Trent. While Bridgette does not outright end their friendship, she makes it clear through her words and actions that she disapproves of how Gwen broke up with Trent and she was not on her side. Bridgette even told her that Lindsay and Beth are ticked at her because they found out that Trent threw their team's challenges for her. And while Bridgette disapproves of Geoff's treatment of Gwen and tries to protect her from his torture, the two girls are never seen making up or interacting again for the rest of the series (although this is partly due to Bridgette falling Out of Focus as an early elimination on World Tour while Gwen continued to receive focus as part of a Love Triangle with Duncan and Courtney).
    • Geoff and Gwen became friends during Island, but after he Took a Level in Jerkass during the Aftermath segments in Action, their friendship deteriorates. While he does not outright end his friendship with Gwen, Geoff guilt trips her over her breakup with Trent, nearly drops an anvil on her, and tries to throw her in a dunk tank full of piranhas. When Gwen points out that they are friends, he responds that his new gig "trumps" the times that he and Gwen made s'mores. He also tells her that she did not leave many friends behind in the game. They never made up and do not interact for the the rest of the series (although this is partly due to Geoff falling heavily Out of Focus and not competing at all in World Tour).
  • Ezekiel and Harold were friendly with each other in the first episode. However, their new friendship was halted when Ezekiel angered his whole team with his sexist comments and he was voted off with no way to keep in contact with Harold. In episode "Haute Camp-ture", Ezekiel wonders why Trent is helping Harold after he rigged the votes to get Courtney eliminated to get back at Duncan in "Basic Straining", calling Harold a traitor. This implies that Ezekiel ended his friendship with Harold off-camera because of his actions against Courtney. Later on, Harold angrily blames Ezekiel for losing the first challenge of World Tour.
  • Heather and Leshawna were bitter enemies in Total Drama Island, and that did not change in Total Drama Action. But when Leshawna's teammates learn that she pretended to have a breakdown in order to guilt trip her teammates into letting her have a night at a spa away from the set and badmouthed them behind their backs, Heather was the only one to forgive her and defend her actions. So when Heather was voted off, Leshawna tells Heather she considers them friends. In a later episode, Leshawna states that she meant what she said and she does consider Heather her friend. By season 3, Heather and Leshawna are back to being bitter enemies with no reason given why their friendship ended. In fact, Leshawna even hates Heather more, once beating Heather up for warning her about Alejandro being evil. And even when she learns Heather was telling the truth, she was still glad she beat Heather.
  • In Island, Leshawna ends up developing a friendship with Duncan in "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon". However this newfound friendship deteriorates in Action due to Duncan constantly picking on Harold (whom Leshawna as a soft spot for) and completely ends due to Leshawna fake crying to get the spa reward and insulting everyone in doing so which leads both of them to try and vote each other off in "Super Haro-ld".
  • In All-Stars, Courtney's extremely bitter over what happened between her and Gwen in World Tour, due to the entire mess of Duncan kissing Gwen behind Courtney's back. Unfortunately, even after they finally buried the hatchet, Courtney still tries to pull the rug out from Gwen when it is revealed she doesn't intend to take her to the finale as they promised; Gwen is quick to return this sentiment to her and Courtney is unable to talk her way out of elimination.
• In The Transformers, Skyfire was once friends with the decepticon Starscream. Both of the being former scientists, after Skyfire suffered an accident and got buried on the snow, he gets rescued millions of years later by his old friend. But while they started being amicable at first, Skyfire's conflicted conscience clashed with Starscream's now evil ambitions, resulting in them having a violent falling out.
• In Transformers: Prime, Optimus Prime and Megatron were once best chums who shared a common goal for Cybertronian equality. However, their ways to achieve it were different. When Optimus's ideals and proposal were accepted by Cybertron's High Council, who ordained him the next Prime, the furious Megatron, who favored violent means to get what he wanted, severed all ties with Optimus and the Council and led his followers to claim the power that he believed should have been his. Ever since then, Optimus and Megatron have been mortal enemies.
• In Winx Club, after Nabu is Killed Off for Real, Aisha decides to join Nebula's faction of Earth fairies bent on revenge, a decision the rest of the Winx cannot support, and she angrily breaks from them. Doubles as a 10-Minute Retirement as she is very shortly reconciled with her friends.
  • Lucy had been Mirta's only friend at Cloud Tower, and they had been friends for a long time, but Lucy is insecure and obsessed with gaining the approval of Icy, Darcy, and Stormy while Mirta openly questions their actions and the witches' dislike of fairies, to Lucy's ire. Their friendship ends over Lucy's desire to be part of the Trix. While Lucy sees the error of her ways when the Trix take over the school, they do not really become friends again until the next season, after Mirta has transferred to Alfea.