History HiddenDepths / WesternAnimation

** Ben is frequently depicted as some combination of dumb and cocky, with how much of which he is varying from season and series to season and series. However he's hinted at a few points that a lot of his cockyness is a coping mechanism and even at his dumbest he is pretty cunning at on the fly strategies and knows more about his aliens than he often lets on. His alternate self Ben 23 is similarly so, though more so after improving after meeting Ben prime and getting a wake up call.

* An episode of ''GIJoe'' involved an alien device that accidentally tossed a team of Joes and their Cobra opponents back in time to pre-Classical Greece. One of them reveals the ability to speak a little Ancient Greek. The highly skilled and multilingual infiltrators Lady Jaye or the Baroness? No. The well-read Lifeline? No. The genius Dr. Mindbender? No. ''Sergeant Slaughter''. It even gets lampshaded when Lifeline expresses utter disbelief.

* Little Enzo Matrix from ''{{Reboot}}'' starts off as a typical young, bratty, rather annoying kid who gets a few spotlight episodes to show he can be competent, but is very clearly not anywhere close to being a hero. Come season three, TheHero gets [[PutOnABus Put On A Pod]] straight into the Web and Enzo is booted into the hero role, becoming an in-universe ReplacementScrappy before finally showing that, while young and inexperienced, he is still very capable of defending the system. Then he gets trapped in a game and [[TookALevelInBadass level-grinds in badass]].

** Then just to put emphasis on the friendship depths, PerkyFemaleMinion Ty Lee [[spoiler:turns on Azula]], cause despite the fact that she's been Azula's puppy dog throughout the series, [[spoiler:taking a kill shot on one of her friends draws the line]].
** At first Iroh just seemed like a cheery, goofy old guy there to annoy Zuko...until he's captured by Earth Kingdom troops who are amazed to have captured the famous "Dragon of the West," one of the greatest Fire Nation generals. Later reveals of his past eventually make him probably the deepest character out of a show atypically full of them.
** And Azula herself for that matter. She's acting like an emotionless, detached villain all through the series up til the very end, then the pressure of [[spoiler:being crowned Fire Lord]] gets to her. Along with her previous assertion that she did want her mother's love but didn't feel she deserved it, it made for a VillainousBreakdown.

** Prince Zuko: Badass, {{Determinator}}, EvilPrince -turned-[[spoiler: TheAtoner]], is also a MommasBoy, a lover of Turtleducks, and, (according to his Uncle) a skilled player of the Tsungi horn. In the "Ember Island Players", he gives hints that he does like theater, but just dislikes that specific group because while they have great special effects, they tend to butcher their stories.

-->'''Pepper''': Quick, Tony, insult his mom!
-->'''Tony''': Pepper, I don't think this is the time -
-->'''Pepper''': No, really! This guy has serious issues. Use it. ''Push him.''
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' - The [[TheQuietOne cool, calm, and collected]] Number 5 is known as "the coolest, [[OnlySaneMan the sanest, and quite often the smartest of the gang]]" [[labelnote:*]]see Characters/KidsNextDoor[[/labelnote]], and yet she's also the only one with a MyGreatestFailure in her past that still haunts her. Make of that what you will.

** Princess Celestia, the immortal ruler of Equestria, has quite a bit of this. While she is normally the HighQueen, it turns out that she finds formal events boring, gets nervous and twitchy whenever her charges are in danger, ''really'' wanted to be an actress when she was younger ([[BadBadActing even though she's terrible at it]]), and was a StepfordSmiler for a thousand years because she was hiding her grief over [[SealedEvilInACan sealing her sister in the moon]].

** On any normal day Spike the dragon is just TheReliableOne and Twilight Sparkle's assistant. However when he's put on the spot, he becomes hyper-competent enough to take on a giant timberwolf to save his friend, or [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome jump from pegasus to pegasus mid-air to melt a massive hunk of ice before it crushes an entire audience]].

** Rick Sanchez occasionally makes remarks that hint at wanting to be seen as a good person, at least by his family. Season 2 also shows that he is incredibly aware of his own flaws and that he uses a partial JerkassFacade to hide his troubles from others because he doesn't know how to cope with them on his own.

* Morty Smith from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. The end of ''Close Encounters Of the Rick Kind'' has this from ''Rick'' of all people:

** [[spoiler:Cue the TwistEnding that ''Evil Morty'' was the BigBad of the episode and was controlling Evil Rick like a puppet the entire time.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In her first few appearances in season one, [[AlphaBitch Pacifica Northwest]] seems like a typical "walking one-dimensional bleached-blonde ValleyGirl stereotype". But after season 2 reveals that her parents hold her to very high standards, and are strict to the point of being abusive, Pacifica starts to look a bit more sympathetic, especially when [[spoiler: she defies her family's history of [[CardCarryingVillain ruthless, shameless villainy]] and lifts a century-old curse]]. And according to one of the "secret files" found in an EasterEgg web page in ''ComicBook/GravityFallsLostLegends'', [[spoiler: she harbors a secret love of [[ClosetGeek first-person shooters]], [[PungeonMaster puns]], and [[DeepFriedWhatever deep-fried food]].]]

* BoJackHorseman at first seems like the typical UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist of the average AnimatedSitcom. Fat, alcoholic, abusive. But as the series progresses more sides are shown to him, including crippling depression, surprising intelligence and insightfulness, and very occasional moments of deep caring.

** [[TheBrute Jasper]], despite being "the ultimate [[FantasticCasteSystem Quartz]] warrior," has a chip on her shoulder because she was created on Earth; most of the others who came from here turned out malformed or incompetent in some way. She also has a burning hatred for [[RebelLeader Rose Quartz]], since she freed Jasper's home planet from the empire [[spoiler:and killed her leader, [[PosthumousCharacter Pink Diamond]]]].

* Little Enzo Matrix from ''{{Reboot}}'' starts off as a typical young, bratty, rather annoying kid who gets a few spotlight episodes to show he can be competent but is very clearly not anywhere close to being a hero. Come season three, TheHero gets [[PutOnABus Put On A Pod]] straight into the Web and Enzo is booted into the hero role, becoming an in-universe ReplacementScrappy before finally showing that, while young and inexperienced, he is still very capable of defending the system. Then he gets trapped in a game and [[TookALevelInBadass level-grinds in badass]].
** And then because that wasn't enough, instead of all that level grinding leading him to being a stereotypical AntiHeroSubstitute, he becomes the {{Deconstruction}} of one. He's disgusted at what he had to become to survive and his recklessly hot-headed tendencies are oft criticized by others.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''s Quagmire is usually easy going but is incredibly competitive, promiscuous [[BlatantLies but never sleeps with married women]], does volunteer work for the homeless (to pick up women), didn't know that TheInternetIsForPorn, comes from a family with a proud military heritage, Is an improv comedy enthusiast, and is the only one who genuinely likes Meg.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''s Quagmire is usually easy going but is incredibly competitive. Promiscuous [[BlatantLies but never sleeps with married women.]] Does volunteer work for the homeless (to pick up women). Didn't know that TheInternetIsForPorn. Comes from a family with a proud military heritage. Is an improv comedy enthusiast. The only one who genuinely likes Meg.

** [[TheBrute Jasper]], despite being "the ultimate [[FantasticCasteSystem Quartz]] warrior," has a chip on her shoulder because he was created on Earth; most of the others who came from here turned out malformed or incompetent in some way. She also has a burning hatred for [[RebelLeader Rose Quartz]], since she freed Jasper's home planet from the empire [[spoiler:and killed her leader, [[PosthumousCharacter Pink Diamond]]]].

** The episode "Tweek x Craig" reveals that resident NervousWreck Tweek Tweak is actually a very gifted improvisational actor once you boost his self-confidence with a quick [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre pep talk]].

* Black Steve on G4's ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys''. This actually seems to be a bit of his gimmick on the show with fact he is well, black. He constantly gets angry and goes into angry black man rage when people expect him to go with a stereotype or things he is not something cause he is black. So far it's shown he is a Harvard graduate, a former professional wrestler known as "The Black Shadow," and speaks Japanese while he also manages the money of the company.

* Eddy from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' of all people. At first he seems to be a greedy, selfish con artist who is trying to follow in the footsteps whom he idolizes, but TheMovie tears all of it that apart, revealing that his brother actually physically abused him, and only became a jerk because he wanted to impress his brother and the rest of the cul-de-sac.