History RememberTheNewGuy / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'':
** ComicBook/TheVision appears in Season 3 with no explanation or origin, and the Avengers are already all familiar with him. The creators apparently assumed the viewers already knew him from the then-recent ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' movie, even though the show takes place in a completely separate continuity.
** [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]] debuts in the very next episode, and like Vision, the Avengers all know who she is (though ComicBook/TheFalcon has never met her in person). She even has a long-spanning rivalry with Captain America and ribs Hawkeye over an incident where she saved his life.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': In the episode "To Steal an Ant-Man," Hank Pym and the Comicbook/HeroesForHire eventually track down the thief who swiped the Comicbook/AntMan suit, and it turns out to be Scott Lang, a janitor who works at Hank's lab. Hank immediately recognizes Scott and seems to have known him for a while, even though he had never appeared before this point. Oddly enough, this was actually averted in the original comics, where Scott debuted as an employee of Tony Stark in an issue of ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' before he actually became the new Ant-Man in a later issue of ''Marvel Premiere''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' does this to both Commissioner Gordon and Lucius Fox when they make their debuts. [[http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1902711&postcount=58 While according to]] [[WordOfGod producer Jeff Matsuda]], Gordon was the young officer in the flashback in "Traction", Gordon hadn't appeared in the present until "Night and the City", where it's revealed that he'd had his alliance with Batman for a while before that episode, despite Ellen Yin filling that role in the show before he appeared. Likewise, Lucius is used in a similar manner to his ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' counterpart, though while his debut episode, "The Joining, Part 1" does present him as being present behind the scenes, it did show him meeting Dick Grayson for the first time.

* ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse'':
** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
*** While "Christmas with the Joker" and "I've Got Batman in My Basement" marked the debuts of the Joker and the Penguin respectively in the series, unlike with Catwoman, the Riddler, or the other rogues, where their debuts marked the first time Bruce ran into them, those episodes were treated as just the most recent encounters with their respective villains - indeed, "Christmas with the Joker" starts with the Joker breaking out of Arkham, presuming that Batman had already put him there after a previous crime. This was a stipulation in the show's bible, as audiences, even if they weren't particularly big on actually reading the comics, were expected to already be familiar with two of Batman's most well-known and notorious arch-enemies thanks to [[Series/Batman1966 the 1966 show]] and Creator/TimBurton's [[Film/Batman1989 movies]].
*** ''The New Batman Adventures'' era had "The Demon Within", which saw the debut of Etrigan and likewise clearly displayed Bruce and Jason Blood having a history. That said, the crew did do an annual for ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'' that did detail Bruce's first meeting with Jason and his other half.
*** Robin's first appearance had him just ... ''there'', in the Batcave with Batman, as though he'd just been there the whole time. Every episode prior to that had Batman acting solo, with no mention of an offscreen sidekick.
** The ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Hand of Fate" presents Dr. Fate has having been active and worked with Superman prior to the episode despite being his debut.
** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
*** Max Gibson appears in the second season as one of Terry's closer friends, despite not appearing or being mentioned at all in the first season.
*** Mad Stan's onscreen debut in "Rats" was not the first time Terry had encountered him.
*** The Royal Flush Gang is supposed to have a history with Batman, since King only returns to Gotham to settle some grudge, but the Royal Flush Gang never appeared before in ''Batman the Animated Series''. And when an actual Royal Flush Gang shows up in ''Justice League'', they have no connection to ''Beyond's'' Royal Flush Gang. (the former are child soldiers as a result of Cadmus experiments, while the latter are career criminals and a VillainousLegacy.)
** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
*** Of the original seven members, Shayera Hol (formerly Hawkgirl) was a blatant example of this. She'd never shown up anywhere onscreen in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse continuity prior to her first appearance in the three-part premiere episode "Secret Origins," but the other main characters evidently already knew who she was. "Starcrossed" mentions that she's been on Earth for 5 years now. Highly doubtful that the first two seasons went on for 5 years in-universe.
*** John Stewart, the Green Lantern, also counts, though his example isn't as obvious because the Green Lantern Corps and their individual members had already been shown in the earlier ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "In Brightest Day" (where new recruit Kyle Rayner was the focus character). Season 2 at least explains this, revealing that after Kyle was recruited, he was sent to Oa for training and the Guardians recalled John, an experienced Lantern who'd been off in deep space at the time, to take over as the sector's official Green Lantern.

* ''WesternAnimation/IronManTheAnimatedSeries'':
** Titanium Man debuts in the episode "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead," and mere ''seconds'' after the villain appears onscreen for the first time, Iron Man says "Titanium Man? I thought we finished him off at Magnitogorsk!"
** Season 2 introduced a CanonForeigner villain named Dark Aegis. He was established as a dreaded foe who was thought to have died during a past battle with Iron Man, despite never having shown up prior to his one and only appearance.
** The SeriesFinale introduces a Chinese scientist named Dr. Su-Yin, who has conveniently developed a special suit of armor that runs on [[OrganicTechnology bio-energy]], and [[DeusExMachina is thus impervious to the Mandarin's anti-technology mist]]. She and Tony are clearly very close and it's stated that they had been working together on the bio-energy microprocessors for several years, despite neither Su-Yin nor the project ever having been mentioned before this.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelSuperHeroes'' had a case of this in the ''Captain America'' segment that adapted the debut of Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil. Because there was no rhyme or reason to which comic stories were adapted to episodes of the cartoon, Iron Man recognizes the members Black Knight and Melter as foes he previously fought even though the former's debut wasn't adapted into an ''Iron Man'' segment until much later in the show's run and the latter made no other appearances.

* The two-part series finale of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries'' introduced Kraven the Hunter, who was said to have escaped from a Ukrainian gulag after having been beaten by Spidey in a past encounter.

* Morph was introduced as a CanonForeigner in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. He had never before appeared in the comics or any other X-Men media. Yet here, he is treated as a regular member of the team.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WonderPets'', the OriginsEpisode "How it All Began!" shows that [[SixthRanger Ollie the Bunny]] was the very first animal that the Wonder Pets helped when they first got together, completely ignoring the fact that Ollie only appeared for the first time later in the show's run.

* ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'': Where did the female Plum Puddin' who took [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome the original]]'s place come from?

** "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E11QuestForRatings Quest for Ratings]]" features the guys running a news show on the elementary school closed circuit television system and they act as though they've always done this and its never mentioned again.

** The season 25 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E3FourRegrettingsAndAFuneral Four Regrettings and a Funeral]]" featured the funeral of beloved character Chip Davis (in reality the character never existed). Originally the episode ended with a montage of images from classic Simpsons episodes with Chip inserted into them (including Chip as the fifth member of the B-Sharps, Chip in the Plow King commercial with Barney and Linda Ronstadt, and Chip in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie''[='=]s "bountiful penis" scene sitting next to Ned). It was supposed to run during the end credits but it was removed for the broadcast version and replaced with an "In Loving Memory" card for the recently departed Marcia Wallace. The original credits featuring Chip can still be viewed on Creator/{{Hulu}} and Website/YouTube.