History StrawmanHasAPoint / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': [[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE17LockUp Lyle Bolton aka Lock-Up]], during his stint as warden of Arkham Asylum, is an inhumane sadist who's quite proud of his extreme treatment of his prisoners. But not only did he kill Arkham's infamy as a CardboardPrison, but his "victims" are mostly documented psychopaths who have endangered hundreds if not thousands of people over their time as criminals. After he gets fired, he comes across as a hard-headed conservative nutcase with his rant about the inefficient politicians and the "liberal media" being the cause of the superpowered psychos. While his blame might not be accurate, he's not wrong that no one is actually addressing these obvious problems. The police routinely fail to combat the maniacs, leaving a vigilante to do 90% of the work, Arkham is such an ineffective prison it may as well not exist, and no one in charge of the city or prison seems to actually care. The news even treats Poison Ivy as a media darling instead of an eco-terrorist who frequently tries to kill people. If they all did their jobs more efficiently and professionally, maybe there wouldn't be so many costumed freaks terrorizing the city.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''
** An example that occurred to the writers happened in the episode "A Better World". In it, Batman gets into a debate/duel with his [[KnightTemplar Justice Lord]] counterpart, about the latter's [[WellIntentionedExtremist seizing control of the world.]] Originally, League!Batman was meant to convince his counterpart, but after writing a particularly apt line for Lord!Batman [[note]] "You grabbed power!" "And with that power, we've made a world where no eight-year old boy will ever lose his parents because of some punk with a gun!" [[/note]] the writers couldn't come up with a compelling counter argument. In the episode proper, League!Batman concedes the point, and later gets through to Lord!Batman by pointing out how much their parents would have (dis)liked [[CrapsaccharineWorld the new Gotham.]]
** ''Eclipsed'' has Wally start using his [[Franchise/TheFlash Flash]] persona to make some extra cash, which leads to the league reading him the riot act on how he is 'selling them and himself out'. The problem comes when you realize that, unlike the rest of the league, Wally isn't already a Pulitzer class reporter or multi-millionaire or Princess. He's just a normal guy who spends a huge amount of his time on super-hero work already. While using his Superhero persona to star in cheesy energy bar commercials might not exactly be ideal, it's not actually hurting anyone and their implications that he shouldn't use his position to make ends meet falls a little flat. This is to say nothing of the fact that it wouldn't kill the organization that owns ''an orbital space station'' to pay their heroes a salary.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'': Throughout the first two seasons, Peter Parker is often depicted as a jerk for wanting to work alone. While it's true that this incarnation of Spider-Man starts off as ''way'' [[TookALevelInDumbass more impulsive and]] [[TookALevelInJerkass dickish than usual]], Spidey's arguments to defend himself are actually pretty valid. His new teammates and self-proclaimed "friends" are a [[DesignatedHero bunch of jerkasses]] who frequently harass and disrespect him for little to no reason at all, force themselves into his life without any consent from his part, and know much more about him than he does about them. And that's not forgetting about Nick Fury, who for all his claims to be a responsible authority figure, has little to no respect for his recruit's privacy and promises (he placed ''security cameras'' in his house, and their initial agreement ''clearly'' stated that Peter doesn't need to work in a team if he doesn't want to). Therefore, Spider-Man has no actual reason to trust any of them, [[BrokenAesop completely ruining any lessons about the]] [[HardWorkHardlyWorks positives of working in a team]]. This comes up again in "The Incredible Spider-Hulk" where Fury dismisses Spidey's complaints about his [[NeverAcceptedInHisHometown PR problem]] as just immature whining when it's clear that Jameson constantly berating him has truly begun to affect his ability to fight crime.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'':
** When Lance joined the X-Men, Scott does not trust him and eventually accuses him of being behind a series of joyrides which have totaled the various X-Vehicles. He is presented as being in the wrong for not trusting Lance and being so apprehensive, in order to motivate Lance [[StatusQuoIsGod to stick with the Brotherhood]], even after Scott realizes he was being a dick about it and apologizes. However, Scott had every right to be suspicious as Lance had been an aggressive criminal and was only interested in joining because of his crush on Kitty. Scott even did try to welcome him at first, but became dissuaded when Lance repeatedly did things for the fun of angering Scott including lying about going on joyrides [[ConflictBall when he did not]].
** ComicBook/{{Magneto}} had schemes such as evolving the mutants he deemed to be 'worthy', and assembling a group of followers to his cause, in preparation for the inevitable war against humans [[TheUnmasquedWorld when the world finds out they exist]]. Xavier always felt he was taking an extreme stance against humanity and opted to reveal themselves when they were ready...except there was one rogue SHIELD agent who deemed mutants a threat to humanity and built a KillerRobot with advanced weaponry to go after Wolverine and the larger X-Men and Brotherhood members, though ''Magneto'' ensured the battle was brought to the world's attention. The result is a widespread witch-hunt against mutants leaving them on the run. [[DeusExitMachina Xavier was conveniently out of commission]] thanks to Mystique, but one wonders what his reaction would be to see police around his school.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''
** In season 2, G. Gordon Godfrey is an incredibly biased, inflammatory, and paranoid newscaster who constantly criticizes the Justice League unfairly, is suspicious towards aliens in general, spreads obvious misinformation and propaganda, and [[spoiler:is revealed in the finale to be working for the villains]]. Unfortunately, his fundamental message of promoting public accountability of the League does ring true, however obvious it is that the heroes are in the right. The League keeps a lot of secrets from the public for arbitrary reasons; they don't even publicly announce a team member's death to avoid "people thinking we're mortal". They are an organization of superhumans and nonhumans responsible for the safety and security of the entire Earth, but they really aren't beholden to anyone except themselves. In more than a few ways the Justice League still acts like a secret group of vigilantes, despite being an extremely powerful public institution that consistently interferes in global affairs.
** The ambassador of the Reach is likewise presented as a villainous mouthpiece whose words are poison, but he actually never makes a single accusation regarding the League that isn't both true and describing something that's extremely illegal for very good reasons. He stands out especially for pointing out that the [[ChildSoldiers basic premise of the series]] in itself makes the League guilty of a war crime that would get any other nation occupied by the UN.
** Superman's initial treatment of Superboy comes across like this. We are supposed to see Clark's refusal to mentor and serve as a father figure to Conner as a bad thing. However, let's look at things from Clark's POV here;
*** Firstly, no matter what your view on clones are, Clark is right when he says he is not Conner's father, because he ''isn't.''
*** Secondly, Clark is on a reporter's salary and likely can't afford to take care of a kid right now, let alone one with super powers. Other heroes have advantages that Clark doesn't like Batman and his butler or Kid Flash actually having parents so the Flash doesn't need to raise him.
*** Thirdly, Conner is in the care of Red Tornado and Black Canary, so he doesn't ''need'' Clark as a caregiver.
*** Fourthly and finally, no one seems to take into consideration that Clark might not be comfortable around a clone that was created from his DNA without his knowledge or consent. A clone who was created to kill and replace Clark. [[spoiler:On top of that, it's eventually revealed that Conner is also partly a clone of ''Lex Luthor'', Superman's archnemesis, giving him all the more reason to not necessarily want to be within arm's reach of Conner when he would be vulnerable, such as while he's asleep, even if he might otherwise be sympathetic to Superboy's situation.]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show]]", Comic Book Guy declares the episode of ''Itchy and Scratchy'' introducing Poochie to be the worst episode ever, saying "As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me." Bart (clearly acting as an AuthorAvatar speaking to the fans who had been complaining about the show's SeasonalRot) responds with "How do they owe you? They provide you with hundreds of hours of entertainment for free. If anything you owe them." Except loyal viewers make advertising space on a show valuable, and the people who work on a show owe their success and livelihood to the money that the advertisers pay -- to say nothing of merchandise. Plus Comic Book Guy's appraisal of the episode's quality wasn't just picking nits or unreasonable complaints; it really was [[StylisticSuck a terrible episode,]] and much of the story hinges on that fact. Comic Book Guy is just the only person who's treated as wrong for saying it.

** Alice is treated as in the wrong in "Gut Instinct" because she refuses to let Gladys feed the animals in the Central Park Zoo, gived changes in diet in animals can lead to diseases spread, this is very much justified and is arguably one of the few times Alice is doing her job. However, given Alice's [[{{Jerkass}} unpleasant personality]], it's not surprising that the audience could most likely side with Gladys in this episode.

** Alice is treated as in the wrong in "Gut Instinct" because she refuses to let Gladys feed the animals in the Central Park Zoo. Given changes in diet in animals can lead to diseases spread, this is very much justified and is arguably one of the few times Alice is doing her job -- especially since Gladys doesn't even correctly identify the animals' species and natural diet in some cases, giving cat food to lemurs. However, given Alice's [[{{Jerkass}} unpleasant personality]], it's not surprising that the audience could most likely side with Gladys in this episode.
** At the end of "Operation: Big Blue Marble", Skipper blames himself for the whole Furro incident but mentions he would blame Kowalski in the official report. This is treated as a comical case of NeverMyFault by the episode, except that Kowalski is actually the most guilty part in the whole operation, given he invented the machine in the first place, dismissed the side effects of the toxic waste disposal until it started happening, refused to hear Private's observation that adding more chemicals to the bubble could make the situation worse and didn't gave any of the rockets parachutes which is why they needed a rescue in the first place. While Skipper didn't help by forcing the machine to keep going and refusing to accept the evidence that the Furros are causing damage in the environment, is hard to deny Kowalski doesn't have an equal or bigger amount of fault in the entire incident.

** Alice is treated as in the wrong in "Gut Instinct" because she refuses to let Gladys feed the animals in the Central Park Zoo, gived changes in diet in animals can lead to diseases spread, this is very much justified and is arguably one of the few times Alice is doing her job. However, given Alice's [[{{Jerkass}} unpleasant personality]], it's not surprising that the audience could most likely side with Gladys in this episode.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E15TheLastMabelcorn The Last Mabelcorn]]", a unicorn judges [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] by claiming to be able to "see into her heart" and determines that she's not pure. It is later revealed to be a lie to get humans to leave her alone, but the unicorn brings up a good argument that [[SecretlySelfish doing good deeds for the sole sake of making yourself look better is actually rather self-centered]]. The unicorn ends up being RightForTheWrongReasons, considering all the morally-questionable actions that Mabel has done over the course of the series despite her kindness -- at one point being [[WhatTheHellHero called out]] by the BigBad himself.

** Kikimora is a SmugSnake and a lackey for Belos, but she has a right to snicker when [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLilithClawthorne Lilith Clawthorne]] can't even take down an annoying house demon. Heck, Amity was able to beat up Hooty without suffering injury and Luz can punch him in the face. Even Eda says the same thing, mocking Lilith for not being able to beat her at her worst.

** In the first episode, the principal and [[Characters/TheOwlHouseCamilaNoceda Camila Noceda]] make the point that [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLuzNoceda Luz Noceda]] needs to be more normal and appreciate the difference between fantasy and reality, an idea Luz and the episode reject by declaring it's okay for people to be weird. However, Luz's brand of weirdness isn't harmless with her 'book report' resulting in several people being bitten by snakes and the subsequent episode has Luz put herself in danger because she's too invested in her TheChosenOne fantasy to notice several warning signs.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E8MargeVsSSCCATAG Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples, Teenagers, and Gays]] depicts the titular group as {{Child Hater}}s to parodical degrees, defunding anything marketed towards children to save tax dollars for adults who don't have them. Lindsay's argument that she shouldn't have to pay to support others' children would come across as selfish... if the episode didn't depict children in a pretty cynical matter. Even before the baby riot at the Roofi concert costs the town over a million dollars, Maggie's obsession with the singer [[IncessantMusicMadness annoys everybody in the Simpson household to the point of madness]]. When Marge uses Lisa as an example of why children are worth supporting, Bart and Maggie quickly provide a counterexample by locking the keys in the car and having puked in Marge's purse, respectively. Even the solution to the episode doesn't rely on proving that children are worth supporting -- it relies on all the kids spreading flu germs to the members of SSCCATAG due to their weakened immunity to childhood germs. Thus, even the organization's defeat supports the notion that children are generally detrimental. The only one who really cares deeply about supporting families is Marge, whose obsession with her family has been shown to come at the expense of her own mental health and self-preservation. Lindsay's stance may be extreme, but it makes sense she wouldn't understand Marge's point of view as superior based on this episode.

** The episode "Copy Machine" has Buzzcut recruit the duo to copy worksheets for the class. As one might expect, Beavis caves to temptation and [[Main/CheekCopy copies his butt]]. In the end, [=McVicker=] chews them out - yet it never occurs to him that, by all logic, Buzzcut is at fault. His orders include the line "You will ''only'' copy the worksheet! You will ''not'' copy your butts again!", implying that this has happened at least once before (along with everything they've done on camera). There's no justification for sending students who you ''know'' are incredibly unreliable and untrustworthy when you could send ''anyone else.''