Jerk With A Heart Of Gold / Western Animation

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Jerks With Hearts of Gold in Western Animation.

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# - A

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series: Lucky can be very selfish and bullheaded but he truly cares about his family and friends.
• Both Dylan and Dolly of 101 Dalmatian Street. The former can be quite bossy and insensitive, while the latter picks on her brother for her own amusement. Despite that, Dylan and Dolly do care for each other and will help each other and/or their siblings when they are in trouble.
• Aladdin: The Series: Iago retains his Jerkass personality from the first movie, but he always comes through for the heroes when needed.
  Iago: I'm just hiding my true compassion behind a facade of selfishness. Really.
• Adventure Time:
  • The Ice King is a Psychopathic Manchild who cares about little beyond kidnapping princesses to force them to marry him... but he'll still save the protagonists lives from time to time, and occasionally bemoan that he can't figure out how to be their friend^note The Cosmic Owl tells him outright that its because he's a sociopath, but this seems to fly over his head, sometimes to the extent that it looks like that for all his needless cruelty and compulsive villainy, he's really just lonely. Must be his past as Simon Petrikov shining through.
  • The Earl of Lemongrab was shaping up to be this. An annoying, idiotic and childlike lunatic, but he loved his kids and was steadily forming better bonds with other people. Then he ate his brother, over a toy, and things went south big time.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven: Charlie, despite his criminal nature and love of being a con artist, is shown giving pizza to a family of hungry pups. The whole plot of the film invokes him getting said heart of gold, as he goes from exploiting an orphan under the pretense that he'll really be looking out for her to actually wanting to help her, and in the end he gives his life in order to save hers.
• All Grown Up!: Z, as shown in "Bad Kimi" and "It's Cupid, Stupid". He is not a jerk, but merely aloof and a bit distant, preferring to dress in a punk style. However, he's a good young man and he and his father donate to children frequently.
• All Hail King Julien: King Julien has his gold heart polished to a higher degree than any other incarnation of the character. While he still has an It's All About Me personality when things are going well and in small-scale crises, when things get real, his love for his people shines through and his own survival is the last thing on his mind. At several points in the series he is completely willing to die if it would mean he can save his kingdom.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • While Gumball Watterson can be exasperated with others and often does some dumb or insensitive things, he's a good kid and will go out of his way to try and help... Even when explicitly told not to. You can't say he isn't a good boyfriend, either, as Penny is the only person he has never been rude towards, no matter the circumstances. Even when he's bumbling or fouling things up, he never means it.
  • Despite being snarky, bratty, and insufferable, Anais Watterson's a pretty decent person most of the time.
  • Nicole Watterson is a kindhearted mother and wife, but sometimes her stress can really get the best of her. She doesn't even want to fight Yuki because she regrets their last fight when she was victor and wants to be friends again. She accepts it because her job and home were threatened to be taken away.
  • "Granny Jojo" Watterson smothering and unpleasant to Nicole, but ultimately has good intentions. Like Nicole's parents, she did not approve of Richard's relationship with her. Unlike them, she eventually grew to accept the relationship enough to assist them with their wedding and keep contact with them all these years.
  • The episode "The Parents" shows Daniel and Mary to be this. Despite the fact that they put too much pressure on Nicole as a child, it's shown that they do genuinely love her, and their abuse was unintentional, in a misguided way to raise Nicole to be a successful person. They reconnect with her at the end of the episode.
• American Dad!: Stan Smith is a self righteous, bigoted, borderline Comedic Sociopath, however his callous antics are almost always with good intentions, and ultimately he does care dearly about his family. You're expected to find him a jerk straight from the get-go, but he's not a constant Karma Houdini and does actually seem to learn a lesson at the end of the episode. It rarely sticks, though.
• Amphibia:
  • Sasha Waybright zig-zags between this and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. She's charming in her own way and is capable of caring very deeply about others, but has a mean streak a mile wide. Before arriving in Amphibia, she was an Alpha Bitch who nonetheless had a genuine soft spot for her friends... but also wasn't above bullying them and pushing them around. But even so, she genuinely doesn't seem to have realized how unacceptable her behavior was, and insists she only wants to protect her friends. During the events of the show, her negative qualities get increasingly worse and worse, but she never fully loses her humanity, developing a genuine Villainous Friendship with Captain Grime and still caring very much for Anne and Marcy. Whether she's being a garden variety delinquent and Toxic Friend Influence or leading an army, Sasha is a very flawed and self-centered person, but there is clearly a heart somewhere in there. A heart of rusted bronze, but a heart nonetheless.
  • Anne Boonchuy herself was one in full spades at the start of the show. Although she was prone to brash recklessness and self-centered pridefulness that made her controlling at times and prone to thinking that her often misguided ideals and methods are beneficial to everyone, she was genuinely a very kind girl loyal and dedicated to those she cares about. It was heavily implied her jerkish qualities came from her Toxic Friend Influence, as they were the ones to encourage her to steal the music box, even though she really didn't want to, but by season 3, Character Development has led to her completely shedding off the "jerk" and becoming a full-on hero with a heart of gold.
• Animaniacs:
  • Slappy Squirrel. Don't let her crankiness fool you, she DOES have a soft side (it just takes a bit of digging to find it).
  • The Brain. He just wants to make the world a better place, and it's implied that he does have a small soft spot for Pinky deep down, despite insulting and attacking him regularly.
  • The Warners, who combine genuine affection for those they care about with a ruthless dedication to making the lives of assholes around the world a living hell (though they deserve it). Wakko is the sweetest of the three.
  • Rita was prone to being selfish, rude and catty, but she also genuinely cared for Runt and tried to look after him.
• Archer is sold on the title character's Jerkass behaviour, but it stems less through active malice and more from being incredibly self-absorbed. As such, he isn't above doing the right thing if he just happens to feel like it at the time. The best example of this is in "The Holdout" where he reunites a Japanese World War II holdout with his family, even after they attempted to kill Archer.
• Arthur: While D.W. Read is a Bratty Half-Pint who often loves to get Arthur in trouble, she is still capable of being a good kid. Examples include "Arthur's Spelling Trubble", where she roots for him at the spelling bee, and "Lost!", where she's genuinely concerned about him when he's lost. Also, in the Distant Finale, it is shown that she will grow up to be a By-the-Book Cop.
• Atomic Puppet: Captain Atomic/AP is the epitome of Smug Super and eager to hurl anybody who irritates him into the Sun, but he's also a genuine champion for justice who considers Joey to be a real superhero partner instead of a kid sidekick (although it takes a bit of Character Development to get there).
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko (especially in the first two seasons, before his Heel–Face Turn). Toph Beifong counts as well.

B

• On Babar, Lord Rataxes is introduced as the arrogant, selfish, rude, and aggressive ruler of Rhinoland and a constant thorn in Babar's side. But as the series progresses, he reveals himself to have quite the soft side. He is unfailingly devoted to his wife Lady Rataxes and dearly loves his son Victor, often being finally convinced by Babar to do the right thing when he sees how his actions are impacting his family. Additionally, he will put aside his differences with Babar to deal with bigger issues and has admitted to respecting Babar a few times as well. He even became the adopted father of a baby elephant left at his doorstep in one episode, showing great care and concern for the baby.
• Beavis from Beavis and Butt-Head, especially compared to Butt-Head. He is a pyromaniacal prick, but he does have a heart underneath all of that, and at least makes the effort to apologize for his actions (which surprised Principal McVicker into letting him go after his Cornholio incident).
• Beethoven: The Animated Series: Sparky often acts sarcastic and tough, but deeply cares for his friends and goes as far as to set a bunch of strays free from the pound.
• Beetlejuice is this trope personified. He presents as a lazy, conniving prankster, and he is - but he secretly likes the people he pranks the most, and he dotes on his mortal Morality Chain, Lydia.
• Ben 10 likes to use this trope a lot:
  • Ben Tennyson himself is obnoxious, arrogant and immature, can't shut up about how he saved the universe many times, has little to no interest in a normal life, and has moments of being a big Jerkass. But he also has a HUGE Chronic Hero Syndrome, and would not hesitate a second to sacrifice himself or his powers to save people.
  • His cousin Gwen started out as one, though a lot of her Jerkassery was positive discrimination in reaction to Ben's immaturity. She got better by the time of Alien Force. (At least in the first two seasons.)
  • Kevin became one by Alien Force.
  • Azmuth is an Insufferable Genius and a Cynical Mentor who can easily turn out obnoxious, but the fact this guy tried to create something that he thought would bring peace in the entire universe should tell you he is not that bad...
• Big City Greens:
  • Gramma Alice Green is a crabby old lady who rarely has anything positive to say about most people or situations, but when it comes to her family, she'll always pull through and do what's right for them.
  • Gloria has a tendency to be antsy, bossy, and cynical, but she's a genuinely kind and caring girl deep down.
• Biker Mice from Mars:
  • Vinnie may be an egomaniac, but he would never leave his friends in trouble.
  • Carbine comes off as very judgmental and strict, but she is sometimes shown to care about Throttle and her main concern is to put an end to the wars and drought that Mars suffers.
• Bill & Ben, The Flowerpot Men aren't jerks, per se, but they love playing pranks and can be somewhat insensitive. That being said, they're willing to apologize when they need to, and are perfectly happy to help anyone who needs it.
• Blinky Bill: Danny Dingo shows signs of this, like in "Blinky And The Magician," where he gets a horrified look on his face as the kids fake their own torture.
  • Blinky himself can be a Bratty Half-Pint, but still has his heart in the right place if needed.
  • Marcia, while normally a rowdy bully who can get nasty towards her friends, can be nice if she has to, like when she was in charge of looking after a baby.
  • Tico the Toucan, after he stops working with the Circus Bros., is also this.
• BoJack Horseman:
  • BoJack Horseman is set up as an example of this, being portrayed as genuinely sympathetic despite his actions and general demeanour. The show's own Netflix description references this trope, saying BoJack has "a heart of... not quite gold... but something like gold. Copper?" This trope is later brutally deconstructed, when BoJack begins to rely on this self-perception to justify his actions, and ends up outright begging to tell him that he's a good person at heart.
  BoJack: I know that I can be selfish and narcissistic and self-destructive but underneath all that, deep down, I'm a good person and I need you to tell me that I'm good... Diane... tell me, please, Diane, tell me that I'm good...
  • Princess Carolyn is less of a jerk than Bojack but she can be stubborn, have a bit of a temper, as well as a pretty pragmatic agent. However, she is earnest, fair, caring, and mainly good-natured.
  • At her worst, Diane can be this. Kind and genuine, yes, but her methods of journalism can lead many people (especially those she knows) as Collateral Damage.
  • Beatrice Horseman used to be this in her youth: sassy, condescending, tough, stubborn but caring for social causes, disgusted with the unbalanced riches of the world and willing to stand up for other people.
  • Kelsey Jannings is a serious, humorless director who can do cutting barbs, hates unprofessionalism and is impatient with idiocy. Despite all of the above, she takes pride in her work and will do it to the best of her capabilities, even if it is for pay.
• Bonkers: Lucky Piquel is a man who hates toons with a passion, but he's also a cop who is willing to help people out, has a family he loves dearly, and is occasionally hinted to care for his partner Bonkers more than he leads on.
• The Boondocks:
  • Uncle Ruckus is shown comforting Jasmine in the episode "A Huey Freeman Christmas", after she had been told multiple times that Santa Claus didn't exist. Even though she's biracial and he's the Trope Codifier for Boomerang Bigot.
  • Grumpy Old Man Robert Freeman is strict with his grandkids and liberally applies corporal punishment when they act out (mostly towards Riley), but cares deeply for them. In the first episode, he explains that the whole reason they moved to the suburbs was that he wanted to give them better opportunities in life.
• The Brave Little Toaster: Kirby acts like the only person he cares about is the Master, but when his friends fall down a waterfall, he jumps right in after them.
• Buddy Thunderstruck: The title character's fame goes to his head and he generally only thinks of himself, but he's a nice guy at heart and once he has a Heel Realization, he'll do everything he can to make it up to whoever he might have hurt with his selfish shenanigans.
• Bump in the Night: Mr. Bumpy can be quite greedy and impulsive, but he loves his friends Squishington and Molly Coddle very much and has never hesitated to help them with their problems or assist them in accomplishing their goals.
• Bunsen Is a Beast: Amanda Killman is showing her kinder side, but at the same time her kindness is only reserved for her pets Doctor Revenge and Mariah Scary. Amanda truly does love her pets Doctor Revenge and Mariah Scary, doting and caring for them, with Doctor Revenge and Mariah Scary being two of the few creatures that she shows any compassion to.
• The Buzz on Maggie: Maggie may act selfish, make bad decisions, and act self-centered at times, but she shows that she cares about her family & friends and will do anything for them.

C

• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Wheeler. Brooklyn Rage, usually the first to start a fight or complain with him and Linka either flirting or trying to restart the Cold War, and if there's a member of the party who needs reminding of the week's Green Aesop, it's him. But he is a Planeteer, and is quick to defend his friends or anyone he sees in need of help. Appropriately enough, he's got the Fire Ring.
• Care Bears: Grumpy Bear. The original idea was to show children that it's okay to be in a bad mood sometimes, despite what other cartoons would have you believe.
• ChalkZone: Snap tends to be crass, but he is shown to care for his creator Rudy and his friend Penny, plus he has a Big Brother Instinct toward his fellow Rudy creation Blocky.
• Clarence:
  • Jeff Randell is usually a self-centered Insufferable Genius that tends to be controlling to his close friends or other, but he's still a good boy at heart and cares about his friends' well-being.
  • Sumo Sumouski has a love-hate relationship with Jeff and has a tendency for being the trio's Deadpan Snarker. Yet, he's shown to have a soft side such as helping out or cheering up Clarence when things get tough for him. He's also a bit of an Animal Lover, from bonding with Chimney (in the eponymous episode) to raising a wounded roadrunner back to health (in the episode "Bird Boy Man").
• The Cleveland Show: Rallo Tubbs has shades of this, showing care for animals.
• Code Lyoko:
  • Sissi Delmas, the Lovable Alpha Bitch. Ironically, she wasn't always a jerk; she and Ulrich apparently got along somewhat better before she betrayed the secret of Lyoko... an event she has absolutely no memory of. To his credit, he's the one who initiates her into his group of friends in the series finale.
  • Ulrich is one in the prequel, but apparently got better after he started teaming up with the others and became a Lyoko-Warrior. He still has some shades of it though.
  • Jim also qualifies, at first seeming to be just a Drill Sergeant Nasty gym teacher, he ultimately shows that he cares alot more for the school's students than he lets on, and even nearly pulls a Heroic Sacrifice for their sake.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • Numbuh Four likes fighting, is insensitive, and has a history of bullying, but it's clear he's loyal to his team, especially Numbuh Three. He's agreed to sing a mushy song he despised, faced his fear of water, and ran into the heat of battle all for his friends. It's even stated he took Numbuh One joining the Galactic KND in the finale the hardest.
  • Numbuh Three's parents. Her father Kani is a Drama Queen with a Hair-Trigger Temper, while her mother Genki is a stern and serious businesswoman. However, it's shown that the two care deeply for their children as Genki buys her children ridiculous amounts of dolls to make sure they have a happier childhood than she did with her own strict parents, and when Numbuh Two accuses Kani in the whodunit episode after one of his outbursts he breaks down and says that he "just wants [his] babies to play nice with each other". In another episode, a montage of Numbuh 3's childhood shows him being a loving father to her.
• Cow and Chicken: Chicken might be a jerk to Cow very often, and is annoyed by her most of the time, but when she is threatened, he starts to get defensive towards her, and it is shown several times that he really does want to play and hang out with her sometimes.
• The Cramp Twins:
  • Lucien can be an Insufferable Genius but he's far from a bad kid and is always willing to help people in need.
  • His twin brother, Wayne, is a downplayed example. While he loves to bully other kids, with Lucien getting the brunt of it, his friendship with Dirty Joe is genuine and every now and again, he will show some decency.
  • Their mother, Dorothy is strict, short-tempered and sometimes takes her Neat Freak tendencies to extremes (With the episode Holesome being a fine example), she is otherwise a kind and loving mother towards Lucien and Wayne as well as a loving wife to Horace.
  • Horace, the twins' father, is a downplayed example as well, because he's shown to be a friendly man but his tendency to enable Wayne's bad behavior and neglect Lucian can make him come off as insensitive in some ways. Nevertheless, he does love his sons and his wife very much.

D

• Squeeky from Danger Rangers. He's sarcastic and can often be snippy towards SAVO, but he cares about keeping kids safe just like the rest of the Danger Rangers and frequently has Anger Born of Worry moments towards the children that recklessly endanger themselves.
• Dan Vs.: Dan is a massive Jerkass, but he does also have several Pet the Dog moments with his kitten Mr. Mumbles (as shown in the trope's image) whom he genuinely cares for, and when some of the targets in his crazy revenge schemes actually turn out to either be even bigger jerks than he is or outright villains, he sometimes will wind up helping their victims out (such as in "The Fancy Restaurant" or "The Wild West Town".) He also has a massive soft spot for animals, and even released lobsters from a restaurant when he learned they were going to be boiled alive.
• Daria: Despite her endless snarking and being incredibly rude to most characters on the show, Daria clearly never tried to ever hurt someone even if she made jokes about a gruesome death for them, quite frequent with Quinn who she ended up bailing out and teaming up with on a few occasions. This was even apparent on Beavis and Butt-Head. Despite being mocked by the titular duo, she tolerated them far more than any other character besides Van Driessen and Stewart, and it was sometimes implied that, while he never ceased in his mocking, she was the only person for whom Butt-Head had any level of respect.
• Darkwing Duck: Darkwing is egotistical and very self-centered, but he cares very much about his friends and family and is first and foremost a hero that will always answer the call to action when the need arises. This becomes even more clear when you realize he is actually despised by all the population of Saint-Canard (to the point that when he seemingly died in Dead Duck, they didn't even bothered with giving him a proper burial), and he still tries helping everyone despite it.
• DC Animated Universe:
  • This was always Batman's defining trait, that for as cold, frightening, unfriendly, and even brutal as he could be, he was always defined by his compassion. He always will try to Save the Villain, he will always do what's right, and he truly does, deep down, want to help the criminals he thwarts. In Justice League Unlimited he was able to get close to and diffuse Ace, even comforting the poor child in her final moments, and this compassion is what drove Amanda Waller to attempt to clone him in Batman Beyond. However, even his closest friends and companions will be the first to tell you that this heart is buried deep beneath a layer of vintage jerk, to the point even Robin butted heads with him over his jerkiness at times.
  • Exclusive to Batman: The Animated Series was Harvey Bullock, the fat, obnoxious, gluttonous detective with a foul mouth that only matches his foul hygiene. Notably though, he's the only cop in Shadow Of The Bat to go out of his way to comfort and reassure Barbara when her father is arrested for corruption, and pretty much the only one in that town aside from Batman and Barbara to refuse to accept that Gordon is a dirty cop.
• Dexter's Laboratory:
  • Dexter is an egotistical, arrogant jerk and can often be pretty harsh towards his older sister (although it's justified sometimes). Despite his flaws, he's definitely not a bad person. In fact, in spite of his frustration with Dee-Dee, he clearly loves her. Try messing with her and see what happens.
  • Dee-Dee herself could be a selfish Big Sister Bully Depending on the Writer, but she loves him too, and her vandalism of his lab stems from her efforts to spend time with her shut-in brother.
• Donald Duck: One of the Trope Codifiers. He's temperamental, fluent in Angrish, and prone to outbursts of crazy rage. However, once he calms down, he's a loyal and steadfast friend who is up for trying anything new. He's also a patriotic veteran, utterly devoted to Daisy, and makes sure his nephews are cared for.
• Dora the Explorer:
  • The Grumpy Old Troll, hence his name, refuses to let anyone that tries to cross his bridge get past without solving his riddles first. As the series progresses, however, he is fleshed out with more positive traits, such as praising Dora and Boots when they get his riddles right, becoming happy at the sight of a purple baby petunia flower, fireworks and flying horses, being married to a female troll named Petunia, and overall warming up to the other characters.
  • Swiper. He's a petty thief who takes delight in trying to purloin the belongings of other characters and even taunts his victims on the rare occasions he succeeds. By the time of season two, however, he gradually develops from a mere obstacle Dora and Boots have to avoid to an actual person capable of displaying generosity when the time calls for it. Standout examples include him accepting the letter from his grandma delivered to him by Dora and Boots and even thanking them, confessing to Dora that he is not responsible for the disappearance of her lost teddy bear, helping a lost baby fox find his way home, helping Dora return the friendship bracelets around the world, the list goes on.
• Doug: Although Roger usually seems more like a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, according to the show's writers, he is a Jerk With a Heart of Gold (he does have rare genuine moments however, and is arguably humanized more in the Disney revival).
• The Dragon Prince:
  • Callum, the main character, is a downplayed version of this. He can be snarky, insensitive, and outright cold, but most of these moments come out of naivety rather than malice, and he's shown time and time again to care about the good of others, his friends, and loved ones.
  • Callum's girlfriend Rayla, however, plays this far straighter, being a massive snarker who often is apathetic towards others feelings. However, it's shown that she does have a good heart, which is why Callum likes her so much.
• DuckTales (1987): Scrooge may be greedy and cheap, but it is shown many times that he does care about his family and friends. One good example of this is in "A DuckTales Valentine", where it turned out that his family was what he loved most of all and not his wealth.
• Duckman: Eric Duckman comes off as an ass and a sexist most of the time, but he is shown to have a good side, as he will do anything to protect his children if something is bothering them, or if they're in danger, even if he doesn't always pay attention to them. And, as revealed in a flashback, he didn't always used to be a jerk.

E

• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • Eddy was this before being reduced to a selfish jerk who cares more for money than for his friends. He still has a softer side and a Hidden Heart of Gold, but he rarely shows it in later episodes. However he has a pretty epic Pet the Dog moment in one of the final regular episodes, when he stands up for Edd against the Kankers, and he's finally restored to his former Jerk with a Heart of Gold status in The Movie.
  • Sarah may be a total jerk towards the Eds (and downright abusive/manipulative towards Ed), but she shows genuine kindness and concern over her friend Jimmy, she has a soft spot for Double D and, most of the time, she gets along well with Nazz. Deep down she does care about Ed, such as when, in one episode where the Eds were trapped in a "haunted" house and pretending to be attacked by ghosts, she squeals: "Someone help my idiot brother!" and she actually hugs him at the end of the movie.
  • Kevin is the resident Jerk Jock who hates the Eds and always insults them. However he's nicer to the other kids and sticks up for them if the Eds do something. With three exceptions, he seems to be pretty generous with the mountain of jawbreakers in his garage (and it's worth noting that he was originally going to share some with the Eds before Eddy tried to pull his drawbridge scam on him). In a couple of episodes, Kevin can be seen getting along with Edd and at the end of The Movie he finally accepts all the Eds as his friends and offers them some of his jawbreakers.
  • May seems the most innocent of the three Kankers, and the Valentine's Day special shows her in a more sympathetic light. All three sisters are a very minor example, since they are usually just jerks and very rarely show their nice side. They become a more straight example in the movie where for the first time they try to help the Eds.
• Eek! The Cat: Sharky the shark dog has shown his soft side before. He even hugged Eek in one episode.

F

• The Fairly Oddparents:
  • Timmy Turner may be somewhat jerkish, but he's still a nice guy. In fact, it's clear in the "Wishology" trilogy that he's The Chosen One not because he's strong, but because he's kind.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Turner may not be the best parents in the world, but they'll protect Timmy whenever he's in danger. Their concern for Timmy is strong enough that in "Ruled Out", it manages to undo Timmy's wish for them to stop caring.
• Family Guy:
  • Parodied with the one-shot character of "Kenneth, the badass mail clerk with the heart of gold", who gives half his paycheck to "orphans with diseases;" cue the touching music as Peter gives a heartfelt, approving nod.
  • Peter Griffin is often this in most episodes.
  • Now Glenn Quagmire seems to be stepping in to fill that void. Perhaps the best example of Quagmire's taking over this role is his relationship with Meg Griffin. He seems to be one of the very few people on the show who actually sincerely cares for her, occasionally helping her out with her problems. She's also the only woman he's demonstrated an extremely uncharacteristic willingness to have a Jail Bait Wait for. In addition to that, he volunteers at a soup kitchen and became a surprisingly good father to his Doorstop Baby.
  • Stewie Griffin, especially to Brian.
  • Brian Griffin himself is a lot more selfish and conceited than before, but still has several redeeming moments to place him into this trope.
• The titular Nancy Clancy from Fancy Nancy can qualify. On the one hand, she's vain, egotistical, and prone to being insensitive. On the other hand, she's a fiercely loyal and compassionate person who won't hesitate to help others when things go wrong.
• The Flintstones: Fred Flintstone might be hot-tempered, scheming, and generally more interested in having fun with Barney than fulfilling his responsibilities, but at the end of the day, he still loves his friends and family very much.
• Four Eyes!: Alien-among-humans protagonist Emma can be rather snarky, but is mostly good.
• Futurama:
  • Professor Farnsworth is "a senile, amoral crackpot" who gleefully sends his crew on all sorts of suicide missions and invents doomsday weapons as a hobby. However, it's also been shown he has a nice side like treating his young clone Cubert as a son, his friendship with Dr. Zoidberg, his moments of sympathy to his uncle, Fry, and making up with his parents in "Near Death Wish".
  • Hermes Conrad is an Obstructive Bureaucrat who regularly mistreats Zoidberg and takes very little tolerance to his teammates' general ineptness, but he's also shown to be in a good relationship of his wife and son, as well as deeply passionate about his job. He's even Pet the Dog a couple times, like helping Bender cope with his lack of back-up unit in "Lethal Inspection" where it was revealed he was the one who approved the baby Bender, despite the young robot not having a back-up unit installed, as he couldn't bear to destroy the flawed infant.
  • Bender. Many episodes have shown that he genuinely thinks of Fry and Leela as his best friends. Later episodes show that he also considers Hermes and Amy very good friends. Then there was his parenting with Baby Ben in "The Bots and Bees" (which he was amazingly good at), where he went as far as to have Ben's memories of their time together erased so that Ben could have the necessary installments to fulfill his dreams of going to bending school and following his father's footsteps.

G

• Galaxy High: Doyle Cleverlobe can be hotheaded and curt, but he's not nearly as bad as the school bully Beef and owes up to his mistakes when he can.
• Garbage Pail Kids Cartoon: Split Kit tends to be an aggressive and arrogant little punk, but he's still very close with the other Garbage Pail Kids and he helps them thwart the bad guys' plans in addition to helping other people in need.
• Garfield and Friends: Roy from the US Acres segments is a self-centered arrogant prankster, but he will often use these very qualities to help his friends out of trouble and has moments of remorse when he feels he might have gone a bit too far.
• The Garfield Show:
  • This trope is far more prevalent in Garfield compared to other media featuring him. He's still a gluttonous snarker, but he bullies Jon and Odie a lot less and actually goes out of his way to help others with sometimes little or no self-benefit.
  • Nermal may be an obnoxious, self-centered Attention Whore, but when push comes to shove he's one of the good guys.
• On Goldie & Bear, The Big Bad Wolf, a.k.a. "Big Bad", is this mixed with Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Sure, he's regularly a pest to both the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. However, he schemes are rarely effective and when they do work, he's often regretful. He's also shown several redeeming qualities, including being willing to try niceness and being apologetic and helpful after realizing that he's acted like a jerk.
• Gravity Falls: Grunkle Stan is The Barnum, a massive cheapskate, and is frequently hard on his employees at the Mystery Shack. Outside of all that, he clearly loves Dipper and Mabel, even if the "family bonding" he comes up with sometimes involves counterfeiting schemes. It's also revealed in "Dreamscaperers" that the reason he makes Dipper do most of the dirty work around the Shack is to toughen him up. He also tried to get a day removed from the calendar because he knew that Soos hated his birthday.
• Green Lantern: The Animated Series: Guy Gardner is arrogant, womanizing and smug, but he's also very friendly. After disagreeing with Hal, he takes him to get wings and displays his affability, helping Hal get out of trouble, working together with him to stop the Manhunters, and helping him through a break-up. Even Salaak and the Guardians seem to like him.
• Gummi Bears: Gruffi, he is mean to all the other characters and often mistreats them for different reasons like age, gender or personality, but he does show remorse every time his behavior causes another character to do a Heroic Sacrifice and is willing to put his life in danger for the other bears and for the good humans. His bullying of the rest of the cast is a case (at least in his mind) of Tough Love.

H - J

• Hey Arnold!:
  • Helga G. Pataki. She's generally rather rude and obnoxious, but we regularly see her go above and beyond for the general good (in secret - after all, she's got a reputation to uphold). Granted, this is usually just to help Arnold, but there are episodes where she does the same for her sister, Phoebe, and even Lila too. In general she's a lot nicer a person than she'll let herself let on (her reluctance to do so often makes her her own worse enemy, however).
  • Harold under similar conditions evolved from a childish bully to a troubled Kiddie Kid who only acts like a jerk, and most people see through it. This reached a point he actually gained a crush on fellow Jerk With a Heart of Gold Patty, and if you have a problem with that, he'll pound you so hard it won't even be FUNNYYYYYY!!!!
  • The Jolly Olly Man starts out as a Jerkass, but after he got A Day in the Limelight episode with Arnold, his Freudian Excuse became made apparent and he becomes somewhat nicer.
• Invader Zim: The entire Membrane family, after flipping between this and just Jerkass for the series, settles into this in Enter the Florpus. Dib genuinely wants to save the world and will go out of his way to save people he doesn't even like, but is also arrogant, obsessive, paranoid and prone to harming others in pursuit of his own validation (he once stalked a hairy kid he thought was a yeti). Professor Membrane genuinely loves his children, but also has trouble dealing with Dib not being like him, constantly pushing him to be more scientific. And Gaz admits in Enter the Florpus that she only torments Dib because she knows he can take it and backs off when he's at his lowest point, as well as going to notable lengths to save the world when it turns out that Zim is actually a meaningful threat this time.
• Jane and the Dragon: Gunther is obnoxious to Jane (and occasionally the other denizens of the castle) and often uses underhanded tactics to get his way. However, he has also gone out of his way to right his father's wrongs and usually ends up doing the right thing by the end of the episode.
• Jem has Rio Pacheco, boyfriend to Jerrica Benton and her titular alter ego Jem. He tends to be easily angered, but he does care about Jerrica as well as Jem and the Holograms and is often the first to defend his girlfriend from anyone giving her a hard time.
• The Jetsons:
  • Mr. Spacely isn't the nicest guy in the world, but he HAS had a few Pet the Dog moments, and he's nowhere near as bad as his rival Cogswell (who's a plain Jerkass).
  • George Jetson is indeed a short-tempered man who just can't stay out of trouble, but he's also a man who loves his family and just isn't as lucky as he could be.
• The title character of Johnny Bravo is a shameless womanizer who has an inflated opinion of himself and frequently disregards the feelings of others. He also loves his mother and can be surpisingly selfless on occasion.
• Justice League: Cute Bruiser Hawk Girl sometimes comes across this way.

K

• KaBlam!':
  • Larry, Loopy's brother in the "Life with Loopy" shorts seems to always constantly tease his little sister, but it's shown that he has a big heart and really cares for her (messing with Loopy's his Berserk Button).
  • June, from the Henry and June bits. She frequently picks on and sometimes even injures Henry, her best friend and co-host, and (starting in Season 2) is very prone to deadpan, snarky remarks. However, she cares about him a lot, can't stand to be away from him for a long amount of time, and almost always makes him feel better when he's feeling down.
• Kaeloo:
  • Mr. Cat is cynical, aggressive, rude and usually selfish, but deep down he really does care about Kaeloo, Stumpy and Quack Quack and will help them when they're in trouble.
  • Stumpy. Despite being a spoiled, annoying jerk at times, he does love his friends and he usually doesn't reach Mr. Cat's levels of jerkass (not that that's a huge accomplishment).
  • Even Pretty has moments of this, like apologizing to Kaeloo for insulting her in front of other people.
• King of the Hill:
  • Cotton Hill is a jerk and a sexist most of the time but he does show that he has a good side such as when he took the blame for Bobby burning down the church by accident, got a job to support his second wife and infant son, and even though he doesn't like her he helped Peggy to walk again after she broke her spine. Also while he rarely has a single nice thing to say to his oldest son, Hank, he doesn't wish the worst for him, "not yet" anyway.
  • Dale Gribble. Shallow, selfish, tactless, cowardly, unethical and quick to blame everybody and anybody else for whatever problem he caused. However, to say he "loves" his wife and son is a huge understatement. He dotes on his son Joseph, even though he isn't even Dale's biological son, putting him before everything else in the universe and defending him with his life despite his cowardly nature. He worships the ground his wife walks on and treats her like royalty, which she does not even deserve, having cheated on him for fourteen years. Also, on numerous occasions, he risks his life and/or sacrifices himself for Hank. For example, secretly switching Hank's low-running oxygen tank for his own full one before going to put out a fire. And when Bill tried competitive eating, Dale (based off personal experience), warned him that it is an awful way of getting people to notice you.
  • Khan Souphanousinphone. He may be a nasty, sharp-tongued elitist whose main purpose in life is to mock and look down on his neighbors as a bunch of hillbillies, but he has a very, very fierce integrity to his values, a deep sense of duty, and doesn't take injustice from anybody. Ever.
  • Hank himself could count as well. Although he's short-tempered and notoriously narrow-minded, he's still a well-meaning, hard-working person who cares a lot about his friends and family, has a great deal of common sense, and doesn't tolerate anyone giving him crap.

L

• The Land Before Time: Cera's bossy, she's egotistical, she's short-tempered, and she'll always come through for her friends.
  • Her father Daddy Tops is no saint either, having an even shorter temper and a distrust of other dinosaurs, but at the end of the day, he loves his daughter and will do anything to protect her.
  • In the third movie, he even has a Heel Realization when he realizes his own behavior is having a negative influence on his daughter after he calls out the father of resident bully Hyp over the aggressive way he treats his own son.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Korra is immature, a bit arrogant, sometimes a bit of a jerk, not above using her powers for pranks and not unappreciating attention... but if people's lives are on the line, she will throw away everything to save them. Though as the series progresses her Jerk tendencies become less and less prominent and her Gold tendencies get emphasised instead to the point that, by the time of the series finale, there's very little jerk left in her.
  • Toph's daughter, Chief Lin Bei Fong is a definite hardass and comes across as overly harsh and bitter most of the time and greatly dislikes Korra. However, she is legitimately interested in keeping the peace in Republic City and proves herself to have a compassionate side as well as being completely selfless when she performs a Heroic Sacrifice to give her ex-boyfriend and his family (which he started with the woman he left her for) time to escape and also refusing to give up Korra's location to Amon at the cost of her bending.
  • Prince Wu in Season 4 isn't particularly mean, but he's a flighty, flirtatious ditz with a massive ego. However, underneath it all, he's a guy who genuinely cares for people and, at the least, is nowhere as bad as his great aunt. And as Character Development kicks in, the Heart of Gold is more prevalent.
• The Legend of Zelda (1989): Link may be rather arrogant, rude, obnoxious and even perverted at times, but he is shown to genuinely care about Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule, saving the both of them from the clutches of Ganon and his minions multiple times throughout the show. For example, after deciding to leave North Castle due to Zelda becoming more infatuated with the vain Prince Facade and laughing at Link earlier, Ganon's forces end up raiding North Castle and kidnap Zelda. Link hears her scream and, while initially hesitant to do so, decides to head back to save her.
• The Lion King (1994): Timon. This line says it all:
  Timon: Well, Simba, if it's important to you, we're with you to the end.
• Lite Sprites: Bleak seems like she doesn't care about the other sprites, finding their ideas of fun to be lame, but when her friends are in trouble, she instantly leaps into action.
• Little Princess: Puss can be quite mean to Scruff at times, but still seems to like him on the whole. Perhaps the most notable example is in "I Want a Pen Pal" - when Scruff loses his squeaky bone, Puss somehow manages to type up a letter and order him a new bone through the post.
• Gump may be the most annoying and occasionally outright incompetent of the Little Wizards, being a thunderous glutton and generally driven by his selfishness, but he is ultimately fiercely loyal to his family and will always come through in a pinch.
• Robinson Cruesoe in the short cartoon "Molly Moo Cow and Robinson Cruesoe". Initially, he is openly hostile and drives Molly away from the island just so he can be alone, even though he admits she's a nice cow. He comes around and befriends Molly once she saves him from a tribe of cannibals.
• Looney Tunes: Peter Rabbit in his second cartoon, My Green Fedora (in his first cartoon, he was an outright Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist). He’s irritated by his baby brother Elmer’s chuckling and doesn’t want to babysit him. However, Peter risks his life to save Elmer after he finds out that a hungry weasel kidnaps him.
• The Loud House:
  • Lori, thanks to being the oldest child, is often bossy and apathetic towards her younger siblings thanks to her feeling of superiority. That said, she only wants the best for them and gets along well with them most of the time.
  • Luan would be a straight up Nice Girl, if it wasn't for her occassional mean spirited pranks, especially on the April Fool's day. That said, her main motivation in life is to make people happy.
  • Lynn is agressive, brash, a sore winner and a Sore Loser. She will also stick up for her family no matter what.
  • Lincoln Loud himself can be fairly selfish and do mean things to his sisters. He still loves them and in some episodes, he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of his family.
  • Lola is a Spoiled Brat who can get really selfish and even straight up Ax-Crazy in some episodes, but her siblings tend to bring out the best in her.
  • Lisa is blunt and does harmful and invasive experiments on her siblings, but they still mean a lot to her, even if she doesn't show it.
  • Cranky Neighbor Mr. Grouse, who often views the Louds as annoyances and acts rude to them on a regular basis, but it's shown from time to time that he's capable of being friendly toward them.

M

• The Mask: The Mask is very much a naughty trickster and a genuinely troublemaker. He's also very lazy, since he spends half of his time to go have fun or dance at the Coco Bongo. However, he does care about his friends like Peggy and Milo, as well as the people in Edge City, and despite always wanting to give Stanley a wedgie, The Mask cares about Stanley as if he were his little brother and loves both him and Milo very much. He has a good heart as well, as he refuses to join with an elf who knew the previous wearers, and whose idea of fun involves hurting people, which The Mask hates very much. Despite his quirks, The Mask is a superhero and will always protect the people of Edge City no matter how much they annoy him.
• Kagami Tsurugi is first introduced in Miraculous Ladybug as a love rival for Adrien against Marinette. In earlier episodes, she is presented as aloof at best and vindictive at worst, with a “Second Place Is for Losers” attitude. She quickly becomes a victim of Die for Our Ship. However, in Ikari Gozen, it’s revealed that she is actually lonely and genuinely wants to make friends, but is held back—both physically and emotionally—by a mother that’s so strict she makes Gabriel Agreste look like a free-range parent. Marinette is the one who takes a chance on her and tries to help her.
• Spiderus on Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. While introduced as a very unpleasant and cynical individual, he slowly shows off more and more of his hidden heart of gold over the course of the show, such as his love for his mate Spindella or his willingness to protect Sunny Patch from threats, as well as various Pet the Dog moments with the kids. This comes to hear in the third season when he becomes a father, becoming as every bit as doting to his children as Miss Spider herself is with her kids.
• Mr. Bogus: Brattus appears to show shades of this. While he may act like a rambunctious Bratty Half-Pint 99% of the time, he actually does have his genuinely nice moments, such as at the end of his introductory episode "Et Tu, Brattus?", where he actually goes to the trouble to present Bogus with a cake to show him that there are no hard feelings between them.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Rainbow Dash is hot-headed and can be a bit arrogant sometimes, but her heart's in the right place and she's loyal to her friends no matter the circumstances. She's also shown to be a very good motivator in most episodes, especially to Fluttershy and the pegasi in Hurricane Fluttershy where she coached them all, and got them all back in the air after failing to rise the water up to Cloudsdale the first time. Then there's some episodes where she's neither Hot-Blooded, nor arrogant and is genuinely wanting to help her friends.
  • Spike is a bit of a slacker and has quite a bit of attitude, but he's a good guy underneath it all.
  • Fluttershy's bunny companion Angel is frequently pushy and obnoxious, going so far as to act like a spoiled child in "Putting Your Hoof Down", but it's been shown he does care for Fluttershy, doing things like reminding her of her appointment in "A Bird in the Hoof", comforting her when she was feeling down in the dumps in "Hurricane Fluttershy", and following her all the way to the Crystal Empire in "Games Ponies Play" because he missed her.
  • Rarity is a moderate example, she can be extremely vain, and is rather materialistic. Bearing the Element of Generosity, she gives as much as she takes in that area however and is one of the more consistently friendly and sociable of the main ponies. This standard is acknowledged and upheld sternly by writers, one of her spotlight episodes (what would later become "Spike At Your Service") was rewritten completely with another character because they feared it would develop her to close to an outright Jerkass.
  • Cranky Doodle Donkey is a grouchy loner, but is genuinely grateful when others help him out, keeps mementos of past places he's visited, and softens up quite a bit after he meets up with Matilda again.
  • Twilight Sparkle can come across as this. She frequently treats Spike, her assistant, like a piece of furniture, has spent entire episodes harassing a friend for pride-related reasons (Feeling Pinkie Keen springs to mind), and can be very condescending and sarcastic at times. Despite this, she genuinely cares for her friends and Spike, and regularly hurls herself into danger for the good of others, be it holding off an Ursa or charging headlong at Nightmare Moon.
  • After his behavioral improvement, Discord becomes this. Sure, he still trolls the ponies for his own amusement, but he does help in his own way. In the Season 4 two-parter, he taunts Twilight Sparkle over choosing to head back to Canterlot instead of helping her friends save the Tree Of Harmony. Plus, he leaves out the fact that he technically was the one who started the mess in the first place (it was long before his reformation, though) so that Twilight could learn a lesson about being a princess. This culminates in "Twilight's Kingdom" where after betraying the ponies to Tirek gets himself sold out, he shows poignant humility towards the ponies, admitting he doesn't deserve their friendship and earnestly showing his appreciation.
  • Soarin and especially Spitfire as of the episodes "Wonderbolts Academy" and "Newbie Dash" could qualify too. While they may strive to be the best, and mock their teammates, it's intended to be friendly teasing, and they reveal they're like Rainbow Dash giving into peer pressure, while at the same time genuinely caring for their friends and willing to step up to be reasonable authority figures when they are needed. They even reveal they were also hazed as was Fleetfoot and a few other 'Bolts on their first days as Wonderbolts with Spitfire saying "You don't wanna know." when talking about her nickname. Spitfire's even got the excuse of not being good with kids and her drill sergeant nasty persona being the only thing she knows due to being raised by the military. While Soarin has been shown to be nicer and more down to earth like post Season 2 Rainbow Dash at most times, he still qualifies as this in Newbie Dash having given into peer pressure. It is for their similarities that many people ship Soarin with Rainbow Dash or Spitfire.
  • Tempest Shadow becomes one after her Heel–Face Turn as evidenced by her Day in the Limelight in the comics. She still has a condescending outlook on her home's optimism, at one point telling Princess Cadence she represents everything wrong with Equestria, and remains prone to outbursts. However she is firmly committed to helping her fellow ponies in any way, such as repairing the city damage caused by the battle against Storm King, and working with Princess Cadence to stop a rampaging monster. Comes to a head after meeting with her former childhood friend Glitter Drops who after getting yelled at by Tempest told her the whole story over the incident that costed Tempest her horn and that she felt responsible for making her friend risk her life. Tempest was horrified of the thought of one of her friends instead of herself losing their horn or worse; she promptly forgives Glitter Drops and rekindles their friendship all while deciding that even if given the choice, she wouldn't wish her broken horn on anyone.
  • Gallus the Griffon starts out as rather rude, but he eventually warms up to his fellow students. While he does take the opportunity to tease them whenever he can, he does genuinely care about them.

N - O

• The Nutcracker Prince: The Mouse King may qualify for the hint when he returns Clara's slipper after arriving to her room the next night, despite his grudge against her.
• From The Oblongs we have Francine, the Rich Bitch mother of The Debbies (The richest and bitchest if you will) who dropped her friend Pickles like a hot spud when she moved to The Valley. However, when Pickles is in genuine turmoil and reaches out to Francine for help, Francine does at least try to help and comfort her. Granted it's in a very vapid and shallow way, that is taking her to get her ass waxed, and of course it doesn't help one bit, but it wasn't for lack of trying to say the least and it does put her about a mile above most other Hill residents (including her husband and daughters who seem to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever).
• The Owl House:
  • Eda Clawthorne the Owl Lady is often snide, rude and sarcastic, and enjoys rubbing other people's mistakes or misdeeds in their faces. She does, however, genuinely care about her adopted kids Luz and King, is determined to take down the tyrannical Emperor Belos to save other wild witches like her from his persecution, and is willing to sacrifice her life to stop the Draining Spell.
  • The Golden Guard, aka Hunter, is introduced as Emperor Belos's nephew and right hand man, a haughty, petty teenager who just does whatever he's told without question, no matter who gets hurt in the process. However, later episodes reveal that his snide behavior is a defense mechanism to avoid showing any vulnerability to the adults he's supposed to be in charge of, and his willingness to fight, kidnap and betray people to fulfill his missions is both due to Belos's upbringing making him feel like he has to prove himself at every turn to earn his place, and the fact that he's been so indoctrinated by the Emperor's Coven that he genuinely doesn't understand that he's doing anything wrong. Bonding with Flapjack and getting the opportunity to play Flyer Derby with some other kids his age has mellowed him out significantly, and after defecting from the Emperor's Coven, Hunter proves himself to be a slightly grumpy, but genuinely kind person as he starts forming actual friendships with the main cast.

P

• Peanuts: Lucy Van Pelt is somewhat a Jerkass in almost all specials and comics, but occasionally, she has shown to care for others. For example, in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown when Linus does not return home from the pumpkin patch by 4:00 A.M., Lucy gets out of bed, walks out to the pumpkin patch, leads her brother home, and puts him to bed. Furthermore, it was her who named Charlie Brown the pageant director in A Charlie Brown Christmas with no apparent ulterior motive. And the fact that it's her who utters the titular line at the end of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
• The Penguins of Madagascar: King Julien is mostly an Incidental Villain whom the other characters tolerate when he's not doing anything antagonistic, since he's not generally a bad guy, just a spoiled jerk who occasionally screws with people to get his own way. But now and then, he has his moments of being less jerk-ish, including saving Skipper's life.
  • Skipper is a paranoid, sarcastic leader who holds prejudiced thoughts about mammals. However, at the same time, he is willing to help others and loves all of his teammates.
  • Rico may be a psychotic loose cannon of the penguins, but he is actually a softy once you get to know him.
  • Kowalski is usually an Insufferable Genius who is willing to disobey Skipper just to satisfy his ego. However, in the end, he also acts like Cool Big Bro to Private sometimes and he always learns from his mistakes.
• Pet Alien: Though Dinko can be short-sighted and often disregards Tommy's wishes or puts him in harm's way, it's never out of malice, and he sincerely wants Tommy to be happy. Whenever he actually realizes he's screwed up or hurt Tommy, Dinko will go above and beyond to make amends.
• Peter Pan & the Pirates: Peter Pan is often a selfish, arrogant, egotistical jerk who sometimes rudely interrupts his friends or causes conflicts with other beings with no intention of apologizing leading to him and the others to face their wrath, but he has shown that he cares a great deal about the Darling children, the Lost Boys, and Tinkerbell risking his life to save them from potentially dangerous or deadly situations.
• Phineas and Ferb: Pretty much any recurring jerk turns out to be this, but Buford may be the clearest example. He was a genuine bully in his first appearance, but "Raging Bully" gave him his own odd honor code, "Voyage to the Bottom of Buford" showed him to be incredibly lonely, and after that he basically became a cross between Punch-Clock Villain and Token Occasionally Nasty Teammate. Becomes downright heartwarming in the Christmas Episode (his Christmas wish is simply that his friends think of him as a nice person) and "Summer Belongs to You" (he purposely loses his own bet to help the group get home in time).
• The Pirates of Dark Water: Ioz. Did I hear a compliment, Ioz?" "Eh, must have been the wind."
• Pocoyo:
  • Pato may be short-tempered, serious, and stubborn, but his heart's still in the right place and he cares about his friends.
  • Elly can be very bossy sometimes, but she still means well and will apologize if she goes too far.
• Pound Puppies:
  • Leonard McLeish is an acerbic, clueless social-climber who, despite repeatedly stating that he hates his job as head dog-catcher and wants to move on to bigger things, was shown to really care for the dogs of Shelter 17 in "McLeish Unleashed".
  • Agent Ping. She is first properly introduced in "Mutternal Instincts" as mostly a Jerkass who only showed a nicer side at the very end when noting she enjoyed herself during the episode's adventure and says she and her fellow agents should do it more often. in "Hail to the Chief" Ping Took a Level in Jerkass in the way she acts towards Strudel. But when she is called out on this, she reveals that she acts this way because of the stress of her job and apologizes. Then, Ping promptly becomes a Jerk Witha Heart Of Jerk as she still acts superior to the other Pound Puppies, basically taking back her apology and receiving Laser-Guided Karma. And she wasn't particularly jerky in her final appearance. Only doing her job and completely agreeing with Dot, Dolly and Dash Whippet that Lucky did the right thing by telling Dot he can talk.
  • Squirt is sarcastic and rude, but does have a soft side underneath it all.
  • Cookie is definitely not as big a jerk as Squirt, but she has quite the short temper. But, she has a motherly relationship with Cupcake, and is normally a caring dog. Then there's her crush on Lucky...
• The Powerpuff Girls has a few, naturally coming from the heroes side;
  • Buttercup may act like a bully most of the time (teasing Bubbles, fighting with Blossom and whatnot) but at the end of the day she really does care about her sisters. It's generally not a good idea to mess with them while Buttercup is around.
  • Mitch Mitchelson is a bully and spent most of "Getting Twiggy With It" terrorizing the class hamster, but he gets along with the Girls and even ended up on Santa's nice list.
  • Blossom is prone to boasting about her position as the leader of the trio and on occasions can fuss if things don't go her way, but she's also a polite, friendly and loyal person who strives to do the right thing and never lets the needs of her loved ones out of her sight.
• The Proud Family:
  • Oscar can be this, Depending on the Writer.
  • For all her mockery towards her son, Suga Mama will make it clear while she doesn't always like him, she will always love Oscar.
  • True, Dijonay and Lacienega may be Jerkasses but they can, on occasions, act nice towards Penny.
    • Lacienega's heart of gold is mainly shown in in episode "Thelma and Luis". That episode shows that she loves her grandfather Papi in a very sweet way, in the same vein that Penny does with her grandmother Suga Mama.

R

• The Raccoons: Cyril Sneer. He started as a ruthless and greedy Corrupt Corporate Executive but as the show progresses, he turns out to be more of an Anti-Villain, showing more of a soft side while still being quite cantankerous. In particular, he's shown to deeply care for his son Cedric, even sacrificing opportunites to be richer for the sake of his son's happiness, while also performing charitable deeds like secretly convincing to Bentley not to run away from his parents (as he did when he was young), donating money to save the local school and trying to save the local pond from pollution.
• Ready Jet Go!: Though Mitchell has his many jerky moments, Mitchell does have a good heart deep down. Episodes supporting this are "Detective Mindy", where he is kind to Mindy, "You Can Call Me Albedo", where he is genuinely worried about Cody's disappearance, and especially "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", which reveals his true nature. It's important to note that he's considerably mellowed out in Season 2.
• Recess:
  • Spinelli is hot-tempered and sarcastic, but will always stand up for her friends.
  • Miss Finster, as revealed after Season 1. She shares quite a few sweet bonding moments with fellow example Spinelli when she's having trouble with her friends. These get a nice little Call-Back in "Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade" when Miss Finster once again helps her out.
    "Women of power like us, we're not allowed to have feelings."
• Regular Show:
  • Rigby is more overtly callous than Mordecai, but he also takes their friendship more seriously, and seems to be a better boyfriend than him.
  • Muscle Man is like this at times, but he's ALWAYS got a heart of gold towards women, especially his girlfriend Starla.
  • Benson, because in multiple episodes he has either helped save the day, or was willing to sacrifice himself. He also happens to be those with a Hidden Heart of Gold, and apparently, he hides it very, very well with a lot of security.
  • While Mordecai often bullies Rigby and slacks off, he's consistently shown to be one of the nicer guys on the show.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: Ren Höek was this before John K. was fired. Despite yelling at Stimpy a lot and smacking him around violently, he was often shown to have a soft side, and genuinely care about his friend. (In one episode, he was even seen getting upset when he saw Stimpy feeling upset, and attempts to coax him into happiness by suggesting time on his irritating hobbies, all of which Ren despises otherwise.) In the Games Animation developed seasons, the selfish, psychotic side of Ren mostly took over, though his softer side reemerges on rare occasions.
• Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez is a crazed, selfish, erratic and alcoholic scientist who constantly drags his long-suffering grandson Morty (and sometimes the whole family) on mad adventures through other dimensions and space, usually with little regard to Morty's safety. However, he does have moments where he shows that he cares deeply about his grandson and isn't afraid to go to great measures to defend him.
• Rocket Power:
  • Otto has been known to be an egocentric Competition Freak, but he has stepped in and helped out his friends when they needed it on several occasions, including helping save Reggie's birthday party, helping Sam maintain a false image of being an awesome rollerblader on the news, and getting a street hockey game postponed so Reggie wouldn't have to choose between it and an all-state volleyball tournament.
  • As much as Lars loves tormenting the Rockets, he really cares about his little brother Twister deep down, not letting his friends insult him (only he can do that - it's a brother thing) and feeling genuinely sad when the Rockets faked his death.
• Rocko's Modern Life:
  • In the Season 2 episode: "Crusin", it was revealed that Grandpa Wolfe's full name was Hiram Willy Wolfe. When the ship was stuck in the Bermuda Triangle and when Rocko drowned in the ocean, Grandpa Wolfe finally found his conscience he at last rescued Rocko, after getting off the ship, they both decided whether to become friends or simply just go about their separate ways.
  • Bev Bighead as well. She is much nicer than her husband, but is still a bit of a grouch. Unlike him, she has little to no animosity towards Rocko or his friends.
  • Heffer Wolfe is Rocko's best friend, and while he can be self-centered, socially-challenged and irresponsible, he does have a good heart and truly does value Rocko as a friend. Some examples include "Tickled Pinky", where he rushes Rocko to the hospital when the latter collapses from the pain of his appendicitis, not stopping for anything as he does so, and "Hair Licked", where he takes Rocko to the Chameleon Brothers for a better haircut after his botched attempt, then after he accidentally messes up Rocko's photo shoot at Filburt's house, he pushes Rocko's face against the copier to give him a good photo for the newspaper. Even though it wasn't the prettiest picture and everyone mocked it, Rocko liked it anyway.
• Ruby Gloom:
  • Poe the raven has an almost unbelievable case of Small Name, Big Ego and can be quite pretentious at times, but despite that, he's a gentleman of the highest order who treats Ruby and her friends with respect, shows a lot of care and concern for them, and is an all-around good friend towards the others.
  • Boo Boo the ghost loves to scare people (especially Scaredy Bat), pull pranks, and generally make mischief, but at heart he's still a good kid who just wants to have fun and likes hanging out with Ruby and her friends.
• Rugrats:
  • Angelica Pickles is the primary antagonist most of the time, but she has a lot of nice moments—such as when she admits she'll miss Tommy when he almost moves away, or apologizing to Susie via a hand-made card. In fact, messing with the babies is a Berserk Button for her, which allows her to show a more protective side. In the sequel series All Grown Up!, she's downright sweet most of the time.
  • Drew Pickles is a grouch but a kind man when he's not acting like that.
  • Charlotte might be nagging and condescending, but she has a soft spot for Angelica.
  • Phil and Lil act bratty and unpleasant (just watch the movie or "Weaning Tommy"), but they love each other and are good friends to have.
• Ryan Defrates Secret Agent: Ryan Defrates is an abrasive person who has no problems voicing his opinion, no matter how rude he is. He’s also an arrogant field agent who believes he’s so skilled that he doesn’t need a partner and could be really rude to his coworkers, and he is not even immune to being rude to his mother. Despite this, he’s never malicious or cruel, genuinely cares about catching criminals, and cares about his loved ones like his mother and coworkers. He would also be willing to admit that he’s wrong, and then he realizes he’s gone too far and will apologize.

S

• The Scotsman from Samurai Jack is a loud, obnoxious brute who's more than ready to pick a fight with whoever crosses his path. However, he's extremely protective of his friends (such as dragging an amnesiac Jack across a continent to try and cure him), and when talking about his wife his previous demeanor melts away to total sappiness.
• The Secret World of Santa Claus: Despite serving Gruzzlebeard, Dudley sometimes helps Santa and the elves discover Grizzlebeard's plans. That said, he still often acts like a real jerk, just like his master.
• The Shoe People: Sergeant Major is grumpy, bossy and pretty much a family-friendly Drill Sergeant Nasty, but he does have a soft side deep down.
• The Simpsons:
  • Moe, especially in the earlier seasons. When he was Homer's boxing coach, he gave up a big money deal to save Homer from the heavyweight champion. The ending credits are then set over him traveling the world via powered paraglider-he saves an explorer from quicksand, and an Indian woman and her child from floods. As revealed in "Homer Loves Flanders" he reads to sick children in hospitals, but he doesn't want people to know about it. He also loves cats, and is the best babysitter Maggie's ever had.
  • Homer Simpson himself. Despite his sometimes jerky tendencies, he really does love and care for his family, as he gets really upset when they're mad at him. He also goes to unbelievably insane lengths to help his friends out, and is even willing to come to the aid of people he absolutely hates like Ned Flanders or Patty and Selma if they need it.
  • Bart Simpson, who is well-known for the mayhem he causes in Springfield, although this is mostly done to drive authority figures crazy, rather than cause any real harm. He gets a number of Pet the Dog moments in helping people he'd normally antagonize, like when he noticed how his teacher Mrs. Krabappel was lonely and depressed. He cheered her up by nominating her for a prestigious teaching award, stating that she deserved to win because she'd managed to survive teaching him. The judges are shocked to realize that Bart is real (being so infamous that many teachers think he's just an Urban Legend), and declaring that if Mrs. Krabappel's managed to "dance with the devil in the blue shorts and live", she's a shoo-in for the award. Mrs. Krabappel is very happy.
  • Abe Simpson, Homer's father and Bart's grandfather, is rude, forgetful and dismissive of his son(and occasionally abusive). Despite this, he has often helped out his family, and has had a number of dog-petting moments with other people (such as trying to find who needs $100,000 dollars the most).
  • Nelson Muntz the bully, who's beaten Bart up for arguably noble reasons, including "wasting Teacher's valuable time", "besmirching an innocent girl's name" and "taking credit for other people's work". Even if Bart was Misblamed on all three occasions, it's the thought that counts. On a slightly less skewed sense, he has been shown to have an on-off friendship with most of his "victims" and even helps out Bart on a few occasions. There are some occasional implications that he merely plays a bully and that it's his defence mechanism.
  • Groundskeeper Willie is pretty much the poster boy for the Violent Glaswegian, but he's shown a soft side on more than one occasion. Not only does he fight a wolf bare-handed to rescue Bart, he even comforts the wolf afterward and shares a drink with it.
  • Selma Bouvier is a thoroughly Obnoxious In-Law to Homer, and was a bully toward Marge as a child, but she has moments of kindness toward him, she does care for Marge, loves her pet Iguana and her adopted daughter Ling, and many episodes about her revolve around finding someone to love.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) has Antoine, who although being a cowardly, pompous oaf has proven to be unquestionably loyal to Princess Sally, and on occasion shown traits of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass when one of the others was in trouble, like when Sonic was about to be ambushed from behind by a Nasty Hyena.
• South Park: PC Principal showed signs of this at the end of the 19th season's story arc. The character was first introduced as an intolerant, violent, extremist "social justice warrior" who put both Cartman (directly) and Butters (indirectly) in the hospital while even calling out Kyle for not being open-minded enough. But in the final episodes, as it was revealed that 1. his fellow PC fratboys were using their PC views to score with women, and 2. he was being used as a pawn by sentient advertisements to help gentrify humanity out of existence, it's shown that above all else he did truly believe in his cause to make the world better for the marginalized and less fortunate, and he helped drive the ads out of South Park.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man:
  • J. Jonah Jameson, like most incarnations of the character, buries a kind and even noble heart beneath a heaping layer of comical Jerkass. What does the man do when held up by the throat by an angry Rhino who's threatening him to hand over Peter Parker? He lies through his teeth that he doesn't know who that is while signaling Peter to slip away unnoticed. And that's just his most spectacular act: he also somberly volunteers to tell Peter about Aunt May's heart attack, and genuinely loves his son (again, to a comical degree).
  • Flash Thompson, while for the most part The Bully, is also a genuinely good person at heart. When Peter is under the influence of the symbiote and angrily lashing out at his friends, Flash of all people is the one to call him out for it and admonish him for mistreating his friends for being concerned and trying to help. After the fact, when Peter thanks him for talking sense into him, Flash accepts the gratitude and demands he not tell a soul.
  • Eventually Played for Laughs with Sally Avril, whose only two genuine acts of goodness in the entire series are feeling sorry for Peter when she learns of his aunt's heart attack and being both saddened by his apparent death and overjoyed to see he survived. When Peter remarks on this she snaps at him because she's not that bad of a person:
    Peter: I... didn't know you cared.
    Sally: I so don't! But I don't want to see you blown to bits either! I'm not a monster! And if you tell anyone I hugged you you'll wish you were behind that van!!!
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Squidward Tentacles, on his better days. Most commonly he was this in the pre-movie episodes, where whenever he clutched the Jerkass Ball too hard, he'd inevitably end up walking it back and demonstrating he truly cares for Spongebob. "Christmas Who" has him dressing up as Santa Claus to cheer Spongebob up to atone for his previous nasty behavior ("I didn't bring Christmas to Bikini Bottom, Spongebob. You did!") and "Fools in April" has him swallow his pride after a nasty prank and apologize to Spongebob, admitting deep down he cares about him and everyone else in Bikini Bottom who annoys him. "Pizza Delivery" has him stand up to a rude customer and console Spongebob after he's driven to tears, "Squidville" demonstrates he craves the shenanigans he gets up to with Spongebob as a form of normalcy, "Dying for Pie" has him spend the entire episode being a good friend to Spongebob after (mistakenly) thinking he's doomed the poor sponge—the list goes on.
  • Mr. Krabs, depending on the writer, although it was more evident in early seasons before his flanderization into a complete Jerkass.
  • All of the incidentals (yes, even Scooter at times) are assholes who often do things on impulse and cause riots, but they aren’t really bad people.
  • Almost every character can be this, including even SpongeBob himself at times.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
  • Janna is a constant tormentor to Marco and can be careless and snarky, yet she has shown concern with Star and Jackie's well-being. She's even been willing to help Marco on some occasions (albeit usually because she gets some schadenfreude out of it). And during the series finale, she even tries for comfort him, finally saying out loud that they're friends.
  • Tom is a violent Control Freak with serious temper issues, but he's not so bad underneath all that. All his appearances post-"Blood Moon Ball" have him realize where he's gone wrong and try to make amends or, in the case of the Naysaya, where he can't do anything to fix it, at least tell Marco what will make it run its course.
  • In general, Pony Head is the one making insensitive remarks. In her introduction, she comes off as selfish, petty and possessive of Star. She antagonizes Marco out of jealousy, going as far as to ditch him in another dimension and leave him to be tortured by the guards that are after her just so she could have Star all to herself. When Star calls her out on being a jerk to Marco, Pony Head understands how much Marco means to Star and willingly (without provocation) goes back to save him, even if it means letting herself be captured and taken to St. Olga's Reform School.
  • Star Butterfly herself can be this as well for her reckless and stubbornness (especially during the first two seasons), she's willing to help out for her family and friends.
• Star Wars Rebels:
  • Zeb. He's gruff, grouchy, and a bit of bully towards Ezra in the first season, but we learn that his race was almost completely wiped out by the Empire, and he blames himself because he was captain of the honor guard at the time and couldn't save his people. Over time, Zeb develops a Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic with Ezra (and even a bit of Big Brother Instinct) and his hidden caring and noble nature becomes apparent.
  • Chopper. He's The Gadfly who constantly antagonizes the crew and even the occasional Heroic Comedic Sociopath, but when push comes to shove he has Undying Loyalty towards them and is visibly saddened if something bad happens to one of them.
• Steven Universe:
  • Lars may act like an obnoxious Jerkass towards Steven, but on several occasions, he can be more civil or patient with him.
    • Sadie's belief about the more rotten side of Lars' personality is that he's putting up a front. A few of his spotlight episodes does back this up.
      Sadie: I can't get the thought out of my head that you’re a good person.
  • Pearl displays the most traits of a noble bigot and has a hard time taking people's feelings into consideration, but she loves her friends and has made an oath to protect Earth from the Homeworld Gems.
  • Amethyst steals, is quick with insults, and is the first one to laugh at misfortune yet pals around with Steven the most and is the most willing to form friendly relations with humans.
  • Onion may be a huge troublemaker, but he isn't entirely a bad kid. He's shown to behave well when he's around his parents. He also values his friendship with Steven according to Vidalia. At the end of "Onion Friend", he even gives one of his many Guy and Gal figures to Steven.
  • Peridot gradually develops into this as her Enemy Mine with the Crystal Gems evolves into actual friendship. She's still not good at telling what is or isn't going to hurt people, but she seems to actually mean it when she apologises and has even managed to overcome enough of her prejudice against fusions to get along pretty well with Garnet.
  • Lapis Lazuli is the proud owner of a deep, bubbling pit of rage directed against other Gems, at one point stealing the oceans across the entire planet in order to get what she wanted, but she's willing to choke her anger down for Steven's sake and has begun to learn some measure of forgiveness towards her former enemies.

T

• TaleSpin:
  • Baloo is an egotistical Ace Pilot that has an occasionally unhealthy obsession with his plane, the Sea Duck. It's made clear from the pilot episode, however, that he'd sacrifice it in an instant to save his friends and surrogate family (especially Kit).
  • Rebecca also fits this trope, a pompous Control Freak that has nothing against using her ownership of the Sea Duck to exploit labour from Baloo for her cargo company. She is also a class-A Mama Bear (literally) to her daughter Molly and is shown to make equal sacrifices as Baloo to protect her employee and best friend.
• Taz-Mania: the normally selfish Digeri Dingo has a "noble dog" side to him and Jerkass Bushwacker Bob once saved Taz's life from a haunted hotel.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Red X has moments where it's clear that as much as he's a thief who unabashedly enjoys committing crime, he's not a villain in the superhero-world sense of the word. He's mocking, sarcastic, and selfish... yet he chose to save Robin's life and help him protect Jump City from being disintegrated rather than make a clean getaway, and deliberately made enemies out of a bunch of villains of the week for Robin's sake. So maybe not a heart of gold, but at least tarnished silver.
  • Robin himself qualifies at first, but matures into a more level-headed person over the course of the series.
  • Raven does snark like there's no tomorrow, but nobody would question her desire to do the right thing.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • Gordon The Big Engine in the early seasons. He is a pompous buffoon, full of his own importance and constanly reminds everyone what a "Large and splendid engine" he is. He also cheerfully comes to the rescue when Thomas or Percy is in trouble and is prone to making up with the others after being humiliated. It was also his suggestion to let Henry out of the tunnel in Edward, Gordon, & Henry, despite the fact that Henry had laughed at him for bursting his safety valve. He also had a few good moments like in Season 8. He didn't get any lines in Thomas & The Fireworks display but he was noticeably concerned when James was missing in action. The episode Squeak, Rattle and Roll gave probably his most over the top Pet the Dog moment. He developed a squeak and thought that if the Fat Controller found out, he'd be scrapped, so he had to go slow to avoid making too much noise. However if he went slow, the children would miss their boat. He was willing to sacrifice his life just so some kids wouldn't be late home, for goodness sake!
  • Thomas himself was this in the original books and early episodes of the series. He was something of an egotistical Bratty Half-Pint, who often heckled the other engines and moaned of his own importance. Nevertheless, he was insistent on being "really useful" and came through to help others when they got in trouble. In later seasons, he became more friendly and laid back.
  • James is even more of a narcissist than Gordon and usually extremely arrogant and insulting to the other "common" engines. He does show humility over some of his actions however, and does try to be helpful and kind on several occasions, especially in newer episodes. Despite rarely having a nice thing to say about Toby, he is perfectly sympathetic to his cowardice over the Whistling Woods for example, and guides him through all it's supposedly scary residents.
  • Henry, like Gordon and James, has his rude and arrogant tendencies and picks on the other engines along with them. However, he appears to be more nicer and sympathetic than Gordon and James and is willing to help anyone. In later episodes, he becomes far less pompous and rude. In Blue Mountain Mystery, he looks back at his arrogant behavior with utter disdain.
  • From the Narrow Gauge Railway, Duncan is reckless, stubborn, rude, and often complains about his work, but on rare occasions where he doesn't get hit by Laser-Guided Karma for his bad behavior, he warms up on a few occasions such as the time he became apologetic and friendly to Rusty in Rock & Roll and was quite tame when Skarloey tells him the story about Rheneas in "Gallant Old Engine" which made him more appreciative towards the passengers. In recent episodes, while he maintains his grumpy personality, he's become more conscious of his faults and willing to take responsibility for his actions.
  • Also from the same railway, while he doesn't show it often, Sir Handel does have his moments of showing his soft side to others. This is mostly towards Peter Sam or Duke, whom he had lived with since Mid Sodor days.
  • Diesel in the older seasons hates steam engines and believes that diesels will take over the railway. By the later seasons, he tends to get a Pet the Dog moment roughly Once a Season. His antagonism towards the other engines remains, but he will occasionally admit a begrudged respect for steamies such as Thomas. He even lampshades in "Disappearing Diesels" that he simply doesn't know how to be nice, even if he tries.
  • Daisy is often haughty and avoids any job she doesn't like. However, in her initial arc, The Fat Controller gives her a second chance after she willingly pitched in after Percy's accident. While she almost Took a Level in Jerkass after her reintroduction in Series 19, she does realize when she's gone too far and tries to make things right. Emphasized at the end of "Ryan & Daisy": she's still not thrilled about doing Ryan's jobs, but pushes herself because she realizes he needs a rest and genuinely wants to be a good friend.
• Time Squad: Both Buck Tuddrussel and Larry 3000 have selfish attitudes: Buck tries too hard to be macho and Larry can be catty and shallow, but they have a strong protective instinct towards Otto.
• Top Cat, who is very close to his friends despite his sarcastic attitude.
• Total Drama:
  • Courtney frequently acts hostile, egotistical and violent, but she can also be kind and helpful when she's not on the other side of her mood swings.
  • Duncan appears on the surface to be a destructive, sarcastic punk with no regard for others, but has a softer side that he tries his best to not show so he can still seem tough. He found DJ a new pet bunny after his last one was lost, was willing to train Harold who he usually bullied relentlessly, and tried to comfort a bird when he needed to take her egg as part of a challenge as well as refusing to fight it in a later episode.
  • During Island, Eva's actually pretty reasonable and helpful when she isn't enraged, and is shown to be actively working on her Hair-Trigger Temper, as well as perfectly willing to admit to her mistakes. It hasn't been able to come up at all since said season due to a massive dosage of Out of Focus, though.
  • Early on Island, this also applied in regards to Gwen. While she could act standoffish and rude to others, when she genuinely bonds with someone, such as with Trent or Leshawna, she showed a much softer and caring side. As her online bio says, "she may seem tough as nails on the outside, but when it comes to her family, she's as soft as... well, a marshmallow!"
  • After Island, Heather's positive traits were allowed to show through on occasion.
  • Noah may be a notorious Deadpan Snarker who has an insult prepared for everyone, but he still seems to be on good terms with Owen and Izzy, and is cordial enough to warn everybody about Alejandro upon being eliminated in World Tour.
  • On rare occasion, Alejandro will show a hint of compassion in his "tiny black heart", which is reserved for Heather.
  • Scott becomes this in ’’All-Stars’’ after he Took a Level in Dumbass and Took a Level in Kindness. His crush on Courtney and attempts at being a good boyfriend show this.
• Transformers: Beast Wars:
  • Rattrap. He whines, he moans, he mocks, he groans. He openly voices his disdain regarding missions and is the most cowardly member of the Maximal crew. Yet, he is possibly Primal's most loyal cadet and, though reluctantly, always eventually accepts his missions. You can always count on Rattrap to do the right thing... Even if he's complaining about it the whole time.
  • Dinobot. Sure, he may be a backstabbing brutish Proud Warrior Race Guy, who regularly expresses his disapproval of Optimus not finishing off his opponents, but everyone knows where he stands ^note up wind of Rattrap, by preference and his death defending Proto-man.
• Tripping the Rift: Despite his man flaws, Chode always do the right thing at the end including saving members of his crew in peril (particularly Six and Whip which are the ones he cares the most, or maybe the only ones he cares at all), not rat on them while under torture and saving the universe.
• Trollz: Ruby fits the mold; while being a Spoiled Brat at times and too stubborn for her own good, she has her friends' well-being at heart and if something is seriously wrong, she'll apologize and try to help.
• Trust Me, I'm a Genie:
  • Ziggy is a hot-tempered and smart aleck genie who actually cares a lot about his master, Diego and has stood up for him before.
  • Joe is a sharp-tongued Insufferable Genius of a fox who has a soft spot for romance movies, sleeps with a teddy bear and has even saved the day a couple times in the show.
  • Tony is a greedy scorpion with a Money Fetish but most of the time, he's a decent guy.

U - Z

• The Venture Bros.:
  • Brock Samson is a Heroic Comedic Sociopath with a heart of gold. After OSI wiped Billy's memories, Brock took him to Pete White, so White could help take care of Billy. He also deeply cares for the Venture Brothers.
  • Brock's heart of gold wasn't hidden quite as well as Rusty's. It took four seasons for it to finally show itself.
• Winnie the Pooh: Rabbit is as close as the Hundred Acre Wood gets to an Only Sane Man, as well as being one of the resident Butt Monkeys, along with Eeyore. He reacts like any sane, hard-working adult who has to put up with the hijinks of Pooh and Tigger would. In Find Her, Keep Her Rabbit takes in an orphaned baby bluebird named Kessie and raises her himself.
• Wander over Yonder:
  • Sylvia is loud, grumpy, stern and shot-tempered, but still a kind and protective girl.
  • Lord Hater is showing his kinder side, but at the same time his kindness is only reserved for Commander Peepers and his pet Captain Tim. Even as far back as the beginning of Season 1, Hater shows care for Commander Peepers, even though at the same time he takes him for granted. By Season 2, Hater learns to appreciate Peepers more and treats him better. Hater truly does love his pet Captain Tim, doting and caring for him, with Captain Tim being one of the few creatures that he shows any compassion to.
  • Likewise, Peepers' kind side is reserved only for Lord Hater. Peepers genuinely cares for Hater and desires to see Hater succeed at what he does best. Even when Peepers is starting to lose respect for Hater and is annoyed with his flaws, he still stands by his side.
• Wayside: Though Mrs. Jewls always punishes Todd for doing nothing wrong, she still loves her students.
• Winx Club:
  • Stella is vain, a bit air-headed and can be shallow, but she genuinely loves her friends and has no problem risking her own safety for theirs. She is also a very spoiled princess, but she clearly has no problem with commoners, as shown by how she is immediately eager for Bloom to attend Alfea with her and practically dragged her on a shopping spree to find a dress for a dance——and his commoner status doesn’t affect her love for Brandon.
  • Riven is not as clear, but, as bad as he may be at showing it, he does care about Musa and does try to be nice to her (though sometimes, she's stubborn). He was also the one comforting the girls and Timmy when Tecna disappeared into the Omega dimension and they believed she was dead.
  • Bloom is milder than the above two, but she still fits. She's ill-tempered, somewhat self-centered, and occasionally acts childishly if she doesn't get her way (though she whines rather than having an outright tantrum). Nevertheless, she is undoubtedly loyal to the people she cares about and if any of those people are threatened, she will put that temper to good use.
  • Miss Griselda is crotchety, strict, and frightening to timid new students, and takes pleasure in punishing misbehavior. But whenever Alfea is in danger, she will step up to protect her student and encourage them:
  Griselda: Remember, you’re Alfea girls, and Alfea girls do not lose to witches!
• Puffin from Wishfart may be a lazy and greedy egomaniac, but he is also a loyal and supportive friend who always pulls through for Dez and Akiko when he has to do what is right.
• W.I.T.C.H.:
  • Cornelia Hale, although in the eyes of some fans of the comic she came off as too much of a pure Jerkass due to an alleged attempt to make her more similar to the stereotypical spoiled rich girl. Even in the comics, she had some pretty strong Anti-Hero tendencies — robbing an armored car for the sake of the man you love is pretty hardcore—although it took place in an Alternate Timeline.
  • And while on the subject of the comics, Orube could also be seen as a Jerkass, Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or Anti-Hero. An extremely good character, she is very loyal to the other guardians, to the point of beating the shit out of anybody who might get in the way of her helping them, including the police.
• Work It Out Wombats!: Downplayed with Mr. E in that he's not a jerk, just grumpy most of the time. Despite being a grump, but he does like the wombats deep down (he seems to have a soft spot for Zeke in particular), and is pretty civil with the rest of the Treeborhood.
• Wunschpunsch: Jacob Scribble is stuffy and uptight, and can be condescending and sarcastic, but he loves Maurizio and always looks out for him.
• X-Men: Evolution:
  • Lance. He moves in with the Brotherhood and in his first appearance thinks nothing of manipulating Kitty Pride into stealing test answers for him. However, He became a saint in Season 2. In Season 3, he returned to being a thug, or a 'hood' as Kitty put it. But in the Season 4 episode "No Good Deed", he saved an old woman from a train crash and later cleaned up Pietro's mess, showing that, after being all over the place, he has gained some sense of right or wrong.
  • Gambit was amoral, narcissistic, and quite sarcastic, and even kidnapped Rogue, and threatened to blow up a train when she tried to escape, but then took her to Mardi Gras to cheer her up, talked to her about her adopted mother and compared it to his relationship with his father (And makes it clear how much he hates said father). It was revealed he only did this to manipulate her, but only to save said adoptive father and got rather defensive when his father showed an interest in Rogue's power.
  • Magneto formed and then abandoned the Brotherhood, had a rather blunt vision of 'Survival of the Fittest', locked his daughter up in a mental institute and abandoned his son (As well as Mind Rape to his daughter to make her forget about it all), and revealed mutants to the world. But he spared Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Rogue when he was about to kill them as a thank you for Nightcrawler allowing him to restore his youth and to Wolverine for saving him from the Holocaust during WWII, and then devoted his efforts to, instead of wiping out mankind, stopping Apocalypse and showed at least some care for his Acolytes and children.
  • Toad was a thief, a jerk, a narcisist, and an all around ass who once ruined Kurt's first impression to his Girlfriend's parents by stealing his Imgae inducer, and had a few moments of almost stalker-ish attraction to Wanda, not to mention his Kick the Dog moments of attacking Nightcrawler and trying to leave him trapped in another dimension, but he did honestly care for Wanda, and only stole Kurt's image inducer so she would actually give him a chance and was deeply upset by her constant rejection, not to mention his Butt-Monkey status.
• Young Justice (2010): Superboy is pretty abrasive and starts out a Smug Super. He also ends up being one of the more heroic and compassionate characters in the series, to the point that he could be considered The Heart of the team.

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