No Antagonist / Western Animation

• The Breather Episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender tend to lack an antagonist, while the main conflict of the series takes a backseat. Several non-breather episodes also fit this trope, as they focus more on internal issues the group faces.
  • The Cave of Two Lovers: While the Fire Nation does force the group to flee into the titular cave, the main conflict of the episode is them trying to find a way out.
  • Bitter Work is about Aang learning to earthbend, which goes against his nature as airbender. While Toph acts antagonistic, this ultimately is to help Aang overcome the hurdle preventing him from earthbending. Aang ultimately succeeds. Meanwhile, Zuko tries to learn new skills from Iroh, but fails, as he still sees himself as a victim of destiny, rather than taking charge of it.
  • The Tales of Ba Sing Se is about the characters enjoying their time in the city of Ba Sing Se. Katara and Toph go to a beauty spa to bond. Iroh helps the local populace and grieves about not being able to help his late son. Zuko enjoys a date with a local girl and Aang helps a zoo move to a bigger place. Sokka and Momo avert this trope, as their segments do have a minor antagonist.
  • The Beach is primarily about the Fire Nation characters bonding with each other. Even the normally sociopathic Azula shows a vulnerable and kinder side to her. The segments involving Aang and his group avert this trope, as they are attacked by Combustion Man.
  • The only "antagonist" in Nightmares and Daydreams is Aang's anxiety about having to face the Fire Lord. This manifests itself in insomnia, followed by all sorts of weird hallucinations, such as Appa and Momo being samurai who fight each other.
  • The Firebending Masters isn't a breather per se, but it doesn't feature any true antagonist. The main issue is Zuko having lost his firebending and having to get it back by going on a trip with Aang. While the Sun Warriors do seem to be antagonistic at the start, they ultimately help the duo in unlocking the true version of firebending.
  • The final breather is The Ember Island Players which features the group watching a Fire Nation propaganda play about their own adventures- which, as it’s produced for the villains, sees them demonized and defeated at the end.
• Typical for animation works targeted at pre-schoolers or younger. This is because the age range is when children start to experience vivid dreams and shows with antagonists more often than not cause nightmares to the target audience, which greatly annoys the parents (no one likes waking up to their kid crying at 3 in the morning and having to drag themselves out of bed to console the kid).
  • A Little Curious: None of the characters are evil, and the episodes focus on them discussing certain topics.
  • The Berenstain Bears averts this in the 80s series, but the 2000s revival plays it straight.
  • Bob the Builder: It’s a show focusing on the life of a construction worker and his crew of sentient vehicles. Any trouble that might arise is usually caused by natural disasters and other acts of God, and while Spud is a bit of a jerk, he rarely directly causes a conflict.
  • This is played straight in Blue's Clues. The closest thing to a villain would possibly be Green Puppy, but she's not really a villain since she's friends with Blue.
  • Caillou; again, due to the focus on Slice of Life.
  • Clifford the Big Red Dog; like Doug it's averted in The Movie, which resulted in a Broken Base.
  • Dora the Explorer is a debatable example. There's Swiper, but he's only rarely responsible for an actual conflict and is usually just there to try to steal something from Dora. Plus, he's a Harmless Villain who hides the items he steals instead of keeping them and even helps Dora in later episodes of the series. One could also consider the Grumpy Old Troll a villain, but he's more of a recurring obstacle, and he, too, helps Dora in a few episodes. Some of the specials would avert this by including genuine villains- by way of example, "Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure" has La Bruja, a Wicked Witch who attempts to prevent Dora from getting home.
  • Dragon Tales rarely had antagonists, and most of the ones there were (Trumpy in "Head Over Heels" and Mr. Pop in "Wheezie's Last Laugh") only appeared once and (usually) learned their lesson. The only recurring one is Cyrus, who only appears in two episodes ^note he did appear in the live stage show "Journey To Crystal Cave", though that show is lost media and is in fact a Harmless Villain, though he did come close to snatching away dragon eggs from their nests, only to either be stopped or tricked.
  • Doc McStuffins has Percy the Wicked King, but he only appears in three or so episodes and is a Harmless Villain. The other episodes are straight No Antagonist.
  • Almost every episode of Jelly Jamm counts. The only real exception was "Cheating Bracelets", where Rita uses the titular bracelets to gain an unfair advantage in the games she was playing.
  • Julius Jr.. Most of the episodes' conflict comes from standard Slice of Life issues.
  • The Koala Brothers. The closest thing it has to antagonism is whenever one of the characters acts in an insensitive way.
  • Rescue Heroes: The titular heroes almost always combat natural disasters and accidents. While someone may be to blame for said accidents, it's always made clear that it's an accident rather than being due to malice. The one and only episode that averts this is "A Whale of an Adventure": there, the crisis is made much worse by illegal whalers who knowingly ignore a warning about a mined area of the sea, and deliberately jam signals to avoid detection. The whalers are unambiguous baddies, and the Rescue Heroes waste no time in making sure they are captured, arrested, and handed off to the Coast Guard for their legal punishment.
  • Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, Due to the target audience being preschoolers it rarely had antagonists. The Magistrate and his wife don't really count as antagonists despite them occasionally making rules without reason though they always eventually realize the consequences of their actions and apologize to those they've wronged. However, there still are recurring but minor antagonists which are the sleeve dogs and the bully alley cats. A few episodes have human antagonists, such as con artists and a cat burglar that were after the Magistrate, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
  • The first season of Shimmer and Shine. This season didn't have any character trying to do anything bad on purpose... and then Zeta the Sorceress was added in season 2.
  • Sid the Science Kid: It's a simple Science Show that doesn't really warrant a villain. The Movie averts this with Bobbybot going haywire after getting zapped, but even then he's not really a villain as his antagonistic behavior is not his fault.
  • Sofia the First's Cedric the Sorcerer is the show's main villain—well, you couldn't call him a villain, per se. He's harmless, trying to get Sofia's Amulet of Avalor. Once the amulet temporarily causes him to be cured when doing bad deeds, his plans on using it are over and takes on a bit of a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Princess Ivy is an aversion, but she also later has a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Stanley: Any conflicts for Stanley typically do not involve an actual villain, and are usually resolved by him learning about an animal, which are never hostile to him.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: While there are some conflicts between characters, no one is truly evil or antagonistic.
• Most episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball have some kind of antagonist, but there are some exceptions:
  • Some episodes are just a series of sketches with no overall plot, placing them here. The only exception is "The Spinoffs," which is about Rob holding the Internet hostage and creating spinoffs in an attempt to get rid of Gumball.
  • "The Joy" deals with a virus outbreak that Richard accidentally caused. Miss Simian is an asshole, but she's the one that tries to stop it. Nobody's really complicit in the outbreak.
  • "The Origins" doesn't have an antagonist, and most of the plot is driven by the Wattersons' bad luck and stupidity.
  • "The Game" has no antagonist, instead dealing with the Wattersons trying to play a game of Dodj or Daar and the situation quickly going haywire because the game is a Reality Warper. The game is non-sentient, Gumball and Darwin were desperate to get rid of the game, and everyone else was initially oblivious to the game's true nature, only catching on when it was too late.
  • "The Curse" revolves entirely around Gumball suffering from exceptionally horrible luck, which almost results in his death. Darwin and Anais are the only other characters in the episode to play a major role, and both of them are trying to help him.
  • "The Plan" has no real antagonist. It instead revolves around Gumball, Darwin, and Anais formulating a plan to get rid of a man named Daniel Lennard that they think is trying to steal Nicole away, only to find out that he's a brand of cosmetics and they did all that for nothing.
• Sometimes in some Angry Birds cartoons, there are episodes that doesn't feature the pigs at all with Angry Birds Toons, Angry Birds Slingshot Stories, & Angry Birds Makerspace have some "bird only" episodes. Angry Birds Stella has a few without the pigs or Gale. The entirety of Angry Birds Blues (not counting the comic at the beginning of "Little Big Heroes"), Angry Birds Zero Gravity, & Season 1 of Angry Birds Bubble Trouble (excluding a pig plush cameo.) doesn't feature any pigs.
• Animaniacs: The Slappy Squirrel episode "Bumbie's Mom" doesn't have a foe for Slappy to outwit and instead, Slappy has to help Skippy feel better after he gets sad about a death in a movie.
• Arthur plays this trope straight, preferring to focus on life issues.
  • Although D.W. does come pretty close to a main antagonist, since she often inconveniences the titular character with her annoying and sometimes downright cruel antics.
  • One exception is "To Eat or Not To Eat", featuring Corrupt Corporate Executive the Supreme Dog.
• Bertha - While Mr. Duncan can be over-demanding at times, at the end of the day he's just doing his job as foreman.
• Care Bears tends to drift in and out of this. The media that are villain-free are listed below:
  • Most of the books have no villains. Understandable since it is understood that the books are read to toddlers as a bedtime story, and the last thing parents want is the story being nightmare fuel.
  • The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie doesn't have villains.
  • Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot drifts in and out of this trope, but the final TV special plays this trope straight.
  • Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot also drifts in and out; the resident Villain, Beastly, doesn't appear in half of the episodes.
  • Care Bears & Cousins again drifts in and out of the trope, being a continuity of Welcome to Care-a-Lot. However, Season 1 is quite clear-cut: The even numbered episodes of the season lack villains.
  • Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, like with the others, also drifts in and out of this trope. The main villain, Bluster and his Bad Crowd, don't appear in most episodes. Averted in the final special, which features the return of No Heart and Beastly from the classic 80's version of the show.
• Episodes of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers like Out to Launch and Prehysterical Pet lack villains (such as Fat Cat) committing crimes and plotting against the Rangers.
• Clarence could fall under this trope, that is without Balance or Sandy...
• Every episode save one of Danny Phantom feature the eponymous hero fighting some ghost or human and stopping some Evil Plan or attempt to Take Over the World (or at least cause serious damage). The one exception is the third episode "Parental Bonding," which has no villain intentionally causing any trouble, just a magical amulet (not an Artifact of Doom with an agenda but a completely neutral object) accidentally turning unwitting victims into a dragon the hero has to stop.
• Dilbert doesn't really have a traditional villain per se due to the series being a Satire on corporate life and the cut and thrust of business; the Pointy-Haired Boss is more of a Friendly Enemy and a Mean Boss (but not a Bad Boss) rather than a Big Bad and actively working against Dilbert. Catbert, while seen as a villain in the original comic strip is more of a Plot-Irrelevant Villain than an actual antagonist and hasn't actually done anything totally evil in this adaptation. The only real antagonist, Lena, a Brawn Hilda from Season 1, was Killed Off for Real in her debut episode and was more of a Villainy-Free Villain rather than a Big Bad with an overarching scheme.
• Dinosaur Train: Most of the show is devoid of any villainous characters. Even in the odd episode where there is an antagonist like Keenan Chirostemotes and Remy Ramphorhynchus (or the unnamed T-rex also in their debut episode), they do little in the way of serious harm and are more bullies than anything else.
• Fireman Sam as well, which deals only with fires started by either bad luck or carelessness. This is averted in the specials "Alien Alert" and "Set for Action!", but the antagonists in those are more or less Harmless Villains.
• Franklin also plays this trope straight — like Arthur, to focus on life issues.
• Gravity Falls as a whole doesn't qualify in the slightest, but there is the occasional Breather Episode where nothing menacing appears. Examples include "Double Dipper", "The Time Traveler's Pig", the "Truth Ache" segment from "Bottomless Pit!", "The Deep End", and "Carpet Diem."
• Some Looney Tunes shorts fit this trope, particularly the earlier ones.
  • The closest Honeymoon Hotel (1934) has to a villain is a mustached bug who tries to look into guests' rooms, and he's only there for a brief gag. The main conflict of the short is a fire that breaks out at the hotel.
  • Rhapsody in Rivets is about animal construction workers building the "Umpire State" building to the rhythm of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. The worst thing that happens in the short is the destruction of the building, which was a complete accident by one of the workers.
  • The conflict of Porky's Badtime Story (and its color remake, Tick Tock Tuckered) is Porky and Gabby (Daffy in the remake) trying to get some sleep through the night, being interrupted by things like a full moon and a leaky ceiling. They do it to avoid pissing off their boss, who doesn't truly count as a villain because he had every right to be angry at them for being very late for work and doesn't appear for the remainder of the cartoon.
  • The spot-gag cartoons are this by default, mostly being made up of a series of vignettes and therefore having no plot to speak of, let alone an antagonist.
  • A later example is Bartholomew Versus the Wheel, which instead revolves around the titular wheel-hating dog, who gets sent to a different country after trying to take an airplane's wheel. There is a cat who acts mean towards Bartholomew, but he plays only a minimal role in the short.
• While the 2 movies of The Magic Roundabout has Villains (Buxton and Zeebad), but the original series and the 2007 Reboot have none.
• Despite its alleged creepiness a sizable number of episodes of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack have issues that are caused by the main characters (Flapjack's and K'nuckles) stupidity without a single enemy to trouble them. The other most common scenario is that K'nuckles himself is the villain.
• Matchbox Hero City does not have a villain unless you want to count the ghosts as antagonists, but all they are doing is searching for a quiet place to live.
• Generally speaking, there are no antagonists or villains in Molly of Denali, being that it's an educational Slice of Life series. However, there are some episodes where visitors to Alaska show ignorance about the state and Alaska Natives, but they always learn their lesson in the end.
• My Little Pony:
  • While G1 had an antagonist almost every episode, and occasionally G4 has one, other series in the My Little Pony line (notably, Tales and G3) didn't.
  • Almost every Season Finale of Friendship is Magic has an antagonist driving the plot. The one exception is the Season 1 Finale "The Best Night Ever", where the conflict is the Mane 6 finding out that The Great Galloping Gala is disappointing and nothing like they hoped for, followed by their disastrous attempts to "Fix" it.
• Pinky and the Brain usually avoided having any character knowingly and deliberately work against the Brain's world domination plots, probably because having a character play the traditional "hero" role against Brain's "villain" would run the risk of making the Brain seem too unsympathetic. The only real antagonist in the series is Brain's archnemesis Snowball, who's just like the Brain only worse (he only wants to stop Brain from conquering the world so that he can have it for himself).
• PJ Masks: The season 3 episode "Super Muscles Show Off" stands out as the first, and so far only, episode in which none of the nighttime villains appear. Instead, the conflict comes from a contest of strength between Gekko and Armadylan, which quickly gets out of hand.
• Pocoyo: Zigzagged. Angry Alien wants to conquer Pocoyo World, but he is too small to be harmful and has no choice other than doing a Heel–Face Turn. He still acts antagonistic in his later appearances, most notably in "Pocoyo and the Space Circus" and "Pocoyo and the League of Extraordinary Super Friends".
• The Popeye short "Let's Celebrake" lacks any real conflict despite Bluto's appearance. Popeye willfully allows Bluto to date Olive Oyl so he can show her grandmother a good time at a New Year's party with them. The worst thing Bluto does is laugh at the absurdity of the two trying to dance (which thanks to some spinach allows them to win a dance contest).
  • There are about 20 other shorts that also fit the bill. The conflict usually being caused by Popeye's own inaction or other circumstances. "Leave Well Enough Alone" for example has Popeye adopt all the animals in Olive's pet shop and set them free. At first it seems to be setting up a Diabolical Dog Catcher as the villain when he rounds up all the animals, but Popeye pays their fines and he makes no issue of it.
• Most Postman Pat episodes are like this, with inclement weather, lost kites, special events (such as fetes and birthdays), and too-small suits of armour amongst others typically being the things that drive the plot, rather than a conflict between characters.
  • This is also carried down to spin-off Guess with Jess.
• The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever focused solely on the girls inventing their own adventures to keep them occupied on a rainy day. We don’t see any of their Rogues Gallery or anyone else causing trouble.
• Ready Jet Go! doesn't have an antagonist. The only characters close to being antagonists are Zerk and Mitchell, and even then, Zerk was only the antagonist for one episode ("Whole Lotta Shakin'") and has improved since then. Mitchell always tries to find out if Jet is an alien, but he's only a Jerkass at worst and is extremely sympathetic once you peel back the layers, and, like Zerk, eventually improves his behavior. The world of RJG! is unique in that, the characters aren't 100% heroic/polite or 100% evil/rude. Everyone has their own flaws and redeeming qualities, are capable of making mistakes, but eventually work to correct them. Also, jerks can be reformed with The Power of Friendship.
• ReBoot: Subverted in the episode "My Two Bobs". It was originally set up to lack a villain, as both Bobs were initially portrayed as "good" and the conflict was whether Dot would choose to be with Glitch-Bob or Normal-Bob. But this style of conflict was thrown out the window when Normal-Bob is revealed to be Megabyte.
• While half the episodes of Rupert unambiguously portray people like thieves or tyrannical usurpers as villains who deserve to be stopped and punished, the other half have Rupert trying to mend a conflict between two opposing sides. These episodes don't portray either side as "the bad guy," and the goal is to conquer the animosity between both sides, not "defeat" one and "save" the other.
• While The Simpsons itself has had a number of villains over the years, a few individual episodes qualify for this trope:
  • "The Call of the Simpsons" deals with a trip to the woods that goes awry thanks to poor decision-making on Homer's part; the closest there are to villains are the scientists that have him captured, and that was only because they mistakenly believed Homer was Bigfoot. They let him go at the end, too.
  • "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" deals with Homer eating improperly-made fugu (an accident on the part of an untrained cook while the head chef was having a fling) and trying to make the most out of what he thinks is his last day alive.
  • "In "Scenes From The Class Struggle In Springfield", while the women at the country club are snobs, none of them are actively malicious. Rather, it is the pressure Marge puts herself under to fit in with them that causes the conflict of the episode.
  • "Hurricane Neddy" has Ned Flanders suffering a Crisis of Faith after his house is destroyed in a hurricane, culminating with a Rage Breaking Point where he rebukes the Springfielders who shoddily rebuilt his house, which was caused by years of repressed anger.
• SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, especially the early ones, don't include villains. Examples include Tea at the Treedome, The Chaperone, and Krusty Love. The show's villains (married couple Plankton and Karen) weren't promoted to the main cast until the first movie, and they generally don't appear unless the plot centers around them. In fact, the Chum Bucket is almost always blatantly missing from outside the Krusty Krab unless it's a Plankton/Karen episode.
• Star Wars Rebels: The only real antagonist in "Trials of the Darksaber" is Sabine's own demons that are preventing her from giving her all to her sword training.
• While some individual episodes of Steven Universe: Future have antagonists, the main conflict of the series is Steven's mental trauma from the original Steven Universe and how those around him are taking their own life paths and no longer need his help.
• Strawberry Shortcake:
  • The 2003 series plays this trope straight for the first four specials (Season 1), however Season 2 introduces a few one-off villains, and The Sweet Dreams Movie reintroduces the Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes, who recurringly appear in Seasons 3 and 4. It causes a Broken Base when antagonists do appear.
  • Berry Bitty Adventures plays this trope completely straight, with no actual villains in the entire series. Even with the introduction of longtime franchise villain Sour Grapes in Season 4, she underwent a massive case of Adaptational Nice Girl, making her kind of a jerk at worst, and she grew to like the other girls fairly easily.
    • The IDW comics actually avert this, reintroducing the Purple Pieman (albeit also an Adaptational Nice Guy whose an annoying rival at best) and Raisin Cane, who fill an antagonistic role throughout the run.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots: The series is aimed at preschoolers, meaning that the Decepticons are absent (and if Transformers: Prime, which the series takes place with concurrently, is anything to go by, it's for VERY good reason). The real conflicts are against natural disasters, malfunctioning machinery, and interpersonal issues between the Autobots and their human allies. Later averted when villains such as Mad Scientist Dr. Morocco and Corrupt Corporate Executive Madeliene Pynch showed up.
  • A few episodes have human antagonists, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
  • Its sequel series Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy is similar, in that the conflicts mainly arise from circumstance and the protagonists' own flaws. A couple of Decepticons do make an appearance, but they've long since undergone Heel Face Turns by the time of the show, with one only a threat because he was panicked and injured.
• Most works in the Winnie the Pooh franchise tend to lack any real antagonist or villain. Usually, the conflict instead comes from characters trying to solve simple problems and/or misunderstandings. However, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh averts this by making Heffalumps and Woozles Real After All. Played straight again with subsequent TV shows — The Book of Pooh and My Friends Tigger & Pooh both lack antagonists.
  • The feature film Winnie the Pooh (2011) has a notable Double Subversion of this trope; due to misreading a letter sent by Christopher Robin, the protagonists fool themselves into believing that they're being terrorized by an evil monster, and spend most of the story going on a fruitless quest to capture this monster. While The Stinger reveals that the creature is technically Real After All, he's not actually evil or mean at all in the slightest.
• Word Party - much of the conflict in the story stems from the characters not knowing the word to something.
• Code Lyoko has a few episodes where the villain of the series, X.A.N.A, is not the active driving problem and the issue is itself a glitch in the supercomputer causing something problematic. Depending on the exact situation X.A.N.A is either willing to work with the heroes to resolve the problem (Marabounta) or has no idea what is going on but reacts to the situation as it occurs (A Fine Mess).
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Zig-zagged. While the show doesn't have an overarching main antagonist, there are some antagonists that pop up in the hero's travels through time. Like the slavemaster in "I Am Harriet Tubman", and Bobby Riggs in "I Am Billie Jean King".

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