Recap / Wander Over Yonder S 2 E 13 The Cartoon The Bot

The Cartoon

Lord Hater orders the Watchdogs to make an propaganda cartoon about him.

Tropes appearing in The Cartoon

• Actually Pretty Funny: Peepers laughs when cartoon!Wander and cartoon!Hater become friends.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Invoked for Cartoon!Hater and the Watchdogs, inverted for Cartoon!Peepers, Cartoon!Wander, and Cartoon!Sylvia.
• Adaptational Wimp: In-universe, Cartoon!Peepers greatly suffers from this. While the real Peepers is Hater's Hypercompetent Sidekick and a pretty formidable soldier, his cartoon counterpart is a Know-Nothing Know-It-All Butt-Monkey in the vein of Brainy Smurf, complete with Nerd Glasses.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: The episode ends with one delivered by Cartoon!Wander and Cartoon!Sylvia. After the two realize there's nothing to be learned by following Lord Hater's example, they segue into a lesson in bicycle safety.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Cartoon!Hater poses atop a pile of defeated enemies, including cartoon versions of a number of other Wander Over Yonder characters.
• Big "NO!": Hater's reaction to his fanboys interrupting his attempt to destroy Wander and giving him a group hug.
• Big "WHAT?!": Hater when Cartoon!Hater befriends Cartoon!Wander.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Lord Hater also does this when he talks about how animators deserve more credit and respect and looks directly at the camera.
• Budget-Busting Element: In-Universe: in Hater's cartoon, when it's finally time for the battle between Cartoon Hater and Cartoon Awesome, the camera just cuts to two Watchdogs watching the fight. When the real Hater complains about this, the Watchdogs reveal the blew all the animation budget on the Watchdogs fight, claiming they felt it was "more important to the narrative."
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Cartoon!Peepers doesn't even get a weapon to fend off Cartoon!Sylvia.
• Call-Back:
  • The Watchdogs air the cartoon live in the hopes of impressing Dominator.
  • Hater plans to destroy the real Wander live, like he did in the shorts.
  • The Cruel Twist Ending hearkens back to what happened in "The Hole Lotta Nuthin'" when Hater cruelly tormented Wander.
• The Cameo: The Gravity Falls cast in alien form, with Dog!Soos Breaking the Fourth Wall.
• Captain Ersatz: Lord Dominator switches from Hater's show to watching "The Mystery Kids Mysteries", a mash-up of Gravity Falls, Scooby Doo, and The Jetsons.
• Crossover Punchline: The episode ends with Dominator watching a show that's largely a Gravity Falls parody mixed in with Scooby-Doo and The Jetsons.
• Cruel Twist Ending: Hater misses the one in his cartoon, where his cartoon counterpart betrays Wander after gaining his trust and plans to destroy him.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Cartoon!Hater's speech in the beginning, which uses variations of the word "power" nine times. Also, the title of the cartoon Lord Dominator watches, The Mystery Kids Mysteries.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Cartoon!Wander to cartoon!Hater's betrayal.
• Fanboy: Hater gains them thank to this cartoon, and they interrupt his destruction of Wander.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The pile of defeated enemies Cartoon!Hater stands on during the intro includes cartoon versions of Prince Cashmere, Something the So-and-So, General Outrage and Clipper of the Insurgent Generals, Ryder, Mandrake the Malfeasant, Li'l Bits, the Potted Plant from "The Bounty", Sourdough the Evil Sandwich and his minions, King Drakor, the BLACK CUBE OF DARKNESS, General Macguffin, and Kraagthaar, with Princess Demurra doing a Leg Cling.
• Gone Horribly Right: Hater did make himself look cool, just not to Dominator. He gains fanboys instead.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Interestingly it's the musician playing the songs that's tone deaf. Many of the songs in Hater's cartoons are noticeably off key, and one song doesn't even fit with the scene that it's played during.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Peepers see his Adaptational Wimp self in the cartoon, he complains that it’s totally inaccurate, then both he and Cartoon!Peepers simultaneously flail their arms shouting "This is a terrible plan! It'll never work!"
  Hater: Seems pretty accurate to me.
• Improvised Weapon: Cartoon!Wander uses his banjo as a spear.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • The Overly Long Gag added to pad out 15 seconds was what happened in "The Battle Royale" with Something the So and So.
  • When Hater tries to revise the ending himself, he remarks that animation is harder than it looks, and "people who do this for a living deserve more credit and respect!" Cue awkward pause where he stares at the camera.
• Never Say "Die": Played with when Cartoon!Hater wants to "destroy" his enemies, including Wander. Averted when he tells him "this is the time to die".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The battle between Cartoon!Hater and Cartoon!Awesome. The camera just cuts to two Watchdogs watching the fight. When Hater complains, the Watchdogs explain that they used up all the money on the Watchdogs' fight.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Wander and Sylvia suddenly appear in the theater and are munching popcorn.
• Overly Long Gag: Cartoon!Hater and Cartoon!Wander dueling each other. Lampshaded by Hater.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Hater lets out one when he realizes his cartoon has changed.
• Rotoscoping: Cartoon!Sylvia is clearly traced over live-action footage of a horse whinnying.
• Shout-Out:
  • Most of the episode is the cartoon playing with silhouettes of the theater-goers in front à la Mystery Science Theater 3000. The position of the unnamed Watchdog, Hater, and Peepers seems specifically chosen to call to mind how Tom, Joel/Mike, and Crow sat next to each other.
    • When Sylvia is in the theater, she seems to be in the same seat that Gypsy was sitting in during the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, "Hercules and the Captive Women."
  • The cartoon that Hater had made parodies everything about Filmation, starting with their 80s logo and continuing from there- naturally, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) is what they mainly modeled it after.
    • The He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) homage goes even further in the end credits scene, which is a Hater version of the Fabulous Secret Powers video.
    • Cartoon!Sylvia's superpowered form bears a strong resemblance to Thirty-Thirty from Bravestarr.
  • The show Dominator watches "The Mystery Kids' Mysteries" is an obvious shout-out to Gravity Falls crossed with The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo. Complete with voice cameos of the Gravity Falls core cast, Alex Hirsch, Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal. With Frank Welker also showing up as the show's narrator.
  • The convention where the fanboys watch Hater's cartoon is called "Boney Con", which is a reference to Brony Con, a convention where fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic go to once a year.
• Special Guest: Jon Hamm as Cartoon!Hater.
• Spoofy-Doo: The episode features a show called The Mystery Kids' Mysteries, which seems to be a cross between Scooby-Doo, Gravity Falls and The Jetsons. It features a mystery-solving gang of alien kids with a talking dog sidekick and the Character Catchphrase "Crikeys" riding in hippie-esque spaceship called "The Mystery Ship" and investigating the case of a haunted sweater.
• Stock Footage: So much of the cartoon consists of the same bits reused over and over, such as the scene of Peepers being hit by Sylvia, which is repeated about five times in a row.
• Stylistic Suck: The Watchdogs' cartoon combines all the worst parts of Limited Animation, on top of the clumsy voice-acting. Plus it manages to look really old, warped, and scratchy, despite supposedly being just completed.
• Team Pet: In "The Mystery Kids' Mysteries", Soos's counterpart is a talking dog similar to Scooby-Doo.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Filmation cartoons in general.

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The Bot

Wander adopts a damaged Dominator bot as his new travel buddy after it crashes on a vacation planet.

Tropes appearing in The Bot

• The Ace: Probe 13.
• Accidental Misnaming: Wander gives Probe 13 the nickname "Beep-Boop", based on the noises it made when he tried to communicate with it.
• Bad Boss: Dominator makes Lord Hater look like a saint in comparison.
• Big "NO!": Dominator when Beep-Boop tosses away the data for the planet he'd found.
• Bittersweet Ending: Probe 13/Beep-Boop gets destroyed, while Wander, unaware of this, wishes him luck. Also the planet did not get destroyed by Dominator, meaning Wander was successful at stopping her.
• Book Ends: Probe 13/Beep-Boop getting tossed out of Dominator's ship at the end resembles the scene of Probe 42 suffering a similar fate near the beginning of the episode.
• Call-Back:
  • Wander's Chronic Hero Syndrome puts another planet in danger,
  • Dominator continues her galaxy-wide conquests and whips her bots into shape.
  • The camera family from "The Secret Planet" can be seen.
• Companion Cube: The bot for Wander in this episode.
• Dead Hat Shot: The final scene of the episode is a dissolving zoom-out on Beep-Boop's half of their photobooth pictures floating somewhere in space — all that remains of the bot after it burnt up from being kicked off the ship.
• Determinator: Wander tries his hardest to stop the bot from returning to Dominator.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": When Probe 13 cements his Heel–Face Turn, he stops answering to that name and insists "I am Beep-Boop!"
• Dramatic Irony: Wander wishes Beep-Boop luck in his new life, unaware that he's dead.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Wander's reaction to Probe 13 returning to his mistress.
• Foreshadowing: Prob 42 gets kicked off the ship and burns to death. Near the end, Beep Boop suffers the same fate. Also, he is number 13 - unlucky number, anyone?
• Gilligan Cut: When Wander wants to try out clothes on Probe 13, it starts to say "Negatory". Cut to the probe wearing glasses, a hat and shirt, and on a bicycle basket ridden by Wander.
• Heel–Face Turn: Probe 13 turns against its mistress as it remembers the good times it had with Wander.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Probe 13/Beep-Boop erases the data for Seashoroniccus XII, knowing that Dominator would destroy them for such treachery. This leads her to kick them into the wall and toss them off the ship, leaving them to burn to death as they fall.
• Idiot Ball: Wander does this again. Rather than listen to Sylvia and help her warn the town, he vows not to leave the docks until Beep Boop comes back. When he doesn't come back for a long time, he's worried, but unaware that he suffered a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Killed Off for Real: Poor Beep-Boop.
• Love Redeems: Beep-Boop ultimately turns to the side of good when it remembers everything it did with Wander, thus using The Power of Love to rebel against Dominator and delete all the plans.
• Mood Whiplash: The episode plays rather light-hearted when Wander befriends Probe 13 and has a fun day with him. But then it seems Probe 13 betrays Wander, going back to Dominator to give her the planet's coordinates. Beep-boop is about to give her the coordinates, only to remember all the fun times he had with Wander as she gushes about destroying the planet they were on. They then turn against Dominator, embracing the nickname "Beep-Boop" that Wander gave him. Then they are kicked at a wall and be shot out of the ship for their betrayal. And then they die. The episode ends on a bittersweet note when Wander wishes Beep-Boop luck unaware that the only thing left of the little robot is the picture they took together, floating somewhere in space.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Probe 13 examining an ice cream cone.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Wander claims he doesn't want to leave without Beep Boop, much to Sylvia's anger and chagrin.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Sylvia is focusing on relaxing too much to realize that a Dominator bot landed and Wander has befriended it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Wander when he sees that Dominator's bot has crash-landed on a vacation planet.
  • Probe 13 when Wander wants it to try on a lot of hats and go on a friendship date.
  • Sylvia when she sees the probe.
• The Power of Friendship: It got through to one of Dominator's probes and inspired a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Dominator cries out to Probe 13, "You've...ruined everything!!! You-you-you piece of junk!!!" just before kicking him off the ship.
• 13 Is Unlucky: Probe 13, of course.
• Save the Villain: Wander befriends the damaged Probe 13 and tries to treat it with kindness.
• Silent Credits: The ending credits animatic is simply the sand picture of Wander and Probe 13 being washed away by the waves.
• Shell Game: Probe 13 takes part in one because the shells hide a piece of Volcanium X, which it needs to repair itself.
• Shout-Out: The robot that gets chewed out for failing Lord Dominator is Probe 42.
• Villain Opening Scene: Just like its sister episode, the episode starts with Lord Dominator.
• Wish Upon a Shooting Star: The episode ends with Sylvia seeing a shooting star (actually Beep Boop falling out of the ship), and Wander wishes good luck to Beep-Boop.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: Volcanium X is so abundant on Seashoroniccus XII that the inhabitants use it to make trinkets.
• You Have Failed Me: Dominator tosses out Probe 42 for failing to find any good planets one time too many. Probe 13/Beep-Boop suffers the same fate for having a Heel–Face Turn and refusing to hand over the coordinates for Seashoroniccus XII.

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