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The Powerpuff Girls (1998) Trope Examples
A - B | C - D | E - I | J - Q | R - S | T - Z

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    T 
  • Take a Third Option:
    • In "Three Girls and a Monster", Blossom and Buttercup can't agree over whose tactics are better when the girls get overpowered by a monster. Blossom uses more tactical plans, while Buttercup attacks head-on, neither of which work. Then Bubbles stops their arguing and just politely asks the monster to leave, and it works.
    • In "Not So Awesome Blossom", Blossom is given a Sadistic Choice by Mojo to either let the Professor face a fiery fate, or bow down to him. Blossom takes an unsurprising third option by jumping on her end of the catwalk she is on, sending both Mojo falling and the Professor falling, and has Bubbles and Buttercup save them both.
  • Take Over the World:
    • Mojo Jojo's ultimate goal, which he obtains in "The Powerpuff Girls Rule". And then he goes and makes it a better place... only to get bored of it and shoot everything up all over again.
    • Ironically HIM, who never expressed the desire to do this, would be the one to take over the world if the girls ever left, as seen in "Speed Demon". And he wouldn't make it a better place but quite the opposite.
  • Take That!:
    • One of the later criticisms of the series was that the show promoted animal cruelty because of their treatment of Mojo. Episode 57 ("Save Mojo") depicted a group of animal rights activists protecting Mojo from the girls despite their argument that Mojo is an evil animal and therefore others must be protected from him.
    • Mitch "The Worst Child In The World" Mitchelson was reportedly based off of a bratty kid from the pilot's disastrous first test screening, who screamed "Whoever made this should be fired!!"
    • When the girls discover the toys delivered to them by a sleepwalking Professor Utonium in "Ploys R Us", Bubbles dismisses an action figure resembling Jar Jar Binks as "junk".
    • "Super Zeroes" in one big mockery of super hero cliches, from pointlessly elaborate outfits and vehicles to laughably goofy gadgets to angsty AntiHeroes who constantly emphasize how "dark and tormented" they are that delivers the moral "The Powerpuff Girls are so much better and cooler than heroes like that!"
    • The episode "Girls Gone Mild" has the girls forbidden from using their powers to fight crime by a petition signed by numerous parents who are worried about their children imitating the girls' violent actions under threat of the Professor being sued. This results in a huge spike in crime activity as the girls are helpless to stop villains. The episode was inspired by letters that show creator Craig McCracken received from parents who felt that the show was teaching children that violence is appropriate as a defense, even though there have been episodes where the girls did save the day withut resorting to violence such as "Three Girls and a Monster".
  • Take That, Audience!: The disturbing episode "Collect Her" is one big slap in the face to fans and collectors of the show's merchandise. Quite cheeky, considering that's where the show gets its revenue from.
    • The teenage versions of the girls flirting with the Rowdyruff Boys during a segment in "City of Clipsville" was meant as a jab at the shipping community. It only ended up encouraging them.
  • Talking Animal:
    • Mojo Jojo, who was mutated by Chemical X.
    • The Talking Dog, who... can talk. But he sure can't drive.
    • The background puppy dog is revealed to have the ability to talk in "Shut The Pup Up".
  • Talking the Monster to Death: "Three Girls and a Monster" features the girls trying, and failing, to stop a giant dinosaur-like monster who is impervious to all of their attacks. Both Blossom and Buttercup argue over whether physical or strategic attacks are more effective. In the end, Bubbles simply asks nicely for him not to destroy their beloved city. The giant monster promptly leaves, returning to the ocean.
  • Tattoo Sharpie: Inverted when Blossom and Buttercup lose their colours from a monochromatic Rainbow the Clown in one episode; Bubbles tries to recolour them with crayons.
  • Team Rocket Wins: The Amoeba Boys' goal is to be beaten by the Powerpuff Girls and to be recognized as Townsville's worst criminals, but they have no chance of this happening because they are too stupid to think of anything other than misdemeanors and the Powerpuff Girls don't usually bother to fight them because of their incompetence. However, some episodes end with them inadvertently causing a serious danger to Townsville and being beaten up by the girls, which was what they wanted all along.
  • Tear Jerker: Happens In-Universe with Bunny's death in "Twisted Sister". It left even the narrator crying at the end.
  • Teens Are Monsters:
    • The Gangreen Gang. Literally.
    • Two episodes featured the Smith family, one member of which was their angry teen son Bud. The first episode, Bud's entire appearance consisted of him yelling something typically teenagerish at his father, such as "I hate you!" and "No one understands me!" The second episode, which features the entire family as villains, provides every member of the family with a motivation for why they hate the Powerpuff Girls - and Bud's is "You know what? I hate everything!"
  • Teeth Flying: Bad guys' teeth go flying in the opening sequence; also, one episode is pretty much based on this trope - Buttercup learns the Tooth Fairy gives you money for teeth, and starts deliberately knocking villains' teeth out and collecting them to make a huge windfall.
  • That Cloud Looks Like...: Bubbles does this, including one that "looked like a cloud".
  • There Was a Door: Lampshaded several times. The girls must have racked up quite a bit of roof damage by now due to their preferred method of exit.
  • Thick-Line Animation: The animation in the show has always been this, but it is MUCH more noticeable in Seasons 1-3, but most prevalent in Season 2 when the animation studios temporarily changed.
  • Title Theme Drop: The opening theme song is played numerous times in the show, mostly when the girls are flying to the rescue. Variations of the theme song and background music that sounds similar to it can be heard throughout the series.
  • Toilet Horror: In "Power-Noia", HIM gives Buttercup a nightmare out of her fear of spiders that takes place in a bathroom.
  • Token Rich Student: Princess Morbucks is a Spoiled Brat who attends the same elementary school as the Powerpuff Girls and other normal students.
  • The Tokyo Fireball: Usually as the result of a giant monster, although in at least one episode, the girls ended up doing more damage than the monster — and getting harshly reprimanded for it.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Buttercup's Tomboy and Bubbles' Girly Girl. Blossom is somewhere between them being the Girly Girl to Buttercup's Tomboy and the Tomboy to Bubbles' Girly Girl, but is also the smartest of the girls.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The mayor. In one episode he jumped out a window because Bubbles told him to go save the day... while pretending to be him.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Bubbles in "Bubblevicious" to prove she's hardcore. She even subverted her apparent chickification when Mojo captured her and gave her the full blunt of his torture device before she broke out and beat him mercilessly all by herself. She only softens from her tough exterior when her sisters finally admit that she's hardcore, only to slide right back into it when Mojo tried to make a cheap shot at all three of them.
  • Torches and Pitchforks: "Collect Her" has this for the angry mob after Lenny Baxter for capturing the girls and "Down And Dirty" has Buttercup facing this kind of mob when she refuses to take a bath in spite of being very dirty and smelly.
  • Tormented Teacher: Miss Keane, the teacher at Pokey Oaks kindergarten, has three superhuman children in her class, and constantly has to remind them that they cannot just jet off to save the world without asking for permission (though she will grant it when asked), and never gets to the part about reminding the girls to use the window before they've smashed through the roof. In addition, there's a bully in the class named Mitch (and Buttercup often sides with Mitch), and one poor child, Elmer, ends up developing superpowers of his own and going on a rampage against his own tormentors. And then there's a spoiled rich girl, Princess Morebucks, who goes full-on supervillain, and Miss Keane has to constantly remind her and the PPG not to fight in class.
  • Totally Radical: Professor Utonium in "Powerprof", much to the embarrassment of the girls.
  • The World Is Always Doomed: Whether it be from a rampant crime spree, super villain attacks or threat of being destroyed by a giant monster, Townsville almost always has a crisis on its hands.
  • Tragic One-Shot Character: Bunny, an character made by the titular characters creating an additional Powerpuff Girl with ingredients that aren't exactly the same ones Prof. Utonium used, resulting in a horribly deformed Powerpuff Girl but at the end of the episode, Bunny explodes into a big ball of light due to her growing unstable.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Sedusa gets one at the end of "Something's A Ms".
    • So does Blossom in "The Mane Event." She's unaware of it until she finds out why everyone—including the monster—is laughing at her.
    • In Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins, One of Bubbles' pigtails is turned into a turkey leg by Fuzzy Lumpkin's meat gun, Which pushes her Berserk Button.
  • Truly Single Parent: Professor Utonium created the girls himself with no partner to speak of.
  • Truth in Television: There is actually a city called Townsville in Australia.
  • Twist Ending: The episode "HIM Diddle Riddle" revolves around the girls flying around town, trying to solve HIM's insidious riddles in a desperate attempt to save Professor Utonium, only to fail, and now HIM is going to make the professor PAY!... full price for breakfast. The ending is such a big surprise even the narrator just stumbles, "And once again, the day is... um... yeah..." while the girls just float there staring blankly.

    U 
  • Ultimate Authority Mayor: The Mayor of Townsville (though to his credit, he is elected, and even lost once).
  • Underlighting: Underlighing was used for the streaks the girls left behind as the fly away, and for when they use their heat vision.
  • Unexpected Kindness:
  • Unfortunate Implications: Touched upon In-Universe. In the "Members Only" episode, Major Glory talks the girls through several gender roles, asking who does various things ("Who goes to work?", "Who pays the bills?", etc) and receiving "Our Dad" as an answer each time. Then he gets to cooking and cleaning, getting the same answer. 5:12 - 5:45
    Major Glory: So what does your mother do?
    Girls: (in unison) We don't have a mother.
    *cut to Major Glory looking over at Mucho Muchacho and Birdman, all three looking uncomfortable*
    • To drive it in further, Batman was earlier shown sitting next to Birdman, meaning he would've been just off-screen for this.
  • Unhand Them, Villain!: "Get Back Jojo".
  • The Unintelligible: Grubber of the Gangreen Gang usually speaks only in raspberries. The rest of the gang members understand him just fine though. Subverted in one episode, where Grubber is shown to be quite eloquent when he straightens his posture. He's also an expert voice mimicker.
  • Unobtainium: Chemical X.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Bubbles when she gets well and truly angry.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In "Mizzen In Action", Bubbles mentions that she saw Craig Mc Cracken's flying pirate ship earlier that day. When Buttercup asks why Bubbles didn't say anything, Bubbles replies that they see weird stuff all the time so she didn't think it was worth commenting on.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: The 2014 special has this happen to the girls when Mojo Jojo sends them pants modeled after the game controls for the video game Dance Pants Revolution.
  • Unwilling Suspension: In "Equal Fights," as Femme Fatale falls to the ground, Buttercup grabs her foot and carries her off upside down.
    • "I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future" has Madame Argentina tying up three voodoo dolls of the Powerpuffs and hanging them from a tree branch, causing the girls themselves to hang in midair over a cliff.
    • The splash page of comic book story "The Devil's Playground" (Block Party #43) has HIM using his powers to booby-trap the kindergarten playground. Several kids are wrapped up in jungle vines from the jungle gym, and three monkeys appear on the monkey bars—the first holding a boy up by his hands, the second giving Mitch a wedgie, and the third using its tail to hang a girl upside down by one foot.

    V 
  • The Vamp: Sedusa has tried to seduce both Professor Utonium and the Mayor on two separate occasions, on both of them using a disguise.
  • Varying Competency Alibi: Mojo Jojo, despite his intelligence, is such a poor planner that when the girls try to figure out who is behind a string of robberies in "Something's a Ms.", they rule him out as a suspect because the robberies were too well-planned out.
  • Very Special Episode:
    • Even though it's not blatantly stated, "Mojo Jonesin" is obviously a drug episode.
    • Also, an episode with the title "A Very Special Blossom".
    • The episode "Equal Fights" deals with sexism, mainly woman's rights.
  • Victory Is Boring: What Mojo experiences in "The Powerpuff Girls Rule". It also causes him to go back to being a criminal, making it necessary for the Powerpuff Girls to get back to fighting him.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Mojo has these occasionally, most notably at the beginning of "The Rowdyruff Boys", when he starts howling and snarling like a real ape over his many defeats.
    • Mojo Jojo has a particularly huge one at the end of "Forced Kin" when he finally snaps after being repeatedly defeated by the alien force's Invincible Villain trait of unrealistically predicting every attack. But the one thing the alien force didn't predict was Mojo going berserk and beating the crap out of it.
    • HIM also has these, normally after the girls defeat his plans with their sisterly love. He goes from his normal, creepy voice to screaming about how they didn't act like they were supposed to. He has an especially noteable one at the end of "Power Noia", when the girls have turned the tables on him and got him completely at their mercy, for the first time actually begging them to let him go.
  • Villainous Friendship: Mojo Jojo and HIM. The two often argue over who is the most evil, but at the end of the day, they'll get along.
    • In Meet the Beat Alls, Mojo Jojo, Him, Fuzzy and Princess Morbucks surprisingly get along very well during their Villain Team-Up.
  • Villains Do The Dirty Work: "Telephonies" involves the Gangrene Gang sneaking into the Mayor's office and using his hotline to send the girls on wild goose chases hassling Mojo, HIM and Fuzzy Lumpkins. When HIM calls the Mayor's office to complain, Big Billy admits that the Gang has been tricking the girls with prank calls. HIM is not pleased at this, and goes with Mojo and Fuzzy to the Mayor's office to "prank" the Gang right back. The narrator even ends up crediting them for saving the day, much to his own shock.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Often. When the super villains aren't doing anything overtly villainous, they're treated like any other citizen of the town. Even by the girls themselves!
  • Villain Team-Up: Mojo Jojo, HIM, Princess Morbucks and Fuzzy Lumpkins in Meet the Beat Alls.
  • Villainy-Free Villain: Fuzzy Lumpkins in "Impeach Fuzz". He legitimately wins the mayoral election, and even though he is a terrible mayor, he never actually does anything illegal or evil while in office. The Powerpuff Girls want to get rid of him mostly because they object to Fuzzy making them milk goats and play country music.
  • Violence Is Not an Option: "Three Girls and a Monster", features Blossom and Buttercup arguing over how best to defeat a monster attacking Townsville. However, neither of them can so much as slow it down. It stops only when Bubbles gets tried of all this, flies right up to it, and asks it politely to leave, pretty please with sugar on top. The monster turns around and leaves.
  • Visual Pun: In the episode "Curses", the Powerpuff Girls encounter a giant monster that speaks in virtually nothing but swears (represented as grumbling gibberish) and has a toilet for a head. The monster is both figuratively and literally a potty mouth.
    • In "Boogie Frights", Buttercup scares Bubbles and Blossom with tales of the Bogeyman. Professor Utonium steps in and reassures Bubbles that Buttercup was just trying to "get your goat"... And Buttercup responds by holding her stuffed goat tightly.
  • Voice Changeling: Grubber uses this ability in the episode "Telephonies" to stir up trouble.
  • Voice of the Legion: HIM, especially in the later seasons.

    W 
  • Walk Through the Camera: In the episode "Stray Bullet" in the scene where Mojo is walking very slowly with a confident look on his face.
  • Wanting Is Better Than Having: One episode had a collector of Powerpuff Girls' merchandise who freaks out and becomes a villain when his collection is complete: there's nothing left for him to collect except the girls themselves.
  • Waxing Lyrical: All over the place in "Meet the Beat-Alls", essentially a long string of Shout-Outs to The Beatles. Example; when Professor Utonium has an idea to defeat the combined forces of Mojo, Him, Princess Morebucks and Fuzzy Lumpkins, he asks, "Listen, do you want to know a secret?" Even the narrator gets into the act at the very end, declaring, "I don't really want to stop the show, but I thought you might like to know...that Once again the day is saved..."
  • Was Too Hard on Her: Blossom asks this after the sisters scold Bunny for releasing criminals from jail...only for the criminals to show up and yell "Not as hard as we're gonna be on you!"
  • We Will Meet Again: Him in one episode.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In the episode "Cat Man Do", the girls stop a villain and then adopt his cat, only for it to turn out that the cat was the real villain, who hypnotized his owners to do evil. In the end of the episode, the original 'villain' (who was likely completely innocent) is still in jail, and no one even mentions him again.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Apparently some giant monsters the girls beat up on frequent basis are sentient. A monster named Steve tells the girls the monsters have came to Townsville to not only attack the city, but fight the girls. If they survive the fight, they return to their fellow monsters as a hero. There has been times where the girls actually kill the monsters on-screen, so what those monsters are considered is a mystery.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • The Mayor of Cityville delivers one to the girls in "Town and Out" for destroying a bridge in order to stop some bank robbers, pointing out that the collateral damage cost far more than the money that the robbers stole.
    • The girls do this to Buttercup in "Makes Zen to Me" for continuing to beat up Fuzzy Lumpkins after he surrendered and for being too hard. She doesn't think too much of it until Fuzzy's doctor also chews her out for beating him to the point where he was barely able to function. This causes her to retreat into the mountains and do some soul searching.
  • When Elders Attack: An old lady does this from the roof of an episode to a Godzilla-like monster, who promptly eats her.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Possibly subverted, if the Professor's directions to his college roommate were correct, Townsville fall somewhere in or near Pasadena, CA. Don't mind that there actually exists a City of Townsville.
    • According to Mayor, the town is at latitude 32 degrees north by longitude 212 degrees west. The aforementioned Pasadena is at latitude 34 degrees north, but longitude 212 degrees doesn't exist (it stops at 180).
  • Who Would Want to Watch Us?: One episode featured a con-artist "director" allegedly making a movie about the girls. The initial broadcast of this episode was suspiciously close to the release of the actual movie.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: The Professor dresses as a woman to get onto the set and foil the robbery on ''Film Flam".
  • World of Ham: It'd be easier to name the characters who DON'T have hammy moments in this series.
  • Would Harm a Senior: In "Fallen Arches", the Ministry of Pain come out of retirement after several decades to commit crimes. Even though Bubbles and Buttercup are more than willing to stop them, Blossom refuses to let them because they have to respect their elders. The Powerpuff Girls get around this by enlisting Captain Righteous and Lefty, two equally-elderly former superheroes, to fight the Ministry of Pain.
  • Would Hit a Girl / Would Hurt a Child: None of the villains have any problem attacking three kindergarten-aged girls, with or without superpowers. Dick Hardly is the worst offender, though, being the only villain in the series to have almost successfully killed them.
  • Wrong Side of the Tracks: While riding a bicycle from school to home, Mitch crosses a set of tracks and the other side has a trailer park.

    X 

    Y 
  • Yes-Man: Snake to Ace.
  • Yoko Oh No: The Powerpuff Girls' plan to break up The Beat-alls. "Moko Jono" is the Yoko to Mojo Jojo's John Lennon: she's literally the Yoko. The entire episode parodies the history and the songs of the Beatles; it's only obvious that the one who divides the Bad Four is a playoff of Yoko Ono.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Mojo Jojo goes back in time to throw Professor Utonium into a volcano as a child to stop the Powerpuff Girls from ever being created. This instead causes a Stable Time Loop because the incident is what inspires Utonium to go into science in the first place, thus ensuring the girls will be created. It never occurred to him that, if Professor Utonium was thrown into the volcano, then Mojo wouldn't have been the Professor's pet and wouldn't have been affected by Chemical X, giving him his super-smarts.
  • Younger Than They Look:
    • The girls were created the age they are throughout the whole series, and in the movie they start kindergarten shortly after their "birth." As they're the same age throughout the whole show, they're probably less than one year old.
    • The Rowdyruff Boys were also created (twice!) at the age they are, which makes them even younger although appearing to be kindergarten-aged boys as well.
  • Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: The girls defeat a brain sucker by tricking him into attacking the Mayor.

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