Western Animation / DC Super Hero Girls (2019)

Now that we're together, gonna get that super life! Wow!^note Left to right: Zatanna, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz), Bumblebee and Batgirl.

"When super 'me' becomes super 'we'
Suddenly, magically, pretty automatically, crushing it side by side
Look out, world, we're super hero girls
Now that we're together, gonna get that super life!
Wow!"

— Theme Tune

DC Super Hero Girls is a 2019 television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation and based on the DC Super Hero Girls franchise. It premiered on Cartoon Network on March 8, 2019. The show is developed by Lauren Faust, known for her work on countless other animated series, including the Super Best Friends Forever shorts which effectively serve as this show's predecessor. (Faust left the series after the end of the first season in a failed attempt to create material for Netflix.)

A separate continuity from the original web-series, this incarnation follows Barbara "Babs" Gordon, a Batman-fanatic whose father's new job, unfortunately, has them move across the river from Gotham City to Metropolis. Thankfully, the usual stress of moving to a new place is eased by her not only quickly finding a new group of friends to hang out with, but all of those friends also being fellow aspiring superheroes: Diana Prince, Kara Danvers, Zee Zatara, Jessica Cruz, and Karen Beecher (Bumblebee). With Diana as team leader, these girls now set out to hone their skills, fight crime, and hopefully pass next period's math test.

The series kicked off with a theatrical short, #TheLateBatsby, which was shown alongside Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. On January 10, 2019, said short was uploaded to the official YouTube page, with various other shorts and character trailers being uploaded in the following weeks leading to the show's premiere and beyond. These shorts and character trailers were then frequently broadcast as unlisted "bumper" sequences between scheduled shows on the Boomerang network.

Starting from August 2019, the Season 1 episodes were made available for streaming on Netflix, following the episodes' debuts on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

A video game based on the series known as DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power was released on June 4, 2021, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

A feature length direct-to-video film, Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, was released on May 24, 2022 and doubles as a possible Grand Finale.

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DC Super Hero Girls provides examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Jessica Cruz, who has her PTSD skipped over in this adaptation, as it would be too dark for a comedy. "#LivingTheNightmare" is the only time it's revealed that Jessica has any insecurities or anxieties.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While Catwoman isn't dumb by any means, she's described as the brains of her villain group, preferring to avoid fighting herself.
• Adaptational Job Change: Also counts as Adaptational Badass; Steve Lombard, a sports reporter for the Daily Planet in the comics, is a football player with a sneaker line in the show. (In his comics backstory, Lombard was a football player, so this ties in to the general Age Lift most of the show's characters have.)
• Adaptational Modesty: Due to Revisiting the Roots, Harley's scrapped her New 52-inspired outfit for her original one. Though, in a bit of clever compromise, her civilian wear is still based on the New 52 style.
• Adaptational Skimpiness:
  • Wonder Woman, who is no longer wearing pants while in costume. She's back to something resembling her classic design, though the bottom is still a Greco-Roman skirt like the DCEU version rather than the usual Leotard of Power. Unique here, though, are spaulders on her shoulders.
  • Poison Ivy dresses more like her typical comic book self, and not even like one of the more modest ones either.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Technically speaking, most of the Super Villain Girls all get this to varying degrees compared to their current comicbook alternatives, half are heroes. Then there are the characters who were originally villains but made heroes in the original web series like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, who were replaced in this series by Green Lantern and Zatanna.
  • Zatanna's mother is revealed by Zatara to have been a dark sorceress. Sindella was not a villain in the comics.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Batgirl's costume has changed from its contemporary dark blue design to classic purple and yellow.
  • Zatanna's black hair is now a sparkling, glowing purple that transitions from a normal shade to a lighter one.
• Adaptation Name Change: Harley's hyenas are named Lucy and Ethel instead of Bud and Lou.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Both in comparison to their main comic book portrayals and their previous portrayals in the last generation of the DCSHG franchise:
  • Supergirl is more rebellious, tomboyish, and brash than her usual Nice Girl persona. This personality, however, was also used in Lauren Faust's Super Best Friends Forever.
  • Batgirl is spunkier than before, which also comes from Super Best Friends Forever.
  • Bumblebee is shyer than in her previous portrayals.
  • Jessica Cruz is less of a former shut-in recovering from trauma than she is in the comics, and now a Granola Girl.
• An Aesop:
  • "#ShockItToMe" has an aesop involving humiliating videos. While it may seem funny to watch one, living through one is not. It is hurtful, even if you think it's funny.
  • #Frenemies gives an aesop not often seen on. When Babs' best friend from Gotham, Harley, transfers to Metropolis, she's excited but her friends are put off by her glaringly obvious faults and when they voice their annoyances of Harley to Babs (via the latter using the Lasso of Truth), she's hurt. In most shows, it would resolve with Babs' friends coming to the conclusion that they misjudged Harley and start being friends. In this case, Babs learns (with some help from Barry) that she can like both her Metropolis friends and Harley just separately.
• Age Lift: On top of possibly every adult DC superhero and villain being teenagers or young adults in this series, Lena Luthor is now a child. Likewise, The Teen Titans instead appear as the "Tween Titans".
• The Alleged Car: Jessica's '80s minivan in "#TheSlowAndTheFurious". It clearly shows its age.
• All for Nothing: Twice in the shorts.
  • "#CandyCrushed" had Livewire and Giganta fight over a vending machine's last candy bar, only for Selina to steal it while they do so.
  • "#PurseScratcher" has Selina and Barbi eyeing the same purse, and change into Catwoman and Cheetah to take it from the other. In the end, Selina wins the fight, but Zee snags the purse before she is able to.
• Alternate Continuity: This incarnation of the franchise has few ties to the preceding 2015 webseries or the LEGO projects beyond the basic "superheroes in high school" concept.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: While they're clearly meant as a foil to Kara, the Danvers are so outwardly nice and loving, they’d make even the most loving and proper daughter cringe.
• Anachronic Order: How they are shown after the pilot.
• Animation Bump: In a general sense. The episodes animated by Jam Filled Entertainment are far more fluid than the episodes handed to Boulder Media.
• Annoying Patient: Supergirl in "#KaraCare", after being exposed to Kryptonite during a fight with Metallo, quickly drives Diana batty by her exigent demands as she recovers.
• Apologises a Lot: Bumblebee is this way. In the pilot, Karen tries to angrily shut the door in Barbara's face but keeps on apologizing, leading Babs to just shut it herself.
• Art Evolution: The designs are like a mix between Super Best Friends Forever and Teen Titans as opposed to the more mainstream, thick line look of the original series.
• Artistic License – Biology: The out-of-nowhere Gender Flip for Harley's hyenas from Bud and Lou to Lucy and Ethel only makes her dominance of them less explicable; given that hyenas are matriarchal, males are far more likely to submit to a female than females are.
• Artistic License – Sports: Diana doesn't tie her waist-length hair back or remove her earrings when practicing her vault for the school's gymnastics team, both of which are major safety hazards as they could get caught or wrapped around something while performing. Also, Diana is already wearing the official team uniform, even though she's not actually on the team yet.
• Art Shift: Bumblebee's appearance becomes much more cartoony when she shrinks down.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Supergirl and Zatanna has to fight a multistory monster made out of a swarm of rabbits after Zatanna misphrases one of her spells.
  • Supergirl again, taking on a larger-than-normal Shaggy Man in "#StainedFighter".
• Awesome, but Impractical: Zatanna's showboating has her do incredible light shows to do fairly minor things. (That frequently go wrong anyway.)
• Badass in Distress: One episode has Batgirl encountering The Flash. Tied up by bank robbers with animal masks.
  Batgirl: Flash?! What happened?!
  Flash: Dude, I'm as surprised as you are.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Jess and Karen babysitting Dick Grayson and his rambunctious friends in "#TweenTitans".
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In "#PictureDaze", when it becomes blatantly apparent to him that Carol is stalking him again, Hal desperately searches for a place to hide. It seems like Carol manages to catch him, only for him to turn around and find that the person who surprised is the relatively harmless Jessica Cruz.
  • At first it appears that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are pals here, like they're always shown to be in comics and every previous animation. But quickly it's shown that Ivy can barely tolerate Harley in this continuity.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: When Barbi Minerva and Diana Prince both perform equally impressive vaults in tryouts for the gymnastics team, their coach is impressed enough to suggest making the two of them be co-captains. Barbi protests...and then immediately regrets it.
  Barbi: (when the coach proposes making her be co-captains with Diana Prince) What? Absolutely not!
  Coach: Well, okay. (Barbi smirks) Congratulations, Prince! You're the new team captain!
• Be the Ball: In "#SheMightBeGiant", Giganta grabs Batgirl and uses her as a ball to play some bowling with mannequins as the pins.
• Beyond the Impossible: In "#CrashCourse", Diana manages to stall the car before even leaving the parking lot, which should be virtually impossible for an automatic vehicle. Then, when she sees the villains out joyriding in a stolen car, she goes to the other end of the extreme, managing to make an automatic car drift without a real hand brake.
• Bland-Name Product: In "#MisgivingTree", Barbara eats a cup of Cup Filled With Noodles brand ramen (based on the Cup Noodles brand).
• Boyish Short Hair: The rebellious Supergirl has a messy bob haircut.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In "#Frenemies", Barry Allen created a new dessert made with ice-cream, toffee, and jalapenos (plus salt).
• Broke the Rating Scale: Diana scores 102% on her calculus test. This is one of Diana's many triumphs that enrages (Pre-Cheetah) Barbi Minerva, who got a mere 100%.
• Brutal Honesty: In "#Frenemies", the girls are forced to admit that they don't like Harleen Quinzel after Barbara uses the Lasso of Truth on them. Kara, however, wasn't bound by the lasso.
• Car Radio Dispute: Kara and Jessica fight over the radio in "Super Wonder Bat Bee Zee Lantern Mobile"; Jessica wants classical music, Kara wants heavy metal.
• Casting Gag:
  • The changes in the appearance and personality of Zatanna coupled with Kari Wahlgren's performance seems to invoke the previous version of Charmcaster that she voiced.
  • He didn't voice Hal, but Jason Spisak did still end up voicing the most prominent character on Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
  • This is not Tara Strong's first outing voicing Barbara Gordon.
• Cat Girl: Wonder Woman fights this version of the Cheetah.
• Cats Are Mean: Instead of a tragic backstory, Red Lantern Dex-Starr is depicted in the show as just a particularly cranky and spiteful cat pushed over the edge by Jessica's enthusiasm to get him adopted.
• Cerebus Call-Back: In "#SweetJustice", the Danvers keep mentioning an incident Kara "didn't" do, as a way to set up how Kara clashes with them. It is revealed in "#TheGoodTheBadAndTheBizarre" said incident was the destruction of Smallville High's gymnasium, which Kara was blamed and expelled for.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Kryptonite Sample in the Metropolis Museum from "#FightAtTheMuseum" is used against Zod and his forces in "#DCSuperHeroBoys".
• The Chosen Many: The Green Lantern Corps, as per usual. Jessica isn't the only Earth-based Green Lantern, as she pals around with a Green-Lantern-ring-sporting Hal Jordan.
• Clark Kenting: It'd be easier to list the exceptions, but here goes.
  • Wonder Woman changes her large gold tiara... for a large gold hairband. And she wears a sweater and skirt in the exact same color scheme as her superhero outfit. And spent an entire first day at school in her superhero outfit (albeit with a hooded robe over it).
  • Batgirl's costume would be effective normally, if she didn't wear a bat-eared hoodie in the exact same color as her batsuit all the time.
  • Supergirl doesn't do anything to disguise her face or hair at all, and her civvies are in the same color scheme as her superhero outfit. When she briefly becomes Power Girl, all she does is change her wardrobe to convince people she's a different person.
  • Jessica Cruz's face remains exposed except for a Green Lantern Corps symbol around one eye, and her civilian clothes are the same color as her costume and marked with the symbol. She also continues to wear her Green Lantern ring.
  • Bumblebee's helmet is entirely transparent from the front — and once again, her clothes are the same color as her costume.
  • Zatanna openly practices magic in her civilian identity and just makes her hair shinier without wearing a mask.
  • Katana's civilian clothing has a very similar color palate.
  • Harley Quinn. Harleen Quinzel. Her civilian attire also has the same quartered asymmetrical scheme as her costume, just in blue and red instead of black and red, and her dip-dyed pigtails resemble her alter-ego's jester cap. Diana would eventually come to realize this, as would Babs and the rest of the team later on.
  • Poison Ivy can only be told apart from Pamela Isley by the fact that her skin and hair color are more saturated, her hair's wilder, and her clothes are more provocative than the frumpy and unflattering ensemble she usually goes with.
  • Star Sapphire isn't wearing a mask and her civilian clothes are the same color as her costume.
  • Catwoman would probably be less obvious if she didn't keep wearing her stolen jewelry out of costume. Even so she's one of the few with at least some level of disguise.
  • Giganta's "costume" is her regular outfit ripped up and with her hair out of its ponytail. Oh, and not wearing a mask. She does get a few bonus points for being significantly bigger and more muscular than she is in her normal form... meaning, ironically, the dumbest super villain is probably the LEAST guilty of all this.
  • Livewire... do we even have to say it? And then she "hands off" her show and immediately takes it over in her supervillain identity. Not to mention that her real initials, LW, are the same as her codename.
  • Hal Jordan wears a Domino Mask, which his cinematic debut pointed out doesn't really cover much of anything, and like Jessica continues to wear his Green Lantern ring.
  • The Flash both openly exhibits Super Speed out of costume, and goes around doing his deliveries for Sweet Justice in costume.
  • Aqualad... well, you know. More to the point, his civilian clothes are completely indistinct from his superhero getup, the only difference being that the latter includes gloves and a belt buckle.
  • Green Arrow, apart from his civilian clothes matching his superhero costume almost perfectly, has that massively over-the-top Goatee of his that he doesn't bother to hide.
  • Hawkman is the only person his size and costume doesn't cover his light-tanned skin. Plus, he makes no attempt to change the brooding demeanor he keeps during class.
  • When Jessica and Karen babysit Dick Grayson and his friends on his birthday, they let Alfred introduce them by their civilian names and then instantly reveal themselves (complete with a roll call) as the Tween Titans. In turn, they don't hide being Green Lantern and Bumblebee from the kids.
• Class Pet: In the short "#HamsterConQueso", it's Batgirl's turn to take care of Hammy the hamster, the school pet and mascot, while she works at the Burrito Bucket the same day the health inspector visits. Hilarity Ensues.
• Color-Coded Secret Identity: Exaggerated; as mentioned under Clark Kenting, every single character has civilian clothing in either the same hues as their costume / other self, or evoking it in some way (like Barbara Ann's fur coat).
• Composite Character:
  • Supergirl has some qualities of Power Girl, including a rougher personality and sporting short hair. She also takes on the identity in "#PowerSurge".
  • Batgirl is Barbara Gordon but has a more bubbly personality akin to Stephanie Brown.
• Contralto Of Danger: Wonder Woman's voice is noticeably deeper than the others.
• Culture Chop Suey: Greek Amazons travel in a Viking Longboat.
• Darker and Edgier: To a degree. In general, while there's still plenty of comedy and lightheartedness like its predecessor, there's also more emphasis on character trauma, and with this show being rated PG as opposed to TV-Y7, the violence is more realistic.
  • The second half of "#MeetTheCheetah". Someone destroys the fuse box while the girls are about to search the school, then something stalks the and picks them off one at a time in the darkened hallways, and only Zatanna accidentally taking out Supergirl with her magic is played for the slightest bit of humor.
  • "#SoulSisters" is another episode that doesn't fully run on humor, with the main plot being Katana stealing everyone's souls. It makes a certain amount of sense knowing this aired near Halloween of 2019.
• Darkhorse Victory: In "#BeastsInShow", Kara and Babs enter their dogs Krypto and Ace in a dog show to see which of them is the best dog. When Harley's pet hyenas disrupt the show during the talent competition, Ace and Krypto catch them and save the dog that was competing at the time, Waffles. Unfortunately, the announcer thought the whole thing was part of Waffles' routine, so Waffles gets the top prize.
• Darker and Grittier: By a fraction of a hair. The original DC Super Hero Girls was mostly a feel-good story where most of the girls are friends with each other, and only occasionally fighting a bad guy who isn't all that bad in the grand scheme of things, or otherwise befriended in the end. Here, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy resume their bad guy status, and there is a looming feeling of danger, even if all the violence is G-rated. Compared the DC comics, though, the short is still Lighter and Softer.
• A Day in the Limelight: Certain shorts like "#SpeedyDelivery" and "#GoFish" focus instead on the guys that aren't even the actual leads, like the Flash and Aqualad.
• Deadline News: "#LetThemEatPie" has Lois Lane reporting on the local pie eating contest, where Diana comes in from behind due to developing a pie addiction during said contest. Then she spots the one remaining pie in Lois' hand... and charges at her and the camera.
• Demoted to Extra: Katana was not in the main lineup and was replaced with Zatanna and Jessica Cruz. She wouldn't appear until the 19th episode, "#SoulSisters".
• Denser and Wackier: This version of the series heavily ramps up the humor compared to the 2015 series.
• Determinator: In #TheLateBatsby, a determined Batgirl manages to reach Mr. Freeze before the others, despite them having a headstart and having flight powers.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the episode "#SoulSisters" Katana attempts to take the soul of a man who appears to be breaking into a car. It turns out, it's his own car and he simply locked his keys in his car. This is uncomfortably similar to some reports of police brutality.
• Driving Test: In "#Crash Course," Diana takes a driving test. During that test, she decides to help stop a group of villains in a getaway chase.
• Dumped via Text Message: Hal Jordan dumped Carrol Ferris via a text. Not bad enough? Turns out she's a love crazy Violet Lantern known as Star Sapphire and will not take no for an answer.
• Ear Ache:
  • In the pilot, Diana's mother drags her to the boat by her ear.
  • When the Amazons try to throw Diana's friends off the boat, they drag them by their ears. It backfires when Kara suddenly remembers she has super-strength.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Tween Titans appear in the Powerless graphic novel, which ended up coming out almost a month before their self-titled debut cartoon episode.
• Easter Egg:
  • In Supergirl's "#AdventuresInBunnysitting", there is a more traditional painting of Wonder Woman on a building in the background of one scene.
  • The hippie-trippie vision that briefly appears with Supergirl's picture day dress includes what looks like "The Mystery Machine", as WB Animation now produces Scooby-Doo.
• Egg Sitting: In the episode "#ScrambledEggs," the Super Hero Girls, Super Villain Girls, and Invincibros are randomly paired up into groups of two with each group assigned to watch over an egg for the weekend. Hilarity Ensues as they all try and fail to keep the eggs safe. The teacher even points out at the end of the episode how cliche and overused this trope is.
• Elaborate Underground Base: At the end of "#SweetJustice," Batgirl doctors the building plans to get one set up under the Sweet Justice ice cream shop while it's being rebuilt. It has specialized work/training areas for all six heroes, and the entrance can only be opened by sitting at a particular table and fiddling with its straw dispenser.
• invoked #EngineeredHashtag: For reasons never explained, every episode's title is a hashtag.
• Epic Fail:
  • In "#BurritoBucket", Barbara tells Flash to go take care of the bank robbers while she has to go back to work. The next time she checks on the bank, Flash is now tied up with the hostages.
  Flash: Dude, I'm as surprised as you are.
  • Diana gets subjected to an entire school week of these in "#CrushingIt".
• Establishing Character Moment: In the first few seconds of "#MeetTheCheetah", Barbi Minerva pulls of a near-perfect vault before insulting a teammate who complimented her.
  Girl: Nice work, Barbi! If you keep vaulting like that, we might actually win gold this year!
  Barbi: (snatching a towel from her) Well, it wasn't me who fell on the uneven bars.
• Everyone Went to School Together: The whole point of the show. Along with our team, Metropolis High's student body includes Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Catwoman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Poison Ivy, among others.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: As Zee starts answering Oliver's Ask a Stupid Question... in "#ScrambledEggs", she then realizes that she made the stupid mistake.
• Explosive Breeder: Bunnies, (super)naturally, as bred magical creatures, owned by Zatanna in "#AdventuresInBunnysitting". They hug and produce a literal flood of baby bunnies that magically disappear when they're finally separated.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: Somehow, everyone's secret identities are intact despite how blatantly obvious it all is.
• Face Doodling: Kara can't resist the urge to scrible on the faces of the comatose supervillains in "#SoulSisters".
• Face Palm: Done thrice by the same character. Catwoman does it in "#Beeline" (because of Harley Quinn), then at the end of "#SoulSisters", and again at the end of "#PurseScratcther".
• Failure Is the Only Option: Karen originally built her Bumblebee suit to make herself grow, not shrink. No matter how many tweaks she makes, the power to get bigger eludes her.
• Faking the Dead: When Livewire seemingly kills Supergirl in "#PowerSurge", Kara decides to take on a new identity and get a new start as Power Girl.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: The bank robbers in "#BurritoBucket" use guns that are not only laser guns but visually not much different from toy guns - they even have priming handles!
• Fan Disservice: When the girls take Wonder Woman out for her first pedicure there's a closeup of her hairy leg and her foot with giant calluses and craggy untrimmed nails.
• Fanservice: Avoided nearly completely due to the intended audience. The closest the series ever comes to having it is Hal Jordan getting a Shower Scene in the short "#PictureDaze", and a closeup showing that Diana has six-pack abs in the episode "#SoulSisters".
• Fire-Forged Friends: Kara and Harleen seem to end up becoming that way during their situation in "#ScrambledEggs".
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In "#BatAndSwitch", Zatanna attempts to make Barbara and her father switch bodies, but she ends up switching first with a black alley cat, then with a skater dude, and then a weather girl, a woman being proposed to, and many other random people. When she finally does the switch with her father, it's at a bad time, when he's getting his back hair removed.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The first shot of the yearbook in the title sequence has pictures of several characters that will appear as the series progresses. Of special note, Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is in there despite zero indication she's even a student.
  • While Karen's walking alone and feeling that she's a failure in "#Beeline", on a wall there are advertising posters with: "Blowing It Hair-Dryer", and "U-Suk Vacuums", and "Fail-Safe Safes".
  • In "#GothamCon", there are several jokes in the graffiti as Barbara and Harleen romp through the grimy city to the convention.
  • Aside from The Odyssey (a Call-Back to "#CrushingIt"), the four other library books that Katana hurls at Diana in "#SoulSisters" each have hilariously appropriate titles.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: At demoralized moments, these girls and boys sit at the Sweet Justice counter to drown their sorrows in milkshakes.
• Fur and Loathing: The Pre-Cheetah Barbi Minerva wears a golden fur coat (with white fur trim), a sign she's a Rich Bitch. Once she becomes the Cheetah, she is a Cat Girl who's also literally a Green-Eyed Monster (her jealousy of Diana caused Barbi to unleash the Cheetah's curse, not realizing it would envelop HER instead, giving her glowing green eyes instead of her original brown ones when she feels the curse.)
• Gasshole: Babs in "#BackInAFlash" accidentally toots during a school assembly due to eating a breakfast burrito.
• Genki Girl: Batgirl is described as an energetic fangirl for the Dark Knight, with even her civilian clothes and bedroom being covered in bat iconography.
• Genius Serum: In the short "#ArtificalIntelligence", Doris Zeul (aka Giganta) accidentally injects herself with a serum that boosts her intellect to genius levels instead of her usual growth serum, utilizing her new smarts against the protagonists. She almost wins until the serum wears off at the last minute, causing Doris to forget how to use her machine and wind up blowing herself up.

• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Along with Heck the characters typically use terms like Crud and OM Jeepers and Oh, Hades (by Diana).
• G-Rated Sex: In "AdventuresInBunnysitting", Zatanna's magic rabbits spontaneously produce offspring at an exponential rate just by hugging.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • "Barbi" Minerva finds herself becoming very jealous of Diana in "#MeetTheCheetah" to where she tries to unleash the Cheetah's curse on Diana. However, the curse then affects the jealous Barbi instead, and she turns into a green-eyed Cat Girl. When she turns back into Barbi, she briefly has her original brown eyes until she looks in the mirror, in which the curse asserts itself by having her eyes glow green while the power rush hits Barbi again.
  • Star Sapphire is romantically obsessed with getting back together with Hal Jordan and continues to act as though they're still boyfriend and girlfriend in "#HateTriangle" and "#PictureDaze". And when she sees Hal hanging out with Jessica Cruz in both episodes, she furiously views it as a romantic interlude between the two.
  • Zatanna really gets this way whenever another performer steals the spotlight from her magic shows; such as an amateur street-magician in "#IllusionsOfGrandeur", and Oliver Queen being scheduled to perform on the school stage the same day and time that her act is scheduled on the school's other stage in "#AdBlockers".
• Growling Gut: In "#TacoTuesday", Karen's stomach growls 7 times.
  • This happens to Hal in "#AsteroidBelter".
  • This happens to Leslie and Doris in "#CandyCrushed".
• Hall of Mirrors: After Casey Krinsky swaps bodies with Zee, thereby gaining her powers, Zee hides in a house of mirrors. Not only is Casey unable to find the real Zee, she's forced to face her own reflection which, thanks to her crippling self-loathing, is the last thing she wants to do.
• #HashtagForLaughs: Look at all of the episode titles.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Parodied in "#HateTriangle", with Jessica's faith in pacifism being mocked and ultimately useless in saving the day. Jessica tries her best to hold onto resolving her battle with Star Sapphire peacefully, preaches on about how violence is terrible, but the villainess decides that she'll come back worse than before, rendering Jessica's message about true love completely moot. Though the show seems to hint that this was intentional for comedic purposes.
• Hero Insurance: Averted for laughs in "#PowerSurge" when Kara gets criticized by a power plant foreman for all the destruction she caused defending it. Twice.
• Hippie Parents: If the dress they foisted on her for picture day is any indication, Supergirl's foster parents/legal guardians, the Danvers, are these.
• Hopeless with Tech: In "#Beeline", Bumblebee tries to call Diana about a bomb on the bridge, but Diana can't seem to handle her phone very well; the phone screen shows various close-ups as she moves the phone around before she accidentally hangs up.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title of every short and episode is styled as a Twitter hashtag.
• Impact Silhouette: In "#SheMightBeGiant", Giganta leaves her silhouette as she falls through the floor of the mall and several levels of the parking lot.
• In Name Only: The Cartoon Network series isn't much like the original DC Super Hero Girls, being more like Super Best Friends Forever in both art style and story.
• Innocent Innuendo: When Jessica tries to change Hal's look to make him dumpy and unappealing:
  Jessica: Garth! Take off your clothes!
• Innocently Insensitive: And then the previous leads to:
  Jessica: Perfect! That's super unattractive!
  Garth: Wait. What?
• Ironic Fear: Batgirl is scared of bats, with "#BatCatcher" revolving around her panicked reaction to one getting stuck in her room.
• Irony:
  • In "#IllusionsOfGrandeur", Zee's magic is constantly called out as being fake, while the Kris Angel expy performs basic illusions that everyone fawns over.
  • Diana and Karen being partnered together in "#ScrambledEggs" would guarantee that they succeed over all the mismatched pairs. Instead, they're the first to fail.
• Kneel Before Zod: The main antagonists of "#DCSuperheroBoys" feature the Trope Namer, so he naturally says this when he descends upon Metropolis.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Catwoman spends most of "#FightAtTheMuseum" effortlessly running circles around Supergirl. When the rest of the team shows up, she shamelessly dumps the loot as a distraction and runs away.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Among the archetypes/stereotypes of English people glimpsed in London in "#TheGoodTheBadAndTheBizarre" are two kids with their nanny.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Supergirl in "#FightAtTheMuseum". When the team is fighting a series of giant monsters, she just flies in and punches them out of sight rather than listen to any strategic plan the team comes up with. This backfires when Catwoman tricks her into busting open a safe containing Kryptonite, knowing full well Supergirl would just barrel through without any forethought or strategy. Special note to the first battle of this episode. In a Shout-Out to the trope namer's video, Wonder Woman is explaining the strategy to the girls when Supergirl says, "Time's up, let's do this. Supergirl!"
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After Katana returns everyone's souls in "#SoulSisters", the Girls (sans Diana) and Villains wake up, still in Babs's room where they were being hidden. The thing is the latter had to pretend they were having a slumber party. Catwoman says the trope name word-for-word after finding this out, to which everyone agrees.
• Living with the Villain: The female heroes and female villains all attend school together and frequent the same malt shop. Harleen "Harley Quinn" Quinzel and Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon are even best friends who are both unaware of the other's alter ego, in which they are sworn enemies.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Zatanna is pretty and popular, as well as being pretty full of herself, but is still a nice enough girl in general.
• Love Bubbles: Steve Trevor is surrounded by these each time Wonder Woman looks at him.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The short "#StarStruck" is one that centers on Lois and Jimmy during the episode "#HateTriangle".
• Malaproper: Often from Diana, since American-English — teenage American-English especially — is a new language for her.
• Mexican Standoff: In "#BatAndSwitch", we briefly see the Terrible Trio all Guns Akimbo and pointing at each other.
• Mistaken for Profound: When Karen is trying to tell Jess that the Super Villain Girls are planting a bomb on the bridge into town so Harley Quinn won't have to take a test the next day, Jess thinks "There's a bomb on the bridge" is a perfect metaphor in favor of vegetarianism and incorporates it into her protest against the Burrito Bucket restaurant.
• Mistaken for Romance: Between Jessica and Hal, by Star Sapphire. Jessica goes from confusion to laughing and saying "No" in various paces and tones for nearly ten seconds. It happens again in "#PictureDaze".
• Mood Dissonance: #GothamCon has a lovely example with Barbara and Harleen prancing through the Wretched Hive of Gotham City - with music! And dancing cops!
• Mundane Utility:
  • Zee’s father uses his magic to "hand" Zee her backpack from fifty feet away.
  • Jessica often uses her Green Lantern ring to create tools for everyday tasks, such as a welding torch for car repair work or a long stretchy arm to pull a file from a drawer.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: In "#CrushingIt", after suffering through Diana's uncontrollable infatuation over Steve Trevor, Batgirl suggests that her and rest of the girls "take out" Trevor. After tracking down a lonesome Trevor, Bumblebee, Supergirl, Zatanna, and even Jessica Cruz strike at him at once, attempting to kill him behind his back. This is all interrupted when Batgirl's successful hack gets Trevor accepted into a military school, wondering if the others were on the same page regarding to "take him out".
• Mythology Gag: Has their own page.
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: The in-universe movie series Exploding Ninja Pirates from Outer Space.
• No Kill like Overkill: In "#Beeline", Harley wants to blow up the bridge just so her teacher won't come to school tomorrow.
• Nonverbal Miscommunication: "#HashtagFrownyFace" has Diana and the others confuse Barbara's emoji texts where she's asking for help fighting Poison Ivy as her talking about a bad experience at a new vegan restaurant. Poison Ivy suffers this at the end as well as she grumbles at Harley doing this to her.
• Odd Couple:
  • Among the teammate pairings with the Invinci-bros, Bumblebee gets paired with Hawkman.
  • Supergirl and Aqualad are regularly team-paired in Season 1, and Kara and Garth become school pals in Season 2.
• Offscreen Teleportation: We don't actually see Zatara teleport Zee's backpack. Babs sees him waving it in the air, she looks the other way, and when she looks back it's in Zee's hand.
• Oh, Crap!: It's not a stretch that this has become the girls' default reaction whenever Steve Trevor is in the same space as Diana.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Jessica Cruz helps Hal Jordan to block someone annoying him on his phone in "#PictureDaze", unaware that said person is his ex-girlfriend Carol Ferris who in their last encounter presumed Jessica to be romantically interested in Hal. When an enraged Carol shows up and sees the two together, she leaps to conclusions and attacks Jessica.
  Carol: Jessica Cruz. I should have known it was you! I'LL NEVER LET YOU HAVE HIM!
  Jessica: [groans] Oh no. Not again.
• Only One Female Mold: Completely averted. Not only do all six main girls have completely distinct and unique silhouettes, body shapes, and physiques, but even the nameless background girls have totally different builds, as seen in this screenshot.◊
• Parental Obliviousness: In "#SoulSisters", the girls push the soulless villains through Babs' living room in front of her dad who fell asleep watching Make It Wayne.
• Parting-from-Consciousness Words: Delivered by Bumblebee, who has been racing to get to class on time, after Supergirl accidentally knocks her silly in "#PlightOfTheBumblebee":
  Karen: Did the bell ring yet? [passes out]
• Passionate Sports Girl: Diana and Barbara Ann Minerva are both star members of the Metropolis High gymnastics team, which forms a significant part of their rivalry and Barbara's motivations for becoming the Cheetah, as while Barbara is an excellent gymnast, Diana is even better.
• Picture Day: Used as the plot of four shorts as of this writing. See below under Recycled Plot.
• Pluto Is Expendable: During a game of cat and mouse with Supergirl, Catwoman cuts lose a huge model of the earth for Supergirl to catch. Once Supergirl does catch it, Catwoman proceeds to drop the entire solar system on her... until she gets to Pluto.
  Catwoman: Pluto, planet or no? Ah, who cares? [cuts it down too]
• Race Lift:
  • Catwoman is black in this universe.
  • Giganta is biracial, with a white father and a black mother.
  • Zigzagged with Wonder Woman, who is now Ambiguously Brown but didn't have her ethnic background changed.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Karen gives one to all the other girls in #EnterNightSting after being ignored one too many times.
• invoked Recycled Script:
  • "#TheLateBatsby" is an expanded version of Time Waits For No Girl, one of the Super Best Friends Forever shorts, swapping out Poison Ivy for Mr. Freeze.
  • The shorts sure like "comically getting messed up on the way to school picture day" as a plot. First there's "#StreetStyle" with Kara, "#PictureDaze" with Hal, "#CruzControl" with Jessica (and Garth), and then "#VanityInsanity" with Zatanna (and Oliver and maybe half of the entire school). Did these shorts all happen on the same picture day or what?
  • A class egg-assignment in the short "#ShellShock" gets expanded into the episode "#ScrambledEggs".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mix those colors together and it makes green. Green Lantern and Poison Ivy are both would-be eco-warriors, though Lantern tries to be an eco-activist while Ivy plays at being an eco-terrorist. And while Jessica Cruz tries to be a helpful friend to anybody and is a fanatical vegetarian, Pamela Isley is a misanthropic loner and fanatically against eating anything from plants.
• Refusal of the Call: Diana loves Barbara's idea of them, Kara, Karen, Jessica and Zee teaming up, but the other four refuses at first, with their reasoning being that Kara breaks stuff, Jessica's a Pacifist, Zee's an "art-eest" and Karen's really timid. Thankfully, Diana's Call keeps ringing loud enough they finally give in.
• Revisiting the Roots: Wonder Woman no longer wears pants, Harley Quinn is wearing her traditional jester outfit, and Batgirl is wearing something more similar to her pre-New 52 clothes.
• Rewatch Bonus: With "#HappyBirthdayZee" revealing more about Zatanna's blue magic, it can be easy to go back to previous episodes knowing WHY her magic gets blue.
• Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Supergirl does this to her alarm clock. It seems to be a common enough occurrence that she has spares.
• Rule of Symbolism: Zatanna's magical bunnies hug each other and form the shape of a heart, which Kara has to pull in half.
• Running Gag:
  • Almost every time Garth turns up, something happens to him.
  • When someone is getting their school picture taken, it doesn't go as planned.
  • The villain girls always escape and the superhero girls remain clueless of their real identities, and vice-versa.
• Scenery Gorn: Somehow the fate of all of those poor mannequins in the Training Montage do the best job showing all of the things that COULD happen in the genre than any superhero cartoon yet.
• Schizo Tech: Where smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers are used, why is Jimmy Olsen still using a film camera instead of digital cameras? Because for Rule of Funny, there are more laughs (and drama) from the old fashioned laboring in a darkroom.
• School Newspaper News Hound: Metropolis High's Daily Planetoid. Justified, because the editor is Lois Lane, who is using the school paper as the first step to becoming a serious journalist.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Barbara spends a lot of "#BurritoBucket" doing this about herself, her job, and stopping the robbers.
• Ship Tease: There are now two episodes (though technically, it's one episode and one short) centering on a furious Star Sapphire mistakenly assuming Hal Jordan and Jessica Cruz are a couple.
• Shout-Out:
  • The girls watch an overly sappy teen romance with a messy-haired guy and the title of "Just Before Dusk".
  • When Wonder Woman accuses her of insubordination, Supergirl responds with, "Excuse ME, Princess!"
  • After the team breaks up, Babs consoles herself by crying along to sad music.
  • Right before hooking up an amp to the robots so Supergirl can stop them with The Power of Rock, Batgirl adds the number 11 to the dial.
  • The Overly Long Names of Zee's pet bunnies, Blackberry Hazel von Owsla III and Dandelion Pipkin de Hyzenthlay, are made up of character names (and one lore term) from Watership Down.
  • Instead of the mainstream Bud and Lou, Harley Quinn's pet hyenas are named Lucy and Ethel in the show.
  • A flood of bunnies pour out of a movie theater in a manner similar to The Blob (1958), and a gigantic entity of merged bunnies resembles the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
  • One of the girls on the school's gymnastics team has teal-colored hair with a pink ribbon◊, not dissimilar to Bulma.
  • When Hal shows Jess the focus of his abject terror, she asks, "What, behind the cheerleader?" and he responds, "It is the cheerleader!"; a reference to the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Diana comes across a fortune teller game machine that may or may not be powered by actual magic. It certainly isn't powered by electricity.
  • Barbara buys her cowls from a shop called "Emo Emporium", which is a riff off of Hot Topic.
  • When Bumblebee's buzzing around Giganta in "#SheMightBeGiant", the background music briefly switches to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee".
    • On the subject of musical references... "#SheMightBeGiant".
  • During "#DCSuperHeroBoys", Diana momentarily looks like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl. And then later, everyone is sitting and snacking together on a girder.
  • In "#Frenemies", Batgirl calls her and her friends "SBFFs," which we're told stands for Super Best Friends Forever. Doubles as a Mythology Gag.
  • Tatsu and Diana's sparring match in "#SoulSisters" gets dangerously close to straight out plagiarizing the trope-naming fencing scene in The Princess Bride.
  • Lois Lane uses someone else's familiar catchphrase, "Excelsior!" in "#StarStruck".
  • While imprisoned by Lex Luthor in "#AllyCat", Green Lantern (Jessica) passes time bouncing a ball construct like "Cooler King" Hilts with his baseball.
  • Diana's wakeup at Zee's place in "#HousePest" is practically lifted right out of a Disney Princess movie.
  • In "#GothamCon" Harley Quinn is frantically trying to dispose of a bomb, and exclaims "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
• Show Within a Show: Princess Pumpkin Pants.
  • There's also Make It Wayne, a reality show featuring Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Ironically, Barbara Gordon, who idolizes Batman and despises Robin, finds Bruce Wayne boorish and adores Dick Grayson.
• Sneaky Departure: In #TheLateBatsby, Barbara can't leave the house to join the others as Batgirl til her dad falls asleep, so she can sneak out of the house through the window.
• The Spartan Way: Judging from Diana's anecdotes, Themyscira operates on this. Not only was her training to become a warrior long and brutal, there is little room in Amazon life for much else. Even mealtime conversation consists of Diana being berated for her failures, which are suppose to inspire her to be better next time.
• Spear Counterpart: Each member of the Invincibros plays counterpoint to one of the girls.
  • Naturally, Green Lantern Hal for Green Lantern Jessica
  • Green Arrow to Zee, both being dramatic personalities
  • The Flash to Batgirl, both being excitable personalities who are easily distracted
  • Aqualad to Bumblebee, both being ignored by the student body at large
  • Hawkman to Supergirl, both being The Big Guy
  • Steve might not be as strong as Wonder Woman, but he certainly is her weakness. They are also both the leaders of their respective teams.
• Special Guest: "#AwesomeAuntAntiope" featured Lilly Aspell reprising her role as little Diana.
• Spinoff Sendoff: The final issue of Spaced Out, the last piece of media made for the previous incarnation of the franchise has their Zatanna show their main cast an alternate universe which turns out to be this continuity. Amusingly, their versions of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (who underwent Adaptational Heroism) are a little put off that they're villains here.
• Stalker with a Crush: Even after he broke up with her, Star Sapphire is romantically obsessed with Hal Jordan.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: In "#CrushingIt", Kara gets angry at Diana for having such a cliche lovestruck reaction to Steve when she's a literal symbol of female empowerment.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Zatanna and Green Lantern replace Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy from the original incarnation.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Babs catches herself saying she wants to find a team to her father, as she desperately tries to cover her slip, Commissioner Gordon assumes she meant clique.
• Take a Third Option: Jessica Cruz is very good at coming up with non-violent solutions. She can be quite smug about it.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Not Garth. Oliver defeats Cavalier using "heckler" Trick Arrows, which have little speakers in them that shout "Boo!" as they remain in place thanks to rotors. They wouldn't have worked on anyone other than Cavalier, who is obsessed with his own acting talent.
  Oliver: Always knew they'd come in handy some day.
• Too Dumb to Live: The roof selfie guy from "#FaultyPowers".
• Transformation Sequence: All of the Super Hero Girls and Super Villain Girls have their own sequences revealed in "#Frenemies".^note Though Bumblebee's was already seen twice prior to this episode's debut.
• Truer to the Text:
  • Lauren Faust states that one of the goals was this, with the Silver Age incarnations being used as the foundation for applicable characters. Notably, the villainesses who were made into heroes in the previous series are back to being bad again this time around.
  • Averted with Jessica Cruz, a more modern character (debuting in 2014) who Faust admits, due to the character's depressing Origin Story, was changed drastically to better fit the lighthearted tone of the show.
  • Much like Young Justice (2010), the show presents Zatanna as a teenager much like how she originally was until Batman: The Animated Series gave a Age Lift to make her closer to the age of Batman and other heroes (including the comics themselves) followed its lead.
• Twinkle in the Sky: In "FightAtTheMuseum", Supergirl punches a robot and sends it flying in the sky, where it appears as a twinkle.
• Unknown Rival: Oliver Queen to Zee. Initially she remembers him after he gets super dramatic. Averted afterwards, with the two having an intense rivalry.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The main villains will often escape before anyone can find out their true identity.
• Villain with Good Publicity: It's heavily implied that Lex Luthor is villainous, but manages to project a positive public image. Ultimately confirmed in #AllyCat. He's even able to frame his battle with the super heroes as himself being the victim (though it doesn't seem to push them into Hero with Bad Publicity territory).
• Voices Are Mental: Exaggerated in "#BatAndSwitch", with Babs' voice coming out of everyone she gets soul-swapped with - even the cat!
• Wham Episode:
  • "#HappyBirthdayZee" reveals more about the blue aura that overcomes Zee sometimes, as well as her Missing Mom: a nasty fight between her parents led to her mother leaving and since then Zee's been building up a lot of negative energy that she inherited from her mom. Which is the reason for the blue aura, seen in previous episodes.
  • "#TheWarriorAndTheJester" seems set to end like most episodes with the conflict being due to Harleen helping Diana find a better piece of Batman memorabilia for Babs, and both sides remaining clueless of each other's secret identities... until Diana asks exactly how she got it. After specifically hearing the crumbs on said piece are from the exact wall type that restrained Harley Quinn, she fully puts the pieces together, only for Harleen to remind her of her "favor" keeping her from shouting it. Needless to say, the status quo broke with this ending.
  • Following the above. In "#NightmareInGotham", Batgirl and Harley finally discover each others identities.
• Wimp Fight:
  • Zatanna gets into this with one of Hippolyta's Amazons, which shows that even the Amazons have a wimp or two amongst them.
  • Superman and Supergirl, of all people, engage in this as a Funny Background Event in "#SuperWho?" after their argument becomes physical.
  • Diana and Tatsu start having one due to being required to fight quietly in the library.
• Wingding Eyes: Anyone who gets knocked silly or out cold (heroes and villains alike) have their eyes turned into spirals.
• With Friends Like These...: Hal tries to impress Superman by showing him a certain green rock he found, right when Superman is trying to throw a bomb into space. Superman's expression says it all.
• The Worf Effect: In "#DCSuperHeroBoys", the first action the rival gang does is punch Supergirl hard enough to knock her off her feet. Downplayed because she's back on her feet and fighting back a moment later.
• Wretched Hive: The brief portrayals of Gotham City lean straight into this, with a mixture of slightly distressing realism and a few absurd details. Barbara has great nostalgia for the place anyway, which is played for laughs.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Wonder Woman's lasso didn't do her any good against Giganta, seemingly because it got looped around only one of Giganta's arms. When Harley Quinn looped it around both of Giganta's arms, the lasso immobilized her.
  • In "#ScrambledEggs", Carol Ferris pounces on Tatsu, whose strength and workout regime can rival Diana's, and who as Katana defeated Carol (as Star Sapphire). Now, Carol gets Tatsu pinned down while twisting her leg.