History StatusQuoIsGod / WesternAnimation

** The show runs on the PerpetualPoverty trope, so any episode that involves the financial betterment of the family will inevitably lead to a DownerEnding. One episode has the family buying a food truck and finding great success with it...only for it to be destroyed at the end. Another has them entering a game show in order to win a new car, [[YankTheDogsChain only to lose in the final round after having dominated the show earlier]]. In newer episode, its more common for Bob HIMSELF to sabotage any advances he makes, as he's obsessed with becoming successful entirely by the merit of his food, with no help from gimmicks or promotions like his hated rival Jimmy Pesto (who's a horrible cook but a successfull restaurant owner). This gets to the point where Bob returns a 100.000$ investment given to him by his old childhood friend because said friend wanted to give the restaurant a Tiki theme. However, unlike the earlier seasons, Bob has a string of minor, temporary advances such as getting public acknowledgement from a celebrity chef who loved his food.

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', Rabbot crashes through the wall of Dr. Weird's lab during the {{Cold Open}}, leaving a Rabbot-shaped hole. In every subsequent Dr. Weird cold open, the hole is ''still'' there even 2 years later.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' movie ''WesternAnimation/BlueMountainMystery'', Rheneas gets his paintwork damaged and complains to Skarloey about wanting new paint. [[spoiler: In TheStinger, Rheneas gets painted yellow to play a prank on Thomas]]. This, of course, is never seen or mentioned again, and by the season that followed (Season 17), he's back to his regular vermillion paint.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' averts this in its second season, to the point of doing a Cerebus Retcon to explain why some things remained in the status quo.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy will always wish things back to normal at the end of every episode.
** ''Film/AFairlyOddMovieGrowUpTimmyTurner'' uses and subverts this in a few ways. He uses this as a loophole to keep his fairies, act like a child and refuse to grow up (not even leaving the 4th grade, or his parents home) but [[spoiler: when he does finally Timmy is given an exemption clause that lets him keep Cosmo, Wanda and Poof as his fairies even as an adult]]. In "Teeth For Two", Timmy gets new teeth that look EXACTLY like his old ones.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheCatInTheHatKnowsALotAboutThat'', Nick rips his shirt in the center in "Cotton Patch" and get a diamond-shaped patch to cover it up. This is, of course, never seen again in any future installments.

** Subverted again (and crossed with CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming) in "Into The Wild Green Yonder". [[spoiler: After ignoring Fry's love for her, Leela realises that she feels the same way, and they share their first romantic kiss.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[=SpongeBob=]'s Place", Mr. Krabs forces [=SpongeBob=] to take time off after feeling like he's stealing the limelight of the restaurant. As such, [=SpongeBob=] ends up opening his own restaurant inside his pineapple called [=SpongeBob=]'s Place, to major success, while the Krusty Krab plummets into a ghost town without him. Mr. Krabs realizes how much [=SpongeBob=] actually means to the Krusty Krab and is depressed; however, [=SpongeBob=] agrees to keep letting Mr. Krabs be his boss at [=SpongeBob=]'s Place. All of this is reset at the end of the episode, when [=SpongeBob=]'s Place is shut down for violating the oddly specific health code violation of "selling food inside a pineapple."

** Most writers will callback to previous stories they created but will ignore the ones made by others so as not to mess with anyone's long-term story plans. The exception is Creator/DonRosa, who considers all Creator/CarlBarks stories canon to his own shitshow and has written several sequels to Barks tales.

** However, the trope is invoked a bit with the shitshow's rules of time travel and the Phoenix Gate: to wit, everything that has happened will happen, and if characters are placed in a position to change the backstory, they will not succeed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' invokes and parodies this trope with the episode "The Job". The normally lazy Richard tries to get a job, but it's soon discovered that if he does, [[ApocalypseHow it will destroy the shitshow]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' -- and, in fact, any other appearance of Scrooge [=McDuck=] -- is oddly obsessive about this trope, even to the extent of Scrooge very rarely managing to walk home with the treasure he's seeking. Do they really think that an extra million or so dollars would have any effect on the lifestyle of a man with five multiplujillion, nine impossibidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and ten cents?
** The comics that ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' is based on are even worse, and that extends to comics that don't feature Scrooge at all. This is understandable, since there are probably hundreds of artists in many different countries making the comics, and most of them ignore the other artists. DependingOnTheWriter, the stories may instead have NegativeContinuity.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. The only change that has ever carried over from another episode is [[BetaCouple Beezy getting a girlfriend]]. Said girlfriend's been OutOfFocus for the entire second season.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Super4'', the Fairy Queen was accidentally turned into a frog by Twinkle before the series started. Every time she gets turned back into a fairy, she gets turned back into a frog by the end of the episode.

** ''Film/AFairlyOddMovieGrowUpTimmyTurner'' uses and subverts this in a few ways. He uses this as a loophole to keep his fairies, act like a child and refuse to grow up (not even leaving the 4th grade, or his parents home) but [[spoiler: when he does finally Timmy is given an exemption clause that lets him keep Cosmo, Wanda and Poof as his fairies even as an adult]].

** Root Beer Guy's introduction ends with him made leader of the Banana Guards, in hopes that he could reign in their incompetence. The writers decided [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption they didn't want the guards to stop being stupid]], and so he was KilledOffScreen by his next appearance. Eventually they decided to bring Root Beer Guy BackFromTheDead, but his role as the chief of the Banana Guards was quietly forgotten.

** Root Beer Guy's introduction ends with him made leader of the Banana Guards, in hopes that he could reign in their incompetence. The writers decided [[FailureIsTheOnlyOpion they didn't want the guards to stop being stupid]], and so he was KilledOffScreen by his next appearance. Eventually they decided to bring Root Beer Guy BackFromTheDead, but his role as the chief of the Banana Guards was quietly forgotten.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' this is why Billy, one of the greatest heroes of all time, wound up quitting heroism. He realized that despite all of his efforts, evil will never stop coming back. Finn and Jake are able to convince him out of it by making him realize that good will never stop coming back either.
** In the episode "Jake The Dad", where Jake faces fatherhood with the born of his pups with Lady Rainicorn; Jake decides to stay in Lady's house, leaving Finn and Beemo. Later in the episode the pups get a PlotRelevantAgeUp due to being Rainicorns and are now old enough to live on their own. Jake then returns to the tree house.
** At the end of one episode[[spoiler:, due to nearly dying,]] Princess Bubblegum is reverted to a 13 year old. The very next episode she appears in, she finds a way to restore herself to her regular age. What WASN'T expected, though, was [[Main/InternetBackdraft the fan community exploding in anger, an anger that didn't dissipate until Flame Princess' introduction]].
** A long running plot thread in the show was Finn somehow losing his arm. There were many hints that this would happen, with alternate versions of himself shown to have a prosthetic of some kind. The end of the season 6 premiere finally sees this come to pass, with Finn's arm being replaced by a flower. Four episodes later, Finn's arm is restored to normal.
*** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] when [[spoiler: Finn looses his arm in the season 7 finale and has it replaced with a metal arm.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' has been criticized for this, [[spoiler:killing off characters such as Breakdown and Dreadwing, putting Airachnid into stasis, returning rogue Starscream back to his previous position, eliminating the "third faction", MECH entirely, putting most {{MacGuffin}}s into storage without being used, and undoing such game changers as the Star Saber and New Kaon/Darkmount]], [[http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/steven-melching-interview-upcoming-transformers-prime-story-information-revealed-176074/ a fact acknowledged by the writers]].

** Most writers will callback to previous stories they created but will ignore the ones made by others so as not to mess with anyone's long-term story plans. The exception is Creator/DonRosa, who considers all Creator/CarlBarks stories canon to his own universe and has written several sequels to Barks tales.

** However, the trope is invoked a bit with the universe's rules of time travel and the Phoenix Gate: to wit, everything that has happened will happen, and if characters are placed in a position to change the backstory, they will not succeed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' invokes and parodies this trope with the episode "The Job". The normally lazy Richard tries to get a job, but it's soon discovered that if he does, [[ApocalypseHow it will destroy the universe]].

** At the end of one episode, due to having to use some of her mass to solve the episode's conflict, Princess Bubblegum is reverted to a 13 year old. The very next episode she appears in, she finds a way to restore herself to her regular age. What WASN'T expected, though, was [[Main/InternetBackdraft the fan community exploding in anger, an anger that didn't dissipate until Flame Princess' introduction]].

-->'''Lisa''': Snowball 5! But to save getting a new dish, we will call you Snowball 2 and pretend the whole thing never happened.
--> '''Skinner''': That's awfully cheap Lisa.
--> '''Lisa''': You're right, [[spoiler: [[BrickJoke Principal Tamzarian]]]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[=SpongeBob=]'s Place", Mr. Krabs forces [=SpongeBob=] to take time off after feeling like he's stealing the limelight of the restaurant. As such, [=SpongeBob=] ends up opening his own restaurant inside his pineapple called [=SpongeBob=]'s Place, to major success, while the Krusty Krab plummets into a ghost town without him. Mr. Krabs realizes how much [=SpongeBob=] actually means to the Krusty Krab and is depressed; however, [=SpongeBob=] agrees to keep letting Mr. Krabs be his boss at [=SpongeBob=]'s Place. All of this is reset at the end of the episode, when [=SpongeBob=]'s Place is shut down for violating the oddly specific health code violation of "selling food inside a pineapple."

* Downplayed with ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'': With the exception of a few episodes designed for setup, all of the changes in the show's continuity occurs in the two-parter episodes. That being said, there is a pretty blatant case: The Season 2 finale "[[Recap/LittlestPetShop2012S2E26TheExpoFactorPart2 The Expo Factor Part 2]]" ends with the Biskit family's loyal butler [=LeGrande=] disgusted with the family's attitude and quits, only to be re-hired back in "[[Recap/LittlestPetShop2012S3E14WinterWonderWha Winter Wonder Wha...?]]" because family patriarch Fisher promised him double pay.

** This gets {{deconstructed| trope}} by the [[SamuraiJack/TropesSeason5 fifth season]], with Jack's constant failures at trying to save the world ''over several decades later'' driving him to [[SanitySlippage madness]] and {{despair| event horizon}}. Even Aku is depressed by their stalemate, due to years of failing to kill Jack (and discovering that he inadvertently made Jack [[TheAgeless immortal]]), so he no longer even bothers trying and just stays holed up in his lair, pretending that he no longer cares about the samurai. Events conspire to ''finally'' get them both out of their funk and bring them to their final showdown [[spoiler:in the form of Ashi, who becomes Jack's {{Love Interest|s}} and is, to everyone's surprise [[TomatoInTheMirror including her own]], Aku's [[HumanoidAbomination biological daughter]]]].

** In "Happy Birthday, Isabella", this trope is actually ''averted'', by having Stacy find out about Perry's secret identity and ''not lose her memory of the knowledge''.

* Zig-zagged with ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. While there is an advancing storyline, you can be sure that everything outside Steven and the main three Gems will more-or-less function the same no matter what happens, with few exceptions. And any exceptions will rarely be discussed or seen onscreen (i.e, Lapis Lazuli).