Tropes
- Affably Evil: The Whywolves are able to alternate between destructive beasts and eloquent geniuses in the blink of an eye.
- Always a Bigger Fish:
- Donny the grass-ogre produces a cloud of obnoxygen toxic enough to keep Why-Wolves from attacking Housers.
- Why-Wolves are also prey for the Cosmic Owl.Why-Wolf: Such is the course of nature. But it will be a pretty sweet ride until that point.
- Always Need What You Gave Up: Finn discovers Jake has successfully gotten Donny to give up his jerky ways... right after he's discovered that without Donny's "Obnoxygen", the House People are easy prey for the Why-Wolves.
- Bittersweet Ending: Finn and Jake have to turn Donny back into a jerk in order to save the house people, but he seems happy that the house people appreciate him even if he's being a jerk.
- The Bully: Donny the grass ogre is basically an overgrown school-yard bully; he rough-houses, throws around childish insults, and gets whiny and defensive when people stand up to him. This trope is deterrent to the Whywolves, as Donny's jerkishness results in the production of "Obnoxygen," a gas which prevented the Whywolves from attacking the house people due to being toxic to them.
- Calling Your Attacks: "Back-pack!" Only it doesn't work.
- Continuity Nod: At the end of the Whywolf's explanation of how the ecosystem works, the Cosmic Owl is called back as the top of the food chain and consumes all of the Whywolves in one gulp.
- Face Death with Dignity: The Whywolf explaining the species' ecosystem to Finn simply brushes off their demise at the beak of the Cosmic Owl as the way of nature, saying that it will be a pretty sweet ride up until then.
- Genius Loci: The house people are Exactly What It Says on the Tin. One of them even has a cat inside her.
- Green Aesop: This episode delivers a pretty heavy-handed one about not interfering with the natural order of an ecosystem.
- Literal Metaphor: After Donny says he's "turning over a new leaf", he plucks a leaf from his body and starts turning it over in his hands.
- Multiple Headcase: One Why-Wolf has two heads.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Finn and Jake successfully make Donny a nice guy. Too bad the "obnoxygen" he was producing when he was a jerk was the only thing keeping the Whywolves away from the village of the house people. Thankfully, they brought his jerky self back and the whywolves and the house people unknowingly help by laughing at his songs.
- No, You: One of the stock responses in Donny's repertoire.Jake: Could you put on some pants?
Donny: You put on some pants! - Our Werewolves Are Different: The Whywolves, who resemble werewolves but aren't quite. They're driven by the spirit of inquiry... and BLOODLUST.
- Punny Name: Instead of Werewolves, the lycanthropes that begin attacking the House People once Donny is out of the picture are Whywolves.
- Remember the New Guy?: A variant. While he was present for a while up to this point, this is the first time BMO talks or displays any signs of sapience beyond being a video game system. No one seems particularly surprised and he becomes a staple of the main cast from here on out.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: After a few minutes with Donny, BMO states that while they can't feel emotion, Donny makes them ticked.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: More like "Need Our Jerk Back"; Donny was the only thing keeping the Whywolves away from the village of the house people, and Finn and Jake have to make him an angry jerk again because he's the lesser of two evils.
