The Legend
Wander and Sylvia save a group of kids from a Dominator invasion as the kids tell stories about a familiar mythic hero.
Tropes appearing in The Legend
- Actually, I Am Him: Wander is "The Hero" that the children are describing, but only Melodie's little sister Angela knows the truth; and that's because she sees Wander and Sylvia in action before boarding the escape ship the pair escorted her family to.
- And Call Him "George": Hank's story has Wander as a giant furry monster who hugs Hater so hard it kills him.
- Animesque: David's story is told in this style.
- Art Shift: One for each child's story. Hank's is done in childish scribbles on lined paper, Jamie's is done in a loudly-colored comic-book style, David's is a pastiche of early anime, and Melodie's is a simple children's-book illustration style.
- Ascended Meme: Wander being called a "star nomad" in Melodie's story is a reference to Fanon referring to Wander as such.
- Call-Back: Wander's guesses for who the legendary hero the children are waiting for are Prince Cashmere, Stella Starbella, and Brad Starlight.
- Continuity Nod:
- Hank's story is a retelling of the very first episode of Wander Over Yonder, "The Greatest".
- David's story seems to be a retelling of the episode "The Party Animal".
- Jamie's story is about how Wander defeated Major Threat from "The Good Bad Guy".
- The "mustard or mayo" bit is used in Jamie's story, only to be used as weapons by Wander to squirt all over Major Threat.
- Creepy Child: Hank describes how "The Hero" squeezed Lord Hater to death, so that he became a pile of bones. Wander and Sylvia are freaked out when they hear this.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: In Melodie's story, Wander's uncontrollable curiosity caused him to accidentally release an ancient evil that corrupted his father into Lord Hater.
- Everyone Is Related: Melodie's very fanfic of a story has Hater revealed as Wander's father whom he accidentally corrupted and Dominator as Wander's long lost sister who has sworn revenge against him. Cut to much later of her very long story, Emperor Awesome is Wander's half brother, the Evil Sandwich is his cousin, and it seemed that she was about to mention another but she's cut off by Hank. Suffice to say, a very exhausted Wander quietly shakes his head in denial when an equally exhausted Sylvia looks at him in response to this absurd mess.
- Humongous Mecha: David's story has Sylvia envisioned as a Gigantor-like mecha.
- Hypocritical Humor: Melodie dismisses the other kids' stories as fanfiction but her story sounds more like one than any of theirs complete with a very obvious self-insert.
- The Kid with the Remote Control: Parodied when David imagines the Hero of Legend as controlling a giant robot named Silver 7.
- Long-Lost Relative: In Melodie's story, Dominator is Wander's long lost sister whom he's been looking for.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- The children when they miss the last evacuation ship.
- Wander and Sylvia when they hear the first two stories about Wander.
- Multiple Head Case: Two of the kids, Jamie and Hank, are conjoined Polar Opposite Twins.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Wander in Melodie's story releases Sealed Evil in a Can which corrupts "his father" into Lord Hater. This causes Melodie's version of Wander to roam the galaxy as The Atoner.
- Narrative Shapeshifting: When Wander mentions some of the heroes that could be "The Hero", he briefly makes himself look like each one.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Hank's story of Wander crushing Lord Hater with a massive bear-hug.
- Overly Long Gag:
- Wander farting on Major Threat during Jamie's story.
- The "Silver 7" song from David's story.
- Power at a Price: In Melodie's story, Wander unlocking his inner strength somehow curses him into becoming a werewolf. She hand waves that "inner strength can be a curse".
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: David describes Wander accurately as an All-Loving Hero; he says it's because Wander relies on "Silver 7" to fight the bad guys.
- Self-Insert Fic: Melodie's already fanfic of a story becomes this when she inserts herself as Wander's One True Love, a secret winged princess who happens to be the only one capable of lifting his inner strength werewolf curse. Predictably, the other kids promptly express their chagrin the moment she does this.
- Shout-Out:
- The bulk of the episode is based on the classic Batman story "The Batman Nobody Knows".
- The "Silver 7" sequence is a send-up of Gigantor, with Wander as Jimmy Sparks/Shotaro Kaneda and Sylvia as Gigantor/Tetsujin 28.
- Wander's dislike of Jamie's "Totally Radical Wander" seems similar to Dipper Pines's hatred of Dippy Fresh.
- Shrouded in Myth: Apparently Wander, judging by the kids' wildly-varying stories about "The Hero".
- Straying Baby: Angela returned to her house at the start of the episode to retrieve her Sylvia plushie. Her friends come to find her, which means the escape pods leave without them.
- Take That!: Jamie's version of Wander is a criticism of series whose main characters are intentionally immature, gross, and rude for the sake of making kids laugh. In particular, the art style slightly shifts to a more hard-lined animation reminiscent of Johnny Test, a series abundant in these traits.
- Take That, Audience!: Melodie's story is a parody of WOY fan-fiction and the wild fandom speculation regarding Wander's back-story (especially taking the piss out of the popular "Star Nomad" fanon and the idea that Wander is secretly related to one or more of the villains).
- Toilet Humour: Jamie's story paints Wander as constantly farting.
- Totally Radical: Jamie's story imagines Wander as an edgy, loudly-colored, guitar-surfing punk who defeated Major Threat by teasing and humiliating him.
- We Need a Distraction: Wander distracts Dominator's Lavabots so that the kids can get back in their escape pod.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Lavabots would, if they got the chance.
As they hide out on planet Suburbicon V, Peepers desperately tries to come up with a plan to save the galaxy from Dominator, while Hater obsesses over their jerky new neighbor: Emperor Awesome.
Tropes appearing in The Bad Neighbors
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Peepers keeps asking for Hater's help in coming up with a plan to stop Dominator. This is Peepers, who knows his boss is an unreliable Manchild.
- Anticlimax: The big plan Peepers was trying to show to Hater turns out to be a Mouse Trap-esque Rube Goldberg Machine.
- Continuity Nod:
- Hater is shown walking Captain Tim and using him to urinate acid on Awesome's lawn.
- A musical reprise of "That's How We'll Get Her" plays when Peepers finally comes up with a plan.
- All the villains that were captured by Dominator in the last episode are shown to have escaped and attend Awesome's barbeque.
- Escalating War: Hater gets into one with Awesome.
- Exhausted Eye Bags:
- Peepers has this due to the stress of having to come up with a plan to defeat Lord Dominator and save the galaxy.
- Lord Hater has these when he spends all evening trying to zap all the leaves that are landing on his lawn.
- Lame Rhyme Dodge: When Peepers accuses Hater of trying to dodge the issue of Lord Dominator by starting a feud with Emperor Awesome, Hater retorts "I just refuse to be publicly humiliated by Dominator... I mean, Domi-neighbor... our dumb neighbor!"
- Laugh Track: The episode is accompanied by the sounds of a live audience, complete with laughs, cheers and "aww"s.
- Loud of War: Emperor Awesome plays his music too loud, so Hater plays his even louder, and so on until Hater's speakers explode.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Peepers' montage of preparing the perfect barbecue.
- Mundane Utility: Hater uses Captain Tim's destructive nature to mess up Awesome's lawn.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: This episode turns the show into a parody of suburban life sitcoms, complete with sounds of a live studio audience.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Peepers delivers a brutal one to Hater near the end, calling him out on more concerned with one-upping Awesome than defeating Dominator.
- Running Gag: Hater walking in and out of Peepers' war councils due to Emperor Awesome distracting him.
- Skewed Priorities: Once again, Hater lets a petty rivalry distract him from the bigger picture. As Peepers points out, they need to stop Dominator before she destroys the galaxy and come up with a plan while in hiding. It's justified as Hater is using this petty rivalry to distract from how he doesn't want to face Dominator again.
- Start My Own: How Peepers helps Hater outdo Awesome once and for all; setting up a barbecue to steal away the visitors to Awesome's.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: This is Hater's response when Peepers assumes Hater was trying to build up his confidence by scoring a small win against Emperor Awesome.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Both Awesome and Hater insist that they're totally not hiding from Lord Dominator.
- Unexplained Recovery: It's not explained how Emperor Awesome or any of the villain escaped the prison cells on Dominator's ship—or even survived the ship freezing over.
- Villain Episode: The action of this episode focuses on Hater and Awesome's rivalry, and Wander and Sylvia aren't even mentioned.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Emperor Awesome is so traumatized by Lord Dominator that he cannot even bring himself to say her name.
- Peepers has a minor one after showing off his "brilliant" plan, bursting into tears when he realizes how terrible it is.Peepers: A net? A net?! She shoots lava!
- Weaponized Exhaust: After out-doing Emperor Awesome's barbecue and getting inspired, Peepers uses the Skull Ship's exhaust to burn Awesome's house down, leaving Awesome himself covered in ash.
