WMG / Care Bears

Incarnations

• The Care Bears Movie

Other

There is a Gayheart

Exactly What It Says on the Tin

• Okay... so what's Gayheart's belly badge power?
  • Making everyone happy, obviously. In an even more obvious way than the rest, like how 'friend bear' is so. very. subtle.

The Care Bears are fascist, emotion-controlling racial and species supremacists

They separate the "lesser" care bear cousins (none of them are bears) into a separate ghetto. They live in a cloud kingdom literally above humanity, constantly monitoring for wrongfeel and badthink. When they find any form of negative emotion, they use the "Carebear Stare," a metaphor for peer pressure, brainwashing, and a firing squad neatly rolled into one. By making negative emotion impossible, they can keep the world under their thumb. All their enemies want is the right to be able to feel sad.

• Or perhaps they're people who no longer have the ability to feel anything, due to getting hit with the Carebear Stare once too often. Notice how many of them are concerned with taking childrens' emotions away, or turning them into sociopaths - basically, wiping away their personality one way or another and turning them into Empty Shells. The 'Stare does basically the same thing, but it covers up the emptiness with superficial happiness. Perhaps, with the cumulative effect of many 'Stares, they lose the ability to feel even that. So they're really just trying to make everyone feel as hollow as they do, and destroy the group who did it to them in the first place. Notice how they always scream when being hit with the 'Stare - it's not because they're in pain, but because they know what is happening to them. The Carebears don't mind any of this, as defeating the "villains" ensure that the public will see them as heroes and won't revolt.
• Wonderfully mocked/exhibited in an episode of Robot Chicken where all the Care Bear Cousins are murdered and stored in a hotel designed for them. This is later revealed to be the founding of New Jersey. The Governor of New Jersey then declares, "Come get a piece of this rainbow!"
• They'd meet a different kid almost each episode, but this kid was always white.
  • In the first episode, the white kids are saved from being ugly olive colored slaves.
  • Grumpy helps a black kid in at least one episode.
    • One black kid, once. Clearly a token to keep the Non-Bear-dominated media from catching on to the show's true, dark message. And Grumpy himself is the official misfit of the Care Bears.
• Regarding the separation aspect, there's an episode(long story short: a sabotaged fountain floods the Forest of Feelings that the cousins call home) that shows what happens when the Cousins move to Care-a-Lot. In a nutshell, the place becomes overcrowded and everyone's unhappy. Also, the first Care Bears movie shows that the Cousins have lived in the Forest of Feelings long before meeting the Care Bears. With these two facts in mind, why would they want to leave?

Dark Heart was originally a human possessed by No Heart

What, he just happens to turn into a powerless human when he gives up evil? No.

Dark Heart's powers worked just like No Heart's, and later episodes in the show have True Heart and Noble Heart (the Founders) comment on how No Heart had been their enemy since they were all babies.

Since then, No Heart has been able to keep somewhat corporal form through the use of his Thunderstone talisman. He is grooming a new host to inhabit once her body gets old enough - his so-called "niece" Shreeky.

• You, sir, are a genius.

The few villains seen in the series who are not visibly No-Heart are all possessed by No Heart in intangible form.

Its general goal is to spread fear and unhappiness. Nothing like using an unfamiliar body to throw your good nemeses off guard.

Think the "Parallax" entity from Green Lantern, only more of an asshole.

No-Heart is a Hollow.

Fact: His name is No-Heart.

No-Heart is a Heartless.

And his Nobody is Xenahort.

• Strangely enough, Birth by Sleep actually has a boss called No Heart.

• Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] also features someone in a brown cloak being responsible for Xehanort's Start of Darkness.

Care Bears are Angels reformatted into a less terrifying appearance.

Since taking human form should only be done on special occasions (the whole "in God's image" thing), and the Ezekiel/Elijah "Beasts with hundreds of wings and eyes/Spinning Rings of Fire" would send kids running for the hills, they took a more friendly form.

• The so-called "Great Cloudkeeper in the Sky" is a Robot Chicken creation. But the Great Wishing Star fulfills the "God" role.
• Then again, they could be cruel angels.
  • interesting thesis

Care Bears are Soul Reapers

This ties in with the No Heart = Hollow guess above.

It's worth noting that people become Hollows by giving in to angst and despair. The Care Bear Stare dispels despair (that was a fun sentence). By keeping everybody happy, they prevent Hollows from forming.

The whole series is a strange Christian allegory.

No Heart (Satan) and his followers (demons) try to corrupt humans and entice them towards evil. The Care Bears (angels) counter by trying to point humans in the right direction.

• Not very subtle if you ask me. Coome on, "Christ-y", who liked to hang out with the unpopular people, angry at the mainstream society's corruption, overcame the temptation of a demon's gift and got resurrected? Really?

It's like Touched by an Angel with teddy bears.

• I would like to point out the quick shot of after they grow up in the second movie. We see them all gathered around a table passing around a cup one to each other.

Adventures in Care-a-Lot takes place in the same universe as the 1980s series

The care bears shown in this series are cubs. Some of them named for bears that have fallen in battle. The "Care-a-Lot" shown is a safe place far from the real Care-a-Lot, hidden so evil forces won't be able to find it./Grizzle was hired to train the bears for battle and to protect the mini-Care-a-Lot in case evil does find it.

• They don't need to fall in battle. Care-a-Lot is a case of Year Inside, Hour Outside (this is outright stated in the second movie), and Adventures in Care-a-Lot takes place many generations after the 1980s series.
• Alternately, Adventures in Care-a-lot happens before the 1980s series, with younger and more childlike Bears in a more innocent time (their main antagonist is the bumbling Grizzle, and caring rescue missions are rare), in a very different and smaller Care-a-Lot. Sometime between Adventures and the second movie, Grizzle — once again trying to steal the Care Bears' belly badges and keep the magic to himself — began messing with forces he didn't understand and either unleashed or created Dark Heart in order to steal the Care Bears' powers.
  
  However, Dark Heart proved to be too good at his task and ended up not only stealing the Bears' belly badges and powers but regressed them to baby stage as well. Only True Heart (possibly thanks to the intervension of Wingnut and/or Oopsy, neither of which had any magical powers but pulled of a heroic self-sacrifice at the end) managed to remain her proper age, and as such was able to escape with the Care Bear Babies as Dark Heart destroyed Care-a-Lot. This is why True Heart is older than the other Bears in the 80s series (and why Oopsy and Wingnut are not around).
  
  At some point, True Heart and the Care Bear Babies met up with Noble Heart Horse and the young Care Bear Cousins, also on the run from Dark Heart, and finally they were both rescued by the Great Wishing Star and led to the new Kingdom of Caring. The Wishing Star granted the Bears and Cousins new tummy symbols and powers similar to their old ones, but could not restore the Bears to their proper age, meaning they had to grow up all over again. None of them would remember their old lives (or Oopsy and Wingut), but True Heart named the Bears' section of the Kingdom of Caring "Care-a-Lot," in memory of their old home.
  
  Whew! Oh, and so as not to go too much against the spirit of Care Bears: Oopsy, Grizzle and Wingnut all survived, True Heart just thought they'd died in the inital confrontation with Dark Heart. In reality they were hurled far away through many worlds, and were imprisoned in the same strange reality that Dark Heart originally came from. They are currently working on a way to return to our world and reunite with the other Bears.
  • How did Funshine change genders?
    • Uh... Crossdressing? Or maybe the Bears are actually asexual and don't actually have genders, the individuals just identify as one gender or the other (would explain some of the Viewer Gender Confusion in the show) and Funshine upon growing up a second time for whatever reason decided to identify as female?
    • Or, simpler: Funshine's trans!
  • How did True Heart and Champ change colors?
    • Artistic license.

The island the Care Bear cousins come from is the island from LOST.

It was only reached through means of teleportation, there were out of place animals, and there was even a smoke monster, for God's sake.

Dark Heart is a male version of Asuka and Christy is a female version of Shinji in Asuka's hallucination caused by Instrumentality.

• Asuka/Dark Heart acts confident and manipulates Christy/Shinji in subconscious revenge for him strangling her and masturbating over her comatose body but breaks down in a parallel to Shinji's crying over her in End of Evangelion.
• John and Dawn are this Instrumentality's version of Kaworu and Rei
• Nobleheart and Trueheart are supposed to represent Asuka's parents, Dark Heart's rejection of the Care Bears represents Asuka's anger at her mother and Dark Heart's redemption represents Asuka making peace with herself.

Nelvana's Care Bears series represent Shinji's Instrumentality.

Shinji is Shrieky, NoHeart is Gendo, Beastly or Grumpy Bear is Kaworu,the rest of the Care Bears are Angels. Shrieky tries to please NoHeart (who has the same personality as Gendo), and her abuse of Beastly represent's Shiji's guilt about Kaworu's death.

Darkheart is Pinnochio's Superpowered Evil Side.

• This one is funny. But just out of curiosity, how would you explain Dark Heart's red hair? Pinnochio had black hair.

there are other "negative" emotion care bears out there besides Grumpy

the care bears are SUPPOSED to protect caring? even if you absolutely hate something you are still said to care about it, the REAL threat they're supposed to be fighting against is 'not caring' AKA apathy, but along the way the focus shifted to the positive feel good emotion bearing...bears. somehow Grumpy survived, but out there somewhere there's Sorrow Bear, Fear Bear, Jealousy Bear, ect, (note none of these bears are evil, as there are completely healthy to express these emotions, just the positive emotion bears just don't like associating with them because they think they're too depressing)

• Well, not all Care Bears represent emotions; you have Bears like Birthday Bear, Wish Bear and Good Luck Bear — but that doesn't mean there can't be "negative emotions" Bears out there... in fact, in the Big Wish Movie there is a Too Loud Bear, a Messy Bear and a Me Bear, representing respectively noisiness, sloppiness and selfishness — and neither of them are actually evil, just self-centered and inconsiderate, so the idea of other "negative" Bears out there seems plausible. Though refusing to associate with someone because they aren't always positive doesn't seem like something the Care Bears would knowingly do (Grumpy does seem to be rather popular, for instance), but since none of the Care Bears knew Too Loud, Messy or Me from beforehand, it seems more likely that the "negative" Bears live somewhere else and just haven't met the other Bears. Maybe they're descendants of Bears who for some reason left Care-A-Lot a few generations ago because they didn't like it there? Grizzle is also a bear like the Care Bears, except he doesn't have a belly badge, and he dresses himself up in a giant mechanized suit.

The Wizard of Wonderland in the third movie is an Evil Uncle

He's either the brother or the brother-in-law of the Queen, which is why he's in the line of succession.

Stephanie Sheh will voice-act in the new TV series Adventures In Care-A-Lot.

Those who saw the second preview know why. Calling it now.

• Their predictive powers were off by one show.

Dark Heart was a relative of No Heart's like Shreiky

He was more powerful than her, but still fairly young for their kind (hence his preference for the form of a boy and kiddie-show type plans). He just happened to be redeemable. There have been other "bad-Heart" people (like Jealous Heart, Greed Heart, Spite heart, ect), but most could be redeemed by fixing their damaged hearts. No Heart just doesn't have one, and so cannot. Shrieky will eventually grow up to be Selfish Heart.

Wonderheart Bear's parents are either dead or went dark.

Dark as in evil. Why else would Care Bear parents, who would presumably be some of the most sweet-and-loving you could find, abandon a cub so that she's being raised by her uncle? If they are evil, sweet little Wonderheart presumably doesn't know, and hopefully never will.

Wonderheart Bear's belly badge power is "Heart."

Well, it is a heart-within-hearts motif...

Welcome to Care-a-Lot is set a couple of years after after Adventures in Care-a-Lot.

This is why Hugs and Tugs are older than before (though how this would cause them to change belly badges is uncertain.) Oopsy Bear is on an extended vacation somewhere and Wonderheart's parents sent her to live with Tenderheart while they're away on an extended Caring trip helping children in distant lands. As for Grizzle, he had all but given up anyway, so it's hardly a surprise that he's gone.

Daria went to an amusement park when she was young where she was affected by a Hate Plague

Take a look at that crowd watching Nicholas's magic show. See a brunette in a green coat in the crowd?

Revolution began as a Care Bears fanfic.

So you have a world where physics have been turned on its ear, and can only be temporarily fixed by the application of one of the pendants. And when has the pendant been sent to be used? By Aaron, when he was angsting out in Grace's living room, and then again when he was sure he was going to die, and by Grace when she was either alone in her big empty house or sure she was going to die.

It will eventually be revealed that the pendants are powered by negative emotions, and that Monroe will team up with No-Heart to use the negative emotions to Take Over the World. In the season 1 finale, Monroe will utter the line, "Cry! Cry for your fuhrer!" But then he'll get zapped by the sudden arrival of some weird little anthropomorphic ursine beings.

• But Grace has been shown to be calmly using the pendant; why does it work for Aaron under emotional stress only? And then there's that frakking hiatus coming up.
  • Like the Care Bears, each pendant is keyed to a different emotional state. Grace's is keyed to work when she's calm; Aaron's when he's upset. By having all 12 pendants, all possible emotional states are represented, meaning the power can go on under any conditions.
• Jossed. Randall can power them remotely to see where they're located.

True Heart, Noble Heart and the cubs used to be human.

The two adults used to be either Knight Templars during 11th century or Inquisitors during the 12th.

• a priest and a nun lead an angry mob to attack a wizard's house, and kill his family
• his demon wife survived by getting sealed inside a green book
• his son survived and went on hungry for revenge calling himself Dark Heart
• the priest/knight and nun as well as their adopted orphans all got turned into animals by Song Fellow Strum or Cloud Keeper so they can hide from Dark Heart , felt remorse for their religious fundamentalism and gave up Christianity.
• they were given new names and powers by the Wishing Star (either a pagan god or an Eldritch Abomination ) after a close call with Dark
• Dark Heart did not buy their redemption story under Wishing Star and continued to hunt them until they saved

Christy's life (he lost aim of his Sith Lightning under their rainbow assault)and turned him human instead of killing him

• Years later (when human Dark Heart and his wife Christy got old and or died), Nicholas Cherrywood found the book containing Dark's demon mother and unleashed his revenge-seeking father centuries later
  • This has potential for a sequel where an adult Daniel/Damon/Dennis Hart gets his half-demon powers back to find his parents and relatives and make them quit their quest for revenge, just as the Wishing Star planned
• The wizard had centuries of additional magical experience in the afterlife (one where non-Christians do not automatically got to Hell) and either got a new alchemically cloned body from his brother Cold Heart, who extended his life using the Philosopher's stone, or possessed Noble Heart's body (reverted to human)
  • Shrieky is a genetically engineered supermage and a homunculus, her birth a perfected version of her uncle's new body . That is why she has four fingers while No Heart has five
  • Beastly is a powerful immortal gremlin/kobold, a creature known to serve humans just like House Elves and working for No Heart's family. Seeing as the badass furball needs more stamina and durability than The Juggernaut, Bitch! to pedal a helicopter made of junk and survive lighting strikes completely unharmed save for burned fur, its not very far-fetched to think that he probably fought in both world wars just for fun.

The Care Bears are the last remnants of a civilization single-handedly destroyed by Dark Heart

Dark Heart is a Nobody who regained a heart

At some point in the past, Dark Heart was a boy with severe depression and nihilism who cast his own heart aside. His dark heart became No Heart - his Heartless. However, his body became Dark Heart the Nobody. Being that Xehanort wasn't around to give him a name with a recusant sigil to make him into a vessel, he existed independently and continued his goals of trying to destroy all feelings in the world. Knowing what we do in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], nobodies can develop a heart and try to replace it.... and without Xehanort trying to fill the vessel (Dark Heart) with his own heart, Dark Heart instead develops his own heart as Christy and the care bears, well, help it along. By the end of the second movie, he's turned back into a human because Christy was one of the few to care about him (Good or bad, you're still a person). His heartless exists independent of him because he didn't need to have his Heartless and Nobody destroyed to become complete again - he became complete because of the care bears and Christy. No Heart is the darkness that was cast from his heart.

At some point in the Nelvana series, some of the Care Bears and Cousins ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Realizing they were nude, they started wearing clothes, and for the heinous crime of introducing Original Sin to the Care Bear Family were banished not just from Care-A-Lot but from normal flow of time. That's why the focus narrows down to a small group of clothed Care Bears who they start going on a chaotic bunch of alternate universe stories as they try to make their way home.

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