Disney Animated Series / What An Idiot

When you wish upon a star, well...your dreams come true, but your intelligence won't increase.

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Disney Animated Shows

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Duck Tales (1987)

The Beagle Boys get this twice in the series finale.
- In the first instance, the Golden Goose came to life and turned everything around it into solid gold, including people. Poupon was about to use holy water in order to stop this madness from happening.
  You'd Expect: The Beagle Boys to let Poupon pour the water onto the goose.
  Instead: They fire their guns, breaking the glass containing it. This leads to the goose shedding its gold coating and threatening the whole world.
- Following the above, the Beagle Boys run for their lives trying to avoid being petrified into gold and leap a fence.
  You'd Expect: That they keep running and possibly reach a craft that jettisons them out of the reach of the golden death.
  Instead: They hide behind the fence in an attempt to stay safe from the golden death which does not work as it passes around the fence and petrifies them into solid gold. They were lucky Scrooge was able to fix this mess by returning the Golden Goose where it belonged.

Aladdin: The Series

Genie often falls under this trope.
- "I Never Mechanism I Didn't Like". Genie miniaturizes himself so he can get inside a robot to disable it. The villain of the episode responds by sending a miniature robot after Genie.
  You'd Expect: Genie would poof himself back to his normal size and skoosh the robot.
  Instead: He stays small and lets it chase him around.
- In the same episode, Genie discovers he can reverse the villain's mind control. After freeing Aladdin, they set off to kick the villain's butt and save Agrabah.
  You'd Expect: Genie would use what he discovered to release everyone else.
  Instead: He leaves everyone else under the villain's mind control, forcing Aladdin to fight them off. And you thought Aladdin was lazy.
In "When Chaos Comes Calling" Agrabah is targeted by a godlike entity who's apparently the Anthropomorphic Personification of Chaos and frenemy with Fate. While Chaos pranks the palace, Genie does little more than shiver in fear. When Jasmine wants to step in, Genie warns her that Chaos has "more power in his whisker than a palace full of Genies"
You'd Expect: Jasmine to be very apprehensive and not do anything to provoke Chaos' wrath until if/when she has some sort of leverage over the God of chaos and enemy of order.
Instead: She foolishly orders Chaos to stop. He doesn't take it well, to put it mildly.
Surprisingly, such leverage is later delivered on a silver plate. After Chaos brags about how his godlike powers have saved the citizens of Agrabah from boredom, Iago promptly yells that with all the things happening all the time boredom is the least of their problems. Aladdin immediately sees how to take advantage of the situation and asks Genie to show Chaos they're not boring.
You'd Expect: That Genie will keep advertising Agrabah as a City of Adventure for as long as it takes to send the message that they don't need his services.
Instead: Midways through the advertisement, Genie lets it slip that Aladdin never loses.
The Result: Unimpressed, Chaos chews out at Aladdin and accuses him of being blessed by fate (read: a Mary Sue). He then forces Aladdin to a Mirror Match.
"Some Enchanted Genie": After Abis Mal steals his lamp, mistakenly believing he could control the Genie, Genie is searching for it since he takes it personally that Abis Mal took his personal property. While looking, he sees a young girl awaken the Genie of the Bottle, named Eden. Genie falls in love immediately as Eden makes Dhandi wish to never go hungry again since Dhandi only wants to wish for a sandwich.
You'd Expect: Genie would wait for Eden to finish her impromptu Masterchef presentation and introduce himself after Dhandi gets a decent meal.
Instead: He gets the idea that interrupting her presentation with his cooking would impress Eden. Hilarity Ensues.
The Result: Eden knocks him away several times, thinking he's a rival genie trying to steal her new master. They end up creating a giant tower of pizza which falls over and inadvertently leads Abis Mal to a vulnerable Dhandi and to steal Eden's bottle. Dhandi has to spell out to Eden that Genie likes her after the fuss and once Genie explains he's free and helps Aladdin as a friend.

Wander Over Yonder

"The Picnic": Hater is able to get a wish from a celestial being that appears only when the planets align once per millennium to grant a single wish, and he tries to wish to conquer the universe, but Wander keeps annoying him.
You'd Expect: Hater would shut Wander up to keep him from interfering with his wish.
Or: He would wish for the celestial being to permanently get rid of Wander (and possibly Sylvia too) and be rid of his arch enemy.
Instead: Fed up with the interuptions, he wishes that Wander would leave him alone for 5 seconds.
The Result: The celestial being freezes Wander briefly before leaving, Wander continues pesting Hater when he unfreezes, and Hater's and Emporer Awesome's minions all Facepalm at his stupidity.
"The Fugitives" Wander and Sylvia are wanted on a market planet, and have to find a way to escape while avoiding the fleets of Watchdogs. Wander has trouble with staying hidden, given he has to help whoever he sees which ruin their escape attempts. For their final attempt, the Watchdogs realize Wander's weakness and cause sorts of disasters, which sets him off to the point he resolves them at warp speed.
You'd Expect: Once Wander is done helping everyone, to immediately return back to Sylvia in the ally.
Instead: He stops out in the open after finishing, accidentally picking up and returning a Watchdog's gun in return, and gets captured.
"The Pet": After getting separated from Sylvia, Wander finds a rogue alien in an abandoned spaceship, whom he names "Captain Tim" (after the alien captain whom it devoured), and begins to tame it. At one point, he offers the alien a teddy bear which it immediately rejects, destroying and wrapping it in a cocoon; Sylvia eventually comes upon the cocoon and finds the bear's remains inside.
You'd Expect: Sylvia to examine the remains carefully for anything not attaining to a living organism, such as cotton, stuffing, or a bell (all of which the bear had prior to being destroyed).
Instead: She assumes that Wander has been eaten by the alien, and activates the ship's self-destruct to avenge him. It's only when she's fleeing the escape pod does she see Wander still alive and well inside the ship with the alien, does she realize this mistake.
"The Fremergency Fronfract": Hater is at the dentist getting a chipped tooth treated, and Hater through a mouthful of dental rubberbands shouts that Wander is to blame. After they sedate him with electric shocks, the dental assistant asks Hater who his emergency contact is.
You'd Expect: Peepers to be the emergency contact on the paperwork, and to have been waiting already to pick his boss up. Dental treatment in the galaxy isn't that much different from real-life, in that the sedation makes the patient loopy.
Instead: For some reason Peepers isn't there. Hater misses the question completely and shouts "Wander" repeatedly, which leads the dentist to assume that Wander is Hater's emergency contact.
The Result: Wander and Sylvia pick up a loopy Hater, who proceeds to wander off under the mistaken impression that they are best friends and not enemies. Wander gives into temptation and tries to make Hater a better person, while Sylvia takes one embarrassing video after another of Hater. Peepers and the Skullship catch up to Hater much later, and he ends up opening fire on his own men when they try to conquer the planet where he spent the whole day because he threatened a little girl they met called Olive. Oh, and when Hater sees one of the videos that Sylvia took, he cracks all his teeth in anger, which means he’ll have to go back to the dentist.
"The Hole...Lotta Nuthin'": A black hole is about to destroy the whole galaxy and Wander has to keep it plugged with a finger while Sylvia has to find something to patch it up.
You'd Expect: For the duo to check Wander's hat for something they need to plug up the hole.
Instead: This somehow never occurs to either and Sylvia goes off herself to find something to plug the hole herself.
Then: Wander spends a long time bored with his finger in the hole, falling into a potentially helpless state; this attracts the attention of Lord Hater, seeing how helpless he is with no one around.
You'd Expect: Hater to just leave Wander alone and be perpetually helpless if he should.
Instead: Seeing how helpless Wander is, Hater takes this time to use Wander's issue to the point he insults and makes fun of him, crushing his spirits even further until he completely loses all hope. He's only able to have his spirits lifted back when Hater brings up his favorite motto, "It never hurts to help," and this results in Wander instantly cheering up and making the best of it, angering Hater to the point he pulls off his own arm to plug the hole. Peepers points out that if he should've just left him alone, then none of this would've happened.
"The Matchmaker": Wander finds a love letter to Dominator when he and Sylvia are stuck in the trash compactor, and believes it's from Hater, so he decides to deliver it to her. Sylvia is against this, knowing pairing two evil overlords in a romantic relationship could lead to even bigger chaos, so she tries to stop him with diversions whatever it takes, and he miraculously resists each and every one.
You'd Expect: For Wander to be more specific when saying he wants to deliver the letter, either in person or take it to a post office to be sent to Dominator from there.
Instead: He only says he wants to deliver it to Dominator, which worries Sylvia even more. As it turns out near the end, he was only going to put the letter in a mailbox, rather than walk up to Dominator and give it to her in person. This is even lampshaded by the title "The Wacky Misunderstanding".
“The Waste of Time”: Wander while filling up on Orrble juice accidentally grabs the time-traveling version. This means that he and Sylvia start traveling to the future and to past memories. Sylvia starts worrying about the time paradox and stepping on a butterfly to change their future.
You’d Expect: Wander would listen and carefully navigate with Sylvia to return to the station.
Instead: He gets so excited that he starts running to and from various places. They end up at the station but at fifty years too early.
The Result: Wander and Sylvia spend fifty years at the gas station and prevent their past selves from getting the time orrble juice. This leads to them ceasing to exist as they hug each other and say that time spent together is never wasted. It also means that they forget a future event where Hater is in danger.

Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Now that she has been restored to her proper place, Rapunzel is living with her real parents in Corona. Her father, King Frederic, is worried sick of losing her again and has forbidden her from leaving the kingdom to explore beyond its walls. While he has a point that she's vulnerable as a public figure and the heir to their throne, she has a point that she's spent her whole life locked up and wants more freedom.
You'd Expect: That the two would compromise. Rapunzel can prove she's earned the right to travel beyond the Corona walls. and Frederic can insist that she have a bodyguard or a retinue without overwhelming her.
Instead: Rapunzel and her lady-in-waiting/bodyguard Cass sneak out the night before her coronation to see where the Sundrop flower grew. This leads to Frederic finding out, because Rapunzel's golden hair grows back and can't be cut, and she uses it to save his life when thieves crash the coronation.
The Result: He's disappointed and fearful that the thing that made Gothel steal her away has returned, and orders that Rapunzel can only explore things inside the kingdom, rather than go outside of it. Rapunzel refuses to confide in him about her daily adventures, which leads to him sending spies on her, and so on and so forth. Much later on, when he and the Captain of the Guards find out what Cass did, defying their orders, Cass is sent to a convent.
Meanwhile, Cass reveals that she inherited disdain for Eugene from her father. She initially believes that he is a Gold Digger looking to profit from dating the Lost Princess. Eugene, Rapunzel, and the audience know this isn't true, since they spent an entire movie saving each other. There is also the fact Eugene turned himself in after the events of the movie when he could have let Rapunzel go to the palace alone while resuming his thieving ways.
You'd Expect: Cass to not antagonize Rapunzel's almost-fiancee. As a lady-in-waiting, her only job is to keep Rapunzel company and protect her from perceived threats. Besides this, Eugene died so that Rapunzel would have her freedom. While he makes mistakes during the series, he keeps prioritizing Rapunzel's happiness over his.
Instead: Cass spends the pilot and second episode forcing Rapunzel to keep the fact that Cass sneaked her out as a secret, which drives a wedge between Eugene and Rapunzel temporarily until Rapunzel tells him and Eugene promises to keep his mouth shut for Rapunzel's sake. It also leads to Eugene understandably not trusting Cass and getting into fights with her. While Cass motivates Eugene to better himself and prove he is worthy of Rapunzel's love, she also is quite a Hypocrite with how she breaks the rules to make Rapunzel happy and has endangered her on several occasions. Rapunzel attempts to make them bond by invoking Fire-Forged Friends and locking them in a dungeon, but they revert back to bickering soon enough. While eventually they grow to respect each other, it takes a dire crisis for them to make the first steps of progress. Irony and Laser-Guided Karma eventually kick in when the Captain and the King bust Cass for sneaking Rapunzel out in the first place, while Eugene who has done no such thing is allowed to stay at the palace.
Also eighteen years ago, Frederic wanted to save his pregnant wife. To do so, he consulted Quirin, a village leader, who warned him that uprooting the Sundrop flower to save Arianna would lead to devastating consequences. Frederic uproots the flower anyway, which leads to Gothel stealing his baby daughter and black spikes growing where the flower was. The spikes stop plant life from growing and cannot be cut by any sword or knife.
You'd Expect: Frederic afterward would keep an eye on the black spikes, and warn Rapunzel as well as the royal family about them. It's his responsibility as the king to make sure his subjects are safe, and Rapunzel should be aware of the roots of her magic. Besides this, the flower was the whole reason she was stolen away, so she has a right to know.
Instead: Frederic puts his head in the sand and does nothing apart from erecting a small plaque honoring the Sundrop and following up with Quirin on occasion. The result is that Rapunzel touches the spikes not knowing what they are when Cass sneaks her out to see them, causing them to grow and cause an infestation in the kingdom. Then when Rapunzel finds an important MacGuffin and decides to deliver it to Varian on receiving a prophetic dream, Frederic rather than talking to her sends elite mercenaries to steal the MacGuffin and use it for unknown purposes.
The Result: Due to this gross miscommunication, the mercenaries, including Cass's father, nearly kill Rapunzel and her friends and destroy her childhood home. Rapunzel is heartbroken and furious when she learns that her father ordered such a thing and decides to work with Varian to save the kingdom rather than trust Frederic. This leads to more devastating consequences, including Varian's betrayal and the spikes devastating the kingdom.
Then we have Varian. A Teen Genius inventor and Quirin's son, who tries to get rid of the spikes to both make his father proud and deal with it before the villagers lose their land. He fails, and Quirin gets trapped in the spikes protecting his son. Varian goes to Rapunzel for help, only to find her swamped in the middle of a crisis (a cataclysmic blizzard based on the legend of Zhan Tiri is threatening to destroy Corona and her parents are missing). The guards have to send him away.
You'd Expect: Once the Corona disaster is averted that Rapunzel seek out Varian and find out what the situation is. He's her friend, and her subject; plus as the villager's son he is second in command after his father is incapacitated. The villagers need to know who is leading and who will protect them.
You'd Also Expect: Varian to realize that Rapunzel as a royal couldn't drop everything to help him, and it wasn't her intention to break a promise to rescue Quirin. Also that he needs her because, from their very first meeting, he knows that her hair has unknown magical properties.
Instead: Weeks pass before Varian contacts Rapunzel and she finds out what happened, likely because of her being so shaken from the events of the blizzard. In the meantime, Varian decides to go Never My Fault and perform a Face–Heel Turn, to trick Rapunzel into delivering the remains of the Sundrop flower to him.
The Result: Varian commits treason and tries to kidnap and murder the entire royal family when he realizes that the Sundrop flower is useless and all it's magic is locked inside Rapunzel's hair. He fails to activate the magic, and is tossed into the royal dungeons without even saving his father. Rapunzel manages to save most of the kingdom and her family, but she also fails to rescue Old Corona.
Cassandra for much of the series has buried resentment that as an adopted orphan and the Captain's Daughter that she has to work for respect and praise, while Rapunzel receives both naturally. They do talk it out that if Cass tells Rapunzel to step aside, then Rapunzel will. In the second season, Cass's resentments return in full force when Rapunzel accidentally injures her. Cass admits she's not ready to forgive her princess yet but understands Rapunzel is really sorry.
You'd Expect: Cass to be extremely open about her negative emotions and talk it out.
Instead: She buries most of her resentment as the injury to her hand grows worse.
The Result: Cassandra gives into temptation in the second season finale and steals the Moonstone and its power from Rapunzel, becoming its vessel. Which means she has committed treason and hurt her best friend.

The Owl House

"I Was A Teenage Abomination": Luz goes to explore a magical school on the Boiling Isles. She gets a bad first impression of witch Amity when the latter mocks a girl named Willow for her project. Luz goes to introduce herself and learns that Willow needs to create a living monster called an Abomination. Willow is terrible at Abomination magic.
You'd Expect: Luz would go with Willow and attempt Refuge in Audacity to audit the school. It's later revealed that Principal Bump isn't against the idea of a human auditing and at least Willow would have moral support.
Instead: She volunteers to pretend to be Willow's abomination, so as to sneak into the school. Luz also thinks it will be a great way to help Willow.
The Result: Thanks to a suspicious Amity, Principal Bump busts Luz and nearly dissects her. Willow has to boot Luz out of the school to save her, and Principal Bump bans the human. While this solidifies Willow and Luz's friendship, it also puts a crimp in Luz's plans to be a witch though she decides to keep learning from Eda.
"Once Upon A Swap": A big one for Eda's sister Lilith. She finds out that Eda was arrested and goes to override the Warden's orders. The person in the shackles tries to explain that she's actually Eda's apprentice Luz, and this is the result of a body swap spell.
You'd Expect: Lilith, being the smart witch that she is, to realize the situation. Then she can use Luz as bait to catch Eda.
Instead: She mistakes Luz's attempts to explain as a cry for help from her sister. Lilith calls for the Warden's guards to bring the Emperor's Coven brand to ensure that Eda has to work for them.
The Result: Luz freaks out and busts out of jail, running to find a changed Eda and King. After they switch back, Eda casts the swapping spell on Lilith and everyone chasing them.
In "Really Small Problems", Luz, Willow and Gus head off to a carnival. Said carnival is run by Tibbles, who they already have bad history with. Willow and Gus literally say in the episode proper that this may be a trap to lure them back to him.
You'd Expect: The three of them (along with Eda and King) just to leave the carnival as soon as possible.
Instead: "But who caaares?!"
As a Result: All three of them (and King) are shrunk to insect size by Tibbles, and nearly get eaten by Unicorns, a Griffon and a Manticore.
A long time ago, Eda and Lilith were obligated to duel for an Emperor's Coven spot. Lilith always wanted to join the coven, and knows that her little sister will beat her in a fair fight.
You'd Expect: She would talk to Eda about the duel. Perhaps beg her to throw the match, or go easy on her. Eda later forfeits because she cares about Lilith's happiness more than a Coven she disagrees with on principle.
Instead: She sneaks into the Boiling Isles black market, buys a curse, and casts it on a sleeping Eda without reading the fine print.
You'd Then Expect: The curse would have been something simple and temporary like a sleeping potion, and that Lilith would guarantee it would be temporary.
Instead: It turns the victim into a feral animal.
The Result: On dueling day, Lilith goes Oh, Crap! when Eda forfeits, and runs off when the curse activates because the spectators toss stones at her sister. Rather than confess that she cheated, give up her spot, and go to help Eda, Lilith commits to being the Emperor's attack dog. On top of that, the curse is permanent rather than one day. She thinks that Belos will cure Eda if Lilith captures her little sister, who has become an outcast, expert in Wild Magic, and "the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles". It turns out Eda was right to distrust the Emperor and refuse to join any coven; Belos reneges on the deal he made with Lilith and prepares to petrify Eda, killing her permanently. When Lilith tries to rescue Eda with Luz's help, Luz's first response is to understandably shoot fire in Lilith's face and refuse to listen, while Eda in Owlbeast form nearly mauls her. Who knew one duel would cause so much trouble?
To Make Matters Worse: A flashback in "Keeping Up A-fear-ances" shows that their mother was doing all she could to get Eda treated for her curse while the next episode revealed that Eda hiding it caused her breakup with Raine, and she accidentally slashed out her father's eye. A medical witch reveals that it's virtually incurable, short of operating on Eda's bile sac. Even that surgery wouldn't be a guarantee. Gwendolyn's eagerness for an operation motivated Eda to run away and become the scalawag thief she is in the present. If Lilith had come clean in the first place, she wouldn't have torn her family apart and Gwendolyn wouldn't be chasing scam cures.
"Young Blood, Old Souls": Luz and King, in their plan to rescue Eda, willingly step on the grass so that the guards will catch them, throw them in a jail carriage and take them to the Emperor's place where Eda is held.
You'd Expect: The guards to have Luz and King bound up inside the carriage so they can’t use any magic or much tricks to try to bust out and escape. Regardless if these particular guards knew Luz was affiliated with Eda, that Witch’s Wool Cape alone should give away that Luz may have access to magic that she could possibly use to get out of there if she wanted.
Instead: The guards don’t bother to restrain the duo in the carriage, allowing their plan to hitch a free ride to the Emperor’s place and start attacking Coven guards the moment Warden Wrath opens the carriage up.
- Eda has been captured by her sibling Lilith, put out of her beastly trance by Emperor Belos, and dragged on away by several coven members. Upon seeing this, Lilith asks Belos if her sister is being taken to be healed of her curse.
  You'd Expect: Emperor Belos to conduct a lie, stating that Eda’s indeed being taken to a place to heal or prepare her for healing. Since Lilith is extremely devoted to Belos already and a known public figure/poster child, there are benefits in continuing to keep her around. Of course the truth would’ve had to come out eventually, but by the time Lilith found out, Belos may have gotten what he wanted with Eda already petrified.
  Instead: Emperor Belos flat out admits that he will not be healing Eda, much to Lilith’s shock.
- In the same scene, after the realization that Lilith’s been absolutely lied to, she is ordered by Belos to destroy Eda’s palisman, saying she won’t be needing it anymore.
  You'd Expect: Emperor Belos will stay in the room and watch Lilith break her sister’s palisman to make sure she’s still loyal to him and won’t try to make use of that staff behind his back. Lilith’s obvious emotion on her face and in her voice SHOULD tell Belos that she’s having her doubts, so seeing what she’ll choose to do would be good to know.
  Instead: Emperor Belos exits the room after his request, leaving Lilith with Eda’s staff alone.
  The Result: Lilith performs a Heel–Face Turn and betrays the Emperor by helping Luz save her sister. Luz happens to be given Eda’s staff by Lilith, which she uses against Belos when they finally meet.
- Later, Emperor Belos has the portal door to the human world handed to him by Luz Noceda after a short fight.
  You'd Expect: Knowing Luz is an apprentice of Eda, the infamous Owl Lady with multiple tricks for avoiding capture, Emperor Belos would check over the portal door to make certain Luz hasn’t thought similar to her mentor and he'll be getting what he's asked for.
  Instead: Belos doesn’t bother to check it, and keeps his eyes on Luz as she leaves.
  The Result: Before fully departing, Luz uses Eda’s staff to activate the fire glyphs she secretly left on the door and destroys it before Belos can even use it.
  Even Worse: The fire glyphs weren’t even well hidden. Belos could’ve simply looked at the other side of the door, spotted the pieces of paper with drawn glyphs stuck to it, and know something was up.
"Separate Tides": A week and a half after Luz destroyed the portal to Earth — while using it to bargain for her friend's lives— she and the Owl House residents are stranded in the Boiling Isles. Without the ability to steal human garbage for her stall — as well as the means to "borrow" human food for Luz — Eda finds herself paid half a snail for huge bounties. Luz says that maybe they can go for bigger bounties, pointing out the selkidumas. Eda vetoes it and says that she's not endangering Luz's life unnecessarily. At the same time, Luz overhears Eda saying she needs to go without apple blood so that they can buy witch food that Luz can eat.
You'd Expect: Eda to tell Luz her plan, that she's going to sneak on the Emperor's ship and steal the bounty. Luz may not approve of stealing necessarily but it would mean they're on the same page at least. Plus, it shows that Eda isn't completely resigned to barely scraping by until they find another position.
Instead: She orders Luz not to sign onto the crew, because hunting for the seldimas is too dangerous for her human apprentice. While it turns out that Eda is right that the creature will kill sailors and destroy their ships, it's because the selkidumas has given birth to a baby and has Mama Bear instincts. This is the equivalent to hunting down a female crocodile during mating season. Not even Eda is as harsh as to attack a mother with a child for money.
The Result: Luz feels guilty about being a burden on Eda. She and King sign onto the crew and put in their share of the work so as to pull their own weight. When a disguised Eda comes to pickpocket the bounty, Luz chases down the thief and ends up losing the heavy bag of snails to the Boiling Sea. The Golden Guard then comes and reveals that the whole bounty was a trap to secure both the Owl Lady and her apprentice, and he blackmails them to kill the selkidumas or he'll kill King. When Luz understands the full gravity of the situation, she fakes a fight with the selkidumas using her light and plant spells, so as to save King and get the Golden Guard to leave.
Fortunately: The selkidumas is Smarter Than You Look; when she sees Luz and Eda working to protect her and her baby, she vomits up selkigris. Eda is thrilled because it's very valuable as "the gold of the sea" and will set them up for a few months.
"Escaping Expulsion":
- The Blights make their kids serve as test subjects for Home Security Abominations. Amity is the most recent subject for a demonstration in front of useful investors. She also still has a photo from Grom Night where Luz danced with her and helped her defeat Grom.
  You'd Expect: Amity would have tucked away the photo on a secure place.
  Instead: She apparently had the photo on her person during this demonstration where she has to let the Abomination beat her up.
  The Result: When Amity on her mother's orders starts to throw the fight, the photo slips out of her Hexside uniform and ends up near the Abomination's feet. She instinctively defeats it to retrieve the photo. Her mother sees it, realizes that Amity has friends below her social standing, and blackmails Principal Bump to expel the children. She goes further by trying to murder Luz as part of a murder demonstration.
- Odalia offers to bargain with Luz, in exchange for being let back into Hexside. When Gus and Willow's parents ground them for getting expelled, so they can't come up with multiple plans to get back into school, Luz begs Amity for help. She says that Odalia Blight seems reasonable enough, and Amity needs to introduce the two. Amity knows it's a bad idea and says no.
  You'd Expect: Amity would explain to Luz that her mother is a bit on the murderous side. She is probably biased against Luz for being human. Amity thinks that if she finds a way to bargain with Odalia without using her friends as blackmail, then maybe it would work. She could explain she doesn't want Luz to risk her life, since Luz has a habit of doing that for her friends.
  Instead: She shuts Luz down and promises that she'll think of something. Amity hopes that if she performs well for her mother's product demonstration of Abomnitons, that Odalia will go easy on her and spare her friends.
  The Result: Amity goes Oh, Crap! when she finds out that her mother got a "replacement" for the demonstration and sees that the Abomination Butler has a deformed kitty face, which is Luz's handiwork. Luz went to make a deal with the Blights. Sure enough, Odalia planned to murder Luz and make an example of her, saying the latest Abomniton won't rest until its victim is vanquished. Amity has to save her bacon.
"Keeping Up A-fear-ances": So far Lilith has graduated from her Regretful Traitor status to an actual Owl House family member. She's shared Eda's curse and helped secure ingredients for scrying potions to show she can be trusted. Eda hasn't quite forgiven her, however, for the whole cursing her in the first place and teases her when Lilith starts sprouting feathers. When their mother Gwendolyn comes, Eda warns her and shows Lilith that she stashed elixir all over the house. It's because Gwendolyn arrives every year with a new "alternative" cure for the curse and hasn't gotten the memo about her younger daughter booting her out of the house on a regular basis. Luz becomes excited about the notion, while Eda remains skeptical and Lilith is crushed. Apparently, Gwendolyn has favored Eda throughout their childhood and never visited Lilith or attended her Coven Initiation.
You'd Expect: Rather than mope about her mommy issues, Lilith should go to Gwendolyn and confess that it was her fault Eda got cursed. She could also volunteer to try out the cure if she wants to connect with her mother. The truth hurts, but it would at least make Gwendolyn realize that she was barking up the wrong tree, as she does at the end of the episode, and figure out where in the Dark Market that Lilith could have gotten that deadly scroll.
Instead: Lilith opts to drown her sorrows in ice cream rather than acknowledge that it was partly her fault that her family got into his mess.
The Result: Lilith ends up missing that Gwendolyn's familiar Palisman stole all the elixir in the house, and her funk causes the curse to turn her into a giant Ravenzilla as she frantically searches for the bottles. Gwendolyn has to verbally calm her down after seeing firsthand that the latest "cure" was a scam. It's only then that the story comes out; while Gwendolyn is understandably mad at Lilith for lying to her by omission and letting her little sister suffer for years, she also acknowledges that she should have realized things were wrong a long time ago. They depart to find a real cure.
"Any Sport in a Storm": The Emperor gives permission for the Golden Guard aka Hunter to run a coven leader meeting in his place. Turns out no one respects Hunter because he is a magic-less kid and they think he became the Golden Guard due to nepotism since Belos is his uncle. The Coven heads walk out to enjoy a day off, with Darius straight up saying he thinks Hunter isn't worthy of the title and pettily steals the Golden Guard's cape. He says Hunter can have it back if Hunter rounds up recruits for the Emperor's Coven. Anyone watching the show knows that the coven is exclusive, and no one can just join it with the limited spots. Hunter was being sent on a Snipe Hunt.
You'd Expect: Knowing how exclusive the Emperor's Coven is, Hunter would realize he was being told "Go fuck yourself". He then should Summon Bigger Fish and ask Belos, when the latter is able to talk, about how to win Darius's respect.
Instead: The Child Prodigy with no magic is gullible enough to actually believe Darius. Hunter trades in his mask for a Hexside uniform and goes with Coven soldiers to recruit some magical students.
The Result: While undercover, everyone at the Club Fair in Hexside thinks that he's joking when he asks them to join the Emperor's Coven. Jerbo has taken a note out of Eda's book by saying he wants to grow up and reform the Coven system. Willow recruits "Caleb" for her new Flyer Derby team after seeing his flying. Despite himself, Hunter develops a bond with her while planning to have the derby witch recruits go through the Coven trials. He also gets hit with guilt when ordering the Coven guards to round them up, promising they'll enjoy being separated from their friends and family forever. At the end of the episode, Darius reveals that he was just joking, not expecting that Hunter would actually believe him, and planned to drop off the captive recruits sans their Palismen — since Belos needs to eat Palismen to stay alive— at Hexside to humor Hunter. Hunter all but facepalms on realizing that he was an idiot, though Darius lets the kids and Palismen go when he says he's proud that Hunter found people to protect.
To Top It All Off: Willow proceeds to tell Luz and Amity, who were off chasing the author of the Azura books, what happened. She shows off the selfie they took, cueing a mutual Big "WHAT?!". Safe to say that Luz isn't going to forget that Hunter nearly kidnapped her friends.
At the end of "Thanks To Them", Belos manages to possess Hunter and uses him to find a vial of Titan's Blood his brother left in the human realm. Before he can use it or kill the others, Hunter briefly manages to regain control of his body and throws the Titian's Blood into a nearby river. Belos cannot swim and neither can Hunter.
You'd Expect: Belos to simply use his extending arms to grab it. Sure it might take a few tries, but it would still keep him on solid ground.
Instead: He jumps in after it.
The Result: Belos nearly drowns and if it wasn't for Camila jumping in to save Hunter, Belos would have died right there and then, which would have freed the heroes up to grab it later (since both Luz and Camila can swim).

Kim Possible

While Kim is under the effects of a chemical that makes her slowly disappear every time she gets embarrassed, she's asked out on a date.
You'd Expect: Kim to decline the date offer, knowing it's too risky.
Instead: She accepts, leaving the safe haven of her home, encountering embarrassment galore and nearly getting herself killed in the process. BRILLIANT IDEA, KIM.
Shego has recently fallen into a shallow trap with crocodiles, and says she can't hurt any of the crocodiles.
You'd Expect: Shego, with her abilities to shoot plasma beams just by pointing her fingers or jumping straight several meters up the air, would either shoot the crocodiles with her plasma beams or just jump out of that shallow hole.
Instead: She starts wrestling with one crocodile's jaw while whining about needing help...
At the end of The Movie, Drakken has succeeded with all his plans. He is not only mere hours away from unleashing the evil machines that he will use to take over the world, he has also captured and tied up his arch enemy Kim Possible and her sidekick though a cunning plan of his.
You'd Expect: Drakken would a) learn by his mistakes and actually capture Rufus so that the pet does not free Kim and Ron again, and b) not take the backpack, containing a laser beam and the necessary disruptor to the transmitter to the evil machines, to the exact same room that Team Possible were tied up in.
Instead: Drakken overlooks Rufus, again, and puts the backpack, with all the mission crucial toys, in the same room as Team Possible, so naturally Team Possible escapes and not long after destroys Drakken's plans.
In the episode "Ron Millionaire," because Ron invented the naco, he recieves $99 million royalty check from Beuno Nacho.
You'd Expect: For Ron to immediately open up a bank account and store the money there. You would also expect for him to use some of the money to spend on a financial adviser so he could keep the money and use it for mostly things he needs.
Instead: He foolishly keeps $99 million in CASH in his pockets all times. Heck, even Kim mentions how foolish it was for Ron to carry such a large amount of money with him at all times. He also spends the money on unnecessary things, and even acquires fake friends.
As A Result: This gets him captured by Drakken. Ron also loses all of his money at the end of the episode due to his poor spending habits.
In the episode "Stop Team Go", one of the titular team's Rogues Gallery Electronique has assembled all of Team Go (Shego included) to a warehouse where she will zap them with the Attitudinator which will cause them to turn from good to bad. However, she isn't aware of the fact that Shego already made a Face–Heel Turn without the device, so when she attempts to explain it to her...
You'd Expect: For Electronique to hear Shego out. Once she has heard her story, she would either let her go back to Dr. Drakken or convince her to team up with her for her scheme of robbing all of Go City with her converted brothers.
Instead: She zapped all of Team Go with Shego included. While her brothers turned evil, she turned good. Electronique found out the hard way that Team Go is crippled without Shego around. Also, it allowed Kim and Ron to clue in on the situation to foil her plan.
- At the end of the episode, the good Ms. Go is zapped and turned back into Shego. Shego turns on Kim, who is sad at losing her new friend and ally. Shego is also shown to be having second thoughts.
  You'd Expect: She would consider that Kim was a better friend that Drakken was a boss.
  Instead: She burns the photos and helps Drakken open a glass jar.
  The Result: It's not until the Series Finale that Shego realizes a Heel–Face Turn may do her better and she gets the respect she deserves.

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

In the episode "Wishy-Washy", Gantu captures an experiment who grants wishes, and Lilo and Stitch have come to stop him. Gantu has captured this experiment by saying "I wish that the experiment was in my grasp".
You'd expect: Gantu would say something like "I wish no one could stop my plans" or "I wish Lilo and Stitch would be teleported into space".
Instead: Gantu wishes that his blaster was 100X more powerful and larger. This means that not only is his blaster harder to aim, it also does more accidental damage to his ship.
In the episode "Checkers", Lilo gets an experiment that causes anyone who wore it as a crown to be viewed as a king. Lilo naturally enjoys having authority, but the Alpha Bitch and her Girl Posse become her guards and arrest anyone who so much as crosses her the wrong way.
You'd Expect: For Lilo to stop their arrests. She Is the King, and she knows these so-called crimes are harmless.
Instead: Lilo reluctantly goes "I guess if they say he's a troublemaker...", let's them arrest the whole town. Everything eventually goes back to normal, and Lilo learns a lesson about accepting the authority of adults. If she's that inept as a king, she needs that lesson.

The Lion Guard

In the "Rise of Scar" episode of The Lion Guard, Kion's friends have managed to rescue Kiara from Janja's clan after she was captured as part of a scheme to make Kion use the Roar of the Elders to bring back Scar. However, Janja tells Kion that next time, he might actually kill Kiara, or Bunga, or his parents.
You'd Expect: Kion to just ignore Janja and return to the Pride Lands with his rescued sister.
Or: At the very least, say something along the lines of "We'll be ready for you, Janja!" and just leave it at that.
Instead: He uses the Roar of the Elders in anger, thus putting the Hyenas' plan of bringing back Scar into action.

Milo Murphy's Law

The Time Travel Bureau works to correct various temporal anomalies. They send their most inept agents, Dakota and Cavendish, to protect pistachios from going extinct.
You'd Expect: The Bureau would focus on just the plants and seeds.
Instead: Dakota and Cavendish's missions half-focus on commercially processed pistachios. Ones that cannot reproduce.
The agents notice that their missions fail every time Milo Murphy shows up and asks for pistachios. This happens because Milo is cursed with terrible bad luck. Cavendish becomes convinced that Murphy is a rival agent sent to thwart them.
You'd Expect: The Bureau would realize what Dakota and Cavendish realize, that the pistachio mission fails whenever Milo Murphy is around. And that he's a descendant of the original Murphy.
Instead: Their boss tells the duo to focus on their mission and that Murphy is an ordinary teenage kid. While Milo is a Nice Guy, he is far from ordinary.
The Result: Cavendish goes off on his own to find evidence that Murphy is an enemy, and fails because he and Dakota are mistaken for vampire hunters by Murphy's friends. He only finds out that Murphy has terrible bad luck because Dakota thinks to ask the kid about it rather than attack him.

The Proud Family

In the episode "Hip-Hop Helicopter," Penny gets peer-pressured into wearing her LPDZ outfit that her parents forbid her to wear to Bethany's (Dijonay's Cousin) party. To avoid getting caught wearing the outfit by her parents, Penny wears normal clothes over her LPDZ outfit. At the party, Penny and her friends eventually get bored and turned off by the older guys' behavior towards her and wants to leave.
You'd Expect: While Penny was already angry at and confronting Bethany, Penny should have at least calmed down and politely asked Bethany to give her (and her friends) regular clothes back for her to change into, so she could avoid getting caught by her parents.
Instead: Penny forgets to do so. She and her friend even lampshade this when Penny's already at her house and her family, along with Lacienega's family, pull up in their vehicles. Cue an Oh, Crap! from the four.
As a result: Predictably, Penny and her friends get grounded at the end of the episode.
A Running Gag throughout the show is that Oscar's Proud Snax are so terrible that anyone who eats them becomes violently ill. Peabo is the only character who likes them, but one customer isn't going to make him much money.
You'd Expect: Oscar to either make better snacks (even if he has to hire someone else to come up with the recipes) or give it up and try a different career.
Instead: He does neither.
As a result: Proud Snax don't sell very well and he makes very little money, making veterinarian Trudy the breadwinner of the Proud household.
Penny tries to convince her dad that she's old enough to go on a date. He refuses, because he thinks she's too young and gives Insane Troll Logic responses like "not until you're married" or "when you're thirty-nine".
You'd Expect: Oscar and Trudy would give Penny The Talk; they're worried about her choosing a guy for superficial reasons or about a guy wanting to get inside her pants.
Instead: Oscar keeps being a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad while he and Trudy prepare for a double-date with her parents.
The Result: Penny has to lie that she ran into a guy at the park, when she actually did a group date with her friends. Marcus was the only one willing to stay with her, and saved her siblings when the twins sneak on a rollercoaster. Also, he wins her a toy. Oscar still gives Marcus the cold shoulder when Marcus asks Penny out on a formal date. Penny blows up at her dad, with Trudy bluntly telling Oscar that Penny is growing up and she needs The Talk. Eventually, the two compromise; Penny can date boys when she's sixteen, but for now she and Marcus can only do homework together.
In another episode, a magician brings his performing tiger, saying that "Sasha" isn't eating. Penny by weird luck can talk to the tiger, who's actually a male named A.J. that hates being dressed up as a girl for the routine, and wants to eat regular carnivore food. She figures out that A.J. will be happy with dog food. The magician is so grateful that he offers Penny free tickets to his next show.
You'd Expect: The magician would have taken Penny's advice to heart.
Instead: He still calls A.J. "Sasha" and makes him dress up in humiliating outfits. Penny goes This Is Gonna Suck when she witnesses this at the show.
Predictably: A.J. snaps and breaks character mid-show, roaring at the magician and scaring everyone out of the tent. He convinces Penny and her mother to help him get back to India, leaving his owner without a tiger.
In "Smackmania 6: Mongo Vs Mama's Boy", Oscar has to defend his world championship against the returning Mongo. The only problem is that he's only been winning his matches thanks to Suga Mama interfering on his behalf, and he recently fired her. Mr. Chips gives Oscar the idea of defeating Mongo the same way he took him out of the ring the first time, by feeding him Proud Snax. He does so and Mongo is taken out of action.
You'd Expect: Oscar to immediately go for the pin.
Instead: He goes to the top rope, gloats and does a diving body splash.
The Result: The force of the splash causes Mongo to regurgitate the Proud Snax and he resumes kicking Oscar's butt. Even though Suga Mama comes to his rescue, Mongo's mother Momgo enters the ring and pummels both of them.

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

"When You Wish Upon a Roker":
- Penny once again finds herself dealing with Al Roker, and she knows about all the trouble Al has caused her in the past. Roker wants to give her a chance to be on her own as a college student.
  You'd Expect: For Penny to decline, especially knowing that Roker's magic is nothing but trouble in the making. Al seems powerless if his deals are broken, so he can't cause her any trouble if she just doesn't take it up, right?
  Instead: She takes up the deal. As for what happens next...
- Penny and all of her friends are now in college and are having the time of their lives, until the reality of college life sinks in: lots of schoolwork, college fees, etc. Penny's friends have had enough and decide to go back to their old lives as Roker gave them a week to change their minds.
  You'd Expect: Penny to go back with them.
  Instead: She stays past the deadline.
  The Result: Roker amps up the torture and turns Penny's college life into her own personal hell. Were it not for Dijonay sending Oscar in to save her, she'd still be stuck there.

Doug

"Doug Gets His Wish": Ms. Kristal is revealed to be a Cool Teacher but also intense. She gives a lot of homework and has high expectations for her English literature students. At one point Willie, who walked in late and doesn't know what the story is, has to tell his father that Ms. Kristal wants to meet for a parent-teacher conference. Willie claims that she hasn't taught him anything. Ms. Kristal also admits that she didn't vote for his father, who is the school principal and was formerly a mayor.
You'd Expect: Principal White would talk to Ms. Kristal to learn about the curriculum during the conference. They could then try to figure out how to help Willie with the material.
Instead: In a blatant abuse of power, he fires her on the grounds that Willie claims he's never learned anything in her class and for not voting for him, and then puts Willie in charge of English literature. Skeeter sees the danger, but Willie suspends him for pointing out that Doug has the right to talk with Ms. Kristal at the grocery store.
The Result: When Willie gets Drunk with Power, the students bound together against him and petition the school board to have Ms. Krystal reinstated. Tippi Dink, the head of the board, points out that you can't fire a teacher because she didn't support your election, and Doug quickly proves that Willie learned a lot from Ms. Kristal. Tippi reinstates her and puts Principal White in the class to learn.
"Doug Gets Booked":
- Roger doesn't like that a camera crew is following Beebe around, to do a documentary on her. He asks Ms. Krystal if this is necessary, since the crew is being disruptive. Beebe says You're Just Jealous and they get into an Eyelid Pull Taunt contest.
  You'd Expect: Ms. Krystal would break up the fight and maybe set some ground rules. The crew and Beebe are disrupting the class. and their teacher has high standards.
  Instead: She lets Beebe humiliate herself on camera, and Roger points it out with glee.
  The Result: Everyone starts freaking out about their book reports on realizing they and their behavior will be on television.
- Ms. Kristal assigns midterm-grade rules-free book report assignments to the whole class. They feel pressured that Bee Bee is having a documentary run on her, and thus their reports will be on television.
  You'd Expect: Most of the class to remember to read the book, and minimize their stunts. They know Ms. Kristal has high expectations.
  Instead: The class goes nuts trying to prepare for television presentations. Roger and Bee Bee use their wealth to create elaborate special effects, while Doug goes on spending and anxiety sprees trying to figure out what book is exciting enough and what effects he can afford. Beebe pays for a large reenactment of Treasure Island. In Roger's case, he hires a ghostwriter to write a book about his family and then actors to do a movie on it.
  The Result: On due date, most of the class suffers a number of technical difficulties with their effects, even those like Skeeter and Patty who put in the work. As Beebe finds out, her Treasure Island' performance sinks the day reports are due. The actors go on strike right when Roger presents them. Both admit they didn't read the book, to Ms. Kristal's obvious befuddlement, and Skunky embarrasses Roger further by showing up with a Boring, but Practical book report on Biography of Klautz that earns him an A. Doug presents with his simple handwritten report on Edgar Allan Poe, and his oratory skills steal the show from Bee Bee. The lesson? Actually do your homework.
"Beebe Goes Broke": Owing to some bad investments, Beebe's family loses all their money. While they've kept the house, and her dad can light fires to deal with the heat being cut off, Beebe is at a loss at what to do now that they're no longer rich. To cheer her up and teach her some life skills, the kids invite her to Patti's house to make her Trademark Favorite Food, baloney sandwiches and show her ways to hang out without needing money.
You'd Expect: Since Beebee has never had to lift a finger to make her own food, or even launder her clothes as we find out, Patti would make the cooking instructions as idiot-proof as possible.
Instead: Patti tells Beebe to slice some tomatoes, while she goes to get the other ingredients.
The Result: Hilarity Ensues because Beebe doesn't know what to use for slicing tomatoes. She grabs a spatula and smashes one tomato, which she realizes is not right. Then Beebee grabs what she thinks is a tomato slicer, an understandable mistake, and attempts to slice the tomato. It's too thick and flies into the air, splattering over Skeeter. Patti has to correct Beebe that she grabbed an egg slicer, meant for hard or softboiled eggs.
Fortunately: Even though Mr. Bluff gets his fortune back at the end, by then Beebee has learned to make baloney sandwiches and takes pride when she shares them with her friends.
"Doug and the Bluffington Five": When the school decides to implement uniforms and don't even read a student petition, Sally decides to lead a protest. Patti is admiring and wanting to follow Sally, and most of the students follow their lead, including Roger and Bee Bee. Doug and Skeeter decide to film the protest for social studies.
You'd Expect: That Students Protest the Uniform Decision, or S.P.U.D., would have solid leadership and a reasonable committee. The odds are stacked against them as it is.
Instead: When Sally loses her voice from shouting so much, she makes Patti go up on stage and speak for her during the students' lunch.
The Result: Patti becomes the S.P.U.D. leader, also is Drunk with Power and gets "carried away," as she admits. She drives away Roger, Bee Bee and Sally with her egotistical schemes from making them march in the corridor to going on a hunger strike. The hunger strike backfires because it's just for lunch so the teachers don't care. When S.P.U.D. actually gets a chance to debate, they lose because Principal White chooses Skeeter to speak pro uniforms, and Patti has to apologize to the students for her egotism so that Skeeter can speak. The teahcers get locked in debate on how the clothes should look, making the protest moot anyway.

Gargoyles

In the "City of Stone" arc, the flashback when Macbeth was king and Demona was his Dragon. After the defeat of the hunter army Macbeth held a secret meeting with his son Lulach and his father-in-law to decide what to do next. The father-in-law suggest to let the gargoyles be killed in order to appease the English army. Lulach doesn't agree, but Macbeth inform Lulach that a king had to look all options. All this time Demona was listening in.
You'd Expect: That Demona would stay there and listen to find out what Macbeth's final choice is. If he says yes, burst in there, kill everyone or quietly leave to let Macbeth fend for himself. If he says no, she can still give Macbeth a What the Hell, Hero? speech for even thinking of dumping your clan to the enemy
Instead: She leaves without knowing the final choice and just assumes the worst
Additionally: She betrays Macbeth to the England invaders and the hunter because they sure are a bunch of trust-worthy people with no Fantastic Racism against gargoyles.
The Result: Demona is alone again and this time has an immortal Rival that wants her dead even if it costs him his life.
In the second episode of the third season, when everybody suddenly hates the Gargoyles, Lexington is captured, crucified (!) and put on public display, apparently to be lynched.
You'd Expect: Him to cry out that he's innocent or try to reason with the crowd or say anything.
If Nothing Else: It would have at least proven that he's in fact sentient.
Instead: He says nothing and just snarls at the people like the beast they believe he is.
In "My Brother's Keeper", Elisa got a recording from Fox about what Xanatos is planning for her younger brother, Derek. She shows it to him.
You'd Expect: Him to listen the tape to learn that Xanatos is up to no good and quits working for him.
Instead: He didn't listen to the tape at all, and assumes the worse.
Worse Still: Word of God say he did in fact listen to the tape, but decided he was smart enough to handle Xanatos and didn't want to admit his sister was right.
Speaking of this one, there's also the season 2 episode, "The Cage", when Xanatos shows Derek (now Talon) a video recording of Goliath kidnapping Sevarius. He made him think they're still working together, and Owen ended up revealing their location. Cue Talon running off.
You'd Expect: Xanatos should stop him immediately and tell him that he's been using him all this time, saving Goliath's life.
Instead: Oh boy:
Xanatos: Oh hello, Goliath, didn't even notice you there.
Goliath: Did you have to save my life after Talon nearly killed me?!

The Ghost and Molly McGee

In "Goat Your Own Way", Molly signs up for the 3A Club at the county fair and is asked to train a goat as part of such; the goal is to get the goat to obey through a routine called "Command, Click, Reward", and the coach warns everyone to not let the goat's cuteness fool them. Molly has trouble getting her goat, Totes, to obey; matter of fact, she finds herself giving in to Totes' cuteness.
You'd Expect: Molly to ask a grownup for help.
Or: Molly to ask Scratch to possess Totes.
Instead: She alters the routine into "Reward, Command, Click" and thus, Totes ends up bloated and craving for food nonstop, unlike Libby and the others, who had no trouble with their goats. When it was time for the act to go on, Totes lets his hunger get the better of him thanks to Molly's method, smelling Scratch's food and going right for them, gulping them down, and thus the McGees are banned from the county fair for life as a result.

Sofia the First

In "Once Upon a Princess" after Amber ruins Sofia's dance lesson, she asks Cedric to give her a dancing spell so she can dance the waltz for her royal ball. Unbeknownst to her, Cedric gives her a sleeping spell instead, as he intends to blackmail her into giving her the Amulet of Avalor that she was given by King Roland, and since she refuses to take it off because she makes good on her word that she will never take it off.
You'd Expect: Cedric to wait outside the ballroom while Sofia casts the spell, because it affects anyone who is in the room at the time except for the caster.
Instead: He comes into the ballroom when the spell is cast, and as a result, Cedric also falls victim to his own spell.
In "The Floating Palace", Cedric turns himself into a sea monster to steal the Mermaid Comb of Merroway Cove, which is currently in possession of the mermaid Oona. She is eventually held hostage by him, and Sofia has to save her and protect her comb from falling into the wrong hands, like how she has to protect her amulet.
You'd Expect: Sofia to recognize the sea monster as Cedric, given his similar voice, has a magic wand, and nearly resembles him in human form in many ways.
Instead: She doesn't.
- Earlier in the movie, Sofia meets Oona who takes her to the kingdom of Merroway Cove. Once there, they overhear a conversation from the royal family about her family's ship. The royal advisor, Plank, suggests that Oona's mother, Queen Emmaline, conjures a storm to move the boat, which she refuses to do at first. Sofia then bursts in and reveals that she is actually a human and that the ship belongs to her family. The other mermaids reveal their distrust for humans, culminating from a bad encounter with another ship many years before the events of the movie.
  You'd Expect: Sofia to stand her ground and insist that she and her family are good and don't mean any harm, and that it's unfair to judge her based on an unrelated experience that happened many years before she was born. Heck, she can even invite them to meet her family and see for themselves what they're like.
  Instead: She tells Queen Emmaline that she'll have her family move their ship and never return. Even if Cedric didn't turn into a sea monster, she seemed to forget that her family didn't believe in mermaids and wouldn't have been convinced.
In "When You Wish Upon A Well", Amber uses a wishing well to wish Roland were allergic to Sofia; it turns her into a cat, which is what Roland is allergic to. When she realizes what happened, she attempts to use her last wish to undo it.
You'd Expect: For Amber to say something along the lines of "I wish Sofia was back to normal."
Instead: She wishes Sofia "wasn't a purple cat anymore." Sofia turns into a pink cat instead. It's only when Roland arrives does he word his wishing properly (for Sofia to be "her normal, beautiful, human self again"), so Sofia turns back into her human self.
After Cedric gets hold of the Amulet of Avalor jewel in "Cedric Be Good", he realizes too late that stealing the amulet from its chosen bearer results in the thief being cursed nonstop. To stop the curses, he must perform good deeds to gain new powers; one of his powers allows him to grow giant-sized with a loud and booming voice once Sofia is gone.
You'd Expect: Sofia to hear Cedric and come right back to see what happened to him.
Instead: She somehow never hears him despite being within earshot; it's only after Cedric shrinks does Sofia come back.

Nina Needs to Go!

Every episode starts with either of Nina's parents or her older brother, Frank, asking Nina if she needs to use the restroom, or if she used it before they left the house.
You'd Expect: Nina to tell either of her parents or Frank that she needs to go to the bathroom, in case she can't hold it in the entire time the rest of the family is involved in whatever the episode's activity is.
Instead: She tells them that she's fine, and about 10 seconds later, she tells them she needs to go immediately. Unfortunately for her, there's no nearby restroom.
The Beach episode has one of its own. Nina's Mom is trying to get Nina to the beach's bathroom, and on their way, they come to a volleyball field.
You'd Expect: Nina's Mom to continue to try to take Nina to the bathroom, not even letting the volleyball game distract her.
Instead: Nina's Mom says she loves volleyball, and joins the other players in the volleyball game, forgetting about taking Nina to the bathroom. Fortunately, Nana takes over for her.

American Dragon: Jake Long

"The Love Cruise": After Huntsgirl pulls a Heel–Face Turn and becomes The Mole for Jake and his dragon team, Lao Shi is concerned that her relationship with Jake is affecting his dragon duties. Never mind that Jake is living a double life and dating Rose is one of the few outlets he has to deal with the daily stresses of protecting the entire magical world.
You'd Expect: He would talk it out with Jake about not engaging in Love Makes You Dumb. Rose is a powerful ally, but also still in danger because the Huntsclan has been suspecting her of turning traitor. They could easily use her as leverage to get the three Skulls.
Instead: He asks Rose to break up with Jake.
You'd Then Expect: Rose would realize how ridiculous it is that Lao Shi is expecting Jake to put his desire for a normal life on hold.
Instead: She goes along with it.
The Result: A heartbroken Jake acquires a love potion to make Rose fall in love with him again, but it backfires and makes her hate him, and she nearly turns in the entire dragon team to the Huntsclan. They determine that Rose and Jake can only be together once the time to use the Skulls has passed, and when Rose gets the opportunity to leave the Huntsclan for good. This backfires when the Huntsman discovers her treachery, Rose has to wipe out the Huntsclan to save Jake and the others. Jake's wish to save her in turn wipes Rose's memory of their relationship and leads to her moving away to Hong Kong. Haley calls out Lao Shi for this in "Being Human" when she gets a taste of what Jake's daily routine as the American Dragon is like.
Fortunately: In the Series Finale, Jake gets an Earn Your Happy Ending when Rose regains her memories, helps defeat the Dark Dragon, and gives him The Big Damn Kiss.
"Being Human"
- Chang is working to resurrect the Dark Dragon. She sneers when Haley and Sun show up to stop her instead of Jake, her grandson. It turns out she needs the American Dragon's chi or blood to complete the spell.
  You'd Expect: Chang would, after getting the ingredients, stop to ponder why Jake didn't show up for regular dragon duties. Or at least have a backup plan.
  Instead: She kidnaps him with no second thought even when he fails to transform in front of her.
  The Result: It turns out Jake got himself suspended from dragon duties for a week, which made Haley the American Dragon by default. Haley even lampshades that after Bananas B. incapacitated her with Essence of Troll that Chang should have kidnapped her instead. Chang's pondering over why Jake's normal chi didn't work gives Haley, Sun and Lao Shi enough time to come to the rescue, restore Jake's dragon powers, and fight her off. It's only because of bad luck that Jake's reactivated blood restores the Dark Dragon to full power.

Sabrina: The Animated Series

The Spellmans have their books and potions, but their go-to is Spooky in the Spooky Jar. Spooky is a Jackass Genie who will do complicated spells for them but often add in clauses because It Amused Me. Like the time he trapped Sabrina and Harvey in a spy movie because Harvey wanted a video to come out early. At best, he'll make up a mocking poem for Sabrina about how she laughs like a hyena.
You'd Expect: At some point Hilda and Zelda would put the Spooky Jar out of reach of Sabrina or anyone that may eye it. It's too much temptation and the headaches aren't worth it.
Instead: It's always reachable, even during the times when Hilda and Zelda say that Sabrina needs to ask permission before asking Spooky for a spell.
The Result: Spooky causes a lot of chaos while Bothering by the Book. When Sabrina asks for a weight-loss spell, he gives her a scale that shrinks her and Chloe. The time that Gem put a book in what she thought was a cookie jar? Spooky transported Gem and Sabrina back in time, nearly outing the entire family's magic to Gem. One time even a stray dog managed to gain sapience and nearly conquer humanity due to nosing at the Spooky Jar for food.
In one episode, Sabrina gets upset when Harvey seems to love the style of clothes that Gem is sporting. She and Chloe go shopping for the same outfits but realize the shirts and pants are too small. When Sabrina suggests they do rapid weight loss and exercise, Chloe mentions they could just use magic to git into the clothes.
You'd Expect: They would ask Zelda and Hilda to make the clothes bigger, or find a spell for perfect tailoring. Even in real life, most celebrities tailor their outfits to look fabulous.
Instead: They sneak to the Spooky Jar and get a weight loss scale.
Predictably: The spell goes wrong, shrinking Sabrina and Chloe to doll size when they are at school. Hilarity Ensues as they have to navigate their way back to Sabrina's house and get back to normal.
"Molar Molar": Sabrina freaks out when her dentist says that she needs to get her wisdom teeth removed. She's terrified about the pain and decides to summon Spooky for help.
You'd Expect: She would phrase her words carefully when asking for a spell and do her research on how much wisdom teeth extraction hurts.
Instead: She asks for Spooky to remove them painlessly.
The Result: It turns out removing her wisdom teeth makes her lose her filters and she starts insulting everyone by speaking her mind. Salem has to blackmail Spooky into restoring her teeth, and she has to do the operation normally.
"Salem's Plot": Quite a few emerge during the episode's course:
- Salem's best friend slash rival is coming for a supposedly civil visit, but Salem knows that Hephaestus will rub in the fact that the Witches Council turned a former world-conqueror into a cat, with no magic whatsoever. He asks his family for help, even begging Sabrina for assistance in making a golem. The golem does well for a bit but eventually gets smashed to pieces just as Salem is about to present himself.
  You'd Expect: Salem would come clean, as Sabrina, Quigley and the others suggest. If Hephaestus is really his friend, then he won't care that Salem is a cat now. And if he ends up being an arrogant prat and gloating over his bestie? Then the Spellmans can kick him out.
  Instead: Using some Reverse Psychology, Salem convinces Quigley to pose as him, as an acting job but to ad-lib and follow his lead.
  The Result: Hilarity Ensues, and Salem learns belatedly that he didn't need the subterfuge. It turns out Hephaeustus got cursed by the Witches Council as well, meaning that he was in the same boat.
- Quigley also gets this while posing as Salem. He makes a pretty decent impersonation, considering he's older than Salem is supposed to appear. Sabrina is watching the friendly introductions turn into an argument. Salem mutters at him to escort Heph outside and end the visit early.
  You'd Expect: Quigley would know when to quit. His job is to make sure that Heph gets in and gets out.
  Instead: He gets too into character, challenging Hephaestus to a carpet race with the stakes that the loser has to be the other's servant for fifty years. Even Sabrina, normally the impulsive one, hints at him to reign it in and Salem goes Oh, Crap! that his method actor went deep.
  The Result: The Spellmans go Mass "Oh, Crap!", Quigley included, when learning that he agreed to a magic carpet race but he doesn't know how to fly one. He bargains with Salem that the cat needs to fly the carpet, or Quigley will tell the truth to Hephaestus.
- Following this, Sabrina is the only one who can make a magic carpet for the race. She does so, using some of their living room rugs. They seem up to the task, but they are Persian. Apparently, they will only understand commands in Farsi. Hilda and Zelda also reveal the carpets have a speed limit and if they go past it then the carpets will unravel in mid-air.
  You'd Expect: Salem would either tell Sabrina to use English rugs because Persian ones only respond to commands in Persian or Farsi, or look up the phrases for controlling the carpets. You can get a rug for cheap at a thrift store, or enspell them to learn magical commands.
  You'd Also Expect: They would warn Quigley and Hephaestus about this since he's borrowing a carpet from "Salem" for this race. Sure he's being a prat but he deserves a fair warning that too high a speed will cause the thread to unravel. Salem still acknowledges that Heph is his best friend
  Instead: He doesn't, and the Spellmans try to warn Heph but he apparently doesn't listen to them. Soon Salem and Quigley are neck-in-neck to race, with the girls following on flying vacuum cleaners.
  The Result: The carpets unravel from the increased speed, and Quigley goes Now You Tell Me when Salem tells him that he doesn't know how to make it stop. They have to jump onto Hephaeustus's carpet to avoid falling. He reveals that he can't perform magic to stop them either, due to the fact that the Witches Council turned him into a mouse and they start to fall from the sky after his carpet unravels. It's only because the girls were following that they catch the trio in time, with Quigley needing to spend the rest of the evening in a comfy recliner, refusing to get involved with magic for the rest of day. Salem acknowledges that their rivalry was stupid and hiding their punishments kept them from talking for years. While he does end up chasing Hephaestus anyway, it's because his cat instincts take over when seeing a mouse in the area.
- "Saturday Fun Fervor": Quigley's girlfriend has recently left him for someone he condescendingly calls "the candy man". As a result, he's in a funk and worried that none of the girls are being responsible with their magic. He wants to reinstate a weekly game night called Saturday Fun. Hilda, Zelda, and Sabrina are annoyed by this because Quigley is the only one who enjoys that much bonding. They decide that he needs a new girlfriend both to mend his broken heart and occupy Saturday evenings.
  You'd Expect: They would do what they do later and use magic to see what mortal women have caught his eye while encouraging him to take the first step and call the woman. While that plan B goes wrong owing to Sabrina micromanaging Quigley's date with her school principal, Sabrina at least had good intentions and even got her uncle a new suit, as well as flowers.
  Instead: Hilda and Zelda set him up on a blind date with a witch. Sabrina questions the wisdom of this because she wants Quigley to be happy, showing that this really isn't a good idea considering Sabrina is usually the one that has a Zany Scheme up her sleeve. Her aunts say that if Quigley wants fun, witches can definitely provide that.
  The Result: Said witch turns Quigley into a pig for a day when he can't keep up with her energy. Salem teases Quigley about if he wants bacon for breakfast, while Sabrina lampshades they ought to have seen how the plan wouldn't work.

TaleSpin

In the episode "For a Fuel Dollars More," Rebecca gets an idea to host a mid-air refueling station for pilots to skip the hassle of having to land and take off again for getting their planes filled once more. Initially the plan seems to go fantastic, but unfortunately it just so happens they stationed themselves right next to King Louie's bar, accidentally driving away nearly all business of his. Furious, he decides to copy Rebecca's idea and compete with Baloo.
You'd Expect: That since King Louie is a very close friend of Baloo's, that either Baloo or Rebecca would simply propose to move their business somewhere else and avoid interfering with Louie's customer base. They not only have an entire sky to do this, it's a total snap to do since, well, their business is airborne and all.
Instead: Baloo and Rebecca decide to get in a business fistfight with Louie and attempt to one-up him. This not only gets out of hand very quick, it puts Louie and Baloo at complete odds with each other as they keep attempting to one-up one another. It escalates to a point where they end up practicing illegal tactics including stealing fuel from each other, eventually to a point where they're forced to sabotage each other's businesses once they understand the mess they've gotten themselves into.
In "The Balooest of the Bluebloods," Baloo is invited to a mansion that he has reportedly inherited due to being a long-lost baron. However, the hosts trick him into thinking that he and his heirs are cursed, as many of them were killed for one reason or another. Sure enough, Baloo's life is endangered several times during his stay, including being nearly fed to sharks in a private indoor pool, being served live vicious carnivorous animals for dinner, and served a dessert that one of his heirs choked on.
You'd Expect: For Baloo, with the understanding that there's no such thing as curses, to be suspicious that these goings-on didn't happen until he was invited to this mansion, see that they're far from natural occurrences at that (especially on the dessert part, considering they taunt right to his face about those), and realize that the hosts are trying to kill him.
Instead: He completely buys the entire "curse" story and believes every ounce of it, crying for Rebecca and Wildcat's help after several attempted murders. Since he already treated Rebecca poorly earlier, she's understandably skeptical that Baloo has any sort of curse. At first she completely disregards any ideas that his life is in danger, but later on, she witnesses an attempted murder.
You'd Then Expect: That Rebecca, being the smarter of the two, and having just witnessed the fact that Baloo was shot at with arrows with a piano sent almost running into him, that this was no coincidence and conclude that, again, the hosts or at least some unnatural cause is behind this.
Instead: She too is duped into believing Baloo to be cursed. It's one thing for Baloo, being rather dimwitted to begin with, to buy it, but Rebecca is the far smarter of the two and is more than reasonable enough to be able to come to the right conclusion. It takes her having to overhear the hosts complaining that they still haven't yet murdered Baloo before she finally figures out the real cause.
"Your Baloo's In The Mail", Rebecca has just won a huge sweepstakes prize, but she has to send her winning ticket by next day mail, and she doesn't have the time to do that and take Molly to her school pageant. She has the option of entrusting Baloo with it, but is afraid to do so because Baloo always screws up important tasks.
You'd Expect: Rebecca to tell Baloo about the ticket and take the risk; if Baloo screws up, he will at least do so honestly.
Instead: On Molly's suggestion, she ask him to mail the letter but tells him it isn't important, on the reasoning he won't screw it up if he doesn't know it's important.
The Result: Baloo spends almost all the money Rebecca gave him for the next day mail on lunch, and sends it off on the slowest possible route, forcing him and Kit to fly the ticket to the sweepstake headquarters themselves in a mad panic when Rebecca tells them the truth.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

In "Out To Launch", Gadget is building a rocket so that she, Monty and Zipper can rescue Chip and Dale after they accidently get launched into space. Monty is loading up dynamite to help them take off and he finds a parachute and a rubber raft inside the bucket where he's putting the dynamite.
You'd Expect: Monty to just leave it. Gadget being a Ditzy Genius doesn't change the fact she is still a genius, so they must be there for a reason. If he really isn't sure, he could also just ask her.
Instead: He gets rid of them, claiming they don't need them in outer space.
Sure Enough: Gadget's originally wanted to do a splash down using the parachute and raft, which they now can't do.
In "A Fly in the Ointment", Professor Nimnul has captured the Rangers at the end after their transformations were undone, but Zipper manages to escape the cage and Nimnul was still wearing the Modemizer he used to commit theft in the episode.
You'd Expect: That Nimnul would take the Modemizer off first as Zipper could easily dial 9-1-1 and warp him to the cops.
Instead: Nimnul attempts to swat Zipper while wearing it, giving the fly the opportunity to do just that, leading to Nimnul not just being captured, but also being escorted to an insane asylum.
"Good Times, Bat Times": The Villain of the Week, a wannabe witch named Winifred, borders on Stupid Evil with amount of mistakes she makes throughout the episode that ultimately cost her a chance at victory.
- The first big moment comes right after she's just stolen the last thing she needs for her spell-a moon rock. The Rangers have just arrived and blasting at her with pebbles. The only thing Winifred has to shoot at them is the moon rock. When she demands it to fire, her spider familiar Lou tries to point out to her that they need it.
  You'd Expect: Winifred to listen to Lou, cut her loses and flee the scene. Her flying vacuum is way faster than the Rangers' Bagpipe Express.
  Instead: She demands Lou give it to her and he obliges out of fear.
  The Result: Her plans are set back due to the Rangers fleeing with the moon rock after getting shot down.
- The second moment comes after Winifred sends Foxglove to get the moon rock. Not trusting Foxglove to do the job, she decides to use her magic brew to spy on her to make sure she is doing her job. The first thing she sees is Gadget finding the moon rock as she drags the Bagpipe Express back to headquarters.
  You'd Expect: Winifred to not jump the gun and wait to see what Foxglove, who has yet to even arrive on the scene, does.
  Instead: She assumes Foxglove either screwed up or ditched the job and heads off to get the rock herself.
  The Result: While she does get the moon rock, she interrupts Foxglove's own attempt of seducing Dale for the rock, which was about to work, not only revealing who Foxglove is working for, but also revealing to the Rangers that she's still active, sending them back after her.
- Winifred can still win. She has the last part of her spell and all she needs to do is drop it into the brew she made and she'll gain real magical powers.
  You'd Expect: Her to do it as soon as she returns to her lair.
  Instead: She wastes time screwing with Dale and Foxglove, which gives the other Rangers time to catch up.
  You'd now Expect: While Bud and Lou distract the Rangers, she'd complete the spell.\\

Instead: She tries to fight the Rangers with her henchmen.
The Result: While she's distracted, Dale and Foxglove sabotage her brew, ruining her plans.

In "Flash the Wonder Dog", Fat Cat, out of rage that a dog is the star of a popular TV show, decides to sabotage his career by dressing up as Flash with his henchmen and frame him for committing crimes.
You'd Expect: No one to fall for it. Two cats, a mole and a sugar lizard have vastly different body frames from a dog.
Instead: Only the Rangers see through the ruse. The humans buy it hook, line and sinker and form an angry mob against Flash.
Even Worse: Even when Fat Cat holds Flash's co-star hostage, meaning that a bunch of humans are looking directly at him and could see he doesn't look like Flash, it's only when Flash confronts Fat Cat directly do the humans realize he was framed.

Recess

"The Trial": The backstory that led to the trial in question has this, something that Ashley A. lampshades. During a dirt clod war, Randall hit Spinelli during a time out. She had him pinned with a dirt clod but decided to save a Cat Up a Tree instead. It turned out to be Miss Finster's cat. She sincerely thanked Spinelli and said "I owe you one." Randall sees this from a distance and seethes with rage, anger and betrayal.
You'd Expect: Randall would confront Miss Finster with a What the Hell, Hero? about how she doesn't appreciate him. While Miss Finster can replace him with Douglas, she admits that she cares about Randall more than she lets on during recess hours.
Instead: He...beans himself with a rock by tossing it into the air and running around until it clonks him on the head. Then Randall fakes a scream and unconsciousness, accusing Spinelli of tossing a big rock at him, a big no-no during a dirt-clod war. Spinelli doesn't want to say what she was really doing because saving a cat doesn't make her look like a tough kid.
The Result: Randall could have badly injured himself, as the number of bandages on his head indicates. While he does succeed in rousing an angry mob of students to go after Spinelli, he didn't anticipate her friends defending her. King Bob demands a fair trial, and T.J. convinces Spinelli to tell the truth about what really happened. She tells the kids that if they don't believe her, Miss Finster would back her up. Gretchen as the prosecutor turns on Randall and forces him to confess, relieved that Spinelli has proof. Cue Ashley A. saying, "What an Idiot!" with Digger Dave saying that's the Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard. King Bob clears Spinelli of the charges and sentences Randall to the swirly on the grounds of perjury. So he has a head injury and an angry mob after his head now. Good going, Randall.
"Bad Hair Day":
- While Spinelli and Gretchen are excused from school, to attend an event, the boys see Mikey attempting to break a bubblegum record. No one is technically allowed to chew gum at school, with Miss Finster coming down hard on anyone seen with candy. The Blumbergs also don't want to see their son come home in a mess. Mikey still wants to see if he can make the win.
  You'd Expect: He would pragmatically try to break the record either after school or on the weekend while hanging out with his friends. Also he should keep a jar of peanut butter around.
  Instead: Mikey chews a lot of bubblegum at recess and tries to break the record. He attracts a crowd when they think he's close, including a Guinness record official.
  The Result: It goes wrong thanks to a kindergartner entranced with the giant bubble, and Mikey's covered in sticky gum. To make matters worse, he says his parents will ground him because he's not allowed to chew this much gum for a reason, namely that it can end up in a giant mess. It's only by sheer luck that Miss Finster didn't see and give Mikey detention.
- TJ and Vince debate about what to do to save Mikey from being busted.
  You'd Expect: They would go to the nurse and ask if she can cut the gum out of Mikey's hair, or if she has some sort of solvent like peanut butter. The nurse is revealed to be a Nice Girl in a later episode.
  Instead: TJ becomes convinced that he can cut Mikey's hair and it will be fine. Vince agrees to pitch in and help. Gus is the Only Sane Man who refuses to get involved, knowing This Is Gonna Suck.
  The Result': TJ is many things, but a stylist is not one of them. He ends up lopping half of Mikey's hair off, creating a Gag Haircut. Randall sees and is about to tattle, but TJ bribes him to instead compliment Mikey. Cue From Bad to Worse as the whole playground mistakenly thinks that Mikey looks like the band members from Dog's Pajamas and agree to have their heads shaved as well. Gretchen and Spinelli then come back from their excused absence and reveal everyone looks ridiculous, leading to an angry mob chasing Vince and TJ into the sunset.
"The Game": Gus finds a plastic tile with a heron on it. Gretchen reveals it's part of a game called Ajimbo, one that turns entire playgrounds into zombie areas, where kids can only think about the tiles and matching them to complete a pattern. The kids go Mass "Oh, Crap!".
You'd Expect: Gretchen, the smart one, would toss the game piece over the fence so that it can't infect their school. If they all know the legend of Ajimbo, they should get rid of the temptation as soon as possible.
instead: She dares her friends to touch it. While Mikey freaks out, Spinelli scoffs and T.J. tosses the piece away, where it lands on school grounds.
The Result: The Diggers find the Blue Heron piece. They go to Kelso's to buy more pieces and some gum, starting to play. Soon Cornchip girl gets involved, and the game goes viral around the school. If not for the kindergartners, everyone would have been brainwashed into playing forever, including T.J. who holds out for as long as possible.
"The Economics Of Recess" It turns out that TJ got sick for a few days. He was bummed about the fact that it wasn't a vacation, since he had to do all of his homework. During those days, a new trend has taken over Third Street School: people using stickers for currency. You can't even lie on the grass in the playground unless you have a sticker. TJ naturally has none.
You'd Expect: His friends would have called him to explain the change in status quo, and maybe even lend him some stickers as a startup. TJ is a good guy and someone who deserves to be in the know. Then they could even buy him whatever Kelso has left.
Instead: Apparently no one tells him.
The Result: When TJ returns to school, everyone demanding stickers blindsides him. The gang has to explain, but while they can cover his first few drinks of water, it's evident that his friends don't have enough stickers, and Kelso sold out of the stock that he has, though he has lick-em alien stamps from Japan. TJ realizes that if he wants to earn enough stickers to play with his friends, he needs to work for them by offering services to the Diggers and King Bob. This course of action, along with realizing that the more he works the less time he has to actually play, leads to him wanting all the stickers on the playground, and his friends have to ruin him for things to go back to normal.

Teamo Supremo

Sally Smith becomes new sensational singer Tiffany Javelin. Her manager is highly controlling, tearing up Sally's clothes and cutting her down. She wants to make the Tiffany Javelin name soar across the charts, and into fans' hearts.
You'd Expect: That the manager wouldn't make Tiffany engage in criminal activity. That sort of thing will encourage Governor Kevin and the Police Chief to arrest her.
Instead: She makes Tiffany Javelin steal chocolate milk, encourage kids to skip school, and intimidate the governor.
The Result: The minute that Crandall exposes that Tiffany's manager is emotionally abusing her and saying that she'd be nothing as Sally Smith, the adoring fans boo at them and the spell is broken. Cue Rope Girl snapping out of her Tiffany worship and lassoing the manager before she can make her exit. Later on, Tiffany Grew a Spine and refuses to do her manager's bidding, because she doesn't want to get arrested again.

The Emperor's New School

In the Christmas Episode, A Giftmas Story, Kuzco ruins Tipo's Giftmas (their version of Christmas) by telling him that Papa Santos (their version of Santa Claus) isn’t real. Then later when he and Kronk meet Papa Santos, and Kuzco seeks to get off his naughty list by making up for every bad thing he did that year. After nearly completing his list, his last of bad thing is to make up for ruining Tipo's Giftmas.
You'd Expect: Kuzco would bring Kronk along as a witness and show Tipo the pictures he took of them when they were at Papa Santos' ice palace, and if that doesn't work use the magic hickory nuts they used to get home to bring the child to the ice palace and introduce him to Papa Santos.
Instead: Kuzco just tells Tipo the story alone without any proof.
The Result: Tipo unsurprisingly doesn't believe him and believes Kuzco is making fun of him and tells him to leave him alone, leading to Kuzco being unable to get off the naughty list.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

In "Pluto's Ball", Mickey and Pluto chase the ball all the way to a golf course where it lands on the tee where Donald is. Mickey tries to warn him not to hit it, but Donald ends up breaking his golf club upon attempting to do so and asks for help fixing it.
You'd Expect: Before helping, for Mickey to immediately pick up the ball, securing it for good.
Instead: He doesn't even think of the ball until after fixing the club, and he tries to warn Donald again, but he doesn't listen and hits it far away.

PJ Masks

In "Catboy's Flying Fiasco", Connor gets a scooter as a gift from an "Aunt Cynthia"(whom he's never heard of before), which is actually a disguised Luna Board.
You'd expect: Connor would find it suspicious that either a relative he never met would just send him a gift or that it's so similar to the Luna Board and think twice about riding it. Even if the look was just a coincidence, the fact that it flies definitely should have been a red flag.
Instead: He just rolls with it and rides the scooter everywhere, even taking it to the night's mission to stop Luna Girl from stealing an air balloon.
You would also expect: Catboy would stop riding it for the time of the mission, knowing that the Owl Glider is much more suitable for it.
Instead: Not only does he take the scooter to the mission, he also wants to use it to stop Luna Girl.
Result: Luna Girl takes control of the scooter and keeps throwing Catboy off coarse, creating a perfect distraction for his friends until she steals the balloon.

Modern Disney Shorts

In "Feed the Birds," Mickey is trying to get bread crumbs to a sweet little bird named Tuppence. Every time Tuppence tries to eat, nearby pigeons bully him away from his breakfast. When Mickey tries to bring Tuppence to the safety of his home, the pigeons fly into the chimney and kick them out. Mickey gets angry and quickly advertises a pigeon paradise on TV that has all the food, movies, and amenities they could ever want.
You'd Expect: The pigeons would realize that Mickey would have no reason to want to help them after they kicked him out of his own house and burned down the custom feeder he made for Tuppence.
Instead: They fall for the Schmuck Bait and go to the paradise.
Predictably: It's revealed to be a trap; Mickey reveals the barn is a rocket, and allows Tuppence to push the launch button. Tuppence goes Beware the Nice Ones and does so with a Grin of Audacity.
In the Mickey Mouse Halloween special, "The Scariest Story Ever", Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and are hosting Huey, Dewey, Louie, Morty, and Ferdie on Halloween who want scary stories. These kids are also jaded.
You'd Expect: The trio would have prepared their tales ahead of time.
Instead: They improvise their stories, with cliched twists and turns.
Predictably: The kids aren't amused.
In "Flushed!" while Mickey is taking care of Gubbles the fish, Gubbles decides to take a nap while Mickey is out of the scene. Once Mickey returns, Mickey notices Gubbles asleep and belly-up, and assumes Gubbles died.
You'd Expect: For Mickey to check Gubbles for any signs of life, as he clearly went to sleep after Mickey cleaned his bowl, and doesn't appear to be dead.
Instead: He jumps the gun and has a funeral in the bathroom; it's not until after Gubbles wakes up and he flushes does he realize that Gubbles is alive.
Once Upon a Studio has two once everyone is outside and it's time for the picture.
- First, they need someone to set up the camera for the big group shot.

You'd Expect: Mickey or Minnie to set it up themselves or get someone reliable to do it. They wouldn't be short on options.
Instead: They let Goofy, someone who is known for being The Klutz, set the camera up.
You'd Then Expect: Someone to be spotting Goofy or at least be holding the latter in place. Since everyone seems to know each other, they all no doubt know about Goofy being a klutz.
Instead: Everyone just watches as Goofy dangerously mounts the latter, swaying all over the place.
The Result: Goofy falls and breaks the camera.

The next one comes directly afterward when everyone realizes that the camera has broken.
You'd Expect: Someone to simply go get a new camera or fix the current one. At least half the people standing for the photo have magic of some kind, so it shouldn't be that hard.
Instead: Everyone promptly gives up without a second thought. It isn't until Alan-a-Dale starts playing "When You Wish Upon A Star" do people realize that they can fix the camera easily or could have helped Goofy with the picture.
Another one happens before the picture. All the characters are coming out to head outside. However, this also includes some of the villains.
You'd Expect: Some of the good ones to keep a very close eye on them to make sure they don't try anything.
Instead: No one thinks about doing this.
The Result: Jaq and Gus are almost eaten by Joanna and Kaa hypnotizes Clarabelle.
Luckily: Antonio and Rapunzel manage to save them in time.

Vintage Disney Shorts

"The Night Before Christmas": Played for Laughs. Santa gives a huge family the trimmings: a fully decorated Christmas tree and enough toys to fill several boxes. The toys come to life to help him decorate the living room around the chimney.
You'd Expect: After the decorations are done that he would leave quietly.
Instead: He and the toys start a loud musical party, complete with Santa playing a miniature piano.
Predictably: Santa's joyous laughter wakes up the kids, who excitedly come down to investigate and rightly suspecting that Santa has visited. It's only because of Junior sneezing that the toys and Santa get enough warning to settle down and leave. He does, however, let them see him ride away with the reindeer as they open their presents. Junior even gets a new puppy, whom he holds up to see the festivities. Awwww!
Even the classic Disney shorts have their moments, as seen in "Donald's Happy Birthday". Needing money to buy some cigars as a birthday gift for Donald, his nephews go on a chore binge, with Donald being clueless about the kids' sudden desire to do chores in order to get a certain amount of money.
You'd Expect: Donald would ask his nephews the reason for this sudden need of money (or at least realize that today is his birthday and deduce that they must be getting money for a present).
Instead: Donald forces his nephews to put the money they earned into a mechanical toy bank, with most of the short then consisting of the nephews trying to get it back in order to buy Donald's present.
It Gets Worse: Once the nephews finally get back their allowance and use it to buy the cigars as a birthday gift, Donald assumes that the boys were buying them for themselves. Without giving them a chance to explain it, he forces them to smoke the cigars, not realizing that the cigars were meant for him until, after exhausting all of the cigars, he discovers the birthday card from his nephews.
"Donald's Snow Fight"
- It's a snow day, and Donald hopes to go sledding. He finds that his nephews are building a snowman on the hill that he wants to ride. It's one of the rare times when they aren't being complete brats to him, as was common in the Disney shorts.
  You'd Expect: Donald would leave them alone and go down another hill. He knows that his nephews can be little monsters when instigated. You shouldn't spoil someone else's fun.
  Instead: He deliberately crashes into their snowman, which they had just finished. Then he laughs in front of them. The triplets retaliate by building a snowman around a rock and goading him to crash into it. This leads to their titular snow fight, where after Donald launches a good offense the triplets use mousetraps, coal, and fire against him and freeze him in a lake.
- During the fight, Donald and the triplets have their respective forts. The triplets have solid reinforcements such as mattresses and wood.
  You'd Expect: Donald to have built his fort similarly and on the solid bank.
  Instead: It's in the middle of the lake, a purely ice boat that can't even move or provide adequate cover. As a result, the triplets easily melt it and beat him.
"Once Upon a Wintertime"
- As part of a date, a nameless youth takes his beau out on the ice. It's clear that she's only started to learn how to skate. During the date, he accidentally gets a lot of ice on her while skating fast and braking. Then she slips on the frozen lake, which reveals all of her petticoats. She starts to get huffy.
  You'd Expect: He would apologize to her, or do it as best as he can within the constraints of the cartoon leaving them and the accompanying bunnies mute. Helping her up and dusting her off may be a good way to save the date.
  Instead: He stifles a giggle and doesn't help her up. She notices, angrily kicks off her skates and walks away, much to his dismay. Fortunately, his attempt to save her when the ice they're on breaks mends their relationship, at least so he can escort her home on the sleigh ride.
"The Autograph Hound”
- Donald is touring Hollywood. He's seeking autographs. As Shirley Temple reveals later, Donald is fairly famous due to being a Toon. He gets on a guard's bad side for appearing to be the titular autograph hound, that is someone bothering the talent.
  You'd Expect: Donald would explain he's a celebrity but is trying to be an undercover fan. As it's shown later, he gets mobbed when everyone in the studio lot recognize him. it also turns out the guard is a fan of Donald Duck cartoons.
  Instead: Donald does his typical Donald hijinks to sneak into the studio and get as many autographs as possible. Hilarity Ensues, even when Shirley Temple clarifies who Donald is.
"Chef Donald"
- The short begins with Donald gluing recipes in his scrapbook with a bottle of rubber cement when he hears a recipe for Mother Mallard's golden brown waffles on his radio. This puts him in the mood to cook and eat some, so he puts away his scrapbook and puts baking supplies on the table.
  You'd Expect: Donald to also put away the bottle of rubber cement.
  Instead: Donald leaves it on the table with the baking supplies.
  As a result: When Donald follows the recipe, he accidentally pours in rubber cement instead of baking powder, and ends up making a sticky mess that sticks to the bowl and spoon, causing him grief throughout the rest of the short.
"Lonesome Ghosts"
- Near the end of the short, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy get covered in molasses and flour, giving them the appearance of ghosts themselves and are spotted by the titular Lonesome Ghosts.
  You'd Expect: The ghosts to start laughing at our heroes now that they look like ghosts themselves thanks to all the pranks they've pulled on them.
  Instead: They have a Freak Out and run out of the house to get away from the "ghosts," forgetting that they're ghosts themselves!

What An Idiot / Disney Animated Series

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What An Idiot / Disney Animated Series

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Shows with their own pages

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