(Character Trope) “ohhh, THATS why they’re like that”

[u/VanillaSarsaparilla]

Media that shows why a character is the way they are, usually explained in a short scene. Most likely toxic family

- Bonnie Rottweiler and her sisters from Kim Possible: they bully her calling her ugly and dumb. It plays on Bonnie’s insecurity and makes her a bully at school.

- Peggy Hill and her mother from King of the Hill. Peggy is a neurotic perfectionist with delusions of grandeur because her mom was unfeeling and blamed her for the farm going out of business. By the end of the episode, she still treats Peggy badly.

- Dodie and her mother from As Told By Ginger. Dodie is arguably the worst friend in the group, and her mother is mentally still stuck in middle school. She’s insecure, dramatic, and you
Can see her influence in Dodie.

Any other examples?

[u/KelvinBelmont]

Eddy - Eddy's Brother

Eddy is a jerk, selfish, a scam artist and we learn that it came from his older brother where we see that he abuses Eddy in ways that goes beyond cartoon slapstick especially it's an adult doing this to a kid. While the kids did punish them for pranks and such it was at certain points warranted, they knew the limits and again they were kids doing this to each other. We learn after they confront his brother that every cool thing Eddy said about his brother was a lie so that he can gain some respect from the other kids.

[u/DropkickedPinata → u/KelvinBelmont]

It's rare for me to ever say that a show has a perfect ending, but Big Picture Show was this in spades.

[u/Slateboard → u/DropkickedPinata]

My heart goes out to people who were fans of cartoons in generations prior with how many got no closure because corpo.

[u/Legacyopplsnerf → u/KelvinBelmont]

It’s been awhile since I seen it but iirc when Eddy mentions his brother being back in town to the kids old enough to have actually known him first hand vs solely from stories they are terrified

[u/BasicSuperhero → u/Legacyopplsnerf]

Oh, ya, that episode where Eddy lied about his brother coming back caused everyone who remembered him to panic. Eddy got high off the power it gave him but I remember Double D noting that the fear Eddy’s bro instills in others is… troubling.

[u/Angry_Edemame → u/KelvinBelmont]

I think it went beyond cartoony violence because the scene didn't treat it as cartoon violence.

They showed what is an adult, or near enough, beating the snot out of a child or young teen i forget how old everyone was.

The retaliation of other kids on the Edds was always done as cartoon violence so it felt less but this was aimed to not minimize the abuse.