Cliches used the least.

O

Ozan O

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One of the many aspects brought up about a cartoon is the overuse of certain cliches such as:

1. Villains who pretend to be good, only to reveal that it was a plan to catch the hero off guard.

2. Cloning.

3. Size changing (whether shrinking or enlarging)

4. Body switching.


But what about the cliches that are seldomly used or not used at all in the recent times? A couple I'm aware of:

1. Hero spliting up into a good and evil version of himself. The good half is basically the hippie who won't hurt a fly, while the evil half will be more than happy to engage in behavior that the BSP would frown on. Darkwing Duck did so in the episode titled Negaduck (Not the same one that appeared in the yellow costume). And Jackie Chan Adventures had Jackie seperating due to a talisman twice. I think another show or two used this cliche, but I can't recall any offhand.

2. The main character wants advanced payment/allowance to get something they want, so they pull out some stops to convince their employer/guardian that it's currently Saturday (Payday). Word gets out around the word that it's Saturday, and a business deal that said employer/guardian was supposed to proceed with on Friday is declared late. And such a late delivery is punished with attempted execution. As such, the characters responsible for the deception have to clear up the clouds to allow for an eclipse to be witnessed (as such an event is scheduled for Friday). To my knowledge, only Ducktales and Tale Spin used this cliche. I can't recall any other show which did it.
 
Perhaps and perhaps not, but I couldn't think of any other way to word my question.

But in the case of my second example, it certainly is. The Tale Spin episode wasn't just using the tricking someone into thinking it was Saturday, the entire episode used the story element from Ducktales throughout the episode, but with the characters and the reasoning being different.
 
Personally to me, an underdone cliche that I feel we can use more of is the popular cheerleader (or jock) that proves they can either be very intelligent and/or nice despite their jerky reputation. And I'm not talking about them developing their characters to get there, I'm talking about them having these traits from the start.

While I'm aware they're designed to be the necessary evil for the standard outcast/nerd lead in a school setting, I don't see what's preventing them from making one that can be a nice person and use another obstacle for them to be foiled. They're either rude, condescending rich kids or simply dumb as a rock. Which was why it was such a relief to see recent character Lotte from The Princess and the Frog: spoiled rich and deliciously caught in her own fantasy world, but kind and generous to her best friend, especially despite their different statues.
 
This was also done on Danny Phantom. In one episode, he splits himself into hero and slacker, so that he can take care of the ghost problems in town and spend time with his friends. But as expected, things don't work out according to plan.


Strangely enough, both those series had an episode where the kids break something (a clock or a part of a plane) and secretly try to get it fixed to prevent their guardian from finding out. At around the same time, the lead character goes to a doctor for a routine checkup, only to believe they're doing to die, being confused as a result of receiving a call from the repairman the kids went to. They then go on a mission to get their last affairs in order, getting into danger in the process, but eventually learning they'll be OK after all, realizing the mix-up toward the end of the episode.
 
That reminds me of The Spectacular Spider-Man; first episode, first line of Randy Robertson - big, tough-looking football player - is nonchalant forgiveness of Pete. And throughout the rest of the show he's just this nice, laid back kinda guy; while most of the "popular kids" fall into the same trope, Randy's surprisingly cool.

Just the first thing to come to mind - I agree, more diversity within character niches are always nice. A beautiful geek here and there, a poetic hockey player from time to time... spice of life, y'know?
 
Yeah, but that wasn't a case of good/evil split. That was just two of Danny's major personality traits being split into two separate person. They contrast each other, but I think it's more of the same concept, different execution.
 
The first example is more of a clich? the second one is just two shows using the same concept.

To add to the first example, the Justice Lords from Justice League, they're the more aggressive more "evil" dopplegangers to the regular League, I can't really think of any other underused clich?s (hmm that's kinda an oxymoron).
 
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