SpongeBob SquarePants



An American cartoon centering around a little sea sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants who lives in a pineapple under the sea in Bikini Bottom with his pet snail Gary. His best friend and across-the-street neighbor is Patrick Star, a sea star who lives under a rock under the sea, and his across-the-door neighbor is Squidward Quincy Tentacles, an octopus who lives in a moai head under the sea. The eponymous character, along with Squidward, works at the Krusty Krab, a fast-food restaurant ran by Eugene H. Krabs, a money-hungry crab (or krab) who has a whale as a daughter and lives in an anchor under the sea. The show was produced by Stephen Hillenburg in 1999 under the sea and has been actively airing on Nickelodeon ever since then.

The series is rather unique in setting, taking place under the waves of the ocean and following the lives of a diverse cast of sea creatures instead of only one or a few species at once. Outside of the fact that these characters are talking animals, the show also has a prominent surreal side. Fire can strongly blaze underwater, True Animals can behave like people, and Fantasy Scenes are common. There are times when SpongeBob can fill a room with tears or when Mr. Krabs can hoist the whole of his restaurant above his head without breaking a sweat. For as otherworldly as SpongeBob SquarePants can get, its characters often remain true to their real-life counterparts. For instance, SpongeBob can bud and regrow missing limbs or tiny heads on the sides of his body. Mr. Krabs and Larry the Lobster both sport powerful offense and great defense, as do the crustaceans in our world. The residents of Bikini Bottom are typically seen in giant masses like the schools of fish swimming in the oceans in real life.



With its 12th season started in late 2018 and a third movie by the title of Sponge on the Run, many claim that SpongeBob SquarePants has Lost Its Magic and should be ended before it becomes a Poorly-Aged Franchise, but some others would say that it's already a bit too late for that.

SpongeBob SquarePants's Great Decline
A commonly held belief about SpongeBob SquarePants is how the first three seasons of the show are the only ones which memorable moments and lines come from. As time went on, the plots became less interesting, the characters got dumber or painful to watch, and the humor was more miss than hit. Many viewers also say that character interactions have degraded in later seasons of the show with one notable example being how Squidward Tentacles, who once used to be a Jerk who rightfully got his comeuppance, is now hurt by the world around him for no reason and in a way that isn't funny although his downfalls are written as something the audience is meant to laugh at.

SpongeBob SquarePants (Standard NG)
"SpongeBob SquarePants, the titular sea sponge of Bikini Bottom, is an energetic young fry cook and driving school student. His sometimes overbearingly positive attitude is a reason why many around him both like and dislike him."

Pro (Score 12)
Altruism: When it comes to helping others, SpongeBob puts his best foot forward, even if his help isn't wanted. In "Can You Spare a Dime?", SpongeBob takes Squidward in after he is fired from his job and becomes homeless. In times of Gary going missing, SpongeBob is willing to go to incredible lengths to retrieve his pet snail and return him home safely.

Athleticism: SpongeBob's soft, boneless body enables him to bend it into all sorts of irregular and enlengthened shapes all without straining himself. He usually has control over when he flexes his figure, but outside forces such as pulling can stretch him as well.

Fortune: In episodes known as "SpongeBob vs Squidward" plots, SpongeBob always gets the upper hand where Squidward loses. This may either be due to Squidward's own Misfortune+ or for a joke at his expense.

High Spirits+: SpongeBob is able to maintain a positive mood and state of mind almost at all times, even when the current situation would suggest he shouldn't be. This perk of his can work against him at times, however, as his laughter becomes an annoyance to more than just the older audience members.

Resistance++: Being a soft sea sponge, SpongeBob is able to resist the most painful of attacks and accidents without the slightest of an injury. "The Bully" shows him being repeatedly punched by a school bully, but he didn't notice the tormentor's blows. If he is cut, SpongeBob can easily put himself back together as if the cut never happened.

Utility Proficiency+: With his spatula at his side, SpongeBob can whip up a flurry of Krabby Patties in as little as a minute for the Krusty Krab's patrons to enjoy. In "Help Wanted", the pilot of the show, SpongeBob Saves The Day by satisfying the hunger of a horde of raging anchovies by preparing a wave of burgers for them to consume just as quickly as they were served. One of SpongeBob's favorite pastimes is bubble blowing. He can blow bubbles into creative and playful shapes such as rubber ducks and sea horses, a skill only his best friend Patrick shares.

Work Ethic++: SpongeBob is often shown to be exceedingly skilled at his job, earning the respect of his employer Eugene Krabs. He has never been shown disliking or growing bored of his job, even pining to return to it after he's accumulated too many vacation days and needs to take a break from work.

Con (Score 6)
Bane of Existence+: Even though he bears no ill-will against anyone else, SpongeBob is often considered a pest to others, most notably his next-door neighbor Squidward Tentacles. The most vexing part of his character for some is his laugh and seemingly never-ending happiness. Most of the time, though, SpongeBob inadvertently aggravates those around him with his antics and pestering behavior. His Stupidity aids in allowing him to ignore the effects of his actions.

Emotional Fragility: SpongeBob can be upset by very small issues that send him spiraling into a fit of tears or, more rarely, anger. It can be difficult to calm him down once he is knocked out of his usual chipper mood, sometimes leading to the destruction of whole buildings with a flood of tears if he is sad.

Familial Bond DOWN: SpongeBob hardly ever interacts with his family, but when he does, it's often only his parents or grandmother who make an appearance. Because of this, little is known about the SquarePants family.

Frailty: In a fight, SpongeBob would have to rely more on his Resistance++ than his physical strength, which has been shown to be worthless on multiple occasions. His fights against Sandy in earlier episodes are the only times when SpongeBob's strength hasn't been abysmally low. This Con UnTrait is sometimes cranked up to the point where SpongeBob is unable to lift a stick without sinking into the sand below him.

Stupidity: SpongeBob can be just as stupid as his friend Patrick, engaging in the same annoying or potentially dangerous activities he does. Outside of that, he can be plain ignorant to the world around him and miss even the largest details that would be impossible for anyone else to ignore. With the show's age, SpongeBob's Stupidity only intensified as he was degraded to a childish adult who would cry and complain over the smallest things. However, even in earlier episodes, he and Patrick would annoy those they liked outside of their number-one victim Squidward. This is out of sheer inability to see they aren't wanted and most typically with no sinister motives. Season 1's "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" introduces Bikini Bottom's elderly superhero duo in their retirement home. SpongeBob repeatedly irritates and disturbs them in an attempt to convince them out of retirement. In the end, his plan works but only after the two battle him and Patrick into forcefully leaving the home.

Patrick Star (Standard NN)
"Patrick Star is the best friend and a next-door neighbor of the show's lead character, SpongeBob SquarePants. He joins his friend on many journeys and accompanies him in his hobbies."

Pro (Score 2.5)
Friend Bond UP+: In early seasons of the series, Patrick makes it very obvious that he is SpongeBob's best friend. SpongeBob once stole a box Patrick says protects a very important secret that he alone is aware of. When SpongeBob is caught stealing the box and confesses to being the one who's stealing it, Patrick refuses to believe it really is SpongeBob, saying that his best friend forever would never do something so terrible to him.

Vigor-: Although Patrick is rarely shown to be strong, he is able to use his strength to, for example, repetitively slam a desktop up and down or completely destroy a fair out of pure anger. And even though he hardly gets into fist-to-fist fights with anyone else, he can take someone down with a single punch if he needs to. However, Patrick fights in physical battles too solemnly to add Fighting Spirit to his list of UnTraits.

Con (Score 6)
Bane of Existence: While not thought of as annoying as his best friend, Patrick has habits that bug those around him, likely those that can tie in well with his Stupidity++. The games he and SpongeBob play are the driving force behind Squidward's hatred for the pair. Patrick's lack of smarts can get on others' nerves, with Sandy and Mr. Krabs having their fair share of moments Patrick bugged them.

Friend Bond DOWN+: Patrick's in-universe history with SpongeBob as a friend is much better than his meta history. In earlier seasons, he was shown to be the best friend SpongeBob ever had, but in later episodes, he now abuses his relationship with SpongeBob and uses it as a shield to defend himself from accountability of his actions, treating his "friend" as a scapegoat who wrongfully takes the blame for Patrick's actions. What makes this UnTrait Cruel is how SpongeBob fails to see how Patrick is mistreating him and break out of their terrible relationship, which is what leads to SpongeBob unfairly being punished for something he either didn't do at all or is mostly not guilty for.

Sloth: A secondary characteristic of Patrick's is his laziness. On top of being unemployedundefined, he can be too lazy to listen to Squidward's song played on his clarinet or watch over a clam baby as a father.

Stupidity++: The trait Patrick is best known for is his idiocy. He's too much of a moron at times to see how he's affecting people with either his Stupidity++ or another one of his Con UnTraits. As of later seasons of the show, Patrick's stupidity has only become a worse problem to the point where he harms his best friend SpongeBob out of sheer selfishness or general immaturity. More often than not, Patrick's bad decision-making skills put him and sometimes others at risk of harm around him, most often SpongeBob.

Vanity: Patrick periodically fails to put others before himself. Instances of this showing are when Patrick refused to share a Krabby Patty toy with SpongeBob, intentionally endangered an extremely rare Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy collectible card, and exploited other people's respect for him after he learned that he is of royal heritage.

Squidward Quincy Tentacles (Flawed CG)
"Squidward Tentacles is a multi-skilled artist whose main interests range from painting to music to sculpting, but he also takes up gardening as one of his hobbies. This unfortunate cephalopod more often than not finds his largest source of annoyance and outright anger to be his two neighbors SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star."

Pro (Score 3)
Intelligence: Being an octopus, Squidward is naturally and fittingly smart, being one of the most intelligent residents in Bikini Bottom. His sophistication, however, is often overshadowed by the abundant idiocy of others around him.

Mastery of the Arts+: Squidward has at least one work in nearly any imaginable field of art: music, sculpting, stage performance, singing, and painting to name a few. Even though he has numerous talents, Squidward's art is never recognized by the world.

Con (Score 9)
Animosity: Squidward loathes the existences of SpongeBob and Patrick like nothing else. So often is he seen minding his own business until the pair ruins the tranquil mood with their laughter or childish shenanigans. In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors" (E1S4a), Squidward tries to sabotage the friendship between the two only for it to backfire with them both pining to make him their new best friend.

Deception: Considering how his peace and nerves are always under attack by the two biggest buffoons of his life, it's no surprise that Squidward abuses his Intelligence to whip up dishonest schemes to manipulate them. His favorite tactic usually involves feeding SpongeBob a lie with the goal of warping his enemy's behavior in a way that is beneficial to him. "Opposite Day" shows Squidward introducing the idea of Opposite Day to SpongeBob to have him act reverse of how he normally does. Instead of being loud and annoying, SpongeBob must be quiet and out of the way. In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", Squidward taints a bubble-blowing game between SpongeBob and Patrick by filling his own bubbles with hateful messages meant to turn the friends on each other. Squidward tells SpongeBob about his laugh box in "Funny Pants" to get him to quit laughing as continuous laughter will wear it out. It's common for Squidward's method of regaining his peace to work against him by the end of the plot. In order of the three previous examples, SpongeBob and Patrick reversing their personalities gets them to transform themselves to a couple of Squidwards, which soils the deal with a real estate agent to help Squidward sell his house; SpongeBob and Patrick try too hard to become Squidward's best friend which irritates him further; Squidward's own laugh box breaks, so SpongeBob shares half of his, affecting Squidward's laugh to sound like his neighbor's. But not all of Squidward's lies are malicious. In "Graveyard Shift", he tells SpongeBob a false Ghost Story about a former employee at the Krusty Krab for his own entertainment. The way this lie comes back to bite Squidward is after multiple events from his story happen in reality to frighten him into thinking that the Slash-Slinging Hacker is real only for everything to turn out to be a Fake-Out.

Iniquity: Squidward holds no aggression back when confronting SpongeBob and Patrick. Although he rarely directly states he hates them, he makes his distaste of the two known when given the chance. However, the language he uses in doing so, such as sarcasm, confuses the pair of friends and fails to deliver the fullness of its meaning. This gets SpongeBob and Patrick to believe that Squidward is their friend despite anyone else understanding he is not so. When SpongeBob and Patrick are either on their way to or are beginning the process of ruining Squidward's day, he often at least attempts to relocate himself to a place where he can be safe from them. This barely works the way he intends and may end with him feeling worse than he was before.

Misery+: Nothing seems to be able to go right for Squidward. The most obvious problem he faces is being situated between two of the biggest numbskulls in the city whose rowdy antics never fail to wear on his patience. The existential anguish of the fact that he works a bland, humiliating job where none of his talents come forth only adds to this Con UnTrait. What's more, society rejecting Squidward and his artworks mounts onto his social cynicism. Sometimes, the only way Squidward can find happiness is by fantasizing about living in a world where everything goes his way.

Misfortune+: On top of being unluckily positioned between two of Bikini Bottom's most aggravating citizens, Squidward's misfortune leads him to getting hurt badly by others on purpose or accident, being stranded in an undesirable location, or having his day be ruined by him not getting his way.

Vanity: Squidward, thinking of himself to be a highly-skilled and valuable individual, can be stuck-up at times, living by the belief that he is one of few intelligent people left in the world whose ideas and opinions truly matter unlike those belonging to the other members of society who surround him.

Work Ethic DOWN: Squidward isn't necessarily bad at his job as the Krusty Krab's cashier — he doesn't care for working it. Instead of working a dead-end job, Squidward aspires to be a great artist whose work can reel in tenfold the money he earns as a fast food restaurant employee.

Eugene Harold Krabs (Flawed CE)
"Eugene Krabs, often just called Mr. Krabs or Krabs, is the founder and employer of the Krusty Krab, Bikini Bottom's premier fast food restaurant. A retired member of the Navy, Mr. Krabs has many moments of being a stingy, miserly boss of SpongeBob SquarePants and Squidward Tentacles."

Pro (Score 5.5)
Resistance+: Being a crab, Mr. Krabs is very strong against incoming blows from any opponents with his shell acting as a natural, all-around shield that defends him from attacks, projectiles, and explosions. Even though this is true, Mr. Krabs' shell isn't invincible: it still has a limit as to how much damage it can endure before cracking, leaving Krabs vulnerable to danger until it returns.

Vigor++: Mr. Krabs is probably the strongest citizen in Bikini Bottom, being able to lift the entirety of the Krusty Krab without breaking a sweat and fight an endless army of undead skeletons for hours.

Wisdom-: When SpongeBob and Patrick fool around or mess up, Krabs may guide them to proper behavior by telling them what not to do, such as in the episodes "Hooky" and "Sailor Mouth".

Con (Score 3)
Greed++: Mr. Krabs has a long history of being overbearingly greedy. He will do anything if it means he can get a hold of more money, even if whatever has to be done is at the expense of his two only employees, SpongeBob and Squidward, or the Krusty Krab's customers.

Iniquity: Paring well with Krabs' Greed++ in cruelty is his Iniquity. As stated before, if getting money is the matter, then Mr. Krabs hardly cares about what has to be sacrificed, including his employees' paychecks, sleep, return to home, or stamina. He is also willing to cheat, lie to, or hurt his customers if doing so causes his wallet to get fatter.