One of the biggest leaders in cute stuff being surprisingly graphic, Happy Tree Friends is a
prime example of how just because something is animated, it doesn’t mean it’s for kids,
a lesson many in Hollywood still need to learn. What makes this series horrific is on top of
all the gore, it’s being done to some sweet and innocent characters, well, mostly sweet.
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge and this is Happy Tree Friends: Good to Evil.
There are two big rules here; firstly, due to continuity being non-existent here,
we’re going to be taking into account all the different roles a character plays
in each episode. And secondly, Flippy and Fliqpy will be counted separately
As usual, we’ll be starting with our most pure and noble character and working our way down to
the most evil; These characters are some of the sweetest in this gruesomely cute world.
Starting us off, we have the veteran bear getting a gold Medal of Honor, Flippy. Once a soldier, he
has retired to the peaceful village. Just taking this side into account, it’s clear to see why he
is high up here. Outside being a kindhearted soldier, he’s one of the nicest characters
in the cast, happy to just be part of the friends and their adventures or help them out, as seen in
Without A Hitch with him constantly helping Flaky despite her own concerns about him. Despite his
Fliqpy side causing a lot of deaths, he seems to be aware of this and hates it. In the TV show’s
finale, Double Whammy, he pieces together the fact that he kills people in his PTSD state, and
tries to get help, and even fights against his own mind in the end, triumphing over his Fliqpy side.
While he may have caused his fair share of deaths in the series,
it’s under his Fliqpy side, and it shows that he is definitely not that same bear.
For the silver medal of goodness, we have the anteater, Sniffles. This anteater is
the smartest character here, at least in terms of book-smarts. He’s usually seen inventing new tools
and inventions. Whenever he pops in, it’s usually to help others, like helping Pop find his son when
he thought he fell into a well, or to go inside Giggles’s body to help her overcome a sickness.
His biggest feat would be going back in time over and over again to try and prevent the deaths of
the cast as they keep getting themselves injured on playground toys, like the slide, swings,
and seesaw. However, what knocked him down to silver was his constantly trying to eat the ants,
leading to insanely outlandish punishments. Overall, while he does have his own moments
of evilness, they’re incredibly minor and in the end, he’s a smart, reliable friend.
Working on our bronze medal, it’s the handyman, Handy. This beaver is a handless hard worker.
While he is often seen not reaching things thanks to his lack of hands, whenever he isn’t on camera,
he can be an effective worker. While he does seem rather unfazed by all the violence around him,
it’s not due to him loving the fact that they’re dying, it’s more to him that he’s happy that he’s
still alive. He was able to be sorrowful for Mole’s death in The Wrong Side of the Tracks
and sympathize with Petunia after she lost her arms in I Nub You, with him even dating her.
While he can be grumpy, it’s due to constantly being frustrated with his lack of hands, which is
understandable. While he can be a bit of a pill at times, he’s still a very reliable and nice worker.
Coming in next nervously is the only character we can call street smart,
Flaky. She’s well aware of all the dangers in the world, from Flippy’s violent side to a vast array
of other hazards in the world, and she’s a nervous wreck. She’s almost always scared of something,
and with all the deadly occurrences we see here, we can’t blame her. She’s constantly
trying to keep others safe, yet can put her paranoia aside to be with others for fun times,
like preparing for a birthday party or hanging out with her friends for a game
of cards. While she is pretty anxious and easily startled, with a world as
surprisingly grim as this one, we can see why she’s so scared and cautious of others.
Coming up onto some of the more normal members, first up we have Giggles. This pink bear is
friendly and sweet toward most of the cast. She was made to be as innocent and kind as to make
her deaths twist all the more. Giggles is the one offering the most sympathy for others and being
compassionate towards them. She is willing to step up to help protect the environment,
even against Lumpy his callous attitude. She’s just a regular friendly villager of the land.
Next up is Giggles’s most common boyfriend, Cuddles. This bunny is on the more sporty
side of the cast. He’s also a bit more reckless, more than happy to jump into adventure and fun,
even if it ends with him getting another death in the series. Still,
he does show concern and fear for when others die and is able to forgive Lumpy after he put him in a
hospital bed with his magic act. As energetic as he can be, he is still just as friendly.
Time to smell what Petunia has to deal with. This skunk is a neat freak who gets nervous and
frightened when even a single toothpick is out of place. She’s constantly cleaning up even the
smallest of spots and gets more and more unhinged when her own home or body is unclean. Despite
this insanity, she’s still able to go out and be friends with others, like her best friend Giggles.
While she is cold at Disco Bear’s advances, we really can’t blame her for how blunt and crude
he can be at times. Still, she is more than willing to call an ambulance when she realizes
Disco Bear wasn’t faking his heart attack. There’s no stink to be raised with Petunia.
Setting sail next is Russell. Despite the pirate theme attire, this guy is less like a
pirate and more like a sailor. For the early part of the series, he’s mostly on his own,
sailing around the sea for his own goals. Later on, he became more open to working with others,
like Lumpy, be it hunting for treasure or being in a band with him. The worst
crime Russell has is being part of that awful YouTube Copyright School video with
copyright infringement. Otherwise, he’s one of the friendlier characters and pirates you can meet.
Smiling brightly next, it’s Toothy. This beaver is proud of his shiny and big
teeth and serves as the everyday man of the group. He’s willing to try and help others,
even continuing to sing in Class Act to raise spirits. However, he’s stated by the creators
to be the least developed character in their opinion. From the few unique traits we did see,
he was a bit of a troublemaker with him constantly throwing snowballs
at others and accidentally hurting them. It’s incredibly minor in the grand scheme of things,
but when these small things have to be considered, it goes to show how pleasant these folks are.
Bet you didn’t see this coming; next up is The Mole. Once a blind spy,
Mole is an animal who focuses on using his other instincts to do his tasks. He seems genuine,
trying to be a good and helpful person; from having a date with who he thinks is Giggles
when it’s actually Lumpy’s corpse, to helping Giggles clean up the environment. Of course,
his blindness does lead to him killing others, but they mostly seem to be by accident, but he either
doesn’t mind due to a lack of verbal or physical acknowledgment, or his past as a spy made him more
accepting of others dying. Either way, if you have a job that doesn’t involve eyes, Mole is your guy.
For the youngest member of this cast, we have a cub named Cub. This newborn baby is just starting
our life, and with all the carnage happening around him, he often ends up getting killed. A
good handful of his deaths come from his father not thinking things through and accidentally
harming him. Cub is pretty much what you expect; an innocent who doesn’t have much understanding
of the world around him. This allows him to see stuff that would be horrifying for some people
to be fun and exciting, like using body parts as either a tire swing or as goofy glasses. Overall,
he really is just an innocent baby who isn’t able to understand the world yet.
At the end of the list here, we have the purple sheep, Lammy. This sheep at first
seems to be just a friendly little sheep and animal, like all the other residents. However,
thanks to how she has to deal with her own personal demon, or in this case, a pickle,
she has to do her best to stop him. However, in trying to stop him, she ends up accidentally
causing more lethal damage. While she does end up accidentally killing others, from her point of
view, she’s trying to save them from Mr. Pickels. However, she does end up causing a lot more deaths
than she would if she got rid of her pickle friend the first time after his actions were shown. She,
by herself, is definitely nice, but keeping her pickle friend around after everything he did
and she tried to stop doesn’t do her favors when over half the cast is innocent woodland creatures.
Next up we have The Gray Area. These are the characters who while still feel bad
for all the times they kicked the can, we can see just how and why they did it.
The first character here is Cub’s father, Pop. This guy is the proud father of Cub,
wanting to do his best to raise him. However, he can be pretty absent-minded,
not realizing his son is in any danger, like when he was attacked by a dog,
accidentally slamming a door on him without realizing it, or being left with sharp tools
meant for hair. Despite all this, it’s clear he does genuinely love his son. Whenever he realizes
his son is either missing or dead, he reacts accordingly, like in Every Litter Bit Hurts,
with him getting worried for his safety and trying to find him, even if he didn’t realize
he has already died. Other times it’s just not his fault Cub dies, like in Ipso Fatso
when Cub gets run over. As ignorant as he can be, when his heart is in the right place, it shows.
Performing now is Mime. This deer is mute by choice, doing his best
to stay committed to the role of mime. He can be too devoted to the role however,
refusing to use his voice in Who’s To Flame, leading to the town being destroyed. He was
even willing to save an imaginary corpse over Sniffles when working as a lifeguard. This may
sound like we’re knocking him down for being mute, but as Unhappy Trails shows, he can make
sounds with his mouth, so he definitely does have some blame here. Despite this,
he truly does want to help others and make them happy, performing tricks for them and
wanting to make them laugh. He even works as an entertainer for hospitals to cheer up patients.
While he does want to do good, his dedication to his job can make it a bit hard sometimes.
Next, we have the main mascot for the series, Lumpy. This blue moose has done it all. Being
a series-recurring character, he has plenty of both heroic and villainous roles. He was
a vampire that killed others by draining their blood, to a pest control expert able to stop a
giant squid with a mousetrap. He has cared for those he accidentally harmed in his magic act,
and he has deliberately caused Toothy’s death to sell his organs. More often than not,
he’s a mindless fool who is mostly interested in doing what he thinks is good. Be it causing
damage to the environment, or adopting a bunch of animals to save them, he’s more
or less a wild card when it comes to morality. Either way, good or bad, he’s one to be wary of.
For a very animated character to a lifeless-looking character,
we have Cro-Marmot. This guy is a caveman stuck inside a cube of ice. Anything we
really see him do is when he is offscreen. From the only two episodes, he’s focused on,
he’s more focused on his own goals, be it just sliding down a mountain, even if it kills others,
smacking a dead Giggles corpse with a snowball, to trying to be a surfer to be admired by the
females, not minding when their lips get ripped off on his ice cube. The closest
we get to see his true personality is in the black-and-white cartoon, Dino-Sore Days when he
is just trying to survive. In the end, he is more of a prop than a character, and from what we see,
he’s just another member of the cast who doesn’t care about all the violence going on.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane; it’s Spendid! This super squirrel is the superhero of the city,
helping out those in need and fighting against villains. However, that’s what he only does when
he has to. Most of the time, he’s happy to do his own thing. This could be fine if he wasn’t
that selfish. He’s more often than not annoyed and irritated by the fact he has to act heroic
and save others. Even then, he only saves people to be praised and seen as a hero and accidentally
kills others in his attempts to be seen as a hero. Still, he does try to be a good hero at times,
like filling in for Santa Claus after accidentally hurting him and checking
in on the chaos in Class Act. He can be good, but only if he really tries to be.
Dancing on through is Disco Bear. This furry Johnny Bravo only has two real goals, flirting
with women and dancing. He’s more focused on himself and his looks than he is on the well-being
of others. Whenever he sees others in pain, he’s more likely to think of it as a dance move than
them being in actual pain. His vanity for himself is so high that his own personal hair dryer is hot
enough to heat up the O-Zone layer. He constantly keeps on mindlessly bumping and knocking others
away to flirt and show off, leading to their deaths, like with Flaky in Rink Hijinx and Ski Ya,
Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya! However, it’s shown he does still genuinely try to be nice and welcoming,
even if he is still just full of himself, so we really can’t call him a true bad guy.
Ending this tier sourly is Nutty. This guy is addicted to sweets, he’s constantly bouncing
up and down looking for his next sweet. He’s addicted to sweets, even eating cardboard if
it looks like candy. This addiction has led to him killing others just to focus on fulfilling
his addiction. He doesn’t seem to care if others are hurt, like Flaky when her allergies acted up,
or Toothy when he was in the hospital. If they are on his way to get candy,
he’s going to knock them aside. He was even willing to steal candy from Cub just to eat
his candy. The only thing saving him from the bad-to-evil section is that once he was cured
of his candy addiction, he becomes much more upright, at least until he gets addicted to
video games. Overall, this squirrel is one of the most selfish critters here.
Finally, it’s the Bad To Evil section. These three spots are for characters
who truly cause this place to get the bloodbath reputation it has.
For the bronze medal of evil, it is the character we all think you expected to take the gold,
Fliqpy. This side of Flippy is a violent killer, seemingly slaughtering anything in his path. He
gets set loose whenever Flippy’s PTSD is triggered by stuff reminding him of the war. Whenever he is
on screen, 90% of the time someone is going to get brutally massacred. However, despite these
deadly tendencies, we really can’t give him the gold for three major reasons. First off,
as confirmed by the show staff, Fliqpy really isn’t seeing the other residents as regular
friendly people, but rather as the enemies of the war he has fought in. Secondly, he seems to
have some sort of code of honor, attacking only people that he sees are capable of fighting back,
or have some disability like blindness like Mole. And finally, he seems to be able to back
down if he sees something that reminds him of Flippy being happy, like in Hear Today,
Gone Tomorrow when he almost runs down Lumpy in a helicopter, letting his other side take control.
Still, while Fliqpy does have some twisted good morals, you really don’t want to meet this bear.
Stealing the two silver medals of evil, we have the brother thieves Lifty and Shifty. Unlike
Fliqpy, these two guys truly don’t mean anything good. They’re thieves who are proud of their
status, and more than happy to steal money and goods from others. Shifty is even more callous,
willing to leave his brother for dead just to get his own treasure and profits. While they
are incompetent, when they do get to work, they can be pretty wicked, with them either causing
the death of other characters or just not caring about their misfortune, even stealing money off
of a dead Lumpy. Unlike Fliqpy who seems to have some PTSD problems which causes him to see the
world as enemy soldiers, we can’t give these two the benefit, and with how willing they are
to steal and harm others, their willingness to cause harm is what causes them to fall this low.
Combining the viciousness of Fliqpy and the willingness of Lifty and Shifty, our
gold medal of evil belongs to Mr. Pickels. Unlike them, Mr. Pickels purposefully causes deaths and
mayhem just for his own selfish goal. The sole friend of Lammy, he wants it to stay that way,
killing others who may interfere with that idea. While there could have been some ambiguity as to
whether or not Lammy was the one doing it and we saw the episodes through her eyes,
Royal Flush disproves this theory and confirms that Mr. Pickels is just a sour
pickle who just wants Lammy all to himself. With the distinction between him and Lammy sealed, we
feel comfortable giving him the gold medal of evil here for the worst resident in Happy Tree Friends.
Of course, we have some parting medals for the cast. Hope they don’t die from them.