Western Animation / Xiaolin Showdown

"The Monks with Spunk."^note Clockwise from top: Clay, Kimiko, Omi, and Raimundo.

"GONG YI TANPAI!" ^note "Begin the showdown!"

An Emmy Award-winning Warner Bros. cartoon, Xiaolin Showdown (2003-2006) follows the adventures of four teens (well, three teens and one child) selected to become the next Xiaolin Dragons:

Omi, the precocious young Chinese monk and Dragon of Water;

Kimiko Tohomiko, the tech-savvy hothead who's originally from Japan and the Dragon of Fire

Raimundo Pedrosa, the sharp-tongued Brazilian surfer dude and Dragon of Wind;

and Clay Bailey, the strong, steady Texan cowboy and Dragon of Earth.

Along with their standard monk training, they are tasked by Master Fung to collect mystical Xiaolin artifacts known as the Shen Gong Wu, which were scattered around the world by the original Xiaolin Dragon, Dashi, and Dojo Kanojo Cho, a cowardly size-shifting dragon. Whenever two (or more) people enter a standoff over a Wu, a Xiaolin Showdown occurs, with the winner taking all the gambled Shen Gong Wu.

In their quest for the Wu, they battle an assortment of villains, including Jack Spicer, a Teen Genius mech designer who just wants to be taken seriously; Wuya, a Heylin witch sealed as a ghost inside a puzzle box who will do anything to regain her living form; Chase Young, an immortal Visionary Villain with designs on Omi; and Hannibal Roy Bean, who is indeed a bean. The numerous Shen Gong Wu change hands rapidly, permitting neither side any real advantage until one of the characters - hero, villain, or otherwise - decides to get serious.

Perhaps best known for its surprisingly well-developed central cast, its collection of voice acting talents, and its general aversion to Anvilicious aesops, Xiaolin Showdown was the ratings darling of the Kids WB Saturday morning block. However, it only lasted three seasons, or 52 episodes, all of which are readily available on iTunes and Amazon Prime (in widescreen and HD, no less).

A revival titled Xiaolin Chronicles premiered in August of 2013, albeit with modified character designs, a cast of new voice actors (save for Tara Strong and Jennifer Hale), and renamed Wu.

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This series contains examples of (for more, also visit the episode guide):

A-F

• Abhorrent Admirer: Dojo playing a small guitar and singing in episode 9 attracts a rattlesnake that he begs to not hurt him... needless to say, it wasn't planning on doing that to him, but Dojo runs away from it just the same.
• The Abridged Series: Here.
• Acrofatic: Tubbimura is surprisingly fast and agile despite his massive size and being built more like a sumo wrestler than a ninja.
• A Day In The Lime Light: Season 1's episode 'Night of the Sapphire Dragon' focuses on Dojo and sets him as the hero instead of him being in his typical "get the protagonists where they need to go" role.
• Affably Evil:
  • Chase. While he can be violent towards the monks, even wanting to eat them on one occasion, he can still be civil and if he promises them something like turning Omi back to normal and allowing them to return home under the condition they beat him in a Xiaolin Showdown, he keeps it. Although it is averted towards Jack, Wuya, and Hannibal Bean what with all the insults he hurls at them, double crossed Bean, and almost killed Jack and Wuya with a live T. rex (albeit indirectly).
  • Jack Spicer. An Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who turned to evil to cope with the pain of being neglected by everyone, including his own parents. He became an even bigger Butt-Monkey as the show got Darker and Edgier, being bullied, insulted and beaten up by heroes and villains alike. And then there are the episodes where he genuinely tried to pull a Heel–Face Turn... only to descend back into villainy once his insecurities started to prey on him again.
  • Even Wuya has moments of this. Despite being cranky as hell in her spirit form, once her human body is restored she turns out to be a Benevolent Boss, rewarding Raimundo for assisting her and allowing him to rule the world alongside her. She was also surprisingly loyal to Chase Young, remaining by his side even after he stripped her of her god-like powers, only deserting out of frustration over his passiveness towards the Shen Gong Wu.
• Afraid of Clowns: According to Hannibal Bean, Jack Spicer is afraid of clowns. This is one of the fears he thinks Jack must overcome if he wants to be truly evil.
• Agony of the Feet: The end of "Royal Rumble" has the Xiaolin Dragons hefting a boulder up a cliff, throwing it up for the last stretch. Master Fung, supervising them, sidesteps to not get hit by it. After the monks leave feeling accomplished, Fung grumbles and the boulder moves, revealing he didn't manage to fully sidestep it.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Mala Mala Jong can use any Shen Gong Wu that it absorbs into itself.
  • Hannibal tricks Omi into training with his friends' Wudai weapons, granting the boy control over all four elements. However, this turns Omi into a walking natural disaster.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: In episode 9, the Xiaolin Showdown appears to be done in space, surrounded by long strips of brick walls with windows, coming up from down below!
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Omi and Dashi are bright yellow, and Jack is gray. In Jack's case he could have done it on purpose considering the few relatives we see of his are normal and Good Jack sometimes seems to have a more natural complexion, however, whatever we see of his body (his arms when he's not wearing the usual costume and his legs), it's still gray, so it still fits this trope.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: One episode had green monkeys, which may or may not be a reference to Beast Boy.
• Americans Are Cowboys: Clay. Odd in that it's an American cartoon.
• Anachronism Stew: The Shen Gong Wu, possibly. For instance, how did Dashi make the Shen-Ga-Roo when he'd probably never seen a kangaroo at all? More egregiously, the Ying and Yang Yoyos are a little before their time.
• And the Adventure Continues: The Grand Finale ends with all the villains the monks had faced in the series waiting for them in front of the temple and the monks happily charging forward to kick their asses.
• Animating Artifact: The Heart of Jong is a Shen Gong Wu with the power to imbue life onto otherwise lifeless things, imbuing life onto Dude-Bot (one of Jack's robots), Raksha (a monstrous snowman) and Jong (a collection of Shen Gong Wu).
• Anime Accent Absence: Western example: Grey DeLisle uses her typical American pre-teen voice for Kimiko, although her character is born and bred in Japan.
• Animesque: The show's Chinese setting, the constant face faults, the kung fu movie-like plot and the Asian-like art style. Not a surprise, since the show's creator is Chinese.
• Army of The Ages: When Jack Spicer got his hands on the time-travel Shen Gong Wu Sands of Time, his plan was to assemble a team of history's villains: Attila the Hun, Blackbeard, Billy the Kid, his first grade teacher Mrs. Cornhaven, and his future self- from the very distant future. It ultimately fails when Omi uses the Sands of Time to bring his own future self to the present.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • As mentioned above, the people Jack brings from the past to assemble a team of history's biggest villains are Attila the Hun, Blackbeard, Billy the Kid and his first-grade teacher.
  • In "Something Jermaine", Dojo says that he had learnt not to talk about three things: religion, politics and Omi's head.
• Art Shift: The flashback of Guan's fight against Chase is shown in a sketchy, black-and-white, but otherwise more realistic art style.
• Artifact of Doom: The Sapphire Dragon, the only Wu we see that can act on its own, and easily one of the scariest. Its breath turns people into sapphire statues, which it can then control once it grows powerful enough. The Heart of Jong may also qualify.
• Artistic License – Biology: Chase Young's jungle cats have slitted pupils, whereas in real life big cats have round pupils.
• Artistic License – Chess: The climactic chess battle of "Oil in the Family" follows no rules of real chess at all, especially with the final move where Raimundo seemingly moves dozens of pieces at once.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: The Tyrannosaurus rex that is revived by the Rio Reverso has many obvious differences from the real creature. Notably, she is drawn with three fingers (instead of two).
• Artistic License – Sports: The Xiaolin Soccer match from "Finding Omi" doesn't follow the real sport's rules. While the martial arts elements fit with the theme of a typical Xiaolin showdown, the players being allowed to handle the ball with their hands is far less excusable.
• As Long as There Is Evil:
  • A theme at the ending of the series is that no matter how many times the monks defeat evildoers, as long as there are people in the world, evil will never truly be defeated. The last two episodes are even called "Time After Time" which implies this theme even more.
  • Master Fung says that evil is never defeated, it merely changes its path and form.
• Atlantis: An aside mention from Master Fung revealed that Dojo is the main reason Atlantis sunk in the first place, due to being evil at the time. It later appears, is overrun with giant spiders, and is destroyed to lock the spiders away.
• Attack Pattern Alpha:
  • In the middle of season 2, the Xiaolin Apprentices learn to do this: "Dragon X-Kumai Formation!"
  • In the third season, they learn a more advanced and more powerful version: "Wudai Orion Formation!"
• Awesome, but Impractical: Quite a few of the Shen Gong Wu proved to have too drastic of a drawback to be useful in the long-term.
  • The Ring of Nine Dragons. It splits its user into up to nine copies of itself. However, it also splits the users intelligence among them as well, so the more copies you make, the dumber they are over all. The only one who has shown any success with it is Jack Spicer; and it's debatable if that's because he's a Teen Genius or was already pretty ditzy to begin with.
  • The Fountain of Hui. It allows the user to access all knowledge discovered by mankind... But without another Shen Gong Wu (the Eagle Scope) to focus it, the user ends up being completely overwhelmed by useless facts and information.
• Bad Future: The first part of the two-part series finale has Omi freeze himself in order to meet his future self and recover the Sands of Time, but he ends up in a future where Jack Spicer has taken over the world, kidnapped all the monks and all the Big Bads.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Given the Gotta Catch Them All nature of the series, it’s only natural that sometimes the opposing side would either grab the Shen Gong Wu without a challenge (sometimes by a large amount) or Winning a showdown by any means.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Kimiko wears several crop tops throughout the show, Katnappe wears a crop top in her first appearance, and Clay’s sister, Jesse, wears a crop top.
• Bash Brothers: The Xiaolin warriors, who have actually used more than a few of the moves described on the trope page. Clay and Raimundo also enjoy this kind of relationship.
  • Before Chase Young became evil, he had this sort of relationship with Master Monk Guan.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Chase's plan through the entirety of the second season involved manipulating Omi to gain the boy's trust so that he could trick him later into misusing the Yin Yo-yo.
  • In "Return of Master Monk Guan", Raimundo pretends to betray the other Monks to Hannibal and engages Omi in a violent showdown. Confident that his pupil will win, Hannibal wagers all his Wu, after which Rai immediately throws the match.
  • Attempted in "Hannibal's Revenge", when the monks attempt to intervene in the war between Hannibal and Chase by using Jack as their proxy. When Spicer is knocked out early on, Kimiko uses the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman to join the fight in his place, but only Wuya is fooled, as Hannibal realized she had the Mind Reader Conch at her disposal and Chase deduced her true identity by smelling her perfume.
• Beam-O-War: Done for a few seconds in episode 8 between Dojo and the Sapphire Dragon.
• Beat Still, My Heart:
  • Chase Young rips out the "heart" of one of Wuya's rock monsters.
  • Omi defeats Mala Mala Jong by ripping the Heart of Jong out of him via the Golden Tiger Claws.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Raimundo and Kimiko, even filling the correct character types. Although the attraction is seldom played up, the episode "Dream Stalker" makes it perfectly clear that Raimundo is interested in Kimiko. The moments when Raimundo is announced as Shoku Warrior makes it pretty clear there's something going on between the two.
• Benevolent Boss: Wuya towards Raimundo when he joined the Heylin side. As a ghost, she promised Raimundo whatever he wanted if he helped her and when Wuya is revived, she keeps her promise to Raimundo instead of pulling a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness or simply backing out even though she would've gotten away with it.
• Berserk Button:
  • Never call Dojo a gecko.
  • Additionally, never touch Clay's cowboy hat... or his hot dogs.
  • Don't talk about how big or "dome-shaped" Omi's head is...not unless you don't value your eardrums.
  • Also, don't call Master Fung's proverbs and advice "cheesy".
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Used for a gag by one of Spicer's Jackbots in a gag for episode 9 - after seeing the Xiaolin Dragons easily total its compatriots, Clay stares at the last one menacingly, which then opens a small cover on its chest to press a small red button, at which it falls to pieces in a timely manner.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • Wuya, Chase Young, Hannibal Bean and Jack Spicer share the antagonistic role in the final season, but they all hate each other's guts and generally avoid teaming up for this reason.
  • Specific episodes also have Panda Bubba, Sabini, the Sapphire Dragon and Mala Mala Jong as the main threat to the heroes, among other minor adversaries.
• Big Brother Instinct: Clay, to Omi and Kimiko. Raimundo to Omi as well, though their relationship often verges on Sibling Rivalry.
• Big Good: Both Master Fung and Master Monk Guan fulfill this role as the major forces of good that guide the heroes throughout the journey.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • A lot, a lot of the Wu have their names derived from Mandarin Chinese, and audiences familiar wirth that language will be in for a treat. Notably, the "Tebigong" from Fist of Tebigong translates as "Metal Arms Skill" (铁臂功), "Longyi" Kite (龙翼) means "Dragon Wings Kite", and the Fountain of "Hui" (慧) is a Fountain of "Knowledge".
  • In "The Apprentice", during Omi and Jack's showdown, the balloons show the Chinese characters 不, 是, and 中. Respectively, these mean "no", "yes", and "middle" or, "intermediary". The entire show is also this, having names and Chinese characters with certain meanings put everywhere in almost every episode.
  • Shen Gong Wu literally translates to Tool of God.
  • "Hanabi" is the Japanese word for "fireworks". The Star Hanabi is Kimiko's favored Wu for the first two seasons.
  • As noted on the Fridge Brilliance page, Guan's nickname for Raimundo, "Bobo", is the Portuguese word for "fool".
  • The Shen Gong Wu that transforms objects back into their original forms is called Rio Reverso, which means "reversed river" in Portuguese. Appropriately, Raimundo is the one who acquires this Wu.
• Bittersweet Ending: While good would usually come out on top, in some episodes they weren't so lucky. The villains would end up winning a given Showdown every now and then, sure, but there are some episodes that really hit hard, such as "Chameleon", "Ring of Nine Dragons", and "Saving Omi".
• Bizarrchitecture: A Xiaolin Showdown warps the competitors (and their friends) into a just-plain-surreal version of their surroundings.
• Black-and-White Morality: The heroes are clearly on the side of good and villains often make it clear that they are "evil".
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: "Grandpappy's Texas Tin-Horn Sizzlin' Salsa Sauce". It lives up to its name.
• Blind People Wear Sunglasses: The blind old man from the episode "Treasure of the Blind Swordsman'' wears sunglasses. He doesn't need the eyes to see, though.
• Blind Seer: The blind old man. According to him, he uses his mind to see instead of his eyes.
• Blow You Away:
  • Wind is the element that represents Raimundo's powers.
  • The Sword of the Storm lets anybody conjure up small tornadoes. Ironically, it's also completely useless if used as a regular sword, as it somehow phases through solid objects.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: A Running Gag with Omi. Raimundo eventually turns this into a threat: "What Omi did to that sentence is what we're going to do to you!"
  Omi: I command you to spill your internal organs now!
  Jack: What kind of sick people are you?!
  Raimundo: I think he means "spill your guts".
• Body Horror:
  • Characters whose good chi is drained often exhibit this. Heylin Omi can turn his head around Exorcist-style, Chase has Hellish Pupils from drinking the Lao Mang Lone soup, and Guan gets a scarred bloodshot eye in an alternate timeline.
  • Generally averted with the Shen Gong Wu that modify the user's body, as items like the Monsoon Sandals or the Monkey Staff often produce humorous results.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Has the whole rogue gallery outside of the monks' base, waiting to attack them. Though it's in no way a tragic ending, we all know the monks are gonna kick all their asses, and do it in style.
• Book Ends: The very first and very last Xiaolin Showdown in the series is fought for the Eye of Dashi.
• Brain Bleach: Kimiko feels the need to wash her brain out when she learns Jack's been invading the group's dreams with the Shadow of Fear. All of the monks have this reaction when they walk in on Dojo clipping Master Fung's toenails.
• Break the Haughty: The two-part finale dedicates itself to doing this to Omi in the cruellest ways possible. In the first part, not only is the boy horrified that his poorly thought decisions make him directly responsible for dooming the world, but he is forced to watch as his friends are murdered one by one, breaking down in tears of grief and despair. In the second half, his attempt to set things right produces an even worse alternate timeline, prompting him to see how misguided his whole venture was from the very beginning. By the end of all these ordeals, Omi thankfully gains some much needed maturity, and he respectfully bows to Raimundo when the Dragon of the Wind is elected as his leader.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Literally. During the theme song, Dojo spirals in toward the camera before crashing into it. The screen shatters and falls away, revealing the next part. Also, in Episode 8 he tries hiding in the bars below the screen. It doesn't work.
  • At one point, Master Fung makes an ominous statement regarding The End of the World as We Know It.
  Raimundo: Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. "Previously, on Xiaolin Showdown." (Raimundo holds open his eyes wider which shows the Xiaolin Showdown logo.)
  (Everybody grins and gives a thumbs up or two to the camera.)
• Breath Weapon: Dojo has a fire breath, being a dragon and all (though he needs a little fuel for it to qualify as a weapon). The Sapphire Dragon breathes a blue mist that zombifies its victims.
• Brick Joke:
  • In "Citadel of Doom" Master Dashi and Dojo remember hiding a certain time traveling Shen Gong Wu, but have a hard time remembering where exactly they hid it. Dashi believed he hid it in Europe, but Dojo insists it was in Egypt. A few episodes later, they find the Sands of Time, a Shen Gong Wu that allows them to travel through time. Where was it located? Egypt.
  • In "Something Jermaine" when Omi and Jermaine are arguing with each other, Dojo puts a stop to it with a rant about a dragon that stole his yo-yo. A few episodes later, the group stumbles across Chucky Choo, a dragon who Dojo hates because he stole the family yo-yo.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Dashi is implied to be this at first; when Omi first meets him, he would rather sleep than help him. Also, Raimundo.
• Brought Down to Badass: Wuya's body is restored by Chase late into the second season, but he rigs the process specifically to prevent her from having access to her dark magic. Even then, her martial skills make her more than a match to the Xiaolin warriors when they face her head on a few episodes later.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Jack is constantly abused by everyone, even people on the same team as him. Incidentally, the Monkey Staff is his favorite Wu.
  • Dojo is the target of a lot of physical comedy throughout the series and is not taken seriously by anyone despite his rather impressive Shapeshifting abilities. One of the most notable instances is in "Finding Omi", where he is reluctantly used as a soccer ball for the episode's showdown.
• Cactus Cushion: In "Treasure of the Blind Swordsman", one of the Wudai weapons the monks went on a quest for is found in the Cactus Creek. The cacti come to life and hurt the monks with their spines when fighting them. Also, Omi gets his back stuck on a cactus.
  Kimiko: Omi, are you OK?
  Omi: I have a thousand needles in my backside. What do you think?!
• Calling Your Attacks: Everyone, but also played for laughs with Omi and Chase's kung fu attack names. A few examples of many: Duck Flipping Burgers, Sparrow Eating Hot Dog, and Dogs Playing Poker.
  Raimundo: Okay, they have got to be making this stuff up.
  Dojo(reading a rulebook): "Grasshopper Doing Dogpaddle", right here in black and white. Right next to "Spider Doing Hokey-Pokey".
• Call-Back: Way back in season 1, Dojo laments that people keep stealing out of the Temple's Shen Gong Wu vault, and that they should really have a padlock put on the doors. 20+ episodes later in "The Apprentice", Master Fung is seen closing the vault—with a padlock.
• Call to Agriculture: Clay, when elected as the team leader in the alternate future in Time After Time Part 2, decides to hide away from Wuya, Guan and hannibal when they join forces to take over the world, settling for a small farm which he cares for with the help of his friends.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Every villain explicitly announces themselves as evil, and practically revels in being so - even Raimundo and Omi did so during their brief stints on the side of evil.
• Cassandra Truth: Raimundo, frequently, to the other monks. Although they seldom have a valid reason to doubt him, his reputation as an impulsive Jerkass hedonist (albeit one with a heart of gold) often makes them skeptical of him. Related to The Complainer Is Always Wrong.
• Cat Fight: Lampshaded in episode six, where Kimiko fighting a robot which itself look like her is accompanied by the screech of That Poor Cat.
• Cat Girl: Katnappé; not an actual cat girl but cat-themed, so she still qualifies.
• Cerebus Syndrome: After the arrival of Chase Young, the show became more of an action/drama than an action/comedy. Admittedly, this was still an action/drama with regular fart jokes.
• Character Name Alias: Chase Young is known at least to a couple other characters as the Prince of Darkness...there was another guy who had the same alias as that. He was the guy who got kicked out of the big, shiny house by his dad and is also known as the "Father of Lies" and "The Roaring Lion."
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • In a Season 2 episode, Clay is seen playing with a number of dolls (most of them resemble Transformers dressed as cowboys, along with a dinosaur and a covered wagon). This is funny enough on its own, but they reappear in "Life and Times of Hannibal Roy" (Season 3, Episode 3) being played with by Raimundo, Kimiko, and Omi.
  • At one point, Clay rambles about the desiccation process spiders use to feed. At the monks' strange looks, he replies, "What? A cowboy can't have a hobby?" Then, some dozen or so episodes later:
  Clay: Nothin' I dislike more than a smart-alec Tursiops truncatus. (Beat) Bottlenose dolphin.
  • The whole "What? A cowboy can't X?" is actually a Running Gag, albeit an infrequent one.
  Clay: Whoo! Looky there! A triple Salchow! (Beat) What? A cowboy can't like figure-skatin'?
• Chekhov's Gun: In episode 10, Dojo is notes a golden-star necklace Clay's father is wearing, saying it looks familiar to him. Of course, three minutes later in the episode, Dojo recognizes it's a Shen Gong Wu that must be inactive.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Clay's ability to use a lasso comes into play constantly.
• Chekhov's Skill: The monks are shown using Shen Gong Wu to play a giant game of chess in an episode during the second season. Two dozen episodes later, Raimundo plays a giant game of chess in a Showdown in which he uses the same Wu.
• The Chosen One: All four were chosen to be Xiaolin Dragons and that concept has been brought many times over the course of the series
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Almost every villain in the series betrays someone at some point. Usually at Jack Spicer's expense.
  • Raimundo joins the Heylin side in the first season, only to betray Wuya two episodes later. He appears to do the same to Hannibal in season 3, but this time he was The Mole all along.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Le Mime can create invisible objects just by thinking about them. However, once he's made them, other people can also influence them, something Kimiko and Omi realize when Raimundo pretends to rattle the "bars" on the box, which they didn't know existed until then. Omi then imagines a door for them.
• Classical Cyclops: A cyclops appears who's giant, strong and dim-witted, but who also has some unique powers such as the ability to fire laser beams from his eye.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: The Xiaolin Dragons are aligned with one of the classical elements and can use abilities related to those elements, with Omi as water, Kimiko as fire, Raimundo as wind, and Clay as earth.
• Clock of Power: The Sands of Time are an hourglass shaped Shen Gong Wu that allows time travel.
• Cloning Splits Attributes: The Ring Of The Nine Dragons Shen-Gon-Wu can do this if you're not careful. Designed to create up to nine copies of it's wearer, Master Fung warned that only a fully trained monk has the inner strength to use the ring properly. Omi, ever full of hubris, believes this includes him and uses the ring to try to win a showdown by creating five clones of himself. Sadly this splits up his maturity, intellect, skill, and fighting prowess, while doing nothing to his ego, resulting in five near useless monks who quickly lose the showdown, and the ring, to Jack Spicer. Fortunately Jack isn't any better equipped to use the artifact than Omi, much to Wuya's annoyance.
• Color-Coded Elements: As evidenced by the first season Stock Footage and by the Wudai Orion Formation:
  • Water: Blue. Interestingly, Omi is often associated with cherry red (and yellow, obviously).
  • Wind: White, but also green. Raimundo has green eyes and wears predominantly white and green.
  • Fire: Red. Of course, Kimiko's wardrobe changes too often for her to be associated with a particular color.
  • Earth: Brown, but also green (brown doesn't make for a good color when Power Glows). However, Clay is often associated with sky blue, which may be related to his calm personality.
• Combat Breakdown: The episode "Master Monk Guan" has the titular character and Chase Young do a unique mutual example in which they stop using their weapons in their fight. They wasn't any major reason for it, they just both did it.
• Combat Haircomb: The Tangle Web Comb binds whatever it's pointing to. Problem is, unless the user can clearly focus on their target, the Shen Gong Wu will backfire and wrap them instead.
• Combination Attack:
  • When the monks all gain apprentice level in season 2, they learn the Dragon X Kumei Formation. This formation allows the four monks to fight together in unison, and bring out the full potential of their abilities.
  • In season 3, the Wudai Orion Formation when the monks gained the Wudai Warrior level. This attack was very similar to the previous one, except the monks turned into living energy with an outline aura color around each character and advanced usage of their element.
• Comforting Comforter: In "The Apprentice", after a temporary reformed Jack falls asleep on the ground due to a long day of chores, Omi, covers him with a blanket.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Being something of a jerk, Raimundo gets this a lot, but he isn't always wrong, at least not in the traditional sense - typically, his "complaints" are sympathetic if not outright justified, and the others suffer for ignoring his concerns just as much as he does for refusing to compromise.
• Concentration-Bound Magic: The Tangle Web Comb is a Shen Gong Wu that can shoot hair to bind the intended target, but it requires absolute focus to work. If the user loses focus for even a second while using the Wu, the hair will instead bind the user.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Ring of Nine Dragons can split the user into multiple versions of themselves, but also divides their competency.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Raimundo seems to have a good memory - his subconscious in "Dream Stalker" contains nods to numerous earlier episodes (the mansion Wuya gave him, Kimiko's kimono and her outfit from "The Return of Pandabubba," and Hannibal Bean turning into the final boss from Goo Zombies 4, among others).
  • An example is in the episode "Shadow of Fear", Jack enters the temple to steal the Shen Gong Wu. Omi shouts "Jack Spicer!" and Jack replies "In the flesh." More famously, this is what Wuya said when she first returned to her solid form all the way back in episode 13.
  • Also, in episode 48, Chucky Choo is the dragon referenced in Dojo's story about the friend who stole his "family yo-yo", episode 36.
• Contractual Genre Blindness: Most of the characters, but especially Jack. To paraphrase:
  Jack: No, no, no! Gloating first, then we crush them!
• Cooking Duel: The actual challenge of a Xiaolin Showdown can be just about anything, although the surroundings usually play a part.
  • Implied to be one of the rules, during the Xiaolin Showdown for the Heart of Jong, Omi is at first undecided about what the challenge should be, stating "a Xiaolin Showdown must fit the surroundings" before deciding on a game of collecting acorns.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "The Return of Master Monk Guan".
  Guan: Since Raimundo insists on behaving like a clown, he should have a clown's name. He will be called Bobo!^note "Bobo" is Portuguese slang for an idiot or fool.
  Rai: Bobo?!
  Guan: YOU LOOKIN' AT ME, BOBO?!
  • Turned out to be a subversion: Raimundo was The Mole and the whole thing, including the punishment, was a set up to make Hannibal Bean believe that Raimundo could be turned to his side.
• Cool Train:
  • Jack built one that turned into a mecha for the New York episode. Dojo briefly shapeshifted into an organic train to keep up with it, but he prefers to avoid doing so — that third rail really chafes.
  • In "Treasure of a Blind Swordsman", Jack robs the protagonists and makes his getaway on a flying train. The monks catch up later, leading to multiple fights atop the train.
• Copycat Mockery:
  • In "The Crystal Glasses", Raimundo wears a regular pair of shades to hide the Crystal Glasses he's wearing, a Shen Gong Wu that lets the user see into the future. After Omi figures out he was wearing them, Raimundo immitates Omi's scolding, knowing already what he was going to say.
  Didn't you hear what Master Fung said? Shen Gong Wu is not a toy! [both of them growl at each other]
  • In "The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back" and "The New Order", Jack Spicer responds to Omi's regular Pre Ass Kicking One Liner by repeating said line in a high-pitched voice, complete with his head becoming big and round (and in the former case, yellow) like that of Omi.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Katnappé loves cats and is certainly insane. She possesses several genetically-enhanced kittens that she uses as her weapons. Also, when Jack's team is surrounded by Chase's jungle cats in "Judging Omi", the other members cower in fear, but she flashes a VERY satisfied smile!
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Dojo has certain issues with living apart from Master Fung for any length of time. Particularly evident when Fung temporarily hires a new female dragon assistant and when Good Jack starts doing all of Dojo's jobs.
• Creepy Child: Heylin Omi while kicking Raimundo and Clay's asses. He gets even creepier when he speaks:
  Omi: Heylin Power! Tsunami Water Blade! ICE
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Jack should have realized that "evil" genius isn't quite as profitable as "normal" genius.
• David Versus Goliath: A staple whenever Omi goes up against anyone (Jack's transformation bot, Vlad, Wu-possessed Raimundo), but special mention goes to his showdown against Cyclops. Cyclops is already a giant, but Omi was accidentally shrunk to the size of an ant beforehand.
• Deadpan Snarker: Although he's not exactly deadpan, Raimundo is still quite snarky.
• Deadly Dodging: It's not uncommon for the Xiaolin Dragons to do this upon Jack's robots. In Master Monk Guan, Chase Young pulls a rare villainous example on the Xiaolin Dragons.
• Deal with the Devil: Chase Young and Hannibal Bean are prone to making these. In fact, Chase Young became evil by taking one from Hannibal.
• Death Course: Apparently, they're standard protocol for Xiaolin training.
• Decoy Protagonist: Omi, for Raimundo. Raimundo saw the most Character Development, while Omi suffered the most Flanderization, so maybe it wasn't so much of a surprise.
  • An ongoing part of the series revolved around Omi thinking he was better than everyone else and that he was the most deserving of becoming the new Xiaolin Dragon. The two-part series finale was dedicated to showing how incredibly misplaced these beliefs were. Omi's special blend of ego and naivete caused nearly all of the problems in the finale, and although he ultimately righted the situation, it was only with Raimundo's determination, leadership, and planning that anything went right.
• Defeat by Modesty: Omi beats Jack Spicer in the first episode's Xiaolin Showdown despite Jack's Shen Gong Wu being superior for the Showdown by managing to catch up to Jack due to him coasting along with his clear advantage, then gloating about how maybe Omi will respect him after he wins... and then getting pantsed by Omi who uses the time he spends being embarrassed and trying to pull his pants back up to get to the finish.
• Degraded Boss: Mala Mala Jong in "The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back." The first time it appears, it defeats all the Xiaolin temple residents and the defeats Kimiko, Clay, and Raimundo at once. It was hailed as an existential threat to all life on Earth. In its second appearance, it has absorbed more Shen Gong Wu and quadruplicated itself using the Ring of Nine Dragons, but the team take them on without much trouble using the skills that they have acquired since and defeat them in a Xiaolin Showdown, as if they were nothing more than their normal Monster of the Week. Possibly justified by the drawback of using the Ring of Nine Dragons, which would presumably result in each Jong being individually less skilled than the original.
• Depending on the Writer: The relationship between the monks and the team's cohesion varies throughout the show. Not helping the matter is the show invokes Aesop Amnesia and then had Flanderization happen to several characters, (particularly Omi).
  • The first season initially depicted the monks as distant to each other at best, with Omi being the only one considering them as friends. Gradually, they begin to warm up to each other and by "Royal Rumble" the monks seem to view each other as friends and work decently together.
  • The second and third seasons however, the monks' relationship changes upon the episode in question. Some episodes depict them as close friends who got each other's backs and showcase brilliant teamwork. Other episodes will depict them as jerks to each other, with teamwork so terrible that Jack Spicer (even after his own Villain Decay) can get the best of them.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Quite often, Jack Spicer tends to stop to cheat. This trope varies, as sometimes it actually helps, sometimes it doesn't.
• Different in Every Episode: Kimiko's outfits and hairstyles. There's no explanation why she wears something different each time. She just does.
• Dimensional Cutter: The Golden Tiger Claws, a Shen Gong Wu that allowed the user to transport between two places instantly by ripping a hole in space that the holder could jump into, coming out of another hole in a place of their choice within seconds.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Dojo takes offence when compared to a T. rex attacking the monks and begins ranting about their differences.
• The Disembodied: Wuya spends the majority of the series as a mostly harmless spirit. Her abilities in such form are limited to sensing a Wu awakening, phasing through walls and reading minds, so she has to rely on Jack to do her bidding until she regains her body in the climax of season 1.
• Ditzy Genius: Jack can build small armies of robots, transforming trains and a working time machine, but is laughably bad at being a supervillain and almost everything that doesn't involve robots. Of course, there is his Future Badass self.
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: In "Royal Rumble", Kimiko made fun of the way Clay talked.
  Kimiko: I can't understand a single word dem folks are singing about. And I use the term "singing" miighty loosely.
  Clay: I do not talk like that! Do I?
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Woozy Shooter makes whoever gets hit by it "goofy," aka extremely high and delirious. Complete with acid trip visuals. Dojo explicitly refers to it as emitting a purple haze that makes its victims so "goofy."
  Kimiko: (giggle) You know, if I wasn't me (snort) I could be... (Beat) Somebody else! (psychotic giggle)
• Doesn't Like Guns: Chase doesn't like weapons, period. He berates Guan for being too dependent on his lance and refuses to use Shen Gong Wu unless absolutely necessary, as he believes that warriors who rely on anything other than their own skills become less effective once the object is taken away from them. Given Guan's reaction when his lance is stolen, Chase may be right...
• Driven to Suicide: Essentially Dudebot, one of Jack Spicer's robots that Jack used the Heart of Jong to turn human. Soon finding out he doesn't really like feeling human, Dudebot takes the Shen Gong Wu out of himself and throws it away, and promptly drops down, motionless. Yes, this happened in a kids' show.
• Dub Pronunciation Change: In the Romanian dub, Wuya's name is pronounced "Vuya". Shen Gong Wu is similarly pronounced with a "v" sound. Clay's name is pronounced more like "Clye" in the first series, but Xiaolin Chronicles uses the English pronunciation. Fung's name uses the English pronunciation in the second season, but he's called "Foong" in the other seasons and in Chronicles.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Raimundo, constantly. The first major case of this happened in the episode "Mala Mala Jong", where instead of guarding the Shen Gong Wu with the other monks in a hidden cave, he went to the temple to try and actively help Master Fung and the older monks defeat Mala Mala Jong. Due to not listening to Master Fung's order, he's the only monk not to be promoted to Apprentice level, which causes him to temporarily pull a Face–Heel Turn.
• Duels Decide Everything: It is called Xiaolin Showdown for a reason.
• Dye Hard: In-universe, not only does Kimiko have an Unlimited Wardrobe, but also some kind of Unlimited Hair Dye Supply or Unlimited Wig Case (for most of the first season, her hair is a different color with her civilian outfit).
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In "Like A Rock" and "Tangled Web", the clothes of the Xiaolin Monks don't change for the showdown, whereas all later showdowns feature them in their uniforms, and is actually a plot point in the latter, with Kimiko's dress severely restricting her movements.
  • The overall rules for Xiaolin Showdowns themselves are also quite different at the beginning of the series. It's shown that the person to actually issue the challenge gets to decide what the Showdown will be—in "Big As Texas," for example, Clay and Jack race to be the first to say the phrase "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown." Later episodes would largely do away with this rule, especially when multiple parties were involved: in "Shadow of Fear," Jack, who isn't even participating, chooses the form of the eight-way contest.
• Easter Egg: A yin-yang is hidden in every episode.
• Easy Come, Easy Go: The Shen Gong Wu change hands very quickly, preventing any side from gaining a real advantage. See Failure Is the Only Option. In one episode, Dojo is found to be confused about the status of all the Wu, attempting to chart it all down on a big whiteboard.
  • Jack Spicer himself works on a spreadsheet for who has what whenever a Wu isn't active. Dojo makes a similar attempt in a later episode.
  • When Jack creates Mala Mala Jong, it ends up using the Shroud of Shadows to ambush the monks, which surprises them because they (and the viewers) have no idea when Jack stole it (they won it, and had it the last time anyone checked).
• Eating the Enemy: Every 1500 years, Dojo takes on a Superpowered Evil Side in the form of a giant two headed dragon with Horror Hunger for Shen Gon Wu. And he'll eat anyone that gets in his way. The only way to prevent this is if stays inside a magical little box for the whole day. In the episode Enter the Dragon, Omi allows himself to be tricked by Dojo into letting him go and he then proceeds to devour everyone in temple, the Shen Gon Wu, and Jack Spicer. Fortunately, they are able to help Omi escape who then challenges them to a Xiaolin Showdown over the Silk Spinner. The challenge is to see who can catch who first and throughout the whole challenge they try to eat Omi again. But in the end, Omi is able to trick them into the magical box, returning Dojo to normal.
• Eat the Camera: At one point in the series, both this trope and its inverted variation get pulled off simultaneously; in "Enter the Dragon“, we get a shot from one of two-headed Dojo's mouths as they suck Omi in, who engulfs the screen as he flies in screaming.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • Gigi and Dyris. Both conceal their true natures behind a cute façade, but their real forms are some of the most bizarre in the entire show, resembling a demonic venus flytrap and a quadrupedal anglerfish, respectively.
  • The Chi Creature is even creepier. It can turn invisible at will, with only mystical creatures like Dojo being capable of sensing its presence. Its attacks drain the chi of its victims, rendering them in a catatonic state. Also, the Chi Creature is responsible for the greatest Jump Scare in the series, when it appears out of nowhere in the Yin-Yang World and flashes a vicious Slasher Smile before attacking a helpless Jack Spicer.
• Elite Mook: Chase Young's jungle cats and, in the Bad Future, the Jackbots.
• Empathic Weapon: The Shimo Staff has a mind of its own, as it looks down in shame when Omi expresses his disappointment that it's his Wudai weapon.
• Embarrassing Last Name: In "Omi Town", Omi is fooled to believe that his last name is Crud. He is outraged when he first hears it.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Most of the show is this, just with different end of the world scenarios. Almost always ends up with the young dragons being the world's last hope.
  Raimundo: Sounds like "end of the world" time again.
  • Hilariously lampshaded in episode 49
    Master Fung: ... Their evil forces could cause the end of the world.
    Raimundo: Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. "Previously, on ''Xiaolin Showdown''." [Raimundo holds open his eyes wider which shows the Xiaolin Showdown logo.]
    [Everybody grins and gives a thumbs up or two to the camera.]
• Enemy Civil War: The members of the Rogues Gallery tolerate each other at best. That said, they do enjoy the frequent Villain Team-Up because against the Xiaolin Dragons, they're all on the same side.
• Enemy Mime: Le Mime. Downplayed here compared to Chronicles, but he still manages to trap Omi, Kimiko and Raimundo into a real invisible box, at least until they figure out that they can modify the box themselves and they escape it when Omi imagines a door.
• Enemy Mine: When left with no evil option, Jack Spicer will instead help the monks take out whichever foe has achieved world domination.
  Jack Spicer: I want to rule the world! Which I can't do if—
  Kimiko: —if Wuya's already ruling it!
• Enraged by Idiocy:
  • Wuya grows frustrated over Jack's incompetence and has increasingly more pronounced bursts of rage as a result. In the first season, this leads her to abandon him once Mala Mala Jong is assembled, then target Raimundo as a new apprentice. She and Spicer join forces again in season two, only for their old dynamic to come back with a vengeance, culminating in Wuya deserting him once more to pledge loyalty to Chase Young.
  • It's safe to say that everyone in the show is enraged by Jack's idiocy, as even the normally stoic Chase Young can barely contain his wrath when the boy is in his presence.
• Everything is Big in Texas: Clay is a big guy who comes from Texas. Omi learns from him in the first episode that "it's not your weight, it's how you throw it around."
  • This is also what differentiates Omi's Tornado Strike from his Tsunami Strike, and one of the ways to use the Sword of the Storm.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Chase Young to Master Monk Guan thanks to Hannibal Bean. It's reversed during the Season Three finale, but not for long.
  • Chase Young to Omi. Both are talented martial artists, both honor their word, both have an ego, both are obsessed with being the best, and both live(d) in the shadow (if we go by Hannibal's word's to Chase and Omi and Raimundo's rivalry) of an older teammate who is both their best friend and rival. What sets Omi and Chase apart naturally are their choices. Omi strongly believes in the side of good and right, while Chase is a fallen hero.
  • Jack is this to Kimiko. Both are the highly intelligent and technosavvy children of wealthy parents and wish to prove themselves to their peers. One is however much more competent than the other...
  • Raimundo subconsciously seeing himself in Jack's clothes demonstrates that he's aware of their similarities and is afraid he'll become like Jack. They're both cocky snarkers, incredibly smart with a catch, and they both fear failure and never making anything of themselves.
  • Tubbi for Clay as well. Both are large and resourceful men who tend to show more intellectual thinking when they aren't expected to.
• Evil Gloating: Jack's favorite pastime. Also indulged in by the other villains, though less so by the Big Bads, especially Chase Young.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Done by every villain on the show, especially Jack. He even takes time to judge other villains based on their laugh and whether he likes it or not.
  • Even the monks do this when they go to the Heylin side.
• Evil Redhead: Jack has red hair and is a self-proclaimed Evil Genius. Wuya in her flesh form has red hair and is more powerful in her human form than in her ghost form.
• Eviler than Thou: In the final season, there is a constant struggle between Chase, Wuya, and Hannibal to be the main antagonist. Jack occasionally gets in on the action, but is mostly ignored by the other Big Bads.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Omi gets a guttural, demonic voice after leaving the Yin Yang World for the first time.
  Omi: "Heylin Power! Tsunami Water Blade- Ice."
• Exactly Exty Years Ago: Subverted and lampshaded when Dojo turns evil for an episode.
  Master Fung: It has already begun: a thousand years of darkness!
  Kimiko: Why a thousand?
  Master Fung: It is actually 962 years, but "a thousand" sounds more ominous.
• Exorcist Head: Heylin Omi can do this. Coupled with his bone-chilling Slasher Smile, it makes him look downright demonic.
• Exposed to the Elements: Averted Trope by the Xiaolin Dragons, who wear winter clothing in cold places (though Kimiko still wears a skirt)... but not for Master Fung, who in "The Deep Freeze", wears exactly the same he always does aside from a tuque.
• Expy: A female burglar who dresses in a black, skin-tight outfit and is obsessed with cats? Gee, I wonder where the inspiration for Katnappé's character came from.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Averted in “Days Past” after Jack and the Monks team up to take down Wuya. Omi, idealistic as ever, assumes this makes them and Jack friends. Jack bluntly tells them this isn’t the case.
  • Chase Young was originally on the side of good until he made a deal with a devil-like creature to retain his youth, forgoing his humanity in the process. This was later retconned into him being specifically a former Xiaolin warrior that fought alongside Grand Master Dashi and Master Monk Guan, whom Hannibal Roy Bean turned evil.
  • Master Monk Guan in the second timeline Omi created when stopping Chase Young from turning evil. Instead of Chase, Hannibal Roy Bean simply turned his attention to Guan and turned him evil instead.
  • Raimundo turned to the Heylin side at the end of season one due to not being promoted to Xiaolin Apprentice and feeling underappreciated. Fortunately, he reconsidered his decision and rejoined the monks at beginning of season two.
  • Omi turned evil at the end of season two due to a combination of Chase Young manipulating him and leaving his good chi in the Ying Yang World when using only one of the Ying Yang Yo-yos.
  • Kimiko briefly turns evil when using the Yang Yo-yo during a showdown against Wuya in "The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy Bean".
  • Dojo also pulls one in "Enter the Dragon", due to suffering from an urge to consume Shen Gong Wu (which is apparently a common occurrence every few hundred years).
• Failure Is the Only Option: The Shen Gong Wu change hands very quickly, preventing any side from gaining a real advantage. See Easy Come, Easy Go.
• Fattening the Victim: In "Master Monk Guan", Chase Young fattens Dojo with the intent of using him as an ingredient in his Lao Mang Long Soup.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • In "The Demon Seed".
  Kimiko: It's Spicer! He took the seed!
  Clay: And the hot dogs! (runs after, losing his hat in the process and not even caring) Come back here with them doggies, you no-good low-down snake, you yellow-bellied dirty little sidewinder I'M GON' GET YOU!
  • And from "Wu Got the Power":
    Clay: MY SANDWICH! NO! NOOOO!
• Filching Food for Fun: In her first spotlight episode, Katnappe steals a little boy's ice-cream at a fair and eats a bit, then throws it on the ground. This makes the little boy cry.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: Dojo uses some of Clay's family recipe hot sauce to weaponize this trope.
• Flanderization: In the first season, Omi's sizable ego was clearly shown to be the result of his youth and lack of social skills. Basically, Omi is shown with underdeveloped empathy. Like a young child, he cannot view the world from any perspective other than his own. From the second season onward, Omi's ego became his defining characteristic rather than a side-effect of his other traits.
  • A specific example: Omi's "sexism" towards Kimiko was originally a one-off gag in episode 3 playing on his naivete. He had no idea that his words were offensive or even incorrect. In season 2, Omi developed an actual sexist attitude towards Kimiko and insulted her with full awareness that she would be offended, but only when he was jealous or mad at her for some reason.
    • Omi's sexism reaches a crescendo in "Hannibal's Revenge". When Kimiko wins a match against the other Dragons, he comments how humiliating it is to be defeated by a girl, then accuses her of cheating when he finds out she had used the Mind Reader Conch to her advantage, despite the other characters all praising her for her cleverness.
  Omi: "I knew it! She is a girl! Of course she had to be cheating!"
  • Omi has repeatedly abused Raimundo with this as well, bringing up the fact that Raimundo has betrayed the team, and took him the longest to be promoted anytime it is convenient to kick Raimundo down. And it usually happens when Rai is right next to him.
  • Jack Spicer. In the first season, he struck a balance between being a credible threat (especially when he turned the Changing Chopsticks into an asset) and comic relief (his tendency to get cocky before losing a showdown). During the second season, he became increasingly ineffectual, whinier, and ridiculously hammier, and by the third season he spent more time becoming a dupe to other villains than a threat in and of himself (briefly saved by the finale, and then instantly reversed).
• Flaw Exploitation: This is how Chase gets Omi to stay with him as his apprentice at the end of "Saving Omi".
• Foe Romance Subtext: "Citadel of Doom" has Wuya say Dashi was a smart dresser in between saying he was a fool.
• For the Evulz: Katnappé, most prominently seen in the season 1 episode with the same name. After she wins the Golden Tiger Claws in a showdown against Omi, she declines Wuya's offer of ruling the world with her, instead opting for doing crimes (like robbing a mall) with the help of the Claws just for fun.
• Funny Background Event: In "Time After Time", when Omi travels to the future, he finds Master Fung, Raimundo, and Kimiko looking very old and feeble, about to enter future old Jack's gladiator ring. Old Clay comments that they aren't the "lean mean fighting machines they used to be" while super old Master Fung easily defeats lions behind them.
• Funny Foreigner: Mostly Omi, although each of the cast members have their moments.
• Future Badass: Jack, who somehow managed to defeat the Xiaolin Dragons and every other Big Bad on the show before taking over the world and converting it into a squalid dystopia.

G-L

• Genius Bruiser: Clay's hobbies include animal identification, taxonomy, trivia, etc. Sadly, this never becomes a Chekhov's Hobby (though it is used as a Chekhov's Gag, above).
• Get Back to the Future: During the saga where Wuya takes over the world, Omi travels to the past with the help of a time machine built by Jack in order to find Dashi, the only one who defeated Wuya. After he earns a puzzle box that can help him trap her inside, both him and Jack realize that he's trapped in the past and Omi has to find out a way to get back to present day. He succeeds by freezing himself and waiting 1500 years.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: After their team-up to defeat Wuya in the season 2 opener, Omi tries to convince Jack to switch sides permanently. Jack isn't persuaded, but suggests they go out for ice cream sometime when they're not fighting over Wu ("My treat."). Sadly, we never actually see this.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In "Time After Time (Part 1)", Kimiko is torn in half, Clay is shot to death and Raimundo is crushed when a giant robot stomps on him. The show (thankfully) cuts away from the carnage just before it actually happens, but we get to see Omi's traumatized face instead.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The main premise of the series, the Xiaolin Monks have to collect all Shen-Gong Wu before the bad guys.
• Groin Attack: Poor Raimundo.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Kimiko. Particularly in "Tangled Web", where her temper, which comes mostly from the boys direspecting her, causes her to get easily distracted and not be able to use the Tangled Comb properly.
• Handicapped Badass:
  • At the start of season three, while a temporarily disabled Master Fung fends off Chase Young alone. Whilst in a wheelchair. And typing out his attacks with chopsticks on a laptop.
  • Also the blind old man guarding the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman, who easily defeated Jack and Wuya in a showdown, despite them underestimating him for being blind.
• Hands Play In Theater: In "Dream Stalker," when Raimundo dreams he's watching a movie with Kimiko.
• Hannibal Lecture: True to his name, Hannibal Bean uses these often. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn't.
• Harmless Freezing: The Orb of Tornami can freeze people solid. This is actually a plot device in two episodes, where Omi uses it to put himseld in suspended animation, essentially working like an improvised time machine.
• Heart of the Matter: There is a Shen Gon Wu called The Heart of Jong. In addition to being able bring mundane objects to life (most notably an army of snowmen), it will also, When the Planets Align, draw multiple other Shen Gon Wu to it to create the monster Mala Mala Jong, who possesses the power of any Wu it incorporates. Removal of the Heart ends the monster's threat.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Happens most often to Jack, whenever he is pulled out of the Ying-Yang World. Also happens temporarily to Wuya during a Showdown with Kimeko. What little we see of her "good" side is disturbingly sweet.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Jack, usually as an Enemy Mine
  • The Yin and Yang Yo-Yos separately also constitute revolving doors, which is played for laughs in "The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy Bean", when Kimiko challenges Wuya to a Showdown; they both use the Ying and Yang Yoyos liberally, causing them to constantly switch from good to evil and back again.
• Height Insult: Omi is sometimes teased for his small size.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In the first part of the series finale the elderly Xiaolin Warriors sacrifice themselves to buy Omi enought time to activate the Sands of Time.
  • Good Jack does the same thing in "Finding Omi," allowing himself to be turned evil again in order to save the others' chi. During the same sacrifice, Good Jack uses the Ring Of Nine Dragons to split himself up into two, and one pulls another sacrifice for the other, holding back the Chi Creature in the Ying Yang World while the other retrieves the chi and leaves. This has the result of making regular Jack even more evil than usual, though in general it doesn't end up mattering much.
  • In the warped timeline where Guan has become evil and Chase Young is good, Chase agrees to turn evil to help the Monks escape their prison and find the frozen Omi to revert the world to normalcy.
  • Good Jack again in the series finale, drawing away tigers so that the Dragons can escape.
• Hollywood Hacking: Kimiko, frequently.
  Kimiko: I cross-referenced the username with a double-helix tracer decoding worm! (Somehow this produces an image of Wuya.)
• Hood Ornament Hottie: Wuya, when offering Raimundo truckloads of stuff to keep him on her side.
• Horde of Alien Locusts: The Giant Spiders from "Dangerous Minds". According to Master Fung: "The spiders are neither good nor evil. They are simply... consumers. They consume vegetation, animals, buildings, even the earth itself. They eat until there is nothing left to eat."
  • In addition, there is a Shen Gong Wu called "Moonstone Locust", which releases white, stone... locusts.
• Human Popsicle:
  • Omi uses the Orb of Tornami to turn himself into one in two separate occasions: First when he has to figure out a way to make it back to the present time after being sent to 1500 years in the past by Jack Spicer, then in an attempt to retrieve the Sands of Time from the future.
  • Dyris and Klofange are released from their icy prison in "Screams of the Siren", only to be frozen once again by the episode's end.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: "Royal Rumble" has a sight gag of Tubbimura throwing out a bunch of weapons and food he was apparently holding, despite wearing nothing but skintight dark-purple clothes and a sword on his back while being very rotund, when he ends up on thin ice.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In "Big as Texas", Jack complains about Clay using his lasso to grab the Shen Gong Wu he's holding after being certain he's won, complaining "No, that's cheating!" while Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat very much applies to Jack.
  • In "Hear Some Evil, See Some Evil", when Kimiko read Clay's mind about her being angry all the time:
  Kimiko: Angry? Me? I'm not angry. I'm the least ANGRY PERSON I KNOOOWW!!!!
  • Raimundo is also a fan of this.
  Raimundo: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Should've done your homework.
• An Ice Person:
  • Omi can do this when using the Orb of Tornami by shouting "Orb Of Tornami: Ice", which turns the orb's default water into ice.
  • Raksha, the snowman formed from the Heart of Jong in the episode "The Deep Freeze".
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: A wordless version with Omi and Raimundo in "Saving Omi".
  • In "The Last Temptation of Raimundo", Omi does this when Raimundo possessed by Shen Gong Wu and Wuya.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Raimundo is often a victim of this from Omi. As is Jack Spicer, but from everyone.
• In a Single Bound: The Mantis Flip coin, a red and gold coin Shen Gong Wu which greatly increased its user's jumping abilities, and allowed them to jump and flip with extreme height, skill and agility.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: The Changing Chopsticks shrink the user to the size of a grain of rice.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Thrown left and right. The worst offenders are Clay and Katnappe, though.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Jack, of course. Subverted in the first part of the series finale when he actually succeeds in taking over the world, imprisoning both the monks and the much more powerful bad guys.
• Infinite Supplies: Averted. Jack frequently runs out of money to fund the creation of his robots, and is shown trading Shen Gong Wu with mob boss Panda Bubba multiple times.
• Informed Ability: Hannibal Bean is made out to be the worst possible evil there could ever be, but he never succeeds in a single venture. Even his one accomplishment, turning Chase Young evil, didn't work out how he wanted.
  • On the other hand, he actually succeeded in causing a character to undergo a Face–Heel Turn (two, technically, even if one was in an alternate timeline) that they never reverted from, which Chase Young and Wuya had both tried and failed to do on multiple occasions, and is Chase's equal in combat when the two actually fight. So this may have some truth in it after all.
• Instant Armor: The Two-Ton Tunic is a tunic that can transform into a large, bulky, and very heavy breastplate.
• Intangible Man: The power of the Serpent's Tail, and one of the effects of Raimundo combining the Sword of the Storm and the Eye of Dashi.
• Interesting Situation Duel: Once an Episode. It is the premise of the series, after all.
• Invincible Villain: Chase Young borders on this at times. He's powerful, intelligent, handsome, highly skilled, outclasses every other villain on the show as well as most of the heroes, and almost never suffers major setbacks either. The final season tones these traits down.
• Invisibility Cloak: The Shroud of Shadows embodies this, though its power is inconsistent throughout the series. Some episodes will show it stretching to hide bigger objects, while others will make it unable to conceal anything bigger than an average human being.
• Ironic Echo: In the same scene: after losing Omi back to the side of good, Chase Young claims that after tasting evil, Omi wouldn't be able to resist the next time, claiming "I believe the evil in you is stronger than you know." When Omi turns around and apologizes to his friends for not using the secret to defeating evil when he had the chance instead of abiding by his word, Chase admits that he caused Omi to see the secret to defeating good instead, and thus not abiding his word would have been catastrophic. Omi then points out that telling him that was uncharacteristically good of him, claiming "I believe the good in you is stronger than you know" and taking his leave.
• Ironic Name: Raimundo's surname, Pedrosa, derives from the Portuguese word for "stone" (pedra), in direct contrast with his title of Dragon of the Wind.
• Irony: In the finale, each main character gets to be elected as the team leader in a different timeline... except for Omi, who was the most obsessed with the title.
• It Can Think: On a couple of occasions, the Shen Gong Wu have acquired minds of their own. It's never been pretty. In one case, the Golden Tiger Claws possessed Raimundo, who had to be watched by Omi. Omi inevitably fell asleep, and the Claws helped keep Omi asleep (giving him a pillow, gently easing him down etc.) before setting off to do its deeds.
• I Would Say If I Could Say
  Omi: If I had hair, it would be standing on end!
  Dojo: If I had boots, I'd be quaking in them!
  Clay: Wanna borrow mine?
  Dojo: No thanks, no feet.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Raimundo. He might be a lazy, jerkass slacker with a tendency towards pointed barbs but he also cares deeply about protecting people, especially his friends and suffers the most from Chronic Hero Syndrome.
• Joke Item: Several Shen Gong Wu come with detrimental effects to the user:
  • The Monsoon Sandals stretch the user's legs, but also make them clumsy and can induce nosebleeds.
  • The Fountain of Hui embues endless knowledge, but overwhelms the user with worthless information and causes them to ramble uncontrollably.
  • The Gills of Hamachi turn the person into a green merman, which is useful when surrounded by water, but suicidal everywhere else.
  • The Monkey Staff slowly turns the person into a monkey and has addictive properties, causing the person to forget that they were originally human.
  • The Ants In The Pants unleashes a colony of ants to make opponents itchy. Dojo himself called it one of the lamest Shen Gong Wus, saying it would be no big deal if they just let their enemies get to it first.
• Ki Manipulation: Master Monk Guan finishes his showdown against Chase with one.
• Kid Hero: All four of the main cast are in their early teens.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Chase Young. Hannibal Roy Bean also became this, as he first appeared in the disturbing and dark Ying Yang verse imprisoned in a maximum security cell and a dark suit of armour. While delivering a Hannibal Lecture to Jack Spicer.
  • The Sapphire Dragon, due to the fact that it's silent, doesn't lend itself as much to verbal humor, and tends to be rather creepy in its only two appearances.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In "Bird of Paradise," the monks save a little old lady rather than try to capture the Bird. Guess what the little old lady turns out to be?
  • After three season of being the main target of Omi's belittlement, Raimundo is promoted to Shoku warrior in the finale, outranking the Water Dragon and officially becoming the team leader.
• Leitmotif: Several. Omi has a very prominent one, and some other characters (like Wuya, whose is dark and sinister, or Good Jack, whose is as Sickeningly Sweet as he is) have themes that occasionally play. In addition, all four of the Dragons get brief motifs in the theme song.
  • Lampshaded by Jack who tries to create his own theme and subsequently takes advice from Dojo on how to improve it.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Raimundo in "Mala Mala Jong"; Even though Master Fung told the Dragons to take the Shen Gong Wu and leave the temple to protect them from Wuya's indestructible demonic warrior, Raimundo goes back from the Dragons' hiding place to fight Jong, gets owned, and Wuya is able to find the Shen Gong Wu's location by entering his mind. This is why Master Fung does not make him a Xiaolin Apprentice at the same as the others;
  Raimundo: But I was brave!
  Master Fung: You disobeyed my orders. Your rash and impulsive actions almost led us to the brink of destruction. I am sorry, Raimundo, but you have proven you are not yet ready to move on.
• Lethal Joke Item: A lot of Shen Gong Wu play with this, along with Heart Is an Awesome Power.
  • The Changing Chopsticks give their user the ability to... shrink to the size of a rice corn. Jack uses them to steal almost all of the monks' Wus. Successfully.
    • The Changing Chopsticks see a surprising amount of use after that, often with surprising success. For instance, Tubbimura once used them to decrease his weight while on thin ice, thus winning the showdown against Clay.
    • Later seasons Retcon the Changing Chopsticks so they can affect anything the person points to, making them much more useful.
  • Another example is using multiple Wu's in combination, turning ones that were mostly harmless into highly dangerous tools. During Raimundo's first Face–Heel Turn, he runs off with the newly acquired Reversing Mirror to give to Wuya. Later that night, he busts into the temple and steals only the Serpent's Tail. It takes the group a while to figure out, but freak out once it dawns on them that the two together can shift Wuya from useless ghost to utterly terrifying sorceress.
  • The Lunar Locket lets you control the phases of the Moon. Using it to lock the satellite between the planet and the Sun will plunge the Earth into an ice age.
  • The Monkey Staff and Tongue of Saiping turn the user into a monkey and enables communication with animals, respectively. Combo the two together and you get to control an army of vicious monkeys.
  • The Sweet Baby Among Us has the rather unorthodox effect to transform itself into a giant golden baby. Turns out said creature is powerful enough to curb-stomp Chase Young's Elite Mooks.
• Limited Wardrobe: Everyone but Kimiko, who appears in a different outfit and hairdo in almost every episode, some bordering on Cosplay at times.
• Literal Split Personality: The Ring of the Nine Dragons' power. It divides the user into as many duplicates as they wish, up to a maximum of nine, but each duplicate splits up the user's personality between them. At high enough levels, this tends to result in the copies possessing one major personality trait of the user each.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • In the second episode, the monks are competing to get the fastest time on a circular obstacle course (the aim being to get past the obstacles and rescue a toy dog). Clay just turns around and picks it up.
  • Near the end of the first season, Omi and Jack have a showdown that involves holding a glass of water "without spilling a drop". Jack uses the Monkey Staff and holds it with his tail. After a few near-misses, Omi just swallows the water, catches up to Jack, and then spits it back into the glass once he's won.
  • Master Fung's jade elephant test. The goal was for the monks to grab the jade elephant, but when they get close to doing so Fung just smashes it, making them fail.

M-R

• MacGuffin Melee: One of the central premises of the series, especially when the showdowns had mulitple players.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: Jack's basement. Even lampshaded by Katnappe.
• Magic Mirror: The Reversing Mirror, a Shen Gong Wu that allowed the user to reverse the power of anything that was directed towards it, even Shen Gong Wu.
  • Some episodes have shown it to have deflecting properties as well. This is usually limited to Wu effects, such as making the Eye of Dashi zap the wielder and not the target. However, it's also been used to deflect Evil Dojo's flame, the Cyclops, and brain electricity.
• Magic Skirt: Kimiko has one especially during the Dragon X-Kumai/Wudai Orion sequences (she's upside down).
  • Especially strange when she's in her Monk attire, where she actually wears pants (but it isn't noticeable due to how pale her skin is regardless).
• Making a Splash: Omi's primary abilities. Also the primary use of the Orb of Tornami, so Omi uses it a lot.
• Malaproper: Omi, constantly. Related to Blunt Metaphors Trauma above.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Chase Young, who traded his soul for power and eternal youth. Hannibal Roy Bean, named for colorful Texas judge Roy Bean and, well, the fact he is a bean shaped creature. And even Master Monk Guan's name may be a reference to the general/war hero Guan Yu, who is famous in China for his role in the civil war that led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty.
  • Though more than likely an unintentional Bilingual Bonus, Omi is the Yoruba word for Water. Considering it's a Chinese character made by a Chinese creator it's strange that he would have a Nigerian word for a name.
  • Wuya is the Chinese word for "Crow" and during the third season, the only one of Chase Young's mooks that she got along with was the crow.
  • Clay also fits with his Dishing Out Dirt powers.
• Mechanical Animals: After one betrayal too many from Wuya, Jack Spicer opts to create his own method of detecting Shen Gon Wu without her. He builds a mechanical parrot, since he also wants it to be able to spout endless compliments to stroke his ego.
• Memetic Mutation: In-universe, Jack's constant failures cause "I got Jacked" to be the hip thing to say when one loses everything.
• Me's a Crowd: Speciality of the Ring of the Nine Dragons. The catch is that your intelligence gets spread between the copies along with everything else.
• Meta Power: The Reversing Mirror shen gong wu has the power to cause another shen gong wu to do the opposite of its normal effect.
• The Mind Is The Plaything Of The Body: In his monstrous form, Chase Young is much more aggressive, energetic and expressive, a marked change for a character who is usually The Stoic.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The opening theme features all the good guys and all the bad guys facing each other.
• Mirror Morality Machine: The Ying and Yang Yo-Yos when used individually to leave the Ying-Yang World. To a smaller extent, the literal Reversing Mirror itself, when in possession of it while leaving the Ying-Yang World with both yo-yos.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Subverted. Omi and the gang tell Master Wu that they lost a Shen Gong Uu. He tells them that they can learn from their mistake and it isn't the end of the world, but when he finds out which Shen Gong Wu they lost, he shouts, "It's the end of the world!".
• Mobile-Suit Human: Hannibal Bean's giant, spiky armor which he first appears in. He's quickly revealed to be only an inch tall. Then he gets the Moby Morpher and you only see it once again, as he's actually more effective as a giant version of his true self and doesn't need it.
• Mooks: Well, it is a a fighting series. Jack Spicer's robots are usually the Butt Monkeys of the series.
  • Lampshaded.
  Wuya: Why do you build these stupid machines?! They're useless!
  Jack: Mom said I needed a hobby.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous:
  • The Third Arm Sash, especially when Clay turns it into a flexible stone fist.
  • There's also an episode where the team faces an animate snowman. Omi knocks off the monsters arms and makes a quip about disarming him. Cue six new arms sprouting.
  • Hannibal Roy Bean once used the Moby Morpher to give himself six arms while fighting Chase Young.
• Multinational Team: Most of the cast is Chinese, but Clay is from Texas, Kimiko is Japanese and Raimundo is Brazilian.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Often, the characters use flashy and over-the-top martial arts or magical skills to do fairly mundane things - chores, games, you name it. Applies to several of the showdowns as well, which brings simple contests into insanely impressive magical arenas.
  • Special mention goes to "Something Jermaine," where Jermaine and Omi have a fight which escalates into a competition to see who can eat dinner in the most impressive way. Point goes to Jermaine for stealing Omi's rice by bending his spoon and tossing it like a boomerang. In slow motion.
• Mundane Solution:
  • In the same episode as his Loophole Abuse, Clay wins a sparrow-catching showdown by gathering seeds for it while Jack flies around trying to grab it with the Third Arm Sash.
  • In the very first episode, several of Jack's robots are defeated by... hitting the off switch. Jack wonders aloud why he made it so obvious.
  • When Omi has to travel back in time and ask Grand Master Dashi for a replacement Panku Box, Dashi replies that he can have it if he can take it from him in a Showdown. After much effort trying and failing to defeat Dashi with fantastic martial arts stunts, Omi rethinks his strategy... and asks nicely.
  • Omi, Kimiko and Raimundo are trapped in an (indestructible) invisible box by an Enemy Mime. How do they escape? By "miming" the act of opening a door, which opens an actual (yet still completely invisible) door out of the box.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Jack uses his Third Arm Sash to put a drink to his lips and juggle in the second episode.
  • In the sixth episode, he uses the Changing Chopsticks to shrink him down for easy construction of his robot's wiring.
  • The Xiaolin Dragons are hardly immune to this trope too - they use the Shen Gong Wu to complete their cleaning chores faster. In "The Deep Freeze", they use the Eye of Dashi to light a barbecue, the Fist of Tebi-Gong and Orb of Tornami to create a swimming pool, and Raimundo uses the Sword of the Storm to create a wave to surf on.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Omi often gives Raimundo the short end of the stick, especially when everyone but him was appointed to Apprentice level.
  Omi: Wudai Warriors, double your efforts! Raimundo, triple yours.
• Mystical Lotus: A Shen Gong Wu called the Lotus Twister is a lotus shaped wand that grants the user shapeshifting abilities.
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • Wuya successfully takes over the world in season 1, only being defeated thanks to Raimundo pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Both Chase and Hannibal accomplish their goals in the following seasons, as they manage to turn noble warriors over to the Heylin side (Omi and Guan, respectively). Both are only stopped thanks to high-risk showdowns where the monks barely succeed in defeating them.
  • For specific episodes, there is "The Evil Within", where the demon Sibini wins the Xiaolin showdown and prepares to attain immortality by going inside the Mosaic Scale. Once he is inside, Kimiko blasts the Shen Gong Wu both with the Eye of Dashi and her own elemental power, in a desperate and final attempt to prevent his victory. She succeeds, trapping Sibini inside the Mosaic Scale for all eternity.
  • In the bad future where the world is a dystopia ruled by Jack, the aged Xiaolin monks are killed one by one by the dictator's army. Omi, witnessing the massacre, is frozen by fear and horror, not noticing that the robots are approaching him with murderous intent. Dojo then quickly activates the Sands of Time, warping him and Omi into the distant past, mere seconds before they are both vaporized.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: In what might be the bravest action he performs in the entire series, Dojo joins the battle to rescue Omi from Chase, morphing into his giant form to blast the renegade monk with fire breath. Chase responds by compressing the flames into a small fireball he crushes with his own hands.
• Never Sleep Again: During one episode, every time Raimundo falls asleep, a giant jellyfish monster attacks the temple and nearly destroys everything, then disappears instantly when he wakes up. After several sad attempts to keep him awake, he falls asleep again, the monster comes back and a sort of Battle in the Center of the Mind ensues.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Shen Gong Wu sometimes fall into this. For instance, the Reversing Mirror was specifically stated to reverse the effects of Shen Gong Wu, but was later used to reverse other kinds of attack as well. They even make the Changing Chopsticks' effects irreversible after a time limit, when Omi used them with the Changing Chopsticks. However, another time the two were used in combination, it just made objects become huge.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The heroes have lost a few battles due to personal stupidity on their part, and Omi is particularly prone to almost causing the end of the world.
  • Omi almost causing the end of the world is practically a Running Gag in the series. Lost the Heart of Jong? Check. Let Dojo out of his cage when he was evil? Check. Surrendered to Chase Young? Check. Released Hannibal Bean? Check. Caused a Bad Future via a complete failure of basic logic and common sense? Check. Created an equally bad Alternate Universe in trying to fix the Bad Future? Check!
  • Even Master Fung managed to do this by provoking Raimundo's Face–Heel Turn. Sure, Fung's mistake was caused by another, earlier incident of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero when Raimundo disobeyed his orders, but still, you'd think an Old Master would know better.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Heylin Omi delivers a vicious one to Raimundo and Clay in "Saving Omi". Rai even cries in despair as his former friend prepares to deliver the coup de grâce.
  • The tables are turned in "Return of Monk Master Guan", where Raimundo is the one beating Omi down to a pulp, even nullifying the latter's Wudai powers with his own control over the wind.
• No Matter How Much I Beg: Dojo, when he's about to turn evil. Omi had the job to guard and not let Dojo escape from his cage no matter what, so Dojo showed lots of sneaky attempts to convince Omi to let him out.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Chase, to Dojo. He's doing it to fatten up Dojo before Chase eats him.
  Dojo: I hate to admit it, but, for an evil villain, you have been very hospitable!
• Non-Standard Character Design: Omi is bright yellow, his head is perfectly round, his eyes are more along the lines of Black Bead Eyes than the Skin Tone Sclerae everyone else has, he only has one outfit as opposed to the Monk-wear and Casual-wear everyone else switches between and in that outfit his pants are black.
• Noodle Incident:
  Clay: That's the second biggest tongue I have ever seen!
• No-Sell: When Omi returned to the past, the first time, to get Grand Master Dashi's help in defeating Wuya and Raimundo he is challenged to taking a pebble from Dashi's hand. None of Omi's attacks work as Dashi effortlessly avoids them all or is not phased when they even hit him. When the time is almost done, Dashi points out he has one option left: Asking Dashi for the pebble. It works.
• No Social Skills: Omi, as a result of spending his whole life at the temple without any friends until meeting his fellow Xiaolin monks.
• Not in the Face!: What Jack Spicer begs in "The Deep Freeze", in addition to his hair.
• Obviously Evil: Jermaine doesn't really need to think to figure out a giant robot of Jack's isn't one of the good guys in episode 9 and says as such.
• Offhand Backhand: Raimundo is fond of this, even using it outside of its standard combat application (for example, he offhand-backhands a tree in "The Demon Seed" to jostle free the Wu in one of the branches, winning the showdown with style in the process).
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Jack Spicer, probably. While he has been seen recycling parts from already-defeated bots, it's still not enough to answer the question of how he funds his endless waves of Jackbots. Chase Young also has this, as it's never raised how he ended up with such a lavishly built home.
  • Chase Young has lived for over a millenia and a half. He probably built the place with his own two hands out of boredom.
• Old Master: Master Fung IS this trope. Master Monk Guan to a lesser extent, and he really doesn't look it.
• Omniscient Database: The Fountain of Hui has unlimited knowledge of literally everything contained within it, but without the Eagle Scope to focus it, it overwhelms the user's mind with a torrent of random, useless information.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Raimundo is repeatedly reminded about his struggle to become an Apprentice of the Monks. Early in the series, Omi constantly ridicules him for not having made Apprentice. Even after he finally does make it, he's still referred to as "the last one to make apprentice."
• One True Sequence: Every time a new Shen Gong Wu is revealed, the good guys and the bad guys will both reach its location and touch it at the same time, forcing a new Xiaolin Showdown.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Dojo himself, who can voluntarily transform from what is basically a cowardly gecko into a rather impressive dragon.
  • The Lao Mang Lone Soup grants its drinker the ability to shapeshift into a demonic animal-human hybrid. Chase's beast form is based on an iguana, while Guan's resembles a lobster.
  • Dyris becomes a monstrous anglerfish when she needs to walk on land. This horrifies Omi, who thought he would be at an advantage if he confronted her outside of her element.
  • Hannibal Bean relies on the Moby Morpher to do this, often using the Shen Gong Wu to grow in size and grow extra limbs.
• Only One Name: Being an orphan, Omi is only known by his first name. However, in "Omi Town" he is fooled into believing that his last name is "Crud".
• Opponent Switch: Done when a Sheng Gong Wu creates physical manifestations of each warrior's worst fear.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dojo can shapeshift, change size, and sense Shen Gong Wu.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: At least the one the group runs into; in water, she has a very beautiful form. Out of water, though, not so much.
• Out of Focus:
  • Clay receives the least amount of development through the entire series, despite several hints at him having Hidden Depths. The third season is the worst about this, with no episodes focusing on him and zero showdowns where he participates solo.
  • Jack Spicer's presence gradually diminishes as the show grows Darker and Edgier and more threatening villains are introduced. This is noticeable when the second season degrades him from main antagonist to just a recurring foe, but it's not until the final season that his role as the secondary comic relief character is firmly established. He only participates in a single showdown, though some credibility is restored when he takes over the world come the finale.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Several Shen Gong Wu become downright useless when the show introduces another one that can do everything they can and more. For example, the Eye of Dashi + Sword of the Storms combo is never used after the Serpent's Tail has been found, the Silver Manta Ray is a much more viable means of transportation than the Shen-Ga-Roo, and the Moby Morpher renders every other shapeshifting Wu obsolete.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the video the gang shows Jack in "Hannibal's Revenge." It must be seen to be believed.
  Raimundo: Dojo! Get out of the shot!
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: The logo has the "o" in "Xiaolin" replaced by Omi's head. This also applies in Chronicles.
• Playing with Fire: Kimiko's specialty. The Star Hanabi shoots fire, and turns into a flaming Precision-Guided Boomerang when she combines it with her own power.
• Plot Coupons: The Shen Gong Wu are the driving force behind every episode, be it because they trigger a showdown or because someone misuses their powers.
• Plot Hole:
  • When Master Monk Guan first appears, he's revealed to be working for Chase Young. Chase had beaten him in battle and taken his spear, and Guan felt he couldn't be an effective hero without his weapon. He has a rematch with Chase at the end, and beats him without his weapon, proving that it isn't the weapon that makes the hero. He immediately gives the spear to Omi, feeling like he doesn't need it. The next time he appears, it's revealed that he has several hundred copies of the spear and gives another to Raimundo. This little gag means that he basically sold out his principles for nothing.
  • At the end of Omi's first meeting with Dashi, he realizes that he has no clue on how to get back to his own time. Dashi says that they had a time traveling Shen Gong Wu, but recently hid it. Earlier, he used the Sands of Time to time his match with Omi. A later episode shows that the Sands of Time actually are a time traveling wu, which could have solved all of Omi's problems. Though it would be in character for Dashi to not give Omi the easy solution, it's never clearly established that that was his intention, and it also leaves open when he would have been able to tell Dojo not to tell Omi about the Sands true power.
  • The very last episode reveals Guan and Chase aided Dashi in the battle against Wuya, which happened 1500 years before the events of the series. Chase is immortal, but how is Guan still alive and with the same appearance he had an entire millennium ago?
• Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Any shot of the Xiaolin warriors' bedroom stalls: Kimiko's has a large clothing rack and a desk with her electronics, Raimundo's is crammed with sporting equipment, Clay's has a handful of cowboy-related items, and Omi's has some minimalist Asian-esque decoration.
• Power Fist: The Fist of Tebigong, a Shen Gong Wu which was a metal gauntlet that was strong enough to crack the earth.
• The Power of Friendship: The Central Theme of the series that was (in general) explored more seriously and less Anvilliciously than in the average children's cartoon.
• Prehensile Tail: One of the perks of the Monkey Staff.
• Pretty Boy: Chase Young. Especially 1500 years ago, in Time After Time, when we first see what he looked like when he was a Xiaolin monk.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: In "The Last Temptation of Raimundo", when Wuya used Shroud of Shadows, a Wu that isn't wagered, the Xiaolins called her a cheater, yet previously when Omi challenged Dojo to a Xiaolin Showdown, he used two Wu's that not wagered ^note He wagered Changing Chopsticks but he also used Shroud of Shadows and Reversing Mirror and it is treated as a good thing.
• Punny Name: The show's title itself. The actual order of Chinese martial artists is the Shaolin (少林), however, with the show's name, the spelling Xiao can be depicted with the character 小, meaning "small", used in Chinese to refer to children, as the characters of the show are.
• Psycho Serum: The Lao Mang Long Soup. Gives unimaginable power. Side effects may include: evil, loss of emotion, disfiguring mutation, metamorphosis into a monstrous creature (which results in dependency on the soup to keep oneself human), and a penchant for spikes.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Often used on Jack and Omi when one of them is sad.
• Puzzle Box: The Evil Sorceress Wuya was sealed inside a magic puzzle box for thousands of years by the heroic Dashi. She was finally freed when Jack Spicer (who was given the box as a gift from his parents) unlocked the box.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: In the episode "Panda Town" we get this gem of a moment with Wuya and Jack.
• Really 700 Years Old: Chase Young and Master Monk Guan. The former is justified, because he gave up his soul on eternal youth, but the latter with no explanation whatsoever. Even in the alternate timeline from the series' finale, both of them remain young after Omi goes back to the present, even though only Guan made the Deal with the Devil this time.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Raimundo has this relationship with all the monks and he's both a red and a blue oni, depending on who we compare him to.
  • He's the blue to his hot-headed Implied Love Interest Kimiko's red and the red to Clay's blue, who is the calmest and nicest of the monks.
  • With Omi, it's more complicated. Raimundo is at first the red oni, for being a bit of a lazy jerk who tends to rush into a situation without thinking, but as the series goes on, he becomes more responsible and a better strategist who would do anything for people who are in danger. Meanwhile, Omi, who starts off as the blue oni who takes his job as a monk seriously and keeps his word, even to the villains, becomes more egoistic as the series goes on.
  • All in all, in order from the reddest to the bluest, the monks are: Kimiko>Raimundo>Omi>Clay, with Raimundo and Omi changing places later in the series.
  • Jack is an immature Card-Carrying Villain (red oni) and Chase is a cool-headed Soft-Spoken Sadist (blue oni).
• Red Is Heroic: The uniforms of the Xiaolin monks are red.
• Redemption Failure: Jack Spicer in "The Apprentice" genuinely wanted to join the monks, but as revealed in the "Truth or Dare" showdown, he went back to the evil side because he feared that he would fail at being good like he failed at being bad.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Downplayed. Although the Monks easily forgive Raimundo for betraying them to Wuya, Omi still has his doubts about Rai long after. In “Pandatown” it’s mentioned all the monks are still wary of Raimundo.
• Replaced with Replica: While the Xiaolin monks are fighting Jack Spicer and his lackeys for the Ying Yo-Yo, Chase Young sneaks in and secretly replaces it with a toy replica that Jack Spicer later took so he can use the Yo-Yo for his own scheme.
• Reset Button: The Hoduku Mouse Shen Gong Wu has the power to undo a user's previous mistake. We never get to see it in use as it's dropped into a pool of lava and most likely destroyed.
• Ribcage Stomach: When Dojo turns evil and eats the Monks.
• Ride the Lightning: There are two Shen Gong Wus which let the user do this: The Shard of Lightning let him travel at the speed of light for a few seconds, and the Denshi Bunny allows him to turn into electricity and travel through electrical circuits.
• Ride the Rainbow: The Wings of Tinabi , a Shen Gong Wu that sprouts wings, bestowing its user the power of flight, leaving behind a rainbow trail in the process.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Chase Young's jungle cats have a similar purpose to the Jackbots, though they're far more competent fighters and are later revealed to be defeated warriors turned into big cats by him. Also Omi when he is turned into a cat, though he was on the monks' side during the showdown.
• Robot Master: Jack Spicer, inventor of a million varieties of Jack-Bots, including a shapeshifting Chameleon Bot, a Transforming Bot, and even a a robot that duplicates the Shen Gong Wu-sensing power of his partner-in-crime, Wuya. Some of them are actually effective outside his standard Mooks.
• Robotic Torture Device:
  • In "Judging Omi", Jack builds a Tickle Bot. He ties the monks (except Omi) to a board and uses the device to tickle them in order for them to divulge the combination to the vault.
  • In the grand finale, we see another similar device built by Jack to torture Chase Young with a painting brush.
• Rock of Limitless Water: The Orb of Tornami is a blue sphere that releases an endless stream of water, which can be frozen by a Monk with domain over the element.
• Running Gag:
  • "You're even more pathetic than me! HAHAHAHA- wait, that came out wrong," and its variations.
  • "HUMILIATING defeat" comes up nearly as often as Omi's misuse of slang.
  • Raimundo's frustrations with Master Fung's cryptic koans, Omi's failed slang, and Clay's down-home metaphors.
  Raimundo: Can't anyone speak normally around here?
  • Omi's obsession with upper body strength.
  • That one fart noise shows up pretty frequently whenever shit has hit the fan.
  • Omi's crippling fear of squirrels, as well as being made fun of because of it.
  • Episode 10 has Omi pissing off a cow he's trying to milk and getting kicked straight out of the barn, four times. He exploits the pattern later in the episode for a fifth time, yanking on one of its teats to get himself kicked into a Jackbot.
  • Jack really doesn't like Wuya using how she's a ghost to pass through him. In the most feminine way possible. Wuya later basically does it to intentionally scare him.
  • Dojo getting and describing his afflictions which coincide with sensing Shen Gong Wu revealing themselves (such as, a rash). Kimiko usually protests it's Too Much Information.

S-Z

• Scaled Up: Chase Young can transform (and will if he doesn't eat enough special soup) into a half-human half-dragon thing. The effectiveness of this move varies, though in his debut it's while he's in this form that he is defeated.
• Schizophrenic Difficulty: The puzzle box that imprisons Wuya is impossible to open until the exact right moment in order to actually seal her. However, once she's inside it virtually anyone can easily open it.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Jack Spicer; often the scream is that of an actual little girl instead of Jack's voice actor.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Lots and lots. It seems that almost every antagonist in the series, including two of the main antagonists (Wuya and Hannibal Bean), is some sort of Sealed Evil in a Can that is set free by one or more of the four Dragons-in-Training or Jack Spicer.
  • The only exception was Chase Young, who didn't care about the Shen Gong Wu until Omi came along.
• Selective Magnetism: The Glove of Jisaku can draw any metallic object to its user. It can even draw other Shen Gong Wu to itself.
• Self-Duplication: The Ring of the Nine Dragons allows the users to duplicate themselves, but cuts his power and intellect into equal portions and leads to Literal Split Personality.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In "Time After Time" when Omi witnesses Wuya's defeat, it consists of Dashi, Monk Guan and Chase Young tearing through her rock golems like they were nothing and Dashi beating her in hand-to-hand combat without even really trying, without any suggestion of her Reality Warping magic or the alleged "furious battle" depicted in the first episode.
• Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: In the Grand Finale, Omi travels to the past (after experiencing a Bad Future first) in order to prevent Hannibal Bean from turning Chase Young evil by replacing the Lao-Mang soup with normal pea soup. It works, but after travelling back to present, he discovers that Hannibal turned Master Monk Guan evil this time, Wuya is restored to her human form with her powers (whereas in the normal timeline, Chase restored her without her powers) the other Xiaolin monks work on a farm, Master Fung is trapped in the Yin-Yang World, and Jack Spicer is good, making this timeline far worse than the original one. In the end, they manage to restore Omi's timeline back to normal after the two Omis from different timelines interact.
• Shameful Shrinking: Once, when Raimundo's most recent joke fell flat, his entire head literally deflated and sank into his neck.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Kimiko in her kimono from the episode "Tangled Web" - although the moment (complete with eye-widening and gulping) actually happens in "Dream Stalker," when Raimundo sees her in his subsconscious.
• Ship Tease:
  • Raimundo and Kimiko, all over the place. Their interactions reek of Belligerent Sexual Tension, she kisses him on the cheek twice, and he canonically has a crush on her, as seen by his subconscious imagining them on a date in "Dream Stalker".
  • Wuya and Chase, too, in a villainous Belligerent Sexual Tension sort of way, as many of their interactions after she permanently gets her body back have flirtatious undertones.
  • There is a scene that can be seen as Clay/Kimiko in which Clay catches Kim before she is lit on fire and she blushes and giggles in a 'My Hero' sort of way.
  • Chase and Jack to an extent. It's almost as if Jack has a one-sided crush on Chase, as stars and hearts appear in his eyes when talking to Chase, Chase catching him in one episode, and he's even been able to HUG Chase twice, but was rejected both times.
  • Wuya and Jack in a Belligerent Sexual Tension sense, especially in season three when she regains her human form permanently. She'll occasionally sneak away from Chase to help Jack steal Wu, and her teasing with him during these moments is practically affectionate.
• Shock and Awe:
  • The Eye of Dashi, a pendant Shen Gong Wu with a red ruby in the center. It released bolts of electricity and generated unlimited power into a desired object. It could power a time machine and a mind reading device. The Eye of Dashi can be used in unison with other Shen Gong Wu and elemental powers and is overall the most versatile wu in the series.
  • The Thorn of Thunderbolt is a much more combat-oriented version of the Eye of Dashi, as it fires a destructive bolt in a single concentrated blast from its tip.
  • The Denchi Bunny transforms the user into living electricity, allowing for quick transportation through circuits.
• Shout-Out: Enough for it to have a separate page.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Jack whenever he turns completely good via the Ying Yang World, to the point where even though he's wholeheartedly on their side, the monks like him even less than they do when he's evil.
• Silence, You Fool!: Omi gets a particularly polite example.
• Skintone Sclerae: The human characters are drawn with eyes that contain eyelid, iris and pupil, but not sclerae.
• Slapstick: All of the main characters, even Kimiko, get roughed up a fair bit both humorously over the top and not on a constant basis, in a medium which usually wouldn't use them for extreme slapstick, being teens and all.
• The Slow Path: Omi gets around this by using the Orb of Tornami to turn himself into a Human Popsicle. He got there first, Aang.
• Smart People Play Chess: Raimundo shows a surprising knack for it while playing against a talking dinosaur with a British accent.
• Smooch of Victory: Kimiko does this twice to Raimundo. First when escaping Wuya's crumbling lair, riding back on Dojo and then another when Rai becomes leader.
• The Smurfette Principle: Kimiko is not only the only female of the Xiaolin monks, but also the only heroine in the first series. The other female characters, such as Wuya and Katnappe, are on the Heylin side. Chronicles introduces a few more heroines, such as her sister.
• Snowlems: The Heart of Jong creates an especially nasty one. "All that upper body strength and a killer Evil Laugh!"
• Some Kind of Force Field: Averted with Le Mime - his boxes are constantly invisible, even when you walk into them. They're also soundproof, so Clay has no idea why the others aren't speaking until Rai goads him into walking into it. Rai then spoofs the stock phrase as he sees Clay's reaction: "It's...some...sort...of...in-vi-suh-ble-box. Ai, took him long enough."
• Songs in the Key of Lock: The vault is opened by playing some notes on wind chimes.
• Sorry to Interrupt:
  • The Xiaolin Dragons walking in on Dojo clipping Master Fung's toenails.
  • And the, ah, awkward bathtub moment between Dojo and Chucky Choo.
• Sound-Only Death: Happens to Clay, Kimiko, and Raimundo in the Bad Future where Jack has taken over the world. Once he chases down the Monks, he has them kill Clay in a blast of laser-fire that covers his death, the camera pans down before Kimiko is torn in half and the only indication of Raimundo's fate is seeing a giant robot leg begin to descend on him before it cuts to Omi watching several loud bangs.
• Spectacular Spinning: So much. Spirals are featured all over, with Jack's glasses, Wuya's eyes, Raimundo's medallion and clothes, both his and Kimiko's sequences in the intro and when they call out their element.
• Spikes of Villainy: Chase Young, in spades - a running gag has a character be near him, only for spikes to pop out of his clothes and scare them. This happens to his underwear at one point.
• Spoof Aesop: In the second episode, Clay asks the others what they've learned from their recent experience. Kimiko and Omi each have the right idea, but Raimundo's suggestion ("Omi can't use slang") and Clay's own answer, that "Everyone Hates Mimes", are this.
• The Stoic: Chase Young. He's low in emotion and rarely loses his cool, even when he gets captured by Jack Spicer twice (first time he gets trapped in the Sphere of Yun in "The New Order", second time he's seen to have been captured by him along with the other villains in the Bad Future). One of the few times where he did lose it was in "The Apprentice", after Jack gives him a Bear Hug.
• Stealth Pun: In "The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back", One of Jack's Ring Of Nine Dragons clones is a donkey. A jackass.
• Stock Sound Effects: "The Evil Within" and "The Emperor Scorpion Strikes Back" uses the sound of TIE fighters moving for Raimundo charging and a Jack Spicer Ring of Nine Dragons clone charging, respectively.
• Story-Breaker Power: Some Wu are so overpowered they only appear in their debut episodes, with the writers doing their best to make you forget that they exist, as any tension would be killed if the protagonists just decided to stick to those weapons for the rest of the series. Examples include:
  • The Crystal Glasses, which could reveal the future.
  • The Emperor Scorpion, which gave the user omnipotent control over all other Shen Gong Wu.
  • The Kuzusu Atom fires a beam that disintegrates anything, even people or other Wu.
  • The Shard of Lightning essentially freezes time for everything but the user.
  • The Sun Chi Lantern gathers chi, turning whoever absorbs it into an unstoppable One-Man Army.
  • The Yin and Yang Yo-yos may be the worst of the bunch. Their main use is opening a portal to a parallel dimension, which could be used to trap people for eternity. And even if the victim somehow made it out of there, crossing over to Earth would cause their personalities to do a 180, meaning evil individuals would become good and vice-versa.
  • And then there is the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman, which grants its wielder any wish. Used once to transfigurate Kimiko into Jack Spicer, in a gambit that fooled nobody other than Wuya, then promptly forgotten come the series finale, despite the limitless potential such a device could offer.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In episode 10, Clay is symmetric to his father for a moment, both facing directly at each other with their sides facing to the screen. At that moment, they have the exact same-sized face with a similar round nose and underbite between them.
• Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The Woozy-Shooter causes anyone enveloped in its gas to act extremely goofy as if they're high on a mix of LSD and ecstasy. Notable examples include:
  • Katnappe using it on the monks in a Disney Acid Sequence in an attempt to steal some Wu (they're eventually snapped out of it by being attacked by their reprogrammed mini-bots).
  • Kimiko attempting to use it on Heylin Omi only for him to dodge the gas and knock her into it, causing her to believe she's Cyclops for the rest of the fight.
• Stylistic Suck: In Hannibal's Revenge, the heroes need to build up Jack's confidence for their plan, so after faking several tricks they show him a movie of what the other villains really think of him. "Wuya" and "Chase" are quite obviously Omi and Clay each holding a Paper-Thin Disguise over their faces (and you can see all of Clay's head at one point when he lets the plate slip, "Hannibal Bean" is drawn on Kimiko's thumb, and you can see her face while manipulating him, and to add insult to injury Dojo walks through the background at one point and Raimundo tells him to stop ruining the shot. Jack is completely fooled.
  • Even earlier Jack replaces Kimiko with his Chameleon Bot. Chameleon Bot is ludicrously perky compared to Kimiko, repeatedly calls Jack Spicer "Hunky," and doesn't know basic things about Kimiko's life and routine that should have given her away instantly. The real kicker is that at one point Chameleon Bot actually suffers from buffering, during which it verbally loads and processes data while unable to perceive the outside world. Naturally, the Xiaolin Dragons are completely fooled.
• Suddenly Obvious Fakery: Zigzagged with the Chameleon Bot. For the most part, its mimicked forms are overly angular and clear to the audience that it's distinct from the real person. However, whenever it's meant to be a surprise to the audience that a person is the Bot in disguise, it will be drawn exactly like the true character, which is likely how it's meant to be seen in-universe anyway.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: The series combines martial arts with elemental powers and various magical objects named Shen Gong Wu.
• Supernatural Sealing: Using the Magic Puzzle Box, Dashi sealed away the powerful Heylin witch Wuya for centuries.
• Superpowered Evil Side: The Yin/Yang Yo-Yo can awaken one in the good guys.
  • Chase Young is a rare villainous example. As a result of the Deal with the Devil he made for immortality, he needs to drink the Lao Mang Long Soup or else he'll regress into an Ax-Crazy dragon form.
• Surprise Checkmate: Justified in "Oil in the Family" because the T. rex isn't playing to win: it's trying to trap/knock out Raimundo with the giant chess pieces so it can eat him. Raimundo, meanwhile, is focusing on checkmating the T. rex to win the showdown.
• Swallowed Whole: In Season 2 episode 7 'Enter the Dragon', Dojo becomes evil for 24 hours as he builds an overwhelming urge to collect Shen Gong Wu, turning into a huge two-headed dragon and swallowing the main cast in the process.
• Temporary Bulk Change: In one episode the showdown was a four-on-four sumo wrestling match, and the contestants' bodies swelled up to the appropriate size for the duration of the match.
• Thick-Line Animation: Like many other cartoons, the characters and objects are drawn with visible heavy black borders around them.
• This Is No Time to Panic: In "Days Past", Omi, Kimiko and Clay are fleeing from Wuya, who has taken over the world. Omi tells his friends not to despair, because there is always a path to victory. About five seconds later, he tells them "now, you may despair."
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Several Shen Gong Wu are useful in very specific situations. Most notably the Gills Of Hamachi, which is the Wu to have for underwater adventures, but does Omi little good against Raimundo's more useful Fancy Feet.
• Tickle Torture: Jack builds a giant, impressive-looking robot whose only purpose is tickling his enemies into submission. It really adds to his ineptitude as a villain.
• Time-Freeze Trolling Spree: In the episode "The Shard of Lightning", Jack Spicer and his robot double use the titular shen gong wu to freeze time around them to steal all of the Xiaolin Dragon's shen gong wu and repeatedly play pranks on them.
• Time Stands Still:
  • The Shard of Lightning plays with this. It grants the user the ability to travel at the speed of light, making the rest of the world appear motionless from their point of view.
  • The Golden Finger plays this trope straight, as it freezes time for whatever object or being it's pointed to.
  • When Omi uses his powers on a waterfall to stop the water from flowing, the resulting effect is very similar to this.
• Time Travel:
  • The Sands of Time allows one to travel through time at will (which is why it's never kept by the monks). Omi travels back to the past in the first season finale, ended up Trapped in the Past coming back by The Slow Path.
  • The series finale has several Time Travel tropes; Alternate Universe, Bad Future, Reset Button, Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and Temporal Paradox. Thanks, Omi.
• Took a Level in Badass: Turns out Jack Spicer will grow up to be this, as his elderly self successfully took over the world in the bad future created by Omi in the finale.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Clay and a few other male characters like Klofange are designed with a large upper body on a comparatively smaller lower body with short legs.
• Touch the Intangible: Using the Reversing Mirror combined with the Serpent's Tail inverts the latter artifact's effects, from turning a solid person ghostly to making a ghostly person solid. Wuya uses these at the climax of the first season to undo the curse placed on her, becoming a flesh and blood witch once again.
• Transflormation: In "Demon Seed," practically everyone except Raimundo gets turned into plants.
• The Trap Parents: In the episode "Omi Town", Omi thinks he finally found his real parents, but they turn out to be robots built by Jack Spicer and made to look like his "relatives" with Hannibal Bean's Moby Morpher. The reason why the Heylins created this fake family was to keep Omi secluded in order to give them an advantage over the Xiaolins.
• True Companions: Particularly for Omi, who's an orphan.
• Un Evil Laugh: Jack Spicer's very own "New Trademark Evil Laugh" is... Something else.
• Unexplained Recovery: Last time we see the Good Jack created by the Ring Of Nine Dragons, he was being held by the Chi Creature as it licked its lips in preparation to devour him. A few episodes later, the clone turns out to be perfectly fine, if still trapped in the Yin-Yang World, with the monster nowhere to be seen.
• Unholy Holy Sword: Shen Gong Wu in general are tools capable of being used by good or evil, but are implied to be the creations of Xiaolin Warriors like Grandmaster Dashi. Even then, some Wu are inherently too dangerous for safe use, some are containers for evil beings and all are subject to reoccurring events that make them instruments of evil regardless of who uses them.
• Unholy Matrimony: Initially, Chase Young and Wuya have problems in their alliance (namely, she has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder), but by the end of the third season, they've decided to stop arguing and stay together for the sake of evil.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Kimiko and Raimundo, especially in the episode where Hannibal Bean intrudes Raimundo's head. He rests his arm on her shoulder in the cinema (only to find out that she is, in fact, Hannibal). However, since they never get together in-show, fans are left to guess on their own if it was resolved post-Grand Finale.
• Unsafe Haven: The Shen Gong Wu "Vault" really ought be called the Shen Gong Wu Grab n Go. The vault does such a lousy job of keeping the warriors' Wu safe that even Jack Spicer can swoop on in and leave with a sack full of the powerful weaopons with the warriors none the wiser. It gets so bad, that in one episode Dojo actually screams in frustration about why they don't get a proper lock for the vault.
• Vanity License Plate: As can be seen in "Master Monk Guan", Jack has one that says NIL8 (as in, annihilate).
• Verbal Tic: In "Hear Some Evil, See Some Evil", Kimiko can't stand the way Clay talks.
  Clay: Omi, that's about as lowdown as a snake's bellybutton!
  Kimiko: Snakes don't have bellybuttons!
• [Verb] This!: Very first episode.
  Jack: Now that I've defeated you, you'll respect the genius of...Jack Spicer!
  Omi: Respect, THIS! [pulls down Jack's pants]
• Villain Decay: Jack Spicer and Wuya, as both were upstaged by Chase Young, although Jack wasn't all that tough to start with, and Wuya was restored without her full powers (precisely because Chase deliberately did so so knowing resurrecting someone who's both stronger than you and wants to take over the world as much as you do isn't a good idea). Even then, she can still beat all of the monks.
  • Reversed in the first part of the finale, where Jack's future self pretty much kills everyone.
• Villain Takes an Interest: The main plot of the second half of season 2 revolves around Chase Young trying to bring Omi to the dark side. He succeeds in the season's finale, after Omi exits the Yin Yang World with only one of the two yo-yos, leaving his good chi behind.
• Villain Team-Up: Frequently (Jack even explicitly proposes an "evil team-up" on multiple occasions).
• Villain World: More than once, one of the main villains succeeds in taking over the world.
  • Wuya does it in the season 1 finale after Raimundo helps her turn back into a solid person.
  • Chase does it in the season 2 finale after he manages to turn Omi to the Heylin side.
  • Even Jack Spicer manages to conquer the world after Omi and Dojo freeze themselves for eighty years. In the meantime, he succeeded in gathering all the Shen Gong Wu and trapping both the good and the bad guys.
• Visual Pun: Omi one time gloated about how "he's the best at humility" while his head inflated, complete with sound effect.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Omi and Raimundo, especially as the series progresses.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Dojo, though he mainly uses it to switch from gecko-size to full-blown-dragon. Also, the Moby Morpher, as the name implies, is a Shen Gong Wu that could morph things. It was considered to be one of the most powerful and dangerous Shen Gong Wu, and is used exclusively by Hannibal Roy Bean.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Raimundo is left nauseated due to motion sickness after riding the Shen-Ga-Roo and unleashes it all offscreen when the Cyclops squeezes his belly.
• We Can Rule Together: In the season 1 finale, Wuya gives Raimundo this offer after she finds out that he feels unnappreciated by the others, promising to give him everything he wants if he helps her regain her flesh form.
• We Win, Because You Didn't: Master Fung challenges the monks to take a jade elephant from him, then takes out a mallet and breaks it when it looks like they're winning. This leads Omi to send the Golden Tiger Claws to the Earth's core at the end of the episode.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Raimundo, although he saved the day at the last minute. The other monks don't make too much fuss, although it's occasionally rubbed in his face, and part of Master Monk Guan's secret plan in a later episode involves him pretending to do it again.
• Wham Line: For the lead-up to the first season finale, Master Fung after Raimundo steals the Serpent's Tail.
  Master Fung: On its own the Serpent's Tail is no great threat: it makes a solid person ghostly.
  Dojo: But combined with the Reversing Mirror..
  Omi: ...it would turn a ghostly person solid!!
  Clay and Kimiko: Wuya!!
  Master Fung: Precisely.
• When You Snatch the Pebble: Subverted when obtaining the second magic puzzle box. None of Omi's attacks even made Grand Master Dashi bat an eye. Omi had to ask for the pebble.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The monks' fears from "Dreamscape" fit this trope. Omi, Raimundo, Clay, and Kimiko are afraid of squirrels, tentacled sea monsters, Clay's grandmother, and a half-melted doll, respectively.
• The World Is Always Doomed: Done so often that the show even often makes fun of it.
  Chase Young: After the monks have accidentally released Hannibal Bean from the Ying-Yang World. You fools! You have just unleashed the greatest evil the world has ever seen!
  Raimundo: Huh. Sounds like "end of the world time"... again.
  Chase: No... It is far worse than that.
• World-Healing Wave: Comes at the end of Wuya's rule saga when she is sealed back into her puzzle-box by Raimundo.
• World-Wrecking Wave: When Wuya is made solid again in the first season finale turning everything into a Crapsack World. At least until the healing wave reverses it.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: In "Katnappe", Clay refuses to fight the titular character because she's a girl but then later manages to defeat her via Loop Hole Abuse (a bear hug isn't fighting). This particular hung up seems to vanish afterwards, as Clay has no qualms sparring with Kimiko in "The Shard of Lightning" and is the first monk to throw themselves at Wuya in "The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy Bean".
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • The Hoduku Mouse is lost forever when Jack drops it into a pit of lava.
  • The Sands of Time are disintegrated by the Kuzusu Atom in "Time After Time (part 2)".
• X-Ray Vision: The Falcon's Eye can let its user see through solid objects.
• "Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation: Omi uses an object to split him into copies, which unfortunately suffer from Clone Degeneration. When one of the copies runs across a Shen Gong Wu as the same time as Jack Spicer, Jack challenges him to a Xiaolin Showdown. When the copy doesn't answer, he asks him he accepts. The copy just beeps his nose. Jack decides to take that as a yes.
• You Will Know What to Do: Double subverted in the second season opening; Master Dashi's new puzzle box "will only open when the one who needs to open it, opens it." Everybody tries to open it, but it fails at a critical moment. Then Rai gives it a go, and it works.

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