Awesome Music: The theme used at the very end of the first season finale. Variations also include the music at the end of "I, Chiro". Even more epically, the music used when we first see Antauri as the silver monkey (complete with lightning crashing behind him) and all variations on that theme.
The original Mandarin was the first leader of the Hyperforce, and the one who inadvertently turned their kindly creator, the Alchemist, into the malevolent Skeleton King. Even as a hero, Mandarin was a sadistic bully who at one point had his younger sister, Nova, participate in a torturous "training exercise" that entailed Nova being subjected to worsening sub-zero temperatures by Mandarin, who could be heard giggling at the obvious pain and discomfort that he was causing Nova. Eventually concluding that he was better than everyone else, Mandarin turned to evil and attempted to conquer Shuggazoom, only to be defeated and imprisoned by the rest of the Hyperforce, who replaced him with Chiro. After escaping from custody, Mandarin enslaves everyone in Shuggazoom City, captures the Hyperforce, and tries to tempt Chiro to his side by telling him that We Can Rule Together. Later allying with the Skeleton King, Mandarin abducts and rips off the head of Chiro's robot girlfriend, Jinmay, and psychically tortures Chiro into revealing the whereabouts of the missing Hyperforce, who he also mentally tortures in an attempt to destroy their wills and turn them into mindless servants of himself and the Skeleton King. In his final appearance, Mandarin attempts to create a perfect clone of Chiro. After Chiro destroys his replicator, Mandarin has all of the remaining imperfect clones merge together to form a massive Blob Monster that he orders to devour every living thing on Shuggazoom.
The seemingly kind and polite slot machine owners Ma and Pa Sheenko are in fact the leaders of the Skeleton Circle cult, worshiping the Skeleton King. In the past, the couple offered their daughter Valeena to the Skeleton King, who tainted her with his evil, turning her into the evil Skull Sorceress. After the Skeleton King was killed, the Sheenkos stole his skull to take its power for themselves and pick up where the Skeleton King left off. When a vagrant stumbles upon one of the underground rooms of the Skeleton Circle, he is strung up by the Sheenkos and left to be Eaten Alive by giant rats. Using the power of the Skeleton King's skull, Ma and Pa begin to unleash destruction and supernatural disasters on their "pathetic" homeworld of Shuggazum, starting on Shuggazum City, planning to spread disaster and destruction throughout the universe, not caring about the countless deaths while they receive strength and power before attempting to kill their daughter Valeena for refusing to join them.
Epileptic Trees: After Chiro found a room full of his stuff in the Skeleton King's lair, fan theories went a bit wild.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Chiro equals Chi Rho, the first two greek letters of Christ, and is used even today to represent him.
What was Chiro's life like before discovering the Super Robot, and what happened after he reawakened the Monkey Team?
The little knowledge we have of the Alchemist's backstory alone is enough to make several fanfics. Why did he leave the Prometheus Project, steal the Super Robot and retreat into the jungle? How did he meet and befriend Captain Shuggazoom? And how did he come to know about the Veron Mystics' prophecy and the Dark Ones?
When fans are referring to the Season 2 finale ("Antauri's Masters" and "I, Chiro") and the Season 3 opener ("The Savage Lands" two-parter) episodes as a whole, they tend to call it "The I, Chiro Saga".
Fans refer to Sprx, Gibson and Otto as the "Black-Eyed Trio".
Fans also refer to Sprx, Otto and Nova as the "Stoplight Trio".
In Power Rangers (2017), when the Rangers finally enter their Zords, a cord connects to their suits and allows for them to link up and control their respective Zords... exactly like the Monkeys (well, the port connects with their heads, not their backs, but details).
That type of linkup didn't originate with this show, either — it would be 1993's Exo Squad that codified that type of linkup (at least in Western productions), with the "cyberjacks" that hooked into ports installed at the base of the characters' skulls (for neural commands).
Greg Cipes voices Michelangelo who wears an orange mask and is the youngest of his team, just like Chiro. For extra hilarity, Kevin Michael Richardson (Antauri) would voice the Shredder, who is enemies with Cipes' character instead of being his mentor and friend.
Michaelangelo has green skin and wears an orange mask. In other words, he's basically a mix between Chiro (orange mask, youngest member of the team) and Beast Boy (green skin, being an immature prankster).
TMNT 2012 even has a monkey with Psychic Powers voiced by Tom Kenny, doing the same voice he used for Gibson.
Corey Feldman voices Sprx, the red monkey. In TMNT 2012, he voices Slash, the mutated pet turtle of the red-masked turtle Raphael.
Clone Mandarin. C'mon, the guy gets his arm CUT OFF (on camera, no less!), is eaten alive by a giant worm-shaped incarnation of pure evil, starves, becomes undead, and eventually goes absolutely batshit insane in said worm, is later TORTURED for information for the whereabouts of his dead master's skull (again, on camera), and is then forced to become a pet-slave, which for someone with his pride, is a Fate Worse than Death.
Mandarin crossed the horizon pre-series when he forced Nova into a freezing training room in order to "train her to survive harsh conditions" while continually lowering the heat and laughing at her. He only stopped when her Unstoppable Rage kicked in and blew him into a wall. It seems even more reprehensible when you take into account the fact that he did this before his Face–Heel Turn, while he was still considered one of the good guys.
Mandarin apparently gets some kind of kick crossing this thing, because he does it twice. There's the above mentioned example, then after he's Face Heel Turned he tortures his former teammates in an attempt to force their obedience.
The most disgusting thing about him are the DISGUSTINGLY realistic vomiting noises that Kevin Michael Richardson makes as he pukes up all the citizens that he ate when the citizens of Shuggazoom City pelt him with produce which turns out to be his weakness.
Also, bug eating comes up at least once every other season. It's even the key to saving the day in one episode.
Chiro spends a good portion of "Belly Of The Beast" exploring the Dark One Worm's insides. He does not enjoy himself.
"Invasion of the Vreen" not only had Gibson eating a bug to save the day, but also when one of the Vreen was sliced in half and we had a view of its... err... parts. Gibson had the right to feel sickened by the sight.
Paranoia Fuel: It is said that the Dark Ones implanted offspring in the cores of "countless" planets. Take a moment to think about the concept that the planet you live on could be housing an enormous evil monster bent on instigating a Zombie Apocalypse on every planet in the universe, and you would have absolutely no idea until it hatched.
Squick: The monkeys tastes seem to extend outside their species. Sprx-77 is by the far the worst offender with his egregious love for human women (he gets better, though). Otto is the same, though to a far, far lesser extent. And there was even one instance in which Nova fell in love with an anthropomorphic cat.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Earth is only ever seen once, in the present, and it's never stated whether or not the humans seen on Shugazoom and elsewhere originally came from Earth, or what (not to mention if the governments of Earth in this universe are aware of the aliens outside the planet and their battles).
Viewer Gender Confusion: At least until you hear Sakko talk. Some countries decided otherwise, as mentioned.
The Woobie: Pretty much all of the Hyperforce at one time or another.
