#Xiaolin analysis

[terrestrialnoob]

Xiaolin Showdown is weird for a lot of reasons, but lovable for more. But something fascinating to me is that only one main villain is actually evil. You've got: Jack Spicer, who just wants to be taken seriously and thinks world domination would give him that. Wuya, who is so lonely that even when she rules the world, she does everything she can to keep her one companion. Chase Young, who was manipulated into drinking evil soup and can't really stop without dying. And Hannibal Roy Bean, who is actually evil, tricked Chase into drinking the evil soup, and wants to cause death, chaos, and destruction.

[goldenheartstudios]

I wanna talk about the monks' fears

  Disclaimer: Spoilers for those who haven’t watched this show from 2003 (And if you actually didn’t watch it, then do it. Why are you here in the first place?)

  With that out of the way, it’s time to indulge into my hyperfixation once again

  You see, one thing that I really like about Xiaolin Showdown is its combination of simplicity and subtlety. There are some things that are as they’re shown, and there are other things that are actually more detailed than they seem and you can miss them on first watch

  As such, the show encourages you to go deeper, to think beyond what it’s shown in front of you and have your own interpretation on things

  And one thing that always left me think is episode 10 from season 2, where we get to see each of the monks’ fears, because what we see can be taken in a simple and literal way

  But you can also go deeper and break each fear into a core concept

  First, I wanna make note of the fact that each fear has something special to them. They have at least one thing that help them be different from each other, which is something more notable when you take them one by one to analyze

  And this is what I plan to do

1. Clay’s fear

  The thing that’s interesting about Clay’s fear is that it’s the only one about someone. If the others’ are represented through animals or objects, his is represented by not only a real person, by a relative as well

  You can also easily take his fear as it’s shown: he fears his grandma because he had a bad experience with her. You can put it as a simple trope of fearing your relative, which was most likely the intention (and honestly, she does look scary in her own way)

  But aside from that (and my personal feelings of relating to his fear), one thing that’s important to note is that children, just like adults, can subconsciously associate things with feelings. Sometimes their fear is straight forward: they fear it because it looks scary. But sometimes, their fear is associated with another emotion, but they’re not fully aware of this and they deem the “object” as scary instead of the real reason they were afraid in that situation

  To put it simply, it’s like conditioning: you get a bad emotion from a thing, so you learn to avoid the thing, without realizing that the problem is the emotion and not the thing itself

  And since these are supposed to be their deepest fears, it makes more sense that they’re associated with another feeling than just being scary

  With Clay’s fear, I would say that it’s related to the lack of control. The way he talks about her makes it seem that she was something he had to endure, which would make sense because if they visited her as a small child, then he had no choice than to accept her doting which was actually painful

  And it would make sense if his deepest fear is the lack of control, because one of Clay’s core traits is strength within self, which is affirmed by his feeling of relaxation and comfort. He’s someone who likes to chill and vibe in his own way, and when he has to do something he doesn’t like, we can feel him being awkward or uncomfortable, an example being the episode when he followed his father’s orders

  Yes, he can act with anger in unpleasant situations and stand up for himself, but as I stated before, it’s most likely that he endured the unpleasant visits to his grandma when he was young, when he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. So, it makes more sense why his grandmother is the image of his fear of lack of control, because these were the moments when he lacked control in his life the most

  This fear of lack of control has its benefits, but also its downsides. On one hand, it helps him be focused on what he can do and how he can use the knowledge he has in order to be in control of situations. On the other hand, he has a subtle avoidance of things that he’s not certain about, and he can either become too set up in his comfort zone, or he’s too thrown off in situations that he’s not familiar of (for example, his stage fright)

  Which it’s interesting to think about. Clay is a character who has stable principles and he’s defined by strength, both internal and external, but his desire to maintain this sometimes leads him to a bigger passive role than he would want to. And if it goes to extreme, it could have an opposite effect and make him question his value and strength

  Just some food for thought

2. Kimiko’s fear

  One thing that’s worth noting on the spot is the doll’s appearance. It was probably meant to look like this to fit in with the creepy doll trope, but it also makes it different from others for another reason

  Unlike the others, this one makes you think on the spot, it makes you immediately have questions like “What happened? Why does it look like this?”. Its appearance alone tells a story, by hinting that there may be a different reason why she’s afraid of it, not just because it looks scary

  And from the looks of it, it seems that the doll got burned, which is even more interesting, considering the fact that fire is Kimiko’s element

  Now. I did see some people theorizing that Kimiko activated her powers and accidentally burned it, which I’m honestly 50/50 about this idea

  On one hand, it would immediately make a lot of sense why she’s so scared about it. She was a young kid who experienced a supernatural and dangerous event out of nowhere, and she possibly spent years in confusion about what happened until she got the revelation that she’s the Dragon of Fire

  But on the other hand, even if I read some good stories with this subject, I’m personally not into the idea of the monks showing their elements before they joined the temple. Them using their elements always felt like something gradual, like something that evolved and developed along with their skills and that at the beginning of the show they only had the potential and capability to use their element. Sure, maybe they showed an interest/drive to it, but that was never something that defined them

  My personal interpretation is that they were never defined by their element, their element was defined by them, if that makes sense

  Which is why I prefer to think that she accidentally burned the doll through other means, which would also make sense. Kids can easily do reckless things, and Kimiko showed in the past how her curiosity and experimentation can cause some issues, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that she wanted to try something out with fire and burned the doll as a result

  But this also leads to the question to what fear she’s associating the doll with, because it wouldn’t be danger, as he bravery is a strong element to her

  With that, I would say that she associates the doll with guilt. Another core trait of Kimiko is her compassion, as she easily offers her care and understanding to her friends. Yes, she can be hot headed and impulsive, but it’s very clear that helping others is in her best interest

  And as a result, she immediately feels guilty when she makes a mistake, when she’s hurting others, whether she’s mistreating someone or her ambition leads to problems instead of solutions

Deep inside, she’s afraid of regret, of doing things that could make things worse, and the doll is a representation of that: maybe it was the first time she did a mistake like this, and the first time she felt guilty because of it

  This fear of regret is interesting, because it can go in conflict with her bravery: she’s not afraid of danger, of taking risks herself, but this ambition and bravery can lead to her making things she would feel guilty of

  Her ambition is both her strength and her weakness, which is fascinating to me

3. Omi’s fear

  His fear seems to fall into the silly fear trope which, just like I stated with others, this was probably the reason. But what’s interesting about his fear is actually not the appearance

  Is that we can actually pinpoint where his fear is coming from

  I can explain by going back to episode 12 from season 1, when Omi fought Jack in a showdown over the Heart of Jong. This is when we see his first reaction to squirrels, which is not one of fear, is one of surprise, and he only reacts after the squirrel bites him

  And as showdown, he chooses one who’s squirrel themed while talking about them with respect

  Which doesn’t really make sense if he’s supposed to be terrified of them

  But after this episode we do see him be terrified of squirrels, starting from episode 3 from season 2, when Jack messed up with the monks by stopping time and such

  So, what changed? Why is he scared of squirrels now?

  Well, I’d say that the reason is in episode 12

  Omi is a brave and strong warrior, this is true. But because of his big ego strong confidence, there’s one thing that I can say for certain he’s afraid of: failure

  Failure is a sign of lack of skills, of imperfection and of possible danger brought upon others. Omi holds himself on a high regard and under big responsibility, so every time he experiences failure he gets a hit on his confidence, which is why he’s shown many times to be guilty when he’s failing at something

  And despite the fact that he lost other showdowns at the start of the show, in this episode he lost a showdown which had a Shen Gong Wu that almost brought destruction over all by being used to bring back Mala Mala Jong, a foe that made even Master Fung look terrified

  This showdown is the first time he felt this much of a failure, and his mind subconsciously associated the failure to something physical: squirrels. Then he subconsciously justified his fear over squirrels by exaggerating their features and this is how we got here

  This would mean that we got to see how the main character developed his fear, which it’s fascinating. We don’t get a reason in the episodes, but we get hints that help us come with an interpretation ourselves

  Omi’s fear progression is like the representation of the show itself, which it’s the reason why I find it this interesting

  But there’s one more that I personally find even more interesting

4. Raimundo’s fear

  Okay okay, there’s a reason why I left Raimundo to last and that reason is that he’s my favorite character of all time. This is not a secret and will never be, and every time I get the opportunity to talk about my boy I shine so brightly I could challenge the sun from Philippines

  And the first thing I wanna talk about his fear is how strange it looks. It doesn’t look like a person, it doesn’t look realistic and it barely resembles a jellyfish. It doesn’t look extra intimidating or scary, it actually looks cartoony

  And it makes my mind run wild, because what’s the reason it looks like this? Why is his fear so different from the others? Sure, you can come up with a meta explanation that the writing team wanted to keep things family friendly, they didn’t care much about how a jellyfish (or maybe a Man o’ War) looks, or they wanted to represent the kind of cryptid/ambiguous fear a child can have, but I’m not looking here for meta explanations

  I’m looking here for psychological interpretations, and my interpretation is this: it’s a direct proof that not the jellyfish matters, the idea around it does

  Maybe he encountered a jellyfish when he was young but he didn’t get to see it properly, or maybe he got to see it but subconsciously doesn’t focus on the jellyfish itself, but the thing that I want to be certain of is that he encountered one and got stung by it

  Why? Because it would be the first time he felt pain, the first time he felt fear

  And the thing that Raimundo fears the most, is vulnerability

  Maybe it’s because he learned to look tough in the time he explored the dangerous places from Rio, maybe it’s because of some desire to prove himself that he developed from a family with many siblings, or maybe it’s a combination of both. But what I’m certain of, and that he showed many times in the series, is that he’s afraid of vulnerability. He’s afraid of showing himself as vulnerable, being considered as such and other things related to it, which includes not being good enough

  Which is the reason why his fear is once again represented by a jellyfish in episode 8 from season 3

(Also holy hell I love this version so much, it looks so cool-)

  That episode dwelled more into his fear of not being good enough, which is what he overcame at the end. The fact that his self-esteem issues have been hinted at for many many episodes and we got them actually addressed is something that I’ll always admire and love about the show

  But another thing that’s been hinted at in the episode was his fear of admitting to it, which I would argue that it’s the reason why his fear of lack of competence grew this much in the first place

  Just like with Omi, I’d say that this fear of inadequacy started in episode 12 from season 1, with the Mala Mala Jong incident. He saw the rejection of being promoted to apprentice as being considered a failure, as not being good enough, and as this is a sign of vulnerability, his reaction was to hide it and run away

  And if before he was complaining but still doing tasks (in his own way), after this incident with Mala Mala Jong and Wuya we actually saw him slacking off more in season 2 by hiding dirty plates, dust and using Vlad to do the work for him. Only after this episode he got officially characterized as a slacker, which in episode 8 from season 3 we got it confirmed that it comes from his fear of not belonging in the team because he’s not good enough

  He was having this fear for so long, but he never showed it properly because he avoids showing vulnerability, so it got bottled up for many episodes till it finally got addressed and dealt with in episode 8 (also, Omi’s constant remarks and his team’s occasional distrust on him most likely didn’t help with his fear of inadequacy)

  And this is what’s interesting for me. Even if he resolved his fear of not being good enough, his core fear of vulnerability is still there, and it has the possibility of raising other fears in him, because he still has the habit of closing himself

  As long as he doesn’t learn how to open up in a healthy way, he will still form fears, he will still form worries, and they will still grow until he will not be able to hide them anymore

  His fears may take many forms, but they will still be rooted to the same idea, to the vague image of a jellyfish

  And I love this so much

  So yeah, these are my interpretations on the monks’ fears! Of course, you can have your own interpretation, as many of these things are more or less implied than confirmed. And I am curious about what you personally think! (I’m always eager to talk to someone about the show)

  And if you got to read till the end, here’s an image with Raimundo being made to do his work

  Look at him

  The little prick

[destiny-in-the-universe]

So.

I may have just binged Xiaolin Showdown- I’m not quite at the finish line yet, but I am screaming. First of all - the main four embody their elements so well!

Between Clay’s down to earth attitude, but at the same time - being a strong, hard-to-take-down opponent. As a dragon of earth, I was definitely in awe the entire time. I enjoy his character so much, and the Texan sayings he says? Count me in!

Kimiko? Her fiery attitude matches being the dragon of fire so well. She has a free-spirited energy, and can’t easily be tamed even by the wildest of evils. She has an immeasurable, headstrong way of directly taking things on. She’s grown more as a character, but because these characters are likely no older than 13 - they still have a lot more to learn.

Raimundo. Dragon of Wind. He’s the most unpredictable of all of them sometimes - he has an energy which cannot be tamed, and won’t be held down by anything (even if it almost became his door fall). Though in the end, he came back around- deciding he couldn’t abandon his friends…

And then there’s Omi. The Dragon of Water. With his strength, athleticism, and optimistic personality make him perfect for his element- his cheerful but bold attitude are a wonderful mix and I cannot wait to see more from him and the rest of the cast! Though I only got to episode 25, and I’m purring like an idiot- Omi’s characteristics are mirrored as if it were water. He almost seems to go with the flow, but in the end - like a tsunami - he will always protect the ones he cares about.

But now- I get to talk about what I was itching to focus on grrr.

Our villains…

Jack Spicer is certainly the kind of villain who serves as comic relief, but even then- he’s a genuine good fodder to the four monks that stand against him. At times, we’ll see him team up with them for a shady cause, and I find this almost charming. While he isn’t the most terrifying of villains, and he simply functions as the filler for the monks to handle, I’ve grown quite fond of his character!

but ho boy, then we have Wuya and can I just say- she might not have a physical form but even then - she makes for a great opponent. The episodes in which she gained physical form were done so well, and I found myself being drawn in more and more. Her cunning and trickery make her a hard enemy to beat- and I am curious to see where else this series takes us.

BUT there’s another character that has me frothing at the mouth: Chase Young.

Previously on the side of good, Chase Young turned evil on the promise of power and youth- he has his army of Fallen Warriors to guard him, and well, if the fact he’s immensely powerful. Not to mention, he’s incredibly strong and has been around for, say, a while (?). He’s already caught my interest and I can’t wait to see more of him… also his interest in Omi from episode 25 “The Evil Within” has my metaphorical tail wagging because holy- I’m already seeing the vision: Chase attempting to sway Omi onto the side of evil…

Also, the Fallen Warriors being cats while Chase Young has slitted golden eyes (and yes, I know that secretly the mf is reptilian-) is extremely ironic and I live for it- nonhuman Chase for the win because, well, that is what he is! I can’t wait to continue seeing more of his character-

Of course, this is hardly helping my case at all…

Xiaolin Showdown and Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja would be such an interesting crossover- like, I do have a couple ideas cooking in my mind but at the same time… I need to develop this a little more! And if it happens to be influenced by the whole First Ninja and Chase Young dynamic, no it isn’t - whatever do you mean /lh

My tail is wagging

More to come soon! Because mrrr- I am ever so slightly hyperfixated…

[bexmuses]

Can you analyse raimundo and kimikos relationship, in your opinion?

Oh, wow, this is unexpected! lol I don't often get analytical asks. And I'm gonna be honest, I've only watched XS all the way through twice, the first time to understand the world that @xiaolindude's muse (Rai) was coming from, and once to get a better handle on Clay before I started RPing as him. A lot of the opinions I have, I've adopted from other people who like it and have much stronger opinions than me.

To me, in the canon of XS (I haven't watched XC and don't intend to), Rai has a crush on Kimiko, and that's it. She doesn't reciprocate, but she's not put off by it. He has a tendency to have his head turned (sometimes literally and painfully-looking) by any pretty girl who happens across his path. They're both kids, they both have a lot of growing to do, and Rai doesn't strike me as the sort to sit around and let an unrequited crush linger. Maybe he eventually asks her out and she says no, and that's that.

But at any rate, they strike me as best friends. He's got a lot of siblings that we know nothing about, and I see him as largely viewing the other monks as his extended family - more siblings to throw onto the already huge pile.

[narvana27]

Why Omi would be a bad shoku warrior:

Many might think that the best choice when it comes to picking a leader would be Omi. Why? I think it's because of the fact he's kinda like the main character. Kinda. Cuz in theory there's 4 main characters and that obviously is Omi, Rai, Kim and Clay, but Omi is the first one we see, the first episode is basically focused on him realizing he’s there as a subject of teaching and not the teacher, and he probably has the most episodes that are mainly about him. He has the biggest amount of showdowns and maybe even the most quotes. He's also so fixated about being a xiaolin monk, he often talks about his honor and how he loves to fight and generally how awesome he is. Even my older sister who didn’t watch the show when asked said that Omi became a leader. Just because it suits him, right? He's ambitious, focused on his goals, this reality is everything he knows, so isn't it enough, isn't he a perfect choice? Well, no, and I will prove why *fingers cracking*

#1. Omi is too self focused, narcissistic & egocentric:

Don’t say he's just confident. Being narcissistic is not the same as being confident. He's cocky, he makes fun of others (Raimundo) for their mistakes, he sees himself as the better person in everything and tends to bend what he knows is bad when he really wants to do it to fit his own fake narrative. He loves himself too much, just too much for this position. I saw a quote that said If you want to see if someone is a narcissist you have to listen to how they wish you a happy birthday or any other thing. If they make it somehow about themselves - they're narcissistic. Omi does this, and the example is how when the monks tried to corrupt Dojo with gifts to see if he knows who's gonna be wudai or shoku warrior they all gave him something... normal. Rai - A chain with letter “D”,  Kim - basket with fruits and for Clay it probably was a hat cuz I don't remember. Omi gave him a portrait of himself. Not of Dojo but of him. Narcissist 100%

#2.He wants to be better than everyone and is blinded by that:

Remember when everyone got those kind of wu that were only theirs and they were supposed to like work with that one individual element? The ones they put on their hands? 😅 xD Anyway, Bean Roy knew Omi and the other monks the shortest, since he was the last “big villain" that occurred on the show. And yet he knew that his ego is so big and so prone to suggestions, especially the ones that might make him “even better" than everyone else, that he did go to his head and just whispers "Hey, u know u can use everyone's wu and u will be like super powerful after that?". That's all, he literally didn’t do anything more than that. With Raimundo when he did the same thing - he tried psychological tricks to break him, he had to search for deep things in his mind to do that. But with Omi it was a couple of sentences. A couple of words to make him go and STEAL someone’s belongings to become more powerful just for the sake of it.

#3. His weird relation with Chase Young:

Now, I think that this is a valid and a solid reason on it own to not trust that boy and to not make him a leader. Because how do you imagine a shoku that lies to his friends about what he's doing in the main villain palace and he's there because he wants to SET HIM FREE from the Sphere of Yun that Jack Spicer put him in?! Like what?! He did that ONLY because he likes Chase. And there's no denial he does, because he does, let's be real. We might say “He's just naive and he sees good in everyone”, but that's not what happened there and it had nothing to do with that. He set him free just because. Cuz he likes him, he's for whatever reason almost smitten with Chase. And maybe it's because Chase is like a fallen angel - He was good but then chose to be bad and now Omi wants to make him good again because he was one of the trio that stopped Wuya back in the day and he would like to worship him as he does this with Dashi & Guan? Or maybe because Chase teases him? He's constantly talking to him, Omi knows he wants him by his side and he feels... Special? His ego is most definitely a huge part in this. 100% 

#4.He's naive:

Omi is the youngest as some sources claims, but we all can agree on that I think. He might be under the age of 13 or 14 at ABSOLUTE max. I mean they're all pretty young, but there's still a difference between like 18 I would give to Raimundo at the end of the show or 19 I would give Clay and that 13 of Omi. He's young and he does not know anything about the outside world besides the temple. Maybe that's also the reason why he's so naive, but we see that many times in the show that he wants to make bad people into good ones almost in the blink of an eye. He tried that with Jack a couple of times and he almost wanted to be some sort of friends with him??? When Jack decided to join them he absolutely trusted him, which is so weird to me considering how much resentment and grudge he has and holds towards Rai for his past betrayal. Even when he proved his worth their trust, even when there was no doubt he's changed and knows better now - he still had to clap his goddamn mouth about how Rai is worse than him and the rest and he still doesn’t know if he can trust him. Yeah, but at the same time you saw nothing wrong with Jack living with you under the same roof, doing the same with Katnappe and having this weird thing going on with Chase? That makes sense Omi xDD. So yeah, he was not a good choice for a shoku at all, I hope you also see that if u didn’t before 🙂🙃.

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

That growth spurt. Omi has to reach so much higher now to point at Jermaine's heart.

This is why Omi should just join Chase already, those results speak for themselves.

[johnny-2000s]

I figured out the perfect first film- join me to put it to script!!

[gravity-what]

I…look, I know this is supposed to be for OCs okay? But I was doing my Chinese practice so here we are…

(My practice was just colors and animals so there is a good chance that the other stuff on here is wrong, but I did my best. 😵‍💫)

Anyway, all of these are very specifically for the trio while they were together/before Chase’s betrayal. Including the songs which I put way too much research into. Hadn’t had the reason until now to read ancient Chinese poetry…

Translations and heavy details (fair warning, it’s a lot) under the cut:

Dashi

風/风龙 = Wind Dragon/Dragon of wind. Although there is a reason it’s so heavily obscured/faded.

大熹 = Dashi. Original named ‘大师’ (literally ‘Grand Master’) but he purposefully changed it upon joining the whole Dragon mess because he didn’t like the implication of his name and what it seemed to insist upon him. Instead he chose to replace 师 (shī) for 熹 (xī) meaning warm/bright. Dashi has no sir name per Zhang Zhung tradition.

银色 = silver (color). [all of the OG trio is represented by a precious metal in my stuff] in this case represented by Tibetan prayer wheels which are originally driven by wind. For Dashi in particular I tend to go with the Tibetan/buddhist symbolism of things so silver represents purity, protection, and ability to dispel negativity.

茉莉 = Jasmine. While in Chinese culture it represents long-lived love and loyalty, in Buddhism is actually is seen as a symbol of compassion, empathy, and showing kindness to all living beings in this world along with purity of intentions.

猪 = pig. While typically the pig represents abundance and happiness, and symbolizes honesty and generosity, in Buddhism it is also a symbol of ignorance and one of the three ‘poisons’ that cause suffering.

毽子 = Jianzi shuttlecock! Essentially a toy and one of Dashi’s favorite games to play (in my mind). Representing his playfulness and one of his main means of connecting to someone.

陌上来 = a yuefu poem called ‘Mulberry on the Path’ about a beautiful woman who gets hit on while on her way home from collecting Mulberry leaves for her silk worms. My choice of this particular piece for Dashi comes from a very specific analysis of the poem which says: “This poem depicts the image of a beautiful, chaste and intelligent mulberry-picking woman in a humorous style and comedic artistic technique as she turns down a man’s advances.” which I think Dashi would appreciate.

空 = Empty. It can also mean leisure or free time. This one’s a little complex because, while I chose 空 here, that actually isn’t considered a negative emotion. I chose it both for the initial western interpretation that comes with the concept of feeling ‘empty’ but also the deeper Buddhist/taoist interpretation of a ‘feeling between breaths’. A state of potential, openness, and the ability to receive new experience.

Guan

山龙 = Mountain Dragon (there are headcanons that go with this label but the gist of it is that the title of ‘Dragon of Earth’ didn’t actually solidify until later into 土龙 and part of that transition was Guan purposeful distancing himself from being a Xiaolin Dragon and pushing that title change so, if any scroll did magically show up with 山龙 next to his name the first association wouldn’t be to the Xiaolin Dragons.)

蕭關 = Xiao Guan. Xiao = sir name connected to the Xiao clan of Lanling with direct connections to the Southern Qi dynasty. 關 is a direct reference to Guan Yu a Chinese military general from 200 ce whose achievements were glorified to such an extent after his death that he was deified. Guan’s father named him 關 after him in hopes of him receiving as much renowned.

金色 = gold (color). While gold means a lot of good things (power, wealth, longevity, and happiness) I have specificity chosen to represent the color using the 馬蹄金 “Horse Hoof Gold” which I’m also using as a symbol of Guan’s Xianbei heritage and the cultural connection he is slowly re-affirming now that he is out of the more direct force of his fathers pressing demands.

寸寸金 = inch of gold. Meaning: Attracting wealth, rolling in wealth, great prosperity. It’s a plant mostly given during new years as a hope for these things in the coming year.

鹿 = Deer. wealth and longevity. But also white deer in particular are associated with immortality since it is believed that white fur is a sign an animals has achieved immortality. In deer specifically they are thought to live for 1000 years and to turn fully white at 500. For those who have read my Dashi era stuff you will probably recognize the additional connection to the 1000 year journey that represents the link between Chase and Guan’s friendship and ambitions.

關刀 = Guandao. While the first ever Guandao was made by General Guan Yu in 220-280 ce, Guan’s own version and modification of this famous weapon is already quickly changing it from a simple ‘Guandao’ to “the Spear of Guan”. it’s not quite there yet, but one day he is certain it will be just as famous as the Green Dragon Crescent Blade (青龍偃月刀).

木蘭辭 = The Ballad of Mulan, because Guan is a fanboy through and through.

无可奈何 = direct translation is ‘helpless’ but, from what I found online, it’s more specifically “feeling powerless or helpless in the face of certain situations, with no way to resolve them, leaving one with no choice but to accept them reluctantly.” Which, with his family situation…ya.

Chase

水龙 = Water Dragon aka: Dragon of Water

勇追 = Chase Young (Direct translation = Yǒng Zhuī, although Chase definitely still introduces himself as Zhuī Yǒng to be contrary. Also, post betrayal, he starts to use 永 (Perpetual/eternal) instead of 勇 (bravery) which are homophones of each other so, you know, still Yǒng Zhuī)

铜色 = copper (color). [If you have read chapter 2 of ‘gathering the dragons’ this is probably obvious]. However while Chase’s own interactions with the color are negative, copper does represent longevity due to how durable of a metal it is. Add that to the beautiful blue that is also becomes when exposed to water and oxidation and, well. Ya.

梅花 = plum blossoms. Meaning: resilience, perseverance, and hope. Furthermore, the five petals represent the five blessings (五福): long life, wealth, health, virtue, and a peaceful death. While not all specific to Chase, the number 5 is an important number associated with his and Guan’s relationship in my stories.

猫 = cat. Symbol of good fortune and used for pest control. While I mostly chose the cat because of its association with 9 lives (9 being an important number in Chase’s story) I also chose it because of just how much work went into adopting a cat in ancient China which…I liked they symbolism for for obvious (Omi related) reasons 😆.

手卷 = handscroll. (What can I say? In my mind he is a nerd who likes his scrolls. Side note: not sure about this particular translation at all since handscrolls seem to specifically refer to art scrolls and might not apply to historical/martial arts scrolls that I’m specifically trying to refer to here 🤷)

四坐且莫誼 = Let the Four Seats Be Quiet and Not Noisy. A Yuefu poem whose first line is 四坐且莫喧，愿听歌一言。which, supposedly, translates to: Please don't make any noise, I'd like to hear a song. Which mostly just makes me imagine Chase using it as a way to tell people to ‘shut up already and let me listen to the song already’. (Look, out of the trio Chase was the hardest to find a time-period appropriate poem for…which I still might have gotten wrong 🫠)

骄傲自大 = cocky/conceded/arrogant (negative). For…obvious reasons (tbh I love this character trait of his so, you know.)

[rin-henricov]

21. 🌋 - Storm Hawks has a lot of serious undertones and themes such as war, death, slavery, poverty, etc. If the show ever has a re-boot, would you like these themes included?

On the one hand, I really want to say «Hell yeah!», but on the other, I may be the only one in the entire fandom who is not completely enthusiastic about the idea of a reboot. It's been 17 years, and given the current trends in consumer culture, there's a risk that the show might lose the old charm that made us love him. Yes, it has a lot of missed potential. Yes, it's finished on the frustrating cliffhanger. But what if the reboot doesn't meet our expectations? What if he becomes an unfunny parody of himself and loses everything that made him so special?

I understand that many fans are looking forward to the end of the Far Side storyline to see how it ends. Many people also hope that the new reboot will cover all the topics that were discussed in this question. And it's great that we're all on the same wavelength: after all, I fully share our enthusiasm. However, it should be recognized that often such expectations are dictated more by emotions than by rational analysis. People are signing a million petitions asking for a sequel, but let's be honest: it won't change much. No one cares about the show except a small group of enthusiasts who create their own sequels in the form of comics and fanfiction, and many of them do it better than most popular streaming services. This may sound harsh, but it's true.

Of course, you can cite the example of Samurai Jack, who received a great sequel in the form of season 5, but this is more of an exception to the rule than a worthy example. Survivorship bias often leads to the fact that we see only successful cases and forget about many others.

I'm not saying that a possible Storm Hawks reboot is instantly doomed to failure, but it's important to understand that a reboots always involves certain risks, including for fans. It may be bold and innovative, or it may take us a while to rethink some of the decisions made by the writers - no one knows for sure. It is important to understand whether you need this reboot or whether you would prefer to forget about him like a bad dream.

Never mind, though, I'm still going through the aftermath of the shitty reboot of Xiaolin Showdown.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

I would love to see a psycho analysis on Jack Spicer!!

Now that I'm getting back in the swing of things, don't count Jack out! I'm trying to alternate between redoing old ones and doing new ones. He's one I've wanted to do for a long, long while (as well as some of the other Xiaolin Showdown villains).

[pandaofsecrets]

The problem is that to accept and fully lean into this read of Marinette would make Miraculous a completely different show. I mean Miraculous can't decide what genre it wants to be on a good day, but still. Stories of this genre aimed at this target demographic don't tend to have villain protagonists, or even mildly edgy protagonists for that matter. Xiaolin Showdown had to go through the trouble of pulling a bait and switch; Omi is the show's mascot and the first character we see, but by the end of S1 it's clear to anyone paying attention that Raimundo is the actual main character. So in this case, something clearly went wrong somewhere.

That said, most hardcore Marinette defenders don't bring up the writing as a way to discuss how it actually affects her, but as a way to shut down criticism. In fact, a lot of them will cherry pick aspects of both Watsonian and Doylist analysis depending on which one makes Marinette look like the biggest victim at any given moment. My favorite instance of this is the unhinged take that Marinette wants to be with Luka, but the writers are forcing her to obsess over Adrien. Guys, Marinette doesn't have a will of her own separate from her writing. If her chasing after Adrien is a decision by the writers, her trying to get over him is too.

A common defence I see for Marinette is: "Don't blame the character, blame their writing, they aren't a real person." What are your thoughts on this? Personally I think a character is their writing, so to criticise them is to criticise the writing in general. Especially when it becomes blatantly obvious that a character is being used as the writer's own personal mouthpiece to air their ideological/political beliefs. Feel free to agree/disagree with me on this, it's a view that I'm curious about.

---

Actually, we've discussed this topic on the blog before, and the common consensus was that when "bad writing" outweighs the "good writing" and said "good writing" hasn't been seen in seasons/years, that "bad writing" is just the canon characterization.

There's a Finnish idiom that’s perfect for this: “kohtuus ennen kaikkea”, aka “prioritize moderation”. Basically, don't take anything too far. Characters truly can’t exist without being written, but not all bits of writing have equal importance. Like, sometimes you really need a plot to progress and the only way for the plot to progress is for the characters to do something stupid. This doesn't mean the characters are stupid, unless it becomes a pattern and the characters are stupid more often than not.

Basically, you shouldn't let one bit of writing that contradicts the rest of the character define how you interpret them, but you also shouldn't ignore a consistent element of a character’s writing just because it's in conflict with how you interpret that character. Practice moderation when you look at a character as a whole.

This is why the “it's just the writing” excuse doesn't work with Marinette. Her flaws are way too consistent in how they pop up and get validated. When we have to throw away increasing amounts of almost entire episodes in order to see Marinette as the character we were told she is, at some point, it starts to be an outright lie and denial of what happens in the show.

Like, we’re told Marinette is selfless and helpful, but what is the actual reality? How often does Marinette prioritize others over herself in comparison to prioritizing herself over others? When was the last time she prioritized someone else's feelings over her own comfort? From what I've seen, she's selfish more often than selfless, and it's been several seasons since she gave someone else feelings consideration even when they were in conflict with her own interest. When we look at this way, the data is very clear on this: Marinette is selfish.

[goldenheartstudios]

I wanna talk about Hannibal Roy Bean

  Disclaimer: No disclaimer this time, only spite

  You see, I was writing a different rant about Xiaolin Showdown, but I was in the mood of searching and reading some posts other people made about the cartoon. You know, for funsies, and because I really love this show

  And then I thought to myself: “Hey, what if I search about my favorite villain, Hannibal Roy Bean? And who knows, maybe I’ll find other people talking about the amazing dynamic between him and Raimundo, that would be neat!”

  And you know what I found?

  Nothing. And even worse, I saw people dissing on my vegetable boy by calling him “unnecessary” and stuff

  Which left me utterly disappointed

  So, I’m gonna write an analysis for the possible Hannibal (& Raimundo) fans out there, which maybe will help other people appreciate this great villain

  Let’s go

  The best thing to start with is his introduction. Which honestly, it’s my favorite introduction from all of the villains in the show

  It gives you the expectation of being a big, strong and cool-looking foe, just like Chase was, and then it subverts that expectation with showing you that he’s actually a bean (which I personally find him cool for how creepy and unnatural he looks)

  And then you see how much of a threat he can be: he’s a great actor, he’s manipulative, and he’s pretty freaking strong. His personality is also so endearing for how unapologetically cruel, deceptive, playful, and full of himself he is. From the moment he said that he’ll cover his eyes to make the fight fair for the monks won me over

  And to top it all off, Chase himself tells the monks how big of a threat he is, which makes him even more interesting

  He has a 10/10 introduction and you can’t deny that

  And the next episode is also very good at showing the dynamic between Rai & Hannibal: they immediately start to talk back to each other, they’re paired together when each monk faces off an enemy, and Hannibal is quick to hit on Raimundo’s vulnerability by commenting on how he’s falling behind with the monks by being the last one to become an apprentice

  Not only this is a great way to show a possible rivalry between the two, this also works as foreshadowing for what’s to come

  Seriously, it feels like this show wants you to think of their possible relationship

  The next two episodes have the role of giving the monks new weapons, a future reason for them to temporarily go to Guan’s temple (by having Hannibal stealing the treasure), and they show how Raimundo can return to bad habits (aka his tendency of isolating/closing himself off from others after a failure), by going through a humiliating defeat from Jack right after they lost the treasure the episode before this one

  And then, we get to episode 46, which is another great episode of showing the dynamic between Hannibal & Raimundo: it shows how Hannibal is willing to team up with Rai (possibly because he sees potential in him), and we see how he’s being manipulative and sincere at the same time

  I believe in this instance Hannibal was genuine about forming a mutually beneficial relationship with Rai, which makes sense because he’s interested in people who are cunning, capable, mischievous and with the potential of causing great damage to others. And as we know that Hannibal was watching over everyone in his cell, he saw how much damage the kid can cause when he’s on the bad side

  Also, you could say that the previous episode showed Hannibal the possibility of manipulating Raimundo on his side, as the young monk fell back into a bad habit under distress

  So him getting betrayed by Rai, just like Chase betrayed him in the past, was a stepping stone for his hatred and desire of revenge towards the kid

  And this relationship is also interesting on Raimundo’s side in this episode: he clearly hates Hannibal’s guts and he doesn’t back down in showing attitude towards him, and at the end he shows great satisfaction of deceiving him, of winning over him, as he doesn’t want to even let him have the last words at the end

  Now, we get to episode 47, which is the peak of their relationship and brings me the main reason why I love Hannibal so much: he’s utterly ruthless. It’s not enough for him to fight the kid as revenge for what he did, he decides to mentally torment him. He decides to use Rai’s vulnerabilities to hurt his close ones, by combining Shen Gong Wus and attack the others while the boy’s asleep. The concept of it is brilliant. Like, what can he do? He can’t stay awake forever. And how would it feel for him if his friends ended up destroyed without being able to do anything about it?

  Also, the whole moment of Hannibal getting his way while he’s disguised as Kimiko is one of my favorite moments from the show, for the music, the ambience, and for Hannibal’s delighted smile (on Kimiko’s face to top it all off), as he sees Rai falling asleep

  Like, look at this

  It’s so unsettling, I love it

  And the fact that Raimundo is not even safe in his own dreams? The fact that Hannibal kept digging through his insecurities, through his vulnerability and shoved it on the kid’s face while showing he’s having a blast about it? Combined with how he can show pity in the form of friendliness and buddy-buddy behavior towards the person he’s tormenting, while also keeping a side of aggressiveness and lack of care from his actions? Brilliant, absolutely brilliant

  This guy gets entertainment from torturing people and I love this

  Raimundo was able to escape only after he acknowledges his vulnerability, only after he stops running away, which is a hard thing to do for him. One thing is certain after this episode, Rai will definitely not forget this

  And we later on see how Hannibal manipulates and makes use of others too: he uses Omi’s ego to turn him into a living battery for his own benefits, he doesn’t hesitate to turn Jack into a mindless zombie, and he uses Kimiko’s invention to attack Chase when he’s weak

  This guy doesn’t follow any moral code to get what he wants. He’s not like Chase, who holds value in professionalism and morality, and he’s not like Wuya, who holds a facade of elegance and principles

  And his bean design accentuates this fact, because it’s meant to show you how appearances can deceive, while letting you know that he’s not human. He doesn’t follow human principles and morals, and he doesn’t care for compassion or being fair, because he’s not human

  He’s his own thing, he’s pure evil

  And it’s so endearing for me, because you have the freedom to go as brutal as you want. Any possible interaction and dialogue I think of him is fun for me, because he’s so fun

  And his relationship with Raimundo is also so fun, for seemingly being arch nemesis with each other (which episode 52 also wants to show you this by being the ones to initiate the last showdown of the series and act like leaders in their group-)

  The way they view each other can be interpreted in so many ways, but I will tell you how I personally interpret it

  Starting off with Hannibal. I personally don’t think Rai is the person he hates the most, I think Chase is. Which is more obvious in episode 50, when his whole motivation is to defeat him. Heck, the fact that the episode is called “Hannibal’s Revenge” is kind of a proof of their deep hatred they have for each other

  Which makes sense, because Chase is the reason why he was trapped in a cell for over one thousand years, and I bet he spent a big portion of that time on growing his hatred towards him

  And Chase seems to feel the same way, which can be interpreted in different ways. Does he hate him because of being totally opposite of him, or there’s something more to it? What if there was more to their story than we know? What if Hannibal also had some ulterior motives in their team up? What if those reasons are related with what Chase said about him doing something worse than 1000 years of darkness? What if those possible motives were another (or the actual) reason why he betrayed him? It would make sense for Chase to hate him this much, if he found out that he was being used for some grand scheme

  Just some food for thought

  Going back to the subject, I think Hannibal doesn’t only hate Raimundo, he also gets delightment in tormenting him specifically. He enjoys breaking his confidence, and finding ways to beat him to the ground

  Honestly.. I’d say that’s because he reminds him of Chase. His attitude, his skills, and Rai betraying him, could bring to Hannibal some similarity with Chase

  Which is why he would get enjoyment from tormenting him: for Hannibal, Raimundo is like a small Chase Young, but the difference is that he’s a kid who doesn’t have hundreds of years of experience. He’s not as strong, and he’s more emotional, which makes him the perfect target. Hannibal can defeat him, strike into his insecurities and make him suffer on a personal level

  Personally, I think a continuation of the show would dwell more on Hannibal’s desire to inconvenience, and even destroy Rai’s life, purely for the enjoyment of it, and because of his semblance with Chase Young

  Now, let’s look at Raimundo’s possible view on Hannibal

  With him, I do think Hannibal is the person he hates the most

  I did read a good post on how he would actually hate Chase the most, because he was constantly doubtful and hostile towards him, starting from the first time they met in season 2. But personally, I think the hatred Rai has towards Chase is more on an instinctual level. Like, he knows he can’t be trusted, that he’s up to something that he doesn’t know (and he definitely doesn’t like Chase’s superior attitude)

  But aside from this + the fact that he tried to eat Dojo & he manipulated his friend, I don’t think there’s more to this. Especially because he showed a similar behavior with Hannibal as well. But because Hannibal appeared only on season 3 (which also has fewer episodes than the second season), it may seem that he has a bigger hatred towards Chase than the evil bean

  Also, that hatred he has may be changed in the present, because it’s highly possible the monks got at least some of the memories from that alternate dimension. So it’s possible that Rai will hate Chase while having complicated emotions towards him as well, because he would have to deal with the memories he has of Chase being a good guy

  On the other hand, I think his hatred towards Hannibal is personal for multiple reasons: he’s the reason they have to deal with Chase Young (and the reason they had to deal with Guan in the alternate dimension), he used his friends, he’s dwelling on his insecurities and most importantly, he went into his mind in order to use him to hurt his close ones

  Rai has every reason to hate him, and I think this hatred will only intensify the more Hannibal tries to mess up with him

  And this has so much potential

  So yeah, this is my take on their relationship & Hannibal’s character! The fact that many people overlook him is so unfortunate, because he’s a literal goldmine for creating conflict and explore an inhuman & ruthless characters

  Some of my favorite fanfictions with Xiaolin Showdown have him done right, even if they’re few and unfinished. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to see more people trying to explore this character & his interesting dynamic with Raimundo

  But until then, I’m happy that such an interesting and fun villain exists!

.

.

.

  Which is another reason why I hate Xiaolin Chronicles because he doES NOT EXIST THERE-

[helipackjack]

The hill scene in xs S1 finale where Jack tries to leave after refusing Omi's offer but pausing when Omi grabbed his jacket and looked at him sadly

I can't help but feel like, Jack was definitely not aware of it, but at a subconscious level, maybe he knew there may be something for him in that offer, something he wanted and needed that sparks hope but at that point wasn't enough to deter him from his lifelong goals. But he still wanted to salvage some of this, cause no one had ever looked at him like that before, like they wanted him there and were sad he wasn't staying, like they saw something worthwhile in him. He didn't wanna disappoint Omi completely, but what could he offer?

"But maybe sometime we're not fighting over Shen Gong Wu, we can all go for ice cream, my treat."

[narvana27]

While writing my previous post about moment's when Jack Spicer was evil FOR REAL I thought about how stupid was the idea in "Time after Time" part 1 of monks being trapped in Jack's prison after Omi froze himself. It's suggesting that they wouldn't be able to fight JACK without Omi. Jack Spicer. The character that is the least harmful villain of the show, that was made a comic relief of the series with time, and who's ass was CONSTANTLY beaten by all of them. Now, suddenly, after Omi and Dojo are gone, they can't fight him! C'mon! I understand the part with Dojo, because without him they can't find more shen gong wu, and I understand that morals of Kim, Rai and Clay were probably out of place since one of their team mate just randomly disappeared, but let's not make a whore out of logic, ok? We see that after 80 years that took Omi and Dojo to un-froze themselves, Jack has improved his Jackrobots, cuz they were visibly different - they were bigger and had more deadly weapons in them, but that still aint a good explanation why Jack won.

Monks have powers! Like fire - easily would melt them, wind - crush them over anything, same with earth. Not to mention that they(monks) were crushing and destroying these robots with absolutely no effort even before they had their powers (example: the first episode ever). Soo... Yea, no excuse for that 🙄. And I would understand if show would give as a backup of this unbelievable story like: "Yea, Jack was working with Wuya and Chase or Wuya and Hannibal, so that's how they win over the monks and trapped them, but then Jack screws over his allies, and that's how he got so powerful". But there's nothing like this, so we have to believe that Jack just randomly winning over 3 good trained xiaolin monks that used to whoop his ass, all by himself, was a true situation.

(Ok, as I was watching this episode again I realized I forgot about the fact Jack build his place in Chase's palace, and then he had Wuya's stone...Monsters, idk how to call it by his side, so the theory about them working together could be true, but still- nothing like this was mentioned. So wtf?)

NOT TO MENTION that like - Okay, let's ASSUME that this would actually happen (which I proved wouldn't, but okay) - Why wouldn't they escape? Like why? Quoting Cardi B:  "What was the reason?!" Cuz I dont see it gurl. Jack's prison couldn't be built exactly in the way we saw it, that had to take a looot of time AND money. So building that big complex would be possible only AFTER Jack takes over the world.

So, if that's the case there HAD to be some unfinished hall's, walls, places that would let monks escape. I mean - again, they are smart, for sure smarter than Jack (which I love you bro but... you know) and they have powers. They would escape! Especially having vision above their head of Jack having control over the whole world? Gurl they would be running! Shitting, screaming, throwing up - doing EVERYTHING just to stop it and not letting it happen. I think the only excuse that was given was a line where Omi asked who got promoted to be shoku. And Kim said it was her, but she admitted that she didn't do a great job with this. I mean yes, technically as a leader making decisions was up to her, but the 3 of them still were making a team. It doesn't mean that Kim had to think about everything herself, and the boys just stood there waiting for her to come up with something and did completely nothing. And another point: They could easily escape just by fooling Jack somehow. Like, code to his safe with all of the wu was literally 1-2-3-, and he even left the note with it at the side of the safe, but somehow he was genius enough not to let them escape?

Yes, Jack is (as well as me tbh) this kind of someone who is slow and smart at the same time. He's building robots, and one time he even build a fucking time machine. But at the same time he needs to mark his shoes and belt to know how to put it on. So, if he's genius enough to catch the monks, he would (canonically) have to be stupid enough to let them escape. We can understand the villains there, I mean Wuya, Chase and Hannibal, who were chained or even locked in a cage (like Bean). But monks were just closed in one cell! But when Omi suddenly appears he menages to do it for them, motivates them in a split of a second and does the job just like that? Just because he's Omi? So if he's that great why didn't he become shoku then? I know, that was a long rant on some plot hole in a cartoon, but when I realized it, it just bothered me so much I had to make this long ass analysis cuz what the fuck is with this Omi glorification? Like stop it, it didn't make any sense, you are wrong for that XD

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

It really is amazing how deeply altruistic Jermaine is.

He jumped in to antagonize these three into a fight that Jermaine knew he was going to lose. He clearly has a history with these guys. He's fought them enough times to know how take out one of them, but he still has nothing he can do when all three of them gang up on him, and he knows that.

This glare he gives while he's about to get punched is so defiant and reserved. He's probably never beaten these three in a fight, and he's probably gotten beaten up time and time again. He knew it'd end this way, it always does.

His only goal was to distract these guys long enough for the stranger to run away while Jermaine gets jumped. And that's how this usually goes down, judging from how shocked Jermaine was when Omi actually stuck around and fought back for him.