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Night of the Sapphire Dragon
The featured Shen Gong Wu for this episode has a
huge mystery surrounding it and a huge dark direction to take the story
in. As a result, the series becomes more
than just a light-hearted action series.
The mystery is apparent at the beginning when it’s seen as a black dragon
bauble, but no one knows its name or abilities. That said, getting the Shen Gong Wu brings on
the exciting tone for the episode. It’s
an intense dive into a volcano to retrieve it before Jack Spicer does. We even get a huge Xiaolin Showdown for it
that’s big on intensity in the volcanic setting. This could be a
problem through getting the climactic showdown in so early in the episode with
nothing else living up to it. However,
as great as the showdown is, what follows is just as exciting, maybe more.
The Xiaolin Warriors win the Shen Gong Wu, but its mystery persists and from that, the darker turn slowly becomes apparent. The buildup to the darkness feels natural to
not make what happens feel out of place.
Things start calm as Kimiko researches the Shen Gong Wu, then when she scratches
it, there’s a layer of sapphire-blue under the black. Things get dark the moment the dragon’s eyes
glow and the room fills with blue smoke. The result is the darkest fate imaginable
in fiction when Kimiko turns into solid sapphire, and more people around the
Xiaolin Temple face petrification over time.
While the occurrences leave a lot of shock of many good people becoming
inanimate objects fated to never be heard, it thickens the desire to learn how
this is happening.
The petrification
aspect soon crosses with the mystery of what the new Shen Gong Wu is like. It looks like a black dragon, but it’s
actually called the Sapphire Dragon. It goes from a bauble to a real blue
dragon that turns the good, evil, and indifferent into sapphire, getting more
powerful with every victim. It only loses its power when covered in soot, which is why it was hidden in a volcano. Something
making people statues at will makes the petrification instances more disturbing
than it already is. Even so, it does make the statues its sentient lackeys who
attack the only remaining victim, Dojo.
Speaking of Dojo, this episode is a major shining role for him
developing past just being the Warriors’ smart-talking dragon guide to Shen
Gong Wu. He’s self-conscious about his
strength after failing to help his comrades get the Sapphire Dragon earlier.
Also, he's constantly cowering in fear when the Sapphire Dragon starts its dark powers
doesn’t help his case. It’s an endearing
side of Dojo whose conflict is not foreign to most people who can easily feel
inferior in certain areas.
His eventual takedown
of the Sapphire Dragon not only brings his character to a good conclusion for the
episode, but is also very clever. There
are a few signs of Clay’s hot sauce being resilient to intense heat by
sustaining the volcanic lava and how he suggests Dojo use it to build up his
fire breath. It turns out that’s just
what Dojo does to save the day. In a
humorous Western getup, he mans the hot sauce bottles like a cowboy welding his
guns, drinks them all, and gets a fire breath that overpowers the
Sapphire Dragon’s power.
With everyone back to normal and the Sapphire
Dragon once again dormant , it’s a big grand end to the ensuing
drama and Dojo’s arc for the episode. It
leaves the episode as one of the show’s grandest Shen Gong Wu escapades which
sells the dangers of the artifacts, develops characters,
and is big on creativity.
A+
The Ranking
- Night of the Sapphire Dragon
- Shen Yi Bu
- Chameleon
- Katnappe
- The Journey of a Thousand Miles
- Like a Rock
- Ring of the Nine Dragons
- Tangled Web
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Omi has to claim a new Shen Gong Wu through playing basketball in New York City.
If you would like to check out other Xiaolin Showdown reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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