Saturday, October 26, 2019

Master Monk Guan (Xiaolin Showdown Season 2 Episode 11) - 'Toon Reviews 35

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Master Monk Guan


Up until now, this show has been pretty light-hearted as far as action shows go.  The quirks of the characters, the extreme expressions, and emphasis on comedy are a major sign of this quality.  That’s not to say that there haven’t been legitimately threatening moments of times when the goals of the heroes were taken seriously.  We’ve gotten plenty of those moments.  Now we can see them as signs for when the series really starts growing a backbone through introducing two key warriors. 
During a Shen Gong Wu quest, the Xiaolin Warriors meet Master Monk Guan, a man known throughout the ages.  That said, there isn’t really much to make him stand out as a character apart from being skilled and wise.  Ultimately he becomes a catalyst for a main plot involving Dojo.  Regarding that, a couple of contrivances regarding characterizations have to drive it along.  For one thing, the Warriors are much more prone to tease Dojo than average every time he acts cowardly or gluttonous.  Dojo may have his moments, but his friends have never been on his case to this extent before.  That said, since when did Dojo have a habit of eating so much?  It feels like this trait of his is only here to make this one plot work. 
This brings us to the introduction of the other key figure.  Master Monk Guan plays to Dojo’s lamenting over the teasing and brings him to a secret lair.  Enter Chase Young, a dashing villain with stellar fighting skills and an entire army of predator cats.  Anything impressive about Guan is devalued given what he does with Dojo.  By offering him to Chase, he gets back a prized weapon known as the Spear of Guan.  Even before he’s confronted, this is pretty low.  As for Dojo, Chase treats him like an honored guest and feeds him immensely. 
All throughout, Chase brings a sinister atmosphere as he serves him.  Out of all the villains in this show, there’s no doubt Chase stands out from everyone given how seriously he takes being evil.  He’s also quite formidable when he meets the Xiaolin Warriors and can easily block every attack.  It’s a fitting first step towards finding a way to beat him by realizing the power he possesses.  It’s during this scene where the tensions between Dojo and the Warriors are settled before getting overplayed.  He can’t go back with them being traded though. 
Later on, the Warriors learn from Master Monk Guan his reasons for the trade.  Despite dramatic staging and an impressive art style shift for the flashback, his reasons still feel shallow.  Guan just lost his spear to Chase in a battle and feels like he’s nothing without it.  Out of this backstory is interesting background on Chase where he used to be good, but gave that up for a soup that keeps him forever young.  This still begs a lot of questions like how Guan is still young and alive after thousands of years.  Further, how does it take so long for Dojo to realize he’s being made into Chase’s soup? 
Fortunately, the climax works as a solid payoff to everything.  For one thing, it’s a play on events through being a regular showdown instead of a Xiaolin Showdown without any Shen Gong Wu.  There’s also a lot of great staging with a ring of fire and hall of mirrors.  Guan even sees sense by realizing he never needed his spear at all, winning the freedom of Dojo in the process.  Chase, for all his evilness, accepts defeat, but is fully confident paths will cross, giving something to look forward to.  Overall, if you can look past a few contrived characterizations, this is an episode of introductions that make the show more interesting than ever.

A-

The Ranking
1.      Citadel of Doom
2.      Enter the Dragon
3.      Days Past
4.      PandaTown
5.      The Sands of Time
6.      Master Monk Guan
7.      Crystal Glasses
8.      Dreamscape
9.      The Shard of Lightning
10.  Hear Some Evil, See Some Evil
11.  Sizing Up Omi
 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where a big mistake leads to one of the Xiaolin Warriors getting close to joining the dark side.

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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