'Toon Reviews 21: Xiaolin Showdown Season 1 Episode 8: Night of the Sapphire Dragon

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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

1. Night of the Sapphire Dragon
2. Shen Yi Bu
3. Chameleon
4. Katnappe
5. The Journey of a Thousand Miles
6. Like a Rock
7. Ring of the Nine Dragons
8. 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.

'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 11: You Get Me

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

You Get Me

As many of these reviews will show, Enid is by far the more interesting of K.O.’s co-workers.  Her flaws are much more relatable and tolerable.  Her bored expressions, sarcasm, and clearly wanting to be left alone when dealing with difficult, impatient customers feel so common to workers in customer service.  However, through her relationship with K.O., she’s much more comfortable to break from her annoyed and uncaring state. This makes sense since K.O. is very likable and friendly who can allow anyone’s good side to shine. 

This cartoon’s opening scene of Enid happily performing a stunt with K.O. as she begrudgingly helps annoying customers greatly demonstrates this idea.  While most customers are unmoved by Enid’s deadpan attitude, one customer, a wizard called Wally the White, comes to the counter with long anecdotes about things Enid is clearly not interested in.  Because Enid brushes off his nonsense and ignores him, Wally gets upset and berates her.  Although Enid does ignore Wally, this is a case where the deviant one is more sympathetic.  It’s not right to ignore, but Wally was more inconsiderate that he didn't do anything that required Enid's attention, and he acts like what Enid did was a horrible crime which it isn’t.  Plus, considering his simple pathetic design, he doesn’t seem like he’s worth anyone’s time although K.O., sensitive and caring as ever, is affected by his words making him strive to get Enid to prove that she’s friendlier than Wally lets on. 

Both Wally’s persona and K.O.’s desire to get Enid take an interesting turn the next day when K.O. arrives to the shocking sight of Enid turned to stone.  The very idea of being turned to stone is frightening alone, although here, this occurrence is taken more lightly than normal.  At times it’s taken a little too lightly with K.O. being the only one to notice what’s happened to Enid while others say she’s completely normal despite something clearly off about her skin tone.  There are even more cartoons to show how dense the cast can be for the purpose of a plot just so you know. 

Even if it is through contrived means, it is still effective that K.O. being the only one to see what’s wrong with Enid suggests he truly does see the good in others that most people can’t.  That alone is one of the biggest signs of him being one of the most endearing main protagonists, and one of the biggest supports to him becoming a great hero. It grows even more in a heartwarming scene where K.O. laments about not getting Enid enough to turn her back to normal. 

As for Wally, this situation brings an interesting idea that even those who seem pathetic can turn out to be very dangerous. It’s revealed that he turned Enid to stone, and when his spell wares off, he swiftly does it again intending to take her home to work a permanent spell on her.  This leads to an entertaining chase of K.O. running after Wally who carries stone Enid away while quickly finding a way around the spells cast on him.  Although he ultimately needs help himself, it turns out to be enough for Enid to turn back to normal under her own power and tell off Wally for being so petty.  The wizard still may think badly of Enid, but the ending is satisfying enough with her being impressed that K.O. at least understands her true self. 

It leaves an interesting impression celebrating how in depth characters can be when given the proper care and made better by creative elements and genuine chemistry.

A

The Ranking

1. I Am Dendy
2. You Get Me
3. Let’s Be Heroes
4. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
5. Jethro’s All Yours
6. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
7. Let’s Be Friends
8. We Messed Up
9. Sibling Rivalry
10. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
11. You’re Level 100

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode features genuine development for Rad, but is held back by an even bigger display of denseness when everyone thinks K.O. is Rad all because of a nametag.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs the Forces of Evil it's a review on "Goblin Dogs" and "By the Book."

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.