Xiaolin Showdown review: Warner Bros.’s less provocative Avatar

James V Stampone
Animation Retro-Vibe
9 min readOct 15, 2021

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Image by Warner Bros. Animation, posted on www.filmaffinity.com.

The early and mid-2000s gave us a collection of Animated shows with a heavy display on the martial arts. Cartoon Network’s Samurai Jack in 2002 and Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2005, but before the latter of the two, Kid’s WB presented a show that is largely less regarded by audiences of that generation, Xiaolin Showdown. Much like Avatar before it, the show would base its mythology around Chinese culture, with more emphasis on style over substance. I will be exploring the concept and the variety of the show’s cast while pin pointing what held this original show back from critical acclaim. A SPOILOR warning is now in effect, you have been warned.

Characters & premise

Among the main cast, a fellow monk named Omi (Dragon of water) is teamed up with fellow monks in training; Raimundo Pedrosa (Dragon of wind), a rebel from Brazil; Kimiko Tohomiko (Dragon of fire), a tech-wiz from Japan; and Clay Bailey (Dragon of earth), the Texan cowboy. The team of four young Xiaolin monks are under the guidance of Master Fung, who provides the team training, wisdom, and knowledge of the Shen Gong Wu, magical artifacts each with their own unique and mystical powers. To travel the various parts of the world and find the Shen Gong Wu, the monks are assisted by Dojo, a shapeshifting Chinese dragon whom going by what I just described should be awesome, but it’s not, apart from changing size and flying our heroes to their destination, Dojo is pretty useless at everything else as he is just used for comedy relief, I mean, he can’t even breath fire (except at the end of season 2 where he abruptly breathed fire without any acknowledgement) or fight against a whole army of robots.

The monks are not the only ones in search of the Shen Gong Wu, a one thousand, five-hundred-year-old witch named Wuya is also after the artifacts, but her powers and physical form were stripped from her when she was turned into a ghost and imprisoned in a puzzle box. It was only until she is was released into the modern world by a self-proclaimed evil boy genius, Jack Spicer, an expert in robotics with dreams of world domination. So Wuya teams up with Jack and guides him to the location of the Shen Gong Wu. And I guess we’re supposed to forget about asking how exactly Jack gained possession of the prison box. Despite having no fighting skills and is kind of a petulant namby-pamby, Jack has an army of Jackbots that he can use to distract and out manoeuvre the Xiaolin monks as he makes his way to his prize.

Image by Warner Bros. Animation. Posted on xiaolinpedia.fandom.com by Grand Master Kimiko.

Another factor in the show is the concept of a dual at the end of every episode (almost) called a Xiaolin Showdown (hence the title), when two or more participants touch a Shen Gong Wu simultaneously, they must wager a Shen Gong Wu which they can use in the showdown. The players must also name the setup of a game, and the winner of that game earn all the artifacts that were up for grabs.

Arcs & action

The first episode does a good job setting up the premise and establishing the character’s personalities and their goals. The main cast have voices that have become familiar with the fans. Tara Strong (Omi), Tom Kenny (Raimundo), Grey DeLisle (Kimiko) and Jeff Bennett (Clay). Each season individually has hints for potential story arcs that pay off by the end of the season, yet only resolving at the beginning of the new season. Season 1 focused on Wuya’s resurrection and regaining her powers, season 2 introduced a new antagonist, Chase Young, a fallen monk turned to the dark side who feeds on dragon soup for longevity and plots to make Omi his apprentice to bring about the apocalypse, then season 3 would hint at a possible candidate for the leadership of the Xiaolin monks.

The animation and action all together are slick and sparkling, yet my major complaint is that almost every time the fighters land a blow there’s a flash. It makes you feel like you’re being punched in the face, but not in a good way.

Image by Warner Bros. Animation. Posted on xiaolinpedia.fandom.com, by Hanaxsongs.

Raimundo is the most developed out of the monks and the entire cast for that matter. Although he was the last to receive the rank of Xiaolin apprentice and left the monks to join Wuya out of frustration, he was able to redeem himself, eventually earning his apprenticeship status to complete the Dragon X-Kumei formation and not only prove to be a resourceful ally, but demonstrated prime leadership skills. More than I can say for our supposed hero.

Where it went wrong

With what I have just analysed, Xiaolin Showdown has genuine elements that make it appealing piece of entertainment. That being said, the show suffers from a lot of damaging elements that drag it down.

Image by Warner Bros. Animation. Posted on xiaolinpedia.fandom.com by Ricky Spanish.

Omi is not only unlikable, but the series actually manages to unwittingly make a case as to why he’s not a grand master as he thinks he is, but not cut out to be the leader of the monks. He’s irresponsible, condescending towards his fellow comrades, but pretty selfish too. Even though he claims to have learned his lessons and sees the value in his friends, by the next episode he seems to forget his revelations and just goes back the way he was before. It just makes him an uneven and unrelatable person. Admittedly, Omi managed to swallow his pride at the end when Raimundo earned the leadership role, but that was only after Raimundo resolved the time line situation in the finale, a situation that was pretty much Omi’s fault, as he wanted the Shen Gong Wu called the Sands of Time in hopes going back in time to return Chase Young to the side of good. However, in the previous season Omi gave the Sands of Time to his older self to take to the future (it’s a long story), so he thought it was a good idea to cryogenically freeze himself in hopes of meeting himself in eighty years. Yet in doing so, he pretty much stopped his older self from existing, changed the future and left his friends to fight without him, leading to Jack’s takeover. It bothered me how the monks weren’t as angry with him as they should considering the fact that he left his friends to fight for themselves for such a stupid and ill-conceived reason.

Image by Warner Bros. Animation. Posted on xiaolinpedia.fandom.com.

Chase Young’s entire plan was to set up events to get Omi to turn to the dark side, thus realizing the suddenly mentioned prophesy, turning the entire world into darkness, but also splitting the earth in half… What?!! Once the season 2 arc was resolved at the start of season 3, Chase’s presents pretty much became completely superfluous, hell he isn’t remotely interested in the Shen Gong Wu.

Jack never really quite evolved as a character and his Jackbot army ended up trounced by the monks again & again. Which brings me to another issue I have with season 3, around the fifth episode, the monks were given magical weapons of their own, Wudai weapons, based on their own elements and seem more powerful that the Shen Gong Wu. In that same episode, they even acquire a box called the treasure of the blind swordsman that can grant them any wish just by thinking what they want, but instead use it to impersonate Jack in order to trick the bad guys in seeing Jack with more self-worth than he actually does (to the point where it even fools Chase Young of all people). These new arsenals somehow didn’t make an impact on the story or adventures other than making the Jackbots obsolete. By the tenth episode of season 3, they were given more power-up to their Wudai weapons by Master Fung at the beginning of the episode (without earning them), yet the monks are still overpowered by Chase Young and his feline army. So let me get this straight, the young monks are just handed two or three power ups in one season (including a genie in a box), can effortlessly wipe out an entire army of battle droids, and yet these monks can’t even defeat this one guy and his pack of lions & tigers, even Jack somehow manages to beat the monks at some point to become the supreme ruler. Then what was the point in just handing these powers if as Master Fung even confessed “can’t defeat Chase Young.”? It seems meaninglessly poignant since the power ups don’t seem to make any significant development for the characters, it’s just inconsistent, especially when to take into account Jack’s abrupt takeover in the final two parter, again the Monks, Chase Young, Wuya are supposed to be the strongest beings in the show, the latter are immortal beings who conquered the world once, and yet a whinny, petulant inventor is somehow able to defeat all of them at once?

All this leads to the biggest problems I have with the series, it’s that it doesn’t seem to have any idea how to build up towards an end game. The monks and the antagonists are fighting over the most valuable artifacts in the world, but we don’t know exactly how many Shen Gong Wu there are. You’d think it would be of vital important to collect every single one of them, but that just goes out the window since some of them end up lost again or are never recovered.

I once questioned how this series gained enough of a following to warrant a sequel series. Apart from the concept, the only reason I can think of is that the fans who seem to find interest in this series stems from its anime style, to its emphasis on Chinese and Japanese culture, but that’s all it has going for it. Samurai Jack was inspired by the filming style of Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone, while Avatar not only utilized the Japanese animation and style to compelling & grounded effect. Both shows were able to tell gripping and mature stories with the enhancement of the visuals. XS however never really learned to progress outside of its own unique concept and the creators didn’t seem to know how to end it. That’s why Samurai Jack & Avatar are still critically regarded by fans and critics, because even though Jack’s story wasn’t concluded until thirteen years later, it at least established his goal throughout the series and eventually paying off at the end while keeping in line with its themes along the way.

Final thoughts

It may seem unfair to compare this show to the two previously mentioned classics, it did last for fifty-two episodes and earned a sequel after all, but I feel it was necessary to point out precisely what made those series so compelling and the statues XS could have been if it had a lot more depth and complexity rather than boiling it down to simple staple of good vs. evil scenarios, and having the humour be mostly present during the serious situations kind of cuts the tension. The series is not without it’s down notes; the animation and action are fluent, the comedy is sparks divert droll, even though Omi’s mispronunciation gag can get stale at times and the premise is unique and various, despite the lack of nuance. Xiaolin Showdown is a show that was and still has its admirers by animation, martial arts and multicultural enthusiasts, a show with such magnitude, mystique and adventure that could have been so much more, but mystique was as far as it could go. I’m giving Xiaolin Showdown a 6:10.

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James V Stampone
Animation Retro-Vibe

I am a writer with a keen interest in animation, film, history, and martial arts.