History Series / Zorro

[[redirect:{{Franchise.Zorro}}]]

You may be looking for

* ''Series/{{Zorro|1957}}'', the 1957 television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams.
* ''Series/{{Zorro|1990}}'', the 1990 television series starring Duncan Regehr.

If a direct link has led you here, please correct it so that it points to the corresponding article.
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[[redirect:Series/Zorro1957]]

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_11914770.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Beware, Commander! My sword is a flame to right every wrong, so heed well my name!"'']]

->''"Out of the night, when the full moon is bright, comes a horseman known as Zorro. This bold renegade carves a Z with his blade, a Z that stands for Zorro. Zorro, the fox so cunning and free. Zorro, who makes the sign of the Z. Zorro! Zorro! Zorro!"''

''Zorro'' is a 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] {{swashbuckler}} television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as [[Franchise/{{Zorro}} the eponymous character]]. It is not the only TV series featuring the character, but it is certainly the most well known. Four feature-length TV specials were made until 1961 after the series' end.

Don Diego de la Vega, son of rancher Alejandro de la Vega, lives in California, at a time when it is still a Spanish colony. He returns from Spain at the beginning of the series and finds that the people are being oppressed by the military commander Enrique Monastario. Diego, a master swordsman thanks to his studies abroad, decides to play the part of a pacifist intellectual, and creates a SecretIdentity to fight against evil: El Zorro! He is helped by his servant Bernardo, who also has a secret: he's mute, and pretends to be both deaf and mute. This allows Bernardo to eavesdrop and gather information people would never let slip around someone who could hear.

Zorro begins by helping Ignacio Torres, who has been falsely accused of treason, then continues to fight against Monastario's tyranny. When Monastario is eventually removed from his post, Diego thinks that there won't be any further need for Zorro, but he's forced to continue when he discovers the conspiracies of "The Eagle", a figure that is plotting the secession of California.

The series has [[Characters/Zorro1957 its own character sheet]].

See also the 1990-1993 ''Series/{{Zorro|1990}}'' series.
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!!''Zorro'' provides examples of:
%%
%% PLEASE read Administrivia/ExampleIndentationInTropeLists
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* AlternateHistory: The failed revolt by "The Eagle" is, of course, not based on any actual historical events. Still, California had briefly attempted to be an independent nation for a short time, and their flag used an animal (a bear, not an eagle).
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The various evil ''commandantes'', starting with Commander Monastario, are the only members of the army who can last more than a minute in a swordfight against Zorro. Not that they ever ''win'', of course, but at least they can give him a workout, unlike the rank-and-file soldiers (including Sergeant García), who just get humiliated even when outnumbering the masked outlaw.
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Although it can happen for Zorro to kill a mook in self-defense, it is much more frequent for his main foes to be [[SelfDisposingVillain Self-Disposing Villains]] or to be killed by an accomplice, sparing Zorro from doing the dirty job.
* BaitAndSwitch: One episode opens with a local peon frantically running around the plaza, telling everyone Zorro has been captured. Some soldiers even haul out a sturdy cage occupied by the masked outlaw. Then the peon runs over to a small carriage occupied by [[spoiler:Diego and Bernardo. Turns out the caged "Zorro" is really one of the lancers and it's all a trick; the commandante is trying to make some of Zorro's accomplices reveal themselves so he can interrogate them about Zorro's identity.]] The townspeople begin preparing to help Zorro immediately and are even willing to risk arrest to free their masked protector. Luckily for them, [[spoiler:the real Zorro shows up to warn them just before the commandante springs his trap.]]
* BecauseISaidSo: García tells Ana Campillo that she must return to Spain, because the interim commander says so. Guess who the interim commander is?
* BeleagueredAssistant: Corporal Reyes.
* BeQuietNudge:
** Sergeant García and Corporal Reyes exchange shut-up kicks with each other when one of them is about to let slip to Don Alejandro that they know what happened to Don Diego (whom they knocked out and tied up to save him from fighting in a duel).
** On another occasion, a private gives García a warning kick to the rear after Monastario walks in on the soldiers drinking and singing a song about him... one with very unflattering lyrics.
* BigBrotherIsWatching: Zorro has an uncanny ability to know when someone is in trouble... Little do the people know that it's largely thanks to Bernardo!
* BigEater: Sergeant García.
* CatchphraseInsult: "Baboso!"
* ClarkKenting: Although Zorro is only wearing a mask covering the upper half of his face, nobody ever recognize him as the mild Don Diego. Confronted once with the notion, Sergeant García just laughs it off and tells Diego -- no offense! -- that Señor Zorro is much taller and muscular than him. Justified by the fact that many people in the Pueblo can look like Zorro while wearing his costume, even one of the Commandante's own men.
* {{Colorization}}: In 1991, Disney had the series digitally colorized for airing on The Disney Channel.
* CostumeCopycat: At one point, Monastario makes a deal with a prisoner who has been jailed for murder: if he dresses up as Zorro to publicly discredit him, he will be allowed to escape. After the real Zorro foils his first attempt, the impostor robs the church, which proves much more effective. The public is so outraged that Diego doesn't dare to ride out as Zorro, and must track down the fake as himself. [[spoiler:To make matters worse, Diego is forced to engage the impostor -- who happens to be a highly skilled swordsman -- in a duel... [[OhCrap in full view of Monastario]].]]
* CourtroomAntics: This being an action/adventure show, courtroom scenes are few and far between. However, the few that do crop up are invariably full of this.
** In an early episode, Monastario has arranged for the judge sent to preside over an important trial to be delayed. This allows his fellow conspirator [[AmoralAttorney Licenciado Pina]] to take over. The substitution sends the courtroom into an uproar, which is compounded when Pina freezes just before delivering a guilty verdict. The cause? Zorro holding a sword to his back. Then, to complicate matters even further, the ''real'' judge finally turns up.
** When García is put on trial for stealing his fellow soldiers' pay, this ensues thanks to his [[CassandraTruth entirely unbelievable alibi.]] Diego's attempts to speak up in his friend's defense only make matters worse.
* CoverBlowingSuperpower: Diego hides his impressive swordfighting skills from everyone in the pueblo to distance himself from Zorro. However, this leads to trouble when he is forced to participate in duels as himself, especially when (as is frequently the case) his life is on the line. [[spoiler:Diego does blow his cover once, when Monastario watches him fight a skilled swordsman. Though Diego does his best to make it look like he won by sheer luck, his unlikely victory is enough for the ''Commandante'' to put the pieces together.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
** When not dressed as Zorro, Diego relies on his sharp tongue and quick wit to make fools of his enemies.
** Padre Felipe delivers some excellent one-liners as well.
--->'''Monastario:''' But wait, I am not finished telling you--\\
'''Padre Felipe:''' Confessions every Wednesday and Saturday at seven.
* TheDitz: Corporal Reyes first and foremost, giving Sergeant García someone to yell after for being dumber than him. Though even Reyes sometimes gets the DumbassHasAPoint role, to García's annoyance
* DoomedByCanon: "The Eagle" and his separatist revolt don't last for more than a few hours. They can't; Spanish California will secede from Spain to be part of Mexico, not an independent nation.
* DressesTheSame: A male example -- during a costumed party, both Sergeant García and the governor ends up dressed identically as Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, to the sergeant's embarrassment and the governor's annoyance.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: In "Slaves of the Eagle", everyone except [[CorruptBureaucrat the magistrado]] agrees that selling peons who cannot pay their taxes into slavery is unjust. García so firmly believes it's wrong that he posts only one guard in the cuartel and dresses as Zorro in order to free the prisoners himself. [[spoiler:[[FinaglesLaw It backfires spectacularly]]. Not only is he caught and [[PaperThinDisguise instantly recognized]], the magistrado then orders that every available guard be posted, effectively ruining any chance the ''real'' Zorro might have had of freeing the prisoners.]]
* EnemyMine: Yes, Zorro is an outlaw and Sergeant García is supposed to capture him. More often than not, however, they end up on the same side against the villains of the week. García sure doesn't mind much, almost gushing toward Zorro at times, and even if Diego is sometimes annoyed by the Sergeant's klutziness, he's still fond of him too.
* EverybodyKnewAlready: In the episode "Amnesty for Zorro", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Zorro is offered exactly that]] ...if he agrees to publicly reveal his identity. Diego is all set to go through with it, but is stopped by [[spoiler:Don Alejandro]], who reveals that he has known Zorro's identity for some time.
* FacePalm:
** Monastario on many occasions, usually in response to Zorro humiliating his soldiers. Including in the very first episode.
** Zorro also takes a turn after watching Judge Vasca take a huge gulp of drugged ale, then go back for another sip when the drug doesn't immediately render him unconscious.
%%* FatComicRelief: Sergeant García.
* FatIdiot: Sergeant García is not the sharpest tool in the drawer (which he readily admits himself) and always has lots of trouble following the ''commandante''[='s=] most convoluted plans. Although he does a decent job when commander by interim, and he's still smarter than Corporal Reyes.
* {{Flynning}}: Happens in all episodes. And if the enemy is supposed to be a master swordsman as well, it takes longer. This is made less obvious by using fencing drill (Guy Williams was a champion fencer) rather than a lot of wider swings.
* GeneralRipper: Monastario. ''Anything'' can be done, no matter how evil, if it helps to capture that damn Zorro!
* GratuitousSpanish: Played completely straight, with characters peppering otherwise English dialogue with common Spanish words and phrases.
* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Zorro displays many examples of this, but the best one was against the wanderer Cleim. He fought a swordsman with just a knife... '''and won'''.
* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: At one point, one of Zorro's enemies takes him by surprise and succeeds in stunning him. He removes Zorro's mask and costume and dons them as trophies, thus learning Zorro's identity. This backfires only moments later, however, when soldiers mistake him for Zorro and (in a rare display of CombatPragmatism) shoot him. Diego awakens shortly after and has only to feign innocence to preserve his secret.
* KirksRock: Probably one of the earliest uses of this trope in television, dating from before they were called that. In the episode "The Missing Father", Zorro pursues a mysterious masked figure through such rocks.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Almost every member of the main cast has one -- a gentle violin riff for Diego, a variation on the same violin riff backed by brass for Zorro, a whimsical clarinet for Bernardo, a military trumpet for Garcia, and so on.
* LiveActionAdaptation: The plots of individual episodes are adaptions of ''Zorro'' comic books published by Disney. Disney also created a novelization entitled ''Walt Disney's Zorro'', published by Whitman in 1958.
* MasqueradeBall: The episode "Masquerade for Murder" features a masquerade ball at the De La Vega hacienda. Although it's a pretext to have a masked assassin meddling with the guests and try to kill the governor. Naturally, Sergeant García confuses Zorro with a masked guest.
* MickeyMousing: Walt Disney's print sure can be found here; the music follows the action very closely. Especially whenever Bernardo explains something to Diego through charades; his leitmotif always varies to punctuate every gesture. There's also, for example, a scene of Zorro exchanging barrels of powder for barrels of cognac and handling them to Bernardo which goes on for quite a long time, but is made watchable by the perfectly timed music.
* NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight: There '''are''' guns in the setting, and Zorro eludes a shot now and then; but most of the time, when Zorro is on the scene, everybody tries to best him in a sword fight (and, of course, loses).
* NiceToTheWaiter: A good way to gauge the morality of any prominent character is to take note of their reactions to Sergeant García. The good ones are, at worst, exasperated by his antics. The bad ones are inevitably infuriated by his [[NiceGuy innate goodness]], [[WideEyedIdealist incorruptible nature]], and [[TheFool lack of intelligence combined with dumb luck]].
* ObfuscatingDisability: Diego's servant Bernardo is mute, but pretends to be deaf as well, the better to eavesdrop and gather information.
* ObfuscatingStupidity:
** Bernardo does this in addition to ObfuscatingDisability, as mentioned above, to make himself seem even more harmless. Notably, his antics often work to inconvenience or mildly humiliate Zorro's enemies.
** Unusually for the franchise, Diego himself does ''not'' do this. Unlike many other incarnations of the character, who favor the RichIdiotWithNoDayJob approach, he's vocal about his opinions and very active in the pueblo's affairs, to the point where the people view him as a BigGood. His main strategy for distancing himself from Zorro is pretending to be a pacifist who cannot handle a sword.
* PoliceAreUseless: Replace "police" with "soldiers" and you get the idea. The military is completely useless, whether they're chasing a mere man dressed in black or dealing with any other threat (which is almost always stopped by Zorro).
* PunchClockVillain: Sergeant García. Though he rarely fails to obey orders, he has a good heart, showing decency and respect to those he arrests and frequently expressing remorse when he is ordered to do something unjust by his superiors.
* PutTheirHeadsTogether: In the season 2 episode "Zorro Fights a Duel", Zorro gets the drop on two banditos who tried to capture him for the reward, and knocks their heads together.
* SadisticChoice: When Sergeant García is ordered by his superior to give false testimony on threat of being hanged, Zorro decides to give the sergeant an incentive to tell the truth by threatening to carve a Z on him... and he won't stop at ruining García's uniform. When García takes the stand at the trial, he is confronted by both a miniature gallows and a Z projected on one wall, reminding him that he faces punishment no matter what he says.
* SayMyName: Very rare is the episode where someone doesn't dramatically exclaim "Zorro!" upon seeing the masked outlaw (or sometimes just his ZorroMark). Whether it be Sergeant García, the Commandante, the villain of the day or mere bystanders.
* ScarecrowSolution: Trying to catch an unjustly accused man who has taken sanctuary in the church of a monastery, Commandante Monastario invades the place with his soldiers to "protect" the church from a fictitious Indian attack. The monastery is so well-guarded that Zorro almost gets caught trying to reach the prisoner. Trading force for wits, Don Diego spreads a story about a vengeful ghost by telling it to the impressionable Sergeant García. Later that night, Zorro appears disguised as the ghost and scares all the soldiers into fleeing.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Zig-zagged. Zorro is usually more than happy to break prisoners out of jail or threaten government officials in the name of justice. However, at one point he cannot justify freeing a group of peons who are to be sold into slavery for failing to pay their taxes. Diego had already tried to pay off their debts with no success, and while the punishment is cruel, it is perfectly legal. [[spoiler:His tune changes in a hurry when he realizes the tax collector who arranged the sale is part of the Eagle's conspiracy.]]
* SecretKeeper: Bernardo. For a long time, Bernardo is the only person who knows that Diego and Zorro are one and the same. He is later joined by [[spoiler:Don Alejandro.]]
* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Don Alejandro.]] He figures out Diego's secret early on, but chooses not to confront him, instead waiting for Diego to come clean. He graduates to regular SecretKeeper in "Amnesty For Zorro," when he dresses as Zorro and takes Diego hostage to stop him from publicly revealing his identity.
* ShootTheRope: In "The Flaming Arrow", Zorro saves an old friend of Don Diego from hanging by shooting the rope with a [[ArrowsOnFire flaming arrow]]. He does so before the trapdoor is opened, though, leaving time enough for the fire to burn the rope. He also [[PinnedToTheWall pins the executor's sleeve to the gallows]] by firing another arrow to prevent him from interfering.
* StoutStrength: Sure, Sergeant García isn't that fast -- not surprising, considering his bulk -- nor is he a skilled swordsman... but if a bandito falls into his grasp, ''he's not getting away''. Just asks Pablo, an evil Indios, who ends up in his death grip and is almost suffocated by García (mostly accidentally, though the Sergeant was quite upset at the bad guy for trying to kill him).
* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Sergeant García fits this trope to a T. Though he's often the one who rides in pursuit of the masked bandit, García comes to respect Zorro early in the series. He frequently expresses his hope that Zorro will intervene in unjust situations, and is sometimes visibly gleeful when Zorro eludes capture yet again.
* TimmyInAWell: This is how Don Diego meets with Phantom (his second steed). The horse shows up alone and tempts Diego into pursuit, but is too fast to be caught. The chase leads Diego to Phantom's wounded former master, Lieutenant Lopez, who was mugged and left for dead. Before dying, he begs Diego to take care of Phantom.
* TranslationConvention: The show was aired for English-speaking audiences, so the majority of the dialogue is in English. However, Spanish words are substituted in periodically, to keep it fresh in the viewers' mind that the characters are actually Spanish-speaking.
* WhipItGood: Zorro isn't just adept with the sword, he's quite skilled with a whip too -- up to slashing his ZorroMark on a villain's cloth with it. Although rare, a few duels are entirely fought with whips, notably against [[{{Irony}} some cruel slavers]].
* WhiteStallion: Zorro usually favors a ''black'' stallion, Tornado, the better to vanish into the night. However, during a time he's away from his usual base of Los Angeles, he rides a white stallion, Phantom, who proves to be just as speedy and as intelligent as Tornado.
* ZorroMark: The TropeNamer, cutting his classic letter Z on his opponents or the scenery.
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''Zorro'' is a 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] {{swashbuckler}} television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as [[Franchise/{{Zorro}} the eponymous character]]. It is not the only TV series featuring the character (there would be [[Series/Zorro1990 another]] in the 1990s), but it is certainly the most well known. Four feature-length TV specials were made until 1961 after the series' end.

''Zorro'' is a 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] {{swashbuckler}} television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as [[Franchise/{{Zorro}} the eponymous character]]. It is not the only TV series featuring the character (there would be [[Series/Zorro1990 another]] in the 1990s), but it is certainly the most well known. Four feature-length specials were made until 1961.

''Zorro'' is a 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] {{swashbuckler}} television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as [[Franchise/{{Zorro}} the eponymous character]]. It is not the only TV series featuring the character (there would be [[Series/Zorro1990 another]] in the 1990s), but it is certainly the most well known.

A 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as Franchise/{{Zorro}}. It is not the only TV series featuring the character (there would be [[Series/Zorro1990 another]] in the 1990s), but it is certainly the most well known.

A 1957-1959 Creator/{{Disney}}-[=produced=] television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as Franchise/{{Zorro}}. It is not the only TV series featuring the character, but it is certainly the most well known.

A 1957-1959 television series starring Creator/GuyWilliams as Franchise/{{Zorro}}. It is not the only TV series featuring the character, but it is certainly the most well known.

* GeneralRipper: Monastario. ''Anything'' can be done, no matter how evil, if it helps to capture that dammed Zorro!

* StoutStrength: Sure, Sergeant García isn't that fast -- not surprising, considering his bulk -- nor is he a skilled swordsman... but if a bandito falls into his grasp, ''he's not getting away''. Just asks Pablo, an evil Indios, who ends up in his death grip and is almost suffocated by García (mostly accidentally, though the Sergeant was quite upset at the bad guy who tried to kill him).

A 1957-1959 television series featuring Creator/GuyWilliams as Franchise/{{Zorro}}. It is not the only TV series featuring the character, but it is certainly the most well known.

* ClarkKenting: Although Zorro is only wearing a mask covering the upper half of his face, nobody ever recognize him as the mild Don Diego. Confronted once with the notion, Sergeant García just laughs it off and tells Diego -- no offense! -- that Señor Zorro is much taller and muscular than him.
** Justified by the fact that many people in the Pueblo can look like Zorro while wearing his costume, even one of the Commandante's own men.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Although it can happen for Zorro to kill a mook in self-defense, it is much more frequent for them to be SelfDisposingVillain or to be killed by an accomplice, sparing Zorro for doing the dirty job.
* BaitAndSwitch: One episode opens with a local peon frantically running around the plaza, telling everyone Zorro has been captured. Some soldiers even haul out a sturdy cage occupied by the masked outlaw. Then the peon runs over to a small carriage occupied by [[spoiler: Diego and Bernardo. Turns out the caged "Zorro" is really one of the lancers and it's all a trick; the commandante is trying to make some of Zorro's accomplices reveal themselves so he can interrogate them about Zorro's identity.]] The townspeople begin preparing to help Zorro immediately and are even willing to risk arrest to free their masked protector. Luckily for them, [[spoiler: the real Zorro shows up to warn them just before the commandante springs his trap.]]

* DressingAsTheEnemy: In "Slaves of the Eagle," everyone except [[CorruptBureaucrat the magistrado]] agrees that selling peons who cannot pay their taxes into slavery is unjust. García so firmly believes it's wrong that he posts only one guard in the cuartel and dresses as Zorro in order to free the prisoners himself. [[spoiler:[[FinaglesLaw It backfires spectacularly]]. Not only is he caught and [[PaperThinDisguise instantly recognized]], the magistrado then orders that every available guard be posted, effectively ruining any chance the ''real'' Zorro might have had of freeing the prisoners.]]

* FatIdiot: Sergeant García.

* MickeyMousing: Walt Disney's print sure can be found here; the music follows the action very closely. Especially whenever Bernardo explains something to Diego through charades; his leitmotif always vary to punctuate every gesture. There's also, for example, a scene of Zorro exchanging barrels of powder for barrels of cognac and handling them to Bernardo which goes on for quite a long time, but is made watchable by the perfectly timed music.

** Unusually for the franchise, Diego himself does ''not'' do this. Unlike many other incarnations of the character, who favor the RichIdiotWithNoDayJob approach, he's vocal about his opinions and very active the pueblo's affairs, to the point where the people view him as a BigGood. His main strategy for distancing himself from Zorro is pretending to be a pacifist who cannot handle a sword.

* SadisticChoice: When Sergeant García is ordered by his superior to give false testimony on threat of being hanged, Zorro decides to give the sergeant an incentive to tell the truth by threatening to carve a Z on him...and he won't stop at ruining García's uniform. When García takes the stand at the trial, he is confronted by both a miniature gallows and a Z projected on one wall, reminding him that he faces punishment no matter what he says.

* ScarecrowSolution: Trying to catch an unjustly accused man who has taken sanctuary in the church of a monastery, Commandante Monastario invades the place with his soldiers to "protect" the church from a fictitious Indian attack. The monastery is so well-guarded that Zorro almost gets caught trying to reach the prisoner. Trading force for wits, Don Diego spreads a story about a vengeful ghost by telling it to the impressionable Sergeant García. Later that night, Zorro appears, disguised as the ghost, and scares all the soldiers into fleeing.

* TranslationConvention: The show was aired for English-speaking audiences, so the majority of the dialogue was in English. However, Spanish words were substituted in periodically, to keep it fresh in the viewers' mind that the characters are actually Spanish-speaking.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bernardo does this in addition to ObfuscatingDisability, as mentioned above, to make himself seem even more harmless. Notably, his antics often work to inconvenience or mildly humiliate Zorro's enemies.

* EnnemyMine: Yes, Zorro is an outlaw and Sergeant García is supposed to capture him. More often than not, however, they end up on the same side against the villains of the week. García sure doesn't mind much, almost gushing toward Zorro at times, and even if Diego is sometimes annoyed by the Sergeant's klutziness, he's still fond of him too.

* ShootTheRope: In one episode, Zorro saves an old friend of Don Diego from hanging by shooting the rope with a [[ArrowsOnFire flaming arrow]]. He does so before the trapdoor is opened, though, leaving time enough for the fire to burn the rope. He also [[PinnedToTheWall pins the executor's sleeve to the gallows]] by firing another arrow to prevent him from interfering.

* StoutStrength: Sure, Sergeant García isn't that fast -- not surprising, considering his bulk -- nor is he a skilled swordsman... but if a bandito falls into his grasp, ''he's not getting away''.

* SayMyName: Very rare is the episode where someone doesn't dramatically exclaim "Zorro!" upon seeing the masked outlaw. Whether it be Sergeant García, the Commandante, the villain of the day or mere bystanders.

* ZorroMark: The TropeNamer, cutting his classic letter Z on his opponents.

** Monastario on many occasions, usually in response to Zorro humiliating his soldiers.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Almost every member of the main cast has one--a gentle violin riff for Diego, a variation on the same violin riff backed by brass for Zorro, a whimsical clarinet for Bernardo, a military trumpet for Garcia, and so on.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Zig-zagged. Zorro is usually more than happy to break prisoners out of jail or threaten government officials in the name of justice. However, at one point he cannot justify freeing a group of peons who are to be sold into slavery for failing to pay their taxes. Diego had already tried to pay off their debts with no success, and while the punishment is cruel, it is perfectly legal. [[note]]His tune changes in a hurry when he realizes the tax collector who arranged the sale is part of the Eagle's conspiracy.[[/note]]
* SecretKeeper: Bernardo. For a long time, Bernardo is the only person who knows that Diego and Zorro are one and the same. He is later joined by [[spoiler: Don Alejandro.]]
* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler: Don Alejandro.]] He figures out Diego's secret early on, but chooses not to confront him, instead waiting for Diego to come clean. He graduates to regular SecretKeeper in "Amnesty For Zorro," when he dresses as Zorro and takes Diego hostage to stop him from publicly revealing his identity.