Western Animation / Maya and the Three

Maya and the Three is a 2021 Netflix limited animated series created by couple Jorge Gutiérrez and Sandra Equihua, as well as being co-executive produced by Silvia Olivas (Elena of Avalor). The series was animated by Tangent Studios, which would be its last work after the studio suddenly closed down in August 2021. It came out on Netflix on October 22nd, 2021.

In the Mesoamerican-inspired kingdom of Teca, the young Princess Maya (Zoe Saldaña) yearns to be an Eagle Warrior like her mother. However, when vengeful gods threaten all of humanity, Maya journeys to find the three prophesied warriors who can save the kingdom.

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Tropes in this series include:

• Actor Allusion:
  • Kate del Castillo is again playing the role of a death goddess created by Jorge Gutiérrez.
  • Stephanie Beatriz once again plays a Chosen One warrior from a Mesoamerican-inspired kingdom in a show co-written by Silvia Olivas.
  • This isn’t the first time Diego Luna and Zoe Saldaña have played each other’s love interests in a Jorge Gutiérrez production.
  • John DiMaggio also once again voices a bear-themed character who gets into fights with the protagonist, even having the same Verbal Tic of "mang".
• Action Girl: Let's see... There's Maya, Chimi, Queen Teca, Lady Micte, Skull and Bone, Cipactli, Xtabay, the Barbarian Princess... it would be easier to list who ISN'T part of this trope.
• Almost Kiss: During their sparring match in "The Puma", Zatz and Maya clash swords and wind up just inches from each other, at which point Zatz sneakily puckers up and tries to kiss Maya. She simply responds with an amused smirk and parries his attack.
• Annoying Arrows: Both King Teca (at the end of the first episode) and Camazotz, the god of bats, end up with a back riddled full of arrows. At least King Teca was incapacitated enough by them that he nearly died getting back home. Justified in the case of Camazotz because it had been established by then that the gods cannot be killed by mere human weapons, though they did seem to still wear him down.
• Anyone Can Die: As early as the first episode, the series sets the tone where none of the characters are necessarily safe. Maya's dad gets maimed and loses a hand, while in the second episode, her brothers get killed. This ends up being a tone that continues for the rest of the series. Picchu dies in the seventh episode making them a Sacrificial Lion and by the final episode Maya's parents, Rico, Chimi, and Chiapa are the only main characters to actually live to the end.
• Apologetic Attacker: Maya during her introductory fight with Bear Killah. She's a huge fan of his and feels bad about knocking out his tooth. Comes back when Lord Mictlan brainwashes Rico, Chimi, and Picchu. Maya doesn't hesitate to fight her friends, but she does keep letting them know she's sorry.
• Arc Words: "If it is to be, it's up to me."
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: As both Maya and Zatz were Semi-Divine beings when they died, they end up getting reincarnated as the gods of the Sun and Moon, respectively.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: Occasionally, the aspect ratio suddenly changes to 16:9, usually to indicate a "climactic" scene.
• Babies Ever After: After the loss they suffered in the first episode, Maya's parents get twins in the final episode. The epilogue shows that Rico and Chimi also had a whole brood of children.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • During an argument with her mother in the first episode, Maya tells her that she wishes she wasn’t her mother but regrets it almost immediately after she says it. Maya then learns when Zatz crashes her coronation that Queen Teca isn’t her mother at all. Lady Micte is.
  • She also bemoans the fact that she isn't a prophesied warrior like her brothers and thus doesn't get to go on exciting adventures. It quickly turns out that their interpretation of the prophecy was wrong, she is a central figure, and saving the entire world falls on her shoulders. Her adventure is hard and dangerous and ends up killing almost everyone she knows, herself included.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Cipactli, the Goddess of Gators and Cabrakan, the God of Earthquakes join the final battle against Mictlan on Maya's side because Maya saved their marriage (with the help of the God of Counceling).
  • Earlier than that, Cipactli helped Maya in finding the jungle kingdom after she came back to help her.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: The first episode takes place on Maya's birthday. It's also the day Zatz announces she is the daughter of the Goddess of Death and that the God of War intends to sacrifice her, prompting her country to go to war and her brothers to be killed.
• Bird vs. Serpent: In the first episode of the series, an eagle catches a snake and perches with it in the opening sequence. This is an obvious reference to the Mexican coat of arms, but it's actually also foreshadowing the very end of the series. In the climatic final battle, Lord Mictlan takes the form of a giant two-headed serpent, and Maya, Eagle Warrior and Great Eagle of the prophecy, clashes with him.
• Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the series, Lord Mictlan and his pantheon of evil gods have been slain for good, plus the relationship between the four kingdoms is now stronger than ever and six new blessings have been bestowed between the king and queen and the newly coupled Rico and Chimi. However, the full body count is absolutely massive and includes none other than Maya herself. Even if Maya got to die on her own terms and became the Sun to Zatz's Moon, Lord Mictlan still managed to achieve a smaller but no-less unfortunate victory.
• Blatant Lies: After abandoning Maya during battle yet again, Chiapa claims to have been on lookout. Maya doesn't buy it.
• Blood Knight: As the god of war, Lord Mictlan absolutely revels in killing as many humans and gods as he can. He leaves the series with easily the biggest body count, leaving the amount of major characters left alive countable on one hand.
  • Barbarians are a lesser examples as while they do love battle, they also recognize that an empowered god of war would be bad for everyone.
• Bloodless Carnage: A lot of death occurs during the series, but due to the TV-Y7 rating, no blood is ever on the dead bodies shown and the gorier action takes place offscreen. In the case of gods, Symbolic Blood is in play as their bodies melt into a metal-like liquid.
• Book Ends: In the opening scene of the series, an eagle catches a snake and perches with it, an obvious refence to the Mexican coat of arms. In the climax of the last episode, Lord Mictlan takes the form of a giant two-headed serpent, and Maya, Eagle Warrior and Great Eagle of the prophecy, clashes with him.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The way Lord Mictlan gains more power from the gods he killed is via eating their hearts.
• Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: Lady Micte conceived Maya with a human (King Teca) to give her husband more power with the baby's sacrifice. However, she came to love her child, so she convinced Lord Mictlan to have Maya sent to be raised to the Tecas to be sacrificed when she would be older, making the king and queen to suffer. She makes everything she can to help Maya and protect her, without raising her husband's suspicions.
• Catch and Return: When Shield throws his shield at Zatz, Zatz simply catches it and throws it back at the three Jaguar Brothers.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the first episode, Maya's brothers give her a golden pearl, the Pirate Queen's earring, and an exotic bird as birthday gifts. When Maya returns to Teca and has to battle the Gods of Thieves, the bird aids her as a distraction, and she uses Chimi's bowstring to turn the pearl and earring into a bolo.
• Cultural Chop Suey: The setting is not based solely on ancient Mexico but on different countries in Latin and South America. Viking influence is also present in regards to the Barbarians.
• Crossover Cosmology: Downplayed and not drawn attention to, but the pantheon of gods are a mixture of mostly Mayan and some Aztec deities: only Mictlan, Micte and Cipactli are based on Aztec deities, with Camazotz, Acat, Cabrakan, Vucub, Hura/Can, Chivo, Xtabay and Ah Puch coming from Mayan mythology (and according to the official artbook Bone and Skull are derived from the unnamed Lords of Xibalba, making them Mayan as well).
• Dark and Troubled Past: Hoo boy... Rico, Chimi and Picchu's pasts definitely fit.
  • As does Zatz’s. His mother was killed when he was a baby, and Lord Mictlan took one of his eyes when he was a young child.
• Dead Guy Junior: A variant when it comes to the royal twins born during the final battle, being named Jaguar and Eagle in honor of their slain siblings.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Cabrakan is defeated in battle by Maya and Rico in "The Rooster", he and Cipactli join the final battle in "The Sun and Moon" to offer Maya their assistance.
• Death by Childbirth: In "The Skull," it’s revealed that Chimi’s mother died shortly after her birth. This, coupled with the fact that she’s albino, made her village believe that she was cursed, so she was abandoned in the jungle.
• Death Seeker: Picchu's desire for a warrior's death makes Maya believe he's one of these, but he assures her he's just as willing to live for the right cause as he is to die for it. He actually falls into Not Afraid to Die.
• Dem Bones: Mictlan summons a skeleton army. To make them extra villainous, their armor is styled after conquistadors.
  • Honorable mention goes to Bone and Skull, the twin goddesses of thievery.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Micte recounting how she married Mictlan for power, only to grow more afraid of him as he became more dangerous is eerily reminiscent of how many victims get trapped in abusive relationships.
• Eating the Eye Candy: After Picchu agrees to join the quest, he takes a long bath to prepare. Maya and Chimi enthusiastically and shamelessly watch.
• Empathic Weapon: Well, empathic staff. Estaban proves to be this, usually communicating via hand gestures.
• Extendable Arms: Two of the gods sported these (one on each arm).
• Eye Scream: Mictlan seem to be a fan of this trope as he took one of Zatz’s when he was a toddler and took out all the eyes of the God of Jungle Animals.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The city of Teca is strongly based on the Aztec, with some elements of Zapotec culture like warrior women.
  • The "barbarians" are clearly just a less intelligent take on the Inca.
  • The forest people are based on the relictual Maya cities.
  • The people of Isla Luna draw mostly from West African cultures, but are supposed to be analogous to the Taino.
• Floating Continent: Luna island is both this and Shaped Like Itself.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Rico tells Maya that there is a word for people who do heroic things: "Dead." In the final battle, Maya ends up pulling a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • When Maya snuck off to the fighting match, Queen Teca called her "your daughter" to her husband. A short time later, it'd be revealed Queen Teca is not Maya's blood mother.
  • Maya's match with the Bear Killah ended in a draw with them both KO'ing each other. The fight with Lord Mictlan would end the same way, except with death.
• Frame Break: The series sometimes shows objects poking out of the letterbox, usually during action scenes.
• Gag Nose: A signature for Jorge Gutiérrez's art-style, but the award goes to the Grand Bruja, whose schnozz is almost bigger than her head!
• God in Human Form: Lady Micte reveals she visited Maya each year on her birthday in disguise, most recently as the servant who helped her wash up in the first episode. Au Puch also is this, with her god form only revealed in the last episode.
• Golem: Mostly used by the bad guys' side, but Rico was able to create a few of his own during the final battle.
• Götterdämmerung: By the end of the show, all of the gods are dead except for Ah Puch (although since the universe is shared with The Book of Life we know there are other gods out there).
• Gratuitous Spanish: All characters throw in multiple Spanish terms in their conversation, especially when mentioning family bonds.
• The Hecate Sisters: Au Puch is this. The last episode reveals there are 3 physically identical versions of her, though one speaks in rhyme. Her god form shows a young girl, a woman, and an elderly woman as well.
• Heel–Face Turn: Maya seems to be good at inspiring this among the gods.
  • Cipactli and Cabrakan defect to Maya's side after Maya shows kindness to Cipactli and indirectly saves their marriage.
  • Zatz initially intended to sacrifice Maya to gain power for him and his father. After seeing her fight against Acat, he starts falling for her and decides to join her fight against Lord Mictlan.
  • Lady Micte initially conceived Maya intending to sacrifice her and gain enough power to protect herself from her husband. Upon Maya's birth, she found herself unable to do so and did everything in her power to protect and care for Maya from a distance.
• The Hero Dies: Maya performs a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Lord Mictlan. As one of the "3," Picchu also performs a Heroic Sacrifice and dies while buying time for his friends to escape the underworld.
• Horse of a Different Color: Maya has Chiapa, a jaguar with black fur and gold spots, as her mount.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A fairly common pairing in the series involves a hulking man and a slender woman. Besides King Teca and Queen Teca there's also Lord Mictlan and Lady Micthe, Cabrakan and Cipactli, Picchu and Chimi and Camazotz and Zyanya.
• I Have to Go Iron My Dog: When Lady Micte (Maya's biological mother) joins the family for dinner, King Teca claims that Chiapa needs to go pee and needs assistance from both himself and Maya in order to get out of the awkward situation.
• I Just Want to Be Badass:
  • As shown in the trailer, Maya wishes to be more than a princess in a dainty dress — she wants to be a warrior. Then her kingdom gets attacked...
  • At the end of the trailer, Maya has a humorous interaction with another character who says that people who call themselves "heroes" in pursuit of badassery usually end up dead.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When Lord Mictlan brainwashes Rico, Chimi, and Picchu. Ultimately, Maya focuses on Rico and successfully breaks their trance and he then uses magic to free the others.
• Immortal Breaker: Due to Maya's unique heritage, she is capable of killing gods even though she's half mortal.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Hura refers to Chimi as "it".
• Jerkass God: A whole pantheon of them leaded by Lord Mictlan, and jerkass would be putting it lightly...
• Karma Houdini: The Bog warrior that scarred Picchu after he spared his life never is punished. At least not onscreen.
• Laugh of Love: Maya and Zatz tend to laugh a lot around each other as they start to fall in love, especially during their sparring match in "The Puma".
• Liar Revealed: During her recruitment of The Three, Maya lies about the nature of their mission statement that their goal was to destroy the gate connecting the Mortal World to Lord Mictlan's realm while in actuality they were meant to fight him. Zatz obliviously reveals the truth to the others not knowing that Maya had been lying to them. This ends up being a Downplayed Trope because while the Three obviously feel betrayed by Maya's lie, they were still going to follow through on their promise given the life or death stakes. They later forgive Maya when they learn about the death of her brothers at Mictlan's hands.
• Love Triangle: A small one develops between Rico, Chimi and Picchu. Rico near instantly falls for Chimi, while Chimi seemingly finds Picchu more interesting, with Picchu reciprocating. Chimi and Rico get together in the end.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Maya discovers in the first episode that Lady Micte is her birth mother.
• Major Injury Under Reaction: King Teca's response to losing an entire hand is to shrug it off and simply say he has another one.
• Mayincatec: An unusual example in that this trope is used in a positive light for representation and is written by creators who are Mexican themselves.
• A Minor Kidroduction: Rico and Chimi in the cold open flashbacks of "The Rooster" and "The Skull," respectively.
• Misplaced Wildlife: We don’t see them, but The Widow Queen threatens to throw Rico to the hyenas.
• The Missus and the Ex: The king gets really uncomfortable when his wife and Lady Micte end up getting along and quickly leaves the dinner with a flimsy excuse.
• My Greatest Failure: Rico, Chimi, and Picchu's backstories all heavily focus on their regret over the death of a parent/parental figure whose death they feel guilty for.
  • Rico lost control of his power as a child and accidentally killed the Grand Brujo.
  • Chimi's mother succumbed to Death by Childbirth and Chimi later angered the Jungle King, who killed her surrogate animal family in an attempt to kill her.
  • Picchu showed mercy and spared an invader who later came back and killed his parents and the rest of his village.
• Oblivious Adoption: Well, half. Maya was raised by her biological father and his wife, despite being the product of her father's affair with the Goddess of Death.
• Odd Job Gods: Alongside Mictlan the War God, Micte the goddess of death, there is also Cipactli, the goddess of alligators and Acat the goddess of tattoos. There's also mention of a god of marriage counseling.
• One-Winged Angel: Lord Mictlan in the final battle. When the tide starts turning against him, he kills his allies and consumes their hearts to increase his power. He first melts into a pool of molten gold, then emerges as a gigantic double-headed dragon/snake that breathes green fire.
• Posthumous Sibling: The King and the Queen have twins after the death of their three eldest sons.
• Power Glows: Each of the warriors in Maya's group have a signature golden weapon that glows when used in battle. Maya's Eagle Claw club, Rico's staff Estefan, Chimi's bow, and Picchu's battle axes. It turns out that these are legendary Golden Talismans that were made with the blood of a god.
• Power Incontinence: As a child, Rico lost control of his peasant magic and accidentally killed the Grand Brujo. He's been afraid to use peasant magic ever since.
• Primate Versus Reptile: In the flashback showing Chimi's origin, a snake tries to attack her only to be fended off by a friendly monkey.
• Prophecy Twist: The story centers around a prophecy about defeating a great darkness. The initial reading of the prophecy (an Eagle and three Jaguars) is outright wrong. The true prophecy is revealed to be a Little Eagle, a Magic Rooster, a Skull Archer, and a Puma Warrior. Maya believes herself to be the Eagle and assumes the other figures will be representatives of Luna Island, the Jungle Kingdom, and the Barbarian tribe. It turns out that the prophecy refers to the kingdoms themselves uniting to face Lord Mictlan. While Maya, Rico, Chimi, and Picchu were important, it was ultimately in how they brought their kingdoms together, not their actual battle.
• Proud Warrior Race: The Barbarians. They love fighting and consider a death in combat to be the most honorable way to go. However, they're not bloodthirsty and recognize the importance of fighting honorably, showing mercy, and not starting fights they can't win.
• Raised by Wolves: Chimi was abandoned in the jungle as a baby because her village believed she was cursed, so she was raised by a monkey and various other animals of the jungle.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Widow Queen is young and childish, but she's also the only ruler to civilly hear Maya out when she arrives on her quest, even after Rico condescends to her because of her age. She recognizes the importance of the quest and agrees to help Teca even if it doesn't benefit her directly. She's also aware of and consciously trying to atone for her father's mistakes, particularly in regards to his treatment of Chimi.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Quite a few natural ones, with a few of them being subversions, and one mind control variant as seen when Lord Mictlan took control of Maya companions.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • In Episode 1, Maya's pit fight against a bigger, stronger opponent ends with an injured Maya performing a mutual knockout.
  • In Episode 1, Queen Teca warns Maya that: "Being a leader is more than just fighting. It's about sacrifice."
  • During Maya's coronation in Episode 1 the kooky old lady (Ah Puch) says: "Lo, a new day has begun! Princess Maya will be the Sun!"
  • Throughout the series, Zatz is often depicted with the Moon behind him.
  • In Episode 3, Rico and Cipactli have a rather poignant exchange:
    Rico: Yeah, there's a word for people who always do heroic things.
    Cipactli: (smiles) Heroes.
    Rico: No. Dead.
• Rule of Three: In "The Skull," Maya asks the Widow Queen for the help of her greatest warrior. She tells her that the greatest warrior is El Monstruo Blanco, who lives as a recluse in the jungle thanks to the previous king, and that she had tried to invite her back after the old king died. She sent warriors to look for her, but "she made it very clear that they were not welcome." The camera then zooms in on three consecutive guards. The first has a golden eyepatch, the second has a golden hook for a hand, the third has a golden hook...for a head.
• Running Gag: Maya is bad with directions. Her family sends her with a map, but it's quickly lost, and she has to rely on other people to guide her. Every time she tries to lead herself, she ends up going the wrong way.
• Screw Destiny: Zigzagged all over the place. The best explanation is the series' tagline "If it is to be, it's up to me".
• Semi-Divine: The very first episode reveals that Maya herself is this. She’s the result of a one-time fling between her father and Lady Micte. Zatz also reveals later on that while he’s the son of the God of Bats, his mother was human.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Lord Mictlan accuses Picchu of this, saying it will only take until the new moon to rebuild the Divine Gate. Subverted, however, as Picchu immediately points out that he still gave them time, which is what allows the heroes to regroup, bring all the tribes together, fulfill the actual prophecy and, in the end, causes the death of Lord Mictlan himself.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Yep, but done tastefully for a TV-Y7 rating. King Teca and a human-disguised Lady Micte spar passionately with each other. When they are completely alone, she removes her disguise. They move towards each other...and the screen abruptly changes to black with a text reading "9 Months Later" with Lady Micte holding the infant Maya.
• Sigh of Love: When describing Maya to his father, Zatz pauses and sighs lovingly when he describes her beauty.
• Shout-Out:
  • One shot from the trailer shows Maya and her jaguar making the iconic motorcycle pose from AKIRA.
  • The helmet visor that Maya wears with her armor in the trailer is confirmed to be based on the Gatchaman helmet visor.
  • While fighting, Hura shouts "God twin powers, activate!"
  • Acat tries to goad Maya into a battle by saying, "Oh, Princess Maya! Come out to pla-ay!"
  • The flashback where little Rico snaps and liberates his magic after everyone laughs at him seems a nod to a similar scene in Carrie (1976). The laughing faces even are overlaid with the boy's panicked face, like in the old movie.
  • The Bog Warrior that slaughtered Picchu village, better known as Xtabay, flat out tells the story of "The Scorpion and The Frog" on why she went against her word.
  • La Muerte, Xibalba, and the Candle Maker make a cameo in episode seven.
  • Bear Killah is clearly inspired by El Oso from Jorge Gutierrez's earlier work, possibly even an ancestor.
  • The original El Tigre also makes a quick appearance at the very beginning.
    • Even the roar that was used for El Tigre/Manny Rivera pops up at one point.
  • Bone calling Maya's stuff "LAME!" is a nice call-back to Frida, especially with them sharing a voice actress.
  • While not exact, Maya's eagle mask invokes the image of El Tigre's mask, notably the side feathers and the golden eagle on the forehead.
  • Maya calling Zatz a "misbegotten son of a leprous dog" is very similar to La Muerte's furious insult to Xibalba when she discovers he cheated on their bet.
• Stay in the Kitchen: A few of the spectators at the fighting match try to heckle Maya into leaving by claiming it's "no place for a girl." Maya immediately shuts this down by upper cutting her gigantic opponent, and everyone cheers for her. In a smaller vein, Queen Teca also tries to steer Maya solely into the position of a diplomat, even tearing Maya's wrestling mask in front of her, while being perfectly fine with her sons being warriors.
  • In the final battle, all of Teca's troops are women, but this is only because they weren't included in the earlier attack, where all the men were killed. The women are only fighting because they're the only ones left who can fight. When given the option of male, female, or mixed troops, Teca only chooses men.
• Tempting Fate: Rico has a habit of this, which is called out by the other characters. He does this twice in a row in the final battle.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: All newborn children shown in the series have this quality.
• Three-Point Landing: Maya pulls one off at the beginning of the sixth episode when she jumps off of Chiapa so she can fight a golem while Chiapa goes looking for her parents.
• Together in Death: Zatz's mother was killed when he was an infant and became a star watching over him. When his father is killed, a new star joins it in the sky, convincing him that his parents have been reunited. Confirmed in the finale, when they come back as ghosts.
  • Maya and Zatz becoming the Sun and Moon after their deaths is also this.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: The chapters introducing Rico, Chimi, and Picchu all start with a cold open flashback of what they consider their greatest failure. For all three of them, this resulted in the death of their parents or a Parental Substitute.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The Bog Warrior spared by Picchu. She slaughtered his village, killed his parents, spat on his face and called him a "fool" because he spared her life, using the excuse that she was a "warrior".
• Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Happens to King and Queen Teca as she gives birth to Jaguar (son) and Eagle (daughter) during the final battle. It also happens to Rico and Chimi, her giving birth to quadruplets that consists of two boys and two girls.
• Villain Reveals the Secret:
  • Zatz is the one to tell Maya that the woman who raised her is not her biological mother; she is the product of her father's affair with the Goddess of Death.
  • He also lets slip to the three warriors that Maya intends to lead them into the realm of the gods and challenge Lord Mictlan, rather than destroying the Divine Gate to prevent his invasion as she had told them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Bog warrior that slaughtered Picchu's village and killed his parents so cruelly never shows up again.
• What Were You Thinking?: During the flashback at the start of episode seven, this is the first thing Lord Mictlan asks Lady Micte upon discovering that she conceived a child with a human.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • During their fight in "the Prophecy," Acat uses her snake tattoos as weapons and launches them at Maya, who mutters “I hate snakes.” She says so again with more emphasis later on when Acat starts using her snake tattoos as arrows.
  • Rico mentions that he hates goats because goats ate his clothes when he was a young orphan boy. In episode six, he has to fight Chivo, God of Dark Magic, who is goat-based, much to his dislike.
• Wild Magic: The exact details behind Peasant Magic are rather vague, but its primary power is conjuring complex, highly destructive spells via incantations. Rico is gifted at Peasant Magic, but this makes him an outcast among the wizards of Luna Island. Even Chivo, the God of Dark Magic, seems to fear it.
• You No Take Candle: Most barbarians talk like this, something even their king lampshades but points out that doesn't make them stupid.
  • Maya tries talking to Picchu like this when recruiting him for the prophecy. He's...not impressed.
• Woman Scorned: Downplayed compared to many examples. Queen Teca eventually forgave her husband for his betrayal and is very much in love with him, but she does admit to stabbing him when she found out. She also doesn't hold a grudge against Lady Micte, and not just because she's a goddess.
• X-Ray of Pain: At a few points in the series, there are a some x-ray shots of Maya injuring or dislocating her limbs while fighting enemies.

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