Western Animation / Superbook (2011)

Joy, Gizmo and Chris, with Superbook's virtual-book form. Not pictured: Superbook's computer-tablet form.

It's the Word for all time, the Word for all the world;

The Story That's Forever True!

It's the Word that shines, with light from above

That God in His Love gives to you!

So come take a ride, there are wonders to see;

Adventures inside, for you and for me!

His Word forever alive;

Superbook!

Hosanna, sing hosanna,

The Word—Superbook!

Hosanna, sing hosanna,

The Word—Superbook!

— Opening credits lyrics (full version)

Superbook is a 2011 computer-animated reboot of the 1981 Japanese-American animation series of the same name, produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network (which also developed the original series alongside TV Tokyo).

This series follows the adventures of Chris Quantum and his best friend Joy Pepper, along with their robotic companion Gizmo, as they experience various Bible stories and meet the characters therein by way of the eponymous Superbook (here a hand-held electronic device instead of a physical book like the original), which takes them back in time to the Biblical eras in order to teach them important lessons that relate to problems they are facing in the modern day. Like its predecessor series, this show stays largely faithful to the original Bible stories, although it doesn't shy away from some of the stories' darker and more violent aspects (it's not afraid to show shepherd boy David killing a lion or the scars from Jesus' beatings prior to the crucifixion, for instance) even as it keeps the material appropriate for children.

As noted on the predecessor series' page, the remake was the first animated series to air on Freeform since 2005 (that network also aired the original show in the 1980s), although it's most often broadcast on The 700 Club telethons and simultaneously uploaded online by the official YouTube channel. This series has also been shown in Japan as of 2018, bringing the franchise full circle.

See also: the character page, the Fridge page, and the Wild Mass Guessing page.

The Superbook reboot series contains examples of:

#-C

• 20 Minutes into the Future: In the modern world where the kids live, technology is so advanced that robots like Gizmo and inventions like rocket-boots don't cause anyone to bat an eye and space exploration is commonplace enough for an astronaut training day-camp to be a casual affair, but the setting is otherwise indistinguishable from the real world. The exact year is conflictingly dated by the show to be anywhere from the 22nd century to the 30th century depending on the episode.
• Abridged for Children: The series tends not to shy away from the more dark and violent aspects of the Bible stories it teaches, but some episodes still Bowdlerize Biblical scenes containing sexual references or violence that might be a tad too intense to be broadcast to young kids:
  • "Rahab and the Walls of Jericho" shows Rahab being shunned by her neighbors but doesn't explain why (the Bible explicitly states that she's a prostitute, which is a line of work society tends to look down upon).
  • Also, the Battle of Jericho from the aforementioned episode is the only segment of the Conquest of the Promised Land this incarnation of the show depicts, probably because the ludicrous level of genocide posited by the whole saga might be a little too much to justify to a younger audience.
  • "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal" doesn't show the titular prophets cutting themselves during their noisy worship rites on Mount Carmel like they did in the source material (though they are shown holding swords while they're dancing around).^note In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, right around the point when the priests stop chanting, you can see one priest holding a knife and sporting what appear to be knife-wounds on his arms, but the knife has no blood on it and the wounds look faint enough to be almost undetectable without a close examination—likely to further obscure what the priests would have been doing to themselves and to keep young viewers from replicating the action.
  • "The Road to Damascus" shows a flashback of Stephen being surrounded by an angry mob and hit with a few rocks as they start to stone him before cutting away from the rest of the execution. The later episode "Love Your Enemies" does depict the stoning in full, but Stephen's only injuries are minor bruises.
  • "Joseph and Pharaoh's Dream" has Joseph tell the kids that he wound up in prison for something he did not do, but he doesn't go into detail about what that something was (namely, being accused of raping Potiphar's wife as retaliation on her part for his refusing her advances).
• Adaptation Expansion: Quite a bit across episodes. Some examples:
  • The Bible generally portrays the rebellion in Heaven in only one short statement in Revelation 12:7-8: "And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon (Lucifer); and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not." In "In The Beginning," we get to see a short but action-packed portrayal of that battle, with Lucifer and Michael going for each other in the clash before Michael personally throws Lucifer out of Heaven (while quoting Isaiah 14:12-15 for good measure).
  Michael: How you have fallen from Heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you, who weakened the nations. Yet now you are brought down to the lowest depths of the pit.
  • In the Bible, the battle between David and Goliath is depicted as a Curb-Stomp Battle in David's favor when he knocks Goliath out with a stone to the head (and then cuts off the giant's head with his own sword). Here, in the episode "A Giant Adventure," the confrontation is drawn out a little with David having to dodge Goliath's attacks prior to slinging the stone. Additionally, the episode explicitly shows David's older brother Eliab as being ready to challenge the Philistines, only to immediately draw back when Goliath first appears (in the source material, while Eliab is part of the Israelite army, he's not specifically pointed out except for when he scolds David for being at the battlefield).
  • The first half of "Jesus Feeds the Hungry," which is about Jesus's miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana, tells the story from the viewpoint of the servants, who the kids and Gizmo are working with in the kitchen area (in the source material, the only time we hear about the servants is when Jesus gives them instructions for the miracle to happen). Prior to the discovery of the wine having run out, Chris learns about the local wedding culture from the son of the wedding's steward, while the steward and Gizmo discuss how to maximize the quality of the food while using smaller portion sizes per guest.
  • "Doubting Thomas" includes the segment where the resurrected Jesus meets the two disciples along the roadway to Emmaus, although they don't recognize Him at first. The original scripture, in Luke 24:16, says that the disciples' eyes were "holden" so that they couldn't recognize Him, implying that their spiritual perception wasn't quite open just yet. In this episode, however, to better sell the idea that they—who should have immediately recognized their own Master—didn't know who He was, Jesus is presented as coming with a shawl over his head (not unlike what many Jewish men of that time would wear in public) and with the sun shining right behind him so that the men, looking directly at Him from that angle, can't make out His face clearly (it probably helps that they're wrestling with doubt and confusion over the rumors that are swirling about why His body isn't in the tomb, meaning their emotional state wouldn't have been at its best for them to be clear-headed enough to perceive His identity).
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In general, the series follows the common Protestant Christian interpretation of the figure of Devil as a Composite Character of the fallen angel Lucifer and the figure identified as Hassatan (literally "The Accuser") in the Hebrew Bible and briefly referenced in the later Synoptic Gospels. Although the show depicts him as a petulant nemesis of God wanting to ruin people's lives purely For the Evulz (as he does to the eponymous "Job" and attempts to do to Jesus in "Jesus in the Wilderness"), in actual scripture, Hassatan is just an official of the Heavenly Court who is formally tasked by God to carry out tests of loyalty upon His followers and eventually His own son, and does not act out of any personal ill will or have anything to do with Hell.
    • Lucifer also does not have any association in the Bible with either the Serpent of Eden or Satan; the former stems from an early mistranslation of the serpent in Revelation 12:7 as referring to the serpent in the Garden rather than the beast Leviathan, while the latter is a Literal-Minded interpretation of the metaphor of the "morning star" (Venus) falling from the sky in Isaiah 14:12 due to "Lucifer" being an old Latin name for the celestial object.
    • Bizarrely, in "He Is Risen!", Satan appears to taunt Jesus on the cross, which is not depicted in any scripture, canon or otherwise.
• All-CGI Cartoon: In contrast to the 1981 series.
• All of the Other Reindeer: "Zacchaeus" showcases just how hated the titular character is by his own countrymen due to his profession as a tax-collector for Rome, and a conniving one at that, to the point that they openly mock and scorn him and, in one case, chase him off a property with a pitchfork. He's therefore honestly grateful when the kids rescue him from the pitchfork-wielder and actually want to know him better (of course, that being before Jesus befriends him like in the source material).
  Zacchaeus: It is nice having new...friends.
• All-Powerful Bystander: The issue of why God doesn't just fix Christians' problems, or indeed keep Christians from experiencing problems, is explored in "Paul Keeps the Faith," where Joy's faith is shaken after her mother falls ill. The ensuing Superbook trip has her and the others meeting Paul while he's in a Roman prison, at the time of Nero's persecution of Christians, and the ensuing conversation has Paul inform Joy that, while Jesus never promised that believers would be free from suffering, nevertheless the worst situations can be turned for God's glory.
  Joy: Why does any Christian have to suffer at all when God can do miracles?
  Paul: Christ never promised that we would not suffer in this world, Joy. In fact, He said we surely would. His promise was that He has overcome the world.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Pretty much any other death gets more onscreen consideration than the killing of everyone in the entire world by God save for Noah, his family, and the creatures aboard the Ark in "Noah and the Ark". Chris does at one point question Noah if every single person truly deserves to die like this (to which Noah justifies it by saying that God is not angry but grief-stricken by humanity turning to sin and that only he still follows Him), but the show still completely glosses over it otherwise.
• Anachronic Order:
  • While "In the Beginning" is officially the first episode of this series, it was first aired in September 2011, five months after "Let My People Go," the fourth episode, which was the first one aired. There's also an odd example with the latter episode, as in that one Chris and Joy recount having met David and Goliath in a prior adventure—but that doesn't happen until "A Giant Adventure," two episodes later.
  • There's also a weird in-universe example in that, while the episodes themselves are (for the most part) listed in their proper order and the modern-era plots play out likewise, the Bible stories are not showcased chronologically past the first episode. For instance, the Season Two episode "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal" has the kids meeting Elijah around the time he's preparing to have his famous showdown on Mount Carmel, while the Season Four episode "Elijah and the Widow" has them meeting him when he's being fed by ravens at the brook Cherith shortly after he pronounces the drought on Israel, which takes place long before the Mount Carmel showdown. Likewise, the Season One episode "Miracles of Jesus" has them meeting Jesus when He's performing healing miracles, casting out demons, and stopping the storm on the Sea of Galilee, but the Season Four episode "Jesus Feeds the Hungry" has them meeting Him at the wedding of Cana, where His first recorded miracle (turning water into wine) chronologically takes place.
• Appeal to Familial Wisdom: In "The Fiery Furnace," recurring minor character Todd provides a cheat-sheet for a test the kids are going to be taking that day (for a fee, of course), but all the answers turn out to be wrong. When the other kids confront him, he tries to invoke this trope by saying he got the answers from his brother, who he swears assured him they were right. As it happens, this test is a different version from the one his brother had previously taken, so of course the answers are going to be different.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: The Gizmo's Bible Byte segments, which accompany each episode on the official YouTube channel and mobile app. They feature Gizmo reading various Bible verses connected to the episode in question directly to the viewer and giving his (or rather, CBN's) interpretation of them.
• Archangel Gabriel: He shows up in a few episodes to act in his familiar role as a messenger to certain Bible characters. Specifically, he appears in "The Birth of Jesus" to inform the shepherds of Christ's birth and location, and in "The Birth of John the Baptist" to tell Zechariah and Mary about their respective children who will soon be born (and he also pronounces temporary loss of speech on Zechariah for his unbelief).
• Archangel Michael: He's the very first Biblical character the kids meet in the series' first episode, and he makes a few appearances in different episodes thereafter.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • In "A Giant Adventure," when Eliab chastises David for coming onto the battlefield, David puts him to shame with two of these back-to-back, fueled by indignation that the Israelite soldiers are fleeing after Goliath has just insulted them and the God of Heaven.
  David: Doesn't the army know why they're here? Is there not a cause?
  • In "King Solomon," Chris is fretting about how he's going to figure out the identity of whoever stole his father's prize invention from its display at their science fair back home. When he confides his worry about catching the thief to Solomon, the king in turn tells of how he himself worried about his capability to lead Israel when he'd just turned king. Then he advises Chris that if he asks God sincerely for wisdom, it will be granted to him...and then Solomon caps it off with one question that Chris goes on to contemplate:
  Solomon: With all your heart, you must trust the Lord, and not your own judgment. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. Is your trust in God? Or is it in Chris?
  • In "Nicodemus," Jesus asks one such question of the scribes and Pharisees to challenge their Rules Lawyer approach to keeping the Sabbath, moments after he's healed a man with swollen legs.
  Jesus: If your son or ox falls into a well, wouldn't you pull him out right away, even on the Sabbath?
• Artistic License – Music: As seen in his image on the Characters page, Chris's guitar is reminiscent of a superstrat, but it seems to lack any visible pickups, the bridge has no saddles with which to grip the strings, and the tremolo arm is fixed directly inside the body rather than on the bridge (which makes it completely useless as a tremolo). The same holds true for Todd's guitar, which is of a similar design.
• As the Good Book Says...: Considering that this series is intended to teach kids about various Bible stories and relay Aesops derived from them, this trope is basically omnipresent. Archangel Michael is a very frequent quoter of scripture in particular, but he's far from the only one.
  • This is also the entire point of the supplementary Gizmo's Bible Byte segments.
• Ascended Extra: Many of the characters the kids interact with and experience the Bible stories alongside in different episodes are characters who, in the original scripture, were extremely minor players in the larger narrative. One prominent example is Rhoda, the young woman who heard Peter knocking at the believers' door after he was delivered from prison; in "Peter's Escape," she's the one who interacts at length with the kids and encourages Joy to put her trust in God.
• Author Tract: As the creation of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, the series tends to reflect the specific scriptural interpretations made by right-wing Evangelical Christianity, such as the Jews supposedly bearing collective guilt for Jesus's death ("He Is Risen!", "Nicodemus", and several other episodes set in the New Testament) and being part of the end times prophecy ("Revelation"), the post-Reformation Composite Character version of Hassatan/Satan and Lucifer (pretty much every depiction of Satan in the show), and premillennial dispensationalism after a pre-tribulation rapture ("Revelation") among many others. However, the series tends to steer away from stating these teachings in an expressly political way, instead applying more broad Biblically-derived Aesops to the kids' modern day lives that still echo the ideology like obedience to authority (especially God's), the supremacy of Christianity and the Christian God over all other spiritual beliefs, and the importance of spreading the Word of God to others so they can be saved.
• Badass Israeli: There are several examples, but the best one has to be David in "A Giant Adventure." The opening scene shows him killing a lion to protect one of his lambs (bear in mind that David is just a young boy at the time).
  David: (without a hint of fear) Be brave. He has to go through me first.
• Bible Times: This is, of course, the main setting of nearly every episode. Because of the time period, the kids have to be careful not to mention anything too anachronistic, but this seems to be a fast and loose rule considering that they rarely make any attempt to disguise Gizmo's existence as a literal artificially intelligent robot or avoid intervening in pivotal events.
• Big Damn Heroes: In "Revelation," Satan's army is surrounding and about to kill the kids—then a trumpet blows from Heaven, and out comes Jesus leading a whole army of angels to destroy Satan.
• Big "NO!": Satan lets out one in "Revelation" when his forces are decimated by the arriving armies of Heaven. Then in "Joshua and Caleb," Chris lets out a dismayed one of these when the rebellious Israelites prepare to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb (though fortunately God intervenes before the stones can fly).
• Bird-Poop Gag: In "Noah and the Ark," while helping to guide the animals into the ark, Gizmo gets pooped on by a random unseen bird overhead. He uses his face-visor's built-in windshield wiper to wipe the mess away, only to then step in another pile of feces.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In "John the Baptist," despite his best efforts, Chris fails to prevent the titular character's death by beheading at the order of King Herod. However, Chris has learned the important lesson of doing the right thing even when it's unpopular, and Jesus openly declares John the Baptist to be the greatest of all Israel's prophets.
  • In "Jeremiah," even though Jeremiah's tried to warn the people of Judah about their oncoming punishment for their sins, they refuse to listen to him and suffer the penalty of being taken into Babylonian captivity for it. Despite that, Nebuchadnezzar orders that Jeremiah, who's been in custody since Babylon's takeover of Jerusalem, should be set free and allowed to stay with his friend Gedaliah, among their own people.^note Though this may be a lot more bitter than sweet if you know that the episode ends Jeremiah's story on a Happily Ever Before note, as Gedaliah will later be slain by Israelite rebels who denounce him as a national traitor for submitting to Babylon's authority.
  • In "Paul and Barnabas," the titular friends' disagreement over whether to allow the young apostle John Mark to join them on a mission trip after he'd previously chickened out leads to them parting ways, and there's no indication they ever resolve their differences in person. On the other hand, Paul, who was against taking Mark with them, later gains enough confidence in the younger man to take him along as an assistant.
  • In "Love Your Enemies," the kids watch helpessly, and then turn away bitterly, as Stephen is led away to be stoned to death. On the other hand, Chris has learned from Stephen's example that he should be willing to pray for his enemies and wish them well instead of harboring vengeance against them.
• Black Vikings: Inverted in the series’ depiction of Bible Times; while the real-life ancient Levant was extremely ethnically diverse, especially during the Roman period of the New Testament where it was a massive trade nexus, nearly every Biblical character in the show is depicted with fair skin and hair (a handful like the Philistines do have more realistic light tan complexions, but they’re still almost always relegated to unnamed background roles). Jesus in particular is depicted as being completely white by modern standards, even featuring red hair in some episodes, despite extensive evidence in real life that the historical Jesus would’ve had olive skin and black hair.
• Bland-Name Product: Valleyview has a shopping center known as Wowmart.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In "Paul and Barnabas," after the two eponymous friends have their quarrel over whether to let the young John Mark join them on their missionary trip (Barnabas wants to take Mark along to give him experience and because he can be helpful to them, but Paul won't even entertain the idea because Mark had gotten fearful and left them during a previous trip) and end up parting ways over it, Chris and Joy come to this conclusion.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Heroes of the Bible" has Gizmo narrating the events of the episode directly to the viewer in a How We Got Here manner. There are also occasional moments across episodes where Superbook narrates segments of Bible stories directly to the viewer.
• Camping Episode: The modern-day plot of "The Ten Commandments" starts with the Quantums, Joy and Gizmo out on a camping trip in the great outdoors at a local woodland park. However, Chris soon starts viewing it as a Horrible Camping Trip because, instead of roughing it in the woods and foraging for their own food like he'd hoped they would do, the group has access to ready-made food and air-conditioned tents. Especially galling to him is that they have to abide by the rules of the park, when he was hoping they could do without rules. The inevitable Superbook trip has him, Joy and Gizmo meeting Moses and the Israelites around the time they're in the wilderness (a technical camping trip in itself, seeing as they're in tents) and just reaching Mount Sinai, where the titular Ten Commandments will soon be given and the importance of following God's rules will soon be established.
• Canon Foreigner: This series pulls this trope off in an interesting way that doesn't outright contradict the chapter-and-verse of the Bible itself. In some episodes, the kids get to interact with characters who weren't specifically present in the source material, but are actually placeholders for larger groups of persons who would conceivably have been around at the time the given episode is set. For example, in "Jesus Feeds the Hungry," they meet Micah, the wedding steward's son, and are recruited to help out in the kitchen where they and the other servants get to see the water-to-wine miracle from a different perspective than what we normally get to see for this particular story. While the Bible doesn't state that the wedding steward had a son, Micah's inclusion in this episode doesn't contradict the events of the miracle as outlined in the scriptures (which only briefly mentions the servants when Jesus asks them to fill the water-jars and present the transformed beverage to the steward). For another example, "The Prodigal Son" has the kids meet another boy, also named Micah, who's one of the many young boys who would have tended sheep for their families in Bible times and who Jesus uses to help illustrate His parable of the lost sheep.
• Changed My Jumper: In most episodes, when the kids are taken back in time, their modern-day clothes remain the same, whether the clothing is their school uniforms or casual-wear, and no Bible character ever questions it (in contrast to a few wondering what Gizmo's supposed to be, which even then never lasts long). Only on a handful of occasions does Superbook change their clothes to more period-appropriate wear during the initial time-warp.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Comes up a few times as a warning in some of the modern-day plots of some episodes, particularly in "The Fiery Furnace" and "Joshua and Caleb." In the former, Chris is tempted to use a test cheat-sheet provided by Todd, though Joy warns him that using it will put him in a spot that she, his parents and the teacher won't be able to help him out of; and in the latter, Chris is pressured by some of the older boys on the soccer team to hide the jersey and cleats of their opponents' best player so the other team will be crippled, although Chris himself is torn about the fact that doing so would be cheating. Respectively, Todd gets found out because the test-questions don't match any of the answers on the cheat-sheet, while the cheaters on the soccer team—including the coach's son—get benched for the game.
• Christianity is Catholic: Averted in this series; the Christianity it teaches is definitely Protestant, although the specific denomination showcased in-universe isn't outright identified by name. (The Christian Broadcasting Network, which is responsible for both this series and its predecessor, promotes conservative evangelical Christianity.)
• Christmas Episode: "The First Christmas" in Season One, "The Birth of John the Baptist" in Season Three, "Jesus Heals the Blind" in Season Four, and "The Promise of a Child" in Season Five. While the modern-day plots of all four episodes are set around Christmas, the first one stays true to the Biblical narrative by not having any of the Bible characters mention anything to do with the festive season^note Incidentally, Bible scholars note that Jesus would actually have been born around April, not December when Christmas is traditionally celebrated while the Bible-era stories of the next two are not generally identified with Christmas at all, and the last one includes a Clip Show of the kids' adventures in previous episodes.
• Church of Saint Genericus: The local church in Valleyview is a large ornate structure with stained-glass windows, much like what you'd see in Catholic, Anglican, or other similar churches. But as mentioned under the aversion of Christianity is Catholic above, the church's specific denomination isn't outright identified beyond being Protestant.
• Clip Show: "The Promise of a Child" and "Rescued!" see Superbook taking the trio (and in the latter episode, a guest character) back to various locations where they've gone in past episodes and seasons, even seeing the younger versions of themselves from those past events; however, in both cases, they're prevented from interacting with anyone due to an invisible barrier that renders them unseen and also mutes any noise they try to make. Throughout the two episodes, except for the newer footage with the present-day versions of the protagonists, we're treated to basically a rehash of selected clips from those past episodes which Superbook is using to show the kids, respectively, how God's promise to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was eventually fulfilled through Jesus and how God will protect His faithful people in times of great danger.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Heavenly angels always wear white-colored robes or white armor with yellow linings (Michael being the prominent example), while fallen angels wear black armor with red linings.
• Continuity Nod: Later episodes occasionally acknowledge the kids' previous Bible excursions.
  • In "Peter and Cornelius," while Peter is witnessing to Cornelius's household about the actions of Jesus, many of which were shown in previous episodes and seasons, Chris remarks that he, Joy and Gizmo likewise witnessed those same events via Superbook.
  • "Paul and Silas" has the trio meeting up with Paul in Philippi, with Gizmo recalling that they'd previously met him in Damascus and on a sea-trip that had him shipwrecked on Malta, which respectively happened in "The Road to Damascus" and "Paul and the Shipwreck."
  • "Jesus—Friend of Sinners" has Chris and Gizmo being teleported by Superbook just outside the dining hall where Jesus has just healed the sickly man shown at the beginning of "Nicodemus." While the healing miracle of the latter episode has already been shown in detail, the former episode allows us to see the latter half of the dining conversation from the boys' viewpoint.
• Crapsack World: "Noah and the Ark" gives an up-close look of just how bad the world has supposedly gotten by the time Noah's gotten around to building the vessel at God's instructions. When the episode starts, Superbook has already dropped Chris, Joy and Gizmo into a small unnamed town where people are perpetrating violence against each other, horsemen are rampaging through the streets, men are forcibly stealing other men's wives and knocking down the husbands if they try to resist, and robberies are going on openly and with wild abandon. Unfortunately for the protagonists, the violence also includes two different instances of people chasing after them to kill them.

D-F

• David Versus Goliath: But of course. As depicted in "A Giant Adventure," the trope-naming confrontation is expanded into an actual fight in lieu of the Curb-Stomp Battle depicted in the Bible, as David has to dodge Goliath's weapon-throws and strikes before he can use his sling.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • A classic example of this trope in "John the Baptist" sees Herodias ordering John's beheading after he speaks out against her marriage.
  • In "The Ten Commandments", Moses grinds the Golden Calf the Israelites constructed during his absence into cement and forces them all to drink it just for losing their faith after Moses completely abandons them in the desert for 40 days. God's initial decision to literally kill every single Israelite for this earlier in the episode before Moses pleads for them to be spared is probably an even more flagrant example.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In "Joseph and Pharaoh's Dream," Superbook transports the trio right inside a prison cell. Then, as they're getting their bearings together, a large prisoner comes out of the shadows right behind them and places his hands on the kids' shoulders, eyeing them rather disturbingly. Luckily, Joseph shows up and declares the trio as his new assistants before anything else can take place.
• Dream Intro: "Samuel and the Call of God" starts with Chris having a nightmare about a tentacled alien-monster attacking him and minor recurring character Jason; Joy suggests that the dream could be an indicator that Chris needs to seek out Jason and be a good influence to him, especially since Pearce has been trying to recruit Jason into the Skateboard Maniacs. Then there's "Nebuchadnezzar's Dream," which shows part of Nebuchadnezzar's famous dream where the multi-metal statue has just been destroyed.
• Easy Evangelism:
  • Zig-Zagged with Chris and Joy themselves, as while they clearly believe and have adventures with Superbook throughout the first four seasons (and are implied to have had at least one previous adventure before the first episode), it isn't until Season Five that they decide to get involved in their church's youth group and then, from there, to get baptized.
  • Played straight with Jia Wei, who goes on one Superbook trip with the main characters and then, during a subsequent episode, is shown to have gotten baptized and is very actively involved in church.
  • Also with Ellie, a minor character and friend of the kids who has doubts at first but is completely convinced to be baptized by the end of the episode after Superbook takes her on a journey with the kids in "Baptized!".
  • Averted with one-shot character Commander Duke Conrad, a famous space explorer who appears in the two-parter episode "Paul and the Unknown God." Even after Chris makes a presentation with the main point that science and religious faith don't have to be mutually exclusive, Conrad—a Hollywood Atheist—still isn't convinced. Though the second-parter's final shot shows him sitting alone and contemplating Chris's presentation and its implications; whether he'll ultimately change his worldview is left ambiguous.
• Empathic Environment: In "In the Beginning," the moment Adam and Eve take a bite of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the sky gets dark and stormy with lightning flashing, when moments earlier it had been bright and calm.
• Evil Debt Collector: The debt collectors are shown to be despised by the people of Judea for being stooges of the Roman Empire eager to make money for themselves as the New Testament depicts, and both the eponymous character of "Zacchaeus" and Matthew in "The Sermon on the Mount" are reviled as a result.
• Fallen Angel: "In The Beginning" shows how Lucifer and the angels who sided with him became this, prior to the corruption of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Lucifer himself suffers a literal fall courtesy of Michael, during their clash in Heaven.
• Fantasy Sequence:
  • In "The Good Samaritan," after hearing Jesus tell the titular parable, Gizmo runs to relate it to Chris and Joy (who were away running errands with some of the disciples). Unfortunately, because Gizmo's a fan of a superhero-robot movie back home, he intersperses the story with his own imagination of himself as a heroic fighter-bot beating up the robbers in the parable. Luckily for Chris and Joy, Gizmo recorded video footage of Jesus telling the actual story—but much to the kids' frustration, Gizmo stopped the recording right before Jesus could ask the question of which of the three passersby was neighbor to the robbery victim. Happily, Jesus Himself comes up at that moment to relay the rest to them.
  • Apparently, Gizmo has a habit of inserting himself into and then embellishing his retellings of Jesus's parables with his own ideas of what should happen, as he's at it again in "Jesus—Friend of Sinners." This time, recounting the parable of the wedding feast that the guests made excuses not to come to, Gizmo inserts himself as the servant sent out to issue the invitations. When he talks about the guest whose excuse was having to look at a newly purchased field, Gizmo starts saying how he tried to sway the guest with promises of world-famous cuisine cooked by the robot—only for Chris to immediately cut in and remind Gizmo that he's NOT in the parable.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Joy pulls this on Chris in "Heroes of the Bible," while calling him out on his unwillingness to lead a Bible study meeting at Pastor Aaron's request.
  Joy: Christopher J. Quantum, I am not the one who Pastor Aaron wants to do it—it's you.

G-I

• Garden-Hose Squirt Surprise: During their water-war at the beginning of "Jacob and Esau," Chris attempts to pull this on Joy by clamping the hose shut, in an effort to cut off Joy's liquid supply for her water-balloons. The hose swells to a comically huge size by the time Chris finally remembers to unclamp it...and poor Gizmo gets drenched as a result.
• A God Am I: When the kids happen upon Emperor Nero in "Paul Keeps the Faith," he implies this in his response to Joy's question of what the Christians have done to warrant the burning of the city of Rome.
  Nero: They are heretics, of course! They refuse to worship me! Do you know they believe a crucified criminal is their god? That he rose from the dead? Insanity!
• God Is Good: A recurring message in the series; the kids (and thus the target audience) are taught to always trust God no matter what.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Herodias in "John the Baptist" is one evil woman who plays this straight with her manipulating Herod into ordering the titular prophet's death by beheading as revenge for his speaking out against their marriage.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Angels of God who're dressed for combat wear white armor with gold lining and gold arm-bracers and leggings. Michael is the first and most recurring example shown in-series.
• Good Parents: Despite being disciplinarian at times, the series depicts Professor and Mrs. Quantum as loving Chris at heart and caring benevolently for him. Likewise with Joy's parents; although they don't show up as often, they clearly care about Joy (and she in turn loves them dearly).
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Heavenly angels in this series have white feathered wings, while demons have red bat-like wings. Prior to becoming demons, the fallen angels also have white feathered wings, but they're still easily told apart from the loyal angels by their black armor.
• Grave Robbing: In the episode "Doubting Thomas", when the Roman soldiers report to the Jewish leaders about how an angel opened Jesus's tomb, the leaders pay them off to say that the disciples stole the body while the soldiers were sleeping. Chris and Gizmo discover that the fake story has been spreading in the area and been accepted as fact, and Chris get hauled into custody when he insists that Jesus really did rise from the dead (though Gizmo quickly gets him out of the soldiers' hands).
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: In "Rahab and the Walls of Jericho", literally every single inhabitant of Jericho excluding Rahab (who helped the Israelite army) and her family is exterminated by Joshua and the Israelites with the kids' and Gizmo's help without so much as a Hand Wave of justification. And to think this was the portion of the Canaanite Conquest the show was most comfortable depicting...
• Heaven Versus Hell: Naturally, this being a show about Bible stories and all. The kids actually get to see the two sides duke it out, first in "In the Beginning," where the rebellion in Heaven breaks out, and again in "Revelation," where the battle of Armageddon takes place.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • In "Revelation," Chris suffers one when he triggers the accident that burns down his family's home and can only stand there with a shell-shocked expression, to the point that Gizmo has to physically pick him up and haul him away.
  • Chris, Joy and Gizmo all share a BSOD at the end of "John the Baptist," when their attempt to save the titular prophet from his execution fails due to them not making it to him in time, and then when they themselves are whisked back home by Superbook seconds afterward.
  • Joy suffers one at the beginning of "Paul and the Shipwreck." She, Gizmo and the Quantums are part of a disaster-relief expedition, but while she honestly did want to help the needy residents from the outset, it turns out she wasn't prepared for the difficulty of the whole thing—having to juggle multiple calls for assistance coming in at the same time, hefting heavy equipment, and dealing with muddy conditions and mosquitoes overwhelms her to the point that she drops to her knees and breaks down in tears.
  • Two of these happen in "Peter's Denial." First, Joy gets hit with one after Chris casually and callously pretends not to know her in order to be able to fit in with a group of cool kids; she winds up fleeing and then standing outside weeping uncontrollably. Second, as in the source material, Peter stumbles out of the judgment hall and falls to his knees, weeping bitterly, after realizing he'd just denied Jesus three times, exactly as Jesus had earlier warned him would happen.
  • "Job" begins with Chris in the midst of one as he grieves for his recently-deceased grandfather; the loss is made worse in that it's only the most recent calamity he's suffered that week in addition to being robbed of money he was saving, having a tree crash through his roof-window and break his arm, and losing the class's pet iguana when he was tasked to care for it. When Joy comes to see him, Chris is so distraught that he's about to give up on doing good ever again, since all these bad things have happened to him in spite of his trying to do good.
  • Joy falls into one in "Paul Keeps the Faith" after learning that her mother's been hospitalized after collapsing sometime earlier.
• Hiding Behind Religion: As He does in the Bible, Jesus calls out the spiritual leaders of Judea for this. The show depicts the Jewish officials conspiring to have Him killed in response.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Any time the kids attempt to interfere in any of the bad events of an adventure, something ends up preventing them from doing so. For example, in "Roar!", Joy tries to reach King Darius to prevent Daniel from being sent to the lions, only to arrive too late (she still manages to talk to Darius afterward, prior to him spending the night in fasting).
• Hollywood Atheist: Commander Duke Conrad, the secondary antagonist of the two-part episode "Paul and the Unknown God". Chris and Joy are attending a space camp helmed by Conrad, who sees Chris recite a prayer during a training exercise based on one of his past missions and verbally lambasts him at great length for it.
• Holy Backlight: Whenever angels appear to mortals, they're accompanied by bright gleams of light to signify their heavenly origin, and Jesus also has this kind of light around His person following His resurrection. Heaven itself is shown glowing with majestic light in "In the Beginning," as Michael shows it to the kids to indicate exactly where they are (though they're viewing it from atop a rock-face a fair distance away from the Pearly Gates), and even more so in "Revelation," following the final triumph of good over evil as recorded by John the Revelator.
• Illegal Religion: In those episodes where the Bible adventures focus on the apostles, particularly Paul, it's shown that the then-new Christian religion isn't looked upon favorably by those in power. In "Paul and Silas," after Paul frees the fortune-telling girl from the evil spirit that provides her powers, her masters drag him and Silas before the local authorities and declare outright that the two men promote a religion that it's not lawful for the locals to adhere to. Paul and Silas are then beaten and thrown into jail (providentially enough, the same cell where the kids have already been thrown for speaking out in the apostles' defense).
• In Medias Res:
  • "Noah and the Ark" starts with Chris, Joy and Gizmo already transported back in time and running for their lives as a man on horseback chases them through a town filled with violence and chaos. The trio manages to find a hiding place where they can catch their breath, at which point the story shifts into a flashback, not so much to explain how they got there—that would be Superbook's doing—but rather why they were sent.
  • "The Sermon on the Mount" starts with the kids listening to the tail-end of the titular sermon, following which they immediately try to apply its principles once they get back home. Unfortunately, it...doesn't quite go as easily as they expect, necessitating Superbook to take them back to Bible times to hear the sermon again so they can better understand it.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: The modern-day plot of "Elisha and the Syrians" starts with a video of Joy eating an entire birthday cake being posted online, but with digital editing done to make the cake slices appear like other whole foods (one slice is edited to look like an entire turkey, for instance), and at the time Joy sees the video, it's already gotten over 17,000 downloads. Chris and Gizmo struggle and fail to keep from laughing when they see it, but Joy's embarrassed and outraged.
• Internal Reveal: While the kids generally make a point of not mentioning Superbook or the fact that they're time-travelers to anyone else in Bible times or the modern world, there have been a couple of occasions where others have been made aware of the whole situation. In "Revelation," Chris tells a disguised Satan that Superbook's the one that brought him to their location (and considering Satan's silent-but-aggravated reaction, he likely knows about Superbook already), while Joy and Gizmo explain Superbook to John the Revelator (who says it sounds similar to the working of the Spirit of God). Superbook has also revealed itself to six modern-day characters on separate occasions by pulling them into the adventure along with the kids, either so the guest character can learn a lesson along with the protagonists or so that either Chris or Joy can learn a lesson that's directly related to the guest character. Of those six, one is an infant so the secret's in no danger of getting blabbed, another gets Laser-Guided Amnesia at the end of the episode, and the others become secret keepers. In something of an inversion, Michael the Archangel appears to already know the kids' true nature, given how he greets them during their first meeting by assuring them they don't need to be afraid as no harm will come to them there in Heaven. And aside from all that, the series hints quite often that Jesus is a Secret Secret-Keeper who simply keeps mum about the whole time-traveling thing.
• Ironic Echo: Oftentimes in a given episode, one of the kids will say something about themselves or the conflict they face that will later be repeated by a Bible character in a different context, which in turn will help Chris and/or Joy to determine how they'll resolve the conflict when they get back home. For just one example, in "For Such a Time as This," Joy is hesitant to call out the Girls' Leadership club president's bias against letting a wheelchair-bound girl join the club, saying, "I'm not that brave." In the ensuing adventure, she meets Queen Esther, who has to decide whether to speak to King Xerxes about Haman's actions, but Esther is hesitant to go to the king without having been called first (which is against the Persian empire's law), and the queen admits, "I am not that brave." That moment is the first of several which help Joy to make her decision about how to handle the club president once she returns home.

J-L

• Jerkass Ball: Chris and Joy have both held the ball across different episodes; which one will hold it in a given episode depends on which one is facing the episode's moral conundrum. In "Zacchaeus," for example, Joy behaves quite angrily toward Chris because he forgot to come and assist her with work at a children's home, to the point of refusing to forgive him even when he admits to having honestly forgotten about it (and herself forgetting that she's done stuff that needed his forgiveness before).
• Judgment of Solomon: The trope-naming incident, where the two women come for Solomon to determine which of them is the infant's real mother, is depicted in the episode "King Solomon." While witnessing the scene, Gizmo determines that a simple DNA analysis could solve the problem easily, and covertly gets DNA samples from the two women and the baby, but conveniently, the analysis would take Gizmo a full 8 weeks.
• Karmic Death: In the Bible, Darius orders the men who set up Daniel to be thrown into the lions' den to be thrown in there themselves after Daniel comes out alive. In "Roar!", while the episode doesn't show the men being thrown in (and Superbook takes the kids back home before it's carried out), Darius makes a menacing declaration that implies this is exactly what's going to happen.
  Darius: As for you...you will discover exactly how mighty the lions' roar can be.
• Kill It with Fire: As in the original Bible text, the disciple James in "The Good Samaritan" wants to rain down fire from heaven to scorch the Samaritan village that has refused hospitality to Jesus, but of course Jesus rebukes him for it. On the other hand, Gizmo, who's a fan of a superhero-robot movie back in modern times, is quite intrigued that the disciples could actually have that kind of power.
  Gizmo: Oh, good call, James! Now, were you thinking explosive fireballs, flaming lightning bolts, or were you— (gets a simultaneous "Be Quiet!" Nudge from Chris and Joy)
• Knight Templar: "The Road to Damascus" shows Saul of Tarsus as one of these. As in the original scripture, the episode shows him vigorously hunting followers of Christ (men, women and children alike) because they supposedly disregard the Law of Moses, right up until his encounter with Jesus en route to Damascus that will later see him getting his name changed from Saul to Paul.
• Large and in Charge: Naaman in "Naaman and the Servant Girl" is shown as a large-bodied and imposing man, appropriate for someone who's captain of the Syrian army. Cornelius in "Peter and Cornelius" is likewise shown as a stoutly-built centurion.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Positive and negative examples are shown from the same incident in "The Fiery Furnace." Chris decides to take the test he had forgotten about on his own merits, instead of following the crowd and using the cheat sheet Todd offered. The result is that Chris does well enough that, with a small amount of extra credit the teacher gives him due to her being impressed with his hard work, he is able to go on a class trip to an amusement park as had been promised as the reward for passing, while everyone who used the cheat sheet fails miserably and has to take the test over.
• The Last Title: "The Last Supper," wherein the kids get to witness the eponymous supper with Christ and His disciples before the former's eventual crucifixion.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens at the beginning of "Paul and the Unknown God, Part 1." Commander Duke Conrad has just shown up in flight-based Powered Armor, greeted the newly-arrived space-camp cadets with heroic and majestic music playing in the background...and then the music falters as Professor Quantum shows up with—Commander Duke Conrad? Turns out that's because the first Conrad is actually QBIT, Conrad's personal droid, using a very convincing holographic appearance to emulate Conrad himself.
• Light Is Good: Jesus, of course. He wears a white robe, He's covered in a Holy Backlight during moments of glorification, and during "Revelation" He rides a White Stallion and wields light-based power during His rescue of the kids from Satan. Naturally, this also applies to God, Jesus's Father, who's portrayed as a being covered in pure light (whether disembodied or as a humanoid figure).
• Literal-Minded: This mindset gets the kids in trouble in "The Sermon on the Mount," when they try to apply the teachings of the titular sermon back home. Joy takes "don't worry about tomorrow" and "ask and you shall receive" to mean that she doesn't need to study for an exam the next day and, when she inevitably fails said exam, to ask for an A-grade or at least a do-over test (neither of which the teacher gives her), while Chris interprets "do not lay up treasures on Earth" to mean getting rid of all his family's belongings and "turn the other cheek" to mean allowing a bully to literally slap him on both cheeks.

M-P

• Magic Versus Science: The "Science vs Religion" variant forms the basis of the modern-day conflict for the two-part episode "Paul and the Unknown God." While attending a space-themed camp, Chris and Joy meet Commander Duke Conrad, a famous astronaut who's clearly on the Science side as a Hollywood Atheist, scoffing at the idea of there being any kind of deity after having seen no evidence of such throughout his many years of exploring outer space. Chris falls on the Religion side of the argument, but he also believes that both sides should join together, eventually creating a virtual presentation with Joy that outlines how some of history's greatest scientific minds, like Isaac Newton, Galileo, and George Washington Carver, were also simultaneously people of faith.
• Mistaken for Servant: Happens to the kids quite a few times, such as in "Naaman and the Servant Girl" and "For Such a Time as This." On the positive side, it allows them to stay beneath notice, meet certain crucial characters, and get information in circumstances where they might not normally have been able to otherwise.
• Moment Killer: "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal" starts with one of these. Ahab has just shown Jezebel the new temple he's built in honor of her native god Baal, he assures her that Baal is being worshiped throughout the rest of Israel, they start to lean in toward each other for a kiss...and then Elijah bellows "KING AHAB!" from right outside.
• Mythology Gag: In Professor Quantum's lab, there's a picture of a robot on the far wall, with the robot in the picture closely resembling Gizmo's design from the original Superbook series.
• Naked on Arrival: Adam and Eve in "In The Beginning," prior to sin's entry in Eden; for the viewer, Adam's crotch is hidden by convenient objects and Eve's got Godiva Hair. The kids are actually quite thrown when they first meet the couple, with Gizmo's visual sensors digitally putting clothes on them while Chris and Joy pointedly avert their gazes from the couple's private areas.
  Gizmo: Psst—why aren't they wearing clothes?
  Joy: I don't know, just deal with it.
• Named by the Adaptation: In some episodes, for the sake of identification whenever they're being addressed directly, Bible characters who weren't named in the source material or who are originally created to represent wider general groups for this series are given names in the episode they appear in, and the names are frequently names that would have been in common use at the time. For instance, the lead official who conspires to throw Daniel to the lions in "Roar" is named Arsalan (which, incidentally, is Turkish for "lion"), the young boy who accompanies Ananias in "The Road to Damascus" is named Caleb, and the wedding steward's son in "Jesus Feeds the Hungry" and the shepherd boy in "The Prodigal Son" are both named Micah.
• Noodle Implements: In "Let My People Go," Gizmo wants to perform what he calls the best card-trick ever, which includes the use of 15 decks of cards, 30 pounds of feathers, and an ostrich egg. Then, when Joy points out that they don't have any of those things, Gizmo decides he'll perform the "second-best" card-trick—but it requires over-sized bananas and moon-rocks, which they also don't have. Those must be some pretty spectacular card-tricks to require such unusual things.
• Noodle Incident: The very first episode, "In the Beginning," establishes that the kids are already familiar with Superbook and how it operates—but unlike the predecessor series, this series never shows us how they first met Superbook, or which Bible story they experienced during that first trip. Nor do we ever learn just how many trips they may have experienced prior to the first episode, especially given that "Peter and Cornelius" makes it clear through their dialogue that they've somehow had to learn that they need to do their best to land feet-first when Superbook deposits them anywhere.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…:
  • On more than one occasion, Superbook has dropped the kids into different locations by having them fall from a fairly large height. In "Let My People Go," for instance, Superbook drops the kids from the sky right into a huge pile of hay, right behind Moses (the figure they're there to meet), and the only damage they suffer from that fall is coughing to get their breath back from almost being smothered in the hay. Likely justified, though, since Superbook obviously isn't out to harm them.
  • A non-Superbook-caused example: In "Roar!", while escaping one of Darius's guards, Gizmo catapults himself and the kids out of a gap in the ceiling...and they end up flying high up, then down into a hay-cart. Chris and Joy land headfirst into the hay in the back of the cart and suffer no injuries whatsoever, while Gizmo lands on the horse attached to the cart (and the horse somehow suffers nothing worse than being frightened enough to stampede away despite Gizmo's metallic frame having just landed on its back).
• "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: In "Nebuchadnezzar's Dream," prior to the titular dream and its meaning being revealed to Daniel, Chris jokingly suggests that Nebuchadnezzar must have had a dream like this.
  Chris: Maybe the king had a dream about speaking to the class...in his underwear! Ha, ha, ha, ha! (Joy glares at him)
• Oh, Crap!: There are a lot of instances of this across the series, including in situations where the Bible characters' reactions to certain events weren't really focused on or emphasized in the original text. Specific to said Bible characters, some examples include: Lucifer's reaction when Michael gets a Heroic Second Wind while they're fighting during the rebellion in Heaven, Haman's increasingly-fearful look when Esther reveals during her banquet for Xerxes that she knows about the plot to murder the Jews (and that's before she outs Haman as the mastermind of said plot), Eliab's confidence immediately bolting when he sees Goliath for the first time, the realization among the servants at the wedding of Cana that the wine has run out, the terror and subsequent flight among Nebuchadnezzar's astrologers when he orders them to be killed for failing to tell him his dream and its meaning...
• Our Angels Are Different: This being a Bible-themed series, angels are depicted as the Winged Humanoid variety; some, like Michael and Lucifer (before the latter becomes Satan), are shown to wear armor and carry flaming swords. In "In The Beginning," during the war in Heaven, angels are shown as vanishing into streams of light when cut down by Lucifer's sword, though it's left vague whether they actually perish or not (especially since later episodes showcase angels visibly similar to some of those same cut-down ones).
• Our Demons Are Different: They come in two varieties in this series. One version serves as the obvious Evil Counterpart to the Winged Humanoid nature of angels; they sport still-human features, but are lobster-red-skinned with bat-like wings, plus they wear armor and carry flaming swords like their angelic counterparts (though the armor is black instead of white). The other version shows up as Living Shadow-like creatures that perform Demonic Possession, sometimes overtly as in the case with the legion-possessed man, and other times more subtly as with the spirit that troubles King Saul, but they can be driven out of their hosts by someone who invokes the power of God (or, post-crucifixion, the name of Jesus).
• Pals with Jesus: Downplayed. While the kids obviously meet Jesus during their adventures, they don't meet Him every single episode. When they do, they're as respectful to Him and in awe of Him as most of His followers and disciples tend to be, and He in turn is a kind and patient instructor to them (plus being implied to know exactly who they are and where they're from, but simply keeping silent about it).
• Parental Favoritism: Those familiar with the story of Jacob and Esau will know that Jacob was doted on by their mother Rebekah, while Esau was dearly beloved by their father Isaac. In this series, the episode "Jacob and Esau" shows Jacob being visibly troubled by Isaac dismissing his attempts to win the older man's favor (in one scene, when Jacob offers to join Esau in hunting game, Isaac declares that Jacob's better suited for easy tent-living), while Esau openly declares his younger twin to be a Mama's Boy.
• Parental Obliviousness: In "Zacchaeus," Joy shows up at her parents' pizza shop, clearly angry because Chris had forgotten to come help her with work at a children's home like he'd promised to do. Her father, placing a couple of potted plants at the shop's entrance, asks her how the venture went, and Joy replies "Fantastic!" with obvious sarcasm. Mr. Pepper's response, "Oh, that's nice, honey," only aggravates Joy further, while Mrs. Pepper—who's far faster on the uptake than her husband is—glares at him for his cluelessness.
• Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: This issue comes up in "Joshua and Caleb," where Chris, who's just been picked as a starter for his soccer team, is being pressured by some of the older boys on the team to hide the gear of their opponents' best player so the other team will be handicapped. He, Joy and Gizmo then go on the episodic Superbook trip and meet the titular duo, and in so doing witness how Joshua and Caleb are the only two of Moses's twelve spies who are willing to trust God's leading despite the rebelliousness of the other ten, thereby defying this trope by not giving in to the group pressure to begin with.
  Caleb: You're wondering why Joshua and I don't go along with the others. We only need obey God, not the group.
• Perception Filter: According to the series' website, this trope is the reason why recurring Bible characters, such as Jesus's disciples, seem not to remember Chris, Joy and Gizmo when they meet during different adventures, some of which may take place years apart; in order to keep the focus on the Biblical narrative and not deviate too much from the source material's narrative, the Bible characters don't retain long-term memory of the kids from one episode to another (such as when Peter and John, who the kids have met with Jesus several previous times, fail to recognize them in "Philip," requiring the kids to cover by saying—truthfully—that they've heard the disciples preaching and seen them with Jesus on past occasions). One notable long-term example of this trope in action is Mary, Jesus's mother, who the kids first meet in the Season One episode "The First Christmas" and then again in the Season Four premiere "Jesus Feeds the Hungry." In answer to the question of why Joy doesn't initially recognize her and she doesn't remember Joy at all in the latter episode, the website explains that since the events of the two episodes take place 30 years apart from Mary's point of view, she's naturally much older now than when Joy first saw her and, in turn, she would naturally expect Joy to be a grown woman by that point. Incidentally, this same trope is also the reason why, in "Elisha and the Syrians," Elisha doesn't comment on Joy openly using her cell-phone, which should obviously be an anachronistic item (Superbook has allowed her to bring it back in time since it's a key element of the episode's moral dilemma); according to the website's FAQ, Elisha simply doesn't take particular notice of the phone so the episode won't detract from the larger Bible narrative with minor details such as this.
  • In-universe, this trope also appears to be why nobody seems to notice whenever Superbook manifests itself and takes the kids away from an area or deposits them in an area, either in Bible times or the modern era. You'd think that somebody would notice either a giant book manifesting out of a flying computer tablet, or a giant swirling column of light that—from the audience's perspective—can be seen from at least a mile away. Then again, Superbook itself isn't the only example of supernaturally-manifested entities being visible only to those who're specifically supposed to see them; in "He is Risen" and "Job," Satan in his demonic form is right there next to (respectively) the mob out to arrest Jesus, and Job in his bedroom, and yet in neither case do any of the specified parties even sense that he's there.
  • This trope's effect is still applied inconsistently among some episodes, either in cases where the kids themselves lampshade the likelihood of someone noticing their appearances after any short Time Skip or a Bible character sees them after said forward-jump in time. For example, in "Jacob and Esau," they first meet the brothers around the time Jacob swindles Esau out of the family birthright, and are then taken forward in time to when Jacob's been living with Laban for fourteen years; in the latter instance, the kids disguise themselves in period-appropriate clothes so as to blend in better and thus avoid having to answer any uncomfortable questions Jacob might ask regarding how come they look the same as when he last saw them fourteen years prior. As well, in "Solomon's Temple," they meet Solomon just when he's about to be anointed king of Israel, then are taken forward in time twelve years, at which point he's been busy with the temple's construction; Solomon outright asks them where they've been in all that time, to which Chris quickly responds that they've been travelling (TIME-travelling, but Solomon doesn't need to know that).
  • It should also be noted that while the trope's application concerning the ability to identify the kids is often zigzagged with human Bible characters, it doesn't appear to apply to supernatural beings. The series implies quite often, for instance, that Jesus Himself is an exception to the trope (being the Son of God and all), but simply keeps silent about the kids' time-travelling. Michael also appears to know the kids' real nature, given that upon their arrival in Heaven he assures them they don't need to be afraid as they won't be harmed there ("fear" and "harm" being concepts that ought not to exist just yet at that point since Lucifer hasn't yet launched his rebellion). And while God Himself has never directly interacted with the kids except for the brief moment they appear before His throne in "Revelation", it's safe to assume He well knows about them, seeing as He's omniscient (plus the implication that Superbook itself is a manifestation of God's Spirit). On the evil side of things, Lucifer also seems to be aware that the kids are time-travelers and also knows about Superbook (consider his aggrieved reaction and brief showing of his Game Face when Chris mentions Superbook in "Revelation," and his skyward glance and knowing scowl moments before Superbook comes to teleport Chris away in "Jesus in the Wilderness").
• Prison Episode: A few episodes occasionally show the kids being thrown in prison or otherwise held in chains, though mostly for brief segments, such as in "Joseph and Pharaoh's Dream," where Superbook deposits them directly into Egypt's prison so they can meet Joseph, and the end of "Jeremiah," where they're in chains alongside Jeremiah prior to being freed by Nebuchadnezzar's order. However, "Paul and Silas" actually plays this trope fully straight, with the trio being thrown into jail for speaking out in defense of the titular apostles; their subsequent encounter with the apostles' jailer and the earthquake in the prison make up the bulk of the adventure thereafter.

Q-S

• Quantity vs. Quality: In the first half of "Jesus Feeds the Hungry," where Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding of Cana, Gizmo manages to do a mix-and-mash of the two halves of this trope in relation to the food being served—through his precise sharing of smaller portions in each plate (which the wedding's steward hopes the guests won't notice), he estimates that there'll consequently be more food to serve for everyone over the remaining days of the wedding feast. The steward, for his part, is impressed with Gizmo's precision and ability to provide more potential meal servings for everyone while stretching the resources to fit the projected time for the feast's conclusion.
  Gizmo: I have reduced the olives by eight percent, sliced the figs into six, and created diet-conscious portions of the fish and lamb. According to my calculations, we will not run out of food for another two days, and by then the wedding will be over!
  Steward: I see a bright future for you in the wedding business around Galilee.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: As the obvious Evil Counterpart faction to good angels, demons in this series typically wear black armor with red lining, in addition to being red-skinned. Satan has this going on as their leader, in addition to having flames for hair in his demonic form.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • Satan has this in his demonic form right across the series; his sclera have a permanent bloodshot look while his irises are greenish-gray. In his angelic form as Lucifer or in his human disguises, the sclera appear the normal white.
  • There's a downplayed but still unnerving example with King Saul in "David and Saul." While David is playing his music in an attempt to soothe Saul's troubled spirit, Saul hears the celebration of the crowd outside (the Israelites have just come back from a successful battle) and keeps hearing the "Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands" refrain. The longer he listens, the more his eyes narrow, until they're almost totally bloodshot right before he gets up and throws his spear at David (who fortunately manages to dodge in time).
• Rules Lawyer: Like in the Bible, the Pharisees and scribes in every New Testament-based episode are a whole group of these. One of the most frequent issues they bring up is the fact that Jesus heals people on the Sabbath, which according to their law constitutes work (which, in the Ten Commandments, is forbidden to do on the Sabbath day). However, especially in "Nicodemus," Jesus counters that it is not against the law to perform acts of mercy on the Sabbath, then asks the Armor-Piercing Question listed above.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Chris and Joy wear school uniforms as their regular outfits in several episodes (though they do wear casual outfits in other instances), and it's often justified as Superbook will start a given episode's adventure while they're at school, on the way to school, or have just come back from school.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • "The Fiery Furnace" has Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego declaring, just like in scripture, that they will prioritize worship of the true God over bowing to Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue, even if it means the end of their lives for disobeying the king's command.
  Meshach: Obedience to God is always the right thing to do, no matter the consequences.
  • "For Such a Time as This" has Joy struggling with whether to stand up to her Girls' Leadership club president after the latter rejects her suggestion to include a wheelchair-bound girl for consideration as a new member. During the inevitable Superbook trip, she meets Queen Esther, who likewise has to face the prospect of violating the Persian law that says nobody, including herself, can approach King Xerxes without being summoned first, even though doing so is necessary to save the Jews from Haman's murderous plot. Of course, Esther takes the risk, and Joy is in turn inspired to speak against the club president's declaration even if it means she'll be booted from the club.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • In "Noah and the Ark," after Superbook drops them in the middle of a violent and chaotic town, one encounter with a particularly homicidal man has Gizmo deciding to—literally—head for the hills.
  Gizmo: I'd like to stay and protect you guys, but...!
  Joy: (she and Chris follow) Giz, do you know where you're going?
  Gizmo: Anywhere but heeeeere!
  • The chief of the astrologers in "Nebuchadnezzar's Dream" pulls this after he and the other wise men flee the throne-room when Nebuchadnezzar orders all of them to be killed because they can't tell him his dream or its meaning. When the kids see him a short while later while he's hiding from the guards, he throws aside his astrology robe and mutters, "What the king is asking is impossible!" before fleeing the palace through a side-door.
  • Jia Wei pulls this at the beginning of "Zacchaeus." He's just wrapping up a visit with Chris, when suddenly Joy comes on the scene, looking for Chris and clearly in a rage. Realizing that Joy's on the warpath, Jia Wei immediately makes his exit (and doesn't appear again for the rest of the episode).
  • In "Paul Keeps the Faith," after the kids meet Emperor Nero and see firsthand how dissonantly insane he is amid the burning-down of Rome, Chris discreetly leads the others into getting as far away from the emperor as they can while Nero's distracting himself with his harp-playing.
  Chris: Okaaaaay...I'm thinking Nero here is just a couple of bleachers short of an amphitheater. Anybody with me? (they all quietly back away and exit the balcony)
• Secret-Keeper: Jia Wei and Ellie, after meeting and learning about Superbook alongside the protagonists.
• Shadow Discretion Shot: In "Let My People Go," this is how we see Moses's killing of the Egyptian taskmaster prior to his fleeing Egypt. Through a flashback, Moses tells the kids that he confronted the taskmaster for needlessly beating the Hebrew slaves, but the taskmaster attacked him; then the shadows on the wall show Moses dodging the other man's assault and knocking him flat with one punch.
• Ship Tease: Unlike the original series, where that version of Chris and Joy had more obvious dialogue about their affection for each other, this show's version of Chris and Joy have never outright expressed any romantic interest in each other (and it's not that kind of series anyway). Despite that difference, though, there are still a few brief moments across different episodes of this series that suggest, at the very least, a special sort of affection between the two. To elaborate:
  • On more than one occasion, Chris has yanked Joy out of the way of oncoming danger without being prompted to do so; "In The Beginning" provides only the series' first example of this, where the danger in question is Lucifer being thrown their way by Michael (and notice how Joy is clinging to Chris moments after).
  • There's also "Peter's Denial," where Chris hurts Joy by pretending not to know her in order to hang out with some cool kids. Following a Heroic BSoD, which is a much more serious reaction than what she'd normally have toward Chris's selfish antics, Joy's response is akin to that of a jilted girlfriend ("If he doesn't want to be with me, then I don't want to be with him"). However, much later, Joy rather strongly urges Gizmo to act quickly to save Chris after he falls off a boat and is in danger of drowning, despite Gizmo pointing out Chris's earlier callous treatment of her.
  • In "The Fiery Furnace," Chris pulls Joy into a protective embrace as they turn away from watching Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the titular furnace.
  • Two of the biggest hints of a possibly-closer-than-friendship bond between the two are shown in "The Birth of John the Baptist." In the first instance, when Joy gets some candy-drops spilled over her, Chris shows no objection to retrieving one that's gotten stuck in her hair and casually eating it right there and then, and Joy doesn't look grossed out or otherwise uncomfortable at the sight. Then a little later during the Superbook trip, in response to John the Baptist's mother Anna saying that at age twelve Joy would be arranged for betrothal into marriage by her father, Chris snarks that while Joy's his best friend, he promised his mother he'd finish middle school before tying the knot; notably, Joy doesn't look particularly perturbed or try to dispute the comment.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Let My People Go," and "The Ten Commandments," Moses wears a red robe not unlike the one worn by Charlton Heston when he played the same character in The Ten Commandments.
  • In "Roar!", Chris and Gizmo stage a mock sword-fight with sticks to distract Darius's guards so Joy can slip in to warn the king about the plot to kill Daniel. During the "fight," the boys reference a certain famous confrontation, complete with a variation of the equally-famous Imperial March theme playing in the background; but since the reference won't be born for hundreds more years, the guards are naturally befuddled.
  Chris: I'll never join you! You killed my father!
  Gizmo: (in Darth Vader-esque voice) No! I am your father!
  Guard: (confused) What? He's too young to be his father!
  • In "Paul and the Unknown God, Part 1," space explorer Commander Duke Conrad (or rather, his robotic droid QBIT using convincing holographic technology) makes his appearance wearing a suit of Powered Armor, complete with rocket-boots, and lands in a rather stylish pose with him going on one knee and one fist to the ground. Seems pretty similar to Iron Man, doesn't it? (Except this suit is blue and white.)
• Shown Their Work: The series’ depiction of ancient Babylon is impressively accurate. For example, as outlined in this video, the episode "Roar!" has a brief visual shot of Babylon, which includes the famous Ishtar Gate.
• Ski-Resort Episode: The modern-day plot of "Nicodemus" takes place at a ski lodge, where the kids are joining Chris's youth group for snow-related fun, including skiing. This part of the plot has Chris questioning how to know whether he's been converted after Ellie, a classmate from school, says she herself has had questions about the Bible; meanwhile, Gizmo is concerned about whether Ellie will be safe skiing with her brother and friends down a particularly risky section of the slope.
• Skipping School: Two different episodes, "Noah and the Ark" and "Nicodemus," have variations of this. In the former, during the modern day, Chris deliberately tries this so he can break into a closed skateboard park to hang out with a group of delinquent skateboarders (with Joy tagging along because she wants to meet the group's leader). In the latter, during the Superbook trip into Bible times, Chris is separated from Joy and Gizmo, and while trying to find them he runs into Nicodemus, who assumes the boy's trying to sneak out of the daily scriptural lesson in the temple and therefore carries him right to where the lesson is being given.
• Skyward Scream: Job does this in "Job," along with tearing his clothes, upon getting the news that his sons and daughters have been killed by their house falling in on them. David does it in "David and Saul," after getting the news of Saul's death. And Elisha pulls this in "Elisha and the Syrians," combined with crying Elijah's name when the latter is whisked up by Heaven's fiery chariot.
• Strictly Formula: Each episode follows more or less the same pattern—one of the kids (usually Chris) experiences a moral conflict, then Superbook pulls the kids into a Bible adventure whose plot corresponds to the conflict in question, the kids interact with the Bible characters, then Superbook takes them back to the modern world where the lesson is then applied to try and resolve the initial conflict. The modern-era conflicts do tend to vary, however.
• Spin-Off: The show has one in the form of Gizmo Go!, a Direct to Video series targeted at slightly younger audiences. It’s centered around Gizmo and his various robot friends at Quantum Labs (as well as Miss Tina, a newly-hired engineer in way over her head.) It features a mix of flash animation and greenscreened live-action actors, contrasting with the 3D-animated main show.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: It comes up now and then across different episodes, mostly in regard to the modern-day plots. Just for a few examples:
  • "A Giant Adventure": As Chris finds out to his dismay, no matter how skilled you are as a musician, it means jack-all if you suffer stage fright in front of your audience.
  • "The Fiery Furnace": Early in the episode, one of Nebuchadnezzar's aides confronts Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego because he knows they, worshipers of the Hebrews' God, will likely not bow to the king's new statue. He grabs a live coal from out of a nearby burning torch as a way of intimidating them with the reminder of the fiery furnace if they refuse to obey...and he ends up burning his own fingers because, y'know, live coal from a burning torch.
    • On a different note in the same episode, Todd secures a cheat-sheet for a test the students are to take that day. Chris considers using the cheat-sheet, since he forgot to study for the test, but Joy warns him that if he's caught, nobody will be able to help him escape the consequences. She's proven right, but for a slightly different reason—the answers Todd has are for a different version of the same test his brother had previously taken, but the teacher changed the questions this time around. Fortunately, because Chris opts not to cheat after all, he escapes Todd's punishment.
  • "John the Baptist": Chris's video-gaming partner reveals that he's illegally downloaded the latest games before they're available for sale to the general public. While Chris contemplates playing the games with his friend, Joy sternly informs him that, even if he didn't download them himself, using them in this way still counts as stealing. This leads into another dose of reality at the end of the episode, as while Chris does the right thing and tells his buddy that what he did was wrong, unlike previous instances of talk-therapy working with other characters, in this case it doesn't—the other boy is still determined to keep the pirated games. Basically, just because you've had a moral epiphany doesn't mean other wrongdoers will join you in making the same choice.
  • "David and Saul": Two bullies assault Chris at the subway station, rob him of his guitar and then break it in front of him. Following the requisite Superbook adventure, he decides to forgive the two instead of taking revenge like he'd initially intended...but they themselves aren't at all sorry for what they've done. After all, just because you choose to forgive someone who's wronged you, that doesn't mean they'll automatically have an attack of conscience. And on a different note, they don't get away with their crimes either—the subway station's security cameras caught their antics, and the cops show up to arrest them.
  • "King Solomon": When the two women claiming to be the mother of a baby come for Solomon to rule on which of them is telling the truth, Gizmo suggests that a simple DNA analysis will determine which of the women is the true mother. So he covertly gets hair samples from each woman and a spit sample from the baby, and then tells Chris and Joy that all he needs to do now...is send the items to a lab...with results in six to eight weeks. Yes, the approximate least amount of time that crime-scene lab work actually takes in real life, as opposed to what we usually see in the hour-long procedural that is CSI. The kids are not amused. (Mind you, though, if Gizmo could have conducted an instant forensic test right there and then, the Bible's account of the Judgment of Solomon couldn't take place.)
  • "Nicodemus": Gizmo thinks that downloading all the available information there is about how to ski makes him an Instant Expert at the sport. Nope—as the ensuing hilarity shows, head-knowledge doesn't translate to applicable practical knowledge if you haven't actually done something before (and Joy mocks Gizmo for downloading the info but not actually reading it). In the same vein, minor character Ellie isn't too concerned about skiing down a risky part of the ski-slope with her brother and friends because they're all experienced skiers and she's been taking lessons from them beforehand, something Gizmo obviously lacks.
  • "The Sermon on the Mount": Several instances of reality ensuing take place when Chris and Joy try to apply the principles of the titular sermon too literally. Chris physically turns the other cheek when a bully hits him—he gets hit on that cheek as well. Joy decides not to study for a test that's coming the next day because she decides not to worry about tomorrow, as per the sermon—she ends up failing the test. After failing said test, Joy asks the teacher for an A-grade or at least a make-up test on the subjects she did study, banking on the part of the sermon that says "ask and it shall be given unto you"—she gets neither. Chris remembers "lay not up treasures for yourself on Earth" and proceeds to clear out all of his and his parents' clothes out of the house and donate them to a store—his parents get extremely displeased and demand answers. Not to mention, the Quantums end up getting several phone calls from all over town about Chris's antics and are deeply concerned about what's going on.

T-V

• Team Hand-Stack: The kids do it twice in the series, once in Season Four and again in Season Five. The first time is done to affirm Jia Wei as their Secret-Keeper. The second time is right after Chris and Joy's baptism, where all four of them do it again with the also-newly-baptized Ellie as another Secret-Keeper.
• The Teaser: Almost every episode has one before the opening credits, to highlight either the plot of the Biblical story or the plot of the modern-day conflict. "Let My People Go" is a notable exception to this.
• Temporal Paradox: Narrowly averted in "Baptized!" A schoolmate of the kids has been drawn into a Superbook trip with them and, having previously read in the Bible about events such as Judas betraying Jesus, wants to ask the disciples about those things. Thing is, the adventure is taking place at a point in time when Jesus has only just selected the disciples from among His many followers, and therefore Chris and Joy have to pull the classmate back and discreetly explain that they can't ask about or mention things that haven't chronologically happened yet.
• The Three Wise Men: They're shown prominently in the opening credits, traversing the desert with the kids while following the Star of Bethlehem. In the series proper, they appear in "The First Christmas" as seekers of the newborn Jesus, but the closest they get to interacting with the kids is while the Magi are guests of King Herod, with Chris, Joy and Gizmo in the role of dinner-servers.
• Title Drop: A couple of times with individual episodes. For one specific example, the Season Five episode "The Promise of a Child" has Chris name-dropping the episode's title after Superbook takes the kids on a recap-trip to help them understand how God's promise to Adam and Eve in Eden was fulfilled through Jesus in the subsequent centuries and Bible stories. It's also the name of the song Chris and Joy wind up performing for the Christmas pageant.
  Chris: All those stories, Joy, they were connected by a promise—the promise of a child. The promise that Jesus would one day come to save us.
• Title Theme Tune: "Hosanna, sing hosanna, the Word—Superbook!"
• The Tonsillitis Episode: The modern-day plot of "Paul and Silas" has Joy being in the hospital to have her tonsils removed, but she's hiding from the doctors because she's afraid to have the surgery. Chris tries to reassure her, saying the surgery is short and she'll spend her recovery on the couch eating ice cream.
• Turn the Other Cheek:
  • In "David and Saul," when two bullies assault Chris at the subway station, steal his guitar, and then smash the guitar in front of him for spite, Chris naturally wants to take revenge on them (even ordering Gizmo to hack into the subway car the bullies are in so as to facilitate that vengeance)...but then Superbook takes the kids to meet David, who's on the run from Saul after the king has tried to have him killed. David later pulls this trope on Saul despite having a clear opportunity and the urging from his men to kill Saul; witnessing this, Chris decides that he'll do likewise to the bullies instead of taking revenge, as that's "someone else's job." That "someone else" proves to be the cops, who have footage of the bullies' criminal behavior from the station's security cameras and have come to arrest them.
  • This trope also comes up in "Love Your Enemies," where Chris is repeatedly hassled by a rival soccer player for being a Christian. While Chris is determined to get even (citing how Jesus overturned the moneychangers' tables in the temple), Superbook takes him, Joy and Gizmo back in time to witness how Jesus treated His enemies during His arrest in Gethsemane and the later crucifixion at Calvary, and then to witness Stephen's death by stoning even as he urged God not to hold it against the people.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Just like in the Bible, the Israelites prove to be an entire nation of these, particularly during their wilderness journey to reach Canaan. In "Joshua and Caleb," the titular duo even lampshade it after hearing some of the people gripe about how, while in Egypt, they had all kinds of food available to eat (conveniently forgetting how they were slaves at the time), but now they're "starving" because the only food they have to eat is "this manna" which has been provided by God.
  Caleb: The Lord takes care of us, sending us manna every day to eat.
  Joshua: (in disgust) But all we can do is complain.
• The Unreveal: Just what is Superbook's origin? When was it created, and by whom? How did Chris, Joy and Gizmo first come in contact with it? The series never answers these questions, although there are hints that Superbook has divine influence behind it; every scene of them in the temporal wormhole has a disembodied voice nebulously implied to be God explaining the episode's Aesop that they are being taken to see, and after Joy explains to John the Revelator about Superbook's time-travel schtick, John suggests that its methods of transporting the kids back in time to learn important lessons is similar to how the Spirit of God brought him into his vision on the Isle of Patmos, while in a separate scene, Satan (disguised in his angelic form as Lucifer) visibly bristles when Chris mentions Superbook by name.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the Bible characters ever seems to question the obviously anachronistic clothes Chris and Joy wear, their decidedly non-local names and appearances, or Gizmo's obviously inhuman appearance. Regarding the latter, the closest that the series gets is when shepherd boy David assumes Gizmo's wearing armor, while Moses—who's just seen Gizmo use a built-in vacuum cleaner to collect manna—only wonders aloud which of Israel's tribes Gizmo belongs to.
• Useless Protagonist: Downplayed with the kids and Gizmo, as while they don't do anything to impact the larger plots of each episode and are mainly witnesses and commentators, they do take part in smaller ways or behind the scenes so that their presence in the Bible stories won't deviate too obviously from the original script. As well, any time they do try to prevent certain events from taking place, they're hindered by outside circumstances.
• Values Dissonance: A couple of in-universe examples across different episodes.
  • One shows up in "Isaac and Rebekah," when the kids overhear Abraham instruct his servant Eliezer to go back to Abraham's homeland to choose a wife for Isaac from among the patriarch's relatives who still live there. Chris is dumbfounded that Isaac, a grown man, isn't allowed to choose a wife for himself, but Joy has no issue with the directive since it's in accordance with the custom of the times.
  • Another one comes up in "Samuel and the Call of God," when the kids meet Samuel during his childhood years serving in the temple. Samuel offers to have Chris and Gizmo serve with him under High Priest Eli, but he sheepishly tells Joy she can't come, since women aren't allowed to serve in the temple like men are (and indeed, nowhere in the Bible does it say women were allowed to participate in the priestly temple services). While this wouldn't have raised any eyebrows back in Bible times, Joy, coming from a time period where Women's Liberation has long since been a thing, is not at all pleased.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: In "The Prodigal Son," during the portion of Jesus's parable where the prodigal is wasting his money on riotous living, we see him having gotten so drunk from the contents of a wine-skin that he can't even properly pour it into his mouth...then we see him puking off to one side of the street, with his back mercifully to the camera. Then when a prostitute pulls him up, his face is somehow clean and vomit-free as he tries to reach in for a kiss, but she slaps him and walks off in disgust (though that has less to do with the vomiting and more to do with the fact that the prodigal's money has run out by that point).

W-Z

• We Can Rule Together: During his assault on Heaven in "In The Beginning," Lucifer makes this offer to Michael. Naturally, Michael isn't having any of it.
  Lucifer: Come, Michael, serve me and share in my triumph! Or taste eternal defeat.
  Michael: I do not fear you, Lucifer, for I serve the Lord!
  Lucifer: Pity.
  • He also makes an offer towards Chris, Joy, and Gizmo as he's dangling off a cliff. Michael, however, intervenes before the trio can give an answer (knowing the series, they probably would have said no).
    Lucifer: Help me! I have the power to reward you beyond your dreams.
• We Need a Distraction: The kids make use of this trope every so often during their adventures. Examples include "Roar!", where Joy has Chris and Gizmo stage a mock-fight to draw Darius's guards' attention so she can slip inside the palace to warn the king about the plot to kill Daniel, and "Paul Keeps the Faith," where they have Gizmo use a strobe-light to momentarily blind Nero's guards so they can rescue a Christian believer named Julia from being potentially tortured and killed.
• Wham Shot: The entire opening sequence for "Paul and Barnabas" shakes up the series' status quo somewhat, both for the trio and for the audience. Jia Wei is in a Bible-era adventure with the trio nowhere in sight; it turns out, ever since his first experience with Superbook alongside the trio, Superbook has been taking him on solo trips—Chris, Joy and Gizmo aren't the only ones chosen for such experiences after all.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Chris gets this quite a bit across the series—from Joy, from his mother Phoebe, from Jesus Himself—for his acts of selfishness, his overly entitled attitude, and his reckless behavior in general. One of the more heartbreaking ones comes from Joy in "Peter's Denial," while she's in the middle of a Heroic BSoD over Chris having just casually pretended not to know her, his best friend of several years, just so he can hang out with some cool kids.
  Joy: Chris...how could you do that?
  Chris: Joy, those guys don't think the chess club is very cool, and you know how much I wanna—
  Joy: And that makes it okay to pretend you don't (voice cracks) know me?
  Chris: Joy...you know I'm your friend.
  Joy: I thought I knew.
• With Friends Like These...: Gizmo says this almost word-for-word in "Job," in reference to Job's friends when they accuse him of being punished by God for committing some sin.
  Joy: It was sure nice of Job's friends to come and see him.
  Gizmo: Yes, but with friends like that, who needs enemies?
• The X of Y: Several episode titles across the show's different seasons, except for Season Four.
  • Season One: "Miracles of Jesus."
  • Season Two: "Rahab and the Walls of Jericho" and "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal."
  • Season Three: "The Tower of Babel and the Day of Pentecost," "The Birth of John the Baptist" and "Samuel and the Call of God."
  • Season Five: "The Birth of Moses" and "The Promise of a Child."
• You Are Grounded!: At the end of "In the Beginning," as punishment for Chris going into the lab despite having been explicitly told not to (and subsequently damaging sections of the lab while messing around with his new jetpack invention), Professor Quantum decrees that Chris won't be allowed to go to the mall or the skate-park with his friends for the next month, plus he'll also have to clean up the lab, buy another lamp, fix the broken stool, and wash the windows.
  Professor Quantum: When you knowingly disobey, there are consequences.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Happens a few times in the series, just like in a lot of places in the Bible.
  • In his titular episode, Jonah tries to defy God's edict that he should go to Nineveh and preach to its inhabitants, by taking a ship that's going elsewhere. God's response is a literal But Thou Must! by sending a storm, resulting in the other sailors throwing Jonah overboard—and the kids with him, for speaking up in support of him—following which the giant fish comes and swallows the entire group whole before eventually spitting them out on dry land. Thereafter, Jonah and the kids end up heading to Nineveh anyway.
  • In "Peter's Denial," despite Peter's declaration that he'll go to prison and to death with Jesus, he's warned that he'll deny three times that he even knows the Savior. Sure enough, a few hours later, Chris witnesses Peter vehemently denying three times that he's a disciple of Jesus or that he's ever met the Man. Peter doesn't take it well when he realizes what has happened.
  • Anytime the kids try to alter the Biblical timeline by intervening in key events (such as Joy attempting to save Daniel from the lion's den in "Roar!") something always prevents them from doing so.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In "In the Beginning," this inevitably happens to Adam and Eve when they're made to leave Eden for disobeying God. A huge stone gate grows up to cover the entrance to the garden, and an armored angel with a flaming sword shows up to guard it as an extra safeguard to prevent anyone re-entering.
  Eve: (mournful) We have lost Eden.
• Zombie Apocalypse: In "Naaman and the Servant Girl," after initially mistaking Naaman for a zombie due to his leprosy, Gizmo starts hypothesizing that if one of these was to take place, the zombies would mistake Naaman for one of them and be drawn to him in hordes. Chris and Joy proceed to Troll him over it, with Joy using the light from the campfire to scarily illuminate her face.
  Joy: Braaaaains...
  Gizmo: ZOMBIE!!!
  Chris: (casually) Hey, Joy.
  Joy: Early zombie warning system?
  Chris: Eh, teachable moment.