History Toys / NexoKnights

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nexo_knights.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Clockwise from upper left: [[TotallyRadical Aaron Fox]], [[TheBigGuy Axl]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Lance Richmond]], [[TheLeader Clay Moorington]], [[ActionGirl Macy Halbert]].]]

''Nexo Knights'' is a Castle-esque LEGO Theme which was released in 2016. It's the successor to ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfChima'', with an AllCGICartoon aired on TV, which lasted for four seasons. The toyline lasted until 2018, when it was quietly cancelled.

The theme's a hybrid of Castle and sci-fi, where the six heroic knights must stop the evil Jestro from summoning an army of lava monsters that are attacking the kingdom of Knighton, which has advanced technology but a medieval society.

There's a [[Recap/NexoKnights recap]] page being constructed.
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!! Tropes that apply to the sets and television series:
* TwentyFourHourArmor: Due to Axl's NonstandardCharacterDesign, an armorless version of him does not appear in the toyline or cartoon. When Aaron [[LampshadeHanging asks him about it]], Axl states that he likes to be [[CrazyPrepared prepared]].
* AbhorrentAdmirer: In "The Maze of Amazement," Axl's little sister, Axlina, is one to Robin.
* ActionGirl: Macy.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The Forbidden Powers often have alliterative names (e.g.: Collapsing Crumble).
* AllThereInTheManual: The real-life Book of Monsters contains info on all the monsters in its pages, including some not yet seen in the series.
* AndroidsArePeopleToo: Zig-Zagged. It seems that Squirebots can live an independent life and get education and jobs, as seen with Chef Eclair and the hip-hop duo Chili Vanilla, but at the same time, most of them are treated as living (in a sense) test dummies, cheap labour and so on.
* AnimalCompanion: In "The Might and the Magic," Lance, while imprisoned on a farm, forms a rapport with a pig he names "Hamletta." He even brings Hamletta back to Knighton with him after being freed.
* ArtifactOfDoom:
** The Book of Monsters, which corrupts Jestro and summons lava monsters into the kingdom.
** In season 3 there's the forbidden power tablets.
* AnimalMotifs: All the Knights' crests feature an animal matching their personalities in some way. As a ParentalBonus, most of them are repurposed logos from prior ''Castle'' themes.
** Clay -- Blue-and-white Eagle -- Black Falcons
** Lance -- White Horse -- Sir Kentis from Knights Kingdom II
** Axl -- Golden Bull -- Either Sir Adric from Knights Kingdom II or Cedric The Bull from Knights Kingdom I
** Aaron -- Orange Wolf -- Wolfpack
** Macy -- Red Dragon -- Either Black Knights or Dragon Masters
** Robin -- A chicken
* AttentionWhore: Lance's innermost fear is obscurity.
* BackFromTheDead: Both Merlok (in a sense) and [[spoiler:Monstrox]] were able to pull this trope off.
* BaseOnWheels: The Fortrex, formerly Ye Olde Royal RV, is a giant castle on tank treads that the knights repurposed to their needs.
* TheBeastmaster: One of the baddies uses the name verbatim.
* BeleagueredAssistant: Lance's robot assistant, Dennis. [[spoiler: He leaves his master close to Season 1 finale, only to come back, and then leaves him permanently in the middle of Season 3]].
* BerserkButton:
** Do not ruin Axl's souffle.
** Do not mock Jestro by calling him a joke.
** Do not call Whiparella Whimp-arella.
* TheBigGuy: Axl, who has a rather bulky upper body.
** BigEater: As an extention of said role, Axl is almost always seen eating.
* BigBadDuumvirate: The Book of Monsters and Jestro ''technically'' form one, but TBOM has a role much similar to a DragonInChief as the true brains, nevertheless they do seem to be equal partners.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The story's non-televised conclusion - Monstrox is defeated for good, but at the cost of Merlok's life.]]
* BlingOfWar: Starting with year 3, the knights all get golden armor.
* CannibalismSuperpower: Very odd instance. The Book of Monsters is a living TomeOfEldritchLore that serves as a container for monsters that increases the power and kind of monsters it can release by consuming other evil spell books. [[spoiler:Even more unusual given the other books are fragments of it that were separated by Merlok.]]
* CaptainOblivious: Lance's parents are so amazingly self-absorbed that, after being kidnapped, they fail to realize they're not at a spa, or that Magmar is outright trying to ''kill'' them, even when Jestro point-blank says they're hostages.
* CityOfGold: Lance's hometown is this, with his family mansion being the prime example.
* ColorCodedMagic: The Nexo Power shields correspond to the knight they're meant for (ones for Clay are blue, Macy's red, Aaron green). The Forbidden Powers are black and purple.
* CoolCar: Ye Olde Royal RV, especially when modified by Ava and Robin into the Fortrex. Not to mention Clay's Rumble Blade, given to them as a gift by the King and Queen.
* TheCorrupter: The Book of Monsters.
* TheCorruption:
** The Book of Evil turns whatever it touches evil. It renders a rabbit rabid and gives Jestro his EvilMakeover complete with a corresponding attitude.
** The Forbidden Powers turned their guardians evil.
* CrownOfHorns: Whenever Jestro starts to act truly evil the ends of his jester hat stand up to make it look like horns.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 3, as it strays from the knights being able to use Nexo power to win the fights in some episodes, [[spoiler: Clay being slowly turned to stone]], as well as [[spoiler:Monstrox]] being able to revive monsters to fight once again.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Half of Ava's dialogue is just snarking at whoever's around.
** So is Herb Herbertson, the male news anchor, [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl who's regularly fed up with his partner's antics.]]
* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:"The Fortrex and the Furious" reveals that this has been the Book of Monsters/Monstrox's plan all along; To manipulate Jestro into collecting all the evil books to regain his strength, then possess Jestro's body. Though in "Kingdom of Heroes", he changes his target to Clay.]]
* DenserAndWackier: The monster designs are more exaggerated and cartoonish, and this is the first Castle theme to utilize futuristic technology, with all the ramifications that implies.
* {{Descriptiveville}}: Pretty much every town in Knighton has a name that tells you exactly what you're in for when you get there. Snottingham, for example, is a good place to get a cold.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Jestro decided to feed the Book of Chaos to the Book of Monsters, despite the latter warning the former that monsters made after eating this book will be much harder to control.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Some of the Magma Monsters go barefoot, including Lavaria, Beast Master and Crust Smasher. In the Character Encyclopedia, Lavaria's entry notes that she has "bare, clawed feet for [[StealthExpert silent sneaking]]".
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: General Magmar's Siege Machine of Doom, the vehicle belonging to Magmar himself.
* EmotionlessGirl: Ava's default expression.
* EnfanteTerrible: Implied when The Book of Monsters gets grabbed by a little girl, and when we see him later he's ''terrified'' of insulting her tea.
%%* EpicFlail: Beast Master can use his chained Globlins like this.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Monstrox's old base was one. [[spoiler:After defeating him, Merlok shrunk it down and put it in a snowglobe. In the opening episode of season 2, Jestro and the Book of Monsters get it back.]]
* ExactWords: Macy tells Jorah Tightwad that if he fails the competiton, he'll get a kiss from Lance's sweetheart. [[spoiler:Turns out Lance calls Hamletta his sweetheart, so Tightwad is made to kiss a pig.]]
%%* {{Expy}}: Jack Shields is one of ''Franchise/JamesBond''.
* {{Faceship}}:
** Jestro's vehicle, "The Evil Mobile," is a frightening siege wagon with a monstrous jester's visage on its front.
** There's also his mobile headquarters in season 3.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Knighton is mostly based off medieval England, although there seems to be a bit of Scotland, Germany and even 19th-century United States mixed in as well.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Macy's dad refuses to let her be a knight because he thinks it's too dangerous. Meanwhile, Lance's parents refused to let him be a celebrity, and made him be a knight. Lance still holds a grudge against that one, to the extent he refuses to try and rescue them when they're abducted.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: The Book of Monsters promised Jestro that he would no longer be known as a failure of a comedian, but the [[VerbalTic baddest baddie]] this world has ever seen.
* GeneralRipper: General Magmar. He comes equipped with a "siege mobile" to bombard his enemies.
%%* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GottaCatchEmAll:
** The app game Merlok 2.0 has over 108 unlockable shield powers. And since the unlockable hields are all QR codes, there are multiple ways to unlock them, including looking them up on youtube and the net. Heck, even the logo is a nexo shield power!
** In series 3 & 4, the bad guys are looking for ten Forbidden Powers, [[spoiler:so they can activate the Stone Colossus]].
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Inverted. Aaron uses a projectile weapon like a bow, and Macy uses a giant mace.
%%* HamAndDeadpanDuo: Robin and Ava.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The original Merlok sacrificed himself to defend his library, but he lives on as Merlok 2.0.]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Jestro starts out as a decent, if bumbling, court jester, but is corrupted by the Book of Monsters into working with him. In "The Might and the Magic," he has second thoughts about attacking the capital with his monster army, especially since it would involve eliminating King Halbert, who was always [[NiceToTheWaiter very nice]] to him. The Book of Monsters, [[CrazyPrepared anticipating]] such a show of weakness, has Beast Master feed him the Book of Revenge (which was recovered behind Jestro's back), and uses its power to further corrupt Jestro into going ahead with the attack. In "Open Mike Knight", Jestro rediscovers his love for making others laugh, and reverts back to the side of good. But in season three, [[spoiler: Monstrox]] uses his lightning to corrupt Jestro once more. However, the process is not permanent, requiring Monstrox to give Jestro regular jolts to ''keep'' him evil. [[spoiler: And at the end of season four, Jestro breaks free of his magic and is back on the "face" side, but not pardoned.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:In season three, the lava monsters become good, even helping the Knights to fend off Monstrox's stone army.]]
* HiddenDepths: In "The Might and the Magic," Lance, while chained up in a pig sty, confesses to Hamletta that he knows he's superficial and arrogant, and derides himself for driving everyone away.
* {{Hologram}}: Merlok 2.0, a golden holographic wizard.
* HoverBoard: The knights' shields can be used as these (though Aaron tends to do it the most).
* IMeantToDoThat: Lance when he messes up part of his routine for the knight graduation ceremony.
* {{Invocation}}: "Merlok! Nexoooo KNIGHTS!" The phrase doesn't seem to be completely necessary, though they do have to hold their shields up in the air.
* KillItThroughItsStomach: Well not so much stomach as it is going inside Monstrox and attacking him on the inside till he explodes.
* LampshadeHanging: Everywhere. The series is designed to be fun and self-deprecating.
** In episode 2, right after driving off Jestro, the knights pose. Macy asks if they have to do this every time. Clay replies that it's in the manual.
** Jorah Tightwad claims he has gold factories, which Macy points out doesn't make sense, since gold is mined.
* LaughablyEvil: Jestro is pretty much a rookie villain. The Book of Monsters is his harried mentor.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: You will definitely get this vibe when you watch the way the Book of Monsters and Jestro argue.
* MadeOfEvil: [[spoiler:Monstrox, first he was the Book of Monsters but when defeated, he changes into a evil cloud who can brings statues to life to do his bidding.]]
* {{Magitek}}: The knights and fortrex are fueled with Nexo powers, which is magic abilities downloaded to the knights via wifi.
* MeaningfulName: Jorah Tightwad. He really is, refusing to use any of his money to film the Tighty Knighties on a set, preferring to film in a dark, isolated forest.
* MechaMooks: An interesting instance where it is the protagonists that deploy these and not the villains.
* MetaMecha: The final battle depicted in the Tech Wizard Showdown set, with Clay piloting his Battle Suit and using that to pilot an even larger mecha.
* MushroomMan: Mushlord.
* MythologyGag:
** When the Knights are given a demonstration of the Fortrex's holographic training room, one of the holographic environments seen is the lion city from ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfChima''.
** In "The Golden Castle," Lance's agent suggests a new movie for Lance to star in called [[WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}} "Knightjago"]], where his character saves the world through spinning.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Axl is a TopHeavyGuy in comparison to the others' more usual minifigure proportions. He also has more angular hands, with visible knuckles and finger lines.
* NothingIsScarier: Aaron's true fear, which is well hidden, is literally nothing. He breaks down if he has nothing to do. Everything else no matter how creepy just pumps him up.
* NotSoStoic: Ava when she thought Jestro and the Book of Monsters were about to win.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:In "Kingdom of Heroes", it seems as though Monstrox has finally been destroyed. But Jestro briefly sees his laughing face in a cloud...]]
* OffModel: Although whether it's on the show's side or the toys' side is debatable, the characters have some notable differences between the two, like Jestro's hat and Ava's hair.
* PlantPerson: The Forest Monsters are a whole group of these.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Due to his advanced age, Merlok sometimes forgets important details. For example, [[spoiler:when he informs the knights Jestro will raid the castle library, he forgets to tell them Jestro's not after a book, but a snowglobe on the librarian's desk.]]
* PostModernMagik: Doesn't get more [=PoMo=] with mysticism than using the VirtualGhost of a WizardClassic as an OS that casts his spells over Wi-Fi.
* PoweredArmor:
** Robin's Black Knight armor.
** In the second year, the knights all get them, starting with Clay (who needs it just to get around as he starts turning to stone). They later turn out to be able to combine with their new vehicles.
* PredecessorVillain: The dark wizard Monstrox, who was defeated by Merlok years ago. He is mentioned several times throughout the first story arc, with the Book of Monsters (who knew him personally) holding him in particularly high regard. [[spoiler: Though it's less admiration and more [[ButHeSoundsHandsome stroking his own ego]] ]]
* PreviouslyOn: Herb Herbertson recaps the events of the last episode through a "Knighton News Network" segment.
* PunnyName: The names of the knights are based upon the weapons they use:
** Macy - A mace
** Lance - A lance
** Aaron - A bow and arrows
** Clay Moorington - A clay-more
** Axl - An axe
** Also, Ava Prentis' name is a pun on "apprentice," which she is, and main antagonist Jestro's name is a pun on "jester" (guess what he was before he became a villain).
* RapidFireComedy: You'd have to try hard to remember an episode that goes on without a new joke for at least a minute.
* RefuseToRescueTheDisliked:
** In "The Might and the Magic", when Clay reminds everyone that they still need to pick up Lance, Macy asks "Do we have to?"
** Lance himself does this in "Greed is Good?", refusing to rescue his parents from Jestro and the Book of Monsters until his friends force him to go through with it.
* TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised: Since the TV series was cancelled due to lack of funding, though it did get a comic resolution wrapping up the fight with [[spoiler:Monstrox.]]
* RobotBuddy: Quite a few, who serve as soldiers, servants, and even a chef!
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Princess Macy is one of the knights, and the King has a fighting mech. The Queen is no slouch in a pinch, either, and largely more battle ready than the King.
* RuleOfCool: Most of the sets seem to invoke this, like Jestro's Evil Mobile, a giant jester-faced chariot ''made of lava'' and pulled by a lava giant.
* RunningGag: The Book of Monsters tells the monster carrying it to go somewhere, but it will always go the opposite way, and the Book shouts, "No! The ''other'' way!"
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:"The Fortrex and the Furious" reveals that the Book of Monsters, and all the other evil books, are actually the cans containing the divided essence of the necromancer Monstrox, who was defeated and imprisoned by Merlok long ago.]]
* ShoutOut:
** To ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' - at least three per episode.
*** The king's servant-bot finishes off a lecture with "And that is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped".
*** The opening episode of season 2 has Jestro (apparently) trying to steal the Book of Armaments. Whether it can be used to slay vicious rabbits is unknown.
*** A confused Merlok pondering what his middle name is wonders if people call him Tim.
*** After [[spoiler:reforming]], the Lava Monsters form an anarcho-syndicalist commune, just like the mud farmers.
** Also to ''Power Miners'': at one point, non-crystalline versions of the larger rock monsters show up.
** In the first episode, Merlok repels Jestro and the monsters through the spell "KlaatuBaradaNikto".
** In "The Golden Castle," Lance's agent describes other movies he could star in, such as [[Film/{{Transformers}} "Lanceformers"]] and [[Film/TheAvengers2012 "Lancevengers"]].
** The two reporters not only have a rather aloof way of reporting very serious events, but they also look a lot like the reporters from ''Film/RoboCop1987''
** In "The King's Tournament", Jorah Tightwad's "Tighty Knighties" all have names resembling celebrities:
*** [[Creator/ShiaLabeouf Shia LiaBlade]]
*** [[Music/JustinBieber Jousting Bieber]]
*** [[Music/BritneySpears Brickney Spears]]
*** [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Block]]
** Gobbleton Rambley is a parody of Creator/GordonRamsay.
** The episode "Saturday Knight Fever" references the movie ''Film/SaturdayNightFever''.
** The episode "The Fast and the Furious" references ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''.
** The Knights' Academy Principal Brickland is fond of shouting "[[Film/BackToTheFuture slacker]]" at students.
** One of the Nexo Powers is the old LEGO Space logo.
** Clay's vacation resort is run by a man designed after [[Series/FawltyTowers Basil Fawlty]], right down to speaking a la John Cleese. Just to get the point across, one of the resort's towers gets damaged, causing the man to lament it's "faulty".
** One of the Combo Nexo Power combinations Ava mentions having tested is "[[Music/EarthWindAndFire Earth, Wind and Fire]]", which Merlok even lampshades:
-->'''Merlok 2.0:''' Boogie down, boogie down.
* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: Implied to be about a 5. It seems women ''can'' become Knights, but the ActionGirl's father just doesn't want her to be. Her mother, however, seems more willing.
** This may have to do more with the [[LovableCoward King]] himself being afraid about the idea of any member of his family being on the front lines.
* SmurfettePrinciple: Macy is the only main knight who is female, as we are [[LampshadeHanging frequently made aware]].
* SnakePeople: Whiparella has a snake-like lower body.
* TheSmartGuy:
** Ava is pretty much a ChildProdigy, complete with a somewhat deadpan tone to her voice.
** Robin is no slouch, himself, and is a whiz with hardware and mechanical engineering. He handles the hardware, Ava handles the software.
* SpellBook: Several, used by Jestro to summon lava monsters from beyond.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: "Fortrex... spelled with an "x", [[LampshadeHanging which makes it cool and high-tech."]]
* SpiderPeople: Lavaria's Ultimate form has a four legged spider-like lower half. However, the associated shield power indicates that this form is actually beetle-based.
* StealthPun:
** The Fortrex, which combines "fortress" and ''rex'' (Latin for "king). In other words, its name is the same as many previous flagship sets in the Castle line: King's Castle!
** Axl. While his name is obviously based on his weapon of choice, it is spelled with an "XL", which means [[TheBigGuy "extra large"]].
* {{Stripperiffic}}: All of the female lava monsters. Justified in that they are not human, and thus may not share the same biology and parts, dressing the way they do more for the sake of recognizability.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: In "The Maze of Amazement", Axl's family are all shown to look just like him.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: At one point, Jestro tries wearing a hat made of gold. He promptly falls over and has difficulty picking himself up because it's gold.
* TakeThat: Two subtle ones in Golden Castle; One comes from Jestro who insults remakes and asks how explosions make anything better. The other is to people who complained about the new style. After Merlok reminisces on the days where there was only Magic and Knights, Ava says that they can't live in the past.
* TechnicianVsPerformer: During the King's Tournament the Tighty Knighties effortlessly school the Nexo Knights. However when Jestro's monster forces show up they are all either terrified or easily dispatched while the Nexo Knights drive off the evil forces. The Tighty Knighties even admit that while they are the superior ''athletes'' their opponents were the better ''warriors''.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Burnzie and Sparkks.
* TomeOfEldritchLore: The Book of Monsters, certainly, but also the other books it seeks out to increase its powers. They consist of the Books of Evil, Chaos, Fear, Anger, Deception, Destruction, Revenge, Greed, Envy, Cruelty and Betrayal.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Aaron is too fearless to be defeated by [[IKnowWhatYouFear Whiparella]], who is completely exasperated trying to get a fear response out of him. His taunting ends up seriously hurting her feelings too, she cries when reporting back to Jestro.
* TopHeavyGuy: Axl.
* TotallyRadical: The robot announcer Alice, who, on top of saying lots of puns, thinks she's "hip".
** Merlok has an occasional go at it too, like when ordering the knights to show their "totes amazeballs" moves.
---> '''Ava:''' Wow, magic hipness. Score one for the old dude.
* TronLines: Knighton technology has these in lovely Neon Chainsaw Orange. The knights' armor glows with them whenever they power up.
* VillainousHarlequin: Jestro, the BigBad.
* ViolentGlaswegian: Reex, Roog and Rumble have Scottish accents.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Merlok 2.0 and Ava are both literal cases, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome which has been known to cause problems.]]
* WeakButSkilled: Played with, the Tighty Knighties are skilled in tournaments compared to the Nexo Knights but in an actual fight they are screwed.
* WhamLine: At the end of "The Fortrex and the Furious":
-->'''Jestro:''' Just who do you think you are, anyway?\\
'''[[spoiler: The Book of Monsters]]:''' [[spoiler: Me? Oh, I know exactly who I am. Before I was trapped in this book, I was the mighty arch-necromancer, Monstrox!]]
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: Clay finally turns into stone in episode 9 of season 3.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Earth is mentioned in Season 1 Episode 4, and several real-life cultures, including Greek and Roman, in following episodes. So, assuming the Earth's georgraphy in this world is close to ours, which continent is Knighton located on? Europe, North America, Asia, Australia by some virtue?
* WhipItGood: Whiparella, a snake woman that dual wields barbed whips that conjure your worst fears.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: The Fortrex, which Robin lampshades:
--> '''Robin:''' ...Because having an X in the name makes it cool and hi-tech!
* YouthfulFreckles: Macy, Aaron, and Robin all have these.
----

* AndroidsArePeopeToo: Zig-Zagged. It seems that Squirebots can live an independent life and get education and jobs, as seen with Chef Eclair and the hip-hop duo Chili Vanilla, but at the same time, most of them are treated as living (in a sense) test dummies, cheap labour and so on.

** Ava.
** So is the male news anchor, [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl who's regularly fed up with his partner's antics.]]

** There also his mobile headquarters in season 3.

*** The king's servant-bot finishes off a lecture with "and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped".

** The head of the Knight's Academy is fond of shouting "[[Film/BackToTheFuture slacker]]" at students.
** One of the Nexo Powers is the old LEGO Space logo. Sadly, it does not do anything spaceship related.

* BeleagueredAssistant: Lance's robot assistant, Dennis.

** Axl. While his name is obviously based on [[AnAxeToGrind his weapon of choice]], it is spelled with an "XL", which means [[TheBigGuy "extra large"]].

* EpicFlail: Beast Master can use his chained Globlins like this.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HamAndDeadpanDuo: Robin and Ava.