History WesternAnimation / DefendersOfTheEarth

* {{Transflormation}}: In "Root of Evil," a scientist's accidental transformation into a plant serves as the blueprint for the villains' plans to [[BalefulPolymorph transform everyone else too]].

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Jedda's telepathic powers allowed her to communicate with animals.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Creator/DynamiteComics have reunited Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake and Lothar in their ''Kings Watch'' series. However this time it's not set in the future, there's no children of the original heroes and the threats faced are mostly supernatural rather than alien. This series has lead to a SharedUniverse of titles under the ''King'' banner featuring solo titles for the aforementioned three (with Lothar as the new Phantom), plus ComicStrip/PrinceValiant and ComicStrip/JungleJim.

* TakenForGranite: All the Defenders except for Mandrake and Kshin are turned into stone by Kronos in the stonehenge. Later, it happens to Jedda again when Ming dipped her in a liquid that turned her into some plastic, statue, doll thing. Then to Jedda yet again in "Street Smarts" when ice robots fired a beam that turned her into a statue to be taken away.

* BritsLoveTea: Mandrake, being a posh English gentleman, naturally drinks tea and offers it as a remedy to someone who's been in a crash.

* SpotOfTea: Mandrake, being a posh English gentleman, naturally drinks tea and offers it as a remedy to someone who's been in a crash.

* BaldOfAwesome: Lothar, in keeping with his being a heroic ScaryBlackMan.
* BaldOfEvil: Ming, although his headpiece usually hides it.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Jedda as the only female team member.

* SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay: Traveling from one planet to another in a few minutes? Yes...
** There's an episode where the Defenders' spacecraft gets a wing shot off and instantly loses the ability to ''fly in space and begins to "fall" in a spin''. Despite being clearly in orbit and far outside the atmosphere, it still inexplicably behaves like an aircraft.

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: Zuffy. No wonder he ended up TheScrappy.

** The Phantom is one one of the oldest legacy characters there is. Jedda even briefly ''became'' the Phantom in "The Ghost Walks Again" when her dad was assumed to be dead.

* SpoilerTitle: Averted, the last episode of the Prince Krotan arc was "The Prince Dethroned". However, [[spoiler: Krotan had already been defeated the previous episode and his dethroning was already a given. The final episode instead focuses on the ex-overlord of Mongo retaking his rulership.]]

* SpoilerTitle: Averted, the last episode of the Prince Krotan arc was killed "The Prince Dethroned". However, [[spoiler: Krotan had already been defeated the previous episode and his dethroning was already a given. The final episode instead focuses on the ex-overlord of Mongo retaking his rulership.]]

** Used on Jedda in the episode Mind Warriors II with an enemy designed to control her mind.
** On Mandrake and Lothar in The Lost Jewels of Tibet where some jewels that are actually dragon eggs hypnotize anyone who looks at it to deliver them to its mother at the crater.

* FatalFlaw: Jedda has a weakness for cute boys and loses all her intelligence when seduced. Krotan took advantage of this in his plan to moleculize Ming.

* FatalFlaw: Jedda is shown to have a weakness for cute boys.

* GambitPileup: The whole 5-part Prince Kro-Tan arc. Ming and Kro-Tan plan to use then betray one another, which Kro-Tan succeeded by getting powers from an evil witch Zorelda then use the Defender's molecularizer to vaporize Ming. But it turned out Zarelda was just using Kro-Tan to get Ming's essence which Kro-Tan refused to hand over so Zorelda counted on the Defenders to overthrow Kro-Tan so he'd come back begging and hand over Ming's essence in desperation. With Ming's essence, Zorelda was able to bring back the true EvilOverlord of Mongo, Suramong, but the Defenders defeat him by reviving Ming, which extracts the essence from Suramong.

* GentlemanSnarker: Mandrake never loses his cool and always well mannered even when making remarks at his enemies. One legendary moment when approaching an ice robot.

* GambitPileup: The whole 5-part Prince Kro-Tan arc. Ming and Kro-Tan plan to use then betray one another, which Kro-Tan succeeded by getting powers from an evil witch Zarelda then use the Defender's molecularizer to vaporize Ming. But it turned out Zarelda was just using Kro-Tan to get Ming's essence which Kro-Tan refused to hand over so Zarelda counted on the Defenders to overthrow Kro-Tan so he'd come back begging and hand over Ming's essence in desperation. With Ming's essence, Zarelda was able to bring back the true all powerful overlord of Mongo but the Defenders defeat him by reviving Ming, which extracts the essence from the overlord.

* BatmanGambit: As a hero team, the Defenders often prefer to outsmart their opponents so there are quite a few of these. Some notable ones:
** When Kro-Tan planted a mind bomb on a friend of Jedda, Jedda had the other defenders distract Kro-Tan while she searched and took the bomb off. Later, Jedda confronts Kro-Tan next to said friend to provoke him into detonating bomb but it turned out Jedda had thrown it next to the thrusters that were vital to Kro-Tan's plan, blowing them up.

->'''Mandrake:''' Inn keeper? Do you lodgings for two more guests?\\

** When Kro-Tan planted a mind bomb on a friend of Jedda, Jedda had her friends distract Kro-Tan while she searched and took the bomb off. Later, Jedda confronts Kro-Tan next to said friend to provoke him into detonating bomb but it turned out Jedda had thrown it next to the thrusters that were vital to Kro-Tan's plan, blowing them up.

** When Krotan planted a mind bomb on a friend of Jedda, Jedda had her friends distract Krotan while she searched and took the bomb off. Later, Jedda confronts Kro-Tan next to said friend to provoke him into detonating bomb but it turned out Jedda had thrown it next to the thrusters that were vital to Kro-Tan's plan, blowing them up.

* ComicallySerious: When his base got trashed by a a kid hero wannabe who left a message on his wall, Ming responds by commanding his men to track him down and eliminate them then proceeds to ask "What are cooties?"

* ChasteToons: Deconstructed, not only with the heroes, but the villain. (Although Ming is clearly not a good father, [[TheStarscream as his son double-crossed him.]])

** The TV show never spells it out, but the short-lived Creator/MarvelComics adaptation specifies that Dynak is, in fact, [[ComicStrip/FlashGordon Dale Arden]].

* {{Bowdlerize}}: Instead of punching his ring into people to leave its' imprint in their skin, The Phantom instead fires a beam from his ring that leaves a duplicate of the ring's surface on the target.