Line #40 WesternAnimation/Vixen


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vixen_season_2_promo_poster.png]]
5
6	''Vixen'' is a 2015 animated online series airing on the CW Seed, and a spinoff of the Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}. It focuses on [[ComicBook/{{Vixen}} the eponymous comic book character]] (Creator/MegalynEchikunwoke), whose real name is Mari [=McCabe=], as she seeks knowledge about her birth parents and her magical heritage - running afoul of the law as well as the Series/{{Arrow}} and [[Series/TheFlash2014 the Flash]].
7
8	The series consists of six five-minute episodes, which began airing on August 25th, 2015. The series was renewed for a second season in January 2016 and Megalyn reprised the character in live-action for Arrow's fourth season in the episode "[[Recap/ArrowS4E15Taken Taken]]".
9
10	The first season takes place sometime around the 2014-2015 Arrowverse season. Mari comes back to her hometown of Detroit. During an attempted mugging her totem necklace begins to manifest its powers, which draws the attention of Barry and Oliver, who merely want to help Mari understand her powers, and an unsavory woman who hold the answers that Mari's been looking for her about her heritage.
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12	The second season takes a place a year later during the 2015-2016 season, before the formation of the [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow Legends]]. A mysterious African ambassador with connections to Mari's birth family begins causing havoc in Detroit and she teams up with the Atom and Black Canary to stop him before he destroys the city.
13
14	The first two seasons were edited together with 15 minutes of new footage and was released on DVD on May 23rd, 2017 under the title of ''Vixen: The Movie''.
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16	Two years after it premiered online, ''Vixen'' had its terrestrial broadcast debut on August 30th, 2017 airing as the omnibus movie version.
17	----
18	!!''Vixen'' contains examples of:
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20	* ArbitrarySkepticism: Despite the events in Central City well being public knowledge by now, Chuck has trouble believing Mari's powers even after seeing them first-hand.
21	* ArcNumber: When asked about who her family is, Mari calls it the "Fifty-two million dollar question", fifty-two being the ArcNumber for the Arrowverse as a whole.
22	* ArrowCatch: Mari catches an arrow shot by Oliver.
23	* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The series explains Mari's powers as being bestowed by the Akan trickster god Anansi through manipulating the Yoruba concept of Ase, mashing together concepts from two very distinct religions and parts of Africa. May overlap with TheThemeParkVersion. Possibly {{justified\|Trope}} by the fact that ''{{Series/Constantine}}'' is also a part of this universe and they might be using a [[AllMythsAreTrue similar approach to religion]].
24	* AxCrazy: Eshu, especially once he gets the Fire Totem.
25	* BaitTheDog: Kuasa tells Mari about her past and answers all her questions [[spoiler:right before poisoning her with a spider]].
26	* BigBad:
27	** In Season 1, it's Mari's own sister Kuasa who feels the totem rightfully belongs to her.
28	** In Season 2, it's Eshu, the man who destroyed both sisters' village and murdered their father, who wants to collect all magical totems for himself.
29	* BondVillainStupidity:
30	** Despite having several opportunities, Kuasa leaves Mari alive, at one point patching her wounds and taking her from Detroit to Africa. Then, even after getting the totem, Kuasa still doesn't kill her.
31	** She appears to train her mooks in this, as well. They have their guns aimed at Mari and Kuasa has stated she'll have them kill her if she doesn't hand over the necklace. When Mari can't, Kuasa says she'll take it from her corpse, so the goons immediately... rush toward her instead of shooting her.
32	* BroughtDownToBadass: [[spoiler: Even after Mari separates him from the totem, Eshu still put's up a formidable fight against her. Under water, no less.]]
33	* CainAndAbel: Kuasa is Mari's sister and won't hesitate to kill her to get the totem.
34	* CatchPhrase: While running from Barry and Oliver, she interrupts Oliver to deliver his frequent accusation ("You have failed this city.") in an "yeah, yeah" tone. Obviously, she knows enough about the costumed hero to deliver that line.
35	* ClingyMacGuffin: The necklace. While Mari has no trouble getting it on and off normally, when she tries to hand it to Kuasa, it refuses to come off.
36	* ContrivedCoincidence: [[TheNicknamer Cisco]] gives Mari the codename [[TitleDrop Vixen]], completely unaware that it was the same codename used by Mari's grandmother Amaya while a member of the Justice Society of America, as seen on ''[[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow Legends of Tomorrow]]''.
37	* DeclarationOfProtection: Mari vows to protect Detroit after reclaiming the totem.
38	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Clearly, neither Barry nor Oliver considered that Mari might not be happy to see two costumed superheroes show up at her doorstep. LetsYouAndHimFight ensues as a result.
39	* DisproportionateRetribution: Mari starts the series in jail because she stabbed the guy interviewing her in the hand for suggesting she sleep with him to get the job.
40	* DoomedHometown: Zambesi village is Kuasa and Mari's.
41	* EnemyMine: Mari teams up with her sister in Season 2 to stop Eshu, the man who destroyed their village and murdered their father.
42	* EntitledBastard: Even though the spirit totem stayed in the bloodline by going to Mari, Kuasa cannot be deterred from believing that it is her right to wield it and her's alone.
43	* {{Flight}}: Mari can fly by invoking the essence of a bird.
44	* GuestStar: Four guest stars, actually. Two from ''{{Series/Arrow}}'' (Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Arrow + Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity) and two from ''Series/{{The Flash\|2014}}'' (Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/Flash + Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon). In Season 2, Ray Palmer, Jax Jackson (from ''[[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow Legends of Tomorrow]]'') as well as Laurel Lance join the cast. There is also a small silent appearance from Weather Wizard.
45	* HappilyAdopted: Mari, while she is very curious about her birth parents, has a very good relationship with her adoptive father and her relationship with her adoptive mother was even better. [[spoiler:When she sees a vision of her ancestors, her adoptive mother is among them.]]
46	* HowUnscientific: The series introduces magic into the Arrowverse, which until this point had been in science fiction territory (albeit getting steadily softer on that front ever since the Flash showed up and the Lazarus Pits were on ''Arrow''). Though if you want to get technical, ''Series/{{Constantine}}'' also had magic, but that show was made part of the Verse retroactively.
47	* HowWeGotHere: The opening sequence has Vixen being chased by the Arrow and the Flash, before going back three days.
48	* IdiotBall:
49	** The Flash keeps failing to grab Vixen because she jumps at the last second or dodges in some other fashion. Because the series wants to have a dramatic fall for its HowWeGotHere bit, he fails to utilize his vastly superior reflexes and speed to catch her. There is some indication he's holding back and is at times surprised by her powers, but the chase runs long enough that his failure to catch her is all the more noticeable for it.
50	** Barry and Oliver show up to Mari's house in full costume and with Oliver heavily armed. This, obviously, freaks Mari out and leads to the LetsYouAndHimFight sequence.
51	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Chuck's reaction to Mari picking up a table one-handed: "I really need to start drinking."
52	* InkSuitActor: Vixen is modeled after her voice actress, to better facilitate future live-action appearances by the character. She will be making her live-action debut on ''Arrow''.
53	* InSeriesNickname: The trailer shows [[TheNicknamer Cisco]] gives Mari the name Vixen, like almost all comic book aliases in ''The Flash''.
54	* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Kuasa get's killed by Eshu in the fifth episode of Season 2. And Eshu himself bite's the dust in the Season 2 finale.]]
55	* LetsYouAndHimFight: Mari immediately heads for the hills when the Arrow and Flash show up at her door, since she assumes they're trying to arrest her, making things rather more violent than they needed to be.
56	* MissingMom: Mari was given up for adoption and knows nothing about her birth mother (and father), and in the present day, her adoptive mother has since died.
57	* MonochromePast: Kuasa's narration of her backstory uses muted colors.
58	* MyEyesAreUpHere: Invoked by Mari when she goes to a university professor to have her necklace examined, since he starts scrutinizing it while she's still wearing it.
59	* NoNameGiven: Mari never does actual learn her sister Kuasa's name. In fact, seemingly so, Kuasa is only ever named in the credits.
60	* OriginStory: The miniseries serves as one for Vixen.
61	* OrphansPlotTrinket: Mari's magic totem necklace was a keepsake from her mysterious birth mother.
62	* OutOfOrder: The series is set some time in the third quarter of ''Arrow'' Season 3/''The Flash'' Season 1, to explain why the two of them would be working together on this.
63	* PlayingWithFire: Eshu, after getting his hands on the Fire Totem.
64	* ReusedCharacterDesign: The series has the same designers and animation style as ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', and some assets from that show seem to have been recycled. Dr. Hugo Strange stars as Mr. Jones the cat burglar, the smuggler trying to shake down Dr. Vargas could be [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson's]] evil uncle, and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie Sandsmark]] is a bystander in the crowd watching Eshu adress Detroit on live television.
65	* ScaryBlackMan: Benatu Eshu.
66	* ScissorsCutsRock: [[spoiler: Eshu's fire powers are so great that he literally reduces Kuasa into nothingness, despite her having the water totem.]]
67	* SecondaryAdaptation: Originally a Creator/DCComics character created circa 1978, the [[ComicBook/{{Vixen}} character of Mari Jiwe McCabe]] is now a part of the Arrowverse continuity, a primarily live-action television medium, where her grandmother appears in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''. This self-titled SpinOff show is an animated online series that first aired on CW Seed in 2015.
68	* ShoutOut: The five totems are the same (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Spirit (Heart)) as those in ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers''.
69	* TheStinger: The movie version's after credits scene is an animated recreation of Vixen's introduction from "[[Recap/ArrowS4E15Taken Taken]]", ending with Green Arrow asking for her help.
70	* TheThemeParkVersion: As noted in ArtisticLicenseReligion, Mari and the totem's African origins are all over the place. She is from a village named "Zambezi" - named after a river in Zambia - but which is a "M'changa" province and appearance wise appears to be in Kenya. However, they pray to a West African god, who grants them power associated with a second West African belief system. Her sister wears what appears to be a Kufi, which ''are'' used in West Africa but are actually Islam-related. By and large it appears to be a mashup of stereotypically "African" aspects from all over the continent. The second season clarifies that -- as in the comics -- Zambezi village is in a [[{{Bulungi}} fictional country]] ''also'' called Zambezi.
71	* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: When Mari and her adoptive dad encounter some muggers, one says "Give up the necklace, bitch!"
72	* TimeSkip: The movie version shows there's a one year gap between Season One and Season Two; since that's how long Professor Macalaster's expedition in Africa was. Mari spent the time honing her skills and making herself a better costume.
73	* UnreliableNarrator: [[BigBad Kuasa]] is the one who tells Mari her backstory. It's mostly accurate, but she was lying about being TheChosenOne.
74	* YoureNotMyFather: Averted, Mari has a decent relationship with her adopted parents, but she still wants to know more about her birth parents.

Context WesternAnimation / Vixen