It's Princess Maya's fifteenth birthday as well as the day of her coronation as the new Queen of Teca, and representatives of all the lands have arrived in Teca to pay their respects. The celebrations are cut short, however, when Zatz, the Prince of Bats, arrives with an ultimatum from Lord Mictlan, the God of War and ruler of the Underworld.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Arc Words: Introduced here, and carried through the rest of the series: "If it is to be, it is up to me."
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Maya's coronation and celebration of her fifteenth birthday is crashed by Zatz, who reveals the truth about her Semi-Divine parentage and delivers an ultimatum that she is to be sacrificed to Lord Mictlan, the God of War, or all of Teca will fall.
- An Arm and a Leg: King Teca loses his left hand during his fight with the two golems.
- Anger Born of Worry: Queen Teca after Maya wakes up.Queen Teca: (hugs Maya) Ay Maya, we were so worried about you! (breaks the hug and shakes Maya) You could have died in that ring!
- Bait-and-Switch: Chiapa is introduced as a big, intimidating warrior cat... until he spots a ball of yarn on the floor and starts acting like a housecat.Teca King: Chiapa, por favor! You are a battle cat. Act like one.
(Chiapa spits out the yarn and roars) - Bait-and-Switch Comment:Barbarian King: (whistles, impressed) Bat prince is good!
Barbarian Princess: (as Zatz performs another Hair Flip) Yeah. He fights pretty well, too.
Barbarian King: Huh? - Bewitched Amphibians: The Gran Bruja's second in command mocks her bad feeling about Maya's coronation, and gets turned into a frog for his trouble.
- The Cameo: The original El Tigre makes a really quick cameo at the very start of the episode.
- Catch and Return: Zatz catches one of Daggers' knives just before it hits his face and throws it back at him. Moments later, he catches Shield's shield, files its teeth off using his own shield, and throws it back at the triplets like a frisbee, knocking them out.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The triplets almost run into a chambermaid humming to herself near Maya's room. The same maid is later tasked by the Queen to help Maya prepare for the coronation, and she hums the same tune to calm the agitated princess.
- The Chosen One: The people of Teca, Maya included, believe that the King and his three sons are the Eagle and the Three Jaguars prophesied to defeat the dark lords of the Underworld.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Zatz's Pretty Boy looks earn him the admiration of several males among the Tecas, including Maya's brothers.Triplets: Know the Kingdom of Teca does not fear the dark gods! Even really handsome ones!
- Exact Words: Zatz warns the people of Teca that if they give him Maya without a fight "[...] no harm will come to anyone. But you resist and I swear you will all die." He didn't say they would die by his hand.
- Expy: Bear Killah is essentially El Oso right down to being voiced by John Dimaggio and sharing the same Verbal Tic of "mang!"
- Facepalm: Zatz's reaction when the King and the triplets chose to fight instead of giving him Maya.
- Foreshadowing:
- An eagle fighting a snake is shown both during Maya's opening narration and immediately after the Establishing Shot of the Kingdom of Teca.
- The nameless chambermaid takes a lot of liberties when talking to Maya, giving her opinion without being asked and impulsively calling Maya "niña" (dear girl or daughter), before apologizing and handing her her pendant.
- Fight Clubbing: The Illegal Bare-Knuckle Fighting Pit, which is exactly what the name says. It comes complete with a hammy announcer and a crowd of betting spectators. Maya joins the ring in order to defeat the reigning champion, Bear Killah.Announcer: Whoever's the least dead at the end gets the gold price of... gold!
- Hair Flip: Zatz performs one when he removes his helmet, to the delight of everyone present —both female and male.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: Maya's coronation outfit is so fancy and impractical that her arms are supported with ropes from her headdress and she can barely walk in that thing. She quickly slips out of it after Zatz shows up so she can move freely.
- Noble Demon: Zatz refuses to fight Maya's brothers seriously, even though he's obviously a much better fighter than them, and knocks them out instead of killing them. Then, he refuses to fight King Teca after the latter has lost his left hand to one of the golems. Furthermore, he and his father, Camazotz, are the only ones among the gods of the Underworld who seem to dislike Lord Mictlan's plans for the Tecas.
- Opening Narration: The series opens with Maya narrating the origins of the Kingdom of Teca, Rooster Island, the Skull Jungle, and the Golden Mountain, as well as mentioning the prophecy about the four warriors of Teca who will defeat the Gods of the Underworld.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Maya may be on the shorter side, but she's strong enough to knock a huge, burly pit fighter down with a single punch.
- The Prophecy: There's an ancient prophecy that four warriors from Teca, the Great Eagle and the Three Jaguars, will one day vanquish the Gods of the Underworld after a great battle.
- Seers: The kooky old lady with the spiky hairdo seems to have some sort of precognitive abilities, as shown when she senses Zatz's arrival during Maya's coronation.
- Semi-Divine: Maya is revealed to be the product of her (mortal) father's affair with the Goddess of Death, Lady Micte.
- Shoutout:
- The Gran Bruja's second in command mocks her bad feeling about all this with: "I'm sensing disturbances in the forces!"
- Zatz, upon his arrival to Teca: "Great King and Queen of Teca! Allow me to introduce myself..."
- Single-Minded Twins: Triples, in this case. Maya's triplet brothers, Lance, Daggers, and Shield, seem to share a single mind and often act and talk in unison.
- Skyward Scream: The King of Teca calls Maya this way when he finds that she's been missing since the previous night. Maya's too far away to hear him, but everyone else in Teca did.
- Villain Reveals the Secret: Zatz reveals Maya's true parentage to her when he arrives to take her to Lord Mictlan. Until that moment, only the King and Queen of Teca knew that Maya was the daughter of Lady Micte.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Maya uses a lot of wrestling moves during her pit fight. At one point she elbow-drops her opponent, calling the attack "the Teca family's elbow".
