Western Animation / Nexo Knights

"We are unbreakable!" ^note Clockwise from upper left: Aaron Fox, Axl, Lance Richmond, Clay Moorington, Macy Halbert.

Nexo Knights is a Castle-esque LEGO Theme which was released in 2016. It's the successor to Legends of Chima, with an All-CGI Cartoon aired on TV, which lasted for four seasons. The toyline lasted until 2018, when it was quietly cancelled. A canon spin-off book, The Forbidden Power, was also written by Max Brallier of The Last Kids on Earth fame, telling the story of an orphan Fletcher Bowman sent to train to become a knight. Two more books were planned, but, just like the TV series, cancelled.

The theme is, in a way, good old Castle with sci-fi elements, where the five heroic knights (and a wizard, and two junior 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 page being constructed.

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Tropes that apply to the sets and television series:

• 24-Hour Armor: Due to Axl's Nonstandard Character Design, no armorless version of him appears in the toyline or cartoon (although he is seen shirtless in one of the books). When Aaron asks him about it, Axl states that he likes to be prepared.
• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Axl's little sister, Axlina, is one to Robin.
  • Jorah Tightwad made advances towards Macy once, though not out of any romantic pursuits but rather to spite her father.
• Action Girl: Princess Macy is one of the titular knights.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Forbidden Powers have alliterative names (e.g.: Collapsing Crumble).
• Adorably Precocious Child: Robin and Ava. Despite being in their pre-teens, they are mature enough to follow the adults into battle, although they usually provide support from behind the lines.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The real-life Book of Monsters contains info on all the monsters in its pages, including some who never appeared in the series.
  • In general, character encyclopedias and other guide books tend to include curious facts about the show's universe not seen in the series proper, such as the characters' backstories, the royal couple's real names and how many secondary characters are also Knights' Academy graduates.
• Ambiguous Time Period: When the show takes place is never made clear. Most of Knighton looks relatively rural, everyone is dressed like it's Middle Ages, so medieval period? But it doesn't explain technology centuries ahead of ours being in wide use. Twenty-somethingth century? Then again, cinema and electrical technology are implied to be no older than a hundred years. Given techonology in this world could have developed at a different pace from ours, the show could very well take place in an entirely fictional time period.
• Androids Are People, Too: 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. A number of Squirebots are part of a criminal group providing support for abandoned Squirebots.
• Animal Companion: 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.
• Animal Motifs: All the Knights' crests feature an animal matching their personalities in some way. As a Parental Bonus, 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 (though he trades it for a pair of crossed wrenches in his set-exclusive black armor)
  • The only exception may be Ava, as her crest only appears in one of the guide books. We are not given a good look, but it resembles a larntern more than an animal's head.
• Arcadia: Despite the numerous technological advancements, most of Knighton still looks pretty rural and green, with jobs like farmers and miners still present, and up until Jestro released the Lava Monsters, it's been a peaceful realm for an entire century.
• Arms and Armor Theme Naming: The main characters all have punny names based on the weapons they use: Clay Moorington (claymore), Lance, Aaron (arrow), Axl (axe), and Macy (mace).
• Artifact of Doom:
  • The Book of Monsters, which corrupts Jestro and summons lava monsters into the kingdom.
  • In season 3 there's the Forbidden Power tablets.
• Attention Whore: Lance's innermost fear is obscurity.
• Back from the Dead: Both Merlok (in a sense) and Monstrox were able to pull this trope off.
• Base on Wheels:
  • The Fortrex, formerly Ye Olde Royal RV, is a giant castle on tank treads that the knights repurposed to their needs.
  • Jestro responds in kind to the above example by having the Beast Master create an Evil Mobile for him.
  • Evil Mobile gets destroyed in Season 3, but Roberto Arnoldi replaces it with Rolling Headquarters. Oh, and the "head" stands for Jestro's head.
• The Beastmaster: One of the Lava Monsters uses the name verbatim.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Lance's robot assistant, Dennis. He leaves his master close to Season 1 finale, only to come back, and then leaves him permanently in the middle of Season 3.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do not ruin Axl's souffle.
  • Do not laugh at Jestro.
  • Do not call Whiparella "Whimparella". Or any nickname, for that matter.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Over half of the show's humour is built on this, such as Lance pointing out how horrible Clay's "pre-fight lines" sound. You could call it "Lampshade Knights" if you wanted.^note "Lampshade Knights"? Seriously?
• The Big Guy: Axl, who has a rather bulky upper body.
  • Big Eater: As an extention of said role, Axl is almost always seen eating.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Book of Monsters and Jestro technically form one, but The Book has a role much similar to a Dragon-in-Chief as the true brains, nevertheless they do seem to be equal partners. After the Book's true identity, Monstrox, is revealed, he becomes the sole Big Bad, with Jestro Demoted to Dragon in the following season.
• Big Book of War: The Knight's Code, written by Knighton's founders and dearly treasured by Clay Moorington. It's actually published in real life, though ironically, the actual rules of the code don't encompass that much of the book, so caling it "big" would be a stretch.
• Bittersweet Ending: The story's non-televised conclusion - Monstrox is defeated for good, but at the cost of Merlok's life.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The world's spiciest chili created by the Gordon Ramsey expy in "Monster Chef". How spicy is it? He apparently burned down 25 villages through the process of making it!
• Bling of War: In year 3, the knights all get golden armor.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Very odd instance. The Book of Monsters is a living Tome of Eldritch Lore that serves as a container for monsters that increases the power and kind of monsters it can release by consuming other evil spell books. Even more unusual given the other books are fragments of it that were separated by Merlok.
• Captain Oblivious: 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.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: After "Rock Bottom", the show eventually slipped into this. With Clay turned into stone, the kingdom under threat of complete destruction, and more disturbing information about Merlok's past revealed, the tone is definitely darker than the mostly light-hearted seasons 1 and 2, but all the above-mentioned themes can get interrupted at any moment by a quirky comment from Aaron or Jestro, and jokes are being made even when a town is being burned to the ground on-screen. The second time Clay turns into stone, his teammates take it surprisingly well, in fact, as if nothing happened.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Jokes Knightly first appears as a washed-up former comedian in "Book of Obsession". He gets back on his feet in "Open Mike Knight"… thanks to stumbling upon the Book of Betrayal.
• City of Gold:
  • Auremville, Lance's hometown, with his family mansion being the prime example.
  • Tightwad's unnamed city is an even straighter example, as it appears to be built fully with gold. Or at least it used to be.
• Color Coded Magic: 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.
• Comically Small Demand: The climax of "Greed is Good?" has Jestro and The Book of Monsters offer to give back Auremville's gold supply and Lance's parents back in exchange for... a tube of sealant, to weather seal a new hot tub in their lair. Justified as they wanted to give the gold and Lance's parents back, while Lance didn't want his parents to come back.
  Lance: Huh, my parents for a tube of sealant...
  Clay: Really? Do you actually have to think about it?
• Company Cross References:
  • 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 Legends of Chima.
  • Lance's agent Maynard mentions a film called Knightjago 3, which fittingly involves heroes fighting villains by spinning.
• Cool Car: 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.
• The Corrupter: The Book of Monsters puts Jestro on a path of villainy with convincing words.
• The Corruption:
  • The Book of Evil turns whatever it touches evil. It renders a rabbit rabid and gives Jestro his Evil Makeover complete with a corresponding attitude.
  • The Forbidden Powers turned their guardians evil.
• Crown of Horns: Whenever Jestro starts to act truly evil the ends of his jester hat stand up to make it look like horns.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Jestro, and later Clay, are chained up in this position while the Book of Monsters prepares to possess them. In other words, they are being prepped for a sacrifice, but not the heroic type.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Every town/village in Knighton looks the same. On a good day, a newly introduced settlement will have a visible quirk to set it apart, like being covered in snow (Snottingham), being built out of granite (Rockstead), or even having unique buildings (Nothing Hill), but most of the time the only way to tell them apart is by looking a the holographic sign on the central tower.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Season 3 strays from the knights being able to use Nexo power to win the fights in some episodes, not to mention the direction the story takes: Clay is being slowly turned to stone, Monstrox is now able to revive monsters to fight once again, and the villains no longer plan to just conquer the kingdom - they are trying to destroy it.
  • Season 4 is even moreso. Just to name a few: Clay struggles with his new newfound anger issues, receives shocking news about his relatives, his friends lose him one more time, and Monstrox burns almost half the kingdom to the ground.
  • The 2018 comics in comparison to not only the 2016 and 2017 ones, but pretty much the entire series - Monstrox is an even bigger threat than before, not to mention much less comedic, still threatens to destroy the kingdom, while the villains are able to brainwash Squirebots into their minions and force the knights to fight them, a digital virus is being spread across Knighton and nearly infects all of it... Oh, and Merlok dies in the end.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Half of Ava's dialogue is just snarking at whoever's around.
  • So is Herb Herbertson, the male news anchor, who's regularly fed up with his partner's antics.
• Demonic Possession: "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.
• Denser and Wackier: To the other Castle themes. 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.
• Did Not Think This Through: 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.
• Dirty Cop: In the episode "The Good, the Bad and the Tightwad", the knights encounter three Deputybots who work for Jorah Tightwad and pick a fight with anyone who enters their town since it "ain't big enough for the both of them".
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: General Magmar's Siege Machine of Doom, the vehicle belonging to Magmar himself.
• Emotionless Girl: Ava's default expression.
• Enfante Terrible: 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.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: Monstrox's old base was one. 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.
• Exact Words: Macy tells Jorah Tightwad that if he fails the competiton, he'll get a kiss from Lance's sweetheart. Turns out Lance calls Hamletta his sweetheart, so Tightwad is made to kiss a pig.
• 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.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: 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.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father:
  • Macy's dad refuses to let her be a knight because he thinks it's too dangerous.
  • 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.
• Fantasy World Map: Although Knighton is technically only a part of the world, and implicitly a small one, it does have one◊.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Book of Monsters promised Jestro that he would no longer be known as a failure of a comedian, but the baddest baddie this world has ever seen.
• General Ripper: General Magmar. He comes equipped with a "siege mobile" to bombard his enemies.
• The Good Kingdom: Knighton appears to be a generally peaceful and prosperous country, and its monarch has a good reputation among his subjects.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All:
  • 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, so they can awaken the Stone Colossus.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Aaron uses a projectile weapon like a bow, and Macy uses a giant mace.
• Here There Be Dragons: The Book of Monsters features a Medieval-styled map of Knighton that shows that here there be not only dragons, but Scurriers as well.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Merlok sacrificed himself to defend his library, but became Merlok 2.0 instead of perishing.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: 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 very nice to him. The Book of Monsters, 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, Monstrox uses his lightning to corrupt Jestro once more. However, the process is not permanent, requiring him to give Jestro regular jolts to keep him evil. And at the end of season four, Jestro breaks free of his magic and is back on the "face" side, but not pardoned.
• Heel–Race Turn: In season three, the lava monsters become good, even helping the Knights to fend off Monstrox's stone army.
• Hidden Depths: 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.
• Hover Board: Aaron's shield can be used as this.
• I Meant to Do That: 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.
• It Can Think: Evil books other than the Book of Monsters are inanimate, but one of them, the Book of Deception, seems to have a conciousness of its own, having created an entire labyrinth full of traps and cryptic messages to trick those trying to find it. It can even create copies of itself with messages like "I cannot tell the truth" and "Fooled you, suckers".
• Kent Brockman News: Herb Herbertson and Alice Squires of the Knighton News Network. Love their job, hate each other's guts, end up being better fit for a comedy show than news reports.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: Well not so much stomach as it is going inside Monstrox and attacking him on the inside till he explodes.
• Lampshade Hanging: 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.
• Laughably Evil: Jestro is pretty much a rookie villain. The Book of Monsters is his harried mentor.
• Like an Old Married Couple: You will definitely get this vibe when you watch the way the Book of Monsters and Jestro argue.
• Made of Evil: 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' armor and weapons are fueled with Nexo powers, which is magic downloaded to the knights via wifi.
• Meaningful Name: Jorah Tightwad. A tightwad he is, refusing to use any of his money to film the Tighty Knighties on a set, preferring to film in a dark, isolated forest.
• Mecha-Mooks: An interesting instance where it is the protagonists that deploy these in form of Squirebots and not the villains.
• Meta Mecha: 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.
• Militaries Are Useless: Other than the Nexo Knights, Knighton seems to have a good amount of both human and robot knights and royal guards armed and on duty, but they are ill-equipped to deal with monsters: the few times Squirebots go up against them, they are quickly curb-stomped, while human knights (barring the main heroes, of course) do anything but fight monsters.
• Mushroom Man: Mushlord from the spin-off books.
• Mythology Gag: References to past LEGO Castle themes are plentiful:
  • Certain early promotional videos feature knights wearing classic Castle armor, in "The Golden Castle", the Nexo Knights themselves wear them while acting for the titular movie.
  • The Golden Castle itself is a reference to a Castle set.
  • As a human, Merlok looks incredibly similar to Majisto, not to mention he happens to have a witch sister, while Willa the Witch is treated as Majisto's sister rather than his ex in some advertisements.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Nexo Knights' three main allies have this dynamic going on. Robin, acting civil with most people and being glad to help them, falls under "Nice"; Ava isn't much of a jerk, but is notably harsher than Robin and doesn't shy away from making snarky comments, making her "Mean"; Merlok 2.0 is friendly most of the time, but loses his temper occasionally, making him "In-Between".
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • In "The King's Tournament", Jorah Tightwad's "Tighty Knighties" are all named after various celebrities:
    • Shia LiaBlade
    • Jousting Bieber
    • Brickney Spears
    • The Block
  • Gobbleton Rambley from "Monster Chef" is a parody of Gordon Ramsay.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Axl is a Top-Heavy Guy in comparison to the others' more usual minifigure proportions. He also has more angular hands, with visible knuckles and finger lines.
• Nothing Is Scarier: 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.
• Not So Stoic: In "The Book of Total Badness", Ava loses her wit-cracking attitude when she realizes the villains are on the verge of victory.
• Not Quite Dead: In "Kingdom of Heroes", it seems as though Monstrox has finally been destroyed. But Jestro briefly sees his laughing face in a cloud...
• Patchwork Map: How the official map of Knighton looks like: the northern edge of it is Grim Up North stuck in an Endless Winter, but in only slightly more southern latitude Lethal Lava Lands are located, separated from the frozen Cold North by the Hill Country. Meanwhile, the north-east of the kingdom is occupied by the Rocklands, and the south-east is the Thirsty Desert Wasteland. In the center of all this is the Arcadia-looking region where the capital of Knightonia is located, with the south-west being somewhat similar.
• Plant Person: The Forest Monsters are a whole group of these.
• Planet of Hats: It's closer to Town of Hats. Every village and town across the Kingdom specializes in some manner of characteristic or industry. Usually in reference to whatever the towns name is a pun of.
• Poor Communication Kills: Due to his advanced age, Merlok sometimes forgets important details. For example, when he informs the knights Jestro will raid the school library, he forgets to tell them Jestro's not after a book, but a snowglobe on the librarian's desk.
• Post-Modern Magik: Doesn't get more PoMo with mysticism than using the Virtual Ghost of a Wizard Classic as an OS that casts his spells over Wi-Fi.
• Powered Armor:
  • 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.
• Predecessor Villain: 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. Though it's less admiration and more stroking his own ego
• Previously on…: Herb Herbertson recaps the events of the last episode through a "Knighton News Network" segment.
• Punny Name: Aside from the punny weapon-based names of the main characters, 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).
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The monster armies' favourite activity, thankfully without the "rape" part as far as we know.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: You'd have to try hard to remember an episode that goes on without a new joke for at least a minute.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked:
  • 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.
• Remember the New Girl?: Did you have any idea that Lance had a sister before you've read The Forbidden Power or watched Season 4? Don't worry if you didn't, because she was never even mentioned before, but apparently everybody knows who she is.
• Robot Buddy: Squirebots, who serve as soldiers, servants, and even a chef!
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Macy is one of the knights, The Queen is no slouch in a pinch either, and largely more battle ready than the King, and even the King himself eventually goes into action in a fighting mech.
• Rule of Cool: 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.
• Running Gag:
  • Clay making a "pre-fight line", with Lance always there to point out how cheesy it sounds.
  • The Book of Monsters telling the Bookkeeper to go somewhere/do something, only for him to misunderstand the orders.
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: "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.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Monty Python and the Holy Grail - at least three per episode:
    • FancyPants finishes off a lecture with "And that is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped".
    • The Book of Monsters has a habit of screaming "Run away!" when things go south for the villains.
    • 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.
    • Merlok, trying to remember his middle name, wonders if people call him "Tim".
    • After 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 "Klaatu Barada Nikto".
  • In "The Golden Castle," Lance's agent describes other movies he could star in, such as "Lanceformers" and "Lancevengers".
  • The Knighton News Network reporters not only have a rather aloof way of reporting very serious events, but they also look a lot like the reporters from RoboCop (1987)
  • The episode "Saturday Knight Fever" references the movie Saturday Night Fever.
  • The episode "The Fast and the Furious" references The Fast and the Furious.
  • The Knights' Academy Principal Brickland is fond of shouting "slacker" at students.
  • One of the Nexo Powers is the old LEGO Space logo and appropriately spawns a spaceship when activated.
  • Clay's vacation resort is run by a man designed after 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 "Earth, Wind and Fire", which Merlok even lampshades:
  Merlok 2.0: Boogie down, boogie down.
  • In Season 4, we are introduced to a secret agent Shields, Jack Shields.
• Show Within a Show: According to the producer, Ninjago and Legends of Chima both exist within the series' universe as works of fiction, which is why elements of them occasionally show up.
• Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Implied to be at about a 5. Women can and do become knights, but the Action Girl's father just doesn't want her to be. Her mother, however, seems more willing.
  • This may have to do more with the king himself being afraid about the idea of any member of his family being on the front lines.
• Smurfette Principle:
  • Macy is the only main knight who is female, as we are frequently made aware.
  • Lavaria and Whiparella are the only two unambiguously female Lava Monsters.
• Snake People: Whiparella has a snake-like lower body.
• The Smart Guy:
  • Ava is pretty much a Child Prodigy, 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.
• Spell Book: Several, used by Jestro to summon lava monsters from beyond.
• Spell My Name With An S: "Fortrex... spelled with an "x", which makes it cool and high-tech."
• Spider People: 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.
• Stealth Pun:
  • 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 "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.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In "The Maze of Amazement", Axl's family are all shown to look just like him.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: 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.
• Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: The two main villains are the royal jester Jestro, who turned evil after getting tired of being laughed at, and the Book of Monsters, who told him this was the best solution to his problem. While Jestro, despite embracing his villainy, is still treated with some degree of sympathy and eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn, it's made clear that the Book is an irredeemable bastard who is just using him, and true enough, turns out he's planning to possess the jester to become the necromancer Monstrox that he used to be. This continues in the following seasons, where Jestro only follows Monstrox's plan to destroy the kingdom due to having been brainwashed by him.
• Take That!: 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.
• Technician vs. Performer: 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.
• Those Two Guys: Burnzie and Sparkks.
• Time Skip: Several month had passed between the Season 2 finale and the Season 3 opening. The Forbidden Power and information from the official website indicate that around a year overall had passed in-universe since the first episode.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: 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.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Aaron is too fearless to be defeated by 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.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Axl, thanks to the new torso piece introduced with him.
• Totally Radical:
  • Man, Aaron just loves to pepper his dialogue with sick slang.
  • 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.
• Tron Lines: Knighton technology has these in lovely Neon Chainsaw Orange. The knights' armor glows with them whenever they power up.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: It's not uncommon for Knighton denizens to pay no attention at Jestro, who by all accounts should be number 1 on the wanted list, walking into their town like he's in charge, and only start panicking after he attacks. Citizens of Rockstead, the town that survived more than one war without a scratch, are especially so, since they remain completely unfazed by the destruction of their not-so-indestructable after all town.
• Upper-Class Twit: The Richmonds are a family of these, with the sole exception of Izzy - Lance isn't the biggest offender, but his parents are so oblivious that they can't tell they are being held hostages even when their captors spell it to them.
• Viewers Are Goldfish: In Season 4, be prepared to get reminded at least Once per Episode that Monstrox plans to awaken the Colossus of Ultimate Destruction and destroy Knighton. Even after it ultimately happens.
• Villain Song: The Book of Monsters has a short one about how being bad is "so neat-o" and "real mean-o", which can be heard in the second webisode and Season 2 finale.
• Villainous Harlequin: Jestro, the Big Bad.
• Violent Glaswegian: Reex, Roog and Rumble have Scottish accents.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Merlok 2.0 and Ava are both literal cases, which has been known to cause problems.
• Weak, but Skilled: Played with, the Tighty Knighties are skilled in tournaments compared to the Nexo Knights but in an actual fight they are screwed.
• Wham Line: At the end of "The Fortrex and the Furious":
  Jestro: Just who do you think you are, anyway?
  The Book of Monsters: Me? Oh, I know exactly who I am. Before I was trapped in this book, I was the mighty arch-necromancer, Monstrox!
• Wham Episode: Clay finally turns into stone in episode 9 of season 3.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: 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?
• Women Are Wiser:
  • On par with Clay, Macy is the most capable and serious member of the team, compared to the Spoiled Brat Lance, Totally Radical Aaron, and Big Eater Axl.
  • Played straight with Ava and Robin as well - though both are pretty smart, the latter is occasionally prone to childish behaviour and reckless actions that get him into trouble, while the former isn't.
  • Female monsters like Lavaria and the Harpies aren't necessarily geniuses, but tend to be brighter than their male counterparts.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Fortrex, which Robin lampshades:
  Robin: ...Because having an X in the name makes it cool and hi-tech!
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Book of Monsters will devour all twelve evil books, and Jestro will get ten Forbidden Powers and awaken the Stone Colossus, no matter how hard Nexo Knights try to stop them.
• Youthful Freckles: Macy, Aaron, and Robin all have these.

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