A Thousand and One... Americas, known in Spanish as Las mil y una Américas, is a Spanish animated Edutainment Show produced by BRB Internacional and originally aired on TVE in 1989, to celebrate the first 500 years of the first arrival of Cristopher Columbus to the Americas. It has a total of 26 episodes.
Chris is a cheerful 10-year old kid who lives with his family and his yellow pet dog (Lon). One day, while roaming within the attic of his house to find some bibliographical information for a homework about the Incan civilization, he discovers a huge book written by his late grandfather. It records his research on all pre-Columbian civilizations. From this point, and in each episode, whenever he and his brother Fito have doubts or questions regarding the history of the Americas, they climb upstairs and begin reading their grandfather's book to search the answers they want; Chris eventually falls asleep and ends up dreaming of the topic he was reading about. In these oniric adventures, he and Lon meet new friends and learn more about their cultures, but also meet unexpected enemies and face imminent dangers.
In addition to Spanish, the series has been dubbed in English, Portuguese and Hebrew. It can be viewed on Youtube courtesy of BRB's official Youtube channel, but only in its native language.
The show contains examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: All the characters Chris meets from the pre-Columbian era of North, Central and South America speak to him in Spanish, and in turn Chris can talk to them in that language just fine. This artistic trait is necessary, because Chris would otherwise be unable to communicate with them and the show wouldn't make sense (in Real Life, none of the Indo-European languages like Spanish and English were spoken prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492). It also has the Hand Wave that Chris is dreaming of said characters.
- Action Pet: Lon. On top of being very brave, he frequently confronts enemies (be they evil humans or wild animals) that threaten him, his owner or the friends they make along the way. He also knows how to make use of his honed sense of smell to track missing objects or people. The only episode where he's kidnapped which prompts Chris to rescue him is the fifth; even then, after he's rescued, he helps other dogs escape (since they all were going to be eaten.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In the thirteenth episode, a Chimu girl gently caresses Chris' red hair, as she likes it and never saw someone whose hair had that color before. She even asks him if the color is dyed (he says it isn't).
- All Just a Dream: All the adventures Chris and Lon have during the pre-Columbian era are dreams the former ends up having after falling asleep while reading his grandfather's expedition book.
- Animal Talk: Played with. At the start of the ninth episode, a male squirrel is asking a female one for a date, and the communication is heard as human speech. When the tree they're on begins shaking due to Chris and Lon running around it, the squirrels are hastily asking them to stop, but their protests fall onto deaf ears (Lon would likely have understood them, since he can fully understand the words of human speech despite not knowing how to talk, but he was too distracted while playing with Chris).
- Animal Theme Naming: In the twenty-second episode, Chris is invited to an Iroquois village where houses are named after animals (such as the Turtle House of the Bear House) to distinguish them.
- Arrows on Fire: Near the end of the twenty-second episode, the Iroquois village where Chris and Lon are enjoying a dancing ceremony gets attacked by fiery arrows shot by an enemy tribe (the Algonquin, who traveled all the way from what is today the eastern half of Canada). The flames cause a widespread fire, which prompts the village's soldiers to retaliate.
- Artistic License – Space: The eclipse that occurs near the end of the thirteenth episode reaches its zenith (total eclipse) after only a few seconds; in Real Life, it would take at least two hours. Also, all characters are looking at it unprotected for the duration of the phenomenon (in Real Life, it's only safe to do so during the brief time the eclipse is total).
- Audible Gleam: The many golden artifacts made by a goldsmith in the twenty-first episode are shown with a sound effect referencing their shiny appearance, accompanied with vivid light reflections. The trope is subverted with the sound made by the sheets made of gold that are shown earlier in the episode, as the sound is caused by the wind that is passing by them instead.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Halfway during the twelfth episode, Chris, Lon and a friendly man from Tiahuanaco they meet along the way witness a llama that is being mistreated by a man who, on top of forcing it to carry lots of cargo, is mounting it; when the characters demand him to stop his actions, he threatens them to harm them (Lon then manages to defeat the man and scare him away, thus saving the llama). Later in the episode, the same man is threatening a goldsmith to kill him if he doesn't reveal to him how to create bronze, thus revealing that the targets of the evil man's cruelty aren't limited to animals (once again, Lon intervenes successfully; and the evil man is eventually captured when trying to leave the city).
- Banister Slide: In the first episode, after waking up and washing his face and teeth, an enthusiastic Chris slides through the staircase's handrail (his bedroom is in the second floor).
- Bears Are Bad News:
- Halfway during the sixteenth episode, Chris, Lon and a young Inuit boy they met prior hear the pleas of a hunter who's been cornered by a hungry polar bear, and quickly run to the source of the voice. Upon arriving to the scene, Chris and Lon take the man to a safe place while the young Inuit boy stays to fight against the bear. Even after dodging several attacks and temporarily stabbing the bear from the back with his harpoon (twice, in fact), the young boy needed the help of the then-returning main characters to knock the animal out (even then, the bear recovers and gets up again despite having been stabbed in the chest, which prompts the characters to evacuate; they finally drive it away by climbing a snowy hill and throwing a large snowball to it).
- Early on during the twenty-second episode, Chris and Lon save an Iroquois hunter from being killed by an American black bear. It takes a lot of fleeing from the fierce animal, sue to how persistent and aggressive it is, and in the end they're lucky that they climb a tree with a beehive, whose insectile inhabitants give the bear a good one as retribution for having disturbed them. The Iroquois man returns to the village, injured; however, Chris and Lon go there to give back the Wampum belt he lost in the middle of the fight.
- Blown Upward by a Blowhole: After being swallowed by a humpback whale in the seventeenth episode, Lon gets out of it by the water geyser exhaled by the animal.
- Book Ends: At the start of the second episode, Chris and Lon are strolling within a gentle forest not too far from home; the dog then climbs a tree and reaches a branch that sustains him until it breaks, making him fall down. Near the end of the the same episode, Chris, Lon and a kid from the prehistoric era climb a tree in a wildlife-ruled forest to avoid being caught by a dire wolf; they think they're safe and thus start taunting at the wolf,... and then the branch where all three are on breaks and they fall down to where the dire wolf is. The first scene is played for laughs, and the second.... isn't.
- Braving the Blizzard: In the second chapter, Chris dreams of the civilization who originated from Asia and arrived Alaska (then part of Russia, but nowadays part of the United States) 30000 years ago, by traversing the Beringia land bridge during its glacial period, which back then had a ravaging snowstorm.
- But Now I Must Go: After having barely survived a violent tropical storm that ravaged a local coastal village in the eighth episode, Chris is told by Tiau (a little girl he met in that episode) that she has to leave him so she can help the villagers rebuild their homes. She silently part ways, and Chris immediately begins looking for Lon (who got separated from him by the violent waves during the storm).
- Chekhov's Gun: Early on in the twentieth episode, Chris notices that a goldsmith (Undapawa) accidentally let a golden statue made by him fell off his bag. Chris grabs the object and quickly runs to the man to give it back to him. Later in the episode, an antagonistic businessman falsely accuses Undapawa of having performed a trade with him by using fake gold statues made of clay, and throws it onto the floor so it breaks and he can prove his point. Chris then grabs the pieces of the statue and realizes that it wasn't made by Undapawa, as the recalls that the one he grabbed early on was heavier due to it being made of actual gold. The evil man disregards the observation (as he knows his lie has just been exposed) and tries to abduct Chris and Lon. Cue a fight.
- Chekhov's Volcano: In the third episode, Chris dreams of visiting the town of Cuicuilco, south of which the Xitle volcano resides. He learns about the local civilization, as well as their tributes to the gods of earth (including the Lord of Fire). Guess what happens to the volcano near the end of the episode (this also doubles as Foregone Conclusion, since the volcano's eruption did extinguish the town in Real Life).
- Citadel City:
- In the thirteenth episode, Chris and Lon are guided by a Chimu girl in a tour to the city of Chan Chan, an imposing location that features several ramparts made of adobe. Chris notes that every house has its own rampart, making it look like the city was made of several mini-cities. A local Chimu man passes by and tells Chris that the city has this structure to make a potential invasion more difficult, as the enemies would have to penetrate all the ramparts in order to conquer the full city.
- In the fourteenth episode, Chris and Lon get the chance to meet the imposing D-shaped great house of Pueblo Bonito, built in the Chaco canyon by the Anasazi as a fortress that encases and protects over 800 residences.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: At the start of the eleventh episode, Chris discovers his brother painting his face with the lipstick of their mother, making him look like an Incan. He does this because he got a swelling in the left eye due to an injury and wants to make it look like it's part of the tribal disguise. Surprisingly, it works, because Chris doesn't realize the truth.
- Common Place Rare: The majority of characters whom Chris meets in his dreams are surprised to see a red-haired person like him and/or a yellow-furred dog like Lon (some characters even Chris has a fire hair). This is because, in Real Life, such people and dogs respectively weren't sighted in the Americas until the arrival of European civilizations.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Played with. While the lava erupting from the volcano in the third episode is accurately shown putting the local huts' walls and ceilings in flames even without directly touching them (since the lava's heat is that hot), somehow the kid who is being transported through a large clay bowl by the lava is still alive (realistically, both he and the bowl should have been incinerated). The characters who try to rescue the kind (for which they have to run between the ceilings of the huts) don't get incinerated either. Since the whole thing turns out to be All Just a Dream for Chris, the inaccuracies can be attributed to that.
- Courier:
- In the eleventh episode, as Chris and Lon walk through a paved road in the middle of the Sechura Desert in Peru, they meet a Chasqui, a messenger from the Incan civilization to whom an important information was entrusted in order to send it to a destination (in this case, the city of Moche). This one in particular got his leg injured due to an ongoing battle between factions, but he tells Chris that he must fight his way to send the message no matter what, since that's what Chasquis were trained for. Chris manages to convince him to take his place to deliver the message so the man can rest and heal his wounds.
- In the twenty-fifth episode, Chris learns about Toltec messengers who lived in Tula, and used to perform letter deliveries by running quickly to their destinations. In his dream, he meets and befriends one such messenger.
- Crashing Dreams: In some of the episodes, this is how Chris wakes up from whatever he's dreaming of. Something happens in the dream (for example, in one case he smells the smoke of a Peace Pipe, and in another he's seeing a huge sea wave coming at him), and then wakes up and confuses an ongoing event from the real world with that of the dream (respectively, the smell actually comes from the pie his mother is baking, and the water sound comes from the bathroom where his mother is filling up the bathtub). In most cases, it makes Chris believe he's still dreaming even after having woken up (much to the laugh of his brother).
- Crossing the Desert:
- In the eleventh episode, Chris and Lon traverse the Sechura Desert to deliver a message to a decoder in the city of Moche. They do travel across a man-made road that takes them to the city, so at least they won't get lost. However, later in the episode, they and a friendly Incan who is giving them a tour do traverse into the desert off-road so they can see some harvest fields, and on the way back during the sunset they're caught by a severe sandstorm. To make matters worse, a group of enemy soldiers they were alerted about early on end up intercepting them; while Lon and the Incan put a fight, Chris is easily outmatched, leading him to wake up (it is All Just a Dream).
- In the twenty-fourth episode, Chris and Lon are told about the Nazca city of Cahuachi, which is located well within the desert so it's necessary to make a long trip across the sands to reach it. The two characters spend the rest of the day traversing the desert, but they still don't manage to reach ther destination; Chris even suspects that the Nazca warrior who told them about the city lied to them. It gets hot in the day and cold in the night, and during the latter's time they're chased by hungry coyotes. They finally find the city by following the stars in the skies, but even then they don't reach until sunrise.
- Cypher Language: In the eleventh episode, at the request of an injured Chasqui, Chris sends a small bag with valuable information to a professional decoder in the city of Moche. Chris expects the package to contain a letter, but when the decoder opens the bag all they see is some beans. The decoder explains to Chris that the beans has some dots and stripes, and these are communicating an encrypted message. The characters send the beans to a priest, who is told that the message in question turns out to be an incoming invasion from an enemy faction.
- Damsel in Distress: The little girl Chris meets in the dream he has in the first episode, Alicora, gets kidnapped by an evil man named Makikomir who takes her to Cusco (Peru) with the intent to offer her to a corrupt priest (Putukai) who wants to forcibly marry her in the Sun Temple. Chris goes there and, upon meeting Alicora's older brother (Sayarrumi), plans her rescue alongside him.
- Deadly Gaze: Near the end of the twenty-first episode, after the new cique has been chosen to govern the Quimbaya tribe and completed his (and everybody else's) offerings to the gods, he beings being transported on a throne moved by his inner circle through a path made of carpets. At this point, Chris is alerted that he must not watch directly the cique while he's being transported, or else his life will be in grave danger. Chris accidentally looks at him, and is unable to move this head to see elsewhere due to a sudden state of trance he cannot overcome (not even after a local woman shakes him to try to make him stop looking). Before the worst happens to Chris, he's brought back to reality by his girlfriend (Monica), who's been shaking him like the woman in the dream did.
- Death by Childbirth: As narrated in a flashback during the twenty-fifth episode, the goddess of fertility Chimalma perishes upon having given birth to the child she conceived with Mixcoatl after the end of their war. Mixcoatl entrusted the child's education and raising to his grandparents
- Distressed Dude:
- At the beginning of the nineteenth episode, Fito is swimming in a pool until he approaches a deep area and begins dorwning, at which point Monica gets in to save him. Fito later tells Chris he feels disgraced over being saved by a girl.
- Chris himself is abducted in the final episode by a couple corrupt Aztec men, in the hopes that they can sell a white-skinned kid with red hair for a high price (as well as offer Chris to the gods as a human sacrifice). Though not without difficulty, Lon manages to defeat the crooked men and rescue his owner.
- Divine Punishment: In the eighth episode, a friendly priest Chris and Lon meet in the Antilles protect them from a chief who wants to harm them for having been waken up. The priest tells the chief that the presence of a red-haired boy and a yellow-fur dog spell good luck, and harming them would infuriate the gods. When Chris and Lon sits on the chief's chair, they're once again endangered by the angry man, and the priest reiterates him the same warning, but by that point it's too late: A severe tropical storm begins ravaging the coast and flooding the huts, and the local villagers (who are all fleeing to a safer place) think it's because of this trope.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!:
- In the eighth episode, Chris is told about a delicious type of vegetable, the tuber or yuca, that is consumed in South America and the Caribbean; when he's next to one, he grabs it and tries to eat it. However, a girl who is accompanying him (Tiau) hastily takes it away from him, and scolds him by saying it's very dangerous to eat it raw and that it must be cooked first.
- In the twenty-third episode, Lon approaches a cauldron where something with a deceptively delicious smell is boiling, and is then alerted by a Xingu native not to approach it (Chris then follows suit by scolding him). At first, Chris thinks the cauldron was cooking someone else's meal, but the native clarifies that the cauldron is actually concocting a juice derived from tuber, and it's extremely poisonous (it can only be consumed once it's fully prepared).
- Near the end of the twenty-fifth episode, Chris is about to touch one of the statues shaped like serpent heads (located near the entrance to the temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl), but the Toltec man who accompanies him hastily alerts him not to do so. Chris apologizes and then asks what the statues shaped like that represent (he only knows they're not portraying Quetzalcoatl), but the man tells him that it's a secret and then bids him farewell before departing to resume his Courier duties. Chris wakes up before curiosity starts taking away the best of him.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: In the eighth episode, Chris and a girl he met shortly beforehand (named Tiau) sight a fat man sleeping in a hammock. Chris tries to reach him, but Tiau stops him and warns him that the man is the chief of the village they're in, and waking him up during his noon rest will get him very angry. Unfortunately, Chris' pet dog Lon runs straight at him anyway, and the man is so furious upon being waken up that he chases Lon and the two kids non-stop.
- Dressing as the Enemy: In the fifth episode, Lon gets kidnapped by a priest, whose henchmen take him to a sacred temple so he can be cooked (this is because they, being they're Mayans, who ate dogs in Real Life). To rescue him, Chris and the girl accompanying him (Papalotl) run to the temple, and the former character paints his face and hands brown to pass for a Mayan in order to fool the entrance guards and enter (the disguise is also helped by Papalotl, herself an actual Mayan, entering with him and telling the guards that the dog she has in her hands is being given away as an offering). When Lon is rescued, he licks Chris' face, comically undoing the disguise.
- Eskimo Land: The sixteenth episode is themed around the Inuit who originally migrated across the Bering Strait and gradually populated the regions of Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland. Chris dreams of this period, and in it he befriends a young boy from this society.
- Expanding Thrown Weapon: Halfway during the eighteenth episode, a sorcerer invites Chris and Lon to hover across the skies above the Amazon River by mounting an arrow. Chris questions how that would be possible, since the arrow is too small. The sorcerer then throws it airborne and, right after a bird that flies by grabs it, it suddenly grows to become an arrow-shaped trunk. it then positions itself next to the aforementioned characters so they can mount it.
- Failures on Ice: At the start of the sixteenth episode, Chris, his brother and Lon are having fun skating on a recreational ice rink. Chris is skating alongside a little girl and does so well; but his brother and Lon struggle a lot to stand up, and Lon ultimately clashes against all other three characters (plus another kind later on), one by one. At least Chris and his brother comment on how fun it was when they're walking back home. Lon struggles to stand up on ice again in Chris' dream (which takes place in the cold regions inhabited by the Inuit), and not only ultimately fails but also slips onto a hard rocky wall.
- Feathered Serpent: During the backstory of the Toltecs narrated in the twenty-fifth episode, it is shown that a giant feathered serpent began ravaging their homeland, but then a grown-up Ce Acatl (the son of Mixcoatl and Chimalma) fought against it and ultimately won. He was then christened Quetzalcoatl (which means Feathered Serpent), and upon founding the city of Tula he governed it while dressing akin to the serpentine monster he defeated.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: In many episodes, Chris doesn't realize at first that he's not in the present time since he's currently dreaming of an era that precedes the arrival of Christopher Columbus, which leads to him making assumptions that are correct for his era but not for the one he's dreaming of, and occasionally mentions inventions that didn't exist yet (thus forcing him to make hasty explanations or justifications about them). For example, in the first episode, Chris is surprised to learn that nobody at Alicora's town travels in vehicles, and more so when he realizes she doesn't even know what wheels are (he's unaware that he's dreaming of a pre-Columbian civilization, pre-1492, where the inventions in question were unheard of). In a later episode, this dissonance actually gets him into trouble because he's not supposed to know (much less publicly mention) the then-secret composition of bronze.
- Forbidden Fruit:
- In the seventh episode, a sacred Mayan mask (namely Pakal's) is stolen, and Chris helps a priest in his quest to retrieve it. The priest explains that the mask is not meant to be taken away from its placement under any circumstances, as doing so can lead to a cataclysm.
- In the twenty-third episode, Chris learns that the Xingu tribe does not allow women to see the sacred flutes stored in a special hut, much less play them; according to their beliefs, a huge disgrace would happen to both the woman and the rest of the tribe if she violated the rule.note Near the end of the episode, a young girl succumbs to curiosity and sneaks into the hut where the sacred flutes are, and begins playing one despite Chris alerting her not to. Before anything bad happens, he wakes up just as his girlfriend plays a big Xingu flute in the attic where they are in the real world.
- Full-Boar Action: Early on during the fourteenth episode, while Chris and Lon approach the whereabouts of the Anasazi, a short-tempered black boar that is eating grass spots them, and proceeds to chase them both relentlessly. Luckily, an Anasazi hunter shoots a couple arrows to drive it away.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: The nineteenth episode doesn't start like this, since Chris doesn't initially notice the matter in question, but he realizes that the two major tribes that lived in the southeast coast of South America (Tierra de Fuego, Argentina) were contrasted this way. The tribe Chris first meets (Yagan) is that where women swim and perform various duties like gathering and fishing, and men have a less active role. The tribe he meets later (Onas, also known in Real Life as the Selk'nam) is one where men perform all major activities while women are culturally oppressed via intimidation (several wolfdogs are put barking in front of them, and during a ceremony men dress with black-and-white robes and begin performing fearsome chants and screams in front of them); the latter tribe's local chief tells Chris that they do this because his men do not wish to be dominated by women like it happened with the first tribe's. A seemingly-strange detail is that younger boys are also grouped with these women, but this is likely meant to serve as a precursory period of fear that the boys have to overcome later as part of a coming of age.
- Godiva Hair: Topless women from the pre-Columbian civilizations have their breasts' nipples covered by their heads' long hair. When that fails, Barbie Doll Anatomy is employed instead.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: In the twenty-first episode, Chris and Lon witness the crowning of a new cique who will govern the Quimbaya tribe. The chosen one is dyed in gold (specifically, gold dust adhered to his body thanks to mud), and is bound to receive numerous golden objects by the inhabitants as offerings (though, as Chris learns later, since the cique is already wealthy and doesn't need any gifts, he will offer the golden objects to the gods instead by throwing them to the lake).
- Grand Finale: The 26th and final episode is thematically devoted to the most powerful civilization in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans (the Aztecs), deals with Chris being kidnapped by captors and needing to be rescued, and reveals about what the Aztecs believed to be an eventual (and inevitable) apocalypse. When Chris wakes up, we see the conclusion of the episode (and the series by extension) as Chris and Monica go downstairs to enjoy some chocolate together, prepared by the former's mom.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: After Lon fails to hold tight while riding a giant hovering arrow in the eighteenth episode, he remains suspended in the air for several seconds until he looks down, after which he begins falling. The giant arrow, which is also being ridden on by Chris and the sorcerer who summoned the magical vehicle, turns back to catch the falling dog in time.
- Great Big Book of Everything: The book that gives the series its name was written by Chris' and Fito's late grandfather, and has been located in their house's attic for years. At the end of the first episode, Chris finds the book and, from that moment, whenever he, Fito or the former's Love Interest Monica has any doubts about a pre-Columbian civilization, they consult the book to learn more about the subject in question. It's a very resourceful book that reflects the honed research performed by its author during his expeditions across the Americas as a whole.
- Great Offscreen War:
- In the twenty-fifth episode, a friendly Toltec courier tells Chris about a long, violent war between the factions led respectively by Mixcoatl (the first-ever chief of the Toltecs) and Chimalma (the goddess of fertility, and the overseer of life and death). The episode only shows a flashback of the last few moments of the way, when nearly everybody from both factions succumbed and only the two aforementioned generals stood up. The two decide to drop their weapons, and not only put a halt to the war but also married (unfortunately, Chimalma later succumed to a Death by Childbirth). The child conceived by them was a child who, upon growing up, defeated a Feathered Serpent that was attacking his homeland and then unified the two previously-conflicting factions, thus founding Tula.
- In the final episode, it is briefly narrated that the Aztecs were a proud warrior civilization, and engaged into a war against other people. They won, leading to their status as the most powerful and advance pre-Columbian civilization until the arrival of the Europeans (led by Christopher Columbus).
- He Knows Too Much: In the twelfth episode, Chris is told that bronze is a valued metal in the Andean city of Tiahuanaco, and the secret behind its making is a secret. He casually remarks that bronze is simply an alloy made of copper and tin, but this is because the fact is well-known in his era in the present, not the past era he's dreaming of at that moment. When he sees how alarmed his guide is and later how upset the local people (including the priest who watches over Tiahuanaco) are, he realizes the gravity of his mistake.
- Heli-Critter: Near the end of the twenty-fourth episode, Lon shows a Nazca priest about how airplanes work (since those didn't exist yet during the pre-Columbian era in Real Life) by flapping his long ears to fly near the ceiling of the temple where they are. He even expends his front paws sideways to further similate the shape of the airplanes. Hilariously, due to his distraction he clashes against a wall.
- Hollywood Natives: The trope is mocked at the start of the fourteenth episode, when Chris' younger brother disguises as a stereotypical Native American and refuses to drop the knife he grabbed from the kitchen because "an indian chief never goes anywhere without his dagger". Chris sternly says that daggers were never used by them; his brother keeps his ignorance going when he says he saw them use daggers in movies, as well as rifles. As Chris correctly explains, Native Americans didn't use any metal-made weapons until the arrival of European explorers. Cue them consulting the expedition book of their late grandfather to learn more about the weapons actually used by Native Americans (as well as the many native groups that inhabited the southwestern area of the USA back then, such as the Anasazi).
- Human Sacrifice: After being rescued form his captors in the final episode, Chris learns that they intended to sell him to the Tlatoani (the supreme leader of the Aztec empire) so he could use him as a sacrifice to the gods. The Tlatoani doesn't intend to use him for such a purpose, so he simply explains to the kid why sacrifices are necessary: According to the Aztec mythology, the Sun that brings the light of the day is actually the fifth in existence, as the previous four disappeared in different specific times of the past as a result of failed (or rejected) sacrifices; and to prevent the current Sun from suffering the same fate, the Aztecs offer worthy humans to the gods in a sacrificial manner. During the narration, Chris is told that the fifth Sun will disappear anyway when the gods no longer feel the current humans are worth letting live (meaning that the sacrifices are only delaying the inevitable), and when that day comes the Sun will stand still atop the blue yonder, incinerating the land below, and then the Earth will finally swallow it. Chris, upset over hearing all of that, remarks that the Sun is actually much bigger than Earth and thus the "swallowing" part isn't possible. This causes an earthquake (which the Tlatoani attributes to Chris having enraged the gods), and Chris wakes up to notice that the "earthquake" he felt in the dream is actually a roller truck.
- I Am Not Weasel: Lon gets upset every time he's mistaken for a different animal. In the third episode, the tribal people who live in of the Valley of Mexico repeatedly mistake him with a coyote. Considering that dogs were a rare sight for the majority of pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico in Real Life (the main exception being the Mayans, which usually ate them as part of their diet), the confusion is understandable.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Near the end of the twelfth episode, Chris is rewarded by a priest for having helped capture a spy who wanted to learn the secret behind the making of bronze. But before he goes to see the priest for the honors, he's implicitly warned by a friendly old man that he shouldn't make anyone know that he knows about the secret (since Chris, at that point, is in the pre-Columbian era when only a few people knew about the metal's composition, and he had accidentally mentioned it was an alloy made of copper and tin). When the priest is told by an acquaintance that Chris received an indirect warning about something, he asks him what it was about;note Chris simply says that he was advised to not say anything imprudent in front of the priest... before foolishly trying to assure that it was just that and nothing to do with the secret about the making of bronze. Chris quickly realizes his mistake, and then admits to know what bronze is made of. Things get ugly fast for him.
- Introdump: While it doesn't happen at the start of the episodes proper, their introductions of the cities and natural landscapes where the events of Chris' dreams take place are accompanied by Chris himself describing the everyday life of the local pre-Columbian societies as he reads the expedition book of his late grandfather until he gradually falls asleep to begin dreaming of what he was reading about.
- Irony: In the first episode, when Chris presents himself to an Incan little girl (Alicora), she asks him about the meaning of his name, and Chris says he has no idea, which surprises her as all names are meant to have a meaning or origin (she then tells him that hers, Alicora, means "good grass"). The name Chris is a diminutive form of Christopher, which in turn comes from the Greek name Cristophoros, which means "bearer of Christ". The religion of Christianity was brought to the Americas by the navigators led by Christopher Columbus (original name Cristoforo Colombo), which in turn would lead to the violent end of the dominion of Incans in the Andean regions of South America. Quite an intriguing outcome that contrasts the close friendship formed between the European Chris and the Incan Alicora, especially since Chris crushes on her at first sight.
- Javelin Thrower: In the fifteenth episode, Native Americans are shown using javelins to hunt a herd of bison. Knowing that it's difficult to deep-six a bison with one while it's running at great speeds, their plan is to lure them into a small ravine, and when one falls down into it they do throw a javelin at it in order to deliver the final blow.
- Justified Criminal: Near the end of the fourteenth episode, it is revealed that the robbers who attempted to steal supplies from one of the buildings of the Pueblo Bonito (and knock out one of the good guys when they're exposed) come from a tribe that never learned how to harvest corn or wheat, and thus are in need of looking for supplies owned by other tribes when theirs begin to ebb. Some of the members of the rogue tribe do aim to trade other kinds of goods for food, so those have a noble heart; others, however, don't have anything good to use as trade and resort to stealing (or even feign that they're trading so they can steal food when they see the chance).
- Living Statue: Near the end of the fourth episode, a lightning bolt gives life to an Olmec statue representing a baby held in the arms of a mother in a pyramid. This horrifies the two kids present, as they initially thought such thing wouldn't be possible (though Lon was repeatedly barking at it because he correctly suspected that something was off with the baby statue). A second lightning bolt strikes it, giving it the ability to speak, prompting the characters to run away in terror. Then comes a third lightning bolt, and the statue redirects it to the sculpture of a jaguar which then proceeds to pursue the characters.
- Love at First Sight: Chris often falls in love with the girls he meets in his dreams as soon as he sees them: Alicora in the first episode, Papalotl in the fifth, and Tiau in the eighth. Notably, with Papalotl the crush is mutual. In the real world, however, he already has a Love Interest (his classmate Monica, who's introduced in the twelfth episode and whom he dates in later ones, including one where they go to the movies).
- Lost at Sea: In the ninth episode, Chris meets a man whose grandfather fell victim of this trope during his sea travel from Japan to Ecuador. The story goes as follows: The man's grandfather led a group of fishermen and their wives to sail the seas with canoes so they could discover new lands and inhabit them, which means they had to travel across the wild, dangerous Pacific Ocean. During the third day of the travel, a violent sea storm overcame them and, in the next day's morning, they were completely adrift and with many lives and resources lost. They had to soldier on and resume their trip, finally arriving the coasts where the Valdivia tribe lived.
- Luminescent Blush: In the fifth episode, Chris shows a predominant red blush when told by Papalotl (a girl he met early on) that she likes him. As he blushes, Chris bashfully reciprocates the sentiment.
- Mailman vs. Dog: Played with twice in the twenty-fifth episode. Lon doesn't hate mailmen, he just has the misfortune of clashing by accident against the one that was merely approaching Chris' house to deliver a letter (the accident occurs because Lon is trying to maneuver a ball with his head and doesn't realize where he's heading to). He even licks his face as a way to express his apologies. Later in the episode, during the pre-Columbian era Chris is dreaming of, Lon chases a butterfly and accidentally bumps into a Toltec mailman who was running quickly to deliver a letter. Lon does chase the Toltec after the latter resumes his speedy travel, but it's simply to playfully accompany him (much to Chris' annoyance).
- Mask of Power: In the seventeenth episode, after being startled by his younger brother with a generic mask, Chris later startles him back with a very terrifying-looking mask located in the attic, and then read about it in the expedition book of their late grandfather. It turns out the mask was originally made by the Haida tribe for use during the Potlach, and signified a status of hierarchy and prestige for whoever wore it.
- Masochist's Meal: From Chris' point of view, this is how the Aztec's great liking of chocolate seems to be. In the final episode, when Chris is given a bowl of chocolate, he drinks it thinking it'll be a divine pleasure for his tongue... only to realize how extremely bitter and spicy it is; Lon tastes it some as well (which he shouldn't even try doing anyway since chocolate is dangerous for animals) and ends up convulsing in agony until he sinks his head in a bowl of water. It turns out chocolate, despite being an Aztec culinary invention, was originally very different from the chocolate we know and love in Real Life, and this scene makes sure to drive the point home. Chris even tells the Aztec man that he eats chocolate with milk and sugar, which the latter character deems a strange combination.
- Meaningful Name:
- In the first episode, Chris meets a muscular man called Sayarrumi, whose name means "river stone" in Quechuan. When Chris is told about the name's meaning, he tells Lon that the name fits him well, since he looks as strong as a stone.
- In the fifth episode, Chris meets a girl from a village next to the pyramid of Teotihuacan called Papalotl, whose name translates into butterfly. She frequently receives a lot of butterflies as gift, and also has brooches shaped like them.
- In the sixth episode, Chris, Lon and a Mayan priest they met prior rescue a kid who was about to be eaten by a snake. The kid's name is Oscan, which means "three snakes". The kid is dedicated to hunt snakes, as he needs to capture at least three to proceed with his coming of age; the priest actually figures out what the kid does when he first heard his name (though Chris doesn't notice the connection, hence the ensuing explanation on the kid's part).
- In the seventh episode, Chris meets a short-tempered Mayan who takes issue over him being present in a sacred temple, despite being accompained by a priest who let him in under his supervision. When the angry man is gone, the priest describes him as someone who does justice to his name, which is Balam (it means "jaguar" in Mayan, so the priest is likening the blunt attitude of the man to that animal's fierceness). This also provides an early hint that Balam plotted the theft of a sacred mask to cause a wrathful war towards neighboring nations.
- In the ninth episode, Chris meets a girl from the Valdivia tribe called Ninfu, who tells him that she's named like that because she's covered in ashes when she's carrying the jars from, or to, the bonfire. Chris likens her name to that of Cinderella, whose name means "little ashes".
- In the twentieth episode, Chris meets a kind man in the island of La Tolita named Undapawa. The name means Grandfather, referencing his status as the oldest and most experienced goldsmith in the isle.
- Missing Child: In the tenth episode, Chris and Lon help a priest find the whereabouts of a child who got lost in the interior of the Chavín de Huántar, and manage to pinpoint his location thanks to Lon having followed the trace of the kid's smell with the help of his stray clothes.
- Monster Whale: Subverted (and thus actually done realistically) in the seventeenth episode. Chris and Lon are giving company to a group of Haida fishermen who are aiming to capture some fish for food in the waters of the Queen Charlotte Islands. But then an enormous humpback whale approaches them to run over them, eating Lon in the process. To their surprise (and relief), Lon gets Blown Upward by a Blowhole afterwards, and the whale goes away without aiming to attack the characters again. It turns out this species of whale doesn't act aggressive unless provoked in Real Life (and the fishermen in the series were only looking for small fish, so they likely just approached its territory by accident).
- Nasal Trauma: Played for Laughs when, in the nineteenth episode, a crab that was recently captured by a native woman pinches Lon's nose. He spends a long time trying to brush off the crab, but then the woman removes the crab for him. She jokingly remarks that crabs are captured to be eaten for humans, not for them to eat humans or dogs.
- National Geographic Nudity: Many characters from the pre-Columbian civilizations are shown partially nude; this includes women being shown topless. This is a necessity due to the show's accuracy in its educational premise.
- Nature Is Not Nice: In many episodes, Chris learns from first-hand experience the many dangers pre-Columbian civilizations had to confront daily in Real Life, from ferocious animals like mammoths and dire wolfs to unexpected natural disasters like volcanic eruptions.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Lon. Despite not being able to talk, he's very intelligent and has an optimal understanding of all the things Chris and other humans say (to him or otherwise). The two make up for a charming owner-pet duo, and also face all sorts of dangers in Chris' dreams.
- The Nose Knows: Even for a dog, Lon has an exceptional sense of smell, as exemplified in the tenth episode when he can trace the distant whererabouts of a priest's missing son by smellling his stray clothes (the search begins in a sacred temple and ends in a cistern within Chavín de Huántar at the other end of the village). The previously-skeptical priest acknowledges the dog's skills, but has no time to congratulate him because the place where the missing son turns out to be is a very dangerous one.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: After a corrupt businessman in the twentieth episode gets defeated by Chris, Lon and a friendly goldsmith they met prior (Undapawa), he warns them that he can frame them for having commited fraud with him regarding a prior trade between food and some gold statues (no such fraud happened, the evil man is deliberately devising a false proof to make his blames more convincing), as he has contacts with powerful chiefs who trust his words and don't know about his deceptions. Too bad one of those chiefs saw him attempt to do Chris and co. dirty from the distance, which leads to the evil man's exile from the tribe and the trading business.
- Not Rare Over There: In the twentieth and twenty-first episodes, it is shown that some pre-Columbian civilizations used gold as a normal metal, and while it was deemed valuable back then it just didn't have the connotation of being a rare luxury due to how abundant it was. Conversely, in other episodes we see civilizations that didn't know about gold, but considered the likes of bronze the ultimate rarity, to the point that even the making of the metal was a treasured secret.
- Obviously Evil: Early on during the seventh episode, while Chris helps a friendly Mayan priest find out who stole the Pakal mask, they meet a rude temple guardian called Balam who dismisses their contributions to the case of the mask's theft, and at a later point Chris is told by the priest that Balam is a Hot-Blooded fan of war and would likely use the aforementioned theft as a good excuse to scapegoat the neighboring nations for it and cause a war. Unsurprisingly, it is him who plotted the mask's steal, and the priest also discovers that it was Balam who attempted to trap him and Chris inside a temple chamber forever.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Near the end of the twelfth episode, when the priest of Tiahanaco learns that Chris knows the secret behind the making of bronze, he tells him that he'll have to spend the rest of his life in the city to prevent the secret from becoming widespread (this is because the making of bronze was a secret during the era of the pre-Columbian civilizations in Real Life), but he'll be treated like a prince and become a priest once he grows up. Chris appreciates the offer, but refuses and tries to escape alongside his pet dog Lon. He wakes up afterwards.
- Oh, Crap!: Near the end of the second episode, Chris and the kid who is guiding him hear a loud wolf howl. This itself is not what causes this trope, as while Chris does express worry he's confident that Lon will put a fight against him, and the kid who's with him has a spear to use as a weapon. It's when the wolf appears in front of them that Chris shows an expression of horror, as he realizes how big it is. It turns out this wolf is from an extinct breed (the dire wolf
) that was much bigger than the ones that exist in the present era in Real Life. During the moment when Chris and the kid rapidly run away from it, they pass by the bush where Lon was hiding, who then shows an even bigger shock upon seeing the big lupine predator aiming directly at him. - On the Next: Each episode ends with a preview showing scenes from the next, accompanied by a brief commentary from the show's narrator describing what's to come. The only episode that doesn't do this is, logically, the last one.
- Paper Talisman: A rare pre-Columbian equivalent is seen in the twenty-first episode with the sheets made of gold used by the Quimbaya tribe (in the territory that is known today as Bogota, the capital of Colombia) by placing them in the fences surrounding their homes so the sound made with them and the wind repels the evil spirits.
- Peace Pipe: In the fifteenth episode, Chris reads about this in his late grandfather's book, namely how Native Americans made use of pipes to settle conflicts, and then begins dreaming of them. The Introdump is factually accurate, and near the end of the episode two groups that were disputing the then-recently hunted bisons settle an agreement to share the flesh, after which they reunite in a circle pattern to smoke the peace pipe.
- Piranha Problem: During their sail across the Amazon River in the eighteenth episode, Chris and Lon have to flee from a group of hungry piranhas (in fact, they get into this situation because Lon was unlucky enough to draw the attention of a single piranha right after he finishes swimming the waters without any issue and then tries to mount the arrow-shaped trunk they were traveling on).
- Plot-Triggering Book: All the oneiric adventures Chris experiences over the course of the series, except for the one from the first episode (which simply kicks in when he falls asleep during class), begin after he finds the expedition book on pre-Columbian history written by his late grandfather in the attic of his house at the end of the first episode.
- Prefers Raw Meat: Near the end of the sixteenth episode, Chris is told by the young Inuit boy he met prior that he and his family prefer to eat the meat of the animals they hunt in a raw state, and also offer him to eat some too (but he refuses, as he says he can only eat cooked meat, so he gives his meal to Lon). This is Truth in Television, as raw meat was historically part of Inuit cuisine.
- Pretext for War: Near the end of the seventh episode, it is revealed that Balam faked the theft of a sacred mask to frame a neighboring tribe in order to start a war against them and eventually conquer them. Chris, Lon and a friendly priest manage to retrieve the mask and expose Balam's sordid plan before anything terrible happens.
- Prized Possession Giveaway: Near the end of the seventeenth episode, Chris and Lon learn that this is the raison d'être for the Potlatch. During the ceremony, a person must generously give all their possessions to their neighbors in order to show confidence and faith in the witnessed prodigy and how they'll be compensated with a greater income of goods and prosperity in the future; when Chris laments how the Haida man he befriended will prescind from all his material possessions, he's told that this will make the man very respected. This also explains the ceremony's name, because Potlatch means gift.
- Pro Bono Barter: In the twentieth episode, it is narrated that the people who lived in La Tolita used to perform businesses by trading statues and other artifacts made of gold, copper or even platinum for goodies like food and other supplies. The fame of the local goldsmiths was to such degree that merchants from several parts of the world came to the island to offer all sorts of goodies in exchange for the metallic treasures. Chris and Lon meet a gentle goldmith who aims to do business with some businessmen, and upon doing so the goldsmith aims to express his generosity by not needing to verify the contents of the material he's receiving (in this case, cocoa seeds) in exchange for the gold statues he made; he tries to do this for the sake of trust and cordiality, but unfortunately this actually upsets the businessmen (who expected their offerings to be professionally evaluated), which leads to the episode's eventual conflict (as they then want to purchase Lon and Chris).
- Product Delivery Ordeal: Halfway during the fourth episode, Chris, Lon and an Olmec kid the former two befriended beforehand witness a group of Olmec men who were tasked to deliver an enormous mass of rock from a far-away location to the village they are at that moment in order to build a sculpture. Chris notes how tired the men are, since the mass is extremely large and heavy and they've had to push it during the whole way (this misfortune is inevitable, because wheels weren't used, or even even heard of, by the Olmecs in Real Life). Later in the episode, as the boys keep strolling within the village, they witness the men pushing the stone, noticing that they're now using ropes (as well as trunks that stand in for otherwise-absent wheels) to pull it upward across a slope... and to the shock and horror of the boys, the ropes then break due to the object's weight. The men try to sustain it with their strength, and the boys alert other men so they can help solve the crisis. They barely succeed.
- Proud Hunter Race: In the second episode, Chris dreams of being in the prehistoric era of the United States, and befriends a kid who is part of a civilization whose primary expertise is hunting enormous animals like mammoths (in fact, his dad is one of the strongest hunters). Chris finds out the hard way that the meat of the animals they hunt is too hard for his teeth to chew it (even the kid whom he befriends can eat the steaks effortlessly), and Lon has the same realization with the prey's huge bones (one of which is brought up by the aforementioned kid without any difficulty).
- Roaring Rapids: Double subverted during the climax of the eighteenth episode. Chris is told by a sorcerer who is guiding him across the Amazon River that, at one point, the waters will suddenly become more violent. They continue sailing the River but Chris notes that the water isn't getting any faster. He and Lon get ambushed by a group of piranhas and escape, making the boy think the sorcerer was referring to the violence of the aquatic fauna. However, the wise man corrects him and reiterates him that, yes, he was referring to the water's flow. When they soar to the part of the River where it leads to the Atlantic Ocean, Chris finally gets to see how truly fast and dangerous the water becomes (especially due to the water's noise, which can be heard from afar).
- Rump Roast: An evil man who attempts to kidnap Chris and Lon in the twentieth episode gets roasted this way when Chris briefly chockes him and then Lon bites his butt, as that leads him to jump into a cauldron where metal is being melted. He accidentally sits on it, which puts his ass into flames until he sits in a water bucket. Chris laughs at him for this, but unfortunately this only infuriates the enemy and makes the situation far worse.
- Scary Stinging Swarm:
- During the introduction of the local fauna of the Mayans' geography in the sixth episode, a jaguar that is chasing a tapir passes by a honeyhive densely populated by bees, which then proceed to chase it. Even the jaguar knows how dangerous they can be and is terrified, so it tries to flee from them while the queen bee is ordering a direct attack at it (and the bees succeed). Amusingly, the tapir is unable to believe how lucky it is.
- During the start of the twenty-fourth episode, Lon clashes against a tree while trying to catch a butterfly, which makes a beehive fall onto him and greatly upsets a big swarm of bees. The poor dog can only run away from them ceaselessly until he throws himself onto a river, making the bees lose sight of him and pass him by. Hilariously, despite passing by Chris (who was taking a nap until that point), the latter asks Lon what's going on without noticing the big swarm chasing him.
- Scenery Porn: In each episode, as Chris begins reading his late grandfather's book about a particular topic related to a pre-Columbian civilization (sometimes with his voice being replaced by that of his grandfather), the series shows a prolonged shocase of the lush landscape where the episode's events will take place, including natural actions from the endemic life, the impressive architecture built by the local civilization, and/or the daily activities of the townsfolk Chris will meet in person soon.
- Shout-Out: The series' name is inspired by that of The Thousand and One Nights.
- Shown Their Work: While the shows takes some artistic liberties regarding the portrayal of the pre-Columbian civilizations (for example, they can communicate with main protagonist Chris in his language despite the Indo-European languages not having been spoken in the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus), it still excels at presenting true-to-fact information about the civilizations' cultures, costumes and struggles, including facts that surprise Chris himself (who wouldn't have thought of them as true otherwise).
- Someday This Will Come in Handy: Shortly after "arriving" (as in, starting to dream of) the desert giving home to the Nazca civilization in the twenty-fourth episode, Chris learns from one of them about the stone patterns placed in the floor, which are meant to represent the constellations sighted in the starry skies during night. A long time later, during their search for the city of Cahuachi, Chris and Lon start getting lost in the desert during night, but then Chris recalls what he learned about the constellations and uses them as a guide to reach Cahuachi.
- Sphere Factor: During the start of the fourth episode, Lon finds himself balancing atop a ball throw at him by his owner. He was supposed to just grab it, and due to his nervousness he ends being thrown into a bush.
- Stargazing Scene: At the end of the sixth episode, after being rescued from a deep well filled with sunken sculptures, Chris witnesses night's beautiful starry sky alongside the ones who rescued him (Lon and two Mayan friends he met along the way). Chris is told about how their ancestors manifest themselves in the sky as the stars that are seen during night after overcoming the trials of the afterlife. This ending makes the episode unique for the series, because it's the only one that doesn't end with Chris waking up in the real world (as all episodes, including this one, are each All Just a Dream), which is also a signal that its story will continue on the next episode.
- Strictly Formula: All episodes except the first follow the same format: Chris is in the middle of a playful activity in his free time, then he and/or his younger brother climb upstairs to the attic alongside their pet dog Lon so they can find their late grandfather's expedition book in order to find answers about something related to pre-Columbian civilizations, then Chris begins narrating the topic to be discussed Introdump style, and at one point he falls asleep and begins dreaming of that topic; things go well during the dream until something bad or unexpected happens, and Chris wakes up when it seems like he won't make it out alive. After waking up, he resumes his playful activity.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Many of the wild animals Chris and Lon face in the series are very enduring and relentless, and refuse to give up. Standouts include the dire wolf in the second episode, the shark in the ninth, and the polar bear in the sixteenth.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: In nearly all episodes, Chris' dreams with pre-Columbian civilizations end badly, either because he's unable to escape the criminal, wild animal or natural danger he's facing, or because he's witnessing a horrific event and he feels unable to do something about it; and when it seems like doom will befall him, Chris wakes up from the dream. However, there are episodes whose oniric stories end well:
- The story that develops in the two-part story about the Mayans (episodes 6 and 7) actually concludes with a happy ending, as all the conflicts he faces along the way (a kid being trapped by a snake, Chris falling onto a deep well, and the theft of the Pakal mask) are resolved successfully, and in the end Chris celebrates by showing the local Mayans how basketball (a sport they're unfamiliar with) is played. The thing that makes him wake up is a ball thrown at him by his brother.
- In the fourteenth episode, Chris, Lon and some Anasazi warriors take a young hunter who was defeated in a fight against three thieves to a shaman so they can heal him. It seems like the man won't wake up because a long time passes with him unconscious, but he finally recovers. It is then explained to Chris that those thieves come from a rival tribe that never learned to harvest food, so they have to resort to stealing supplies from the thriving Anasazi in order to survive. A joke that makes everybody laugh later, and Chris simply wakes up.
- The fifteenth episode appears to prepare a violent fight between two groups of Native Americans for the climax, as they were disputing the flesh of hunted bisons; however, the conflict ends with an agreement of sharing the preys so everybody can eat, they even smoke the Peace Pipe. What makes Chris wake up is the smell of his mom's cream pie (which, prior to waking up, he mistook for the peace pipe's smoke).
- The twentieth episode appears to aim at a victory for the evil businessman who wishes to kidnap Chris and Lon for the sake of trafficking, and frame Undapawa for an act of trading fraud. He would have succeeded... if his evil actions hadn't been seen from the distance by his superior, who promptly fires him from the trading business and exiles him from the tribe. The adventure ends with a celebratory chant to the gods to plead for new resources and goodies, and Chris peacefully wakes up shortly afterwards.
- The twenty-fourth episode is notable because, aside from the Chris and Lon having to confront some coyotes in the desert during the halfway act, it didn't even have an overarching conflict or unexpected bad situation to speak of. Even the scene that would have remotely caused one near the end (a Nazca guardian barring Chris and Lon from entering a sacred pyramidal temple in Cahuachi) is resolved near-instantly. And what makes Chris wake up is mistaking a flight simulation on Lon's part in the dream for the sound of a helicopter that is flying by in the real world.
- Subverted with the twenty-fifth episode. Chris wakes up shortly after being told that he must not touch the serpent head statues near the entrance of the temple built in honor to Quetzalcoatl, which means he spares himself the potential danger that would ensue if he did so. But shortly afterwards, we see Lon having a bad dream (which the episode reveals it's related to the giant Feathered Serpent defeated by Ce Acatl), so it's likely either he or Chris did foolishly touch the statue(s) in said dream and made the monster appear once again. Chris' brother Fito prepares a cruel prank by putting a snake-shaped sock on the dog's tail, which gives him a good scare because it makes him believe the giant serpent is attacking him in the real world. Fito is scolded by Chris because of this.
- Temple of Doom: In the seventh episode, Chris, Lon and a friendly priest enter a pyramidal temple to look for clues that might help them discover who stole the sacred Pakal mask and/or where it was taken to. Soon they discover that going within is far from safe, as one of the chambers traps them inside with no apparent way out, and when they use a secret passageway to proceed forward they have to go through a dark maze where Lon guides the two humans by using his nose to follow the right trail to the exit. Chris thinks the expedition was in vain, but the priest tells him otherwise, as he noticed something fishy that is revealed later in the episode (namely, it was the mask's thief who activated the chamber's trap, and the priest knows who did it).
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: During the Scenery Porn (accompanied with Introdump) that takes the eighteenth episode into the next setting (the Amazon River and the nearby biomes), we can see a monkey couple atop a tree's think branch. The female one has a pink flower at the top of the head, serving as a ribbon of sorts. The two monkeys are phenotypically indistinguishable otherwise.
- That's No Moon: In the tenth episode, Chris and his pet Lon enter the Chavín de Huántar building to rescue a missing kid. Shortly after they find him, they hear a loud jaguar roar, which surprises Chris as he wouldn't expect to see jaguars inside an ancient gallery like that. And he's right.... what they're listening to is a water entrance that is being covered, which leads to a powerful torrent of water aiming directly at them.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich:
- Subverted in the thirteenth episode, when Chris witnesses some Chimu people throw the corns they had harvested to the sea, making him think it's a waste. But the little girl he meets in the beach (China), tells him that the throwing is intended to be an offering to the sea gods in exchange for more fruitful harvesting and food gathering. Chris quickly notes that the corn is being eaten by the nearby fish, which can the be captured by the fishermen for eating.
- In the twenty-second episode, Chris is offered a sweet meat from a gentle Iroqupis woman, but just as he eats it he's told about its ingredients, making him think that it also has ants in it (since he knows the Iroquois ate ants in Real Life) and thus making it throw the meal. When he learns that they only eat the ants when they're raw, Chris realizes his mistake and tries to collect the meal, but he's not allowed to since they tell him the Iroquois consider the food thrown in the ground to be an offering to the spirits of the dead (which is also true).
- This Means Warpaint: Subverted in the twenty-third episode. Chris witnesses some Xingu natives painting some parts of their bodies with round black stains, and Chris believes this is because they're preparing for a battle; one of them is even calling Lon so he gets some black marks as well. But Chris is later told that they're actually preparing for a festive dance that is used for varied purposes like honoring a fallen chief, sealing friendships with other tribes, or performing weddings. A sumo-styled fight does take place, but it's part of the ceremony.
- Threatening Shark: Near the end of the ninth episode, Chris and Lon accept to accompany a group of fishermen to sail not too far from the coast in order to find and capture fish. Unfortunately for them, the fish they attempted to capture gets the attention of a shark, which eats it and then proceeds to attack all the people in the canoe. The shark rams into the vehicle from underwater, and then outright dives airborne into it which causes Chris to be catapulted into the water. The endangered kid swims as fast as he can to return to the canoe, but the shark intercepts him just as he grabs the fishermen's roar (which also gets destroyed by the shark). Chris has no option but continue swimming away from the shark. Even Lon's intervention to distract the shark does little to save Chris, who quickly realizes he'll have to keep fleeing. After a long sequence of predator-versus-prey shenanigans, Chris ultimately fails to escape... and then wakes up.
- Tipis and Totem Poles: The fifteenth episode defies the stereotypical aspects of this trope, since Chris consults about Native Americans by reading his later grandfather's expedition book (he originally did so to research the Peace Pipe, another trope that is shrouded in stereotypes). As Chris falls asleep and dreams of Native Americans, he learns in situ about how tipis are made and their real purpose. And no totems are put in place, since it's made clear that the Native Americans Chris meets need to move around frequently in order to track and hunt bisons.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: Near the end of the thirteenth episode, a total solar eclipse takes place. According to the Chimu culture, this is because the goddess of the moon is taking over the Sun in a moment of triumph for her (who already reigns during night and is now reigning during day), thus earning the title of "most powerful star" in the sky.
- Voiceover Letter: In later episodes (this doesn't happen during the first few), whenever Chris begins reading the expedition book written by his late grandfather, the text will be voiced by the old man instead of Chris himself. The voiced narration continues as the episode begins setting the scene where the events will soon take place, and ends once Chris falls asleep and begins dreaming of what's about to come.
