Space Paladins

Space Paladins
and the Rise of the Space Demons
Basic Data
Starting Year:	2012
Current Season:	Three
Total Episodes:	Twenty-Six
Current Rating:	81%; Surprisingly good
Character Data
Group Name:	Space Paladins
Group Leader:	Sir Nebulous
Group Size:	Twelve (Thirteen;One member removed)
Enemy Group:	Confidential
Main Villain:	Confidential
Averages
Episodes per season:	Twelve
Times someone says 'space' per episode:	Seven
time of battles per episode:	four minutes out of twenty
amount of life lessons per episode:	One-point-six
Other

This page has been marked as a creative work in progress. The author of this article has marked this as a creative work, and would prefer that other users not edit it. Please respect this, and unless repairing a typo, spelling, or other minor technical error, think of this page as read-only.

Author's Note: This is a Television Show made by @showermonster for the origin of one of his characters. If you want, it can be used as an Origin for your hero as well, there's certainly room for more Action Figure people!

Premise

The Space Paladins is a show about the titular Space Paladins, a group of armored heroes, who protect the Galaxy from the evil Space Demons and their leader, (NAME WIP). An ancient order from a distant planet, the current generation of Space Paladins is unable to stop the Space Demons from conquering their planet, and are forced to retreat to a distant corner of the galaxy.They team up with a group of human kids in order to learn how to live on the planet incognito, while ensuring it is safe from the Space Demons. The show takes place in an alternate universe (Essentially our own, that place called "Real Life") with no superheroes or villains, and approximately set in the 1980's.

The show was created alongside a line of high-end action figures of the Space Paladins, the leader of the Space Demons, and notable Space Demon lackeys. The show was made in America but was soon localized across the world under the name 'Star Paladins, Defenders of the Galaxy'.

Characters

The Space Paladins

NOTE: Despite being aliens from across the Galaxy, they look like and are otherwise identical to humans.

Current Team

Sir Nebulous: Nebulous is the leader of the Space Paladins. He remains calm even in dire situations, and is the oldest of the group. Many of the younger knights look up to him like a father figure. He fights with an energy saber and is adorned in white armor with golden trim and adorned in gold and silver feathers. His helmet is shaped like a lion's head and features a brilliant red mane. He is prone to storytelling, and often gets homesick. His name is clearly derived from the word Nebula. When disguised as a human, he calls himself Nathan.

Sir Gallant: Gallant is as his name would suggest to humans: incredibly dedicated to the mission of the Space Paladins. He eats, sleeps, and trains with that mission in mind...however, he has a rather jovial personality and tends to shout when excited about something. He tends to get along with most members of the group, but occasionally gets on the nerves of Boli and Boreas. While relatively new to the group, Nebulous considers him to be the next leader. Sir Gallant tries to get the group closer together, and a running gag of the series is where Sir Gallant attempts to come up with various team poses, but ends up looking like a doofus while attempting it. His armor lacks an animal motif, but is sleek with long curved pauldrons and colored red, white, blue, and is accented by a pale yellow. His name is derived from the word Galaxy. When disguised as a human, he calls himself Garet...or Gerome...sometimes Giles. He can't really decide which he likes best.

Sir Boli: Boli has proven herself to be the strongest of her colleagues (barring Sir Nebulous). She's boastful, arrogant, and both baffled and envious that Nebulous chose Gallant as his successor. She has a soft spot for Centauri, despite the fact that she picks on him at every opportunity she gets. Boli also doesn't get along with Aurora, claiming her to be 'too naive' and unfit to be part of the order...even when Aurora is patching Boli up after a fight. Her armor is colored orange and is incredibly bulky, but like Gallant it has no animal motif. She doesn't use any weapons, preferring instead her fists and the brute strength added by her armor. Her name is based off of a type of meteoroid. When disguised as a human, she calls herself Bailey, no doubt a subtle reference to Halley's Comet.

Sir Tek: Tek is the group's engineer, pilot, and the man who repairs their armor. His own armor has a porcupine motif, featuring a thick frame and spines to protect him from enemies that get too close. He uses a ray gun in combat, though he prefers to stay back at their headquarters fixing things. A few of the Space Paladins tend to forget he's with them unless they need something, which ends up being a running gag of the series. He later gains a love for human food and gains weight, but instead of exercising he just adjusts his suit accordingly. His name is based off of a type of meteoroid. When disguised as a human, he calls himself Tyrone.

Sirs Aurora and Boreas: Aurora and Boreas are twins who joined the Space Paladins at the same time. They both serve as medics.

Aurora is kind and motherly to everyone she meets, and tends to trust strangers too much. Her bubbly nature gets on the nerves of Boli, but Aurora considers the two to be 'like two peas in a space pod'. Her armor is colored a pale pink, with various tubes across i's frame that are filled with a flowing liquid who's colors change constantly. It features thick, circular pauldrons and large round boots...though she wishes they were cuter looking. She fights with a staff. She says the word 'space' the most out of everyone in the group, especially with her catchphrase: "Don't be such a space case!". She is the only member of the Space Paladins to go by her actual name while pretending to be human.

Boreas, on the other hand, has a horrible bedside manner. He's cold to others and distrustful of strangers, especially the kids that Nebulous always has around then. When asked why he behaves this way he shrugs and says "Somebody has to.". He wears identical armor with Aurora, but it's pale blue instead of pink and has smaller pauldrons. He fights with a freeze gun and a whip. Lacking creativity, he chose to copy Bryan's name when pretending to be human. He eventually starts becoming friendlier with the others, eventually dating Sir [NAME HERE].

Sir Centauri: Centauri is the group's Reconnaissance expert. He is youngest of the Space Paladins, a bit of a daredevil, and tries to look 'cool' in front of his new-found human friends. As his name might suggest, he wears an elaborate suit of horse-themed armor, complete with two hind legs. His armor is colored brown, and features a black tail at the end and a matching mane on the helmet. He is the most nimble of the group and fights with various ranged attachments to his suit, but is still the worst fighter of the Star Paladins (which has fast become a running gag in the show). In a later episode it is explained that the reason he his suit has the extra pair of legs is that he is crippled, and feels that having the extra legs makes him more useful to the group. When disguised as a human, he calls himself Colt.

Sir : WIP Knight

Past Members

Sir Nova: Sir Nova was the group's marksman. His armor featured a hawk motif and was purple and gold in coloring. He is currently the only knight featured on the show who can fly, by way of his Jetpack. While good humored and kind, there were people, especially Sir Gallant, who questioned Nova's resolve towards the ancient code of the Space Paladins. He was kicked out of the group after he killed Carlos' long lost father, for reasons unknown. As of the start of the third season, nothing's been heard of him.

Others

Unknown Knights: The escape pods of many Space Paladins were seen plummeting to Earth, though its unknown how many of them have survived.

Episodes

Season One Synopsizes

Season One is largely focused on the uniting of the Star Paladins and getting to know the characters. It also explores the past of the child characters and there is a flashback episode that details the fall of the Star Paladin's planet and also introduces a few of the other Star Paladins before they are encountered in the present. There are also a few filler episodes that are focused only battles with the Space Demons, but some of these introduce re-occurring henchmen and some of the Space Demon leader's Lieutenants.

Episode One, "Welcome Space Paladins!"

Bryan and his childhood friends Olivia and Carlos meet up and go off to ride their bikes in the woods. After losing their bikes to bullies and getting lost, the kids find themselves wandering in the woods in the dark when they look to see what they think is a meteor shower. One of these meteors crashes into the forest, and the kids rush over to investigate. Arriving at the crater, they find a spherical metal pod which opens up to reveal the leader of the Star Paladins, Sir Nebulous. He warns the kids of the arriving Space Demons and tells them that he must find his fellow Star Paladins, however he is injured and the kids help sneak him into Bryan's house.

The next day, Bryan's mother goes to his room to wake him for school, only to find a strange man sitting on his bed talking to him. Bryan claims Sir Nebulous (who is now wearing a suit; it's unexplained where he got it.) is his math tutor, which she believes. Sir Nebulous gives Bryan a radio to contact him if he needs help. On the way to school Bryan is being harassed by the bullies who took his bike when Space Demons emerge from the sewer. Bryan calls Sir Nebulous who appears to dispatch the Space Demons, and Bryan arrives at school (late as always), and only Olivia and Carlos believe his excuse.

Later, Sir Nebulous is back at Bryan's house, looking up at the stars. He talks about what happened to his home, and is comforted by Bryan who says that 'His home is now your home too'. Sir Nebulous takes comfort in this, and hopes he can find his fellow Space Paladins. At the end of the episode we see the Leader of the Space Demons musing to himself at the discovered survival of the Space Paladins. Declaring he will have to defeat them in order to achieve his conquest of the planet, he looks at a satellite image of Earth and few red dots emerge on it, indicating the known locations of some of the Space Paladins.

Episode Two, "Boli-ing for trouble!"

The episode opens with Olivia's older brother, Arthur, who's hanging out late at home with his friends at the town's video arcade. Later, as Arthur is taking a shortcut home, he gets kidnapped by Space Demons, who realize his affiliation with Olivia (and thus Sir Nebulous). He's rescued by Boli, and as he's being escorted back home he attempts to hit on the Space Paladin...and is promptly slapped unconscious at his door by an armored backhand. Boli disappears into the night, and Arthur is grounded after he's accused of 'spending too much time with bad influences' after he explains what happened to him. Olivia heads out to school and tells this to Bryan.

When Bryan gets home and mentions this to Sir Nebulous, the scene cuts to a flashback voiced over by the Space Paladin Leader as he tells Bryan about Boli. Later, Sir Nebulous heads out alone in search of Boli, and ends up encountering Lady Fury, one of the Lieutenants in the Space Demon Army. A fight breaks out and Nebulous is knocked into the town's out-of-business Bowling Alley. Outnumbered, things start looking grim until Boli appears, and the duo fend off Lady Fury who leaves swearing vengeance against this particular defeat. Nebulous and Boli flee the scene of the now ruined Bowling Alley, with police stating the damage was likely done by a passing biker gang.

The two Space Paladins return to Bryan's home to discuss just where they're going to set up a base of operations (given Nebulous had been sleeping in the tool shed outside Bryan's house, they couldn't exactly stuff everyone in there). For the time being, Olivia offers to hide Boli at her house. Tell Arthur that Boli (unarmored and calling herself Bailey) is a foreign exchange student, he ends up convincing their parents to let her stay with them. The episode ends with Arthur attempting to hit on Boli...and getting backhanded.

Episode Three, "Nova-ne suspects a thing!"

The episode opens up with Carlos, Olivia, and Boli heading over to Bryan's house. Nebulous, in his guise as a Math Tutor, is helping Bryan with his homework. A comedic scene plays where the two Space Paladins start trying to discuss important business with the kids, then having to suddenly jump to a new topic whenever the mom walks back in. Throughout this scene, they manage to explain that they think another of their knights, Sir Nova, crash landed in the mountains just outside the town limits. Stating its too dangerous for the kids to come along, the two knights set out.

The two knights find an abandoned mine, where the distress signal from Sir Nova was coming from. They find Sir Nova unconscious and trapped beneath a pile of rubble. Getting him out of the rubble and waking him up, he tries pushing them away, but before he can properly warn them Lady Fury springs her trap on the heroes, taking the three of them prisoner. Meanwhile, the kids think they should be allowed to help to, and convince Arthur to drive them up to the mountains by saying the 'foreign exchange student' went swimming up there. The kids split off from Arthur as he runs off to the lake, and eventually make their way into the mine.

The kids manage to free the three knights and dive into hiding as the fighting breaks out. Once again defeated, Lady Fury leaves claiming she'll have her revenge. The knights leave the mine, both scolding and praising the children for their bravery. They head back home while a disappointed Arthur heads back alone, forgetting he brought the children along...and gets grounded when he returns without them. Sir Nova goes home with Carlos, who accidentally explains everything to a surprisingly understanding grandfather...who turns out to not remember it anyways and just assumes Sir Nova is Carlos' father.

Episode Four, "Ship-Teked!"

The episode begins with the three knights meeting in Bryan's backyard. Nebulous starts up the conversation again as to 'where' the knights will be headquartered. Nova makes a joke about how Nebulous is running out of children to hide the rest of the Order, while Boli takes the hot dog Nova was about to eat and does so herself. Nebulous sighs, and tells the kids of the ship they headed to Earth in, and then reveals to his knights what happened to their pilot, Sir Tek. Tek had stayed behind to keep the ship from spiraling out of control and risking collision with the escape pods. There's a moment of silence, before Nebulous picks up a faint signal, coming from the East. The knights look eastward and the camera travels across a great distance and towards the ocean, where it's revealed that the ship had crashed below and was still functioning, despite being heavily damaged...and inside was an Injured Tek sending out a distress signal.

...Luckily, it turns out Bryan's class was going on a field trip to a seaside aquarium, and the three knights manage to sign on as Chaperones thanks to Carlos' Grandfather claiming that three were related to Carlos. Traveling to the aquarium, the knights end up splitting off with the kids the moment they are able to, and head outside. Buying passage on a tour ship heading towards a small island, Nebulous and Boli dive down in search of the ship while Nova looks after the children.

They're able to reach the damaged ship, and to Tek. Tek explains that the ship could be repaired for short distance flight, but they lack the supplies to make a full repair to leave the planet. Sir Nebulous reminds Tek that they're on Earth to stop the Space Demons, and the trio begin work on fixing the ship. Meanwhile, the Space Demons decide that attacking an Aquarium full of kids is a very good idea to draw out the Space Paladins and make them easier to finish off. Nova, despite being obligated by the code of the Space Paladins to fight them, stays with the kids on the boat. They eventually convince him to take off and starts fending off the Space Demons, which is caught on camera by arriving media outlets.

Meanwhile, Tek and the others manage to fix up the ship, but Nebulous orders Tek and Boli to stay with the ship while he heads up to help Nova fight a losing battle. On his arrival, the two are able to fight back the Demons, only to have to 'fight' there way out of a series of camera flashes and microphones pushed in front of their faces. They disappear into the sea and head into the ship, which activates a cloaking field before taking off for the mountains outside the town Bryan lives in.

The kids return to the field trip and head back to town...oddly enough no one questions the disappearance of three chaperones. When they return, Sir Nebulous shows them around the Space Paladins' ship.

Episode Five, "A Gallant Ideal"

The Space Paladins are getting comfortable in their ship, when Nova returns carrying a T.V. He's followed by Bryan, Olivia, and Carlos. A few jokes are made about the crudeness of the technology, but Tek is instantly enamored with it. They turn the TV on to find out several media outlets are talking about them, namely a group of 'strange armored men fending off monsters'. The news reporter then shows a clip of footage of an, at the time unknown, Space Paladin fighting off a group of Space Demons in a Grocery Market in the next town over.

Sir Nebulous explains that the knight featured is 'Sir Gallant', a newer member of the Space Paladins. Boli leaves the room with a huff, and Nova remarks that this is because Sir Nebulous chose Sir Gallant as his successor instead of Boli. Tek explains that this is because Sir Gallant adheres strictly to the Code of the Space Paladins, which Sir Nebulous agrees to, stating that honoring the code is more important than 'the strength of one's arm'. Regardless, the knights begin attempting to contact Sir Gallant.

...Only, Sir Gallant's communication system is broken. Without any technical know-how, he believes instead that he is the last of the Space Paladins which means he must ensure a lasting legacy of the Space Paladins by fighting to the end.

NOTE: This episode features the most fighting of the Season One series. It depicts Sir Gallant fighting a large group of Space Demons until Sir Nebulous and the others arrive.

Eventually, the Knights arrive in the next town to find Sir Gallant wrestling a large demonic quadruped. Boli pulls it off him and defeats it, making a comment about how a commander shouldn't be weak, before walking away. Nova attempts to help Gallant to his feet, but refuses the help without a word. Instead he is helped up by Tek. The group then return to their ship and head back to Bryan's town.

Episode Seven, "Alpha Beta Centauri?"

With the currently assembled knights gathered at their spaceship, The Crossfire, Sir Nebulous calls for a status report. The majority of the knights are working on repairs while Sirs Boli and Gallant are arguing in another room. Sir Aurora unknowingly unnerves them with a very subtle adult comment that managed to get past the review radar and the duo exchange awkward apologies before returning to their posts. Bryan and the other kids enter the ship and are welcomed by Boreas (actually by Tek, who was behind Boreas), who then walks off.

Then, Tek gets a transmission from Sir Centauri...

Season Two Synopsizes

Season Two features more battles than Episode One and is largely about fighting back the Space Demons. There a few episodes that focus on individual characters (coinciding with the release of high-end action figures) and a few episodes focusing on the relationships between the Space Paladins. There are a few filler episodes including the Beach Episode, and it is also the season that introduces Boreas relationship with. The Season ends on a cliffhanger when Sir Nova is removed from the Space Paladins for killing Carlos' father.

Reception

Reception of the show has generally been mixed.

America

The show was initially targeted for children Eight and up, but has gained a large following amongst teens and young adults. It has an average rating of 72% in America, with critics stating: "It's not a bad show, but there's nothing original to it. Space Paladins feels like it exists just to market its toy line". Others state that "While Space Paladins might lack a unique premise, the fight scenes are well done and the show teaches good life lessons.". Most American fans prefer to refer to the Space Paladins by their international name 'Star Paladins', feeling that 'Space Paladins' sounds incredibly generic.

Internationally

- Reception Abroad is also mixed. Europe is home to the show's highest ratings, with Germany giving it an 89%, with critics stating (translated in English): "Star Paladins is a charming show that teaches kids the importance of friendship, how to work in a team, and that the best way to kill Space Demons is with a high-tech energy sword.".

- The show was a failure in Japan and China, though the beach episode in season two is popular there.

- It has small but loyal following in Brazil and Latin America in general.

Controversies and Criticisms

The show has somehow managed to stir up controversy:

Some critics believe that the female Space Paladins should be referred to as 'Ladies' instead of 'Sirs'. Others hail the choice as a step towards Gender Equality. The Lead Character Designer simply was too lazy to do anything about it, and just said 'All Space Paladins are Sirs'.

There were complaints that Tek foregoing exercise after gaining weight was setting a bad example for kids. Fans thought it strange that Nebulous wouldn't punish Tek for not keeping in shape...but in a comical twist of fate, a later episode revealed that Nebulous was secretly eating cheeseburgers at a fast food restaurant, and had to have Tek adjust his armor. While Nebulous eventually began working out more to counter his cravings, Tek continued to eat unhealthily, but hasn't gained any more weight.

Controversy emerged in some nations when two Star Paladins, both of them men, began dating. The show's creator stated that it was always the intent of these characters to be in a relationship, after the creators were accused of 'bending to the homosexual agenda'. The episode was banned in some countries, with following episodes being edited should the two be seen holding hands.

The show also drew controversy when Sir Nova is forced to kill Carlos' long lost father at the end of Season Two. Critics slammed the episode for going against the main themes of the show. Fans of the episode were more confused as to the vague reasons for the killing, but were overall intrigued by the episode's uncharacteristically darker mood, especially as it occurred right after the Beach Episode where Nova and Carlos became close.

Viewers, like YOU!

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