Generator Rex



An animated series from the creators of Ben 10, premiered on Cartoon Network on April 23, 2010. The plot and characters are based on a two issue comic book, called M. Rex. When Man of Action Studios decided to turn this into an animated series, the title had to be changed to Generator Rex when they found out that M. Rex was already trademarked.

The plot focuses on a 15 year old boy named Rex, who gains the ability to produce bio-organic machines from his body due to an accident called The Event that spreads nanomachines called Nanites all over the world and causes random mutations in people, animals and plants. The central story is based around the organization called Providence that is tasked with the job of protecting civilization from the mutants called E.V.Os. Rex is used by providence because of his ability to control his Nanites to produce machines from his body to fight the E.V.Os and cure them of their mutations so they can go back to being regular functioning members of society.

Due to Rex's mysterious past involving the initial outbreak of the Nanites he has amnesia and works with providence while trying to uncover what really happened to cause the event and his abilities. Rex is hunted by an evil scientist named Van Kleiss who has connections to The Event and is trying to capture and use Rex for his own means. Rex is assisted by his talking chimp, lazy, wisecracking E.V.O sidekick and a mysterious Providence agent named Agent Six.

As all of Man Of Action's shows Generator Rex normally does not take itself seriously even when dealing with very serious subjects, such as the theme of people not being very fond of Providence, their methods and lack of transparency sometimes taking it to extremes such as creating their own E.V.O hunting groups and outright attacking Rex due to him being an E.V.O and his "messy" way of dealing with E.V.Os. Rex often does not listen to his superiors - especially not to the head of Providence, White Knight. Instead, Rex decides to run away and try to spend as much of his life as he can as a normal teenager but seemingly normal situations often lead to altercations with E.V.Os.

Has a Character Sheet right this way. And a Re Cap page here.

After three seasons the storyline concludes with the 2-part special "End-Game". An unrelated one-shot, "Rock My World", was released out of order afterwards. ---

A-E
"Rex: There's always going to be something, isn't there? Six: Yes, there is."
 * Aborted Arc: NoFace's ramblings about "the before".
 * The before might be the Providence Agents who crashed earlier in the episode, or the people who were evacuated when the city was contained.
 * Things have continued on from "Written In Sand" as if the episode never happened. Rex isn't wary of and  isn't seen or mentioned ever again.
 * had been around since early in the series; her death/reboot effectively ended her arc. Plus, she only appeared about once every 10-15 episodes, so she may be back later. As for, his questionable actions and motivations have been a plot point since his introduction. (See the notes for "Black and White" under Wham! Episode, below -- not to mention the episodes right after the time skip).
 * Quarry showed up with some Providence Tech used to control EVOs (It's unknown how he got them, he may have stolen them, or Providence secretly gave it to him to test out), and caused lots of chaos. After the tech is destroyed, Rex states that it was lucky they stopped the menace. At the end of the episode, a warehouse is shown with hundreds of mind control devices, foreshadowing an entire army under providence, not just domesticated, but under direct control. Nothing ever comes of this revelation, because the series ended.
 * Accidental Public Confession:
 * Action Girl: This series gives both genders time to shine, even if the men (excluding Bobo) have a better overall record, due to their lion's share of front-line fighters.
 * Action Survivor: By "Badlands", Noah surely counts.
 * Actor Allusion: In "Operation: Wingman". Noah, who is played by Fred Savage, goes to prom with Claire, a girl voiced by Danica McKellar, who is well-known for playing Savage's love interest Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years.
 * Adaptation Expansion: The original comic was only two issues long and never really got off the ground.
 * Adult Child: Instead of being dark and truly evil, like other villains, Gatlocke seems to act cheery and a little childish.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: ZAG-RS, a reoccurring computer program villain,.
 * Alpha, the Big Bad of the Ben 10 Crossover "Heroes United",
 * A House Divided:
 * Alliterative Name: Subverted and lampshaded by Rex. Due to a bit of confusion, Rex briefly assumes Rylander is his father. When Rylander tells him this isn't the case, Rex decides this is probably for the best, as "Rex Rylander" is a silly name.
 * Played straight with Noah Nixon.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
 * All Just a Dream: Zig-zagged in "Frostbite".
 * All of the Other Reindeer: Rex gets this treatment in the first episode after he stops giving people free stuff from vending machines.
 * Almost Kiss: Between Rex and Circe.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Holiday may have some Asian in her background, and until "Divide by Six", we never saw Six's eyes or learned anything about his past. He's apparently a white guy.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Gatlocke. Effeminate, and continuously repeats how he really loves Rex.
 * He made it pretty clear that he "loved" Rex's powers, and was jealous. Still...
 * And I Must Scream:
 * And the Adventure Continues...:

"Rex: Back to back! : What? Rex: Back to back! Haven't you ever read comic books?"
 * Animal Wrongs Group: The Green Fist. Bobo even refers to them as "People for the Ethical Treatment of E.V.Os."
 * Animesque: While it has the art design of shows like Ben 10, the concept itself coupled with the action camera work and look of the characters themselves favor past and present anime more than a bit.
 * The plot is also similar to Parasyte, Guyver and arguably Eat Man.
 * The Art Shift in Rex's flashback in "Double Vision" cranks this Up to Eleven.
 * Anti-Villain: Garan-Set, who just wanted to things just like they used to be in his time. Even Rex has sympathy for him.
 * Apple of Discord: Van Kleiss tries this on
 * Possibly subverted, as subsequent events made it so that one of the victims could only benefit from the gambit.
 * Apocalypse How: A Class 0, with millions dead worldwide after The Event. And, in thesis, it could escalate all the way up to a Class 4 - maybe even Class 6 - at any moment.
 * Art Shift: The "Where Are They Now" montage at the end of "Without A Paddle" is done in a cartoon-ier style than the usual show.
 * A bit of exposition in "A Brief History of Time" is conveyed through graphic novel-style stills.
 * Ascetic Aesthetic: Providence are big fans of this, in contrast to the various gribbly weirdnesses they battle.
 * As You Know: The second season opener pretty much spells out the first season finale in a couple of minutes, just in case you forgot or just started watching.
 * Ax Crazy: Breach, Breach, and, oh yeah, Breach.
 * Biowulf also counts, strangely enough. Whenever he has a run-in with Rex or anyone else from Providence, the first thing he does is resort to violence. Check out how he freaks on Bobo when the Pack comes to New York. At this rate, it actually seems like Skalamander is the most stable member of the pack (if one doesn't count Circe). I mean, at least Skalamander tried to talk things out with Rex by saying "hey, we're on your side" before everything falls apart, in contrast to Breach or Biowulf.
 * Aside Glance: In "Badlands", when Rex tinkers with the radio and a song by Orange (the band that made the Generator Rex theme song) starts playing, Bobo looks directly at the audience.
 * Back From the Dead:, in episode 15. Oh, don't act surprised.
 * It was actually more surprising that it took him this long.
 * , who went with, gets this treatment.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Rex and  in "Written in Sand". Also lampshaded.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Rex and  in "Written in Sand". Also lampshaded.

"Hunter Cain: Who're you? An E.V.O? Cesar: No. I'm a scientist."
 * Badass: Pretty much everyone on the show, from the agents to the scientists to the talking chimp and even Noah.
 * Badass Bookworm: Cesar.

"Holiday: Always go for the big red button...."
 * More notably, Holiday, who, despite mainly being in a 'mission control'/scientist role, can throw down like the rest of them if needed.
 * Badass Normal: Six definitely qualifies
 * As well as his four other numbered counterparts
 * Black Knight surprisingly seeing as she
 * Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Rex invokes this on Robo Bobo to be more like the real Bobo in his titular episode, but Robo Bobo exaggerates it in order to cause trouble.
 * Bash Brothers: Rex and Six.
 * Batman Cold Open: Used almost as frequently as the Trope Namer.
 * Batman Gambit: Primary tactic used by Van Kleiss.
 * Rex pulls off one in "Alliance," even getting complimented on it by Van Kleiss.
 * As of "Black and White", White Knight has joined the club.
 * Beach Episode: In episode 3, they head to Cabo Luna, which Bobo describes as the greatest place for spring break... and bikini babes.
 * Beat: Right after Noah asks Rex if he would rather hide from a giant bunny than go on a date.
 * Betrayal Insurance: White Knight uses a mechasuit when he is forced to leave his sanctuary in Providence to help Rex with a world wide problem. Rex realizes that the suit was in fact originally designed to take him out if he ever went rogue on Providence.
 * Big Bad: Van Kleiss in the first and second seasons, Black Knight in the third.
 * Bigger Bad: The Consortium, who are behind Providence and have their own agenda.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Cesar.
 * Big Brother Mentor: Re does this alot, the episode "Lions and Lambs" comes to mind.
 * Bilingual Bonus: In Episode 2, "String Theory", the kid who trys to stop Rex is speaking fluent Latin American Spanish while in the season 2 premiere, Rex is seen watching a Mexican soap opera during his downtime.
 * The Blank: No-Face.
 * Blessed with Suck: E.V.Os in general. Those that turn are lucky to be anything more than feral monsters, even luckier not to be Body Horror-incarnate, and before Rex would have just been captured and vaporized for study. After, they may not be curable by Rex. For bonus points, there's a small but noticeable amount of Fantastic Racism that goes with the territory. Even Rex, who has the most stable batch, has frequent memory loss.
 * Though there are some E.V.Os with complete control over their abilities and subvert this trope.
 * Big Applesauce: Episodes 2 and 7, the latter focusing on the area around the United Nations building.
 * The Big Damn Kiss: Between Circe and Rex in "Assault on Abysus".
 * Big No: By ZAG-RS in episode five.
 * Big Red Button: Used by Holiday in "Double Vision" to fry some EVO vines.

"Gatlocke: For us there are no rules. Mook: Except no cursing... Gatlocke: [Angrily grabs Mook, then a Beat and grins] ...True. We're anarchists, not animals."
 * Black and Gray Morality: Van Kleiss is your garden variety Card Carrying Evil Overlord. Providence is mostly staffed by well-meaning and good-hearted people, but its obnoxious leader, White Knight...
 * While White Knight has redeeming factors, his hands-off superiors are borderline villains.
 * The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Six's sleevespace blades tend to do this.
 * Blinding Bangs: Breach
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Bobo jokingly says this of Noah in "Guy vs. Guy". There is a certian slug girl from "Breach" who tried to kill Rex. Roswell from the Consortium counts too. Weaver from "Frostbite". Braden Moses from "A Family Holiday".
 * Blood From the Mouth: Briefly seen on White Knight in "Promises, Promises". Also happens to Van Kleiss in "Leader of the Pack", when Rex punches him without using his powers.
 * Body Count Competition: Rex and Bobo have one in "The Swarm".
 * Body Horror: Lots of it. Some of which is actually quite surprising for a show on the Cartoon Network (at least on its kid-friendly hours).
 * Bond Villain Stupidity:
 * Lampshaded and averted in "Payback" by Biowulf. When Rex is Brought Down to Normal and Biowulf is told to get rid of him, Biowulf goes for the nearest airlock. When asked if a more elaborate death trap would be more appropriate, Biowulf simply says "No" and drops him.
 * Played straight by White Knight in the same episode. He traps Biowulf in an electromagnet, which could rip the Nanites right out of his body if it were set at maximum. When Biowulf asks why he didn't just do that, White Knight, having donned his Powered Armor, more or less kicks him in response. He just wanted a good fight.
 * Book Ends: The series begins with Rex diving out of a airship to attack a giant EVO. The final scene mirrors this, except against a giant robot.
 * Bottomless Magazines: The non-energy firearms are shown to spit out an obscene amount of spent shells, but we rarely see anyone reloading. Also, the magazines themselves are ludicrously tiny.
 * Breather Episode: Episode 20, "Badlands," taking place between the heavy Almost-Whole-Episode Flashback "Promises, Promises" and the epic episode "Payback."
 * Most of the episodes centering Rex and Noah count as this.
 * Brought Down to Normal: One of Rex's powers is to do this to other E.V.Os, but subverted since it only works if they are mindless or want to be cured. If they want their mutation, they can resist. Animals are also harder to cure. Some are also simply incurable, and thus can only be killed or contained.
 * Rex spends most of "Lockdown" with his Psychoactive Powers on the fritz.
 * In "What Lies Beneath"
 * In "Payback"
 * A completely different case in "A Family Holiday" where
 * Yet again in "Deadzone", due to a nebbishy fellow who functions as a Power Nullifier.
 * Bubble Boy: Or rather man. White Knight lives in a hermetically-sealed room to keep him nanite-free, since he's the only trustworthy leader of Providence (no random mutation).
 * Bullying a Dragon: A large crowd harasses Rex in "The Hunter" because they learned he was an E.V.O from the news. Never mind that said news spot is him fighting a giant monster. Taken to suicidally insane levels when Rex gets tired of their crap and brings out the Power Fists to scare them off, only to accidentally backhand someone when the crowd doesn't back down. Despite this, they just get more violent. It's hinted that it might have been a set-up to make Rex look bad, however, so it may be justified.
 * By-The-Book Cop: Six. However, he'll make exceptions if the orders are jackass-y enough.
 * Chekhov's Armoury: The first Season Finale. In order to fight off the Pack,
 * Chess Motifs: White Knight  Lampshaded even by Rex in "Back in Black" when he fights   Even more justified in
 * Chick Magnet: Rex has managed to attract his fair share of women. Too bad the only ones he has a chance with are the one he ignores and the one working for the enemy.
 * Clock Roaches: Van Kleiss believes he's being pursued by one in "A Brief History of Time".
 * Close-Call Haircut: A variation happens with Agent Six's tie in the premiere.
 * Code Emergency: Rex has problems keeping his codes straight. He once tells some friends not to worry as it's "only a Code 2". When a giant EVO crashes through a building, he remembers that "the lower the number, the worse the situation".
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Rex's original weapons (the Boogie Pack, the Smack Hands, etc.) are colored orange, grey, and silver, but his new makes,, are blue and black.
 * Conspicuous CG: The spent shells from Providence's automatic weapons are the most obvious example. Some vehicles may be animated using computer generated imagery, especially in scenes where the plot requires many identical vehicles at once.
 * Continuity Nod: A couple in "What Lies Beneath", to events from the first and ninth episodes.
 * "Basic" featured captured E.V.O specimens from all throughout the series, used for practice at Providence's basic training facility. These included Weaver from "Frostbite", and a gluttonous businessman who was captured while attacking a grocery store. Finally explaining what's done with incurables who are too big and/or too dangerous to keep in the Zoo.
 * Rambaur from "Basic" appears in "Moonlighting", albeit with a few extra pounds.
 * A big point of "Alliance" is fixing the Force Field around the Bug Jar from "The Forgotten", and at the end, Rex advises  to head to Hong Kong, a la "Rabble".
 * "Grounded" brought back the teenagers from the first episode, as Noah's Jerkass classmates.
 * Cool Old Guy: Agent Martello in "Outpost".
 * Cool Old Lady: Abuela, Rex and Cesar's adopted grandmother, in "Night Falls". She faces off against Hunter Cain without batting an eye.
 * Cool Shades: Agent Six. Rex's goggles may also count.
 * Cool Sword: Never mind Rex's BFS; Six owns a pair of katanas that fold up to store in his sleeves, with a spring-launch for easy access. They can even be snapped together to form a car-lifting electromagnet.
 * Let us not forget, the things are springloaded to work underwater. Through a wet suit. Yeah.
 * Crapsack World: As cool and fun as Rex's adventures may appear, the fact that every single living thing on the planet has been infected with Nanites and could potentially mutate into a hideous abomination at any time, without any warning or knowledge of what they could turn into, makes it a rather bleak place to live for your average person. What's worse, while Rex may be able to cure E.V.Os, it doesn't work with all of them, so those who mutate may never turn back. On the bright side, things seem to have improved somewhat from the flashback scenes in "Promises, Promises", since at least now people who turn have a chance of being cured, and it really looked like humanity might just outright go extinct before Rex.
 * On the bright side,
 * Crazy Prepared: White Knight's Mini-Mecha and Powered Armor (yes, he manages both at the same time) will have a weapon for the situation, and will keep him safe from Nanites. Period.
 * Really, Holiday? You either had ready, or set up in under 8 minutes, an interrogation room with hand scanners, trapdoor, decending wall-thingy, Breach-sized restraints, and PROBE CANNON?
 * Creator Cameo: Man of Action Studios' founders had two. The teenagers who teased Rex in the first episode and return in the episode "Grounded" are modeled after and voiced by them. They even lampshade it by calling themselves "The Men of Action".
 * Creepy Child: One of Breach's "dolls".
 * Crossover: One with Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, entitled "Heroes United."
 * Cryptid Episode: In one episode, the creature turns out not to be an EVO but is instead a (perfectly natural) chupacabra.
 * Cute and Psycho: Breach has characteristics of this. She also likes cute, shiny things... and then there's her "dollhouse".
 * Cute Monster Girl:
 * Breach, of course.
 * While the vast majority of E.V.Os tend to be slavering monsters that look like they just left a Body Horror pageant, Cricket from "Rabble" manages to mutate into a fairly attractive cricket-hybrid. She easily stands out in comparison to her companions, a squid-faced guy and living mummy bandages.
 * Darker and Edgier: In the first episode alone, . Rex himself also isn't as squeaky clean as other Man Of Action heroes, demonstrating selfish and utterly reckless behavior.
 * The series was already pretty dark but, from season 2 onward the series is just getting darker as it goes along with the treatment of evos, Rex being a traitor to his own kind, a new even more unfriendly Providence with the new leader Black Knight, and Providence's higher ups being revealed as having not so noble intentions.
 * Dark Magical Girl: Circe.
 * Dating Catwoman: Rex and Circe. This show demonstrates why it is BAD.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Circe, Bobo Haha, Six, and sometimes Rex.
 * Add the Russian scientist Volkov to the list in "Gravity".
 * White Knight as of "Plague".
 * Determinator: One, the most dangerous man in the world. With nothing more than sheer mental strength and his techniques, he resisted losing himself to his E.V.O transformation for five years.
 * Diplomatic Impunity: Van Kleiss arrives at the UN as a representative of Abysus in episode 7. It's safe to say he lost it by the end.
 * Discard and Draw: Rex and Van Kleiss do this to each other. Rex takes Kleiss' powers, so Van Kleiss steals Rex's powers. Rex takes in some unprogrammed Nanites, which are then programmed by Rylander's injection to give him a new powerset, as well as getting the old ones back.
 * Downer Ending: Combined with Downer Beginning and a Hope Spot for good measure.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Though lacking the actual rank, the drill instructor in "Basic" qualifies. As an example, he randomly throws a flash-bang at Rex and Noah for poor marksmanship.
 * Dynamic Entry: The Killer Rabbit in "Operation: Wingman" tackles Rex from off-screen no less than four times.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Six is the closest thing Rex has to a proper father. Which makes Doc Holiday his "mom". His mom who he has been known to hit on
 * Elite Mooks: Black Knight's Providence ninjas.
 * Emergency Transformation: Implied to have happened.
 * Enemy Mine:
 * Happens briefly and reluctantly in "What Lies Beneath" with the Pack and Rex. Then again in "Written in Sand" between Rex and Van Kleiss.
 * Providence and White Knight's splinter group have been forced into teaming up in numerous episodes.
 * "Enemies Mine", obviously, though not how you'd think.
 * Epic Fail: Said word for word by Rex to Van Kleiss in "Payback". And to Breach in "Hard Target".
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Gatlocke.
 * "Enemies Mine", obviously, though not how you'd think.
 * Epic Fail: Said word for word by Rex to Van Kleiss in "Payback". And to Breach in "Hard Target".
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Gatlocke.


 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Bobo Haha, Rex's sidekick. Specifically, he's a grizzled, eyepatch-wearing, gun-toting, snark-talking, monkey sidekick.
 * Actually he's a chimp... There must be a trope based on this misunderstanding.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Several of Rex's powers invoke this trope. Being Psychoactive Powers, it could be seen as Fridge Brilliance; Rex is the kind of guy who would see spinning things as cooler.
 * Evil Brit: Van Kleiss
 * Evil Counterpart: After Kleiss steals Rex's Nanites, he becomes this to Rex. Rex can cure E.V.Os, while Kleiss creates them.
 * Further more, Van Kleiss controls nature; while Rex's powers are all technology based.
 * Evil Is Not Well Lit:
 * Evil Only Has to Win Once: Ever since the meta-nanites have been introduced, if the Consortium or , gets their hands on them it's game-over. However, it is revealed in the finale that.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: The Black Pawns.
 * Exact Words: "I said the Keep is returning to Base. I didn't say we'd be on the Keep."
 * Expy:
 * His character design (especially the memetic red jacket)is very similar to Travis Touchdown's, his mechanisms have a similar aesthetic to Travis' Beam Katanas, and they have very similar thrillseeking personalities (ignoring Travis' bloodlust and perversion, thankfully). His design and powers are also reminiscent of another Man of Action character. His powers are also similar to Alex Mercer.
 * Breach might make one think "...Sadako?"
 * Van Kleiss is possibly an expy of X-Men's Magneto. They're both Well Intentioned Extremists with a Quirky Miniboss Squad of super-humans trying to destroy humanity before they destroy them.
 * Pale skin? Long, dull black (Skunk Stripe not withstanding) hair? Needs to kill other super beings to survive? Nigh Immortal sans one glaring weakness? Pedophile undertones? Squarer chin than most villains? All he needs is a snake motif and he'd be Orochimaru.
 * Alternatively, he can be seen as a Dracula expy with his lethal feeding method, high resistance to killing, and need of his native soil to survive.
 * Agent Six looks dangerously close to Agent Smith from the Matrix with a dash of The Men in Black as mentioned above, and also looks like he was transplanted from Invader Zim. This one might reflect The Men in Black having an "anonymous" look though.
 * He also resembles Agent Bishop, another Man in Black.
 * The Bunny E.V.O. Well, considering it's a bunny with a vicious streak and a nearby soldier, when it's first seen, comments that "That is no ordinary rabbit!" in a British accent. Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.
 * Five is pretty much completely Haruko with a Cockney accent.
 * Five is pretty much completely Haruko with a Cockney accent.

F-J
"Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide."
 * Faceless Goons: Ironically, it's the good guys that use this trope, being a large organization. The Big Bad has a Quirky Miniboss Squad. They're making an effort to subvert it by introducing a couple of recurring grunts that occasionally show their faces. Played straight and justified moreso now that Providence has become corrupt under Black Knight's leadership.
 * Face Heel Turn: Subverted. In "What Lies Beneath", Van Kleiss blackmails Rex into doing one by threatening to suffocate Six, Holiday, and Circe. Rex agrees... so Van Kleiss will let Rex get close enough to cure him.
 * The Faceless: The leader of the E.V.Os from the Bug Jar,  and the main villain of episode "Forgotten". And he's called NoFace.
 * Fake in the Hole: In "Badlands", Rex throws a can of soda at Gatlocke's gang; pretending it's a cannister of unstable nanites.
 * False-Flag Operation: Hunter Kain buys a batch of cloned E.V.Os, releases them to prove Providence is worthless, then has his men save the day. Except he cloned so many that their special E.V.O-killing ammo ran out, and Kain wrote them off since he was too busy fighting Rex. Rex, of course, saves the day.
 * The scientist from episode 36 does something similar. He says he's made a device that can cure incurable EVOs.  He deserved those punches and slaps Holiday gave him in the episode.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: Zig-zagged schizophrenically. On one hand, Providence Soldiers generally use what just about anyone will identify as some sort of machine gun, some of which have what looks like grenade launchers mounted underneath. They have the distinctive muzzle flash, and even eject shell casings most of the time. On the other hand, these guns are referred to as "blasters", and being the Red Shirts they are, Providence Soldiers never accomplish anything with them. The presence of microwave energy weapons that actually do something would seemingly make this show a straight example of this trope, except for the fact that they caused their targets, a bunch of giant insects, to explode into a red splatter. Honestly, Generator Rex could get its own folder on this page regarding the degree to which Family-Friendly Firearms applies, since the above examples covers about half of the zig-zags the series makes on this trope.
 * Also, in another episode, two cops are shown using generic looking automatics with visible shell casing ejection.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death
 * Fantastic Racism: The subject of "The Hunter".
 * And loads of it sprinkled liberally throughout the series, running the gamut from simple fear all the way to all-out hate.
 * In episode 36, it starts out with the scientist who says he can cure "incurables" averting this trope, insisting that EVOs (or ones that were human at least) have loved ones and deserve to be cured. He also says that Providence's "military solution" is not the answer, because they're essentially killing people who are sick. It's played straight when
 * Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Rex has a helmet when riding his hoverbike - but not when flying.
 * Fertile Feet: Van Kleiss. A rare evil version of the trope.
 * Fish Out of Temporal Water: Garan-Set from "Riddle of the Sphinx". His villainy throughout the episode is nothing more than a twisted attempt to make things the way they were in his time. Rex tries to reach out to Garan-Set when he realizes this and offers to help him adjust.
 * Five-Bad Band
 * The Pack: A group of powerful E.V.O.s led by Van Kleiss.
 * Big Bad: Van Kleiss.
 * The Dragon: Biowulf.
 * The Brute: Skalamander.
 * Evil Genius / Dark Chick: Breach.
 * Dark Chick / Sixth Ranger: Circe.
 * The Six: A group of mercenaries comprised of the most dangerous people in the world.
 * Big Bad: One (Though it's debatable how bad he was. Turned E.V.O. Deceased.)
 * The Dragon: Dos (The team's current Big Bad. His name is Spanish for 2.)
 * The Brute: Trey (Not actually his real name. Stands for 3.)
 * Evil Genius: IV (Roman numeral for 4. Read as "Ivy".)
 * Dark Chick: Five (Despite what her trope implies, is actually quite the opposite of "dark" .)
 * Sixth Ranger: Six (Joined Providence to find a cure for the now E.V.O. One.)
 * Five-Man Band
 * Providence: A high tech global military organization dedicated on curing, containing or killing hostile E.V.O.s.
 * The Hero: Rex
 * The Lancer / Team Dad: Agent Six
 * The Smart Guy / Team Mom (Holiday only) / The Medic: Doc Holiday, Ceasar
 * The Big Guy / Team Pet: Bobo (Even though he's shortest member of the team.)
 * The Chick / Tagalong Kid: Noah
 * Sixth Ranger / Big Good: White Knight, Ceasar
 * Five Rounds Rapid: Mostly played straight with the Providence Red Shirts. They tend to stick to shooting things with conventional weapons. Subverted in episode 7 during a fight with a giant worm. When the bullets they have on hand don't work, they call in gunships and tear that thing apart.
 * The concept is subverted in "Basic," where one of the Mooks-in-training realizes that they use Five Rounds Rapid not to kill the E.V.Os, but as a distraction so Rex can deal with them.
 * Fluffy the Terrible: The Maximum Fun Chamber full of E.V.O plants and animals is called "The Petting Zoo".
 * The E.V.O in "Operation: Wingman" is... a bunny.

"¡Hola, feo! (Hiya, ugly!) ¡Vamanos! (Let's go!) ¡Belleza! (Very pretty!) Que pasa, jefe? (What's up, boss?)"
 * Floating Continent:
 * Foe Yay: Rex and Van Kleiss. "You are very important to me" indeed.
 * Also between Rex and Gatlocke in 'Badlands'. "I love this kid!"
 * Episode 8 also has a lot of this between Rex and Breach. Not only is it very creepy, but it's an unusual case as we never got to see them directly interact.
 * Kinda one-sided on Breach's part, though...
 * The pair gains some viability with the events of "Lions and Lambs," in which Rex starts to truly bond with Breach.
 * More of the fact that Rex often acts like a Big Brother to the used and abused.
 * Foil: The Stoic Agent Six and The Empath Doc Holiday.
 * Rex's powers are hi-tech hardware, while Van Kleiss has his Genius Loci Green Thumb.
 * Forklift Fu: Noah slams Van Kleiss with one in episode 22.
 * Freudian Slip: Noah in the episode "Lockdown".
 * Fun with Acronyms: "E.V.O" is short for Exponentially Variegated Organism; basically, a living creature that can look like and do any number of things - a living wild-card.
 * Game-Breaking Injury: White Knight suffers these in pretty much every fight he's in. A single hairline fracture in his faceplate is enough to put him out of a fight entirely.
 * Genius Loci: Van Kleiss's little sanctuary is literally a part of him. The entire place is seeded with his Nanites. This comes back to bite the team when Kleiss dies; without him around, Abysus' Nanites go out of control and threaten to spread everywhere.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: In "Lost Weekend", right before he's about to spew ink at an E.V.O., Skwydd says "revenge is a -- blehhch".
 * Giant Spider: The main threat of "Lockdown".
 * Other giant arachnids include the nest of scorpions in "Breach".
 * And another spider is seen during the flashbacks in "Promises, Promises".
 * A God I Am: The goal of the Consortium.
 * Also, Black Knight.
 * A God I Am Not:
 * Godzilla Threshold:
 * Good Is Not Nice: Providence may exist to protect people from E.V.Os, but they are very much a big picture organization. Soldiers are expendable and are taught as much, and even Rex, their one method of curing E.V.Os, is at best seen as resource they could do without if necessary. To be more specific, Providence's doctrine is "Cure, Contain, or Kill." Since Rex is currently the only person in the world capable of making E.V.Os revert back to human, the second episode makes it clear just how far they're willing to go if he can't deliver.
 * This is especially true as of season three, since
 * Goofy Print Underwear: Rex has motorcycles, according to Holiday in "The Swarm".
 * The Glasses Come Off: Played straight and inverted. When Rex puts his goggles on, it's time to kick ass (or do something generally risky). Sometimes, he keeps them on though.
 * Six does this, but in a sympathetic reason.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. Given that Rex's powers revolve around heavy machinery, it only makes sense for him to wear goggles.
 * They also double as aviator goggles whenever he's riding his Cool Bike or flying his jetpack.
 * And as of "Double Vision" his new goggles have several different view modes. Infrared, microscopic, and so on.
 * Gone to the Future:
 * Gotta Find Them All:
 * Grand Finale: "End Game" and "Rock My World".
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Letting the audience know that Rex is Latino, he occasionally says things like:

""This tastes like feet! And not the clean kind!""
 * Specially when he gets knocked senseless. That is when he goes full Spanish.
 * His brother even finds it amusing when he tries to speak Spanish.
 * Groupie Brigade: Rex and Noah get hysterical screaming girls kissing them and tearing off their Letterman jackets when Rex joins Noah's school table tennis team.
 * Guns Akimbo: Bobo's and Holiday's attack method.
 * Hair-Raising Hare: When Rex runs afoul of an E.V.O bunny.
 * Healing Factor: Rex's Nanites can cure poison and destroy any foreign objects in his body.
 * Heel Face Turn: Kinda-sorta. Circe does quit the villainous The Pack and cease following Van Kleiss, but she doesn't join Providence, either. Instead, shes joins the rag-tag bunch Rex used to lead in Hong Kong, who are just out to survive... do we have a trope for going from evil to neutral?
 * Hidden Elf Village: The village in "The Architect" is protected by a cloaking device.
 * Hidden Eyes: Van Kleiss' four-armed schoolgirl minion Breach has the typical "black hair covering face" look going. But considering what she is, seeing her face might be more frightening than the four-armed thing.
 * Averted. Her face has been seen multiple times now, and she's definitely a Cute Monster Girl. Insane, but cute.
 * High School Dance: Noah ropes Rex into being his wingman for one. Given who he's paired with, he was probably safer with the evil rabbit trying to kill him.
 * His Name Is:
 * Horror Hunger: Van Kleiss has to feed on the Nanites of E.V.Os to survive. The victims of this process are petrified and make nice statues in his garden.
 * Hot Scientist: Dr. Holiday.
 * How Dare You Die on Me!: Dr. Holiday to  in "A Family Holiday".
 * Humanoid Abomination: Van Kleiss gives off this vibe.
 * Humongous Mecha: Seen in a flashback in "Promises, Promises".
 * Hunter of His Own Kind: Played with and perhaps deconstructed by Rex, whose job it is to stop the very thing he has become. His position as a Providence agent means that other sentient EVOs are distrustful or even openly hostile towards him. He gets called on this several times.
 * Hypocrite: An old woman, seeking to prove that E.V.Os and humans cannot work together, works with an E.V.O to drive other E.V.Os crazy. She's defeated by Rex, obviously an E.V.O himself, who works with humans. Rex does not hesitate to draw attention to this.
 * Hunter Cain is also likely this, he says in the episode he debuted in that he created and cloned those E.V.Os near the end of the episode himself, despite the fact that his goal is to rid the world of E.V.Os, he says he was doing it to prove Rex wasn't as good a protector everyone thinks he is, and did that just to kill Rex, which makes it worse.
 * I Call It Vera: Hunter Kain's E.V.O-killing BFG is called "Sweet Caroline".
 * I Did What I Had to Do:
 * I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin:
 * Identity Amnesia:
 * Idiosyncratic Wipes: Usually done such that if a character moves out of frame, they take the image with them, revealing the next scene behind it.
 * The giant cog flash and nanite Stock Footage are also part of the scene changing.
 * If It Swims, It Flies: Van Kleiss controls an E.V.O whale-blimp.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Rex, being a teenager forced into fighting monsters for a living, naturally has some shades of this. One of the villains, Circe, also feels this way. Strangely, Circe looks completely human, yet feels her powers (which do make her look like a freak when she uses them... voluntarily) prevent her from doing this even though she could logically fit in anywhere. Instead she works for the Big Bad. She does mention that she's a Weirdness Magnet, however, though it's not clear if it's an active or passive facet of her powers.
 * Not explained is why Circe didn't just get Rex to cure her. Maybe she's one of the E.V.Os that he can't cure, but it's not even been tried. And she must know he can by know, even if she didn't at the start.
 * I'm Taking Him Home With Me: Breach does this with Rex in the episode named after her. It does not end well.
 * Inferred Holocaust:
 * In "The Swarm", the population of Beijing is said to be around 15 million. As a quick reference, the current population of Beijing is around 18 million... yikes! It puts into perspective just how bad the world actually is...
 * To make it worse, in "The Plague" a plague puts everyone in the world into a coma (except the E.V.Os). Rex outright acknowledges that a lot of people must have died when no one is around to pilot anything/control any disasters/etc. Rex can't cover the entire world, after all.
 * The City of Kiev aka the Bug Jar, all E.V.O.s had been absorbed by Alpha, which could effectively mean that they're dead permanently seeing as any on screen absorption had KILLED the victims. Happened during the Ben 10 crossover.
 * Info Dump: A large one comes when.
 * Insistent Terminology: Bobo's "simian undergarment".
 * I Resemble That Remark: Stated word-for-word by Bobo in "Gravity" in reference to ZAG-RS destroying all E.V.Os.
 * Ironic Echo: In Rampage, "Here's where you must be thinking: Did I think this plan through?", first said by Rex to Van Kleiss, then Van Kleiss to Rex after EVOing Noah.
 * It Tastes Like Feet: Said almost word for word by Bobo in "Badlands" when he drinks an expired can of soda:

"Noah: Every guy who's ever gone out with her has ended up in the hospital, or worse!"
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Agent Six. He may stick to orders to a fault, but even he has his limits.
 * Jesus Taboo: Averted in the second episode where the current E.V.O Rex was fighting was a priest, a rare example of a modern cartoon averting the trope.
 * The Jinx: Annie, who has the nickname "The Blonde Widow". Her every action precipitates Disaster Dominoes. This is played down in the second appearance.


 * Joker Immunity: Van Kleiss. The show actually kills him off for a fair bit when Rylander throws him into a nanite reactor, but he eventually comes back.
 * Just Before the End: Five years after its outbreak, the E.V.O plague has devastated the world, reshaped its ecosystem, and even changed its political structure. Without a cure, it'll eventually wipe out the human race.

K-O

 * Kent Brockman News: In "Exposed", a news team doing a story on Providence gets taken on a tour of the entire facility, and witnesses an EVO outbreak, getting every minute of their time there on film. The end result? A cheesy tabloid piece on Agent Six.
 * Kick Chick: Cricket, who naturally got proportional leg-strength with her namesake mutation.
 * Kill'Em All: In "The Architect",.
 * Hunter Kain also takes this view against E.V.Os, denying all logic to the contrary.
 * Killer Rabbit: Nanites + Bunny = One very dangerous rabbit.
 * It's intro scene in "Operation: Wingman" in particular may have also been a subtle Shout-Out to the original Killer Rabbit scene, considering the Providence soldier Rex talks to has a Scottish accent.
 * Knight of Cerebus: Black Knight. It's always been a pretty dark show, but it got significantly darker when she took over Providence. Even the breather episodes are more comedy painted over the conflict than straight-up funny.
 * Knight Templar:
 * White Knight is willing to destroy all of New York City, along with everyone and everything in it, just to stop one E.V.O. Admittedly, it did have the power to zombify regular people by touching them.
 * Black Knight is much worse.
 * Large Ham: Gatlocke is this in spades. Loves to hear himself talk, check. Has overblown mood swings, check. Overall flair for the dramatic, check and check.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Rex has no memories of his life a few months before joining Providence. Van Kleiss explains that the two of them were right at the base of the explosion, so that probably has something to do with it.
 * It's confirmed in "Rabble" that Rex has some kind of condition
 * In "Six minus Six", Six loses all of his memories of the last six years; forgetting all of his friends, and turning into a morally dubious, casanova, jerkass.
 * Last Second Chance: Rex offers one to Garan-Set, who unfortunately doesn't take it.
 * Let's You and Him Fight: How the Ben 10 Crossover "Heroes United" starts
 * Lightning Bruiser: The giant E.V.O bunny. Strong, able to take some solid hits and fast enough to run away to come back and hassle Rex latter.
 * Likes Older Women: 15-year-old Rex really likes hitting on Doc Holiday who's in her late 20s, even after he falls for a girl his own age, though it switches to semi-teasing after that.
 * Like Parent, Like Spouse: Rex is attracted to Doc Holiday, and according to Van Kleiss, Violetta Salazar was a willful, headstrong but brilliant scientist - sound familiar?
 * Limited Wardrobe: Most of the characters. Lampshaded right off the bat when Holiday asks Six if he's ever going to buy another suit. Rex actually manages to do this trope through a flashback, wearing the exact same clothes when he was five years younger. Even Six had a different outfit back then.
 * Actually if you go back and re-watch that episode you will see that Rex's outfit was different: black shirt not white, blue jeans not leather(?), no goggles and no gloves.
 * In the episode "Operation: Wingman" Rex borrows one of Six's suits for yet another formal occasion (in this instance, prom night). When Six returns to his flat and discovers his closet is ajar, the viewer catches a glimpse within—where there are twelve identical suits. Rex is wearing one and Six was wearing one all day, so that adds up to two green suits for every day of the week!
 * Rex even lampshades it "There isn't much choice when you're shopping in Six's closet."
 * Living Battery: There's a whole country that gets its electricity from a single EVO.
 * Long Lost Sibling:  learns from Rylander that   has a brother, and then meets him later.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower Lottery: The nature of many E.V.Os' powersets, from Van Kleiss to Meechum to Circe. Compare to Blessed with Suck above, it's random what you'll look like or gain any powers from it (Hell, you'd be lucky to maintain sapience).
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: An interesting example in "Written in Sand". It turns out that ZAG-RS was originally been a decontamination system designed by César, Rex's brother, in order to eliminate stray Nanites during the project. The trope really comes in, whoever, when César reveals that since he wanted the program to give the feeling of protection and safety,
 * Magic Pants: Justified for Rex, who can control his Nanites. Averted for Rule of Funny in the first episode. The first person Rex cures of E.V.O infection had grown to a skyscraper-sized monster. He's naked upon being cured, and is quickly covered by a blanket. The old man then hugs Rex in gratitude, just in time for the blanket to fall off. Hilarity Ensues. (It's generally accepted as Fanon that he was showering at the time.) Beyond that, most cured E.V.Os revert fully-clothed regardless of the mutation, or at the very least still have pants.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout: Circe's power.
 * Male Gaze: Doc Holiday's shot in the intro starts with a zoom-away from her chest.
 * Mama Bear: Holiday shows signs of this in "Breach".
 * Mass Super-Empowering Event: The nanite explosion five years prior to the start of the series infected every living thing on Earth with Nanites. While they are dormant most of the time, they will occasionally activate. Unfortunately, most things (people or otherwise) are mutated into super-powered monsters as a result. Only the lucky ones get any control over their powers (or indeed, any semblance of intelligence). Worst part is that there's no telling when these powers will emerge, so technically all life on Earth are time bombs waiting to go off.
 * Mauve Shirt: Pretty much all of the Providence soldiers who are seen without helmets. Except Weaver.
 * Meaningful Name: Rex and Cesar's names both mean "king" - makes you wonder what their parents expected of them. Gabriel Rylander and Rafael Salazar, the two leading scientists on the nanite project, share their names with two archangels. Circe was an evil witch in Greek mythology whose voice could seduce and had the power to turn men into animals with her potions.
 * Providence itself. Providence, Rhode Island was first set up as one of the first refuges for Puritan dissentors; in other words, a home for outcasts, such as Rex.
 * The name takes on a darker meaning in season 3 when it's true goal is revealed:
 * Mecha-Mooks: Rylander uses these to defend his base in his first appearance.
 * The Men in Black: Agent Six, in all but suit color. But even then, it's still a darker shade of green.
 * Mickey Mousing: The beginning of "Robo Bobo", when Rex is fighting the second Killer Rabbit, is full of cartoonish sound effects.
 * Mini-Dress of Power
 * Muggle Best Friend: Noah,.
 * Multitasked Conversation: In "A Brief History of Time", Cesar notices that someone cloaked is following him and the providence agents, he loudly proclaims what they're going to do for the followers benefit
 * Mundane Utility: The Evos that Providence collars are put to use for such tasks as harvesting wheat and helping little old ladies cross the street.
 * Mutated Little Sister:
 * Mysterious Past: Rex. In addition to everything else,
 * Nakama: The episode "Hermanos" reveals that Rex feels this way towards Noah, Annie and Claire
 * Nanomachines: The source of all the powers/mutations in this show.
 * Never Found the Body:
 * Never Say "Die": Averted. They've said "kill" repeatedly, and actually tried to do just that just as much.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer for "Frostbite" implied that Rex would be fighting some monster in a cold climate while at danger of nanite overload.
 * Nice Hat: Bobo Haha wears a fez.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: "Lions and Lambs". Rex has just gained  trust... then White Knight shows up, deciding to take her in by force. And everything falls apart.
 * Noodle Incident: Lansky in "Moonlighting" has a Running Gag of "I can't go to (X). Long story."
 * Not Quite Dead: Occurs in "The Swarm".
 * Not So Different: Gatlocke tries this on Rex in "Badlands", while they're having a swordfight atop an out of control truck heading toward a cliff. Just before the truck reaches the edge, Rex retorts that there is a major difference between them: Gatlocke can't fly.
 * Garan-Set tries this on Rex as well He warns Rex that the world will never accept people like them.
 * Not What It Looks Like: In "Robo Bobo", Holiday walks into Rex's room to find Rex kneeling on the floor with his face seemingly pressed up against Bobo's butt. Her "I'll come back later" is priceless.
 * Now or Never Kiss: Between Rex and Circe.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: The "Bleach Protocol" isn't actually a nuke, but a "forced plasma cascade". When Six mentions this to Rex in "The Swarm", Rex points out that "Nuke'Em" still makes for a much better Catch Phrase.
 * Nuke'Em: A proposed solution to the zombie-making E.V.O, but never implemented. Tried on the bugs in "The Swarm", which just made them multiply.
 * Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In "Lockdown", when Rex gives Noah a tour of Providence's base.
 * Oblivious to Love/Selective Obliviousness: Cricket's crush on Rex.
 * Official Couple:
 * One-Winged Angel: During the flashback episode "Promises, Promises", Rex somehow built himself into a giant robot with all his E.V.O powers combined. It gave the military a good fight until Six stabbed it in the shoulder, at which point it exploded just after grabbing Six and ejecting its hand, which contained the amnesiac Rex.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Just about everything about Van Kleiss screams "vampire" from his appearance and clothing to his creepy castle in the middle of a dark forest. And of course there's his diet (albeit draining Nanites instead of blood). He differs in his toleranceof sunlight and control over the lands surrounding his home, but needs to be around at least some of his native soil at all times, as in some vampire myths.
 * With season two and his new power to, any possibility of him not being a reference to a vampire is lost.
 * Out of Order: The crossover episode has several events which place it ahead of "Black and White", at least. It aired near the start of the season.
 * One-Winged Angel: During the flashback episode "Promises, Promises", Rex somehow built himself into a giant robot with all his E.V.O powers combined. It gave the military a good fight until Six stabbed it in the shoulder, at which point it exploded just after grabbing Six and ejecting its hand, which contained the amnesiac Rex.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Just about everything about Van Kleiss screams "vampire" from his appearance and clothing to his creepy castle in the middle of a dark forest. And of course there's his diet (albeit draining Nanites instead of blood). He differs in his toleranceof sunlight and control over the lands surrounding his home, but needs to be around at least some of his native soil at all times, as in some vampire myths.
 * With season two and his new power to, any possibility of him not being a reference to a vampire is lost.
 * Out of Order: The crossover episode has several events which place it ahead of "Black and White", at least. It aired near the start of the season.

P-T
"Rex: I don't get this much respect when I save the world!"
 * Panty Shot: Averted with Cricket, who was wearing black shorts under her skirt.
 * Papa Wolf: Six in "What Lies Beneath".
 * People Puppets: Peter Meechum, as an E.V.O, can activate the Nanites in anyone he touches, granting him control of their muscles, but not their minds. The one guy Providence captured who had been affected, though, was a remarkably good sport about it. The rest just keep quiet.
 * Quarry gets access to tech that can allow E.V.O.'s to be controlled remotely through their collars.
 * Persona Non Grata: Lansky can't go to New Jersey. It's a Long Story.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: From what is seen, it might be deconstructed with Rex. Despite being the only thing capable of curing E.V.Os and pretty powerful, the higher ups are more concerned with him doing his job rather than going rogue and Rex just wants have a bit of normality in his life instead of being caged up like some animal.
 * Phlebotinum Breakdown: Nanites from the time of ancient Egypt have been active, albeit in a sort of sleep mode, for so long that they shut off after just an hour or so of extended use.
 * Phlebotinum Muncher: Van Kleiss drains nanites out of other E.V.Os to sustain himself. It doesn't end well for the victims.
 * Phlebotinum Overload: A consistent problem for Rex, who absorbs nanites from E.V.Os. He does have space limits, so he has to be regularly evacuated to remote medical bases to have his surplus nanites offloaded. It's a major plot point in "Frostbite", combining Nightmare Fuel with borderline Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul.
 * Pin-Pulling Teeth: Hunter Kain does this in "Night Falls".
 * Piranha Problem: In episode 9, of the E.V.O-mutated, Extreme Omnivore, Flying Seafood Special variety.
 * Enters horrifying territory when a Providence soldier falls in the water. Red Shirt, Faceless Goon, or not, that's just plain nightmare-inducing...
 * Pocket Dimension: As if Breach wasn't scary enough. She treats this one as her personal dollhouse, having taken an entire town two years prior to the current time-frame.
 * Power Nullifier: See Brought Down to Normal, above.
 * More conventionally, a man in "Deadzone" constantly projects a field which renders nanites inactive or dormant (Rex describes the feeling as "fuzzy"). This has the effect of making Rex's machines instantly fall apart if he tries to build them under its influence.
 * Power Trio: This is what Rex's old E.V.O. gang back in Hong Kong was once was when he left and before Circe joined them.
 * Psychoactive Powers: Rex's control over his Nanites seems to be linked to his confidence. When he gets nervous, upset, or angry, his Shapeshifter Weapons fall apart.
 * Pyrrhic Victory: In
 * There's also the inevitable fact that Black Knight will attack their base to get them anyway, at least once the threat of White Knight's blackmail is no longer relevant.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Apparently the villain is more Genre Savvy than the heroes in this show, as he forgoes an army in favor of such a group (and it works).
 * Quote Mine: The news report in "Exposure" does this to Six to make him look even more cool/desirable than he already is.
 * Race Lift: In the original comic, Rex is blond and blue-eyed, while in the show, he's Latino. Some conceptual art shows that they may at one point planned on using the original design, albeit aged up. There's also some with Rex looking like a humanoid version of the Megawhatt from Ben 10.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: "Revolution" by the indie-punk band Orange is the show's theme, albeit in severely cut-down form. And yes, it is found on their latest album and can be downloaded on iTunes.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Rex has two Blues in the form of Six and Noah. Possibly a third in Holiday, as well.
 * Redshirt Army: Providence's foot soldiers fill this role. While escaping Van Kliess' stronghold, Rex comments that he expected Providence to send an army to rescue him rather than just Six.
 * Real Place Background: Greenville, Ohio and New York City get not only major backdrops to the plot but if you ever visit you might recognize a little too much from the show. Also several other locations which get named look like their Real Life counterparts.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: The Architect uses nanites to create machines that help an entire village run smoothly, and could as well have divulged these inventions to the world. He doesn't because, as Rex is told, he is a "perfectionist".
 * Reset Button: Notably averted two times when it was expected, with  and.
 * The Reveal: Noah reveals to Rex in the fourth episode
 * Robotic Reveal:
 * Rule of Cool
 * Rule of Funny: "Operation: Wingman" ran almost entirely on this.
 * Running Gag: Trains. So many trains. Pretty much every time Rex gets near a subway or other train line he's pretty much guaranteed to have a near miss with a train. Even Breach seems to be aware of this: in "Hard Target" she sends him through one of her portals and straight onto a train line. Of course, there's a train heading straight for him.
 * Also, when Providence Red Shirts are having a bad day, the Wilhelm Scream is seldom far away.
 * Scary Scorpions: Six and Bobo encounter a nest of giant scorpions in "Breach".
 * Scary Shiny Glasses: Black Knight's Elite Mooks have shiny visors.
 * Schizo-Tech: Ancient Egyptian nanite technology.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Rex, Six, and Holiday do this. A lot.
 * Selective Magnetism: Agent Six's swords can be combined to create a single sword capable of lifting cars.
 * Serious Business: Table Tennis.


 * Shapeshifter Baggage: E.V.Os can get mass from basically nowhere, and the show's one attempt at a justification was quickly ignored in later episodes.
 * Shapeshifter Weapon: Rex himself.
 * BFS: One of the weapons his arm turns into, the "Big Fat Sword." It can also turn into a giant buzzsaw.
 * BFG: The "Slam Cannon". A ridiculously huge gun that creates ammo by trash-compacting debris from Rex's surroundings. Essentially, it's Fallout 3's Rock-It launcher in a somewhat more realistic and practical form. It's interesting to note the tactical limitations of having a gun that requires external ammo- for example, Rex has been in a number of fights set on moving vehicles, where he wouldn't be able to grab anything to put into the Slam Cannon, and thus doesn't really have any ranged attacks.
 * Cool Bike/Flying Car: "The Rex Ride", a hoverbike that grows out of his legs/waist (see the page image), and also comes with a battering ram.
 * Goomba Stomp: The "Punk Busters" allow a rare non-videogame example, turning Rex's feet into a pair of giant spiked boots that can be used to stomp, kick, or otherwise teach enemies a lesson in pain. It also grants him In a Single Bound abilities, crossing miles in just a few jumps.
 * Helicopter Pack: The "Boogie Pack" is basically a pair of turbines that grow from his back. Avoids the problem with most jetpacks as it's not using chemical propulsion and the turbines are well away from his body. It comes with giant bola that can be launched from the turbines.
 * Power Fist: The "Smack Hands". Two ridiculously huge fists. If that wasn't enough, they can spin for more damage.
 * Whip It Good: Rex's first new power, which also has Shock and Awe abilities.
 * Epic Flail: makes debut in "Rampage". Rex got one for each hand, and when slammed together they create a powerful energy blast.
 * An Axe to Grind: Makes its debut in "Divided by Six." Like the aforementioned Epic Flail, he uses two at once.
 * Deflector Shield: Debuts in "Hard Target", and they are projected by a pair of large gauntlets.
 * Hover Board/Sky Surfing: First appearing in "Lions and Lambs", it's a board with Pure Energy turbines on each end, which can be used as weapons.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Circe to Rex. Not that it stops Six and Holiday from teasing him.
 * Rex uses this exact line in "What Lies Beneath".
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: Dr. Holiday for a UN conference in "Leader of the Pack".
 * Ship Tease: Between Rex and Circe. And a bit between Six and Holiday.
 * Shirtless Scene: Rex in "Beyond the Sea".
 * Shout-Out: Doc Holiday? Really?
 * The giant explosion in the beginning is an obvious Akira reference, and there's several more down the line.
 * "Breach" is an obvious Shout-Out to Silent Hill. A foggy town filled with monsters, a creepy school, and a possible alternate dimension/reality involved. Check, check, and check. It wouldn't be surprising if "Man of Action" came out and said they're fans of the series.
 * Breach being shot with a small cannon at Doc Holidy's order is similar to a scene in Elfen Lied.
 * Also, the whole concept of magically making a town into one's own personal playpen is lifted from The Twilight Zone. There was an episode where a young boy used his psyhcic powers to magically remove his town from the rest of the world because he was mentally unhinged.
 * One of the alternate worlds that she takes Rex to in "Lions and Lambs" is a reflective surface surrounded by stars, similar to the setting of the dance scene in the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie.
 * Anyone else think those rat/dog things in "The Architect" looked like the mutated rats from Parasite Eve?
 * "Operation: Wingman": In the first part, it shows a Providence truck and crew wrecked and broken up, all done by a bunny who looks innocent, but isn't. The soldier that tells Rex not to underestimate the bunny had a Scottish accent, for crying out loud!
 * Hunter Kain and his goonsquad, from their ideals to their weaponry, seem to be a shout out of the Quarrymen from Gargoyles.
 * Hunter Kain himself seems like a combo of The Punisher (in terms of ideals, and it's directly stated that he lost his wife to E.V.Os) and the Juggernaut (in terms of last name and overall design).
 * And his gun is called "Sweet Caroline", an obvious Neal Daimond reference.
 * The skyscraper-sized biomechanical monster in "Promises, Promises" looks suspiciously EVA-like.
 * The baddie Gatlocke bears a resemblance to Sword Hunter Cho from Rurouni Kenshin, while his henchmen resemble the Mooks from Captain Harlock.
 * Also, one of his attacks (two blades sprouting from his metallic hand) looks almost exactly like one of the Gurren Lagann's attacks.
 * Kamen Rider Double fans might think the way Van Kleiss controls and uses his glove in the first Season Finale looks a lot like the LunaJoker combination.
 * In "Rampage", Van Kleiss uses his glove to imitate a famous character who also sported claws.
 * "Waste Land" gives us a musical shout out, in the form of action music that's a blatant homage to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.
 * The Bobo robot loked very familiar...
 * Bobo's origin? He entertained children, and his owner was "a dude in a purple hat." Very curious...
 * ZAG-RS = Zagreus?
 * Five, with her pink hair and guitar, seems to be a shout out to Haruhara Haruko. All that's missing is the Vespa.
 * Speaking of Five and the other mercenaries, anyone else catch a No More Heroes vibe from Six's old crew. They're all ranked by how deadly they are, they look nothing like your traditional assassin/mercenary, and seem to have near superhuman powers without technically being superhuman.
 * Episode 33, "Written in Sand" has Rex using his whip arm to trip ZAG-RS' massive colossus form, only for the whip to snap. Rex remarks how it "Worked in the movie!"
 * Towards the beginning of "Heroes United," Rex tries writing a theme song for himself. The brief snippet we hear uses the exact same tune as the original Ben 10 theme.
 * Slap Yourself Awake: In "Plague", Holiday uses a series of low-level elecrical shocks directly to her brain to keep herself awake after the eponymous plague causes everyone else in the world to fall asleep.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: Considering the dark tone of the series the somewhat random surf music and cheery opening sometimes feel very out of place.
 * The impact of some darker episodes, like "Breach" and "The Hunter", is somewhat lessened by the stock cartoon sound effects that run in the background during fights.
 * Spit Take: Rex gets one in "Outpost" upon being told that the drink he is imbibing is made from rice that has passed through the digestive tract of a monkey.
 * Standard Evil Organization Squad: The Pack straddle the line between this and a serious Quirky Miniboss Squad.
 * Status Quo Is God: Astonishingly subverted in "Six Minus Six".
 * Averted in "Back in Black" too--  Generally, there is a lot less of this as the episodes go on.
 * Eventually,
 * Stepping Stones in the Sky: Six in the pilot; Rex in "Breach".
 * Stock Sound Effects: Rex gets these quite often, but they're especially noticeable in "Breach" before things get really serious.
 * Storming the Castle: Rex in "Rabble".
 * Strange Secret Entrance: There's a village that is hidden behind some sort of invisibility field. You can only get into it if you know where to walk into/through it.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table: Happens to Rex for the operation to fix his Phlebotinum Overload.
 * Also happens to Rex
 * Strong as They Need to Be: Rex's strength tends to vary wildly, even within single episodes. Compare "The Day Everything Changed" to "Badlands." In the latter, Rex fights a largely ordinary human in sword to sword combat, and defeats him after quite a bit of struggle, right after tossing aside one of Gatlocke's trucks. No matter how good Gatlocke's own enhancements, he's clearly not that strong. In the former, Rex jumps out of an airplane to take on a giant monster E.V.O... Yeah...
 * Sunglasses At Night: Six seems to wear his shades 24/7.
 * In the episode "Divide by Six", we finally see his eyes for the first time.
 * Super Human Trafficking: Thanks to  Providence is now not only able to capture EVOs, but also use them for various tasks, like collecting crops. They don’t distinguish between sentient and non-sentient ones. Official propaganda says that it’s a method to create “a better future for all EVOs" and help integrate them into the society.   tried to use the same method to create his own personal army.
 * Super OCD: Breach doesn't like when you mess up her dollhouse-town.
 * Super Prototype:, as revealed in "Dark Passage". Justified, however, in that the batch that caused the Mass Super-Empowering Event weren't fully finished or programmed yet, which causes their deficiencies.
 * Superpower Russian Roulette: Becoming an EVO usually means turning into a mindless monster. If you belong to this small group that kept their minds, you still remain one mass of a Body Horror. Even EVOs looking relatively normal experience unpleasant side effects. Van Kleiss has Horror Hunger for nanites, Circe became a Weirdness Magnet, and Rex got a chronic condition that periodically gives him Laser-Guided Amnesia, along with a Super-Powered Evil Side. The real winners are EVOs like Bobo--that is, animals who gained human-level intelligence. This group seems to be even smaller.
 * Surreal Horror: Breach's pocket dimension.
 * The Teaser
 * Technology Porn: Rex thinking up the blueprint for the whip.
 * Technopath: In addition to his power over Nanites (both his own and others), Rex can control machines simply by touching them.
 * As of "Frostbite," this seems to be reaching new boundaries.
 * And as of "Payback", he disarms bombs planted all over  by shutting down everything in the building at once.
 * In the same episode, Van Kleiss has a Technopath of his own, in the form of a strange, crustacian E.V.O,
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Breach can fire portals from her giant hands, using them to wisk people off to god knows where, go wherever she wants, or surround people with portals and attack from every angle. She's essentially an Expy of Marvel's portal-creating character Spot in all but appearance, which is closer to that of Spiral.
 * Bit of Fridge Horror here is that Breach can send them anywhere. Middle of the desert, over the ocean or into a volcano (probably, but this is on Cartoon Network), straight to Van Kleiss; ANYWHERE. And don't worry about pesky things like "heat" or "air-pressure". In her titular episode, she sends something straight to the bottom of the Atlantic without any noticeable effect on the "in" portal. Not to mention the fact that she 'tore' the town of Greenville from the ground, implying she can move the parts of a target she desires. Now imagine if she tried this on a person....
 * It's later revealed that she took the entire city of Greenville, Ohio and teleported it to a pocket dimension, where she turned it into a Silent Hill-like "dollhouse."
 * Teens Are Short: For some reason, Rex, Noah, Circe, and really every teen on the show, most of whom are within the 15-17 range, are noticeably shorter than most human adult characters. It's hard to compare them with the Innocent Bystanders or other normal humans though, and Six does seem to be fairly tall.
 * That Man Is Dead: Rex pulls this in "Rabble".
 * Theme Music Power-Up: When Rex discovers his new nanite power, the full version of the theme starts playing. And he promptly gives Van Kleiss a much needed ass kicking.
 * There Is Another: In "Dark Passage",
 * Time Skip:
 * Title Theme Drop: All the time.
 * Tortured Abomination: Not stated outright, but heavily implied. Most people who've gone EVO seem to become insane, rampaging beasts, and generally seem very happy to be cured.
 * Toxic Phlebotinum:
 * Training From Hell: "Basic" is all about Rex and Noah going through Providence boot camp, on a dare from the pilots from "The Forgotten". It's not as exagerated as such training usually is (aside from the ludicrous number of push-ups and sit-ups they're assigned), though they still had a fairly-standard Drill Sergeant Nasty.
 * Except the whole "crash-land a real plane" part and fighting fifty-foot E.V.O monsters. That's kinda extreme.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: As evidenced by the presence of Nanomachines and a working (after a fashion) space elevator.
 * Cesar's self-contained self-propelled lab capsule is lightspeed capable, which kicks things up a notch to extremely advanced space travel. But otherwise, the 'verse has a lot of standard contemporary elements.
 * Two Guys and a Girl: This is what Rex's old E.V.O. gang back in Hong Kong was once was when he left and before Circe joined them.

U-Z

 * Unfazed Everyman: Noah seems to fulfill all the requirements.
 * Played Straight after Lockdown
 * The Unfavorite: Rex's main issue in "Breach" in dealing with the title-character's parallel dimension occupant.
 * Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Used excessively in "Black and White", using plans within plans of varying levels of unspokenness.
 * Unstoppable Mailman: In "Double Vision", a massive E.V.O. plant is threatening to convert every living thing into copies of itself. While all this chaos is going on, a delivery girl is just driving around, apparently oblivious to the carnage surrounding her.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: New Providence has this mindset. To curb the Evo problem, all Evos are getting collared and brainwashed, even the intelligent ones who aren't a danger to anyone.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Happens both literally and metaphorically at the end of "Breach".
 * Villain Takes an Interest: Rex and Van Kleiss.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: New Providence. Their method for controlling Evos makes them very popular with the world, since said Evos can be put to work doing menial labor, but there's more going on than the public knows.
 * Viral Transformation: What all E.V.Os undergo, often with bonus Body Horror.
 * The Virus: The Nanites that mutate living beings/creatures into E.V.Os.
 * Also, Meecham's effect on others. Which is, of course, a form of controlling the Nanites.
 * A better example would be Patient Zero in "The Plague", the source of the coma-inducing mega-virus that affects every non-E.V.O on Earth.
 * Hell, as of season 2, Van Kleiss!
 * Walking Techfix: One of the many uses Rex has for his Nanites.
 * We Have Reserves: It takes a special kind of Jerkass to tell this to the faces of his own men, and even says that they already knew.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Circe claims to be this, but it's not clear if it requires her to actually use her powers. It being passive is the likeliest reason, else she could just, y'know, not use her powers. It also has some interesting implications for her relationship with Rex, who is, you'll recall, an E.V.O himself.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Van Kleiss, if he buys his own propaganda. Circe is probably a better example, since she definitely does.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Wham! Episode: Episode 6. Just, episode 6.
 * And now episode 9.
 * Episode 15 has a handful of crazy-intense moments.
 * Episode 19. We learn a heck of a lot about everyone, particularly White Knight, and what most of them were intending to do with Rex.
 * Episode 33 Cesar reveals he created ZAG-RS and her voice is based of his and Rex's mother.
 * Episode 36.
 * While that's impressive on its own, there's also . Someplace very hot just froze over, people.
 * Episode 40: Long story short,
 * "Black and White".
 * "Assault on Abyssus"
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic:  in "Breach" look suspiciously like a broken heart.
 * Of course, we also have things like Providence (the name suggesting divine intervention, if not outright God) and an infection of Nanites that is in everyone and everything (much like sin, in the orthodox Christian sense).
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: So what's happening to that ex-Van-Kleiss-minion who joined Providence? The show hasn't alluded to him since his introduction. The Time Skip has left the fates of several other characters up in the air as well.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: White Knight sees Rex as a weapon with which to fight other E.V.Os, and nothing more.
 * This also occurs in the way E.V.Os are dealt with. If it was once human, Rex will go out of his way to cure it. If it wasn't, he'll go out of his way to kill it. Partly justified by animal E.V.Os apparently lacking the mental capacity to be cured, which normally requires the consent of the E.V.O.
 * White Knight, in fact, sees everyone as either a tool or an enemy, since every single human except himself is either an E.V.O or a potential E.V.O.
 * What You Are in the Dark
 * Rex,, spent his time stopping random E.V.O attacks. And he
 * White Knight,
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Abysus is supposedly somewhere in Eastern Europe, but your guess is as good as anyone's as to where exactly it is.
 * Whole-Episode Flashback: "Promises, Promises", though it is interspersed with some present scenes of Rex's "birthday" party.
 * Who Is Driving?: Bobo lets go of the wheel of the truck in episode 20 to ogle girls with Rex and Noah, cut the truck drifting off the road and into a large tree.
 * Wilhelm Scream: Something of a Running Gag for unfortunate Providence soldiers, further establishing that they're a Redshirt Army.
 * Both the original actual Scream, and several times what sounds like someone trying to imitate it.
 * World-Healing Wave:
 * World of Badass: Everyone in this show is Badass at some point, even Doc Holiday when she's feeling particularly protective.
 * Would Hit a Girl: In Six minus Six, Six
 * X Meets Y: Ben 10 Alien Force meets Prototype.
 * Yandere (disambiguation): While Breach has shades of this, a definite example is her "doll",
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Van Kleiss has an entire garden of dead E.V.Os that either refused to serve him, or weren't particularly useful. They were probably very filling though.
 * Kleiss hires a new E.V.O in episode 9 to replace Breach. The fool accidentally messes up Kleiss' nanite dirt suit. He's a statue by the next scene, with barely enough time for an Oh Crap facial expression before the scene shift.
 * White Knight implies this will happen to Rex if Six can't keep him in line.
 * At one point Rex implies that if White Knight goes too far, he might outlive his usefulness, and that a sealed room wouldn't be enough to protect him.
 * Not to mention Breach's habit of throwing away her broken "toys"...
 * Quarry says this almost word for word when an E.V.O henchman of his gets cured by Rex.
 * Zerg Rush: The bugs in "The Swarm".