The Phoenix Defenders

The Phoenix Defenders is an American animated television series produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

Tag line: Being a teen is hard, especially when you have superpowers and have to save the world from time to time. The Phoenix Defenders are no different from any other teenager. They just want to grow up, find their own way and be happy.

Premise

The series centers on the lives of fifteen teenaged members of a superhero team called The Phoenix Defenders who uses their extraordinary powers for good to protect the fictional metropolis of Goldmoor, California. The team deals with all manner of criminal activity and threats to the city of Goldmoor from time to time, and the series also explores what they do when they are not saving the world; like dealing with their own struggles with their adolescence, their mutual friendships and their personal lives.

Themes

The Phoenix Defenders explores relationships, adolescence and LGBTQ identity.

Sequel/Spin off

It has been announced that a television series titled The Phoenix Defenders: The Next Generation will serve as a spin off and a sequel to The Phoenix Defenders. The series follows the adventures of the children of the original phoenix defenders as they become the next generation of teenaged crime fighters.

Characters

Main Characters

Lyn Kane/Cursechanter (voiced by Elizabeth Gillies): A 16 year old self proclaimed yet highly disciplined leader of The Phoenix Defenders and is Berna's redheaded older sister with a heroic reputation. Lyn is a natural born leader who is fiercely serious and stubborn and is willing to help people in need and won't stop at nothing to protect her family, friends and anyone in danger. She can easily manipulate and control a supernatural substance called mana from her aura to create numerous thing (energy blasts, shields, etc), she also has immense strength, the ability to emit a destructive scream, capable of transforming between her human and Andoite form, a talented gymnast and martial artist. Her true identity is Lyn Manchester, a member of the Manchester Family, an extremely wealthy and powerful family who are close allies with the Wayne Industries.

Berna Kane/ManaStar (voiced by Ariel Winter): A 15 year old member of The Phoenix Defenders who can manipulate and control mana and is the younger sister of Lyn. She is portrayed as a high school outcast and gets bullied by her peers. Julie is shown to be very self conscious, sensitive, shy and insecure but is very stubborn. She is a coward, who would normally stays in the shadows while her friends fight against villains. However, as the series progressed, she became somewhat a confident, courageous and outspoken girl who's not afraid to defend what she believes in and is willing to try something to make things right and according to Lyn, "she has became a force to be reckon with". Her true identity is Berna Manchester, a member of the Manchester Family, an extremely wealthy and powerful family.

Hermione Cooper/Shield (voiced by Kate Micucci): A 16 year old Jewish American member of The Phoenix Defenders and is a super powered girl with elemental abilities to control, manipulate and reshape earthen materials, particularly soil, dirt, stone, concrete, and rock. She can be immature, simple minded, and eccentric, but is very friendly and can be serious if necessary. Though she is on good terms with Devanie, Hermione has strong romantic feelings for her in spite their different personalities.

Skye Rowan/StormWind(voiced by Kaitlyn Alexander): A happy, fun loving and caring 17 year old Canadian American member of The Phoenix Defenders who can control and manipulate weather and is Aeolus' older half sibling. There is a running gag in the show for people to address Skye as though they were either a boy, a girl, or "they" because of their appearance and unisex first name, although they is seen wearing girly clothes and a bikini in a few episodes. Their gender was later confirmed to be female in That's Just Who I Am.

Chloris Datura Isley/Venus (voiced by Jennette McCurdy): A 16 year old girl who is quite intelligent but is sassy and is sometimes cynical. She is a member of The Phoenix Defenders who has a strange connection with plants and has the ability to mentally control and animates all forms of plant life on a molecular level. This plant growth can occur in an instant, allowing her to use plants in the environment to attack or ensnare her opponents. Chloris is born with chlorophyll in her blood stream as her blood is only 56 percent chlorophyll and has to take pills to keep her chlorophyll in check from becoming too much for her body or otherwise, she could die. According to Chloris, when she was in infant, her paternal aunt Pamela Isley (before she became Poison Ivy) infused her with an unknown serum causing her to have chlorophyll in her blood stream, pale green skin and the ability to control plants.

Mallory Black/Hex Storm (voiced by Brenda Song): A 14 year old goth girl who is one of the team's only mixed raced members due to her being half Hmong American and half Caucasian and is the second youngest and the shortest member of The Phoenix Defenders. She is very agile and can use a form of black magic to bring misfortune upon others. She is depicted as a mischievous troublemaker and shows little disregard to other people, including her friends and Trent. Like Berna and Devanie, she is considered a freak and outcast by most of her peers, due to her appearance and bad luck.She and Devanie are cousins and is mostly known for their on and off friend/enemy relationship and won't hesitate to put aside their differences to help each other when necessary.

Tora Da Costa/Voltage (voiced by Lyndsy Fonseca): A 16 year old Portuguese American and is Lakewood High's class president. She has the ability to control and manipulate electromagnetism and has the ability to produce thunder. and is the voice of opinion. She also has a bit of an aggressive side that only shows when those closest to her are hurt or injured in some way.

Sera Hernandez/Hyrr (voiced by Becky G): A 15 year old Mexican American juvenile delinquent and a member of The Phoenix Defenders but is more of an uncharismatic antihero. She has an elemental ability to control, manipulate and reshape fire. Sera is a grumpy, abrasive, tomboyish, aloof, critical and selfish girl who is very cruel and dismissive towards everyone including Berna and is visibly annoyed by her. As the series progresses, Sera matures a bit and is calmer and her feelings towards Berna eventually improves causing her to become Berna's closest confidant and eventual love interest, much to Aeolus' annoyance and dismay.

Crispin Martinez/Hielo Amigo (voiced by Adam Irigoyen): A 13 year old Cuban American. Crispin is friendly and more of an open and gentle person but is really anti social, shy and quiet, but only speaks up when he needs to. As of Prom Edition, it is revealed that he is in a same sex relationship with Caden, the leader of the nerds.

Aeolus Rowan/Zephyr (voiced by Michael Cera): Skye's 15 year old younger half brother who is a very passionate and honest person and can manipulate and control winds. He has strong romantic feelings for Berna, despite later knowing that Sera is in love with her as well.

Maya Jelani/Whirlpool (voiced by Yoon Mi-rae): A 17 year old girl who is one of the team's only mixed raced members due to the fact the her mother is Asian and her father is African American. She can use hydrokinesis, the ability to increase the local specific density of water and manipulate its shape. She is romantically interested in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel Sanders/Shadow (voiced by Drake Bell): A fun loving 17 year old jock and member of The Phoenix Defenders who is able to. He is romantically attracted to Maya and is currently living with Trent. Jan, Devanie and Mallory.

Devanie Black/Oz (voiced by Isabelle Fuhrman): A 17 year old emo girl who is somewhat apathetic and levelheaded who is usually depicted with a stoic expression on her face. Devanie has a range of superpowers based upon her skills with telekinesis and psychokinesis, with her mind empowering her to manipulate and levitate objects. Like Berna and Mallory, she is considered a freak and an outcast by most of her peers. She and Mallory are cousins. Devanie is secretly romantically interested in Hermione as she is shown to be slightly jealous when a random boy gets to close to Hermione.

Saya Sato/Velocity (voiced by Sophie Oda): A 16 year old Japanese American who is capable of running at hypersonic speed. She is very spunky, bright and perky. She is later revealed to be a descendant of Samurai Jack as mentioned in one episode.

Trent McGuire/LightMan (voiced by Jerry Trainor): the ditzy, laid back and good natured 17 year old scene kid and a member of The Phoenix Defenders who can manipulate and control light. He is very good friends with Ezekiel and is in a romantic relationship with Mallory. Trent is served as the "butt monkey" of the series by everyone due to his inability to use his head.

Recurring Characters

Howard Cooper (voiced by Brad Garrett): Hermione's father who is a chief of police.

Donovan Jelani (voiced by Kevin Hart): Maya's African American father who is Lakewood High's gym teacher.

Heather Jelani (voiced by Linda Park):Maya's Asian mother.

Beatrix Manchester (voiced by Colleen Villard):Lyn and Berna's 30 year old widowed mother who is a member of the Manchester family, a family of extremely wealthy socialites. She is also a billionaire industrialist who is the president of The Manchester Industries. She often appeared to have a calm, yet worried demeanor. She cares deeply about her daughters and their well being.

Shirley Jonas voiced by Beatrix's mother and the maternal grandmother of Lyn and Berna. She is very domineering, controlling, demanding and manipulative individual who despises Manny and Lyn and Berna's friends because they are of "commoner blood" and doesn't want her granddaughters to tell anyone about their family. She has a strained yet poor relationship with her granddaughters and Beatrix as she is more concerned with the reputation and wealth of the Manchester name than the people close to her as evidenced that she had forced her own granddaughters to change their last names in order to protect the family's reputation.

Stan "Jan" McGuire (voiced by Gigi Gorgeous): Trent's 15 year old younger sister and is a transgender who has suffered issues and some discrimination because of it. She is a generally happy and a bit naive person and is relentlessly kind and polite to everyone.

Samantha Rowan and Hana (voiced by Grey Griffin and Alex Rice): Skye and Aeolus' mothers. Samantha is Skye and Aeolus' biological mother who had them with two different men back in Canada. She had Skye with a man who abandoned her after three months of pregnancy and later had Aeolus with another man who, unfortunately, ditched her for another woman after Aeolus was born. Hana is Samantha's childhood friend and significant other, the mother of Melanie, and the Rowan siblings' second mother who is of Aboriginal Canadian descent.

Manny Jonas (ne Tennyson) (voiced by Clifford Chapin): the late father of Lyn and Berna and the late husband of Beatrix who was killed in a car crash four years prior to the series. He was the third son of Max and Verdona Tennyson and was the uncle of Ben and Gwen Tennyson. Manny was a former criminal and has a rough history with Celia's mother, which later results in a deadly car crash with Berna inside, taking away her courage and hope and was replaced with fear and hopelessness, leaving her vulnerable to bullying.

Melanie Cooper (voiced by Tanaya Beatty)- Skye and Aeolus' 23 year old stepsister and the daughter of Hana.

Beau Smith (voiced by): Chloris' hispster 18 year old next door neighbor who is the leader of a group of hipsters and has a dislike for cars. He is shown to have a liking for Doc Martens.

Macy Conners (voiced by Pamela Adlon): an insensitive ringleader of a small clique of mean girls who continually teased, harassed and mercilessly bullied Berna because she was involved in the same car crash that killed Celia's mother and because of Manny's criminal past.

Ashley (voiced by Stefanie Scott) a stuck up, snobby head of the cheerleader squad who has a possessive love for Aeolus.

Deborah Malfoy (voiced by Emma Watson) Mallory's gothic friend and ex-girlfriend who is actually a vampire. She speaks in an upper middle class English accent.

Mr.Tatum (voiced by Patrick Seitz)- a history teacher who is better suited as a drill sergeant than a teacher.

Mr.Johnson (voiced by Matthew Mercer)- Lakewood High's administrator who has a strong respect for school authority, structure and discipline.

Principal Williams (voiced by J.Michael Tatum)- the principal of Lakewood High.

Evangeline Lee/Charm voiced by Ahney Her)- Mallory's younger twin sister and Devanie's cousin who can use a form of white magic to bring good fortune upon others.

Mr. Elliot (voiced by Tom Kenny)- the vice principal of Lakewood High.

Villains

Mad Mod (voiced by Malcolm McDowell)- a psychedelic British villain with no superpowers but has the produce illusions resulted in surreal 1960's styled landscapes.

Celia (voiced by Kathleen Barr)- a close friend of Macy who was at first kind to Berna until Berna accidentally squirted mustard all over Celia's leather jacket that used to belong to her deceased mother and became very hostile towards Berna and seeks to avenge her mother's death by killing off Berna and later Lyn. She is the main reason why many villains wants to capture Berna.

List of Episodes

Season One
 * Who's Your Deadpool: A villain has hired Deadpool to assassinate the Phoenix Defenders.
 * School Dazed:


 * Phoenix Defenders to the Future:


 * The Bitter End: Tired of the Phoenix Defenders for protecting her from Celia, Berna decides to confront her alone, only to discover a startling origin story that will haunt her forever.


 * It's the Great Pumpkin, Phoenix Defenders!:
 * 2 Frenemies vs Detention: Mallory and Devanie had a hard time controlling their on and off rivalry which causes them to get detention. While serving detention, they must work together to escape from the clutched of Mad Mod himself.

Season Two

Prom Edition: It's time for the team's prom and everyone is getting ready. With some drama, romance and friendship, Can the Phoenix Defenders survive the ultimate high school experience: prom night?

I Can't Believe It's Not Saturday

Argument Can Cause Tears: Tired of Berna and Aeolus being close to each other, Katelyn takes matters into her own hands by threatening to kill Berna in front of the whole school unless Aeolus agrees to be her boyfriend. Aeolus then makes an ultimate decision that would shatter their friendship in pieces.

The Eye of the Hurricane Part 1:

The Eye of the Hurricane Part 2:

The Eye of the Hurricane Part 3: Once they finally reconcile, Berna then founds out the truth behind the reason of why Sera is so harsh towards people.

The Eye of the Hurricane Part 4: Sera and Berna publicly announced their relationship to the Phoenix Defenders, who are shocked yet supportive upon hearing the news, Yet Aeolus became very depressed upon hearing the news and not everybody are not as accepting of a same sex relationship.

Saving Private Zeta:

List of Shorts

Emo vs. Goth: Devanie and Mallory are battling each other in a stereotypical yet comical way.

The Wrath of the Snails: Charmcaster has the ability to control snails and use that power to attack Saya, only to have slower than expected results.

That's Just Who I Am: Prior to the events of The Phoenix Defenders, Skye doesn't know who she is anymore. Luckily, she has an older stepsister who has lots of knowledge and a younger half brother who has lots of spare clothes.

Radda, Do you speak it?: Samantha works as a customer service employee at Walmart and has trouble understanding what a customer is saying.

Trivia
 * The Phoenix Defenders is one of the very few animated shows to feature LGBTQ themes.