Fanfic / Webwork

Webwork is a Jackie Chan Adventures fanfic by Trackula and Eduard Kassel, and a part of Project Dark Jade.

Official Summary: Balance does not discriminate. The failure of successive dark champions present and future has created an imbalance in favor of the light. Thanks to the meddling of a fallen foe, Jade Chan will pay the price for another's tampering with destiny. Though heroes will rise yet again to face darkness, Jade has a stake in this conflict such as no dark foe before her.

A story set sometime after the canon series' Grand Finale, the plot of Webwork is instigated when the sealed away Tarakudo manipulates events to reawaken Jade's Superpowered Evil Side in order to bolster the Dark half of the Balance Between Good and Evil. However, things quickly get much worse than that, as the plot develops into easily the darkest ever presented in the Project.

Now with a Character Sheet

Warning: There is a MAJOR Late-Arrival Spoiler that ends up shaping most of the story, and as such will not be spoiled out, in order to avoid whiting out the whole page. You have been warned.

Tropes Present In This Story:

• Abandoned Warehouse:
  • Jade develops a fondness for these as her lairs.
  • Chang takes one as his headquarters after escaping prison and relocating to Mexico.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Chang's shadow sword is described as being sharp enough to cut through steel like air.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Averted. Unlike other PDJ fics (Queen of All Oni especially), Jade's parents are not portrayed this way, instead just being described as bland and out of touch.
  • Viper's parents were of the perfection-driven breed of parents and wanted a son as an heir. She finally had enough when they didn't tell that her grandfather had died until a month after the fact.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Like in Queen of All Oni, the Samurai Khan are made as tough and powerful as they look, rather than Fake Ultimate Mooks they were in canon. Tohru gives an explanation for this: because Ikazuki wasn't properly bonded to Finn, the Samurai Khan's power was halved, in addition to being poorly managed.
  • The Squid Khan get a similar treatment, as rather than just another monster Zerg Rushing the J-Team, they actually take advantage of their natural adaptive and camouflage abilities.
• Adaptive Ability: Jade ponders the idea of the Gumo tribe adapting through molts at one point after Widow's molt turns her into a Mighty Glacier, reflecting her lack of activity.
• A God Am I: Kasahara (Origami) has shades of this. Leston, original host of the Squid essence, also declares himself a god shortly before his death.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Ms. Hartman tells Tarakudo that the fact that Jade is ultimately motivated by love, despite her evil goals, puts her ahead of him. Other characters have noticed that she isn't as evil as she could be as well.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After returning to Earth from the Emptiness, Jade breaks into Section 13 to steal Tarakudo's mask in order to free him.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Discussed:
  • Liz Hartman believes that evil is a conscious choice.
  • Her Armor-Piercing Question filled talk with Jackie causes him to come to a similar conclusion, pointing out the time they used the Tiger Talisman to split Spring-Heeled Jack into his light and dark sides as an example that even demons have their own yin-yang balance, and when Shendu tried to save his son from being banished even when it would have benefited him more to simply let him be sucked away, saying that the Demon Sorcerers chose to use their abilities for evil, just like any number of humans have.
  • Uncle has a more unbending Black-and-White Morality view of the whole situation, and is unhappy when Jackie's questions force him to reconsider long held beliefs.
  • Tohru's view is in-between — he thinks that Jackie has a theory, and there is some evidence to support it, but he's unsure if it's worth the risks. He also proposes dark entities suffer from a functional disorder, more inclined to darkness than light, making it hard to determine how much of their nature is inherent and how much is a choice, and that the choice may be taken away when everyone, including themselves, assumes it doesn't exist.
• Amazonian Beauty: Jade in her new, adult demon form, is taller than Tohru, apparently quite attractive in the human-looking areas, and by her own admission, is strong enough to bench press a pick up truck.
• Amazon Brigade:
  • The Gumo tribe of Shadowkhan that Jade learns to make after her transformations are all female. Tarakudo is impressed.
  • Jade's new Quirky Miniboss Squad is a trio of female biker gang girls.
• An Arm and a Leg: Jade cuts Leston's tentacles off before she takes him out.
• And Then What?: Jade informs Tarakudo, during their first conversation, that she wants revenge on Drew for what he did, and she's going to get it now that she has her old powers back. Tarakudo then asks this of her, and her response is that she really doesn't know or care.
• Anti-Magical Faction: The new Section 0 was created to deal with magical threats, though they do employ a sorcerer.
• Arch-Enemy: Uncle and Daolon Wong, as per canon. Best demonstrated in that as soon as Wong gets out of jail, he goes straight after Uncle.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Ms Hartman asks Jackie several of these in relation to how he has handled Jade's condition, as well as his belief in good and evil. It ultimately causes him to let her keep her Oni powers.
  • Jackie throws back these same questions at Uncle. Who gets angry at his nephew for making him see a side to fighting the forces of darkness he never considered.
  • When talking about why Jade changed her name from Yu, Uncle asks Tohru and Jackie if Jade ever talked to them about her life before she ever came to America. The two realise she's never even mentioned a life before they met.
• Arranged Marriage: Viper gives her parents some credit by referencing this trope while saying that they never tried it.
• Ascended Fanboy: Leston, the new Squid Khan General, was a massive H. P. Lovecraft fan. Now he's a borderline Eldritch Abomination using his powers to terrorize his small coastal hometown.
• Asshole Victim: Leston. There's no one that'll be crying over him, not after what he did and planned to do.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • Tohru figures out a way around Jade's tolerance of pain by targeting her leg joints, figuring that even if she ignores the pain, the instinctive reaction will topple her. It works... but she ends up crashing into El Toro.
  • During their fight, Chang tries to strike Jade's egg filled abdomen with a sword that could easily cut through her exoskeleton.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • When Daolon Wong escapes jail, he slaughters all the guards For the Evulz. Apparently it's the Oni Essence making his emotions more intense.
  • Ms Hartman realizes that the combination of shock from her initial transformation, the horror and pain of her further transformation into a Gumo, and Tarakudo's manipulations, have left Jade deeply disturbed.
  • Jumper stabs a perfume saleswoman who sprayed Jade with her wares, briefly overwhelming her with the scent, which makes Jade realize that she isn't near ready to be around people yet.
  • Tarantula is revealed to have been attacking homeless people, even eating them. Also, in addition to the other abuses she puts her former boss through, she gives Widow a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to relieve stress after she gets cocky and tries to eat a Section 13 agent in front of Jade and her Queen tells her off.
  • Leston, the new Squid General, is a full blown Misanthrope Supreme and Omnicidal Maniac.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: An enraged Tohru is perfectly willing to kill Leston, but before he can cross the line, Jade does the killing for him.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Hak Foo briefly wears a suit, though he rips it off later.
• Badass Longcoat: Jade nicks one from Chow to wear when in her human form glamor. However, since it's the only thing she wears in human form, it looks less "badass" and more "slutty".
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Oddly, it's not the villains disrupting it, but the heroes — Tarakudo's stated motivation for returning Jade to The Dark Side is that the constant defeat of major villains by the heroes in canon has diminished the Dark half of the balance to the point there's almost only Light in the world. As such, the entities that sit in judgement over the balance are required to restore it, with Tarakudo pointing them in Jade's direction.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Tarakudo wanted Jade to do more evil of her own accord, but when she betrays Origami after he threatens her position among the Oni, Tarakudo worries that she'll realize that she's a Dragon-in-Chief and throw him aside as well.
  • Viper mentions this when she gets Origami's powers.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Ms. Hartman believes that Jade was trying to convince herself that what she was saying was true as much as she was trying to persuade her former teacher.
• Berserk Button:
  • Treating Jade's transformation like some condition to be cured is a mild one. Potentially harming her offspring, on the other hand, IS MUCH WORSE.
    • Also, calling her a victim will send her into such a rage that her fire will lash at you without her command.
  • Daolon Wong flips out when Uncle says he pities him.
  • Jumper stabs a perfume saleswoman with her claws when her wares overwhelm Jade's Super-Senses.
  • Leston committing Matricide makes Tohru see red.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Tarakudo is the one pulling Jade's strings, but she's coming to realize that his sealed state means she doesn't have to obey him. Meanwhile, Tara has become The Starscream under the guidance of the Old Queen's spirit, while Chang has started putting together a Legion of Doom.
• Big "WHAT?!"/Flat "What":
  • Uncle and Tohru's respective reactions to Valmont calling them to ask for a cure for his latest transformation.
  • Uncle also reacted in the former way when Jade revealed her pregnancy.
  • The Leech-khan Essence has the latter reaction to realizing Drew is craving nachos.
• Black-and-White Morality: Uncle has a rather unbending view about good and evil. Jackie tells him that if he weren't so unyielding to this then maybe they would have gotten Jade back by now.
• Blessed with Suck:
  • Liz Hartman feels this way about her Super-Senses.
  • Viper feels this way about accidentally getting stuck with Origami's Paper Master powers, since while they're cool and all, she can't get wet anymore or she'll start to crinkle, among other things. She actually has a bit of a breakdown over it.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Jade is trying to find a sense of right and wrong for her kind, despite not being human, essentially invoking a downplayed version of this.
• Body Horror:
  • Jade's fingers getting torn up during an escape, the "surgery" to implant the Vessel into her body, and the subsequent transformation into a Jorogumo.
  • Chang's human skin drying up and peeling away as his new demon scales come through.
• Breast Expansion:
  • Mrs Hartman notices while putting on a bra Jade made for her that the transformation has increased her bust slightly.
  • Jade noticed after her exoskeleton came through that she is bigger now than her future self was.
• Breather Episode: The "Downtime" chapters.
• Brick Joke:
  • The "butt bra" Jade makes to support her developing abdomen, and then throws into a lake once its no longer needed, pops up later, now being used as a hat by a kappa.
  • Luz reveals to Bardum that she was responsible for the Chupacabra that attacked El Toro (though she didn't know it at the time). Later, when it's brought up, she sinks down into her seat.
• Bring My Brown Pants: During Chang's breakout by the Samurai Khan, one of the subdued guards soils himself when Chang muses about payback.
• The Brute: Tara is the largest of Jade's minions, and counts solely on that fact in fights.
• Call-Back / Continuity Nod:
  • Wong at one point brags about his various accomplishments, with Jade countering by pointing out how they all blew up in his face.
  • Uncle chooses the scrapyard that Drago used as his base as the sight of his grudge match with Wong.
  • IT and OTHER apparently scribed the Book of Ages together in their one moment of cooperation.
  • The Enforcers list all their previous experiences when working for magical Big Bads in the past as reason why they don't want to work for Jade.
  • Ms Hartman's possession by the Bat Khan Essence is partially because of her previous possession by Hsi Wu's chi.
  • In relation to the above, Viper brings up the times that Tohru was possessed by Tarakudo's Mark and Po Kong's chi and wonders if that puts him at risk too (Uncle assures everyone that Tohru's constant exposure to good chi neutralizes the threat).
  • When arguing with Uncle about whether or not demons are pure evil, Jackie points out the time they used the Tiger talisman to split Spring Heeled Jack into good and evil. As well as when Shendu chose to try and save Drago from being pulled into another dimension despite having no reason to do so.
  • Jade recalls the time the J-Team saved Santa Claus from Wong... and reveals that it was actually All Just a Dream caused by her swiping some eggnog and accidentally drinking herself into a stupor.
  • The chapter with Valmont has several characters making references to their previous encounters with him, and vice versa, especially the time he had half of the Crab mask.
  • When Origami shows up there are references to when Jackie managed to expose and capture him.
  • The Chupacabra that attacked El Toro was summoned by Luz, but accidentally ended up out of the circle. She only realizes what happened when El Toro casually mentions it.
• Calling His Attacks: Hak Foo does this during the battle with the Leech-khan, though apparently Section 0 is trying to break him of this habit. He goes back into it later, and does better for it.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Jackie to Uncle after they fail to get the Bat Oni Essence, pointing out that the latter's strict adherence to Black-and-White Morality has cost them many chances to pull Jade back from the brink, and has actually pushed her further away.
• The Cameo: The mirror spirits from that one Season 5 episode show up, still imprisoned, in the Section 13 Vault. Tarakudo eats them.
• Casting a Shadow: In addition to other shadow based powers, Jade is able to manipulate shadows to attack her opponents by creating claws and webs from them. She renders the J-Team paranoid when they realize she can make their own shadows attack them.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Jade's initial violent transformation reacted with the remaining traces of Hsi Wu's demon chi in Ms Hartman, resulting in the Bat Khan essence choosing her as its host despite not being evil.
  • Since Drew was present and exposed as well, when the Leech Khan essence is expelled from Nivor, it latches onto him out of desperation.
• Chupacabra: Apparently they're minor demons that can either be brought into our world using Summon Magic or slip through the cracks on their own, with the one that attacked El Toro in canon being the result of a summoning attempt by Luz that was botched.
• Combat Pragmatist: Jade quickly comes up with the idea of having her Gumo Khan simply jump into their target's shadows to attack or capture them without warning, causing paranoia and forcing the J-Team to adapt. She also makes frequent use of traps and ambush tactics at different times.
• Comically Missing the Point: Luz completely misses the point when Bardem expresses disbelief about her purposefully summoning a Chupacabra.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • That Uncle just happens to have an antique bellows, which Tohru is able to convert to the purpose of draining the Essences. Justified, as OTHER engineered this; such incidents are apparently in violation of the rules of its balance with IT, however, so IT gets a penalty move to advance its own agenda.
  • The first six Essences all went to someone the J-Team knows (and except for Ms. Hartman, an old enemy), likely for a similar reason. The seventh, however, goes to an Original Character.
    • Tarakudo even lampshades the Essences going through the J-Team Rogues Gallery after Valmont gets the Crab Essence, asking if Jade and her family have any forces of evil on Earth that they aren't on a first name basis with.
• Cool, Clear Water: Desperately thirsty after days without water, Ms Hartman drinks directly from a mountain stream face first. Averted since she knows perfectly well how dirty the water probably is, but is so thirsty at this point she doesn't care.
• Cool Shades:
  • Jade steals a pair from Chow... who has a whole closet full of them, for some reason.
  • Widow wears a pair to cover her scarred main left eye. Until Jumper destroys them in front of her.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
  • Jackie claims that much of these events could have been avoided if they hadn't been hostile to Jade since she returned.
  • He also says if one of them had the nerve to tell Paco that Jade could not be made human again, then he would not have unintentionally harmed her eggs and she would not have turned so hostile toward them.
• Cosmic Chess Game: The Balance Between Good and Evil is one between IT and its Light counterpart, OTHER.
• Crazy Homeless People: Mentioned by Widow after she masters her Glamour.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Jade's second battle against the J-Team goes a little like this once she decides to stop pulling her punches against them. Jackie only manages to get away with his life because Jade wasn't willing to finish him when she had the opportunity to.
  • Her first real fight against Section 0 goes like this too, easily beating them. Hak Foo makes a comeback later though, courtesy of some Unstoppable Rage.
  • Jade also defeats Origami pretty easily due to her familiarity with his Paper Master powers and his lack of skill with his Oni abilities.
  • Jade's second encounter with Leston, who has been worn down by the J-Team, especially Tohru, ends with the general wannabe killed and eaten with almost no effort on Jade's part.
• Cutting the Knot: Rather than try to counteract the various protective charms on the box holding Tarakudo's mask, Jade opts to simply smash it open.
• Darker and Edgier: As noted above, this is possibly the single darkest story in the Project.
• Dark Is Not Always Evil:
  • Elizabeth Hartman was chosen to be an Oni general despite not meeting the evil requirements the Essence looks for in a host, since being near Jade during her initial transformation caused the traces of Hsi Wu's chi in her to react, essentially tricking the Essence into choosing her. She also ultimately chooses to keep the power but not to join Jade, feeling there's a third option.
  • Jade herself, despite her new monstrous form and willingness to kill, is frequently shown to have redeeming qualities; frequently letting Jackie escape or derail her plans from holding back against him, as well as being adamant that she and her minions not kill humans.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tarakudo and Jade are the most obvious, though the Jorogumo Queen gets in on it as well. Valmont also gets in on the snarking a bit when he appears.
• Deal with the Devil: Tara makes a deal with the Gumo Queen's ghost that involves killing Jade and becoming even more inhuman than she already is.
• Delayed Reaction: When Mrs. Leston is killed by her son, she gets the traditional "split in half diagonally, takes a moment to slide apart" treatment.
• De-power:
  • The Essence Bearers the Chans defeat are stripped of their power, Jade even uses the term depower at one point.
  • Because of the way his Paper Master magic interacted with the Razor Khan Essence, when Origami is stripped of the latter, the former comes with it... and latches onto Viper.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Valmont has hit this as part of his Villainous BSoD, barely even reacting at his transformation. He finally gets angry enough to move past it after Jade's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him.
  • Widow doesn't even care enough about Tara's abuses to report them to Jade.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Drew admitting that he went too far and that he's sorry for what he did completely throws Jade for a loop.
  • Origami is unable to get why Jade betrayed him to the J-Team.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The Yokai races fled into the Emptiness to escape humanity's growing dominance of the world, but without humans as a food source or a way out, they quickly turned on each other.
  • Jade puts on a human glamor in order to sneak around San Francisco and recruit minions. However, not only is she out of practice only using two legs, but she chooses to only wear a Badass Longcoat... and nothing else. So, her stumbling around half-naked leads to her being repeatedly mistaken for a hooker who's either high or drunk, to her annoyance.
  • Tarakudo realises that forcing Jade to go through her teenage years in a realm were anything that wasn't trying to eat her was more concerned about her transformation into a demon than guiding her mental development have left him with a demon general with the emotional maturity of a young girl.
  • Elizabeth Hartman later realizes that after giving up her career, her life and her humanity that she really has no idea what she's supposed to do now. She also laments that she has no idea how to get or make more clothes beyond the leotard for her demon form since she doesn't have Jades incredible tailoring skills.
  • Jade reflexively calls in her girls when trying to deal with Valmont, only to realize there's no room in the extremely small apartment they're in. And then the J-Team shows up and distracts her before she can reverse the order. Things get really cramped in there pretty fast.
  • Viper admits that in hindsight she didn't think running away into Paris through very well, especially when she started growing up and realized she didn't finish school.
  • Jones and Azan were sent to Mexico despite the fact that neither of them speak any Spanish (through they do have several other languages besides English between them).
• Dirty Old Man:
  • Tarakudo has shades of this trope. For example, after Jade wakes from her slumber in a cocoon, she marvels at her grown breasts, touching them. After the Queen makes her stop that, Tarakudo reveals himself to have watched the entire time.
  • After giving the glamoured Jade some advice about recruiting Valmont, he comments on her not wearing anything underneath her jacket (like Valmont did a minute ago), smirking while doing that.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Jade gets Drew in trouble by refusing to let him copy her homework to make up for what he misplaced, so he decides to sneak into her house, take a picture of her getting out of the shower, and spread it around school (in his defense, he was being influenced by IT). And then, after Jade transforms into a Shadowkhan, she tries to outright kill him for it, only being stopped by her family's intervention.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Jade's spinneret begins developing, she feels backed up, and when white gooey silk starts splurting out of her, she's embarrassed both at the mess and her relieved sensation.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Jade really doesn't like being called by her original name, Yu. A plot point hinges on the similarity between "Yu" and "You".
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Daolon Wong's reaction to Uncle saying he pities him.
• Doting Parent:
  • Jade goes from seeing herself as the eggs' babysitter to their mother over the years in the Emptiness, often referring to them as her "sweeties". The Queen finds this odd as her kind don't really show so much affection towards their young.
  • Jade treats her newly altered minions like young children after they awaken from their cocoons, annoying them.
• Dragon-in-Chief:
  • As Ms Hartman points out, the fact that Tarakudo is sealed away means that he needs Jade a lot more than she needs him.
  • Jade is starting to realize this herself, much to Tarakudo's worry.
• Dramatic Irony: While lamenting on a defeat, Uncle tells Tohru that if light always won then the world would be a different place. It is because the forces of light won so much, and thus caused a disruption in the Balance Between Good and Evil, that all the chaos of the story has happened.
• Dressed in Layers: Hak Foo was wearing his usual outfit underneath the suit he was forced to wear by Section 0.
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • After the events of Innsmaw, Tohru helps himself to a lot of sake.
  • Widow's use of alcohol to cope with the situation she's in quickly becomes outright self-destructive.
• Dull Surprise: Valmont barely reacts to becoming an Oni, having Seen It All by this point.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • The entities that sit in judgement and control over the Balance Between Good and Evil, which are referred to only as IT (evil) and OTHER (good), which have existed since the dawn of time (if not predating it completely). No descriptions are ever given of them, but IT is powerful enough that merely being in its presence terrifies Tarakudo.
  • Leston, the new General of the Squid Khan, essentially becomes one after the Essence bonds with him, being described as a writhing mass of tentacles and growths, with a misshapen, eyeless face buried in it. Downplayed somewhat in that he is clearly trying to play the role, and is fairly handily outclassed once Tohru and Jade know what they're dealing with.
• Eldritch Location: The Emptiness, the dimension that the Youkai of Japan fled to in order to escape growing human dominance, is a vast, gray wasteland, totally lifeless save for the Youkai, who constantly fight and feed off of each other. And time moves faster than on Earth.
• Elephant in the Living Room: The men do not like to think about how Jade is pregnant. Viper finds this shameful since they can deal with demons and dragons no problem, but just go green at the thought of Jade being with young.
• Enemy Mine:
  • The Mexican crime boss known as the Old Colonel convinces the J-Team to protect him from Chang and help take him down, by pointing out that it's better than letting Chang kill him, take over his assets, and go to ground with it all. They do help, but set up the Colonel to be arrested by the Mexican police.
  • Tarakudo lampshades how For the Evulz Omnicidal Maniac types like Leston tend to end up on the receiving end of such alliances. Predictably, Leston actually does immediately after when Tohru and Jade both resolve to kill him.
• Epic Fail: Azan's Essence containment device's container "shatters like thin ice" when he flicks it, allowing the Essence to escape.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Jade. In addition to residual affections towards Jackie and the rest of the J-Team (and her parents), is genuinely motivated by a desire to protect her unborn eggs. Ms. Hartman even tells Tarakudo that Jade's motivation being love makes her less evil than he is despite her goals.
  • Jackie uses Shendu trying to save Drago as an example of how demons are not Always Chaotic Evil, but are evil by choice.
  • On a smaller note, while Jade can't understand why Widow is having so much trouble adjusting to her new form, she genuinely wants to help her.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Jade, even after her Let's Get Dangerous! moment, still can't bring herself to harm her family (to Tarakudo's annoyance). On a smaller note, she also refuses to eat people's pets, preferring to do her hunting in the wild.
  • She also doesn't feel comfortable when Tarakudo tells her to kill Chang when he refuses to join them. Not only does she convince Tarakudo to give him another chance to sign up, she even explicitly tells him that she won't enjoy killing him if he refuses again. Her refusal to accept needless killing recurs several times, including when Tara tries to eat a Section 13 agent in front of her, and gets a very hard telling off.
  • After Jumper attacks a perfume saleswoman who overwhelmed Jade with her wares, Jade takes her and runs before she can do anything more than stab her with her claws, and would have gone back and healed the saleswoman if she had time. The incident makes her decide that Jumper isn't anywhere near ready to be around people, glamour or not.
  • After recruiting Nivor as the new Leech-khan General (which in itself is something she isn't exactly happy with), he expresses an interest in eating the J-Team. Jade doesn't intend to let him do so at any point, but doesn't say anything directly against it to keep him talking and give Jackie a chance to escape from him.
    • Nivor also claims to have standards by saying that he's going to wait until his transformation is complete before he tries to eat them, since eating them before that would count as cannibalism.
  • Tarakudo states that he hates beings who do things purely For the Evulz, referring to them as viruses that destroy everything around them with no thought.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Jade can't seem to wrap her head around why her family and friends aren't happy about the changes in her life.
  • The Old Colonel admits to this, stating that while he knows that the J-Team won't allow any harm to come to him out of a sense of morality, and is counting on it, he just can't understand why.
  • Tarantuala is infuriated by the fact that Jade has standards, and can't seem to get why someone with Jade's power isn't actively killing people and the like, as she uses her transformation to act out her darker impulses.
• Evil Costume Switch: Jade switches out her clothes for darker stuff after her transformation back into a Shadowkhan, but loses most of them in the process of getting to the Emptiness. Of course, no one there but her cares about modesty, and after her second transformation into a Jorogumo, clothes stop mattering to her.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family:
  • Subverted. As Viper points out to Jackie, just because Daolon Wong has been possessed by one of the Essences, it's unlikely that he and Jade will be willing to work together. And she turns out to be right, as they're quickly at each other's throats.
  • Chang isn't willing to work under anyone else either.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Subverted when Jade comes face to face with Drew after her Gumo transformation. Even after all he did to her, and her feeling that he needs to be punished somehow, she doesn't feel he's really important enough to DESERVE her hatred.
  • Jade lampshades how petty Origami's motivation for stealing art (he doesn't feel anyone else deserves to see it) is.
• Evil Mentor: Jade's initial transformation already screwed up her moral compass, but Tarakudo and the Jorogumo Queen both teach her ways that lead her further from the light.
• Evil Old Folks: Daolon Wong, Chang, the Old Colonel... there's a lot of them around.
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: As Jade points out to Tarakudo after losing Valmont, they only have to successfully recruit and hold onto ONE general to throw the odds in their favor.
• Eviler than Thou: Tohru considers Leston to be far worse than any other villain the J-Team has ever fought. All the others at least use violence and death as a means to an end, but for Leston, its an end in and of itself.
• Exact Words: Ms. Hartman describes Tarakudo as someone who, while too arrogant to outright lie, perverts the truth to get what he wants, uncaring about who gets hurt by it.
• Eye Scream:
  • Widow has a scarred left eye.
  • Leston hated the sight of the world so much, his first act upon becoming an Oni was to put out his own eyes so he wouldn't have to see it anymore.
• Failed a Spot Check: Valmont fails to notice his change until he looks in the mirror. This is after he somehow brushed his teeth with a claw and a spike instead of hands.
• Fan Art: The author has posted artwork featuring the Queen, the Gumo Khan, Jade's gumo form and her henchmen in both pre and post spider forms on their Deviant Art page here
• Faux Affably Evil: Tarakudo has more than a few shades of this. At one point Jade even wonders if his affable air and Deadpan Snarker tendencies is a way for him to falsely ingratiate himself to others.
• Feel No Pain: Eight years in the Emptiness have given Jade a high pain threshold. Her eggs, however, are vulnerable, and she feels their pain.
• Fighting a Shadow: To get around her pregnancy pains, Jade creates a spell that allows her to project her consciousness into one of her Gumo-khan. While it works for that though, it has the drawbacks of being less powerful, the arguable drawback of being smaller (though still bigger than a normal Gumo-khan, and Jade adapts to that rather well), and causing her other Gumo-khan to disappear when "poofed".
• Fingore: When Jade flees her family at Drew's apartment building, she slides down the outside of the building by gripping it with her fingernail claws... which rip off on the way down, tearing up her fingers.
• Forced Transformation:
  • Jade's initial transformation back into a Shadowkhan. Subverted with her secondary transformation into a Jorogumo, which is voluntary and a slow process.
  • Jade forcibly transforms her new minions into Gumo like herself, though only Widow is having trouble adapting.
  • Part of Jade's conflict with the J-Team is the appearance of a Forced Transformation caused by the Year Inside, Hour Outside nature of the Emptiness leads them to view her Jorogumo transformation as a condition when Jade views it as her greatest accomplishment.
• Force Feeding: Part of Widow's drinking problem is that the times she doesn't feel like drowning her sorrows in liquor, Tarantula gets so much enjoyment out of watching her destroy herself that she holds her and makes her drink.
• For the Evulz: Leston has no other goals other than inflicting death and violence on everyone and anyone.
• Fountain of Youth: Those chosen by the Oni Essences find that they regain some of their lost youth. Ms Hartman's human form looks as young as it did when she left university.
• Freakiness Shame: Jade starts out distressed by her transformations but switches to Freaky Is Cool after she develops her exoskeleton on the way to becoming a Fully-Embraced Fiend.
• Freedom from Choice: Apparently part of the reason Jumper is such a butt-kisser is a desire to not have to make her own decisions
• Fully-Embraced Fiend:
  • Part of the breakdown between Jade and the J-Team is that Jade sees her new form as her greatest accomplishment and never wants to be human again.
  • Moreso than even Jade, Tara relishes in her transformation, taking it as an excuse to be an amoral monster.
  • Simon Leston apparently jumped the slippery slope very quickly and tries to be as much of an Eldritch Abomination as possible.
• Gambit Pileup: There are several plans and schemes starting to emerge. There's Tarakudo's plan to keep Jade under his metaphorical thumb, Jade's desire to protect her kits, whatever Chang is up to, the plans of Black's superiors to reduce their dependence on contractors (namely the J-Team), and Tara planning to overthrow Jade with the help of the Gumo Queen's ghost.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Jackie is quick to realize that the scattering of the Oni Essences means a new world-trotting quest.
  Tohru: Was it that obvious?
  Jackie: I've just noticed a pattern in my life the last few years.
  • On the other hand, he doesn't think to avoid Tempting Fate, something Paco calls him out on.
  • When Jade goes looking for henchmen and pays the Enforcers a visit, the three run for their lives, realizing that some sort of freaky monster looking for them means it was likely going to enlist and turn them into monsters.
  • After Jade gets teleporting down, she relocates herself and her minions to a new lair in Mexico, since she's aware the J-Team will be looking for her in San Francisco.
  • Valmont knows that the Chans will catch up with Jade eventually after she flees while literally dragging him with her. He also knows to screen potential minions before hiring them.
  • Origami took full advantage of the Weirdness Censor many people have when committing his crimes.
  • Jade is aware Tara is up to something, if not what. She's also holding onto the squid essence until she can find a way to bind it to someone who won't betray them.
• Glamour Failure:
  • Jade has trouble using the glamour spell. Her human disguise has her fur pattern as tattoos and she has a miniature abdomen unless she concentrates. It is stated she has such difficulty because she is reluctant to be human again.
  • Out of the three of her henchmen only Jumper can do the glamour perfectly. Tarantula prefers her new form and keeps adding menacing inhuman features to her glamour, while Widow, who is most eager to look human again, looks more like a Salvidor Dali painting due to her limited imagination and shaky belief in magic. She is eventually able to do it perfectly by remembering her human appearance Warts and All.
  • Played with with Ms Hartman. Her glamour doesn't fail on her. However she does feel how that it would be all too easy to slip since it feels, as Jade put it "As fragile as a soap bubble". In a more mundane example, she also has trouble dying her hair back to brown since the chemicals keeps slipping off the now blonde strands.
  • After Leston, Jade manages to take on the form of her child self to comfort Tohru.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The nine Oni Essences, released when Tarakudo's mask is shattered (killing the original Oni generals in the process), which seek out new hosts and bond to them, transforming them into new Oni Generals. As of chapter 23, the J-Team has recaptured four (Ninja, Crab, Leech and Razor), two have permanently bonded to their new hosts (Samurai and Bat), one has been captured by Jade but is without a host (Squid), and two are still loose but unbonded (Mantis and Sumo).
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The Enforcers chase after a shoplifter and recover a figurine he took from the shop, but Uncle simply tells them off for not selling anything while he was gone.
• Group Hug: Jade gives one to her surprised family shortly before escaping the warehouse.
• Hartman Hips: Not content with the somewhat generic beauty of her glamour form, Jade gives herself a larger butt as a nod to her abdomen while in human form.
• Healing Factor: Jade gains one after her transformation into a Jorogumo.
• Heir Club for Men: Viper's parents wanted a son, an heir, not her. She was sent off to a ballet school in Paris after her brother was born.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • All the heroes in reaction to Jade's transformations, but Jackie is hit the worst.
  • Viper is hit with one after getting Origami's Paper Master powers, which she never wanted.
• Horror Hunger:
  • The Leech-khan essence seems to give the bearer extreme hunger, a trait the Essence itself shares. Luckily, Nivor was never able to follow through on his goal of eating the J-Team once he fully transformed (though he did find the taste of the shadows of everybody but Jade and Viper enjoyable). Jade also mentions how his desire to eat endangered creatures borders on being a fetish.
  • When Drew gets it he becomes hungrier than he can ever remember being in his life, and it actually begins to distract him from the Leech-Khan popping up everywhere.
• How Do I Shot Web?:
  • Literally, as it takes Jade some time to learn how to use her new web silk powers effectively.
  • It takes her even longer to learn how to summon her own Shadowkhan.
  • The new Essence bearers tend to have this problem as well.
  • After getting Origami's Paper Master powers, Viper starts transforming just one hand in order to see how they work, and later moves on to further training.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters:
  • Tarantula uses her transformation as an excuse to let her sadism and act out her deepest, darkest fantasies that she had well before her change, even eating people, and is furious when Jade reigns her in.
  • Similarly, Leston always hated everyone else, the Essence just allowed them to act on that hate.
• Humble Pie: Drew hates that everything he ever called Jade a liar and made fun of her for turned out to be true.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Jade starts at the bottom of the food-chain in the Emptiness and has to rely on the Queen to help her stay alive, but by the end of her stay she's top predator and everything else is scared to come near her.
• Hybrid Monster: Jade is part Oni and part Jorogumo.
• I Am What I Am: The reason Tara is a Fully-Embraced Fiend — she feels that she's always been a monster, and this is just her accepting it.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Jumper's sycophantic nature means that she'll serve the strongest person in any given group. She's only loyal to Widow when we first meet the girls because she had beaten their previous leader, and quickly changes loyalties to Jade when she press-gangs them. Between Jade's unstable leadership, she silently switches to serving the treacherous Tara.
• I Just Want to Be Special:
  • Jade has trouble going back to a normal life after Drago's defeat. Part of how Tarakudo was able to get her to help him.
  • Part of why Drew is so angry at Jade. He describes it as her living everything he's only ever done in video games.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Minus the fight part - in chapter 23, Mrs. Leston tries to talk her son down. He responds by killing her.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • After Jade recruits Nivor, he expresses an interest in eating the J-Team.
  • Tara is revealed to have been eating humans in secret, and gets a telling off from Jade when she tries to eat a Section 13 agent.
• I'm Melting!: When Jade starts to develop her exoskeleton in the final phases of her transformation, her skin starts to melt of her and her bones begin to dissolve.
• Inadequate Inheritor:
  • Tarakudo admits Wong isn't worthy of the Oni Essence, being too prideful and stubborn to suit his goals, and planned to take the Essence from him to give to someone more deserving.
  • He hasn't liked any of the new generals so far — Chang was too similar to Wong, and he feels Elizabeth Hartman cheated in becoming an Oni, since she doesn't have any inner darkness, refusing to even appear to her.
  • The Leech-khan Essence, sensing the trace energy from Jade's awakening, latches onto Drew in desperation, having been forced out of Nivor. After a more thorough evaluation, it finds him lacking in every category, and, unable to exit him itself, gets the Leech-khan to take Drew to the nearest General for immediate removal.
  • The queen's spirit is apparently dissatisfied with Jade for clinging to the last traces of human compassion, and seeks to replace her with Tara who wants nothing to do with humanity.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Widow, upon finding out that magic was real and Jade is an Eldritch Abomination rather than the result of science gone wrong, decides to raid a liquor store.
  • After the Squid-Khan essence incident, Tohru starts Drowning His Sorrows with sake.
• Informed Judaism: Viper, who had a grandfather who survived the Holocaust. She lampshades the fact that she doesn't celebrate much of her religion, citing her grandfather, who she was closer to than her parents, as the reason she practices what little she does.
• Inhumanable Alien Rights: After rationalizing her trespassing on a building (to observe a man doing the same thing) by pointing out that the law would only apply to humans, which she isn't anymore, Ms. Hartman briefly wonders if she has any human rights anymore.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: After all that time in the Emptiness, Jade no longer really understands the need for clothing.
• Irony:
  • Jade finds herself falling into some of the same problems previous villains had; she gets especially frustrated when she realizes she of all people underestimated Paco because he was a child.
  • The Enforcers realize that, for all the times they've risked their lives trying to steal ancient magical artifacts, they actually don't know that much about antiques.
  • After Hak Foo is recruited by Section 0, the first tribe of Shadowkhan he squares off against is the very tribe he once controlled.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Part of Widow's problem is how easily the transformed make the jump and just accept losing their humanity, and the frustration she feels at being unable to do the same, despite acknowledging that her past life as a human was hardly any better than her life as a monster.
• Killed Offscreen: Leston is dragged out of sight by Jade before she kills him, for which Tohru and the rest of the heroes there are grateful.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Jade kills Leston in the middle of his A God Am I moment.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Taranee, to Jade's discomfort.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Drew believes that the new attitudes and reactions of everyone towards him is this for taking that photo of Jade.
  • Widow/Jessie feels that everything that's happened to her since meeting Jade and getting transformed is karma for what she did before
• Last of His Kind: The Jorogumo Queen and the unborn young in the Vessel are all that's left, since the rest were killed by infighting and hunger after arriving in the Emptiness. The whole reason she agrees to Tarakudo's offer to transform and train Jade is to give her race a chance to live again.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Jade's further transformation from a Shadowkhan to a Jorogumo.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: After Paco accidentally harms her children, Jade decides to stop holding back in fighting her family and friends.
• Leotard of Power: Jade makes a leotard out of her silk for Miss Hartman since the clothes she changed in are torn and damaged. Miss Hartman would prefer it cover more of her but relents when Jade (who she is slightly disturbed to find would prefer not to wear clothes at all) asks to meet her halfway.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Jade turns out to be one of these during her fight with the J-Team. Is physically powerful, has great speed with her legs and has a high enough pain threshold to ignore pain from magic attacks.
  • Tara's preferred method of combat is to charge at her opponents, using her size and strength to her advantage.
• Like a Son to Me:
  • The Queen admits on her deathbed that Jade is everything she would have wanted in a daughter.
  • Her spirit compares Tara to one of the daughters she did have. Which is not a good thing.
• Logical Weakness: As it turns out, a Paper Master like Origami can't get wet.
• Lovecraft Country: Where the Squid essence arc takes place.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: Jade decides to do this with the first Essence, letting the heroes defeat Wong and remove it from him, so that she can swoop in and steal it. This doesn't work out so well.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • When Chang cuts off one of Jade's appendages, her only complaint is how much growing it back will itch.
  • Jade later sacrifices another limb as part of her ploy to get rid of Razor!Origami, who she views as a threat, showing only minor discomfort for it.
• Mama Bear:
  • Jade turns deadly serious when she sees Daolon Wong being relieved of his Shadowkhan Essence, and demands to know from Tarakudo what would happen to her young if it was used on her. And then she decides to stop holding back when Paco almost kills them trying to cure her.
  • She also tends to take a somewhat motherly attitude towards her minions.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Tarakudo is able to communicate with Jade from his imprisonment via reflective surfaces. He can also control whether or not someone can see him, since he refuses to appear to Ms. Hartman while speaking to Jade.
• Man Bites Man: Jade frees herself from Jackie's grip during their confrontation in Drew's home.
• Manchild:
  • Due to her isolation in the Emptiness with the only other beings around who weren't trying to eat her being vastly older than her who had other other plans for her besides developing her social skills, Jade frequently acts like she's still a young pre-teen, or adult in the way a young child thinks adults act like.
  • Tarakudo himself realizes this, and admits he is also at fault here, realizing that this is a problem that may hinder them both in the long run.
  • Jade accuses Valmont of being a whiny spoiled kid that can't function with adults.
  • Origami's entire motivation for stealing art is that he feels that no one else deserves to look at said artwork.
    • After he is Brought Down to Normal, Kasahara gets extremely angry at the thought that he's not relevant anymore (hating the J-Team for making him normal instead of Jade for betraying him, and showing a few signs of a god complex), and gets very frustrated when Wong doesn't give him a straight answer.
  • Azan is a bit childish as well, which frustrates Bardem when they meet and he and Luz develop a mutual dislike.
• Manipulative Bastard: Tarakudo. Even though Jade knows that he's using her for his own ends, he still convinces her that helping him is for her own benefit.
• Matricide: Leston, the original host of the Squid general's essence, murders his mother when she tries to talk him down.
• Meaningful Name: Jade is surprised to learn that the nick names of the three girls she picks as her henchmen are all based on spiders. Jumper, Taranee and Widow.
• Meaningful Rename: It turns out that Jade's birth name is Yu, but when she came to America, she renamed herself so as to separate herself from her old, boring life.
  • Bilingual Bonus: In Chinese, yù (玉) means jade.
• Meatgrinder Surgery: The process of the Queen transplanting the Vessel into Jade's body, which is given in such horrifying detail that the author actually puts up a warning beforehand for anyone who wants to skip over it.
• Mêlée à Trois: Chapter 13 contains a fight between Jade and her minions, Chang and his Samurai Khan, and an unwilling team up of the J-Team and the Old Colonel's thugs.
• Meta Morphosis:
  • Uncle explains that Jade's change is likely permanent, because it altered her true form, unlike past changes where her true form was simply disguised with magic. They can't turn her back because there is nothing for her to turn back into.
  • Taken even further when Tohru and Uncle explain that the longer the person has been changed, the harder is is to undo it. Not bothering to remind everyone that Jade has been effected for 8 years.
  • Once the essence has fully bonded with its host, it cannot be removed via the extraction spells.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Jade is able to cast a glamor to make herself look human, but like other Yokai, a mirror reflects her true appearance.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Leston.
• Mistaken for Prostitute:
  • When disguised as a human again, not being used to clothes anymore Jade makes the mistake of only wearing a long coat over her body leading people to think she is a prostitute.
  • Inverted when she tries to trick Chang into believing she is a prostitute, and he immediately recognizes that she isn't since she's too muscular, too tattooed and acts more like a cliche one than a real one.
• Mood-Swinger: Part of Jade's mental instability is her ability to switch between rage and playful happiness in a heartbeat.
• Mugging the Monster: A man mistakes a human-disguised Jade for a hooker and tries to take advantage of her at knife point. She responds by casually bashing his head against an alley wall, repeatedly.
• Mundane Luxury: When Nivor tells her that as a queen she is expected to be a gourmet of the highest regard, Jade points out that she hunted for her food for so long that ketchup is a luxury for her by this point.
• Myopic Architecture: Uncle has made the Vault door impervious to attack by evil magic. However, he wasn't able to do this for the surrounding walls, so Jade has her Shadowkhan chip away at those to weaken the door enough for her to pull it loose. Uncle calls this cheating.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Jade has a brief moment of this when she realizes that her agreement to become a Jorogumo has retgoned her future self from the J-2 episodes.
  • Drew genuinely regrets what he did to Jade while unwittingly being influenced.
• Mysterious Watcher: Something is watching Jade's lair via her mirrors. It's apparently the ghost of the Gumo Queen, who isn't happy that Jade isn't acting the way she thought she would.
• Neck Snap: Tohru tries to do this to Leston, but it's averted since Leston's new squid body doesn't have any bones in his neck to break.
• Never My Fault: Jade points out to Valmont that all his whining about how magic has ruined his life doesn't hold that much weight, since he's had nothing to do with magic for months, yet is still living in poverty.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The attempt to capture Jade in Section 13 ruins any chance at reconciliation with her family, and Paco's well-meaning attempt to cure her, which harms her eggs, convinces her that they're playing dirty, so she will too.
  • Azan's poor containment allows the Leech-khan essence to escape and merge with Drew.
  • Luz messed up her summoning and let the Chupacabra the J-Team fought in canon loose.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Jade escapes from the trap in Section 13 by shattering Tarakudo's mask, using the resulting chi explosion to dissolve the trap. As a side effect, however, she kills the Generals and scatters their Essences, setting Tarakudo's plans back significantly.
  • Nivor has the J-Team dead to rights, but Jade lets him keep talking so Jackie has a chance to escape.
  • Jade betrays Origami after he starts threatening her position, throwing him to the heroes so they can drain his Essence.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Enforcers go through a lot of trouble to retrieve a stolen figurine, only to get chewed out by Uncle for not selling anything while he was out.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Jade still has hers, concealed by sliding plates in her exoskeleton.
• Noodle Incident:
  • We never see what happened to the Enforcers when they were recovering the statue.
  • We never see how Nivor got the Leech-khan essence or was recruited by Jade.
  • Jones of Section 0 was involved in one on a former mission in Spitsbergen, and he really dislikes it being brought up.
  • We never see Origami get the Razor-khan Essence and escape, nor do we see Jade capture him and stuff him in a sack
• No-Sell: Jade has gained such a high tolerance for pain that she's able to shrug off chi blasts, and even the traditional Oni weakness to onions.
• No Social Skills: Jade's social skills have degraded after being stuck in the Emptiness for eight years.
• Not Quite Dead: It turns out that the Gumo Queen's ghost is still hanging around...
• Not So Stoic: Jones tries to be The Stoic, but the facade keeps cracking.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Nivor nearly taking out the J-Team.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Leston, the original host of the Squid general essence, declares his intention to commit "Complete and utter xenocide".
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: With Jade and Tara after the ghost of the Gumo Queen makes a deal with Tara to help her become The Starscream, which Jade is quick to realize.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Viper is still going by her thief handle, which Uncle calls her out on at one point. As she eventually tells Jackie, it's Vered.
• Only Sane Man:
  • While Taranee quickly embraces being a Gumo, and Jumper just as quickly latches onto Jade as her new leader, Widow is deeply disturbed and angered over being forcibly transformed and press-ganged by Jade.
  • Jones of the newly formed Section Zero has to deal with Boxed Crook Hak Foo and Manchild and Jerkass Squishy Wizard Azan.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Thinking back on it, Jade realizes that Drew pulling that stunt just came out of nowhere.
• Our Nudity Is Different: Jorogumo molting is considered private, and Jade blows up at Tarakudo when he calls her from the mirror in the room where Widow is molting, which she had specifically warned him not to do.
• Painful Transformation:
  • Jade's transformation into a Jorogumo, with the Queen needing to restrain her during the worst points. As a side effect from this, Jade has gained an incredible tolerance to pain.
  • Viper gaining Origami's paper powers isn't very pleasant either.
• Papa Wolf: Neither Jackie nor Uncle are happy to hear about the humiliating prank Drew pulled on Jade. Fortunately for him, they're distracted by the larger problem of her slide back into darkness.
• Paper Master: Origami, as in canon, and Tarakudo at one point hopes that the Razor-khan will gain the ability from him. The ability later gets transferred to Viper.
• Perception Filter: Jade knows a cloaking spell that works like this.
• Personality Powers: The Essences tend to be drawn to compatible people.
  • Nivor, whose prime sin is Gluttony gets the Leech khan essence, which amplifies it to Horror Hunger.
  • Leston, who gets the squid essence and becomes a borderline Eldritch Abomination, is a big fan of Lovecraftian horror, and wants to become an Omnicidal Maniac.
• Pet the Dog: When Tohru is drowning his sorrows after the events in Innsmaw, Jade appears to him under a glamor of her child self in order to comfort him.
• Playing with Fire: As the final sign of her complete transformation, Jade learns how to create chi fire.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Literally, as when Jade starts developing a spinnerette, and until it forms fully, she keeps releasing gobs of webbing silk at the most embarrassing of times. Like when trying to give Tarakudo a dressing down.
  • After Valmont transforms, he starts summoning Crab Khan, with no idea how to stop or dismiss them. Then, after Jade manages to get him mad, they react on their own to his rage and start attacking everything in sight, namely Jade and her crew. He finally gets past it after hitting his Rage Breaking Point.
  • Drew has a similar problem when the Leech-khan essence, forced from its preferred host Nivor and damaged by good magic blasts, senses the trace energies of Jade's awakening and latches onto him, with Leech-khan popping up in his room. The Essence, finding him wanting, then takes over and has the Leech-Khan drag him off to get itself removed by the nearest General.
• Precision F-Strike: After everything painful (emotionally and physically) Jade has went through, she hears from Tarakudo and the Queen that they want her to carry the Vessel. Having had enough, she shouts the f word against their faces. The Queen is unfamiliar with the word and therefore merely confused, while Tarakudo is almost impressed at Jade's gall.
• Pregnant Badass:
  • After the Vessel is implanted into her body, Jade becomes the future mother of hundreds of Jorogumo soldiers. And thanks to the Queen's training, she's a very dangerous threat indeed.
  • Deconstructed a little in later chapters when it's nearly time for her to lay her eggs and develops debilitating cramps which hampers her ability to even stand up straight, let alone fight. She uses a spell that allows her to project her mind into a specially created gumo-khan to get around this.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Jade's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Valmont, and the knowledge that that she's right, finally gets him angry enough to get past his Villainous BSoD.
  • Hak Foo, after having been reduced to working for Section 0, which forces him to suppress almost everything about his own personality to keep the job, finds himself fighting Jade — who he associates with every failure that led him here — and losing. Finally, he snaps, ripping off his standard issue suit and fighting in his usual style, named attacks and all. It's commented that he seems more content afterwards.
• Rapid Aging:
  • Subverted with Jade. While it may appear she aged to adulthood in less than half a day, she actually aged in real time in the Emptiness.
  • Chang's magical age regression comes undone when he is chosen by the samurai essence, returning him to his proper age.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Tarakudo, believe it or not, can be this towards Jade. While he does give her more than his share of sarcastic critique, he doesn't get all that mad at her failures and communicates the problems he has with her. He doesn't expect Jade to go full on evil in record time and even praises her when she does something well. At least some of this appears to be manipulation, however.
  • Ms. Hartman is a straighter example. She does her best to reach Jade during their conversation in the forest, and gives Tarakudo a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for what he's done to the girl.
  • Jade appears to be trying to be this to her subordinates as well.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Section 0 is currently composed of three operatives working out of a re-purposed closet space in Section 13. Viper asks Agent Jones how badly he messed up to get stuck running the place.
• Recruiting the Criminal: The new Section 0 recruits Hak Foo for his experience with magic (the fact that his reputation was shot due to his constant defeats by the J-Team was a factor in his accepting).
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • Jade lampshades this by asking why Origami can still see and hear in paper form despite needing to be in a Partial Transformation (as he needs lungs) to talk. He can't answer her.
  • After Viper gets the ability, it's revealed that whoever has the power cannot be cut by their own paper, their body parts return to normal automatically when reverting to flesh, even when they're folded in paper form, their clothes transform with them, they can still feel everything, and while they start to crinkle like paper when they get wet, they can still drink in their mouth without negative side effects, and are immune to their own bodily fluids in that regard, which is lampshaded.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Essentially the contrast between Uncle and Azan. Azan is big on innovation, while Uncle prefers the old school of magic.
• Sadist: Tarantula, who enjoys Force Feeding Widow alcohol and seeing her slowly self-destruct, and later uses her as a punching bag after Jade tells her off.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Tarakudo is still trapped in his mask, but is able to communicate with and guide Jade.
• Security Blanket: Widow's visor is one to her, until Jumper destroys it.
• Seen It All: Valmont has been so broken down by his fall from power that he barely reacts to anything that life throws at him anymore. His reaction to finding out that he's the new Crab general? Finish brushing his teeth and call Jackie for a cure. Jade even thinks this is why he transformed so fast, he was so beaten down that he didn't resist it.
• Self-Made Orphan: Leston kills his own mother when she tries to talk him down.
• Shapeshifter Baggage:
  • Jade and her girls don't seem to have to deal with mass issues when using their human glamours.
  • Origami, however, cannot change his mass when in paper form.
• Shock and Awe: Liz Hartman once she becomes a full Oni gains the power to control electricity.
• Shout-Out:
  • One town the group visits is called Innsmaw.
  • Viper makes a comment about flies and spiderwebs.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • Jade shuts Wong up by mentioning all his previous screw-ups when he's trying to brag to Tarakudo.
  • When Wong is taunting Uncle about Jade's transformation, Uncle counters by yawning and saying that Wong is boring him to death, and stating that Wong is clearly too afraid to fight him.
  • Ms Hartman gives one to Tarakudo when he tries to get in her head, telling him that once Jade realizes that she doesn't need him, but he needs her, he'll be left with nothing.
• Slow Transformation: Jade's transformation into a Jorogumo takes 8 years to fully complete.
• So Much for Stealth: Jackie employs a great amount of stealth when trying to sneak up on the near fully transformed Elizabeth Hartman. So he is annoyed when she casually points out that she knows exactly where he is thanks to her demon-enhanced hearing.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: The Jorogumo Queen, particularly when teaching Jade to walk on her new spider legs.
• Sixth Ranger: In addition to Section 0, the J-Team gets some help every now and then.
• Someone's Touching My Butt: Jade reacts this way while the space in Valmont's apartment thins.
• Spider People:
  • The Jorogumo. Jade becomes one herself. Very slowly and painfully.
  • After forcibly recruiting her new biker lady henchmen, she turns them into lesser versions of herself, in a way not nearly as long or irreversible as her own, more for making warriors than more Queens.
• Spiky Hair: Literally, as Jade's hair is now made up of hard yet still movable spikes, which she tends to tug on when nervous.
• Spit Take: While discussing with Chang about recruiting him, Jade (who is in her glamoured human form) turns down his offer of a glass of wine, mentioning her pregnancy. Chang concedes, starts taking a sip, spitting it out immediately.
• Squishy Wizard: Azan, as Jade lampshades, is specialised for casting spells, not withstanding punches, allowing Jumper to take him down easily.
• Stage Mom: In Viper's words, her parents viewed her as something to be used for their benefit. They planned for her to become a famous ballet dancer so they could soak in the prestige.
• The Starscream: Tara becomes this after Jade stops her from eating a Section 13 agent, especially with her beliefs about Jade not deserving her power. After the spirit of the Gumo Queen contacts her, viewing Jade as an Inadequate Inheritor due to her not acting in the way the Queen had hoped she would, she full on plots to take Jade out.
• Sticky Fingers: Luz picks Azan's pockets at one point.
• Stockholm Syndrome:
  • Ms Hartman realizes that Jade has developed this in regards to the Old Queen and Tarakudo after eight years alone with them and everything they've done to her.
  • There are hints that, now that she has others around, she's starting to overcome this, and she's started to realize how Tarakudo is manipulating her.
• Stunned Silence: Jackie, Uncle, Tohru and Captain Black react this way when Jade returns from the Emptiness as an adult spider demon. They remain this way for a minute or so, at least until she mentions she's pregnant.
• Summon Magic: Apparently many magicians summon minor demons to aid their spellwork. Azan's Essence Detector uses an imp of some kind (with the wizard bemoaning how Jones wouldn't let him summon a more powerful demon), and the Chupacabra that the J-Team fought was summoned by Luz.
• Super-Senses:
  • Jade's post-transformation senses are enhanced to the point that once she is back in the human world, she finds the sounds and smells nearly intolerable. This works against her when she walks into a cloud of perfume.
  • Ms Hartman, having demonic bat hearing can unfortunately hear hear the comings and goings of everyone in her hotel. Including the couple passionately expressing their love for each other several floors away.
• Super Window Jump: Jade escapes her family by jumping through Drew's window and thrusting her fingernails into the apartment building's wall in order break her fall of several floors, losing the nails along the way.
• The Social Darwinist: Hak Foo shows shades of this, believing that the power Jade has been given has been wasted on her.
• The Sociopath: Tara, who Jones even calls a psychopath after seeing her rap sheet (which is easily the longest of Jade's three minions), saying that it reads like a Stephen King novel.
• Sycophantic Servant: Jumper, who Widow actually refers to as a sycophant at one point (and a "chronic ass kisser" at another) quickly changes loyalty from Widow to Jade when the latter forcibly recruits and transforms them. She apparently did something similar when Widow beat the leader of her old group. Even Jade is slightly unnerved by how much attention Jumper pays to her, and wishes the girl would show at least some level of independent thought. Since Jade isn't quite living up to her expectations, she's starting to shift to Tara.
• Tagalong Kid: Luz pulls this in the Squid-khan arc. Jade actually thinks that the J-Team is replacing her with Luz when she learns this.
• Take a Third Option: Ms Hartman refuses to both give up her demon form or fight alongside Jade, feeling that there's an alternative to the extremes both sides believe in.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jade and Tarakudo really can't stand each other, but need each other's help, or so Tarakudo wants Jade to believe.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Jackie does this when he says that hopefully it will take the Essences long enough to find hosts that Uncle and Tohru will be able to find a reversal for it. Cue one of the Essences possessing Daolon Wong. Everyone glares at him, and Paco calls him out for being Genre Blind enough to do this.
  • Later chapters prove he still hasn't learned.
• That Man Is Dead:
  • Jade says this about her old identity as Yu.
  • Leston more or less says this in his grand speech, ironically enough being killed mid sentence right before announcing his new name
• The Alcoholic: Widow's depression of her situation has led her to drown herself in booze when Jade isn't around. Tarantula even calls her a lush. It doesn't help that Tarantula gets a kick out of seeing her self-destructive behavior and has taken to Force Feeding her alcohol when she doesn't feel like drinking. Jade is concerned, but hasn't found a solution yet.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Tohru suggests that dark entities may suffer from a functional disorder and become evil because they assume they don't have a choice to be anything but.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Every time Daolon Wong mentions one of his past attempts at gaining power in an attempt to impress Tarakudo, Jade replies by mentioning how he screwed up in that instance.
  • Uncle derides the depths Wong will go to for power, saying he doesn't respect Wong enough to hate him, instead pitying him.
  • Ms Hartman delivers an epic one to Tarakudo when he decides to appear to her. Not only does she tell him that she doesn't approve of what he's done to Jade, but also deriding him as powerless and saying once Jade realizes she doesn't need him, he'll be left with nothing.
  • Uncle gives one to Viper, saying he refuses to trust her like the other reformed crooks he knows because she continues to go by her thief's name rather than her real name, which tells him that she lacks the resolve to truly give that life up.
  • Jade gives one to Valmont when she gets fed up with his attitude, telling him that he's a complete wretch of a Manchild that's blaming magic for all his problems, and is unable to control his own Shadowkhan. The sad thing is, he realizes that she's right. Ironically, this finally breaks him out of his Villainous BSoD a bit.
  • When Jade and Origami discuss his motives, she calls him a hypocrite for disliking petty crooks, as he was that himself once. He says that he managed to successfully use the power he gained (which is something not everyone can do) and failed only due to Jackie Chan, who has defeated demons multiple times, including Jade. Origami tells her that she's afraid of being replaced due to her recent failures, showing her only as a brute of a Womanchild who can just follow others' lead.
• Replacement Goldfish: Jade accuses the J-Team of replacing her with Luz.
• The Rival: Section 0 becomes this to the J-Team. Especially their magic expert Azan to Uncle, with both thinking of the other as a hack.
• The Runaway: A young Viper ran away from the Paris ballet boarding school her parents sent her to after learning that they had kept her grandfather's death from her for a month.
• The Sneaky Guy: Jumper's fighting style is to use her stealth and agility to catch her opponents unaware. She almost beat Viper this way before Jackie intervened.
• They Just Dont Get It:
  • Jade doesn't understand why Widow isn't adapting to her change as quickly as Jumper or Tara, not even considering that Widow feels like a monster as a reason since she and her other new minions love their spider forms. She has a similar reaction to her family's desire to return her to normal.
  • Tarantula doesn't understand why Jade doesn't become a Fully-Embraced Fiend like herself, as she uses her transformation as an excuse to let out the sadism that she was never able to express as a human, gleefully attacking innocents, and derides her for not doing the same.
  • Origami is unable to understand why Jade betrayed him.
• This Means War!: After Leston not only refuses her polite offer of an alliance, but tries to kill her unprovoked, Jade declares war on him, summoning a massive horde of Gumo Khan to storm his lair.
• Title Drop: Tarakudo refers to the manipulations of the mortal world by IT and OTHER as a webwork of movements.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Drew expresses sincere regret for what he did to Jade.
• Transformation at the Speed of Plot: All those chosen as hosts for the Oni Essences transform at different rates based on evilness and exposure to dark magic (with Viper even lampshading how erratic the rate is):
  • Wong's transformation was near complete in hours due to his innate evil and decades as a dark chi wizard.
  • Chang's change took days to finish because while he was evil, he had no background in dark magic. When driven over the edge of rage, his transformation leaps the last part to completeness.
  • Elizabeth Hartman's is an odd one. She was possessed early on, but subconsciously suppressed the changes until it exploded like a backed up pipe, from there transforming near totally at an accelerated pace.
  • Valmont transformed into the Crab Khan general near totally in one night's sleep. Jade initially thinks it's because he wore that general's mask before, and went through the experience of Sharing a Body with Shendu, the strongest of the Demon Sorcerers, for a few weeks, or because the Essence was familiar with him, before coming to the conclusion that Valmont's become so beaten down from his fall from power that his soul didn't even try to resist the change.
  • Nivor's transformation is mostly unseen, but it's implied to be pretty quick, as Nivor is only a few minutes away from becoming full Oni when we see him.
  • Drew's already started to develop a couple signs of change, namely an extreme hunger that Nivor seemed to share, despite just getting the essence. However the essence itself is actively opposed to him becoming a general.
  • Origami also changed most of the way physically in a few hours, which seems to have been, at least partly, a result of the Razor Khan Essence reacting with his (possibly unique) paper magic, which was also affected by the change, becoming more like tinfoil.
    • Viper even points out after Origami's escape from prison that they've been acting like there was a pattern and set amount of time they could remove the essence's despite the evidence that proves otherwise.
  • Leston transforms fairly quickly as well, being a total psycho and all.
• Transhuman Treachery: With all the humans being transformed, this trope shows up a lot.
  • As a result of her transformations, desire never to have a normal life, subsequent isolation in the Emptiness and Tarakudo and the Gumo Queen's manipulations, Jade is perfectly willing to fight against humanity to provide a future to her unborn kits, though she does have residual affection towards her human family, and it's commented several times that she isn't really that monstrous in personality.
  • Ms. Hartman is an aversion, she even acts as a vigilante after Taking a Third Option and rejecting Jade while keeping her essence.
  • Nivor expresses the desire to eat the J-Team once his transformation is complete and it's not technically cannibalism anymore.
  • Part of Widow's problem is that she can't do this, while seeing how easily everyone else makes the leap.
  • Tarantula relishes her transformation the most out of all Jade's minions, taking it as an excuse to be the immoral and sadistic monster she really is deep inside, and has even been attacking and killing homeless people under Jade's nose. Part of the Gumo Queen's deal with her is that the Queen teaches her to become even more inhuman in exchange for a chance to take out Jade.
  • Leston is similar to Tara, but even more vile and cruel.
• Trap Master: Played with. While capable and preferring to fight directly, Jade was taught by the Queen to be one of these. While confronting Ms Hartman in the forest Jade filled the woods with dozens of magical web traps to slow down her family.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Widow assumes this after Tara finishes beating on her and Jumper destroys her last link to her humanity (her sunglasses).
• Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo: A major plot point is Jade's transformation into a Jorogumo, with her later turning her new minions into more.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Nivor was a oneshot Villain of the Week in the show's first season. Who expected him to show up here?
  • Likewise Origami, who was another oneshot Villain of the Week from season 2, and who shows up here as the new Razor General.
• Unseen Evil: IT is the entity in charge of maintaining the Dark half of the Balance Between Good and Evil. We never see or get a description of IT.
• Unstoppable Rage: Hak Foo manages to use this to break free of his trappings and turn the tables on Jade.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Jade does this repeatedly in her confrontations with her family and friends.
  • Daolon Wong escapes after losing his duel with Uncle, due to a fight with Jade providing a distraction.
  • After Chang completes his transformation into a full Oni, he overpowers Jade and Jackie and flees.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Wong loses it after Uncle says he pities him.
  • After being beaten and Brought Down to Normal, Valmont breaks down and laughs as he's arrested, believing that his life is a joke only he gets, telling Jackie that he won in the end because there was nowhere they could put him that was worse than the crummy apartment that he was in before, and at least in jail he'll have three meals a day, and sarcastically wishes them good luck in their constant, thankless and futile quest against the supernatural.
• Villainous BSoD:
  • Widow has trouble coping with her new state, and combined with her realizing that she can't deny magic exists any longer, has led her to start Drowning Her Sorrows.
  • Valmont has been so broken down by his fall to power that he barely seems to care when he finds himself the new Crab-khan general, save from calling Jackie to ask for a cure. Jade even thinks this is why he transformed so fast, his soul was so beaten down that he didn't even try to resist the change. At one point Jade makes him mad enough get past it, but he quickly slips into it again after being beaten, and goes into a full-blown Villainous Breakdown.
• Villain Team-Up: Wong and Chang allied at some point offscreen after their respective escapes from the J-Team, and later force Kasahara, the former Origami, into their alliance as well.
• Waking Non Sequitur:
  • When Tarakudo shouts Jade awake from a nap, she shouts "the burger crocodile" as she does so. Tarakudo isn't sure whether he wants to know or not.
  • In a later chapter, when Widow wakes her up, she shouts out "variable speed muffins", much to Widow's confusion.
• Wall Crawl: One of Jade's favorite parts about being a Spider demon is this. She feels sorry for humans who are restricted to only one dimension of movement.
• War Is Hell: Uncle gives a speech that boils down to this.
• Warts and All: How Widow remembers her old self in order to attain her Glamour.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Section 0 doesn't have a great working dynamic yet, within itself or with the J-Team.
• Weight Woe: One of Tarantula's taunts towards Widow's drinking is to stroke her abdomen and comment about how swollen it's getting from the liquor, similar to getting a beer belly. She gets more when she realizes she's thicker built after her molt.
• Weirdness Censor:
  • Ms Hartman believes this about the man she saved when he tells the press he was saved by Batman, as he chose to believe that a man in a bat-themed costume saved him rather than a demonic bat monster.
  • Origami also believes this, mentally citing it as the reason he hadn't gotten caught before he encountered Jackie, even when he was seen people rationalised it away.
  • Tohru has long since realised that humanity's overall ability to reject what they deem as impossible is the reason why demonic activity is believed to be a myth regardless of how often and dramatically they interact with the world.
  • Invoked by Leston, who conjures an enchanted fog that affects the minds of people exposed to it, making them overlook anything odd going on around them, even when it's blatantly staring them in the face.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Apparently the perfume saleswoman Jumper attacked survived, after Jade was forced to leave before she could heal her.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Neither Jackie nor Black feel as sick about Jade being with young than they do when Uncle explains that Paco trying to cure Jade may have unintentionally harmed her young. Which he compares to hitting a pregnant woman in the stomach.
  • Uncle is not pleased with his nephew when he finds out that Jackie let Ms Hartman fully transform on purpose. This prompts Jackie to call Uncle out for his unbending Black-and-White Morality.
• Who's on First?: There's a brief gag of this when Jade's real name of Yu is revealed, causing Tohru to wonder if his grasp of English isn't as good as he thought.
• With Us or Against Us:
  • When Chang refuses to ally with Jade, Tarakudo orders her to eliminate him.
  • Ms Hartman realizes that eight years of indoctrination by Tarakudo and the Old Queen have ingrained Jade with this mindset.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Apparently, the reason the Samurai-khan were beaten so easily in canon is that in addition to being poorly managed, the improper bond with Finn halved their power. Here they're much more dangerous.
  • Hak Foo was so easily beaten by Jade during her second battle with Section 0 at least partly because of his frustration at not being allowed to do his Calling His Attacks routine. He does better after he breaks free of his restraints and ignores that order.
  • Jade is surprised when she manages to get the upper hand on Jackie after beating Section 0, until she realises he's distracted because he's worried about Viper.
  • Jade admits that Leston went down so fast because Tohru weakened him.
• Worth It: After the bulk of her long and painful transformation is done, Jade can't help but marvel at the results.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Paco is convinced that Tarakudo is controlling Jade, and that they just have to defeat him to save her. The adults don't have the heart to tell him that her change is almost certainly permanent.
  • Tohru realised they made the mistake of treating the new Squid general like Paco when he wore the mask. Paco was flashy, out to prove himself and lacked any form of subtlety when using the demon powers. Leston was a timid pharmacist who lacked a warrior's or wizard's pride who had no problem using underhanded tactics to get the upper hand.
  • Mrs Leston thought she could reach her son's inner goodness by talking him down. Not realising that the essence choose him because he was this evil to begin with. This gets her killed
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: While Jade's body is only cocooned in the Dark Heart for eight hours, her mind and spirit spend eight years in the Emptiness.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After Widow gains control of her glamour she tries going to the bar Jade took her from. Only to realise that even looking human she doesn't have anything to go back to, dropping the glamour and letting Jade take her back to their lair.
• Zerg Rush: As Jackie points out, Jade doesn't send out her Shadowkhan with any specific strategy, she just has them attack, which lowers their threat level considerably.