Fanfic / The Ultimate Evil

The original cover of the first part. Click here to see the current cover.

The Ultimate Evil is a Jackie Chan Adventures fanfiction by DONOVAN94.

The story is an Alternate Universe Fic that focuses on the first two seasons of the show. A young woman named Valerie Payne is hired by the Chans as a shop assistant during the first season's Talisman hunt. She quickly becomes mixed up in the world of magic and joins the Chan Clan as an honorary family member. While adventuring with them, she gains the attention of Shendu due to being unexpectedly connected both to his past and himself. Soon Shendu adds to his goals one more: making Valerie his.

The story is completed, and it has an ongoing sequel named The Stronger Evil that covers the events from the ending of the third season up to the final season.

Official Description of The Ultimate Evil:

A Chinese proverb once said: "Love is blind, and greed insatiable". So too was Shendu: in his quest for world domination he found a woman that he wanted with a blind lust and had a unquenchable fascination with her connection to his past. Valerie, a woman working for the Chans, is unaware of the demon that will do anything to have her, nor of the growing connection between them…

Official Description of The Stronger Evil:

A proverb says: "He who pursues revenge should dig two graves." Shendu thirsts for vengeance on his enemies, even if he is undermined by his yearning for one woman: Valerie Payne, a woman torn by her need for freedom against the demon who loves her. When his past clashes with her future, they will have no choice but to come together to face a threat they never thought could exist.

Be careful of spoilers listed under the sequel.

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These stories provide examples of:

The universal examples

• Abandoned Playground:
  • Valerie has a private meeting with Shendu in one of these in the 20th chapter of the first story and lampshades how she picked up a creepy neutral zone.
  • In the sequel, Valerie enters an abandoned playpark in order to lure Jade out into the open so that she can capture and free the girl from Tarakudo's corruption.
• Action Girl: Nat Homato, the professional demon-slayer.
• Action Survivor: Valerie isn't as qualified in action as the Chans, but she turns out to be surprisingly resourceful.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Daolon Wong first appeared in one of the second season's filler episodes that took place after the Demon World duology. In The Ultimate Evil, he makes a cameo during the Demon World section as the monk who oversees the bonding ceremony between Shendu and Valerie.
  • Tarakudo appeared in person before Drago and the Ice Crew. He appears after them in The Stronger Evil.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Shendu is made a more sympathetic villain for becoming genuinely attached to Valerie and having been born out of a loveless union as well as abandoned by his mother for doing what she birthed him for. Drago is also given a Dark and Troubled Past (which goes more into detail about his canon daddy issues and gives him his dead mother whose younger version he's getting acquainted to) to explain his villainous actions.
• Adaptation Expansion: Several details from the show are expanded upon, like the backstory of the Demon Sorcerers and Lo Pei. The sequel gives more history between Tarakudo and the Demon Sorcerers.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Lo Pei used to call his daughter Lo Mei "his (little) may-flower".
  • Valerie's father sometimes calls his daughter by her childhood nickname "chicken".
  • Lee, the old friend of Valerie's father, calls her "Sunshine", while she in turn calls him "Uncle Lee".
• All Myths Are True: With a dose of Crossover Cosmology added to the mix. The sequel reveals that the mother of the Demon Sorcerers is Tiamat who has taken part in every major continental/biota cataclysm on Earth. After the death of Apsu, her husband and Other, Typhon had her birth for him the Demon Sorcerers in exchange for the vengeance she wanted. However, instead of dying like in the original myth, she hid herself after she regretted unleashing the Demon Sorcerers to wreak destruction on her enemies.
• Alliterative Title:
  • The Ultimate Evil has chapters named A Little Lamb (Chapter 2), Dawn of the Dragon (Chapter 9) and To Move Mountains (Chapter 13).
  • The Stronger Evil has chapters named Vengeance and Violence (Chapter 2) and Shadow's Spell (Chapter 11).
• Back from the Dead:
  • One of the changes made to the rewritten reality is that the death of Valerie's father has been erased. This only lasts until the reality is restored, though.
  • The Stronger Evil begins with Daolon Wong resurrecting Shendu.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: In addition to the canonical examples of this trope (like the Tiger Talisman and the world's balance), there is a new form of balance introduced; the concept of an "Other" (an abbreviation to "Other half of one's self"). Two people who are Others to each other strengthen one another by balancing their conflicting chis by touch because then their chis attempt to merge. If the Demon Sorcerers were to encounter their Others and bind them to themselves, they'd become sheer forces of nature. As it is, Valerie is Shendu's Other, while Jade turns out to be Hsi Wu's Other.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't mess with Shendu's "belongings", including Valerie. That includes something so little as kissing her.
  • Don't disrespect books in front of Valerie. In the sequel, while being chased by Drago through a library, she stops and turns back to confront him when he dares to threaten tearing up some of the books.
  • Jade takes it hard whenever it turns out Valerie has been lying or keeping secrets from her and the others. Learning Val knew about Jade's status as Hsi Wu's Other is a major example.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Valerie. She can frighten even herself with the utter fury she shows several times.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Shendu and his siblings and son, as per canon.
• Big Sister Instinct: Valerie towards Jade. To guarantee the girl's safety, she's willing to offer herself to Shendu or ally with him against the rest of the J-Team's objections.
• Broomstick Quarterstaff: Valerie uses several times a broom as a weapon, like in her first fight against the Enforcers. When they are later sent to retrieve the Sheep Talisman from Uncle's shop, Shendu tells them to watch out for brooms, adding with dark humor that Valerie might have killed them had she been armed with a mop.
• Calling Your Attacks: Hak Foo, of course. Valerie finds it quite annoying. When he's thrashing Jackie during their first fight, Valerie interferes with two surprisingly effective moves of her own which she names as a mockery of Hak Foo.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: When Shendu sees David kissing Valerie, he almost attacks him with murderous intent before Valerie breaks the kiss and parts ways with David.
• Cute Bookworm: Valerie, though over time she moves into Badass Bookworm territory.
• Daddy's Girl:
  • Valerie was much closer to her father than her mother, and she's still coping with his death.
  • Lo Pei's daughter Mei was apparently this as well; Lo Pei's Living Statue says that they were as close as father and daughter can be.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique:
  • Rumor has it that if the Book of Ages is damaged, or if too many inconsistencies are made when its power is put to use, the fabric of reality will be destroyed. In The Ultimate Evil, the former risk becomes a reality when the Book gets burned, though Valerie and Shendu fix it before it's too late.
  • In The Stronger Evil, Nataline fears this regarding the powers Valerie has gained from bonding with Shendu.
  • The first story has the canonical mark of Tarakudo which turns Jade into the Queen of the Shadowkhan. In the sequel, she takes on the mark despite knowing the dangers in an attempt to command the Shadowkhan to turn on Tarakudo. A pity she didn't count on Tarakudo taking the chance to speed up her transformation back into the Queen.
• Darker and Edgier: The stories include more blood, violence and sexual undertones. This is especially true during the Demon World arc.
• Demon Slaying: In the latter half of The Ultimate Evil, we're introduced to Nataline Homato who does this as per family tradition. Said family has been in business since the days of Medieval Japan.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Valerie's police father was killed one year before the beginning of The Ultimate Evil.
  • It's revealed that the Demon Sorcerers' father died shortly after the youngest of them was born, and Shendu has never met him. He was actually Typhon from Greek mythology.
• Divine Parentage: The Demon Sorcerers' mother is Tiamat, the goddess of oceans and chaos from Babylonian mythology. Their father was Typhon, a monster of divine origin from Greek mythology.
• Entitled to Have You: Shendu feels that he has the sole right to have his Other Valerie.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Shendu doesn't like anyone else harming Valerie. He also doesn't like the idea of breaking her through rape and wants her to willingly surrender herself to him. Drago notes that as bad as his father is, Shendu would never force himself onto Valerie — while he may have done that with past conquests, he genuinely loves her too much to do so to her.
  • When Finn learns about Shendu's lust for Valerie, he's visibly shocked.
  • Subverted with Valmont; while he's disgusted about Shendu's interest in Valerie, he cares only because the demon is trying to seduce a woman Valmont himself is not attracted towards by using the crime lord's body.
  • As much as Shendu detests Jade, he finds Hsi Wu's attempt to merge with her rather distasteful, though Valerie's distress over the girl is also a factor.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • According to Tso Lan, the other Demon Sorcerers are not pleased with the existence of Shendu's human Other, but they could understand if he simply wanted to bind Valerie to himself or even bed her once or twice. His deeper attachment and decision to marry her are what escape their comprehension.
  • In a similar way to the above-mentioned example, Valmont cannot understand why someone like Shendu would become attached to a plain Jane like Valerie. When he sees Valerie in a black dress, he claims it almost helps him understand where Shendu's lust comes from, making Valerie infuriated with him for regarding Shendu to be that petty.
  • When Shendu informs his siblings in the sequel that he's looking for their mother Tiamat, they immediately assume he wants to challenge her in order to replace her when he actually wants to get answers from their long-gone mother.
• Eviler than Thou: Played with when Valerie compares Valmont with Shendu; while she decides that Shendu has more honor than Valmont, she never considers either to be morally superior to one another.
• Evil Virtues: Valerie admits to herself in the sequel that she secretly admires Shendu's determination. She just wishes he wouldn't practise that virtue at the expense of others.
  It had always been about Shendu. What he wanted, he did his best to get, no matter who else was in his way. On one hand, Valerie secretly admired his determination. Yet on the other, she wished he didn't do it to disregard others and their welfare. Perhaps if he hadn't, things wouldn't be so tense between them.
• Facepalm:
  • Valerie has a habit of doing this as she witnesses the Chans failing in their attempts to resolve situations with their poor choice of words.
  • In the sequel, Valerie, Nat and Drago all facepalm when the Chans fail to convince Larry to let them peacefully exorcise Dai Gui's chi out of him.
• Family Eye Resemblance:
  • Valerie's first hinted to be Lo Pei's descendant because she has the crystal blue eyes of his daughter Lo Mei. There's otherwise hardly anything common in appearance.
  • The Stronger Evil has a rare example not relating to the eye color: according to Shendu, Drago's eyes are shaped exactly like those of his mother Valerie.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The demons have in general a low opinion on humans. When they learn that Shendu's Other is a human female, Bai Tza and Tchang Zu view it a disgrace towards them for Shendu to consort with her and are most eager to have Valerie killed.
  • A semi-justified example with Shendu and Drago in the sequel when the human characters debate whether or not it's possible to turn demons good. Valerie personally hopes to do just that. Jackie is the most close-minded out of everyone that demons are wholly evil and can't change their ways. Nat and even Tohru gradually start re-thinking their initial thoughts about Drago.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Nataline and the Chans are at first tense with each other due to her willingness to kill humans, but they become more friendly with each other while they're fighting against Bai Tza.
• Fusion Dance:
  • When Shendu possesses Valerie in the first story, he warns her that this trope will happen to them if they remain in such a state for too long. Since Shendu and Valerie's spirits now have absolutely no metaphysical barriers between them and since their souls as Others seek to join by their very nature, it'll soon become difficult to tell where one being begins and the other ends, and it'll eventually become nearly impossible to separate them.
  • Hsi Wu attempts to forcibly perform one on Jade by using their connection as Others in The Stronger Evil.
• Good Hurts Evil: In addition to the canonical Pan'Ku Box, Nat has in her arsenal magical dust and blessed daggers that hurt demons on touch. When she returns in The Stronger Evil, her katana has been coated with anti-demon magic.
• Graying Morality: The sequel in particular has the show's Black-and-White Morality undermined. Valerie already bemoans in the first story how her view of Shendu is becoming more and more complicated.
• Guile Hero: In addition to the canonical Jade, Valerie shows herself to be one as well.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Valerie is a blonde and one of the main heroes.
• Heroic Lineage: Valerie turns out to be a descendant of Lo Pei, the wizard who turned Shendu to stone. The Living Statue of the sacred warrior mistakes her for his daughter Lo Mei due to their similar eyes.
• Hot in Human Form:
  • Hsi Wu aims to invoke this trope In-Universe against Jade Chan when designing his human disguise, giving his Seymour disguise brown eyes which he knows from experience "mortal females ha[ve] a certain weakness for" to make it more approachable to Jade.
  • In The Stronger Evil, Shendu dons a human disguise, making himself look like a 6'9'', highly-muscled and attractive half-Asian man.
• I Gave My Word: Shendu when it comes to Valerie. He promises her not to harm her or force her into something she doesn't want to, and he keeps that promise for the most part. A notable exception is when he possesses her body and forces her to help him reach the Book of Ages.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Despite his annoyance at how he can't easily manipulate Valerie, Shendu secretly likes how she's bold enough to exchange verbal barbs with him. He notices himself missing that aspect in her rewritten, more demure version.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Valerie has crystal blue eyes that spark like clear water. Lo Pei's daughter Lo Mei had these eyes as well, giving Shendu the first hint at their connection.
• Intergenerational Friendship: In the beginning of The Ultimate Evil, Valerie is twenty-three years old, and Jade is about ten. They form a sisterly bond.
• It's What I Do:
  • Shendu uses this trope several times to write off his villainous actions as a part of his demon nature.
  • Hsi Wu also uses this line when he re-encounters Jade in the Netherworld.
    Jade: You lied to me! You used me!
    Hsi Wu: Hint is in the word demon.
  • When Jackie and Uncle want Nat to leave the Demon Sorcerer problem to them, she refuses and insists that hunting down demons to keep people safe is her calling. She says this again in the sequel when she confirms she'll be staying for the demon chi hunt.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In addition to the canonical Uncle, there's Nataline Homato. She's a loner type of a person who's quick to jump to conclusions and willing to kill without mercy, but she's dedicated to keeping the world safe from demons. While she's initially skeptical towards the Chans and hostile towards Valerie, she begins to warm up to them as she works with them. When the Chans walk out on Valerie who wants to ally with Shendu and Drago against Tarakudo and the corrupted Jade, Nat remains on her side, albeit reluctantly.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Nat uses one as her main weapon. By the time of the sequel, she has upgraded it with anti-demon magic.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Tiamat birthed the Demon Sorcerers for Typhon and cast them into the world to spread destruction as revenge for the death of her husband and Other Apsu. The Demon Sorcerers were happy to please their mother that way, but she went into exile out of shame.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Jade and Shendu like doing this as much as in canon.
  • In the Tibetian temple, Valerie — who has learned to expect this from Jade — makes Jade and Paco remain in a safe spot by wording her instructions in such a way that Jade can't worm her way out of them.
  • When Shendu demands a kiss from Valerie in exchange for the location of Hsi Wu's hiding place, she merely keeps her lips on his for one second and defends herself by saying that he didn't specify what kind of a kiss he wanted or how long it should be.
• Loud Gulp: Valerie does this a few times, like when she decides to distract Shendu from stopping Uncle's ritual to send Po Kong back to the Netherworld.
• Missing Mom: After the Demon Sorcerers came to their true powers and started their conquests, their mother Tiamat disappeared out of shame.
• Morality Pet: Shendu slowly comes to care about Valerie more beyond a power source. If anyone else called him cute when he's been transformed into a bunny or struck him below the belt, he'd probably scorch them alive. And it's unlikely that he'd help anyone else to rescue Jade of all people if it can make Valerie happy.
• Noble Demon: Valerie comes to view Shendu this way, especially when compared to Valmont.
  In her eyes — she didn't know whether it had always been so, or if this was something new — Valmont was a scumbag criminal who would stoop to any means and do anything and everything just for a little money. But Shendu, despite being a lying, murderous and evil demon, had at times shown some form of honour, and he was more sophisticated and regal then Valmont. Valmont hid what he was behind an air of aristocracy and superiority that made her blood boil, but Shendu let you know up front what you were dealing with. That little shred of honesty, no matter how vile in its using, still made Shendu more worthy to Valerie then Valmont could ever hope to be.
• Only Sane Woman: Valerie often to the Chans. She even says to them at one point that they don't have a sense of normalcy.
• Original Character: There are several, with the most important ones including Valerie Payne, Lo Mei, Nataline "Nat" Homato, and the Guardian of the Book of Ages.
• Our Demons Are Different: Nataline has faced off many demons, but the Demon Sorcerers turn out to be resistant to most of her demon hunter equipment, including a chain adorned with symbols and a crucifix. She mentions that she has faced down a succubus, expelled a Beelzebub and vanquished a ghoul.
• Palm Bloodletting:
  • The binding ceremony between Shendu and Valerie has both of them slashing the other's left palm and drinking their blood, leaving for them both a scar that — along with their union as Others — remains in the restored reality.
  • In the sequel, Hsi Wu uses his claw to cut out a piece from his right palm and sends it into Jade in order to merge with her.
  • Drago uses his talon at one point to pierce his palm in order to use his blood in a spell.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • In The Ultimate Evil, Shendu punishes Hak Foo with Cold-Blooded Torture for attacking and nearly killing Valerie. Valerie is appalled to realize she feels satisfaction rather than pity for Hak Foo.
  • In The Stronger Evil, Shendu brutally kills Daolon Wong after the dark wizard shoots Valerie to get revenge against Shendu.
• Physical God:
  • All the Demon Sorcerers are already bordering on this, but bonding with his Other would make Shendu truly unstoppable. Which happens during the climax of the Demon World arc. The Demon Sorcerers being this powerful makes sense, given the fact that their parents are a Greek monster of divine origin and the Babylonian goddess of oceans and chaos.
  • Tarakudo is apparently one In-Universe. He claims his only equal was the god Tiamat, and he demonstrates his power is equal to that of an Other-bound Shendu.
• Posthumous Characters: The sacred warrior Lo Pei, his daughter Lo Mei, Valerie's police father John Lawson, and apparently the Demon Sorcerers' father Typhon (the last one is subverted as of The Stronger Evil).
• The Power of Blood:
  • If the Demon Sorcerers exchange blood with their Others in a binding ceremony, they can call on their unified power without touching them. However, if they do this while possessing someone else's body, then the bound one is connected to that body. It is for that reason that Shendu never tries to bind Valerie to him while possessing Valmont's body.
  • In the sequel, Drago uses his own blood to enhance his attempt to summon the Shadowkhan and frees Tarakudo in the process. He later uses his blood in a locator spell to find his mother. Valerie in turn unintentionally frees Shendu from his petrified state by leaving her blood on him.
• Pragmatic Hero:
  • Nataline is ready to kill humans if she thinks it's for the greater good. She attempts to kill Valerie to deny Shendu his Other and later Valmont for being possessed by Shendu before the Chans talk her into backing down.
  • Jade's future self is willing to try and kill Valerie in order to prevent her from giving birth to Drago. However, she has enough sense to stay focused on her actual purpose for coming back in time.
• Really 700 Years Old: Shendu reveals to Valerie that if his memory is correct, he'll be 1500 years old in a decade or two. His siblings are about as old, with only a year or two between each of them, while Bai Tza is Shendu's fraternal twin.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Valerie aims one at the Chan Clan and particularly Jackie in The Ultimate Evil concerning their selective failure to act. Later in The Stronger Evil, her speech about their faults proves to be right on the mark.
  Valerie: Jade is stuck in the Netherworld, and as far as I can see, I am the ONLY one who seems to be doing anything to bring her back!
  Jackie: If you had just listened –
  Valerie: No! Call me a traitor if you want, but I am doing something – you're not! God's sake, Jackie! Why can't you do something for once! Stop being a coward and just do it!
• Related in the Adaptation: The canonical Drago most likely isn't related to Lo Pei, but this version is because Drago's mother Valerie is Pei's descendant.
• Scars Are Forever: As a part of their binding ceremony in the rewritten reality, both Valerie and Shendu have their left palms slashed, leaving a scar along their lengths. Even after the reality is restored, Val finds hers is still there, and The Stronger Evil reveals that Shendu's is as well.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Shendu is sealed in his statue form for the first third of The Ultimate Evil, while his siblings are imprisoned in the Netherworld.
  • In The Stronger Evil, Shendu's returned back to his statue form following his resurrection. Meanwhile, Tarakudo has spent a millennium in the Shadowrealm where the Demon Sorcerers imprisoned him until Drago releases him by accident.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Valerie shows several times a rather fabulous side to herself with dresses and makeup. She lampshades it in the first story by calling it the "Cinderella-effect".
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Nataline Homato is a redheaded and green-eyed demon hunter.
• Sixth Ranger: Nataline Homato joins the Chans while they're facing Bai Tza. She parts ways with them once all the eight portals to the Netherworld are sealed, but she returns in the sequel to assist against Drago and Tarakudo.
• Sizeshifter: Shendu is able to make himself larger or smaller to a degree with his magic when he's in his true form.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Valerie and Nataline seem to be making it a habit to compete in sarcasm.
• Thematic Theme Tune:
  • The author has picked up Dream Devil's "Love Is Blind" for The Ultimate Evil. It has its own 8tracks playlist, which can be listened here.
  • The Stronger Evil has "Not Strong Enough".
• There Is No Cure: The binding ritual which permanently connects one to their natural Other is an irreversible process. In the second story, Valerie approaches Shendu to ask how a binding can be severed, and he replies that it can't be undone by anything. Indeed, the first story's ending demonstrated that not even the Book of Ages' reality-rewriting power can undo a binding between Others.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Valerie slowly becomes better at action. During the quest for the Demon Portals, she gets Jackie to teach her martial arts. While taking matters into her own hands to save Jade from Hsi Wu, Valerie realizes how much she has changed in the six months she has been with the Chans. Instead of bursting into tears like she might have done before, she's now acting with determined anger.
  • Becoming bound to Valerie makes Shendu even more powerful than he already was to the point that good magic no longer hurts him, and he's able to fight against his siblings and Tarakudo even when he's a spirit or a statue.
• Villainous Crush:
  • Shendu has this on Valerie, and it's the main plot point. He even uses the page quote in the climax of the first story.
  • Drago eventually develops a crush on Nat in the sequel.
• Villainous Medical Care:
  • After Hak Foo nearly kills Valerie in The Ultimate Evil, Shendu gives her first aid and treats her with a Healing Potion to fasten her recovery before returning her to the Chans who treat her further.
  • Shendu uses the Horse Talisman's power to heal Valerie's scratched feet at one point during the Demon World arc. He does it again in the sequel after he has killed Daolon Wong for shooting Valerie.
• Villainous Rescue: Shendu does this numerous times to Valerie.
• Villain Protagonist: Shendu receives as much of attention as the heroes.
• Villains Never Lie: Valerie realizes that for as evil as Shendu is, he's never outright lied to her.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Uncle can get on Valerie's nerves with his nagging, but they still care for each other. She also becomes this with Nat.
• Walking Armory: Nat keeps various weapons of different sizes and designs within reach.
• Wonder Twin Powers: When someone touches their Other, they both react as if they're receiving a strong electric shock, and they're filled with raw power as their chis attempt to balance each other out by merging together. The effects last only as long as the Others keep touching each other, but if they undergo a binding ritual (as Shendu and Valerie do), they can draw power from their link and touch one another without a painful exchange of energy. When Shendu touches Valerie while possessing Jade's vacant body, the effect of their touch is distilled because he's not in his own body. The effect's stronger when Valerie touches him while he's a statue, though it's still a fraction of what their touch does when Shendu is in his true form. While he's sharing Valmont's body with the latter, however, his chi cannot combine with that of Valerie because Valmont's chi gets in their way.
• Would Hit a Girl: Valerie is on the receiving end of Uncle's trademark two-finger hit a few times, including when she finally tells the Chans about her Other-connection with Shendu.
• Would Hurt a Child: When Shendu — empowered by his newly formed connection with Valerie — overwhelms the J-Team in the climax of The Ultimate Evil, he comes close to squeezing Jade to death before Valerie arrives to confront him for his actions.
• Yin-Yang Bomb:
  • The concept of an "Other" works like this. When someone finds their Other, they have found the half that makes them whole, conflicting yet combining with one's own strengths and weaknesses. If one of the Demon Sorcerers combines their dark chi with their Other's good chi, the resulting balanced chi will make them more powerful and able to use good magic in addition to dark magic.
  • When Shendu possesses Valerie, their combined chis overload her body with unstable power, giving Shendu the incentive to rewrite the reality in order to separate them before they might both die or be combined permanently.
  • Near the climax of The Ultimate Evil, Shendu and Valerie are finally bound through blood. The bond empowers Shendu so much that he defeats the entire J-Team during the battle for the Book of Ages and even binds Bai Tza, a sibling Demon Sorcerer, to the wall and renders her unable to move, while Valerie is able to cast more powerful force blasts than before.
  • Drago is explained to have potent chi thanks to being offspring to two bonded Others. This makes him able to bond with the Demon Sorcerers' chi without being overwhelmed. He's also immune to spells that should ward off beings of dark chi.

The Ultimate Evil

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • When Shendu possesses Jade's body and the latter mistakenly deduces that the former is working for the Dark Hand, Shendu holds back laughter and thinks that he'd find such a stupid idea to be insulting if it weren't ludicrous.
  • While Valerie is outraged by the nerve Shendu exhibits in his last love letter to her, a part of her finds amusement in it.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The plot is the same as in canon for the most part, though there are some distinct differences.
  • The issue with Jackie's infection to the petrifying venom is settled a bit differently. When Valerie joins Jade to trade the Talismans to the Dark Hand in exchange for the antidote, it goes like in canon until Tohru is about to drop the antidote. Knowing that the Dark Hand's mysterious client wants her alive, Valerie takes some blood from Jackie in a syringe and threatens to inject it into her bloodstream and possibly turn herself to stone as well. That prevents Tohru from destroying the antidote, but the fight happens anyway and Jackie turns completely to stone. Valerie manages to use the syringe to threaten Tohru into giving her the antidote and uses it to return Jackie back to normal. The Horse Talisman's power is discovered afterwards when Valerie accidentally uses it to cure her cold.
  • The outcome of the showdown in Bavaria is slightly different in that Tohru manages to escape with the Dog Talisman and bring it to Shendu. In the canon episode, Uncle just jumps out of Tohru's reach when the latter tries to take the Talisman from him, resulting in Tohru falling from the clock tower. In the fic, Valerie taking a hold of Uncle prevents him from making the jump, allowing Tohru to grab hold of the Talisman and take it with him as he falls.
  • Shendu and Valmont's argument at the beginning of "And He Does His Own Stunts" takes place after the events of said episode (as that part is left unaltered) for the sake of humor.
  • Instead of Jade making the tattoo of the Demon Archive's cover by herself, Valerie takes her to her apartment and draws the fake tattoo on her. This leads to Hak Foo attacking Valerie after Jade has left, and this in turn leads to Shendu rescuing Valerie and punishing Hak Foo with Cold-Blooded Torture, keeping the latter out of the mess with the Shadowkhan and Jade.
  • When Hsi Wu's disguise is exposed, he kidnaps Jade instead of Uncle and tells the Chans to remove the spell placed on his severed tail. Valerie steals some Talismans, contacts Shendu by herself, and bargains from him the location of Hsi Wu's hiding place. She then directs the others to the place and attacks Hsi Wu with the Talismans. Jade takes some for herself and faces Hsi Wu like in canon, though.
  • When Jade accidentally ends up in the Netherworld, Valerie offers herself to Shendu in exchange for the Pan'Ku Box. This leads to the Chan Clan going with Shendu and Hak Foo to the eight portal. The portal is opened with the Pan'Ku Box, and Shendu is banished to the Netherworld after Jade has gotten out, with Hsi Wu nearly managing to follow her lead.
  • Shendu possesses Valerie instead of Jackie in order to rewrite the history with the Book of the Ages.
  • Unlike in canon, the Book of Ages has a Guardian whom Shendu and Valerie must outwit before being allowed to go near the Book.
  • Instead of Jackie and Jade being chased by the Shadowkhan and dragons throughout Shendu's palace, they leave the library with Uncle in order to reach Valerie's chambers and end up in Shendu's magic chamber. The Shadowkhan attack them there until Uncle drives them away, though not before Jackie's braid is cut like in canon.
  • Before Hsi Wu is banished in the rewritten world, he and Jade engage in a brief verbal fight.
  • Before the final confrontation over the Book of Ages begins, Shendu binds himself to Valerie and uses his enhanced power to overwhelm the entire J-Team in the chamber containing the Book. Valerie then arrives to confront Shendu for manipulating her and accidentally creates an all-consuming vortex by damaging the Book. The heroes and Shendu are forced to work together so that Valerie can get to the Book and fix it to save them all.
• And Now You Must Marry Me:
  • After being restored to his true form, Shendu takes Valerie with him to his palace with the intention of making her his bride once he has taken over the world again. He later uses the Book of Ages to make Valerie his willing betrothed in the alternate reality, and they're married when they're bound as Others (with the binding remaining once the reality is restored).
  • Nine hundred years earlier, Shendu forcibly took Lo Pei's daughter Lo Mei as his bride. That led to Lo Pei and his son Lo Shui raising an army in an effort to save her. This ended badly when Mei died by her own hand, although Lo Pei was successful in imprisoning Shendu.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Shendu invokes this a couple of times and threatens to murder Valerie's loved ones if she doesn't do as he tells her.
• Ankle Drag:
  • Valerie uses the Ox Talisman to catch Hsi Wu from the ankle when he flies over her and throw him towards the ground. Unfortunately, the Sky Demon flips and catches her instead when she releases her grip.
  • Bai Tza does this to Valerie when going after her in Embarcadero Station.
• Apocalypse How: When the Book of Ages is inadvertently set ablaze, a wide vortex starts sucking everything in itself. Everything is restored once Valerie sews the torn pages of the Book back together.
• Apologetic Attacker: Valerie apologizes when she hurts one of Valmont's men in Fort Knox.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Shendu gives Valerie a threat about what will happen if she chooses another man over him in the 23rd chapter, she throws him for a loop by asking if that's what happened between him and Lo Mei.
  • Jade gives one to the rewritten Valerie about Shendu's oppression of humanity by asking if it's enough for Val to try and convince Shendu to ease off while they're married. All she gets in response is silence.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Shendu refuses to tell Valerie where to find Hsi Wu because he doesn't want her to emulate her father, he dispels her anger by saying that he means that she'd try to play a martyr.
  Shendu: You idolise him. You want to be him. And that is something I cannot allow.
  Valerie: Because that would mean me being a decent person?!
  Shendu: Because it would mean you would make yourself a martyr.
• Balls of Steel: Downplayed with Hak Foo and Shendu when they receive a Groin Attack from Valerie at different points; while they do double over at first, they get back into action much sooner than she anticipates.
• Batter Up!: Sometimes Valerie brings in a baseball/cricket bat as a weapon.
• Berserker Tears:
  • Valerie's tears briefly turn into these when she tries to attack Hak Foo for "killing" Uncle.
  • This happens to Valerie again in the climax when she learns that Shendu truly altered her and the world with the Book of Ages.
• Big "NO!": Valerie when Jackie falls out of the Dark Hand's skyscraper, when Shendu reveals his intention to marry her and when Shendu is about to eat Jackie's dormant body.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Shendu lets out two of these while raging at Valmont at the end of the sixth chapter, first a big "ENOUGH!" and then a big "SILENCE!".
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Valerie's reaction when Jade says she wants to give the Talismans to the Dark Hand in exchange for the antidote against the magic venom that's turning Jackie to stone.
  • Valerie does this again after Jade accidentally breaks Lo Pei's statue.
  • Jackie's reaction when Valerie reveals she figured out the Pig Talisman's location before Jade and Uncle did.
  • Jade does this when Valerie suggests Uncle to take Tohru as his apprentice instead of her.
  • Valerie again when she's told Jade has sneaked after Jackie to stop Po Kong's release.
  • This is Jade's reaction to learning from Hsi Wu that they're Others.
  • Jade has two internal ones when she learns in the rewritten reality that Valerie is a noblewoman in Shendu's court and about to marry him.
• Bittersweet Ending: History is returned to its proper state and the Demon Sorcerers are reimprisoned in the Netherworld, but Valerie is left filled with confusion and heartache about everything that's happened with her and Shendu, so she returns to Toronto in order to mend fences with her mother and says goodbye to the Chans, yet she promises to return one day.
• Blatant Lies: While Valerie and Uncle are having their falling out, Jade, hoping they'd reconcile, coaxes Valerie into coming to the shop by claiming not-so-convincingly that Uncle has gone out to play bingo.
• Blindfolded Trip: When Uncle and Valerie first go to Section 13, they're asked to wear blindfolds for the sake of the base's secrecy. Valerie complies while Uncle does not.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Viper is nearly killed by Shendu's heat beam blast, blood trickles out of her wound and mouth.
• Blunt "Yes": Jackie when he demands Jade to make things up with Valerie in the 25th chapter.
  Jade: Val lied to us! She lied to me! Am I supposed to just forgive that?!
  Jackie: Yes.
• Brainwashed: In the rewritten reality, Valerie's memories are altered like with the other humans (excluding Jade), making her believe that she has lived her adulthood as Shendu's betrothed and away from human contact. As it is, she's shown interacting with Shendu in an affectionate way, and by the time Jade is placed in the new reality, Valerie and Shendu are only a few days from being married.
• Brick Joke: When Valerie sees Shendu and Valmont bickering, she decides that she doesn't want to talk to Valmont or she might slap him. Valmont retorts that he'd like to see her try, to which she responds that she will if he tests her. Several chapters later, Valerie does slap Valmont for making derisive comments at her.
• Bridal Carry: Shendu does this to an injured Valerie when he takes her away from her apartment that has been trashed by Hak Foo.
• But Now I Must Go:
  • After the last Demon Portal is sealed, Nat decides she needs to move on to fight other evils, but she promises to be in touch if and when the J-Team needs anymore help with demons.
  • At the end of the story, Valerie sets out back to Toronto both to sort out her mixed feelings and catch up with her mother, promising to return to Uncle's Rare Finds someday.
• By the Hair: Valerie is several times pulled from her hair by Valmont, Shendu, Hak Foo and Bai Tza. There are also the canonical examples of Shendu doing this on Valmont during one of their fights over controlling the crime lord's body and a Shadowkhan pulling the Demon World version of Jackie from the braid.
• The Cameo: In Chapter 31, Daolon Wong appears as the monk who oversees Shendu and Valerie's bonding ceremony.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When Nat wants to kill Valmont to get rid of Shendu, Uncle uses this logic to discourage her; should Valmont die, Shendu would be free to possess another body of his choosing.
• Catch a Falling Star: When Hsi Wu drops Valerie in the 20th chapter, Jackie catches her while he's on the water tower's ladder.
• Chain Pain: One of Nat's weapons is a chain with symbols dangling from it. It intimidates the demon she faces in her introduction scene, but it has no effect at all on the Demon Sorcerers.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the beginning of the 15th chapter, Shendu adds to his letter to Valerie his symbol which she can use to summon him. When Hak Foo's attack leaves her barely alive in the same chapter, she accidentally uses the symbol to summon Shendu before she passes out. She uses the symbol again several chapters later when she needs to ask Shendu where Hsi Wu is keeping Jade.
• Chekhov's Skill: In the 14th chapter, Jackie teaches Valerie to do a counter attack right after a sweeping block. In the next chapter, she manages to successfully perform this once on Hak Foo.
• The Chessmaster: In the rewritten reality, Shendu makes secret alliances with each of his siblings against the others, intending for them to wipe each other out in the inevitable conflict, thus leaving him as the sole master of the world.
• Circling Monologue: When the J-Team reaches Hsi Wu's tower, Jade brings the Sky Demon's attention to herself. At first they circle each other as they exchange arguments about their status as Others, but it turns into a classical villainous example when Hsi Wu reminds Jade of the deal they made in the original timeline, which included her being bound to him.
• Cliffhanger: Several chapters:
  • The Lost Daughter (Chapter 6) — As an incentive against another failure, Shendu burns Valmont's secretary alive in front of the crime lord.
  • Doppleganger (Chapter 8) — As Jackie's Yin and Yang sides fight, Tohru captures Jade and Valerie along with the remaining Talismans and drives off with them.
  • Dawn of the Dragon (Chapter 9) — Jackie, Jade and Captain Black watch helplessly as the restored Shendu flies away with Valerie.
  • A Demon In Sheep's Clothing (Chapter 11) — Shendu orders the Shadowkhan to kill Jackie and Captain Black as he leaves with the book he stole from Uncle's store.
  • The J-Team (Chapter 12) — The heroes realize what Shendu intends to do with the Pan'Ku Box, while Valerie keeps to herself that Shendu kissed her.
  • To Move Mountains (Chapter 13) — A Shadowkhan gives Valerie a rose and a message from Shendu: "Challenge Accepted".
  • Prisoners (Chapter 14) — Xiao Fung, banished back to the Netherworld, seeks out his siblings to tell them about Shendu's connection with Valerie.
  • Help (Chapter 15) — After finding Valerie barely alive, Shendu takes her to the fish cannery and starts treating her back to health.
  • Better The Devil You Know (Chapter 16) — The Enforcers appear at Uncle's store to get the Demon Archive, but as an angry Jade presses them about Valerie, the Shadowkhan suddenly attack the thugs and scare them away, leaving the shop's occupants confused.
  • Restless (Chapter 18) — An enigmatic demon hunter (Nat) takes interest in Jackie's clashes with the Demon Sorcerers.
  • Terror Of The Skies (Chapter 20) — Nat spies on the Chans in anticipation of them leading her to another demon to slay.
  • The Hunter (Chapter 21) — Valmont renders Shendu unconscious by touching the Pan'Ku Box.
  • Date Night (Chapter 23) — Shendu leaves Valerie filled with questions and conflicting emotions she decides to try to sort out later.
  • The Last Door (Chapter 24) — With all the portals to the Netherworld sealed, the disembodied Shendu is left at the mercy of his angry siblings.
  • The Book of Ages (Chapter 25) — Jade realizes that Shendu has used the Book of Ages to make the Earth the domain of the Demon Sorcerers.
  • Demon Empire (Chapter 26) — After Valerie ushers Jade out of her chamber, Shendu knocks on the door.
  • A Perfect World (Chapter 27) — Jade is shown Nat's body, but she retains her resolve to fix history.
  • Knowledge is Power (Chapter 28) — Shendu seemingly kills Jackie when catching him, Jade and Uncle stealing the Talismans.
  • Mutiny (Chapter 29) — Shendu sets out to chase the Chans and promises Valerie to return for their wedding.
  • The Highest Tower (Chapter 30) — Shendu sets his course back to Hong Kong with the intention of confronting the J-Team with his remaining siblings in Australia after he has married Valerie.
  • No Man's Land (Chapter 31) — Valerie's confrontation with Shendu over the truth leads to the Book of Ages getting burned and the world tearing itself apart.
  • The Fabric of Reality (Chapter 32) — As the J-Team spends time with Jade's parents in the restored reality, Jackie notices Valerie isn't as happy as the rest of them.
• Clueless Detective: Played a bit when Captain Black questions Valerie about what happened when Hak Foo attacked her apartment. She thinks her father, a competent detective of his own right, would disapprove of Black leading the suspect instead of sticking strictly to ambiguous questions.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • Shendu inflicts this on Hak Foo off-screen for almost killing Valerie and lets him live only because he's the least incompetent of the Enforcers.
  • Shendu himself suffers this at the hands of his siblings when he fails to free them through his portal.
  • In the rewritten reality, Nataline was subjected to months worth of torture before being killed by Shendu.
• Continuity Nod: When Uncle complains to Jackie that nobody asked him if he wants a shop assistant, Jackie's reply is "didn't want to bother you". This is the same answer he received from Uncle in the show's first episode to his protest that no one asked his opinion about Jade coming to live with him.
• Counterspell: When Shendu's siblings place on him the spell that ends up binding him to Valmont's body, they add in a counterspell that prevents the Talismans' magic from connecting with him as they normally would, rendering him unable to use them.
• Crisis Catch And Carry: Shendu does this to Valerie while saving her from Dai Gui.
• Cry into Chest:
  • Valerie sobs in Jackie's shoulder when she thinks Uncle just got killed by Hak Foo.
  • When Valerie runs by chance into her father's killer while escaping from Shendu in Hollowland's penitentiary and realizes that he doesn't remember her, she's outraged by grief. After Shendu scares the man away, she breaks down against his chest, forgetting for a moment from who she's seeking comfort.
  • Valerie does this again with Jackie in the last chapter while she's confessing the heartaches she's had about everything.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: When Valerie is attacked by Hak Foo in her home, she's badly outmatched by the muscular master martial artist. She still manages to use Jackie's self-defense lessons to give him a few painful strikes, block one of his blows (much to the surprise of them both), and slash his forearm with a carving knife before he inevitably brings her to her knees.
• Curse Cut Short:
  • When Captain Black learns that Valmont injured Valerie as well with the Dragon Talisman, he's about to call Valmont a SOB before one of his agents comes to report to him.
  • While refusing to give Shendu what he wants in the tenth chapter, Valerie is about to use the term jack shit before Shendu cuts her off.
• Cuteness Proximity: When Jackie uses the Monkey Talisman to turn Shendu into a rabbit, Valerie starts almost immediately adoring him in an overly girly way.
• Darwinist Desire: This trope was inverted a bit in the past when Shendu decided to become a father. Not wanting an offspring that could have enough power to surpass him, he sought to mate with a human female instead of another demon or some other supernatural entity.
• Dead Person On Display: This is Nat's fate in the world that Shendu creates through the Book of Ages. On top of that, he and the rest of the demon clan tortured her pre-mortem.
• Deal with the Devil: After Jade gets sucked into the Netherworld, Valerie is willing to hand herself over to Shendu in exchange for his help in rescuing the girl. Jade, likewise, is willing to give Hsi Wu a chance to escape in exchange for her own escape. Hsi Wu reminds her of this deal when they meet again in the rewritten reality.
• Defiant to the End: Being about to be squeezed to death by the empowered Shendu doesn't prevent Jade from denouncing him in a dareful way for what he has done both to the reality and Valerie.
• Deflector Shields: Shendu deflects Dai Gui's attack with one made of fire.
• Demonic Possession:
  • Like in canon, Shendu possesses Valmont's body after his death and is unable to exit it because of the binding spell his siblings have placed on him until Uncle exorcises him.
  • Also, Shendu meets Valerie for the first time by possessing Jade's dormant body.
  • Shendu possesses Valerie's body when he returns from the Netherworld to use the Book of Ages.
• Ditzy Secretary: When Valerie is delivering a package addressed to Ratso, the receptionist of the Dark Hand's headquarters, either too lazy or busy being on the phone, tells her to take the package to the top floor instead of taking care of it herself. This leads to some insider knowledge ending up in the hands of one of the Dark Hand's enemies, and only the knowledge she can be ordered to be assassinated is what prevents Valerie from telling her friends everything she's learned.
• Double-Meaning Title: Shendu is called "the Ultimate Evil" by Lo Pei, but the last chapter has Valerie providing another meaning to what it is; doing nothing to prevent an evil deed from taking place.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: When Shendu's possessing Valmont, he's unable to draw power from touching Valerie because the proximity of Valmont's chi prevents those of Shendu and Valerie from connecting like they normally would. His siblings' spells also render him unable to use his Talismans while he's trapped in Valmont's body, giving him a perfect reason for his canon lack of interest in them during his time as a spirit.
• Dream Reality Check: While talking with Shendu the second time he enters her dream, Valerie mentions that she normally wakes up once she realizes she's dreaming.
• Driven to Suicide: Shendu eventually reveals to Valerie that Lo Mei's grief over her lover's death was too much for her and she impaled herself with a sword.
• Emerging from the Shadows: While interacting with Valerie the second time in her dream, Shendu hides in the shadows before showing himself in his serpentine astral form.
• Enemy Mine:
  • After Valerie offers herself to Shendu in exchange for the Pan'Ku Box, the J-Team travels with the demon and Hak Foo to the eight door where Shendu uses his connection with his Other to keep the portal open long enough for Jade to pass through. After which Uncle banishes Shendu to the Netherworld.
  • During the climax, Shendu helps the heroes bring Valerie close to the Book of Ages so that she can fix it and save them all.
• Establishing Character Moment: Nat's first appearance has her attacking a demon that's about to eat its victim, using her various weapons to kill it mercilessly, calling an ambulance, leaving the spot, taking an interest in the reports of Jackie's encounters with the Demon Sorcerers, and deciding to do a little "cleanup".
• Et Tu, Brute?:
  • Jade feels this way about Valerie not telling her she's Hsi Wu's Other.
  • Valerie is deeply hurt when Shendu possesses her body and forces her to take him to the Book of Ages while threatening her loved ones' lives. What's more, part of the reason Shendu is doing this because he thinks she betrayed him when the J-Team banished him to the Netherworld even though he upheld his end of the bargain and helped Jade out of there. Browsing through her memories to discover she honestly had no idea of her friends' plans makes him feel guilty about what he's putting her through.
• Evil, Inc.: The skyscraper where the Dark Hand originally operates from is apparently a legit business called D.H. Industries.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Subverted when Valerie realizes that Shendu has thrown Tohru across Uncle's store. She mutters that throwing someone in their home is considered to be bad-mannered, and Shendu cackles at that in a way that sounds like he's genuinely amused by the comment instead of mocking her or being sinister.
  • Bai Tza laughs once she has completed her spell to flood Embarcadero Station and while she attempts to drown Valerie.
  • Played completely straight with Shendu when he confronts the Chans while possessing Valerie's body.
• Evil Overlooker: See the cover at the top of the page.
• Exact Eavesdropping: When Valerie is making a delivery during her brief stint as a mail-girl, she ends up in Valmont's office. While Valmont and Shendu are shown the animated Gnome Cop, she hides in the cupboard and finds out that someone has hired the Dark Hand to hunt down the Talismans. However, Valmont's comment that he can have her quickly assassinated prevents her from telling her friends everything about her findings.
• Exact Words: When Hsi Wu kidnaps Jade, he tells the Chans that if they want to see her ever again, they must remove Uncle's spell from his tail. He later gloats to Jade that he has no intention of releasing her since he made no mention of for how long her family may see her again.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Shendu is shocked to discover that the Guardian of the Book of Ages, whose power he and his siblings are wary of, has the appearance of an aboriginal shaman.
• Eye Colour Change: When Valerie has a surge of boosted chi from touching Shendu's statue form for the first time, Shendu sees in her pupils a faint glow of red similar to those of his eyes for a brief moment.
• Faint in Shock:
  • This happens to Valerie in the first chapter after the following chain of events; first Jade proves that magic exists by using the Rabbit Talisman, then the Enforcers appear to try and kidnap the girl immediately thereafter, Valerie fights them despite having no experience, and finally, Jackie jumps from the second floor with a flip and scares the Enforcers away.
  • Valerie faints again when she sees Jackie's Yin and Yang halves for the first time.
• Flashback Nightmare: When Shendu enters Valerie's dream the second time, she briefly relives being lost in a forest as a little girl, then being told of her father's death, and finally her first meeting with Valmont.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Played with when Shendu treats the injuries Valerie gained from Hak Foo. It doesn't make her fully trust him, but she can no longer view him as her enemy.
• Forced Sleep: Shendu is able to put Valerie to sleep with a wave of his hand in the 16th chapter.
• Forceful Kiss:
  • Shendu first does this to Valerie in the Tibetian temple. He does it the second time after he has returned to the fish cannery from his confrontation with the Queen of the Shadowkhan.
  • Once Shendu has told Valerie of Lo Mei and the reasons for his attraction towards her, he kisses her much more gently than previously.
• From Dress to Dressing: After Valerie cuts her palm in the 14th chapter, she tears a strip out of her blouse and uses it as a bandage.
• Garden of Love: A dark variety; Shendu first saw Lo Mei in a garden and decided to make her his bride.
• Get Out!:
  • After Jackie's Yang half throws the Dark Hand goons out of Uncle's shop, Valerie tries to threaten Tohru to leave when the big man recovers from being knocked out. Upon seeing Yang Jackie chasing his cohorts, Tohru opts to follow them instead of trying to attack Valerie.
    Valerie: Get out of my shop.
  • When Valerie finds Valmont in Uncle's shop, she shouts at him to get out as she attempts to attack him, only to be overpowered and realize to her horror that the crime lord's body is being controlled by Shendu.
  • Valerie screams this as she makes one last attempt to attack Hak Foo who's trashing her apartment.
• Godzilla Threshold: It's made clear that the Demon Sorcerers view using the Book of Ages as this due to the potential risks if the Book is damaged, but they don't have any other choice if they want to escape the Netherworld.
• Groin Attack:
  • During their first encounter, Valerie delivers this to Hak Foo while naming the move as "horse kicks for the crown jewels".
  • Valerie uses this to free herself from Shendu's grasp during the fight in the Tibetian temple.
• Group Hug: Valerie has one with the Chans after Shendu returns her to them at the end of the 17th chapter.
• Hate at First Sight: The moment Valerie first sees Valmont, she strongly dislikes the crime lord.
• Healing Potion: Shendu and Uncle know how to concoct a broth that hastens one's healing process.
• Heartbroken Badass: Lo Pei is revealed to have been one while he was alive. His wife died in childbirth and left him to raise their two children by himself under Shendu's tyranny. Then his beloved daughter Lo Mei was forcibly taken by Shendu as a bride. While Pei managed to overthrow Shendu and imprison him, he couldn't save Mei in time.
• Heel–Face Turn: Like in canon, Tohru switches his loyalties to Chans after Valmont forces him to fight a futile battle against the restored Shendu.
• He Knows Too Much: When they're brought to the Dark Hand's headquarters, Valerie encourages Jade to defy this trope by avoiding looking like they've seen something they shouldn't so that their captors wouldn't be incited to silence them for good.
• Held Gaze: Shendu and Valerie have one of supernatural variety when she first sees him in his statue form and he pretends to be lifeless. Both of them stare at each other as if they're in a trance; she's mesmerized by how lifelike the "statue" is, while he's fascinated by being looked at so reverently by her. She then attempts to stroke him and causes between them a surge of power, one of the last pieces of the puzzle Shendu needs to figure out they're Others.
  She stared at him, straight into his eyes, and Shendu felt something inside of him spark into a flame under her gaze, a heat blazing through him as he marvelled at how no one had dared to look at him so openly before. She looked at him as if he were something beautiful and awe-inspiring, yet gazed into his soul as if he were an open book for her to read.
• Heroic BSoD: Valerie succumbs to this following Jade's return from the Netherworld and rejection of her.
• High Heel Hurt: Valerie predicts the heels she's wearing on her date with David will give her blisters. She decides she can discreetly take them off while she's sitting on the dinner table.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Shendu teaches Valerie to cast magical power blasts as a safety measure in the rewritten reality. During the climax, she unleashed a powerful wave in her emotional turmoil and accidentally sets the Book of Ages on fire.
• Honorary Uncle: In addition to the canonical Uncle, Valerie has her father's old friend whom she calls "Uncle Lee".
• Hypocritical Humor: An example happens when Shendu's siblings learn of his connection to Valerie.
  Tchang Zu: Let us hope that Shendu only has want of her power, lest he dishonour our kind further with touching her filth.
  Hsi Wu: As if you never had an appetite for the softness of female flesh, brother.
• "I Can't Look!" Gesture: When Jade and Jackie are about to crash a wall with a jet pack, Valerie covers her eyes before peeking behind her fingers to see them scaling the wall upwards.
• Idiot Ball: When Jackie's in Hollowland's penitentiary, Valerie tries to ask about him without knowing his false name. When she hears that one of the newest prisoners has landed himself in solitary confinement, she assumes without solid proof that it's Jackie and rushes to meet him. She ends up berating herself after she finds herself in a locked cell with Shendu.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Shendu tells Valerie this after he's restored to his true form and he kidnaps her.
  Valerie: If you're going to eat me then get on with it already!
  Shendu: If I wanted you dead, I could have done a thousand different things to end your mortal existence. But I haven't. You're more use to me alive and healthy for where we're going.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze: A subverted example happens when Valerie ends up in Valmont's office by chance and hides in a cupboard. Her barely audible sneeze almost gives her away to Valmont, but Shendu (who has been aware of her presence the entire time) snaps his attention back to their current discussion because he wants to figure out his still mysterious connection to Valerie without anyone's interference.
• I'm Your Worst Nightmare: After Shendu is released and he kidnaps Valerie, he introduces himself to her this way.
  Shendu: There are more things in this world then you can ever imagine. Monsters lurking in the dark, shadows waiting to be unleashed; all the fairy tales you humans now tell yourselves to be myth, were once very real. They wait, lurking in the unseen corners, waiting until you turn your back and then — [smashes a stone next to Valerie] — They'll strike. But of all the dangers, I am the most powerful, none dare resist the will of the great and powerful Shendu!
• Indignant Slap: Valerie delivers one to Valmont in Chapter 22 for daring to say Shendu'd try to forcefully claim her if he saw her in her black dress.
• In Spite of a Nail: When Shendu assaults Uncle's Rare Finds for the book he needs to locate the Pan'Ku Box, he ends up speaking with Valerie instead of searching for the book. He still gets away with the book when Jackie and Captain Black arrive because Valerie happens to have it on her person.
• Irony:
  • Valerie remembers how she used to shout at movie heroines who wore ridiculous outfits in the heat of battle while she's trying to locate Bai Tza in a black dress and court shoes.
  • Shendu tells Valerie that he decided to father a legacy through a human female because any offspring birthed by a demon or any other supernatural entity might have become powerful enough to surpass him. The sequel introduces Drago, a half-demon who, due to being birthed by Valerie after she and Shendu were bound as Others, has a natural balance of light and dark chi that makes him able to bond with his uncles and aunts' chis without being overwhelmed by them. He also has in sights to challenge his grandmother Tiamat over her divine place on Earth.
• I Shall Taunt You: During their first duel, Valmont mocks Jackie about Captain Black whom he injured with the Dragon Talisman. Jackie's resulting anger makes him attack Valmont recklessly, and the crime lord gains the upper hand. A while later, Jackie returns the favor when he reaches Valmont who's escaping on a barge with the gold stolen from Fort Knox. Jackie mocks Valmont while tossing the gold overboard, making Valmont blast a hole onto the barge and sink it.
• Jabba Table Manners: Shendu acknowledges that when he has his real body, his eating habits would make humans feel sick. The rewritten reality version of Valerie has gotten used to this to the point of being able to ignore for the most part what Shendu and Tso Lan are eating and how.
• Jaw Drop:
  • Valerie often has this reaction to punctuate her shock or astonishment, such as when Jade appears at Shendu's palace in the tenth chapter or when the girl's clones are able to restrain Po Kong.
  • Jade has one when she learns what kind of a status Shendu has given Valerie in the rewritten reality.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When the Shadowkhan take Shendu to the corrupted Jade, Valerie demands the Enforcers to bring her to the girl. Unsympathetic to her worry over Jade, they refuse to risk Shendu's wrath by taking her away from the fish cannery and lock her up. However, Finn rightly points out that they don't know where the Shadowkhan have taken Shendu, and considering that they had to witness Hak Foo's painful punishment, they can't be blamed for not wanting to earn Shendu's ire through disobedience. Besides, Valerie was still recovering from her injuries, so it wouldn't have been wise for her to accompany Shendu to the confrontation in Section 13.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Upon first meeting Valerie, Valmont injures her with the Dragon Talisman when she pleads with him not to kill Jackie.
  • Hak Foo attacks Valerie in her apartment under the belief that she has the Demon Archive, injures her severely, and callously leaves her to die.
• Knuckle Cracking: Shendu does the neck variant of this when he confronts the Chans in Valerie's body.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Jade decides to use in the rewritten reality the spell Uncle made to take the Talismans out of Shendu, Jackie questions how could that spell work if it was never created in that reality. Uncle handwaves it by saying that some magics are powerful enough to transcend all realities. Jade assesses this logic must apply to the Demon Sorcerers' banishing spells as well, and the ending shows that Valerie is still bound to Shendu even though the binding wasn't done in the restored reality.
• Legend Fades to Myth: When the Guardian of the Book of Ages decides to seal the gateway to the Book, he predicts this will happen to him by saying that the fate of every story's character is to become a legend.
• Lethal Chef: Nat's one off-screen attempt to cook nearly sets the whole building on fire, and the resulting food is nearly inedible.
• Little Black Dress: Valerie chooses one for a date with David and ends up wearing it while facing off Bai Tza.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Inverted. Valerie keeps it a secret from her friends that she's Shendu's Other until Po Kong has been banished. She still leaves it untold how deep her "relationship" with Shendu actually is.
• Love Letter: After Valerie tells Shendu that she wants to fall in love with someone before marrying them, he starts sending these to her until Hak Foo assaults her apartment. He says that he picked up romanticism in letter writing because it is becoming a lost art in the modern age.
• MacGuffin Guardian: Unlike in canon, the Book of Ages has a powerful Guardian who has taken the form of an old aboriginal man. He will test any arriving pilgrims with three tests before allowing them to go anywhere near the Book. If he finds them to be evil, he will destroy them.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • After the failure to retrieve the Talismans from the Living Statue of Lo Pei, Shendu burns Valmont's secretary alive as a warning to avoid any further failures.
  • After finding out that it was Hak Foo who attacked and nearly killed Valerie, Shendu punishes him painfully in front of the Enforcers to make it clear for all of them once and for all that the dragon's valuables are not to be messed with.
  • In the rewritten reality, Nat and her family tried to rebel against the Demon Sorcerers' rule. After killing them all, Shendu placed Nat's body on the wall in the outskirts of Hong Kong to warn the humans never to defy the demons.
• Man Bites Man: Valerie is trapped in Tohru's bear hug during their first confrontation, but she eventually bites his exposed neck. His shock causes him to loose his grip long enough for her to free her arm and press against his head the syringe filled with Jackie's blood that has the petrifying venom in it and use it to force him to release her.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Shendu killed the young man Lo Mei loved and forced her to watch before taking her prisoner.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Valerie says this to Valmont when he notices she's wearing a black dress.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Jade is left feeling guilty about her anger towards Valerie when Shendu possesses her friend.
• Mythology Gag: When Uncle starts explaining the concept of Others by saying that Shendu wants Valerie's good chi, Jade retorts that Valerie is not Chinese, prompting Uncle to explain the concept of chi. This exchange happened in the episode "A Jolly J-Team Xmas", only with Daolon Wong wanting the good chi of Santa Claus.
• My Way or the Highway: Valerie asks Nat if she had to choose between "demon-slaying-way or the highway" since she's not in some other profession. Nat replies that she knew the stakes of quitting demon-hunting when she grew older.
• Neat Freak: Nat insists on doing every night cleaning in Valerie's apartment and constantly complains that Valerie misses a spot.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Hak Foo doesn't pull his punches when he assaults Valerie in the latter's apartment and leaves her on the verge of death.
• Noisy Shut-Up: When El Toro attacks Tohru in the twelfth chapter, Valerie gets the fight to stop by shouting loudly that Tohru is on the good side now.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: During Valerie's time as Shendu's "patient", he makes her dine with him at one point.
• No-Sell: Nat tries to ward off Bai Tza with her symbol-adorned chain and touches her with a crucifix, but they have no effect at all on the Water Demon.
• Non-Nude Bathing: Averted in this version of the Demon World arc; Hsi Wu actually is wearing nothing when he's introduced bathing. When Jade shows up to confront him, he gets out and puts his loincloth on.
• Not in Front of the Kid: Nat insults Valerie by making dumb-blonde jokes until she's told not to use a vulgar one in Jade's presence.
  Nat: How do you get a blonde off her knees? Cu–
  Valerie: Ahem! I think that type of joke is a little off limits due to our current company! Don't you think?! [indicates towards Jade]
  Nat: Oh… Right. Sorry.
• Not Me This Time: While Shendu treats the injuries Hak Foo gave Valerie, she accuses him of sending the brute to attack her. Shendu rectifies that misconception by punishing Hak Foo.
• Not So Similar: When Valmont starts commenting he can see why Shendu lusts after Valerie, it prompts the enraged woman to slap him and chastise him for daring to compare himself to Shendu, who she feels has some semblance of honor:
  She didn't know what had possessed her to say those words in her current company […] but she couldn't stand the thought of Valmont comparing himself to Shendu. In her eyes – she didn't know whether it had always been so, or if this was something new – Valmont was a scumbag criminal who would stoop to any means and do anything and everything just for a little money. But Shendu, despite being a lying, murderous and evil demon, had at times shown some form of honour, and he was more sophisticated and regal than Valmont. Valmont hid what he was behind an air of aristocracy and superiority that made her blood boil, but Shendu let you know up-front what you were dealing with. That little shred of honesty, no matter how vile in its using, still made Shendu more worthy to Valerie than Valmont could ever hope to be.
• Number of the Beast: The Hongkongese hotel room where Shendu possesses Valerie is numbered 666.
• Off with His Head!: Nat finishes off the demon she fights in her introduction scene in this fashion.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Valerie when she realizes she's about to be caught by Valmont in the latter's office.
  • Valerie again when she discovers that the inmate she came to visit in a locked cell is Shendu instead of Jackie.
  • Nat grows pale when Bai Tza flicks her crucifix aside with no signs of pain.
  • Valerie once again just before Nat attacks her for being told the blonde is Shendu's Other.
  • Valerie's reaction to realizing that Shendu is now inside her body is to shriek.
  • Shendu himself ends up being afraid for a moment when Valerie becomes furious with him in the climax. Then he and all of his siblings scream in horror when the Book of Ages is set ablaze.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You:
  • While Shendu hates being trapped in Valmont's body in general, he does find it useful in one aspect: being more compatible to Valerie's physique.
  • While treating Valerie's wounds, Shendu admits to himself that despite his low opinion on humankind, their modern medicine usage is effective.
• On Second Thought: When Lo Pei's mobile statue knocks out Tohru with a kick, Valerie happily decides that magic is redundant when you have martial skills like that. However, when the Shadowkhan appear immediately afterwards, she nervously says that magic would actually be of use at that moment.
• Out-Gambitted: Uncle expects Shendu to double-cross the J-Team while they're trying to rescue Jade from the Netherworld, so he already has a plan in place to banish him before he has a chance to do so. Ironically, Shendu's subsequent interactions with Valerie when he possesses her imply he genuinely wasn't going to leave any strings attached when upholding his end of the bargain.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: When Valerie tries to escape from Tohru while holding Jade and the box containing the Talismans in her arms, Tohru lifts her over his shoulder, carries her to his car and throws her in the backseat with Jade and the box still in her grip.
• Papa Wolf: Lo Pei gathered an army to overthrow Shendu only after the Demon Sorcerer forcibly took Pei's daughter Lo Mei as a bride.
• Parents Know Their Children: The Living Statue of Lo Pei refers to this trope by saying that any father can know his beloved child anywhere when he meets Valerie and, due to her eyes, believes her to be his daughter Lo Mei who's concealing herself with magic. He's partly right though because Valerie is Pei's descendant by thirty-six generations.
• Perverted Sniffing: Shendu does this to Valerie a few times. At one point, he's enjoying the remains of her scent on the book he took from her jeans.
  As [Shendu] flicked through the pages of the book, he could almost detect the last remnants of [Valerie's] scent lingering on the pages where she'd had it tucked in the waistline of her jeans. He struggled not to purr.
• Pet Monstrosity: In the rewritten reality, Shendu gives Valerie a wedding gift in the form of a dragon that serves as her obedient guardian and steed. Valerie names the dragon Ryuu.
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: Valerie says this to Shendu while trying to make him tell her the location of Hsi Wu's hiding place. He agrees on two conditions: she must keep herself out of mortal danger and give him a kiss.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure:
  • In the fourth chapter, Valerie and Uncle get into an argument when she tries to teach him to do online shopping, leading her to quit her job at his shop. They make up at the end of the next chapter after she helps save Jackie from the petrifying venom.
  • After the last portal is sealed, Jade's fury at Valerie for keeping the girl's Other-connection to Hsi Wu a secret leaves Valerie shattered. By the time the others convince Jade to give Valerie a chance, Shendu has already returned in Valerie's body, and the girl is left filled with remorse.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia:
  • Shendu's first forceful kiss on Valerie leaves her so shocked she can't prevent him from escaping with the Pan'Ku Box.
  • After telling Valerie about Lo Mei and the reasons for his attraction towards her, the kiss Shendu gives her is slightly given in. Both this and the revelations leave her stunned for a good while.
• Power Floats: In addition to the canonical examples, Shendu levitates a bit off the ground while possessing Valerie's body due to his chi combining with that of hers.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • While Shendu is exorcised by Uncle from Jade's body like in canon, he's not trapped back in his statue prison, allowing him to wander around in his astral form. Though Uncle's spells ensure that he can't get anywhere near the Chans or Uncle's antique store, he can still spy on Valerie and enter her dreams.
  • Unlike in canon, the Book of Ages is actually guarded by a powerful entity whom Shendu has to outsmart before getting access to the Book. The Guardian later uses the Book to make Shendu's spirit unable to cross dimensions from the Netherworld and seal the gateway to the Book, giving legitimate explanations to why Shendu remained in the Netherworld until Daolon Wong resurrected him and why the Book wasn't used by the villains a second time.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Hak Foo's position as the Token Competent Minion is the only reason Shendu tortures but doesn't slay him for nearly killing Valerie. He also lets the broken man "secretly" consume the drops of the Healing Potion Shendu makes for Valerie so that he wouldn't be unable to serve him for too long.
  • After discovering the location of Tso Lan's portal, Shendu returns Valerie to the Chans because he can't leave her alone either to starve or escape and figure out his hideout's location for the heroes to find out.
  • In addition to telling Valerie where Hsi Wu is keeping Jade, Shendu also reveals that Jade is Hsi Wu's Other. When asked why Shendu would sell out his brother like this, he admits that he simply doesn't want any of his siblings to be on an equal footing with him.
• Punch Catch: Hak Foo does this with Valerie in the 15th chapter.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Shendu does this several times, both with some of his canon lines and the lines unique to this fic, such as when he rages at Valmont over the failure to take the Talismans from Lo Pei's Living Statue.
    Shendu: The talismans were in your men's possession and they lose EVERY. SINGLE. ONE?!
  • Valerie does this while arguing with Shendu about the latter's decision to complete her "challenge" and make her fall in love with him.
    Valerie: When are you going to get it through your thick skull?! That. Won't. Happen!
  • When Shendu's portal is discovered at the Moose World of Hong Kong, all he has to say is "Don't. Say. A word."
• Puppy-Dog Eyes:
  • As everyone waits for Valerie's answer if she still wants to associate with them after her first scuffle with the Dark Hand, Jade is pulling this on her.
  • Jade using this tactic is what convinces Valerie to follow Jackie and Uncle to Tibet with the rest of the J-Team despite her initial protests.
• Pyrrhic Victory: While Lo Pei managed to imprison Shendu and free the people of China from his tyranny, he was unable to rescue his beloved daughter Mei who died by her own hand.
• Rapid-Fire Nail Biting: Valerie bites her nails after Jackie and Nat are knocked unconscious by Bai Tza.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jade delivers one to the empowered Shendu as he prepares to kill her.
  Jade: Whatever you've done to Val, I'll –
  Shendu: Done to her? She came along willingly.
  Jade: Liar! The real Valerie would've never done this! You've changed her, the way you've changed everything!
  Shendu: And is she not better for it? I have made her a queen, she is mine, and everything is now as it should be.
  Jade: It's not really her though! What you've done to her is unforgivable!
  Shendu: There's enough of her in there for me to be satisfied with. The rest of her will come with time, but it is too late to change what has been done.
  Jade: You don't care about her! You bewitched her, forced her. Everything about her you took from her to make her what you wanted. She's not a person to you, she's a puppet!
• Real After All: In the sixth chapter, Valerie ends up reading a book about what she thinks is a fiction about Demon Sorcerers that were banished to a form of hell. Those familiar with canon know she'll end up discovering she's not reading fiction.
• Reality Warper: The Guardian of the Book of Ages is stated to be powerful enough to erase from existence anyone who'd use the Book for evil purposes, including the Demon Sorcerers. After the reality is restored, he uses the Book to make spirits unable to travel from the Netherworld and the temple's gateway to be lost to time.
• Reduced to Dust: The body of the demon Nat kills in her first appearance disintegrates to ash.
• Reincarnation: When Shendu first sees Valerie and her resemblance to Lo Mei, he believes that she is a reincarnation of Lo Mei, though this theory is later replaced with the idea that Valerie is the descendant of Mei's father, the sacred warrior Lo Pei.
• Right Behind Me: In the climax of the Demon World arc, just when Shendu is about to kill Jade, she calls him out on manipulating Valerie, which he admits too… just as Val walks into the room.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Valerie's palm bleeds in the 14th chapter, Shendu acts like he's trying to restrain himself. Guessing that her blood's scent has triggered a predatory instinct in him, she bandages her wound, and Shendu settles down. Xiao Fung's thoughts reveal that Shendu was actually reacting to the chi in Valerie's blood calling out for his own.
• Save the Villain: Valerie saves Shendu from drowning in Embarcadero Station by pulling an Underwater Kiss on him.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: When Shendu is about to eat Jackie's body when the latter is in his astral form, Valerie's protest makes the demon offer to spare Jackie in exchange for her submission. It doesn't get any further than that due to Jackie returning to his body and continuing the fight.
• See You in Hell:
  • When Valerie and Shendu first meet after he returns in Valmont's body, she tells him to go to hell. He responds with a mirthless smirk "Been there, and come back."
  • Nat uses this as a Bond One-Liner to the demon she kills in her first appearance.
    Nat: May Hell keep you. For you're not welcome here.
• Sexy Secretary: Subverted with the receptionist of the Dark Hand's skyscraper headquarters; Valerie assesses she's beautiful, but her exuberant makeup ruins that.
• The Shadow Knows: The Guardian of the Book of Ages tests Valerie by turning his staff into an inland taipan. She realizes that the snake is merely an illusion by noticing that the Guardian's shadow holds only a staff.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Valerie is mistaken in the first chapter to be Jackie's girlfriend by Uncle and the Enforcers.
• Shower of Awkward: Downplayed when Jade walks in on Hsi Wu who's bathing in the rewritten reality. He's briefly surprised by her appearance before he casually gets out of the bathtub and puts his loincloth on while she forces herself to glare at his eyes and not let herself blush in embarrassment.
• Single Tear: Valerie ends up shedding one tear in the ending while she's saying goodbye to the Chans.
• Sins of Our Fathers:
  • Shendu's initial interest in Valerie is just to exact Revenge by Proxy on her ancestor Lo Pei through her. When he realizes she's his Other, that plan quickly gets scrapped.
  • Discussed in the 14th chapter; Valmont mentions to Shendu that Valerie had better not end up in Hollowland's penitentiary because many of the criminals her late father helped to arrest are incarcerated there and might take their revenge by hurting her. Shendu later brings this up to Valerie in order to convince her to remain in the solitary confinement wing with him.
• Soft Glass: Averted; Valerie being thrown on her coffee table by Hak Foo leaves her even more injured by the glass shards that stick to her back.
• Squick:
  • An In-Universe example: Valmont finds it disgusting that Shendu uses his lips to kiss Valerie. invoked
  • This is Jade's reaction to the thought of Shendu impregnating Valerie on their wedding night.
• Stalker with a Crush: After meeting Valerie for the first time, Shendu makes it a habit to spy on her in his astral form and becomes attracted to her in the process.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: When Tohru is about to destroy the antidote against the magic venom Jackie's infected with, Valerie takes some blood from Jackie and threatens to inject it into herself and risk turning herself to stone as well, knowing that the Dark Hand's mysterious client wants her alive. By her prodding, the Enforcers contact Valmont and explain the situation, but a fight breaks out when Shendu orders Valerie to be stopped.
• Suddenly Shouting: During the confrontation with Dai Gui, Valerie does this twice to Jackie to keep him focused on the demon instead of the sleeping Uncle.
  Valerie: Stop talking about his sleep – AND WORRY ABOUT THE DEMON! […] Let us worry about the spell – you worry about the – DEMON!
• Suggestive Collision: During the fight in the Tibetian motel, Valerie lands on top of a sleeping Shendu. Upon waking up, he's pleased by the surprise.
• Sympathy for the Devil: After the reality is restored and Shendu is reimprisoned in the Netherworld, Valerie cannot help feeling sad for him.
• Synchronization:
  • When Valerie is injured in the face by Valmont's usage of the Dragon Talisman, Shendu briefly feels her pain in his own face.
  • When Valerie falls and cuts her palm in the 14th chapter, Shendu becomes stiff until she bandages her wound. Sensing her blood calling out for Shendu's spirit makes Xiao Fung realize they're Others to one another.
  • When Shendu is knocked unconscious by Valmont's prolonged touch on the Pan'Ku Box, Valerie briefly feels his pain in the back of her head.
• Talking in Your Dreams: After gaining the possession of the Sheep Talisman, Shendu enters Valerie's dream two times and speaks with her without revealing his identity.
• Tempting Fate: Happens with Valerie when Jackie has her keep an eye on Jade while he deals with Lo Pei's Living Statue, only for Jade to escape.
  Valerie resigned herself to babysitting duty, but at least it would keep Jade out of anymore trouble.
  Yeah. That lasted for all of five minutes.
• That Liar Lies:
  • When Valerie lies to Shendu in Chapter 14 that she threw away all his love letters, he sees through it and harshly calls her a liar even as he looks at her smugly.
  • When Jade demands from the Enforcers answers about Valerie's whereabouts in the 16th chapter, she sees through their feigned ignorance and calls them liars.
• Threat Backfire: When Nat threatens to kill Shendu, he responds with a more effective threat.
  Nat: Give me one good reason why I shouldn't slit your throat!
  Shendu: Because I'll be sure to make my next body yours. Perhaps I'll then let you watch as your Tutor runs the blade through you, demon-hunter. [Nat flinches slightly at the thought of her father and grandfather, prompting Shendu to grin] A member of the family, perhaps? All the more enjoyable.
• The Three Trials: Those who seek the Book of Ages must pass three tests before the Guardian lets anyone near it. He first inspects Valerie's heart through touch. He then tests her mind by presenting her a snake that's only an illusion. And finally, he tests her spirit by having her look into his fire and see something. With Valerie having passed the tests, he allows her to go to the Book, at which point Shendu retakes over her body and rewrites history before he can be stopped.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Valerie has this reaction when she sees Shendu talking in his statue form for the first time.
  • Valerie is understandably in initial denial when she realizes Shendu has returned from death in Valmont's body.
  • Bai Tza reacts this way when she learns that Shendu has found his Other in the form of a human female.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Valerie overhears Shendu's confirmation that he altered the timeline, she's beyond furious.
• Title Drop: The title of the story is how Lo Pei refers to Shendu (like in canon). It also qualifies as the Antagonist Title. In the last chapter, Valerie uses the title to describe her act of blissful inaction in the rewritten reality.
  Valerie: I was just so caught up in my own love story that I ignored the suffering and misery of my own species… My father once told me something… evil is not the act, but those who stand by and watch. Shendu committed unspeakable horrors, but I did nothing. I committed the ultimate evil by simply allowing it to happen.
• To Serve Man: In addition to the canonical examples (namely Shendu's attempt to eat Jackie in the first season finale and Po Kong), Xiao Fung exhibits interest in eating Valerie for snatch.
• Touché:
  • Shendu says this when Hsi Wu tells him that Jade is his Other and should the Fire Demon try and do anything to her, the Sky Demon will hurt Valerie in return.
  • When Valerie uses Loophole Abuse to defend her act of giving Shendu a minimal kiss by reminding him that demons like working on technicalities, he grins in response.
• Trauma Button: Running into the young man who killed her father results in Valerie screaming her grief and horror at the top of her lungs.
• Troubled Fetal Position:
  • Following the shock of hiding in Valmont's office and eavesdropping on him and Shendu, Valerie rushes to her bedroom's corner to assume this position.
  • While wallowing in self-pity, Valerie is sitting in this position when Shendu possesses her.
• Trying Not to Cry: Valerie tries holding back tears when she's saying goodbye to the Chans. She ends up shedding a Single Tear.
• Tuck and Cover: The Nigh-Invulnerable Shendu protects Valerie this way from the rockets of Section 13 agents.
• Underwater Kiss: When Shendu is close to drowning in Embarcadero Station, Valerie dives in and transfers oxygen into his system through mouth, successfully reinvigorating him.
• Undressing the Unconscious: Downplayed. After Valerie is nearly killed by Hak Foo, Shendu removes her shirt to treat her wounds. He leaves her bra on, though he does have to keep a reign on his urges before he puts a new shirt on her. Valerie is understantably shocked to wake up wearing a different shirt, but the realization of her still having everything else on reassures her nothing uncouth was done to her.
• Unwanted Rescue: When the Chans escape from Shendu's palace in the rewritten world, Jade takes Valerie with them without asking anyone's opinion on the matter. Fortunately, the woman doesn't want to see Shendu kill the girl in retribution and helps the Chans escape by letting herself be found by Shendu.
• Unwilling Suspension: The Guardian of the Book of Ages is left suspended by chains in the Book's temple after Shendu alters the reality.
• Victory Is Boring: Shendu lampshades this trope when he tells Valerie how his life became dull after he had defeated all his enemies and founded a spreading empire while his siblings were in the Netherworld.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • When Valerie ends up by mistake in a same cell with Shendu, he convinces her to stay with him by reasoning that she has a better chance of leaving the prison unharmed by remaining with him rather than trying to venture in the main cell block amongst inmates that have not only murderers and rapists among them, but some of them might want to hurt her as revenge against her late father for helping capture them.
  • When Valerie tries to furiously deny that she feels anything towards Shendu, he reminds her of how she saved his life in Embarcadero Station and the way she kissed him then.
• Virgin in a White Dress: Shendu knows about the Western tradition of brides wearing white to symbolize their virginal purity. When he sees Valerie in a white dress, he finds himself liking the application of the sentiment in her. He has Valerie wear a white wedding dress for their upcoming wedding in the rewritten reality instead of the red version used traditionally in China.
• Was It All a Lie?:
  • Nat makes this question when she believes Valerie has betrayed the J-Team by agreeing to hand herself over to Shendu in exchange for his help to get Jade out of the Netherworld.
  • The alternate Valerie asks Shendu if his feelings for her were ever genuine when she learns he altered both the timeline and herself.
• We Need a Distraction: When the Chans and Valerie are about to be discovered by Shendu and his dragons, Valerie decides to help them escape by letting Shendu find her.
• We Will Meet Again: After Shendu has been banished from Jade's body, he promises to Valerie that they will soon meet again.
• Wham Line: While Shendu's threatening Valerie with what he might do if she's not faithful to him in the 23rd chapter, she asks if that's what happened to Lo Mei. At this point, she has last mentioned Lo Mei while interacting with Lo Pei's Living Statue in the sixth chapter, so the reader might be forgiven for assuming that she has forgotten her.
• Wham Shot:
  • In order to discourage Jade from bringing Shendu's wrath upon them, the rewritten Jackie takes her to Hong Kong's walls to show her something that turns out to be Nataline's corpse.
  • The story ends with the revelation that Valerie still has the scar gained from the bonding ceremony she had with Shendu in the rewritten reality.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: When Valerie temporarily quits being Uncle's assistant and decides to take up a job offer as a mail-girl, she thinks how hard it could be. When we return to her POV in the narration, she's already hating the extremely exhausting job which almost leads to her being caught in Valmont's office, and her cold makes it worse in the next chapter.
• What the Hell, Hero?: None of the J-Team is happy with Valerie agreeing to hand herself over to Shendu in exchange for his help in rescuing Jade. Jade is even less forgiving about Valerie not telling her that she's Hsi Wu's Other.
• Witch with a Capital "B": While quarreling with Valerie in the fourth chapter, Uncle calls her an "undisciplined, bad-mannered, badmouthed little witch".
• Woman Scorned: The alternate Valerie with Shendu when she overhears his confession that he altered both the reality and herself.
• "You!" Exclamation: Bai Tza when Nat confronts her the second time.
• You Monster!: Valerie tells Shendu that the others were right about him being a monster when she feels betrayed by him after he possesses her body. This stings Shendu more than he would have believed.
• You Need to Get Laid: While in Spain after weeks from returning Valerie to the Chans, Ratso makes this suggestion to the still angry Shendu. Shendu considers it, for he has done that many times during his rule. However, he ultimately doesn't do it because he can't find any of the local señoritas comparable to Valerie.
• You Owe Me: Hsi Wu tries this card on Jade by reminding her that they agreed to be bound to each other once they're both out of the Netherworld. She doesn't care in the slightest.
• You're Insane!:
  • A variant of this trope is said when Shendu has returned in Valmont's body and comments to Valerie that she seems to have been doing well.
    Valerie: Considering I was kidnapped by an evil and insane demon, I think I'm recovering well.
    Shendu: I may be spiteful and vindictive, but far from insane.
  • Valerie says this again after Nat tries to kill her to deny Shendu his Other.
    Valerie: And just when I thought we had enough crazy here…
    Nat: I'm not crazy for wanting to keep the world safe.
    Valerie: Then let me rephrase: for attacking someone you don't know… you're insane!

The Stronger Evil

• Abandoned Warehouse: When Shendu is restored to his true form by Valerie's unintentional assistance, he takes Valerie to an abandoned warehouse which he turns uninteresting, sealed and soundproof with a spell. He then proceeds to reveal that his stirring mother Tiamat is the cause of the activation of the demon chis and unnatural weather patterns which will be nothing compared to what she will do if she were to fully awaken. After Valerie agrees to help him find Tiamat, they contact the Guardian of the Book of Ages for answers that lead to him sending them to the Rocky Mountains.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Drago invokes this with Nat by flirting with her on purpose to gross her out.
• Adaptation Distillation: The Oni Mask arc, which consisted entirely of the show's fourth season, is condensed to consist of only four chapters.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Shendu controlled one of Tarakudo's Shadowkhan armies in the cartoon, and the Oni King was aware of that, but Tarakudo wasn't given any other history with Shendu or the other Demon Sorcerers. Neither did he ever meet Drago or the Ice Crew. In these fics, the Demon Sorcerers fought together against Tarakudo's armies and were instrumental in imprisoning him to the Shadowrealm, which is why the Oni King tries to have revenge on Shendu after he's freed and learns of the Fire Demon's petrification. He's also released by Drago instead of Daolon Wong, but he quickly makes Shendu's son his enemy by stealing the Ice Crew from him.
• Adapted Out: The Hana Fuda cards aren't even referred to since the story doesn't focus on the heroes finding the Oni Masks, and it's Shendu who reveals that Tarakudo's mask is in the Shadowrealm and the only means to seal all the Oni and Shadowkhan away.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Jackie gives the recovering Jade one in the 23rd chapter.
• The Alleged Car: Valerie spends the last of her money to buy a car, which only has two doors and is apparently so run down it clanks when she shifts into second gear.
• Alternate Universe Fic::
  • When Shendu betrays Daolon Wong, he lets slip that Valerie is his bride. This gives Wong the idea for some Revenge by Proxy, which only leads to his death.
  • Drago arrives in the present before the Oni Mask arc, rather than during it. In fact, the entirety of Season 4 outside of Drago's arrival has apparently been skipped over in favor of Season 5's Demon Chi arc. This is presumably due to Shendu killing Wong. However, Drago releases Tarakudo in the midst of the Demon Chi arc, setting the Oni Mask arc to happen simultaneously.
  • As a result of the above, the Enforcers are in prison and not on hand for their brief stint as Drago minions. Neither are they present when Tarakudo's released by Drago, prompting the Oni to steal the Ice Crew from Drago, which in turn eventually leads to the young dragon and his father joining forces with some of the heroes.
  • The Moon Demon chi doesn't end up in a panda, and the fight over it and the Earth Demon chi doesn't move out of the panda enclosure.
  • Due to Jade redrawing Tarakudo's mark on her skin, Tarakudo turns her back into the Queen of the Shadowkhan.
  • Shendu acting as Mr. Exposition regarding the Oni results in the arc being much shorter than in canon, notably because Shendu tells the heroes not to release the Oni Generals by gathering all the masks in one location and that giving Tarakudo a body and putting his mask on his face will imprison all the Shadowkhan and Oni.
  • The entire "Spectacularry" scenario ends up being reduced to Larry — who turns demonic much quicker than in the canon episode — fighting the J-Team and Drago in a skatepark before Dai Gui's chi is removed from him.
  • No trip to Australia is needed to find the Sky Demon chi because Hsi Wu tricks Jade into summoning it to herself. Once she banishes both Hsi Wu and his chi from herself, the latter is quickly contained.
• And This Is for...: Jackie says "This one's for Jade!" in Chapter 13 when he's sealing Tarakudo in the latter's mask.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: After failing to get closer to finding Tiamat with the Babylonian artifact, the melancholic Shendu gives Valerie a speech about the selfishness and hurtfulness of his love towards her in defiance of her earlier declaration that love is only selfless. This moves her more than any of declaration of love she's read about.
• Anti-Magic:
  • The Shadowkhan disappear during a sudden earthquake in two instances. The second time this happens, Tarakudo explains that magic not of that world is banished in the presence of the awakening Tiamat.
  • The anti-demon magic coated on Nat's katana makes the Razor Khan unable to slice through it.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • Valerie should have known better than to question Uncle's claim of a comet show signaling the awakening of dark chi.
  • Like Uncle, Nat believed Oni to be unreal before Tarakudo's entrance. Valerie notes the irony of a Japanese demon slayer not believing in Japanese demons. In Nat's defense, there haven't been reports of any Oni for a thousand years.
    Valerie: The Japanese demon slayer thought Japanese demons were a myth?
    Nataline Homato: Yes, blondie. Irony isn't lost on me.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Shendu receives in the eighth chapter from Valerie a question which renders him responseless when he says that his actions with the rewritten reality were motivated by his love for her.
    Valerie: If you love someone, you're supposed to care about them, about their feelings. You're supposed to trust one another, be happy with and for one another. It's not a selfish game of possession. Love is selfless. About giving up everything about yourself to see someone else happy. How could you understand that?
  • When Nat demands Valerie to stop trying to familiarize with her Other powers, the blonde asks if the demon slayer will kill her if she doesn't obey. The suggestion of killing her friend horrifies Nat.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • When Valerie and Nat's argument in the 14th chapter leads to Valerie telling Nat to kill her if she's certain nothing good will come out of the demon chi she now has inside her, Valerie's words leave the appalled demon slayer pondering if all the demons are utterly irredeemable.
    Nat: I don't kill my friends…
    Valerie: You ever stop to think that maybe violence isn't always the answer?
    Nat: It's all I know.
    Valerie: Then learn a new way. Maybe next time, think about how it might be better to turn someone good rather than kill someone evil. Jackie always said the greatest victory is the battle not fought.
  • When Valerie first tries to bring Jackie around on rehabilitating Shendu and Drago, his mean comment about her being a pawn to everyone leaves her so mortified that she's unable to continue the debate on that round.
• Badass Boast: Shendu gives Tarakudo one as he repels the Oni King in his Sealed Evil in a Can state.
  Shendu: Do you feel it – shadow-worm?! That is a smidgen of the force of true power! Savour this small glimpse of hope you have. For it is only this stone casing which restricts me from tearing you asunder. If I were free of this skin, you would be in trouble.
• Bad Future: The future which Drago and the version of Future Jade pursued by him traveled back from is this specifically for the main cast. The Chan Clan have apparently turned on Valerie after she briefly ran off with Shendu and got pregnant with Drago by him (Future Jade especially has gone from regarding Valerie as a sister figure to utterly hating her guts). Not only is Shendu still imprisoned in stone and still evil, but he's also slowly going mad — and the reason for that is because Valerie has apparently been killed, with Drago indicating that his mother died when he was just ten years old, which in turn led to Drago's demonic grandfather Typhon taking him in.
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: When a gunshot interrupts Shendu's fight against the heroes in the zoo, the narration tells that Shendu freezes with "every muscle rigid, eyes wide"… and then Valerie collapses with a scream and blood flowing.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: After Jade is told by Shendu how to drive Hsi Wu out of her, her consciousness travels to the center of her being (or her heart as she thinks it as) where an oily form of Hsi Wu attempts to complete his attempt to merge with her. As she attempts to evade him and choose one of the books that represent her personality traits to get rid off, she ends up choosing the one concerning her pride and finally gets rid of Hsi Wu by ripping it to shreds.
• Beam-O-War:
  • Shendu and Tarakudo have this with chi lightning in the 11th chapter. Drago's sneak attack on Tarakudo breaks it.
  • Valerie's chi lightning vs Queen Jade's shadow chi in Chapter 13.
• Been There, Shaped History: Tiamat has been responsible for every major extinction event in Earth's history. Additionally, the volcanic eruption at Pompeii was caused by her anger, and the breaking of the Pangea supercontinent was caused by her marital spats with her Other, Apsu.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Following Shendu's resurrection and subsequent petrification, along with Daolon Wong's death in the first few chapters, Drago takes the main antagonist role for a while. He then accidentally releases Tarakudo who sets out to gather his Shadowkhan armies. Chapter 12 shows that Hsi Wu, who had previously been shown to take exception to Tarakudo's corruption of his Other, is plotting on how to escape and reclaim her.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The eleventh chapter's fight — one side having Tarakudo, the corrupted Jade and the Shadowkhan, and the other having Valerie, Jackie, Nat, Shendu and Drago — is ended when Uncle and Tohru arrive with the latter's improved spell against the Shadowkhan and an onion for Tarakudo.
  • Just as the 13th chapter's final fight seems to be in the favor of the Oni, Jackie, Uncle and Tohru arrive with a spell they use to give Tarakudo a physical form before putting on his face his mask which the restored Jade provides.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Shendu's reaction to Valerie telling him about Drago.
  • Shendu has this again when Drago tells him about the accidental unleashing of Tarakudo.
  • When Valerie first suggests to the J-Team as well as Drago and Shendu an alliance against Tarakudo and the corrupted Jade, they all react this way.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Valerie uses Jackie's "bad day" phrase during the first confrontation with Drago and the "talk later" line two chapters later. She also tries to reason with him with his "the greatest victory is the battle not fought" line.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • Jackie is completely unwilling to accept Valerie's proposal to ally with Shendu and Drago against Tarakudo, calling the two demons untrustworthy for what they've done to them in the past. Valerie in turn argues that Tarakudo threatens them all and together they'd have a better chance to defeat him. Only Shendu, Drago, Nat and Captain Black (the latter two just barely) agree with Valerie.
  • While being stranded in the Rocky Mountains, Shendu says that honesty isn't Valerie's strongest point. When she retaliates by bringing up his known untrustworthiness, he retorts that he latches onto her so hard because she keeps pushing him away despite his gestures of affection. This makes her realize that neither of them truly trust each other, just as the the Guardian of the Book of Ages observed only moments ago.
• Brain Bleach: Drago is not happy with the mental image he gets from the realization that he has to engineer his own conceiving.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Jackie, Uncle and Tohru refuse to go along with Valerie's proposed alliance with Shendu and Drago against Tarakudo and walk off to do things their own way. Despite this, Uncle lets Valerie take some of his books as the means to cure Jade, and all the three men arrive in the nick of time during the final fight against the Oni with the spell required to give Tarakudo a physical form before sealing him in his mask, after which their disagreements with Valerie are put behind.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Nat, not seen since the end of the first story's Demon Portal arc, reappears in Chapter 7.
  • The Guardian of the Book of Ages, who was last seen at the end of the Demon World arc, is contacted in Chapter 16 for information about Tiamat's whereabouts.
  • Hsi Wu enters the story a couple of times in Jade's dreams before he returns in flesh and blood in the eleventh chapter. The rest of the Demon Sorcerers return as well when Shendu contacts them in the 21st chapter.
• Call-Back:
  • Shendu remembers that Daolon Wong served as the priest at his and Valerie's wedding in the rewritten reality.
  • Jade relates the story of the Chan Clan's encounters with the Monkey King to Val at one point.
  • When Hsi Wu first appears in Jade's dreams, he tells her to say "chi-spell" like when he did while she was stuck in the Netherworld. The second time this happens, he asks if she still wants to dance with him like he did when his Seymour cover was blown up. When he has deceived her into summoning his chi to herself, he gloats with "Say Chi-spell!" again.
  • Shendu says that while the Guardian of the Book of Ages made spirits unable to travel from the Netherworld, he didn't make it impossible for them to be reborn in another realm. This explains how Daolon Wong was able to bring Shendu from the Netherworld by resurrecting him.
  • When Shendu surprises Valerie by showing his human disguise, he reminds her of the time Xiao Fung used a similar glamour.
  • When Jade looks in a mirror and sees Hsi Wu's face over hers, she (correctly) wonders if the same happened with Valmont when Shendu was inside his body.
  • While banishing Hsi Wu from her body, Jade tells him "Tails, you lose.", just like she did while returning to him his tail which had Uncle's spell on it.
• Calling the Old Man Out: When Drago and Shendu first speak to one another, Drago lets Shendu have a piece of his mind about the way latter's future self treated his son and Valerie.
• Candlelit Ritual:
  • Drago includes a circle of black candles to the ritual he uses in an attempt to take control of the Shadowkhan.
  • When Valerie is attempting to free Jade from Tarakudo's taint, he adds in the circle drawn around the unconscious girl candles that end up forming a Ring of Fire as the melting wax pools onto the circle.
• Chekhov's News: In the ninth chapter, Valerie reads an article about a recently discovered Babylonian artifact exhibited in San Francisco. In the 16th chapter, she recalls this in a dream and considers that the artifact can help locate Tiamat.
• Cliffhanger:
  • The Chan Clan Reunited (Chapter 1) — Shendu is resurrected by Daolon Wong.
  • Vengeance and Violence (Chapter 2) — After Valerie briefly visits the newly petrified Shendu, he promises after she has left that they'll be together soon.
  • Questionable Shadows (Chapter 3) — Shendu's escape attempt is interrupted when a tremor severs his control over the Shadowkhan, and the heroes are left confused about what's going on.
  • A Progeny (Chapter 5) — Drago escapes from Section 13 and goes after the demon chis that have activated as a result of the awakening of something that scares Shendu.
  • The Paths We Walk (Chapter 7) — After feeling a familiar "chill" along with her grandfather, Nat decides to contact the Chans.
  • Flower Power (Chapter 8) — Jade has another dream of Hsi Wu who tries to make her doubt Valerie's loyalties.
  • Strange Magic (Chapter 9) — Valerie has a vision of the same creature as Drago and Shendu, leaving her and Uncle wondering what they're missing.
  • A Mark of Evil (Chapter 10) — Jade's turned back into the Queen of the Shadowkhan by Tarakudo.
  • Shadow's Spell (Chapter 11) — The heroes as well as Drago and Shendu are left in Section 13's vault after their fight with the Shadowkhan side is interrupted by Tarakudo getting an onion in his face.
  • The Enemy of My Enemy… (Chapter 12) — In the Netherworld, Hsi Wu meditates in the hopes of restoring his corrupted bond with his Other and escaping from the Netherworld.
  • Shadow-Bound (Chapter 13) — Jade, freed of Tarakudo's control, ends up in her Mental World, where Hsi Wu has managed to gain a full foothold.
  • Power's Seduction (Chapter 14) — Valerie accidentally returns Shendu to his physical form.
  • Bigger Fish To Fry (Chapter 15) — Valerie agrees to help Shendu locate his mother Tiamat.
  • A Dragon in Sheep's Clothing (Chapter 17) — Shendu and Valerie are invited to the gala that opens the exhibition of the Babylonian artifact.
  • Hidden Desires (Chapter 18) — After Shendu teleports them away from the J-Team and Drago, Valerie confronts Shendu about how he's still not being completely honest with her.
  • You Shall Go To The Ball (Chapter 19) — Shendu escapes from the museum while the earthquake that shatters the demon-chi containment unit prevents Section 13 from chasing him.
  • Difference of Opinion (Chapter 21) — After Hsi Wu's chi enters Jade's body, Valerie telepathically tells Shendu to meet her and help Jade.
  • The Exorcism of Jade Chan (Chapter 22) — Though Jade is healthy again and Hsi Wu's chi contained, Jackie is mistrustful of Valerie's half-true recount on what happened.
  • Happy Families (Chapter 23) — Jackie recognizes one of the symbols Valerie's vision provided as that of Tiamat.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Drago wears one when he meets Jackie and Nat in the 17th chapter. He does this again when he visits a bar with Nat.
• Continuity Nod: While passing the dungeons in the ruins of Shendu's palace, Nat feels like her grave has been walked on without knowing why. In the rewritten reality, she was subjected to torture and killed in those dungeons.
• Cooldown Hug: Valerie gives Drago one during their argument at the end of the 20th chapter.
• Counting to Three: Valerie, impatient to get to the museum while Shendu is preparing his human disguise, threatens to leave without him if he doesn't come out in three seconds. She gets halfway to two before he comes out.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: When the demon chis activate, something that scares Shendu is awakened. All that's shown of it in visions is two brilliant blue eyes. This is later revealed to be Shendu's mother Tiamat.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: After Daolon Wong tries to kill Valerie, Shendu slams him into the ground repeatedly until he's a bloody pulp, and then tears what's left in half.
• Cry into Chest: Valerie does this with Shendu in the 22nd chapter when he has told her what Hsi Wu is doing to Jade. Jade herself soon afterwards does this with Valerie after Hsi Wu has been driven out.
• Curse Cut Short: Nat is about to call Drago a SOB in the 21st chapter before Valerie interrupts her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Drago reveals that he last saw the mother of his own time when he was ten and barely knew his father until he was seventeen. He was raised by someone else during those seven years and afterwards tried unsuccessfully to gain the approval of the father who had become colder and more unforgiving.
• Deal with the Devil: Tarakudo convinces the corrupted Jade to swear loyalty to him with promises of tutorship in dark powers.
• Death by Adaptation: Shendu kills Daolon Wong during the fight at the zoo.
• Dirty Old Man: San Francisco's mayor is in his seventies and married, yet he has a poorly disguised affair with a woman just under thirty.
• Diving Save:
  • Jackie does this to Valerie when Future Jade fires on her.
  • Valerie herself pushes Jackie out of the way of a falling boulder in the 20th chapter.
• Double Take: Valerie has one when she sees in the Japanese museum a window the J-Team can use to escape.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Jackie makes up with Valerie following the defeat of the Oni, he mistakenly thinks her Enemy Mine decision with Shendu and Drago was to lure the latter into a false sense of security that'll help capturing him later.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After failing to find from the Babylonian artifact anything that could lead him to Tiamat, Shendu indulges in a bottle of whiskey even though he can't even become intoxicated.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Following Tarakudo's release, Drago fights with the Chans against him. Valerie eventually proposes a full team-up with him and Shendu, which only Nat reluctantly agrees to. The chapter name even references it.
  • When Shendu is released and takes Valerie with him, the J-Team and Drago reluctantly form an uneasy truce to make sure Shendu isn't doing anything bad to Valerie.
• Equivalent Exchange: Hsi Wu sends a part of himself into Jade in order to merge with her. She in turn is forced to give up a fundamental part of her personality in order to banish him.
• Erotic Dream: Valerie dreams of having a rather explicit makeout with Shendu in the 18th chapter. When she wakes up all of a sudden, she finds herself on the verge of an orgasm and Shendu asleep, heavily aroused as well, and holding her in his embrace. If that wasn't mortifying enough for her, he reveals that he was dreaming the exact same thing, making her realize they actually were making out while they both slept.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Drago confesses that he has hardly ill feelings regarding Valerie, and he continuously refrains from hurting her in fights. Meanwhile, Shendu previously claimed he doesn't care about his Missing Mom but it becomes increasingly clear that he really isn't over it, and he wants to find his resurfacing mother to obtain answers from her.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: While trying to summon the Shadowkhan, Drago strengthens his magic with his demon blood — the very thing needed to release Tarakudo. Shendu berates his son for meddling with dark powers without all the information.
• Evil Is Petty: Daolon Wong proves himself to be so lowly that he attempts to murder a woman he knows only as his enemies' friend and Shendu's bride just to have his revenge.
• Evil Laugh: Hsi Wu lets out a demonic one in Jade's head when she absorbs his chi that gives him a chance to escape from the Netherworld by merging with her.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Daolon Wong's withered appearance is explained as a result of dark magic draining and twisting his body.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • In the past, the Demon Sorcerers banded together against Tarakudo when he conquered Japan from Po Kong. After the imprisonment of the Oni Generals, Tarakudo engaged in battle with the Sorcerers and was sealed in the Shadowrealm. As soon as the Oni King returns and learns of Shendu's petrifaction, he attempts to take down Shendu in the latter's current state.
  • Right from the moment Drago accidentally releases Tarakudo, they're at loggerheads with each other to the point that Drago fights with the Chans against the Oni.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Valerie gets these when losing Jade to Tarakudo makes her unable to sleep.
• Eye Colour Change: Jade's eyes flash red shortly before she summons Hsi Wu's chi into her body. The scleras afterwards turn first yellow and then bloodshot until Hsi Wu is driven out.
• Eyes Never Lie: When Shendu confesses to Valerie why exactly he wants to find his mother, he gives her such a raw look that convinces her he's absolutely honest for once.
• Fainting: Valerie faints in exhaustion after she first unleashes a shockwave from her palm.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Shendu and Valerie do this when they're about to break into the museum and two men pass through the alleyway they're in.
• Fastball Special: In Chapter 13, Drago tosses Nat at Tarakudo by catching her foot as she runs at him and throwing her further.
• Fat and Skinny: Sam Hepburn and Charles Stanton, the two archaeologists who discovered the Babylonian artifact.
• Flat "What": Shendu reacts this way when Valerie asks if their binding can be undone.
• Forbidden Fruit: When Valerie sleeps and is invited by Shendu to make out with him in the 18th chapter, she finds herself unable to resist the temptation even though she thinks she shouldn't even want it. She even compares herself to Eve, Pandora and Persephone.
• Foreshadowing: Before The Reveal of Chapter 15, hints are dropped here and there regarding the nature of the blue-eyed entity.
• Geometric Magic:
  • When Uncle decides to see if Valerie has Shendu's magic inside her, he draws a circle with Chinese characters and has her sit inside it. The self-reflecting ritual ends with her being assaulted by the same flashes Shendu and Drago saw when they first sensed Tiamat awakening.
  • Hsi Wu draws a circle with symbols of ancient language for the ritual in which he sends a piece of himself from Netherworld into Jade.
  • When Valerie is attempting to free Jade from Tarakudo's taint, she draws around the unconscious girl a circle adorned with Japanese characters and candles that end up forming a Ring of Fire as the melting wax pools onto the circle.
  • Shendu draws another circle adorned with glyphs when he decides to make contact with the Guardian of the Book of Ages. He later draws yet another ring of runes in desert sand to make contact with his siblings.
• Get a Room!: This is said by one of the men who witness Shendu and Valerie's Fake-Out Make-Out.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: Shendu's roar at the end of the 18th chapter shatters the windows across the street.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The eyes of the Guardian of the Book of Ages glow white two times; first when Shendu's accusation of him lying angers him, and secondly when he sends Valerie and Shendu to the Rocky Mountains.
• Godiva Hair: The temple where Valerie dreams she's in the 18th chapter has a sculpture of a naked woman whose long hair covers her breasts.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: After Val convinces Nat to give a chance to the effort to redeem Drago, the demon-slayer drags the half-demon to a bar for a drink.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Section 13 agent in charge of arresting Daolon Wong is so focused on simply carting Wong away that he doesn't notice Wong stealing his gun.

• Half-Human Hybrid: Drago is officially confirmed to be a Human-Demon Hybrid whereas it was ambiguous in the show's canon. It feeds his desire to prove his worth as Shendu's son.
• Hand Behind Head:
  • Nat scratches her scalp when Drago tells her in the 23rd chapter how unfairly humans treated him when he was a kid.
  • Val rubs her neck following the Reactive Continuous Scream between her and Drago.
• A Handful for an Eye: Nat throws dust in DC Fist and MC Cobra's faces to distract them in the eigth chapter.
• History Repeats: In the Bad Future which Future Jade comes from, this has happened with Valerie and Shendu. Valerie has been killed, and her death has driven Shendu to the brink of madness and made him obsessed with using his own child for revenge; which is exactly what happened to Shendu's mother Tiamat when her husband and Other Apsu was killed long ago.
• Horrifying the Horror: For all their power and evilness, all the eight Demon Sorcerers are intimidated by the approaching return of their mother, the goddess Tiamat.
• Human Disguise: Shendu dons one when he and Valerie set out to get the Babylonian artifact they require.
• Hybrid Power: According to Shendu, Drago has a natural balance of light and dark chi within him, which means that he can properly bond with the Demon Sorcerer chi that would otherwise overwhelm its host. He's also immune to spells that should ward off beings of dark chi.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Drago calls Larry a Momma's Boy, Valerie throws a look at the half-demon who has proven himself to be a case of Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas.
• I Can Change My Beloved: Nat tells Drago that her high school friend fell in love with a night-creature and convinced her to keep quiet by assuring her it would work out, only to end up dead in a couple of weeks.
• I Kiss Your Hand:
  • Shendu does this to Valerie when he first shows himself as a human.
  • A non-romantic male-to-male example; Sam Hepburn, grateful that Shendu stopped the burglars who came to steal the Babylonian artifact, kisses the hand of "Mr. Stone".
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: After Tarakudo turns Jade into her Shadowkhan self, Valerie tries this in the following conflicts. It takes no real effect until she asks for the unconscious Jade's help during a ritual. After the restored Jade wakes up, she reveals she heard Valerie and provided the J-Team with Tarakudo's mask.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite most of Season 4 being skipped over, the Chans apparently still encountered the Ice Crew.
  • Even though Daolon Wong is killed before the Oni Mask arc can commence, Tarakudo is still inadvertently brought to the game in an effort to gain control over the Shadowkhan.
• Ironic Echo: While rejecting Valerie's proposition to have Shendu and Drago rehabilitated, Jackie calls her a pawn that everyone else on the board controls. After Jade is cured of Hsi Wu's possession in the next chapter, Valerie tells Jackie that she didn't call him and Uncle because she couldn't afford to wait for the other pieces on the board to make their move.
• I Shall Taunt You: In order to even the odds in her fight against Queen Jade, Valerie taunts her corrupted friend by asking if fighting without the Razor Khan as backup is too much asked for.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Valerie blames herself for Jade's transformation into the Queen of the Shadowkhan because she thinks she should have been more proactive.
  • When Hsi Wu's attempt to merge with Jade is nearly complete, Val blames herself due to not giving time to listen to Jade's attempt to explain the problem until it was too late.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Valerie has a bad feeling about the apparent desertedness of the Japanese musem where the Razor Khan Oni Mask is located.
• Jaw Drop:
  • Valerie's mother has this reaction when Val abruptly informs her that she's going back to San Francisco.
  • Valerie does this when Nat shows up in the eigth chapter.
  • Valerie has this again when Drago starts talking with Shendu instead of trying to claim the demon chis in the 10th chapter. She and the rest of the J-Team do this again when Drago shows up to battle Tarakudo in Japan.
  • Everyone does this when Uncle and Tohru are revealed to have made a spell that works against the Razor Khan.
  • When Valerie is caught by Uncle sneaking some books from the shop following the argument on how to best rescue Jade from Tarakudo, she has this reaction when he simply gives her one more book and doesn't try to stop her.
  • Shendu has one when he realizes he was just sharing the exact same Erotic Dream as Valerie.
  • Valerie does this again when Jackie tells her in the 19th chapter that he wants her to help capture Shendu at the gala.
  • Nat has one when she finds Drago in Val's apartment in the beginning of the 21st chapter.
  • Jackie drops his jaw and his spoon when Valerie informs him that her father's anniversary is coming up.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Shendu enters Jade's subconsciousness in order to tell her how to banish Hsi Wu from her body, though he says it's not the same kind of astral projection the Sheep Talisman bestows.
• Jump Scare: Hsi Wu pulls this on Jade the first time he appears in her dreams.
• Karmic Death: Daolon Wong is pummeled to death by Shendu, the very demon he resurrected and tried to have revenge on by trying to kill Valerie.
• Kid from the Future: Drago, as per canon. Additionally, however, there's the fact that Valerie is his mother.
• Klingon Promotion: It's theorized Tiamat can be challenged if she's found, and her winner could take her control over all of Earth's nature.
• Lampshade Hanging: Valerie comments on the absurdity of the demon chi being awakened by the meteor shower as well as the cyclical nature of the Chan Clan's adventures.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: As a sequel, there's naturally plenty of these to the previous story.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Valerie's rationale for teaming up with Drago and Shendu against Tarakudo.
• Literal Metaphor: When Jade is mutated by Xiao Fung's chi, Miss Hartman tells Valerie that the girl is a little green around the gills. Once Valerie sees that Jade is literally green-skinned, she feels like she wants to strangle Hartman.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Valerie returns to San Francisco at the end of the Noble Animals arc, and thus has a lot of catching up to do.
• The Lost Lenore: Exaggerated twice because of metaphysics:
  • It's all but stated that in the Bad Future which Drago and Future Jade come from, Valerie's future counterpart is dead, and both the painful loss of his wife and the metaphysical loss of his Other has driven Shendu's future self mad.
  • It's also later revealed in the fic that the same thing happened to the Demon Sorcerers' mother, the goddess Tiamat. Her husband and Other Apsu was killed by humans, which drove Tiamat to the brink of madness, leading to her Deal with the Devil from which Shendu and his siblings were born.
• Loves Me Not: As Drago tries to find the flower with Earth Demon chi in the flower shop while Nat, angered by his arrogance and flirting, is trying to slice him with her katana, he presents two flowers to her while quipping "Chi loves me… chi loves me not!" as she slices them in half.
• Manipulative Bastard: Tarakudo plays on Jade's darker desires that have been amplified by his mark.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: When Valerie gets a small cut from Nat's katana, she yells from the resulting burning sensation because the anti-demon magic on the sword is reacting to Shendu's chi inside her.
• Moment Killer: Valerie is enjoying the kiss she shares with Shendu in the dream of the 14th chapter until an alarm clock wakes her up.
• Mr. Exposition: Following Tarakudo's release, Shendu provides the heroes information on him and the Shadowkhan.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling:
  • When the Demon Sorcerers' chis are activated during a meteor shower, it's felt by the demons in the form of powerful chi waves.
  • Nat is brought back into the fight when she and her grandfather sense the chi as well. It's also revealed that this happened with them both when Shendu was working to free his siblings from the Netherworld.
  • In Chapter 9, Drago and Valerie hear strange music in their heads.
  • When Jade's turned back into the Queen of the Shadowkhan, Hsi Wu feels it in the Netherworld.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: After Shendu's imprisoned in Section 13, Earth becomes plagued at an increasing rate by earthquakes, storms, volcanic activity and abnormal weather relating to the oceans. They're eventually revealed to be caused by Shendu's mother, the Babylonian primordial goddess Tiamat, stirring in her sleep. It's also heavily implied by Shendu that Tiamat has caused this kind of destruction to the world before with minimal effort, and he specifically states she was the engineer of every major extinction event in the planet's history.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Tiamat, the goddess of primordial creation, cares nothing for the beings currently living in the world when she has decided to reshape the life in it.
• Never Gets Drunk: Shendu is type 3; as a demon of fire, he literally burns off the human liquor before it has a chance to soak in.
• Never My Fault:
  • Since the events of the Demon World arc, Shendu's siblings have been blaming not only him for their reimprisonment but also each other to the point of forgetting about torturing Shendu (though the binding to Valerie also transcended the reality restoration and gave his spirit the ability to fight back a bit against any tortures the other demons throw his way).
  • Following Drago's accidental release of Tarakudo, Shendu calls his son out of dabbling with powers he didn't fully understand. Drago blames his father for not printing anywhere a warning about the risks.
  • When Valerie confronts Shendu about using the Book of Ages to enslave the entire humankind, he defends himself by saying that humans wouldn't have welcomed the Demon Sorcerers and uses as proof the way Jackie behaved when Shendu accepted Valerie's proposal of an alliance to defeat Tarakudo. He's ignoring that his past evil actions are influencing Jackie's negative view on demons.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In order to turn the first fight against the Razor Khan in the J-Team's favor, Jade redraws Tarakudo's face on her skin. This allows Tarakudo to turn her back into the Queen of the Shadowkhan.
  • Valerie accidentally smears on Shendu's statue some of her blood which restores him to his physical form.
• NOT!: Drago uses a variation of this when he encounters his father in the eight chapter.
  Drago: Dad. Bad news, vault needs a face lift, and these demon-chi-beauties gotta go — with me. Sorry to disappoint. Oh wait, no actually, I'm not.
• Not Me This Time: When Shendu escapes from Section 13, Jackie, unaware of Valerie's unintentional actions, jumps to the conclusion that Drago is responsible.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Jade, terribly ill because of Hsi Wu, attempts to discuss with Valerie about the issue the first chance she gets, but Valerie, exhausted from the long night, assumes the girl is having Skewed Priorities and tells her to go to bed. She regrets this greatly when she realizes Jade's in bigger danger than mere fit of fever.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • The Guardian of the Book of Ages tells Valerie and Shendu that neither of them trusts one another even though they're now bonded as Others. They realize how right he is when they argue with each other a while later.
  • When Nat and Drago are hanging out in a bar, she tells him that she holds a personal grudge towards demons due to losing a friend to one, which is not dissimilar from his Dark and Troubled Past fueling his disdain towards humankind.
• Now It's My Turn: Shendu says "My turn." before he effortlessly subdues the burglars who also came for the Babylonian artifact.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Valerie pales when she realizes in the third chapter that Shendu is using their bond to drain energy out of her.
  • Shendu becomes filled with fear in the fifth chapter when he realizes that his mother is rousing from her long slumber. When he later tells this to his siblings, they're all as scared as he was.
  • Jade has a major one in the 14th chapter when she realizes she really is hearing Hsi Wu's voice inside her head even though she's awake. It eventually culminates in worse ones when she ends up seeing Hsi Wu in her own reflection and realizes he has tricked her into summoning his chi to herself.
  • Valerie has another one when Shendu's explanation helps her understand how destructive it would be if Tiamat were to return to the world.
  • The Chans panic upon learning that Shendu has escaped from Section 13 and taken Valerie with him.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: Shendu states that the older and further back a myth's origin goes, the more likely it is that it has some truth to it. It's revealed that not only are Tiamat from Babylonian mythology and Typhon from Greek mythology real supernatural entities, they're also the parents of the eight Demon Sorcerers, who themselves are indicated to be the basis of the Babylonian myth about Tiamat's monstrous and weaponized offspring.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Drago breaks into Section 13 in Chapter 10, everyone assumes him to have come to claim the demon chis. When he gets to the Vault, he baffles everyone completely by ignoring the chis and striking a conversation with Shendu about Tarakudo.
  • Valerie's decision to ally with Shendu and Drago to rescue Jade from Tarakudo makes Jackie uncharacteristically hostile towards her to the point that he turns his back on her.
  • When Shendu reveals that Tiamat is his mother, Valerie is unsettled by how vulnerable he appears.
  • Everyone is surprised when Jade (who's feeling rather unwell because of what Hsi Wu has done to her) asks to be allowed to go home instead of tagging along.
• Pensieve Flashback: In the 16th chapter, Valerie has a dream in which she recalls this way reading the advertisement about the exhibition of the Babylonian artifact.
• Perception Filter: Shendu uses a spell to turn an abandoned building uninteresting, sealed and soundproof. He later does the same to the uncompleted apartment in the construction side he and Valerie are staying at.
• Pet the Dog: When Shendu is paraded over at the gala of Hepburn and Stanton, the many dignitary guests shower him with admiration, but they treat Valerie like air despite Shendu's efforts to give her some of the attention. When they finally meet the mayor, who's a Dirty Old Man, he actually compliments Valerie's appearance and looks concerned about how frightening it must have been for her to encounter the robbers Shendu stopped.
• Psychic Link: Val and Shendu appear to have one as part of their Other-bond, enabling them to communicate with each other to an extent across distances. Hsi Wu similarly uses his and Jade's spiritual connection as non-bound Others to torment her from the Netherworld.
• Psychic Strangle: Tarakudo does this to Valerie in their first encounter, with only Drago's intervention saving her.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The narration uses this to describe how unhappy Hsi Wu feels about the corruption of his Other.
  The wicked red eyes narrowed. Oh, this new development did NOT sit well with him. Not. At. All.
• Put on a Bus: Following the end of the Noble Animals arc, the Enforcers have yet to make a return due to Daolon Wong's death leaving them incarcerated and unavailable as Drago or Tarakudo's henchmen.
• Rapid-Fire Nail Biting: Valerie does this while the heroes prepare the protect the Noble Animals from Shendu and later when Drago is using Bai Tza's powers.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: Valerie and Drago have one in the 23rd chapter.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • The Guardian of the Book of Ages makes a short yet accurate point about how little Valerie and Shendu trust each other even though they're bonded Others.
    The Guardian: You claim to be completed. But neither of you are willing to be one. It seems your journey to Tiamat must start with yourselves.
  • When Shendu enters Jade's psyche in order to tell her how to banish Hsi Wu from her body, he tells her that every time she has meddled with magic and gotten herself into trouble, he's been bailed out by her uncles and friends, but she has to rescue herself this time by giving up a part of her own personality if she wants to survive.
• The Reveal: Chapter 15 finally reveals the identity of the blue-eyed entity: Tiamat, who is the mother of Shendu and his siblings.
• Revenge by Proxy: Daolon Wong attempts to kill Valerie after Shendu betrays him and lets slip that Val is his bride. This ends badly.
• Shared Dream: The 18th chapter reveals that Shendu and Valerie have actually been interacting with each other in their dreams ever since his return from death. It's probably because they're now bonded as Others.
• Single Tear:
  • Valerie brushes away a stray tear after all her friends but Nat walk out on her in Chapter 12.
  • When Shendu is ready to let the Chans turn him back to stone in Chapter 19, Valerie sheds a tear which ends up next to the ring he gave her, prompting her to tell him to escape and continue his search for his mother.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Jade is trying to put out the flaming symbols that are part of Daolon Wong's resurrection spell by stamping them out, Val points out that they can just use a hose.
• Stealth Pun: When Valerie and Shendu pose as a married couple, she makes up for them the last name Stone. "Mr. Stone" doesn't appreciate this for obvious reasons.
• Stress Vomit:
  • Several Section 13 agents throw up at the sight of Shendu mauling Daolon Wong's corpse.
  • The horribly sick Jade ends up having a Vomit Indiscretion Shot mere moments before Hsi Wu deceives her into summoning his chi.
• Stunned Silence: Everyone and everything at the zoo is rendered silent from the shock of seeing Valerie shot by Daolon Wong.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Tarakudo manages to reawaken Jade's Queen of the Shadowkhan persona because she redraws his mark on her skin.
• Super Window Jump:
  • The J-Team does this in Chapter 11 to escape Tarakudo, Queen Jade, and the Razor Khan.
  • Shendu escapes from the museum in this fashion at the end of the 19th chapter.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Valerie laments how easy it is for her to sneak in and speak to the imprisoned Shendu without anyone noticing, since she's memorized the guards' routines and the Vault's password hasn't even been changed since the last security breach. Following Drago's first break-in, she outright tells Captain Black how much the safety measures need improvement.
• Synchronization:
  • The scar on Valerie's left hand tends to flare in pain when something significant happens, such as when Shendu is resurrected.
  • When Hsi Wu senses his Other's transformation into her Superpowered Evil Side, it feels like losing something you didn't even know existed.
• Take That!: To show her distaste of the 2017 version of The Mummy, the author makes Nat close the 11th chapter with one of Brendan Fraser's most iconic lines from the 1999 version.^note "We are in very serious trouble…"
• Tears of Joy:
  • Sam Hepburn cries in relief following the arrest of the burglars who've been pursuing him and his partner to get the Babylonian artifact.
  • Valerie's eyes glisten with these when Drago agrees to give her a chance to build a better future for them.
  • Valerie sheds these again once Jade is rescued from Hsi Wu's attempt to merge with her.
• Teleportation Sickness: Valerie has this when Shendu teleports them out of Section 13 in the 15th chapter and again in the next chapter when she's teleported to the Rocky Mountains.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Valerie does this regarding the falling stars that signal the awakening of demon chis. She greatly regrets this when she learns of Drago's escape.
  • After failing to rescue Valerie from Shendu in the 18th chapter, Jackie naively says nothing could get any worse when he returns home, only for Jade to walk in seriously ill.
  • Nat assumes getting the Earth Demon chi from Larry will be a cakewalk, only for the Chans to show up and ruin any chances of getting the chi peacefully.
• That Liar Lies: When the Guardian of the Book of Ages states that not even the Book holds information on Tiamat's whereabouts, Shendu accuses him of lying.
• This Cannot Be!: This is the general reaction of the Demon Sorcerers when they learn from Shendu that their mother is about to return to the world.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: Drago compares the demon chis to addictive drug when the Earth Demon chi rapidly makes Larry more demonic and deranged.
  Drago: Powerful chi like that — Typhon's essence — when it gets inside you, all negative parts of yourself are heightened. That has its perks. Improved confidence bordering on arrogance, you feel a constant rush like adrenaline is always pumping in your veins; you feel invincible, like the whole world is there for the taking.
  Nat: Any drug has its lows, too.
  Drago: Yeah. Anger is the obvious one. But it's all the badness you feel too. Loneliness, depression. It gets so big you think it'll swallow you, so you run for the high, hoping to escape it. That's why enough is never enough.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Valerie thinks this when she engages in her dream in sexual activity with Shendu, but she doesn't care as she gets on with it.
• Throw the Book at Them: When Jade engages in a Battle in the Center of the Mind with an oily form of Hsi Wu, she chooses to give up her pride which has the form of a hefty book and uses it to temporarily disperse Hsi Wu before tearing it to shreds.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The fact that Jade and Drago can come back in time and yet somehow not cause a paradox gets brought up by Val. Shendu later provides an explanation by stating that as a natural defense mechanism against paradoxes, whenever someone time travels backwards, they're actually entering an ever so slightly different Alternate Timeline, though there are still limitations to how much the alternate reality can diverge from the time traveler's world without them blinking out of existence.
• Toilet Horror: Hsi Wu's attempt to possess Jade culminates in her locking herself up in a bathroom where he tricks her to summon his chi into her body.
• Too Dumb to Live: After losing his magical powers, Daolon Wong attempts to have his revenge and shoots Valerie in front of the fully empowered Shendu while standing atop a van in plain view. Instead of trying to use the resulting shock from everyone's part to make an escape attempt, he gloats in the Demon Sorcerer's face, causing Shendu to kill him in Unstoppable Rage.
• Troubled Fetal Position:
  • When Nat spots Drago in the ninth chapter, he's sitting with his head between his knees as he tries to shut down the music he hears in his head and mutters some words that make him sound vulnerable to Nat's surprise.
  • Valerie finds Jade in this position moments before Hsi Wu tricks her to summon his chi into her body.
• Trying Not to Cry:
  • After Valerie is captured by Shendu in the 14th chapter, she fights back tears of anger when she believes he deceived her into releasing him and is now going to get on with his old plans and carnal desires for her.
  • Valerie fights back tears when Shendu confesses what finding Tiamat really means to him. She later tries it again when he's so melancholic he's willing to let himself be reimprisoned if she rejects him, but it still leads to a Single Tear.
• Undercover as Lovers: Shendu and Valerie pose as a married couple when they attempt to reach the Babylonian artifact.
• Vagueness Is Coming: After Shendu's turned to stone once again, the world's unnaturally affected by powers of nature which the magically aware people explain to be a result of the unbalancing chis of the world. They're caused by the awakening of an unknown entity with Creepy Blue Eyes who's eventually revealed to be Tiamat, the primordial being of creation.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: In Chapter 13, Drago and the Ice Crew quickly flee from Section 13 after Tarakudo is defeated, thus ending their Enemy Mine situation with the heroes.
• Weirdness Censor: The Chans fight Drago on a popular TV show for the Water Demon chi, but everyone writes it off as special effects.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Drago has serious issues stemming from Shendu's lack of compassion for him.
• We Used to Be Friends: Future Jade doesn't care for Valerie, since in the latter's future self apparently betrays them all to Shendu and births Drago.
• Wham Line:
  • Drago's first line to Valerie is a major spoiler.
    Drago: Hey… Mom.
  • The argument between Jackie and Valerie regarding her insistence on rescuing Jade from Tarakudo through an alliance with Shendu and Drago culminates in him saying "Then you'll do it on your own." and storming off.
  • When Shendu reveals the identity of the mysterious entity the chi stars awakened is Tiamat, he follows up with "She's my mother." The narration even lampshades that those words "made Valerie's world completely tip on its axis".
• Wham Shot: After Hsi Wu's chi enters Jade's body, Valerie discovers on the girl's right palm a bonding scar of Others.
• What Is This Feeling?: After Shendu becomes devastated by the failure to get any closer to finding Tiamat with the Babylonian artifact, he asks Valerie what is the "pathetic crushing sensation in his gut", and she answers it's disappointment or even hurt.
• A Wizard Did It: When Valerie questions how the flower containing Dai Gui's chi could have survived intact for centuries, Jade replies "Demon magic. Duh."
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Shendu gives Valerie one when she admits she wants to undo their binding because she's afraid of being corrupted by the power it gives her.
  Shendu: Valerie. It is true, you now have access to all of my power, if you so wish it. But that does not mean you are immediately susceptible to instant evilness.
  Valerie: How can you be so sure?
  Shendu: Because whilst I think you would be a lot more fun if you indulged in a darker side, I do not think I could tolerate it for an extended period of time. I adore the woman that you are. Brazen and aggravatingly stubborn, sentimental and foolishly good-hearted, vindictive and fiery tempered. And besides, your devotion to your father would never allow it.
• "You!" Exclamation: Jade's future self gives this to Valerie before pointing a gun at her.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Valerie says this when the heroes find out they have to find the flower containing Dai Gui's chi from a flower shop.
  • Nat says this when Dai Gui's chi is revealed to have rooted itself in Larry.

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