Heartwarming / Shadows over Meridian

• Jade's Intergenerational Friendship with Raythor continues from Kage. Both express honest concern over one another before and when she arrives to bust him out of the Infinite City. Her decision to ally with Phobos is so that she can repay Raythor back for treating her with more kindness than anyone else since her arrival to Meridian. She also specifically tells him he can continue calling her simply Kage instead of addressing her with royal titles.
  • One of the three conditions Jade degrees to Phobos in exchange for her help is that he'll reward Raythor for his services and apologize to him for banishing him to the Abyss of Shadows. The second term is for Raythor to have a final word in their future decisions until either Phobos is back on the throne or Raythor decides to call it quits. Having learned to expect backstabbing and scheming in the W.I.T.C.H. universe, she has decided she needs someone she can trust to have her back to avoid any possible betrayal from Phobos and concluded that Raythor is the best candidate for the job.
    • Phobos honors Jade's first term by apologizing to Raythor and making him his second-in-command.
  • Jade's final term is for Phobos to return Miranda and Cedric to their proper forms and hand them over to her. When the shapeshifters question her motives, she says she can connect with the prejudices they've suffered since it's not that different from what she herself has gone through. She then promises that once they've helped her ruin the Guardians' lives on Earth, she'll set them free to live wherever they want in the universe.
• Though Elyon and the Guardians learning how unjustly they've been treating Jade/Kage based on false accusations is a Tear Jerker, their resolve, especially Elyon's, to make amends and negotiate peace with her is sweet.
  • The revelations she's been dealt with about Jade, Nerissa and Kandrakar's involvement in Meridian's affairs convince Elyon that she has to stop relying on the Guardians all the time and take more responsibility over her kingdom as a real Queen.
  • The guilty-feeling Hay Lin tells her mother a half-true story about the Guardians' mistake with Jade. Mrs. Lin assures her daughter that it's not too late to make amends with Jade. Though Hay Lin knows the situation is more complicated than her mother thinks, it gives her hope that things can still be fixed.
• Though the Oracle and Tibor are unhappy to learn about the girls' mistakes with Jade, they appreciate their willingness to rectify the situation and are open to finding a diplomatic solution with Jade rather than assuming she must be destroyed to prevent N'ghala's prophecy from coming to pass.
• After Cornelia has a nightmare about being attacked in her home by Jade, she hugs Lilian in relief and agrees to spend quality time with her little sister.
• Though most of the Guard betrayed Phobos to the Rebellion, Raythor still cares for them. When he sees the Shadowkhan's attack on the castle, he's concerned over the fates of his former soldiers and reacts with relief when Jade ceases the attack. When he discovers in the abandoned fortress the captured Guards, he takes it upon himself to have them fairly judged with open offers to "redeem" themselves by reaffirming their loyalty to Phobos.
• When Jade reunites with the Knights of Vengeance following the jailbreak, Sniffer runs to greet her, much to her delight, and Tracker offers some civil words to Jade.
• When Jade wants to hear ideas on how Meridian's people can be convinced that Phobos is a better ruler than Elyon, the Mogriffs and Lurdens reveal they're ready to follow him because the actions he took to get them on his side enabled them to reinhabit their ancestral lands the past queens drove them away from. Phobos, who hadn't really considered how making allies out of Meridian's more discriminated races would influence them and was mostly motivated by spite towards the traditions that denied him the throne, is honestly surprised to learn of this.
• Frost seems to have eased up on his condescending attitude towards Jade since she proved his initial assumptions about her being The Load wrong. Though he's darkly gleeful about using the Razor Khan she places under his command, he still appreciates the gesture and admits to himself that she grew on him a little even before returning as the Queen of the Shadowkhan.
• Julian tries to gently coax Caleb out of his Irrational Hatred and paranoia in Chapter 11. While it doesn't quite work out, Caleb at least promises to ponder on his father's words.
• When Vathek leads an army towards Cavigor, he internally admits to himself that he has only himself to blame for the awful way he treated Jade and swears that he'll ensure such a mistake won't happen again and that his comrades or anyone else won't end up turning Elyon's government into a continuation of her brother's tyranny.
  • When Vathek is surrounded by the Razor Khan at Cavigor, he asks them to tell Jade that Elyon wants to make peace with her. Upon seeing the Shadowkhan actually considering his words, he surrenders to their and Jade's mercy instead of Frost or Phobos', hoping that his remaining soldiers will have a better chance to avoid inhuman treatment in Jade's hands than those of Frost or his master.
• Arthur and Manny, fishermen from the Swamplands, are genuine friends with a Lurden named Torgo.
• Jade strikes a friendship with Windblade the Mogriff as she quickly promises to protect the Stone Nest from the rebels. Windblade is thankful for this and touched when the Shadowkhan Queen wants to know her name since not many people have asked it. After Snowpoint has been saved from the rebels, Windblade convinces her mate Metalbeak to let Jade see their species' sacred nesting grounds.
  • Windblade, having been imprisoned in the Infinite City before being freed by the Shadowkhan, reunites with Metalbeak by saving and hugging him during the battle at Snowpoint and afterwards gets to see their infant son who apparently hatched in her absence. Jade, though saddened by the thought of her loved ones in her home universe, is happy by this family reunion and tells Windblade to cherish all the moments she's going to have with her loved ones.
• After a Ninja Khan saves Jade from Vera Bexley's arrow at the last minute, she's sure to thank him.
• After Jade hears from Metalbeak about how Vera's grandfather killed numerous Mogriffs and enjoyed it, she calls him murdering the man justice, which is the first time that anyone's ever told him that.
• When Caroline confides to Tinsley that she feels like a failure for not being naturally skilled in the art of sewing her noble family is famous for, Tinsley gives her a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech by saying that joining them on their dangerous mission and being the best potion maker in Meridian gives her family a reason to be proud of her. Caroline is touched by this.
• Tinsley keeps trying to lift the spirits up in the noble kids' infighting team and bring Vera out of her unhealthy grimness.
• The Phobos loyalists' victory celebration at Snowpoint in Chapter 23 has several moments:
  • Jade decides to loosen up a bit and dances around a bonfire with some of her Shadowkhan. Many soldiers soon start dancing as well after getting over their initial shock.
  • Rosetta shyly asks Tyrian to dance with her, surprising him and making him nervous since he thought no pretty girl would ever ask him for a dance. Following her advice to relax helps him enjoy himself as he starts impressing her with acrobatic feats. When he accidentally bumps into a Ninja Khan, he showers Rosetta with praises both before and after the dance duel, which he does both in Rosetta and Jade's honor.
  • Tyrian acknowledges the Ninja Khan as a Worthy Opponent during their dance duel. When the ninja wordlessly declares him the winner, Tyrian tells him to be proud of his performance and finishes the dance with him in camaraderie. As Tyrian is then congratulated by everyone, Jade also gives her congratulations to the Ninja Khan who smiles with his eyes.
• Tyrian is serious about reciprocating Rosetta's interest in him to the point that he pauses in the middle of his fight against Vera's team to ask them for romantic advice.
  • Tinsley actually wishes Tyrian will be successful with his affair and remarks how romantic it is that even war can't stop people from finding love.
• When Alan is wounded by a Ninja Khan, Amelia examines him worriedly and snaps that as much he may be a pain in her neck, he's still one of her friends. Jade comments on how that confession hits home as she's reminded of her friendship with Paco.
• Not that we really needed further proof that Vera's Fantastic Racism about the Mogriffs being monsters is full of crap, but there's the fact that when three hatchlings (including Metalbeak and Windblade's son) come across her and see that she's wounded, they decide to help her despite her being an intruder, because it's the right thing to do.
• With a wrathful Jade having Vera at her mercy and threatening the Stone Nest with getting pulled into the Shadow Realm, Metalbeak brings her to her senses by reminding her that losing oneself to a desire for revenge is exactly what she warned him about when she stopped him from leaving his clan defenseless in favor of finding the Nest Butcher's kin.
• After Caroline helps treat a Mogriff's injured wing at Snowpoint (for which said Mogriff's friend expresses gratitude for), the head healer Sofia recognizes the timid girl's potential at healing and enlists her aid in the hospital wing that has too few healers available. Caroline is happy to provide aid even to the enemy soldiers.
  • Though Sofia and her daughter Maya turn out to be spider shapeshifters, they're quickly established to be nice people who've simply been forced to take refuge among Phobos' supporters by racist rebel sympathizers. They even insist on accompanying Caroline and her friends to their interrogation to ensure Philip and Alan won't get injured more than they already are. Caroline, who's always been scared from what she's heard about Cedric and other changelings, starts reevaluating her previous views thanks to the mother and daughter.
  • Caroline's bond with Maya turns out to be so strong that when Vera tries to kill her in Chapter 31 just for being a shapeshifter, for once in her life Caroline stands up to her former friend, attacking Vera to save Maya's life. Maya returns the favor a few minutes later by taking a sword strike for her. And when Caroline manages to get her to her mother for help, Sofia quickly makes it clear that she doesn't blame Caroline for it.
• Though the judging of Vera in Chapter 30 is mostly a Tear Jerker, it has some heartwarming moments:
  • When Vera calls Elyon a coward for ordering the mountain valleys evacuated instead of staying to fight the Mogriffs and Shadowkhan, her former friends state in Elyon's defense that it'd be too unreasonable to demand miracles from a teenaged girl who, no matter how powerful, only recently became acquainted with their world and her throne.
  • After Metalbeak defeats Vera in single combat, he remembers the day he killed her grandfather (who, though unrepentant of his actions, swallowed his pride to beg Metalbeak to spare her at least) before her eyes. Admitting it's his fault the little girl those ten years ago ended up becoming the bitter young woman in front of him, he apologizes to her for it and decides to settle for leaving her imprisoned since she's pretty much ruined her own life already.
  • Though feeling betrayed by Vera, her former friends try to tell her to cease her senseless struggle against Metalbeak and are relieved she doesn't get a part of her soul devoured as originally decreed.
• It's revealed that a peasant girl in Riverdeen named Lily found and befriended a field of Phobos' Whisperers. Phobos himself is confused by this, as it's not normal behavior for Whisperers. The survivors of the burned field even ask him to rescue her.
• Upon being rescued, Lily proves to be so innocent that she is completely unafraid of Phobos, talking to him as if he were just a normal person.

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