Queen of All Oni

""I have my own destiny – I will be Queen of All Oni!""

- Jade

Queen of All Oni is a Jackie Chan Adventures fanfiction by Eduard Kassel.

The story is an Alternate Universe Fic story diverging from canon at the start of Season 4. The basic question is, What If, instead of releasing Tarakudo, Daolon Wong's botched spell instead reawakened Jade's Super-Powered Evil Side, the Queen of the Shadowkhan?

From there, the story follows as such: Jade, like Tarakudo in canon, seeks out the masks of the Oni Generals, while at the same time seeking to increase her own powers. Meanwhile, Jackie, Uncle and Tohru, with the help of their allies, seek to not only stop Jade, but ultimately save her from the darkness before it consumes her completely.

The story is highly praised by its reviewers, who enjoy the darker tone and the compelling plot.

"Right: What is it with you and dynamite? Left: I like the boom."
 * Abusive Parents: It seems that when Drago was sealed away by Lo Pei, Shendu intentionally left him that way in order to "build character".
 * Achilles Heel: After absorbing the first mask, Jade gains the Oni weakness to onions.
 * Affably Evil: Tarakudo. Jade, meanwhile, straddles the line between this and Faux Affably Evil.
 * Monsieur Verde is also pretty affable. Though considering he's loosely based on Dr. Facilier, that's to be expected.
 * Air Vent Passageway: Drago apparently did this to break into Section 13. He lampshades the fact that it's a cliche.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: When Captain Black ends up masked, Jade infiltrates Section 13 via his shadow, and then uses her magic to awaken General Ozeki (the Oni of the mask), who fully possesses Black and proceeds to attack the base as a diversion so Jade can steal the other masks in the Vault. Fortunately, intervention by Uncle and Agent Wisker just narrowly averts this from succeeding.
 * Drago breaks into Section 13 in an attempt to steal the Talismans, but is distracted by Karasu long enough for the heroes to show up and drive him off.
 * Alternate Continuity: As stated above, the fic diverges from canon right at the beginning of Season 4.
 * Ambition Is Evil: Jade aspires to prove herself, even as a villain. And according to Hero, Ambition is one the personality traits that's sided with The Queen.
 * Ancient Tradition: The Brothers of the Three Shades, three monks following in the footsteps of the Sages who sealed the Shadowkhan and Oni away originally.
 * Animal Motifs: Jade definitely has a snake theme going on by this point.
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: When Tohru enters Jade's mind, he meets Hero (a flamboyant adventurer representing Jade's brash, heroic nature), and Mother (a faceless woman representing Jade's resentment towards her parents). Hero also mentions several other personifications, the most prominent being The Queen (the representation of Jade's dark side).
 * Hero also mentions Ambition, Envy, and Resentment as having joined with the Queen, but we've yet to meet them.
 * Ambition is represented by an adult Jade wearing traditional Chinese armor (according to Hero, she used to wear a knockoff of Captain Black's outfit).
 * We've also met Prissiness (Jade is a pink princess outfit), Frugality (Jade in business ware and glasses), and Punk (a teenage punk Jade who presumably represents Jade's rebellious nature).
 * The Queen is eventually revealed to be an adult Jade wearing an adult version of Jade's canon Queen dress and a crown of shadows.
 * Greed (who claims the proper title is Desire) is an adult Jade who's literally half-human and half-Shadowkhan -- one half is human and dressed in a copy of Captain Black's clothes, while the other is Shadowkhan and wearing white robes (the clothes join in the middle seamlessly).
 * Hero's First Mate is a steampunk-cyborg named Science who, presumably, represents Jade's scientific knowledge. And we at one point see him fighting Fury, represented by a Jade wearing a straightjacket.
 * Apologetic Attacker: Jackie, Tohru and Viper (though not as often) are this towards Jade, seeing as they care about her and are only reluctantly attacking her.
 * Arch Enemy: Jade views Tohru as hers.
 * Karasu and Drago have shades of this.
 * Asshole Victim:  is the first human character to be killed in the story. He's also a Smug Snake bordering on Complete Monster territory, so no one complained when.
 * As You Know: Lampshaded and justified during Drago's first confrontation with Karasu. Karasu sums up Drago's Backstory from the future, and when Drag asks why he's discussing what they both already know, Karasu comments that he's just keeping Drago distracted long enough for the heroes to show up and deal with him.
 * A Wizard Did It: Shendu raised his palace from nothing, and upon his defeat it collapsed into dust, yet when it is revisited (both here and in canon) in search for the first mask, there are some quite recognizable ruins that apparently no one's noticed. Jade ponders this for a bit, but then decides that it's magic and leaves it at that. This is the author trying to draw attention to what he views as a large plot hole.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Jackie and Viper, repeatedly. For the wizard equivalent, Tohru and Uncle have done this at least once.
 * Badass Bookworm: Blankman. See below.
 * Badass Bureaucrat: He's primarily Jade's accountant. And still one of the most badass people in the story.
 * Badass Grandpa: In addition to Uncle, there's the Brothers of the Three Shades, at least two of whom are at least middle-aged, with the third definitely being an old man.
 * Viper actually refers to Brother Light/the White Sage as this at one point.
 * Badass Normal: Not only do we have the canon ones, we also have Blankman, Jade's foreman. He apparently knocks out all the other applicants for the position in under two minutes without breaking a sweat (sadly, we don't get to see it). We later find out that he's a master of savate de rue, a French martial art built around boxing and kickboxing (though he does enhance it with magic, so he's kind of cheating).
 * There's also the Sages, who don't have anything other than martial arts to work with, and still manage to fight Jackie, Viper, Uncle, Tohru, Hak Foo, and Jade and her Shadowkhan to a standstill.
 * Agent Wisker, Captain Black's Number Two, is able to go toe-to-toe with a fully magically-empowered Jade, and keep her busy long enough to ruin her plans.
 * Bad Future: Possibly. All we've seen of the time period Karasu and Drago come from is that Jade is still a Shadowkhan, which doesn't bode well for the heroes' efforts to save her.
 * Bastard Understudy: This is played with in an interesting way when Jade recruits the Bat General; she tells him that if he sides with her against Tarakudo, then he's free to try and take the throne from her if she doesn't work out as ruler, terms the General agrees to. In other words, they're agreeing that he'll be her Bastard Understudy.
 * Jade herself, following the below-mentioned Break the Haughty, decides that it might be wiser to play this role to Tarakudo, as she realizes she may not be in a position to outright overthrow him yet.
 * Lung was Daolon Wong's apprentice, and tried to kill him when he had learned enough. That obviously failed, and he went into hiding, waiting for Wong to die so that he could replace him. Jade calls him out on this, and calls him pathetic for it.
 * It seems Drago was this to Future Jade. After she freed him from Verde, he learned as much from her as he could, then went back in time in order to eliminate her at her weakest and become the Big Bad himself.
 * Batman Gambit:
 * Earlier, when Jade needs to get Tohru to come out of the shop's protective wards so she can capture him for Ikazuki, she has some of her Shadowkhan sneak attack Uncle, knowing that Tohru will come to his aid, allowing her to capture him.
 * Jade's "Operation: Steel Lightning" is essentially one --  And it almost goes off without a hitch, with only Wisker's unforeseen interference preventing a victory.
 * Battle Butler: Jade's two bodyguard Shadowkhan, Left and Right.
 * Blankman also has shades of this -- he's basically Jade's accountant, but he's able to go toe-to-toe with Drago in a fight.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind: While Jade is being tortured by Lung, Hero gathers together as many of the uncorrupted Aspects of her mind as he can and launches an attack on the Jade (the ship that represents Jade's consciousness) so that he can retake control from the Queen. Their crews beat each other senseless, but before they can fight each other personally, Jade's mind literally cracks as she's driven crazy, and the ship nearly capsizes into a maelstrom.
 * Benevolent Boss: Jade, surprisingly, treats the Enforcers very well. To the point that they help take down Ikazuki when he usurps her, because he treats them like slaves.
 * Berserk Button: Threatening and/or insulting Jade is one for Left, Right, and Ozeki.
 * Also, don't mess with Viper's hair. Ozeki learned this the hard way.
 * Big Bad: Queen Jade
 * Bigger Bad: Tarakudo, while sealed away, is still active, and is waiting in the wings for his chance to take center stage.
 * Big Bad Wannabe: Lung tries, but he's not really even on Jade's level, let alone Wong's or Tarakudo's.
 * Drago takes a stab at taking the Big Bad position himself, but Karasu and the heroes take him down with minimal effort.
 * Big Eater: After her transformation, Jade's metabolism and appetite shoot through the roof.
 * Black and White Morality: Uncle uses this train of thought, which is why he is initially reluctant to let Viper aid them in fighting Jade. However, he eventually realizes that his narrow-mindedness is only hurting their efforts, so he agrees to let her help them.
 * Black Magic: There are apparently two types -- the dark chi magic used by wizards like Wong and Verde, and the shadow magic used by the Shadowkhan and Oni. Jade starts studying the latter after she learns that her transformation has made it impossible for her to use the former (apparently, chi magic can only be used by humans).
 * Blood Knight: All the Oni to an extent, but it seems Ikazuki and Ozeki really like combat.
 * Body Horror: Among other things, Jade has apparently gained contortionist abilities; the description of her initial use is rather disturbing.
 * Which is nothing compared to when she compresses her entire body into a snake shape in order to escape Section 13.
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Right and Left have a very, very subdued moment like this with the dynamite.
 * Break the Haughty: The incident mentioned below under Hoist by His Own Petard, combined with the total failure of her plan in that chapter and, breaks Jade rather thoroughly, and she decides to scale down her plans a bit.
 * Brick Joke: When trying to shatter the Dog Talisman, Left resorts to using dynamite, but is stopped before he blows up the whole room. In a later chapter, when trying to free Jade from an enchanted dog carrier (see Hoist by His Own Petard below), he whips out a stick of dynamite; Right snatches it from him before he can use it.
 * That's more of a Running Gag by now. The chainsaw, meanwhile, is closer to this.
 * When asked what she did with Wong, Jade says "he's in the closet" (which Ratso takes to mean something else) and doesn't elaborate. The following chapter, it turns out she literally locked him in a closet.
 * The Brute: Hak Foo, of course.
 * General Ozeki and his sumo tribe could be seen as this to the Shadowkhan as a whole.
 * Bus Crash: As soon as he's no longer relevant to the plot,  gets sent to prison, where he dies   as soon as that becomes relevant to the plot.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Hak Foo, naturally. This gets lampshaded by both Jackie and the White Sage, who ask where he comes up with the names for his moves -- the latter actually tries doing it himself, but gives up after awhile.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Every single villainous character in the story openly identifies as evil.
 * Casting a Shadow: Naturally, Jade gets this after her transformation; she gains the ability to teleport through shadows, and shadow energy forms the basis of her magic.
 * Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate: Brothers Dark and Gray have a debate over whether or not a door's existence means it should be closed; this would probably be more of a Seinfeldian Conversation, but it's clear Dark is taking it more seriously than Gray is.
 * Chainsaw Good: According to Finn, this is one of the things Left tried using to break the Dog Talisman. Sadly, we don't get to see it.
 * We do get to see him use it during the fight in Lung's fortress, however.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Jade buys a magic dog carrier from Verde, with no explanation as to what she plans to do with it. It's a couple of chapters before we find out what she plans on doing with it (see Hoist by His Own Petard below).
 * The carrier comes up again, as Tohru uses the engravings on it to create a sutra scroll that can neutralize Shadowkhan magic. This is first used to bind a possessed Captain Black, and then Jade.
 * The hair Lung gets from Verde is used by him in his attempt to bind Jade to his will.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The unnamed Section 13 agent who appears in a couple of early scenes is eventually given the name Wisker, and is revealed to be Black's Number Two in the organization.
 * Lung gets several Early Bird Cameos before he becomes important to the plot.
 * Father and Desire (under the name Greed) are both mentioned well before they appear.
 * Cliff Hanger (excluding Interludes as chapters)
 * Chapter 1 -- Jade transforms into the Queen, with Jackie at her mercy.
 * Chapter 2 -- Jade and her Shadowkhan break the Dark Hand out of prison as a recruitment drive.
 * Chapter 3 -- the Shadow Hand head to Hong Kong, following Jade's vision of Kaito's mask.
 * Chapter 4 -- Valmont's tip leads Section 13 to the Shadow Hand's base, but Jade's already cleared out
 * Chapter 6 -- Uncle visits Wong in prison and makes a deal with him.
 * Chapter 9 -- Captain Black and Agent Wisker prepare a Plan B for dealing with Jade behind Jackie's back, while multiple dark wizards are shown plotting as they sense
 * Chapter 10 -- Jade lies comatose following her torture at Lung's hands
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: Lung captures Jade's astral form and seals her in a magically inescapable glass container surrounded by bright lights that burn away at her shadow essence. He steadily increases the lights until she surrenders to him... which doesn't happen, so she instead gets driven insane by the pain.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Jackie and Tohru have a tendency to fight with whatever they can find, while Viper tends to either toss onions at Jade whenever she's distracted, or sneak up on her to blindside her.
 * When Agent Wisker confronts Jade outside the Section 13 Vault, he actually shoots at her. Non-lethal shots, true, but still, the fact that he took the direct approach definitely qualifies him.
 * Left usually just fights with his swords, but when in a hurry, he resorts to chainsaws and dynamite to win a fight.
 * Blankman as well. During his fight with Drago, he enhances his martial art skills with magic, and when even that isn't enough to win, he.
 * The Consigliere: Business-wise (i.e. the Shadow Hand's criminal activities), Jade's foreman is essentially this -- though it should be noted that only Blankman cares about giving her sound advice for her own sake; when Valmont held the position, he was stealing money out from under her for himself. Meanwhile, for the mask/tablet hunts, Left and Right seem more fitting for this trope, as they try to keep Jade focused and effective.
 * Continuity Nod / Call Back: The theatre Jade uses to audition for a foreman is the same one Finn used to try and form a new gang when he quit the Dark Hand in Season 2's "Tough Luck".
 * And Jade's first lair is Valmont's penthouse from Season 1. Also, when she breaks the Dog Talisman, she remembers when Jackie blasted them at the beginning of Season 3.
 * In order to temporarily summon and interrogate Tarakudo, Uncle is forced to get help from Wong in order to balance out the spell -- he then compares it to the Season 2 episode "The Good, The Bad, The Blind, The Deaf, And The Mute", where Wong needed Uncle to balance out a spell of his own.
 * Naturally, there are plenty of references to the original episode where Jade was first transformed into the Queen (mostly about how she had the Shadowkhan spank the Enforcers)
 * Jade's first few attempts at a wand are all built around using her hair as a power source, a reference to the Earth Demon episode, where Jade used a strand of hair and a flower to make a temporary wand.
 * In-story, the fact that Ratso stayed loyal to Jade during Valmont's little coup attempt is brought up a couple of times, in reference to her liking him a bit more than the others.
 * Shendu's defeat at the end of Season 3 is brought up at one point (Section 13 apparently refers to it as the Battle of the Zoo). The same chapter also makes reference to the Magistar cult that Jackie and Jade took down in "The Chan Who Knew Too Much", and the tower where Captain Black encounters Jade for a fake hostage exchange is the same one from "The Rock" (which is actually the reason Jade chose it).
 * Jade's inspiration for Operation Steel Lightning is the events of the penultimate season 1 episode, when Jackie was split in two by the Tiger talisman and the evil half handed the other talismans over to the Dark Hand.
 * Jackie is referred to as "superhuman" by Ratso at one point, echoing a similar comment he made in canon after one of Jackie's more Badass moments.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: The fight against the sages in their shrine is entirely in their favor; Dark and Gray hold the advantage against the Shadow Hand and the heroes the whole time, and White doesn't even seem to exert himself when continually throwing Jade, Viper, and Hak Foo out of the inner shrine.
 * Also, when Ikazuki usurped control of the Shadow Hand, it was greatly helped by his samurai wiping the floor with Jade's ninja.
 * Hero vs Mother, which is especially impressive given that Hero's hands were manacled at the time.
 * Uncle and Jade's Wizard Duel outside the Section 13 Vault. She has an edge for maybe two seconds before he blows her away.
 * When Left and Right attack Lung's fortress to save Jade, he puts up all sorts of defenses -- Mooks, monster guardians, a supposedly invincible gateway, and Death Traps -- and they completely mow them down.
 * Curse Cut Short: Happens to Drago a couple of times.
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: When Viper mentions using an onion on Jade, Ozeki goes into a blind rage and screams the following threat: "I will rip out your arms and gouge your eyes out, with your own thumbs!"
 * Cutting the Knot: When faced with a gateway that apparently can't be broken with magic, Left opts to blow it up with dynamite.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: All of Jade's Genre Savvy is now working for the other side. For example, when she leaves Valmont behind to be arrested, she immediately clears out her lair (though she does make the mistake of ).
 * Ratso is also surprisingly Genre Savvy -- when Valmont double crosses Jade, he stays loyal to her, knowing that "these minion coups never work".
 * Jade is also being careful to avoid classic World Domination plots, as she knows that that's a fast track towards someone making her Sealed Evil in a Can.
 * Dark Action Girl: Jade wants to be one, but even with her new Super Strength, her age and size are a hinderance.
 * Dark Fic: To an extent; the violence level is slightly above that of the canon, and it does contain some language.
 * Dark Is Evil: Jade and the other Shadowkhan. Also, Daolon Wong.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: A bit literally, as Brother Dark (of the three sages), despite being a Jerkass, isn't so bad. He's apparently just there to balance things out.
 * Dark Magical Girl: What Jade is turning into to compensate for the fact that she's not much of a physical threat.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Tarakudo, of course.
 * Also, Jade and Viper at times.
 * Death Dealer: Blankman's preferred form of combat magic seems based around magic playing cards.
 * Demonic Possession: As to be expected from the Oni masks; Ratso is briefly possessed a couple of times by the Razor-tribe mask so the General can pass messages from Tarakudo, Ikazuki assumes complete control of Chow, and the Bat-tribe General is able to do likewise with Scruffy (though only with assistance from a spell Jade performed).
 * Jade also uses that spell on Captain Black, allowing Ozeki (the Sumo General) to take full control of his body.
 * Divided We Fall: Uncle initially refuses to let Viper help in stopping Jade, as he doesn't want help from a thief. Tohru calls him out on this, and he ultimately agrees to work with her.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: After Jade breaks the Dog Talisman in her mouth and gets blasted by it's released energy, she briefly acts a little high before passing out.
 * The Dragon: Ikazuki to Tarakudo, as per canon. And when he temporarily takes control of the Shadow Hand, he forcibly demotes Jade to being his dragon -- and the only reason she has a relatively high position is because he looks down on the human members even worse than he does on her.
 * Co-Dragons: Left and Right, being Jade's top Shadowkhan, arguably qualify for her Dragons. Hak Foo, being the heavy muscle, could also count (though he's more of The Brute), as could Jade's foreman (first Valmont, later Blankman).
 * Driven to Madness: Lung attempts to break Jade to his will via torture, but the pain just ends up driving her insane.
 * Though since she's unconscious at the end of the chapter, it's yet to be seen whether this was a temporary or permanent example of this trope.
 * Drop the Hammer: During his fight with Blankman, Drago wields the Hammer of Chui, one of the weapons used by Daolon Wong's Dark Chi Warriors. Blankman uses it against him at one point.
 * Dual-Wielding: Left fights with a pair of broadswords.
 * Dynamic Entry: We get two accidental examples of this back-to-back in the chapter involving the first mask -- Jackie falls through the weakened roof of the basement chamber of Shendu's palace, landing on a loose chest lid and nailing Jade in the jaw. When Hak Foo attacks him, Tohru also falls through the hole in the roof, landing right on top of Hak and knocking him out.
 * Hero's first appearance is during Tohru's journey into Jade's mindscape, where he saves the latter from Mother via a Curb Stomp Battle.
 * Hero is obsessed with these -- he smashes his ship against the Jade in order to make a dramatic entrance, and doesn't care that it cuts off any chance of escape.
 * Either or Title: Every chapter has a (usually) serious and/or meaningful title, with a comedic subtitle.
 * Enemy Mine: Jackie and Jade briefly (and reluctantly, in Jade's case) team up when Valmont uses the first mask to steal the Ninja tribe away from Jade.
 * Hero attempts to form an alliance against the Queen with his apparent rival Father, but is denied.
 * Karasu tries to team up with the heroes against Drago, but they refuse to work with a Shadowkhan.
 * Enigmatic Minion: Blankman has shades of this. And when he finally gets some focus in one chapter, it makes him even more mysterious.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: When Tarakudo is conjured by Uncle and Tohru for interrogation, he compliments Jade's progress, and then offhandedly comments that she'd make a good consort when she's older. When Uncle and Tohru show their disgust over this, he responds that he did say when she was older, saying that he does have standards.
 * And Viper may be a thief, but she refuses to take part in Jade's plans.
 * When Jade contorts herself into a snake shape without knowing how to change back, she commands one of the nearby Enforcers to squeeze her until she shifts back to normal. Finn immediately backs away, as he finds the idea of putting his hands on a kid like that just a bit too discomforting, even if she isn't human.
 * Tarakudo considers it, but simply can't bring himself to simply abandon one of his own kind to torture and death, even though he knows her goal is to overthrow him.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai: Or worse, considering we're talking about Ikazuki and his tribe. Incidentally, he considers his tribe superior to all others... and considering how they wipe the floor with Jade's ninja, he may be right.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Uncle calls Wong out on this at one point, saying that trust and teamwork are things that he knows exist, but can't understand.
 * Evil Costume Switch: Naturally, first chance she gets, Jade trades in her normal outfit for something more evil. Specifically, she starts wearing a smaller sized version of one of her Shadowkhan's ninja clothes, along with a Black Cloak and a circlet crown (though she ditches the latter after Ikazuki's coup, until she can prove to herself she deserves to wear it).
 * Evil Gloating: Jade, despite knowing it's a dangerous distraction, keeps doing this and scolding herself afterwards.
 * Evil Is Hammy: Tarakudo, Ozeki (who is literally a Large Ham), and even Ikazuki has his moments. It must be genetic for Oni.
 * Evil Is Petty: Jade's entire motivation, other than amassing enough wealth to live a life of comfort, is to prove that she's "better" than her family. On top of that, she's also apparently spending her free time tormenting her Jerkass classmate Drew.
 * Daolon Wong also qualifies: even depowered and arrested, he still gloats about how his spell has ensured that the Chan family's future is ruined.
 * Evil Power Vacuum: Daolon Wong was apparently the Darkest Mage, a sort of Arch Mage for dark chi wizards. Following his loss of power, the spot is now available. Lung's whole subplot is his attempt to gain enough power to claim the position, and the narrative implies that   are also candidates.
 * Evil Sorcerer: In addition to the canonical Daolon Wong, there's Monsieur Verde and Blankman (though the latter is more of an Informed Ability; we've yet to see him use any magic)
 * Jade is becoming one, thanks to studying the Teachings.
 * Lung, Wong's former apprentice.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: It's noted how anyone who wears an Oni mask gets a much deeper voice.
 * Eviler Than Thou: Ikazuki easily usurps control of the Shadow Hand from Jade, due to being a much more powerful and experienced General.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Valmont vs Jade, briefly, once he gets the first mask.
 * Also, Ikazuki and Jade's brief power struggle.
 * Jade versus Lung -- though it's really more like Left and Right versus Lung, since Jade spends most of the encounter locked up and not able to do anything.
 * In the chapter Drago appears in, he ends up in fights with both Blankman and Karasu.
 * Expecting Someone Taller: Ozeki's reaction upon meeting Jackie.
 * Eye Scream: The lights in Lung's torture device burn through Jade's astral form's eyelids, dissolving them. When her astral form is returned to her body, this is represented by her real eyelids being rendered transparent.
 * Face Heel Turn: Jade's is the whole point of the story.
 * Familiar: The whole point of Lung capturing and torturing Jade was to force her to agree to serve him in this matter, giving him control of her tribe.
 * Future Jade has a pet snake that seems to fit the role.
 * Fantastic Racism: Judging by his conversation with Drago, Blankman really hates demons, viewing them as inferior races who can't accept that they lost the world to humanity. Which begs the question of why he's working for Jade...
 * Faux Affably Evil: Lung is quite polite, if a bit condescending. Then he starts torturing Jade to try and break her to his will.
 * Femme Fatalons: During her coma, Jade's nails grow out into claws.
 * For Want of a Nail / In Spite of a Nail: There are some distinct differences from the canon, but for the most part the plot is still following the same route.
 * The order the masks are being found in has been slightly changed (Ikazuki's is third here, opposed to fifth in canon), some of the masks are ending up on different people, and Viper is on the heroes' team in Jade's place. Oh, and the whole subplot about the Teachings, which wasn't present in canon.
 * Future Badass: Karasu, the sentient Shadowkhan sent back in time to prevent Drago from altering history.
 * Gendercide: Apparently, Tarakudo wiped out all the female Oni/Shadowkhan centuries ago -- according to him, it was for being a bunch of old hags who "thought they could tell [him] what to do." He's pleased to note that Jade is a change of pace from them.
 * Specifically, it seems the Oni used to be ruled by a Matriarchy until Tarakudo overthrew them.
 * Genius Bruiser: Tohru, of course, with the "genius" part being his talent at magic.
 * Ghost in the Machine: Jade's mind is represented as a sea of clouds (literally; the clouds act like water) filled with islands of bizarre landscapes that represent her memories and views of the world, and is inhabited by beings who represent different aspects of Jade's personality (see Anthropomorphic Personification). There's also a pirate ship (known as the Jade) that sails it, which seems to represent her consciousness, as whatever aspect controls it appears to be dominant; when Jade was good, Hero (her inherent goodness) was captain, whereas following her Face Heel Turn, the Queen (her Super-Powered Evil Side) seized control.
 * There's also the center of the mindscape, which Hero describes as "Home", which is represented by a grander version of Uncle's shop with light pouring out of it. Hero isn't sure, but seems to think it represents Jade's soul.
 * It's also, fittingly enough, an Empathic Environment -- according to Hero, when the Queen took control, it shifted from perpetual day to permanent twilight. Then, when Jade is driven insane by Lung's torture, there's a storm, followed by the sky cracking open and the sea turning into a maelstrom. After she recovers, the sky repairs itself, and it becomes night fully.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Jade, naturally. Of course, she isn't really the queen of anything; however, she insists on being referred to as such, and her minions -- the Shadowkhan ones, at least -- do so.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Ikazuki slashes Jade across the forehead, leaving a large scar.
 * Left gains several small scars on his face from freeing Jade's astral form from Lung.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: Jade is getting a lot of mileage out of her Shadowkhan Healing Factor, especially after the fight with the sages.
 * Groin Attack: Viper does this to Ozeki for ripping out some of her hair.
 * Blankman tries to do this to Drago, but since Drago is a reptile, his testicles are inside him and not vulnerable.
 * Heroic BSOD: Jackie and Tohru, following Jade's transformation. Uncle, not so much, though he does go BSOD when he thinks that he's holding the team back, and when Tohru is captured by Ikazuki.
 * Hidden Villain: Tarakudo's first few appearances are as a mysterious voice that guides Jade in the astral realm (though it's pretty obvious to the reader who it is).
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Jade commissions Monsieur Verde to construct her a dog carrier that suppresses shadow magic, so that . At the end of the relevant chapter,  . She escapes, but it's not a humiliation she soon forgets.
 * How Do I Shot Web?: Ratso gets the Razor Khan mask, and is initially unable to summon any Shadowkhan, due to no one in the Shadow Hand (even Jade) knowing about the whole "darkness within" thing. It takes a brief meeting with Tarakudo in the astral realm to clear that up.
 * Humanoid Abomination: Future Jade has shades of this; she's not shown in detail, but it's implied she's taken the form of a naga (a snake-human hybrid).
 * Human Ladder: Well, Shadowkhan ladder, but same thing -- when Jade throws Captain Black off a tower in order to trigger his mask, the Sumo Khan form one of these to catch him.
 * Humiliation Conga: After Valmont's attempted coup, he gets beat up by Tohru, before Jade has her Shadowkhan strip him and dump him in public, where he ends up getting arrested. And this is after the months of living like a common thief before Jade recruited him.
 * Daolon Wong fails to restore his power, gets beat up by Jade's Shadowkhan, locked in a closet, sent back to prison, . You almost feel sorry for the old bastard.
 * Drago's attempt to steal the Talismans is thwarted by Karasu, his bank robbery attempt is interrupted by Blankman, to whom he loses the subsequent fight, Karasu prevents him from stealing the immortality power from Scruffy,.
 * Hybrid Monster: One of the things protecting Lung's fortress is a "squid-wolf", which appears to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Left kills it with a chainsaw.
 * Informed Ability: Blankman's magic skills; they were one of the reasons Jade hired him, but aside from a reference to protective wards he's placed over Jade's mansion, he's yet to be shown actually performing any magic.
 * We get to see some magic from him in chapter 10.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Jade's belief, though Ikazuki would argue in favor of his samurai.
 * It's Personal: As you can imagine, the fact that the Chan clan are fighting against one of their own makes this fight much more personal than previous ones.
 * Jaw Drop: The Enforcers' collective reaction when Jade orders Left to break the Dog talisman.
 * Jade's reaction to finding out about.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: Tohru astral projects into Jade's mind in an attempt to gather information, and meets Hero, the representation of Jade's heroic nature.
 * This trip seems to have mostly been to introduce Jade's mindscape as a recurring subplot.
 * Jade takes a more traditional journey when she's being tortured by Lung and meets the Aspect representing her desires -- who's quick to point out that the fact that they're communicating means that she's going insane.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Played straight and subverted. Right fights with one, but Left fights with a pair of broad swords.
 * Kick the Dog: Or, as the case may be, " ".
 * When Ikazuki temporarily takes control of the Shadow Hand from Jade, he slashes her across the forehead for failing to retrieve both Tohru and the appropriate mask removal potion. He then.
 * In that same chapter, Jade threatens to burn down Uncle's shop in order to get the heroes to fight her, which even she admits is a low blow.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Jade killing Kaito (the Ninja General) and absorbing his essence. Considering this is an Oni we're talking about, and that his last acts were to lie to Jade, help Valmont betray her, and then mock her when it looks like the heroes are going to capture her, no one was complaining.
 * Nor was anyone complaining when . In fact, at least one reviewer applauded this and referred to it as "justice".
 * Klingon Promotion: Seems to be standard practice for the Oni. See also You Kill It, You Bought It below.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: When Jade complains about getting more beat up during fights than she did when she was one of the good guys, Uncle blames it on her karma.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Apparently, Jade's attitude towards charging into battle is one of the things Hero personifies. Notably, ever since the Queen became the dominant Aspect of Jade's mind, she's become more strategic.
 * Licking the Blade: Drago does this with his claws during his fight with Drago.
 * Little Miss Badass: Good or bad, Jade still knows how to kick butt.
 * MacGuffin Delivery Service: Since the only method Jade has of finding the masks is astral projection, which she can't really control and doesn't really trust, she's using the Sinister Surveillance listed below to track Jackie and the others, allowing them to lead her to the masks.
 * This is also how she managed to find the first tablet of the Teachings, which is also a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment -- if it weren't for them, she wouldn't have learned about the tablets, which in turn means she wouldn't be getting as powerful as she is.
 * Mad Bomber: Left, surprisingly, comes off as this.

""You will pay! For this!""
 * Madness Mantra: "Gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, getaway, getaway, getawaygetaway..." Jade's thoughts as the pain of Lung's torture slowly drives her crazy.
 * Magic Wand: Jade has some serious bad luck in trying to get one: the first one explodes the first time she uses it, the second melts (despite being made of wood), and the third is nullified by the protective wards of the Sages' shrine, so she abandons it . Once she gets the first tablet of the Teachings, however, she manages to create a pair of fans that serve as this for her, and actually work right.
 * Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Drago comes back in time from some unspecified point in the future in order to eliminate Jade and other potential threats to his own rule in the future.
 * Manipulative Bastard: It is strongly implied that Tarakudo is influencing Jade's subconscious in order to drag up her resentment and frustration (primarily with her parents) in order to drive her further into the darkness.
 * Mauve Shirt: Jade is quick to refer to Agent Wisker as one (and this is after she had previously called him a Red Shirt).
 * Melee a Trois: The fight in the sages' shrine -- it's Shadow Hand vs the Three Shades vs the heroes.
 * Mexican Standoff: A brief one occurs during the initial fight for the second mask -- Tohru captures Jade, so Right retaliates by holding him at sword point, and Uncle in turn aims his wand at him. It's quickly broken up when Ratso accidentally gains the mask, which provides enough of a distraction to allow Jade to escape.
 * Middle Management Mook: Jade's foreman is described as her Number Two (using those words), which would imply The Dragon, but is much closer to this trope. Blankman in particular is never shown in the field, leaving all the grunt work to the Enforcers. Valmont, at least, tried to act like The Dragon (particularly Dragon-in-Chief), but it was clear Jade held Left and Right in higher regard than him.
 * Mood Whiplash: Chapter 10 switches back and forth between Jade being tortured by Lung, and Hero's comedic-dramatic attempts to retake control of Jade's mind.
 * Mooks: The Ninja tribe Shadowkhan serve as Jade's standard troops.
 * There's also the ghouls haunting the Shadow Hand's mansion headquarters, who Jade uses as security (though as proven during Ikazuki's brief coup, they're not very effective)
 * Lung uses animated terracotta soldiers as his minions. Tarakudo calls it a cliche.
 * Mook Promotion: The two Shadowkhan that Jade uses as bodyguards (Left and Right) start out as ordinary Mooks, but eventually gain sentience and the ability to speak.
 * This also allows them to.
 * Mundane Utility: When Ratso gets the Razor Khan mask, Jackie worries over what Jade will do with two armies of Shadowkhan at her disposal. We then cut to her pitting her ninja against Ratso's... in a baseball game.
 * The first thing Jade is seen doing once she learns about her contortionist abilities is using them to win a bet against the Enforcers (unhooking her jaw in a snake-like matter in order to swallow a massive sandwich whole).
 * Jade gets this a lot -- her magic fans were created to serve as Magic Wands, which they do. But at one point she uses one to, well, fan herself with.
 * My Card: Blankman gives Jade his business card when she hires him. As you might expect from his name, it's blank.
 * My Greatest Failure: Uncle blames himself for Jade's return to evil; apparently, the last time Jade became the Queen, it left behind a scar on her chi. He didn't pay it any attention because he didn't think it was a threat. Unfortunately, this scar is what allowed Daolon Wong's spell to reawaken the Queen persona.
 * My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Uncle and Tohru's "willies", naturally.
 * Various dark wizards are shown sensing
 * Mythology Gag: The haunted mansion Jade takes as the Shadow Hand's headquarters is the same one that appeared in a Season 5 episode of the show.
 * The magic fans Jade gains are based on the ones she uses in the show's title sequence.
 * When Finn removes Ikazuki's mask, he comments that he's got a good thing going with working for Jade, and doesn't need "another demon riding [his] ass." In canon, Finn ended up with Ikazuki's mask stuck to his rear for most of an episode.
 * When Jade gives Ozeki full control of Captain Black's body, he comments on how if she hadn't, he would have had to manipulate Black's love of the law in order corrupt him, which is exactly what happened in canon.
 * Never My Fault: Jade's reaction to the above Kick the Dog moment -- she absolutely refuses to see the results of it as being her fault.
 * Noodle Incident: When Karasu arrives in the past, he expresses surprise that Future Jade's spell worked properly, as she apparently always messes it up. He cites "the bull" as the most memorable example.
 * Number Two: Agent Wisker seems to be this to Captain Black. While he's not actually Section 13's second-in-command, he seems to be Black's top field agent and go-to guy for emergencies.
 * As mentioned above, Jade's foreman is this for the Shadow Hand, running her criminal empire for her. However, while Valmont might, loosely, have also qualified as The Dragon as well, Blankman most certainly doesn't.
 * Science is Hero's First Mate.
 * The Oathbreaker: How Karasu refers to Drago -- apparently, he served Future Jade for a time, but eventually betrayed her.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When all the people competing for the position of Jade's foreman are ordered to fight for the spot, Blankman knocks out all the others in under two minutes. Without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, we don't get to see it -- we see Jade telling them to fight, and then the narrative cuts ahead to afterwards.
 * For a comedic example, Left tried an increasingly desperate and ridiculous series of methods for breaking the Dog talisman, but we only hear about it second hand from Finn. Which is a real shame, since apparently, he at one point used a chainsaw.
 * Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Lung apparently has, in addition to his main fortress, a series of well-supplied safehouses he can flee to in case of emergency, including at least one island. This is a result of what happened when he failed to kill Wong -- he was forced to flee, and lost all of his resources in the process, forcing him into hiding.
 * Meanwhile, Jade's use of this trope is justified somewhat, since by the first time she reencounters the heroes following her transformation, she's already built up the Shadow Hand into powerful criminal entity with help from Valmont (and later, Blankman), to the point that she apparently pays the Enforcers on a regular basis. Also, in a play on this trope, when Jade is forced to abandon her first lair, she's reduced to living in hotel rooms until she finds a new one.
 * Operation Blank: "Operation: Steel Lightning", mentioned above. The Enforcers are quick to point out that the name makes no sense whatsoever, and they (along with Hak Foo and Blankman) start suggesting names that actually have to do with what the Operation entails, but Jade shoots them all down -- she chose the name because it sounds cool, so she keeps it.
 * One-Winged Angel: Jade's astral form has a mild one, that's basically her normal astral form with some Spikes of Villainy. Somewhat of a Clipped-Wing Angel, as the only time she uses it, she is quickly overpowered by her opponent.
 * Original Characters: Blankman, Monsieur Verde, the Sages, arguably Left and Right (being Shadowkhan, but ones that become actual characters), Lung, Karasu the time-traveling Shadowkhan.
 * Parental Neglect: Jade's parents were apparently always too busy with work to pay her any attention, and sent her to live with Jackie to get her off their hands.
 * Parental Substitute: Played with, in that it's Uncle who points out that Jackie is "Jade's father in all but blood and title", and that he's aware of it even if they aren't.
 * The Patriarch: Uncle refers to himself as such at one point.
 * Pet the Dog: Jade has her dog, Scruffy, kidnapped, then destroys the Dog Talisman so that he can reabsorb its Immortality Inducer powers.
 * Plot Coupons: In addition to the canonical masks, there's the Teachings of Eternal Shadow, whose fragments were scattered by the same monks who defeated the Oni originally.
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Ikazuki looks down on Jade because of her age and inexperience, which is probably understandable, but he also lists her being female as one of the reasons why she's unfit to be a General. Possibly justified by the fact that he originated in a feudal period, where there wouldn't have been much respect for women.
 * Precision F-Strike: Tarakudo slips out a "shit" when he sees Jade being tortured by Lung.
 * And when Hero fails to regain control from the Queen ... well, he actually says "censorship bleep".
 * Predecessor Villain: What Tarakudo's been reduced to in regards to Jade, what with her being Big Bad in his place (though he's plotting on retaking the position).
 * Prehensile Hair: Future Jade appears to have it.
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: When Uncle beats her in their first Wizard Duel, Jade is so angry she can't even say a threat in one breath:

"Dream!Shendu: I have a door gong."
 * Punny Name: Well, not really, but everyone thinks that Agent Wisker's (who has large sideburns) name is "Whisker".
 * The Gray Sage's real name is Gin Grey; it's pointed out in the narration how fitting that is.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Hero is attempting to form La Résistance against the Queen's control of Jade's mind, but the only Aspects he's managed to gather so far are Prissiness, Frugality, and Punk. As you can imagine, they're far from the ideal crew, and Hero can't stand any of them.
 * He gains a few more effective members by the time they launch attack on the ship representing Jade's consciousness. They still fail, though.
 * Ramming Always Works: Double Subverted when Hero's crew attacks the Jade -- his ship smashes apart against the Jade without doing any damage to it, but that's okay because Hero just wanted to make a dramatic entrance.
 * Rant-Inducing Slight: After getting tossed out of the sages' shrine at least a dozen times, Jade outright demands Brother Light give her the first tablet of the Teachings... which he does, saying she could have simply asked. This causes Jade to snap a bit, and she goes on a rant where she accuses the Light of messing with her and the tablet being booby trapped, before saying "screw it" (literally), grabbing the tablet, and running off with it.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Hero attempts to recruit Father for his fight against the Queen, Father refuses, stating that Hero is reckless and impulsive, and just as dangerous to Jade's well being as the Queen.
 * Drago gets two close together -- during their fight, Blankman calls all nonhumans (demons included) pathetic for losing Earth to humanity and not being able to accept it. Shortly after, Karasu explains exactly why Drago will never understand how Future Jade thinks.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Jade's astral form is a snake (specifically, a naga -- a snake with a human head).
 * She takes on a similar appearance when she contorts her body as way of escaping capture when she's bound.
 * And then there's Drago.
 * The Resenter: This forms a huge part of Jade's villain persona: she resents her parents for always ignoring her and shipping her off to relatives she didn't even know she had; she resents Jackie for never giving her the gratitude and respect she thinks she deserves; she resents Uncle for picking Tohru (a practical stranger) over her (family) as his apprentice; and not only does she resent Tohru for being apprentice instead of her, she hates him for bringing her back down to normal last time she was the Queen.
 * Rousing Speech: Subverted. Hero tries to give a dramatic one of these to his crew before they attack the Jade, but keeps getting interrupted. Eventually he gives up and just orders the attack.
 * Royal Brat: Again, she's not actually royalty, but Jade is a self-appointed queen who's essentially throwing a darkness-fueled temper tantrum for not getting the recognition she thinks she deserves.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: As noted above, Jade isn't actual royalty, but refers to herself as such, and is still as much an Action Girl (albeit of the dark variety) as ever, if not more so.
 * Running Gag: Jade's string of bad luck with wands, and Left's apparent obsession with blowing stuff up.
 * Hak Foo complaining "I wanted that mask" whenever a new mask winds up on someone else (this is actually carried over from canon).
 * Agent Wisker commenting that prisoners should be knocked out upon capture so they don't escape.
 * People closing the blast door on Shendu's alcove in order to shut him up.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Tarakudo is still sealed away in the Shadow Realm, but seems convinced he'll be out soon. Meanwhile, Jade is taking great pains to ensure that this doesn't happen to her.
 * Shendu has had a few cameos, still sealed in statue form and locked away in a Section 13 vault, as per the Season 3 finale.
 * Jade spends most of chapter 10 with her astral form trapped in a sphere.
 * Apparently, Drago was sealed inside a sword by Lo Pei centuries ago, and wasn't released until some point in the future, where Verde forced him into servitude before Future Jade liberated him and earned his loyalty (until he betrayed her).
 * Sherlock Scan: During their fight, Blankman deduces that Drago is from the future, based on multiple but mostly unconnected clues.
 * Shipper on Deck: Farmer MacDonald gives Jackie advice on trying to pick up Viper. This leaves Jackie flustered, and Viper amused.
 * Shout-Out: When Farmer MacDonald learns about Jade's Face Heel Turn, he comments that she's "gone all Darth Vader".
 * In the same chapter, when he learns about the Hana Fuda cards, he makes what might be a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh!
 * At one point, when the Enforcers are entering the mansion headquarters, one of the house ghouls appears on the front door's knocker; Finn refers to him as "Marley".
 * When Ratso is trying to figure out how to use his mask's powers, he at one point blurts out "Shazam!"
 * In the same chapter, Jade compares taking advice from a mysterious voice (Tarakudo) to ''Charlie's Angels".
 * The Dream Sequence in the third Interlude chapter is partially inspired by the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Nightmares and Daydreams", according to Word of God. Also, when his attempts to communicate with Jade via the dream fail, Tarakudo comments that "Obi-Wan Kenobi never had this problem."
 * Speaking of Avatar, Left's use of a pair of broadswords is apparently based on Zuko's Weapon of Choice.
 * Ozeki's obsessive, fanatical loyalty to Jade (including referring to her as "the Royalty") and Jade's unease about it is meant to mirror Inferno's relationship with Megatron. Though one could argue there's a bit of Lugnut in there as well.
 * Another Transformers reference -- during a flashback to Tarakudo's coup, he begins a duel with a loyalist General by stating that "One shall rise, one shall fall."
 * When he senses, Verde compliments that it was a "good performance", but then states "wait till they get a load o' me."
 * And for another Batman shout out, during Jade's Journey to the Center of the Mind, when she meets Greed/Desire, she compares her appearance to Harvey "Two-Face" Dent.
 * During Lung's first appearance, Verde describes him as looking like "Ming the Merciless' Goth cousin."
 * Speaking of Verde, the description given for him sounds an awful lot like Dr. Facilier.
 * According to the author, however, this was purely a coincidence. Though he has admitted that his enjoyment of the movie is his reason for expanding on Verde's role in the story.
 * Drago comments "Boring conversation anyway," when shutting a blast door on Shendu.
 * Karasu tells Tohru that he looks different without his scars.
 * In another possible Heroes shout out, Future Jade has a pet snake named Mohinder.
 * The scary doctor auditioning to be Jade's new foreman seems awfully familiar...
 * Shown Their Work: The author seems to be quite the expert on Japanese culture, history, and mythology.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: When Ikazuki rants to Tohru about the weakness of humans, Tohru replies that it was humans who defeated the Oni originally, and that even now they need human bodies to possess in order to do anything.
 * Sinister Surveillance: Jade manages to install bugs in Uncle's shop to keep tabs on the heroes.
 * The Slow Path:
 * Smug Snake: Lung, who views himself as the next Daolon Wong, and tries to force Jade to serve him. He is so certain about his abilities that when his plan backfires and nearly kills Jade, he actually blames her for it. And when her minions show up to save her, he completely breaks down, showing just how pathetic he really was.
 * Drago somewhat comes across as this, considering how easily his plans fall apart.
 * Spanner in the Works: Wisker manages to keep Jade from successfully completing Operation Steel Lightning by fighting her, keeping her busy long enough for Uncle to show up and beat her with magic.
 * Karasu was this to Drago; without his interference, Drago would have succeeded in his plans to alter history.
 * Squishy Wizard: Lung may be a powerful wizard (though not as powerful as he thinks he is), but he has absolutely no combat skills.
 * The Starscream: Valmont is recruited by Jade to head up her criminal activities, and he plans on betraying her as soon as he's secretly stolen enough of her money to set up shop elsewhere. Then he gets his hands on the first Oni mask and control of the Ninja Shadowkhan, and tries to kill her. Needless to say, once the mask is removed he ends up in a world of hurt.
 * Jade herself becomes the Starscream to Ikazuki when he usurps her position as leader of the Shadow Hand; she refuses to help him fight Jackie, leaving him to his defeat.
 * Start of Darkness: The story is one for Jade.
 * A series of flashbacks document Tarakudo's own SoD -- he was a human warrior who sold his soul to the Oni for a chance at revenge against the enemies who wiped out his family. After his death, he became an Oni himself, was made a General, and eventually overthrew the Oni Elders and their Matriarchy system.
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Jade, naturally.
 * The Stoic: Blankman rarely shows any emotion.
 * Left and Right are pretty stoic as well, though they do show emotion a bit more often than Blankman does.
 * Storming the Castle: A rare villain-on-villain example, as Left and Right assault Lung's fortress to rescue Jade, and completely curb stomp everything in their way.
 * Straight Man: It's been pointed out by the reviewers that Wisker is pretty much this to the protagonists.
 * On the villainous side of things, Blankman, Left, and Right pretty much share this role, compared to the more quirky other members of the Shadow Hand (Jade included).
 * Super Strength: Apparently this is a fringe benefit of becoming a Shadowkhan/Oni.
 * The Syndicate: Jade recruits the Dark Hand to serve her, rechristens them the Shadow Hand, and quickly becomes a major force in the San Francisco criminal underworld.
 * Take Over the World: Subverted. The Enforcers assume that this is Jade's ultimate goal, like the previous Big Bads they've worked for, but she's Genre Savvy enough to know that that never turns out well. She does suggest they take over Australia at one point, but then reveals that was just a joke.
 * Take That: During one of the glimpses to Jade's mindscape, we see that the Aspect representing Love has been stuck in a barrel and no one is willing to let her out because "things are complicated enough; we don't need lovely-dopey stuff in the mix". Now, take a guess what the author's stance on shipping is.
 * Technical Pacifist / Martial Pacifist: Brother Light/the White Sage claims to be a pacifist. When Jade calls him out on this -- pointing out how he's spent the past several minutes tossing her around the shrine -- he responds by saying that he isn't the one hurting her, the things she's slamming into are.
 * Terminator Twosome: Drago travels back in time in order to eliminate Jade and any other threats to his future rule, while Karasu is sent back to stop him.
 * Title Drop: In the chapter where Jade absorbs the first Oni mask, she declares her intention to become "the Queen of All Oni!" And later, when Section 13 raids her abandoned base, they find a mocking note she left behind, which she signs using the title.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Jade apparently feels this way towards Tohru; when Ikazuki attempts to take over Tohru's body, Jade snarls that Tohru is hers, before Ikazuki glares her down.
 * The Quiet One: Even after Left gains the ability to speak, he doesn't unless he's spoken to. Apparently, he feels that he shouldn't speak unless it's something worth saying.
 * Beware the Quiet Ones: He's also Jade's most loyal and most efficient warrior.
 * There Was a Door: After being tossed through the shrine walls by Brother Light a few times, Jade gives up coming back in through the door and smashes through a wall.
 * In Jade's dream in the third interlude, she blasts open the door to Shendu's palace in order to make a dramatic entrance while challenging him.


 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Teachings of Eternal Shadow, containing all the dark magic of the Shadowkhan. The tablets they're written on serve as the story's secondary set of Plot Coupons.
 * Torture Chamber Episode: Jade spends most of chapter 10 being tortured by Lung.
 * Traumatic Haircut: When Ikazuki gives Jade her above-mentioned scar, he slices through her trademark bangs.
 * Twitchy Eye: Happens to Jade twice during the fight against Brother Light.
 * Undying Loyalty: Left and Right to Jade, Ikazuki to Tarakudo.
 * General Ozeki to the old Oni Matriarchy, and to Jade by extension, as he views her as its restoration.
 * Use Your Head: How Left gets Jade out of Lung's containment orb.
 * The Usurper: How Ozeki refers to Tarakudo, who apparently overthrew the Oni's original Matriarchy system. Ozeki only pretended to serve him afterwards in order to live long enough to see the Matriarchy be restored (which he interprets Jade's fall to darkness as).
 * Villain Ball: Currently being juggled by Jade, who keeps lapsing into standard villain pitfalls (monologuing and overestimating her abilities), but always realizes when she's doing it, and tends to learn from her mistakes.
 * Villainous Breakdown: When his plan to break Jade to his will backfires and starts killing her instead, Lung starts cracking, and then breaks completely when her minions show up and start mowing down his defenses.
 * Drago completely falls apart after his every attempt to gain an advantage in the past is foiled, and starts ranting about how he isn't going to bother with tactics anymore -- he's just going to destroy everyone and everything in sight and see what happens.
 * Villainous BSOD: Jade has one after
 * Villain Episode: True, Jade is the main character, but Chapter 10 focuses almost entirely on her dealing with Lung, with the heroes only showing up in two very brief scenes.
 * The following chapter likewise barely shows any of the heroes -- it's all about Drago's attempts to alter history, Karasu's attempts to stop him on Future Jade's orders, the Queen consolidating her hold on Jade's mind, and Jade herself recovering from the events of the previous chapter.
 * Villain Exit Stage Left: Averted. Lung attempts to escape when Left and Right attack his fortress to rescue Jade, but Right intercepts him
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. The whole reason Jade is after the Teachings is so she can increase her powers and stand a better chance against the heroes.
 * Villains Out Shopping: See Mundane Utility above. Also, when the Bat-Khan General attacks a theme park, Jade and the Enforcers stay off to the side enjoying some carnival food, and are discussing riding one of the rollercoasters when the heroes show up to fight them.
 * Villain Protagonist: Queen Jade, as should be obvious.
 * Villainous Rescue: Despite knowing that doing so will use up his power and ruin his own chance at escape, Tarakudo teleports Left and Right to Jade's location when Lung captures her, because he will not let one of his own kind be tortured and killed by a mere human.
 * Villains Want Mercy: When Lung gets cornered by Right, he begs for mercy.
 * We Can Rule Together: Jade offers Viper a place as her right hand, but Viper refuses.
 * We Will Meet Again: Both Hak Foo and Jade threaten to return to the Three Shades shrine in order to defeat the sages (though the latter's threat is cut off by falling down a hill).
 * What the Hell, Hero?: After a brief fight, Brother Light lets Jade take the first tablet of the Teachings; when Uncle demands to know why he did so, he simply gives them scrolls that (upon decoding) will lead the way to the other tablets, then the Sages throw them out of their shrine.
 * Whip It Good: Karasu's Weapon of Choice.
 * Wizard Duel: Uncle and Jade have one in chapter 9. He kicks her ass.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: When she finally gets the first tablet of the Teachings from the sages, Jade assumes it's booby trapped and will cause the whole mountain to turn into a volcano and in the resulting fight she'll drop the tablet in the lava just when she assumes she's won. None of this happens.
 * Though in fairness, this was part of her slight-induced rant, so she may not have actually believed any of it.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Wong's first lesson to Lung apparently was that "it's not how good a planner you are, but how good you are when the plan fails." Lung doesn't seem to have learned anything from this -- when his plan for Jade starts failing, he simply blunders ahead with it, and then panics and flees when her minions show up for her.
 * You!: Drago's reaction to running into Blankman in the past. Of course, Blankman has no idea who he is yet, so he's just confused.
 * You Kill It, You Bought It: Jade eats the first Oni mask, effectively killing its General (Kaito) and absorbing his power, assuming full control of the Ninja tribe.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: The damage Jade sustains to her astral form at Lung's hands translates onto her body when she's returned to it.