History Fanfic / MemoirsOfAMaster

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Rong Lang]] claims that he wanted to live in a world where everybody was equal. Unfortunately, his methods for doing so involved [[spoiler:convincing Shan to betray his friends, which in turn, led to the murder of the emperor and the massacre of an entire village]].

* BewareTheNiceOnes: The evil usurper to the Imperial throne learns that you never, ''ever'', threaten Master Oogway, the supreme master of Kung Fu.
* [[BlindWeaponmaster Blind Kung Fu Warrior]]: Zigsa.

* EvilIsPetty: Why did [[spoiler:Shan]] betray the emperor? Because [[spoiler:Min Lung, his one true love, rejected him and murdered an entire clan just to impress her]]. This is actually {{lampshaded}} by Shifu during their standoff.

* ForegoneConclusion: Tai Lung will not earn the Dragon Scroll.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Justified with Shifu's old friends; he has never mentioned them before to his students, but considering the heartbreak he had to endure [[spoiler:when Shan betrayed them and thought everybody else were all dead afterwards]], he probably didn't ''want'' to mention them again.

* ThouShallNotKill: Shifu and Li both lived under the impression that Kung Fu was all about protecting others, not killing them. Oogway and Zigsa showed the both of them that that [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption isn't always the case]], especially when your enemies are people that deserve it.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Oogwaw refuses to let Shifu fight off against the huns since he knows how dangerous of a mission it will be. Shifu instead chooses to ignore his orders since he knows his family will be in danger.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Red Claw]]. While he does come off as abrasive and brutish when we first meet him, he was still shown to be on the side of the good guys. [[spoiler:That is, until it's revealed that it was ''him'' who started the war as a means to purposely kill off all the Huns]].

* IronicName: One of Shifu's former tournament opponents was a five foot, 800 pound gorilla named ''Tiny''.

** Yeying to a lesser extent. She's mostly portrayed as being good-hearted but she can still have her moments of aggressiveness and apatheticness.

* ThouShallNotKill: Shifu and Li both lived under the impression that Kung Fu was all about protecting others, not killing them. Oogway and Zigsa showed the both of them that that [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption isn't always the case]], especially if your enemies deserve it.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Zigsa's bulky exterior makes him look much more older than he really is.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Ancient China is shown to be incredibly homophobic, which is why Lin had such a difficult time coming out. While you'd be forgiven for thinking that, Ancient China was actually more receptive of homosexuality than what is commonly thought. They even had a deity for gay couples.

* BuryYourGays: Averted with Li and Ren, a gay fox and wolf who are dear friends of Shifu and have had a long and happy secret marriage. In fact, the only complaint from their friends is that [[CrowningMomentOfFunny their sexual romps are really loud]].
** Oddly, no one bothers to mention that they are technically adoptive siblings when introduced.
* ComingOutStory: Li goes through the struggle of coming out to his friends, considering how homophobic Ancient China is. However, while Shifu is a bit uncomfortable to be considered attractive to the Fox, all of his TrueCompanions turned out to already know and are cool with it, including Ren's dying father and of course Master Oogway, although he never went out and said it.

* DrivenToSuicide: Shifu, after losing everything following the coup. He is only stopped from doing so by [[spoiler:discovering the abandoned baby Tai Lung]].

* OpenSecret: In a way. Li and Ren have always kept their relationship a secret from everyone else, and when they reveal that they've known this whole time, they start revealing their own secrets about each other:
** Zigsa claims to be afraid of water.
** Ochir claims to be afraid of both heights ''and'' squirrels, despite being a giant, tough rhino.
** Yeying still sleeps with a teddy bear.
** Shifu states that he's still a virgin (which, hilariously enough, ''doesn't'' come off as a shock to the others).

* YouDoNotWantToKnow: Shifu claims in one of his memoirs that Oogway taught him and the rest of his friends about certain changes in life as they got older (including where babies come from, puberty, and the female anatomy). Shifu, however, claims that he thought it was for the best that he ''didn't'' know how someone like [[BadassGrandpa Oogway]] knew so much about the female anatomy...

* StayInTheKitchen: Shifu confessed that when Yeying insisted on helping Zigza get villagers to safety from the upcoming battle, he was secretly relieved considering he didn't want to worry about her being carried off by a Mongol during the fighting. Of course, he would never admit to her since he knew how insulted she would be.

* EtTuBrute: The betrayal of [[spoiler:Shan]], helping to lead the coup that murders the emperor and his family, nearly fighting Shifu to the death, and eventually helping to slay [[spoiler:the entire snow leopard clan of Mount Tai Shan]]. At the same time, [[spoiler:Shan]] himself views Shifu's refusal to join him and instead fighting him as an equally awful betrayal. Many readers felt the same stomach-turning horror at learning of this as Shifu did. [[HisStoryRepeatsItself Vachir later feels the same way about Tai Lung after his rampage]], [[DramaticIrony since they had initially been war buddies]].

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Zigzagged with the Huns; while they are shown to have committed terrible crimes in the past, Red Claw's hatred towards them is severe enough that he's willing to commit genocide, not caring whether they be innocent or guilty]].

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: When Oogway dubs the truant Five their Master names after an adventure protecting Shifu's village knowing they would likely be expelled for it.

What they read is a story about how the precocious youngest son of a rural family of Red Panda rice farmers is picked by Master Oogway to become his student. Eventually, [[TrueCompanions a group of fellow students arrive]] and they become [[GenerationXerox an earlier generation version]] of the Furious Five who save China from a Mongol invasion (which turns out to be [[spoiler:the equal victims of a [[TreacherousAdvisor traitorous]] [[GeneralRipper Chinese general]] out to [[FinalSolution exterminate them]] and thus sully China's national honor doing so]]). On a more personal level, this Five includes Master Yeying, a beautiful and ferocious feline ActionGirl, whom Shifu eventually marries as the fruition of her father's masterful long term plan to keep her from being pushed into an ArrangedMarriage to an old creditor.

* FiveManBand: The former Furious Five:
** TheLeader: There really ''is'' no leader, but Shifu is the closest the group as to one.
** TheLancer: Ochir.
** TheSmartGuy: Li (relatively speaking).
** TheBigGuy: Zigsa.
** TheChick: Yeying.

* TheDutifulSon: Shifu's eldest brother is initially deeply resentful at how his youngest brother has become a mighty and famous kung fu master, but he later gets over it.

* DistinctionWithoutADifference: The leader of the Mongol army, a Falcon who turns out to be female, prefers to think of the war as a pointless way of not letting the Mongols enter China rather than an invasion.

* {{Expy}}: In-story, Shifu initially feared Tai Lung was this of [[spoiler:Shan]] because he believed they were father and son. Although he was wrong about the blood tie, it turned out he was right about Tai Lung's future, albeit for completely different reasons.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Ren and especially Li were not really that good at hiding the fact that they were gay.

* YouDoNotWantToKnow: Shifu claims in one of his memoirs that Oogway taught him and the rest of his students about certain changes in life as they got older (including where babies come from, puberty, and the female anatomy). Shifu, however, claims that he thought it was for the best that he ''didn't'' know how Oogway knew so much about the female anatomy...

* BigDamnKiss: Shifu received one from Li in chapter 4, as a way of telling him he was gay. Shifu later then gave one to Song in chapter 5 to "confirm" his heterosexuality when he stated to Li earlier that he wasn't into guys.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: Shifu and his male friends were shown to be somewhat perverted when they became teenagers, much to the annoyance of Song who was the only female among them.

** It's also mentioned that Song started having her... "lady days" when she began puberty. Oogway explained it to the boys when they questioned what was wrong with her, but it's clear it was something they didn't want to know about.

* HandicappedBadass: Zigsa.

* StayInTheKitchen: Shifu confessed when Yeying insisted on help Zigza get villagers to safety from the upcoming battle, he was secretly relieved considering he didn't want to worry about her being carried off by a Mongol during the fighting. Of course, he would never admit to her since he knew how insulted she would be.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted in a GettingCrapPastTheRadar fashion; Mantis recalls in chapter 4 when the Furious Five were battling an army of foxes at Dragon Mountain... only for said foxes to just simply [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run away]] upon witnessing Tigress, who happened to have been on one of her "lady days" at the time. Cue to everybody else laughing while Tigress herself just scowls in embarrassment.

* WhosOnFirst: [[ShoutOut Referenced]] in the villager, Hu, who first appears when Shifu is young, only to have Li presciently claim the joke about his name would "last for centuries" and is later encountered by a young Tai Lung when he visits the village, leading to a very familiar exchange. [[spoiler:[[MoodWhiplash Hu is later killed in Tai Lung's rampage]].]]