History YMMV / ADifferentLesson

** How exactly Tai Lung's [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch accent and slang]] ended up in ancient China is mostly left unaddressed in the same way the movie itself doesn't explain why Tai Lung would have a British accent in the first place. However, in one of the sequel vignettes the author does reveal the snow leopard picked up the accent when visiting the Imperial City in an attempt to come off as more erudite and elite, suggesting it's a TranslationConvention to imply high-culture Mandarin is what's being employed as opposed to what the common peasant folk would have been using...which makes the vulgarity even funnier in retrospect, though not exactly unrealistic, since there is plenty of ancient Chinese writing which indicates nobles and other upper class members were not above coarse language or crass insults when the need arose. Humorously, and intriguingly, it's entirely possible Tai Lung could have picked up the slang as well as the accent while visiting the Imperial City specifically if there had been British subjects there at the time, whether diplomats in the palace or sailors at the docks, but since the vignettes also establish this iteration of the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' universe as taking place during the Ming Dynasty, that option isn't available.

** Another more minor point of amusement: in the author's about me page, he notes that the voice he had in mind for Bao (Po's father in this fanfiction) was Bryan Cranston. Out comes ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'', and guess who Po's canon father is voiced by?

** The voice the author chose to portray Wu Xuan, if the fic were to be animated, was Creator/ChrisEvans. The reader is first introduced to him at the end of the novel as a spirit with all the nobility, warmth, wry downplayed humor, and determination to do the right thing one would expect for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse's Captain America, and this only carries through into flashback scenes in the vignettes where he is shown doing all in his power to convince Jia and Chun to perform {{Heel Face Turn}}s or at least do all they can to pull Xiu back from the brink of damnation. But when further flashbacks are made to his youth as a {{Bash Brother|s}} with Qiao Yong, he turns out to have been brash and a bit cocky, a naughty-minded jokester, and not always the best role model for heroism...which fits pretty well Evans' portrayal of [[Film/FantasticFour2005 Johnny Storm]].

* HarsherInHindsight:
** According to WordOfGod, an appropriate voice for Hai the elephant would be Creator/DianneWiest. This is the woman who, as the Evil Queen of ''Series/The10thKingdom'', spoke the line, "If I hear one whisper, one rumor, that anything is amiss, I will kill your children in front of you." [[spoiler:This is precisely what happened to poor Hai herself.]]
** The death of [[spoiler:Vachir]], already a poignant, powerful, TearJerker-laden scene, became this after the death of [[spoiler:Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan]]. The whole scene prior to this in fact does a splendid job of honoring the nobility, gravitas, and acting ability of the character's VA.
* HilariousInHindsight: A few moments.

** On a related note, Song herself being a violet-eyed snow leopardess who is nominally on the side of the bad guys, performs a HeelFaceTurn to help fight her former allies, and has a ShipTease with Po sounds a lot like Jia.

** The BigBad is a dark master of chi who used to be allied with Master Oogway, but was eventually corrupted by his lust for power, leading Oogway to seal him away until he finally made his return centuries later, after Oogway's death. Sounds an awful lot like [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3 Kai]], doesn't it?

** According to WordOfGod, an appropriate voice for Hai the elephant would be Creator/DianneWiest. This is the woman who, as the Evil Queen of ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'', spoke the line, "If I hear one whisper, one rumor, that anything is amiss, I will kill your children in front of you." [[spoiler:This is precisely what happened to poor Hai herself.]]

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The backstory of [[spoiler:Po's father]] and his actions as a highwayman vs. how everyone (including Emperor Chen) reacted to what was done to him to set him on his path, as upon first glance there seems to be a DoubleStandard here. In the end, the emperor did still agree punishment for [[spoiler:Bao]] was warranted, he likely would never have done the things he had if he hadn't been forced to desert, and there was much more going on with that bigoted general than it seemed on the surface. [[note]](Needless to say, having a general who would a) disobey direct orders b) mistreat the lower classes and c) use a particular troop's bloodthirstiness [[ItsAllAboutMe for his own ends]], no matter [[CreateYourOwnVillain what this might later turn him into in war (or civilian life!)]] with the excuse that "[[IDidWhatIHadToDo it was the only way]] for us [[CombatPragmatist to win]]" and "[[HeWhoFightsMonsters we have to win no matter the cost]]" is not something you want if you intend to be a good ruler without rebellions on your hands. And simply exiling the general while stripping him of his rank would not only have punished his innocent family, it would have left him alive and wanting revenge, likely to gather his own army and come to usurp the throne--[[TruthInTelevision something which actually happened]] fairly often [[ShownTheirWork in Chinese history]].)[[/note]] The author has gone on in his sequel vignettes to show [[spoiler:Bao]] not only hasn't gotten off scot-free but knows he did wrong and regrets it (so he isn't being forgiven [[spoiler:just because he's one of the heroes' fathers]]), and has shown more insight into him and that general. That said, it can still be a matter of personal taste whether a given reader feels how the character in question is treated by the narrative, and other characters' reactions, are fair or not--particularly when the character who isn't being immediately forgiven for similar actions is the ''villain'' of the original movie.

** How exactly Tai Lung's [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch accent and slang]] ended up in ancient China is mostly left unaddressed in the same way the movie itself doesn't explain why Tai Lung would have a British accent in the first place. However, in one of the sequel vignettes the author does reveal the snow leopard picked up the accent when visiting the Imperial City in an attempt to come off as more erudite and elite, suggesting it's a TranslationConvention to imply high-culture Mandarin is what's being employed as opposed to what the common peasant folk would have been using...which makes the vulgarity even funnier in retrospect, though not exactly unrealistic, since there is plenty of ancient Chinese writing which indicates nobles and other upper class members were not above coarse language or crass insults when the need arose. Humorously, and intriguingly, it's entirely possible Tai Lung could have picked up the slang as well as the accent while visiting the Imperial City if there had been British subjects there at the time, whether diplomats in the palace or sailors at the docks, but since the vignettes also establish this iteration of the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' universe as taking place during the Ming Dynasty, that option isn't available.

* MagnificentBitch: Xiu, in the extreme--since as noted above, what is probably her worst act would be killing her own father while framing Jia for it, yet also managing to make Jia believe ''she'' was to blame so that she would obediently stay under her thumb as an assassin for fifteen years.

* BadassDecay: Averted. While Tai Lung does become kinder, gentler, friendlier, and an all-around good guy and hero, trading his villainous tendencies for snark, he remains as awesome and incredible a fighter as ever--not to mention he’s still quite able to unleash his rage and temper on the true [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]].
%% Note: Both of the entries below [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok&page=801#comment-20017 were approved in the Complete Monster thread]].

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Somewhat subverted, for while neither [[spoiler:Tai Lung]] nor [[spoiler:Po]] die, a number of instances occur where it looks like they have or will, and such was the skill of the writing that none of the readers seemed to believe the author wouldn’t have the guts to kill them off. This may have been helped by other matters such as the DisneyDeath of [[spoiler:Mantis]] and the [[CharacterDeath actual deaths]] of [[spoiler:Zhuang and Vachir]].

* RomanticPlotTumor: Averted. Though Tai Lung and Tigress’s romance is important, particularly to his development as a character and his ability to resist the BigBad, and quite a bit of time is devoted to it, it was always planned to be so. At the same time, there’s much much more going on in the story than just this, as the length of the main page can attest.

** [[spoiler:Any scene where Monkey is feeling guilty for killing Mantis.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A number of original ideas for the first movie which were either later reworked for the TV series and sequels or which never appeared in canon are employed by the author in just as varied of manners.
** [[BadGuyBar The Bandit Inn]] appears as the mercenary den where Chao hires the Wu Sisters.
** Tai Lung's connection with the Wu Sisters is revisited, only instead of them being part of his army they are someone he met before his rampage (and who helped push him into it by playing off his insecurities and belief [[WellDoneSonGuy he would never be truly accepted or loved by Shifu]]).
** The lily-covered lake that was an initial concept for where Tai Lung would fight the Five is repurposed as the locale where he and Po fight the Wu Sisters.
** The kung fu training ground where Tai Lung met with his army becomes the place where the Wu Sisters make their base (and meet with Chao).
** A creepy image of the Wu Sisters in a moonlit birch forest shows up when they have their fight with Tigress.
** Early concept art of Tai Lung, looking far smaller and more lithe (as well as a lighter beige color) is used for Wu Xuan, the father of Mei Ling and the Wu Sisters.
** An image of Tai Lung chained in a simple prison cell, before all the levels and barriers for Chorh-Gom were invented, is recreated when he has been arrested for the murder of [[spoiler:Shen Zhuang]].
** The outfits worn by the Five to either the Ghost Festival, Emperor Chen's visit, or both are all references to their original character designs, while Shifu's golden robes are those worn by a "Golden Bear" who was an early Po concept.
** The Vault of Heroes, an underground cavern shrine to ancient kung fu masters filled with giant 100-foot statuary and housed beneath the Jade Palace steps, was originally going to be the site of Po's FinalBattle with Tai Lung, complete with statues of a snow leopard and panda. Here it is where Chao was imprisoned, and where the FinalBattle between his forces and the Jade Palace crew takes place. (Another form of it appeared as the statues surrounding the stairs to the Jade Palace in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3''.)
** The [[FusionDance demon construct]] from Po's original dream sequence is reused with the yaoguai during the FinalBattle.
** A fancy military garb look for Tai Lung is used for the snow leopard statue in the Vault, while the spiked bracer from his original design is given to him as a gift by Jia at the end of the story.
** A house originally designed for Oogway is built on the side of the Jade Mountain for Tai Lung and Tigress to live in after they wed.

** The death of [[spoiler:Vachir]], already a poignant, powerful, TearJerker-laden scene, became this after the death of [[spoiler:Michael Clarke Duncan]]. The whole scene prior to this in fact does a splendid job of honoring the nobility, gravitas, and acting ability of the character's VA.

** The aforementioned [[PsychoForHire Xiu]] is Chao's death-loving PsychoSupporter who desires to be the best assassin in her empire. She [[{{Patricide}} killed her own father]] for being "weak" and framed it on her sister, Jia, making her a wanted criminal. Xiu twisted and manipulated Jia into [[ForcedIntoEvil serving her as an assassin]] who believed her father's death was her fault. She poisoned countless soldiers who had been fighting the Huns and caused others to abandon or betray China just to avoid that fate. Upon being discovered as a traitor, she murdered her kung fu master and fled. She tried to manipulate Tai Lung into joining her with lies about his family, including planting doubts regarding Shifu and Oogway's love and pride in him. She kidnaps and traumatizes Ping, kills [[spoiler:Zhuang]] and frames Tai Lung for it, and makes multiple attempts to kill Po and Tigress. She is willing to let her sisters die to achieve her goals, and after they start having second thoughts and try to resist her, she is determined to kill them when [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she no longer needs them anymore]].

** [[BigBad Chao]] is a sadistic dark chi user. In the past, he slaughtered an entire class of young kung fu students at the Jade Palace and killed his former friends, with only Oogway surviving. Upon being freed in the present, he painfully [[DemonicPossession possesses]] Vachir--[[AndIMustScream leaving his soul in helpless residence]]--and murders at least 50 people, including [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay displays their corpses]] to get Tai Lung to face him. He corrupts the Sacred Pool [[PeoplePuppets to control everyone in the Valley]], creating a KangarooCourt and a mob to hunt down Tai Lung when he's put on trial for a murder he's been framed for. He forces Monkey to seemingly kill Mantis, causing him overwhelming guilt. To enrich his dark chi, Chao hangs a couple on grappling hooks to bleed out while their son's gutted body is between them. While he was imprisoned, his soul helped drive Tai Lung into committing his rampage, as well as keeping him focused on revenge and claiming the Dragon Scroll while the snow leopard was held in Chorh-Gom. Betraying Xiu in the end despite her unwavering loyalty, Chao was a sadist who [[ImmortalityImmorality wanted to live forever]] and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans force his vision of perfection]] on the world.
** The aforementioned [[PsychoForHire Xiu]] is Chao's death-loving PsychoSupporter who desires to be the best assassin in her empire. She [[{{Patricide}} killed her own father]] for being "weak" and framed it on her sister, Jia, making her a wanted criminal. Xiu twisted and manipulated Jia into [[ForcedIntoEvil serving her as an assassin]] who believed her father's death was her fault. She poisoned countless soldiers who had been fighting the Huns and caused others to abandon or betray China just to avoid that fate. Upon being discovered as a traitor, she murdered her kung fu master and fled. She tried to manipulate Tai Lung into joining her with lies about his family, including planting doubts regarding Shifu and Oogway's love and pride in him. She kidnaps and traumatizes Ping, kills Zhuang and frames Tai Lung for it, and makes multiple attempts to kill Po and Tigress. She is willing to let her sisters die to achieve her goals, and after they start having second thoughts and try to resist her, she is determined to kill them when [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she no longer needs them anymore]].

** [[BigBad Chao]] is a sadistic dark chi user. In the past, he slaughtered an entire class of young kung fu students at the Jade Palace and killed his former friends, with only Oogway surviving. Upon being freed in the present, he painfully [[DemonicPossession possesses]] Vachir-—[[AndIMustScream leaving his soul in helpless residence]]--and murders at least 50 people, including [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay displays their corpses]] to get Tai Lung to face him. He corrupts the Sacred Pool [[PeoplePuppets to control everyone in the Valley]], creating a KangarooCourt and a mob to hunt down Tai Lung when he's put on trial for a murder he's been framed for. He forces Monkey to seemingly kill Mantis, causing him overwhelming guilt. To enrich his dark chi, Chao hangs a couple on grappling hooks to bleed out while their son's gutted body is between them. While he was imprisoned, his soul helped drive Tai Lung into committing his rampage, as well as keeping him focused on revenge and claiming the Dragon Scroll while the snow leopard was held in Chorh-Gom. Betraying Xiu in the end despite her unwavering loyalty, Chao was a sadist who [[ImmortalityImmorality wanted to live forever]] and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans force his vision of perfection]] on the world.

** [[BigBad Chao]] is a sadistic dark Chi user. In the past, he slaughtered an entire class of young kung fu students at the Jade Palace and killed his former friends, with only Oogway surviving. Upon being freed in the present, he painfully possesses Vachir-—[[AndIMustScream leaving his soul in helpless residence]]--and murders at least 50 people, including [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay displays their corpses]] to get Tai Lung to face him. He corrupts the Sacred Pool to control everyone in the Valley, creating a monstrous court and a mob to hunt down Tai Lung when he's put on trial for a murder he's been framed for. He forces Monkey to seemingly kill Mantis, causing him guilt. To enrich his dark Chi, Chao hangs a couple on grappling hooks to bleed out while their son's gutted body is between them. While he was imprisoned, his soul helped drive Tai Lung into committing a rampage while in Chorh-Gom. Betraying Xiu in the end despite her unwavering loyalty, Chao was a sadist who wanted to live forever and force his vision of perfection on the world.
** The aforementioned [[PsychoForHire Xiu]] is Chao's death-loving PsychoSupporter who desires to be the best assassin in her empire. She [[{{Patricide}} killed her own father]] for being "weak" and framed it on her sister, Jia, making her a wanted criminal. Xiu twisted and manipulated Jia into serving her as an assassin who believed her father's death was her fault. She poisoned countless soldiers who had been fighting the Huns and caused others to abandon or betray China just to avoid that fate. Upon being discovered as a traitor, she murdered her kung fu master and fled. She tried to manipulate Tai Lung into joining her with lies about his family, including planting doubts regarding Shifu and Oogway's love and pride in him. She kidnaps and traumatizes Ping, kills Zhuang and frames Tai Lung for it, and makes multiple attempts to kill Po and Tigress. She is willing to let her sisters die to achieve her goals, and after they start having second thoughts and try to resist her, she is determined to kill them when [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she no longer needs them anymore]].