Line #8 WesternAnimation/JadeArmor


1	[[quoteright:999:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0166.jpeg]]
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3	Starting in late 2022, ''Jade Armor'' (''L'armure de Jade'' in France) is a French superhero show made by [=TeamTO=] based on Chinese mythology and legends, featuring a young teen hero who uses the [[ElementalPowers powers of the elements of nature]] to save her city of Ban Tang from the villainous Crimson Lord and his armor shards of chaos.
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5	On her 16th birthday, young Lan Jun Ye finds herself on a clocktower between the clock's hands, with four animals (a baby tiger, a dragon, a bird and a turtle) joining her and explaining that she's meant to be the new Jade, defender of her hometown, and that they're her Beasticons, magical creatures from the stories she heard as a child. Right as she falls down, she wakes up in her room believing the whole thing is a dream... only to meet those animals again and discover she now has to wear the [[TitleDrop Jade Armor]] and purify the city from red shards of the Crimson Lord's own mystical armor, the nemesis the previous Jade fought 10 years ago.
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7	The show consists of 26 episodes of 26 minutes. It's airing on Okoo, Super RTL, occasionally on Cartoon Network and most episodes can be found in English on [[https://iview.abc.net.au/show/jade-armor ABC iView]]. It is unknown if a second season has been greenlit, but there has been an article about it on [[https://variety.com/2023/film/global/teamto-disney-france-televisions-1235638555/ Variety in 2023]].
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9	----
10	!!''Jade Armor'' contains the following tropes:
11	* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Played around with. Lan Jun and her family, sans her dad Liam, all practice Kung Fu. Her mother Xing Qi was a kung fu stuntwoman and [[spoiler: the previous Jade Armor]]. The Crimson Lord is similarly a master of martial arts hand-to-hand combat. Lan Jun's school rival Pearl Bao on the other hand, does not concern herself with martial arts at all, even if her [[TigerMom Black Tiger]] does know other fighting styles:
12	-->'''Fei Fei''': You'll need to train with LJ. A lot of intense one-on-one sessions. Pearl, that goes for you too.
13	-->'''Pearl''': Uh-uh. No thanks. Years of gymnastics. Whispering: ''I'm good.''
14	** In the same episode ("The Show Must Go On"), Pearl doddles around in boredom on the stage, unable to copy even the simplest kung fu moves from LJ. When a talent-giving shard effect is applied via stage lights however, she is able to perform a Butterfly Flip flawlessly, which took trained martial artist LJ weeks to perfect.
15	** The city of Ban Tang seems to be inspired by Hong Kong and other similar places. Many of the cities regular background characters are ordinary people who do not practice kung fu unless they do stunts in kung fu films. This is played with again when a shard effect gives someone else control over these background people and they suddenly become able to do martial arts moves.
16	** One of Lan Jun's best friends is Theo, a self-professed "Jade mega-fan" who can watch kung fu movies tens of times, is comically bad at martial arts.
17	** Contrast this to the Crimson Lord's lackey Will, another kung fu film afficionado: while an ordinary and seemingly underpaid janitor throughout the city, Will is actually quite good at different martial arts stunts and often puts up a fight longer than an ordinary person could.
18	** Notably, they use a lot of moves from [[Creator/BruceLee Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do]], as the animation team's instagram showcases many clips of the references used for the fight scenes. A lot of inspiration has been taken from [[Creator/JackieChan Jackie Chan's]] improvisational fighting style as well. The show has 5 fight choreography consultants. (Director and Storyboard Supervisor Denis Do also supervised the fight choreography; Consultants: Anthony Pho, Quentin d'Hainaut, Léo Benouaich, Wilfried Maquin and Josépha Yang)
19	* AlternateUniverse: Lan Jun gets hit by a Shard-infected pomegranate in episode 18. She wakes up in a world where she's dating her crush Kai, her mother is still around and still Jade thanks to Chenwu using his powers at an opportune time (making him much chirpier in the present), Theo is a master magician, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Alisha hates boba teas and finds Theo funny]]. Also, [[spoiler: instead of Kai,]] [[spoiler: it's Theo who has become the Crimson Lord's new pawn and "apprentice", of his own free will, probably explaining why he's so good at magic tricks in that universe]].
20	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Alisha in episode 10 asks Xinyan what he plans to do once he's become giant. Which makes him realize he can't hear the humans scream and can hardly achieve his actual goal of liberating animals and Beasticons in that state.
21	* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: In-universe, there are comics and movies based on Jade Armor and the Crimson Lord, though only Jade Armor retains her name and look in the comics, too, while the Crimson Lord is named "The Red Rogue".
22	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In episode 14, Lan Jun and Kai use a skeleton key powered by a shard to open locks at their school in search of Lan Jun's great grandmother's lucky dice. Unfortunately, the key responds to whatever the users expect or want to appear, even subconsciously. Which leads not only Lan Jun to face her mother, but Kai to [[spoiler: face his abusive father and be vulnerable to Crimson Lord's manipulations.]]
23	** In episode 10, Xinyan makes use of a shard to make himself bigger and try and take over Ban Tang. Upon realizing that becoming giant is actually more of a curse than a blessing, he harshly regrets his decision, to the point even [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Alisha]] starts to feel for him.
24	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: This is what some of the objects containing Shards do to unexpecting victims of their powers. Notable examples are the perfume bottle and the singing bowl, allowing for anyone using the shard to control people.
25	* BreadEggsBreadedEggs:
26	** '''Lan Jun:''' So, what's the plan today? Bungee jumping? Skydiving? [=BungeeSkydiving=]???
27	* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: "Beasticons, Bond! Elements of all that's made, be my armor! Make me Jade!" is what Lan Jun has to say to become Jade.
28	** Crimson Lord says "Shard of Power, reunite! Rise my armor for the fight!" whenever he gets in proximity of a Shard.
29	* CallingYourAttacks: Jade and as revealed later, the Crimson Lord as well. Justified as they need to say them to summon their Beasticons' powers (which does slow Lan Jun down after a shard takes away her voice, before she has to resort to recordings of herself, which are often not what she needs at a moment). For Jade, the instructions for summoning each power-move are written onto her jade cuff. Her beasticons have two powers each she can call out, one elemental and one more themed around what animal each beasticon represents.
30	* CardCarryingVillain: Except for Xinyan, the villains are fully aware they are villains and proud of it.
31	* {{Cliffhanger}}: Lan Jun in the finale is [[spoiler: relieved after finally completing her quest to purify all the shards]]. Zuchue worries about getting bored without shards to purify, before Chinlon points out that things may not be over while [[spoiler: small light orbs start to emit out of the city, making it seem as if the entire sky has begun to sparkle. Lan Jun reassures them those are just fireflies... but their silence makes her doubt that statement as she begins staring at the city-scape as well.]] The season ends there.
32	* ColorCharacter: This show has 4 examples: The titular hero Jade Armor, the Crimson Lord, the thief Black Tiger and her daughter Blue Lynx. Really, each character actually has a main and secondary color. Theo with green and yellow (Jade super-fan),
33	* CursedWithAwesome: The Shards often have this effect. Special mention to the one hidden inside a light projector in episode 11, that can turn even the stiffest of actors into a talented performer (as shown by Pearl instantly mastering a martial art technique that took Lan Jun months to perfect, or Chenwu going from a cacophonic singer to a melodious one). Lan Jun is so impressed she considers waiting until the play is over to purify the shard.
34	* DamnedByFaintPraise: Crimson Lord gets hit by this ''hard'' in episode 23. Jade is absolutely willing to let bygones be bygones and assume that her predecessors were wrong to try and stop him, thanks to her Shard-tinted sunglasses making her see everything through rose-tinted glasses. She's even about to give him more shards to bring him back to full power. [[spoiler: The moment he calls the previous Jade, AKA Lan Jun's mother, selfish and egotistical, she realizes it doesn't add up. Realising there's only one way to make sure, she purifies the shard inside her glasses, realizing that she wasn't thinking rationally during the whole episode because of them.]]
35	* DontThinkFeel: In the episodes "Puppets" and "Transparency", Lan Jun eventually takes the lessons given by her gram gram to heart and these help her defeat the episode villain.
36	* EarlyBirdCameo: At the end of the episode, about every plot-relevant character (save for the [[BigBad Crimson Lord]] himself) shows up while Jade runs to purify the clocktower's Shard in the first episode. The show gives us a cool SLowMotion shot showcasing each character reacting to seeing a Jade Armor for the first time in 10 years.
37	* ElementalPowers: The Beasticons go as follows:
38	** Chinlon, the water dragon, [[MakingASplash has water]] and [[AnIcePerson ice]] powers.
39	** Chenwu, the air tortoise, has power over [[BlowYouAway wind currents and wind-based attacks]].
40	** Baihu, the terra tiger, can [[DishingOutDirt control the earth and cause earthquakes]].
41	** Zuchue, the firebird, can make [[PlayingWithFire fire waves and little projecting sparks]] (that Jade can use to propel herself to higher places).
42	** Xinyan, the wood monkey, can [[GreenThumb make bamboo trees grow and affect vegetation among other things]].
43	** Pi Xiu (remaining unseen), the winged lion, can create make metal bars and manipulate metal.
44	** Tiangou (remaining unseen), the celestial dog can [[ShockAndAwe control lightning]].
45	** Jiu Wei Hu (remaining unseen but mentioned), the nine-tailed fox, can create psychic waves that can block attacks and levitate things.
46	* EmbarrassingNickname: In the French dub, Crimson Lord calls Jade "Jadounette" (AKA "Little Jade") in a faux-affectionate tone to demean her. She doesn't care.
47	* EnemyMine: Against both Black Tiger and Crimson Lord, Xinyan often half-heartedly ends up asking for Jade's help (with a lot of complaining that he has to rely on a human for help).
48	* {{Expy}}: Lan Jun's mother Xing Qi, is an intentional pastiche or send-up to [[Creator/BruceLee Bruce Lee]], as the show is heavily influenced by his Jeet Kune Do, as well as [[Creator/JackieChan Jackie Chan]] with her main job as a stunt-woman allowing her to skirt the line between her daily life and double-life as [[spoiler: Jade Armor]]
49	* FailedASpotCheck: Theo mistakes Baihu the tiger cub for a stray cat!
50	* FantasticallyIndifferent: The citizens of Ban Tang got used to the weird rather quickly. As long as it doesn't impact them, they treat it as a mundane occurrence such as when Lan Jun was shrunk by a shard and no one raised an eyebrow at it.
51	* FoeYay: Lan Jun and Pearl. It starts as a slow hint through the Romeo and Juliet homework Lan Jun skips out on and Pearl has to tutor her for extra credit. Most of their interactions are a bit competitive or Pearl likes to bully Lan Jun a bit, but is exemplified in episode 20, "The Thread" when they become best friends through a shard effect. As Lan Jun tells Alisha, they are "Just regular... kindred...eternal soul-mate friends!"
52	* {{Foil}}: Lan Jun and Kai. Both originate from wildly different families and have a secret linked to the mystical armors and Beasticons. Except Lan Jun eventually becomes a superhero, while [[spoiler: Kai temporarily joins Crimson Lord because of it]].
53	** Lan Jun and Pearl. Both have family secrets as well, with Pearl's relationship with her mother being quite strained, and Pearl later becomes Blue Lynx to foil Jade.
54	** Lan Jun once she's become Jade to the Crimson Lord as well. She herself notes that aside from his evil, they have much in common.
55	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Beasticons. Baihu as the Sanguine, Zuchue as the Phlegmatic, Chenwu as the Melancholic, and Chinlon as the Eclectic. On times where he's around, Xinyan could be seen as the Choleric.
56	* GroundhogDayLoop: In the first episode, Lan Jun gets stuck in a temporal loop until she puts on the cuff and becomes able to discern the timeloop. The Beasticons urge her to transfrom so she can seperate the first emergent crimson shard from a clock and purify it.
57	* HeroicSacrifice: Xin Qi, Lan Jun's mother and [[spoiler: the seventh Jade]], before the show began as she [[spoiler: destroyed the Crimson Lord's armor 10 years prior]].
58	** Also, [[spoiler: Xinyan in the last episode, letting Jade purify the shard in his staff, to stop the Crimson Lord from using it.]] [[spoiler: Fortunately, Lan Jun salvages it once purified and gives it back to him, letting him keep it out of gratitude for his help and giving him no obligation become her Beasticon.]]
59	* HypnoTrinket: A harmless variant. A number of shard-infused objects have the power to make others obey the one using them. For example, in episode 20, Pearl makes friendship bracelets with a Shard-infected thread, which turn her and Lan Jun into 'besties' once they wear it, finding themselves many things in common and bonding whilst having them. Their other friends' annoyance with this friendship make them cut the threads, bringing both girls back to normal once they're broken.
60	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Lan Jun herself, both in civilian form and as Jade Armor. In episode 15, "The Perfume", she actually does this intentionally as she uses an umbrella against Xinyan's bamboo staff, to get the upper hand in the fight and avoid damaging her mother's prefume bottle.
61	** Her Gran and Gram Gram (grandma and great grandma) are more traditional, but can also dish out some unusual environmental improvisation when the occasion calls for it.
62	* InternalReveal:
63	** In episode 3, Lan Jun reveals to her father that she is the new Jade Armor.
64	** In episode 25, the Crimson Lord learns that [[spoiler:Xi Qi is still alive but stuck in the city's power grid.]]
65	* InTheBlood: Lan Jun's family and Crimson Lord seem to believe this. Lan Jun herself assumes she can be a good Jade like her mother out of believing she was chosen to be like her, while her family and Crimson Lord suspect Kai of being as corrupted as his parents are.
66	* JadeColoredGlasses: Inverted quite literally. Jade gets rose-colored glasses that, due to a shard, make her [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul unable to see anything wrong in the world]], even assuming she could just become friends with the Crimson Lord instead of needlessly fighting.
67	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The memory-erasing shard in episode 8 does this, whether by entering in direct contact with someone or by infecting the town's water. Thankfully, the Beasticons were able to jog Jade's memories enough to get her back into battling Black Tiger.
68	* LimitedWardrobe: The characters rarely change their street clothes usually wearing the same thing in every instance.
69	** While Lan Yun has the most outfits out of everyone, those being her pajamas, her training clothes, her street clothes and of course the Jade Armor, she is hardly ever seen wearing anything other than one of those 4 outfits.
70	* LoveAcrossBattlelines: Because of the movie "Kiss of the Fist", it can be surmised that it's possible, one of the previous Jades in history apparently had a mutual (albeit complicated) relationship with the Crimson Lord (though whether it's the current one or a previous version isn't elaborated on). Lan Jun quickly draws parallels with no other than her school crush Kai Zhu, the descendant of the Crimson bloodline that Crimson Lord belongs to.
71	* {{Magitek}}:
72	** Black Tiger knows how to combine her gadgets with shards, increasing their power and giving them the magic of the shards.
73	** Will has created a drone that can integreate with the Crimson Lord and nearly perfectly replicate all the magical powers of his missing Beasticons.
74	** Upon transforming for the first time, Jade calls her cuff and armor "practically high-tech", seeing as the instructions looked similar to a computer screen.
75	* MissingMom: Lan Jun's mom, Qing Xi Ye. While the viewer can put this together thanks to the intro, this is revealed in episode 2, with Lan Jun's mom [[spoiler: also being the previous Jade Armor who disappeared 10 years ago.]] This and related trops are often a focal point in episodes. More is hinted already from episode 1 forward, but starting from [[spoiler: episode 15, "The Perfume", Lan Jun starts to put together that her mom might still be around.]]
76	* MultigenerationalHousehold: Lan Jun lives with her father [[spoiler:as well as mother starting with episode 25]], her grandmother and her great-grandmother in the same household. Her dad Liam travels a lot due to his archeology work.
77	* MysticalJade: In this Chinese myth-influenced show, the titular Jade Armor allows the main character Lan June to become the hero Jade.
78	* NoSell: Jade and Blue Lynx's attempts to attack each other in episode 20. Due to their soulmate friendship bracelets made with a Shard-infected spool of thread, it prevents them from harming each other until the threads are broken.
79	* NotSoDifferentRemark: A strange heroic and weaponized variant. As she fights Crimson Lord after swapping bodies with several people over town, she starts listing off the things they both have in common, be it regarding their duties, families and troubles, so as to get in his head and anticipate what move he does next.
80	* ObliviouslyEvil: Most people whose minds are affected by Shards don't genuinely mean to cause harm. [[spoiler: It later turns out that Crimson Lord himself never truly saw himself as evil and is horrified once he's shown the wrongness of his actions.]]
81	* OncePerEpisode: Xinyan pops up even in episodes where he's not a speaking character. It's a fun little easter egg from the crew as Xinyan was a big favourite among many. Can you spot the monkey?
82	* ParentalTitleCharacterization: In contrast to every other kid in the show, Kai calls his dad "Father" on the phone, reinforcing how strained his relationship with his father is. No other kid does this to their parent, but at his own admittance, his dad doesn't even spend much time with him. Each time we hear his dad speaking, we also hear how much he demands the boy to "give up nonsense" like acting or dancing. Both his parents seem to have a bad rep as they lead the corrupt power company in Ban Tang, so it makes sense that his father is much tougher on him, both of them also want him to "join the family business". Later in the show, we see [[spoiler: Kai being sent away to a military boarding school]] as punishment.
83	* PinnedToTheGround: After the Crimson Lord traps [[spoiler: Xin Qi]] in a lightbulb, Lan Jun furiously attacks him pinning him to the ground demanding to know what he did to her.
84	* PlotAllergy: Alisha's allergy to cat fur. She's all too happy to lose it when she swaps bodies with Pearl (while Lan Jun in her body suffers from it as she chases down a Shard-infected cat).
85	* RealityWarper: The shards of the Crimson Lord can change reality in all kinds of forms, including but not limited to creating an endless time loop, rearranging rooms into what the one opening the doors to them expects to find or altering the laws of physics.
86	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Beasticons may look like regular animals, but they're many thousands years old, with the exception of Baihu, who is about a thousand. The oldest of Jade's beasticon's seems to be Chinlon, at more than five thousand.
87	* RedEyesTakeWarning: Zig-zagged with many people in the cast. Lan Jun has purple eyes (orange eyes as Jade) and is quite nice, Kai has orange eyes that become red when the Crimson Lord is making him do evil, and anyone gets red eyes when under the influence of a Shard. However, as the shard's effects are usually unpredictable, getting red eyes only means the victim is affected by it rather than outright meaning they've become hostile.
88	** Played straight with the Crimson Lord, albeit eventually [[spoiler: subverted once the rest of his body becomes blue-green as he surrenders in the last episode. His eyes are still red, but he's no longer a threat.]]
89	* TheReveal:
90	** Episode 2 reveals that the previous Jade Armor was [[spoiler:Lan Jun's mother.]]
91	*** Episode 3 reveals that Liam [[spoiler:knew his wife was the 7th Jade Armor]]
92	** Episode 5 reveals that the Crimson Lord had his own set of Beasticons.
93	*** Episode 16 reveals that all but Xinyan are missing and not linked to the armor anymore.
94	** Episode 7 reveals that [[spoiler:Xin Qi is alive but in a non-corporeal form trapped in the city's power grid.]] It is shown also that Liam has a whole board dedicated to strange [[spoiler: electrical occurrences at Xin Qi's old haunts]].
95	** Episode 11 reveals that Kai's family [[spoiler:is related to the Crimson Lord.]]
96	** Episode 22 reveals that Xin Qi [[spoiler: converted her chi into energy to survive the blast that destroyed her and the Crimson Lord's armor.]]
97	* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The Beasticons. Exploited and defied in episode 7, as Lan Jun asks all the Beasticons to look their cutest in a picture (including Chenwu) so that Alisha forgives her for leaving her and Theo hanging. Aside from getting Lan Jun in trouble for sharing that picture in class, the baby eyes and huge smiles had no effect whatsoever on Alisha.
98	* RightBehindMe: Zuchue is a repeating offender of this trope. First, she sarcastically suggests to the other Beasticons in the second episode telling Lan Jun that her mom is the previous Jade, right as Lan Jun enters her bedroom and hears her say it aloud. The exact same setup happens at[[spoiler: the end of the show, as Lan Jun overhears Zuchue explain that she was chosen to be Jade purely because the Beasticons were out of option]]. Lan Jun's reaction both times is different.
99	* RippleEffectProofMemory: Putting on the Jade Bracelet causes Lan Jun to gain this ability.
100	* SecretKeeper: Lan Jun's family for her mom, quite to her frustration. Theo and Alisha later do the same with her as the new Jade.
101	** Both Lan Jun and Pearl keep their identities as Blue Lynx and Jade secret, even after making it apparent to each other that they know who the other is.
102	* ShapeshifterDefaultForm: The Beasticons have "regular animal" forms they use while around Lan Jun and "mythical creature" forms once Lan Jun becomes Jade. Xinyan doesn't seem to have such a thing thanks to being powered by a Shard he stole from Crimson Lord's armor, meaning he's almost always powered up [[spoiler: until the finale where he temporarily returns to being a regular monkey.]]
103	* ShoutOut: In Black Tiger's lair, there is a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Yoshi egg.]]
104	* StatusQuoIsGod: Downplayed. While the Crimson Lord always loses his body returning to his fluid form at the end of the episode, progression still happens chronolically and events from past episodes are mentioned from time to time, usually either by something happening or a character learning some sort of new information that is picked up again in a later episode. The show builds its sub-plots and main plot cronologically with each new episode revealing new info.
105	* SympathyForTheDevil: Jade feels this way towards Crimson Lord at times (and Xinyan a lot more often), even having a [[DaydreamSurprise dream implying she wishes]] they weren't enemies and could just hang out as casually as she does with her Beasticons and friends. [[spoiler: As stated by the news' narration in the finale, her sympathy for her enemies actually proves to be a strength, as she can often not only reason with some of them against a problem in common, or end the entire conflict without causing harm to anyone.]]
106	* TalkingAnimal: The Beasticons. Baihu subverts it, as she's still considered a baby by Beasticon standards at only a 1000 or so years old.
107	* TheFourGods: Jade Armor's 4 Beasticons alludes to them.
108	* ThePollyanna: The effect of the rose-tinted glasses that Lan Jun wears in episode 23. The summary even says that "the effect makes her so Pollyanna, she can see no evil."
109	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Subverted with Kai. He doesn't want to be like his ancestor... [[spoiler: but upon being suggested the possibility that the Jades have been [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood misinterpreting Crimson Lord's actions as falsely evil]], he openly helps him against her, believing CL to be a kindred misunderstood soul as he can relate with his father's abuse of him.]]
110	* TransformationSequence: Jade Armor, the Crimson Lord and Black Tiger have one whenever they transform, regain their body or change into their outfit.
111	* VisualPun: Jade Armor wears a jade-colored costume and isn't as talented as her predecessors due to being a newbie. She's figuratively and literally "green" (lacking in experience).
112	* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: Lan Jun goes to school throughout most of the show and often has to make up excuses to skip out on a lesson or school day. Episode 7, "Puppets" actually deals with this, as Lan Jun has a hard time balancing her personal life, school work and duties as Jade Armor.
113	* WhamEpisode: In episode 25 [[spoiler:Xi Qi returns into a form that allows her to communicate with her family, Kai finally [[HeelFaceTurn realizes the Crimson Lord has tricked him]] and the Crimson Lord gains 2 shards regaining physical form without losing it at the end of the episode.]]
114	* WorldOfPun: Everyone, even the villains, can't help but make puns any chance they get. Especially Black Tiger does a lot of cat-related puns.

Context WesternAnimation / JadeArmor