The Vow / Characters

See the Kung Fu Panda Character Sheet to read more about the canon examples.

Warning: This page contains some unmarked spoilers, so tread carefully.

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Lord Shen

"Happiness... must be taken. And I will take mine."

The white-colored heir of Gongmen City's noble peacocks who's suddenly asked to court Lady Lianne. As he slowly falls in love with her, his canon story starts taking place.

And Now You Must Marry Me: He tells Lianne that his first act as China's new emperor will be making her his queen as a form of punishment. After Po's apparent death, he puts in place their second wedding, but when he realizes that he loves Lianne too much, he interrupts the ceremony and releases her. However, she finalizes the marriage ceremony before she leaves.
Anonymous Benefactor: After being forced to live in the secrecy of the Shan Palace, Shen occasionally uses his genius from the shadows for the benefit of his wife's province.
Badass Boast: He gives a subdued one when Lianne questions his decision to teach her self-defense by using his Guan Dao against her.
Lianne: Why aren't you using a practise weapon?!
Shen: I know how to use a weapon, so therefore I have no need of it.
Berserk Button: Don't hurt or court Lianne, and don't compare him with her father.
Break the Haughty: He undergoes one, starting with his below-mentioned Villainous BSoD. After this, he's defeated by Po as per canon, yet he survives death. After he reunites with Lianne, he's forced to live the rest of his life as his wife's prisoner and in secrecy, unable to receive credit for using his intellect occasionally for Shēnghuó's benefit. He's also forced to cope with the fact that his near-death experience has left him with injuries from which he can never fully recover, and his failed attempt to hasten the healing process makes a full recovery less likely. This is particularly disheartening for him because now he has become as damaged as all those who have wrongfully claimed him to be have said.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The Brooding Boy to Lianne's Gentle Girl. He's not willing to socialize more than necessary because of being rejected by most people no matter what he does. Lianne empathizes that and attempts to gently encourage him to show people his noble side.
Byronic Hero: An intelligent noble who's alienated because of congenital traits? Check. Acts in a proud manner and tries to prove himself to the world in response? Check. Loses the sight of the moral line in his fervent ambition? Check. Spends the latter half of the story seeking revenge for all the perceived wrongdoings? Check. Even in hatred unable to let go of the woman he fell in love with? Check.
Cannot Spit It Out: He can't confess his feelings for Lianne directly before her mother dies.
Combat Pragmatist: During his duel with Lianne in the library, he berates her for holding back and not giving everything to keep herself alive like he taught her.
Crazy Jealous Guy: He humiliates the three suitors Lianne's father forces his daughter to tolerate. When he hears about Lianne's engagement with Lord Juan, he immediately sets out toward Gongmen City in order to remove Juan from the picture.
Crazy-Prepared:
- Shen's able to counter a knife thrown at his chest by Haun because he has trained specifically to counter that move no matter the cost.
- Had it been up to him, Tai Lung's restraint would have been included with paralyzing venom in case the snow leopard escaped by any chance.
- Shen predicts that he'd end up destroying the Tower of the Sacred Flame and prepares accordingly.
Dating Catwoman: With Lianne after Shen returns to her life. While he intends to make her his queen as revenge for her "betrayal", he still loves specifically her.
Deadpan Snarker: He's occasionally sarcastic at what he considers stupidity.
Dented Iron: Shen is left with a less nimble right wing and a limping left leg as a reminder of the bone-breaking ordeal of his final defeat. No longer able to fight as quickly and nimbly as before, he compensates with a more defensive fighting style that includes supporting his weight with his right leg and using his left wing for swordplay.
Determinator: As Ah-Ma states, Shen will try to move a mountain if he's told it's impossible. His desire to see Lianne one last time makes him walk with an injured leg for weeks. The epilogue deconstructs this; when he tries to practice with his still injured body prematurely, he ends up hurting himself more.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Even if Shen harbors hatred toward Lianne for three decades, he never stops loving her. He allows his love to resurface fully again when he forgives her unfounded betrayal, and then he sets her free. It's his love for her that instead of letting himself die following his final defeat, he limps all the way back to Shēnghuó to see her one more time.
- Shen has not been able to completely forget his love toward his parents and Ah-Ma either.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He honestly expects his parents to ignore his crime of mass murder and be proud of him for preventing his prophesied downfall, making their shock and his following banishment a complete bolt from the blue for him.
Eviler than Thou: When Shen is hired to design Tai Lung's restraint, he notes to himself that the snow leopard's non-lethal attack on the Valley of Peace looks tame when compared to the panda massacre he committed.
Face–Heel Turn: As anyone who has seen the movie can guess.
Gadgeteer Genius: Shen himself has designed his modified Guan Dao and the Iron Claws protecting his feet. He also invents firework shooters to ensure safe launches, and from those he creates his cannons. He's also the one who's hired to invent the restraint that keeps Tai Lung immobilized for twenty years.
Handicapped Badass: Many people believe that Shen was born damaged, but while's he's unusually colored, he's not really physically limited, making this trope subverted. However, while he survives his final defeat, his body is damaged due to being trashed by a wreck-filled stream and right after that, walking for weeks with an injured leg. This makes Shen unable to ever regain his former physical prowess fully, especially after he unsuccessfully tries to force his body get back in shape prematurely. After he has recovered as much as possible, he trains himself to fight with a new style that takes into account his physical limitations.
Heartbroken Badass: Becomes this after his banishment and later after releasing his newlywed wife out of love.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Zhan met as children and have been friends ever since, though their relationship is now more like between master and servant. After Zhan is sent away by Shen just before the peacock's defeat and the wolf discovers his survival, they part ways to live their separate lives.
I Call It "Vera": He prefers to call his cannons "the Weapons", finding that name to be simple yet ambiguous and threatening.
I Did What I Had to Do: He justifies the mass murder of pandas as protection of his destiny. Later he says this about knocking Zhan unconscious and sending him away with his pack, because his best friend wouldn't have otherwise left and avoided dying with his master.
Interspecies Romance: With Lianne.
I've Come Too Far: He repeatedly uses this line when he's begged by Lianne and Ah-Ma to reconsider his dark path.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When he realizes that he loves Lianne too much to chain her to him on his dark path, he suddenly interrupts their second marriage ceremony and sets her free.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He starts out as this, but sadly he does a Face–Heel Turn. He returns to this attitude in the epilogue.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He starts off as an aggressive Jerk with a Heart of Gold who threatens people, but then he executes Haun in an excessively sadistic manner for hurting and (supposedly) raping Lianne. After he immerses himself in making sure his name goes down in history books, his first reaction to overhearing a vague prophecy of his demise is to slaughter a village of innocent pandas without shame.
Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He kills Haun in a sadistic way for kidnapping and hurting Lianne.
Light Is Not Good: Even before his Face–Heel Turn, Shen's arrogant and short-tempered. This is partly because of the alienation he has faced due to his pale coloring that symbolizes death in Chinese culture.
Love Epiphany: Shen realizes that he has fallen in love with Lianne when they're alone together at the end of the Moon Festival they put up together.
Mad Scientist: He verges into this territory with his experiments on black powder.
Misplaced Retribution: When he's banished, he takes Lianne's seemingly cold response to it to mean that she has cast him aside as an inconvenience and believes so for the next thirty years, not knowing of her true role in preventing his execution. When Shen returns to Gongmen, he takes Lianne prisoner, treats her scornfully and announces his intention to wed her in order to make her suffer. When he's finally told what she did to save him, he feels disgusted with himself.
My God, What Have I Done?: He feels this way about his treatment of Lianne after she confirms that she didn't turn her back on him like he has believed for the last thirty years, but instead narrowly saved him from execution.
Not Good with Rejection: Upon his banishment, Shen takes at face value Lianne's cold facade and includes her as one of his targets of revenge.
Not Quite Dead: After Master Oogway gives him the location of an abandoned mine rich in metals in the northern mountains, Shen goes into hiding for two decades to prepare for his conquest and is believed by most of China's people to have died, until he takes back Gongmen City. Later he apparently dies in his final confrontation with Po, but he reaches Lianne weeks later. His survival is afterwards kept a secret from anyone outside the Shan Palace (though Zhan and Jade discover it before they leave China).
Papa Wolf: After he warms up to Zian, he's as determined as Lianne to keep their son safe by keeping his existence a secret until he's old enough.
The Perfectionist: This is one of his most prominent traits.
Protagonist Journey to Villain: He's one of the two main characters, and this fanfic starts shortly before his Start of Darkness.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: He does experimenting in his laboratory and is able to personally lead his wolves on missions.
Sadistic Choice: He puts the trapped nobility of China into one; either they support him in his conquest of China or resist him and lose more lives. Fortunately, they're freed by Po and the Furious Five.
Scars Are Forever: He has burn marks on his feet from an accident that occurred when he was fourteen.
Sex–Face Turn: Subverted. Even though he rekindles his love toward Lianne and sleeps with her, he remains true to his goals.
Shame If Something Happened: When Shen realizes that Zhan has fallen in love with Jade, he says this to the Wolf Boss in order to keep him focused on their upcoming conquest.
Something Else Also Rises: During some of his more intimate moments with Lianne, Shen has to fight his body's urge to fan out his train and give a loud cry.
Strong Family Resemblance: When Lianne sees Shen for the first time in thirty years, she notes that the now fully grown peacock would be the spitting image of his late father, if not for being slightly taller and colored differently.
Sword Cane: He designs a thin short sword that can be pulled out of a cane for his personal use in the epilogue.
Symbolic Mutilation: Shen spends most of the story as a swift warrior who cannot be dissuaded from finding a way against the odds and is falsely labelled as a sickly albino by his enemies. By the time of the epilogue, he's left with bone injuries that can never fully heal and limit his fighting capacity, damaging his pride. This comes with the fact that he has to live confined in his wife's home, unable to enter the world again.
That Man Is Dead: After taking over Gongmen City, Shen tells Lianne that the peacock she loved is long gone.
Tragic Keepsake: The ornament knife given by Lianne as a wedding gift.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Shen's white coloring makes him look unhealthy and abnormal to the opposite gender of his species, while Lianne is regarded beautiful even by her own species' standards. They ultimately become married.
Utopia Justifies the Means: He has his soldiers make examples of possible criminals with intimidation to ensure the obedience of the citizens so that there wouldn't be any crimes or other "unwanted pieces".
Villainous BSoD: He succumbs to this after his marriage to Lianne and his release of her.
What Have I Become?: During his Villainous BSoD, he wonders what a younger Shen would think about the man he'd become in thirty years later.
We Will Meet Again: He promises this to his loved ones when he's banished. His parents are the only ones he never sees again.
Shen: This is not over. All of you! This is NOT over! Someday father... someday I will return, and prove to you all what a grave mistake you have made this day. When I return, I will collect my debts, and all of China will bow at my feet! You will see! I will make you see!

Lady Lianne

The only child of the swan rulers of the Shēnghuó Province. She is sent to live with Shen's family for a year with the hopes of engagement. While they're initially hostile to each other, she forms an unlikely bond with Shen and they're eventually engaged, but after Shen is banished and his parents pass away, she becomes Gongmen City's ruler. After Shen takes over the city, Lianne struggles both to stop his plans and save him from himself.

As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Her name is a Latin one, rather than a Chinese one.
Beauty Equals Goodness: A very beautiful and moral noble lady. Ah-Ma even lampshades this trope when she first meets Lianne.
Berserk Button: Don't insult her mother or judge people for their congenital traits, even if she doesn't like said people. Also, don't hurt children.
Broken Bird: She becomes this after her groom Shen is banished.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The Gentle Girl to Shen's Brooding Boy. She understands his reluctance to try and win the people's favor after facing rejection for all his life, so she makes gentle attempts to encourage him.
Calling the Old Man Out:
- After one of the suitors called by her father became too lewd and she humiliated him for that, she argued for hours with her father for trying to marry her off to such a person. The screaming match ended up with her being sent to Gongmen City as punishment.
- She confronts Chang again when she's visiting home.
Celibate Heroine: She remains unmarried for thirty years after Shen's banishment and starts looking for a husband only because of the duty to produce heirs while she still can. She sleeps with Shen after he forgives her unfounded betrayal, and she finalizes their marriage out of her own will.
Combat Hand Fan: She's taught by Shen to defend herself with a war-fan.
Dating Catwoman: With Shen after he returns to her life. Lianne tries to balance between stopping Shen's plans and reaching out to his buried kinder side.
Defiant Captive: During her time as Haun's — and years later as Shen's — prisoner, she strives to retain her dignity.
Defrosting Ice Queen: She dons an unemotional mask when she first arrives in Gongmen City, but she becomes warmer when her respect is earned.
Expy: Her appearance is on purpose based on that of Odette in her swan form. She quotes several times Odette and is even called the Swan Princess during her rule.
Fan Art: See here.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Her feathers on the top of her head (from her forehead to the back of her skull) are colored brilliant golden yellow, "as if she has been kissed by the sun".
Heroic BSoD: She spends the day following Po's apparent death in this mode. Later she gets a worse one when Shen is believed to have died. She spends most of her time brooding in the Shan Palace's lake, barely sleeps and eats only enough to keep her unborn child healthy.
Honorary Princess: The people of Gongmen City like this compassionate lady so much that they start calling her "The People's Princess" and "The Swan Princess" during her stewardship.
If You Taunt Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: Even when she's insulted by Shen, she refuses to make insults about his appearance because then she'd be no better than those people who mock her mother's appearance.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Her oceanic blue eyes reflect her gentle nature.
Interspecies Romance: With Shen.
It's All My Fault: She blames herself of Shen becoming exiled and embittered toward his loved ones, and for that reason she allows him to treat her with hatred.
Kirk Summation: She gives one to Haun during her time as his captive.
Light Is Good: As a contrast to Shen's Light Is Not Good theme.
Love Cannot Overcome: She attempts to leave after all her attempts to save Shen from himself seem to yield no results, until she's caught between Shen and Po's duel in the fireworks factory.
Love Martyr: All the murders and other villainous actions of Shen can't make her stop loving him. She even marries him out of her own will when he's no longer even forcing her into it.
Love Revelation Epiphany: Lianne realizes fully her love for Shen only when he confesses his own feelings for her.
Mama Bear:
- Upon seeing the wolves beating a rabbit child, she immediately rushes to tell them off. She then takes the child to the Tower's kitchen and has him taken care of.
- Once it becomes clear to her that she's pregnant with Shen's child, she becomes determined to keep it safe. After having laid the egg, she watches over it fervently until Zian hatches. In order to protect him from his father's legacy, she decides to raise him in secrecy until he is old enough.
Meaningful Name: Her name means "downy grace" in Latin.
Neutral Female: Averted during the fight in the fireworks factory; Lianne tries to (fruitlessly) stop the duel between Shen and Po.
Offered the Crown: She's named by Lord Goa as Gongmen City's ruler before his death, despite having never become married to his family.
Pacifist: She starts as an Actual Pacifist, but Shen's training makes her more along the lines of a Martial Pacifist.
Please Spare Him, My Liege!: She begs on her knees before Shen's parents and Gongmen City's council for Shen to be exiled instead of executed, hoping that he'd come to realize his errors and repent.
Reluctant Ruler: She's not willing to take up Gongmen City's stewardship, feeling it to be betrayal toward Shen and his parents, but she's supported so much by the citizens and the Masters' Council. The way she refuses to use the rulers' bedchamber or the high lord's throne shows how much she is an example of this trope.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: The night after Shen has taken over Gongmen City, Lianne takes it upon herself to locate Lang and send him to deliver her plea for help, distracting Shen's soldiers to allow him to escape. Lampshaded later when at one point she sees to a fireplace instead of calling a servant to attend to it.
Shen: Why not call for a servant?
Lianne: Why should I, when I have two capable wings and am right here?
Shen: You are a highborn lady.
Lianne: And that matters... how?
Silk Hiding Steel: She's a pacifist and trained in the ways of noble women, but she's anything but a docile lamb.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Shen only when she gets to know his hidden kinder side. Her love toward him doesn't die despite everything he does after his Face–Heel Turn, because she wants to believe that the man she fell in love with still exists somewhere within the would-be conqueror.
Standing Between the Enemies: She does this near the end of Shen and Po's confrontation in the fireworks factory to stop them from killing each other. Regardless of that, Shen crushes Po's spirit by claiming that the panda's parents didn't love him before firing his cannon at Po, though not before tackling Lianne out of the way.
Swans A-Swimming: She is elegant and beautiful even by her species' standards.
Took a Level in Badass: After Shen teaches her self-defense, she can hold her own against him.
Tragic Keepsake: The silver fan and the wedding circlet given by Shen as gifts.
Trauma Conga Line: Lianne's entire life seems to become one. While she has a very close relationship with her mother and uncle, she's unable to find common ground with her father. After her womanly beauty blossoms, Chang pressures her to pick up a husband and give him a grandson as an heir. When she calls him out after one of the suitors turns out to be too lewd, she's punished by being sent to live with strangers for a year. While in Gongmen City, she's kidnapped by a bandit group, though she's rescued fairly quickly. When she gets a word that her mother has fallen ill, she rushes home where her father intends to continue pressuring her into marriage. Then Lady Amelia dies and Lianne is grief-stricken, but then she becomes engaged with Shen and is in seventh heaven. However, the wedding is interrupted with the revelation that the man Lianne is about to marry has committed mass murder. Shen is banished from Gongmen, leaving Lianne to miss him for thirty years and believe him to be dead for two decades. Suddenly Shen returns, takes over Gongmen City and imprisons Lianne (killing a friend of hers along the way), intending to conquer China and forcibly make her his queen. For the following weeks, Lianne struggles with having to see the depths the man she loves has fallen into and trying both to stop him and make him come to his senses. After she marries Shen out of her own will yet is sent away by him, she returns to her birth home and makes peace with her estranged father just before he dies. Right after that, Lianne hears that her husband has apparently died. After getting a final confirmation of it, she's ready to die and only her pregnancy prevents her from doing that. Fortunately, Shen returns to Lianne and they manage to live together with their son.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Lianne is regarded beautiful even by her species' standards, while Shen is considered unhealthy and abnormal by the opposite gender of his species. They ultimately become married.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Though Lianne resents her distant father and rebels against him as much as she can, she'd like to have some common ground with Chang and for him to show some affection.
What the Hell, Hero?: She calls out Jade for almost causing the fireworks factory to explode in an attempt to sabotage Shen's plans. She also attempts this with Shen several times, for all the benefit it does.
When She Smiles: Shen finds her to be even more beautiful when she smiles.

Zhan the Wolf Boss

The leader of Gongmen City's royal wolf guard as well as Shen's body guard and friend.

Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After his father — the previous alpha — died when he was fifteen, Zhan fought off all challengers for the leadership position quickly.
But Now I Must Go: In the epilogue, Zhan leaves China with his pack and Jade in order to find a new life for them in the west.
Catchphrase: His line from the movie: "You mess with the wolf, you get the fangs."
A Child Shall Lead Them: Zhan quickly put his pack in line in a few hours after his father died and the leadership position was fought over. He was a teenager by that time.
Et Tu, Brute?: Lianne is saddened by his part in the panda slaughter and his apparent lack of remorse for it.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He regards his pack as his family and develops feelings for Jade.
Eye Scream: He receives scars on his left eye from the rake of Po's father.
Face–Heel Turn: He remains on Shen's side after the panda massacre and the exile.
A Father to His Men: After Lianne pleads Zhan to think how many losses his pack would suffer against the imperial army, he blurts out a lame excuse to Shen about it being half a year to the year of the peacock in order to delay the invasion.
Get Out!: He orders his men away after Jade is shown to be the captured spy.
Handicapped Badass: Losing the eyesight of his left eye doesn't make him lose his pack's leadership.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Shen met as children and have been friends ever since, though their relationship is now more like between master and servant. After Zhan is sent away by Shen just before the peacock's defeat and the wolf discovers his survival, they part ways to live their separate lives.
Interspecies Romance: He develops an affection toward Jade.
It Has Been an Honor: He tells Shen and Lianne that serving both of them has been this before he sets out toward west.
Let's Dance: He says this to one of the two leopard members of Haun's gang in their rematch.
Named by the Adaptation: Was named only as the Wolf Boss in the source material.
Noble Wolf: He's a proud and loyal, even if a bit gruff, wolf.
The Nose Knows: He regularly uses his keen sense of smell to locate targets.
Number Two: He's Shen's personal confidant. After his Face–Heel Turn, he serves as Shen's Dragon. He renounces this status in the epilogue.
Scars Are Forever: After the above mentioned Eye Scream, his left eye remains closed with three jagged scars running over it.
Spared by the Adaptation: When Jade makes Shen realize that he can't lead Zhan to his possible death, the peacock takes the wolf out and sends him away with the majority of his pack right before the final confrontation with Po.
Symbolic Mutilation: Zhan follows Shen without question, losing his left eye during the panda massacre. He still supports Shen, but he's really only half-blind because Lianne manages to instill in him doubts regarding the risks Shen's plans of conquest entail to his pack.
Undying Loyalty: He has sworn fealty just to Shen for the kindness the peacock prince showed to his pack in their childhood. Shen's act of knocking him unconscious and sending him away before he can die makes Zhan angry with the peacock. Upon discovering Shen's survival, Zhan resigns his loyalty and parts ways with Shen, though not on hostile terms.
Utopia Justifies the Means: He claims to Lianne that Shen will bring forth a future where the wolves are not discriminated for being born what they are.
Volleying Insults: He regularly trades these with Jade in friendly spirits.
Was It All a Lie?: He's genuinely hurt when Jade is exposed as a spy.
We Used to Be Friends: His friendship with Lianne becomes strained after the above mentioned Et Tu, Brute? moment. However, their final moment together in the epilogue marks them again as friends.

Ah-Ma the Soothsayer

"I am many things my Lady. I am advisor, councillor, elder, fortune teller, a nurse, a doctor and anything else the peacocks require of me. But for you, I am naught but an old woman, and a friendly ear to listen."

An old and wise adviser and fortune teller of Gongmen City's nobility and Shen's former nanny.

Blessed with Suck: In her last appearance, she regards her divination gift as a curse in the grand scheme of things.
Cool Old Lady: She's both wise and personable.
Court Mage: The court Soothsayer, to be more precise.
Deadpan Snarker: She continuously finishes Shen's sentences for him, and he tries to substitute his last words with close enough alternatives in order to deny her ability of knowing the future.
Eccentric Mentor: She likes giving advice in riddles and ripping off Shen's silk.
Extreme Omni-Goat: She has a habit of chewing Shen's silk clothes to get on his nerves.
The Medic: She instructs Lianne to prepare medicine for Shen when he has inhaled black powder.
Ms. Exposition: She serves several times as this to other characters.
- Just before Shen releases Ah-Ma, she lets him finally know that Lianne didn't abandon him thirty years earlier but begged him to be banished instead of executed.
- In her final appearance, she tells Lianne of how Shen was defeated by Po.
Named by the Adaptation: Was only called the Soothsayer in the movie.
Stealth Hi/Bye: She seems to appear out of nowhere several times.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: She has amber eyes that allude to the secret knowledge she possesses.

Lord Goa & Lady Jing

The peacock rulers of Gongmen City and Shen's parents.

Beware the Nice Ones: It takes a lot to make the calm and fair Lord Goa angry, but when that happens, he can be just as blind with fury as his son can be.
Death by Despair: When about a decade after Shen's banishment there are no more news of him, it doesn't take long for Lady Jing to pass away. Lord Goa follows shortly after.
Empty Shell: After their only child becomes a mass murderer and is subsequently banished by them, Goa and Jing both become shadows of their former selves. While they still keep Gongmen prosperous, they no longer have much drive to live. After there are no more news telling them of Shen being alive, they completely fade away.
Good Parents: Before Shen's mass murder of pandas, there was no bad blood between him and his parents. His unusual coloring didn't prevent them from loving him, and apparently they had Ah-Ma take care of him mostly when they were too busy with their duties. They comply with Lianne's plea to banish him instead of executing him to be as merciful as possible, and their love for Shen never dies.
Happily Married: They're perfectly happy together.
I Have No Son!: Goa says this word to word when he's forced to banish Shen.
Lord Goa: I have no son... No son of mine would disgrace me as you have done.
King on His Deathbed: Lord Goa's last act before his death is to name Lianne as the inheritor of Gongmen City's stewardship. He tells her and the councilors this in his deathbed, and he refuses to take no for an answer.
Named by the Adaptation: They weren't given names in the movie.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Concerned about Shen's obsession with fireworks' destructive capabilities, Goa and Jing ask for Ah-Ma's advice, even though the fortune teller warns them that what she may foretell might not help to ease their minds. They nevertheless ask her to do so, leading their son to overhear the prophecy about him and the "Warrior of Black and White".
O.C. Stand-in: They were described only vaguely in the movie.
Papa Wolf: Goa does care for his son's safety, making it extremely hard for him to banish Shen. This extends to Lianne as well; for the last ten years of his life, Goa prevents Lord Chang from forcing Lianne to return home so that he could continue pressuring her into marriage.
Parental Substitute: Lianne gains from Lord Goa fatherly affection her own father has never shown her, and Lady Jing gives her some motherly affection in the absence of Lady Amelia.
Parents as People: As loving as they are, they are unable to recognize the growing darkness in Shen and do something about it before it's too late.
Pink Means Feminine: Lady Jing often wears pink robes.
Politically Incorrect Hero: While otherwise decent people, they share the common people's prejudices against the wolves (though thankfully this isn't shown much).
Reasonable Authority Figure: When Lang arrives to interrupt Shen and Lianne's wedding to inform of the panda massacre, Goa and Jing agree to hear him out.
Strong Family Resemblance: When Lianne sees Shen for the first time in thirty years, she notes that the now fully grown peacock would be the spitting image of Lord Goa, if not for being slightly taller and colored differently.

Lord Chang

"Lord Chang is like the current of the river. He controls the direction of his own path and believes he knows what is best when sending others down the path he chooses. He does not like it when others go against his guidance and therefore he has no control over their fate." — Ah-Ma

The Shēnghuó Province's ruler and Lianne's father. An ambitious swan obsessed with making his mark on the world, he attempts to marry off his only child to secure the family's legacy.

Black Eyes of Evil: Downplayed. Chang's eyes are described to be black, but he's at his worst a Jerkass.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: His relationship with Lady Amelia. At one point he calls her the compassion and gentleness that serves as the contrast to his harsh worldview.
Drowning My Sorrows: He succumbs to strong spirits and drinks after his wife's death.
I Want Grandkids: More specifically, a grandson as his heir. When Lianne tells him of her pregnancy, he's happy enough for her to care about the child's gender or its father's identity and lets himself to finally pass away.
Jerkass: He shows his dislike toward Shen immediately upon first meeting him, treats his only child more like a servant than a daughter and hardly acts with politeness expected of the Lordship.
Jerkass Has a Point: He reasons to Lianne his obsession to found a dynasty as a means to avoid their family suddenly becoming impoverished (which is something that has happened to many rich families in real life), saying that it's easy to fall from grace.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's ultimately revealed to be this. All his somewhat extreme actions were to ensure that the future generations of his family would endure the test of time. As hard as it may be for him to show it, he does love his daughter, wife and brother in his own way.
Like Parent, Like Child: Initially it seems like Lianne and her father have nothing in common, yet after three decades of estrangement, this is proven wrong. Without realizing it, they both have employed spies to keep an eye out for each other. Chang reveals that every time Lianne defied him, he was reminded of his younger self, for he used to resent his own father. Hong says that father and daughter are both so stubborn they can't see their similarities.
Mean Boss: According to Ah-Ma, Chang is fair with his subjects. If that's true, his general jerkass attitude would make him this trope.
Meaningful Name: His name means "flourishing" or "prosperous" in Chinese. He made his province prosperous with new ways in agriculture and farming. He's also obsessed with ensuring his family's prosperity for the future generations.
Papa Wolf: When Chang hears about Shen's return to Gongmen City and his imprisonment of Lianne, he's ready to do anything he must to raise an army and free his daughter. Unfortunately, he suffers a stroke that makes him unable to do that.
Parental Neglect: He was too busy molding Lianne into a carrier of his legacy to have much — if any — bonding with her.
Sibling Yin-Yang: With his more gentle and docile younger brother Hong.
So Proud of You: When Lianne tells him of her pregnancy, Chang gives her a real smile for the first time in her life.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In his angry grief over Lady Amelia's death, Lord Chang yells at Shen that he's living in his parents' shadow and that history will never remember him for great achievements. Haunted by those words, Shen ends up accidentally inventing black powder and modifying his rocket launchers into cannons. We know how it goes from there.
When He Smiles: When being told that his daughter is going to become a mother, he smiles in a way that makes Lianne feel that she's seeing her father for the first time in her life.

Lady Amelia

Lord Chang's wife and Lianne's mother. A black swan from a western empire.

All of the Other Reindeer: She's described to be a perfect ruler with her kind heart, gentle grace and regal nature, yet many people regard her odd because of her black plumage.
Altar Diplomacy: She was offered to Chang by her homeland's king in order to finalize a peace treaty. She actually had to choose between him and Hong, yet she couldn't decide between two men she didn't know. Pitying her, Chang offered to liberate her from having to choose either, even if it threatened the peace treaty. She chose Chang for that act of mercy.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Her relationship with Lord Chang. At one point Chang calls her the compassion and gentleness that serves as the contrast to his harsh worldview.
Dark Is Not Evil: Her plumage is black, but she's much nicer than her husband.
Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. When she meets Shen for the first time, she says with approval in her eyes that he's taller than she expected him to be.
Good Parents: She's loved very much by Lianne who feels Amelia understands her better than Chang.
Incurable Cough of Death: She deliberately hides from Lianne the handkerchief on which she coughed blood, though Shen spots it. She dies in the next chapter.
Sacrificial Lion: Her death is the last push needed for Shen and Lianne to confess their feelings and become engaged, because Lianne missed her birth home mainly because of her mother.
Shipper on Deck: When she is visited by Lianne and Shen in the Shēnghuó Province, she's strongly implied to like the idea of Shen and Lianne together.
Tears of Joy: She sheds these when Lianne returns home to visit her in her sickbed.

Lord Hong

Lord Chang's younger brother and Lianne's uncle.

Air Quotes: He does this while talking with Shen about the peacock's "death".
Chekhov's Gunman: He doesn't get much focus until the last chapters of the story.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He eventually accepted Lady Amelia's marriage to his brother if it meant that she'd be happy.
Like a Daughter to Me: Chang tells Lianne that when Hong first held her in his wings, his expression indicated that he wished for her — the daughter of the woman he loved — to be his child. He also regards Lianne's son Zian like his grandchild.
Love at First Sight: He was smitten with Lady Amelia from the moment he first saw her.
Nice Guy: Hong is more polite than his brother and emotionally more supportive toward Lianne. While Chang excuses himself from Shen and Lianne's wedding, Hong attends it. He even forgave Chang for winning Amelia's heart.
Secret-Keeper: Like the rest of the Shan Palace, Hong goes along with Lianne's wish to keep the existence of Zian a secret until he's old enough. He also gives in to Lianne's decision to hide Shen's survival and imprisonment in their home, even though he'd rather hand the peacock over to China's authorities.
Sibling Yin-Yang: With his more assertive and ambitious older brother Chang.
Single-Target Sexuality: He has never become married because he hasn't stopped loving Lady Amelia.
Strong Family Resemblance: He's almost a spitting image of his brother, being as large and having colored feathers on his head, although they're colored silver instead of yellow.

Lang

A trader duck who's hired to deliver private messages between Lianne and her mother.

Acrophobic Bird: Averted. He prefers traveling on ground because he doesn't consider himself to be a good flyer, but he does fly when he needs to travel faster.
Bearer of Bad News: He witnesses unnoticed how Shen and his wolves slaughter the inhabitants of the panda village he's spending time in. He hurriedly flies back to Gongmen City and exposes Shen's crime while interrupting the wedding between the peacock lord and Lianne. Thirty years later he has to inform the Kung Fu warriors of the Jade Palace of Shen's return.
Bring News Back: He's sent by Lianne to deliver her message of help to the Valley of Peace.
Easily Forgiven: Even though he exposes Shen's crime and the act leads to Lianne's heart being broken for the following years, she still regards him as a friend.
Expy: He shares a lot of similarities with Zeng, Master Shifu's messenger goose, both in personality and role in the story.
What Happened to the Mouse?: After he's send to deliver Lianne's message to Master Shifu, he drops out of the story. It's explained by Lianne telling him not to return to Gongmen City.

Jade

A dhole spy who comes to Gongmen City to help in stopping Shen.

Berserker Tears: She cries furiously when she attacks Shen as he's about to begin his conquest.
Big Damn Heroes: She saves the subdued Po and the Furious Five from being killed by Shen's wolves.
But Now I Must Go: She leaves China with Zhan when he decides to try and find a better life for his pack elsewhere.
Fantastic Foxes: She's actually a dhole, but she can easily be mistaken for a fox. She has the cunningness associated with foxes, and Zhan playfully calls her a vixen at one point.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Her fur is creamy-yellow, while her species usually has dusky brown fur.
I Am Not Weasel: She can be easily mistaken for a fox or a jackal. Upon first meeting her, Zhan mistakes her for the latter and nearly goes for punches before she corrects him.
Interspecies Romance: She develops an affection toward Zhan.
It Meant Something to Me: She confesses to Zhan that she really came to like him while pretending to be a maid.
Ninja Maid: She impersonates as a maid in the Tower of the Sacred Flame and does undercover missions.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives one to Shen when she attacks him, calling him out of trying to bring everyone down with him, even his best friend Zhan. Her words cause Shen to knock out Zhan and send him away with his pack in order to spare the Wolf Boss.
Volleying Insults: She regularly trades these with Zhan in friendly spirits.

Haun

A mongoose bandit who leads a gang he has gathered to kidnap Lianne and ransom her to her father while she's in Gongmen City.

Asshole Victim: His death is hard to sympathize with due to his arrogance and his acts of hurting Lianne and slandering Shen.
Bit-Part Bad Guys: His role is to provide Shen a chance to rescue Lianne and exercise some foreshadowing sadism.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: This is implied when Lianne speaks to Haun defiantly. When she says sarcastically that his mother would be proud of what he has become, he becomes noticeably angrier.
False Rape Accusation: Before his death, Haun's accused by Shen of desecrating Lianne, suspecting that because of her broken spirit. It's only after Haun's death that Lianne confirms that nothing like that happened.
Laser-Guided Karma: His actions of kidnapping and hurting Lianne lead to his arrest and execution.
Man Bites Man: When Shen pins Haun to the ground with his leg, the mongoose frees himself by biting Shen's ankle.
Pinned to the Wall: He's defeated by Shen throwing back the mongoose's own knife through his pants, allowing Zhan to knock him unconscious.
Running on All Fours: He does this while trying to evade Shen's blades.
A Simple Plan: His entire plan to kidnap Lianne, ransom her to her father, split the spoils with his cohorts and leave China. Lianne even reprimands him of how he can't see the flaws in this plan.
Smug Snake: He believes himself to have planned the kidnapping of Lianne, the getaway and everything else successfully and gloats about it, yet he succeeds only in the kidnapping part.
Would Hit a Girl: He smacks Lianne when she defiantly derides him.

Lord Juan

A golden pheasant noble whom Lianne decides to marry thirty years after Shen's banishment.

Cruel and Unusual Death: Shen kills Juan by slicing his throat after cutting off his beautiful tail feathers from the root and piling them up next to them.
Death by Irony: Shen slices Juan's throat with the ornamental knife Juan's fianceé Lianne gave Shen years ago as a wedding gift.
Dirty Coward: After Shen kills Master Thundering Rhino, Juan attempts to sneak away and leave Lianne behind, only to be killed as well.
Hoist by His Own Petard: While he's not really a bad guy, he initiates his own death by having invitations announcing his engagement with Lianne spread throughout China, leading Shen to find it out and set out toward Gongmen City.
Marriage of Convenience: Lianne chooses to marry him purely out of the advantages.
Pinned to the Wall: When he tries to escape, Shen throws a knife through his wing and traps him to the wall. While Shen removes the knife, he traps Juan to the ground by throwing another knife through the other wing.
Upper-Class Twit: He's an irresponsible man of simple tastes who's mostly concerned with his own social status and keeping up his party-life.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's described only shortly in two chapters and gets killed in the latter chapter.

SPOILER CHARACTER

Zian

Shen and Lianne's son who is born in the epilogue.

Constantly Curious: He constantly asks questions to satiate his desire to know the reason behind everything.
Homeschooled Kids: His existence is kept a secret outside the Shan Palace, so he obviously receives all his education there. In addition to that, once Shen sees his son's great puddling intellect, he dismisses all of Zian's teachers and takes his son's education into his own wings.
Innocent Blue Eyes: He inherits his mother's oceanic eyes along with her gentleness.
Meaningful Name: His name means in Chinese "self-peace" or "inner-peace", which is appropriate with his pacifistic nature that makes him hardly angry ever.
Pacifist: He hates violence to the point of refusing to hurt the tiniest of insects or uproot a single flower.
Strong Family Resemblance: He looks almost exactly like his father, with the differences being his flat beak, slightly larger wings (both are the result of his swan heritage) and the blue eyes inherited from his mother.

Characters / The Vow

Zian

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Characters / The Vow

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