Fanfic / Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters

Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters is a Jackie Chan Adventures/W.I.T.C.H. crossover fic by wondertown9.

The story diverges from both shows' canon at the end of JCA's Demon World story, when a spiteful Shendu destroys the Book of Ages as he's being resealed in the Netherworld, triggering a Time Crash. In a desperate move to save her friends and family, Jade scribbles a message of safety for them onto a surviving scrap of the Book; it interprets this by shunting the remnants of the JCA universe (including the Chan Clan, their allies, and enemies) into the W.I.T.C.H. universe, fusing them together.

In this new world, the Chans and the Lins are related, and so Yan Lin calls them in for help when the new Guardians come into their powers. And so, their new adventures begin, made more complicated by the presence of JCA universe villains who have plans of their own for Earth, Meridian, and beyond.

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This story contains the following tropes:

• Abandoned Warehouse: Ludmoore arranges a meeting with the Dark Hand in one in Chapter 27. Cyrus finds it cliched.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Like in canon, Martin Tubbs is this to Irma. After Martin asks Irma why she can't give him a chance, she admits there's nothing wrong with him, it's just a mix of him coming on too strong and her sexuality. After revealing her sexuality to him, they agree to just be friends.
• Absence of Evidence: Captain Black and Agent Tag realize that Harold Hale's established backstory is fake, because no one recalls having known him during the time he claims he was at school, nor does anyone who should have known his parents remember ever meeting them either.
• Accidental Murder: Nerissa's Start of Darkness chapter shows that killing Cassidy was a complete accident on her part.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Multiple:
  • Caleb is the leader of the Rebellion, as per canon.
  • Jade becomes the leader of Rhouglar's followers when she knocks out the guy who took over following his death.
  • Deconstructed with Queen Weira, who took the throne at a young age. Her youth and naivety led to her making many mistakes which only heightened tensions between the nobility and the smallfolk.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Drago finds Jade calling him a "gecko" rather humorous. And when she brags about blowing up Shendu, he laughs uproariously.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Unlike canon, War Is Hell is on full display, as is the psychological effect it has on the characters.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Daolon Wong is much more powerful than in canon. At least at first. However, upon being fatally injured, Wong is forced to trade all of his magic to Charles Ludmoore in order to save his life. Unwilling to live the rest of his life without power, he offers to become the apprentice of a Jiangshi. Time will tell how powerful he becomes from there.
  • Jade can count as this too, as her new Ben-Shui and wolf Shapeshifter powers make her strong enough to fight Cedric or Wong on equal footing, making her more or less as strong or even stronger than an individual Guardian.
  • This story's version of the Dark Hand takes the cake, however. What in canon was nothing but Valmont's personal organization, already fallen from grace by the start of the third season, here becomes a global criminal empire, spawning over five continents, each under the influence of one of the organization's five branches, with the likes of Bartholomew Chang and Vanessa Barone as their leaders. They are shown to be far more competent and resourceful than in canon, and after the Wham Episode that was Chapter 19, it's revealed that the Dark Hand is nothing but the tip of the iceberg of a kind of a Government Conspiracy, pulling a False Flag Operation with the likes of Section 13 so Earth gets aware of and weaponizes magic. One of their leaders is even Captain Black's direct superior. A far cry from what canon was, indeed.
  • As is common for JCA fics that utilize them, the Samurai Khan are treated as Elite Mooks, rather than the Fake Ultimate Mooks they were in canon. They're physically stronger than other tribes, are slightly resistant to magic, and have enough self-awareness to adapt their combat strategies.
• Adaptation Expansion: The background on both series is greatly expanded on.
• Adaptational Friendship: There's no evidence that Lothar and Tynar knew each other canonically, with Lothar seemingly dying (at the very least, he never shows up again) before Tynar's introduction. Here, Lothar and Tynar are close friends.
• Adaptational Heroism: On the show, Raythor was a one-dimensional villain in his first appearance, before becoming a Noble Demon in Season 2 and pulling a Heel–Face Turn in the finale. Here, his later characterization is brought up right from the start.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Raythor has connections to Caleb and Lothar — being responsible for the apparent death of the former's father and playing mentor to the latter — that weren't present in canon.
• Adaptation Personality Change: While a power hungry tyrant like in the cartoon and comics, this story also makes Phobos paranoid and emotionally unstable, which he was not in canon.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In canon, there's no evidence that Raythor and Lothar even knew each other, as Lothar was only introduced after Raythor was thrown in the Abyss of Shadows. Here, Raythor is Lothar's mentor, to the extent of an almost father/son dynamic.
  • In canon, Caleb and Aldarn are close friends, which never changes. Here their friendship breaks apart due to increasingly different views on how the Rebellion should be led leading to Aldarn trying to kill Caleb in a duel.
  • While not given much focus on in canon, Aldarn seems to have a good relationship with his father. In this story, Aldarn disowned his father years ago for leaving the rebellion.
  • Caleb had a good relationship with his father Julian in canon, and was happy to reunite with him. In this story, Caleb learning the morally questionable things Julian has done (like Carhaiz) has ruined his image of his father. When Caleb and Julian reunite, Caleb confronts him on his actions and makes it clear that he's the leader of the rebellion now and he's making changes. By the end of Season 1, their relationship remain strained.
  • While the show's depiction of the two had plenty of Homoerotic Subtext that was never confirmed, in this story it's outright stated that Nerissa and Cassidy were girlfriends for several years prior to Nerissa's Face–Heel Turn and Cassidy's Accidental Murder.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Irma and Jade are lesbians here.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Raythor is made more sympathetic here than he was in his canonical Season 1 appearance, with the heroes quickly feeling guilt for framing him after seeing his fate.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Cedric was loyal to Phobos in Season 1 of canon and only turned on him in Season 2. Here, he's manipulating and plotting against him from the start.
  • Harold Hale, a completely decent person in both versions of W.I.T.C.H. canon, is an affiliate of the Dark Hand here, in a I Did What I Had to Do sort of way. Cornelia eventually convinces him to switch sides... except not really.
  • Drake is a straightly heroic Rebellion member in canon. Here, he's actually Cyrus Ludmoore in disguise, manipulating the Rebellion for his family's plan.
  • Aldarn is much more aggressive than in canon, which culminates in him plotting against Caleb for compromising with the nobility.
• Affably Evil: Ludmoore puts on a stoic, yet benevolent facade even as he's blatantly manipulating people for his own gains and making no attempt at hiding the fact.
• The Ageless: Shapeshifters are able to completely halt their aging processes once they get to a certain age, many Meridian texts refer to them as "Eternal, unless killed by another's hand".
• Agent Provocateur: The role that Ludmoore's brothers play, manipulating the Rebellion and Phobos to act the ways that their plan requires them to.
• Aggressive Categorism:
  • As far as Quentin Ross is concerned, criminals are criminals, and that's it.
  • To Aldarn, all Aristocrats Are Evil.
• Agony of the Feet: Count Cornelius loses half his foot during the Battle of the Meridian Plains.
• The Alcatraz: Cavigor was established as one of these in canon, but is made even more so here. The pit containing the prison cells are now topped by a massive fortress filled to the brim with armed guards and siege weaponry to prevent both assaults and escapes. Also, the fortress is in the middle of a giant chasm, which can only be crossed by a single drawbridge.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Jonathan Ludmoore's Order of Alchemists was named after a rare kind of sorcerer that specialized in using their magic to transmute and reshape matter, and he seems to have become one later on.
• Alien Blood:
  • Lurden blood is noted to be thicker and a darker shade of red than human blood.
  • Sniffer's blood is a sickly green.
• All for Nothing: Aldarn's attempted power grab just results in him being possessed by Ikazuki and his followers being subsequently discredited in the eyes of the rest of the Rebellion.
• All of the Other Reindeer: According to Servantis, Phobos was hated long before he seized the throne, merely for existing — many saw him as an unnatural creature that was never meant to exist, others as a danger to the power held by the Escanor line.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: When Alchemy suggests that Hay Lin see a therapist about her nightmares from the Torus Filney battle, Cornelia points out that they can't exactly tell them about the magic stuff without sounding insane or breaking the secrecy of magic.
• Amazonian Beauty: Jade notes that she's getting this way after becoming a shapeshifter, befitting how shapeshifters have fairly attractive human forms by default, her greater muscle definition making her look elegant instead of like a female brawler.
• Ambiguous Innocence: This is part of why the The Cavalcade of Horrors has always intrigued Tarakudo, their treatment of everything like it's some kind of sick joke only they understand makes him wonder if they're really actively malicious, or if they're mentally more like cruel children, viewing acts of destruction and madness as games and jests.
• Ambition Is Evil:
  • Daolon Wong turned to darkness because he wanted the knowledge and power he couldn't achieve as a good wizard.
  • His Shapeshifter lieutenant Roberta likewise has desires to gain as much power as she can. Which is how Miranda is able to turn her against Wong.
• Analogy Backfire: Demon World Paco is confused when Jade asks if he thinks that the Book of Ages is a printer.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Aldarn shoots off one of Servantis' hands, with the rest of that arm needing to be removed after it becomes gangrenous.
  • Elyon blasts off one of Ludmoore's hands as he's fleeing his attacked manor. He replaces it with a wooden prosthesis.
  • Uncle's arm is vaporized by his final attack on Phobos.
  • Lothar loses the lower half of his left leg during the Final Battle between the Rebellion and Phobos' forces.
• And Then What?:
  • His conversation with Servantis in Chapter 13 leads Caleb to realize that he has no idea what would happen if the Rebellion wins the war, since Elyon isn't around to stick in charge.
  • Jackie asks this of Tristan in Chapter 31 regarding his vendetta against the Rebellion for what happened at Carhaiz, pointing out that sooner or later he's going to run out of legitimately guilty people and start harming the innocent. This is enough to talk Tristan down.
• And This Is for...: During his Motive Rant, Aldarn lists all the loved ones he's lost to the war as part of why he's so determined to win it at all costs even if it means killing Caleb to take over.
• Anti-Hero: Quentin Ross. And to a lesser extent, Caleb, though he's more of a zigzagged example.
• Anti-Magic:
  • The Ben Shui Chosen One can cancel out Chi Magic in the surrounding area.
  • The Samurai Khan are resistant to magic, with even the aforementioned Chi Degredation ability being less effective on them.
• Anti-Villain: Servantis is on Phobos' side, but is a fairly decent person.
• Ape Shall Not Kill Ape: The one law the Lurdens have as a race is not to kill each other.
• The Archmage: Daolon Wong holds this position in Phobos' court.
• Arc Welding:
  • In JCA canon, Bartholomew Chang was an independent crime lord with no known connection to the Dark Hand. Here, he's the head of the organization's Asian branch. Likewise, Vanessa Barone, a oneshot independent villain from the show, is made the European leader of the organization.
  • Wong gained the mouths in his hands (and the ability to extend his life by using them to drain the life-force of others) by cutting a deal with the Jiangshi which the Chans fought in a canon episode.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Zig Zagged. While Phobos is evil, many of his supporters have more complicated reasons to support him.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Caleb is saying that shapeshifters are evil, Taranee asks if he's ever even met one besides Cedric or Miranda. His silence is all the answer she needs.
  • When Elyon is denying Phobos' evil by bringing up all the people he's been allowing her to heal and help with her powers, Alchemy counters by asking if she ever stopped to ask why these people needed her help in the first place. That stops Elyon cold.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Ben-Shui's "people are not fruit" to Murasaki, who had just compared her reincarnation Rasputin to an apple when trying to justify her view of him as evil, saying that they're either good or rotten.
  • Oni-masked Jackie chews Jade out for constantly disobeying him and involving herself in life-threatening situations, revealing how much it scares him that she might not make it. The narration notes that Jade is thrown for a loop.
  • When Aldarn calls out Caleb for allying with certain nobles despite all the nobility's crimes, Caleb responds by bringing up all the awful things that the Rebellion has done as well, saying they need to change their ways or they're no better than the people they're trying to overthrow. This brings Aldarn up short for a moment, before he presses on.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: The Rebellion is starting to seem like this.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Shiryu, the Oni general whose mask corrupts Viper, spends time whispering in her ear, telling her how to break people's bones in the most painful way, how to flay people without killing them... and complimenting her rack and ass.
• Artifact of Doom: The Sword of the Berserker, also called the Sword of Thanatos, forged from the remains of the demon Abaddon, which can One-Hit Kill anything and corrupts the user.
• Artificial Limbs:
  • Nerissa's metal arm is confirmed by the narration to be a prosthetic, likely animated by her Quintessence powers.
  • Ludmoore makes a right hand out of wood after Elyon blows it off during the attack on the manor. After stealing Wong's magic, he can actually move and control it.
• Ascended Extra:
  • On the W.I.T.C.H. show, Lothar was an incredibly minor character. Here, he has a significantly larger role.
  • The Mantis Khan barely showed up at the end of JCA's fourth season's Story Arc. They're given much more to do here.
  • Alchemy, little better than a bit character in the source material, discovers W.I.T.C.H.'s secrets alongside Matt.
• Asleep for Days: Lothar is asleep for a while after his Oni mask is removed.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Rhouglar is killed right after committing rape and bragging about it.
  • Tharquin is viciously killed by the very person he tortured for being the wrong species.
• Assimilation Backfire: Ludmoore's absorption of Wong's powers has made it harder for him to control his anger.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • After Rhouglar's death, Jade takes over his remaining men by knocking out their new leader and telling them she's in charge now.
  • Tarakudo became King of the Oni by fighting his way to the top.
• At Least I Admit It: Rhouglar says that Caleb has no right to judge him, given how many awful things the Rebellion has done.
• Avenging the Villain: Lothar seeks to honor Raythor after he's framed as a traitor by the Guardians and thrown into the Abyss of Shadows.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Archduchess Galiene Sebille was happily retried in an out of the way island... until the Sack of Torus Filney left her daughter and son-in-law prisoners of the Rebellion, which was enough to spur her to action against them.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Played for Drama with Jordan Johnston, one of the runaways Wong recruits as his new Shapeshifters. He left home because of his strained relationship with his parents, but it's revealed back on Earth that they're worried sick about him.
• Awful Truth: The Dark Secret of what happened at Carhaiz is utterly devastating for Caleb.
• Ax-Crazy: Phobos hovers on the edge of this for much of the story, finally crossing over into it fully as a result of Wong's failed coup.
• Bad Boss: Phobos, as per canon.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Deconstruction, as the Rebellion relying on Token Evil Teammates to do its dirty work is shown in a very poor light, with the rest of the Rebellion (Caleb especially) being disgusted by them.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Chapter 9 has multiple cases of this, as Hak Foo gets an Oni mask, Wong gets the Pig talisman, and Nerissa nabs the Dragon talisman, while the heroes walk away with nothing.
  • In Chapter 19, the Dark Hand succeeds in manipulating Section 13 and various governments to start weaponizing magic, while also tricking them into thinking that Harold is their mole.
  • In Chapter 22, Tarakudo successfully distracts the heroes, enabling him to steal the Hana Fuda cards. While they manage to remove the two masks he sends after them to do this, this means they'll be defenseless against the three masks still loose.
• Barehanded Blade Block:
  • Will pulls this during the Sack of Torus Filney.
  • The mask-empowered Hak Foo does this with Caleb's sword during the fight in the subway tunnel.
• Batman Gambit: Ludmoore plants an Oni mask under a mountain in the same area as the Guardians and Jade's ski trip, then tips both Wong and Hak Foo off to it. This triggers a massive fight, which he uses as cover to retrieve the Sword of the Berserker, which is buried under the same mountain.
• Beam-O-War: During Nerissa and Wong's fight.
• Bedmate Reveal: Not in a bed, but early in Chapter 26, Jade wakes up to find that Irma cuddled up with her at some point in the night for some extra body heat to deal with the cold of the Infinite City room the group was sleeping in.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Murasaki Shikibu, Vlad Tepes, Elizabeth Bathory, Rasputin, and Joshua Norton were all previous Ben Shui reincarnations.
• Berserk Button: After being tortured by Tharquin, Jade develops one towards being called a monster.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Chapter 20 ends with a quote from Elyon, who states that she used to always long for someone to come and tell her that she's actually a long lost princess, just so that she can be special. She admits that the worst thing that ever happened to her was it actually happening.
  • Jade notes that for all her Shipper on Deck moments with Jackie and Viper, the only time that they ever seriously consider hooking up with each other is when they're both under the influence of an Oni mask.
• Becoming the Mask: Chapter 22 ends with a quote by Cyrus about how everyone wears masks, and if you do so long enough, it becomes hard to tell which is more real — the mask you wear, or the face beneath it. Later chapters make it clear that such a conundrum has happened to him, as after all his years in the Rebellion as Drake, he's come to genuinely care about the companions he's manipulating for his family's goals.
• The Berserker: The Sword of Thanatos turns the user into one, thanks to the corrupting spirit Abaddon within it. Hence its alternate name of Sword of the Berserker.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Jade becomes downright scary after she gains and masters her new powers.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence:
  • The Sack of Torus Filney is a massive fight scene.
  • The Battle of the Meridian Plains is even bigger, as the nobility's and Rebellion's combined forces clash and quickly devolve into pure chaos.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Phobos, Nerissa, Ludmoore, Tarakudo, Wong, Chang... there are a lot of villains with individual goals in this fic. See Gambit Pileup for more information.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Miranda, as per canon. There's also Tristan, the first of the new Shapeshifters Wong creates.
• Big Eater: Jade, already one of these in canon, gains a further appetite increase after becoming a Shapeshifter.
• Big Sister Instinct: All the Guardians have this for Jade.
• Big "WHAT?!": Jackie, Viper, and Tohru's joint reaction to Uncle revealing his plan for dealing with Ikazuki involves fighting him one-on-one.
• Birds of a Feather: Cedric and Miranda have a shared love of books.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Caleb develops this view later on, understanding the crimes of the Rebellion and the good Viscount Servantis and his allies are trying to do within Phobos' court, but he still points out to the Viscount that Phobos on the throne still outweighs any good he is trying to do.
• Black-and-White Insanity:
  • Quentin Ross has a Rorschach-like view on crime, viewing all criminals as universally scumbags who deserve to be locked away or wiped out.
  • Caleb teeters on this early on, due to his blind belief in the righteousness of the Rebellion and the wickedness of Phobos' regime, but after meeting the Guardians and Chan Clan reevaluates his worldview. Aldarn, by contrast, gives into this fully, being utterly convinced that all Meridianite nobility is evil and that anyone who opposes the Rebellion's originally stated goal of destroying them all is as well.
• Black-and-White Morality: Caleb at first, and to a greater extent bordering on Black-and-White Insanity, Quentin Ross.
• Blade Brake: After being thrown into the Abyss of Shadows, Raythor strikes the wall with his sword. His descent is slowed enough for him to take a hold of the wall before the sword eventually breaks.
• Blood Knight:
  • Frost, Cedric, and Simon on Phobos' side.
  • Rhouglar for the Rebellion.
  • Disturbingly, Jade shows this attitude during the fighting at Torus Filney. Fortunately, she pulls back from it after realizing how reckless it's rendered her.
  • Tarakudo loves a good fight.
• Blood Magic: Elizabeth Bathory was a master of this. Later, she teaches it to Jade.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Deconstructed in Nerissa's Start of Darkness chapter. She says that Kandrakar has become too detached from the worlds they protect, which the Oracle admits, but also states that their laws must nevertheless be respected and obeyed. The fact that neither of them is willing to compromise their viewpoints just contributes to the growing divide between them that leads to Nerissa's eventually Face–Heel Turn.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: The reason the Chan Clan is called to Heatherfield is to help the Guardians train and hone their powers, Uncle and Tohru with the mystical aspects and Jackie (and Jade) with hand-to-hand combat skills, so they can better use their enhanced physical abilities.
• Brandishment Bluff: After the Nobles surrender, Jade demonstrates the ability to use her Blood Magic to affect their blood, even while still in their bodies, causing them extreme pain, because she tricked them into ingesting it. She then tells them that if they step out of line after Phobos is defeated, she can kill them wherever they are. In reality, she doesn't have nearly that large a range with it, but they don't realize it or wish to try and call her bluff.
• Breather Episode:
  • Chapter 10 gives everyone a chance to recover from the previous chapter's intense action scenes.
  • Chapter 14 has angst and very important plot developments, but is still much lighter than the several chapters before it.
  • Chapter 19 deals with all the fallout from the conclusion of the Dark Hand arc, and gives all the heroes a chance to recover from it... then it turns into a Wham Episode in its last scenes (see below for details).
  • Chapter 27 follows up to Ikazuki's introduction and Alchemy's epic confrontation with Elyon, but is focused mostly on romantic developments and stage setting for future conflicts.
  • Chapter 30, similarly, follows up on some previous events, and while some serious plot points get addressed, it's mainly about giving the characters room to breathe before the three-part climax of the first "season" of the story.
• Break the Cutie:
  • The Guardians undergo this as the reality of being Child Soldiers really kicks in. Cornelia in particular is also hit even further in light of her father's criminal connections and blaming herself for Elyon siding with Phobos.
  • Jade is put through the ringer when Tharquin gets his hands on her.
  • Caleb has his father reduced to a Broken Pedestal, has to deal with an Artifact of Doom sticking itself to him, and his best friend trying to kill him.
• Brilliant, but Lazy:
  • Tarakudo feels this way about Ikki (the Mantis Khan General), calling him the most brilliant of his Generals, but noting how laid back he is.
  • Joshua Norton was the only Ben-Shui Chosen One not to make any real use of his chi magic in life.
• Bring My Brown Pants:
  • When a group of rebels is about to be executed in chapter 6, one of them wets and soils himself.
  • A Dark Hand mook is described as doing this upon finding himself facing wolf Jade.
• Broken Ace: Cornelia comes off as a vapid and egotistical perfectionist, but this all stems from an inferiority complex she's desperately trying to mask.
• Broken Masquerade: A downplayed example in chapter 22, when Matt and Alchemy walk in on a fight between the Guardians and the Shadowkhan.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Wong admires Phobos, until he ends up on the receiving end of one of his punishments.
  • Caleb loses his rose-colored view of the Rebellion after the events at Torus Filney, as he comes to realize that they're no better than Phobos' forces. Likewise his idolizing of his father, after learning what happened at Carhaiz.
  • In turn, Caleb becomes this to Aldarn, whose moral inflexibility puts him at odds with the lighter touch Caleb starts applying to the Rebellion after the above.
  • Cornelia's view of her father is ruined when she realizes that he's working for the Dark Hand.
• Brutal Honesty: Upon learning of Elyon's real motives for going to Meridian, Alchemy calls her out on how selfish she is, stating that it's because she's a friend that Elyon should know she's being truthful.
• But Now I Must Go: After waking from his Oni Mask-induced coma, Aldarn leaves the Rebellion to wander Meridian in order to try and learn to let go of his hatred for the nobles.
• The Caligula: Phobos is totally insane in this story. As mentioned under Villainous Breakdown, he only gets worse after Wong's failed takeover attempt, becoming utterly paranoid and delusional to the point of hearing voices.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Caleb calls Julian out about Carhaiz and the other failures of the Rebellion in chapter 30.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • Hak Foo, as per canon. Tohru eventually points out that doing so just tells his opponents what he's planning.
  • Wong, when using spells originally developed by the Demon Sorcerers.
• Canis Major: After becoming a Shapeshifter, Jade can become a giant wolf.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The Mini Khan can devour other Shadowkhan as easily as they can normal shadows.
• Canon Welding: As a result of the Merged Reality:
  • A Heart of Earth gave Ben Shui's spirit its reincarnation cycle. And Ben Shui himself was the Jade Emperor that Xu Jing and the Four Dragons rebelled against.
  • Tarakudo and his Generals once invaded Meridian but were sealed away by its Heart and heroes.
  • Wong is now in the service of Phobos.
  • Theodore Riddle, an enemy of the Guardians from the comics, is one of the leaders of the Dark Hand.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • The Cavalcade of Horrors prevent Tarakudo from killing Nimue because their master's plan requires her to still be alive for now. And he's given a warning that the same applies to Jade.
  • Cedric's intel is the main reason that the Rebellion keeps him alive after his capture.
  • After winning the Battle of the Meridian Plains, the Rebellion allows the remaining noble leaders to live, as the new regime will need them to maintain order in their territories.
• Car Fu: Uncle and Tohru run over mask-possessed Lothar with their car in Chapter 7.
• Cavalry Betrayal: During the Battle of the Meridian Plains, Viceroy Khenel's cavalry forces arrive, but rather than supporting his supposed allies in the nobility, attacks them for the Rebellion.
• Cassandra Truth: Elyon refuses to believe the truth about Phobos, because it ruins the perfect fantasy she believes she's living out.
• Changeling Fantasy: As per canon, Elyon is swept up into this. It gets Deconstructed when Alchemy points out that she purposefully abandoned her friends and (adopted) family for the sake of being a princess.
• Character Development:
  • Caleb goes from a Knight Templar with Black-and-White Morality to being more open-minded.
  • Lothar starts out driven by a desire for revenge for what happened to Raythor. He later realizes that this is self-destructive, and moves on.
• The Chessmaster:
  • Nerissa, as per canon.
  • Charles Ludmoore is Playing Both Sides of Meridian's war, and also manipulating events on Earth, to his family's benefit.
  • Will evolves into this as she grows into her role as a wartime leader.
  • Jade also starts showing signs of this, especially when working in tandem with Will.
• Child Soldier: The fact that the Guardians and Caleb are essentially this is repeatedly brought up by Jackie.
• Children Forced to Kill: The girls, during the Sack of Torus Filney. Caleb admits his first time was when he was 11.
• Childhood Friends:
  • Except for Will, Jade, and Taranee (but including Elyon and Alchemy) this applies to the core group of girls.
  • Servantis was this with Weira.
• The Chosen One: The Ben-Shui Chosen One, Jade, the original Ben Shui having been given the power to reincarnate by the Heart of Earth.
  • In a later chapter, a previous Ben-Shui, Joshua Norton, expresses the theory that they've been linked to the Earth in a way that causes the Chosen One of each age to be born as what is needed for that age instead of just reincarnating into people similar to the previous incarnations. For example, while Murasaki was a force against demons because her country needed her to fight the Oni, Rasputin was a politician and manipulator because that was the age of politicians and manipulators.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Matt wants to help people, no matter what which is why he's so determined to help on Meridian after learning about what's happening.
• Clingy MacGuffin: After it bonds to him, Caleb can't get too far away from the Sword of Thanatos without it teleporting back to his side.
• Cloning Gambit: Chang magically clones himself and lets said clone get arrested by Section 13 after Harold "changes sides", enabling him to keep running the Asian branch from the shadows while Harold takes over the American branch while pretending to be Section 13's mole.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Tharquin does this to Jade as he works his way up to killing her.
• Collapsing Lair:
  • When Ludmoore's manor is attacked by Phobos' forces, Ludmoore triggers a magical Self-Destruct Mechanism which blows up the whole building (destroying the whole villa in the process) after everyone flees.
  • As his contingency plan for escaping Cavigor, Drago floods its walls and foundations with his fire magic, causing the fortress to eventually collapse, with him fleeing in the chaos.
• Colony Drop: In Chapter 32, Phobos drags a meteor out of space to drop on the capital; while the Guardians are distracted trying to break it up, he takes advantage to attack them. This leaves the remaining meteor pieces big enough to still devastate the city.
• Combat by Champion: How the challenge for the Rebellion's leadership is allowed to play out.
• Combat Medic: Taranee starts to show an interest in medicine after the Sack of Torus Filney.
• Composite Character: In-universe, this happened with Nimue and the Lady of the Lake according to the former.
• Condescending Compassion: Alchemy feels that Elyon is this, given that she's healing the people of Meridian without bothering to ask why they need the help in the first place.
• The Corruption: The Oni masks put on Jackie and Viper do this to them.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: As reality collapses following Shendu's destruction of the Book of Ages, a terrified Jade chomps on her own finger to use the blood to scrawl on the last remaining tattered piece.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Will keeps sneaking looks at Matt's butt during their dates.
  • Jade is starting to show some signs of this:
    • When hiding out in the Red House brothel to prepare for the attack on Torus Filney, Jade seems a bit too enthusiastic about the idea of dressing up like prostitutes, and when Irma's outfit is adjusted to enhance her bust, Jade stares and wonders if she'll suffer a wardrobe malfunction, and seems to be hoping for that to happen.
    • When held captive by Tharquin, she gets under his skin by pointing out that he's technically impure, being part Galhot, and admits that she finds Galhot women, who she refers to as "green-skinned babes", attractive, and can't blame his father for being interested in one.
    • At one point, she pulls a Female Gaze on Irma's butt as she's walking away.
    • When she gets a glimpse of a sleeping Irma's cleavage during the aforementioned Bedmate Reveal moment, she can't look away for a minute, and only does so with significant mental effort, and while she didn't exactly mind the situation, she wanted to sleep more, so when the water Guardian proved a stubborn sleeper, Jade decided to wake her up by nipping at her cheek.
  • When they learn that the Oni in the mask Tarakudo put on Viper keeps complimenting her "rack and ass", as she puts it, both Jade and Irma think that he's not exactly wrong about them being nice.
  • Irma rather appreciates the view of Jade's developing abs she gets from the latter's summer hoodie.
  • Irma makes a "joke" about using training, in the form of shooting water balls at Jade, as an excuse to see her in a wet t-shirt.
• Crossover Relatives: The Chans and Lins are cousins in the new Merged Reality — specifically, Uncle and Yan Lin are first cousins, with the rest descending from that point.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • Ludmoore choosing to let Wong live after stealing all his magic.
  • Jeek claims to Blunk while trying to strangle him that Passlings are on their own and have to do what it takes to survive. When the Passlings he sold into slavery find them, Elder Logh gives him the option of running, which he takes, but tells him that he ever gets caught by another Passling trading again, or tries to enter a Passling settlement, his life is forefeit, leaving him all on his own, just like he said.
• Cycle of Revenge:
  • Caleb wants revenge on Raythor for his father's death. Later, Lothar seeks to avenge Raythor.
  • One of Tharquin's men points out that most acts of violence against humans and Galhots by Shapeshifters were retaliation for acts of violence against Shapeshifters, like when Tharquin ocassionally lets one of his victims live to give people a reason to keep supporting him. Tharquin kills that man as a result.
• Darker and Edgier: Than both series.
• Dark Fic: War Is Hell is on full display, fights are more violent than in canon, and people die.
• Dark Is Not Evil: There are some disciplines of Dark Chi magic based in demonic magic, or closely tied to demons, like Wong's most powerful spells or the Tarakudo tattoo that turned Jade into the Queen of the Shadowkhan briefly, but others are just highly powerful and destructive, designed for killing and destruction, though some consider Dark Chi Magic to be a pathway to more unnatural abilities, especially given what some of them need. For example, Elizabeth Bathory's, and later Jade's Blood Magic (Chi or Raw) is described by Uncle as a Wild Card, dangerous to both the user and people around them, but not necessarily corruptive. Uncle even mentally compares it to the effect that using their powers without the Heart fueling them causes in former Guardians when noting that the same is true of some types of Raw Magic.
• Dark Secret:
  • What happened at Carhaiz. The Rebellion's propaganda is that Phobos' forces were creating a new weapon, and they valiantly destroyed it. In truth, Carhaiz was the nobility's attempt to create a society for the smallfolk free of being controlled by either Phobos or the rebels, who viewed such a hope as a detriment to their goals, so they slaughtered the village.
  • The first epilogue chapter reveals that a thousand years ago, something was done on Meridian to secure peace that was so terrible, only the council of Kandrakar and the Escanor Queens have been allowed to know about it, all of whom have treated it in a I Did What I Had to Do sort of way. Jonathan Ludmoore learned of this and was banished to Earth, under a curse that kept him from speaking of it to anyone, in order to keep him quiet. This is the origin of his family's grudge against Kandrakar.
• Dawn of an Era: Chang states that Earth is entering a new era now that magic is returning, and he's planning to take advantage of it.
• Deal with the Devil: As shown in the Ludmoore family's Origins Episode, Jonathan Ludmoore's reaction to being banished to Earth by the Oracle was to cut a deal with Mab, last of a bloodline of shapeshifters that Kandrakar drove off of Meridian — she agreed to marry his son and pass her powers down through his descendants, in order to grant them a chance for eventual revenge against Kandrakar.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Tynar is seemingly killed by Cyrus feeding him to Sandpit.
  • Nerissa killed Yua the Banshee at some point in the past, on one of the previous Guardians' missions, which was her Start of Darkness.
• Decadent Court: Virtually everyone in Phobos' court is plotting against him and/or each other.
• Decapitation Presentation: When the Rebellion lays siege to Kelliwic and it becomes apparent they can't be beaten, the city's military commander kills the Earl, Ghiscar, and presents his head to Caleb as a peace offering.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Two:
  • Jade is one for Kid Hero and Reincarnation. She spends much of the story becoming a changeling, having an Overnight Age-Up, learns she's a reincarnation of history's heroes and deadliest warriors, and gets kidnapped and torture, with a lot more in between. Because of this, she's dealing with a lot of issues no kid should.
  • Elyon is one for Really Royalty Reveal among others. The second she learns the truth, she abandons Earth, her friends, and family, to go off with a brother she only has Rose-Tinted Narrative to rely on, and goes off to live her wildest fantasies. When her best friend finds her, she gives her the mother of all "Reason You Suck" Speech fueled by Disappointed by the Motive. Unlike Jade, she has an Ignored Epiphany.
• Deconstruction Crossover: The main theme of this fanfic is to look at both series and take them apart, especially Jade, The War, and even Morality.
• Demonic Possession:
  • While wearing the Ninja Khan mask, Lothar is possessed by its General, Uta.
  • Ikki, the Mantis Khan General, briefly takes over Hak Foo during the subway fight.
  • After Aldarn puts on Ikazuki's mask, it isn't long before he's fully possessed.
• De-power: Wong ultimately has all of his magic stripped from him by Ludmoore.
• Destination Defenestration: Servantis kicks Rhouglar out a window during their duel. It's a short enough fall that he survives, but is heavily injured by it.
• Determinator: Jackie has no magic or special abilities of his own, yet as he demonstrates in his fight against the mask-empowered Hak Foo, he'll never give up.
• Didn't Think This Through: In Nerissa's Start of Darkness chapter, she kills all the Great Barons of Creznac in order to end that world's Forever War. But as the Council spell out to her, that conflict has become so integral to Creznac's cultural mindset that they're not going to stop fighting just because of a change of leadership.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Alchemy is outright pissed that Elyon is willingly staying with Phobos out of a desire to be a princess.
• Divine Right of Kings: The Escanors rule Meridian in the first place because their world's Heart was mystically bonded to their bloodline. After centuries of this, the family's viewed as somewhat divine by the rest of Meridian.
• The Dog Bites Back: As soon as they're given the chance, the prisoners at the Underwater Mines rise up and take revenge on their guards.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Martin. Even after finding out the reason why Irma's not interested in him, he's ok with just being friends with her.
• Doorstopper: Season 1 ends up being 770,814 words long.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Cedric is only working with Phobos for his own ends.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Cyrus, in his disguise as Drake, is warned never to trust a Ludmoore. He takes a bit of humor out of the fact that the person giving him that warning is unaware that he is a Ludmoore.
  • The Guardians and Chan Clan decide to keep the true nature of the girls' powers and the existence of Meridian from Section 13 for fear that their government superiors would try and take advantage of their magic and situation. Unbeknownst to them, Section 13 is secretly controlled by the Dark Hand, who know all about the other Known Worlds and the Guardians' powers, and are working towards weaponizing magic.
  • Caleb can't help but laugh at the bitter irony that he spent years hating Raythor for killing his father, when it turns out that Raythor actually gave the orders to spare Julian when he was captured.
• Driving Question: For the early part of the story, it's what happened at Carhaiz, on the mission where Caleb's father supposedly died? See Dark Secret above for the answer.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Cavalcade of Horrors, the creatures which inhabit the lower levels of the Shadow Realm. And then there's whatever the hell lives below them at the very bottom, which they serve. In Season 1's final epilogue, we learn that this entity is called Samsara, it's a moon-sized sphere covered in eyes, it's older than the multiverse, and it intends to consume all universes once it corrupts and uses Jade to escape being stuck in the Shadow Realm.
• Elite Mooks:
  • The heavily armed and armored knights known as "Shields" who serve as Viscount Servantis' chief soldiers.
  • The Samurai Khan, as usual in JCA fics. They have the ability to resist offensive magic, and show a disturbing level of intelligence and an ability to adapt to the fighting style of their foes.
  • Archduchess Sebille's personal cadre of swordsmen from Blackrock Island. Will notes that while other Meridian warriors train only enough to have a worthwhile skill, this group has dedicated their lives to combat.
• Empathic Weapon: The Sword of Thanatos has a consciousness, and is eager to get Caleb to use it.
• Enemy Civil War:
  • The North American branch of the Dark Hand underwent this as a response to the Evil Power Vacuum brought about by Valmont's downfall.
  • When Wong makes his move against Phobos, he has Tracker and Roberta lead his army of brainwashed Shapeshifters and Lurdens against the Lurdens and Guards still serving Phobos, in order to keep them all distracted.
  • In Chapter 32, a newly Heart-empowered Phobos decides he doesn't need the Guards anymore, so transforms the Whisperers into humanoid Mooks and has them attack Lothar's men.
• Enemy Mine:
  • After Torus Filney, Will convinces the Rebellion to take a different approach by allying with the members of the nobility who aren't truly loyal to Phobos.
  • The Tracker works with Nimue against the Oni out of a mutual hatred of them, despite their very different goals.
  • In Chapter 32, the Rebellion and Guard team up against the transformed Whisperers (and Phobos, by extension).
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • The Ludmoore brothers all deeply care about each other.
  • Cedric and Miranda appear to both be genuinely in love.
  • In her own, somewhat twisted way, Nerissa cares for her son Caleb and former lover Julian.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As Cedric states to Miranda in Chapter 25, even he won't kill innocent children just because Phobos doesn't trust them and wants them eliminated. So he sends Wong's brainwashed shapeshifter minions to Cavigor instead, with Miranda wondering if that was the right thing, but Cedric reassures her that it's a safe haven as it goes for Shapeshifters, believing that they'll be safer there.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Caleb and Cornelia's feelings for each other.
  • Even Tarakudo has noticed the tension between Jackie and Viper, and when he's about to put the masks on them, is honestly surprised that they're not involved.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Will and Jade are both pragmatic heroes, but are still shocked by how Raythor is punished for them framing him.
  • Caleb and Aldarn, especially the latter, are willing to go to great and ruthless lengths to defeat Phobos. But when they learn that their ally Rhouglar raped Servantis' wife during the Sack of Torus Filney, they're both utterly disgusted by it. So much so that Caleb executes him.
  • Passlings have rules regarding trading, like not trading in lives, especially those of other Passlings, not stealing, giving an opportunity to haggle, etc. Blunk is horrified to learn that Jeek broke the first rule.
  • Julian did order the attack on Carhaiz, but it wasn't his idea, and he actually fought his own men when they defied his orders and started slaughtering civilians.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hak Foo cannot understand why Jackie remains so humble despite being possibly the greatest fighter alive, when he himself has worked so hard to earn that title and the recognition that comes with it. It's part of why he hates Jackie so much.
  • Jeek is flabbergasted when he learns that Blunk helps the Rebellion not because they pay him, but because they're his friends, believing that they're just leading him along to get his help for free.
• Evil Is Not a Toy:
  • Lothar willingly takes on the Ninja Khan mask to destroy the Guardians and avenge Raythor. This backfires horribly.
  • Hak Foo keeps Ikki's mask on for so long that it starts devouring his chi. When it's removed, he's left virtually catatonic.
  • Aldarn is convinced he's of strong enough will to control Ikazuki's mask. He's wrong, and Ikazuki quickly possesses him.
• Evil Is Petty: The story begins because Shendu caused a Time Crash to spite Jade's victory over him. Talk about Sore Loser.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Happened to the Dark Hand's American branch after Valmont's downfall. Chang has now moved in to restore order.
  • Section 13 has learned from this, and plans to take advantage of it for dealing with Chang: they plan to only take down him and his inner circle, so that Harold can fill the void as their Mole in Charge. Then it turns out he was playing them all along to take that position for his own ends.
• The Evil Prince: Phobos, as per canon, though given the insanity he's presented with, he's arguably even worse here.
• Evil vs. Evil:
  • Chapter 22 has two examples — Nerissa attacks Wong to eliminate him as a threat, while Jackie and Viper are corrupted by Oni masks and fight each other.
  • Chapter 24 sees Wong finally make his attempt to usurp Phobos.
• Exact Words:
  • When Jade scrawled her desperate message on the last remaining bit of the Book of Ages, "Bring us all to a safe place", not only did it take them to a new world because there wasn't enough left to make a new Book, the "us all" bit was interpreted a bit differently than Jade expected as well, namely taking all of her allies and enemies, even future ones, along as well.
  • Harold gives Cornelia advice using experiences from his past, worded just right to avoid mentioning that he's King Arthur.
  • It's by using these that Charles Ludmoore depowers Wong. He offers himself to heal the Dark Chi Wizard's wounds in exchange of anything Ludmoore wants from him, making the old Chinese man to swear he will pay the price. Once Wong is healed, what does Charles take as payment? Well, all of Wong's Chi Magic, which includes the Rooster and Pig talismans' powers Wong had previously stolen, of course! After all, Wong's magic counts as anything and Ludmoore asked for it.
  • Caleb forbade Julian from participating in Rebellion activities, but he follows the group heading to the castle for the final battle against Phobos's forces because not a single one of them was technically a Rebellion member.
  • As we see in the first epilogue chapter's Origins Episode about the Ludmoore family, Jonathan Ludmoore was cursed to be unable to speak of the Dark Secret he learned without the person he speaks it to instantly dying. However, that's only if he speaks it; writing it down for someone to read is another matter.
• Exposition of Immortality: Harold's status as an immortal is revealed via a photo of him taken during World War I.
• Expy:
  • Ser Alistair Tarquin is, according to Word of God, slightly based on Kur from Kage, but mostly on Grand Moff Tarkin.
  • Quentin Ross is based on The Question and Rorschach.
  • The thing at the bottom of the Shadow Realm is based on the Idea of Evil.
  • Word of God states that this story's version of the Dark Hand is based on the Light from Young Justice (2010).
• Eye Scream:
  • Simon gets shot in the eye with an arrow by Aldarn during the Sack of Torus Filney. His Healing Factor regenerates it, but this just makes Aldarn shoot the other eye with an arrow coated in a mold that feeds on the eye's liquids. This he can't fix, so he just rips the whole eye out.
  • Servantis' wife slashes Rhouglar's eye when he's trying to rape her.
  • Ross stabs Harold in the eye with a pen, only for it to heal immediately.
  • At one point during the big fight in Chapter 32, Will jabs her thumb into Phobos' eye. It doesn't destroy the eye, but does make it bleed. In the following chapter, Jade manages to gouge out his left eye completely while slashing his face.
• Eyes Never Lie: Referenced in the narration when Jade sees into Phobos's eyes and finds nothing but a terrible void, giving her the impression that there is something seriously wrong with him.
• Face–Heel Turn: Aldarn eventually becomes so disgruntled with Caleb's leadership that he's willing to kill him and take over the Rebellion by force.
• Facial Horror: After Phobos kills Uncle, Jade slashes his face, destroying his left eye, removing his nose, and taking a chunk out of his right cheek.
• Fainting: Cornelia does this in Chapter 20, when Elyon is revealed as the lost Princess.
• The Fair Folk: The Shapeshifters are related to them, apparently.
• Fallen Hero: The Tracker was once Didier, one of Meridian's greatest heroes in ancient times.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • All the Ludmoore brothers have names that start with a "C". It also turns out that their father did, too.
  • With Phobos in the present, and Hypnos and Thanatos in the past, who were the children of a Meridianite nobleman and cousins of the Princess and later Queen of their time, it seems that the Meridian royal family has a fondness for names from Greek Mythology for their male members/close relatives.
• Fantastic Racism: Shapeshifters are despised by much of Meridian.
• The Farmer and the Viper: The Mage released Nerissa, in the hopes of redeeming her. Instead, Nerissa killed her and stole her identity.
• Fascist, but Inefficient: This is what has become of Prince Phobos' regime, in that he's too self centered to realize that the people rebelling against him have justified reasons to, and that the nobility and his own men are attempting to distance whatever authority they can get away from him. His guards even make it a point to protect the people first and not him. That being said, there are still good people in his army who will fight the rebels, who have committed crimes that must be punished.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Nimue is completely unable to see human villains as a threat when compared to demons, giving her a massive blindspot.
  • Aldarn hates the nobility so much that Caleb deciding to work with some of them to help bring down Phobos drives him to put on Ikazuki's mask in an attempt to take control from him.
  • Elyon's desperate need to be special blinds her to Phobos' blatant tyranny due to him making her the center of everyone's loving attention. Even when forced to face the facts, she clings to denial and refuses to hear the truth.
  • Phobos' self-centeredness, paranoia, and quick temper make him such a Bad Boss that in the end, every single one of his allies ends up turning on him.
  • According to Servantis, Queen Weira's flaw was that she wanted everyone to be happy, and thus her ability to see the best in a person seemed more akin to a defense mechanism in order to not have to face their flaws and how much harm they could bring.
  • Ikazuki's (admittedly well-founded) arrogance in his combat skills means he'll charge into any fight presented to him, regardless of the circumstances.
• A Father to His Men: Raythor. It's one of the reasons that Lothar seeks to avenge him.
• Female Gaze:
  • When she's on a date with Matt, the narration notes that Will keeps looking at his butt.
  • There's a female-on-female example when Jade, having realized she's a lesbian, watches Irma from the rear as she walks away.
  • During the above-mentioned Bedmate Reveal moment, Jade has to tear her gaze away from Irma's cleavage and focus on waking her up.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Phobos realizes that Roberta will serve whoever is in the best position to give her more power to feed her ambitions. He then makes sure she knows that that's him.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three types of shapeshifters. Mammals (including avians) get Super-Strength, Insects get tricks and abilities like Miranda's webbing, and Reptiles get a potent Healing Factor.
• Fighting Your Friend: Caleb ends up having to fight Aldarn after Aldarn challenges him for leadership.
• Fingore: Vathek loses several fingers during the Battle of the Meridian Plains.
• Fisher King: Meridian has been decaying ever since Phobos took over. Mostly because he's been actively draining the world's energy to feed his own magic.
• Fix Fic: This story does this to unpopular canon storylines:
  • In canon, the girls were indifferent to Raythor's punishment, but here they are horrified by it immediately.
  • Also, Raythor on the show was a one-dimensional villain in his first appearance, before becoming a Noble Demon in Season 2 and pulling a Heel–Face Turn in the finale. Here, his later characterization is used right at the beginning, making him more likable right away.
  • Some fans of the canon W.I.T.C.H. show find Elyon to be selfish as the first season goes on — she starts out legitimately sympathetic, learning that her whole life is a lie and that her adoptive parents and best friends have been deceiving her, driving her into the arms of her brother who is also deceiving her and with actual harmful intentions behind it. However, more and more things start to clearly poke holes in Phobos' facade and should reasonably make Elyon start to question everything, and yet she stubbornly refuses to and clings to the belief that her friends are evil and Phobos is good, only pulling a Heel–Face Turn after Phobos reveals his true colors and tries to kill her, with her friends having to bail her out. Here, her actions are portrayed as outright selfish, and she gets called out on it hard.
• Foil:
  • Aldarn and Caleb. They're both utterly dedicated to the Rebellion, and both start out operating under Black-and-White Morality. But while Caleb comes to gain a more nuanced and grey view of the war, Aldarn slowly slides into outright Black-and-White Insanity.
  • Caleb is also this to Lothar. Both start out utterly convinced that their side is in the right no matter what, but over time have enough Character Development to realize that there's good and bad on both sides.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The various twists and reveals at the end of Chapter 19 are the culmination of hints dropped throughout the Dark Hand arc.
  • When talking to Miranda about why he keeps Wong around, Phobos silently considers stealing Wong's magic for his own. Guess what Ludmoore does after Wong's coup fails.
• For Want Of A Nail: Lothar exposing Vathek as the Rebel spy means that he's not in the castle when Elyon's identity is discovered. Thus, the Guardians don't learn she's the Princess until Cedric has already convinced her to come to Meridian.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Aldarn's mother was killed by Phobos' forces, as were all of his closest friends aside from Caleb. Because of this, he has an Irrational Hatred not just for Phobos and his minions, but everyone who supports them even remotely. This is why he can't abide Caleb's choice to ally with those nobles who are opposed to Phobos but haven't outright rebelled against him.
  • Tharquin's hatred of Shapeshifters and focus on "purity" are result of his abusive father drilling the views into him as a child.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Quentin Ross, to Section 13.
• Full-Circle Revolution: After the events at Torus Filney, Caleb comes to fear that the Rebellion is turning into this.
• The Fundamentalist: Tharquin, who is convinced that everything he does is righteous and for the good of Meridian.
• Gambit Pileup: As in canon, Nerissa is manipulating the war between Phobos and the Rebellion to her own ends. But so are Ludmoore and his brothers. Meanwhile, Viscount Servantis is trying to steer Phobos in a lighter-handed rule, Daolon Wong becomes The Starscream to Phobos, Tarakudo has woken up and taken an interest, Nimue is keeping an eye on things, and on the Earth side of things, Chang's Dark Hand is flexing its muscle, with Jackie infiltrating them to bring them down. And then there's the Cavalcade of Horrors and their master, who are apparently using all of the above as pawns in a larger plan.
  • Even the arc dedicated solely to dealing with the Dark Hand has one of these. There's whatever Chang's been working towards, the Section 13-backed Chan Clan and Guardians working to take Chang down, Will plotting a secretive side mission with only Jade and Caleb's knowledge, Ross going rogue out of disgust at Section 13 not going far enough to eliminate the Dark Hand, and newcomer Nyx running her own agenda against the Dark Hand. And there's the Oni watching from the sidelines via Hak Foo's mask, while Nimue eventually steps in to manipulate the Chans as part of her own agenda.
• Gayngst: The reason Irma never came out of the closet before. She felt unintentional peer pressure to act like she likes boys.
• A God Am I:
  • Phobos declares himself a god in Chapter 31 after stealing Elyon's power. To be fair, he's got reason to.
  • Nerissa expresses a desire to become a goddess and rule over the Known Worlds.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: According to Viscount Servantis, Phobos was not the first in the Escanor royal line to rule as a tyrant. And since he's the first male to hold the throne, that means all prior examples were this trope.
• Good Is Not Nice: Quentin Ross is basically Rorschach, which should tell you all you need to know.
• Good Parent: Harold giving Cornelia good advice on how to reach Elyon after their falling out.
• Good Thing You Can Heal:
  • Shapeshifters have a notable Healing Factor, especially reptilian ones like Cedric, who can heal from wounds almost instantly.
  • Uncle's plan during his duel with Ikazuki is to use the Horse Talisman's healing powers to keep up with the Oni.
• Graceful Loser: Takahiro, the Oni whose mask corrupts Jackie, merely sighs in disappointment as it's removed. This in sharp contrast to Shiryu, who pleads and threatens as he's pulled off of Viper.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: A central theme, with both sides having Token Good Teammates and Token Evil Teammates.
• Graying Morality: One of the goals of the story is to do this for both shows.
• Groin Attack:
  • Nyx does this with Jackie during their first encounter.
  • Will does this to Phobos in Chapter 32.
• Handicapped Badass: The original Ben Shui was a powerful good chi wizard with a powerful Anti-Magic technique, and was apparently totally blind.
• Hated by All: Phobos, with everyone — the Rebellion, the commoners, and even his own minions — all hating him.
• Hate Sink:
  • Rhouglar is an utter asshole who rapes women and brags about it. There's nothing likable about him after that reveal.
  • Tharquin is a racial purist intent on wiping out shapeshifters. Every scene with him in it only serves to establish him as a nasty piece of work.
  • Phobos is presented with zero redeeming qualities to his rule.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Irma eventually explains to Martin she's a lesbian, which is why she's not interested in him.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: After having some alchemists research a way for him to steal Elyon's powers faster, Phobos asks for confirmation that they're the only ones who know about it. Once he gets that, he immediately kills them both.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management:
  • How Nimue feels about Kandrakar's stewardship of the Known Worlds — they protect the status quo from great threats to it, but don't actively intervene to fight smaller evils.
  • Phobos' court is dedicated solely to securing his power; actually maintaining the realm is delegated to the nobility.
• Healing Factor: Reptilian shapeshifters like Cedric have a potent healing ability.
• Hearing Voices: Phobos after Wong's attempted coup.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Jordan Johnston realizes the folly of following Wong and flees, but is killed by Tharquin.
• Hero Killer: Phobos kills Uncle in Chapter 32.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • Caleb worries about this happening to the Rebellion in their desire to bring down Phobos at all costs. He himself comes dangerously close to the line during the Sack of Torus Filney, before the Guardians talk him down.
  • The end of the 17th chapter has a quotation from Tso Lan about this trope.
    "Why are we demons called demons? Because in a one on one battle, a regular human cannot hope to defeat one of us, and as such demons are demons and humans are humans. Then, how do you refer to a human that can kill demons? As a saint, a hero, an angel, a god? Perhaps, that human has just become a stronger demon."
  • Aldarn ends up crossing the line Caleb feared, becoming convinced that all of Meridian's nobility needs to be wiped out alongside Phobos and being willing to kill Caleb and anyone else not willing to go that far.
• Hidden Buxom: Jade suspects this regarding Miranda, given that shapeshifters, by default, have human forms that are quite pleasant to the eyes.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It turns out that Cornelia's Alpha Bitch persona is just a mask she wears in order to avoid any doubt or perceived weaknesses that might cause her to be less than the perfect girl she thinks she needs to be.
• The High Queen: Deconstructed. According to what Servantis tells Caleb in Chapter 13, Queen Weira tried very hard to rule by example as a good and benevolent monarch. However, in doing so she unintentionally created problems which continue to effect the characters in the present.
• Home Field Advantage: A Heart's power is apparently significantly enhanced when the bearer of the Heart is on its native world.
• Hope Bringer: Matt wants to be this.
• Hope Crusher: The Rebellion destroyed Carhaiz in order to destroy any hope that the smallfolk might have of an alternative to rebelling against Phobos.
• Hope Is Scary: The entire concept of Carhaiz, giving the smallfolk a place free of Phobos' rule without having to fight his regime, scared the Rebellion's leadership, which feared losing support for their cause. So they destroyed the town and claimed that it was the site of a weapon Phobos was building.
• Horrifying the Horror: Calisto is one of the most powerful Shapeshifters in the story, the fierce co-warden of Meridian's most feared prison, and an absolutely monster in combat... but when he realizes that Drago has escaped his cell, he's terrified.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: When Jade learns that Drago is Shendu's son, she has a disgusted reaction once she realizes that his mother must have been human, and his dad the twenty-foot or so Demon Sorcerer. Cornelia has a similar reaction when Jade clues her in on Drago's identity.
• Humans Are Warriors: And Tarakudo loves them for it, seeing them as the only true Worthy Opponent for the Oni.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Cedric and Viscount Servantis are both this to Phobos.
• Hypocrite: As Jade calls him out on, Tharquin is this — he's so obsessed with "purifying" Meridian of Shapeshifters, when he himself is technically impure, being a human/Galhot hybrid. And while she doesn't know this, he's also been releasing some of the Shapeshifters he tortures in order to make sure people continue to support his efforts.
• Hypocrisy Nod: From chapter 25:
  "Just because he's your best friend that doesn't mean you should be justifying everything he does and blaming yourself for it!" Cornelia paused for a second, and then chuckled just like Caleb had done moments before. "Wow, I sounded just like the biggest hypocrite in the universe right there."
  • Ikazuki dislikes Tarakudo's use of his Oracular Head form, thinking that the look it gives him doesn't suit him, only to remember that Aldarn's body means that he isn't really one to talk at the moment.
• Hypocritical Humor: As Nerissa points out, Wong is in no position to call her old and decrepit.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How Harold justifies working for the Dark Hand — it keeps his family safe and secure.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Jade brings the possibility of this up when she and Irma finally admit that they like each other, and they ultimately decide to stay as friends until the war is over and take things slowly.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • Tharquin has a moment or two where he can realize that Shapeshifters aren't all evil through the example Jade, who is a hero of the Rebellion alongside the Guardians, provides, but rejects them and doubles down on his current course of action.
  • Even when admitting Caleb has several good points about why the Rebellion's old black and white views are wrong, Aldarn refuses to let himself be swayed by them, feeling that he's done and sacrificed too much to just change his ways.
  • At some point during her years of isolated imprisonment in Mount Thanos, Nerissa had a Heel Realization. Unfortunately, having no one to guide her through her guilt caused it to turn to bitterness, solidifying her Face–Heel Turn.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: Shapeshifters can halt their aging completely around this age.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Frost's reaction when a noble calls him a brute and implies he's distrustful, while he's still in the room.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Cornelia is stated to have this.
• Innocence Lost: The Guardians and Jade have this happen to them over the course of the war. For Caleb, it already happened years earlier.
• In the Back: Roberta announces her betrayal of Wong by running him through with a sword from behind.
• Internal Reformist: Inverted. When Caleb learns of the dark side of the Rebellion, he works hard to try and fix it.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In Chapter 20, the heroes learn that Elyon is the lost Princess. In the following chapter, she in turn learns about all their powers.
  • Chapter 22: Harold learns Elyon is the princess. Matt and Alchemy learn about the Guardians and Jade.
  • In Chapter 26, Caleb realizes that Aldarn's challenge is the result of long-term planning, not a spur of the moment anger.
• Irony:
  • Aldarn votes for Ludmoore being welcomed into the Rebellion despite not trusting him because he needed an excuse to challenge Caleb (who, by contrast, voted against Ludmoore). So, it's Aldarn's own fault that the person he doesn't trust is now in the Rebellion.
  • The Mage freed Nerissa to try and reform her, and had she done so some time sooner it would likely have worked. Unfortunately, she only arrives after Nerissa had gotten over the Heel Realization she had previously had.
• Ironic Echo: Jade first meets Miranda in Chapter 2 when the latter jumps her in Phobos' throne room and yells "SURPRISE!" in her face. In Chapter 8, they face each other again in a battle, with Jade yelling "Surprise!" when launching a sneak attack of her own.
• Irrational Hatred: Aldarn's feelings towards the nobility.
• It Can Think: The Samurai Khan, unlike their cousins, are intelligent enough to adapt to the pace and fighting style of the enemies that they fight, and when Ikazuki takes full control of his host Aldarn, they hoist their katana up in the air and appear to cheer, freaking Cornelia out with how human their behavior is.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Elyon, which is part of how easily Cedric and Phobos are able to manipulate her.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Nimue helps herself to a bottle of wine after the subway fight.
• It's All About Me:
  • Phobos is very clear on the fact that as long as he rules, he doesn't care if all of Meridian suffers. Even before Wong's first failure, he was silently considering taking his dark chi magic for himself after gaining the Heart of Meridian, just because he could.
  • Though not to the same extent as her brother, Elyon shows that she's more concerned about her own happiness than anything else.
• It's All My Fault: Cornelia blames herself for Elyon running off with Cedric, due to driving her away with her Jerkass facade.
• I've Come Too Far: Aldarn's reason for not calling off his duel with Caleb. He feels that after everything he's done and lost for the Rebellion, he simply can't compromise his hardcore interpretation of its mission.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Quentin Ross is right that Harold Hale is performing crimes, and has to pay for them.
  • Phobos had every right to be angry at Wong for turning Jade into a Shapeshifter, as that just gave the heroes a powerful new weapon at their disposal.
• Jerkass Realization: Though at first she panics and flies away rather than face what Alchemy and the others are saying to her, after having some time to think Elyon starts to realize that she has indeed been acting selfishly. This also makes her start to question Phobos as well.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Aldarn becomes increasingly disgruntled with the compromises Caleb is making in his leadership of the Rebellion, specifically working with defecting nobles. Eventually, this results in him challenging Caleb to a Duel to the Death for leadership, and using Ikazuki's mask to try and win.
• Justified Criminal: Harold Hale feels he is this, since he's doing it for his family.
• Just Toying with Them: Calisto gives Jade the toughest fight she's had since becoming a shapeshifter, despite the impression that she gets that he's not even trying.
• Karmic Death:
  • Rhouglar is executed by Caleb right after bragging about his crimes.
  • Tharquin is brutally killed by someone he'd spent hours torturing.
• Keystone Army: When the stolen Heart of Meridian is returned to Elyon, the Whisperer army that Phobos conjured with it all disintegrate.
• Killed Off for Real: Count Cornelius and Uncle die during the Final Battle of the Rebellion, while Phobos dies of his injuries shortly after.
• Kindness Button: His love of books brings out Cedric's best side.
• King of Thieves: Ludmoore is known as "King Smuggler", for his dominance of the inter-world black market.
• Knight Templar:
  • Caleb is initially this, before a talk with Jackie sets him straight.
  • Alistar Tharquin, one of the Rebellion's leaders, is a fundamentalist both for the movement in general, and hatred of Shapeshifters in particular.
  • Quentin Ross believes in inflexible Black-and-White Morality.
  • Aldarn is showing signs of this, regarding how the Rebellion should be dealing with Phobos' supporters. This hits its boiling point when Caleb decides to ally with some of the nobility opposed to Phobos, which Aldarn is so disgusted by that he plots to kill Caleb and take over the Rebellion.
  • Nimue is determined to wipe out all demonic threats to humanity, no matter what has to be sacrificed to do so.
• Knowledge Broker: Charles Ludmoore has set himself up as this.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Servantis ultimately decides to throw in the towel when Torus Filney is overrun, telling Lothar to take his men and flee, while he stays behind to surrender.
  • When it becomes clear that Tracker is going to kill him if they keep fighting, Ikki surrenders to the Chans and Guardians, knowing they'll just remove his mask and disembody him.
  • After Phobos is defeated, the Guard all lay down their weapons and surrender to the Rebellion.
• Lack of Empathy: Phobos cares about exactly one person, and that's himself.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After waking up in the new reality, Jade quickly forgets her meeting with Xin Jing, brushing it off as a dream.
• The Leader:
  • Caleb to the Rebellion and Will to the Guardians, as per canon.
  • Jade becomes this for a crew among the Rebellion after taking over Rhouglar's faction following his death.
• Lensman Arms Race: After the Dark Hand develops Magitek weapons, Captain Black's government superiors want to start reverse engineering them.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • While it doesn't come down to an actual fight, the Guardians and Chans take an instant dislike to Nimue when they first meet in Chapter 18, due to what she's willing to do to win.
  • In Chapter 29, Mariko and Liam show up to claim Ikazuki's mask from the heroes. Since they're disguising their identities and won't properly explain themselves, the heroes assume that they're villains who want the mask for themselves, when they really want to destroy it. This leads to a brief fight, that ends when Mariko's disguise is knocked off and she and Liam flee.
• Light Is Not Good: After Phobos steals Elyon's powers, he's glowing so brightly that it's almost blinding, yet he's still pure evil.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: According to Servantis, Queen Weira mother's was more pragmatic than she was. And then there's Phobos, who is absolutely nothing like his mother.
• Little "No": Vathek lets out two of these when he finally learns what happened in Carhaiz.
• Lizard Folk: Cedric, as per canon. There's also Simon, one of the new Shapeshifters created by Wong.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The Chans and the Guardians deliberately keep Section 13 in the dark about the true nature of the Guardians' powers and about everything relating to Meridian, for fear that word will leak and the world's governments will try to take advantage of it.
• Long Game: The Ludmoore family has been plotting against Meridian for two hundred years, ever since their ancestor Jonathan Ludmoore was banished to Earth for learning a Dark Secret that Kandrakar and the Escanor family wanted to keep buried.
• Love Triangle: You've got the canon Caleb/Cornelia ship starting to take sail, but there's also the presence of Caleb's advisor Sephiria, who has a crush on him.
• MacGuffin: Chang's whole plot line in the story is built towards stealing a specific magic artifact — the Gauntlet of Indra, which gives the wearer the power to shoot lightning.
• Magic A Is Magic A: It's clarified that the magic used by the Guardians and Meridianites (Raw Magic) is different from the Chi Magic used by Uncle, Tohru, and Wong. But as Nimue reveals, it's possible to use both.
• The Magic Comes Back: The Heart of Earth has been absent for a long time, and even before that magic was on the downswing on Earth. But now magic is returning to the planet, it's implied that the Heart has found a new host, multiple factions are experimenting with Magitek, and the Dark Hand is manipulating governments to take up magic.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Just like in W.I.T.C.H. canon, raw magic users are bound by an oath sworn on their magic. After meeting Nimue, Ludmoore realizes that if Raw Magic and Chi Magic are based on the same core principles, then it must apply to the latter as well. He proves this by stealing Wong's power via an oath.
• Magitek: Chapter 27 reveals that the Dark Hand has developed laser guns powered by Celtic rune stones. In chapter 30, Section 13 has made progress in reverse-engineering them and applying the principle to other technology, and it's stated that they could have near limitless clean energy via this method.
• The Man Behind the Man: Cedric has spent years manipulating Phobos, acting as the true power behind the throne. This is to intentionally fan the unrest on Meridian, as part of the Ludmoore family's master plan.
• Master Poisoner: Takahiro, the Oni General of the Mini Khan.
• Master Swordsman: Galiene is known as the Blade of Meridian for her extreme skill with a sword.
• Matriarchy: Meridian, as per canon, primarily due to the Heart of Meridian being bound to the royal family, which has almost exclusively birthed only females.
• May–December Romance: Cedric and Miranda are in a relationship, despite the fact that he's at least a decade older than her.
• The Medic: Sephiria and her nuns serve as healers for the Rebellion's forces.
• Medical Monarch: Elyon uses her powers to heal the people of Meridian of physical ailments.
• Megaton Punch: Caleb's reaction to encountering his still-alive father is to punch him hard enough to break his nose and knock him out, as a means of venting his mixed emotions over the situation.
• Mêlée à Trois:
  • The big fight in Chapter 9 starts as the Guardians, Caleb, and Jade against Wong and his Shapeshifters when the latter show up to claim an Oni mask that's in the same area as the former, but then Hak Foo shows up to claim the mask himself, and Ross (who had been trailing the group) steps in to try and capture Hak Foo.
  • In Chapter 22, both Jackie and Viper have Oni masks forcibly put onto their faces, and become corrupted. Viper is turned into a Card-Carrying Villain who fights the Guardians For the Evulz, while Jackie becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist who decides that the best way to keep everyone safe is to have the Mini Khan eat their shadows and put them into comas so they can't fight anymore. This leads to him attacking Viper and the Guardians, and their Shadowkhan fighting each other even while fighting the heroes.
• The Mentor:
  • Jackie serves as this to the girls and Caleb.
  • Raythor was this to Lothar.
• Merged Reality: Jade's desperate gamble with the last scrap of the Book of Ages merges the remnants of her universe with the W.I.T.C.H. universe.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • After Phobos tortures him in a round of You Have Failed Me, Wong loses all respect for the Prince, and starts plotting to take power for himself.
  • Phobos' extreme Bad Boss tendencies also ultimately result in Lothar and the rest of the Guards to abandon defending him and the castle, shifting their loyalties to protecting the commoners.
    Lothar: Each guard in the palace, take them out to the city; reinforce the patrols that take care of thieving and crime, and leave them there. If the Capital is attacked, tell them to fight to the end. If the Castle is attacked...tell them to ignore it. The prince won't care for us? Fine, I won't care for him. Our duty is to Meridian and the Crown, and whatever is in that throne room, it's not part of this world and it doesn't deserve a crown. I'm done putting the lives of good men, men with families...at risk just to satisfy a self-entitled brat.
• The Mole:
  • Vathek is one for the Rebellion within Phobos' court, as per canon.
  • Also like in canon, Nerissa is doing double duty as the Mage and Trill.
  • Ludmoore's brothers are this for him within both Phobos' court and the Rebellion. Cedric is the former, while the latter is revealed to rebel leader Drake (a disguise for other brother Cyrus).
  • Jackie pretends to accepts Chang's offer of service in order to bring the Dark Hand down from within. He eventually turns Harold to his side, with Section 13 planning on making him a Mole in Charge.
  • Count Cornelius serves as this for the Rebellion among the other nobles. As does Viceroy Khenel, whom Cornelius covers for until the time is right.
• Moment of Weakness: What led to the events at Carhaiz: Julian recognized that the village's neutrality could set a precedent for others to do the same, undermining the Rebellion's efforts. So when some of his men suggest destroying the village, he lets them convince him to do so, leading to the destruction of Carhaiz and murder of its population, to Julian's horror and regret.
• Mook Horror Show: In Chapter 7, when a group of Phobos soldiers find themselves being hunted in the woods by wolf Jade.
• Mook Lieutenant:
  • After Lothar becomes the new Captain of the Guard, he promotes Tynar to his old post of Lieutenant.
  • Once Wong has created a whole squad of new Shapeshifters, Miranda takes on a leadership role. When he starts building his forces to betray Phobos, however, he phases her out in favor of the more-loyal-to-him Roberta.
• Mook Promotion: After Raythor is thrown into the Abyss of Shadows, Lothar is promoted to take his place. He in turn promotes Tynar to be his Lieutenant.
• Moral Myopia: Aldarn despises the nobility and Phobos' forces for all the awful things they've done, but feels justified in the "heroic" nature of the Rebellion's own less than admirable acts. He's also perfectly willing to use Ikazuki's mask to force the Rebellion to accept his leadership, but denies that it's anything like Phobos' means of ruling by force.
• Motive Rant:
  • Hak Foo gives Jackie one during their duel in the 17th chapter, explaining his reasons for working for the likes of Valmont and Chang as well as for hating Jackie.
  • In Chapter 26, after being called out on how he's been manipulating Caleb into being forced to accept a leadership challenge, Aldarn goes into a rant about all he's sacrificed for the Rebellion, and how he can't accept working with defecting nobles, or anything else other than totally wiping out the nobility.
• Mutually Exclusive Magic: Averted. It's hard to learn chi magic or raw magic after starting with the other, but, as Nimue explains, it is possible. It helps if you're immortal.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of Vanessa's first lines to Jackie (about saying that she's been called a lot of things but never nice) is word-for-word from their first meeting in canon. And she has the Eye of Aurora, the artifact the two of them fought over in her canonical appearance.
  • The Dark Hand possess both the Armbands of Shiva and the Cat of Khartoum, oneshot magic artifacts from JCA canon.
  • Wong ends up with the Rooster and Pig talisman powers, which he gained in canon.
  • In the original comics the Whisperers were humanoid Mooks created by Phobos, Caleb being one that developed free will. Once Phobos gets the power of the Heart of Meridian, he turns the Whisperers into humanoid beings with Barbie Doll Anatomy and his face.
  • During her imprisonment in Mount Thanos, Nerissa started to fantasize about what things would have been like had she triumphed and everyone stayed on her side. This could be a nod to her final fate in the show, trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine where she managed to win and everyone she loves being on her side.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • The Guardians' general reaction to actually seeing what's done to Raythor as a result of their framing of him.
  • Caleb's reaction once he realizes all the evils he's been letting fester within the Rebellion.
  • Jade, after killing Tharquin makes her realize what a Blood Knight she's becoming.
  • As shown in flashback, this was Julian's reaction when the raid on Carhaiz he ordered turned into a mindless slaughter.
  • In Chapter 31, Elyon's is horrified when she realizes that Phobos is indeed the monster she was warned about, and that she was indeed wrong to leave Earth for him.
• Naïve Everygirl: Elyon, once she comes to Meridian.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Rhouglar is known as "The Mad Dog of the Rebellion".
• Neutral No Longer: After Elyon is taken to Meridian, Charles tells Cedric to convince Phobos to attack his manor, thereby violating his neutrality and giving him an excuse to join the Rebellion. All part of the plan.
• Never Mess with Granny: Archduchess Galiene Sebille is at least 70 years old, but still the most dangerous Master Swordsman in Meridian.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • According to Nerissa's inner monologue, she only escaped her imprisonment because the Mage released her, in the hopes of redeeming her. Instead, Nerissa killed her and stole her identity.
  • Tarakudo's Xanatos Gambit that ended up with the heroes losing their only source on how to find and remove the Oni Masks happened because he was worried that Will or Jade would realize that losing the masks didn't bother him.
  • Queen Weira tried to be a good ruler and make everyone happy, but her actions unintentionally raised tensions between the nobility and smallfolk, causing the nobles to eventually side with Phobos, leading to his rise to power.
  • The Guardians' assault on Cavigor to free Elyon's parents inadvertently provides a distraction for Drago to escape his cell.
  • Jade's merger of what was left of her universe with the W.I.T.C.H. universe gave Samsara a foothold into reality outside the Shadow Realm.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Phobos' mistreatment of Daolon Wong causes the latter to turn against him. And later, Lothar and all the Guards go the same way.
  • And Daolon Wong ends up turning Jade into a Shapeshifter, which comes back to bite him and the other villains.
  • He's more an Anti-Villain than anything else at that point, but Aldarn's decision to use Ikazuki's mask to win his duel with Caleb ends up completely discrediting his bid for leadership of the Rebellion.
• Nice to the Waiter: Ludmoore's first scene has him cheerfully greeting Blunk and asking how his mother is doing. According to Blunk, he's always kind to the Passlings he trades with.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Mage secretly freed Nerissa from her imprisonment to try and reform her. Nerissa repaid her kindness by murdering her after learning all she could and taking her identity.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Will, when Matt wants to join the fight on Meridian.
• No Sympathy: Quentin Ross, for criminals.
• Not Himself: Irma's reaction to hearing that Jade wore a dress in her Queen of the Shadowkhan state.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Jade's rant about using her new Shapeshifter and Ben Shui powers to help people gives Yan Lin an uncomfortable flashback to Nerissa. Likewise, Will's later evolution into a pragmatist willing to manipulate potential allies is far too similar to Nerissa for Yan's liking.
  • The Sack of Torus Filney forces Caleb to realize that the Rebellion isn't really all that much better than Phobos' supporters.
  • Chang claims that Jackie, acting on behalf of Section 13, is no different from how Chang was back when he was a ring fighter, saying that both are just pawns of the people calling the shots. Jackie admits that he has a point, but that doesn't stop him from handing Chang over to Captain Black.
  • Chapter 20 shows that this is the case with Caleb and Lothar, both having been operating under Black-and-White Morality-induced bloodthirstiness for most of the war, but now realizing things aren't that clearcut. They both even use the same line about no longer being blind to their side's faults.
  • There's a parallel or two drawn between Raythor and Tohru, both having served villains due to a misplaced sense of honor.
  • After Aldarn puts on Ikazuki's mask during their duel and says that he did so to guarantee that the Rebellion would have to accept him as a leader no matter how the duel turned out or what they thought, Caleb gets the idea to provoke him by asking how that makes him any different than Phobos.
• Not So Invincible After All: After stealing Elyon's powers, Phobos seems unstoppable. However, as the narration notes, all that power doesn't stop him from being made from flesh and bone that can still be injured by the Guardians if they actually manage to land blows.
• Not So Similar: Yan Lin eventually realizes that for all her worries about Will and Jade being no different from Nerissa, they still have their compassion, which Nerissa lost.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Tharquin presents himself as doing what's necessary for the safety of Meridian, but it's clear that he's just a racist and a fundamentalist.
• Obfuscating Disability: After being raped by Rhouglar, Lady Ishol pretends that the trauma has turned her into an Empty Shell, so that her Rebel captors will drop their guard around her, allowing her to rescue her husband and escape.
• Obviously Evil: As Jade mentally notes, Phobos practically screams with "I'm the bad guy" vibes.
• O.C. Stand-in: The Oni Generals, as per usual for JCA fanfics.
• Off with His Head!: How Caleb executes Rhouglar.
• Once an Episode: Each chapter ends with a quote by a character, usually reflecting on a theme from the chapter, written in hindsight.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Tarakudo can temporarily shift from an Oracular Head back to a full body, during which he's basically a Physical God.
  • Downplayed with Daolon Wong, who can enter a transformed state by making his Dark Chi Warriors reenter his staff after some time, which makes his skin turn the same color as theirs, makes one of his eyes go pitch black and the other completely white, and gives him more magic power, which allows him to use very devastating spells originally created by the Demon Sorcerers. However, this form only increases his magical might, not the physical, and its main purpose is to allow him to use the demonic spells without tiring himself to death. Also, it has a downside, since he can only last in this state for as long as his Dark Chi Warriors had been materialized.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The Tracker is pissed when the heroes manage to defeat Ikazuki before he can.
• Opportunistic Bastard: The Ludmoore brothers. They have long-term plans, but know when to take advantage of a situation.
• Orcus on His Throne: Phobos stays in his castle, where he can continue to siphon Meridian's energies into himself, while leaving fighting the Rebellion and Guardians to his minions.
• Origins Episode: The second epilogue is primarily about Nerissa's Start of Darkness, but first details how her generation of Guardians first came into their powers.
• Our Mages Are Different: There are Chi Magic users like Uncle, Tohru, Wong and Jade, and Raw Magic users like the Guardians, Phobos, and Elyon. And then there are the rare few who can merge the two fields of magic, like Nimue and, eventually, Charles Ludmoore.
• Outside-Context Problem: For Phobos' forces, it's the rebels having guns.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience:
  • Jade's dream vision right before she transforms the first time has her running naked through a forest.
  • Lothar's epiphanic dream after being freed of Uta's possession has him being chased naked.
• Overnight Age-Up: Hay Lin almost name-drops the trope after noticing how Jade's become taller after gaining her shapeshifter abilities.
• The Paralyzer: Ikki can do this via pressure points.
• The Paranoiac: Phobos is convinced that everyone is out to get him. Because of his own actions, this ends up actually being the case.
• Parental Abandonment: Shortly after Aldarn's mother died, his father lost faith in the Rebellion and left it, abandoning the young Aldarn when he refused to do likewise.
• Parental Obliviousness: Queen Weira was completely oblivious to Phobos's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
• Parental Substitute: While Raythor is A Father to His Men, his relationship with Lothar in particular comes across as this.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Quentin Ross, and the Rebellion.
• The Perfectionist: Cornelia shows herself to be this, because she thinks she needs to be.
• Pet the Dog: Of all people, Phobos has a moment of this when he spares Roberta because she was the only one of his minions that was loyal, and makes her his new right hand during the climax of Season 1.
• Physical God:
  • A fully realized Heart is this, especially if they're on their own world.
  • Tarakudo comes fairly close when embodied, being seemingly unstoppable.
• The Plague: The first epilogue chapter reveals that, centuries ago, Meridian was afflicted by one called the "White Death", which was caused by a white insect that infected crops, causing white spots, fevers, convulsions, and in many cases, death. Once they discover the source, they burn their crops to kill the insects, even if it means causing famine once the plague is gone, and it prompts Jonathan Ludmoore to create a new order to revitalize medical knowledge in Meridian, especially after seeing how the survivors fared, and learning that the remaining side effects could be heritable.
• Platonic Prostitution: When infiltrating Torus Filney, the Guardians and Jade hide out in the Red House brothel, whose owner is friendly with the Rebellion.
• Play-Along Prisoner: Turns out, Drago could have escaped his cell at any time. He just needed something to distract the guards.
• Playing Both Sides: Ludmoore and his brothers are doing this with Meridian's war.
• Poor Communication Kills: Because she never explain that her Jerkass act wasn't her real personality, Elyon becomes convinced Cornelia really is a self-absorbed Alpha Bitch.
• Post-Rape Taunt: Rhouglar brags about his crimes.
• Pragmatic Hero: Caleb, even when he lightens up from a Knight Templar Anti-Hero, is still willing to do whatever's necessary to win.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In her disguise as the Mage, Nerissa chooses to heal Jade from Tharquin's torture only to further put the rebels and Guardians in her debt.
• Prison Riot: The infiltration of the Underwater Mines leads to this, as Ludmoore casts a spell to free all the prisoners from their chains, giving them a chance to fight back against their captors.
• Properly Paranoid: Aldarn's distrust of Ludmoore is a Right for the Wrong Reasons version of this, as he's absolutely right that Ludmoore isn't trustworthy. It's just that he thinks Ludmoore will betray them to Phobos, unaware that he's been Playing Both Sides all along.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Hay Lin has a recurring dream about various bizarre figures (representing the villains in the Gambit Pileup) fighting over the right to feast on a woman (representing Meridian). The Master of the Cavalcade eventually intervenes to stop these dreams, before she sees something she shouldn't.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • Tynar, even more than in canon, since he's got a family here.
  • Jackie's undercover work in the Dark Hand leads to him realizing a lot of the rank-and-file members are this.
• The Purge: Aldarn would like nothing more than to wipe out all the nobility in Meridian, blaming them as a whole for the smallfolk's problems.
• Purple Is Powerful: Nimue's magic, which is stronger than most others, is purple.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The group of new Shapeshifters that Wong creates.
• Race Fetish: Apparently Hoel, one of the Knights of Escanor who helped found Meridian, was of African descent, and every human Meridianite with dark skin is said to be descended from him to a degree, with many members of the nobility tending to have darker skin. Taranee finds this out when posing as a prostitute before the attack on Torus Finley, and is rather uncomfortable to learn that her skin color is considered exotic and exciting from Vera, the matron who's helping hide them.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Everyone on both sides is disgusted by Rhouglar's actions.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Sack of Torus Filney.
• Reality Warper: As Phobos shows once he gets Elyon's power, when on the world their Heart is from, the bearer of a Heart can create, reshape, and destroy matter, twist gavity, warp space, and stop time.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In Chapter 7, Jackie questions Cornelia's father if he understands what kind of harm he inflicts by working for the Dark Hand. Harold tells in Jackie's face that he's fully aware of that and making no excuses about it. He then says that Jackie is in no position to judge him after he brought down Valmont and caused innocent people to suffer in the resulting war over Valmont's position.
    Harold: Do you think I have never met with men like you before? Men that only see one side of the coin, thinking that life is some kind of heroic tale and that everyone in it can be reduced to a stereotype. Do you know why I was able to take you here so easily? Because you didn’t imagine that someone that has a family like you, that has daughters and loves them as much as you love that niece, could be related to something as the Dark Hand. Because men like you can only think in black and white.
  • Alchemy gives one to Elyon in Chapter 26, pointing out just how selfish her I Just Want to Be Special motives are.
    Alchemy: I said that if you think that, you're just selfish. I came here to talk to you, to understand why you did what you did, disappearing overnight and leaving for another world. And what's the big reason? You want to be special. You want to be a Princess. That's it. Do you know that the reason Cornelia acted so pettily all those years was because she felt she needed to be perfect 24/7? Do you know her father was part of a criminal organization? Do you know how guilty she feels for what's happened with you? Do you know that all those times she couldn't be with us, she was fighting, risking her life in this war? And that's just Cornelia. The girls have seen innocent people die before their very eyes! Will's been forced to do a bunch of horrible things to make the Rebellion win battles! Jade's got a bunch of scars on her back from some madman trying to kill her, for the love of God! Do you know how much all of our friends have been through while we were safe on Earth?! No, of course you don't. Because you're happy here, playing Princess and getting the attention you think you always deserved. That's being selfish, Elyon. And I'm not going to bite my tongue and don't call it what it is.
• Really Royalty Reveal: As per canon, Caleb does this with Elyon. Here, however, he manipulates events so that he can do so in a more controlled environment.
• Really 700 Years Old:
  • Wong is revealed to have been born at the end of the 15th century.
  • Nimue and Harold Hale/King Arthur are presumably even older than Wong.
• The Resenter: Turns out, Elyon has spent years feeling bitter towards Cornelia for the haughtiness and arrogance she constantly has on display as part of her Jerkass facade (feelings not helped by Elyon not realizing that it's a facade). This later fuels her decision to turn on her friends when Cedric reveals the existence of Meridian to her.
• The Reveal:
  • Chapter 11 reveals which of the Rebellion's leaders is Cyrus Ludmoore in disguise: It's Drake.
  • Chapter 14 finally answers the long-running question of what actually happened at Carhaiz.
  • Chapter 19 has several shocking reveals back-to-back: the Dark Hand controls Section 13, the arrested Chang is a clone of the original, Harold has secretly been a leader of the group the whole time, and is actually an immortal King Arthur.
  • Chapter 36 finally explains the Master of the Cavalcade of Horrors: it's an Eldritch Abomination called Samsara that's been trapped at the bottom of the Shadow Realm since before the multiverse was born, it created the Cavalcade from the remnants of the JCA universe after Jade merged what she could with the W.I.T.C.H. universe, and it's been manipulating the new Merged Reality ever since with the intention of escaping into it to consume it and then use it as fuel to spread across the multiverse.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Rebellion is not painted as a bunch of saints here.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: After the Sack of Torus Filney exposes the Rebellion's dark side, Caleb dedicates himself to trying to reform it.
• Rightful King Returns: What the Rebellion is aiming for with Elyon, and what Phobos has tricked into thinking has already happened while he manipulates her.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Cavalcade of Horror's master apparently remembers the pre-Merged Reality world.
• Rooftop Confrontation: In Chapter 26, Viper and Jackie fight Tristan on the roof of Count Cornelius' mansion in Lannion, with Taranee and Hay Lin later flying in to provide support.
• Royally Screwed Up: Leaving aside how insane Phobos himself is, according to Servantis there have been plenty of Escanor queens just as bad before him.
• Royalty Superpower: Not only is the Heart of Meridian bound to the Escanor royal line, but according to Rasputin, many worlds bind their Hearts to royal families in order to secure the power (he actually tried to do the same on Earth with its Heart and the Romanovs, which didn't work).
• Running Both Sides: The Dark Hand secretly manipulated the creation of Section 13 as part of their larger gambit. In fact, Captain Black's superior Victor Folkner is actually Dark Hand leader Theodore Riddle.
• Saintly Church: The Faithful of the Light of Meridian, Meridian's organized religion. They were officially banned by Phobos after he seized power, and now serve as healers for the Rebellion.
• Say My Name: Jade to her torturer after gaining the upper hand on him.
• Scars Are Forever:
  • Caleb earns a facial scar from dueling Servantis, and chooses not to have it fully healed.
  • While Nerissa heals the rest of the damage from Tharquin's tortures, she deliberately leaves Jade's back to scar, as a reminder of what happened.
• Scorpion People: Tristan the shapeshifter turns into a large scorpion.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Frost flees the fighting at Torus Filney once the rebels break out the guns.
  • After Rhouglar and Tharquin's deaths, most of their loyalists quit the Rebellion.
  • Ross quits Section 13 and storms out of working with the Chans and Guardians after they decide to use Harold to replace Chang, since as far as his moral inflexibility is concerned, anything short of utterly wiping out the Dark Hand is unacceptable.
  • Chang's lackey Crane abandons the fight against the Chans and Guardians in the hidden subway tunnel after Caleb uses the Sword of Thanatos and enters Berserker Form.
  • After being confronted by Alchemy, Mrs. Rudolph, and Nerissa in her Trill disguise about the truth about Phobos, a panicked Elyon flies away rather than have to face facts.
  • The Lurdens flee the castle upon feeling the shockwaves from Phobos stealing Elyon's powers, while Frost likewise takes off after the chaos of the Guard fighting Phobos' Whisperers becomes too much for him.
• Secret-Keeper: Harold, Matt, and Alchemy all come to learn about the Guardians' and Jade's powers.
• Secret Test of Character: After Alchemy confronts her, Elyon asks Phobos to see her adoptive parents, hoping to use his reaction to gauge if he's trustworthy or not. Unfortunately, Phobos realizes that she's not telling him everything about what caused her to flee back to the capital, and plans to turn her test to his advantage.
• Selective Obliviousness: Elyon chooses to ignore all the signs of Phobos' tyranny, as that would ruin her fantasy of a perfect life.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Discussed. After Wong's failed coup, Lothar considers it a pity that he and Phobos didn't take each other out in a Mutual Kill.
• Self-Made Orphan: Phobos killed his parents in order to seize the throne for himself.
• Sequel Hook: The story's version of Season 1 ends with various loose threads: Captain Black beginning a secret investigation into the Dark Hand's infiltration of Section 13, the Dark Hand preparing some kind of magical WMD, Nerissa and Ludmoore both plotting the next steps in their respective plans, the Cavalcade of Horrors and their Master preparing for the culmination of their own plan, and a grieving Jade leaving Earth for Meridian. The third Season 1 epilogue adds some more: the Tracker intends to hunt all the heroes in revenge for stopping him from killing Ikazuki, and while Jade has returned to Earth after spending time grieving, Samsara has begun the process of corrupting her.
• Serial Rapist: Rhouglar, as it turns out.
• Shock and Awe: The Gauntlet of Indra gives its wearer this power.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jackie and Viper, as per canon.
  • There's been hints of chemistry between Jade and Irma as well. They eventually admit that they like each other, but decide to wait until after the war to do anything serious.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Jackie tries to appeal to Hak Foo to abandon his Oni mask by pointing out that relying on its power means that he technically isn't actually the strongest person around. Hak responds by saying that as long as he beats Jackie, he doesn't care.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: When Matt told Will the reason why he cannot stop helping people, she told him she loves him.
• Sixth Ranger: Viper is brought to Heatherfield in chapter 16 to aid in the mission against the Dark Hand.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Passlings don't trade the lives of others, especially their own people. Jeek sold out his fellow Passlings for jewels, and gets exiled for it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: A minor background character, who shows up in a single flashback and isn't even named, ends up shaping a lot of the backstory. One of Julian's men convinces him to destroy Carhaiz, which leads to Julian being captured, Caleb having the responsibility of leading the Rebellion forced onto him, and laying the groundwork for Tristan becoming a servant of Phobos.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Rhouglar is an utter lunatic on the battlefield.
• Sore Loser: Shendu destroyed the Book of Ages when sealed away again solely to spite Jade and the other heroes and make sure that if he couldn't have the Earth, no one could. It doesn't even count as a Taking You with Me moment because the Demon Netherworld being a separate Realm from Earth means that it wouldn't be affected.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • During the Battle of Torus Filney, the Rebellion's initial battle plan is derailed when Simon shows up, which they didn't expect. And then Servantis' forces are caught completely off guard by the rebels having guns.
  • Wong and Cedric's plan to betray Phobos and steal the Heart of Meridian from him completely catches Nerissa off guard, throwing her own plans off the rails somewhat.
  • Nerissa was apparently manipulating Phobos for her own gain before his coup, but him killing his parents before she arrived wasn't something that she had planned for, and neither was Cedric manipulating him into the attack that led to the Veil being raised.
  • Phobos' death is a downplayed example for Nerissa, as it catches her off guard, but she quickly reevaluates her plans for the Knights of Vengeance by driving them to avenge Phobos instead of freeing him.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the cartoon, it was implied that Lothar was murdered by the Mage in the late Season 1 episode episode "The Stolen Heart". In this story, he's still alive by the end of Season 1.
• Spiritual Antithesis: According to the author of the J-WITCH Series, his story was inspired by Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters. Both stories are similar, with them both being Jackie Chan Adventures/ W.I.T.C.H. crossovers where the characters are put in more realistic situations. However, both stories go in different directions at multiple points.
  • Both stories are Fusion Fics, but Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters is more of a literal example where the Book of Ages fuses the two shows' realities together, while J-WITCH's world is shown to have always been as it is.
  • J-WITCH is mostly Lighter and Softer, though at some times showing dark and realistic moments. Meanwhile, Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters is completely Darker and Edgier, with more dark moments as the characters deal with the horrors of war and killing.
  • In Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, Prince Phobos was given Adaptational Villainy, having murdered his parents, and is a selfish power-hungry tyrant, while in J-WITCH he's given Adaptational Heroism, genuinely caring for his sister, being a Knight Templar at worst, and was actually framed for his parents' murder.
  • The nobility of Meridian had a big role in Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, while in J-WITCH no nobility was shown, because according to the author, there is no nobility in Meridian in his story.
  • Irma Lair and Jade Chan start a relationship in Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, while they stay just friends in J-WITCH.
  • Jade gets different powers in each story. In Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, she becomes a wolf Shapeshifter and gains Blood Magic, which is fitting the overall darker tone. In J-WITCH, she instead becomes a sixth Guardian, which is Truer to the Text.
  • The ending to both stories' Season 1 storyline contrasts each other with a similar but different event that will fundamentally change their Season 2. The end of this story in Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters featured the death of Phobos while the end of J-WITCH Season 1 has the death of Cedric.
• Spit Take:
  • Sephiria chokes on her wine when Drake refers to Cornelia as the girl Caleb loves.
  • Jade chokes on her soda when Irma asks if there's any boys she likes.
• Squishy Wizard: Wong's enhanced state only boost his magical stamina, not physical stamina.
• Staged Populist Uprising: Both Nerissa and Cedric had roles in starting and stirring up the rebellion for their own agendas.
• Start of Darkness:
  • Wong's is shown in Chapter 24. He was a student of one of China's premier Chi Masters, until his ambition to gain more power drove him to study Dark Chi, which ultimately twisted his body and mind.
  • Nerissa's is detailed earlier as killing Yua the Banshee on a mission before learning that her actions were due to a plague that had been affecting the people of her world (Yua being the bearer of her world's Heart), which led to her losing the Heart of Kandrakar, attacking and killing Cassidy by accident while trying to retrieve it. Then, after the Mage freed her, hoping to help reform her, Nerissa repaid her by killing her and stealing her identity.
• The Starscream:
  • Wong becomes this to Phobos, plotting to gain greater power for himself and take over Meridian as part of it. He fails because, ironically, he gains his own Starscream in the form of his Shapeshifter lieutenant Roberta.
  • Aldarn, of all people, becomes this to Caleb.
  • Cedric has been playing Phobos like a fiddle for his own agenda for years, and the second Wong decides to start plotting his own betrayal, joins forces with him. All part of his family's plan.
• Stupid Evil: Phobos is blatantly cruel and power hungry, to the point that he drives away all of his allies.
• Subordinate Excuse: Invoked by Nerissa/"The Mage" with Sephiria, she chose her as the representative of the members of the Faithful in the Rebellion specifically because she knew that she had a crush on Caleb, and could thus be trusted to always support Caleb's choices.
• Super-Senses: After gaining her wolf form, Jade's senses become enhanced even in her human form.
• Superweapon Surprise: The rebels buy guns from Ludmoore, giving them an edge at Torus Filney. They do this again at the Battle of Meridian Plains, this time further amplified by laser weapons from the Dark Hand and the magical weapons from the Masons.
• Survivor's Guilt: It appears that Aldarn's hatred for Meridian's nobility is fueled at least in part by not only how he lost his mother and all his close friends in the Rebellion save Caleb, but guilt over how the noble forces with Phobos managed to kill them but leave him alive.
• That Man Is Dead: The Tracker says this when Caleb questions him about being called Didier by Ikki.
• There Are No Therapists: The Rebellion doesn't seem to care about psychological trauma.
• These Hands Have Killed: The girls, during the Sack of Torus Filney.
• This Is Reality: After the Sack of Torus Filney, Drake spells it out to a disillusioned Caleb that Black-and-White Morality doesn't exist in war, and that there are always good and bad people on both sides.
• Those Two Guys: Irma and Jade rapidly develop this kind of relationship.
• Thou Shall Not Kill:
  • After Jackie more actively joins the fight on Meridian, he makes it clear to Jade that it's contingent on her no longer using lethal force against their enemies unless there's no other choice.
  • The Guardians try not to kill anyone. Averted after the Sack of Torus Filney, however — while the girls don't like killing and don't kill lightly, they pretty much abandon this mind set out of pragmatism.
• Title Drop: By Will, at the end of the first chapter, when referring to the Chan Clan/W.I.T.C.H. team.
• Token Evil Teammate: Tharquin and Rhouglar are this to the Rebellion. One's an unrelenting Knight Templar, while the other turns out to be a rapist.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Viscount Servantis is this for Phobos' court, doing his best to lighten the Prince's iron fisted rule while still enforcing it.
  • Lothar becomes this after moving past his obsession with avenging Raythor, instead focusing his attention on protecting his men and the civilian population from both Phobos' madness and any actions taken by the Rebellion.
• Too Dumb to Live: Rhouglar admitting his crimes, and bragging about them, to Caleb gets him killed.
• Torture Technician: Shiryu, the General of the Squid Khan, had this role among the Oni.
• Tragic Keepsake: The bracelet that Tynar's son made for him becomes this for Lothar after Tynar's apparent death.
• Treacherous Advisor: As Servantis explains it, Phobos only degraded from basic tyrant to The Caligula after Cedric came into his service and started whispering in his ear.
• Trial by Combat: The Rebellion has a protocol in place so that if enough people think their leader is doing a bad job, they can be challenged for the right to lead. Aldran invokes this to try and take control from Caleb.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Phobos apparently showed signs of his future personality even as a boy.
• True Companions: The girls, both the Guardians and Jade, become this.
• Truce Zone: As part of his neutrality, Ludmoore's mansion is this. He allows no fighting amongst his visitors, and will forcibly remove and ban them if there is any.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Jade notes at one point that all the Guardians (save Will, whose dad the rest of the group hasn't seen yet), have mothers that are notably more attractive than their fathers. Taranee admits that she has a point when her mother interrupts her when she's in a moment of deep thought.
• Uneven Hybrid:
  • Many of the humans on Meridian have Galhot blood somewhere in their ancestry. This is why Wong looks for teens from Earth for his shapeshifter experiment trials.
  • Galgheita is mostly Galhot, but has some Shapeshifter blood.
• Unfriendly Fire: Tharquin has Rhouglar attack and capture Jade during the fighting at Torus Filney, so that he can execute her without anyone else on their side realizing it.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Phobos' reaction to being saved from Wong's coup attempt is to berate his minions for allowing it to happen in the first place.
  • However, he later subverts this when he actually rewards Roberta for being the only minion to stay loyal to him all the way through to the endgame.
• The Un-Smile: Tharquin is just bad at smiling. It's noted that it's probably because his facial muscles just aren't used to making that shape.
• Unwitting Pawn: Phobos has been played multiple times, like when Cedric convinced him to attack Zamballa, leading to the Veil being raised.
• Vengeance Denied: Jade wants to kill Phobos for killing Uncle, but is prevented from doing so by the realpolitik of the Rebellion's post-victory plans. And then he dies of his injuries before she can get at him.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: After seemingly killing Raythor by getting him dumped down the Abyss of Shadows, Caleb finds he gets no satisfaction from it.
• Villain Corner: We see in her Start of Darkness chapter how Nerissa slowly became more controlling and willing to kill to achieve her goals.
• Villain Episode: Chapter 24 is focused entirely on Wong, both his Start of Darkness and the implementation of his plans to usurp Phobos. The only members of the heroic cast who show up are Uncle and Tohru, in a brief scene near the end when Uncle gets the willies from sensing Ludmoore stealing Wong's magic.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After possessing Aldarn, Ikazuki retreats rather than continuing the fight against the Guardians and rebels.
• Villainous Breakdown: As noted elsewhere, Phobos was already insane by the time the story started, but he was at least functional. Following Wong's failed coup, however, he completely loses it, to the point he starts hearing voices. Even then, he manages to maintain some semblance of self-control, until stealing the Heart of Meridian, at which point that all goes out the window and leaves him a raving lunatic.
• Villainous Demotivator: Phobos' insanity and cruelty results in all of his minions abandoning or plotting against him.
• Villainous Friendship:
  • Wong and Tracker get along disturbingly well.
  • Tarakudo seems to be on friendly terms with his Generals, especially Ikazuki.
• Villainous Legacy: According to Nimue, Didier's fall into Tracker was the result of Ikazuki's actions on Meridian.
• Villainous Rescue: Just when it looks like the Chans and Guardians are going to be killed by Uta-possessed Lothar, the Tracker shows up to settle a score of his own with the latter.
• Villain Team-Up: When Wong starts plotting against Phobos, not only does his buddy Tracker join him, but Cedric talks him into an alliance as well. When these plans fall apart, Wong allies with a Jiangshi in order to regain his lost power.
• Villainous Valor: Chang absolutely refuses to let the Guardians defeat him. It takes Nimue shattering his Gauntlet of Indra for him to finally cut his losses and run.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Shapeshifters, obviously. Wong's current main goal is to artificially recreate the ability. Jade is his first success.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Jade, for her status as the Chosen One and her transformation into a Shapeshifter due to Wong's formula.
  • Harold, for his connection to the Dark Hand and his true identity.
  • Nimue, whose mere name tips off the shift in mythologies involved in the setting.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Inverted regarding Phobos, given Meridian's matriarchal society.
• Wardens Are Evil: Sempronio, the warden of the Underwater Mines, is a sadist who enjoys how his job lets him torture and break people.
• War Is Hell: Made abundantly clear during the Sack of Torus Filney, and discussed at numerous other points.
• Was Once a Man: Wong's Dark Chi Warriors were once human, but they made a deal to serve him in exchange for power, the dark chi that they were infused with slowly eroding away at their personality and being until they are nothing more than obediant puppets.
• Weak, but Skilled: The advantage of Chi Magic over Raw Magic (the kind of magic used by Heart Wielders like the Guardians). Raw magic is stronger in direct and fast combat, but Chi Magic is able to cast a wider range of spells more easily.
  • Uncle expands on this during his duel with Ikazuki, which also applies to a martial art he knows called Xiao Li; Chi Magic is meant to allow humans, who are genuinely weak compared to demons like the Oni, stand up against them, and Xiao Li works on the idea of absolute relaxation and "going with the flow of a blow". Uncle has spent decades working on mixing them, and his success combined with the healing of the Horse Talisman, allow him to fight with Ikazuki.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • The true leadership of the Dark Hand is manipulating Earth's governments to start using magic, in order to protect the world from perceived extra-dimensional threats.
  • When corrupted by the mask Tarakudo forced on him, Jackie becomes this, as he becomes convinced the only way to keep everyone safe is to take their shadows and put them in comas, so that they can't fight anymore.
  • Aldarn is utterly convinced that the compromises Caleb is making in the Rebellion's methods is only weakening them, to the point that he's willing to face Caleb in combat for leadership.
• We Used to Be Friends: Caleb and Aldarn's friendship falls apart due to their different views on leading the Rebellion.
• We Will Meet Again: Nimue says this to the Guardians and Chans when parting ways after their first meeting.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 11 is a smaller scale one, mostly being a setup chapter for the Rebellion's attack on Torus Filney. But near the end, there are two major twists — Drake, one of the Rebellion's more levelheaded leaders, is Cyrus Ludmoore in disguise. Which is revealed as he seemingly kills Tynar by feeding him to Sandpit, long before he can make his canon Mook–Face Turn.
  • Chapter 19 starts off looking like a Breather Episode dealing with everyone recovering from the climax of the Dark Hand arc, but then there are several twists in its final scenes: Cornelia's father Harold is an immortal, who helped found the Dark Hand (which secretly runs Section 13) as part of a gambit to get Earth's governments to start using magic, to protect the world from other worlds. Oh, and Harold's original identity centuries ago? King Arthur.
  • Chapter 22 sees Tarakudo force Oni masks on Jackie and Viper, corrupting them into fighting the other heroes as a distraction while he steals the Hana Fuda cards. And as a result of this fight, Matt and Alchemy learn about the Guardians' and Jade's powers. Meanwhile, Nerissa tries to eliminate Wong, but while this ends in a stalemate, it allows her to steal his potion for making Shapeshifters. It's also implied that the Master of the Cavalcade knows about the Merged Reality.
  • Chapter 24 sees Wong finally makes his move against Phobos. In the end, he's betrayed by Cedric, Miranda and Roberta and left mortally wounded, forced to flee. Taking advantage of his desperation, Ludmoore is able to trick him into accepting a deal to save his life, but which results in Ludmoore stealing all of Wong's magic, Talismans included. With no other options, Wong returns to Earth and allies with a Jiangshi, becoming its student and a vampire himself.
  • Chapter 29: Drago's plan to escape from Cavigor causes the fortress to collapse; blaming the Guardians for this, and the subsequent deaths of her men, Sidriss swears revenge. Meanwhile, the collapse also allows the Guardians to take Cedric prisoner after he's knocked out by debris.
  • Chapter 31: The Battle of the Meridian Plains results in the nobility's army being crushed and their leaders made to surrender, while at the Castle Jackie convinces Tristan to abandon his hatred and switch sides. However, these Hope Spots are then crushed as Phobos manages to steal Elyon's power for himself.
  • Chapter 32: Phobos transforms the Whisperers into new Mooks and unleashes them on the Guards, leading to an Enemy Mine between them and the Rebellion. Drake/Cyrus shapeshifts into his Beast form to join the fight. Nerissa intervenes to take Roberta out of the fight. Caleb overuses the Sword of Thanatos for the fight, and is fully corrupted by it. And the chapter ends with Phobos killing Uncle.
  • Chapter 36: The third and final epilogue sets the stage for Season 2 by revealing that Samsara, the Master of the Cavalcade of Horrors, intends to corrupt Jade and use her to consume the Merged Reality before spreading across the multiverse. And it's already started by infiltrating her shared soul with the past Ben-Shui incarnations, abducting Norton and corrupting Ben-Shui himself.
• Wham Line:
  • Near the end of Chapter 21, Alborn and Miriadel are locked up in Cavigor's lowest level, and realize there's someone else in the cell opposite theirs. After a few minutes of conversation, he gives his name: Drago.
  • At the end of Chapter 27, Tristan tells Blunk to pass on the message that Julian is alive to Caleb.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: During the Sack of Torus Filney, Will kills a Phobos soldier in self-defense, and is horrified to realize that one of the other soldiers is his brother, as it hadn't occurred to her before now that the bad guy's mooks could have families.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The other Guardians and Chan Clan members call out Will and Jade for plotting to steal magical artifacts for the Rebellion during the subway fight with the Dark Hand, without bothering to tell the rest of them.
• Wicked Cultured:
  • Cedric and Miranda have a shared love of classic literature.
  • Charles Ludmoore enjoys the finer things in life.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Nyx can generate magic that gives people incredibly bad luck.
• Wizard Duel:
  • As per JCA canon, there's several between Uncle and Wong over the course of the story.
  • Wong also has these against Nerissa in Chapter 22, and Phobos in Chapter 24.
• Wizards Live Longer: Chi magic users, or at least dark chi users like Wong, can extend their lives up to two centuries in age.
• The Worf Effect:
  • When in his full-bodied form, Tarakudo is basically a Physical God on the level of a Heart-wielder, which he demonstrates when he nearly kills Nimue and her students. The only reason they survive is because the Cavalcade of Horrors stop him, at the behest of their master, who needs Nimue alive for now.
  • Callisto provides Jade with the single toughest fight she's had since becoming a Shapeshifter, dominating their fight with such skill and brutality that she feels like he's not even trying.
  • Archduchess Sebille's sword skills and sheer strength allows her to go up against Will and Jade at the same time.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Hak Foo reluctantly admits that he respects Jackie's skill and abilities as a fighter.
  • Tarakudo feels that humanity as a whole is this for the Oni.
  • Once Uncle explains his Weak, but Skilled stance during their duel, and actually manages to hurt him, Ikazuki considers him this.
  • Archduchess Sebille considers Will this after she surrenders, vowing to make sure that history remembers the Heart Keeper's name after she made them yield twice in a single day, if just to serve as a warning to Kandrakar's might.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Elyon is the rightful heir to the Meridian throne both due to succession laws and due to possessing the Heart of Meridian. However, her selfish views on what makes a princess and her self-delusions about Phobos (whom she continues to trust and support), mean she's currently ill-equipped to actually rule.
• Xanatos Gambit: Tarakudo using a forcibly-masked Jackie and Viper as a distraction in order to steal the Hana Fuda cards. If he obtains them, the heroes can't use them to find or remove any of the other masks. Even if he fails, it will keep the heroes, especially Jade and Will, from realizing that he's not really bothered by losing the masks. And if the Guardians and allies suffer any casualties from the fight, it's merely a bonus. No matter what happens, he benefits.
• Xanatos Speed Chess:
  • Ludmoore has a grand plan in place, but he's keeping it flexible enough to adapt to whatever happens.
  • When Nerissa realizes that Wong is more dangerous than she first thought, she decides to let his plot against Phobos play out, figuring she can adapt her plans to deal with whoever comes out on top.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The Mage assures Caleb that because he actually has concerns about the Rebellion becoming He Who Fights Monsters, he's better then Phobos. Of course, this is Nerissa, so she's just trying to manipulate him.
• You Are Not Ready: Part of the reason the Mage didn't tell Caleb about Carhaiz was to protect his innocence.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Why Miss Kimber lets Tarakudo take the Oni mask in her possession — she's already foreseen that he's going to end up with it, so there's no point in trying to prevent the inevitable.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One:
  • Apparently Nimue has fought groups trying to unseal Nihila over twenty times throughout the past 600 years, and every time the incantation is completed and the sorceress unsealed before being defeated and sealed again.
  • The heroes are unable to stop Phobos from stealing Elyon's powers.
• "You!" Exclamation: Tristan in Chapter 26, when he finds several of the Chan Clan and Guardians in Elyon's bedroom. And then again when he encounters Julian in the castle in Chapter 31.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • After her initial fainting spell, this is Cornelia's reaction to finding out that Elyon is the lost Princess.
  • Will's reaction to realizing that their jail break of Elyon's parents may have just unleashed a potential new enemy (namely Drago).
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Phobos starts pulling this on his servants, primarily starting with replacing the Guards with his new Whisperer Mooks. Roberta is the only named minion who he plans not to eliminate.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Caleb's reason for hating Raythor.
  • Aldarn's mother, and many of his friends, were killed by Phobos' forces, which contributes to his hatred of all of Meridian's nobility.
• You're Not My Father:
  • Elyon comes to feel this way about her adopted parents after learning her true origins.
  • When Aldarn's father decided to leave the Rebellion, Aldarn called him a coward and effectively disowned him.

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