YMMV / Jade City

• Magnificent Bastard: Ayt "Mada" Madashi is the main antagonist of the trilogy. Killing her rivals to become Pillar of the Mountain clan after her father's death, Mada intends to have her clan control the jade market, both legally and illegally. In conflict with the No Peak clan, Mada proves a cunning foe, using assassination and convincing a former member for gathering info, as well as kidnapping the youngest child of the No Peak's leading family to manipulate her rivals. She uses No Peak's murder of a jade smuggler in her plans in order for the Mountain clan to take over his operation to nearly conquer the black market. Mada also manipulates and blackmails a conglomerate head into handing over his business to her, further consolidating her resources and proves herself backed by countless contingencies, even managing to kill the leader of No Peak after her defeat due to one final plan.
• Moral Event Horizon: Ayt Madashi crossed it three years before the story even started by whispering the name of her own adoptive sibling to secure her position as Pillar of the Mountain.
  • Hilo crosses this when he murders his former sister-in-law Enyi and her boyfriend after she insults him and declares Lan's son will never be a killer like Hilo's family.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A major subplot in Jade Legacy concerns the Clanless Future Movement, a revolutionary group committed to overthrowing the clan system and instituting rule of the people. The story seems to be building up to a popular uprising or civil war (mirroring government changes in many postwar East/Southeast Asian nations) yet the climax of their efforts, bombing the Kekon Jade Alliance building with all major Pillars present, fails to kill or even permanently injure any important characters and the status quo quickly resumes, while the Movement itself fizzles out in short order. This comes off as a lot of wasted ink for no real purpose in the story.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: By the latter half of the series No Peak has lost any moral high ground it may have held over the Mountain and the primary conflict now boils down to two equally murderous warlords struggling for control over what amounts to a Bronze Age or medieval society with fancy cars. This in a setting that features modern liberal democracies with actual checks and balances (which the clans actively screw with for their own ends). The veneration and legal status of clans in Kekonese society also deny readers the catharsis of a "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc or a Hero Antagonist finally cornering the main characters after all their misdeeds.