Jackie Chan Adventures

I felt she was overused. She was helpful whenever she was around, but I think more than a few problems could've been solved without her being in the episode.

Well, if you like her, then you like her.

I believe they even address that in the episode where Jackie is given the chance to change the past and have Jade not move in with them. Jade rewatches all the times when she messed things up, but Jackie sees all the times she saved the day, and opts to not send her home.

Personally, I think it's more something with Jackie. When I watched this show it seemed as there was more things going on with Jade and her actions than with Jackie. Other than obviously looking cool doing his kicking ass routine he didn't seem to do a whole lot to take command of the show. I believe it's mentioned further up this thread as being intentional. To me his character got boring, he was quiet, never wanted any trouble and only reacted when pressured by others or when there was no other option. Not a bad philosophy to live by sure, but boring. They could do more things with Jade because it seemed as if there were more options than with Jackie, he was pretty much set as to what his behavior and mannerisms were going to be. He rarely had anything magical happen to him, and as a result there aren't too many times that the focus can be on him.

On one more note, I kind of wish they would have allowed Jade to grow up a couple of years or so over the course of the show, which I'm pretty sure does take a few years in the passage of time. It would have been cool to see her grow up and improve her skills and most importantly, mature. I could envision a Season 5 where Jade has proven herself to Jackie to be reliable when coming along and that she can behave. She does less stupid things and give Jackie more confidence that he can let her come along and not screw anything up. Her Season 5 self could be looking back to her Season 1 and thinking "what was I thinking back then?"

Likewise, Jackie should have been allowed to develop more as a character too, give him some dimensions and that may have made him more of a dominant force. It's his show, he needs to take it and make it his.

edited 26th Feb '15 5:54:56 AM by selltown88

One thing I liked about the show was the segments at the end where the real Jackie Chan would share stuff about his life, such as doing his own stunts and being a good cook.

I loved those! I also loved that it was set in San Francisco (at times) because I live right across the Bay, and due to my parent's work (as classical musicians often hired to play for churches or weddings or in office buildings at christmas time) and my brother Terl's speech therapist being in SF, I spent a LOT of my childhood and teen years in SF, and in SF's China Town. For an animated show from a decade( and a half??) ago, they actually put a lot of effort into getting settings and buildings right. That always made me so happy. It was the same with Big Hero 6—watching it the first time I was like, "I've been there! on that street! that's an actual place, where I have been!"

...I really need to finish this show. I don't think I ever finished the last 2 seasons.

I watched it on Kids WB up until the Talismans became literal animals, then I was only able to catch parts of later seasonS. Daolon Wong and Vlad becoming a joke, and Shendu's son Drago popping up. There was an episode where Jade went back in time to when Jackie was still a kid and Uncle had to do most of the fighting, and an episode where a future Jade came back in time for some reason - it aired on Chinese New Year and I missed it!

I remember one of the earlier episodes that started with Jackie fighting Vlad's goons on top of a train. The train careens off a broken bridge and the goons make it to a helicopter, leaving Jackie to his fate.

Ah, here it is. This is better:

edited 26th Feb '15 12:08:49 PM by FOFD

Season three was pretty weak, but season four was a big step up in quality along with better animation and a more character driven plotline. Season five has a "let's wrap this up" feel to it, nothing horrible but concludes the series alright.

I dunno. Season 3 felt pretty good to me - if not as good as Season 2. Season 4 was where the series slowly started to run out of steam, but it didn't really hurt all that much because the villains still worked very well, whereas Season 5 had very few highpoints at all.

To me, the weakest season was season 2, simply because off all the fillerish, bad guy of the week episodes.

I've already said that seasons 3 and 4 are neck and neck for my favorite with the loser being a very close second.

As others stated, while I don't dislike Jade, I agree she was overused. At times it feels like she, not Jackie, is the protagonist. What's the term we use for this - Spotlight-Stealing Squad?

I finished rewatching the show. While it's still overall enjoyable throughout, it did become a bit weaker over time.

Also, I agree with that other guy who stated that Jackie's character became too dull and passive; besides saving the day, he didn't do much to drive the story around. Even though he's supposed to be the hero, the focus on him shifted around.

And while I didn't dislike Jade as a character, the increasing focus on her grew increasingly annoying. It wasn't too bad in the beginning of the series, but becomes a lot more noticeable as time goes on. It would've been really funny if for once, her push-over uncle could figure out a way to actually force her to stay behind.

I agree. Jackie was always reluctant, but that was taken too far as the show went on, or at least he became, as you said, too passive. I think Uncle and perhaps even Tohru were more active than him. I'm also a bit disappointed that Jackie never got a solo episode. Even if he was going to be pushed to the back anyways, a solo episode probably would've done him some good.

I've just started watching the series from the beginning again and posting my reactions on at least two other online forums. Probably the one show besides KND I watched from the beginning through to the end all throughout the 2000s, and my earliest fanfics were based off of it.

Interestingly, there was a sizable 'shipping fanbase for Jade/Drago after series five, or at least fanfics dealing with a Jade/Hsi-Wu/Drago love triangle. In my own fanfics, I actually made Drago Jade and Shendu's son using timey whimey

edited 26th Mar '15 5:46:21 AM by Zarius

...If you'll excuse me, I need to go gouge my brain out.

edited 26th Mar '15 1:51:17 PM by spashthebandragon

My Life: Never Normal

Drago, Shendu, Hsi Wu? Aren't they all, you know, evil demon sorcerers? I don't understand why people would pair them off with the heroine.

Shipping/pairings don't have to make sense. I would think that would be obvious for anyone on the internet who has ever seen fanart.

Foe Yay?

or just crack shipping.

edited 26th Mar '15 1:21:20 PM by Ellowen

I'm not saying I'm surprised though, I'm aware that there are tons of people out there with strange fetishes.

You need to measure your brain because of a fanfic?

Fixed. I hope you're happy now.

It's not all that surprising. The "main female character / the most attractive male villain" is one of the staple ships that tend tend to be popular in every single fanbase ever (alongside "main female character / second most prominent female character" and "main female character / Troubled, but Cute loner"). And yeah, it's everywhere in the JCA fandom.

One of the main reasons I've been pretty meh towards JCA fanfics as a whole is because it often feels like there are only really three fics that get repeated over and over again - and one of them is "Drago/Hsi WU returns, falls in love with Jade, turns good." (There was one I really liked, but it appears to have been wiped off the face of the internet)

edited 26th Mar '15 1:54:33 PM by KnownUnknown

Buh-Buh-But-But SHENDU? SHENDU? Is "most attractive male villain" really a phrase you'd associate with SHEN FREAKING DU? "Ooh, what a sexy dragon statue!" I mean, I guess there are people out there who're into completely circular dragon statues...

edited 26th Mar '15 2:35:14 PM by spashthebandragon

My recollection is sketchy, but I think one of my ideas at the time was for Jade to have played some reluctant hand in making Shendu a statue in the first place

I really enjoyed this show as a kid. Ended up feeling really sorry for the Enforcers.

Though, I refused to say the name out loud because there was no way I could make saying the title look dignified.