This personally has to be my favorite chapter right now, absolutely great Dialogue.

This was really good! I like Oogway, too, and I think you wrote him pretty well.

Part 1: Holy moly … A YEAR?! *Hides face*so sorry, life got in the way big time. This is one of my favourite chapters, but it wasn’t the easiest to review, mainly because I couldn’t find the right words to explain how I felt about it, (this is a good thing). I’ll get stuck in shall I?

First off, the fact that Tai has come to see Po in a different light and as his first true friend is adorable and it actually makes sense for that to be the case. It was one of those things that could almost be predicted earlier on – or more or less a “Go figure” moment. It was really cool.

The whole part about Tai having to cook for Po was downright hilarious. And again, makes perfect sense that he would know very little or nothing at all about cooking. It reminded me a little bit of the fic “From Scratch” with Tai trying and failing to cook properly. Though the bit about the chilli powder really topped the cake xD

I remember the first time I read this I wondered how that staff was going to be fixed. I did know that it was going to happen, but I was curious to know how you were going to come about that since there seemed to be only a selected number of ways that it could be written believably, but then again if Oogway could appear out of rose petals (which was a lovely vision by the way), then fixing the staff via magic or chi seemed to be a very high probability. But I did still wonder.

Loved that you brought the little plant into it. I only recently discovered the post-credit scene after the movie which was just lovely. And Tai’s urge to want to protect it was just beautiful, even if he does try to chalk it up to him losing his mind. Still love his sarcasm about contemplating his navel while Oogway “spouts Confucius”. What was even funnier was the image of Tai’s face at the implication that they were going to use the plant to heal the staff.

Okay, yes you wrote everyone completely in character but I have to say you NAILED it with Oogway. For me personally, he was/is not the easiest one to write in character but you had him down pat. It was so satisfying to read him; one minute speaking what one might call “normally” and the next – being downright confusing. Perfecto!

So big baddie is a perfected Master of Chi and lives to successfully corrupt and bring others to the bad side? Great. I think it was here that I started wondering how on Earth he was going to get taken down since I did guess it would not be by force or arms which did get mentioned later on.

It’s interesting that Oogway would not give Tai Lung the baddies name for fear of giving him power, only because most films/stories I’ve come across with that sort of plot - hearing the name of the villain gives the protagonist more of a chance to defeat them as opposed to being defeated themselves. But ah well. Not incredibly important but anyway.

Tai Lung’s turning point was brilliantly written; especially the realization that Tigress meant a lot more to him than just a prize and he had to let that go – though I have to say, that really did get me thinking about when on earth something between them was going to happen - can’t rush these things. Haha.

The mending of the staff – woah that gave me massive ‘KFP 3’ vibes (the producers had to have read your fic – way too many coincidences here!) The story behind the staff was clever – man I wish I could think up something like that! xD

Part 2 coming soon :) (and you finally have titles for the chapter. Cool!)

This story is fantastic. I love what you are doing with the characters and how well you wright them. Can’t wait to read more.

Seven months later … *clears throat awkwardly* I could go into a massive speech about what caused the huge delay but I won’t coz – well – you sort of know half of it anyway. Sooooo on with it I guess.

This review is more or less three chapters combined. Ch 18 – 20. Too many little bits scattered throughout that I couldn’t miss. (Yes, this was the result of my decision about what chapter to review next, it was nowhere near as easy as what I thought it was going to be, so I hope I don’t make it too confusing. xD)

Ch18 - I did briefly scrape in the last review how I felt about the first part of that chapter. Shifu’s secret longing for the boy that Tai had been before he took the path to what would be his downfall. Aargh, it’s one of those parts that I don’t get tired of going back and reading again. The emotion in it is very powerful. As well as the fact that it gives us readers a deeper insight on where Shifu went wrong in Tai’s upbringing. The feels!

The description of the murdered goat … *gulps* that’s … graphic. Okay, maybe not *everything* is enjoyed straight from the oven :P But ah well, I am by no means complaining. Just … yikes!

Tai’s thoughts on Shifu were way more angsty to begin with, I’ll say, and fair enough. I can’t really fault how Tai felt towards that. You painted a brilliant picture showing how it started off what Tai hating what Shifu did and not allowing himself to forgive him for that and then going even deeper to show that Tai actually does want to forgive and trust Shifu again, but doesn’t want to risk getting hurt again. My gosh … I want to hug him so bad.

More thoughts on Tigress? Heeeee. Maybe I wasn’t quite so thrilled that Tai is still looking at her like some prize to be won since that’ll get him nowhere but nevertheless, I guess that can be overlooked a tad since Tigress does feel the same desire for him (even if she won’t admit it on her death bed at this point in the story). I must say though, while the fact that Tai was virgin didn’t surprise me, that fact that he never did anything … err… “solo” prior to this. Now that one I didn’t expect. (Cracked up laughing at the thought of Mantis and Monkey never letting him live it down if they found out though).

And Wu Xiu brings me into chapter 19 … and you started with something that had nothing to do with the cliffhanger beforehand? Gah! (The fact that you did this *a lot* though the course of ADL, meant that when I started reading TMaBH I was always prepared for this. :P)

What made me actually start laughing though was when you made the introduction of Mei Ling which I loved so much (as she was a character I simply adored from SotFF regardless of how brief we saw her) and then you go and make THAT a cliffhanger as well. If it wasn’t for the fact that great stories require a whole bunch cliffhangers throughout …

Hah, okay that was a fun story on how Tai knew the Wu sisters. And the image of Po doing the Kung Fu stance with a lily pad stuck on his head and Tai’s reaction … The image of him smacking his forehead never fails to get me giggling.

Oh boy, they knew his family? I already knew the first time I read this that we wouldn’t find anything about his family right now but it opened a new plot point that got me curious. I hadn’t heard of actresses you used for the Wu sisters before so I looked them all up. Not a bad choice for them I’ll say. Xiu’s voice I imagined being a little deeper but Grey was still good. Olivia’s voice was spot on for Jia.

The fight itself had a lot going on. I had to read it more slowly than what I normally do to make sure I got every detail in it. It was very intense but very fun to read and imagine. It was also cool to pick up on all the references you made to the Art of KFP which I bought a while back. The weapons the Wu sisters used were very cool and it was fun to read them in action.

Po shoving an apple into Chun’s mouth had me thinking briefly of Mulan when Ling shoved his apple into the Hun’s mouth when they were concubines. Not sure of that was a slight reference or not but still.

Geez, everything went straight downhill for Tai towards the end of this chapter. Realizing that the whole fight was a distraction to get to the distraction, Po going down with a nasty gash on his throat, Tai trying hard to stop the bleeding and to top it off with the cherry, of all flippin people to walk in on the scene, it just HAD to be Monkey and Tigress didn’t it? That snow leopard just can’t catch a break, it’s making ME feel tired. LOL :P

CAT FIGHT! Who saw that coming? *Shoots hand up*, Poor Tai. As realistic as that was, it did suck a little to read that Tigress had intent to kill him … again. (I know, I know, had to happen. Gotta love the more difficult ones to pair up together don’t ya?)

Impeccable timing Viper, phew. And I caught that reference to Sinbad in the line that Tai said to Tigress. It’s one of my favorite lines he says in the movie.

*chuckles* “Monkey, what has gotten INTO you?” Well, funny story … oh the irony.

Tigress’ emotions are rather haywire right now. I didn’t think I’d feel sorry for her at this part. To be perfectly honest I was getting a tad annoyed at her temper with Tai in this one. I guess that does mean that she was written in character and that’s great! But after reading the conflicting emotions she’s trying to get under control (and failing it seems) sympathy does rise up for her … *sighs* stubborn stripy britches!

And we go back to Mei Ling. I LOVED how you made her a half-sister to the Wu sisters – why that is, not exactly sure. Maybe it’s just that I love exciting plot twists!

I don’t really have too much else to comment on for the rest of this chapter. It was really just the first part I couldn’t really miss out. I am glad that as this chapter went on, everyone realized that Tai wasn’t the one who tried to kill Po. (Though Tigress grumbling was making the eyebrows rise, I hope that inwardly she’s relieved it wasn’t Tai and just too stubborn to show it.) And trust Po to see the bright side of everything. His first Kung Fu scar … well he has a point I guess.

As for the last part of this chapter; every time there’s a scene involving the three sisters with the villain, I’m always reminded of Macbeth and the three witches to some extent. Especially Xiu, she’s nasty man! (I like it!)

Now, the original intention was to have the review for ch 21 on the end of these mentions but I’ve just seen how long that would make this review and … nope, ain’t happening. Haha. But I will say that the review is actually written already so I’ll give it a few days and it’ll be up :)

This is definitely one of my favorite chapters in the story, and definitely the most hilarious one. I know I briefly scraped it in my first review but now it’s time to elaborate on it … just a tad ;)

The first part of this chapter … hmm ... When I first saw the poll in chapter 11, I had a feeling that the battle of the fire demons would win. I can certainly see why most people would have gone for that story. It sounds like something that came straight out of LOTR or Supernatural, and it was very well written and definitely was quite an exciting battle, but personally I would’ve been happy to hear about the pleasure boat. Out of the stories to choose from, it was the most different of all of them, because in the other two stories, there was an enemy to fight; a battle to conquer, whereas the boat one, there wasn’t (at least, not from what we heard of it anyway). That and also, because this story is literally the definition of epic and there are so many battle sequences in it, most of them leading up to the fight between Tai, the Five, and the villain at the end which takes up three enormous chapters, I do feel like it would’ve been nice to read about Tai in a non-battle rescue.

All that being said, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy reading about the winning story. It was exciting, and I don’t get bored of reading or watching Tai in battles/fights, regardless of whether it’s for good or ... not so good purposes. The description of the fire demons reminded me a little of Te Ka from “Moana” as well as, of course, Po's dream and I liked how you brought the Sword of Heroes into play. Shifu welding it for revenge … hmm, I wonder what that story’s all about.

Anyway, now it gets to the fun part. I swear you have teased just about every pairing imaginable in this story, even the pairings that are actually going on in this story. Tigress and Viper … now there’s one I haven’t seen before. That whole exchange between the three of them was priceless.

Poor Tai; they really took the risk on waking the sleeping dragon … no pun intended :P

Ah, Truth or Dare … a very fun but very risky game to play. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue what to expect with them playing this game. From my experiences on playing it, I know how creative and how personal, questions and dares can get. Why Shifu would punish them if they didn’t participate is something I’m still trying to work out though; maybe it’s just that they don’t want to take that risk of finding out if he would punish them or not, since they know how bad his punishments can get in general.

And of course, everything that happens after the game starts … Lord, I must have looked like one retarded seal. The line that truly set me off was the reaction to Mantis asking Tai about his virginity. The image of Viper choking on a dumpling, Crane doing the ‘spit-out drink’ cliche, and Po frying won tons on his face made me lose the plot entirely.

As downright hilarious as everything about Tai being a virgin was, I wasn’t overly surprised at the revelation. It makes perfect sense for Mr Nothing-Else-Matters-but-Becoming-the-Dragon-Warrior to have had no desire for that path. Still, can’t blame the rest of them for being surprised that he still has it, being the muscly, bulky feline that he is.

As for the rest of the questions and the dares, where, oh where did you come up with all these? They were gold! Po imitating Tai in their battle, Po trying and failing to touch his toes, Tigress having to wear make-up, Viper going without it, and everyone’s reactions to everything were just brilliant! And the few touching ones like Tai’s second biggest regret and him and Crane bonding over fishing were laced into the game nicely as well. Tai blowing into Po’s belly though, I would’ve paid to see that. That dare set me off all over again.

I have to wonder how Viper sold her venom, since she was born without fangs, unless there’s another way that I haven’t heard of before.

And the final dare … Now this, I admit I saw coming. A game of Truth of Dare and Viper wants to get the felines together; what better way to do so then to dare one to kiss the other. All the reactions around that were priceless, especially Mantis; I think we’ve all laughed as hard as what he is at some point in our lives.

But the kiss itself? … Cripes, now that was what I call HOT! *wolf whistles* And for the two felines to go from biting at each other to passionately kissing each other – my Taigress heart was doing flips! Whoop whoop!

And as for the very last part of this chapter … good feeling’s gone.*Shudders* I like horror, I like it a lot, but crikey you sure take things to the next level. I probably wouldn’t have watched this scene if it was a movie, I like horror, but gore – not so much. Nevertheless, I still applaud you for the solid 180 turn around on genres. You do that so well.

Finally, in regards to the beginning of chapter 18; Shifu watching Tai sleep was one of the most sad, touching pieces in the story in my opinion. “Why couldn’t he have that boy back?” … my heartstrings!

This chapter wasn’t originally on the list to review but after looking over it again I realized there was a lot I wanted to comment on so it could be a rather lengthy review, so hey, why not?

I’m not too sure I want to know what Mantis thought that piece of wood was, *snickers* and for a minute there I wondered if you were going to try and imply the Viper/Mantis ship (which I think is a little weird). I’m with Tai on this one though; I got images that made me give the exact same expression he did. LOL.

The genuine sweetness of Tigress wearing the orchid Tai gave her was a gorgeous image, along with the implication that there is a small feminine side to her that she just doesn’t like showing. That and it’s hinting at the (slowly) growing connection between the two felines.

Haha, the allergic to dust cliche. Trust you to make Tai the victim of that.

Tigress really must have a thing for older guys. Tai, the Emperor, I even read somewhere that apparently, growing up she had a crush on Shifu. And the latter two are old enough to be her grandfather. At least Tai isn’t … that old. LOL. It’s almost as if having Tigress be attracted to the Emperor was put in as a way to make Tai’s age seem not as bad in comparison, or as well as to give Tai something to be jealous about, though I know the Emperor was mainly snagged from Luna’s fic which I only just finished a couple of weeks ago, (now I can go back and pick up on all the references to it). I chuckled to read that Tai was practically jealous of the way someone used to look in a painting.

I ended up looking up both of those poems that were used from the Haiku to try to understand what they meant. Glad I waited til my second read through of the story to do so though, probably would’ve been on the browser for a while trying to find the second poem otherwise. LOL.

Oogway could very well have swum to China, the joke being he’s a tortoise and all. Though I guess, him being anthropomorphic may rule that out, though oddly I can see him doing that; he’s pretty unpredictable after all.

Trust Mantis to want to find the ‘good’ stuff. And a small part of me was burning to know what was on that letter he found that changed everyone’s view of the tortoise altogether. I had never heard of the Kama Sutra before in my life so what did I do? I looked it up … You know the saying “curiosity killed the cat”? Well you get the picture. I go back to my statement of Oogway being very unpredictable. Of course Tai’s reaction to that just had me cracking up though.

Was it ever revealed why it was Mantis who got given the key? Or is the answer obvious? (I apologize in advance if any questions I ask do have obvious answers; my tendency to miss what is blatantly clear is ridiculous.)

The realization of what was in that cabinet tugged on a heartstring, though nowadays, I find the part where Po asking if he could have the action figure of Tai Lung quite amusing, as sometime after reading the story, I finally got round to watching KFP3 and it’s shown that Po actually has an action figure of Tai, so maybe Tai did end up handing it over to him xD. The painting was classic and I could just see the mortification on Tai’s face when he saw his puffball-self failing to copy Oogway. And as if Po going round openly idolizing Tai Lung wasn’t enough, now he wants to go show everyone the painting? Well … at least his heart’s in the right place I suppose.

Cripes, what a light switch, it was noticeable as the story went on that if a chapter was humorous or emotional it took a turn to the dark side at the end of it.

As for who the last villain was, now that was a surprise. It makes sense, but I didn’t expect that. It’s still unknown as to whether he actually survived what happened to him or not but I use this story as an answer to that anyhow.

So many times I’ve read stories where someone has been given a fate worse than death, so often that death is now looked at as the best way out, but holy fudgeknuckle, just about anything would be better than the situation Vachir’s in at the moment. And what Big ol’ Baddie has done to him/is going to do to him; I wasn’t actually sure how I felt about Vachir at that point but I wouldn’t have wanted that on him, for his sake and the fact that Tai now has a lot more (unknowingly) on his plate to deal with.

It’s funny how you mentioned that ADL could have changed to an M rating. I feel like it would’ve taken just the tiniest nudge to get there after all that. And after reading certain events that follow throughout this story, I’m actually surprised it didn’t get changed – it was quite a tightrope you walked there Nieve.

And yeah, good idea to write Chorh-Gom as a place that did exist before Tai Lung. Unless some intense magic went down to create it; since Ancient China is an era where magic and spiritual stuff were highly believed in and still is if I’m not mistaken. But still, it’s way more believable to have the place already there regardless.

Expect the next review sooner rather than later as it’s a chapter I’ve been waiting to review for a while … and I swear if you end up publishing your own horror novels, I have no doubt they would be up there with Stephen King and such like.

Finally finished... I honestly have nothing further to add than what we already talked about.

It was a good read, and had me captivated through 99% of the story, outside the very long winded chapters I mentioned earlier.

Cheers mate.

I have mixed feelings about the plot twist at the end of this chapter... For one, I knew it was gonna happen, as no one confirmed the kill. For two, I am extatic that it happened. For three, kind of feels like a cop out.

On the remainder of the chapter, and I've been feeling this for the last couple as well: you use too much prose. Way to much. I get that there's a lot for you to say, and you want to describe it as well as you can, but, for me at least, there was just a massive overload of words that didn't need to be there. This chapter alone could easily have been half its length and still got all the relevant points across.

That being said, when prose and something being too long are the only things I complain about... Well, you must be doing something right. Keep on keeping on.

... This chapter is just a train wreck... Why did no one step up and say 'yo, everyone calm down...'

Regardless, I am still pleased with the chapters ending.

Can I just say that selecting chapters to review is getting harder as I go through the story. There’s always snippets/lines from just about every chapter that I would love to have commented on but kinda can’t coz the chapter itself isn’t actually one I can review on the whole, that and I’m not one for short reviews (as you might have gathered). I also don’t want there to be massive gaps between the chapters that I do review just coz of, well, me being me. That being said I dearly hope that this doesn’t turn into “Selected chapters I WON’T review” lol. I guess, like writing stories, nothing ever goes completely to plan … ah well.

It didn’t take very long for me to literally say out loud to my laptop “Leave him alone!” when reading the treatment that Wei Chang was giving Tai in this chapter. But as immensely annoyed as I was with the elephant, I couldn’t full on hate him. I won’t deny that he was being nothing short of an assbutt towards Tai, but I did not hate him … not for the first part of this chapter anyway.

“And what exactly d’you think I’ve been doing you overgrown waterskin?” HA! Another line among so many throughout this fic that I wished Tai had actually said out loud (“Lice infested baboon” from chapter … 10 was it? Being another one). I get why he didn’t, but frankly, it didn’t seem that Wei Chang was going to lighten up on him no matter what he did or said. And truthfully that sounds like Tai’s sense of humor anyway.

It came as no surprise whatsoever that insulting Tigress turned out to be the last straw for Tai and it was around about here that I was leaning more towards hating Chang; even more so when he made up that cock-n-bull story to Shifu, which, admittedly, I was half expecting Shifu to believe it and then it would lead to a rather heated shouting match. But then … the penny drops, Chang is busted and kicked out. Cannot tell you how relieving it was to read that. Well played indeed Master Shifu (and well played to you for fooling me to start with xD)

I instantly fell in love with Zhuang. Everything about him was so lovable from his laid back, easy going nature to his “cut, print, check the gate, moving on” belief on Tai Lung. I’ve seen your preferred voice cast for your OC’s on your profile and truthfully I imagined Zhuang having a deeper voice than Cam Clarke. I read him with a more James Earl Jones tone before I found your voice cast.

It’s interesting that Tigress likes the prospect of having children … or even likes children in general. This is the first fic I’ve read where that is the case. Tigress was a character that never came across as one for wanting to settle down with someone and raising a family, so it was nice that underneath her stubborn, harsh demeanor, she would eventually want that, and at the moment, it seems, with the snow leopard himself.

I knew it was obvious from the end of chapter 4 that other feelings were there but it was very … surprising? Unexpected? To discover just how deep her desire actually went. What made it better was how she had had other brief attractions in the past but none coming close to Tai (what could, really?) Reminded me vaguely of that song from Hercules “I Won’t Say I’m in Love.”

Of course though, the day-care scene was by far my favourite bit about this chapter, the imagery and the dialogue was just gold.

“You’re almost forty years old and Shifu still hasn’t given you THAT talk yet?” Lord I had to wonder who actually did give him that talk since I cannot imagine Shifu or Oogway sitting down and talking about the birds and the bees. That line just killed me! (Never got round to seeing the deleted scenes on Prince Caspian … which is weird since I love that movie.)

Tai’s interaction with the children was both heart-warming and downright hilarious. From failing to properly diaper the panda cub to giving pony rides to all the interaction with little Yi. Sounds like the typical father if you ask me. If that’s what you were going for then you hit the nail perfectly on the head.

Just one question, what was the headmistress thinking about all of this? I’m gonna assume she knew who Tai was and all, just didn’t really sound like she cared all too much about him being around the kids, which came off as a little strange. Or was she another one who thought Tai deserved a second chance?

I had a feeling that Tigress starting to soften towards Tai Lung was too good to last, and funnily enough it was Po’s idolization of Tai Lung that triggered it. Her being jealous of that was a little unexpected, but it actually made perfect sense when I thought about it. Add that to everything else that Tai stole from her and received/accomplished that she did not and one can’t help but feel for her, even if some of those things may have been her fault.

Well at least Tigress now has come to a conclusion to her bitter resentment on Tai. As for what she could do about it? Well I could think of about 3 things, though none are very believable to happen at this point in time … or G rated *whistles idly away innocently* :P

The thought of Po going around raving to everyone and anyone about how much he idolizes Tai Lung made me facepalm so hard. Not that I’m unaware that he’s just trying to help matters, but I think that this is probably one of those cases of trying too hard and end up messing up big time. I’m almost surprised that some of the villagers didn’t try to knock him out. “Make way for the Master of the Thousand Scrolls.” I think I may have cringed harder than in chapter 7 when you turned Tai into the basket equivalent of Saucepan Man from the Magic Faraway Tree series. (I’m not complaining here. Simply fact-stating.)

I loved your take on why the Wuxi Finger Hold didn’t kill Tai Lung, but I must ask, did we ever find out what the third effect of it was? If so, I completely missed it (I apologize if I missed the obvious; some things tend to go entirely over my head sometimes).

Once more, satisfaction on Tigress’ behaviour, which doesn’t seem to have changed very much (cripes, you wouldn’t think I shipped the felines together would you? xD) but hey, I was happy to see she’d finally decided to … play along, so to speak. And then … Crane is busted. HA! I saw that coming a mile away but I still chuckled when it finally happened.

“Go knock ‘em dead” Geez Po, could you have chosen a worse choice of words?

As much as I love Crane, I kinda always thought Viper was more of the den mother out of all of them, just because of her motherly kind of nature. But I can see why Crane would fit that description as well; I guess he has a little bit more of a bite out of him and Viper, which I suppose is also a needed trait.

And finally, Tai accepts the offer (took long enough) and … Po’s back to fanboying … looks like Monkey got to him first. Ahaha.

Of course, it figures that right as Tai Lung finally accepts Shifu’s deal, that we are introduced to the antagonist of the piece whose obvious intentions are to keep the snow leopard purely on the dark side (I’m not even sure the words ‘purely’ and ‘dark side’ belong in the same sentence but whatever).

What story is a good story without a big bad villain? Truthfully I’m sure you could’ve pulled off a brilliant story based on Tai’s redemption alone without bringing one in but I half guessed that one would make an appearance sooner or later. The fact that this one is obviously inhuman is going to make it all the more difficult for him to be taken down. I know that none of the sequels were out at this time but I assume this guy is a little similar to Kai in KFP3 in the way of Chi.

While you didn’t explain who he was or even WHAT he was, you sure did put a fair dose of detail and horror into it regardless; in the scenery and what you did describe of him, using more than a few words that exceeded my vocabulary (no joke, I actually had the dictionary on another tab for the majority of this fic). But, like the rest of this story, I thoroughly enjoyed it - not just because I’m a rather big horror fanatic - … even if it did fill me with a sense of dread that this baddie was probably going to gain the upper hand more than once from here on in.

Brilliant stuff, as per usual :)

This review is kinda going to be chapter 3 and 4 combined. I didn't feel there was enough individually for me to make them separate reviews. So the first bit focuses on chapter 3.

The introduction to the five was done amazingly well. Crane, Viper, and Mantis were written exceptionally well and I second what others have said about Monkey. The fact that there wasn't a lot of screen time for him in the movie practically gave you the pick of the litter to decide how he was going to be portrayed - it still amuses me that they called up Jackie Chan of all actors to voice a character that said five whole lines in the whole flippin film (Though from my research into KFP, there seem to have been a few deleted scenes in which he had a lot more dialogue.)

As for Tigress, *sigh* there was a reason why my nickname for her ended up being Stubborn Stripy Britches for nearly half the fic, lol. She was thoroughly believable though and it was satisfying to read her going off her nut at anyone who even hinted that they believed Tai deserved a second chance. Her aggressiveness and her stubborness was just ... adored it!

And then comes the memory of the rampage itself ... cripes, you really handed the brutality of that to us straight from the oven didn't you? No softening, sugar coating, cinnamon dusting, nope just raw violence - have to applaud you for that, it still gives me goosebumps when I read it *curls up under blanket.* But I do like your take on how it actually started; it wasn't just a 'I wasn't named the Dragon Warrior, lets go destroy the valley as revenge' cliche, (that boar made my own blood boil, and he had that coming). Still have to wonder why Tai thought all this would make them bow down to him though - I know he was angry but ... sure, destroy the Valley of Peace and people will definitely respect and honor you then ... Something tells me THAT method didn't quite go as planned xD. Definitely looks like Tai is seeing the other side of that now though.

Which leads us into the first confrontation of the two felines and the next chapter ... Que the wedding bells! Oh, hang on a minute.

This brings in the other major reason as to why I clicked on this story and why I was in the older archives in the first place, which is of course the pairing. Unfortunately since I didn't join this fandom til earlier this year and because the film sequels are out now, most of the newer archives are swarming with TiPo (not a pairing I ship at all) so it was awesome to know that a story I ended up loving to the ends of the planet also included the pairing I adored, so thanks! ... And I'm rambling again.

All that being said, this is EXACTLY how I imagined the first talk would go between them; possibly imagined Tai being a bit more aggressive towards her, but under circumstances this was gold! (The vision of him reading tea leaves was hilarious!)

I did have one question though; Tai said he never meant to kill them on the Thread of Hope, so out of curiosity, did you have a reason for him wrapping the ropes around Tigress' neck? I know she mentioned it but there wasn't really an answer for it, did he just lose control? Sure did look like he was trying to strangle her, probably would've succeeded if Viper hadn't intervened.

After that, of course its seems like emotions really got out of control. Angst, Grief, Anger, Regret, Sorrow, Confusion; looks like all hell just broke loose. I loved it! From Tai regretting heavily what happened with Shifu to Tigress giving him the whole blunt truth of the rampages aftermath - that it wasn't just the valley getting trashed, it was also what it did mentally; what it did to Shifu and how it affected her upbringing - to her fighting with herself over what her feelings for Tai were, refusing to accept that there are 'other' feelings there besides hatred (I know how she feels with that bit). Quite a roller coaster there Nieve, hope you're proud of that (you should be).

And that last line ... all that was going through my head reading that was "This is going to end so badly!" Vaguely along with Jasmine's line from Aladdin "I am not a prize to be won!" (I can picture Tigress yelling that at him in the midst of trying to kill him if he tried to tell her he'll win her heart eventually. Here's hoping Tai alters that tune sooner rather than later.)

i so love this...

Oki doki, so as much as some crazy part of me actually WANTS to review every chapter, I won't, for a few reasons. The two main ones being time and the fact that it looks like Samadhir has already done that in high detail. But anyway I figured the best way to start my selected chapter reviews would be to begin where it all started: Chapter 1.

Both Shifu and Tai's personality and characteristics were spot on. The immense detail that you put into their surroundings and how you portrayed their emotions throughout the chapter drew me into the story very quickly once I got over how long it was (I should have said in my first review that I am by no means a lazy reader. I love descriptive stories, I'd just never seen a fanfic with that many words before.)

One major thing that I loved (and I think another reviewer pointed it out as well) was Shifu not being completely at peace with everything that happened like apparently was the case at the end of the movie. Like really? He can just brush aside everything with Tai Lung and forget all about him? Yeah I don't think so. But I also like that no one has gone straight into playing happy families by the end of the first chapter like other fics have done. That was one thing I was very happy to see was that the first chapter definitely showed that the road to redemption for Tai wasn't going to be an easy one or a short one as to be expected nor was his road to reconciling with his father, but that's one of the reasons why this story is the masterpiece that it is.

Even though my heart was already going out to Tai in the movie, the way you've written him in this chapter just made me feel for him even more. "I gave up EVERYTHING for you..." was definitely a line that hit me. He was, is, and probably forever will be my favourite character in the KFP franchise alongside Tigress ... I'm a bit of a hopeless case when it comes to flawed, misunderstood characters.

Speaking of flaws/faults; another thing that I enjoyed was your balancing of the faults between Tai Lung and Shifu; making it clear that neither of them could take the full blame for what happened yet neither of them came out squeaky clean either. I think it's safe to say that they both kind of failed each other almost equally, though I don't think Tai completely agrees with that at the moment - but that's exactly how his character would feel anyway which leads back my praise of his personality and character being completely on point.

All in all, an awesome first chapter Nieve. Definitely had me hooked and made me hungry for more.

And on a side note regarding Chapter 2: "Don't ... diss ... the noodles."Loved it! And my sister simply cracked up at that line the other night. Safe to say she's enjoying it as much as I did.