"Shendu was one of eight Demon Sorcerers who terrorized the ancient world, each with his or her own magic derived from Fire, Sky, Moon, Thunder, Earth, Mountain, Wind and Water." |
Demon Sorcerers are Dark Chi-aligned, malevolent demonic beings that have existed throughout history. Only nine Demon Sorcerers, all of whom were related, have appeared in the show. They were evil beings who were driven by a desire to conquer and rule the earthly dimension for themselves.
The Demon Sorcerers as a whole could be considered the main antagonists of Jackie Chan Adventures, as the Demon Sorcerer Shendu serves as the overarching primary antagonist of the series (mainly appearing in Season 1 and Season 2 but serving a role in every season afterwards), and his seven siblings as the Season 2's main focus and primary antagonists alongside Shendu himself, while Shendu's son Drago serves as the Season 5 primary antagonist.
History[]
Background[]
According to Uncle in Day of the Dragon, thousands of Demon Sorcerers have existed throughout history. Though only nine ever appeared in the series: eight siblings, each of whom as described in The J-Team possessed magic and abilities derived from a different element - Fire, Sky, Moon (gravity), Thunder, Earth, Mountain, Wind, and Water - and their son/nephew who inherited his father's elemental magic.
Like with many other demons, it's unknown how or when the eight Demon Sorcerer siblings came into existence; but "thousands of years ago" (according to Tohru in Relics of Demon Past), they terrorised the ancient world, until they were banished to the Netherworld by the Eight Immortals. It's implied these eight Demon Sorcerers had some history with Tarakudo and/or the Oni of Ancient Japan, as Shendu possessed one of the Oni Masks, and the Demon Archive had the Mark of Tarakudo on its cover.
Shendu was also banished with the rest of his brethren, as revealed in The Eighth Door, though he apparently resurfaced on Earth through unknown means. 900 years prior to Season 1, Shendu had control of a vast empire which he ruled from in Ancient China, until his subjects rebelled; successfully turning him into a statue, and removing his Noble Animals-derived extra powers by turning them into Twelve Talismans.
Present[]
The Demon Sorcerers are the main focus of Season 2 as each is a main character in a different episode. They first appeared in The Stronger Evil, where Dai Gui, Xiao Fung, Bai Tza, Hsi Wu, Tso Lan, Tchang Zu, and Po Kong confront Shendu's spirit and scold him for not freeing them from the Netherworld while he was still free. While Shendu explains his predicament of becoming a statue the others are uninterested in his excuses, promising only that they will spend eternity causing Shendu "eternal torment". Hoping to be spared their wrath he requests a trip to the human world in hopes of possessing a suitable host and freeing his brethren. The Demon Sorcerers agree to his plan and cast a spell on Shendu so that the body he inhabits will be his host until all of the Demon Sorcerers are free.
Shendu attempted to possess Jackie Chan only to accidentally possess Valmont. Using Valmont's body, Shendu leads the Enforcers with the Pan'ku Box in hand into searching for each of the Demon Portals. One by one, Shendu ended up freeing them only to be sent back by Jackie Chan and a Chi Spell cast by Uncle that sealed the Demon's respective portal.
When it came to the final Demon Sorcerer, Bai Tza, Shendu is denied to have the spell that binds him to Valmont lifted due to the other Demon Sorcerers being permanently trapped in the Netherworld, despite Shendu pointing out that he had technically completed his task which was only to release the Demons. After Jackie and Uncle thwarted Bai Tza's plan to flood California, she tried to flood another location only to be banished back to the Netherworld by Uncle with Jade Chan also in tow after she got in the way of the spell. Upon Bai Tza ending up back in the Netherworld, the Demon Sorcerers gathered and contacted Shendu telling him that they will deal with him for what Jackie Chan did to thwart their plans. Shendu tells them that he has another plan which ends up involving his Demon Portal and claims that he knows of a spell to let all of them pass. Jade hears this and is contacted by Uncle, she tells him of the conversation and he tells her Shendu lied about all the Demon Sorcerers being able to leave. Jade kept hidden until her Moose Camera attracted the attention of Hsi Wu. Jade ends up captured and was shown to the other Demon Sorcerers. Using the info that Uncle told her, Jade tells them that Shendu deceived them about the spell and that only one of them can get through. The Demon Sorcerers conversed, deciding which one of them will go through. When Jackie finds the portal at Hong Kong Moose World, he uses the sword combined with Uncle's Chi Spell to exorcise Shendu's spirit from Valmont sending him back to the Netherworld. The Demon Sorcerers scrambled to beat each other to the portal only for Jade to get out just as it seemed that Hsi Wu had won. Shendu was told that they are now fresh out of portals. While being tortured by the other Demon Sorcerers, Shendu comes up with another way to get the Demon Sorcerers free: by seeking out the Book of Ages. The Demon Sorcerers considered this a ludicrous idea, stating that not even they had dared to tamper with that, and that he would be altering the very fabric of reality. Shendu points out that the present reality isn't pleasing, and they acknowledge that desperate times call for desperate measures. They allowed Shendu to cross over and possess a body. Shendu successfully possessed Jackie and headed to Ayers Rock where the Book of Ages was located. Shendu manages to rewrite the book, causing the Earth to end up being ruled by the Demon Sorcerers with Shendu still ruling China. Under his rule, all forms of martial arts and magic are outlawed and punishable by death. However, it is unknown if religions and public worships are also forbidden. Unfortunately for the demons, however, Jade tore a crucial part of her story out of the book before Shendu rewrote it, preserving her memories of the former reality. Jade gained the assistance of Jackie and Uncle (who are respectively slave and librarian of Shendu in this reality) and used a potion to steal six talismans (Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Rooster, Snake, Dragon) from within Shendu before escaping.
They first arrived in Japan where Po Kong has Tohru and the others mining salt. Jackie ended up fighting Po Kong until Jade had Tohru bang the drum as Uncle cast a Chi Spell that banished Po Kong to the Netherworld.
Then, they arrived in Mexico where Xiao Fung had El Toro Fuerte and a wrestler battle to the finish. The leaf that Paco was fanning Xiao Fung with combined with Uncle's Chi Spell banished Xiao Fung to the Netherworld.
When it came to New York, Hsi Wu was taking a bath with Viper as his caged prisoner when flute-playing combined with Uncle's Chi Spell banished Hsi Wu to the Netherworld. Tchang Zu arrived shortly for a meeting with Hsi Wu and attacked the group until Paco uses his castanets combined with Uncle's Chi Spell to banish Tchang Zu to the Netherworld.
However, in the fight the Ox Talisman was dropped and recovered by Shendu;He was then contacted by the remaining Tso Lan, Dai Gui and Bai Tza that sensed something was amiss, much to their displeasure. Bai Tza even revealed that they are even "Almost" beginning to like Shendu. It was then that Shendu found Jade's Super Moose watch and realized she had escaped the rewriting witch means Jackie now knows of the book.
The J-Team then headed to the Book of Ages' location in Australia (which is considered a forbidden land) while Shendu, who is riding a dragon, Dai Gui, Tso Lan, and Bai Tza converge there. When the Shadowkhan guards were disposed of, the remaining Demon Sorcerers arrived with Shendu destroying the bag containing the items needed to send them to the Netherworld. While Jade, Paco, and Uncle look for where the Book of Ages is, the others fight the Demon Sorcerers and are defeated one by one, losing the talismans.
When Jade, Paco, and Uncle find the Book of Ages, Shendu and the other Demon Sorcerers confront them with Jackie, Tohru, El Toro Fuerte, and Viper as their prisoners. Jade writes in the book which enables Jackie, Tohru, El Toro Fuerte, and Viper to gain abilities to fight the Demon Sorcerers. When Jade is told to write in the Book of Ages where Uncle banishes the Demon Sorcerers, she does so and Uncle conjures the items enabling Jackie, Tohru, El Toro Fuerte, and Viper to send Shendu and the other Demon Sorcerers to the Netherworld. Jade then places her part in history back into the Book of Ages restoring history to it's right course.
Chi of the Demon Sorcerers[]
In Season 5, their Chi was found in the items that symbolize the Eight Immortals that banished the respective demon and that the Chi of the Demon Sorcerers were targeted by Drago. Anyone who absorbs the Demon Sorcerer's chi starts to gain the powers and appearance of that Demon Sorcerer. Drago finally succeeds in gaining all the powers (save that of Shendu) and opens up a portal to release Demons into the World, for which Uncle restores Shendu. Shendu is being beaten, until Jade orders the Twelve Talismans to be thrown to him, allowing him to fight Drago more successfully. Unable to remove Drago's Chi Uncle and Tohru cast a spell to banish him from earth by using his own portal against him in a big reversal spell. His father agrees to prevent this but Drago betrays him and throws him into the demon world. However, Shendu grabs his tail in the last minute and pulls him with. They are left arguing and fighting each other.
Characteristics[]
As the only Demon Sorcerers which appeared in the series were all related, it's unknown how much of their characteristics were unique to them or were present in all Demon Sorcerers. Whilst Shendu's son Drago inherited similar reptilian characteristics to his father (but with a somewhat more humanoid appearance) and both were apparently dragons as well as Demon Sorcerers; Shendu's seven siblings were never implied to be draconic, and each had characteristics of different animals and creatures (i.e. insectoid in Tso Lan's case, bull-like in Dai Gui's, piscine in Bai Tza's case, etc.). The only specific common physical trait linking the eight demon siblings was that they all had glowing, all-red eyes, similar to other malevolent creatures such as the Chupacabra, the Lotus Temple guardian and the Shadowkhan. Drago by comparison had human-looking eyes with red irises.
Each of the Demon Sorcerer siblings possessed their own unique brand of magic which was derived from a different element for each of them; this magic gave each Demon Sorcerer at least one innate elemental ability (fire breath for the Fire Demon, gravokinesis for the Moon Demon, manipulating waves and forming pressurised sphere of water for the Water Demon, etc.) - the exceptions were the Mountain Demon Po Kong and the Sky Demon Hsi Wu, who only demonstrated physical capabilities related to their elements (physical size and strength, and possibly hunger for Po Kong; and agile physical flying for Hsi Wu). Drago by comparison inherited his father's elemental magic, and furthermore displayed fire abilities which his father normally lacked without the Twelve Talismans (namely, conjuring fireballs in his hands, which Shendu seemingly required the Dragon Talisman for).
Apart from their signature abilities, the Demon Sorcerers were also highly knowledgeable on magic. Shendu's siblings were able to cast a binding spell on his spirit form seemingly without any ingredients except their own bodies, and Shendu was likewise able to forge a Talisman Locator from his own body (while it was petrified in stone by a chi-spell, no less). Other examples of the Demon Sorcerers' knowledge of spellwork include the creation of their Demon Archive, Bai Tza's water-summoning spell, Shendu's concoction of a Petrifying Venom potion, and Shendu's ability to control the Ninja Khan (whose general's mask was in Shendu's palace) without physical access to the mask and seemingly without a spell such as Daolon Wong later required.
Xiao Fung and Hsi Wu both displayed the ability to disguise themselves in human form (described by Xiao Fung as "concealment") - this ability appears to be directly derived from their elemental magic, as Xiao Fung conjured a small whirlwind when altering his form, whilst Hsi Wu produced a burst of lightning when fully shedding his disguise. Though both demons retained reflections of their true forms' characteristics while disguised (i.e. similar mouth and facial structures, and a similar physical build in Xiao Fung's case; essentially looking like humanised versions of their demonic selves), it was implied they could manipulate their human disguises to suit their needs - Xiao Fung conjured a prison jumpsuit for his human disguise, and Hsi Wu's human disguise not only included a conjured school backpack but was conveniently a child Jade Chan's age. Both demons retained a red eye colour (similar to Drago's eyes) in their human forms - although Hsi Wu's eyes were more of a brown-looking sangrai shade, when he disguised himself to fool the Chan Clan. Xiao Fung could still use his Wind Demon ability to some extent in his human form, whilst Hsi Wu could hybridise his human disguise and true form (i.e. morphing one hand back into a claw, and sprouting his true form's wings) - when either demon was using their demonic abilities or was angered, their eyes could briefly revert to their true appearance.
Despite their ancient age (or perhaps in spite of it in Shendu's case, as he was on Earth for all nine centuries of his imprisonment), Shendu and his siblings appear to be at least somewhat fluent with modern technology (demonstrated by Hsi Wu's use of Jade's Moose World camera, and by Shendu cutting off the International Space Station's communications manually). Drago, who originated from the future, understood modern commando technology.
Shendu and his siblings are apparently long-lived, if not outright in possession of an unlimited lifespan, as the latter group were imprisoned in the Netherworld for over nine-hundred years. Uncle emphasised that a Demon Sorcerer such as Shendu cannot be harmed by non-magical means - this was best demonstrated in Re-Enter the Dragon when Shendu was left completely unscathed by a direct, explosive laser blast, even without possessing his Horse and Dog Talismans. However, Drago could still experience pain from being struck by non-magical lightning. Magical means are capable of killing the Demon Sorcerers, as happened in Day of the Dragon when Jade used the Dragon Talisman to obliterate Shendu in his stone form; though this is ill-advised by Chi Wizards compared to merely containing demons, as it was stated in the same episode (and demonstrated in Season 2) that destroying a Demon Sorcerer disrupts the balance between good and evil and enables the growth of a "stronger evil" in order to fill the vacuum. When Shendu was killed, he was reduced to a disembodied spirit (resembling his physical form's head with a ghostly tail) and iniitally sent to the same dimension where his siblings had been imprisoned.
The Demon Sorcerers' Demon Chi can in some ways be separated from or detach from them under magical circumstances. For example, when the Eight Immortals banished the Demon Sorcerer siblings, it caused traces of each demon's chi to cling to the Immortal tool of their respective banisher, waiting for new hosts to bond to once they were reactivated centuries later. Drago's natural Fire Demon Chi was somewhat malleable; in that he could transfer samples of it to others at will to grant them Fire Demon powers (and he could just as easily reverse the process if he wished), and Drago's natural Demon Chi could be removed from him with a chi-spell. Removing Drago's Fire Demon Chi did not alter his appearance (as absorbing Demon Chi altered its new host's appearance to resemble the original demon) but it did strip him of all his fire powers. It was never demonstrated if the malleable nature of Drago's Fire Demon Chi applies to other Demon Sorcerers. Additionally, absorbing and combining Demon Chi aligned with all eight of the family's elements granted Drago not only all of the Demon Chi's abilities, but also the power to alter the sky and open interdimensional rifts to release demons - chi-spells were unable to remove the extra Demon Chi from Drago after this, and Shendu claimed the combination made the absorption process completely irreversible.
List of Demon Sorcerers[]
Demon | Element | Banisher | Item | Trigram
(Name) |
First Appearance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
火 Fire | Lan Caihe | Sword | ☲(離 Lí) | The Dark Hand | |
山 Mountain | Zhang Guo Lao | Drum | ☶(艮 Gèn) | The Stronger Evil | |
風 Wind | Lü Dongbin | Fan | ☴(巽 Xùn) | The Stronger Evil | |
雷 Thunder | Li Tieguai | Castanets | ☳(震 Zhèn) | The Stronger Evil | |
Moon (Logically 水 Water) | Han Xiangzi | Lotus | ☵(坎 Kǎn) | The Stronger Evil | |
地 Earth | Zhongli Quan | Flower | ☷(坤 Kūn) | The Stronger Evil | |
天 Sky | He Xiangu | Flute | ☰(乾 Qián) | The Stronger Evil | |
Water (Logically 澤 Lake) | Cao Guojiu | Gourd | ☱(兌 Duì) | The Stronger Evil | |
Innate: Fire Acquired: Mountain Wind Thunder Moon Earth Sky Water |
Uncle and Tohru | Octopus tentacles | N/A | J2: Rise of the Dragons |
Trivia[]
- Despite being female, Po Kong and Bai Tza are still referred to as "Demon Sorcerers" rather than "Demon Sorceresses". The reason for this is never explained.
- This may stem from them being part of a group rather than individual designations.
- In the episode The J-Team, it is shown that He Xiangu banished Hsi Wu; however, she should have been Tso Lan's banisher as her symbol is the lotus.
- Drago, before his Demon Chi mutation, is the only Demon Sorcerer that has irises in his eyes, and doesn't have a pure red glow in them as is typical of his demonic family.
- Drago's name is also not of Chinese origin.
- Besides the items that are associated with the respective Immortals that banished each Demon Sorcerer, certain ingredients and potions are also required. The beam emitted by the items must hit the demons in order for them to be send back to the Netherworld. However, in Demon World (Part 2), only the Immortal items were needed to banish the demons without any additional ingredients or potions. The items also automatically conjure the portals and suck the demons in. This may have been an effect of the Book of Ages' reality alteration, as the banishing spells still worked in the altered timeline but the Demon Portals had changed location.
- The names of the Demon Sorcerers have meanings related to their attributes:
- Shendu (神都)(圣主): 神 (圣)god, 主 all. His name can be translated as "God of All".
- Po Kong (坡恐)(波刚): 坡 (En fait, c'est " vague", ce qui n'a pas de sens pratique)slope, 恐 to fear. Her name can be translated as "Feared Cliff".
- Xiao Fung (小风)(啸风): 啸roar,风 wind. His name can be translated as "Little Wind".
- Tchang Zu (猖卒)(中苏): 中 middle ororcentral,苏 Have no practical meaning. His name can be translated as "Soldier of Madness".
- Tso Lan (作滥)(咒蓝): 咒curse 蓝blue. His name can be translated as "Floodmaker".
- Dai Gui (大鬼)(地魁): 大地earth 魁big and tall, His name can be translated as "Great Ogre".
- Hsi Wu (蜥恶):(西木):西木(In fact, there is no real meaning). His name can be translated as "Evil Lizard".
- Bai Tza (败拶)(芭莎): 芭莎(In fact, there is no real meaning). Her name can be translated as "Force of Defeat".
- The powers of the Demon Sorcerers and their elements are based on the "Bagua", also known as the Taoist Eight Trigrams; with the exception that Tso Lan's element is Moon instead of Water, while Bai Tza's element is Water instead of Lake/Marsh. Based on the Eight Trigrams, Tso Lan should have been the Demon of Water and Bai Tza should have been the Demon of Lakes/Marshes. The reason for incorrect depiction of the associated Trigram and Demon Sorcerer status for the children audience is never explained.