A very long time ago, when I was young and naive to the world, I stumbled upon a brand new category of writing known as fan fiction. I felt happy because I wrote a lot of it and my parents didn't like it because it wasn't productive and was just a pointless rewrite of someone else's work. That and my family and some classmates used to tease me about my fan fictions, so I used to be embarrassed to share them. Over the course of...roughly seven years of reading other people's fan fictions, there are many things I learned. The first one is to stay away from fanfiction.net, though that'd just me. The second is that people really enjoy swearing in fan fiction stories. And the third is that there seems to be a common theme with fan fiction stories, especially regarding certain characters, settings, plot lines, and even lines of dialogue. And since Kung Fu Panda was the only kind of fan fiction I read, (well, Teen Titans too, but I was quick to grow out of that show), I'm going to list the various things that I found to be oh-so-commonplace with the Kung Fu Panda fan fictions. I'll also list whether or not I'm guilty of these because I have several fan fictions written down amongst my hundreds of notebooks.

1) The mentioning of Tai Lung's muscles

I've noticed this trope in so many fan fictions. They're usually, of course, in TigressXTai Lung fan fictions, but I've also seen them mentioned in TigressXShifu fan fictions, TigressXPo fan fictions, and even fan fictions where Tigress has zero romantic interests in any of the guys around her whatsoever! Maybe it's because people really think Tai Lung is cute, (or hot as I've often heard mentioned), but I used to find that detail icky, truth be told. (I was a very unconventional teenager. Actually, I'm still like that. I'm the only one in a family of almost all girls who doesn't gawk at male celebrities). Throughout the year, I often prided myself on making fan fictions that didn't resort to bringing Tai Lung's abs or muscles or six pack or whatever other term you use into the stories I wrote. Recently though, while looking through my one fan fiction (which I hope to upload as soon as I finish it), I just realized that I very briefly referred to Tai Lung as muscular during one of my chapters. So....I just troped myself. Whoops.

2) Characters being sexy

This one is usually used for Tigress, but I've also seen this in romance fan fics with Viper and even Po, so I guess it extends to everyone. I've never actually used the word sexy in my fan fiction vocabulary, but I have used the word hot. I'm not sure why people use it so often, but hey. To each his own.

3) A romantic scene very rarely is innocent

One of the reasons I stopped going onto fanfiction.net was because they had a limited selection of romance stories that were innocent. They had some good stories, but even if they weren't rated M or 13+, they still could have innuendos in them. When the characters kiss, eight times out of ten what happens is that they "do it", they talk about wanting to "do it", they kiss and start feeling the other or doing things just one level down from "doing it", or they go into a passionate kiss and start tongue wrestling....which I've also found kind of nasty, even to this day. And it's not just because I've been single since the day I was born. Just...BLECH!!!!! Very rarely did I find a fan fiction story that cuddled or did a regular sweet kiss on the cheek or lips. Very rarely.

4) Po is often called a fat panda

I'm very guilty of this, but only for humor purposes! A lot of stories I've read joke at Po's fat. Okay, not a ton, but enough that I remember it being a thing. Especially in stories where Po and Tigress are still kind of enemies is this a thing. I just found a fan fiction story I finished sans one chapter and Tigress is like, Stupid fat panda. Always tripping down the stairs and embarrassing everybody!

5) Song is often a rival to Tigress

I see this more in fan arts than fan fiction, but whenever Tigress needs a rival in the way, usually it's Song. There are fake rivals too, but Song I think is a fan favorite. She always appears in comics trying to seduce Po and then her and Tigress fight. Or people will make fan videos on it. Actually, I did a fan video on that years ago, but our computer crashed before I finished it. DARN! I could have shared it! Stupid computer!

6) Tai Lung and Tigress were at the Jade Palace together prior to Tai Lung's betrayal

This one I think arose after the original video game for the first movie came out. In fact, the scene was the first part I saw on Youtube. A lot of people are pretty convinced that Tigress came to the Jade Palace before Tai Lung was denied the dragon scroll. However, these all vary depending on the story. Some stories have them being the same age and constantly rivaling the other. Some stories have them as just a few short years apart. And some stories have Tai Lung as an adult and Tigress as a small cub. I don't know when Tigress arrived at the Jade Palace; there's no information on it. Despite this being a high possibility and honestly making a lot of sense storywise, I have never written a fan fiction where Tigress shows up right before Tai Lung's betrayal. I've had stories where she shows up right after, but never before.

7) Pet names are always lurking in the corner

With every kind of kung fu panda fan fiction imaginable comes the inevitable factor that works its way into every single fan fiction story: including mine.

Pet names.

Though not EVERY story has this, these are so common and used so repetively that I can list SEVERAL of them off the top off my head. Ahem:

-Princess

-Dumpling

-Kitten

-My dear

-Darling

-Brother

-Sister

-Monster

Okay, not all of these are obviously for romantic relationships, but these are frequently used. I swear, if I had a dime for every time I read a story where Tigress was called kitten or Po was called dumpling, I'd be richer than Scrooge McDuck! I mean, I guess I can understand why we use these, but...why are we all so obsessive with pet names?! I use them and I can't figure it out!

8) Tai Lung was from a mountainous region of some sort

Also guilty as charged, though only because of recent research for this character, I find that Tai Lung's backstory is not often explored. However, when it is, I've often found that people like to have him born in or by the mountains. Tibet or Mongolia are some pretty popular choices, but it's usually just somewhere by a mountain. Not sure why. Maybe research too?

9) Tigress and Tai Lung either remain siblings or evolve into a romantic duo

This one is definitely interesting. This trope goes a little something like this: the author explores Tai Lung and Tigress' relationship as siblings. Were they rivals? Did Tai Lung resent her? Were they like an actual brother and sister? Who did Shifu consider to be more his child? They start off as brother and sister or two students both clearly adopted by Shifu who just have a mutual respect for the other. At some point afterwards, they either advanced to loving brother and sister, or they go 'eh, screw adoption laws' and start making out. And that's pretty much it. There's no in between. And this is especially highlighted in stories whenever Tai Lung returns home. They're either brother and sister mending a bond or they decide to marry because Shifu only sees one of them as an adopted child. It varies from story to story.

And yes, I am so guilty of this! I'm sorry!!!!!!

10) If Po and Tigress were to have children, the girl would be a white tiger and the boy would look like a Po, but with amber eyes

This is another common idea that I am very guilty of. For some reason, a lot of people are convinced that if Tigress and Po had a kid, there would be a female white tiger and a boy panda. I haven't read anything else really that goes against this otherwise. Except my one story, but Feng Mu was still a white tiger. In fact even fanarts get into this! Obviously not every single one, but enough for it to be a surprise when it's not the case!

11) If Tai Lung and Tigress have kids, they usually look exactly like either Tai Lung or Tigress. No in between

I find this one kind of funny because if anyone should have white tiger kids, it's these two! But much to my surprise, a lot of fan fictions depict the two as having kids who are almost complete look-alikes. Usually they look like Tai Lung, but I've read some stories with some Tigress mini-mees too.

12) If Tigress and Shifu had kids, they would look like Tigress with elements from Shifu

I don't read much ShifuXTigress stuff because BLEH! But when I snuck a peek, this was pretty common. And the kid was usually a girl. I don't remember reading about any boys.

13) Crane and Viper never only have one kid

Crane is the only person I've read about having kids with Viper, but that's besides the point. When stories or rare fan art portray them as parents, they never have less than two kids. It's usually twins or triplets. I don't know why (and sad to say, I'm guilty of this in one story); this is just a thing I've noticed.

14) The Wuxi Finger Hold was only designed to scare people

I think this one came from a random comment made by someone back before the second movie came out. But it's about as simple as it sounds. Though there are stories where Tai Lung survives from sheer strength, which is also pretty common, a lot of stories I read when first getting into high school depicted him as surviving because the Wuxi Finger was a hoax move to make students pee themselves. However, once Tai Lung was finally confirmed dead, the "barely surviving" started popping up a lot more I believe.

15) Tai Lung is either an experienced chick magnet or a kung fu obsessed virgin

I find that when people dive into Tai Lung backstory at the Jade Palace, there are two ways in which he interacts with the village people: a) he's a chick magnet with at least one or two people he particularly likes or is dating, or b) he's so obsessed with kung fu that he doesn't bother making friends. As a guilty party to the latter multiple times over, I honestly have never red a story that puts him in the middle of these two things.

Hmm.... Maybe I should consider that....

16) Tigress and Tai Lung's relationship is usually an enemy-lover slap-kiss kind of relationship

Usually when I read stories about this couple, this is typically what I find. The set-up varies and the stories can start off with the two just being like, "Yeah, you're kind of cute. Kiss me you fool!" However, for those stories exploring the start of their relationship, it's common to find them at odds with each other until they finally kiss to break the tension or one of them does something that puts them immediately on good terms. I am guilty as charged. This is actually so common that it's actually an official fan fiction trope. Don't believe me?

17) The masters enjoy setting up two lovebirds who refuse to date

Whether Tai Lung and Tigress or Tigress and Po, there are several stories that involve the masters purposely setting up events or leaving the romantic duo alone so that they could make out. This also extends to betting on the length of time. This isn't as common as some of the others on this list, but I remember it pretty well.

18) Po and Tigress usually hesitate because they fear the other only sees them as a friend or Po's worried about Shifu killing him for dating Tigress.

This setup for these two is so frequent that it's easier to find than Frozen merchandise. There are various ways that these two become a couple, like from beating each other to a pulp for example, but this is such a preferred choice that it's almost not even funny. Of course, it makes sense considering their relationship at present; in fact I've used it. Several times. And of course, how could we forget about Shifu and Tigress' father-daughter relationship in the story? That's pretty prominent too.

19) If Shifu and Tigress dated, they'd keep it a close secret until someone caught them making out or Tigress got pregnant

Again, I don't read many TigressXShifu stories, but a long time ago, I opted to take a peek at them. Of course, I found them to be BLEH, but when I did look at them back in the ancient days of my youth, this was what I noticed. That and the fact that the term "rocking the cradle" was commonplace. But besides the point. Usually there was the whole 'master-student dilemma' which is what led to the initial secrecy or suppression of emotions.

20) The most common dates are picnic dates or ones in a secluded area

Just a little something I noticed in fan fictions. A lot of dates involve picnics or secluded mountain spots perfect for kissing. Now, I don't have secluded picnic spots for my characters to kiss in secret, but I do have hidden spots or mountain for them to hide and snuggle by, so...there's that.

And that's all I can think of at the moment. If anymore come to mind, I'll update this page. Or let me know if you guys know of something pretty common in fan fiction stories that isn't on here.