History Fridge / KungFuPanda2

** Throughout the short, Shifu tries to force Tigress into doing ‘his’ style of kung fu, which is very rigid and impractical and rather ironically unlike how Shifu actually fights; he is swift and nimble in battle. This could potentially also be him trying to ‘limit’ Tigress’s abilities in case she still does become another Tai Lung.
* It feels a bit contradictory that while in Secrets of the Scrolll Shifu telling Tigress to control her strength/ferocity is seen as a bad thing, but in Secrets of the Furious Five it’s seen as a good thing. But that’s exactly what it is about: balance. The overall lesson is, Tigress should use her strengths for good.

* The yin-yang symbol in the prophecy doesn't just symbolize Po's coloring as a "warrior of black and white". Po and Shen are opposites in nearly every way, from fighting style to personality to noble status. Add Po's constant depiction in darker, naturally lit watery environments in contrast to Shen almost always being lit from below by firelight to the mix.

* The Soothsayer's prophecy states that Shen will be defeated by a "warrior of black-and-white". It takes some thinking to realise that the "warrior of black and white" in the prophecy might be [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Shen himself]]. His primary colours are also black and white. Note that the cannons and the gunpowder are black. There is a brief, stylized shot showing Shen with half his face black paralleling the ying-yang symbol, and it is the smoke figure of Shen that transforms into the yin-yang symbol when the Soothsayer tries to predict his fate. And in the final confrontation, some of Shen's white feathers are covered in black soot. Over the course of the movie, including the backstory, Shen loses his parents, his right to the throne of Gongmen city (and eventually destroys even its symbol, the throne itself, upon returning), his old home, his surrogate mother, and his oldest and only remaining friend, all through his own actions. Even the destruction of his remaining forces in the finale comes from deflected cannon shots he ordered to fire. Finally, in the last battle against Po, he directly contributed to the wreck of his cannon falling on him by accidentally cutting the ropes during the fight. Indeed, it can be argued that Shen defeated and destroyed himself quite thoroughly, and maybe he even realizes the irony, when he calmly allows the cannon to crush him.

** Also, look at the montage when Po and the Furious Five are traveling to reach Shen: in one shot, Shen is shown holding his weapon in front of himself, one side of his face being white, the other black. Wouldn't you call that a warrior of black and white?

* Shen's [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a7/Lord_shen_sun_symbol_by_kullervonsota-d7arux5.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20170519162419 sigil]] is a dead ringer for the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg/1280px-War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg.png Imperial Japanese war flag.]] Suddenly, the pogrom against the panda village becomes even more horrifying than it already was, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Alls_Policy especially when considering]] [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar Chinese history]], and pandas being considered China's national animals.
* The death of Po’s mom was already a big tearjerker, but then you remember that Shen and his army uses knives, and this is a PG rated film. What if the rock she was killed behind was simply there as a GoryDiscretionShot and Po actually watched his mother be brutally murdered? The chances of there being a convenient rock there to shield a baby from whatever the heck types of murder Shen did is incredibly low.

* The premise of ''Kung Fu Panda 2'' seems to be symbolic- when the Europeans came to China and saw China's fireworks, they used the gunpowder and technology to invent weapons out of them. Lord Shen is a WHITE peacock, an anomaly, who immediately starts weaponizing fireworks. Or am I just over-analyzing this?
** You are, if only because Chinese tried to weaponize gunpowder immediately after inventing it, their inventions just were inferior to true cannons.
** You are way overanalyzing things. The Chinese did not make cannons in the European style. They did make rockets for warfare, though. As for Shen, his color is rather appropriate. White is considered to be the color of death in China, if I'm remembering correctly. Shen wants to rule China if not the entire world. He has a surprisingly large body count by the end of the film, even personally killing his second in command onscreen. I believe his color, the color of death, is quite appropriate.
** Europeans didn't go to China and invent cannons, or any black powder weaponry. The Chinese had black powder weapons as far back as the late 10th century, almost 300 hundred years before they arrived in Europe. Europeans simply innovated on the initial designs and concepts, as European counties had more time and resources to devote to the construction of black powder weaponry. To simplify the whole concept and symbolism as some sort of ethnic characterization, or misconstruing the colour of White to a particular demographic is racist.

!!FridgeBrilliance:

* Shen telling Po his parents abandoned him and never loved him may have been partly Shen projecting his own issues regarding his parents.

!!FridgeHorror:

* The symbolism change from the first movie to the second: The first movie utilized a lot of "Dragon" imagery, which commonly symbolizes the raw power and passions of a person. This can be seen with Po, his geeking out during his training, and his raw talent being able to lead him to victory against the experienced Tai Lung. The movie, too, deals with pain and pride, which are very raw and strong emotions. The second movie, meanwhile, deals with Yin-Yang, which symbolizes true and absolute peace with oneself and their lives. It also clashes with the Dragon imagery of the last movie in Shifu, who was previously tumultuous, emotional, but still powerful, mastering his emotions and attaining the same level of power and mastery as his more peaceful, mellow mentor (Oogway). This clash can also be seen with Po, the "Dragon" Warrior, having harnessed much of his raw talent and emotions by this point to become a formidable and skilled martial artist, on par with Tigress and Shifu despite being relatively inexperienced in comparison. However, in the moments where his peace and focus are disrupted, Po loses his ability to fight thanks to the tumult within his mind blocking his concentration. Furthermore, there's the cannons used by Shen, forged in the shape of a dragon, firing cannonballs that have dragons engraved upon their surface, and are, metaphorically, fueled by Shen's rage, ambition, and pride. He is ultimately defeated by Po attaining complete mastery of his emotions, seen in how he forms the Yin-Yang symbol while preparing to hurl the last cannonball right into Shen's ship. In this, the dragon who attained mastery of his emotions(Po) defeated the dragon who allowed his emotions to control him and drive him (Shen).

* The symbolism change from the first movie to the second: The first movie utilized a lot of "Dragon" imagery, which commonly symbolizes the raw power and passions of a person. This can be seen with Po, his geeking out during his training, and his raw talent being able to lead him to victory against the experienced Tai Lung. The movie, too, deals with pain and pride, which are very raw and strong emotions. The second movie, meanwhile, deals with Yin-Yang, which symbolizes true and absolute peace with oneself and their lives. It also clashes with the Dragon imagery of the last movie in Shifu, who was previously tumultuous, emotional, but still powerful, mastering his emotions and attaining the same level of power and mastery as his more peaceful, mellow mentor(Oogway). This clash can also be seen with Po, the "Dragon" Warrior, having harnessed much of his raw talent and emotions by this point to become a formidable and skilled martial artist, on par with Tigress and Shifu despite being relatively inexperienced in comparison. However, in the moments where his peace and focus are disrupted, Po loses his ability to fight thanks to the tumult within his mind blocking his concentration. Furthermore, there's the cannons used by Shen, forged in the shape of a dragon, firing cannonballs that have dragons engraved upon their surface, and are, metaphorically, fueled by Shen's rage, ambition, and pride. He is ultimately defeated by Po attaining complete mastery of his emotions, seen in how he forms the Yin-Yang symbol while preparing to hurl the last cannonball right into Shen's ship. In this, the dragon who attained mastery of his emotions(Po) defeated the dragon who allowed his emotions to control him and drive him (Shen).

* Tying in with the SelfFulfillingProphecy aspect of the movie, there's also a very emotional and actually pretty ingenious side to how things play out in Po's favour that is tied back to Shen's last good deed (though this troper isn't exactly sure how intentional it was on the creator's part); ''setting the Soothsayer free.'' Throughout the movie, Shen is ruthless, cold and violent towards anyone who isn't her and comes ''dangerously'' close to killing Po. In fact, for all intents and purposes his victory was all but assured. He had the Five at his mercy, his army, cannons and fleet were ready to set sail (despite the setbacks) and Shen was clearly in the frame of mind for conquest and it's easy to see him secure the victory. But he ''still'' lost. Why? The Soothsayer, now free, found a fatally injured Po and not only nursed him back to health, but aided him in achieving inner peace (something she was tragically unable to help Shen do). [[{{Irony}} How ironic]] that Shen's only visible selfless deed, the only part of the movie where he displays what little humanity remained in him, is the catalyst that caused his downfall. He truly did die by his own hand, but he actually secured his own destruction long before his VillainousBSOD. How [[{{Irony}} ironic]] that for all his terrible deeds, it was his only ''selfless'' deed that led to his downfall (and depending on how you interpret his death, his true path to the peace he always sought). Befitting such a TragicVillain, Lord Shen once again displays his true motivation for all the suffering he has caused; '''love.''' For his parents, for the Soothsayer (and [[{{Narcissist}} himself]] of course). When you think about it, not only did he ruin his life because of love, but his inevitable defeat came because of it.

* Tying in with the SelfFulfillingProphecy aspect of the movie, there's also a very emotional and actually pretty ingenious side to how things play out in Po's favour that is tied back to Shen's last good deed (though this troper isn't exactly sure how intentional it was on the creator's part); ''setting the Soothsayer free.'' Throughout the movie, Shen is ruthless, cold and violent towards anyone who isn't her and comes ''dangerously'' close to killing Po. In fact, for all intents and purposes his victory was all but assured. He had the Five at his mercy, his army, cannons and fleet were ready to set sail (despite the setbacks and Shen was clearly in the frame of mind for conquest and it's easy to see him secure the victory. But he ''still'' lost. Why? The Soothsayer, now free, found a fatally injured Po and not only nursed him back to health, but aided him in achieving inner peace (something she was tragically unable to help Shen do). [[{{Irony}} How ironic]] that Shen's only visible selfless deed, the only part of the movie where he displays what little humanity remained in him, is the catalyst that caused his downfall. He truly did die by his own hand, but he actually secured his own destruction long before his VillainousBSOD. How [[{{Irony}} ironic]] that for all his terrible deeds, it was his only ''selfless'' deed that led to his downfall (and depending on how you interpret his death, his true path to the peace he always sought). Befitting such a TragicVillain, Lord Shen once again displays his true motivation for all the suffering he has caused; '''love.''' For his parents, for the Soothsayer (and [[{{Narcissist}} himself]] of course). When you think about it, not only did he ruin his life because of love, but his inevitable defeat came because of it.

* Tying in with the SelfFulfillingProphecy aspect of the movie, there's also a very emotional and actually pretty ingenious side to how things play out in Po's favour that is tied back to Shen's last good deed (though this troper isn't exactly sure how intentional it was on the creator's part); ''setting the Soothsayer free.'' Throughout the movie, Shen is ruthless, cold and violent towards anyone who isn't her and comes ''dangerously'' close to killing Po. In fact, for all intents and purposes his victory was all but assured. He had the Five at his mercy, his army, cannons and fleet were ready to set sail (despite the setbacks and Shen was clearly in the frame of mind for conquest and it's easy to see him secure the victory. But he ''still'' lost. Why? The Soothsayer, now free, found a fatally injured Po and not only nursed him back to health, but aided him in achieving inner peace (something she was tragically unable to help Shen do). [[{{Irony}} How ironic]] that Shen's only visible selfless deed, the only part of the movie where he displays what little humanity remained in him, is the catalyst that caused his downfall. He truly did die by his own hand, but he actually secured his own destruction long before his VillainousBSOD. Befitting such a TragicVillain, Lord Shen once again displays his true motivation for all the suffering he has caused; '''love.''' For his parents, for the Soothsayer (and [[{{Narcissist}} himself]] of course). When you think about it, not only did he ruin his life because of love, but his inevitable defeat came because of it.

* The final time Po sees his mother putting him in the basket, it's CG instead of hand drawn like all the other times we've see it, then it hit me. In both films, the traditionally animated bits were all dreams[=/=]fantasy pieces, while the rest of the film, the real story, is CG. The reason why the final time we see this bit in CG is when Po realizes it's not a dream, it's a flashback.
* This troper was initially confused by the fact that the prophecy depicted a yin-yang symbol for the "warrior of black and white." Why not outright depict a panda? Why the yin-yang symbol? And then I realized something. Po and Shen are opposites in nearly every way, from fighting style to personality to noble status. Add Po's constant depiction in darker, naturally lit watery environments in contrast to Shen almost always being lit from below by firelight to the mix.
* Both Shen and Oogway have had a zooming shot from their eye using a yin-yang symbol, and they are both inventors of powerful weapons. Oogway invented kung-fu while Shen invented the cannon, both utterly destructive if in the wrong hands.
** Branching off of that, both were said[=/=]used to be able to defeat the other.
* The symbolism change from the first movie to the second: The first movie utilized a lot of "Dragon" imagery, which commonly symbolizes the raw power and passions of a person. This can be seen with Po, his geeking out during his training, and his raw talent being able to lead him to victory against the experienced Tai Lung. The movie, too, deals with pain and pride, which are very raw and strong emotions. The second movie, meanwhile, deals with Yin-Yang, which symbolizes true and absolute peace with oneself and their lives. It also clashes with the Dragon imagery of the last movie in Shifu, who was previously tumultuous, emotional, but still powerful, mastering his emotions and attaining the same level of power and mastery as his more peaceful, mellow mentor(Oogway). This clash can also be seen with Po, the "Dragon" Warrior, having harnessed much of his raw talent and emotions by this point to become a formidable and skilled martial artist, on par with Tigress and Shifu despite being relatively inexperienced in comparison. However, in the moments where his peace and focus are disrupted, Po loses his ability to fight thanks to the tumult within his mind blocking his concentration. Furthermore, there's the cannons used by Shen, forged in the shape of a dragon, firing cannonballs that have dragons engraved upon their surface, and are, metaphorically, fueled by Shen's rage, ambition, and pride. He is ultimately defeated by Po attaining complete mastery of his emotions, seen in how he forms the Yin-Yang symbol while preparing to hurl the last cannonball right into Shen's ship. In this, the dragon who attained mastery of his emotions(Po) defeated the dragon who allowed his emotions to control him and drive him(Shen).

* This troper was slightly bothered that Po managed to find Inner Peace so young and so fast, whereas Shifu had to go through many years to achieve it. Then I realized it makes perfect sense: Shifu was only ''confronted'' with the source of his inner turmoil at an old age, long after he had become set in his ways and pursued unhealthy ways of coping with his past for decades, when he finally had to own up to the mistakes he committed with Tai Lung, and accept some of it was his fault and some of it ''wasn't''. Po found inner peace earlier because he had to face his inner turmoil earlier, dealing with his lost family. It is all a matter of facing your issues. Also, as seen in the first movie, Po always fought conflict within himself, while Shifu had to accept first that he was the problem, and not someone else.
** There's also a more straightforward reason as to why Po was able to overcome his inner turmoil so quickly despite the likes of Shifu, Shen, and to lesser extent Tai Lung taking years to either overcome it or never letting it heal or fade away: he was arguably too young for the trauma to truly affect him in the way it affects the others, and it had more or less faded away by the time of ''Kung Fu Panda 2''. Babies don't exactly have the greatest memory, especially at the apparent age that Po was at when the panda genocide occurred. While he definitely would have still suffered some trauma that would affect him subconsciously (like with his eating habits and the symbol of Lord Shen causing him to lose focus), by the time he faces the problem head on he likely did not have enough of an attachment to not only the memory of those horrible days, but had also already formed powerful bonds with other people that allowed him to more or less move on, despite the relapse caused by the return of Lord Shen.
** By stark contrast, Shifu, Tai Lung, and Shen all had the traumatizing events in their life occur when they were old enough to remember it, and while they were still impressionable enough to be heavily affected by it. All three however not only were affected by it, but arguably allowed the scars to fester like an open wound covered with band-aids, never truly allowing it to heal and thus causing them to be permanently stuck in place in bitterness, rage and despair respectively. However, Shifu was eventually forced to confront it and thus would finally be able to come to terms with it, while the latter two never came out of their self-inflicted festering wounds and paid the price for it.
** This also ties into the above quote, as Shifu, Tai Lung and Shen were all faced with their inner turmoil because they ran from their destinies; Shifu refused to confront his issues with Tai Lung and instead locked him away, Tai Lung refused to see the inner darkness within himself and listen to authorities that tried to warn him of it, and Shen believing he could wipe out that which will kill him. Meanwhile, Po is confronted by painful memories of losing his parents but instead of running away from them, he actively sought out those memories to find closure.

* Tigress understands Po's identity crisis more than she lets on. In ''Secrets of the Furious Five,'' it was revealed that as a cub she lived in an orphanage until she was adopted by Shifu. There is currently no information about the status of her real parents, so it's quite possible that she knows little to nothing about them and went through an identity crisis similar to Po's at some point in her life. However, Po doesn't seem to realize any of this in ''Kung Fu Panda 2'', even though he was the teller of Tigress' story in ''Secrets of the Furious Five''. Either he assumed Tigress was too "hardcore" to let something like not knowing who she really was or where she came from bother her, or he was too caught up in his own crisis at the time to consider the possibility that even the "hardcore" might have feelings, too. It's not until she gives him the CooldownHug that this realization seems to dawn on him.

* "I eat when I'm upset." becomes [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge]] TearJerker when you really give it some thought. If Po's extremely fat, and he eats when he's upset..

* The movie and the background material seem to give accounts of Shen's parents that don't add up. The movie presents them as loving parents who ultimately died of grief at having been forced to outlaw their son for committing genocide (banishment for such a crime seems like mercy truthfully) while the background material classifies them as being ashamed of their sickly albino son. But look at how Shen took his banishment, he saw it as a sign his parents hated him [[NeverMyFault in spite of the fact he'd just committed one of the most horrible acts one could possibly commit]]. The one person who knew his parents when they gave him to her to raise was the Soothsayer, who outright tells Shen his parents ''did'' love him. On top of this, the Soothsayer is shown to be skilled in medicine when she heals Po after he's shot with Shen's cannon. Who's to say Shen wasn't given to the Soothsayer to be cared for because he was sickly and it's merely his own thinking that makes him believe they were ashamed of him? If he could blame them for banishing him for genocide, it's perfectly in character for him.

* Why does Shifu say that the day Po was chosen as the Dragon Warrior was the worst day of his life, after everything that happened with Tai Lung? Simple. That day meant he'd alienated his adopted son for nothing. Shifu was convinced for the longest time the Dragon Warrior was someone he would train, as in someone he had essentially built from the ground up for the job, someone he could control. Instead he gets an outsider, worse, a fat panda that seems useless and stupid. As far as Shifu knew, at the time, all his hard work with his students had been for nothing.

* How was the Soothsayer able to perform acupuncture on Po when Mantis failed in the first movie? It's possible that she's just better than Mantis (who had to have a panda anatomy chart for reference), but since she knows where the former Panda Village is, it's entirely possible that she had treated pandas before, to the point of knowing where to find their pressure points beneath all the fur... ahem, fat... by memory. By contrast, Po is the only panda in the Valley of Peace, so Mantis wouldn't have any chance to practice on panda anatomy and no reason to research it prior to Po's elevation to the Dragon Warrior position.

* Shen's [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a7/Lord_shen_sun_symbol_by_kullervonsota-d7arux5.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20170519162419 sigil]] is a dead ringer for the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg/1280px-War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg.png Imperial Japanese war flag.]] Suddenly, the pogrom against the panda village becomes even more horrifying than it already was, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Alls_Policy especially when considering]] [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar Chinese history]], and pandas being considered China's national animals.

** Both also count as a callback as well to the first film. For the first film, especially the big fight against Tai Lung, Po is seen huffing from having to walk up a TON of stairs. However, the inanimate Mantis in the cage Po is seen carrying isn't just some random item. Po stated in the first film he when meeting the Five that had action figures of all of them, and noted that Mantis' action figure was the same size as him. So, what we see in the cage is the action figure of Mantis.

** Also, look at the montage when Po and the Furios Five are traveling to reach Shen: in one shot, Shen is shown holding his weapon in front of himself, one side of his face being white, the other black. Wouldn't you call that a warrior of black and white?

** Also, look at the montage when Po and the Furios Five are traveling to reach Shen: in one shot, Shen is shown helding his weapon in front of himself, one side of his face being white, the other black. Wouldn't you call that a warrior of black and white?
* This troper was slightly bothered that Po managed to find Inner Peace so young and so fast, whereas Shifu had to go through many years to achieve it. Then I realized it makes perfect sense: Shifu was only ''confronted'' with the source of his inner turmoil at an old age, when he finally had to own up to the mistakes he committed with Tai Lung, and accept some of it was his fault and some of it ''wasn't''. Po found inner peace earlier because he had to face his inner turmoil earlier, dealing with his lost family. It is all a matter of facing your issues. Also, as seen in the first movie, Po always fought conflict within himself, while Shifu had to accept first that he was the problem, and not someone else.
** There's also a more straightforward reason as to why Po was able to overcome his inner turmoil so quickly despite the likes of Shifu, Shen, and to lesser extent Tai Lung taking years to either overcome it or never letting it heal or fade away: He was arguably too young for the trauma to truly affect him in the way it affect the others, and it had more or less faded away by the time of Kung Fu Panda 2. Babies don't exactly have the greatest memory especially at the apparent age that Po was at when the panda genocide occurred, and while he definitely would have still suffered some trauma that would affect him subconsciously (like with his eating habits and the symbol of Lord Shen causing him to lose focus), by the time he faced the problem head on he likely did not have enough of an attachment to not only the memory of those horrible days, but had also already formed powerful bonds with other people that allowed him to more or less move on, despite the relapse caused by the return of Lord Shen.
** By stark contrast, Shifu, Tai Lung, and Shen all had the traumatizing events in their life occur when they were old enough to remember it, and while they were still impressionable enough to be heavily affected by it. All three however not only were affected by it, but arguably allowed the scars to fester like an open wound covered with band-aids, never truly allowing it to heal and thus causing them to be permanently stuck in place in bitterness, rage and despair respectively. However, Shifu was eventually forced to confront it and thus would finally be able to come to terms with it, while the latter two never came out of their self-inflicted festered wounds and paid the price for it.
** This also ties into the above quote, as Shifu, Tai Lung and Shen were all faced with their inner turmoil because they ran from their destinies; Shifu refused to confront his issue with Tai Lung and instead locked him away, Tai Lung refused to see the inner darkness within him and listen to authorities, and Shen believing he could wipe out that which will kill him. Meanwhile, Po was confronted by painful memories of losing his parents but instead of running away from them, he actively sought out those memories to find closure.

** Po's way of defense has been used since the first movie. Look his fight with Tai Lung: many of Tai Lung's attacks ended up hurting him precisely because Po would simply roll with them and redirect their force in such a way to sock the poor, cocky leopard, including the very first and the one right before the Wuxi Finger Hold.

* Tigress in the sequel is shown to be very adept at exploiting her opponent's movements, redirecting them to begin a throw and other "soft" moves that weren't part of her fighting style before. It is not very probable that she polished these because she anticipated the need to fight Po, particularly without harming him (too much). But it is entirely understandable that she wanted to expand her arsenal, after a direct application of her strength proved to be not enough to beat Tai Lung. Also, considering how closer they are, it might be the consequence of her spending a lot of time training with Po.

* The premise of Kung Fu Panda 2 seems to be symbolic- when the Europeans came to China and saw China's fireworks, they used the gunpowder and technology to invent weapons out of them. Lord Shen is a WHITE peacock, an anomaly, who immediately starts weaponizing fireworks. Or am I just over-analyzing this?

* Ping's secret ingredient becomes something of this with his statement in the second film. "I took you inside, fed you, gave you a bath, and fed you again...and again, and tried to put some pants on you. And then I made a decision that would change my life forever. To make my soup without radishes, and to raise you as my own son. Xiao Po, my little panda." Since baby Po had eaten all the radishes, there was nothing left except Po. And nothing/love/devotion to one's true self is what makes the soup - and the Dragon Warrior - so special.

* Po has a hard time going into stealth mode like the Furious Five can because as the only panda in the area, he's easily recognizable, so instead he chooses a paper lion dragon costume to help blend in. Both pandas and lion dragons are associated with street festives and positive parts of Chinese culture, so Po, who would stick out like a sore thumb, was able to hide himself by wearing an outlandish costume, which ironically makes the wolves stick out.

* How was the Soothsayer able to perform acupuncture on Po when Mantis failed in the first movie? It's possible that she's just better than Mantis (who had to have a panda anatomy chart for reference), but since she knows where the Panda Village is, it's entirely possible that she had treated pandas before, to the point of knowing where to find their pressure points beneath all the fur... ahem, fat... by memory. By contrast, Po is the only panda in the Valley of Peace, so Mantis wouldn't have any chance to practice on panda anatomy.

* Shen's sigil is a dead ringer for the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg/1280px-War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg.png Imperial Japanese war flag.]] Suddenly, the pogrom against the panda village becomes even more horrifying than it already was, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Alls_Policy especially when considering]] [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar Chinese history]], and pandas being considered China's national animals.

*** A line from "Mama Told Me Not To Kung Fu" suggests that Crane's father is ''dead''. Did he go down fighting to buy time for Crane and his mom to escape and wasn't as fortunate as Po's father?