History Fridge / KungFuPanda3

* The fact the chi of the Panda village, Tigress, and Po's fathers was enough to overwhelm and ultimately destroy Kai. Remember what Oogway told Kai at the beginning: the more you take the less you have. Kai stealing chi could ''never'' give him the full power of it because he was trying to TAKE IT, and while it DID boost his power, it could never make him as strong as if it were GIVEN to him. This even shows in his jombies: they're shown to be not nearly as strong as the person they were.

* Even when things start going south for him, Kai ''never'' tries to make a jombie of Master Oogway. Either he refuses to let go of Oogway's chi, even temporarily [[note]] either out of need to stay in the mortal world or fear of losing control of it [[/note]], or he knows that his mission to destroy Oogway's legacy would be undermined if he had to use Oogway himself to do it.

** Also, her words for who she is is "a friend". In the first movie, she is very solitary even among the other Furious Five (to the point where she reacts surprised for a moment when she hears the others want to help her defeat Tai Lung). In the second movie, she seems to become aware that she begins to actually befriend everyone, especially Po. But while she reacts protective and teaches and explains to him willingly, she is still awkward about it (such as during the hug at the end). But in the third movie, she is much more involved, praises Po when he does something well and even though she doubts him sometimes, she supports him in the end. She also befriends a young panda girl, something that the old Tigress would have found bothersome. By the third movie, she has become a more open-minded and friendlier person - thanks to her friend Po. And so she defines herself as Po's friend and can release her chi, because without him and his support, she would literally be someone entirely else personality-wise.

* Po used the Wuxi Finger Hold on Tai Lung. That means Tai Lung was sent to the Spirit Realm and possibly even became one of Kai's victims. Or, since he is nowhere to be seen, he's either trapped somewhere in the Spirit Realm or is in Di Yu working off his karma. Tai Lung's amulet was eventually [[http://kfpfansite.tumblr.com/image/140073734640 spotted]], but this only adds to the horror with the confirmation that even one of the most powerful masters in the series was beaten by Kai.

* Considering that Kai doesn't understand why Oogway "betrayed" him, it's ironic for his theme to be a remix of Imagine Dragon's "I'm so sorry", since he's never sorry for anything he does.

* When Mr. Ping tells Li that "Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons", Li reacts by looking at the picture of his late wife. What does this imply? Did Po's mother make a wrong turn somewhere while escaping with Po? Did she make the wrong decision to leave him in that crate? Whether she did or not, it would appear that something inside Li has blamed his wife for disappearing out of sight that night, instead of running somewhere where he could catch up with her. That, or he's simply blaming himself for telling her to escape on her own.

** Furthermore, mastering chi was about understanding yourself. The pandas are lazy and dumpy yes, but the village/tribe they came from are also very simple creatures in the best ways. They aren't good at climbing stairs, so they built a lift. They live in hilly places so they can roll where they want. And so on. They are very simple people, if inteligent and very talented (Mei-Mei is a fantastic ribbon dancer and Ling has a natural knack for Kung-fu/taichi as shown in the end). Simple creatures that understand who they to an extreme level. Not enough to naturally use chi, but enough that the entire village could pick up when needed.

* In the final battle scene in the spirit world, when Po received his dragon battle aura, he didn't go straight to fighting Kai; he flew around, laughing and taking joy in his new ability. This is another reflection of mastering chi meaning understanding oneself: Po may love fighting and Kung fu, but he's not a violent person. He loves Kung fu becUse to him, it's fun and he loves it. So his first instinct isn't to take down Kai, it's to enjoy and more importantly, appreciate, his new ability. This is in contrast with Kai, who uses his chi-and the chi of the other masters-for violence and anger. He doesn't appreciate or fully respect it, hence he can't use it to its full ability. And on top of that, from what we see in the movie, chi isn't meant to be used for violence. It's meant to heal and enrich, which is reflected in how utterly Kai loses even though Po never really goes on the offensive, only countering his attacks.

** Though Kai needing Oogwang's chi and Po having the chi of at least a dozen people to get back to the mortal realm may dampen this horror a bit by the implication that not ''everyone'' can simply leave. Especially since Tai Lung never learned about chi which is necessary to traverse between the two realms.

* In the intro scene(s) to Po and the Five, Po laments on how they don't ''always'' do the [[DynamicEntry dramatic entrance]], with Shifu suddenly coming in and saying Po's right, since the battle of the mind comes before the battle of the fist. Ironically enough, we are introduced to Kai by him [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throwing his blades towards Oogway]] in the Spirit Realm, and when he re-enters the mortal realm, he appears in a huge chi-empowered SphereOfDestruction with a lot of [[LargeHam ham]] to spare.

** If you pay attention to the background during the 'party' ending, it shows that the Jade Palace is under construction.
* Po used the Wuxi Finger Hold on Tai Lung. That means Tai Lung was sent to the Spirit Realm and possibly even became one of Kai's victims. Or, since he is nowhere to be seen, he's either trapped somewhere in the Spirit Realm or is in Di Yu working off his karma. Or, less horrifically and more awesomely, he managed to somehow be the only master Kai couldn't defeat (until Po).
** Tai Lung's amulet was eventually [[http://kfpfansite.tumblr.com/image/140073734640 spotted]], but this only adds to the horror with the confirmation that even one of the most powerful masters in the series was beaten by Kai.
** This also brings up another concept: If it's possible for a spirit warrior to return to the mortal plane, then there's the possibility that Tai Lung can return. Whether this is [[NightmareFuel horrifying]] or [[DracoInLeatherPants exciting]] is for you to decide.
** We don't know how strong Kai actually was, the only actual fight we see have him already empowered by stolen chi (even in his backstory, Oogway fought him after he stole an unspecified amount of it). However, he appears to fall into the StrongButUnskilled ground, meaning that without supernatural enhancements he was likely to bee weaker than actual kung-fu masters. What if someone like Tai-Lung or Shen (and we know at least one of them is in the spirit realm) starts going on a similar chi-stealing rampage, but becoming an even more dangerous foe?

* "Being sent to the spirit realm" being an euphemism for death and kung fu masters dying in a flurry of petals as seen in the first movie makes the scene [[LighterAndSofter seem a lot less grim]] but Po still effectively killed himself on screen at the climax to drag Kai into the spirit realm.
** Unless you subscribe to the theory that the spirit realm is another world, in which case Oogway could still be alive in the spirit realm, just not willing to come back, and Po was just opening a dimensional portal to suck him and Kai into this sub-dimensional pocket.

** You also have to wonder what terrible foe Kai and Oogway were facing, that managed to so grievously injure Oogway and force Kai to retreat with Oogway. What happened to the army they were fighting alongside?
* When Mr. Ping tells Li that "Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons", Li reacts by looking at the picture of his late wife. What does this imply? Did Po's mother make a wrong turn somewhere while escaping with Po? Did she make the wrong decision to leave him in that crate? Whether she did or not, it would appear that something inside Li has blamed his wife for disappearing out of sight that night, instead of running somewhere where he could catch up with her. That, or he's simply blaming himself for telling her to escape on her own.
** Li might be looking at the picture of his wife because Lotus, AKA Po, is also in the picture and Li feels bad for messing up so badly with his son.

* The fact that only Po knows any major info about Kai as opposed to most other people. Po has a fanboy level knowledge of past and present kung fu masters, so of course he'd be familiar with him.
** Not sure about this one. Po didn't recognize the name at first and even after Shifu finds some info on Kai, still doesn't act like he knows anything. The one time he identifies Kai is well after Shifu found the scroll explaining who Kai was.
** Even so, Po not only recognizes Kai from the scroll, but also his ''nicknames'', which he had never heard before. Meaning that Po went out of his way to study up and gain that kind of knowledge on his new foe, probably when he's seen looking over the scroll before the battle.

* Kai and everything associated with him is green, but chi, whenever shown by anyone ELSE is golden. (Keep in mind by the color theory of the films that gold stands for heroism.) This is even shown when he's stealing it from others. Kai converts others chi to match his own...so when Po FORCED it into him in the end, bypassing that completely, he couldn't control it. It could also be that it destabilized him and caused him to lose control of what he'd already stolen.
** In terms of cultural colour associations, green works for evil in a Chinese context. Chinese zombies, demons, the underworld and associated malevolent entities are usually coloured green as well.

** It's not even just that. Mastering chi was about understanding yourself. The pandas are lazy and dumpy yes. But the village/tribe they came from are also very simple creatures in the best ways. They aren't good at climbing stairs, so they built a lift. They live in hilly places so they can roll where they want. And so on. They are very simple people, if inteligent and very talented (Mei-Mei is a fantastic ribbon dancer and Ling has a natural knack for Kung-fu/taichi as shown in the end). Simple creatures that pretty much understand who they to an extreme level. Not enough to naturally use chi, but enough that the entire village could pick up when needed.
* It may seem odd that Po, a relative newbie kung fu user, is able to master advanced skills like inner peace and chi manipulation before older and experienced masters like Master Shifu. It's even lampshaded by Shifu himself in KFP2 and 3. Or, it just being TheChosenOne trope in play. However, it is really their different dispositions which result in such different learning speeds. The first movie has equal focus on Shifu's character development, and his issues stem from being stuck in his past and his old mistakes with Tai Lung, as well as learning to let go of control. He initially sees training Po as useless and thinks that Po will never be the Dragon Warrior, due to his own conceptions as to what kind of person makes for Kung Fu Master material. Shifu starts the first movie being very close-minded, believing in his own assumptions and methods, and when he encounters something that doesn't lie within his range of assumption,(Po) he dismisses it as impossible. In contrast, Po has always been wildly enthusiastic about Kung Fu and its related philosophy and history, putting up with Shifu's abuse in the beginning of the first movie even though he knew Shifu was trying to get rid of him. Po is always immediately eager about nearly everything he hears, be it new techniques, a, upcoming battle, a chance to defend the Valley of Peace, etc. He tries every new thing he learns about, such as attempting to do splits in KFP1, inner peace in KFP2, and even chi manipulation in KFP3. Aside from being an AscendedFanboy, ultimately Po is able to learn at a much faster pace than Shifu due to his open-mindedness, in trying new things, letting go of his own baggage such as accepting his past in KFP2 (Shifu needed years and a confrontation with Tai Lung to get over his mistakes.) This also ties in nicely with KFP3's themes of self-improvement and coming to terms with your identity.
* How is it that the jombies, elite kung fu masters turned into immortal jade warriors, were so easily beaten back by the panda villagers? Because while they are very skilled and durable, they're also mindless drones who can only follow Kai's orders. They have no way to learn or adapt to the unique fighting styles the pandas use against them.
** That, and Kai himself [[UnskilledButStrong isn't very good with technique]]. It's not so much of a problem when ''[[ImplacableMan he's]]'' fighting, but when directing the weaker jombies, their lack of strength means his [[AttackAttackAttack normal tactics]] just don't work as well.
** There's also the problem of how the technique appears to work for him- he controls ''all'' of the Jombies at the same time. He sees everything they see, and experiences everything they do... so it would be simple to overwhelm him mentally by causing too many things to happen at once, which is how Po is able to sneak up on him. Picture trying to play three chess games at once while someone gives you a bone-crushing hug, smacks you in the face with heavy cookware, and shoves firecrackers down your throat while trying to get a world-record speedrun time on a video game.
* Even when things start going south for him, Kai ''never'' tries to make a jombie of Master Oogway. Either he refuses to let go of Oogway's chi, even temporarily, or he knows that his mission to destroy Oogway's legacy would be undermined if he had to use Oogway himself to do it.
** Since Oogway's chi was around his neck instead of his belt, it's possible that he needed to hold onto it in order to stay tethered to the mortal plane.
** Or he didn't think he could control Oogway so well.

** On that note, why does Tigress easily pick up chi manipulation? It's quite possible she gained inner peace and found out who she was off-screen between movies.
*** Considering that Po helped Shifu gain inner peace, and the flashbacks in Tigress' telling of Tai Lung's history implied that her issues stemmed from Shifu's (albeit unintentional) cold treatment of her as a child lead to her desire to be Dragon Warrior so she could make Shifu proud of her. So, once Shifu worked through his issues and gained inner peace, he was likely able to help Tigress do the same off-screen. Which she likely initiated because she saw what she could become in Tai Lung if she didn't work through those issues.

** We don't know how strong Kai actually was, the only actual fight we see have him already empowered by stolen chi (even in his backstory, Oogway fought him after he stole an unspecified amount of it). However, he appears to fal into the StrongButUnskilled ground, meaning that without supernatural enhancements he was likely to bee weaker than actual kung-fu masters. What if someone like Tai-Lung or Shen (and we know at least one of them is in the spirit realm) starts going on a similar chi-stealing rampage, but becoming an even more dangerous foe?

* When Mr. Ping tells Li that "Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons", Li reacts by looking at the picture of his late wife. What does this imply? Did Po's mother make a wrong turn somewhere while escaping with Po? Did she make the wrong decision to leave him in that crate? Whether she did or not, it would appear that something inside Li has blamed his wife for disappearing out of sight that night, instead of running somewhere where he could catch up with her. That, or he's simply blaming himself for telling her to escape on her own.