History Fridge / KungFuPanda3

* We finally find out what The Dragon Warrior is. It has ''nothing'' to do with the physical realm; that's all Po. No, the Dragon Warrior is a ''Spirit Warrior'', whose power is against malevolent spirits. That's why Po will have normal, drawn-out fights like Tai Leng and Shen, but against a spirit? The Dragon Warrior will [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] spirits. Oogway knew that only a Spirit Warrior could deal with Kai.

* It's no wonder Kai was forgotten by history, history is WrittenByTheWinners after all and the armies lead by Oogway and Kai were likely decimated after one of their leaders was injured and the other took injured one and disappeared without a trace. Any history of the two was likely placed in the footnotes of history and Oogway himself would have likely purged any remaining history of Kai himself in order to prevent anyone from locating the hidden panda village.

* Kai is basically all of the worst aspects of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Shin-Ra Electric Power Company]] rolled into one on a smaller scale. Just replace the lifestream of the planet with the chi of every living being.
* Po's birth name is Lotus (莲/Lián, presumably). Upon meeting him Li Shan calls him "Little Lotus" (小莲 - an affectionate way of addressing a child/younger person in Chinese culture is to tack on 小/"Little" before their name). It's still a fitting name for our protagonist, because:
** [[FlowerMotifs the lotus is considered a sacred flower]], associated with Buddhas/enlightenment/holiness/spirituality. Po becomes the venerated Dragon Warrior, who ostensibly has escaped the cycle of life and death (upon his return from the Spirit World) - which is one of the perks of attaining nirvana/Buddhahood.
** Lotuses bloom from muddy ponds, and have been used as metaphors for people who rose out of tragic/humble backgrounds to become renowned heroes. When Li Shan knew him, his son was still a ''little lotus'' - a flower bud. It's with his family's help that Po finally achieves his goal of being a kung fu Master great enough to be chosen as Oogway's successor - in other words, fully blooming.
** Every single part of the lotus is usable: petals, leaves, roots, seeds, the works. Every single part of Po's identity is valuable in his quest to fully step into his potential: the survivor of a genocide, the adopted son of a loving noodle cook, the kung fu fanboy, the teacher, the student, the Dragon Warrior. Each facet taught him lessons and enabled him to grow.

* Kai is basically all of the worst aspects of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Shin-Ra Electric Power Company]] rolled into one on a smaller scale. Just replace the lifestream of the planet with the chi of every living being.

* We finally find out what The Dtagon Warrior is. It has ''nothing'' to do with the physical realm; that's all Po. No, the Dragon Warrior is a ''Spirit Warrior'', whose power is against malevolent spirits. That's why Po will have normal, drawn-out fights like Tai Leng and Shen, but against a spirit? The Dragon Warrior will [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] spirits. Oogway knew that only a Spirit Warrior could deal with Kai.

* A RewatchBonus that ties back to where everything began: At the beginning of the first movie, Po appears to be clumsy and lazy, oversleeping, bumping into things and people, and having trouble climbing stairs. But in this movie, we find out that these are normal habits for pandas: they sleep until past noon, there are no stairs because they use hills to roll, etc. Being the only panda in the Valley of Peace, Po has to deal with climbing stairs and constantly bumping into smaller animals because he's the largest animal in the village. Even before he learned kung fu, he wasn't necessarily lazy or clumsy; he was living in an environment that wasn't suited to his needs.

* A lot of the above have pondered why something so incredibly difficult -- giving Chi -- is so difficult but somehow anyone can do it by the end. That's because it's easy for ''large groups'' to offer their essential life force. Notice in the old painting it was a group of pandas, not an individual, who were depicted lending Oogway chi. Giving someone your life force is difficult. A group of people all giving a little bit of chi is easy. Conversely, stealing chi is easy, but grants less. "The more you take, the less you have." This is also the true secret of the Dragon Warrior -- in order for the Dragon Warrior to be unlocked, it requires the chi of friends and allies. Once unleashed, the life energy can be usdd, among other things, to give it back to others.

* It possible that Kai was not killed by Po; he was ''resurrected'' (since chi is ''life energy''.)

** 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 intelligent 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 it 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. Is it really just being TheChosenOne trope in play? 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 everything he hears, be it new techniques, an 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.

* As with previous villains, Kai has issues that are a parallel to Po's. Kai also struggles with finding his own identity. Everything he does is centered around Oogway, and he is known only through his connection to him. It's no wonder he gets so annoyed that his former legacy has been completely forgotten, as now he has no real sense of self. This factors into his powers as well. He doesn't have his own identity, so he takes the identities of other masters and uses them instead.
* The Chi Kai stole tainted his eyes green throughout the film, and they become most prominent while he's using it's power. In otherwords, Kai has literal Green Eyes of Envy.

* Martial arts masters, in China, are supposed to be treated with all the respect due to one's parents, which is why Tai Lung attacking Shifu is even worse for Chinese audiences. And yet in this movie, Po couldn't bring himself fight Jombie Shifu even to save his own life. Not only does this highlight the differences between him and Tai Lung, but it also leaves room for his "other" two dads to fight, united to protect their son.

* 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. Shifu remains correct in the end though. When Kai has his big entrance to the Panda Village, Po compliments him on his great entrance...but is obviously not as excited and impressed as he acts, thus not allowing Kai the upper hand for a while at least. His constant interrupting of Kai's MotiveRant takes even more away from the entrance.

* Kai is basically all of the worst aspects of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Shin-Ra Electric Power Company]] rolled into one on a smaller scale. Just replace the lifestream of the planet with the chi of every living being.

!! FridgeLogic

* This film shows that there is a Master ''Chicken'', and in the past, there was a Master ''Dolphin''. Makes you wonder why Shifu and the Five were so discriminate against Po being able to learn kung fu on the basis that he was just "a big, fat panda", when such animals as a chicken and a dolphin of all things were ''masters''. A panda shouldn't seem twice as weird in comparison.
** Perhaps because pandas are seen as giant, lumbering creatures lacking the elegance and speed needed to be a successful Master. Even in our world, chickens are/were used to fight for sport. Dolphins are efficient hunters as well - some species even whack prey with their flukes.
** May double as FridgeBrilliance, but perhaps due to Shen's Genocide of the Pandas there had never been a master of "Giant Panda Style" kung-fu during Shifu's lifetime. Thus it would make sense that all but Oogway, who had actually met Giant Panda masters centuries ago, would believe that Po learning kung-fu is impossible, because to them it had never occurred in living memory.

* A lot of the above have pondered why something so incredibly difficult -- giving Chi -- is so difficult but somehow anyone can dk it by the end. That's because it's easy for ''large groups'' to offer their essential life force. Notice in the old painting it was a group of pandas, not an individual, who were depicting lending Oogway chi. Giving someone your life force is difficult. A group of people all giving a little bit of chi is easy. Conversely, stealing chi is easy, but grants less. "The more you take, the less you have." This is also the true secret of the Dragon Warrior -- in order for the Dragon Warrior to be unlocked, it requires the chi of friends and allies. Once unleashed, the life energy can be usdd, among other things, to hive it back to others.

** May double as FridgeBrilliance, but perhaps due to Shen's Genocide of the Pandas there had never been a master of "Giant Panda Style" kung-fu during Shifu's lifetime. Thus it would make sense that all but Oogway, who had actually met Giant Panda masters centuries ago, would believe that Po learning kung-fu is impossible, because to them it had never occurred in living memory.
* A lot of the above have pondered why something so incredibly difficult -- giving Chi -- is so difficult but somehow anyone can dk it by the end. That's because it's easy for ''large groups'' to offer their essential life force. Notice in the old painting it was a group of pandas, not an individual, who were depicting lending Oogway chi. Giving someone your life force is difficult. A group of people all giving a little bit of chi is easy. Conversely, stealing chi is easy, but grants less. "The more you take, the less you have." This is also the true secret of the Dragon Warrior -- in order for the Dragon Warrior to be unlocked, it requires the chi of friends and allies. Once unleashed, the life energy can be usdd, among other things, to hive it back to others.
* It possible that Kai was not killed by Po; he was ''resurrected'' (since chi is ''life energy''.)

** May double as FridgeBrilliance, but perhaps due to Shen's Genocide of the Pandas there had never been a master of "Giant Panda Style" kung-fu during Shifu's lifetime. Thus it would make sense that all but Oogway, who had actually met Giant Panda masters centuries ago, would believe that Po learning kung-fu is impossible, because to them it had never occurred in living memory.

* Lei Lei constantly [[ShipperOnDeck shipping Mantis with her Tigress doll]]. It's common for children to imagine people getting together, but it makes more sense when one recalls that of the Furious Five, Tigress and Mantis are seen as the strongest. Lei Lei idolizes Tigress, so pairing her with someone who is similar to her hero doesn't seem so far-fetched.

* 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. Shifu remains correct in the end though. When Kai has his big entrance to the Panda Village, Po compliments him on his great entrance...but is obviously not as excited and impressed as he acts, thus not allowing Kai the upper hand for a while at least.

%% This isn't Troper Tales or a forum. Refrain from first person entries, speculation, and "replying" to entries. RepairDontRespond is in effect here as much as any other page.

** Perhaps because pandas are seen as giant, lumbering creatures lacking the elegance and speed needed to be a successful Master. Even in our world, chickens are/were used to fight for sport. Dolphins are efficient hunters as well - some species even whack prey with their flukes.

* This film shows that there is a Master ''Chicken'', and in the past, there was a Master ''Dolphin''. Makes you wonder why Shifu and the Five were so discriminate against Po being able to learn kung fu on the basis that he was just "a big, fat panda", when such animals as a chicken and a dolphin of all things were ''masters''. A panda shouldn't seem twice as weird in comparison.

* Kai is basically all of the worst aspects of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Shin-Ra Electric Power Company]] rolled into one on a smaller scale. Just replace the lifestream of the planet with the chi of every living being.

* 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. Is it really just being TheChosenOne trope in play? 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 everything he hears, be it new techniques, an 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.

** Especially the last thing underlines what and who Po is: ever since the first movie, it was clearly emphasized that Po's biggest strength is using the energy given to him and throwing it back. He absorbed Tai Lung's punches and bounced them back, catched Shen's canon balls and threw them back and this time he takes the knives of Kai and uses them to and their momentum to throw Kai around. Po was never about charging and confronting. Unless someone charges at him, he usually doesn't do anything. Because that is ''who he is'' and probably the reason why his chi is so strong that it disintegrates Kai's blades the ''second'' they come into close contact with it.

** Especially the last thing underlines what and who Po is: ever since the first movie, it was clearly emphasized that Po's biggest strength is using the energy given to him and throwing it back. He absorbed Tai Lung's punches and bounced them back, catched Shen's canon balls and threw them back and this time he takes the knives of Kai and uses them to and their momentum to throw Kai around. Po was never about charging and confronting. Unless someone charges at him, he usually doesn't do anything. Because that is ''who he is'' and probably the reason why his chi is so strong that it desintegrates Kais blades the ''second'' they come into close contact with it.

* Kai is basically all of the worst aspects of the [[FinalFantasyVII Shin-Ra Electric Power Company]] rolled into one on a smaller scale. Just replace the lifestream of the planet with the chi of every living being.