History Characters / KungFuPandaSecondMovieCharacters

* TheAtoner: She holds tremendous guilt for telling Shen the prophecy that he would be defeated by a "black and white" warrior, inadvertently making herself responsible for the ensuing panda genocide. She helps Po recover his forgotten memories of the tramatic event and helps him achieve inner peace by reminding Po of the wonderful life he's had despite the tragedy.

* NeutralFemale: Averted. She isn't ''physically'' capable of stopping Shen, but she regularly gives him the KirkSummation or AndThenWhat as she tries to push him away from his EvilPlan. She also saves Po's life after finding him floating in the river haven taken a cannonball to the chest.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Shen. AllThereInTheManual, though some of her interactions with Shen imply this. You get the feeling that if ''anyone'' else tried to take a bite out of his robes, they would get a knife to the throat. When Shen first appears, notice there's a hopeful look from Soothsayer, before it collapses into annoyance because it's apparent Shen hasn't changed. She later ''begs'' Shen to not continue, knowing it'll be his undoing.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: She predicted that Shen would be defeated by a black and white warrior if he didn't renounce his current ways. Shen reacted by trying to [[spoiler:exterminate all pandas]] to change his destiny.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: They had to face the fact that their son was a monster willing to commit genocide in order to further his own ambitions]].

* ParentalAbandonment: {{Subverted}}. Shen sees his banishment as an act of abandonment, but it turns out that they were justified in their decision to punish him, as he [[spoiler:basically committed a genocide]].
* ParentsAsPeople: They tried to raise their son well, but it's implied that they let the Soothsayer do a good chunck of the actual parenting and when their son [[spoiler:basically committed a genocide]] they were left with no choice but banishing him as punishment.

The BigBad of the second film. He's a wicked peacock whose clan rules over Gongmen City. However, that wasn't enough for him as he is possessed by a desire to take over all of China. For that he invented the cannon, which poses a threat to the very existence of kung fu itself.

* AndThenWhat: The Soothsayer asks him if conquering China and destroying kung-fu will finally make Shen happy. Shen is clearly shocked, never having considered what he'll do after he's done conquering and if it will even be worth everything he's lost, but is quick to push away his doubt.

** As befitting the most Ax Crazy villain in the movies, Lord Shen is the only character seen who unambiguously kills someone on-screen. Though Tai Lung's escape from prison is very heavily implied to have killed most, if not all, of the guards, we never see a dead rhino on screen. However, there is no cutaway when Shen throws his knives into [[spoiler:Wolf Boss's]] throat and watches him fall overboard.

* BeingEvilSucks: Spends decades plotting his revenge and relentlessly pursuing his ambition to rule over China in an attempt to assuage his emotional pain and find happiness. This only succeeds at making him feel more bitter and miserable.

* CombatPragmatist: Uses throwing knives in addition to his spear, conceals his movements with his tail, and the entire purpose of inventing the cannon was to deal with kung fu masters he can't beat one-on-one. When confronted with a fight he can't possibly win, against Po and the Furious Five, he flees out the window and calls down a barrage of cannonfire to destroy his own tower.
* TheComicallySerious: Despite being the most evil foe Po has faced so far, he has his hilarious moments, usually when Po is in the same scene.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Tai Lung was a physically formidable Kung Fu fighter and an OneManArmy who worked alone and who's main goal was to get the Dragon Scroll. Shen is physically smaller but a genius noble who has an army to do his bidding, and his goal is to destroy Kung Fu and take over China. While Tai Lung didn't have any kind of past history with Po, the conflict with Shen becomes more of a personal matter to Po due to Shen's connection with his past.

* EvilAlbino: In real life white peacocks aren't actually albino, instead having a genetic mutation called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucism leucism]]. But since real white peacocks have blue eyes and Shen has red eyes, it's likely that he was intended to be an albino in this setting.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler:Is ''shocked'' that Po doesn't hold what he did to his species, his family, against him, and that he was able to let go of his pain, because his own pain has never went away, and he doesn't believe it ever will.]]

** Though they never interact with each other, Shen can be seen as Master Shifu's villainous foil. They both had a clairvoyant elder who watched their development (the Soothsayer and Master Oogway) and who foretold a disaster (Shen's demise and Tai Lung's return). Both proteges then tried to avert said disaster, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy only to inadvertently cause it to happen]]. Like with Shifu in the first movie, Shen's present is influenced by the pains of the past, making him demanding and biased, with his high expectations in regards to his subordinates mirroring those of Shifu with his students. In particular, neither of them believed initially that someone like Po could be a mighty warrior, only for the determined panda to defy their expectations. Their main difference is in regards to the advice offered to them by their mentors; Shifu didn't want Oogway to leave and afterwards respected his master's wish to train Po despite his doubts, but Shen eventually sends the Soothsayer away when he decides he can't find happiness from her advice. Shifu ultimately found inner peace by listening to Oogway while Shen could find peace only in death through his own self-destructive decisions.

* EvilIsBurningHot: He is strongly associated with fire and [[LightIsNotGood bright light]]--his smoking forges and torches, his fireworks factory, his cannon that "breathes fire and spits metal", and [[spoiler:his burning of the panda village]]. At one point, he even lights his sword aflame in a burning brazier and uses it to [[SpreadingDisasterMapGraphic incinerate a map of China]] as a symbol of his EvilPlan.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He's polite, well-spoken, and composed... until something gets him angry, when he shows the true AxCrazy monster beneath it all.

* FireIsRed: As a consequence of this colour motif, the fires that Shen and his mooks use, both in the cannon and in regular torches, are of an unusual crimson tone. Justified as in Shen is explicitly stated to be working off of firework chemicals, so it stands to reason his cannonballs would have a colorful glow to them.

* FreudianExcuse: His parents decided to banish and disown him for [[spoiler: massacring the pandas]]. He saw this as an act of [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment]] and has let the pain and resentment fester in him ever since. This being said, it is shown that he was heading down the path of villainy even before his banishment, so it is likely that the exile only accelerated his decline.

* GenocideBackfire: Shen overhears a prophecy that he will be defeated by "a warrior of black-and-white". He proceeds to [[spoiler:massacre a panda village]]. However, [[spoiler:Po's mother leaves the infant panda in a case of groceries that get delivered to Mr. Ping]]. This results in Po being in the right place and the right time to become the Dragon Warrior, receiving the training he will need to stop Shen. In fact, it's remembering [[spoiler:the massacre and his mother's sacrifice that allows Po to master the skill he needs to overcome Shen's cannons.]]
* GlassCannon: Very agile and quick and has lethal aim with his throwing knives, but he's one of the few characters not MadeOfIron and is clearly at a disadvantage when his blades aren't enough to overwhelm a more defensive foe.

* ItsPersonal: Played with. Shen ''expects'' this of Po. [[spoiler: He ordered the panda genocide, and even has the implied circumstances that he personally had a hand in killing Po's mother]]. However, when Shen actually meets Po, he's surprised and extremely amused that Po ''has no idea'' of what Shen did. [[spoiler: And then at the end, when Po finally ''does'' know what happened, he's not interested in revenge on Shen at all, instead finding inner peace because of knowing it]].

* KnightOfCerebus: Tai Lung craved only the Dragon Scroll and there has been no solid on-screen evidence he ever murdered anyone. The second film ''opens'' with [[spoiler:Shen ordering the genocide of the pandas]], and ten minutes later [[spoiler:he kills Thundering Rhino with a cannon]] before going on to wage a war against China and Kung Fu. Tai Lung was little more than an arrogant, swaggering thug; Shen is a mass-murdering warlord.

* {{Leitmotif}}: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNE35ttc0w Ancient China/Story of Shen]]", which is first played in the opening scene, and accompanies Shen at a few points afterwards, most prominently during the Fireworks Factory battle.
* LightIsNotGood: Both to Chinese and Western imagery. In the west, white is obviously seen as the "good" colour, while red is the "good" colour in China (white is actually symbolic of death there). Add this to the fact that his name can be translated as "divinity", his association with fire and the resemblence to the mythological [[ThePhoenix Feng Huang]], and you got yourself a heavenly monster.

* RazorWings: His throwing knives are in the shape of feathers to help him conceal them, and he also uses his tailfeathers as a weapon and distraction similar to what real life martial-arts styles with metal folding fans do.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Had Shen not killed the panda village, his nemesis would never have had any reason to go after him, let alone become the Dragon Warrior.

* VillainousBSOD: Is at a loss for words when [[spoiler:Po achieves inner peace and uses his kung fu to redirect Shen's cannonfire to destroy his armada]].
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:When Po returns after being hit by cannon fire and assumed dead, Shen, in a fit of fearful desperation, loses it and opens fire on his own men after killing his second-in-command. After Po obliterates his armada by redirecting cannon fire, Shen is left in a VillainousBSOD, not only because that he'd lost everything he'd spent years creating, but because Po had managed to overcome his own troubled past without succumbing to rage, instead finding inner peace. Po tries to explain that the secret to inner peace is the acceptance of the pain of the past. This only succeeds in angering Shen.]]

* WalkingArmory: He always carries a large amount of knives and wears metal claws on his feet. Besides that, he uses a BladeOnAStick and a meteor hammer at different points. He also uses a sword against Master Ox and Master Croc.

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:He lost his eye during the attack on the Panda Village. When he tried to attack baby Po, Po's father smashed his face with a hammer.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Considering the BloodlessCarnage of the rest of the series and its focus on slapstick kung fu fighting, [[spoiler: taking a volley of throwing knives to the throat and falling to the side is pretty brutal]].

* HandicappedBadass: He lost one eye [[spoiler:during the attack on the panda village, after Po's father smashed his face with a hammer]]. Despite this, he can still fight well.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Given his more comedic nature, it's easy to forget that he [[spoiler: was at the forefront of the panda genocide and in fact would've ''killed'' Po if not for his dad stepping in]].

* LightIsGood: During Po's flashback of her, she's litterally glowing a golden light.

* VileVillainSaccharineShow: If you've made it this far, you should know why.

-->'''Soothsayer''': They ''loved'' you. They loved you so much that having to send you away killed them.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: They had to face the fact their son was a monster willing to commit genocide in order to further his own ambitions]].

* BadBoss: Had no problem whatsoever [[WeHaveReserves firing at his own men]] to defeat Po and the Five and kills the Wolf Boss just because [[EvenEvilHasStandards he Did have a problem with that]]. He also once punched a Gorilla soldier in the face.

* BladeOnAStick: His signature close-quarter combat weapon is his halberd.

* BadBoss: Had no problem whatsoever [[WeHaveReserves firing at his own men]] to defeat Po and the Five and kills the Wolf Boss just because [EvenEvilHasStandards he Did have a problem with that]. He also once punched a Gorilla soldier in the face.

* BadBoss: Was not the least bit hesitant to [[WeHaveReserves fire at his own men]] to defeat Po and the Five.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: They are the ones who asked the Soothsayer to predict their son's future. Had this prediction not happened, the events of the trilogy would have been very different.

Dennis Haysbert

* TheVoiceless: Doesn't say a word throughout any of her brief appearances. Po's dream version of her does speak, but it's only JackBlack doing an intentionally-poor feminine voice.

* BadBoss: Was not the least bit hesitant to [[WeHaveReserves fire at his own men]] to defeat Po and the Five.

* IgnoredEpiphany: When the Soothsayer tells him his parents did love him, so much that it killed them to banish him, Shen looks genuinely moved for a few seconds before closing his eyes and brushing the information aside.

--> '''Shen:''' ''(solemnly)'' The dead exist in the past, and I ''must'' tend to the future.

Victor Garber

MichelleYeoh

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: The Soothsayer effectively raised him due to his parents shunning him, and he clearly cares about her to some extent, albeit not enough to stop his plans. He shows hints of this when he encounters Po and the Furious Five for the first time. Despite being at the end of his patience, he never actually loses it unless Po makes a comment about the Soothsayer, the second time driving him to point a knife in Po's face. His treatment of the Soothsayer is more akin to that of a family member than a prisoner. The Soothsayer is also the only character in the movie that he never physically harms – as embittered as he is – despite the snarky, disrespectful attitude (and the prophecies) she gives him.

* UnwittingIntigatorOfDoom: They only wanted to help their son change his ways by asking the Soothsayer to predict his future. The result... [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope was not]] [[MoralEventHorizon what they expected]].

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: See Parental Substitute in the Soothsayer category. He shows hints of this when he encounters Po and the Furious Five for the first time. Despite being at the end of his patience, he never actually loses it unless Po makes a comment about the Soothsayer, the second time driving him to point a knife in Po's face. His treatment of the Soothsayer is more akin to that of a family member than a prisoner. The Soothsayer is also the only character in the movie that he never physically harms – as embittered as he is – despite the snarky, disrespectful attitude (and the prophecies) she gives him.

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:He lost his eye during the attack on the Panda Village. When he tried to attack baby Po, Po's father smashed his face with a rake.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: [[spoiler:The whole "eye ripped out with a rake" thing isn't very kid-friendly either]].

* HandicappedBadass: He lost one eye [[spoiler:during the attack on the panda village, after Po's father smashed his face with a rake]]. Despite this, he can still fight well.

* ItsAllMyFault: She blames herself for telling Shen a panda would stand in her way.

-->'''The Soothsayer''': We shall see, Shen.

* MamaBear: She made sure Po was in a relatively safe place before pulling her HeroicSacrifice.

Danny [=McBride=]