History Fridge / KungFuPanda3

** WordOfGod further implies that Oogway might have gone to the spirit realm voluntarily so Shifu can properly train Po. Since Oogway mentions at the end that he never tried leaving the spirit realm, it could easily be that he is ''still'' not at his age's limit.
* Shifu's arc in the first film was mainly about his inability to train Po, because he couldn't see that Po's strengths were not the same as the strengths of the Furious Five. In this film we find out that one of Po's greatest strength is chi mastery, and Shifu has to humble himself to ask Po to teach him.

** It also lends context to his extremely inconvenient death just as Tai Lung was about to attack the Jade Palace. This movie shows that a master can send themselves to the spirit realm, and that this manifests as them transforming into blossoms. It wasn't an inconvenient death, it was Oogway intentionally leaving the mortal realm in order to facilitate the development of Shifu and Po.

* We don't know how strong Kai was personally. 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 be 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 seem a lot less grim but Po still effectively killed himself on screen at the climax to drag Kai into the spirit realm.

* Po's issues with being a Kung Fu teacher. Wait a minute, isn't he seen as a good teacher during the credits scenes at the end of the [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda first movie]] and ''Secrets of the Furious Five''? Well, that's Kung Fu philosophy and history, not the practical side of Kung Fu. Po has encyclopedic knowledge of its history and philosophy, but has only just learned practical Kung Fu relatively recently. It's going to take a bit for him to learn how to teach it.

** This is also part of why Po doesn't have a heart-to-heart with Kai like he does with the previous two; Shen and Tai Lung both initially see Po as a laughingstock, and are only able to be spoken to genuinely after [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass he's proven himself to be more insightful than they assume.]] Kai never has a moment like this because he ''already'' understands Po's power perfectly well, he's just convinced that he can overpower him.

* Fridge humor, but when Po deflates Kai's attempts at making grandiose boasts and declaring his plans, he tells him to "skip the chit-chat". What's another term for "chit-chat"? ''Yakking''. And Kai is a ''[[IncrediblyLamePun yak]]''.

* 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:

* It possible that Kai was not killed by Po; he was ''resurrected'' (since chi is ''life energy''.) After all, it restored the Jade medallions to their normal selves by having their life energy restored.

* 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]], he knows that his mission to destroy Oogway's legacy would be undermined if he had to use Oogway himself to do it, or he still sees Oogway as a brother in arms.

** There's 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.

** 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. While she may not know who she is to the extent of the Pandas, she is most likely 100% certain about that part and thus gets control over her chi.

* So far, all three films have had their villains represent the past of one of the main characters: Tai Lung - Shifu's past, Shen - Po's past, and Kai - Oogway's past.

* Take a closer look at the 'armor' Li Shan makes to battle the jombies. It's a replica of Master Flying Rhino's armor that he tried on earlier. It seems Po's handicraft talent (woodwork, presumably, when he made the dol- ahem, ''action figures'') and PowerCopying (since Li Shan only wore the thing ''once'') is InTheBlood! He could also have had help from Ping, who's also handy with knives.

* 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, as it revolves around understanding oneself: Po may love fighting and Kung fu, but he's not a violent person. He loves Kung fu because 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.

* 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. And of course his tragic backstory and humble origins were on display in both of the previous movies.

* 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.

** 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 are to an extreme level. Not enough to naturally use chi, but enough that the entire village could pick it up when needed.

** Tying into this, after his jombie form spent most of the time as a mere ButtMonkey, the first thing Master Chicken does after being resserected is ''lift Master Bear above him on one wing'', making apparent that Master Chicken is no weakling, he just couldn't be utilised to his full potential as Kai's drone.

* Having Kai rescue Oogway by bringing him to Panda Village is not just a quick PetTheDog moment to demonstrate their friendship, but also adds a tragic undertone to Kai. Kai from what we see, could have very easily been a pretty awesome guy in his own right, a soldier so dependable that ''Oogway'' owes his life to him, but his obsession with stealing more power not only dumbed down his own potential, but ultimately tarnished his own legacy, getting UnPersoned by Oogway to protect the village and even in present day, being just another vile bad guy for Po to stop. As Oogway laments "the more you take, the less you have".

** 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. While she may not know who she is to the extend of the Pandas, she is most likely a 100% certain about that part and thus gets control over her chi.

** It also lends context to his extremely inconvenient death just as Tai Lung was about to attack the Jade Palace. This movies shows that a master can send themselves to the spirit realm, and that this manifests as them transforming into blossoms. It wasn't an inconvenient death, it was Oogway intentionally leaving the mortal realm in order to facilitate the development of Shifu and Po.

** Po doesn't have a big entrance in the Spirit Realm and seems to lose. But when his friends chi reaches him, ''The Dragon Warrior Po'' appears and HE has a absolutely stunning entrance, full with gigantic halo, little explosion of light and everything. Useless to say, Kai can't even wrap his head around what is going on and is just stumbling helplessly around from then on.
* 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, as it revolves around understanding oneself: Po may love fighting and Kung fu, but he's not a violent person. He loves Kung fu because 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. Its 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.
** 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, caught 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.

** 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.

* 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 roll down hills, 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.

** Tying into all of the above is the recurring theme within the film and it's predecessors that kung-fu is mastered by most of the characters through their personality, and trying to have them utilise an approach that doesn't befit their characteristics is often hopeless. The Jombies at this point had been robbed of their personalities, being mere zombie minions to Kai, who cannot puppet their own unique styles and abilities to their fullest potential.

* The upbeat, happy ending to the film is somewhat hampered by the fact that the Jade Palace is still a destroyed wreck and [[RealityEnsues beating Kai didn't just magically fix it]]. While the student barracks are okay and the masters still have a place to live, the loss of such a prominent location still hits hard.

* We don't know how strong Kai was personally. 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?

* The Chi Kai stole tainted his eyes green throughout the film, and they become most prominent while he's using it's power. In other words, Kai has literal Green Eyes of Envy.

* Take a closer look at the 'armor' Li Shan makes to battle the jombies. It's a replica of Master Flying Rhino's armor that he tried on earlier. It seems Po's handicraft talent (woodwork, presumably, when he made the dol- ahem, ''action figures'') and PowerCopying (since Li Shan only wore the thing ''once'') is InTheBlood! He could also have had help from Ping, demonstrated to be handy with knives himself.
* Seeing the Wuxi finger hold in action up close, revealed a subtle but amusing call back to the first film when Sifu uses the finger hold on Po and says that the "hardest part" is cleaning up afterwards. His delivery of the line and Po's anxiousness implied some form of cleaning up the carnage in the aftermath. However, with this film showing the voluminous amount of flower petals left behind, it does, in fact, create quite a mess that would be "difficult" to clean up afterwards.

* Take a closer look at the 'armor' Li Shan makes to battle the jombies. It's a replica of Master Flying Rhino's armor that he tried on earlier. It seems Po's handicraft talent (woodwork, presumably, when he made the dol- ahem, ''action figures'') is InTheBlood! He could also have had help from Ping, demonstrated to be handy with knives himself.

* Take a closer look at the 'armor' Li Shan makes to battle the jombies. It's a replica of Master Flying Rhino's armor that he tried on earlier.