YMMV / Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny

• Complete Monster:
  • First half: Jindiao was the original Dragon Warrior until his hunger for power corrupted him and drove him to kill his four students, the Four Constellations, in his attempt to become a god. His spirit kicked out of his body, Jindiao possessed a vulture and survived by drinking the chi of "lesser beings" for 1,000 years. Jindiao seeks once again to "enslave the world in fire and fury", regularly attempting to Mind Rape, corrupt, or kill Po and his four young students, the new Four Constellations, and eventually attempts to wipe out all of Panda Village and everyone in it out of spite. At one point one of their allies, Bunnidharma, takes a lethal blow meant for Po and dies in his arms—upon which Jindiao laughs in his face. A dreadful boss as well, Jindiao kills, beats and throws his minions to the wolves with aplomb. Even his most treasured student Jade Tusk, whom Jindiao mentored for years, is thrown away almost unthinkingly by him when one of the heroes tries to use her as a hostage.
  • Second half: The Voice in the Shadows, aka Baigujing, aka the White Bone Demon, once roamed the land devouring souls of entire villages and leaving dolls behind to mark her crimes. When sealed away by Sun Wukong, the White Bone Demon eventually contacts Shi Long, corrupting the young girl into being her slave and using her to assassinate the Emperor, Shi Long's own adoptive father. Having Shi Long steal the Wellspring for her, the White Bone Demon's plans lead to a drought plaguing China, and Shi Long destroys entire villages to serve the White Bone Demon. The White Bone Demon's spirit inhabits a Humongous Mecha with Shi Long's help in the finale, betraying Shi Long and eating her alive before viciously trying to kill Po, his students the Four Constellations, and all of their friends before bringing an age of darkness onto China.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the third movie, Po uses the Wu Xi Finger Hold on himself since it doesn't work on Kai directly. After he returns back to the physical realm, Mr. Ping tells him "Don't you go disappearing in petals ever again!". Po ends up "skadooshing" himself again to send Jindiao to the spirit realm.
• Ho Yay: Like in the films, Mr. Ping and Li Shan, given that they're both Po's dads. They're also very close in the series, in the second half they start a business together, and have quite a few heartfelt moments. They also live together in a one bedroom apartment, and sleep in the same bed. Mr. Ping calls Li his "baby daddy" at one point, and Grandma assumed that they were married.
• Improved Second Attempt: Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness was a divisive series, being the first KFP animated spinoff. You had just as many people who loved the series as they hated it and even then, negative opinions of the show aren't hard to find online, with criticism directed towards Po being an Adaptational Jerkass, Shifu and the Furious Five being mishandled, how the show doesn't deserve to be canon, etc. Being the second animated show of the franchise, The Paws of Destiny managed to bring Po back in line with his movie characterization and show newfound maturity in training a new generation. Additionally, it took certain elements of the first series that fans did enjoy, such as the more arc-driven "Enter the Dragon' two-parter centered on an evil dragon Big Bad and the series finale "Emperor's Rule" based on an ancient female mystic coming back to menace the heroes and remade them into more well-received full season story arcs involving Jindiao and the White Bone Demon. While The Paws of Destiny doesn't fix every issue fans had with LoA (considering Shifu and the Five aren't included) it's safe to say this second spinoff series managed to smooth over many issues people had with the first and give fans a second, more presentable KFP show that built upon the strong points of Legends of Awesomeness.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: There's a lot of fanart out there shipping Jindiao with Shen, despite the fact that the two have never interacted, much less shared a screen. And by the time of Paws of Destiny, Shen had been dead for years.^note Not to mention after the fourth KFP movie, Word of God has basically de-canonized all the animated shows While one would think fans like to ship Shen with Jindiao since both are scheming bird antagonists (at least when Jindiao is in his vulture form), it should be noted that there's nowhere near as much fanart out there shipping Shen with Fenghuang from Legends of Awesomeness despite Fenghuang also fitting the bill for being an evil bird villain and at least co-existing with Shen during the same rough time frame since Legends ran concurrently with the first two movies.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Furious Five are once again struck with this hard since they are absent from the show, sans a brief mention. Not even Lei Lei is a part of the Quartet of panda cubs.

---