Lord Shen - Kung Fu Panda's Greatest Villain (Kung Fu Panda 2)

this video is brought to you by squarespace for websites online stores and a whole lot more squarespace brings you everything you need and more to craft your online community while shen isn't my favorite villain of the series that honor goes to the snow leopard i do believe that lord shen is the trilogy's greatest villain for the reason that tai lung's story was more related to shifu's and kai's to ugwe but lord shen has directly impacted poe's life and his past shen and poe are true opposites and the peacock is poe's true antagonist this is illustrated by the film's usage of the yin and yang symbol that separates the two but this isn't the only thing i want to look at how shen makes for a truly great villain and how he and poe are linked throughout the film what is appealing about shen first of all is his design the peacock is a beautiful animal one that embodies both arrogance yet beauty and this was demonstrated in the way the peacock was animated carefully illustrating his pride through his face but also through all of his beautiful feathers the peacock when compared to a snow leopard is not a menacing animal but shen's mind and his brutality makes up for it shen is very different than tai long in many ways where the snow leopard fights alone shen fights with an army tai lung was a martial arts master and excelled in hand-to-hand combat and shen was a very good martial artist himself he also mastered the art of weaponry using concealed knives rope darts metal attachments to his talons and his guan dao like weapon most of all tai lung is ferocity power strength shen uses his cunning to deceive and outsmart his opponents for example he knew that he couldn't defeat master thundering rhino in combat so instead he kills him with a cannon at point-blank range along with the darker tone this film takes the peacock follows suit and that's evident in the way the genocide of the pandas was the very first villainous act shown by lord shen the peacock isn't after a legendary battle or a scroll like tai lung is he's looking to take over china and will do anything he must to fulfill his goal again the opening of the film illustrates the type of person that shen is and what motivates him because shen saw a darker use for the fireworks that lit up gang man city his parents hired a soothsayer to predict his future she would tell them that if he continued down this path he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white with this knowledge in hand chen killed an entire panda village ensuring that his destiny would not come true but instead this got him banished from the city by his parents and ended with him swearing his revenge on his mother and father shen's story is the living embodiment of oogway's line that a person often meets his destiny on the path he takes to avoid it shen was absolutely terrified of the future he was terrified of destiny and when he hears that a panda is on his way to gangman city this shakes him to his core he knows that destiny approaches but what made shen such a good villain and so menacing was as stated his connection with poe shen is the one remnant poe has to the past and throughout the film the panda is lost searching for his true identity searching for his past this isn't poe the dragon warrior this is poe the panda desperately needing to reconnect with his past and shen baits him with it he taunts him when they meet for the second time shen knows the panda has post-traumatic stress from his feathers and the first thing he does when he sees poe is fan out his tail feathers shen preys on poe's desperation and this comes right after he lets the soothsayer the one person left in his ear trying to guide him to the light go this was shen unhinged and he managed to hit po where no other villain could my favorite line of the film is when shen tells the dragon warrior that his parents didn't love him it's such a cruel line viciously delivered by gary oldman the look on poe's face tells it all lord shen shattered the panda shed knows firsthand that the betrayal of one's parents is a pain that is unbearable pain that will one day turn into rage a pain that you spend your whole life trying to heal tai lung certainly agrees right and it worked the feeling of being hated or unwanted leads you to feel unlovable and further that you aren't deserving of love it leaves you with something to prove and that is what shen is feeling throughout the entire film the psychological warfare that shen imparts onto po leaves the panda open for shen to nearly kill him when po is at his lowest point shen is at his peak and this moment links the two of them this scene is a direct opposite to the compassion shown by poe at the end of the film but they are also linked by the theme of identity quen huang's essay that compares chinese and western culture in this film stated that the movie asks these two characters one question that question is who am i which i will touch on in just a bit identity has been a theme that carries throughout kung fu panda and in its sequel it's even more apparent here we have two people that are linked by atrocity poe whose life began with it and shen whose life has seemingly been decided by it but when the film questions both poe and shen who am i it asks the two of them who they are right now the film is always focused on the now on the present recall that the soothsayer another thread that is tied to both characters said the most important time is now poe is able to realize that the past does not define who he is as he says the only thing that matters is who you choose to be right now so poe is able to answer the question of who am i but shen is unable to answer that question because his life has not been lived by shen himself his life has been lived by fear and by the past further by living in the past and holding on to his parents banishment and turning that into vengeance shen deprives himself of the answer to the movie's question of who am i he doesn't have an identity beyond vengeance where shen fails and living in the now po succeeds which brings us to shen's death which to me solidified his place as the series's greatest villain poe after just uncovering the truth that shen is the one who killed his people never displays any rage towards shen vengence doesn't fuel him when it comes time to finish him off poe just talks to him even though shen taunted him about his parents death and robbed him of his biological family poe accepts this and understands that he has a family and a parent a father who loves him he is able to look past this and to see a peacock who feels betrayed and is so sad because of it then as poe defends himself one of shen's own creation falls onto the peacock and instead of trying to avoid death shen just closes his eyes and accepts his fate and i interpreted this in two different ways the first being that destiny played its part as shen was defeated by the warrior of black and white but on the other hand shen who has spent the entire movie trying to avoid his fate actually succeeds the prophecy said that it was a warrior of black and white who would defeat him but he wasn't killed by poe's hand it was by his own a warrior who has red black and white who let his own creation fall onto him and in that he actively was able to avoid his own destiny and to take it into his own hands shen is a victim to what oogway calls the illusion of control he was so afraid of his own destiny that he tried to do everything to control it but dying by his own hand meant that he was finally able to control something shortly before his death shen asks poe how did you find peace she didn't ask for pose sake but for his own the manner in which he says it is kind of heartbreaking because it illustrates lord chen's fatigue he spent his whole life searching for peace and for happiness and instead of looking inwards he looked to the material world to bring him that peace he thought all of china would bring him joy back before he let her go and the soothsayer told him that his parents loved him so much i think deep down he knew she was right he knew they loved him just like tai long for about three seconds he realized it but he needed to prove to himself that he was truly wronged that his anger and his lust for vengeance were justified and this same anger and vengeance led him to a path of no return shen wanted vindication lord shen said that the dead exist in the past but so did that peace that he was searching for his peace existed in his now fallen parents words and their actions and he could never get that back unless he let them go but he just couldn't how could he in shen's mind they stripped him of his serenity forever again chen was searching for love for his parents's adoration when he wanted to build weapons they feared him when he cheated his destiny and wanted them to be proud of him they banished him so in his mind he truly believed that they never loved him that he was hated all along so when poe tells shen to choose who he wants to be right now he chose death lord shen was restless because shen knew he could never be satisfied he knew he could never be healed and he would never find peace or maybe he knew that in death he would finally find peace he wouldn't have to fear or run from destiny anymore a big thank you goes out to squarespace for sponsoring this video squarespace lives up to all the hype if you don't already know squarespace is an online hub for whatever you need to kickstart your online presence from a website to plan your wedding a portfolio for artists or a place to start your own business or store squarespace has it all i personally have been using squarespace over the past month and i've been playing around with all the unique features to finish my website they offer a bunch of award-winning templates that are professional sleek and frankly amazing that's what i love most about it in just a few clicks you can get your site up and going if you are 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Channel: Sage's Rain

Views: 2,449,402

Keywords: film, movies, kung fu panda 2, kung fu panda, dreamworks, po, tai lung, lord shen, shen, villain, tigress, oogway, shifu, peacock, panda, leopard, snow leopard

Id: XHoxN0wVQIk

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Mon May 03 2021