Who Is The Dragon Warrior? The Journey of Po (Kung Fu Panda)

the quest for identity is the journey that poe embarks on from the moment he dreams of a legend in flowing cape hat and staff with legendary martial art skills the very first scene of the franchise our introduction to the panda po has always known what he wanted to be but getting there is what makes kung fu penned getting there requires poe to answer a question that he asks in all three films and verbally asks in the final two which is who am i to search for this answer pogo's on a quest that works his body mind and spirit as they follow through the trilogy through this poe is not only able to answer that question for himself but he answers that question for a few other characters over the course of the three films with that i want to take a look at poe's evolution throughout these movies and how he comes to terms with his own identity the first kung fu panda is poe's journey towards the body poe dreams of being a martial artist a master along the furious five when he's chosen by oogway to become the dragon warrior he isn't able to grasp exactly why he was chosen poe is a panda and in this world much like our own we see that certain animals are more fit to fight than others tigers and snow leopards for their ferocity and power monkeys for their speed cranes for its ability to fly the viper's flexibility the tortoise and its wisdom of legend even the praying mantis despite its size is an incredible hunter the panda is lazy clumsy it's cute and cuddly shifu tigress and the rest of the five make him understand that he was a fluke he's not the dragon warrior everyone but poe has shaped poe's identity they've all told him who he is and who he is supposed to be even his father tells him that his destiny is making noodles that's where he's meant to be a disgrace to kung fu from tigress just a panda not the dragon warrior from shifu so of course po was unable to accept himself as the dragon warrior of course all he wanted to do was to change himself he specifically says that if anyone can make him not him it was shifu that's what poe desired to change to not be a panda to not be poe anymore paul was never able to accept himself and to be comfortable within himself but it's only when shifu finally has faith in him and believes in him that he begins to feel special he begins to understand that for him to be great he doesn't need to change but instead he needs to believe in himself as he read the dragon scroll and saw nothing but a reflection of himself add on his father's words about the secret ingredient of self-belief and poe begins to believe that he is worthy poe has mastered the body in the second film the story looks into poe's past he takes the kung fu the self-belief that he gained and he carries it over into this new chapter in his story but his worth has been solely tied to being the dragon warrior again he finds worth in that but he still doesn't believe that he has worth beyond that and when lord shen torments the panda with the idea that his parents never loved him it only further highlights that struggle does poe have value beyond being the dragon warrior and if he doesn't is that why his parents abandoned him as shen suggested poe's past hurt him so much that he completely shed it out of his mind when he is finally forced to remember and to confront this past he understands that this past doesn't define the rest of his life at this stage in poe's development at the end of the second film he's finally able to accept himself as the dragon warrior and as poe he's able to find his inner peace be his master the mind finally in kung fu panda 3 kai presents a similar challenge but with a new ability chi while in my opinion kai is the weakest of the three villains because of the lack of time that was spent with him there was more time allocated to poe and his new challenge of becoming a teacher shifu states that the mastery of chi requires a mastery of self at this point the only two to master chi were kai and ugwe two people with opposing personalities and goals but they were similar in the sense that they both were unwavering when it came to knowing and to mastering themselves this is to say that shifu someone who is able to use chi hasn't mastered it showing us someone who hadn't fully mastered themselves maybe because his life can be seen as one plagued with failures it's possible that shifu hasn't truly come to terms with who he actually is even though he's changed quite a bit when we consider the failure that is tai lung the son that shifu himself raised and who turned into a villain and then tigers who he trained to be the next dragon warrior and who wasn't it's possible that shifu views all of these failures as a reflection of himself rather than destiny playing its course poe on the other hand does have confidence in himself but in this movie as well he struggles with his identity once more at one point in this film he even questions whether or not he is a true panda or if he's even the dragon warrior and up to this point he has no confidence in his role as a teacher poe can't master chi in this state another thing that i love about this series is that poe doesn't suddenly become a beacon of self-worth and self-belief after the first movie there are still doubts that creep into the back of his mind even in this final entry even as he's been the dragon warrior for two films it's an incredibly realistic take on self-worth and even imposter syndrome and how that is a daily battle but when poe is forced to teach people to be their best selves something that shifu taught him it's here that he begins to find himself and this aspect energizes the third film as it closes poe's final chapter poe's internal journey through the three films has been a lonely one slowly learning how to believe in himself and honing his body in the first film the greatest barrier to his success was himself and shifu others helped him along his path but self-belief is exactly that it's the self he had to learn that and have faith in it by himself the second film broke po physically emotionally and mentally and while the soothsayer guided him only he alone could confront the memories of his childhood that he had been blocking ever since he was a kid inner peace had to be achieved alone but in the third movie poe doesn't go through a training montage to discover the ancient power of qi from the pandas this movie isn't a lonely journey by any means because from the moment he met his biological father along with paying his other father and the village of pandas there was a message about community about family qi can be given and taken as it is the energy that flows through all living things its power and spirit as poe becomes a great teacher he gives his own qi to all of them he infuses the entire village with his spirit and his energy he helps them master themselves its actions just like this that helps poe master his true self he masters spirit but it's also what he's been doing throughout the entire trilogy we know poe says that he doesn't know if he's the dragon warrior in this movie both in this and the last he questions again who am i once alone and once if he's not the dragon warrior in this one he says i don't know who i am even the soothsayer asks him who are you to answer this question and to connect it all let's go back again the first movie saw shifu with a perpetual frown on his face bitterness anger and disappointment that he carried everywhere again shifu felt like he was a failure master to china's most dangerous villain in tai long and he felt guilty for that because of his failure shifu grew cold he became unable to be vulnerable and to be loving and warm but po was a second chance for him poe forced shifu to evolve as a teacher and to believe in not only his master but in his own ability as a teacher as well with poe he proved to himself that he wasn't a failure that he was worthy of being oogway student poe's success and his unique spirit and energy changed shifu in the second and third film he isn't as uptight as he once was we see shifu smile laugh and joke around he's able to be warm again he found his piece and that's poe's doing that's pose energy tigers followed in the same path as shifu she too was serious cold and bitter as a result of her master and of always being second second to tai long and now second to pope because of poe's warmth she too comes into her own as someone who is still serious but incredibly compassionate and even quite protective of the panda calling back to the second film when she didn't allow poe to go fight shen a second time and she even takes a cannon head on for poe pushing him out the way the panda became one of tiger's best friends the most telling display of how poe helped her open up is the fact that she not only accepted his hug in the second film she gives him one inside the gong men jail a very telling display of her empathy towards poe how much he cares about him poe shows this compassion to his villains as well notably when he gives shen a second chance to give up and to change even after all the torment that he put poe through when we consider how much energy how much chi poe has invested into everyone around him it's easy to see the type of person that poe has always been it's even easier to see why everyone is able to give their chi back to him if he wasn't the dragon warrior he still has worth by being someone whose spirit is incredibly radiant and inviting by being a great friend always the soothsayer says that all that matters is who you choose to be right now and ugly once told poe that he is too concerned with what was and what will be identity is dynamic and fluid it will change this trilogy has a focus on the present it tells us that at every moment in the now you have to consistently choose who you want to be and po always chooses to be a good person and before everything he will always be ping's son ping reminds him of that and showers him with love in each of the three movies through ping we see that though he might not physically resemble his father he is very much ping's son in the way that he loves and cares for everyone the goose has raised pose so well we are not one singular thing in this world your identity changes based on your surroundings based on your relationship to others you need to have a strong sense of self of who you are so that you can be unaffected by the ways that others might define you as as we think of how paul began to believe that he could never be the dragon warrior because everyone told him that he wasn't meant to be it so when poe and ugwe and everyone else asks who am i the only person that could answer that is you alone because only you know for po that answer was symbolized by two things the dream and the dragon as we highlight kung fu panda's fantastic visual storytelling as i stated earlier the very first scene of kung fu panda shows poe dreaming the narrator specifically says that the warrior has kung fu skills that were the stuff of legend as we look at the script it says that the warrior who is obviously po his identity was hidden beneath his flowing robe and wide-brimmed hat and gnaws on a staff of bamboo the first film granted him the kung fu skills of legend in the second post says that he needs a hat and in the third he gains the robe and ugwe hands him the staff this is who po was meant to be along with the yin and yang symbol that illustrates his mastery of self the balance that he has discovered and finally the dragon that appears behind his grasp of the title of dragon warrior from qigong zhao's a study of dragons and a few others in chinese culture the dragon represents many things often good they are often seen as symbols of good fortune peace and kindness in some stories they protect the oceans and the creatures that inhabit it they represent nobility and harmony and lastly traditional confucians consider the dragon as the foremost of the four imperial symbols unrivaled in its power to control the waters it later became associated with the emperor symbolizing the beneficent of men a protector who brings good and who is generous to all the dragon symbolizes everything that poe has become and everything that he's always been it's a perfect title and it's a fitting end for a wonderful journey tied with a bow shifu asks poe if he knows what the dragon warrior truly is in this third film when he believes that kung fu is all he needs to be the dragon warrior tai lung was someone who also thought the dragon warrior was only in the embodiment of the dragon's power the snow leopard craved its power but could never bear the true weight of its title the dragon warrior needs to have inner peace and know themselves the dragon warrior needs to be humble needs to be a protector a teacher the dragon warrior needs to embody the dragon and all of its traits he needs to be a worthy successor to the creator of kung fu master ugwe that is who po is the 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Channel: Sage's Rain

Views: 322,820

Keywords: film, kung fu panda, tai lung, shen, po, kai, oogway, tigress, shifu, kung fu, ping, kung fu fighting

Id: Sbmg6nXitgs

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021