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b-lizi · 4 months

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After reading @99corentine 49th chapter, I thought about a lot of references about Chry's past. There will be spoilers about KFP2, Blue Eye Samurai and the fic GOL HAH DOV, but mind you : if a piece of media isn't enjoyable because you got spoiled, then maybe it isn't well made (unless it's an Agatha Christie but the whole point of her novels was the mystery) so bear with me.

In chapter 49, Chry wants to know about his past after a strange and stressful encounter with Elenwen. He tries to return to the place where he first awoke, one year before the events of this chapter, but without any success. He upset for several things, for his loss of memory of course but also the fact that he might have a family and even a spouse (with his ring at the marriage finger) that didn't go after him.

Firstly, there's the feeling of emptiness and shame about his worthlessness, how he compares himself to Miraak, someone who was important even as a pawn of Hermaeus Mora, when he was just good enough to be left behind by his supposed relatives and be used as a thrall by a cruel man in a foreign country. Chry feels like that all the glory he had in one year, even after killing Alduin, was nothing, like a fraud, that he's just worthless (these thoughts happens just when he has the post prophecy blues, like Teldryn said, so yeah Chry might feel depressed). That his past is was he is at core. Which isn't true but he believes it and that's something a lot of us can relate to (golden child syndrome, school failure, broken dreams, childhood trauma, etc.).

Fortunately, Miraak reminds him that Chry was the one who believed he could be a better version of himself, going to tyrant to leader (even though he still is at the head of a cult lmao), that his actions helped and saved so many people and that he's a great hypocrite for telling others they can be better when he tell himself the contrary.

It reminds us ofc of Paarthunax's iconic wise words "What is better ? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature though great efforts?" But I feel it echoes better to Miraak's case because he was in fact evil and became a bit more grayer thought the story, whereas Chry has forgotten his past and was just lost and miserable. In this case I was reminded of this sentence in Kung Fu Panda 2 : when Po discovers the calcined remains of his childhood village (that he forgot about because of PTSD), he's feeling sad and ashamed that his birth was in bloodshed and suffering, but the soothsayer who saved him says to him "Your story may have not such a happy beginning, but it doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story. Who you choose to be." And that's pretty much Chry's case : he awoke in a place of suffering and when he left, he wanted to have a life of his own and to be greater than what he was before, to be in control. Man the parallels between him and Miraak are even greater ksjsjsks

Then let's return to the family problem. Even better (or worse idk), the spouse problem. If Chry had any family left in the Summerset Isles, they didn't care to go after him when he was gone missing.

There are several theories about why Chry wasn't found, if he ever had relatives : the first thing is that he's of mixed heritage because he has a greater physical strength than all the other altmer altogether and most importantly striking blue eyes ; altmer people don't have blue eyes* and it's a great deal for almost every Alinor citizens to be of pure lineage, so imagine having in your family a very unusual child with characteristics a little bit too close to Nords'. You just want to get rid of it to avoid shame on your family.

(*nota bene : in Skyrim game, altmer people only can have amber, golden or emerald eyes, whereas in ESO you can have them have blue eyes, but we're following Skyrim's logic here)

So if we follow this theory, Chry's supposed family wanted to get rid of this problematic scion, either by banishment... or marriage. A marriage that didn't go well at some point. And that's when I got reminded of Blue Eye Samurai (incredible series on Netflix, go watch it). Some context : in the Edo period (17th century in Japan), we follow the revenge journey of Mizu, a lonely samurai with mixed heritage (a Japanese mother and an unknown white father) with striking blue eyes. These eyes disgraced them because it was considered demonic at this time in Japan (like in ancient Greece, blue eyes were either vulgar or bad omens).

At some point in their story, Mizu finds their mother who they thought died years ago in a fire. She wants them to marry an old samurai who, like them, is a castaway, so they can in some way redeem themselves for their shameful life and at least be a good bride. They get married and although Mizu is a bit reluctant at first (because of how are viewed their eyes), them and the samurai fall in love with each other and have lovely years together as an odd couple. But it falls apart when Mizu wants to show their incredible battle skills to their husband, who gets scared and angry, calling them a monster, because deep down he still had this bias that blue eyes are demonic and bringer of destruction (an onryo). That he only loved Mizu because they were behaving despite their mixed heritage.

He betrays them, bringing mercenaries to kill them and Mizu, deeply hurt and enraged, kills everyone and run away to pursue their revenge of getting rid of the four white men who lives secretly in Japan. But I digress

Maybe something similar happened to Chry, that when he discovered his thu'um, he got shamed by his family/spouse and he went (or ran away) to Skyrim to search for answers or got abandoned here. Maybe we'll know and maybe we won't because there's still almost two chapters left for the fic to be finished and I am not well.

Anyway I had fun doing these parallels! Theories and psychanalyses my beloved.

Mizu my beloved

#gol hah dov #Skyrim #chrysanthe #Miraak #theories #skyrim the elder scrolls #I love this fic to a level ...

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shifus-real-soulmate · 1 year

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READ THE PINNED POST BEFORE PROCEEDING hello everyone!! call me squishie/squishy or abbey. refer to me as squish for short if u’d like!! this is my selfship sideblog. the basement where i kiss kfp men and other anthro men!! kfp is my special interest/fav movie franchise of all time!!! i also like monkey king 2023, bfdi, sing, and bad guys!!! i love other animated movies too, especially from dreamworks!!! i am a filipino-american adult selfshipper! im a masc nonbinary genderfluid who uses any pronoun but i preferably and primarily use they/he! my sexualities are achillean/gay and demisexual!! most of them f/os are from animated kids media especially movies and object shows!! i might update some stuff of this post!! MY F/O LIST

(statuses and sharing policies) pink+bold - ultimate main bold - other main italic - hyperfixating on them || - on pause no marking - ok sharing 🎴 - iffy sharing (only w/ moots) 🀄️ - uncomfortable sharing ❓- unsure abt sharing ULTIMATE F/O/THE LOVE OF MY LIFE (ROMANTIC) - master shifu (kfp)🀄️🀄️🀄️

(anniversary date: 3/26/2023) status: married headcanons: achillean/gay/demisexual, he/him pronouns (any is fine tho), male gnc tranvesti the first kfp character i loved when i first started getting into the franchise back in 2021!! i am EXTREMELY ABSOLUTELY uncomfortable sharing him romantically or queerplatonically. plz dni if we share him in either of those two ways!! including u shifuxmeiling shippers. i don't care if ur fine sharing him like that or not, i still get jealous easily!!! HARDBLOCK ME INSTANTLY RN!!! :( i am mentally unstable with that if he is ur platonic or familial, then i am a ok with that :) ULTIMATE F/O (ROMANTIC) - dragon king (the monkey king 2023)🀄️🀄️🀄️

(anniversary date: 8/31/2023, i’ll have to change a bit in my used template omg 😱) status: married headcanons: achillean/bear gay, he/they, male genderfluid i'm absolutely uncomfortable sharing him romantically/queerplatonically too. please dni if u also selfship with him in either of those two ways, ship him with someone else, or if u scrap his male gender from ur hc. :( if he is ur platonic/familial f/o, then it is fine! :) MY OTHER F/OS ROMANTIC - master junjie (kfp legends of awesomeness)🀄️, fries (bfdi/tpot)🀄️, professor marmalade (tbg)🀄️, buster moon (sing)🎴🎴🎴; i am very iffy sharing him, lord shen (kfp2)🎴, nikolai (bsd)🎴, master croc (kfp2)🎴, temutai (kfp legends of awesomeness)🎴, han (kfp4)🎴, lou (uglydolls)🎴, captain fish (kfp4)🎴, shuro (delicious in dungeon)🎴, gen (samurai rabbit: the usagi chronicles), kweng (kfp legends of awesomeness), lidong (kfp legends of awesomeness), tong fo (kfp legends of awesomeness), death (puss in boots: the last wish) QUEERPLATONIC - bot (ii invitational), dylan (the magic roundabout), pop (trivia crack) PLATONIC - po (kfp), tigress (kfp), tai lung (kfp), master oogway (kfp), mr ping (kfp), commander vachir (kfp), zeng (kfp), wo hop (kfp holiday), soothsayer (kfp2), everyone from the panda village (kfp3), kai (kfp3), zhen (kfp4), the chameleon (kfp4), firey (bfdi/bfb), ruby (bfdi/bfb), perrito (puss in boots: the last wish), yuichi usagi (samurai rabbit: the usagi chronicles), chizu (samurai rabbit: the usagi chronicles), kitsune (samurai rabbit: the usagi chronicles), miss crawly (sing), eddie noodleman (sing) FAMILIAL - rabbit trio (kfp4); children, rocky (bfdi/tpot); son, chang’e (over the moon); adoptive mother, gobi (over the moon); adoptive brother, marcel (marcel the shell with shoes on); nephew CRUSHES/POTENTIAL - rocky (trivia quest), bergamo (db), dazai (bsd), crunchy chip cookie (cr kingdom), espresso cookie (cr kingdom), dark cacao cookie (cr kingdom), master storming ox (kfp2), master thundering rhino (kfp2), li shan (kfp3), kyle (kfp the dragon knight), colin (kfp the dragon knight), klaus (kfp the dragon knight), mr grizz (splatoon 3), big man (splatoon 3), hector (trivia crack) ALL MY FINISHED AND PUBLIC S/IS!! my kfp sona my monkey king (2023) sona my sing sona

FINISHED S/IS BUT THEY ARE NOT PUBLISHED YET my bfdi sona my bsd sona F/O TAGS (a lot of them are named after songs) master shifu (romantic) - ⚖ || the key to balance dragon king (romantic) - nobody do body like u do (っ˘з(˘⌣˘ ) ♡ master junjie (romantic) - i can’t take my eyes off of u (っ'-')╮=͟͟͞͞♡⊂(╹∀╹⊂) fries (romantic) - i like u i do ｡ﾟ.(♡´◡人´◡ ♡)ﾟ °・ professor marmalade (romantic) - my sugar (◕‿◕)♡ death (romantic) - i would die for u ╰(´︶`)╯♡

TAGS COMING SOON FOR… nikolai buster moon FILTER OUT THESE IF UR TRIGGERED OR MINOR #squishie suggestive #tw suggestive

FILTER OUT THESE IF U JUST DON'T WANT EM #squishie suggestive #tw suggestive #non f/o related #squishie's extras

OTHER TAGS I USE #squishie’s questions answered #squishie's art #squishie’s wonderful ship fanart! MY CHRISTIAN MINECRAFT SERVER BANLIST (DNI) 🚫 proshipper/comshipper/anti-anti (this includes neutrals + supporters. u guys make me uncomfortable. go touch grass rn. especially those who steal my f/os!! *shudder*) 🚫 romantic/queerplatonic selfshipper of any of the f/os that i am uncomfortable sharing, especially if it’s shifu (current moots are safe. just don’t gush about it with me. next, please give me ur tag so that i can filter it or use the tag #squishie don't look) 🚫 if u ship shifu with m.i l.ng or any of his students 🚫 if u think shifu will die in the franchise or can’t get over shifu’s past actions 🚫 if u change characters in a political/hateful/problematic sense 🚫 if u mix any of my interests with media i am uncomfortable with 🚫 racist/sexist/ableist/ageist 🚫 pedo/map/nomap or a supporter of these 🚫 abuser or abuse supporter of any kind 🚫 groomer 🚫 p*rnbot 🚫 any kind of phobe (including lgbtq+ phobes) 🚫 self ship with real ppl/ship real ppl 🚫 age up minors to self ship with them/age down yourself to self ship with minors (i just find it cringe now) 🚫 autism speaks or peta supporter or if you support any other extremely controversial organization 🚫 nazi/nazi supporter 🚫 hateful/disrespectful/toxic/probelmatic in general 🚫 cringe culture 🚫 do discourse or drama on my blog 🚫 toxic anti-furries 🚫 sasaeng/toxic kpop stan 🚫 vivziepop/dan schneider supporter 🚫 selfship/post/like any of the following media i am bloody uncomfortable with: cr*minal m*nds, h*nger g*mes, h*man c*ntipede (again, current moots + if i followed, u are safe. just keep it away from me and use the tag #squishie don't look)

- if you violate any of my dni, then u will be INSTANT BLOCKED (reported if it's a serious issue), i am going through tough times right now and i don't want any of u violators to come at me - ex proshippers are allowed to interact dw cuz i also used to be a proshipper...i looked back at the horrible things i did and i will never be that gross person i once was ever again... - even if we do not interact or if u are outside of my dni, i will still decide if i want to block u or not becuz it will mostly depend on my comfort due to trauma lately. i block anyone liberally!! - nonmutuals who like other c*paganda shows, l*tr, the tw*light saga, or *cean h**ven are on THIN ICE (please use the same don’t look tag if i followed) BYF - i am primarily into media aimed towards kids!! if that makes u uncomfortable or feel like cringing, then feel free to block me!! - i am a kpop fan but im not like any of those toxic ones out there and i just like the music in general - i type in lowercase a lot for style mostly - criticism is obviously allowed!! please warn me if i am did something wrong or if i reblogged/liked from someone that could fit in my private blacklist!! have a wonderful day coming to my space of love/yaoi!!! and have fun!!!

(last updated: 4/28/2024)

#me #dni #f/o #f/o community #sideblog #pinned

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fanofcutebutnicestuff · 1 year

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Hi, dearie, how’s everything? 😊

I wanted to ask for a story request, but I know you receiving so many requests can be very stressful, sometimes, but it’s just one. Can you do a Kung Fu Panda story that takes place after my KFP2 ending story “A Change of Heart?” It will be titled A Peafowl’s Nightmare. I did the beginning of the story from my art here in the description: https://www.deviantart.com/magicalhyena-fanart/art/Ming-s-Nightmare-956042655

The story starts after the ending of my story A Change of Heart (where Shen, Ming, Wolf Boss named Lang, and Soothsayer named Ah-ma had moved out from Po and the Furious Five to find a new place to stay), you know, and Ming starts to have a nightmare after she, Shen, Lang, and Ah-ma slept for the night. And at the end of the nightmare, Ming starts feeling heartbroken, but Shen (who slept next to her in their own room; as Lang and Ah-ma were in the other room for the night) realizes and the peacock comforts her that Jia was defeated and everything, including Po and the Furious Five are okay. Ming then feels better, thanks Shen, hugs him, and they kiss in love, and they go back to sleep after.

That’s how the story request goes. I hope you like this idea and I’m sorry if the requests stress you out when you do them! ^u^

I hope you have a good April Fools day btw! ❤️

Sure!! I’ll be happy to write this!!

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rainbowgato · 3 years

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Shen: So apparently the 'bad vibes' I’ve been feeling are actually severe psychological distress

Soothsayer: you don’t say

#lord shen #kung fu panda 2 #kfp2 #source: incorrecttemplates #funny quotes #Kung fu panda soothsayer

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curioushel · 3 years

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"Your story may not have a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be."

- The Soothsayer, Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

#soothsayer #kung fu panda 2 #kfp2 #quotes #inspirational quotes #past #short excerpt #aesthetic #healing #healing quotes #present #quoting cartoon characters 'cause why not #pictures are not mine

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tristala · 3 years

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“Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be.”

- Soothsayer to Po, Kung Fu Panda 2

#Kung Fu Panda #Kung Fu Panda 2 #KFP #KFP 2 #KFP2 #Soothsayer #Po #This quote has always haunted me (in a good way)#IT'S SO INSPIRING AND HEARTFELT #And now it's 10 years old.#Beautiful

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kfp4predictions · 4 years

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doodled the soothsayer

#kfp #kfp2 #kung fu panda #soothsayer #my stuff

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meatballsu · 7 months

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#my art #kfp2 #kung fu panda #soothsayer #lord shen #wolf boss

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infini-tree · 1 month

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11 and 49 for Soothsayer?

honest favorite character asks

11. How did you “fall in love” with this character?

not even joking, it was because i rewatched kfp2 on tv.

like i knew kfp2 was good back then and i watched it in theatres, but tv rewatches have something in them that makes my brain go ""hm yes. you will now put all your attention and efforts on this media property and specific character for the forseeable future".

(its literally what happened for the cu movie for me too, lol. soothsayer, krupp, and captain share that distinction, but soothsayer shares the distinction of being the first.)

49. What’s your favorite personality trait in this character?

i think the interplay of her bluntness/honesty. her interactions with shen, before po shows up, there's a performative aspect to her sarcastic jabs and her assurance that a panda will defeat shen. because even she was expecting this to go down a certain way.

but all that bravado is dropped once she realizes that po has no idea what's going on and her dialogue shifts to something more genuine moving forward. though she still has one more small jab at po-- if she wanted him dead she would have left him in the river,

#ask #hey-hey-j #ch: more of a 'what could be' than a 'what will be'

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badpanduhmemes · 2 months

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#kungfupandamemes #kfp2 #kfp3 #kfp4 #kung fu panda memes #Shen #Soothsayer #Kai #Zhen #this was a weird cast of characters #Disney Quote #Lion King Quote #Sweet Dreams misquote #ruining a perfectly good song #Bill Gates Quote

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tev-the-random · 5 years

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Why I Love... Lord Shen

Warning: it might sound a bit comedic, but that’s how I generally sound when I’m excitedly exposing my discoveries.

Warning 2: I took about 99.9% of the images directly from the film, most of them are for illustrating whatever I’m affirming, I DO NOT OWN THEM AT ALL!

Warning 3: this is long. Reeeally long.

Kung Fu Panda 2 has a special place in my heart: one of my favorite movies, possibly my favorite animated movie ever! Everything in this movie is downright amazing: the animation, the score, the relationship between the characters, the development they had from the previous movie, all the fight scenes, the way they treat certain subjects of family and identity, the new characters... And, of course, the villain.

Let me tell you, Lord Shen is quite the antagonist. The peacock was quick to steal my heart and become one of my favorite characters. That struck me as odd: what makes him so fascinating? I was determined to find out, so I started analyzing! And oh boy: this is one complex character. Much more than I initially thought!

I re-watched Kung Fu Panda 2 three times in a roll: first casually, second with production commentary, and third with my own analytical look. I might have a problem.

Here you have my notes from that adventure:

First of, he’s Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman is an impeccable actor and the voice he gave Shen was simply perfect, so yeah.

“He isn’t obviously physically strong, but he’s very cunning, very smart...”. Let’s give it to him: he’s got to be really intelligent. He created his own massively destructive weapon from scratch, he orchestrated this whole plan by himself, he’s (almost) always one step ahead of everybody... And he couldn’t possibly have all those wolves and gorillas working for him for years if he at least didn’t know how to convince people.

He’s a leader. He’s a boss. He’s an emperor. He knows what needs to be done and he expects it to be done.

But hey, even like that, he still believes in hard work and doing things on his own - say what you want, but making strategies actually takes a lot of work. We can also say that he acknowledges there are certain things in life only he can do for himself.

He has this “peacock thing” where he’s “sort of proud, entitled (...) in spades!”, like a person who would say ‘Don’t you know who I am?!’ upon meeting someone. He has this sense of importance. He thinks his goals and himself are so important, Heck, he literally likes to tower over the city!

(couldn’t find many GIFs, but oh well. The camera backs away from him to show the full perspective of this freaking peacock on the top of the tower, towering over the city)

“He doesn’t have to hide”: He’s a big, theatrical, dramatic show-off. He just comes back to Gongmen from his exile and takes “his own tower” thinking ‘Ok, I’ll make my entrance right through the front door at a moment when all the masters can see me and know for sure that sh*t’s going down, but I’ll be completely calm and collected as I do so.’ Even when he’s supposedly won, as he’s crossing the city with his boats full of weapons, he clearly enjoys making quite the scene.

(Look who’s talking!)

So much of a show off, his cannons are actually designed as this fire-breathing demon, so people would know to fear him and the kind of power he had. It’s intimidating in a ‘LOOK AT MY CANNONS!’ kind of way.

He’s a perfectionist. No other words needed.

He’s also tremendously arrogant. Because he created this “unstoppable weapon” and has all weaponry at his command, he thinks he’s outdone everyone else. He thinks that his plans are fail-proof; he underestimates everyone.

Despite that, he’s not completely stupid to assume he can do everything on his own. He knows he needs help to succeed sometimes, even though he will take all the credit; that’s why he has his little army.

His arrogance also shows when he tries to get the Soothsayer to tell him his fortune, and yet, he still insists that she’s wrong - even when she’s clearly oh so right! Although, this also shows his fear of the prophecy and how he won’t admit his own mistakes (more on that later).

Speaking of the Soothsayer, he does seem to be rather fond of her. Even if he tries to insult her and breaks her fortune-telling-magic-smoke-bow every now and then, he did keep her around mostly for company and for being petty proving her wrong. He didn’t harm her or lock her up like he did with the masters; he put up with her mannerisms even if they were annoying; he reflects at least a little on her words, which he doesn’t with anyone else; and he even “sets her free” when he’s about to begin his crazy conquering scheme, giving her time to settle somewhere safe. I mean, as far as things go with this peacock, this is really sweet.

Still about the Soothsayer, she said something quite interesting at one point: she said Shen wanted more than just ruling Gongmen City... What did she mean? What more? Did he want to conquer more territory? To innovate the city? Was he doing this (whatever she meant he was doing, specifically) for his own ambitions or only to impress his parents? Maybe both? I honestly can’t answer these specific questions...

Another little important something the Soothsayer said: she could never have foretold that Shen would do something like that, to massacre an entire people... Seeing how this was a very unpredictable move on his part, I find it safe to say he wasn’t like that when he was young; he wasn’t this completely violent, ruthless peafowl we see now...

We can say that Shen is a rather curious peacock: he tried to find something different about the fireworks; him finding about how dangerous they could be might as well have been some sort of breakthrough for him, some new, fascinating theory to be explored... Besides, he did want to have the Soothsayer tell him his new fortune, now that he “proved the old one wrong”.

The guy thought he had everything right. Finding out there was still a panda alive was like... getting punched in the face... really hard.

He’s terrified of his own destiny, really.

Shen’s expectations about Po before meeting him are terrifying, specially as he thinks - with reason - that this panda is here only for his neck.

Needless to say, he was kind of disappointed with the result of the meeting. And relieved. But really disappointed, he was ready for a fight!

For most of the time, he’s a no-nonsense kind of guy, but he has his fun.

(Gotta love how he just cracks laughing and swiftly gets back his composure. Gary Oldman, ladies and gentlemen)

Much like any other villain in this franchise, he is quick to underestimate Po due to his silliness. This does give our panda some advantage.

Some adjectives the production crew gave to him: “very twisted, demented guy”, “intense”, “intimidating”, “really cruel” and “so mean!”. He doesn’t hesitate to hurt people physically or emotionally. So, even if he regrets his actions a little bit - again, more on that later -, that doesn’t keep him from being amused around others’ pain. He’ll use whatever means he can to achieve his goals.

I’ll say it: the years of exile made him quite the sadistic b*tch. In a way, he just wants to see it all burn, like ‘blood, heck yeah!’.Yeah, he’s a goddarn maniac for the most part.

What makes him more remarkable as an antagonist than Tai Lung or Kai - don’t get me wrong, I love them both! But I’m setting a perspective, just bare with me here - is that he makes this personal in a much deeper way. Neither Tai Lung nor Kai had anything against the protagonist personally; they had something against the Dragon Warrior, which so happened to be Po. But Shen? Oh no, he didn’t give a crap about this Dragon Warrior thing, he wanted Po.

Not only that, but Po wanted him. Our sweet big panda had no personal correlation with the other two antagonists: he was out to stop them mainly because it was right - and to protect his friends, of course. But when it came to Shen, he had something Po desperately needed to know, he directly and indirectly affected Po’s life. Shen makes this a personal mission for the protagonist and for himself.

Once he’s finally managed to emotionally throw Po off - which makes it all so much more amusing for him - he gets “more out of control” and he’s “growing in his instability and sense of power”, which makes him mad and excited at the same time. He starts to sound like me when I find a really good plot idea for a story, but then a PANDA COMES AND RUINS EVERYTHING, so he notices he has no more time to fancily fool around and they need to ‘GET TO WORK NOW!’

At this point in life, he clearly mocks his parents’ memory. ‘F*ck the tapestry, f*ck the throne, f*ck the tower, f*ck their eternal peace after death.’

He is a walking contradiction: he’s nostalgic, yet he mocks the past; He wants to tend to the future, yet he’s stuck in the past...

(You know how he says scars don’t heal? I believe he looks at his “scars” a lot...)

He desperately wants to prove himself. To himself. And to his parents. And to his opponents. And to the Soothsayer. Ok, he wants to prove himself so bad, he actually needs all of China to know what he can do.

This all means a lot to him. Even if he plays some of it as a dark joke, it really means to him almost as much as it means to Po - albeit with different meanings.

He did his whole genocidal thing at the beginning solely to stop the prophecy from happening. This, however, had many intertwined objectives to fulfill:

It would guarantee he could keep doing his firework research - what other fascinating things could he discover? Apart from “fireworks can kill”, that is.

It would quite literally save his life - for all he knew, “defeated by a warrior of black and white” could mean anything from getting his gunpowder taken away from him to actually getting murdered. I’d say he took it as the latter.

It would, at least in his mind, make his parents proud - I can see him getting back from the panda village with something similar to ‘Mother! Father! I cheated destiny! I cheated death! I led my men to success, I shall be a great leader, one that can’t be stopped!’. Yes, he was proud of what he did back then.

This does not change the fact that it was ruthless and brutal and horrible, but is his perspective, he was on a mission. In his mind, he wasn’t wrong. His parents didn’t want to listen to him, they were being unfair! He truly believes he’s been wronged, and now the world owns him something.

This led him to believe - probably along with other past conflicts - that his parents absolutely hated him, their only child, and that he was banished as to be gotten rid of. It hurt.

He won’t admit it, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore. I mean, he wants to prove a point, but he has no idea where to go next. He lost himself in his pursue for power and vengeance, when actually...

... He’s hurt. He’s felt betrayed for a long time and he bases himself on that to justify further mistakes on his part. Thanks to the Soothsayer, we get to see that he knows he’s made mistakes, he knows the path he’s following is not the only - and probably not the right - way for him to go, he knows he can change his course right here, right now. But he won’t do so...

The moment he learned that his parents actually loved him and that he actually misunderstood their actions, it throws him off balance. This is him realizing - and still not admitting - he’s hurt, he hurt people who cared about him and that it was his own actions that brought him to that. Right at this moment, with the Soothsayer extending her hand, he’s faced with a choice.

He had a choice. He chose this path. He’s so far gone into his own hurt, revenge and fear, he won’t ever admit he’s the one who’s been wrong this entire time. He takes a path he knows is wrong because he can’t admit his own fault, he has to blame someone else.

He doesn’t want to be redeemed, he wants to be justified.

After he’s consciously made that choice, he sort of comes to terms with it. That’s his goal and he’s going to see it to the end, he’s not going to stop.

He learns from his enemies, so most of the time he knows what to expect from them. When he learns from Po, he gets confident and doesn’t even try to put that much of a fight; he knows Po is basically fighting himself - although, Shen will try to give him a hand at it whenever possible.

(With the wings behind his back, what a beast...)

Hey, he knows what he did, and he won’t hesitate to use it against Po, as, once again, he learned from their previous encounter.

(’Oh, does my tail disturb you? Cool, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind every time we meet.’)

He projects. When he claims to Po that “Your parents didn’t love you”, he’s actually talking about himself and his own pain in regards of his own parents. He wants to hurt Po by saying that, yes, but that’s one of the first times he’s actually been able to “put voice to what he’s been feeling” until now.

Once he thinks he’s finally won, he gets waaaay too excited. And waaaaaaay too confident. He rubs his victory in everybody’s faces! Now, he sure is peacocky, eeeeey!

That seems to be a constant characteristic of him: he gets too confident when he’s winning and absolutely desperate when he’s losing.

Either all people are with him or against him, and whoever is against him shall perish, even if they were previously on the same team - the only exception to this, maybe, being the Soothsayer.

(He freaking killed his own second in command just because the guy refused to fire at their own men!)

He takes what he can - again, he’ll do whatever it takes to reach his goals: ‘Can’t fire? Send the armies! My armies are losing? I’ll fire on my own! They’re destroying our cannons? Well, do what, KEEP FIRING! Everything went down in literal flames? I’ll fight until the end!’

If he sets his mind to something - be it revenge, killing Po or conquering all China - he won’t give up until he’s either victorious or dead (he went for the latter).

“See, that’s the thing, Shen. Scars heal.”

“No they don’t. Wounds heal.”

I believe what Shen really means here is that some problems are too harmful for people to let go of them. He thought his problems were a scar that could never be healed, so he had cope with the pain by himself with revenge, but he could never find peace. He thought the problems he caused Po were a scar that couldn’t be healed, too; he thought that Po, too, would seek revenge to deal with his pain, that Po, too, would never find peace. But he did. And Shen found himself amazed... and afraid; more afraid than he was of Po’s vengeance.

A little something before I say my final notes: let’s quickly analyse Shen’s fighting style, because the animators deserve attention for their wonderful job - also, it connects to the next note, so...

He uses his opponents moves against them;

He uses height as an advantage;

PROJECTILES!

Use them weird bird knees for some curious yet efficient movements;

He uses his sword - which is actually a weird looking yanyuedao/guan dao - a lot;

He uses his claws a lot, too;

Block-attack movements;

He uses his tail as both distraction and a defense in quite the clever way;

It’s like a dance: agile, swift, smooth, precise with a lot of twists.

He fights more for self-defense than anything. He has cannons and an army, why bother taking offence on his own?

The exception to this is during his last battle with Po, where he attacks on close combat: here, Shen lost his mind completely. He starts attacking recklessly, he loses precision, he uses every last bit of strength he has in him. He’s just... He’s really mad.

(I’d have to put the whole fight here to illustrate exactly that, but unfortunately, there’s not such GIF... Oh well, I’ll trust you know what I mean)

One final note to this analysis, about Shen’s last moments:

I’ve seen lots of people discussing what his final scene meant, when he closes his eyes and quietly accepts his death - he even turns to face the falling cannon in the last second - and most of them seem to think that that’s Shen finally finding his inner peace. But I don’t think that’s quite it. Taking everything I described here, it doesn’t seem to align too well...

What I think happened - and of course, I could be totally wrong - is that this is when Shen finally takes the blame for himself. Here, to his face, is the final undeniable proof that his actions can have negative consequences for him. He’s been facing those consequences for years, but only now can’t blame someone else. He cut all the strings that held the cannon. It wasn’t Po, it wasn’t the Five, it wasn’t his men, it wasn’t his parents, it was him.

It’s all over: his men are dead, all his cannons just exploded, he can’t win anymore, even if he kills Po. He caused his own defeat already, why keep fighting? So now, as the last thing he does in his life, he’s facing consequences forward in the most honorable way he can in those few seconds; either that be a way of saying sorry and finally admitting he was wrong or a way to set his own destiny, not defeated by a panda, but by himself. It’s a bit of both, I think.

So, why do I love Lord Shen? Between his mannerisms and evilness, he’s a very complex, deep character with an underestimated mind and, like any person, his own issues to be afraid of. Yes, he screwed up really bad, but I think he just made the wrong choices...

(Besides, he’s Gary Oldman, come on!)

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