#and he also doesn't care that much about enlightenment and spirituality if it isn't something he can leverage against others

[ll-underestimated-ll]

// Every now and then I remember that I need to settle on what bloody path Leo's on, start reading things, then get distracted and forget for the next 5 months. This has gone on since blog creation in 2020 stg.

Anyway -

[lipstickchainsaw]

There is so much to talk about when Viktor finally starts talking to our main family, because this is literally the first time he has interacted with any of these people, which I don't think is true for any other main character in the show. Before I do that, though, I just want to note how adorable it is that Isha's become so protective of Vander.

The main lens I want to use when talking about what's happening here is that of the religious themes we've been seeing so much of lately. Jinx is the one who gives Viktor his nickname of 'Machine Herald' in this episode, and with Jinx having been positioned as Janna's own herald, that makes this meeting a significant one when it comes to these themes.

It is important, then, that Jinx remains a skeptic. As far as she's concerned, that fight in the church was something she did for aesthetic purposes, and Janna isn't actually, like, a real diety. She doesn't care about all this spiritual woo-woo, even as she starts being painted on walls much as Janna was, and calling on fresh air to clear the choking smog of Zaun, potentially even rising up to clear the noxious presence of Noxus!

Viktor, by contrast, has fully accepted his role as herald of a god he may not have a name for, and has accepted his position as spiritual leader and guide for his people. His healing method speaks to the soul, their inner self, and healing the damage inflicted to it through the body.

Their other grand similarity is that they've both kind of sort of hidden away in their own pocket worlds (which they share with that other religiously themed entity, the Black Rose). Much like Jinx, Viktor has created his own pocket world where he gets to make the rules and pretend the outside world doesn't exist. Hell, Viktor's grown influential enough that he gets to enforce those boundaries even when the outside world knows he's there. He gets to have his own little paradise and do good within it for all those who come to him.

But Jinx eventually found this isolation unbearable, as the outside world continued to impose on what she wanted, and she voluntarily stepped back out to meet it, and to enact change within the wider world. In that sense, Jinx is much more enmeshed in the material realities of the oppression Zaun faces (although, again, I wish episodes 5 and 6 did more with what was set up in 4, and also that we got to see Sevika more), whereas Viktor is more occupied with the grander mysteries of the universe and attaining spiritual enlightenment.

I suspect this will become even more prominent in act 3.

[eanul-rmbl]

I just watched the movie, so it's fresh in my mind, and these biased opinion of mine will be on the assumption that the reader has already seen it.

Some things I didn't like

||The first thing that hit me was that the pacing was really off. The movie felt really fast paced. There wasn't really much of any time to actually "breathe" during the first act of the story (first act being up until Zhen betrays Po). If it's not comedy, then it's action, and if neither, then it's exposition. A good amount of Zhen's backstory was explained through exposition. Though the truth of her backstory (bring the Chameleon's disciple) was explained better than when they explained her growing up an orphan. The Chameleon's backstory is a straight up joke. We get exposition (standard villain nonologue) during her fight with Po that she grew up with less status, wanted to learn kung-fu, but was denied because she was short, which is bull. Mantis, Master Chicken, and Shifu come to mind. Not to mention that Zhen and Po have known each other for only two or three days, which isn't nearly enough time needed to start caring for somebody with Zhen's character. She would have caved so much longer ago, should that have been the case. Tai Lung was actually very cool, here. Not really written well, but I appreciated him as a character. It seemed like he got some sort of spiritual enlightenment, or at least he calmed down, in the Spirit Realm. One other thing about the Sprit Realm is that it's directly related to Oogway, who doesn't appear at all in the movie and it mentioned two or three times, plus one "a wise old turtle (tortoise) told me...". I was actually hoping so much to see more or Tigress and Po's relationship. I thought, maybe some interaction at the start or end of the movie, hopefully both. Imagine my reaction when "The 5 might not be here, but that doesn't they're here as life-sized cardboard cutouts!!". Ahahahaha...... She appears at the very end, in her clothes from the 3rd movie, smiling (me being delusional says that she was happy to be back home w Po (I'm delusional)), but all she does it look cool and teach Zhen for 5ish seconds at the start of credits, as well as the other of the 5 doing so. She says nothing, she has no interaction with Tai Lung, nothinggg...... To add, Tai Lung added nothing to the movie at all. He was mostly there to be hot (understandable, but that can only go so much for an anthropomorphic big cat) for his (dying) fangirls (of which I am not). His entire thing is "comedic bits", "you're not worthy of being the dragon warror, Po", and then "I saw you defeat the Chameleon; you're worthy" and then everyone boys down to Po; Kai and the Peacock were up front and centre next to Tai Lung bowing too, which sort of contradicts their entire character, but maybe they gained some spiritual wisdom in the Spirit Realm like Tai Lung. The line "Violence makes my tummy tingle" makes me want to barf. Po's fathers played did nothing worthwile, but it was nice to see them, better than nothing, I guess. Maybe fujo bait? (I'm kidding). Seeing the trailer, I though Zhen looked like some thing from Animal Jam, but I got to like her throughout the story. Shifu was treated like a complete joke in the movie. One big thing, however, was how Shifu was so insistent in Po getting a successor. It took Oogway hundred of years (maybe close to a thousand, but my memory is spotty) to choose someone (Po) as the dragon warrier, and yet Po, still in his prime tip-top adult shape ready for kung-fu fighting action, needs to choose the next dragon warrior after being so for a few years.

Also, the powerscaling was off the charts. That's how they handled both the villain and Zhen (until the end, where she's given strengths and weaknesses and is learning kung-fu, which I appreciated)

Some things I liked.

Po's characterization, albeit spotty, is something I kind of like here. I sort of comprehended him as "silly, but serious when he needs to be (in a sort of "masking" way, in which he's not a silly or wack as he let's on; Gon from HunterxHunter comes to mind.)" which is honestly not bad. However, it was jarring at first, before I came to that conclusion, since it honestly felt like he was being reduced to how he was in the first movie. I do like the "not as airhead as he let's on" idea, though.

The foreshadowing was neat, too. Zhen's ear tag comes to mind. Throughout the movie we see Zhen with a green geometric (representing Chameleon) tag on her ear. To add, we're leading to think that the Armadillo raised her when we me him(?), but then why would the Armadillo and the rest of the underground group hate Zhen? Because she's with Chameleon. It was good foreshadowing that didn't just explicitly tell me she was working with the Chameleom. Too often I can guess plotlines and plot switches at the very story, but Zhen was a complete surprise, which is great.

The comic art bits were great, too, butoften felt out of place.

Honestly, the part I loved the most was when Tigress and the rest of the 5 appeared, but we all know how that went. it was also nice how Po and Zhen's relationship was portrayed. There's no romantic implication, and she seemed to be a good deal younger than him.

Extra bits

It's hard to judge how long the 4th movie is from the 1st. With Oogway's peach tree being just fine. Po's peach tree was around a meter-ish (maybe less). Zhen's being simply a sprout. Peach trees tend to grow pretty fast (someone's peach tree online grew to 3 meters in 10 years), so that puts it to 2 years of being dragon warrior (definetly not enough), or, if they pruned it in some style similar to bonsai pruning, around 10-20ish.

Overall.

It's definetly not a bad movie. It's definetly not terrible, either. Just severely middling. It's great for kids to watch (maybe not their parents), and it's entertaining, but it lacks depthness to it. Overall, I'd rate it (with my biased opinions) somewhere between 5/10 and 6/10.