#inspired by a post i saw by lulubellule

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Okay so yesterday I binged a bunch of movies that were free on YT, including Kung Fu Pandas 1 and 2 (3 wasn't free so I didn't go looking for it) and I just gotta talk about something interesting, being

Tai Lung wasn't actually a villain?

He was an antagonist sure, but he didn't actually do anything particularly evil.

Walk with me.

So, from what we see in the movie, Tai Lung's first ever act of violence or aggression in about 18, maybe 20 years is the attack on the Valley. Sure, he decapitated a few training dummies leading up to this but yknow so does every member of the Five, so...

What's interesting about this is two things. One, we don't know if he actually killed anybody. We see him chasing people, and properties are on fire, but we don't know if he took any lives. In fact, throughout the entire movie, we don't see him kill anyone. I even looked it up to check and everybody seems to be in concensus that he didn't kill anybody.

And two. Oogway takes Tai Lung down in one move. A four-point nerve strike.

This is interesting because not only did he send Shifu first (to fight his own son no less) but he also waited up in the Jade Palace for Tai Lung to come to them instead of going down and doing that in order to save the people from his rampage. All to protect an empty scroll that Oogway knows is empty because he made it!

After this, Tai lung is locked in the prison. Made especially for him. He sits, on his knees, in a pit. Above him are giant crossbows, archers, and stalactites with bombs attached specifically to crush him to death if perceived necessary.

Pinning him down are chains. The cuffs of these chains are explicitly stated in the second movie to tighten the more the prisoner moves, and at the end of these chains are large boulders weighing him down to the floor.

He also wears a custom-made turtle shell with jade dragon head pins to suppress his chi, cause I guess Oogway's got a mean sense of humor. On top of all this, he is also shown to experience abuse from the guards, as we see one intentionally step in Tai Lung's tail and mock him.

When Tai Lung escapes the prison, he noticeably doesn't kill or even go out of his way or even in his way to kill anybody. We see him given the opportunity to kill and he uses it to just punch a guard back and continue to flee. All of the destruction is caused by the guards trying to prevent his escape. The only particularly violent thing we see him do is throw the bombs at the army of guards to get past them, and they may look dead for dramatic effect but they are actually noticeably alive, we even hear one or two groan.

And on top of all of this, there's on thing that really bothers me. The Wuxi finger hold. We first see it used by Shifu, and then later by Po, after Tai Lung tries to paralyze him out of anger. It is quite safe to assume that Oogway knew this hold (and might've used it to defeat Kai?). Knowing this, why the fuck didn't Oogway use it on Tai Lung when he defeated him??

They are preparing for the Dragon Warrior to very specifically "put a final end to Tai Lung" and I just don't understand why Oogway didn't do it then and there when he used the nerve attack.

There he has Tai Lung, unconscious (or at least immobile) on the floor. Instead of using that moment to take him out permanently, he puts him into a very inhumane, quite torturous prison for about 20 years while he has Shifu train a bunch of guys to kill him only after he breaks out and causes some more chaos.

Moral of the story: Oogway what the fuck.