Why Tai Lung was the true main character

Kung Fu Panda is the story of Po's journey to becoming the Dragon Warrior, a great master of martial arts that is said to be the champion of China. Along his journey he would join the team of the Furious Five, a team of masters at their respective martial arts and said to be the greatest warriors in the lands, and fight along side them. Trained by one of the greatest mentors in China, Master Shifu, Po would come to understand and learn how to create his own martial arts utilizing his natural body as a panda and mixing in his resourcefulness of the area around him to create a style that uses his body and environment to overpower his foe. 

Along side the journey of Po becoming the great warrior he is meant to, we as the audience are introduced to the main antagonist of this story, Tai Lung, a snow leopard whose might and power is so deadly that a mountain servs as his prison, and guarding him is the greatest army in China the rhinoceroses armed with polearms and explosives, they are prepared for any move he may make.

Our first interaction with Tai Lung is learning of his condition of imprisonment, over 1000 guards, crossbow and ballista at the ready at all times, explosives created to seal off the only exit/entrance to the whole of the prison, all this for one warrior. Commander Vachir, the warden of the prison, guides Zeng, a goose sent by Shifu to deliver a message of concern to Vachir about upping the precautions of Tai Lung's prison, through the prison and shows off that Shifu has no reason to worry or care about Tai Lung's condition, that he has no chance in the slightest to escape. Vachir and Zeng approach Tai Lung face to face at the very bottom of the prison, Vachir laughs at Tai Lung and joking mocks him that another will be crowned Dragon Warrior and not him. Tai Lung stays dead still as this happens, even when Vachir stomps on this tail he shows no sign of moving, Vachir and Zeng leave feeling a sense that Shifu was over reacting about Tai Lung. Upon their leaving, one of Zeng's feathers fall in front of Tai Lung, the moment he had waited for has arrived. His eyes blitzing open, he uses his tail to grab hold of the feather and showing off his perfect control over his body he is able to use his tail to pick the locks of his enchainment with the feather. With the picking of his locks, he rises once more, flexing his muscles and destroying stone encasing his whole body, though chains still wrap his arms. Vachir catches sight of Tai Lung's started escape and sends the whole prison into attack, firing down ballista bolts and Tai Lung, he easily dodges them even with chains wrapped to his wrists keeping him almost completely immobile. Using a bolt fired at him, he dodges it and allows it to strike his chains, with one arm free he easily smashes the other and makes his advancement upward. He single handedly destroys every soldier thrown at him, all the while dodging arrows and ballista shots, with no weapon he takes on the fully armored and equipped guards blasting through them with no sign of stopping. It wasn't until he reached the top did he hit a road block, Vachir stands at the other side of a bridge from him and orders archers to fire at explosives tired to the ceiling, Vachir plans to take the whole mountain down on Tai Lung. Rocks falling and the ground beneath him shaking, Tai Lung rushes Vachir and the rest of his men only for the rocks to finally crash down and take him with them. But, they only served as a momentary break, scaling the falling debris from the ceiling above he reaches the ceiling, grabbing explosives that have yet to go off yet and bolted back down towards the army below him, chucking the explosives a ball of fire is all that is seen, bodies of the army come blowing out of the door to the prison, the blown off horn of Vachir among the bodies. Tai Lung had escaped. He grabbed Zeng, though he had no intention of hurting him, he gentle caressed his head and told the goose to return to Shifu and tell him that the true Dragon Warrior will be returning soon.

The next mention of Tai Lung is from Master Tigress, she explains the origin of him. Long ago when he was but a cub, he was left on the doorsteps to the ancient shrine of warriors, finding him alone and abandoned Shifu took the young one inside, as time went on Shifu became a mentor to young Tai Lung, teaching him all he knew raising him to understand he had a great destiny. More than that, Shifu was more than just a mentor, he was a father to Tai Lung, he loved him more than anything and was proud of him. To Shifu, Tai Lung was more than a warrior, he was his pride and joy in life. One day, Shifu brought Tai Lung to Oogway to show his master what his son could do, and more importantly, to show he was worthy of being the Dragon Warrior. But, Oogway saw a great darkness within Tai Lung, he turned him down and refused to allow him to become the Dragon Warrior, enraged Tai Lung destroyed a town with his bare hands and set his sights on the shrine of warriors. He set his sights on the Dragon Scroll, an ancient text said to have the secrets of perfecting martial arts, but Shifu and Oogway stood in this way, Shifu went to battle his student. Unfortunately, when going to strike him he no longer saw the student turned enemy in front of him, in his eyes all he saw him as was the young cub he took to be his own son. Tail Lung knocked Shifu aside but was swiftly stopped by Oogway leading to his imprisonment we see him in.

 Tai Lung's next appearance is a great bridge his reason for being here is that it will allow him to cross the many gorges of the land straight into the village of the ancient warrior shrine. Stopping him is the Furious Five who attempt to make a stand against him. The first to do battle with him is master Tigress, he mocks her asking where the Dragon Warrior is, that she and the rest of the Furious Five are not the Dragon Warrior, he express that none of them are even close to a worthy challenge for him. They start their battle proper and Tigress has the upperhand, until Tai Lung kicks her aside and begins to choke her using the support rope of the bridge, Viper and Crane enter to support her. Crane fries off to help Tigress who's been thrown off the bridge while Viper constructs around Tai Lung to cause him to hit himself. Viper is caught by him and is being choked out, this is when Monkey enters with a flying kick to Tai Lung's head which he shrugs off and returns to his feet. It is at this point that the team unleash a combo of attacks from all of them knocking Tai Lung into the air, Crane grabs one of the support ropes of the bridge and ties them around him,  Tigress then hammer fists him away cutting their side of the rope and allowing Tai Lung to call into the chasm below. Exhausted and believing the fight is done, the team turn back to leave, but, Tigress notices that the rope tied to Tai Lung is moving. The rope launches forward at the team but quickly falls back down, Tai Lung no where in sight, until he crashes back down to Earth behind them, proclaiming. "Shifu, taught you well." Before hitting Monkey with a technique and taking him out of the fight instantly. "But he didn't teach you everything." He attacks the team and it fades to yellow, coming back to Po and Shifu who were off training, as they are walking into the shrine of warriors they notice something in the sky, Crane flying to them carrying the limp bodies of the Furious Five. He falls landing infront of Shifu and Po and explains that they were no match for his, Shifu explains that Tai Lung has gotten stronger and used a technique that strikes the nerves to take out the team. Seeing that there is no hope, he resorts to his last effort, Shifu plans to hand the Dragon Scroll to Po.

Shifu tells Po and the rest of the team that they are to evacuate the village surrounding the ancient warrior shrine, he will stay behind and fight Tai Lung himself. He says that if he is to die, then he will have finally paid for his mistake. With that, the Furious Five and Po leave.

"I have come home, Master." These are the first words from Tai Lung to be spoken to Shifu in decades, in return Shifu responds with. "This is no longer your home, and I am no longer your master." Even after admitting that what has become of Tai Lung is his mistake, he still treats him like a monster and an outcast. 

Tai Lung jumps into the air and comes crashing back down on Shifu, decimating the stone underneath his heel, he picks up a great stone from the rubble and launches it into Shifu who responds by breaking it in one punch, but the stone was but a distraction as Tai Lung tackles Shifu through the doors of the shrine, Tai Lung begins to speak. "I rotted in jail for 20 years because of your weakness!" "Obeying your master is not weakness!" Shifu shouted back. "You knew, I was the Dragon Warrior. You always knew. But when Oogway said otherwise what did you do? What did you do!? Nothing!" "Your were not meant to be the Dragon Warrior! That was not my fault!" Shifu responded with. Enraged, Tai Lung launches a spree of attacks all while screaming. "Who filled my head with dreams!? Who drove me to train until my bones cracked!? Who denied me my destiny!?" "It was never my decision to make!" Tai Lung calmly walks to the staff of Oogway and holds it to Shifu. "It is now." Shifu rushes Tai Lung, Lung uses the staff of Oogway to overpower Shifu and even hold him down with it almost choking the life out of him until the staff gives way and snaps, Shifu gets up and continues his fight with Tai Lung. Bruised, beaten, and exhausted Shifu can barely hold his own anymore, Tai Lung knocks over a lamp and ingulfs his hands in fire and launches a final spree upon Shifu. "All I ever did I did to make you proud! Tell me how proud you are Shifu! Tell me! Tell me!" Smashing into Shifu with all his might Tai Lung launches him across the room. Barely able to move, Shifu walks towards him, knowing that he doesn't have much longer, Shifu finally opens to Tai Lung and tells him the truth. "I have... I have always been proud of you. From the first moment I've been proud of you. And it was my pride that blinded me. I loved you too much to see what you were becoming, what I, was turning you into. I'm... I'm sorry." For a moment, Tai Lung genuinely starts to restrain himself, from the look in his eyes opening from the harsh angered look we always see him have, to the rounded open eyes of when he was a young boy being trained by his father, Shifu. For a moment, Tai Lung Regretted what he was doing, a part of him wishing to quit, but a part of him that raged on even more still had the most control. He grabs Shifu exclaiming he wants his scroll. His former mentor and father explains that he will never have it, and that the Dragon Warrior had taken it half-way across China by now. At his limit, Tai Lung extends his claws and readies to take his father's life. He is stopped in his tracks when he hears a voice call over to him, he turns to look. In front of him with the sun filled clouds on his back stands the Dragon Warrior, Po.

I'm not gonna talk about tai Lung's fight with Po because it genuinely sucks and I'll explain why later.

Near the end of the battle with the Dragon Warrior, a exhausted and losing Tai Lung is able to take the scroll and read it, but, it is revealed to him that it is nothing. No ancient texts, no words of power, no magic to grant him strength, just blank reflective surface. Po explains that he didn't understand it either when he read it, but figured it out. There is no great secret to the Dragon Warrior, because it itself is not special, what makes it special is the one who is it. Enraged Tai Lung launches a volley of attacks using the last of his energy only to be beaten by Po, ultimately killed by the Dragon Warrior.

Now to explain why Tai Lung is the real main character, and Po beating him is bullshit.

Tai Lung is the story of expectations and destiny, his whole life he knew nothing less then victory and pride, he was told all his life by the only family he had that he would be the greatest warrior in all of China, he would be the perfect Dragon warrior. When that destiny was denied to him he didn't know how to react, he not once in his life ever faced the reality of not getting what we want, he was handed everything he ever needed to because what he and Shifu wanted, but in that happening he lost something more, his sense of self. Tai Lung is not a person, he is an idea, he does not have true personality because he never needed one, he was the idea of Shifu's perfect pupil and his personality was being the Dragon Warrior. I believe that the darkness that Oogway saw in him was the the same darkness that plagued Shifu, the darkness of no humility and of control. Tai Lung never once in his life needed to learn humility, why would he? He was gonna be the Dragon Warrior, the greatest hero of China. Shifu taught him that this was his destiny and that this was all he was going to be in life, no less than perfect, when he didn't become what he and Shifu wanted he lashed out, for the first time in his life he wasn't in control of what was ahead of him, he was denied what he considered his birth right. Truthfully, he really never had control in his life, everything he did was because Shifu had it forced upon him.

Tai Lung is not a villain, to say that is to not understand him. He is something that many people today can see in them selves, he is someone whose life was dictated and expected by someone else, and when the outcome they were told was theirs by destiny didn't happen, they were abandoned by those who set them up.

Po beating Tai Lung is horse shit, the story of Po is becoming better than you are and working with what makes you unique to better you as a person. Which is a perfectly fine message, but Po doesn't go through any change, he is a silly goofball by the start of the movie, and by the end he is the exact same, he doesn't master Kung Fu, he doesn't learn to make himself better, he just gets punched and somehow Tai Lung kills himself basically.

That's my blog on Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda, hope you like it.

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