Lord Shen

**Lord Shen** is the main antagonist in *Kung Fu Panda 2*. He was the son of the royal Peacock family and the heir to the Gongmen City throne.

In his youth, Shen was obsessed with using the powder in fireworks to create weapons. When he overheard the Soothsayer (his childhood nanny) foretell to his concerned parents that he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white if his obsession persisted, he led his wolves on a genocidal raid on the pandas in an attempt to circumvent the prophecy. But upon his return, his parents, horrified by what he has done, banished him from the city forever. Shen plotted his revenge for over twenty years, eventually creating an unstoppable weapon: a cannon. Although his weapon and army had temporarily brought him to power in Gongmen City, the Soothsayer's fortune did indeed come true when he was defeated by Po, the foretold warrior of black and white.

## Personality

Shen is shown to have been extremely smart, ambitious, dangerous, powerful, and supremely lethal. His past forged in him the notion that he had been wronged, and that the world owed him something, and he sought to do everything in his power to take it. This included inventing a powerful weapon unlike anyone had ever seen before. Shen was intent on using this weapon to wipe out kung fu and take over China.

Shen was shown to be unspeakably ruthless, as he was willing to enact a genocide of all of China's pandas in order to smite any chances that one would someday defeat him, as was described in a fortune-telling he overheard. Due to being raised as royalty, Shen largely preferred to let his weapons and henchmen do the hard work rather than dealing with such obstacles himself. His ambition to leave his mark on the world drove him to find a dark and lethal potential in his family's celebrated invention of fireworks, and when cast out by his parents for his massacre of the pandas, he swore revenge, and aimed to conquer all of China just to prove himself. Shen had little or no regard for the lives or well-being of others, as he blasted a bridge without hesitation, despite there being innocent bystanders on it, and was willing to sacrifice his own troops, which put him in conflict with his most trusted subordinate Boss Wolf, as the wolf refused to kill his own warriors of which, in response to this act of disobedience, Shen then struck him down without a second thought.

Shen was also a perfectionist, which was shown when he took over the Tower of the Sacred Flame and fussed over the position of his cannon, saying that he envisioned the moment he would retake Gongmen City for years, and that everything had to be *exactly* as he envisioned it, and when he was rehearsing intimidating lines for his confrontation with his destined foe (which went to waste due to Po's offhanded nature). He also demonstrated a fondness of expensive materials and luxury, as shown when he became infuriated when the Soothsayer chewed off the hem of his robes, which he claimed to be made of "the finest silk in the province".

Shen was also shown to have a rather short temper as, when Po and the Furious Five escaped from the collapsing Tower of the Sacred Flame, he became rather furious and kicked one of his gorilla followers in the nose. Additionally, when he ordered Boss Wolf to gather the wolves shortly after the incident, he screamed at him repetitively to do the task even after the wolf hurried away to do so.

Shen also seemed to have a low tolerance for pain (despite being a seasoned master of kung fu and swordsmanship), as when the Soothsayer plucked out one of his smallest down feathers, he yelped loudly and pulled his wing back while acting as if he were badly injured. He also didn't care about tradition and ancestry, as he ordered his minions to bring down the Tower of the Sacred Flame in spite of the fact that it had been his family's ancestral home for over twenty years.

Prideful and possibly deranged, Shen seemed to carry little to no remorse for his crimes, and would often boast of his accomplishments. He was also shown to be sadistic, as seen when confronting the Kung Fu Council, he gleefully stated that his cannon was a "parting gift" that would literally part them; "part of you here, part of you there, part of you *way*over there staining the wall!" showing he was rather bloodthirsty. He also took pleasure in telling Po that his parents didn't love him while taking advantage of the panda's pain in the process. This cruelty likely stemmed from Shen's conviction that his own parents hated him, which was forged in his mind when they banished him years ago. Shen's bitterness against his parents went as far as to insulting his father's memory by throwing his throne out the window and replacing it with his cannon, even after commenting that he had fond memories of playing around it as a child.

The Soothsayer, however, opposed his plans. She tried to reason with Shen to change his ways and, even while being his prisoner and displaying acts of occasional mockery towards him, displayed her concern for the reckless decisions he made. Despite his conviction that his parents had wronged and hated him, she related that his parents had actually loved him so much that they died of grief after they had to banish him. Although he paused in thoughtful silence upon hearing this, Shen hardened his heart, freed and dismissed the Soothsayer, and proceeded with his conquest.

Shen chose never to accept failure, as was shown when he furiously struck one of his followers for failing to kill Po and the Five when they escaped the Tower, stating that "nothing stands in my way." After Po defeated Shen's "unstoppable" weapons, Shen tried his best to kill the panda, but accidentally sealed his own fate by slicing through the ropes that held up his cannon. At the very end of his life, Shen finally accepted that he had been beaten and did not attempt to save himself when his own cannon crushed him.

## Trivia

* Shen become Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Kung Fu Panda 2.*
* Shen, along with Boss Wolf returns to get revenge on Thomas, Twilight and their friends after he got resurrected by the Black Cauldron in *Thomas, Twilight Sparkle and The Quest for Camelot.* He will also join forces with Po's other enemies, Tai Lung and Kai later on.
* Shen becomes Shi La Won's ultimate enemy when he plans to kill her mother Shama to bring her pain and suffering to make up for failing to make Po feel pain and suffering over losing his parents, which he attained inner peace by letting his past flow rather than fight it and later reunited with his father, Li Shan, though his mother was killed.
* Lord Shen has more fans than Tai Lung, whom he shares many personality traits with.

## Gallery

Shen and SoothsayerShen pins down Boss WolfShen and Po meeting for the first time since Shen raided his village.Shen in his fight with the Kung Fu CouncilShen's death