#squirrelywraith

[zenballmaster]

I'd love to hear more about a Tai-Lung Shen meeting, because it sounds amazingly volatile. I cannot picture them getting along on any level.

OH BOY i'm glad you gave me this opportunity but i do have to apologize bc i just Exploded into rambling

ok so first off before anything else i have to explain that my own headcanon interpretation for tai lung is that he is shen’s opposite in a lot of ways

shen revels in being vindictive and bitter (even if after the fact it'll make him feel Worse). there is no part of him that wishes to be respected or admired over being Obeyed. he gets some sense of twisted satisfaction out of being the worst version of himself and Disappointing everyone who isn’t the soothsayer. do Not try to empathize with him! but also don’t you dare think of him as just some petty child throwing a tantrum bc his parents didn’t give him the exact gift he wanted once!! he’s a mess

tai lung on the other hand i’ve always thought very desperately wants to be admired and respected, and to be so for Being Good. he wants to be the beloved hero. but somewhere with him some lines end up crossed, and so he wishes to do heroic things, like protect the meeker and the more vulnerable, but not out of any real sense of empathy or compassion for them (not that he’s entirely aware of it, imo). he’s still inherently selfish and entitled, and unbelievably smug. he doesn’t know what it feels like to work for something he doesn’t already feel like he deserves, as i said once in a tag somewhere

still tho, objectively i think he would feel some amount of repulsion and righteous condemnation towards taking the same kind of actions shen has and does, at least when he’s not Blinded by his own emotions and entitlement

in short, he would look down on shen as nothing more than an unrepentant murderer and feel no compulsion to play nice, or to have any kind of respect for the guy. shen, being the prideful creature he is, i’m certain would find this turn of events Unacceptable

particularly and especially if he also Knew tai lung’s own history of violence, as it’d leave him feeling more furiously that tai lung was just a big ol’ hypocrite, and he’d make it his own personal mission to drag that condescending prick down to his level (the level he’s already On, in shen’s own not so humble opinion) so that he could metaphorically strip him bare in front of a mirror (shen himself) and show him just how monstrous he is, just how Alike the two of them are

additionally, but maybe kind of tangentially, when i first bumped into the kfp rpc scene back in 2013, 2014 or so, there existed a crack ship There which i still find. just. very compelling, and that crack ship was pairing tai lung and crane together. at the time there was an enduring headcanon (which i still really like) that the five were all different ages, and this particular RPer chose to portray crane as being in his 40s (another decision/headcanon i still really like)

it was a ship that mostly existed in the past, before tai lung’s uhhhh Incident, and what interactions i did glimpse implied an AU where tai lung survived the first movie and the two of them were still tiptoeing around each other, trying to figure out how to interact after all this bitterness when before they’d had such affection for each other

all this to say that my own more Specific version of this interaction playing out also had that foundation, where tai lung despite everything still has crane placed somewhat on a proverbial pedestal as an ideal for him to strive toward— strong, levelheaded and composed, but warm and responsive. he can be both sharp and sarcastic, but it’s always tempered with genuine care for loved ones and strangers alike

and shen Finds Out about that past relationship, puts some pieces together, and is able to puzzle out tai lung’s lingering Feelings. and, as shen is so wont to do, he endeavors then to ruin everything lmao

usually by going along with tai lung in emphasizing crane’s Goodness only to more viciously widen the gap between them, show tai lung just how Undeserving he is of crane’s forgiveness, should he ever choose to give it (at the time, he’s still quite cool and distant, but i imagine there’s some anger in there somewhere which tai lung is perceptive enough to Feel)

[ask-glados]

Acorns were not a survey option. I would like to be shot with acorns. As a squirrel I feel discriminated against. And by the way the bird feeders need to be refilled again.... Where are the sunflower seeds ordered from?

The survey was about fruit. Nuts are not a fruit.

[zenballmaster]

What’s something you would change about the franchise, either in story or character or how it affects the real world/fandom?

there’s a lottt about the third movie i’d like to change story- and character-wise, but a more general thing that’s always bothered me a little is that all three main villains meet their end at the end of the movies thinking emoji

in shen’s case, of course, this bothers me less bc i’ve always felt his story is very satisfying. as interesting as fan-created works where he survives and works toward redeeming himself are, in canon i think it would have felt… cheap, or too quick. he’d made it clear on multiple occasions that he wasn’t going to change and that he was a vile, spiteful creature intent on succeeding or dying trying, and that’s exactly what he did. plus it was a nice parallel to po, who did move on from his sad past and look to the future in a way shen never could

i guess i sometimes wish there was more of a connection between the individual movies. and i can’t complain too hard about this bc as far as franchises go? kfp does this wonderfully with chaining their movies together and yet moving the story forward. but there’s still a sense that these were all imagined individually with only certain characters connecting them all. tai lung had to be defeated in a way where he wouldn’t return for the second, bc a new villain would need to be created. and the same for shen. the same for kai. i think it would have been interesting to have a few more connecting, unfinished strings between the movies

to say nothing of how the third movie seems to. not acknowledge the second at all ._.

i can’t really think of anything else off the top of my head that doesn't relate specifically to the third movie. i think the first two films are real solid films and while the third is definitely flawed and maybe. not as solid, i still personally enjoy it (mostly for mr. ping shhh)