Lord Shen

"Greetings, Panda. At last we meet!"

- Lord Shen

Lord Shen is the main antagonist of Kung Fu Panda 2 released in 2011. He was an evil, disowned prince who wanted to take over the kingdom with his cannons and destroy Kung Fu.

Past
When Shen was ready to become the next peacock lord of Gongmen City, the Soothsayer goat gave a prophecy to his parents that he would eventually be defeated by warrior of black and white, but only if he were to continue pursing his path of using his father's art of fireworks for warfare to take control of China. Shen hears about this while eavsdropping on them, but rather than rethinking over his goals to put in a better destiny for himself, Shen instead decides to avert the prophecy by leading his wolf gang to track down and kill every panda in the land.

Being Banished
After the slaughtering of many pandas was done, Shen returns back to his palace with pride, but is distraught to see that his family are shocked and disgusted by what he has done. Out of frustration, Lord Shen's father angrily sentences him to exile as punishment for slaughtering the pandas, but because he felt his did it as self-defense to defy his fate-to-be, Shen angrily swore that he will return and reclaim what's rightfully his. Following Shen's exile, his family became very depressed during their rule, and later died out of grief, giving their power to the Gongmen Kung Fu Council.

30 Years Later
After decades, Shen took back the control of the city by force using his new, powerful weapon: a cannon. With it, he killed the senior Master Thundering Rhino, imprisoned the other Kung Fu Masters by threatening to use the cannon against the city, and took back his palace, plotting to spread his power. It was then that Master Po, Grand Master Shifu, and the Furious Five learned of Lord Shen's treachery and the threat of his weapon, realizing it could bring about a new style of warfare, which could mean the end of Kung Fu.

Meeting Po
Eventually, Master Po and the Furious Five are arrested by the wolves, and brought to Lord Shen. The villain realizes that as long as Po is alive, there is still a chance for the soothsayer's prophecy to come true, and becomes afraid and determined to kill Master Po.

The Truth Revealed
It is then that Shen reveals to Po that he is the reason for his separation from his family, and for their destruction as well.

Shen's Cannon Factory
After a following battle, Shen escapes to his cannon factory, out of the palace, and Po and the five barely manage to escape. Shen then proceeds with his plan to begin his assault on China using his cannons and expanding his empire.

Confronting Po
Meanwhile, the Furious Five try to blow up the factory with the explosives, while keeping Po back at the Gongmen city prison along with Master Croc and Master Storming Ox (who was starting to show weakness from discovering the truth of his family). However, Po sneaks into the factory to confront Shen and learn more about his past, inadvertently interfering with the Five's plan. Shen, taking Po's weakness by stating that Po's parents hated him and abandoned him, manages to shoot Po with his cannon while the wolves capture the Five.

Po is found and healed by the Soothsayer, who helps him attains inner peace and return to face Lord Shen again as he begins his assault. It was then Po realized his father defended him against the wolves from killing him, and his mother sacrificed herself to save him from Shen's wrath. As the battle becomes intense, Shen fired his main cannone on the crashed ships and blow away the kung fu warriors, even at the cost of his trusted lieutenant and many of his wolf pack. After this shot, all the kung fu warriors are gravely injured, and only Po is left standing. He clambers onto a floating platform and prepares for Shen's cannons to fire.

However, Po, having attained his inner peace by letting his memory of his parents flow through him rather than fighting it, manages to redirect all the cannon balls back at Lord Shen's fleet, much to the other kung fu masters' surprise. After the ships are all destroyed and the rest of Shen's wolf pack defeated, Po reveals to the defeated Shen that he has prevented his own past take over his present and pleads with Shen to do the same thing, stating that what matters most is choosing your own future.

Final Battle and death
Though Shen agrees of choosing his own future, he refuses to let go of his pain. Without hesistation Shen fights Po with his lance and knives, but as they fought Shen accidentally cuts the ropes holding the main cannon realizing this too late as the heavy weapon falls on him, he closes his eyes, accepting his fate and as a result gets crushed to death by the cannon and the gunpowder in the cannon blows up, resulting a great explosion sinking remains of the ship to the waters, however Po escapes unscrathed, thus the prophecy became fulfilled.

Throughout the film, Shen had been troubled by his fear of Po stopping, even killing him. He was also troubled by the memory of how his family had banished him, refusing to accept the fact that his actions against the pandas has made them mad at him in the first place, and instead believe that they never loved him.

Trivia

 * Shen was voiced by Gary Oldman.
 * His tail consisted of 92 feathers.
 * Lord Shen was originally cast as a devious mayor for the first Kung Fu Panda movie.
 * In the Mad episodes "Kung Fu Blander" (in which his new army were the Angry Birds) and "DestroyBob the Builder Destroyer," he was defeated by Master Po, and then by Black and White Spies.
 * Lord Shen has more fans than Tai Lung, whom he shares many personality traits with.
 * Shen has also become sort of popular on YouTube and a popular fan fiction story featuring Shen is "Cirque Mystique" by Writermist in which he is a phoenix instead of a peacock and is prtrayed as the stories protagonist. Also instead of being called "Shen" (except at one point where Arthur calls him "Lord Shen") he is commonly known as "The White Phoenix"
 * Lord Shen is the only Kung Fu Panda character to have artificial body parts. The other characters all have body parts of their own.
 * Lord Shen has a bit of a comparison to Darth Traya as they share a common goal: to destroy the thing that they rely on (even though she uses the force, Traya intends to destroy since in the hopes of understanding it, she will learn the way to kill it and failed) and even though Shen is a Kung Fu warrior, he intends to destroy Kung Fu.