 The quest for identity is the journey that Poe embarks on for the moment he dreams of a legend, in flowing cape hat and staff with legendary martial arts skills. The very first scene of the franchise, our introduction to the panda. Poe has always known what he wanted to be, but getting there is what makes Kung Fu Panda. Getting there requires Poe to answer a question that he asks in all three films and verbally asks in the final two, which is who am I? To search for this answer, Poe goes on a quest that works his body, mind, and spirit, as they follow through the trilogy. Through this, Poe is not only able to answer that question for himself, but he answers that question for a few other characters over the course of the three films. With that, I want to take a look at Poe's evolution throughout these movies and how he comes to terms with his own identity. The first Kung Fu Panda is Poe's journey towards the body. Poe dreams of being a martial artist, a master along the Furious Five. When he's chosen by Uwe to become the Dragon Warrior, he isn't able to grasp exactly why he was chosen. Poe is a panda, and in this world much like our own, we see that certain animals are more fit to fight than others. Tigers and snow leopards for their ferocity and power, monkeys for their speed, cranes for its ability to fly, the viper's flexibility, the tortoise and its wisdom of legend. Even the Praying Mantis, despite its size, is an incredible hunter. The panda is lazy, clumsy, it's cute and cuddly. Shifu, Tigris and the rest of the Five make him understand that he was a fluke. He's not the Dragon Warrior. Everyone but Poe has shaped Poe's identity. They've all told him who he is and who he is supposed to be. Even his father tells him that his destiny is making noodles. That's where he's meant to be. A disgrace to Kung Fu from Tigris, just a panda, not the Dragon Warrior from Shifu. So of course, Poe was unable to accept himself as the Dragon Warrior. Of course, all he wanted to do was to change himself. He specifically says that if anyone can make him not him, it was Shifu. That's what Poe desired to change, to not be a panda, to not be Poe anymore. Poe was never able to accept himself and to be comfortable within himself. But it's only when Shifu finally has faith in him and believes in him that he begins to feel special. He begins to understand that for him to be great, he doesn't need to change. But instead he needs to believe in himself. As he read the Dragon Scroll and saw nothing but a reflection of himself. Add on his father's words about the secret ingredient of self-belief and Poe begins to believe that he is worthy. Poe has mastered the body. In the second film, the story looks into Poe's past. He takes the Kung Fu the self-belief that he gained and he carries it over into this new chapter in his story. But his worth has been solely tied to being the Dragon Warrior. Again, he finds worth in that, but he still doesn't believe that he has worth beyond that. And when Lord Shen torments the panda with the idea that his parents never loved him, it only further highlights that struggle. Does Poe have value beyond being the Dragon Warrior? And if he doesn't, is that why his parents abandoned him? As Shen suggested. Poe's past hurt him so much that he completely shed it out of his mind. When he is finally forced to remember and to confront this past, he understands that this past doesn't define the rest of his life. At this stage in Poe's development, at the end of the second film, he's finally able to accept himself as the Dragon Warrior and as Poe. He's able to find his inner peace, be his master the mind. Finally in Kung Fu Panda 3, Kai presents a similar challenge, but with a new ability, Chi. While in my opinion, Kai is the weakest of the three villains because of the lack of time that was spent with him, there was more time allocated to Poe and his new challenge of becoming a teacher. Shifu states that the mastery of Chi requires a mastery of self. At this point, the only two to master Chi were Kai and Ugoi. Two people with opposing personalities and goals, but they were similar in the sense that they both were unwavering when it came to knowing and to mastering themselves. This is to say that Shifu, someone who is able to use Chi, hasn't mastered it, showing us someone who hadn't fully mastered themselves. Maybe because his life can be seen as one plagued with failures, it's possible that Shifu hasn't truly come to terms with who he actually is, even though he's changed quite a bit. When we consider the failure that is Tai-Lung, the son that Shifu himself raised and who turned into a villain, and then Tiger is who he trained to be the next Dragon Warrior, and who wasn't, it's possible that Shifu views all of these failures as a reflection of himself, rather than Destiny playing its course. Poe on the other hand does have confidence in himself, but in this movie as well, he struggles with his identity once more. At one point in this film, he even questions whether or not he is a true panda, or if he's even the Dragon Warrior. And up to this point, he has no confidence in his role as a teacher. Poe can't master Chi in this state. Another thing that I love about this series is that Poe doesn't suddenly become a beacon of self-worth and self-belief after the first movie. There are still doubts that creep into the back of his mind, even in this final entry. Even as he's been the Dragon Warrior for two films, it's an incredibly realistic take on self-worth and even imposter syndrome, and how that is a daily battle. But when Poe is forced to teach people to be their best selves, something that Shifu taught him, it's here that he begins to find himself. And this aspect energizes the third film, as it closes Poe's final chapter. Poe's internal journey through the three films has been a lonely one, slowly learning how to believe in himself and honing his body in the first film. The greatest barrier to his success was himself, and Shifu. Others helped him along his path, but self-belief is exactly that, it's the self. He had to learn that and have faith in it by himself. The second film broke Poe, physically, emotionally, and mentally. And while the soothsayer guided him, only he alone could confront the memories of his childhood that he had been blocking ever since he was a kid. Inner peace had to be achieved alone. But in the third movie, Poe doesn't go through a training montage to discover the ancient power of Chi from the pandas. This movie isn't a lonely journey by any means, because from the moment he met his biological father along with Ping, his other father, and the village of pandas, there was a message about community, about family. Chi can be given and taken as it is the energy that flows through all living things, power, and spirit. As Poe becomes a great teacher, he gives his own Chi to all of them. He infuses the entire village with his spirit and his energy. He helps them master themselves. It's actions just like this that helps Poe master his true self. He masters spirit. But it's also what he's been doing throughout the entire trilogy. We know Poe says that he doesn't know if he's the dragon warrior in this movie. Both in this and the last, he questions again, who am I? Once alone and once if he's not the dragon warrior. In this one, he says, I don't know who I am. Even the soothsayer asks him, who are you? To answer this question and to connect it all, let's go back again. The first movie saw Shifu with a perpetual frown on his face. Bitterness, anger, and disappointment that he carried everywhere. Again, Shifu felt like he was a failure. He captured a China's most dangerous villain in Thailand and he felt guilty for that. Because of his failure, Shifu grew cold. He became unable to be vulnerable and to be loving and warm. But Poe was a second chance for him. Poe forced Shifu to evolve as a teacher and to believe in not only his master but in his own ability as a teacher as well. With Poe, he proved to himself that he wasn't a failure, that he was worthy of being Uwe's student. Poe's success and his unique spirit and energy changed Shifu. In the second and third film, he isn't as uptight as he once was. We see Shifu smile, laugh, and joke around. He's able to be warm again. He found his peace and that's Poe's doing, that's Poe's energy. Tigris followed in the same path as Shifu. She too was serious, cold, and bitter as a result of her master and of always being second. Second to Tai Long and now second to Poe. Because of Poe's warmth, she too comes into her own as someone who is still serious but incredibly compassionate and even quite protective of the panda. Calling back to the second film when she didn't allow Poe to go fight Shen a second time. And she even takes a cannon head on for Poe, pushing him out the way. The panda became one of Tigris's best friends. The most telling display of how Poe helped her open up is the fact that she not only accepted his hug in the second film, she gives him one inside the Gongmen jail. A very telling display of her empathy towards Poe. How much she cares about him. Poe shows this compassion to his villains as well. Notably when he gives Shen a second chance to give up and to change, even after all the torment that he put Poe through. When we consider how much energy, how much she Poe has invested into everyone around him, it's easy to see the type of person that Poe has always been. It's even easier to see why everyone is able to give their chi back to him. If he wasn't the dragon warrior, he still has worth by being someone whose spirit is incredibly radiant and inviting. By being a great friend always. The soothsayer says that all that matters is who you choose to be right now. And Ugray once told Poe that he is too concerned with what was and what will be. Identity is dynamic and fluid. It will change. This trilogy has a focus on the present. It tells us that at every moment in the now you have to consistently choose who you want to be. And Poe always chooses to be a good person. And before everything, he will always be Ping's son. Ping reminds him of that and showers him with love in each of the three movies. Through Ping we see that though he might not physically resemble his father, he is very much Ping's son, in the way that he loves and cares for everyone. The goose has raised Poe so well. We are not one singular thing in this world. Your identity changes based on your surroundings, based on your relationship to others. You need to have a strong sense of self, of who you are, so that you can be unaffected by the ways that others might define you as. As we think of how Poe began to believe that he could never be the dragon warrior. As everyone told him that he wasn't meant to be it. So when Poe and Ugui and everyone else asks who am I, the only person that can answer that is you alone, because only you know. For Poe, that answer was symbolized by two things, the dream and the dragon. As we highlight Kung Fu Panda's fantastic visual storytelling. As I stated earlier, the very first scene of Kung Fu Panda shows Poe dreaming. The narrator specifically says that the warrior has Kung Fu skills that were the stuff of legend. As we look at the script, it says that the warrior who is obviously Poe, his identity was hidden beneath his flowing robe and wide brimmed hat and gnaws on a staff of bamboo. The first film granted him the Kung Fu skills of legend. In the second, Poe says that he needs a hat. And in the third, he gains the robe and Ugui hands him the staff. This is who Poe was meant to be. Along with the Yin and Yang symbol that illustrates his mastery of self, the balance that he has discovered, and finally the dragon that appears behind his grasp of the title of Dragon Warrior. From Qi Guang Zhao's A Study of Dragons and a few others, in Chinese culture the dragon represents many things, often good. They are often seen as symbols of good fortune, peace, and kindness. In some stories they protect the oceans and the creatures that inhabit it. They represent nobility and harmony. And lastly, traditional confusions consider the dragon as the foremost of the four imperial symbols, unrivaled in its power to control the waters. It later became associated with the emperor, symbolizing the beneficent of men, a protector who brings good and who is generous to all. The dragon symbolizes everything that Poe has become and everything he's always been. It's a perfect title and it's a fitting end for a wonderful journey. Tied with a bow. Shifu asks Poe if he knows what the Dragon Warrior truly is in this third film, when he believes that Kung Fu is all he needs to be the Dragon Warrior. Tai Lung was someone who also thought the Dragon Warrior was only in the embodiment of the Dragon's power. The Snow Leopard craved its power but could never bear the true weight of its title. The Dragon Warrior needs to have inner peace and know themselves. The Dragon Warrior needs to be humble, needs to be a protector, a teacher. The Dragon Warrior needs to embody the Dragon and all of its traits. He needs to be a worthy successor to the creator of Kung Fu, Master Ugue. That is who Poe is. The Dragon Warrior. Before I end this video off, I want to give a big thank you to NordVPN for sponsoring this video. If you don't know what a VPN is, it is a virtual private network. It secures and hides your internet traffic by hiding your IP address and virtual location. For those of you who are worried about your online privacy and security, a VPN is just the thing you need. I've seen too many hacks and scares to know that cyber security is really important. And as a bonus, you get to access the internet from 60 different countries. I personally started using NordVPN about six to seven months ago and it's been wonderful. Access to Netflix titles from the States and Europe, an extra layer of comfortability and peace of mind, and it really only does take one click to change your location. 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