You Were Born Evil

Kung Fu Panda

TAI LUNG: I have come home, Master.

SHIFU: This is no longer your home. And I am no longer your master.

TAI LUNG: Yes. You have a new favorite. So where is this… Po? [chuckles] Did I scare him off?

SHIFU: This battle is between you and me.

TAI LUNG: So… that is how it’s going to be?

SHIFU: That is how it must be.

TAI LUNG: I rotted in jail for twenty years because of your weakness!

SHIFU: Obeying your master is not weakness!

TAI LUNG: You knew I was the Dragon Warrior! You always knew… But when Oogway said otherwise, what did you do? What did you do?! NOTHING!

SHIFU: You were not meant to be the Dragon Warrior! That was not my fault!

TAI LUNG: Not your fault?! Who filled my head with dreams?! Who drove me to train until my bones cracked?! Who denied me my destiny?!

SHIFU: It was never my decision to make! TAI LUNG: It is now. Give… me… the scroll!

SHIFU: I would rather die!

TAI LUNG: All I ever did, I did to make you proud! Tell me how proud you are, Shifu! Tell me! TELL ME!!!

SHIFU: 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.

TAI LUNG: I don’t want your apology. I want my scroll!

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There are no secret ingredients

Tai Lung was given a name by Shifu. He was given expectations. He was probably told he had a gift for kung fu.

If you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear

Kung fu is its own end, but it also has a use. It is useful for pleasing Shifu. And pleasing Shifu is its own end, but it too has a use, as the ground that gives value to an abandoned life. Becoming the Dragon Warrior is a joy in itself, but it also pleases Shifu, and it is useful for confirming the rise and fall of the ego.

our battle will be legendary!

The good thing about becoming the Dragon Warrior is that you are respected. If you wanted to become a doctor, would it be in order to be respected, or in order to save people?

Who filled my head with dreams?!

At first he does kung fu to please Shifu. Then he sets out to become the Dragon Warrior and complete what Shifu hoped for. When he fails, Shifu is disappointed.

I don’t want your apology. I want my scroll!

Now that purpose is no longer needed. Now Tai Lung wants the means to the purpose. Tragically, the content of that means is “there are no secret ingredients.” And that sits badly with the path by which the means had become a purpose of its own. Tai Lung waited his whole life for the certificate, and the certificate he finally received read, “There is no certificate.”

Oh come on, son. Let’s get back to work.

Ok.

Po is named the Dragon Warrior at the very moment he gives kung fu up. There are no accidents in this world. Tai Lung tried to hold on to the scroll to the very end, and so he receives “nothing at all.” Po receives the scroll he let go of, and finds 'himself.’

If we live a life, it too will carry a use. Pleasure, rapture, joy, delight, happiness, good cheer, excitement, self-realization. But if life is its own end, then what reason is there for it to stop being a life, simply because it guarantees nothing good, simply because it has dealt us a fate we never wanted?