My problem is the absolute wasted potential. Shapeshifters are one of the most interesting kinds of characters because they give you unlimited routes on how you can write them. To make that kind of character uninteresting is an absolute gut punch. The writers of KFP4 took the least interesting way to write the villain and she is so disconnected from the cast and movie. What's even more disappointing is that it wouldn't be hard at all to improve her as a villain and character. To name just a few ideas, the chameleon could have killed countless people and stolen their identities and live their lives to learn the kung fu people weren't willing to teach her in the past. She could have been a villain that has an identity crisis and loves to take the forms of other people because she feels meaning in it. She could have been working alongside Po disguised as one of his friends only to betray him and giving him the challenge of trusting people around him. Every villain in the previous movies had some connection to Po and/or others in the main cast and that's what challenged him. The chameleon has no such connection, making her less of a threat. She sums up my feelings of the fourth movie so well: disconnected and wasted potential.

Part 1: TAI LUNG Part 2: LORD SHEN Part 3: GENERAL KAI Part 4: the chameleon At least give her a badass name

Ping killed more people in the movie than The Chameleon...

The Chameleon didn't live up to her potential as a villain because she served as a plot device. She brought Kai back with the Staff of Wisdom despite how Po obliterated his spirit in the spirit realm. Not only does this contradict the previous installment, but it proves that she was forced into the narrative.

Tai Lung: Massacred the valley of peace out of rage Lord Shen: Wiped out most of the panda race out of paranoia General Kai: A power hungry war criminal betrayed by his best friend The Chameleon: pushed a dude down the stairs

The movie's director wanted her to have NO backstory whatsoever, and by the time the production crew convinced him that, you know, giving the villain a backstory is kind of important, they were too late to do anything but put in those few lines.

The Chameleon should have been a villain to the Furious Five, like how Tai Lung is Shifu's adopted son, Shen genocided Po's village, and Kai was Oogway's partner. Chameleon could've been the reason why the Furious Five was missing from the movie. She could've stolen their kung fu, and shapeshifted into them and framed them to become suddenly obsessed with power and greed, and then Po has to save them by teaming up with Po and Zhen. And Po begins to wrongly distrust Zhen when the Chameleon uses her to do more evil.

Tai Lung: "defeats 1000 elite guards and breaks out of prison" Lord Shen: "murders Master Rhino" Kai: "Defeats Master Oogway" Chameleon: "pushes random character down the stairs"

Here’s 3 ideas that could have made the Chameleon an interesting and threatening villain: 1. Change the motivation to a genuine but twisted fascination with kung fu, and her absorption of others’ abilities be her “easy way” of skipping all the way to master. This way we have a clear relationship to Po: she is a dark reflection of the fan he was before being picked by Oogway, but instead of having a great destiny to fulfill and good teachers and father figures to look up to, all she had was a perverse ability she may even had hated about herself until she was desperate, maybe living in poverty and alone. This would make Po question if he would have been the same as her had their roles been reversed, realize the importance of his support system, and strengthen the message of teaching the “right way” to future generations. 2. In spite of copying the skills of great masters, make her kung fu still be inferior and her stealing power not an instant KO, causing her to resort to underhanded tactics and rely on her shapeshifting. She can copy the skills but lacks the resolve of true masters, and so she makes up by using deception and playing cat and mouse with the heroes. Anyone could be her. And in a fight, once she starts losing, have her transform into loved ones to bring their defenses down and turning the tables 3. All of the above is useless if you don’t have her do anything with it. Introduce her by having her faking being a student learning from a master, then surprise attack them and stealing their techniques and using them against them. Have her be secretly be some characters Po and the F5 run into in the search for her. Have her pick each of the F5s individually and impersonate them to make it easier. And of course, square off against either Po or Shifu in the first part of the film and WINNING by impersonating someone they care about at the last second-either of Po’s fathers or his mom vs Po, or Tai Lung vs Shifu (you can go with child Tai Lung for extra gut punch). I would go with Shifu bc then you can go the extra mile and kill him (after an awesome fight worthy of him, of course), leaving Po truly no choice but to pass the DW torch to someone else and become the mentor, bc now there truly is nobody else qualified for it. Would this have saved the film? Idk. I am no screenwriter, but these are my 3 cents.

If Kfp 4 decided to write a plot twist The trailers and TV spot show Zhen being this fox that will become the next dragon warrior. In the actual movie though, Zhen never existed and it was the chameleon disguised as her this whole time, to gain Po's trust and steal his staff Or have the chameleon kill shifu or something, idk

Her backstory was she wanted to learn kung fu, but every master rejected her because she was "too weak". This is utter Master Ox poop as we see/hear masters in these movies in the forms of a frog, chicken, chipmunk and, oh, yeah... A MANTIS!

Before I even saw the Movie, I expected the Chameleon to be one of the Darkest Villains ever due to her shape-shifting abilities and the potential she had. I even expected her to somehow morph into Po’s Mother to taunt Po or hurt him, both Physically and Emotionally even after Po got over what he’s been through and had his Inner Peace, I even expected her to hurt Shifu himself and the entire Furious 5 by morphing into Characters that hurt them in the past or traumatized them in some way. But we got none of that, this Movie had the potential to be Darker and Greater than the first 3 and it was all wasted…

Kai was nowhere near as complex as the previous two villains, but he made up for by feeling like an unstoppable force of nature.

Chameleon and Zhen The Fox should have been ONE and THE SAME character. Foxes are shapeshifters in various Asian myths, after all. A co-protagonist, who develops relationshiop with Po, then becomes main antagonist, only for Po to act as "spiritual leader" and try to redeem her.

Why not have The Cameleon snap the Mob Boss's neck? It would pay off the "elephant" line and show why everyone is terrified of her. I mean, if the second film can heavily imply genocide, a single death with a cutaway to her horrified peers wouldn't be off the table.

I feel like the villains are getting less and less evil with each movie. Tai Lung and Lord Shen killed a bunch of people on screen, Kai probably killed people but they don't show it, and the Chameleon gets zero kills throughout the entire movie. Not even the guy she threw down the stairs.

I still think Viola Davis killed it as The Chameleon Her performance was amazing honestly

I just wanted to see lord shen. Ngl thought this was gonna be like no way home with all the villians coming back and talking to each other

Lord Shen is my favorite villain, he'll always be.

So like, for general kai we just gonna ignore the whole chi boom in the spirit realm. Didn't people say that basically destroyed his soul or something cause he died in the afterlife.

The chameleon just had like no connection to any of the characters unlike: Tai lung who was raised by shifu, shen who killed po’s family, and kai who was oogway’s partner

Chameleon: pushes a random person down a long flight of stairs. Also Chameleon: opens up a portal to the spirit realm and summons every deceased fighter that Po has ever faced, just to steal their powers and imprison them.

Here's how I would've written her backstory (I'm not too familiar with Chinese history/mythology, so if anything I say is wrong or not true, please let me know if your more well researched with it) Ever since she was a child, the Chameleon was always interested in sorcerery, having been told stories about those who are being highly respected, so for most of her life she studied to learn magic, eventually learning the ability to shapeshift. However some kung fu masters started to believe that sorcerery was dangerous and inherently evil, especially after what happened with Kai, so they started banning the use of sourcerey, spreading fear towards the land, which causes many people to shun sorcerers, including the Chameleon. Angered by this the Chameleon now wishes to take the power of all kung fu masters to not only become stronger, but to also use her shape-shifting ability to paint kung fu masters as dangerous so people start to fear them, so they can know what it's like to have people turn their backs on them because of fear While I'll admit it's not perfect (it might be a little too similar to Shen's backstory) it would've been a far more interesting backstory and motivation for her

I had this idea apropos of Chameleon. Naturally she would also need another name like Lady Bian-Xing (變形, mandarin of shapeshifting) (one of the commenters recommended this). perhaps that she possessed the ability of shapeshifting when she was a child. And as she mentions in the film she knows the 3 rules of street life which may be the key to her story. She lived her life as a pauper and couldn't stand the fact of injustice that some people live perfect lives and some people cower in poverty (a reference to the city of thieves in kfp4). That's why she started to impersonate others and live a better life for profit. However, she began to lose herself and didn't believe in herself, so she wanted to prove to herself that she was worth something. With a dream to learn the art of kung fu, she enrolled in school (in the film they said she was too small and weak and there is literally a praying mantis, which to me is idiocy). She was a middle-ranking fighter and couldn't shine, so she got into the habit of changing her body again to shine and be someone who would change the injustice of the town she grew up in. Unfortunately, when the masters found out about her deception, they banned her from every school because they were afraid of her abilities and the fact how it could destroy her or do the same stuff that happened to previous Villians. Devastated by this, she began stealing and murdering high-profile people and taking their identities to climb to the top and prove to herself that she could do something without her powers. However, this went against her very self. She lost herself and believed that she herself was worthless. Pretending everyone else didn't believe in her , building walls around herself. Coming to a big fight with Po, he asks her to change into herself. She struggles to assume her original form and then tries to defend herself and run away. This would show the wisdom of Po after all his efforts over the course of the films. He would show her understanding that he himself was going through an identity crisis. or something like that

The Chameleon combining Kung Fu with sorcery is like she was corrupting the nature of that martial arts as a training of the body, mind and spirit, reaching it's peak when she transforms herself in a chimera monster with parts of all Kung Fu masters she absorbed and whose power she doesn't understand in order to defeat Po and earning the respect and fear of everybody. It makes think if she already had that greed for power because of all the mockery she received as young, thus explaining why no one wanted to teach her Kung Fu because she wasn't interested in the art but what could achive by using the art for the wrong reasons.

They focused more on the animation than the story

Here’s how I would’ve written the Chameleon: Have her be Po’s biggest fan. And a little bit too big. At the beginning of the story I’d show her being absolutely obsessed with the Dragon Warrior, so much to the point, that when again of criminals talk shit about him, she freaks out and kills them. Then use her shapeshifting powers to deceive and slaughter all of them one by one. This may jump the shark, but I’d then have one of the criminal’s child walk in so she disguised herself as the child’s father, then they go into a room we don’t see so we’re only left to imagine what she did to the kid. When Po then announces that he will be retiring as Dragon Warrior and will be passing the role and title down to someone else, Chameleon freaks out and does sorcery to make a deal with Tai Ling, Shen and Kai in the spirit world and make a deal with them: own their souls so she can bring them back, then she can let them face Po again and have him keep the title as Dragon Warrior. So yeah, that’s how I would write the Chameleon, just have her be a ground dead Taylor Swift fan only Kung Fu Panda.

They could have given her an actual good story for her Here's an example: The chameleon was born physically weak due to a genetic in her family, she wanted to learn kung fu but due to her physical weakness she was turned down by every dojo, she was ridiculed by people around her for thinking she could learn kung fu because of her weakness. One day, she kills someone with a dagger after a harasser takes it too far, she then confesses to her parents and was kicked out of her house, she was then found by a young Shen and was given pity by him, Shen figured that helping her would benefit him in the future, he teached the chameleon a forbidden technique of shape-shifting created by a chameleon kung fu master and Shen teached her his own fighting style while utilising the chameleon's abilities. When she grew up she learned a special spell created by Kai without the use of chi to create a replica of a spirit that she can control. This prompted her to summon Tai Lung in order to wreck chaos amonst China and then we the furios five and po find out Tai Lung is wrecking havoc somewhere in China then then the furious five and po go to find tai lung and in the boss fight with her she manages to learn a technique that would allow her to copy kung fu styles, this would allow her to gain an advantage by reading her opponents attack, then Po out of desperation uses his chi to create the golden dragon with his staff finishing chameleon off. Also Po should have kept the cape and clothes he got when he went true dragon warrior mode or whatever.

Since they plan for a new trilogy, they legit could’ve had the Chameleon’s reason for her learning and mimicking Kung Fu from the masters, be because she wants to protect her city from an upcoming threat. She’s an empress/queen that gets word of a potential invasion (be it across China or just some nearby city coming after her city), fearing her armies not being enough and not wanting to seem like the “cowardly leader who sends others to fight for them”, she attempts to learn as much Kung Fu as she can. However, she’s desperate to perfect her skills and starts kidnapping Kung Fu masters and forces them to fight her as she has them serve as training dummies, even tapping into the afterlife to learn from Masters who have passed on. She gets lost in her pursuit for power, always fearing she’s not strong enough for the upcoming invasion from this unknown threat. Said threat could be explored in the sequel. It’d show us what the Chameleon was afraid of. Hell, they could’ve made the “chameleon” into something more memorable, like “Queen Kamilia” or “Empress Kamilia.” But nah, the main director says “Fuck it” to art. I guess it’ll be a gamble if they even decide to act like any of this movie happened in KFP5; a bigger gamble on whether they can even play off of it well. Unless they do a remake of this movie with the co-director leading this time?

the Chameleon had so much potential, they just didn't use it they never established how long ago it was when she tried to join a kung fu school, they never explained exactly how she learnt such ancient magic there was so much potential for this final villain

As a Kai's fun I see this as a total win (now he is no longer the weakeast writted villain)

The reason that the chameleon did nothing was because she couldn’t do anything. Not until she had the staff. I feel like that’s kind of why the movie was RUSHING to get to the point where Zhen gives the staff to the chameleon. And honestly, that could’ve been fine if that’s where the movie KICKED OFF. BUT THAT’S IN THE LAST QUARTER.

Tai Lung's backstory: Shifu's former student who destroyed a town because he didn't become the Dragon Warrior AND beat Shifu in a fight. Lord Shen's backstory: Obliterated almost all pandas in China. Kai's backstory: Oogway's old friend who then betrays him and steals all the kung-fu master's chi to escape the Spirit Realm. Chameleon's backstory: Mastered the arts of pushing strangers down the stairs.

Here is what I thought. How about connect Tigress to the Chameleon. We get an idea that Tigress possibly has somewhat of a tragic past in KFP 2.

*Tai Lung:* "My father lied to me my entire life... Promising a title I was never destined to claim..." *Lord Shen:* "I did what I could to stop my fate.When my parents found out what I had done... They banished me." *General Kai:* "My best friend that I loved like a brother betrayed me and let my memory die..." *The Chamaleon:* "I'm small🤪"

Chameleon: I too came from humble beginnings and dreamed of becoming something more. I wanted respect and power. I wanted to be a master of kung fu. I was turned away from every training hall I went to. They would say I was too small, too lowly, and that kung fu was not my destiny. And so, I chose a different path...sorcery. I grew, I excelled, and I got everything I ever dreamed of. Po: ... That makes NO sense. Chameleon: My motive doesn't HAVE to make sense, you fool! *Shapeshifts into Po form*

Did you know that Kung Fu Panda 4 was first considered as a live-action/animation hybrid? And no, i am not kidding. This concept made me laugh so hard

*Tai Lung: Effortlessly defeats 1000 guards in 2 minutes, by himself!* *Lord Shen: Horrifically and disturbingly commits genocide!* *Kai: Easily takes the Chi of every other kung fu master and destroys the jade palace!* Chameleon: Gently pushes someone down the stairs

There was also a HUGE plot hole in this movie: how was Kai alive in the spirit realm?! Didn't Po completely vanquished him in KFP3 in the spirit realm? Also, where the hell was master oogway when the Chameleon summoned every kung fu masters from the spirit realm?!

Imagine if chameleon is obsessed over a destiny that she will become the greatest villain, that she's too far fixated on that future to the point of lunacy, chaos and possibly genocide instead of finding another purpose in life than just that. Compare to the previous villains that avoid or deny their destiny she is willing to continue on that path even if it kills her.

since Tai lung was a test for Po’s physical strength, Shen for mental strength, and Kai for spiritual strength, they shouldve made Chameleon a test for emotional strength

po couldve taken the chameleon down anytime if you think about it😭 the villain had so much potential but it flopped with a one tap from a stick…

It's now my personal head-canon that Kung-fu Panda 4 is only canon to that god-awful Dragon-Knight series on Netflix and not the original trilogy.

I was really excited to see Tai Lung again and for the most part i wasnt disappointed. The idea of him coming to respect Po and accept him as the dragon warrior really threw me but then I thought about how long he spent in the spirit realm, he could have had plenty of time to come to terms with what happened and could have even met with oogway. But they didnt give us anything on what i thought could have been a great plot point and redemption ark which i know a lot of people wanted. Bringing him back could have worked really well but they didnt do much with it.

Here’s my interpretation of the Chameleon’s backstory: The Chameleon, (renamed to Bian-Xing cause it sounds much cooler) lived alongside her royal family, consisting of a mother, a father, and a younger sister (named Li-Mei). Bian-Xing's parents had insane expectations for her, as they practically forced her to become an expert at kung-fu as they supposedly saw "greatness" within her, whereas her sister, Li-Mei, was forced down the road of becoming a medicine doctor, due to her compassionate nature towards others. To put a long story short, Bian-Xing was unsuccessful when it came to learning kung-fu. Due to her scrawny size and strength, she was constantly tormented by countless students, both physically and mentally. Even some of the masters seemed to look down upon her, disowning her for not living up to their view of "expectations", before dismissing her without second thought. And every dojo she visited was the same horrific scenario replayed over and over and over again. And every time she came home beaten and bruised, her parents would always berate her for continuously failing. Bian-Xing tried to convince her parents that kung-fu clearly wasn't meant for her, and that she'd be much happier doing something else that she would rejoice in doing, but her unyielding parents refused to let her steer away from a destiny that she clearly was not fit for. As for Li-Mei, she was vastly successful when it came to studying therapeutics, meaning that she earned a lot more praise from her parents. However, she never took part in the scolding that Bian-Xing commonly received, as she felt great sympathy for her elder sister, but she also rarely spoke, nor tried to console her, as she feared that any act of supportiveness may have caused her parents to look down upon her as well. Completely sick and tired of their daughter’s constant failures, Bian-Xing’s parents gave the unfortunate soul one final chance to prove her worth. And if she failed, they would ultimately expel her from the family entirely. Drained of any positive thought whatsoever, Bian-Xing slumped her way towards the only dojo that hadn’t trained her yet. That is, until she took a wrong turn, and found herself wandering through the remnants of a fallen settlement, which she then stumbled across a dusty, antique-looking book, half-buried within the rubble. But this was no ordinary book. It was a spellbook, mainly used by wielders of sorcery many centuries ago. Seeing an opportunity to escape from this endless cycle of suffering, Bian-Xing took it upon herself to master kung-fu through a different approach, sorcery - to which she was a fast learner. Within a few hours, Bian-Xing had become a force to be reckoned with. And with that, she confidently marched towards the final dojo, hoping that her unique talent would be praised by others, and that she’d finally get the love and recognition she deserved. But, upon displaying her newfound mystical powers to everyone, she was immediately rejected - as in the master’s point of view, this was the “incorrect way” of learning the art of kung-fu, even going as so far as calling Bian-Xing a “witch” due to the fact that in the past, sorcery hadn’t exactly been used for righteousness, instead being used for conquest and other wicked deeds. Upon making her way back to her house, Bian-Xing was met with an onslaught of hysteric screaming by her parents, but not because she had been rejected, but because they had learned about their daughter’s change of path. Apparently, Li-Mei was deeply concerned about her older sister, and decided to pluck up her courage and go in search of her, in order to give her a full on prep talk to try and raise her sister’s confidence. However, she wound up discovering Bian-Xing's new obsession with sorcery, as she watched on in awe and shock, her big sister too engrossed with enchantment to notice Li-Mei. Too afraid to say anything, Li-Mei rushed back to her home to tell her parents about what Bian-Xing was plotting, sending her parents into a state of unparalleled rage. What followed was a vicious argument between both parents and their troubled daughter. Bian-Xing yelled about how they had forced her to become something that she clearly was not, whereas her parents roared back at her, calling her a failure, how virtually worthless she was, and other monstrous insults. Reaching her breaking point, Bian-Xing lashed out, her dark magic imbued with her anger - and in her frenzy, ended up fatally wounding her mother. Enraged, her father flew into combat, and both father and daughter duelled together in a brutal fight, as Li-Mei tried tending to her mother’s wounds, but to no avail. Despite how merciless she fought, Bian-Xing could not take down her father, leading to her father confining her to far beyond the village in which she was raised from. Filled with bitterness, Bian-Xing swore to prove her family wrong about her being weak. She would find a way to become truly perfect, to live up to their expectations. And with that, she left without another word, leaving her sister and father to grief the loss of their mother, as they too started to feel immense regret for their actions. As for Bian-Xing, she had learned about a spell of unfathomable proportions that was never performed, even by masters of sorcery. This spell could only be performed on the night of a blood moon, and it also involved the use of a legion’s worth of Chi, but if executed successfully, then the user’s body would convert into one that would rival gods, as well as their strength, fundamentally turning them into a “perfect being”. For the next 30 years, Bian-Xing travelled to various locations, where she’d siphon the life force and Chi of countless masters, often relying on the art of shapeshifting to lure her prey into a false sense of security, before killing them. Eventually, her desire to obtain enough energy for the sacred ritual landed her in the heart of Juniper City, where she formed a great army of crooks and thieves, demanding them to seek out the strongest masters of China and bring them to her to be used as fuel for the upcoming ritual. And as the date of the blood moon crept closer, Bian-Xing would grow more and more demanding, going to extreme measures, such as using her dark magic to open portals to the Spirit Realm in order to obtain more Chi from fallen masters of the past, including those who have threatened the well-being of China, including the ferocious Tai Lung (who ends up escaping from Bian-Xing before his powers can be absorbed) However, during the final week before the blood moon, Bian-Xing is visited by a familiar face, that being her younger sister, Li-Mei, who had recently heard word of the atrocities that Bian-Xing was committing, and decided to take matters into her own hands, feeling somewhat responsible for her older sister’s rampage, she decided to go and try and comfort Bian-Xing, to try and talk her out of all this madness. But Bian-Xing refused to listen. In fact, she was so blinded by wrath that she even attempted to eradicate her younger sister at first glance, but after realising that Li-Mei was the only person in her life who never criticised her, she ultimately spared her life, even providing her free estate within her fortress. (Seeing as the father of the family had perished a while ago due to an unknown illness) Perhaps a small piece of compassion still lurked within the magic-wielding maniac after all the years of anguish she went through. With the blood moon just days away, Bian-Xing has set her eyes on The Valley Of Peace, which contains just enough Chi for the ritual to be accomplishable. Sending the most supreme bandits of the city to complete the task, she hopes to prove over her parents' dead bodies that she can live up to their expectations, and that she isn’t a failure. However, one fatal flaw in letting a certain snow leopard escape from her clutches may throw a wrench in her diabolical plans…

Fun fact that I actually find to be really cool about her: the art team used AI inspiration to make her transformation process uncanny. And it works! You can see the inspiration from AI in her skin especially as she transforms. That is how AI SHOULD be used. Not to generate content, but to be used as a tool to assist.

oogway wasn't scared of tai lung, he was afraid of his destructive capability and shfu's relationship with him, also po wasn't cast as the dragon warrior to defeat tai lung. It was that po could unite the future and past of kung fu. Not to mention the 'prison' tai lung escaped from was specifically made for him, with booby traps and hundreds of guards by shifu's orders

Lord Shen and Tai Lung were just amazing villains

I just wanna comment on the thumbnail. The fact it dosent even show shens face but just the symbol on his tail feathers and we ALL know who he is just by his fethers shows how good of a villain he is. Just felt the need to say that

For the Chameleon's backstory, I don't know how they would fix this one. All previous villains had a betray story but honestly that might get tiresome and the Chameleon doesn't really have any connections with the OG characters. So instead the writers could have just let the Chameleon be a menace like Death from Puss In Boots. Death doesn't really have a backstory, he just enjoys torturing Puss. The Chameleon might have a weak backstory, but they could have saved her by letting her be a menace to Zhen. Honestly I felt like the "plot twist" of Zhen being the Chameleon's disciple was lame asf. Instead of this, let Zhen have PTSD of the Chameleon and reveal that the town n palace that the Chameleon has taken over, was her home. Reveal that the Chameleon has killed her parents n used shape shifting to pose as them to make them look bad. Have the town hate on Zhen's family for betraying them and explain why Zhen had no choice but to be a thief since the only one who would care for her are thieves. As for how Po n Zhen will meet, have a different thief order Zhen to steal stuff from the Jade Palace and Zhen explain to Po on who is cosplaying as Tai Lung. However Zhen is hesitant to join with Po since the Chameleon still haunts her but Po makes a deal with Zhen. She could stay in prison for a long time or could get a lighter sentence. Zhen have no choice but to say ya and goes with Po. Skipping to Po n Zhen going to the Chameleon's lair. Both characters enters in the Chameleon's lair and confronts the Chameleon. The Chameleon plays around with Po n Zhen by glazing how powerful she is thxs to her steeling all the masters chi (Including Oogway), how she took over the city, and her goal. Po starts fighting the Chameleon but he gets overwhelmed by her shape kung fu stealing powers. Meanwhile the Chameleon tortures Zhen by shape shifting into Zhen's late parents n even friends. Zhen would be shaking but Po stands in to comfort her. The Chameleon kicks both of their asses and sends them off the cliff. Obviously both characters are alive but Po calms Zhen down and tells her how he dealt with his past trama. Then he gives Zhen advice or lesson that she's used to overcome the Chameleon. Skipping to the end, Po n Chameleon starts to fight but the Chameleon overpowers him again n this time, she steals his chi. Zhen got the wisdom staff n is the only one who can stop Chameleon. Chameleon gets cocky by transforming into Zhen's parents again and keeps remembering her past. However Zhen overcomes her fear and use the staff of wisdom to blast the Chameleon. Unknowingly by the Chameleon, that blast has helped regain all the master's chi and Zhen will serve as a distraction so Po could free all the masters. Chameleon beats Zhen and breaks the staff of wisdom. Chameleon ask Zhen how could she stop her and then Po answers the Chameleon's question with his army of masters behind his back. Every master gets to box the Chameleon and basically the ending is the same. Only thing is that Tai Lung n Oogway have a meaningful conversation with Po and then dip back to the Spirit realm with the Chameleon. Zhen announces the truth about the Chameleon and restores her home, but this time let the city find a new ruler or something that will make the citizens be happy. Then at the end, Po becomes a mentor for Zhen and trains her at the birth place of Kung Fu, just like how Shifu done it. I don't know if this is the best change and there could be better improvements but this is all I got to make Zhen n Chameleon a little more interesting. Side note = As for Shifu n Furious Five, they all should have been in that Chameleon fight, especially Shifu since he could have gotten a meaningful moment with Tai Lung. Biggest missed opportunity about this movie imo but still this film got alot more problems tbh.

After learning the behind the scenes drama around the film i can see why 4 felt so much like a. Nothing burger

Chamelia would’ve been a better villain name

Messages in every movie KFP 1: The Body KFP 2: The Mind KFP 3: The Spirit KFP 4: The Maturity, Redemption, Forgiveness

Haven’t watched the video yet but here’s some ways to improve her that come to mind: 1) Give her a more threatening introduction. Have her threaten a henchman’s life instead of just pushing one down some stairs. Have her be petty and cruel, show just how dangerous she could be. 2) Have her be more of a mystery. How is Tai Lung back? Who is this person? Keep that something that’s not just explained to us 20 minutes into the movie. At least wait like 40 minutes in and have Po come to it at least somewhat on his own. 3) Either actually elaborate on her sympathetic backstory or don’t give her one. You can have a tragic complex villain or you could have a ludicrously evil one. Hell Shen did both but with her I’d say she should be one or the other. 4) If she’s just pure evil I’d say make her more comedic and over the top. Give her funnier lines and give her a better dynamic with po. 5) If she’s tragic give her a better motive than “I wasn’t tall enough” which is already contradictory. Have her be failed by Kung Fu masters, have her want to show them their methods are wrong, have her be a narcissist who couldn’t take rejection and bullshited a story idk. 6) Better develop her relationship with Awkwafina’s character. Or just don’t include it and leave out the liar reveal story either way she’d be better.

Haven't watched the movie... but an idea comes to mind. The Chameleon steal Po's powers from the start and he's forced to train a new dragon warrior. His new student will not only replace him but help him get his powers back.

A villainous shape shifter should've been really exciting to write about. I've had some of my own ideas on what this villaness could have done or what she could have been after and how she could have used her powers throughout the film to terrorize the heroes. Instead, I believe this movie was one of those "made by committee" types we've been suffering a lot from in films (pretty sure it began with Disney's Starwars), whether live action or animated or otherwise. Whatever they think makes money by poorly rehashing, or at least covers any laundering. Also, the story and especially the fox girl and chameleon and the fox girl's criminal friends all WREAK of being from some kid's fan fiction. Any fan fiction writer, new or old, has had that one specific piece they wrote very early into their fan writing career. The one they wrote and published online and thought it was really cool, but then some time later, they realized it was so cringe that it haunts them in their thoughts until it's either destroyed or heavily revised.

I felt like The Chameleon was just a repeat of Shen but with Kai’s powers. A lot of her story with taking over the city and her army, and wanting to take all of China felt reminiscent of Shen in KFP2. So did her personality, tbh. It just felt like they gave Shen Kai’s powers and then got rid of everything that made either character menacing

You guys don't get it, the real villain from KFP4 isn't the chameleon *It's Mike Mitchell, the Director of Chaos*

“Annoying panda, I am the great Leon!”

They didn’t even try to build hype for this movie that I forgot about it within a week

I had a dream that zhen WAS the chameleon. Like almost like a twist villain. But more like po was hanging/befriending the villain the whole time.

TAI LUNG- Mastered 1000 scrolls of Kun fu LORD SHEN- Developed the most powerful weapon to ever exist GENERAL KAI- Defeated every Kun fu master including Ooguay and took their Chi the chameleon- couldn't even stand the little dragon staff move from Zhen (not even PO)

The Chameleon had so much potential as a villain. But the director took that potential… and pushed it down the stairs.

I keep laughing when you say "She threw a person down the stairs" LMAO!

This is great! The chameleon is a villain even worse than Malekith from Thor 2. Here's how I would rewrite her based on your ideas. Since the chameleon was a child, she was chased and kicked out of every village she went to due to her appearance and shapeshifting powers. One time, while wandering the world, she chanced upon a kung fu master meditating on a mountain, and asked to be his apprentice (disguised as a fox). There she learned everything he knew, to an alarming degree. almost as if she could mimic his moves upon barely seeing them once. The master investigated, and discovered her true form, a chameleon, causing her to get kicked out again. Heartbroken that the one person who had mercy for her had betrayed her, she burned down his monastery and killed him. Thrilled at the power this victory gave her, she killed several other masters, learning their techniques until she could create her own style of kung fu, unable to be breached by most traditional styles. She started to teach her ways to other outcasts and rejects from society, like Zhen. She brainwashes them to be ruthless killers, and one time, when Po visits a village on a mission, the chameleon sends Zhen to lure Po into Juniper City where she can achieve the highest victory there is to obtain: killing the Dragon Warrior. Here, Zhen goes on a character arc of breaking free from the cycle of violence and past trauma (in her case, societal rejection, orphanhood and poverty) with Po as they go to Juniper city, a city rife with crime, corrupt cops, a terrible legal system, and the Chameleon, who rules the city from the shadows.

How can she be better? she can jump of a cliff with sharp pointy rocks at the bottom, surrounded by lava, and just 5 feet away from it, kai, tailung and shen are all eating popcorn waiting for her to jump.

hey at least it didn't get the Megamind 2 treatment could've been worse

KFP1,2, and 3 is For Youngsters and Adults, where 4 is Specifically just made for Childrens

There’s a lot of things for this movie to work perfectly, we need to do something to get a time machine

The fact her shapeshifting sorcery is Only used at the end and the Chi power are just ....That? Like Bro she could've been EVERYONE Po met make her shape shifting Naruto Clones and you get a whole Trauma dump Plot to be available -yet again inspired by another commenter on the internet

Off topic but I wish tai lung had a Darth Vader/ Anakin sky walker type redemption, where Tai lung instead of Disappearing for the rest of the film after Chameleon takes his Chi, he instead works for the chameleon so he won’t be locked up in prison, so he would redeem himself after realizing that Po is the dragon warrior, and teams up with him and Zhen to defeat the chameleon. But that’s probably just me personally.

Also I would like to add what did Mantis say in Kung Fu Panda 1? “Who am I to judge a warrior by his size? I mean look at me.”

i think the chameleon would be an interesting villain if her backstory and what her final confrontation would be with our hero. The Chameleon in her past was a fan of kung fu like Po, she was rather meek and weak compared to other lizards of her own kind, but she belived that with her determination and grit she could become a master of Kung fu. However she was rejected from every temple and master she turned to to want to learn their skill. As she just coulden't be a kung fu master, she was too weak, too frail and she should give up on that dream. Now as she had getting constant rejection and being made fun of due to her small build and weakness, she insted started to turn the passion into aggression and hate. As she insted went into the study of the arts of kung fu, while she could never physicly contend with any master. she could insted learn of their abilities. the sorceries and magic involveing the techniques. She there developed her own shapeshifting ability. cause if she coulden't be a master herself. she would just steal their physical form and techniques. Her whole questline being " Ill take my right as a master, ill show them wrong!". Plus it would be interesting to see if the Chameleon would also be really insecure about her real form and how weak it is. The final would could be that she might have the same form of Po it does not fully translate into the actual skill of the person. just mere imitations. So she in desperation uses her magics to call upon more then one form and it goes kinda wrong in some way. as she mixes the previous forms into some sort of amalgimations of them as her mind is visably straining to remain in control of herself as she starts being more demented and delusional while proclaiming her own power (the amalgam form would be rather demonic due to the mix of the forms). Her defeat would be she gets beaten into submission or well killed due to her power running rampant as she loses control of herself and sends the building down on herself in her animalistic rampage. she does survive the debre but she is reverted back to her original self, just beaten and now broken mentaly due to the amalgam form just was too much for her mind to handle as she seems to mumble inchoherent words. She later gets locked away and keept in a sedated state like Tai-lung just that she is asleep and not paralyzed but one can still hear her mumbeling to herself.

My favorite part of this movie was Tai Lung holding the chameleon like a half empty gogurt tube.

i count 6 scenes, the opening scene, the scene that turns into po's dream, the scene where she makes it into the other crime family heads or something, her and po initial encounter, that one scene where she walks down the stairs with the fox and final battle. probably more. oh yeah theres also the scene where she waits for the red moon to rise. like is she dumb to not know that the moon rises very slowly in real time

I actually payed attention to her driving force although I’ve seen it only once . she wanted to conquer China as well through the force of all the kung fu abilities she stole. It’s through the dialogue of the bandits that she hid among that she just happened to take over the city in which she and Zhen lived in. She though wanted to over take more cities and villages she revealed herself as one city was not enough for her. Even in Po’s dream that acted as a vision, he finds out that this is her main goal.

It's so frustrating to see these millions of dollars worth of special effects and performances, but not really bother to put effort into the plot and writing that acts as the foundation for all the other elements of the movie to build around.

For story reasons, I think the final fight should have been the middle of the movie and Po loses against the Chameleon. This way we really get to fear the chameleon, and then the furious five can come in the third act and help Po save the day

Here's a better backstory for the chameleon: in a village far away there lived the chameleon almost everything t was peaceful and pure that all changed when a war broke out.Many were injured others didn't survive. The chameleons father died in the war and her mother got killed whilst protecting her. Her broken heart when she was supposed to be warm and cozy she was left to die in the cold abandoned used to be lively village. In a fit of anger of what they took from her the chameleon discovered witch craft and with her cold heart and the manifestation of her trauma she became the shapshifer. She massacred hundreds of villages one by one.Redirecting her trauma to them (just like shen) Her lust for blood and power drove her crazy wanting nothing else but suffering she scarded millions of people and killed millions of innocent lives she just wanted everyone to feel what she feeled. To satisfy her hunger for revenge.copy right by iceteas alt acc

Excellent video dude! I agree, a good/well written villain doesn't have to tell us they are a villain, they show us with their actions. Good to see the algorithm showing your channel love, well deserved!

I know very little about Chinese culture/mythology and history but here is my backstory for the chameleon All the animal clans lived in harmony with one another as each clan had their own unique attributes. The Chameleon clan were known for practising magic they also helped other clans practice it. A Young chameleon took a liking to learning magic as she heard stories of highly respected Kung Fu masters, so she aspired to become a magic user. However this backfired as rumours from other members of the animal clan began to poison the image of the Chameleon clan. Even some Kung Fu masters made up lies about the chameleons being an evil race that used dark magic for nefarious intent, keeping it for themselves and desiring to consume other animals. The chameleon clan eventually became shunned and ill-treated by the rest of the animal clan, leaving them with nothing but an impenetrable desert. This angered the young chameleon and she desired to liberate her clan by religiously practising sorcery to achieve shapeshifting abilities in order to deceive each of the animal clans by disguising herself as their leaders and take their chi to help her clan rule over China in the name of liberation for the chameleon clan. Po and the furious five must stop the effects of her deception as chameleon has divided each clan from each other causing war and strife to unite the clans to together again. Then maybe near the end tai lung can own up to his mistakes in his redemption arc by helping po and tigress during the battle with chameleon as she shapeshifts into shen, Kai, including himself. Po would probably convince tigress to become the next dragon warrior be she refuses and gives it to Tai lung instead since he's shown how he's capable through his redemption.

So much potential with a character that can change faces. They could literally rule the world with the right faces, and orchestrate events. Maybe even make up fortunes and legends, making Po's entire existence a lie.

I think anothing thing that makes her bad in my opinion is that we dont really see her in action. For every villain, theres a moment where they can demonstrate their powers. Tai lung escaping the prison Shen defeating master ox and croc and killing master rhino(or the whole genocide thing) Kai defeating oogway. And they have more moments of them signifing them as acutal threats The chameleon doesn't really have these moments. At most, she pushes someone down sone stairs(how scary). Which is a damn shame. With her ablity to take any form she wants along with her other sorcery. I can imagine a lot of cool fight scenes with her despite her not knowing kung fu

I think the idea was that she wanted to learn kung fu, but couldn’t

Here's my take on the Chameleon: She was pressured into kung fu from a young age by her domineering father, who was a once promising young warrior crippled in battle, who wanted to continue the fight through his daughter. He isolated her from other children and trained her ruthlessly, berating her for the slightest mistake. Her body and mind pushed to the limits, the Chameleon snapped and killed him in a fit of rage. But the damage had been done. Chameleon developed a massive inferiority-superiority complex, believing that she could never succeed as a master as herself. So she resorted to travelling across China, murdering kung fu masters and absorbing their chi. Not only that, she would take on their identities in order to avoid suspicion, to the point even those closest to them were fooled. This in turn allowed Chameleon to drain their chi, right under their noses. She grew so powerful that she was able to manipulate the chi of the dead, bringing them back into the living world. Not only would it serve as a dark parallel to Po and Shifu's relationship, but also Zhen, in how both she and the Chameleon mask their true selves.

My first red flag is that PO in the opening of the movie in story rejected the premise of the movie 🤣

I think we all knew the movie was going to be mid when those bunnies came up, but the final nail on the coffin was the fart joke. This movie was directed by the same person who made Trolls. It really reeks of that energy the first Trolls movie had. Honestly, while the third Kung Fu Panda movie was not perfect, I still think it pulled General Kai off really well. The design, backstory, and his entrance theme were really great. When he was a threat when he needed to be taken seriously. I like that he is comedic because it makes him stand out. In the end, while some see this movie as mid, and others see this as a disappointing disgrace to the franchise, I just see completely wasted potential. I feel bad for the writers and animators because they wanted to share amazing ideas but were held back by stupid, greedy executives. Gods, Dreamworks is becoming the new Disney. I hope they clean up their act soon.

There seems to be a lack of purpose with her. The best villains need not have a physical connection to the characters, but a mental connection to them. There is only one easy way to do this. 1. What does your protagonist want? 2. Why is the protagonist struggling to achieve this? 3. The villain should embody the struggles of the hero, and offer an alternative interpretation to the character’s failings. Example: Kung fu Panda 2 . 1. Po wants to find peace with himself 2. Po doesn’t understand what that means or why it’s worth anything to “find peace”. 3. Shen not only embodies what Po is struggling with( childhood trauma), but also offers a tantalizing counter perspective on dealing with it (push away your problems and fears indiscriminately). As for any other way you want the story to go, the message, it doesn’t really matter, because the dynamic is already conceptually interesting. We must also remember though that another big part of enjoyment is a viewer’s connection with the message, don’t alienate them either.

They were close to having her work with her dynamic with Zhen, but they just didn't do enough with it. Aside from changing it so that she pushes the guy at the start of the movie off a cliff to his death instead of just down the stairs, I don't actually think she necessarily needs to do any extra evil deeds in the movie she didn't already do. Instead, we should've focused more on the psychological impacts she's had on Zhen. She's sort of leaning into a Frollo/Mother Gothel direction as is, and I think that a cold manipulator is a great fit for a chameleon villain.

I think something that would’ve been cool is if they did something a bit more with her sorcery. What I’m thinking, is that she’s able to craft a weapon of sorts that’s similar to the spiritual staff Po has and manages to use it at the START of the film to take out Tai lung either on or off screen. Then throughout the film, we cut to her going against Lord shen and perhaps the two have an exchange about Po before she takes his power too (which. Btw, idk if he would rlly be fully useful for Kung fu draining but that’s just me) From there she learns a bit more about Po himself and perhaps she uses it against him in some way before trapping him and moving on to the biggest bad, Kai. For this one she struggles a lot more, but eventually sneaks herself the chance to drain his skills too. And at the end, Po’s needed to be dealt with her as a villain, who frankly, wouldn’t be much based on what we actually got. And then (as a what if) she loses her powers and they return to the villains. Shen and Kai are ready to beat down on a weakened Po, but then Zhen and TAI LUNG team up with Po to send the two back to the spirit realm, Tai Lung yeets the chameleon in there with em, and Po grants Tai Lung the freedom to live in the world again as he has truly changed and embraced Po as a spiritual leader, and perhaps even gives Zhen a second pardon to be Dragon Warrior. Overall. My take on the film. Tho frankly, her teaming up with the villains would’ve been just as cool but, I dunno lol. Lots of this idea is choppy but then again, I did think of this all just now lol

I do like everything about the movie, except the chameleon. It’s because all of her goals are pointless. Wanting to hurt people like Po, that had nothing to do with her. Stealing money that does not belong to her. Like why do everybody take it from this Gal. She’s small, and your big. Like if she keep on with her pointless goals, and that’s how one day people would stand up to her. Cause she’s nothing but a greedy evil little Brat that cares nothing but herself. Glad she got what she deserved in the end. In the Novel I read that The Spirit Realm Masters punish her by playing skipping rope with her tongue. Well that’s all I have to say.

my problem with her is motivation. She was rejected just because she was small (so Shifu and Mantis and Viper aren't small, huh?), my idea for motivation would be like this: dishonorability. And what do I mean by that? Her motivation would be the same as it was except in the different way, as every master rejected not because of her small physic, but because they thought her camouflaging ability is cheating and dishonorable. Even if the reasoning of her rejection isn't as interesting and as great as other comments' ideas, it's still been better than what we got.

Shen scared me to the point where I didn’t want to watch his film when I first saw it lol, his film is definitely one of the best out of all of them, but Tai lung will always be my favourite villain.

They saw everyone comparing Death to the Kung Fu Panda villains and completely ignored what made all of them great.

I think I have an idea on they could’ve made this better. 1) I would give her the backstory in the streets and betraying that group. That could give her a reason to crave power and want to be the strongest. 2) That fox grows up normally, until she is abducted by the chameleon at a young age and manipulated into doing her bidding. 3) The chameleon could capture the five, which would reveal her to be a threat. The wolf girl could be there too, and the chameleon then orders her to go get the staff. 4) Have the chameleon team up with the old villains to take over the world. That would make her an even bigger threat, and Po would have to team up with the five, the fox girl, other kung fu masters, etc.

This movie feels like an episode from legends of awesomeness

I felt she fell flat the moment I realized her deal was absorb chi and steal others powers for herself, she was in essence Kai 2.0, but without the things that made Kai funny and memorable, sure, the reason is different and unlike Kai she can give us a Po vs Po, but to steal the chi of others and then use their kung fu against your enemies? that was Kai's whole deal, sure, he didn't transform but he used their kung fu in the form of the Jade Zombies, so even her power feels nothing special On that note, how the heck was Kai even there? Didn't his spirit explode or something? Like his whole deal was that he couldn't get skidush'ed because guy was already an spirit, so when Po made him explode no spirit should have remained, what happened there?

A name for one, a tragic backstory for two, and a signature weapon for three.

1:42 it’s not about screen-time. It is about presence. Lobo (Death) from Puss in Boots did not have lots of screen time but when he was on screen, boy did he take over the scene and command presence. Multiple elements go into giving your villain the presence they need to be a worthwhile villain, in which was poorly executed with the Chameleon. The iconic whistle is just one of those many elements which give Lobo the presence he needed despite the minimal runtime he had on screen. And you feel his presence throughout the film because they correctly set him up as not just a mere character but a force of nature in the world of puss in boots, one from which you cannot run from but must eventually confront.

watching the scene of them pushing the guy down the stairs gave me big Lloyd wanting to be evil but failing miserably vibes