- The flashback to Po's past in 2D animation makes Shen look like Satan.
- Pretty much the only time when the iconic squawk of an Indian Peafowl became genuinely terrifying — when he uses it to set the pogrom on the panda village in motion.
- (See Page Image) Then when Shen sees baby Po, he points at him and orders his wolves to "get them all!" Shows that he won't hesitate to kill a baby panda! In a kids' movie!
- It really, really doesn't help when you start to notice that Shen's sigil
◊ is eerily similar to the one◊ used by a particularly terrifying regime in one of the bloodiest periods in all Chinese history. It gets even worse when considering that the aforementioned regime used a horrible policy to deal with any rural areas in enemy hands, which often played out just like Shen's attack on the panda village. Lord Shen and his army are the in-universe equivalent of Imperial Japan! - There's also the brief moment where Po remembers the Wolf Boss chasing him and his mother in the woods, where the wolf is running on all fours, snarling and snaps his jaws at the infant Po. He no longer looks like an unhinged soldier but a purely feral animal out for blood.
- The opening narration where Shen is absolutely ecstatic about killing all the pandas is pretty creepy. The reaction of his parents when Shen bursts into the room with a look of sheer joy and excitement on his face is likely the same as the audience. It's very little wonder why they quickly decided to disown and exile him afterwards.
- Shen himself is an incredibly frightening and intimidating foe. Let that sink in for a second: DreamWorks Animation found a way to make a peacock, one of the goofiest and gaudiest-looking of all animalsnote , into a villain even more frightening and intimidating than Tai Lung, a snow leopard."The only reason you are still alive is that I find your stupidity...mildly amusing..."
- "Do you want to see? It's a gift! I mean it's your parting gift... in that it will "part" you. Part of you here, part of you there, part of you waaaay over there... staining the wall!"
- It's worth noting that right up until the very end of the film, Shen's cannons are portrayed as nothing less than indomitable. If you're hit by one directly, you will die.
- The camera cuts away from Shen and Master Rhino when the cannon goes off. The implication seems to be that Shen's weapon blew his head off because he tried to use his horn to block it.
- The way Shen delivers this sentence in particular is just dripping with evil glee. Gary Oldman deserves an award:Shen: Oh, you want to know so badly? You think knowing will heal you? Huh? Fill some...crater in your soul? Well, here's your answer: your parents didn't love you! But...here...let me heal you! (jumps on cannon and blasts Po away)
- Keep in mind, when saying that last line, he was also saying it to himself because he believes his parents didn't love him.
- The fact that all it takes for Shen to turn on his own men is the word "no" is upsetting, to say the least. He doesn't even hesitate, just stares at Wolf Boss in indignation for half a second before immediately killing him (onscreen!). It brings to mind how the sole reason he spared the Soothsayer was because she was his caretaker when he was a kid. This scene proves he would literally kill anyone else in a heartbeat, foe or ally, if he thought it would benefit him. Let that sink in for a moment.
- "I SAID FIRE AT THEM!! FIRE!!!!"
- The Wolf Boss' death is so fleetingly handled that makes it more unsettling. He was implied to be close friends with Shen in their early years. And yet here, the instant the Wolf Boss openly refuses to follow an order, Shen- without so much as a moment of hesitation- disdainfully flicks a knife through him, instantly bolts past his body, and continues his onslaught unfettered. There is no return focus to the Wolf Boss's corpse, or even passing mention of the character in the film again.
- The Wolf Boss's dispute that Shen killed him over, by the by, was the irredeemable refusal to open fire on their own troops: Shen was calling for his giant flagship cannon to be fired on Po and his crew, even if it also meant killing scores of the wolf army, who were still trying to hold them off and would be caught in the ensuing blast. It may or may not come as a shock that Shen, after killing the Wolf Boss, promptly fires the cannon himself.
- "Do you want to see? It's a gift! I mean it's your parting gift... in that it will "part" you. Part of you here, part of you there, part of you waaaay over there... staining the wall!"
- Tigress' glowing eyes during the boat scene is pretty creepy in itself. Note that this is a trait she shares with Tai Lung.
- There's also Tigress when talking about leaving Po in the dungeon for his own safety when going after Shen. When he starts refusing to do so, she shoots him one hell of a glare. Even if she is a good guy, that doesn’t mean she can’t come across as a little intimidating.
- The fact that the movie doesn't glaze over "death", much unlike the first one. Many times, the characters say "die", "kill" and "dead", which is unusual in children's films. The Wolf Boss is also killed onscreen with an audible stabbing sound.
- Also to note here is the fact that a children's movie started with a depiction of what's essentially genocide, even worse for viewers who know of what Shen represents.
- That horrific death glare Shen gives to Po after he falls onto a conveyor belt at his factory. He even tilts his head.
- Mantis casually confirming that the mating habits of mantisesnote still occurs in this World of Funny Animals, and that he's looking forward to it happening to him one day. Granted, this is seemingly Played for Laughs, but the fact that a sapient population engages in this sort of behavior pattern is still pretty creepy if you think about it. Arguably doubles as in-universe Nightmare Fuel, since a deleted scene would have had Mantis meet a female mantis at a bar and hit it off with her, only to flee when the reality of what that relationship would ultimately mean for him sunk in.
