YMMV / Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Sir Alfred have a case of Came Back Wrong when he became the villain in the third season or was he already developing his Knight Templar views even before his death? During his flashback scenes when he was still alive, we saw no indication he was abandoning his knightly code so it's possible that the afterlife really did traumatize him enough to radicalize his beliefs. Alternately, there's an equally valid case to be made that there was already trouble in paradise due to Foreshadowing where he planned on using the Tianshang weapons for himself since he forged his sword from the second Storm Wheel and his time spent with Akna in Central America where he saw first hand how a code of chivalry wasn't enough to stop people like Zuma. Finally, a third interpretation is that he was slowly beginning to realize that a knight's code wasn't totally effective in helping others but still stayed in a philosophical "middle ground" where he judged whether matters required knightly morals on a case-by-case basis and it was ultimately his death and subsequent trauma in the afterlife that completely pushed him over the edge.
• Ass Pull: In the second season episode "The Beast", Luthera confides in Po that she has a hyper-aggressive, competitive dark side that other children used to call the "Beast" when she was growing up, and she unleashes it during the ball game against the Blood Boys. None of the previous episodes in either the first or second season indicate that she has such a dark Enemy Within, she only becomes the "Beast" in this single episode and it's never brought up again afterwards, having no relevance or bearing on the rest of the show or her character arc.
• Badass Decay: Many fans weren't too keen on watching Po struggle constantly against basically every foe in the series (even some who don't seem all that threatening next to the likes of Tai Lung, Lord Shen and Kai) and some of his personality being perceived as having been flanderized instead of following up on some of his growth in Kung Fu Panda 3 making him look less like the Master he'd become and more like an overeager newbie as in the first film. Detractors decry this as feeling like Po's been "nerfed" just so the series can have a plot.
• Base-Breaking Character: Luthera/Wandering Blade has proven divisive. Some see her as an interesting new character with a cool design that expands the universe, while others see her as a one-note substitute for Tigress with none of the likability or nuance. Though some have softened on her after she Took a Level in Kindness in the second season.
• Complete Monster: "A Thread in the Dark": The High Priestess runs a small village in the outskirts, where she ostensibly helps travelers. In truth a cruel cannibal, the High Priestess runs a cult where innocents are taken to be harvested, murdered, and cannibalized by her and her followers, something she has done many times. Upon Veruca trying to save her brother Klaus with her sorcery, the High Priestess reveals she doesn't even believe in her own purported religion, murdering people for the sheer enjoyment.
• Die for Our Ship: While she's a divisive character overall, Luthera was particularly unpopular with TiPo shippers, with many seeing her as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Tigress and fearing that this series would pair Po with her instead. This backlash gradually died down as the show went on, and Luthera and Po's relationship was shown to be more Like Brother and Sister, with no hints of a romance between them.
• Funny Moments: In the first episode, Po boasts in his opening narration that he won Employee of the Month at the noodle shop seven years in a row.
  Mr. Ping: Oh, no! There was that one time-
  Po: But it wasn’t his fault!
• Growing the Beard: While it's not totally free of some minor criticisms, the second season of the show is more widely agreed upon to be better than the first for Luthera being fleshed out into a more likable character, seeing Po adventure to more exotic locations in India and Central America, having a more complex plot involving the Tianshang weapons, introducing a more interesting Big Bad Ensemble of villains with their own unique motives and characters, and Mr. Ping being given more development and an interesting backstory.
• Like You Would Really Do It: In the climactic final fight of the second season, Zuma kills Po with the power of three Tianshang weapons. However, considering Po is the flagship character of the franchise and the fact that there will be a fourth KFP movie coming out in 2024, Po's chances of staying dead were non-existent and he's revived thanks to Master Mastodon's sacrifice shortly after.
• Nightmare Fuel: When Klaus is injured, Veruca threatens a chow dog to take them to her village... only for the tables to be turned on them as it turns out this is a "cannibal" cult who routinely sacrifices men to their local goddess. Worse, the priestess accidentally reveals she doesn't actually believe in the goddess at all.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The possibility of Po losing his title of being Dragon Warrior has been brought up before in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness most notably in the episode "Challenge Day" where Shifu told Po if anyone defeats him in a duel before sundown, they'll become the new Dragon Warrior. However, it was merely a prank played on Po by Shifu and Po was never in any real danger of losing his title. In this series, Po losing his title is ''real'' this time around.
  • Likewise, this isn't the first time the KFP franchise has had foreign villains. In Legends of Awesomeness, we were introduced to Kira Kozu, a clam from Japan and Kim the Invincible, a warrior hippo whose origins were unknown but was explicitly not from China. However, those two were one-time villains. In this series, the foreign villains actually take prominence in the story and aren't minor villains this time around.
• Strangled by the Red String: The third season reveals that Colin has secretly harboured a crush Blade, and thought Luthera herself tries to deny this, she immediately realizes that she reciprocates his feelings. Though there was a small fanbase shipping them due to their intense rivalry, the idea of them having genuine feelings for each other was was never hinted at in any of their previous interactions throughout the show.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Furious Five + Shifu are nowhere to be seen in the series. The exact reason for this is due to internal politics at DWA, but their absence is clear on a storytelling level since it is unlikely that they would have stood for Po's defamation. Alternatively, conflicting loyalties could have been explored, as could Tigress's contrast against Luthera, as the former underwent extensive Character Development.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The latter half of the third season involves Sir Alfred forcefully rejoining the continents into their original state of Pangea and keeping the population of the entire world under his oppressive rule. Despite the implied massive ramifications of this apocalyptic disaster, we never see how the Valley of Peace or any of the franchise's other main locations are affected by it, nor does Po ever seem concerned about what could have happened to his other friends back home.