Who is the dragon knight supposed to be for?

Hey, guys. I know we’re supposed to be continuing on with seinfeld & rest assured we will get to that next week but I just could not pass up the opportunity to talk about what is undoubtedly one of the weirdest franchise decisions ever made. You probably had no idea this even existed but the legend of kung fu panda continues in the form of the dragon knight, a new series recently dropped on netflix.

So you may be asking yourself, as a kfp fan, why am I just hearing about this now? Well, for one thing the marketing was essentially nonexistent & honestly I doubt anyone has had much investment in the franchise since legends of awesomeness concluded back in 2016. & truthfully I probably wouldn’t have had much interest in this new series either if not for the fact that jack black does in fact return to the titular role for the first time in a tv series. Keep in mid this is the third kfp series we’ve had in just over a decade & he declined to reprise the role for the past two. So there must be a reason he opted to come back for this series but honestly, I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is.

I mean no offense to the people involved in this but I genuinely have no idea who they expect to watch this. For one thing, master shifu & the furious five have zero involvement in this which might not be such a bad thing if not for this fact. They are referenced but the mentions of them are so few & far between that they can’t help but feel like nothing more than an afterthought. & correct me if i’m wrong but i don’t think shifu was mentioned at all & considering even grandmaster oogway got a shoutout at one point, that feels like a real middle finger to him. One of its flaws is the fact that the series gives us no real reason to care about the villains they’re trying to defeat. I mean, sure, they have a connection to blade (cool name, by the way) but she’s also a new character to the franchise & we still haven’t been given a reason to care about her.

But the thing is I could probably overlook all of that if not for one little thing. The series doesn’t even seem interested in following its own continuity. Throughout the entire trilogy, he has always been known as the dragon warrior but now all of a sudden, it’s dragon master. I mean where is that coming from? The series gives us no reason why, if any, his title has suddenly been changed. It’s essentially a middle finger to those fans who have been loyal to the franchise for the past almost fifteen years. It just feels like the series cares less about actually adding something to the kfp mythos & more about trying to milk every last penny they can out of an already-dwindling franchise.

Even the finale doesn’t give you much catharsis as the writers seem to have way more audacity than they’ve earned. They should know by now that unless they top the charts, most netflix series will be on the chopping block & yet insist on giving us a cliffhanger unlikely to ever get resolved. If they wanted to craft a multi-season narrative, they should’ve pitched the series to literally any other platform but, like I said, unless it magically becomes one of the most popular netflix series overnight, I would honestly be shocked if we ever get a resolution to this story.

I don’t like to just snot on any series & leave so I’ll conclude with this. If there’s one thing the franchise always gets right, it’s his dad. I never get tired of seeing mr. ping back on our screens & will defend his character until the day I die. Is he a little goofy? Sure but he’s also a great person who genuinely loves his son despite not being biologically related. Even though he had no obligation to, he raised him as if he were his own flesh & blood & cares more for him than anyone else in the world. There’s nothing more honorable than that. I do also like the fight choreography; that never seems to be an issue with this series.

But if by some miracle, they do receive a season two, I’d be lying if I said I weren’t at least slightly curious to see where they go with it. I just hope they bring in some of the furious five or at least some of the supporting characters from the franchise. Otherwise, I fear the series is doomed to continue being the same detached mess for however long it lasts.