Fighting Style Parallels: Dashi and Raimundo
Using a projected force to repel foes: Both Rai and Dashi have the ability to use an unseen force to push enemies away from them. Dashi’s force is a chi wave projected in the form of the Repel the Beast technique. He shows great skill in its use as he can use this force without prior concentration and with versatility in his stances. It looks to have become an extension of himself. Raimundo’s repelling force is his wind powers. As the Dragon of the Wind these powers are already intrinsically attuned to him. So far he has only been shown to use this ability in a very straight forward manner, though he has shown great control of his element on multiple occasions and has the potential to use it in a similar capacity to Dashi’s chi waves.
Flexible and flowing movements: Rai and Dashi both use the entirety of their bodies in combat. Their moves are always fluid and lead directly into the next, both planning ahead and reacting quickly to their opponents. The Tiger Sense ties into this through ones need to predict an opponents actions in order to react quick enough. Dashi shows to have an excellent grasp on this ability while Rai has been shown to have difficulty with it. Although there are a few instances later in the series when he seems to have used this sense to great effect, which is usually followed by a self congratulatory moment that leads to his downfall. (When fighting the big cats in The New Order.)
Unconventional Methods: As Dashi is a Grand Master his ability to fight without using a conventional stance comes as no surprise. The skilled martial arts master defeating foes with simple gestures is a trope seen in multiple movies in the genre. Both Chase Young and Master Fung have performed similar feats, usually to show the difference between their skills and the younger Monks. Dashi also stated to Omi at one point, “I’m a Grand Master Dragon. I make the rules”, which speaks of his willingness to fight a little differently.
Raimundo’s fighting style can be classed as unconventional as he merges multiple martial arts styles together, Kung Fu, Capoeira, and Taekwondo. He has a tendency to use items in the environment as weapons, to his own amusement and benefit. His unconventionality can be seen in both his mannerisms and the Shen Gong Wu closely related to him. Both of them being swords that don’t function as swords. (Sword of the Storm can’t actually cut anything. Sword of the Nebula turns into a set of nunchuks.)
Showboating: This is more of a personality similarity then a combat one, yet they both do it. The above example is one that is the most obvious. Both warriors throw themselves through an enemy, an enemy they could both defeat without using such extreme methods. Both then proceed to make sure they look cool afterwards. Rai with his ‘must wait for the explosion’ trope and Dashi smirking like the overly powerful Grand Master he is. He probably bragged about it later to Guan or Chase. There are even more instances of Rai showboating during a fight, some of them subtle, others less so.
Disclaimer: I know very little about martial arts in general. These are just little observations I have made about these characters.
