Lord Shen forged his own spear
ok there's a chance some of you eagle-eyed Shen studyers already know this. But a few months ago I was checking out models from the game Showdown of Legendary Legends, and I noticed this:
"Huh, that's weird, the blade is all messed up." I wondered why the game devs decided to make his spear so assymetrical and imperfect. Until I compared it to his spear in the movie:
Clear as day, the thing has a very pronounced curve along its axis. Now I wondered if this was just a technical gaffe, so I looked further back into Shen's development:
Still there. But just to be sure, I went back to the clay model:
And all the way back to the drawing board:
Now I can only guess as to why it's forged so crudely, and my only conclusion can be that he made the "guandao" himself. Perhaps he took it as a sign of pride for him to need to forge his own weapon with zero outside help.
This could be supported by the fact that the weapon he used in the panda massacre is completely distinct from this one:
And no, it's not just a stylized version for the flashback. It's a real weapon that actually exists, and is seen in Kung Fu Panda 3:
So, Lord Shen lost or discarded this weapon after the panda massacre. Thereafter, he forged himself a new one with a lobed blade, one less connected to his old home's "flame" theme and more with his own "eye" design. There is only one small issue with this theory, however...
The durn thing shows up in the 3D portion of Po's flashback. So, it's a wash? Not quite. There's still the possibility Shen forged it himself before he was banished, or that the filmmakers forgot to switch his spears out for this sequence.
If he did make the weapon himself, that also means it was his decision to add this cute goth collar to the crossguard:
That's the end of the theory. Hope I gave you some cold hard steel to chew on.
