‘Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight’ is a computer-animated series serving as a sequel to ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ and ‘Kung fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny’. Dragon Master Po (Jack Black) must team up with an English Knight, a bear named Wanderin Blade (Rita Ora), to find 4 elemental weapons before two evil mages, weasel siblings Klaus (Chris Geere) and Veruca (Della Saba), can use them to raise an army of the dead.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
‘Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight’ season 2 opens with Po, his dad Mr. Ping, Blade, and their thief friend, Rukhmini, the Lion-tailed macaque, leaving China behind and traveling to India. They are still in search of the remaining Tianshang weapons, the storm wheels, and the wind helmet.
Rukhmini already possesses the Whip of Endless Flame, whereas the weasels have the Wugao Gauntlet.
Since India is the macaque’s home country, she guides the group to her old hideout, which is no longer the shady ghetto it used to be. Shocked, she looks for her former partner, Diya, who claims to have found Master Mastodon’s enchanted pendant — a relic that will guide the wearer to his storm wheels.
They find Diya, who reveals that she sold the pendant to a collector elephant Jayesh. The group plans a heist to steal it from him at his engagement party. Elsewhere, as Klaus and Veruca sail to find the wind helmet, their ship is elevated by a mysterious power and placed over trees on an island.
They are ambushed by unknown creatures who steal their food. As the weasels inspect, they run into an old friend Nigel and realize that the other mages of England are alive. Back in India, the heist goes well despite some hiccups, but the group is betrayed by Diya. She is revealed to be in cahoots with the elephant as her daughter is the bride-to-be.
Jayesh has everyone locked up but Rukhmini and intends to interrogate her about her staff (the Whip of Endless Flame). Fortunately, Blade’s keen senses allow them to escape via an underground tunnel.
Jayesh confesses to Rukhmini that he intends to marry Diya’s daughter to gain control over her land and leaves for the ceremony. The macaque frees herself and escapes with the staff.
Meanwhile, Veruca is enraged that the mages replaced her as archmage and is hell-bent on getting her hands on the wind helmet. The new leader requests her to not take it since they use its power to sustain themselves. With the helmet gone, they’d all perish.
Klaus is hesitant, but Veruca goes ahead and defeats him. In India, Po, Blade, and Ping crash the wedding to steal the pendant, and Rukhmini joins in.
The ceremony is completed amidst a fight, but Ping, in the process of stealing it, breaks the pendant. He then gets possessed by the spirit of Master Mastodon, who wreaks havoc across the city. Blade wants to fight him, but Po encourages his dad to overcome the angry soul and succeeds.
Po finally manages to convince Mastodon to help them, and Diya redeems herself. She confirms that having married Jayesh, everything he owns belongs to her daughter as well. This whole plan was a way to take the city back from the elephant. As a parting gift, she presents them with a boat to sail to the storm wheels.
They spend months at sea and reach the island where Mastodon (who keeps showing up in Ping’s body) hid the weapon. There, while helping a local tribe of frogs with a monster problem, they discover that someone has already gotten to the weapon first and is using it to protect the locals from evil.
Elsewhere, the stag Colin, an English Knight, reaches Po’s house in China to find clues about Blade’s whereabouts. He is still on a mission to apprehend her on orders from the Queen.
The team reaches the city of Tikal and asks around about this protector. Eventually, they set a trap to lure them out but fail to apprehend them. Also, Rukhmini observes Ping’s knowledge about lures and heists, forcing him to reveal that he used to be a pirate who faked his death.
He then returned home, opened a noodle shop, and found Po. He claims that if his old crew knew of this, everyone he loves would be in danger.
Finally, the group enters the city’s arena, where a Pok-ta-Pok tournament is being held. Po realizes that the protector might be their leader, a jaguar named Zuma, and only the winner of the tournament gets an audience with her. With no other choice, they enter the competition.
Colin, now working with the former imperial guard, the komodo dragon Weimin, discovers a picture of Ping with the infamous Pirate Queen, Forouzan. The duo heads out to seek an audience with her for more information about the goose.
Forouzan, already seeking Ping, asks Colin and Weimin to join her crew and sets sail. Elsewhere, Klaus and Veruca make their way to Tikal.
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight season 2 ending explained in detail:
Does the team find the storm wheels?
After winning the game, Po and his friends have an audience with Zuma, who is indeed the protector. However, she only has one storm wheel and mentions that the other was taken by a mad scientist. They are the same person, creating metallic monsters that have been troubling the frogs.
Zuma agrees to hand over her wheel only if the team recovers the other one and eliminates the monster threat. Unfortunately, before they can complete their plan, Klaus and Veruca arrive, and a fierce battle ensues.
Mastodon is not in favor of using the weapons as they are very dangerous but is forced to when the weasels start gaining an upper hand. Fortunately, the scientist, who resides inside an active volcano, arrives to save them.
She is a green bird named Akna who hails from a nearby village that suffers from drought and a shortage of food.
What is Akna’s story?
The green bird explains that since Zuma got the storm wheels, she used them to bring rain over Tikal, causing other villages to dry out. So, she created metal scorpions to steal food from neighboring areas to survive.
Furthermore, team Dragon is shocked to find out that Akna worked with Blade’s late brother Alfie to steal one of the wheels. Unfortunately, he took it to England in hopes of destroying it.
Po exclaims that their new mission is to find the weapons and destroy them just like Alfie wanted. Akna needs more workers to fight the weasels, so Po takes her to meet the frogs. They disagree to work together initially, but Klaus and Veruca soon come knocking.
They interrogate a frog named Pelpel for the team’s whereabouts, and Zuma arrives to fight them. She fights Veruca and uses her speed to steal the Wugao Gauntlet and the wind helmet. She then punches the weasels’ ship into the volcano, causing it to explode.
Now in possession of three weapons, Zuma leaves Pelpel to die to protect her identity, but Po saves him. Realizing that their ruler is potentially evil, the frogs join hands with Akna.
As Po and the rest prepare to take on Zuma, Blade leaves for the volcano to ensure Klaus and Veruca meet their end.
Does Po defeat Zuma?
Pelpel and Akna build brand-new scorpions coated with rubber to protect them from lightning. Meanwhile, Mastodon tries to harness his elemental lighting powers and spars with Po.
The battle forces him to leave Ping’s body and possess the panda instead. Elsewhere, Blade fights the weasels and manages to capture Klaus. Unsurprisingly, Veruca abandons him.
Blade lets him go, forcing him to live with the fact that his sister betrayed him. In Tikal, Mastodon leads a charge against Zuma, and the team gets into a battle with her guards.
Zuma, now wielding the three weapons, fights Mastodon and succeeds to overwhelm him. Po takes back control of his body and fights with all his might. Unfortunately, the jaguar lands a critical blow causing Po to fall.
The team mourns his death and continues battling Zuma. Inside Po’s body, he talks with Mastodon’s spirit, who encourages him to fix the world. Since they were defeated by Tianshang weapons, a void opens to trap the soul of the fallen.
As only one soul is required, Mastodon sacrifices himself, causing Po’s revival. The panda rejoins the fight and finally defeats Zuma. He eventually ends up wielding all 4 weapons as the team looks in awe. However, he quickly takes them off and hopes to destroy them soon.
The people of Tikal see Zuma’s true nature as a power-hungry leader and have her arrested. In her stead, Pelpel is chosen to lead the city. Po, Blade, Ping, and Rukhmini pack up all the weapons, say their goodbyes, and prepare to sail for England.
Due to her former collaboration with Alfie and her scientific skills, the group invites Akna to join them. The last part of their quest includes finding the second storm wheel in England and finally obliterating the Tianshang weapons for good.
Po believes that the worst is over, but we see Forouzan, Colin, and Weimin still searching for Ping and Blade. The last episode sees the team starving on their ship when Ping looks at the moon and notices it is the Chinese New Year.
The panda narrates an epic and traditional tale to the group, and the season ends with them deciding to stick together and wishing for good luck in the future.
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