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troperville

This is a "Wild Mass Guess" entry, where we pull out all the sanity stops on theorizing. The regular entry on this topic is elsewhere. Please see this programme note.

Puma Man

Tony has the powers of a Pumaman not a Puma Man.

Basically the Alien Aztec Gods are actually called Pumamen and the powers the Puma Man has (teleportation, awkward flying and faking being dead) are the abilities any member of said alien race has. So the Puma Man being related at all to the big cat of the same name is the result of some severe miscommunication awhile back.

Vadinho is the real hero.

No, this is not just stating the obvious. From the very beginning, Vadinho was planning on taking down the evil Kobras. However, he had to be cautious, being a lone agent against an entire organization of unknown numbers and strength. So to learn more about them, and allay suspicion away from him while he planned, he created some bogus story about a line of demigods called "Puma Men," who could stop them. It worked, and the Kobras got busy searching for this fabled "hero." Now all Vadinho needed to do was create this hero to make the lie "true," and give Dr. Kobras something to keep his attention on. He chose the random American schmuck, Tony, for this; he seemed as good a candidate as any.

So, all of Tony's superpowers? All of them were Vadinho's doing, using ancient Aztec magic to make it seem like Tony could fly, use "puma claws," and all that other stuff. His technique was so effective that Tony came to believe himself that he had superpowers! With his Unwitting Pawn now in play, and Kobras hot on his trail, Vadinho was able to see just what they could do without putting himself in any danger. Though Tony was ineffective against them, it proved to Vadinho that the organization were really a bunch of pansies, even with the Mind Control mask in possession, and so he went to work kicking ass and taking names on them once he no longer needed Tony.

So, in the end, Vadinho can be a bit manipulative, but there's no arguing with results; he took down Kobras, destroyed the mask, and saved the world.

How long was Vadinho give Tony the power to "sense danger" or see in the dark, powers that be possessed way before they met each other?
- Tony's father, who really was a great and heroic Pumaman, saw early on that his son was a wuss. So, he conferred with Vadinho (who's much older than he looks) and got his help in setting up those powers early on. Then, he gave Vadinho permission to do the rest on the grounds of, "Sure, my kid is a loser, but at least he'll have the chance to do something semi-useful with his life, if only by proxy." So, the theory holds, except that Tony wasn't some random American schmuck; he was a specifically-chosen American schmuck.

The mask wasn't really made by the gods/aliens.

It was made by a splinter group or other folks. This explains why they could make such a mask and believe every man is free. Or maybe that creed came about because of the mask.

Pulp Fiction

WMG/Film

Quest for Camelot