| 1 | [[header:[[center:''Franchise/KungFuPanda'' [[Characters/KungFuPanda franchise character index]]\ |
| 2 | [-'''Protagonists''' | [[Characters/KungFuPandaAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/KungFuPandaOtherCharacters Other Characters]]\ |
| 3 | ''[[Characters/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness Legends of Awesomeness]]'' | ''[[Characters/KungFuPandaThePawsOfDestiny The Paws of Destiny]]'' | ''[[Characters/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight The Dragon Knight]]''-]]]]] |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | !The Dragon Warrior |
| 8 | [[folder:Po Ping]] |
| 9 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JackBlack (Films, ''[[WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight The Dragon Knight]]''), Creator/MickWingert (TV Series sans ''The Dragon Knight'', Video Games sans ''Legendary Warriors''), Eric Loomis (''Legendary Warriors''); Liam Knight (young), Bob Bergen (young, Showdown of Legendary Legends) [[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Eason Chan [''[=KFP=] 1'' to ''3''], Edgar Chan [''[=KFP=] 4''] (Cantonese); Creator/HugolinChevretteLandesque (Canadian French); Manu Payet [Films], Pascal Nowak [''Legends of Awesomeness''], Philippe Bozo [''Secrets of the Scroll'', ''Paws of Destiny''] (EU French); Hape Kerkeling [Films], Robert Louis Griesbach [''Paws of Destiny''] (German); Fabio Volo [Films], Gianfranco Miranda [TV Series] (Italian); Tatsuya Yamaguchi [''[=KFP=] 1'' and ''2''], Setsuji Satō [''[=KFP=] 3''] (Japanese); Creator/UmSangHyun (Korean); Liu Feng [''[=KFP=] 1'' to ''3''], Huang Bo [''[=KFP=] 4''] (PRC Mandarin); Wilber Pan [''[=KFP=] 1'' to ''3''], Sun Cheng [''[=KFP=] 4''] (TW Mandarin); Lúcio Mauro Filho (Brazilian Portuguese); Marco Horácio (EU Portuguese); Mikhail Galustyan (Russian); Florentino Fernández (EU Spanish); Omar Chaparro (LA Spanish); Marcin Hycnar (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 10 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kung_fu_panda_po.jpg]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:350: ''"I'm not a big, fat panda. I'm THE Big, Fat Panda."'']] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | -> ''"Am I the son of a panda? The son of a goose? A student? A teacher? Turns out... I'm all of them. I am the Dragon Warrior."'' |
| 14 | |
| 15 | A Giant Panda with a big heart, he is a major kung fu fanatic and runs a noodle shop with his father (who is a goose). To the surprise of everyone, he is selected by Master Oogway to be the [[TheChosenOne Dragon Warrior]] destined to defend the Valley of Peace from danger, and now trains under Master Shifu and alongside his idols, the Furious Five. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | If you want to hear how the Dragon Warrior would describe himself in his own words, click [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Po}} here]]. |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | * AccidentalAthlete: In the first movie, when he climbed several feet off the kitchen floor and performed a perfect split just to get Monkey's cookies off the top shelf. When he sees Shifu watching him, Po's first words are "Don't tell Monkey." |
| 20 | * AchievementsInIgnorance: As Shifu figures out, when he tries to train he fails pathetically, but when hunting for a snack, he passively performs Kung Fu that somebody just starting out shouldn't be able to achieve, such as leaping up to Monkey's cookies and holding himself up near the high shelf with a perfect split. As such, Shifu aims to train him by instead putting him in a variety of situations in which he has to better himself to get food. |
| 21 | * {{Acrofatic}}: After his training, he starts taking advantage of his weight by using it to counterattack. Though he can still tire after too long and struggles with overly-long staircases. |
| 22 | * AdaptationalJerkass: The ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series plays Po off more as an insolent, lazy rookie, often causing as many problems as he solves out of selfish or cocksure impulses, a trait that is ''far'' more subtle with the films' usually kind but blusterous characterization. |
| 23 | * AdoptionAngst: In ''Kung Fu Panda 2'', Po finds out he's adopted (though it's [[PlayedForLaughs comically obvious]] seeing as his adoptive father is a goose whilst he's a panda) and struggles with it over the film, especially when he learns [[spoiler: his birth family were murdered by Lord Shen in an attempt to avert a prophecy foretelling his defeat]]. Po eventually accepts his past and becomes a stronger person, realizing that although his beginning was tragic he still had a loving upbringing with Mr Ping. |
| 24 | * AesopAmnesia: In the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series, due to his {{Adaptational Jerkass}}ery, he constantly undergoes the same lessons concerning his pride and laziness causing dilemmas. |
| 25 | * AlliterativeName: '''P'''o '''P'''ing. |
| 26 | * AllLovingHero: He does not hate anybody. Not even Shen, who [[spoiler:attacked Po's village, and killed his mother and his people]]. He still forgave him and told him to let go of the past. That said, however, [[spoiler:he is still willing to be [[PragmaticHero more pragmatic]] and [[GoodIsNotSoft pull no punches]] with ruthless and incredibly dangerous figures like Kai and the Chameleon, though even then apologises for his briskness when (seemingly) taking out Kai and does try to reason with the Chameleon. In the fourth film, he requits the respect given by his fallen enemies]]. |
| 27 | * AllOfTheOtherReindeer: |
| 28 | ** The Furious Five and Shifu treat him with disrespect for most of the first film. It's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in the sense that during his second day Po earns the respect of most of the Five through his HeroicResolve, [[ThroughHisStomach great cooking skills]], storytelling, and humor, while Shifu undergoes a JerkassRealization. |
| 29 | ** It's implied that he may have gotten this from his fellow villagers as well, given that he had self-esteem issues long before being named the Dragon Warrior. |
| 30 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: DependingOnTheWriter. In the movies, Tigress is this to him; despite Po beating enemies who mop the floor with Tigress, he's always been clueless when battling her. Every time they match up, Tigress makes short work of him. It becomes inverted in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' where Po is this to her, being able to completely curbstomp her every time he turns evil or simply has a sparring match against her. |
| 31 | * AscendedFanboy: Even after he's been established firmly as the Dragon Warrior, he occasionally looks around at his comrades like he can't believe something so cool is actually happening. |
| 32 | * AssKicksYou: While Po is fighting Tai Lung, he sits on Tai Lung by accident at one point. It becomes one of his signature moves later on. |
| 33 | * AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: His black and white appearance lends to making him a literal representation of yin and yang, the element of balance in Chinese philosophy. |
| 34 | ** His arrival in the first movie, though ill-received, ended up blending two disciplines of kung fu together, creating a devastating combination of hard-hitting offense and reflective defense. In addition, the Furious Five and Shifu learn to ease up on their pride and traditions and make time to relax and have fun. |
| 35 | ** His appearance becomes prominent when he achieves inner peace [[spoiler:by learning to accept the panda genocide that killed his mother and let them go]], allowing him to become the "black and white" warrior who was prophesied to defeat Lord Shen. |
| 36 | * AwesomeByAnalysis: |
| 37 | ** In the cartoon series, it is revealed that he is quite talented through means of observing attacks. Yes, even dangerous techniques. [[spoiler:One of them blinds him]]. |
| 38 | ** He shows a bit of this in the films. After all, he learned the Wuxi Finger Hold just by "figuring it out". |
| 39 | ** In the second film, he learns the movements for the raindrop move after only seeing it once. He has to obtain inner peace before he can use it, but still. |
| 40 | * BadassAdorable: He happens to be a big fluffy panda who squees over getting to live and work with his idols. |
| 41 | * BadassBoast: |
| 42 | ** From the first film: "I'm not a big fat panda. I'm THE big fat panda!" |
| 43 | ** The second film subverts it, in that he also tries to deliver one to Shen, but he's too far away for the sound to reach him. |
| 44 | * BadassTeacher: Becomes one in ''Kung Fu Panda 3'', though much like Shifu before him, it takes a while before he can effectively teach. |
| 45 | * BattleAura: [[spoiler: Gains one in the third film, in the distinct likeness of a dragon]]. |
| 46 | * BattleCry: "GET READY TO FEEL THE THUNDER!!" |
| 47 | * BearsAreBadNews: Generally not the case, as he is a [[NiceGuy well-meaning and friendly fellow]]. However, this trope is sometimes played straight when he doesn't hesitate to put genuinely evil people down if he has to. Likewise, see his GoodIsNotSoft entry. |
| 48 | * BearHug: To Tigress at the end of the second film. Literally. Tigress ends up in a platonic version of PostKissCatatonia. |
| 49 | * BearyFriendly: He acts friendly to just about everyone he meets. He's even pretty amiable with the bad guys. |
| 50 | * BearyFunny: Generally acts like a [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} big goofball]], even when he's doing something completely badass. |
| 51 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: |
| 52 | ** Once he finally gets to be a kung fu master as he always wanted, he finds it to be quite a lot harder than he expected. |
| 53 | ** In the holiday special, he geeks out at the thought of hosting the Winter Festival banquet, only to discover it takes a lot of work to prepare, has many traditions he's unaware of and are too complicated to follow, and most of all, it tears him away from someone he'd rather spend the holidays with -- his Dad. |
| 54 | * BellyFlopCrushing: Does this to the Wolf Boss. |
| 55 | -->'''Po:''' ALAKASQUASH-O! |
| 56 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: He's normally a good-natured, goofy, and laid-back guy... but he can and ''will'' kick your ass if you deserve it. |
| 57 | * BewareTheSillyOnes: Po is the protagonist and a FatComicRelief who is also a kung fu master and Dragon Warrior, and isn't afraid to kill if he has no choice. |
| 58 | * BigBrotherMentor: Becomes one to [[spoiler:Zhen at the end of the fourth movie, accepting her as his successor as the Dragon Warrior]]. |
| 59 | * BigEater: He can stuff ''forty'' bean buns into his mouth. Even as a baby, Po went through entire crates’ worth of food multiple times a day. |
| 60 | * BigFun: He comes across as the typical lovable fat guy, but this is partially just to hide his own [[SadClown insecurities]]. |
| 61 | * BigGood: While he isn't there yet, the third movie reveals that this is Oogway's eventual plan for Po -- for Po to be his successor and blossom into a teacher and master who brings people together. The very end of the movie shows that Po is well on his way down that path. |
| 62 | * TheBigGuy: Due to his relative lack of experience, he also relies more on brute [[StoutStrength strength]] and [[{{Kevlard}} toughness]] than elaborate kung-fu techniques. |
| 63 | * BloodKnight: Being the kung fu fanatic that he is, the guy usually looks like he's having the time of his life during a fight. Except when ItsPersonal. |
| 64 | * [[{{Bookends}} Bookends]]: His dream at the start of ''Kung Fu Panda 1'' portrays his imaginary Kung Fu master persona as wearing a straw hat, along with flowing robes. At the end of the film, after he defeats Tai Lung, he appears to have somehow acquired this exact outfit during a silhouette shot, only for it to be revealed that he's actually wearing a wok and sacks, draped around him after his latest pratfall. Come ''3'', at the film's climax, right before Po defeats Kai, he acquires the outfit for real, showing that he truly has become the Dragon Warrior after three films of CharacterDevelopment. |
| 65 | * BrilliantButLazy: Po can learn special techniques by merely watching them once, but he tries to take shortcuts in his training, which actually delays his learning. |
| 66 | * BrokenPedestal: |
| 67 | ** In the first movie, Po starts feeling this way towards the Furious Five, who he idolized from the beginning, after they continuously demean him and make it very clear that he doesn't belong in the Jade Palace with them ''at all''. He's so upset that [[HeartbreakAndIceCream he pigs out on some peaches afterwards]]. |
| 68 | ** Also in the first movie, Po looked up to Shifu as a mentor, only to discover that Shifu actually doesn't want him around and had made him put up with so much abuse and insults in an attempt to make him give up and leave. Po [[RageAgainstTheMentor angrily calls him out on his behavior]], and [[ArmorPiercingQuestion demands to know if Shifu really knows how to turn a worthless panda into the Dragon Warrior]]. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Shifu has nothing to say]]. |
| 69 | ** He briefly becomes this in the series episode "Enter the Dragon" when Shifu sends him away and turns the village against him after he fails to evacuate it from Ke-Pa. In fact, one of his fans drops an action figure of him. However, it's revealed to be [[BatmanGambit a ploy to keep Ke-Pa from knowing he has the Hero's Chi]]. |
| 70 | *** This happens to him for a second time and its a major plot point in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight'' after he accidentally destroys an village during his first fight with Klaus and Veruca, which causes most of China to turn against him and to be stripped of his title. |
| 71 | * BulletCatch: Cannonball Catch in his case. When Po acquires his inner peace, he becomes able to catch Shen's cannonballs and gently deflect them to the side, eventually deflecting them back at Shen's army. |
| 72 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: Becoming a kung fu master doesn't end his nature of being [[PluckyComicRelief the comic relief]]. |
| 73 | * ButtMonkey: Po just can't stop going through AmusingInjuries or make a fool out of himself to save his life, even during serious moments. |
| 74 | * CallingYourAttacks: Has a tendency to do this. And if the attack doesn't have an actual name, [[BuffySpeak he'll just make one up]]. |
| 75 | * CatchPhrase: "Skadoosh." |
| 76 | * CentipedesDilemma: Po ''does'' have potential and talent for Kung Fu, but it only ever came out when properly motivated (by food). When Master Shifu points out Po is ten feet off the ground and doing a perfect split, Po writes it off as an accident before quickly falling to the floor. |
| 77 | * CharacterDevelopment: Each film centers around his personal growth in some way. |
| 78 | ** The first film has Po learn to believe in himself. |
| 79 | ** The second film has Po to not let his tragic past define who he is or his future. |
| 80 | ** The third has Po understand his own identity and what it means to be the Dragon Warrior: someone who can revolutionize the Kung Fu world for the better. |
| 81 | ** The fourth has Po prepare for change and plan to pass the torch, as statuses don’t last forever. |
| 82 | * CharacterTitle: "Kung Fu Panda" refers to Po. |
| 83 | * ChefOfIron: He may be the fighter destined to bring peace to China, but he also doubles as the Jade Palace's TeamChef. Helps that he was trained by his father to be a man of noodles for most of his life before being chosen as the Dragon Warrior. |
| 84 | * TheChosenOne: He is the chosen Dragon Warrior and the three films have him fit that role. |
| 85 | ** The first movie has Po being chosen to become the Dragon Warrior, and focuses on him growing to fit that position. [[spoiler:He succeeds, and soundly defeats [[BigBad Tai Lung]]]]. |
| 86 | ** The second movie has him end up being the subject of a prophecy where a warrior "in black and white" will defeat Shen [[spoiler:which drove Shen to commit racial genocide against the pandas]]. While the prophecy was open-ended [[spoiler:in that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy the prophesied warrior could mean Shen himself]]]], Po ended up being that warrior anyway [[spoiler:which leads to Shen's death]]. |
| 87 | ** The third film has him [[spoiler: help the panda’s recover their ability to use the art of Chi and defeat Oogway’s friend turned ArchEnemy Kai, finally fulfilling his destiny and making him Oogway’s true successor]]. |
| 88 | ** Deconstructed with the fourth film, which has him find and then train his successor, [[spoiler:being Zhen]], as the next Dragon Warrior. |
| 89 | * TheChosenZero: What almost everyone believes him to be until he proves himself. |
| 90 | %%* ClassicalAntiHero: At first. He gets better. |
| 91 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Sometimes, he can be this whenever he talks or thinks about Kung Fu. |
| 92 | * CluelessChickMagnet: Believe it or not, he has attracted the attentions of more than one woman. He's given some GirlOfTheWeek love interests in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' including Song and Lu-Shi, as well as being able to unintentionally attract Ming, the ibex daughter of the Superintendent even though he was trying to help Monkey get together with her. In the third film, Mei Mei is very much attracted to him and never passes up a chance to flirt, although Po appears more than a little uncomfortable with it. Then in ''The Dragon Knight'' has Veruca having a VillainousCrush on him and flirts with him whenever she can, which disturbs him. |
| 93 | * CombatPragmatist: Po likes using the surrounding environment and whatever he can get his hands on to give him advantages during fights. For example, he used a tree as a catapult to whack Tai Lung away during the fight in the first film, and when Boss Wolf took off on a rickshaw in the second film, Po simply grabbed another one nearby and used it to catch up with him. |
| 94 | * ComesGreatResponsibility: He becomes the Dragon Warrior alright, but that ''also'' means that he has to deal with all of the threats to the Valley of Peace and by extension China as part of his new position. |
| 95 | * ComfortFood: Po has a psychological dependence on eating when he's upset, but he manages to conquer it to some degree in the first film. |
| 96 | * CompressedVice: This is a huge on-going trait of his in ''Legends of Awesomeness''. Going concurrently with Po being an AdaptationalJerkass, different episodes will have Po displaying a variety of different individual vices, whether it's rudeness, laziness, disobedience, arrogance, bad table manners, or some other dirty/annoying habit that haven't been hinted at in previous episodes. And even after Po learns his moral lesson at the end of the episode, a later episode will have Po display a ''different'' vice that's never been foreshadowed before which he has to learn another lesson with. |
| 97 | * ConfusionFu: Because he invented his own kung fu style instead of learning one of the others, he has an advantage against more seasoned fighters like Tai Lung who don't know what to expect from him. It helps that, half the time, he appears to be goofing off more than actually fighting. |
| 98 | * CounterAttack: A lot of Po's biggest hits against Tai Lung involved absorbing Tai Lung's blows and throwing the momentum back at him. |
| 99 | * CripplingOverspecialization: He has incredible agility for somebody of his size and, thanks to his combat style, he can weaponize any blow an enemy gives out, but his low stamina remains a running gag. Stairs in particular remain an issue for him no matter how many manic warriors, evil conquerors or spirit-manipulating liches he beats. |
| 100 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's [[TheDitz not particularly bright]] and kind of [[TheKlutz a klutz]], but becomes a highly-skilled kung fu master regardless. |
| 101 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Po's family and his species in his infancy were [[spoiler:massacred by Lord Shen]], but Po has no conscious memory of this for years and soon comes to terms with it. |
| 102 | * DeadpanSnarker: Even a guy like ''Po'' can be quite sarcastic at times. |
| 103 | -->'''Shifu:''' My patience is wearing thin.\ |
| 104 | '''Po:''' ''[to the Legendary Urn of Whispering Warriors, oblivious to the fact that it's Shifu talking]'' Oh, well. I mean, it's not like you were going anywhere. |
| 105 | * DeathGlare: He has a very effective one. It doesn't appear very often - quite the contrary, it only shows up when he's really losing his temper - but when it does appear, it's ''scary''. |
| 106 | * DeathIsCheap: Despite getting "Skadooshed" a few times throughout the franchise, death is never able to keep Po down for long. He [[spoiler: [[TakingYouWithMe ended himself and Kai]] in the third movie with the Wuxi fingerhold but was revived at the end]]. And in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight'', he was [[spoiler: temporarily killed by Zuma but was brought back thanks to Master Mastodon's sacrifice]]. |
| 107 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Depending on the episode of ''Legends of Awesomeness'', he is either a nice AllLovingHero with a comical streak like in the films, or an ArrogantKungFuGuy who repeatedly has AesopAmnesia from episode to episode. The former is generally used if the episode is about someone else or any problems Po caused are out of ignorance or clumsiness, while the latter is generally used if the episode is meant to teach a lesson with Po as the character of choice. |
| 108 | * DenserAndWackier: Po is much goofier and more childlike in the third film than he is in the first two movies. This trope gets toned down in the fourth film. |
| 109 | * {{Determinator}}: Even before he knows any kung fu, the Five are somewhat impressed by the fact that he ''will not'' give up, no matter how much a beating he is taking. |
| 110 | -->'''Tigress:''' If he's smart, he won't come back up those steps.\ |
| 111 | '''Monkey:''' But he will. |
| 112 | * DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Po racks up an impressive series of victories over the course of his career. [[spoiler:He defeats the nigh-unstoppable Tai-Lung virtually single-handedly, wipes out Shen's fleet of ships equipped with cannons that can easily kill the most hardened kung-fu masters, beats and ''obliterates'' Kai, who was ''[[WorldsGreatestWarrior Oogway's equal]]'', and destroys the Demon King Ke-pa.]] |
| 113 | * DisabilityImmunity: He is so chubby that [[spoiler:Tai Lung's pressure-point attacks]] don't work on him. |
| 114 | * DoorstopBaby: His adoptive father found him in a radish box from the vegetable order delivered to him. He waited for someone to come by, but when no one came, he adopted Po. |
| 115 | * DorkKnight: He is simultaneously a kung fu master and a kung fu fanboy. |
| 116 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: On a cart in Gongmen City chasing down the Wolf Boss in ''Kung Fu Panda 2''. |
| 117 | * EasilyImpressed: Show him anything. If it has something to do with kung-fu he's almost bound to be amazed by it. This is especially noticeable in the TV series. |
| 118 | * ElephantInTheLivingRoom: The question of why a panda has a goose for a father is completely ignored by all of the characters, including [[ObliviousAdoption Po himself]]. However, this is addressed in the second film. |
| 119 | -->'''Tigress:''' What's ''really'' bothering you?\ |
| 120 | '''Po:''' Well, I just found out my dad... isn't really my dad.\ |
| 121 | '''Tigress:''' [[LetMeGetThisStraight Your dad... the goose?]]\ |
| 122 | '''Po:''' ''[he nods]''\ |
| 123 | '''Tigress:''' [[MyGodYouAreSerious ...That must have been quite a shock.]] |
| 124 | * EncyclopaedicKnowledge: Even before Shifu decided to seriously train him, Po still had a stunningly complete fanboy knowledge of kung fu lore and philosophy. |
| 125 | * EnlightenmentSuperpower: |
| 126 | ** In the first movie, he gains the power of the Dragon Scroll ([[spoiler:a blank reflective surface]]) upon realizing its true meaning ([[spoiler:"There is no secret ingredient. It's just you."]]) |
| 127 | ** In the second movie, achieving Inner Peace grants the power to [[spoiler:deflect cannon balls with your bare paws or should that be bear paws.]] |
| 128 | ** Achieving Spiritual Balance gives you the ability to manipulate your chi, which grants one several abilities, including the power to [[spoiler:heal both plants and living beings.]] |
| 129 | * EpicFail: His first attempt at training with Shifu. |
| 130 | -->'''Shifu:''' There is now a level zero. |
| 131 | ** And his first attempt at teaching kung fu. |
| 132 | * FailedASpotCheck: Despite his prowess, he can be rather oblivious at times. |
| 133 | ** In the first movie, after getting distracted by a vase in the Jade Palace, he mistakes Shifu speaking to him for the vase itself speaking. Even after he notices Shifu, he only offhandedly greets him before returning to the vase. |
| 134 | ** In the fourth, while in the Happy Bunny (And long after he should probably have shaken off this trait), he compliments Zhen on winning her games fairly and pats her on the back. Even after the pat causes all of her stolen Mahjong pieces to fall out of her tail, and the rest of the tavern begins to angrily gang up on her, he's too distracted to notice. |
| 135 | * FatComicRelief: Although he's the protagonist, he's also the chubbiest and silliest denizen of the Jade Palace. |
| 136 | * FemaleGaze: Parodied. He is shown doing a "gluteal flex" before engaging in hand-to-hand combat against Tai-Lung. |
| 137 | * FightingPanda: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. Despite being the protagonist and the franchise's title being ''Kung Fu Panda'', Po starts the first film with no martial arts training at all, and spends much of it as the least competent martial artist among the other animals. However, he does eventually grow into the position of TheChosenOne, and is a good martial artist for the rest of the franchise. |
| 138 | * FightsLikeANormal: He's learned a lot of energy based moves such as the Wuxi Finger Hold, the Mongolian Fireball, and the Thundering Wind Hammer throughout the movies and shows but rarely, if ever, breaks out those moves and mostly sticks to fighting hand-to-hand with kung fu. |
| 139 | * FingerPokeOfDoom: [[spoiler:The Wuxi Finger Hold, where the user holds a person in a strong one-handed grip, save for a pinkie. Lowering the pinkie sends the intended person to the Spirit Realm. Po had no one to teach him that, but he figured it out on his own]]. |
| 140 | * {{Flanderization}}: Even for Po, he acts a lot goofier in the third film than he did in the first two. |
| 141 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine -- high-spirited, genial and enjoys doing what he does to no end. |
| 142 | * FriendToAllChildren: Po prides himself as being loved by children. As such, he proves to be an excellent teacher. In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'', he makes a despicable RoyalBrat change her ways, before discovering the horrific reason why she feels she must drive everyone away. Even Tigress shows a caring side for young children every now and then as a young goose named Zan looks up to her as a big sister mentor figure while looking for his parents in "Kung Fu Day Care"; one of the panda girls in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' is fond of Tigress, after Po gave her his Tigress action figure. |
| 143 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: Throughout half of the first film and ''Legends of Awesomeness'', Po's bungling habits tend to leave him on tenuous terms with Shifu and the Furious Five. Lessened greatly by the sequel movies where Po has proven himself more competent and the others have loosened up a great deal and formed bonds with him. |
| 144 | * FromHeroToMentor: This was his role in ''The Paws of Destiny'', having graduated from Dragon Warrior to the new title of Dragon "Master" and training a new generation of heroes in the Four Constellations. |
| 145 | * FromZeroToHero: The chubby kung-fu fan Po was living an ordinary life working in his father's noodle shop. Suddenly gets the title of Dragon Warrior bestowed upon him, and the movie shows how he begins to train to be deserving of that title. He subsequently makes good on it several times over. |
| 146 | * FunnyBruceLeeNoises: Makes these ''constantly'' in the first two films. It's downplayed in the third film. |
| 147 | * FunPersonified: He brings a more fun and relaxed attitude to the strictness of the Jade Palace, [[DefrostingIceQueen which gradually affects everyone around him]]. |
| 148 | * GadgeteerGenius: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. He's rarely seen making things, but it's revealed that he's carved all his action figures by himself, and in the third film, he effectively builds a mobile training dummy resembling Kai to practice on in what is implied to be ''less than an hour.'' |
| 149 | * GeniusDitz: Has figured out advanced Kung Fu techniques by himself without being shown while capable of inventing new ones on his own, has an encyclopedic knowledge of kung fu history and lore, is a competent and imaginative strategist, and is a SupremeChef to boot. Discovers inner peace three days after being told what it is and able to do the seemingly ''[[CatchAndReturn impossible]]'' with it, and has an excellent grasp of kung fu philosophy. And the end credits for the second movie show that he didn't ''buy'' his near-identical action figures of the Furious Five -- he ''carved'' them by himself when he was just a kid. For all that though, he's pretty childish, occasionally clumsy, easily excited, and often lacks common sense. |
| 150 | * GenocideSurvivor: In the second film, it's revealed that Po was the survivor of an attack on his home village. |
| 151 | * GentleGiant: He's by far the largest member of the main cast, but generally a nice guy. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Just don't get on his bad side]]. |
| 152 | * TheGift: Said word for word in an episode of ''Legends Of Awesomeness''. |
| 153 | * GoodIsNotSoft: He's a nice guy, but [[spoiler:killed both Tai Lung and Ke-pa]], as well as [[spoiler:[[DeaderThanDead destroyed Kai's soul]]]]. None of these was more than the situation called for, but Po isn't afraid to put genuinely evil people down if he has to. |
| 154 | * GroinAttack: Fell victim to this during his first training course, and in the third film he accidentally poured Szechuan peppercorns in the water of his bath. |
| 155 | * HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Usually doesn't wear a shirt. Then again, it would hardly fit him. |
| 156 | * HappilyAdopted: Even after learning the truth about his biological family, he still considers Mr. Ping his father. While they didn't always see eye-to-eye at the beginning of the first movie, Po always had a lot of love and respect for his dad and the two share a very close, sweet, loving, and healthy father-son relationship. He's grateful that he raised him well as well as supportive of his dreams (even if it did take a little bit of understanding at first). |
| 157 | * HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted. While Po has a great deal of natural talent and can learn very quickly [[WaxOnWaxOff under the right circumstances]] while creating powerful innovations, he still has to rely extensively on the Five in combat (although he is still an asset to them as well), and Tigress in particular is implied to be a much more formidable combatant. |
| 158 | * HealingHands: One of the applications of [[spoiler:Chi Mastery, which allows you to give your chi to someone sick or wounded so they can heal.]] |
| 159 | * TheHeart: Po's bubbly energy, constantly cheerful nature, and excellent cooking skills all endear him quickly to the Furious Five, Tigress notwithstanding. |
| 160 | * HeroProtagonist: He's the main protagonist of the franchise and helps to defend the Valley of Peace as the [[TheChosenOne Dragon Warrior]]. |
| 161 | * HeroicBSOD: In the second movie, he suddenly goes into shock whenever he sees Lord Shen's symbol, and it heavily effects his ability to focus. [[spoiler:Before he comes to terms with the tragedies of his past and achieves inner peace, that is.]] |
| 162 | * HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Uses the Wuxi Finger Hold on himself to take himself and Kai to the Spirit Realm to protect both of his fathers, the panda villagers and Tigress from Kai.]] He even admits [[spoiler: [[DidntThinkThisThrough he didn't know he could leave the Spirit Realm before doing so]].]] |
| 163 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: In the first film, Po thinks of himself as a fat loser and can't change because of the constant verbal abuse he received from Shifu and the Furious Five. [[CoolOldGuy Oogway]], however, encourages him to keep going because "tomorrow" is a mystery. [[CharacterDevelopment He gains a healthy amount of confidence by the end]]. |
| 164 | * TheHerosJourney: Each film shows us some CharacterDevelopment for Po. |
| 165 | ** The first film has Po dreaming of being a great kung fu master like his idols, the Furious Five, yet believes that he's a loser who's doomed to a humdrum life and can't change himself. Thanks to Oogway's encouragement and some CharacterDevelopment on Shifu's part, Po gains the confidence and proper training he needs, and gradually defrosts the inhabitants of the Jade Palace. |
| 166 | ** The second film has Po discovering what happened to his biological family, causing him to struggle with inner peace. Eventually he learns to let go [[spoiler:by going to the ruins of his childhood home and confronting his memories]], achieving forgiveness and the inner peace he sought. |
| 167 | ** The third film has Po struggle with self-identity, and the expectations people have of him. By the end of the film, he has accepted that he is ''all'' facets of his identity, and that he will always be Po. |
| 168 | * HeroWorshipper: To pretty much any famous master he meets, but mainly the Furious Five. He retains this trait long after he becomes a famous master himself. |
| 169 | * HeyYou: He is frequently referred to as just "panda" by friend and foe alike, especially in the first film. |
| 170 | * HeyYouHaymaker: Done in the second movie, where he does this to a wolf minion while disguised as a lion dragon -- he punches the guy, [[ItMakesSenseInContext and the lion dragon proceeds to eat the wolf]]. |
| 171 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 172 | ** Leaving aside his martial arts skills, as much as Po so often seems an immature AscendedFanboy, Shifu learns that he is an excellent teacher of kung fu's philosophical and historical aspects. His knowledge of kung fu masters, their skills, and their histories is very much in-depth. Shifu even saw hints of this when he first meets Po, threatens Po with the Wuxi Fingerhold, and is visibly impressed that Po immediately knew what the move was the second he placed it. |
| 173 | ** He's a pretty talented wood carver, if his sculptures of the Five are any indication. [[spoiler:He was able to fool Lord Shen and his wolf minions with a Mantis figure that heavily resembled the real deal]]. |
| 174 | ** Whenever you see him cooking or serving tables, so long as he's not distracted, his movements are quite fluid and he balances well. He and Mr. Ping even put on a cooking show every Winter Feast where they cook in tandem, and it's no less skilled or physically demanding than a kung fu kata. That balance and fluidity in movement partially lends to why his fighting style is vastly different than those of his contemporaries. |
| 175 | ** He also shows excellent skills at strategy, despite not looking the type. His plan in the third film against Kai, involving having the entire Panda village distract the Jombies and Kai, worked gangbuster, and would have worked had the Wuxi Fingerhold worked on the undead. |
| 176 | * HotBlooded: Everyone kept telling him that his goal was impossible, but he kept fighting, for his passion of becoming the Dragon Warrior. That same determination helps him succeed in the end. |
| 177 | * HumbleHero: Officially becomes one in the second movie. He gained a lot of self-confidence by the first movie's end, but hasn't become haughty. |
| 178 | * IAmTheNoun: After Tai Lung is nearly defeated, he's in disbelief and says Po is [[UnderestimatingBadassery nothing more than a big, fat panda]]. |
| 179 | -->'''Po''': I'm not a big fat panda. I'm ''the'' big fat panda. |
| 180 | * ICallHimMrHappy: Po refers to this area as his tenders. |
| 181 | * IdealHero: Po in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'', notwithstanding times where he acts immature or accidentally causes the problem of the episode. |
| 182 | * IJustWantToBeBadass: In the first movie, he wants to be a kung fu master, despite discouragement from his father, the Furious Five, and Shifu. However, he succeeds in the end. |
| 183 | * IJustWantToBeSpecial: Spent most of his life wishing he could get out of his father's noodle shop and be a kung fu master. His wish came true when he was chosen as the Dragon Warrior. |
| 184 | * ImprovFu: A big part of his fighting style revolves around grabbing the nearest object and using it to his advantage. |
| 185 | * IncompletelyTrained: Only receives a few days of actual training before facing Tai Lung in the first movie. As a result, that fight is a lot more about exploiting Tai Lung's weaknesses than actual skill on Po's part. He's gotten a lot more training by the sequel, [[TookALevelInBadass and it shows]]. |
| 186 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: When he finds out about [[spoiler: the massacre of his parents and species]], his reaction is to... let it go, much to Lord Shen's shock. |
| 187 | * InstantExpert: |
| 188 | ** It is not uncommon for him to master advanced techniques on the fly -- techniques that took other masters dozens of years to learn (though it's typically under extraordinary circumstances and in life-or-death situations). {{Lampshaded}} in the third movie, when Shifu seems a bit exasperated by this: |
| 189 | -->'''Po:''' ''I think I mastered Chi!''\ |
| 190 | '''Shifu:''' ''[sighing]'' Of course you did. |
| 191 | ** Refreshingly, this is averted with his basic Kung Fu skills over the course of the three films. At the climax of the first film, while certainly a better fighter than he was at the beginning, he is no match for Tai Lung in an exchange of blows, and has to rely on unorthodox techniques to come out on top. In the second film, his fights against the wolves show that his skills have much improved, and he can go toe-to-toe with Lord Shen, but is helpless against Tigress when she tries to stop him from getting involved in the assault on Shen's factory. By the third film, their short fight following a disagreement seems to suggest that he is now Tigress' equal in terms of skill. |
| 192 | * InterspeciesAdoption: A panda adopted by a goose. [[HappilyAdopted He's pretty fine with the arrangement]]. |
| 193 | * InkSuitActor: Po is essentially his VA Jack Black as a panda. |
| 194 | * {{Irony}}: Po is superb at countering the attacks of his opponents, but doesn't fare so well whenever they manage to counter his own attacks. Case in point, Tigress comes out on top during both of their matches by using his own weight and force against him. |
| 195 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: The ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series tends to portray him as lazy, selfish, and prideful. But once he realizes what he did was wrong, especially if he ended up hurting his friends, he will ''immediately'' try to put things right and make amends. |
| 196 | * {{Kevlard}}: Specifically, his fat [[spoiler:makes him immune to nerve strikes.]] |
| 197 | * KidAppealCharacter: Aside from being the protagonist, this is the main reason he's at the forefront of the advertising. |
| 198 | * TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: No matter how much of a badass he himself becomes, he can't resist fanboying over any famous master he sees. |
| 199 | * LargeHam: He's voiced by Creator/JackBlack, so it's a given. Creator/MickWingert is no slouch either. |
| 200 | * {{Leitmotif}}: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuC9qt_3jts Panda Po]]" -- a humble melody usually played with strings. Introduced in the first movie, and used ''everywhere'' in the second. |
| 201 | * LastOfHisKind: Po is the only (known) panda to have survived an attempted genocide orchestrated by Shen. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that he's not.]] |
| 202 | * LaughOfLove: Po {{invoke|dTrope}}s and {{exploit|edTrope}}s this in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', when he giggles while pretending to be a female panda in order to get close enough to a nearby wolf to knock him out, which is successful. |
| 203 | * LeeroyJenkins: Rushes headlong into the factory to confront Shen himself instead of listening to Tigress's instructions to stay put. This inevitably screws up the Furious Five's plans to blow up the factory along with Shen and the Wolves in the process. |
| 204 | * LethalChef: ''Secret of the Scroll'' reveals that 10 years ago he was a pretty bad chef, [[spoiler:to the point of accidentally giving Shifu a nasty case of food poisoning.]] Fortunately for his friends, he's improved immensely since then. |
| 205 | * LetsGetDangerous: Most of the time, he's so much of a goofball that you can't take him seriously. But threaten the people he cares about or refuse his LastSecondChance? You're about to be skadooshed six ways from Sunday. Generally speaking, when Po stops talking and starts fighting, enemies start ''dying.'' |
| 206 | * LightningBruiser: He's surprisingly fast and agile for a guy his size, while also hitting about as hard as you'd expect. |
| 207 | * LikeFatherLikeSon: Po and Mr. Ping share several personality quirks despite the fact they are not blood related father and son, most notably that when embarrassed, they turn sideways and nervously peek towards those looking at them. |
| 208 | ** Even moreso with Li Shan, his biological father, who shares his BigEater habits, his fun-loving attitude, and general silliness. |
| 209 | * MadeOfIron: Because of his fat, he can deflect blows quite easily. [[spoiler:Even Tai Lung's nerve strike attack.]] As a result, when he begins to ''lose'' weight in [=KFP2=] (as noted by his father), he no longer has this resistance (as the Wolf Boss is able to hurt him with a strike to the belly). |
| 210 | * ManChild: Despite being in his 20's and being a kung fu master, Po acts very immature and childish. He takes bubble baths and plays with action figures. |
| 211 | * MartialArtsStaff: Gains one made of jade topped by the yin-yang symbol [[spoiler:from Master Oogway in the Spirit Realm after mastering Chi and defeating Kai]] in the third movie. |
| 212 | * MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: '''Feminine Boy''' to Tigress's '''Masculine Girl'''. Po is an AllLovingHero, easily emotional, clumsy, and can be one of the most soft-hearted characters in the series. Tigress, on the other hand, is TheStoic, has manly traits, is the physically stronger one of the two, and can take a while to warm up to people. |
| 213 | ** Also applies to his relationship between him and Luthera in ''The Dragon Knight'', who in a sense serves as an expy of Tigress in the series. |
| 214 | * MeaningfulName: WordOfGod says his full name is "Po Ping" (寶平, bǎopíng), which means "precious peace". In the second film, Mr. Ping calls him "Xiao Po", which in this context, roughly translates to "little precious peace". |
| 215 | ** In the third film, his birthname is revealed to have been "Little Lotus". While the "Little" part isn't so fitting anymore, the name "Lotus" is typically used to symbolize purity and enlightenment, both traits that apply to Po. |
| 216 | * MemeticBadass: In-universe, the Dragon Warrior is the ultimate kung-fu master and a paragon of badassery, as well as one in harmony with the energy of the universe. Po eventually grows into that hype. |
| 217 | * MentorsNewHope: Oogway intended Po to be this for Shifu, though the mentor certainly didn't see it that way (at first). |
| 218 | * MessiahCreep: In the first movie, he was a [[TheFool fool]] and a [[TheChosenOne chosen one]], but in the second movie, he becomes a Messiah after his CharacterDevelopment when he finds inner peace to [[spoiler:forgive Shen]]. [[spoiler:Goes even further in the third movie when he takes over the role of Oogway, the previous Messiah]]. |
| 219 | * MessianicArchetype: His name, Po Ping, means "precious peace" in Chinese. |
| 220 | * MightyGlacier: While a LightningBruiser in his own right, he doesn't own the amount of stamina to utilise it which is shown when he has trouble climbing stairs. His fight against Tai Lung has him succeed by periodically moving and using his weight against Tai Lung. He is also slow moving compared to the other 5 but still packs a punch. |
| 221 | * MomentKiller: Po's a real master at it. He has the unfailing ability to ruin a moment. [[spoiler:He seems to be somewhat aware of this by the third movie, as he does it deliberately as a ShutUpHannibal to Kai]]. |
| 222 | * MosesInTheBulrushes: [[spoiler:His mother]] hid him in a crate of radishes [[spoiler:before leading the wolves away from him and presumably sacrificing herself]]. The radishes were eventually shipped to Mr. Ping's noodle shop, where Po was found and officially adopted. |
| 223 | * MythicalMotifs: An odd case where an animal character has a separate animal motif. Po is frequently associated with dragons, being the Dragon Warrior, hanging around likenesses of dragons, and [[spoiler:gaining a dragon-shaped BattleAura in the third film]]. |
| 224 | * NiceGuy: He doesn't have a single mean bone in his body as long as he isn't fighting villains. [[AllLovingHero And even then, he still tries to help and make peace with them whenever he could]]. |
| 225 | * NoSell: [[spoiler: Tai Lung's paralyzing nerve attack only tickles Po due to the panda's girth taking most of the hit.]] |
| 226 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: {{Downplayed}}. He really can be quite clueless at times, but there are hints that he plays up just ''how'' clueless just because that's how people see him. For example, he tells Tigress that he had only just found out he was adopted, clearly making her wonder how he could be ''that'' naive given he is a panda and his father is a goose; yet, when actually talking to his father about it earlier, he admits that he already knew it. An advantage to this is that people keep underestimating him, never knowing when he is being genuinely clever or genuinely stupid. |
| 227 | * ObliviousAdoption: Quite obviously, there is no way a panda could be the biological son of a goose, but the issue is never addressed. Eventually, when Mr. Ping reveals to Po that he isn't his father, Po says he already knew, probably because of how obvious it was. |
| 228 | -->'''Mr. Ping:''' You knew?? Wh- who told you??\ |
| 229 | '''Po:''' Nobody! I mean, come on, Dad. |
| 230 | * ObliviousToHatred: Subverted. At first he seems unaware that Master Shifu is only trying to get rid of him, and not really training him. But eventually is revealed that he was always aware of Master Shifu's true intentions. |
| 231 | * OhCrap: In Dreamworks Universe Of Legends, he lets out a meek "Oops..." in the cutscene after his Wuxi Finger Hold causes King Globby to split apart into a bunch of Droplets and invade the Dreamworks multiverse. |
| 232 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 233 | ** Three words: "I'm not hungry." |
| 234 | ** In general, whenever Po loses his cheerful goofiness, you ''know'' things have gotten serious. |
| 235 | ** He really starts showing much of a darker side in the third film, due to the stakes being much higher. [[spoiler:He is actually able to deduce that Ping is jealous of Li Shan and shows clear discomfort and wariness over Ping being overly fatherly towards him. He also shows genuine ''anger'' at Li Shan for lying to him, an emotion barely even glimpsed from him prior, as that lie meant he left the Valley and the Furious Five unprotected and to fall for virtually nothing. He notably skips the LastSecondChance after beating Kai and goes straight to finishing him off]]. |
| 236 | * OrphansOrdeal: His character arc in the second film. |
| 237 | * {{Otaku}}: Po loves everything related to Kung Fu and is knowledgeable of every Kung Fu master, technique, and artifact related to the craft. He has action figures of the Furious Five and ran around the Jade Palace in absolute glee seeing all of the famous artifacts on display. |
| 238 | * ParentalIssues: Downplayed. Po actually has a very loving and caring relationship with his adopted father, Mr. Ping. This trope really only applies to the first film and likely their time before that. While they have always been close, they didn't quite see eye to eye. Mr. Ping's entire life was around running his families noodle shop and had just assumed that Po would want to be the one to take over. After Po confesses that he loves kung fu, Mr. Ping doesn't know how to respond to it other than "lets get back to work". We do see that he feels bad about not understanding his real passion though and he does give his full love and support by the end of the film and sequels. |
| 239 | * ParodySue: Po's dream as the awesome Legendary Warrior. [[spoiler:Shockingly, it eventually comes true for him]]. |
| 240 | * ThePigPen: Master Shifu tells Po that he smells occasionally in the first film. |
| 241 | * TheProtagonist: In case the name of the franchise didn't tip you off. |
| 242 | * RageAgainstTheMentor: After enduring Shifu's brutal "training" and the Five's behavior, Po reaches his limit when he learns that not only Tai Lung has escaped but Oogway is no longer around to stop him. Po finally ends up leaving (around the time Shifu decides to train Po seriously.) When Shifu stops him, [[SadClown Po]] finally just ''[[RageBreakingPoint breaks into that]]''. |
| 243 | -->'''Shifu:''' You will beat [Tai Lung] because ''you'' are the Dragon Warrior!\ |
| 244 | '''Po:''' YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT! You ''NEVER'' believed that! From the first moment I got here, you've been trying to get rid of me!\ |
| 245 | '''Shifu:''' [[BrutalHonesty Yes, I was.]] But now I ask you to trust in your master, as I have come to trust in mine.\ |
| 246 | '''Po:''' You're ''not'' my master... and I'm ''not'' the Dragon Warrior!\ |
| 247 | '''Shifu:''' Then why didn't you quit?! You knew I was trying to get rid of you, yet you stayed!\ |
| 248 | '''Po:''' Yeah, I stayed. I stayed, because every time you threw a brick at my head, or said I smelled, ''it hurt''. But it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being ''me''. I stayed, because I thought if anyone could change me -- could make me ''NOT'' me -- it was you! The greatest kung-fu teacher in all of China! \ |
| 249 | '''Shifu:''' But I ''can'' change you! I ''can'' turn you into the Dragon Warrior! And I ''WILL!''\ |
| 250 | '''Po:''' Come on! Tai Lung is on his way here right now! And even if it takes him a hundred years to get here, [[ArmorPiercingQuestion how are]] ''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion you]]'' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion going to change]] ''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion THIS]]'' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion into the Dragon Warrior?! HUH?!]]\ |
| 251 | '''Shifu:''' ''[silence]''\ |
| 252 | '''Po:''' How? How!? ''HOW!?''\ |
| 253 | '''Shifu:''' I DON'T KNOW!! ...I don't know.\ |
| 254 | '''Po:''' ''[angry and disappointed]'' That's what I thought... |
| 255 | * RebuiltPedestal: It becomes this in the first movie when Shifu and The Furious Five TookALevelInKindness and received a lot of CharacterDevelopment and treated Po fairly. |
| 256 | * RefusalOfTheCall: A complicated example. He's pretty excited about being the Dragon Warrior and willing to endure whatever training. Though when Tai Lung escapes, Po finally is freaked out enough to leave, only for Shifu to stop him and the above exchange, happening. Complication comes from Po no longer accepting the call after the call refused to ''accept '''him.''''' Shifu eventually trains him seriously. After Po seems to not grasp the purpose of the Scroll, Shifu sends him and the Five away to escort the villagers while he faces Tai Lung. [[spoiler:However, when Ping tells him the secret of his soup and Po has his EurekaMoment on how it reflects the scroll's message, he returns to defeat Tai Lung]]. |
| 257 | * RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun: Being the fanboy he is, he likes to do this to other people. His first reaction upon meeting any famous master is often to start reciting their greatest accomplishments to their face. |
| 258 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: As a baby panda. |
| 259 | * RookieRedRanger: The newest addition to the Furious Five, and initially the least experienced. |
| 260 | * RunningGag: |
| 261 | ** Po's eternal rivalry with stairs, which started with trying to go to the Jade Palace in the first film. It even carries over to his biological father. |
| 262 | ** To Shifu's annoyance, Po constantly and quickly learns advanced techniques that he himself has been trying for years to do, "...at such a young age." |
| 263 | * SadClown: In the first film, Po has serious self-esteem issues, considering himself a fat failure thanks to the severely ChillyReception he got from Shifu and the Furious Five. However, both Oogway and Master Shifu (after going through his own CharacterDevelopment) are able to lift his spirits considerably and he has since felt better about his new life. |
| 264 | * SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: As can be expected of a fanboy, Po is very prone to these, most famously his "Skadoosh" when he defeated Tai Lung. |
| 265 | * ShipTease: With a number of female characters. In the first movie, it's downplayed greatly in favor of Po's story, but Viper gets a little of it by being nice to him from the beginning, and kissing a training dummy that looks like him during the credits (she later gets a few moments with him in the TV series too); with Song in one episode of ''Legends of Awesomeness''; with Tigress in the TV series; and with Mei Mei in the third movie while training her with nunchucks. |
| 266 | %%* SitcomArchNemesis: Stairs. |
| 267 | * SmallParentHugeChild: Po is huge compared to his smaller, adoptive goose father Mr. Ping. |
| 268 | * SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:''Secrets of the Scroll'' shows that he, completely inadvertently, brought the Furious Five together, who in turn, inspired him to learn kung fu in the first place. [[ArcWords There are no accidents]] indeed]]. |
| 269 | * StepfordSmiler: In the first film. His cheerful attitude hides some ''massive'' self-esteem issues, and despite his constant fanboying to the Furious Five, he's painfully aware that both they and Shifu view him as a joke. He endures it out of the opportunity to no longer be him and seeing him finally crack is painful. Fortunately, he gains the confidence to overcome this. |
| 270 | * TheStrategist: While Po's biggest strength is how he's nearly impossible to injure, his surprising guile is a very close second. He's capable of intricate strategies set up beforehand, and more importantly he's flexible enough to [[IndyPloy adapt quickly]] if and when things go awry: both traits were demonstrated quite well in his battle with Kai. |
| 271 | * StoneWall: Po is at first not nearly at the level of fighting skill as Shifu or any of the Furious Five, but he is nearly impossible to physically injure. Every fight he goes in is mostly him absorbing damage (and after learning to fight, attacking opportunistically). This ultimately saves him in the second movie, where [[spoiler: his sheer defense allows him to survive getting hit by Shen's giant cannon (though the wok he held in front of him probably helped a little, though considering how far he was thrown by the force of the cannonball, it didn't help that much)]]. |
| 272 | ** The second movie also briefly shows this working against him when he encounters something he '''can't''' simply tank in Shen's very lethal bladed weapons. Despite having defeated the much more technically skilled and strong Tai Lung fairly easily, Po is immediately forced on the defensive as his large bulk and lack of agility start working against him. Thankfully, it doesn't take long for [[spoiler:Shen to basically defeat himself.]] |
| 273 | * StoutStrength: His stoutness is actually an [[{{Kevlard}} advantage]] for him. |
| 274 | * StrongGirlSmartGuy: With Tigress. Po is an AscendedFanboy with an encyclopedic knowledge of kung fu history and trivia, along with the ability to learn new techniques incredibly quickly (at least when properly motivated). Tigress, on the other hand, is the leader of the Furious Five and the fiercest fighter in the Valley of Peace. |
| 275 | * SupremeChef: Especially with noodles. It runs in the family. |
| 276 | * SympathyForTheDevil: He takes pity on both Tai Lung and Shen and tries to help them get over their issues, though [[spoiler:both times]] it is in vain. |
| 277 | * TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:In third film, he uses the Wuxi Finger Hold on ''himself'' while holding onto Kai to send them both to the Spirit Realm, after finding out it won't work on Kai directly (as Kai is ''already'' a spirit).]] |
| 278 | * TalkToTheFist: To Kai in the third film. |
| 279 | -->'''Po:''' ''(mockingly)'' Chitty-chitty-chat-chat, chit-chat! |
| 280 | * ThisIsUnforgivable: Po forgives Shifu and the Furious Five easily for all the harsh treatment they put him in the first film, and even offers ''Shen'', who killed his mother, a second chance in life. HOWEVER, when he learns that all his friends and the Valley of Peace's innocents have become zombies due to Kai and he left them all for nothing as his father literately left them to their fate to save his son, even Po cannot forgive that. He doesn't waste any time obliterating Kai, as the latter is simply too much of a monster. Notably, even his own father initially gets this, as Po straight up tells him that Li Shan has lost him and coldly turns his back on him, though when his father helps him and shows regret, this gets subverted. |
| 281 | * ThroughHisStomach: Po began to befriend the Furious Five (except Tigress) after the great meal he whipped up for them. |
| 282 | * TigerVersusDragon: The Dragon to Tai Lung and Tigress' Tiger. |
| 283 | * TookALevelInBadass: Takes a level in each film. |
| 284 | ** The first film's plot revolves around this -- learning kung fu in order to be ready when Tai Lung attacks. By the time Tai Lung arrives, Po's able to use both skill and [[ImprovFu the town surroundings]] to fight on par with him. [[spoiler:And accidentally discovers that his own fat protects him from nerve strikes]]. |
| 285 | ** In the sequel, although his fighting skills are still far from flawless, he kicks much more butt, being able to turn the already powerful Furious Five into a ''devastating'' force by combining their speed and offense with his defense and weight. Plus, he achieves Inner Peace [[spoiler:by learning to let go of his past and the crimes committed against him and his people, which allows him to catch and redirect ''cannon fire'']]. |
| 286 | ** The third film has him learn how to produce chi, [[spoiler:which results in Po utterly [[CurbStompBattle obliterating]] Kai to the point of death in the Spirit Realm. After that, he takes over Master Oogway's job as the BigGood and leader of Kung Fu]]. |
| 287 | * TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[spoiler: Upon mastering chi, Po becomes so almighty that he lets Kai absorb some of his power. The result is it being too much for Kai to handle, resulting in him becoming DeaderThanDead.]] |
| 288 | * TraumaButton: In the second film, seeing Lord Shen's red-eye symbol on the Wolf Boss' armor causes him to have a flashback of seeing his mother for the last time when he was a baby, stunning him long enough for the Wolf Boss to hit him with his warhammer and get away with the stolen pots and pans. Throughout the movie, repeatedly seeing the symbol (and even the pattern on Shen's tail-feathers, which resemble it) causes him to have more flashbacks, putting him at a disadvantage in battle, [[spoiler:until he ends up at the demolished site of the panda village. With the Soothsayer's help, he is able to remember exactly what happened that night.]] |
| 289 | * TranquilFury: |
| 290 | ** When he learns that Li Shan lied to him and that he left his friends, Shifu, and the Valley unprotected for nothing, Po finally gets ''angry'', but he doesn't scream or snap. He just coldly and straightly tells Li Shan that he is no longer his father. He spends his walk to the city and his time training with a dummy with an expression of ''cold fury''. |
| 291 | ** Repeated in the fourth film when [[spoiler:he confronts Zhen after betraying him to the Chameleon. As Zhen tries to reason, argue and even physically force him not to fight her former master, Po merely tries to walk past her in a quietly seething and fed-up disposition, coldly asking why he should believe anything she says after what has happened. It is only when Zhen hugs Po and pleads for him to stop that he softens and forgives Zhen.]] |
| 292 | * UnderestimatingBadassery: For obvious reasons, he gets this a lot. Tai Lung quite assumed that Po's only move is to sit on him, [[LaserGuidedKarma only to pay for it]] with injury [[spoiler:and his life]]. Lord Shen became quite annoyed at how Po managed to come back no matter what he threw at him and ended up defeated [[spoiler:and killed by his own cannon falling on him]]. And Kai thought it would be easy to steal Po's chi, but he didn't count on Po training a bunch of panda villagers to help fight him [[spoiler:and then mastering his chi in the Spirit Realm. It ends in Kai being DeaderThanDead]]. |
| 293 | * UseYourHead: He favors this move to shut enemies up fast, as seen in the holiday special and the second film. |
| 294 | * VagueAge: Shen's comment about waiting "thirty years for this day" when he takes over Gongmen implies Po to be at least in his late twenties, giving a couple of years for Shen to experiment before he was exiled. This is debatable; Shen was likely [[spoiler: looking forward to the day he became Lord of Gongmen City long before he tried to wipe out the pandas to escape his fate.]] Po's father states in the third film that he kept the secret about Po being adopted for twenty years, implying that Po was twenty (or at least very close to twenty) during the events of the second film. |
| 295 | * WarriorVersusSorcerer: Across his career as a Kung Fu master, Po battles a number of magic users like Shen and the Chameleon, but never gains any true sorcery of his own outside the Spirit Realm. |
| 296 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Stairs. Okay, lots of people have trouble with stairs, but the level to which it is exaggerated with somebody who would otherwise be perfectly healthy and ''does Kung Fu'' cements the trope, given how he can ''swing'' his way up an entire building without slowing down, but taking the stairs leaves him completely exhausted. |
| 297 | --> '''Po:''' Ah, [[SitcomArchNemesis my old enemy]]... Stairs. |
| 298 | * WithCatlikeTread: His attempt at "stealth mode" in the second film is...[[EpicFail less than stellar]]. Then again, what would you expect from a 300-pound Giant Panda voiced by [[LargeHam Jack Black]]? |
| 299 | * TheWorfEffect: In ''Legends of Awesomeness'', whenever it's Shifu or a member of the Furious Five that's about to have their own ADayInTheSpotlight episode, Po can sometimes get the beatdown by the VillainOfTheWeek so one of his Jade Palace compatriots can have the chance to shine. |
| 300 | * YoureNotMyFather: When he learns that Li Shang lied to him, angered and heartbroken that his father made him abandon his friends for nothing and they are now gone and seeing Li Shang prioritizing their survival over the greater cause, Po briefly denounces him as his father, straight-up telling him Li Shang has lost his son. He gets out of it after Li Shang is willing to fight and sincerely regrets it. |
| 301 | * YouKilledMyMother: [[spoiler:Subverted since Po manages to make peace with his past and never seems to seek out to kill Shen to avenge his mother's death.]] |
| 302 | [[/folder]] |
| 303 | |
| 304 | !Masters |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Master Shifu]] |
| 307 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DustinHoffman (Films), Creator/FredTatasciore (TV Series, Video Games)[[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Zhou Zhihui (Cantonese); Guy Nadon (Canadian French); Creator/PierreArditi [Films, TV Series sans ''Secrets of the Scroll''], Creator/JeanBarney [''Secrets of the Scroll''] (EU French); Creator/GottfriedJohn [''[=KFP=]'' and ''[=KFP=] 2''], Reinhard Kuhnert [''[=KFP=] 3''] (German); Eros Pagni [Films], Carlo Valli [TV Series] (Italian); Takashi Sasano [''[=KFP=]'' and ''[=KFP=] 2''], Ben Hiura [''[=KFP=] 3''] (Japanese); Kim Ki-hyeon (Korean); Wang Xiaobing (PRC Mandarin); Chin Shih-Chieh (TW Mandarin); Leonardo Camillo (Brazilian Portuguese); José Raposo (EU Portuguese); Alexander Khotchenkov (Russian); Joaquín Díaz [''[=KFP=]'' and ''[=KFP=] 2''], Ricardo Solans [''[=KFP=] 3''] (EU Spanish); Pedro Amendariz Jr. [''[=KFP=]'' and ''[=KFP=] 2''], Creator/OctavioRojas [''[=KFP=] 3'', ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness''] (LA Spanish); Jan Peszek [Films, TV Series sans ''Legends Of Awesomeness'' and ''Secrets of the Scroll''], Miłogost Reczek [''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'', Video Game and ''Secrets of the Scroll''] (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp_shifu.png]] |
| 310 | ->“Well done, students—''if'' you were trying to disappoint me." |
| 311 | |
| 312 | An old Red Panda, he is the kung fu teacher and master of Po and the Furious Five. He originally refuses to accept Po as the Dragon Warrior until the young panda proves himself. He is the protege of Master Oogway, and has succeeded him as spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace in the wake of his death. |
| 313 | ---- |
| 314 | * AbusiveParent: After what happened to Tai Lung, he became bitter and resentful... leading him to become an emotionally abusive adoptive father to Tigress, who he would often criticize (along with the others), if she didn't meet his incredibly high standards. He grows out of this in later material, but the scars remain for a while. |
| 315 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: A running joke. Po beats his personal nemesis Tai Lung in the first movie. In the second Shifu finally masters inner peace, only for Po to duplicate that feat by the end. In the third Shifu retires as the Furious Five's master in order to learn chi manipulation, only for Po to beat him to it. Po also gains Oogway's spirit staff, which is much cooler than the one Shifu has. Each time Shifu has briefly expressed irritation before just rolling with it, though his annoyance has increased a little with each movie. |
| 316 | * AntiHero: At first, given his borderline abusive treatment of Po and frankly asshole-ish attitude. |
| 317 | * AwesomenessByAnalysis: In the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Five Is Enough", Shifu is shown to be this by analyzing not only the opposing team's fighting style and flaws in the contest, but also the villain's to the point of replicating his signature move. |
| 318 | * BadassTeacher: He was the Kung Fu teacher of [[TheDreaded Tai Lung]], [[BadassCrew the Furious Five]], and [[TookALevelInBadass Po]]. Needless to say, ''all'' of them are amazing kung fu masters. |
| 319 | * BigDamnHeroes: In the second film, [[spoiler: he convinces a pessimistic Master Ox and Master Croc to fight against Lord Shen in the climax, though the convincing happens off screen.]] |
| 320 | * BigEater: He is seen eating a large amount of dumplings in a few mere seconds during Po's training montage. |
| 321 | * BigGood: After Oogway dies. He even gets a new outfit to show it. |
| 322 | * BigOlEyebrows: They're quite bushy and becoming of an elderly kung fu master. |
| 323 | * BloodKnight: In the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Kung Fu Club", it is shown he enjoys fighting for the sake of it, not just because it's his job. In Secrets of the Scroll, he spends a day excitedly destroying giant stone blocks in "preparation" for battle even though it is more likely to exhaust him than help him. Oogway implies this overzealous behavior is completely normal for him. |
| 324 | * BreakTheHaughty: Over and over during the first film, at the hands of his two pupils, fallen paragon Tai Lung and unlikely champion Po. |
| 325 | ** The first is when he talks to Po after Oogway's death and realizes he wasn't just a fool but a person who sincerely wished to improve himself, changing his previously contemptuous view of him. |
| 326 | ** The second and greater impact happens in his fight with Tai Lung, when he is forced to acknowledge that his bad judgement steered Tai Lung to darkness. |
| 327 | ** According to his humorous speech in the second film, this started with Po being chosen as the Dragon Warrior. He admits that Po's introduction into his life was possibly ''the worst day of his life'', going into extreme detail of how much it affected him. However, he also concedes on how this helped him let go of his enforced perfectionism to train him, thus becoming a much more relaxed individual. |
| 328 | * BrokenPedestal: He briefly lost Po's admiration and respect after he tried running away when being informed that Tai Lung is coming after him and the Dragon Scroll. Po even told him to Shifu's face that he wasn't his master, mainly because he was fully aware of the latter's efforts to try to get him to quit despite all he ever wanted from him was genuine guidance. [[RebuiltPedestal He quickly regained Po's respect when he finally learned how to train him properly, but not as the Dragon Warrior, as a student]]. |
| 329 | * BrutalHonesty: Shifu is not exactly known for softening his opinions, and when annoyed with someone can get downright vicious. |
| 330 | * TheChainsOfCommanding: He shows signs of this in the Tv series. Most notably in the episode "Little Ling Called Love", where [[spoiler:he announces his retirement to be with Mei Ling, his former flame whom he has rekindled with]] and how he tiredly speaks of the responsibilities that he had on him. |
| 331 | * CharacterDevelopment: Since he trained Po to be the Dragon Warrior, and the giant panda helped undo his mistakes with Tai Lung, he's been feeling much better in the second film. A lot of his early arrogance in the first film is reigned in, and he's far less harsh or controlling. |
| 332 | * ComedicSociopath: A teacher chucking his student down a flight of stairs the size of a small mountain wouldn't have much in the way of employment prospects in real life. |
| 333 | * ControlFreak: It's subtle, but a big part of Shifu's CharacterDevelopment in the first film is acknowledging the "illusion of control". In short, recognizing that some of what happened with Tai Lung was his fault, but some of it ''wasn't.'' |
| 334 | * TheComicallySerious: Is routinely the subject of humour despite his no-nonsense approach to teaching. Taken to its highest levels in ''Legends of Aweomeness'', where he's a regularly TheChewToy to Po. |
| 335 | * CoolOldGuy: When he's not being grumpy, he's a clever sage. After he begins training Po in earnest, he actually starts ''enjoying'' himself. |
| 336 | * CostumeEvolution: As of the sequel, Shifu now sports a green sash -- representing his CharacterDevelopment into a wise sage like his deceased master. |
| 337 | * CreateYourOwnVillain: [[spoiler:Fully convinced that Tai Lung would become the Dragon Warrior, Shifu set him to train hard, neglecting to teach him humility and the spiritual side of Kung Fu. When Oogway denied Tai Lung the Dragon Scroll, Shifu didn't step in to defend or comfort his adoptive son. [[WellDoneSonGuy Tai Lung]] had come to feel that he was worthy of Shifu's love only by becoming the Dragon Warrior and took this withdrawal of unconditional support as betrayal, trying to take the Dragon Scroll by force. Upon being beaten by his adoptive son years later, Shifu confesses that he unwittingly turned Tai Lung into a villain due to his prideful love blinding him.]] |
| 338 | * CriticalHesitationBlunder: Combined with his GlassCannon attribute, this is why he loses against 2 out of 3 of the movie villains. He can't bring himself to defeat Tai Lung because he loves him, and the shock of seeing Oogway turned into a jade figure distracts him long enough for Kai to get a solid hit in. |
| 339 | * CynicalMentor: After Tai Lung's turn to evil, and to Po before he proves himself capable of intense physical activity. |
| 340 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: His father had traveled to other villages to sell fake amulets ever since he was a young boy. One day, his father dropped him off at the Jade Palace, promising to return in five minutes. Shifu waited for him until nightfall, when eventually Master Oogway found him and took him in, making him a student at the Jade Palace. Then, there's his backstory with Tai Lung... |
| 341 | * DatingCatwoman: The show reveals that when he was a young kung fu master, he fell for Mei Ling, a crafty fox thief who uses her kung fu skills for the wrong purpose. Despite being the power couple, the relationship ended when he couldn't deal with her thieving ways and she came to resent that he supposedly placed his honor over her. Despite this, he finds himself immensely attracted to her, and she with him, as we see in her debut episode. |
| 342 | ** She returns in "Crazy Little Ling Called Love" where both have resolved to quit what tore them apart: She quit being a thief and [[spoiler:Shifu retiring as Master of the Jade Palace]]. Unfortunately, Ling is threatened by [[spoiler:Junjie to steal a crown and Shifu must steal it back. The end of the episode has her claim responsibility and spare Shifu, but they are still able to have a picnic together in jail]]. |
| 343 | * DeadpanSnarker: When putting up with Po's antics. |
| 344 | * DefrostingIceKing: Like Tigress, he mellows out quite a bit in the first film, to the point that he now resembles his deceased master by the sequel and onwards. |
| 345 | * DemotedToExtra: In the second film, he gets a couple of brief scenes at the start, then sends Po on his way while he remains in the Valley of Peace [[spoiler:until the very end when he does the BigDamnHeroes bit]]. Justified in that his character arc was mostly done with by the end of the first movie and ''someone'' had to watch the Jade Palace. |
| 346 | * DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: His name means "master" in Chinese, so calling him "Master Shifu" is like calling him "Master Master". |
| 347 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: Shifu is the other character in the first movie to undergo major changes. |
| 348 | * DisneyDeath: At the end of the first movie, after Tai Lung is defeated, Po (and the audience) believes Shifu is dying when actually he's only resting. |
| 349 | --> "I'm not dying, you idiot!" |
| 350 | * DotingParent: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Shifu raised Tai Lung with a lot of affection, and told him he was destined for greatness, but didn't teach him any humility or empathy. Shifu even admits his fatherly pride in Tai Lung's talent blinded him to what his pupil was becoming. |
| 351 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Shifu's first scene is effortlessly evading the Furious Five's attacks during a training session and then harshly berates all of them with the above quote. Moreso, he berates them for things they're good at: Tigress needs more ferocity, Viper has to show more subtlety, Crane "Height!" and so on. |
| 352 | * EveryoneHasStandards: In "Invitation Only", he believes that he can stand to watch Po's bad table manners since he fought the skinless demons of Taoyan Province. A GilliganCut shows he was wrong. |
| 353 | * FauxHorrific: Obviously, Tai Lung's betrayal gave him immense guilt and pain. But the very worst memory of all... |
| 354 | --> '''Shifu''' ''(right to Po's face):'' The day you were chosen... was the worst day of my life. By far. Nothing else comes close. ''Brrrr.'' |
| 355 | * FlashStep: He was quick in the first movie. In the sequel, he's able to essentially teleport. |
| 356 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic - in the first film, he is extremely caught up in the mistakes he made in the past and cannot seem to let it go, and also shows some aspects of Choleric by being needlessly strict and harsh towards his students. He does, of course, become more relaxed and open eventually, but is still stern and task-oriented for the most part. |
| 357 | * FullyDressedCartoonAnimal: He wears full kung fu master garb, now with the addition of a green robe. |
| 358 | * GlassCannon: He is a very fast and powerful fighter, but suffers a lack of reach and stamina against tougher and larger opponents like Tai Lung. First evidenced in his match with Po at the end of his training, when the main advantage Po has over him is that Shifu is comparatively tiny. |
| 359 | ** He's the only one to challenge Kai in the third movie, but just one hit severely injured him. |
| 360 | * GoodIsNotNice: Always ready to defend the valley, but before CharacterDevelopment kicks in he is serious, strict to the point of cruelty, and comes off as uncaring. |
| 361 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Becomes much nicer to his allies after CharacterDevelopment, but is still very harsh to anyone who crosses him. He's also a Kung Fu master and won't hesitate to beat up anyone who threatens people under his care. |
| 362 | * HandicappedBadass: He walks with a limp since he was struck in the leg/hip by Tai Lung, but that does nothing to stop him from being a good fighter. |
| 363 | * HeroicBSOD: Falls into one after experiencing several earth-shattering events in rapid succession. First, he finds out Tai Lung has escaped from prison and is on his way to the Jade Palace, Oogway passes away and he must find a way to turn Po, whom he'd spent more time trying to chase away than actually train, into the Dragon Warrior in a mere handful of days while not having the slightest idea where to start. It's enough that he spends the rest of the night under the sacred peach tree, simply staring forlornly out at the mountains. It isn't until he finds Po performing remarkable acts of athleticism while raiding the pantry that he has a EurekaMoment and comes out of it. |
| 364 | * HumblePie: Being beaten to an inch of his life by Tai Lung, coupled with the events of the Dragon Warrior selection, forces Shifu to confront a lot of his arrogant ControlFreak tendencies. [[spoiler:He admits as much to Tai Lung, citing how his pride was blinding him to Tai Lung's poor development.]] |
| 365 | * IAmNotWeasel: In the fourth film, he takes quiet offense to being called a squirrel by Zhen, immediately correcting that he's a Red Panda. Zhen seems genuinely without a comeback to this, seemingly surprised it got to him. |
| 366 | * IGaveMyWord: Shifu promises Oogway he will try to train Po [[spoiler:minutes before Oogway unexpectedly passes away]]. |
| 367 | * IHaveNoSon: Towards Tai Lung, briefly. Shortly after he tells him he was always proud of him though and apologizes for being a poor parent. |
| 368 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: Subtly, but he can aim and hurl a chopstick with enough precision to spear a flying dumpling in mid-air. |
| 369 | * InterspeciesRomance: He is a red panda and [[Characters/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomenessTVSeries Mei Ling]] is a fox. |
| 370 | * JerkassHasAPoint: While he can be brutally direct, some of his criticism towards Po or his other students is genuine. In particular, in the first movie he's absolutely right about Po not being ready for the Dragon Scroll yet, or that the Furious Five stand no chance against Tai Lung. |
| 371 | * JerkassRealization: When Po goes off on him just after Oogway's death, revealing he knew Shifu wanted him gone but remained in hopes he could genuinely train him to become the dragon warrior, the look on Shifu's face makes it obvious that this was the first time he had seen Po as an actual ''person'' with ''feelings.'' [[spoiler:He also gets this during his fight with Tai Lung after Tai Lung reveals that what truly made him angry about being denied the scroll was the fact that Shifu refused to defend him after spending years telling him repeatedly that Tai Lung was destined to become the Dragon Warrior. Shifu admits to Tai Lung that his pride blinded him to what kind of monster his upbringing was turning Tai Lung into.]] |
| 372 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: The end result of his arc in the first movie. He started out as egotistical and hostile, mostly due to his past, but all that changed when he found ''inner peace''. The show and later films show him as far more relaxed and lenient but still a strict taskmaster. |
| 373 | * KiManipulation: His skills are rudimentary compared to Oogway's (in the third film, he laments, "I can barely make a flower bloom! I need at least 30 more years! And a cave!"), but he blows open a rock with chi during his fight with Tai Lung and apparently knows the Wuxi Finger Hold. |
| 374 | * LogicalWeakness: Because of his small size, any decisive blow from a strong enough opponent will incapacitate or at least badly injure him, so he has to move fast and dish out the pain before they do. |
| 375 | * MeaningfulName: "Shifu" (師父) means "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment master]]". WordOfGod has said his name was chosen for it translating to "Father Teacher", which Shifu was originally developed to be: Po's adoptive father as well as teacher (which was also the reasoning behind casting him as a red panda), "so the sentiment is still there even though the story point is not". |
| 376 | * MiniatureSeniorCitizen: Justified, since Red Pandas as a species are small animals. |
| 377 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: His face when Po goes off on him about his treatment of him suggests this. Then when he says "I don't know" he realizes he's only made the situation worse. |
| 378 | ** [[spoiler:He also gets this during his fight with Tai Lung, when he realizes his high expectations, arrogance and brutal training turned Tai Lung into a brutal warrior who cannot overcome his own flaws.]] |
| 379 | * MyGreatestFailure: How he regards his training of Tai Lung. |
| 380 | * NeverMyFault: He tells Tai Lung that it wasn't his fault the Dragon Warrior title couldn't go to him, something Tai Lung calls him out on immediately. Even beforehand he's denying his own role in Tai Lung's villainy, using all his students after him to make a new Dragon Warrior and never having visited him during his incarceration. |
| 381 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: |
| 382 | ** One could see it as Shifu allowing Tai Lung to be released since if not for his paranoia, he wouldn't have sent Zeng to double-check his holdings and allowed Tai Lung the feather he needed to escape. However, he only did that because Oogway said Tai Lung would escape, therefore it could be considered Oogway's fault. Also counts as SelfFulfillingProphecy. |
| 383 | ** Doubly so for Shifu: If he had made efforts to ensure Tai Lung was taught humility or empathy, Tai Lung wouldn't have gone down the dark path when he was denied the Dragon Scroll by Oogway. |
| 384 | * NotSoAboveItAll: |
| 385 | ** In ''Legends of Awesomeness'', he initially shows disdain for the idea of Kung Fu FightClubbing[[note]]Peng has been traveling around and starting up meetings to teach the people and allow them to defend themselves, rather than let Kung Fu remain a weapon used only by masters and criminals; Po [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure immediately jumps on board]] at the idea[[/note]], but when he sees it for himself first hand, ''he has a blast''. |
| 386 | ** In some episodes he actually demonstrates Po-level enthusiasm for simple pastimes. In "Camp Ping" he actually annoys Po and Mr. Ping by tagging along on their camping trip, even partaking in a childlike sing-song, while in "The Secret Museum of Kung-Fu", Shifu, despite his hesitance to such behavior, actually shares Po's giddy eagerness about taking a road trip to titular landmark, much to the Furious Five's chagrin. |
| 387 | ** In the films, after finding inner peace he starts embracing his silly side more and more, to the point where he fully condones and even shares some of Po's bombastic ideas and Oogway's free-living mentality, albeit still doing so in a mature, reserved fashion. By the third movie, he can swap between silly and sagelike with amusing ease. |
| 388 | --> '''Po:''' ''(referring to using chi)'' So you're saying that by learning to teach, I'll be able to do cool stuff like that? |
| 389 | --> '''Shifu:''' ''(referring to all the free time he'll have now that Po is teaching)'' No. I'm saying that by you learning to teach, ''I'll'' be able to do cool stuff like that. |
| 390 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: In an episode of ''Legends of Awesomeness'' titled "My Favorite Yao", he's compared to ''Po''. He's a giant fanboy of this kung fu master named Yao and has action figures of Yao (in his meditation box) and himself [[spoiler:even going as far as to accidentally letting Yao unleashed and going into SensoryOverload!]] Also heavily implied by the simple choice of his species -- a different kind of ''Kung Fu Panda''.[[note]]Acknowledging, of course, that the red panda's classification has always been somewhat controversial. Molecular DNA research indicates that it's basically a ''far''-removed cousin of skunks, raccoons, otters, weasels, and badgers that split off long ago, but still fits into the Musteloidea superfamily connecting all of them. Red and Giant pandas have a common ancestor... that lived tens of millions of years ago in the Tertiary period.[[/note]] |
| 391 | * OffscreenTeleportation: Courtesy of [[spoiler:achieving inner peace:]] [[MundaneUtility generally used to avoid]] TheGlomp. |
| 392 | * OldMaster: Fills the typical role. Much more apparent in the sequel, where he replaces Oogway as the Valley of Peace's resident wise master, having achieved the inner peace necessary to be this. In the first film, it wasn't so much unapparent as averted, as he was too bitter and cold to be a wise mentor, save towards the end. |
| 393 | * OnlySaneMan: Compared to [[CloudCuckooLander Po]], Shifu is a little more serious about kung fu. |
| 394 | * ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:His con-artist father left him at the Jade Palace when he was a kid.]] |
| 395 | * ParentalSubstitute: To Tai Lung and later Tigress. |
| 396 | * ParentsAsPeople: Was far too busy training his adopted children in kung fu to actually, you know, ''parent'' them. He indulged on with praise with the first and he treated the second a fair bit more coldly and aloofly (likely as an attempt to not repeat with Tai Lung.) |
| 397 | * PerpetualFrowner: At least for the first half of the first movie. Both the Furious Five and Po even straight-out lampshade this when they talk about a time that Shifu "actually used to smile" and when Po is imitating him. However, he starts to get better when Po (unintentionally) starts showing promise of really being the Dragon Warrior. |
| 398 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: He's, what, a tenth Po's size? Smaller? Yet he can fling Po around like it's nothing. This shines in the second movie when [[spoiler:the first sign of Shifu's presence in the final battle is no less than a dozen armed wolves being sent flying in the distance]]. |
| 399 | * {{Pride}}: He was blinded by this while training Tai Lung, preventing him from seeing the monster Tai Lung was becoming. [[WordOfStPaul Interviews with Dustin Hoffman]] indicated that Shifu's characterization was meant to suggest that he ''himself'' once aspired to become the Dragon Warrior, but when this failed to come to pass, he resolved to be the master who ''trained'' the Dragon Warrior instead. Afterwards, this same arrogance blinds him to Po's own potential until after Oogway's final lesson. |
| 400 | * RuleOfSymbolism: |
| 401 | ** During his climactic battle against Tai Lung, Shifu angrily states that Tai Lung's not being chosen to become the Dragon Warrior was not his (Shifu's) fault. His former prize pupil shouts at him, "''Not your fault?'' Who filled my head with dreams? Who drove me to train until my bones cracked?! ''WHO DENIED ME MY DESTINY?!''" and hurls a sword at Shifu. The scene slows down for a moment [[ItsAllMyFault as Shifu stares at his own reflection in the polished blade]]. |
| 402 | ** As they break through the roof of the Jade Palace, fight in midair, and go hurtling downward, the lighting of the scene for a very brief moment makes it appear as if Shifu is drowning--in guilt and grief at seeing his beloved son and pupil turned into a revenge-crazed monster, and knowing he was partly responsible for it. |
| 403 | * SadistTeacher: In the first film, towards Po. His "training" was little more than abuse with the intention of getting Po to quit, and Shifu was getting increasingly frustrated that Po continued to endure it. Oogway and later Po eventually [[RageAgainstTheMentor call him out on this]], and Shifu drops this attitude. |
| 404 | * ScratchyVoicedSenior: He's old and speaks with a rather gravelly voice. |
| 405 | * ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Very old, and very cantankerous, as Po finds out. Of course, he warms to Po eventually. |
| 406 | * SoProudOfYou: Averted. It's implied that he was very proud of Tai Lung but never ''said'' so. He seems to have drawn the wrong lesson from this - rather than learning to give praise where it's deserved, he hasn't allowed himself to ''feel'' proud of training six more of the greatest kung-fu masters of the day. Even after his CharacterDevelopment in the first movie, getting sincere praise from Shifu is quite unusual. |
| 407 | ---> '''Po:''' No, Master. I did it. I defeated Tai Lung!\ |
| 408 | '''Shifu:''' You did? ''(ponders this for a moment)'' Wow. |
| 409 | * StaffOfAuthority: He inherits Master Oogway's, repairs it, and it becomes his weapon. |
| 410 | * SternTeacher: For the Furious Five, although for Po he's initially more of a SadistTeacher. By the end of the first film, he does learn to lighten up a bit. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that he's a traditional Chinese Wushu Sifu. Historically, in Imperial China, near-abusive treatment of students by people in his position was not only tolerated, but expected. That said, even in-universe it's obvious he's not really ''training'' Po so much as trying to drive him away. The film draws a distinction between Shifu setting Po up for failure versus giving legitimately difficult yet rewarding training. |
| 411 | * SuperSenses: While trying to meditate, he complains about the sound of Zheng flying toward him before the audience knows he's arrived (though that may be a gag on his proportionally large ears). |
| 412 | * TookALevelInCheerfulness: He loses his cynical, bitter streak by the sequel. Although he's still pretty sardonic. |
| 413 | * TookALevelInKindness: Becomes far less cold and bitter in the second movie, taking on a more Oogway-like demeanor. |
| 414 | * TwitchyEye: Tends to happen when he gets annoyed at Po (which is often). |
| 415 | * YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: When Shifu at the Pool of Sacred Tears asks Po if he wants to learn kung fu, his response to the panda's impassioned "Yes!" says that he knows Po can be trained after all. He also invoked this with Tigress when she was a cub and taught her to control her strength. |
| 416 | -->'''Shifu:''' Tigress? ''(opens the door of Tigress' room)'' I am Shifu. I am... |
| 417 | -->'''Tigress:''' Afraid? |
| 418 | -->'''Shifu:''' No. |
| 419 | -->'''Tigress:''' ''(furiously)'' Well, you should be! I am Tigress! Tigress the '''monster!''' ''(sadly)'' A monster no one wants. |
| 420 | -->'''Shifu:''' You are not a monster. You're just a little girl. ''(takes out a set of wooden dominoes)'' Let us play? |
| 421 | [[/folder]] |
| 422 | |
| 423 | [[folder:Master Oogway]] |
| 424 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/RandallDukKim (most of the franchise), Creator/GregBaldwin (first video game), Creator/PiotrMichael (''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaThePawsOfDestiny'')[[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Tam Ping-man (Cantonese); Vincent Davy (Canadian French); Pierre Bonzans (EU French); Jochen Schröder (German); Dante Biagioni (Italian); Kōsei Tomita (Japanese); Jeong Gi Hang (Korean); Wu Wenlun (PRC Mandarin); Sun Zhongtai (TW Mandarin); Jomeri Pozzoli (Brazilian Portuguese); João Lagarto (EU Portuguese); Alexander Ryzhkov (Russian); Eduard Muntada (EU Spanish); Creator/EstebanSiller [''[=KFP=]''], Creator/PedroDAguillonJr [rest of the franchise] (LA Spanish); Andrzej Gawroński [Films], Paweł Galia [''The Paws Of Destiny''] (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 425 | |
| 426 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp_oogway.png]] |
| 427 | ->"You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There's a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." |
| 428 | |
| 429 | An ancient tortoise from the Galapagos Islands and creator of kung fu. He is Shifu's mentor, and was the one who chose Po to become the Dragon Warrior. He has [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended to the heavens]], leaving Shifu in his place as leader of the Jade Palace. |
| 430 | ---- |
| 431 | * AntiHero: [[spoiler:As revealed in the third film, he wasn't always the paragon of virtue and tranquility that he grew up to be.]] |
| 432 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: After he leaves Shifu in his place as the leader of Jade Palace. [[spoiler:This however, does not stop him helping Po in the third film.]] |
| 433 | * BigGood: As the Grand Master of the Jade Palace, he is the wisest and most benevolent of the heroes. [[spoiler:He is succeeded by Shifu.]] |
| 434 | * BookEnds: [[spoiler:Pandas saving his life and teaching him the ways of chi are what inspired him to create Kung Fu and become the paragon of virtue and tranquility he is known as, and it is choosing a young Panda (Po) as the Dragon Warrior that was a signal for the end of his time in the mortal realm.]] |
| 435 | * TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:Death itself doesn't stop Oogway from making a return in the third film.]] |
| 436 | * CassandraTruth: Everyone refused to believe that his selection of Po as the Dragon Warrior was anything but an accident. Even Po himself believed that he was not the right guy for the job. Until Po proved himself by defeating Tai Lung. |
| 437 | * TheChooserOfTheOne: The one who selects Po as the Dragon Warrior. [[spoiler: It was revealed that he chose Po because of being a panda, whose species had strong instinctive affinity for chi.]] |
| 438 | * CoolOldGuy: Contrasting Shifu's strict disciplinarianism, he's got his share of eccentricities; for instance, upon discovering Po ''gorging'' himself on the peaches from the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, Oogway discerns immediately that he eats when he's upset, asks him ''why'' he's upset, listens patiently to his woes, and then gives him some parting words of advice (plus one peach on the house). Then there was this: |
| 439 | -->'''Shifu:''' Master, I have... ah... it's ''terrible'' news...\ |
| 440 | '''Oogway:''' Ah Shifu, there is just news. There is no "good" or "bad".\ |
| 441 | '''Shifu:''' Master, your vision! Your vision was right! Tai Lung has escaped from prison! He's on his way!\ |
| 442 | {{Beat}}\ |
| 443 | '''Oogway''': That ''IS'' bad news... if you do not believe that the Dragon Warrior can stop him. |
| 444 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's a bit eccentric, but he is regarded as being one of the wisest and most powerful characters in the series. |
| 445 | ** The only lesson he taught ''directly'' to Po was about not letting the past or the future affect your present. As it turns out, this was the lesson Po needed to learn ''in the sequel'' while still having meaning in the present situation. OldMaster indeed. |
| 446 | * CurbstompBattle: He delivers a single, swift beatdown on a rogue Tai Lung in a flashback... and he was already past his prime by then. |
| 447 | * DeusExitMachina: He AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence right after the news of Tai Lung's escape arrived, making sure that he can't repeat the CurbStompBattle again. |
| 448 | * DisappearsIntoLight: A variation with [[PetalPower peach blossoms petals]]. |
| 449 | ** [[spoiler:This is shown to be a function of doing the wuxi finger hold on ''yourself'' in the third movie, a feat Po replicates.]] |
| 450 | * DisneyDeath: Has one in the ''Secrets of the Masters'' short. Of course, since we've already seen his actual death, this wasn't fooling anyone. |
| 451 | * {{Expy}}: He's a green, somewhat [[EccentricMentor eccentric]], but wise OldMaster of an AncientTradition. He is also surprisingly agile for his age, but despite this, he uses a walking cane, and his body disappears when he "ascends". That sounds very much like [[Franchise/StarWars Yoda]]. Curiously, however, the nature of his wisdom (telling Po to be in the present and telling his old student to trust in an unlikely seeming student) as well as identifying TheChosenOne bear more resemblance to Qui-Gon Jinn. |
| 452 | * FeatherFingers: A non-bird variant. He has massive claws on his front feet whereas a normal giant tortoise would have simple toenails. Very useful for pointing, doing nerve attacks on Tai Lung, [[spoiler:or giving Kai a Wuxi Finger Hold]]. |
| 453 | * HandsOffParenting: In the cartoon, it is implied that he adopted Shifu after his father abandoned him. While he is definitely a step up from Shirong, his philosophy of letting fate take over and passively saying confusing mystical phrases is possibly the reason Shifu made so many fatal mistakes. He saw problems and allowed them to continue. While this is fine for a Kung Fu teacher, it isn't a good parenting method. Shifu always listened to him, even if it took a while, so if he had stepped in when Shifu started to fail as a parent, Tigress and Tai Lung would have had better childhoods. |
| 454 | * HeelFaceTurn: The third film reveals that before he became the paragon of tranquility and wisdom [[spoiler:he was a powerful and feared warlord alongside his brother-in-arms Kai. However, after being injured in an ambush and healed by a group of pandas, who went on to teach him how to manipulate his chi, he began changing his ways. This eventually lead to him choosing to fight Kai to protect the pandas, from whom Kai wanted to steal chi to make himself more powerful.]] |
| 455 | * HermitGuru: Downplayed. Although he lives at the Jade Palace, he seems to be isolated from day-to-day concerns, contrasted to Shifu, who runs the place. Oogway instead focuses on meditation. |
| 456 | * IChooseToStay: Oogway sent himself to the Spirit Realm. When asked by Po if he had the power to go back, he chuckles, "Who knows? I never tried!", the implication being he's fine and dandy in the Spirit Realm and has no real motivation to return to the physical realm. |
| 457 | * InterspeciesFriendship: With Shifu, a red panda. [[spoiler:And formerly with Kai, a yak]]. |
| 458 | * KiManipulation: He can use it offensively and defensively against opponents as shown during his brief battle with Kai in the opening of the third film. |
| 459 | * KungFuWizard: More kung fu than wizard, but [[spoiler:in the Spirit Realm]] he's shown creating concussive blasts of Chinese calligraphy with his staff as well as massive taijitu barriers. |
| 460 | * ILetYouWin: [[spoiler:Kai defeating him in the third film is either this or TheWorfEffect. It is difficult to say which trope this is. On one hand, it serves to establish how dangerous Kai is as a villain. On the other, Oogway does little to fight back and states it is not his destiny to defeat Kai.]] |
| 461 | * LevitatingLotusPosition: He has an interesting version of advanced meditation: he uses the crook at the top of his walking stick as a place to rest his head, ''while he balances the rest of his body on top of it''. |
| 462 | * LogoJoke: He replaces the fishing boy in the Dreamworks Animation logo for ''Kung Fu Panda 2''. |
| 463 | * MartialPacifist: Known for his peaceful and pacifistic nature. He developed kung fu primarily as a method of self-defense. |
| 464 | * MeaningfulName: His name is a [[ADogNamedDog phonetic spelling of the Chinese word for "turtle"]] (烏龜, wūguī). |
| 465 | * MisplacedWildlife: Justified by WordOfGod. Giant tortoises normally live on the Galapagos Islands, and Oogway also was born on the Galapagos. He emigrated to China as a young tortoise, and the rest is history. |
| 466 | * MoralityPet: [[spoiler:Used to be Kai's. Unfortunately, Kai doesn't have that level of respect for him anymore.]] |
| 467 | * NotSoAboveItAll: |
| 468 | ** Oogway isn't above joking or teasing, even when teaching a lesson; see CoolOldGuy. |
| 469 | ** While meditating [[spoiler:in the Spirit Realm]], he tries to achieve inner peace until a flower petal covers his nose and makes him sneeze. Just as he's about to find inner peace again, he catches an oncoming blade without even opening his eyes before muttering an irritated "Now what?" |
| 470 | * OldMaster: In this case, he's the Old Master of another Old Master. He is literally over a ''thousand'' years old, and all that experience means he can curb-stomp people like Tai Lung. |
| 471 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 472 | ** The placid lake of serenity that makes up Oogway's countenance is disturbed by concern only three times; first when Tai Lung came for the Dragon Scroll, when he reacted with nothing but cold anger and disgust as he eventually brought him to heel, second upon learning that Tai Lung has indeed escaped as he predicted, and third when begging Shifu to believe in Po as the Dragon Warrior. The latter two happen in rapid succession shortly before he declares that his [[ButNowIMustGo time has come]]. |
| 473 | ** In the third movie, Oogway is his usual playful self against Kai at first, until the latter reveals he stole the chi of every warrior in the spirit realm, leading Oogway to break into understated horror and disbelief, complete with a LittleNo. This quickly calms as he knows it is someone else's destiny to stop Kai, though he still expresses more sad pity for Kai than Tai Lung, as the two were once friends until the latter's greed got the best of him. |
| 474 | -->'''Oogway:''' ''(mournfully)'' When will you realise that the more you take, the less you have? |
| 475 | * ParentalSubstitute: Implied in "Father Crime" that [[spoiler:he was a second father to Shifu.]] |
| 476 | * PressurePoint: A master of this, using it to defeat Tai Lung in a matter of moments with five strikes. |
| 477 | * PosthumousCharacter: In ''Legends of Awesomeness''. Which wouldn't be so bad if most of his enemies hadn't outlived him. |
| 478 | * PrecursorHero: To Po, having been the Valley of Peace's guardian before him and the one who defeated Scorpion and Ke-Pa among others. |
| 479 | * Really700YearsOld: He defeated Kai 500 years before the events of the third movie. |
| 480 | * RetiredBadass: [[spoiler:He is perfectly content with staying in the Spirit Realm. He may or may not be able to come back to life like Po does because he never felt like trying.]] |
| 481 | * ReformedCriminal: [[spoiler:It is implied in the third film that he and Kai were brothers-in-arms. Given Kai's plethora of intimidating titles, it does not sound like he was a particularly nice guy even back then. Even if Oogway was the nicer one of the two, he was still friends with a bad guy.]] |
| 482 | * SecretTestOfCharacter: It is somewhat implied that his refusal to give Tai Lung the Dragon Scroll may have been this. Although Tai Lung was a dedicated student who had mastered the thousand scrolls of kung fu, he had no understanding of the spiritual and self-improving side of it. Had Tai Lung accepted the decision with humility, or decided to improve himself and find inner peace, it's possible he might have become worthy of the Dragon Scroll. Instead, he decided to go on a destructive rampage through the village and even injured his adoptive father Shifu (a '''very''' grave sin by the standards of traditional Chinese society) when he tried to stop him from reaching the scroll, doing nothing but proving himself further unworthy of it. |
| 483 | * {{Seers}}: This is confirmed in the third film. Oogway can at times see the future or sense the flow of the universe. By taking seemingly random action he can set in course events that bring about the desired outcome. He does this in nearly all of his appearances. |
| 484 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: For all the influence Oogway exerts on the series as a whole, he doesn't actually ''do'' much onscreen; his direct interaction with the plot in the first movie consists of inadvertently putting Tai Lung's escape in motion, choosing Po to be the Dragon Warrior, encouraging the panda to never give up, and ''dying'', thus requiring Po to defeat Tai Lung by necessity of there being no other who ''can''. Much of what makes the old shellback so impressive took place earlier in his life, both offscreen and before the events of the story as outlined elsewhere on this page and exploring various facets of Oogway's storied history in the sequels reveals just how big of a player Oogway actually was. |
| 485 | * StaffOfAuthority: He's impressive with his bare claws, but Oogway's staff is his favored tool. The staff reflects authority, insight, and defense. |
| 486 | * StorybreakerPower: He's reached a high level of power and skill where he could easily defeat the vast majority of Po's villains and it's revealed later that he already defeated some of Po's strongest villains such as Tai Lung, Fenghuang, Ke-Pa (with help from the Valley of Peace giving him its Hero's Chi) and Kai in the past (before he's stolen the Chi of every other kung fu master in the spirit realm), which is probably why [[TooPowerfulToLive Oogway left the mortal realm, since he would solve Po's problems instantly if he were still alive]]. The only remaining uncertainty is whether or not he could defeat the ArcVillain characters in Po's animated spinoff adventures like Jindiao, Baigujing, or the Tianshang-empowered characters like Zuma or Sir Alfred since he lacks any sort of personal history with them (and in Zuma and Alfred's case, is separated from them by entire continents and even oceans) but even then, it wouldn't ''that'' inconceivable if he had something up his sleeve prepared for them, considering he chose the very Dragon Warrior who would go on to either defeat them personally or play a big part in their defeat with a team of heroes. |
| 487 | * ThereAreNoCoincidences: He firmly believes in fate, and instructs Shifu to train Po over Shifu's objections. Turns out he was right. He even tells Shifu that "there are no accidents." [[BrickJoke Thrice.]] |
| 488 | ** Since even Shifu can get tired of Oogway's mysticisms such as in ''Secrets of the Scroll'' when Tigress is sent off to recruit students and returns with the not-yet-Furious Five, who Shifu wasn't expecting. The mix-up is labeled an accident and just when Oogway is about to chime in about there being no accidents, Shifu cuts him off with a gesture of his staff. Oogway shuts up anyway, most likely to humor him. |
| 489 | * TooPowerfulToLive: A heroic example -- Oogway likely would have trivialized dealing with many of the bad guys in the series had he stuck around, so he instead AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to allow the other heroes to do it instead. [[spoiler:He ''will'' still lend a hand from beyond the grave if need be.]] |
| 490 | * TricksterMentor: |
| 491 | ** [[spoiler:To Shifu himself in ''Secrets of the Scroll''. The short ends with him casually healing Shifu's food poisoning in a matter of seconds, implying that he could have done this the whole time, but chose not to so that Shifu would learn his lesson. It's also more than implied Oogway knew Shifu would end up sick.]] |
| 492 | ** [[spoiler:In the same special Tigress too got some of his patented teaching, as he saw she was stifling herself to emulate Shifu, so he took steps that would allow Tigress not only to become her own master but to gain companionship.]] |
| 493 | ** He also prefers giving those he teaches not straightforward lessons, but riddles that contain the answers he feels you should learn so you can discover the answer for yourself (see the [[MagicFeather Dragon Scroll]] from KFP 1, and his cryptic message to Kai [[spoiler:about the nature of taking the Chi of others by force]]). |
| 494 | ** To Masters Ox, Rhino, and Croc in ''Secrets of the Masters''. |
| 495 | * WiseOldTurtle: He's incredibly wise and old, and [[MasterApprenticeChain the mentor to Po's own mentor]]. He's also one the inventor of Kung Fu and one of its greatest masters in history, and [[spoiler:still badass enough to drop the nigh-unstoppable Tai Lung with a lightning-fast nerve strike pattern]]. |
| 496 | * WorldsStrongestMan: Most of the villains that Po struggles to defeat in the show were at some point in the past curbstomped by Master Oogway. The only two enemies that have ever actually been shown to match him or come close to defeating him is the Demon King Ke-Pa (who almost did it at Oogway's prime too, though Oogway is also stated to be exhausted from sealing Ke-Pa's demon brethern), someone who [[spoiler:''killed'' Po for a short time]] and his former friend Kai who were evenly matched in the past before Oogway banished him to the Spirit Realm. While Kai beat Oogway in the present quite easily, it should be noted that Kai had already stolen the Chi of every other kung fu master in the spirit realm. In fact, Po only got the upper hand against Kai with [[spoiler:[[CombinedEnergyAttack the combined Chi of every panda in the village along with Tigress and Mr. Ping]]]] to even the odds. It wouldn't be until ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight'' that Oogway's status as this would be more seriously contested once a fully Tianshang-empowered [[spoiler: Sir Alfred]] would make his debut, having the power to rearrange continents and project power on a world-wide scale and even then, we don't know if [[spoiler: Alfred]] would've actually de-throned Oogway in a one-on-one battle since they never fight and don't have any personal history together like Oogway had with other powerful villains like Ke-Pa or Kai. |
| 497 | [[/folder]] |
| 498 | |
| 499 | !The Furious Five |
| 500 | |
| 501 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 502 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/furiousfive_0_removebg_preview_6.png]] |
| 503 | [[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Monkey (with Mantis on his head), Tigress, Crane, Viper]] |
| 504 | |
| 505 | The most famous and skilled kung fu masters in all of China, students of the Jade Palace, and Po's personal idols. |
| 506 | ---- |
| 507 | * BadassCrew: Even more so once Po joins them. |
| 508 | * BigBrotherInstinct: After they warm up to Po during the events of the first film, they watch out for him a lot and help him with his troubles, both in and out of combat. |
| 509 | * BreakTheHaughty: Much like Shifu, years of being the strongest kung fu masters around have bloated their egos. To the point they finally disobey Shifu and charge in to fight Tai Lung without so much as a plan. Tai Lung soundly defeats all five of them ''simultaneously'', which not only checks their arrogance but is part of the reason they're much less resentful towards Po in the later films. |
| 510 | * CharacterExaggeration: |
| 511 | ** Their [[WithFriendsLikeThese rocky relationship]] towards Po that was resolved pretty quickly in the film series unfortunately became a borderline RunningGag in the ''Legends Of Awesomeness'' TV series, with an enormous amount of episodes revolving around them disbelieving Po or giving him the cold shoulder. In fairness, some of Po's own Character Exaggeration into an arrogant slacker often plays into this, but in some cases, it's just a regular JerkassBall. |
| 512 | ** While they do fall victim to TheWorfEffect in the films, it is almost always against a legitimate threat, and they still often put up a good fight or pull their own weight otherwise. In ''Legends of Aweomeness'' however, [[AdaptationalWimp they routinely got cut through like paper]] before Po saved them, with only the sporadic limelight episode returning them to their former glory. |
| 513 | * CombinationAttack: They frequently play off each others' fighting styles to employ these, utilizing each other's core strengths to make a powerful whole. Po stays in the center, allowing the rest to play off his large presence, Tigress deals with the most enemies head-on, Viper uses the confusion of battle to attack from unexpected angles, Crane surveys from above and protects the others from unseen attacks, etc. |
| 514 | * ADayInTheLimelight: While all of the films are primarily focused on Po, ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' and ''Secrets of the Scrolls'' go into depth with their individual backstories and characterizations. The occasional episode of ''Legends of Awesomeness'' is also devoted to one of them. |
| 515 | * DemotedToExtra: None of the five have a role in the fourth movie and are instead established to be out on separate missions during the entirety of it. [[spoiler:They only appear in the flesh at the end with no lines of dialogue.]] |
| 516 | * ADogNamedDog: They are each named after both their species and the kung fu style they've mastered. |
| 517 | * EveryoneHasStandards: |
| 518 | ** Even when they were skeptical and resentful towards Po earlier on, they showed clear concern about the [[TrainingFromHell “training” from Hell]] he underwent. This is especially when Shifu forced Po to spar with him and [[ThisIsGonnaSuck most of them exchanged nervous glances in response]] because they knew [[CurbStompBattle it wasn't going to end well for Po]]. [[NiceGirl Viper]], in particular, is less concerned about Po being unworthy of being the Dragon Warrior, and more concerned that Shifu's "training" would risk killing an inexperienced civilian. |
| 519 | ** Due to {{Adaptational Jerkass}}ery on both ends, Po tends to be TheFriendNobodyLikes with the Furious Five throughout a lot of ''Legends of Awesomeness''. In "Enter the Dragon" however, Shifu seemingly disowns and exiles Po for yet another severe screw-up. Despite Po's actions leaving them open to a terrifying threat, the Furious Five are shocked by this cruelness and feel sorry for Po, even protesting against Shifu's orders (Shifu himself was pulling this, however, as this was merely a ShooTheDog tactic to keep Po out of harm's way). |
| 520 | * FurryReminder: All of them sometimes make noises corresponding with their animal species, such as Tigress growling/roaring, Monkey screeching, or Viper hissing. Parodied with Crane in the sequel when the others accuse him of saying "ca-caw" and he questions when he's "ever made that sound". (He then actually does it for fun at the climax battle.) |
| 521 | * GoodIsNotSoft: All of them are kung fu masters and regularly beat up villains. |
| 522 | * TheHerosIdol: Po admires the Furious Five, to the point of constructing action figures in their image. Po is even willing to ride a rocket chair just to get a glimpse of his heroes. It's almost a DeusExMachina that Master Oogway chooses Po to become a Dragon Warrior trainee. This means Po will be learning ultimate Kung Fu alongside his five idols. |
| 523 | * {{Hypocrite}}: All of them grew up from humble downtrodden beginnings before becoming Kung Fu Masters, though by the time Po appears, they have become so hardened and prideful from years of arduous training under Shifu that they look down on him just as they had once been before. For Tigress at least, this is actually given a HypocrisyNod in the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Kung Fu Daycare" where Po calling out her dismissive attitude towards ''a small child being unable to do kung-fu'' [[JerkassRealization triggers a flashback of her own childhood]]. |
| 524 | * {{Leitmotif}}: A fanfare that they share as a group. It is introduced in the first film as a general theme, but it plays prominently during the bridge scene. [[BootstrappedLeitmotif It then becomes primarily associated with them in the second]], playing whenever they do pretty much anything. A particularly noticeable example makes up the middle of [[https://youtu.be/YH3IUZgs95s?si=1EsAef9hOwg2veYp "More Cannons,"]] which coincides with them scaling Shen's tower. |
| 525 | * OriginsEpisode: ''Secrets of the Furious Five'', which goes into their individual backstories. ''Secrets of the Scroll'' goes a step further and shows how they met and came together as a team. |
| 526 | * RedOniBlueOni: Within the group, Monkey and Mantis play the Red due to being more energetic, physically active, and hot-blooded than the others, while Crane and Viper play the calmer, more sensible Blue. Tigress alternates between the two, where she shows shades of Red due to her aggressive fighting style, but can also be Blue as a result of her being reserved and stoic. |
| 527 | * SheIsTheKing: The female Viper and Tigress use the title "Master", rather than "Mistress". |
| 528 | * TastesLikeFriendship: In the first film, they start to warm up to Po after tasting his delicious Secret Ingredient Soup. |
| 529 | * TrainingFromHell: They've all gone through this, courtesy of Shifu. |
| 530 | * TrueCompanions: Despite their differences, it's clear they treat each other like a family and fight as a solid unit. It takes them a while to warm up to Po, but he eventually gets in on it as well. |
| 531 | * TwoGirlsToATeam: Tigress and Viper are the only two females in the Furious Five. |
| 532 | * TheWorfEffect: |
| 533 | ** The first film builds them up as powerful and badass mainly to show how much ''more'' powerful and badass Tai Lung is when he takes them down. They get more of a chance to shine in the sequel. |
| 534 | ** Quite sadly, they get stuck in this role routinely in the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series, nearly always serving as the first wave that is defeated by the bad guys before Po steps in. Generally, their limelight episodes serve as the exception to the rule. |
| 535 | [[/folder]] |
| 536 | |
| 537 | |
| 538 | [[folder:Master Tigress]] |
| 539 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AngelinaJolie (Films), Creator/KariWahlgren (TV Series, ''Secrets of the Scroll''); Creator/TaraStrong [''Secrets of the Furious Five''], Tara Macri [''Secrets of the Scroll''] (young), Bobby Holliday [video games], Jane Perry [[=DreamWorks=] All-Star Kart Racing] [[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Denise Ho (Cantonese); Hélène Mondoux (Canadian French); Marie Gillain [Films, ''Secrets Of The Furious Five''], Laura Blanc [''Legends of Awesomeness''], Virginie Méry [''Secrets of the Scroll''] (EU French); Bettina Zimmermann (German); Creator/FrancescaFiorentini (Italian); Yoshino Kimura [''[=KFP=] 1'' and ''2''], Creator/TakakoHonda [''[=KFP=] 3''] (Japanese); An So-yeon (Korean); Di Feifei (PRC Mandarin); Patty Hou (TW Mandarin); Creator/JulianaPaes (Brazilian Portuguese); Fernanda Serrano (EU Portuguese); Alisa Grebenshchikova (Russian); Nuria Mediavilla (EU Spanish); Creator/EricaEdwards (LA Spanish); Brygida Turowska (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 540 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp3_tigress_1.jpg]] |
| 541 | |
| 542 | ->''"I used to punch the ironwood trees by the palace to train. Now I feel nothing."'' |
| 543 | |
| 544 | The strongest and boldest of the Furious Five. She initially resents Po for being chosen as the Dragon Warrior over her, believing herself to be more worthy, but has since [[DefrostingIceQueen mellowed out considerably]] and is now one of his most loyal friends. |
| 545 | ---- |
| 546 | * AcademicAlphaBitch: Her expertise on kung-fu is based on a dedication and application of each technique, as well as hours of studying and practicing; as such, Po's lackadaisical approach baffles her, making her believe she's more advanced than him on every aspect of the field. Of course, this also has some basis on the fact that Po doesn't resemble her vision of what the Dragon Warrior is meant to be. |
| 547 | * ActionDressRip: Tigress does this in ''Secrets of The Scroll'' once she has enough of trying to imitate Shifu's fighting style and decides to use her own "tiger style" to defeat the Boar. |
| 548 | * ActionGirl: She is not one of China's most famous kung fu masters for nothing. |
| 549 | * AdaptationalWimp: In ''Legends of Awesomeness'', she's portrayed as being inferior to Po in a straight up fight multiple times, putting aside a few moments where Po suffers TheWorfEffect so she can defeat the bad guy who took down Po, in contrast to the movies where she's more consistently portrayed as being Po's superior in skills. |
| 550 | * AffectionateNickname: Given the nickname "Stripey Baby" by Lei Lei. |
| 551 | * AllGirlsWantBadBoys: She fell in love with the Midnight Stranger due to him "playing by his own rules" and wanted to be the girl that could "tame his wild instincts." She was ''very'' shocked to learn that the Midnight Stranger was Po. |
| 552 | * AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Due to her inability to control her strength, she was frequently treated as an outsider by the other orphans who were prey animals like rabbits and ducks. |
| 553 | * AlwaysSecondBest: All her adult life was eclipsed by Tai Lung's impressive (read:fearsome) reputation, his achievements in kung fu prowess and his infamy; of course, Tigress, being Master Shifu's new pupil, trained with further restrictions to avoid going down the same path, all while being set up for the impossible: scrubbing her predecessor's reputation lest it apply to her in the eyes of the citizens due to her being a strong feline, as well as surpassing Tai Lung in terms of skill, all honed to her own style – indeed, flashbacks in ''Secrets of The Furious Five'', ''Secrets of The Scroll'' and offhand remarks in ''Kung Fu Panda 2'' show how Tigress' journey was a rough one all for the sake of becoming the legend she is –, yet all of that hard work seems wasted once a fat, clumsy panda crashes into the palace and "steals her thunder". It's little wonder she responds with cold belligerence to Po during his first weeks. |
| 554 | * AmazonianBeauty: Fit and muscular, yet possessor of a refined style used with grace and dignity, neither lost during the climax of battle. |
| 555 | * AmbitionIsEvil: [[DownplayedTrope Well, not quite]]. Yes, she is quite overachieving at the beginning of the series, but it's mostly to reinforce her worth in the eyes of her master, the citizens of the Valley, and her teammates. Nevertheless, it's precisely these traits and the feeling of being stepped aside by another incoming and, in her eyes, an undeserving student that drives much of her cruel treatment of Po during the first movie. |
| 556 | * AnthropomorphicZigZag: She uses her four legs in case she is in a hurry, but otherwise, Tigress is comfortable with standing on her own two feet while fighting. Which of the two positions she prefers depends heavily on which is more practical for the occasion. |
| 557 | * ArrogantKungFuGirl: Certainly not as bad as Tai Lung, but being passed over as Dragon Warrior certainly stung her pride, as well as [[WellDoneSonGuy possible deeper desires]]. Later films in the series tone this down, but she still has her pride. |
| 558 | * ArrowCatch: During the siege at Shen's palace in ''2'', Tigress demonstrates her hyper-awareness when she dodges a bunch of arrows aimed at her, catching the last one an inch from her cheek. Bonus points for the arrows being ''[[ArrowsOnFire on fire]]''. ''More'' bonus points for the fact that she wasn't even ''looking at it'' and didn't seem all that concerned by it, as she does it completely offhandedly. |
| 559 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: In ''Secrets of the Scroll'', her pupils turn slitted to symbolize her tiger instincts taking over. In real life, tigers don't have slitted pupils, that trait belongs to domestic cats. |
| 560 | * AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: While in their introductory scene, all of the Furious Five seem to be equal in terms of combat ability and strength, it soon becomes clear that Tigress, being the most powerful, the most disciplined, and the most dedicated, towers above the rest. Such potential is required of a position within the group and that position is of their leader. |
| 561 | * AudibleSharpness: Her claws. |
| 562 | * BadassAdorable: She was a promising dilettante as a cub based solely on raw strength; once she was able to learn how to channel it, her attitude shone as a fresh optimism in her teenage years. |
| 563 | * BaritoneOfStrength: She's a tough, stern, no-nonsense, and capable kung-fu warrior with the deep, husky voice of Creator/AngelinaJolie. |
| 564 | * BearerOfBadNews: [[spoiler:After Kai's attack to the Jade Palace in ''3'', an injured Tigress, forced into retreat after her comrades' fall, reaches the Panda Village to warn Po about the attack and Kai's incoming arrival.]] |
| 565 | * BerserkButton: While normally restrained, Tigress nearly attacked Po when she thought he was mocking Shifu's tragic past with Tai Lung... until Mantis revealed he accidentally tweaked a nerve[[note]]And may have also stopped his heart[[/note]]. |
| 566 | * BestFriend: To Po and vice-versa, overlapping with also being each other's FirstFriend. While technically part of a large group, Tigress acts first and foremost as a figure of authority, only acting approachable when anyone needs reassurance on the field, lacking any real close emotional bonds otherwise; Po, for his part, grew up without any real friends, working mostly in his father's restaurant outside anyone's view. It's only when they started interacting were they able to find the close-knit bond neither had until then. |
| 567 | * BeYourself: Tigress learns this lesson as a teenager in ''Secrets of the Scroll'' where we see that Shifu trying to teach her to be like him, and her absolute commitment to trying to be like him, is more harmful than good, to the point where Oogway has to step in and put a stop to it, in his usual way. Ironically, this would become the same lesson Po learns in the third movie. |
| 568 | * BigNo: [[spoiler:Her reaction to Shen blasting Po out of the fireworks factory with a cannonball, complete with a FutileHandReach.]] |
| 569 | * BigShadowLittleCreature: As a youngster in ''Secrets of the Furious Five''. |
| 570 | * BigSisterInstinct: After arriving at the panda village in ''3'', Tigress begins developing a sisterly bond with the little panda girl Lei Lei. As such, when Lei Lei foolishly steps in the midst of a full Jombie attack, Tigress reacts by keeping her out of harm's way through some leg maneuvers... and only then encouraging her to land a hit on the enemy's snout. |
| 571 | * BreakTheHaughty: Her humiliating defeat at the hands of Tai Lung in the first film really brought her down to earth. ''Legends of Awesomeness'' also provides a few more light-hearted downfalls whenever she gets too abrasive or stuck up. |
| 572 | -->'''Tigress:''' I thought we could stop him... |
| 573 | * BrokenAce: The strongest of the Furious Five and it's implied in the sequel that she can beat the crap out of Po... and she also has '''major''' DaddyIssues which gives her an inferiority complex that she masks behind an arrogant facade (at least initially). |
| 574 | * BruiserWithASoftCenter: Tigress is the most "hardcore" of the Furious Five, but she ''does'' have a soft side, usually seen with her fondness for children. |
| 575 | * BullyTurnedBuddy: Because of her high status within kung fu ranks, position within the Jade Palace's walls (as well as being the Furious Five's renowned figurehead) and seeming kinship toward the important role of "Dragon Warrior", she becomes fixated on making Po's life the most miserable next to Shifu's efforts, seeing him as a wasteful interloper who can't take anything she and the others value seriously from her rigorous perspective. Even though she never really lays a hand on him (until she reaches a breaking point), her cold disdain is evident, being the only one beyond her master to insult the panda directly to his face on more than one occasion. Once she receives a humiliating defeat by Tai Lung and sees Po defeat him, she accepts him as the real Dragon Warrior; from the second film onwards, their bond has evolved to that of being each other's {{Best Friend}}s. |
| 576 | * ButtMonkey: Even her strength and reflexes can't save her from AmusingInjuries in some episodes of ''Legends of Awesomeness'', "Chain Reaction" being a defining example. It's less evident in the movies, though there are still odd scenes such as ''Kung Fu Panda 3's'' EpicFail training scene. |
| 577 | -->'''Crane:''' Tigress is flammable turns out. |
| 578 | * CainAndAbel: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}. In principle, she's the Abel to Tai Lung's Cain; taken at face value, this checks out: despite her disappointment at not being chosen, she never lashes out against the villagers or Shifu like he did, limiting to the mere assumption there was a mistake on Oogway's part. However, the arrogance, fury and biting snarkiness are still mirrored for both in the first film (even her rebellious attack against the leopard is a lighter counterpart to Tai Lung's destructive tantrum), the main difference [[ALighterShadeOfGray being Tigress' commitment to living up to a true heroic image rather than just merely getting the Dragon Scroll]]. |
| 579 | * CatsAreMean: Played straight in the first film in that she is the rudest of the Furious Five towards Po until the end; it's {{downplayed}} massively after that. |
| 580 | * CatsAreSnarkers: Easily the snarkiest character in the series (though Mantis comes pretty close). |
| 581 | * CelibateHeroine: Tigress claims to avoid romantic relationships because they affect a warrior's chi. |
| 582 | * CharacterCheck: An early ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Chain Reaction" went into further introspective about Tigress' bitterness over being TheUnchosenOne for the Dragon Warrior which, combined with Po's increasing buffoonery at the time, led her to lash out at him again. When he saves her from the Croc Bandits, however, she is left humbled and drops her grudge, this time fully. |
| 583 | * CharacterDevelopment: Before Po's arrival, Tigress was the only member of the Furious Five who was completely serious and stoic, although her lack of humor in the first film could also be attributed to her anger at Po for accidentally crushing her dream. However, after Po is accepted by and integrates with the Five, his general levity seems to cause Tigress to lighten up and become more playful. |
| 584 | * CharacterExaggeration: Compared to her almost completely somber personality in the first film, episodes of the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series really punctuate her role as TheComicallySerious, sometimes making her almost as much of a butt of jokes as Po. This also occurred in the later films, but to a ''much'' more subtle degree. |
| 585 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: |
| 586 | ** In the first movie, she was shown to harbor a level of sadness and resentment that Shifu acted coldly and showed her little affection when she was growing up. However, ''Legends of Awesomeness'' and other ExpandedUniverse works somewhat retcon this aspect of her personality by showing that during her youth, Shifu did have moments where he showed genuine warmth and compassion for her, thus revealing that her life wasn't completely dour and miserable. Possibly justified since she was still seething over being rejected as Dragon Warrior, so maybe she chose to AccentuateTheNegative. ''Secrets of the Scroll'' manages to play it both ways, with Shifu acting like an overly critical taskmaster towards Tigress but at the end of the story when she has vanquished Boar, has a small moment of warmth where he tells Tigress that he's proud of her. |
| 587 | ** Much of the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series was produced before the second film was released.[[note]]Though repeated airing delays meant the show was released after it and some of it even after the third film.[[/note]] As such, Tigress' characterization plays closer to how she was in the first film, her softening being much milder and still being an ArrogantKungFuGirl who can barely tolerate Po. Some episodes made afterward did give {{Character Check}}s to her gentler characterization in the sequels, though she remained more acerbic for the most part. |
| 588 | ** The TV series also played out the effects of Po's ascension in the first movie differently, with Tigress being outshone by Po in several episodes and even gaining a case of GreenEyedMonster at times. "The Spirit Orbs of Master Ping" in particular (where a frustrated Tigress repeatedly loses to Po until mental competition comes into play) looks very jarring against the later films, where she and Po are still a StrongGirlSmartGuy dynamic and Tigress' sense of ambition has mostly dissolved. |
| 589 | * TheChewToy: ''Legends of Awesomeness'' due to exaggerating her role as TheComicallySerious, often reveled in making Tigress as much a persnickety target of Po's antics as Shifu. |
| 590 | * TheChosenWannabe: She is not happy that Po was chosen over her, though it's implied that this is due to her wanting her master's affection more than the position. By the end of the first film, once Po has proven himself, she's over this - though it probably also helps that Shifu's lightened up a great deal. |
| 591 | * CloudCuckooLandersMinder: To Po; the panda can often get distracted on missions and thus it's Tigress's job to get his head back into the game/keep him focused. |
| 592 | * TheComicallySerious: Wise and strong. Doesn't know what the word "Relaxation" means. |
| 593 | * TheConfidant: Post-"Dragon Warrior" clash, Tigress becomes this for Po. She's the one who frequently approaches him, intuitively knowing when her friend needs to talk about something, and even challenges him during sparring in order to work out any doubts not spoken. |
| 594 | * ConspiracyTheorist: Definitely this, to the point of accusing a mailman who came to the Jade Palace of "planning something for thirty years". |
| 595 | * CoolBigSis: Becomes this to Lei Lei in the third film, who absolutely adores her. Tigress doesn't even mind the baby panda riding on her head and appears to genuinely enjoy training her. |
| 596 | * CooldownHug: Delivers one to Po in the second film to end their fight over why Po could not open up about his problems, and to show him just how much she cares for him. She is later paid back with a BearHug. |
| 597 | * CostumeEvolution: In the third film, Tigress now sports a long-sleeved yellow tunic with red vine patterns. |
| 598 | * CowardiceCallout: [[spoiler:Furiously calls Lord Shen a coward when he recklessly destroys a bridge obstructing the path for his conquering of China while being his BadassInDistress in ''2''.]] |
| 599 | * CrazyPrepared: Tigress has protocol for dealing with a ''rooster wielding a battle-axe and a banana.'' You have to approach from the side holding the battle-axe because the banana's a decoy. |
| 600 | * CruelToBeKind: In ''2'', Tigress recognizes Po's motivation to confront Shen to find out more about his (at the time possibly grim) backstory, even sympathizing with how its psychological turmoil is hindering his decision-making (something she clearly has experienced herself as well due to her MysteriousPast before arriving at the Jade Palace); however, due to the delicate strategy needed to neutralize the weaponry and the limited timeframe to do so, she practically '''''demands''''' Po to stay with the self-imprisoned Ox and Croc, knowing her friend's insistence on approaching their enemy not only would derail the mission, but also possibly put him in harm's way. |
| 601 | * CurtainsMatchTheWindows: She has orange fur (since she is a tiger) and she also has orange eyes, which become even more pronounced during the night. |
| 602 | * CuteBruiser: As a child because she could not control her SuperStrength. |
| 603 | * CuteGiant: As far as Lei Lei is concerned, Tigress' doll doesn't measure in cuteness to her real-life counterpart once she arrives to the Panda Village. In this case, she gradually proves the little panda right as their interactions bring out the calm, nurturing big sister-type on her. |
| 604 | * ADayInTheLimelight: |
| 605 | ** {{Tritagonist}} in the first film, she takes center stage alongside the rest of the Furious Five in ''Secrets of The Furious Five'', detailing her backstory as an misfit at the Bao Gu Orphanage before being adopted by Shifu. |
| 606 | ** She is the protagonist for the main plot of ''Secrets of the Scroll'', showing how the group got together and how she developed her fighting style. |
| 607 | ** She also gets more episodes of the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series devoted to her than any character besides Po. Of note are "Chain Reaction" (quasi-sequel of her conflict with Po in ''1''), "Kung Fu Daycare" (exploring her emotional baggage through taking care of a kidnapped goose prince), "The Orbs Of Master Ding" (showing her desire to be the best at everything), and "A Tigress Tale" (where she comes to terms with a work-play balance fit for her after the goofiness of the Jade Palace becomes too much, only to regret the change after her trade puts her in a cold, desolate, joyless routine). |
| 608 | * DeadpanSnarker: Often at Po's fanboyism. Averted when he talks about his adoption issue, which is genuine instead of deadpan. |
| 609 | * DefrostingIceQueen: From a bitter [[TheResenter Resenter]] towards Po, to close friend and confidante. |
| 610 | * DependingOnTheWriter: |
| 611 | ** Tigress changes characterizations between films pretty noticeably; she is back to being TheStoic in ''3'', a far cry from being OneOfTheGuys in ''2'', though that might be because she needs to be Po's CloudCuckooLandersMinder when no one else is around to do it. The ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series goes even further [[DenserAndWackier the other direction]] and makes her TheFinickyOne with barely any social skills. |
| 612 | ** In the movies, despite Po's many impressive accomplishments, it's implied that Tigress can still put a serious hurting on Po if she really wants to and she gets the better of him during sparring in the third movie. With ''Legends of Awesomeness'' on the other hand, anytime Po gets brainwashed, turns evil, or just has a sparring session with her, it's almost always guaranteed Tigress will get turned into a ragdoll at the hands of Po. |
| 613 | * DenserAndWackier: She is considerably more awkward and buffoonish in ''Legends of Awesomeness'', compared to her nearly completely stoic and humorless character in the first film. This also happened to some level in the later films, though she stays within TheComicallySerious at best. |
| 614 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: {{Zigzagged|Trope}} through the series; despite remaining an integral character in all films and media, her importance shifts through them. |
| 615 | ** She begins the saga as a ''Tritagonist'' in the first film, since it focuses more on the relationship between Po and Shifu, while still giving her a central role in the events surrounding her anger at not being chosen, her fall, eventual reevaluation of self and acceptance of her role as Po's NumberTwo for the second movie. This is to some degree maintained in ''Legends of Awesomeness'', where she gets the most limelight besides either of them. |
| 616 | ** In the sequel, however, she ascends to the second most important character as her newfound camaraderie with Po is brought into sharper relief, specifically their similar backstories, their teamwork and how it redefines their personas. |
| 617 | ** Even as her role decreases in the third film, she remains the single most important character outside of the Po/Mr.Ping/Li Shan dynamic as the sole survivor of the Jade Palace attack and the one to herald the arrival of Kai to the villagers. |
| 618 | * DidYouThinkICantFeel: Po assumes that she can't feel emotional pain in addition to being MadeOfIron. She seems taken aback but is interrupted before she can correct him. Later, he thinks Tigress is too "hardcore" to understand why he wants to ask Lord Shen about his past. She retorts by lunging at him... and giving him a hug coupled with this little comment: |
| 619 | -->'''Tigress:''' The hardcore ''do'' understand. But I can't watch my friend be killed. |
| 620 | * DislikesTheNewGuy: Not that the others weren't resentful of him, but Tigress remains the most opposed in accepting Po's presence in the Jade Palace after his coronation as the Dragon Warrior in the first film, even after her teammates and master start accepting him. |
| 621 | -->''(after Shifu kicks Po out of the Palace by making him tumble down the long stairs)'' If he's smart, he won't come back up those steps. |
| 622 | * DoesNotKnowHerOwnStrength: In her backstory in ''Secrets of the Furious Five'', she was feared by everyone at the orphanage she was raised in because she could not control her strength properly. |
| 623 | * DoorstopBaby: In "Kung Fu Day Care", it's revealed that Tigress was left at the doorstep of the Bao Gu Orphanage as a baby. |
| 624 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Three in the original movie: one, silent; the other two, quite verbal. |
| 625 | ** She's introduced (outside of Po's dream sequence) working in synchronicity with her teammates in an attack exercise against their master, showing her grand skill, ability to work and lead on the field, and dexterity as a warrior. However, the encounter ends on a standstill rather than decisive victory, which leads Shifu to chastise them, Tigress especially, on their performance. All she can do despite her efforts is to look down, exhausted as she's told to be "faster", showing how despite her talent, she's nowhere near Shifu's level and has a drive to be better, as well as a buried desire to please her master. |
| 626 | ** The second is short but telling: she berates Po not based on his personality, but on his potential and warns him to leave or risk disrespecting everyone's work; she's harsh to any outsider, takes her job seriously and doesn't take to anyone who seemingly disrespects it, even at the cost of being harsh and judgmental. |
| 627 | ** The third one happens as she's talking about Tai Lung and Shifu's backstory and how it impacted the rest of their lives. As she finishes, the flashback shows a younger, more cheerful Tigress practicing in the same way as Tai Lung, only for Shifu to hold on the praise and silently correct her posture. Her saddened face and tone as her older self ends her story show how burdened she feels to mend the past as well as her hidden emotions. |
| 628 | * EveryoneHasStandards: Despite her barely concealed contempt toward Po in ''1'', she never once engages him on combat (up to a point) unless her master orders her to; most of the time, she limits herself to insulting him. He's a civilian at the time, after all. |
| 629 | * FaceOfAThug: Being a tiger, her design and general expressions are pretty fierce-looking. Though post-CharacterDevelopment, she is heroic and a sincerely kind and devoted friend of Po, if stoic and grouchy. Even beforehand, she is still a benevolent kung-fu warrior, just of the GoodIsNotNice variety. |
| 630 | * FeelNoPain: She spent [[TrainingFromHell twenty years punching the ironwood trees]] at the Jade Palace to the point where "now, I feel nothing". As Po points out, that is incredibly cool. |
| 631 | * FemininityFailure: Doing anything stereotypically feminine is outside her skillset. She tries to sing and do the Ceremonial Princess Dance in "The Princess and the Po" but fails completely. |
| 632 | * FishOutOfWater: Among the rest of the Furious Five and serious situations and threats, Tigress remains formidable and dignified. However, when among the Panda village in the third film, where ''everyone'' is on Po's level of eccentricity, Tigress spends much of the time looking comically lost. |
| 633 | * {{Flanderization}}: A more subtle example, as a mix of both this and her CharacterDevelopment into a more emotive character make Tigress' TheComicallySerious traits more evident with each film, to the point she verges as comic relief with Lei Lei in the last half of the third film. She does remain competent, however. |
| 634 | * FlatJoy: Deliberately invoked and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]. |
| 635 | -->'''Tigress:''' ''(flat expression)'' "I ''am'' smiling. This is my happy face." |
| 636 | * FlatWhat: She lets out a couple during the third film as she watches from afar the panda village's "odd" training montage; even when not saying it, the emotion is all over her face. For someone as dedicated to rigorous techniques, Po's lackadaisical methods are a step too weird fro her to comprehend. |
| 637 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Her temperament is primarily Melancholic, though she tends to overlap with others as the franchise continues. For example, in the first film, she is a mix of both this and Choleric, being rather distant from her comrades and oriented entirely towards trying to impress Shifu. She also looks down on Po for most of the film because she sees him as unworthy, and the only emotion she seems to readily show is an [[HairTriggerTemper extremely ill temper]]. After Po proves his worth and she [[DefrostingIceQueen softens thanks to his actions]], she starts to overlap more with Phlegmatic, as TheStoic is still her default mood, but she has [[TookALevelInKindness become much friendlier and more open]], particularly towards Po. |
| 638 | * FreudianExcuse: She acts so cold and aloof because she knows about the trouble Shifu went through with Tai Lung, which means that he hasn't let himself show any emotional attachment towards her and constantly tells her--as well as the rest of the Five--that she can do better, rather than ever say he is proud of what she has already done. She desperately wants his approval, so is understandably annoyed when Po is selected as the Dragon Warrior with no training after spending decades of hard work trying to become Shifu's star pupil. She warms up to him when he goes through Shifu's TrainingFromHell and still doesn't quit, because he's always modest around all of them, and after he earns the respect of her teammates, though she is the last to show it. |
| 639 | * FriendToAllChildren: Despite adamantly claiming [[BlatantLies not to like children]], being around them almost always brings out Tigress' soft side. |
| 640 | ** When the village is evacuated in the first film, Tigress stops to help a family of bunnies to pull their cart of supplies, and is later shown carrying one of the younger bunnies when they witness Tai Lung's defeat from afar. |
| 641 | ** In the ''Legends Of Awesomeness'' episode "Kung Fu Day Care", the young Prince Zan takes an instant liking to Tigress, and to her dismay, Shifu appoints her to look after him until they can find his parents. Though she tries to keep her distance, Tigress gradually becomes attached to Zan, [[MamaBear protects him like her own child]] when the Croc Bandits try to abduct him again, and is genuinely reluctant to let him go when his mother finally returns. |
| 642 | --->'''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis "No one... hurts... my... Zan!"]]''' |
| 643 | ** During the episode "Present Tense", Tigress has to help the young buffalo Xiao Niao to prepare the Winter Festival celebration, and is quickly irritated by the latter's cheeriness. When Tigress eventually loses her temper, during which Xiao Niao reveals that this will be her first Winter Festival without her (wrongfully imprisoned) father, Tigress makes it up to her by giving her a bran new ''ruan'' as a gift, and forces the rest of the group to join in Xiao Niao's singing at the end of the episode. |
| 644 | ** In ''Kung Fu Panda 3'', the young panda cub Lei Lei takes a liking to Po's action figure of Tigress, and becomes just as attached to the real Tigress when the latter arrives to warn of Kai's attack. Tigress is initially put off by this and tries to avoid the persistent little panda, but eventually grows fond of her and spends most of her scenes in film's third act holding onto Lei Lei as if she were her own child. |
| 645 | * FullyDressedCartoonAnimal: The only member of the Five to wear a full outfit. |
| 646 | * GoodIsNotNice: In ''1''; a hero on her own right and definitely fighting on the side of good, but unless you're a respected legend, her master or her teammates, she'll remain bitingly courteous at best. Heaven help you if she believes your attitude disrespects kung-fu. |
| 647 | * GoodIsNotSoft: She was more of a caustic heroine in the first one, but she evolves into this by the time of the second. She's become more open to crack jokes and join in the fun, collected yet understanding of her close peers' inner turmoil, always with the hardcore yet humane option. Don't believe for a second this means she'll spare any evil-doers who have proven to be a menace to any innocent in general, as Shen and his wolf army can attest. |
| 648 | * HairTriggerTemper: When she was younger, Tigress could go from calm to extremely angry with minimal provocation. In the first film and the TV series, Tigress is recurrently irritable and standoffish, with Po being the most regular target for her temper. In the later films, she lightens up, though remains a PerpetualFrowner. |
| 649 | * HappilyAdopted: Zigzagged; she was very happy that Shifu (who trained her to control her brute strength as a child) adopted her, but until her adulthood he was usually very cold to her, not wanting her to spoil her with praise and have her become arrogant and entitled like Tai Lung. |
| 650 | * HatesBeingNicknamed: She isn't amused by any of the nicknames she receives, be it mistaking her gender ("That guy with the Stripes", "The Tiger Guy"), being embarrassing ("Whiskers Kitty-Poo", "Stripey Baby") or just plain not liking any abbreviation of her name ("Ti", "Tiggety"). Of course, if it's meant as a term of affection or it's just a harmless term, she'll begrudgingly accept it. |
| 651 | * HealTheCutie: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, as she retained her core hardened exterior even as she is in a better place mentally and emotionally. That being said, from the moment she was born up to the end of the first film, Tigress found herself on a path which brought her face to face with rejection during her childhood, up to finding solace in kung fu; even then, as her training progressed, she still found herself with key lackings and experiences that made her lose her once held idealism and vulnerability to the point of hollowing herself with nothing but effort and achievements as goals. Once she faces the loss of her supposed birthright (the Dragon Warrior moniker) and gets brought down by Tai Lung due to not being up to the challenge, Tigress shifts her attention to merely serving and appreciating what she does have (her team and Shifu) as well as what she might need (closer bonds, emotional honesty). Once she accepts her place and how she can still be valuable in it, she befriends Po and finally achieves peace, much like her master. |
| 652 | * HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:During the Five's captive state on Shen's float in ''2'', Tigress looks utterly soul-crushed as she believes Po has been killed. The only things she can muster are, in order, a despairing sigh when the others look at her for any semblance of fighting spirit and ''[[DeathGlare burning hatred]]'' when Shen taunts her.]] |
| 653 | * HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: This exchange in "Scorpion's Sting". |
| 654 | -->'''First Bunny Girl:''' So do you love Po?\ |
| 655 | '''Second Bunny Girl:''' Is Po your boyfriend?\ |
| 656 | '''Tigress:''' What? No! |
| 657 | * HugeSchoolgirl: She was raised in an orphanage full of pigs, bunnies, and geese, so she was naturally much bigger and stronger than any of the other children. The fact that she [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength did not know her own strength]] only made things worse. |
| 658 | * HumblePie: Tigress attempted to take on Tai Lung alone in the first film, and he effortlessly crushes her. She's forced to work together with the rest of the Furious Five to stand a chance, and even then he wins easily despite a HopeSpot. After this defeat, she's a lot more willing to work with others and drops a lot of her resentment towards Po. |
| 659 | * ImmuneToSlapstick: Invoked not just by her nimbleness in Kung-fu, but Tigress also being the most unironically serious acting character in the films (even compared to [[KnightOfCerebus the villains]]), with only occasional snarky reactions as a source of humour. It took until the third film to start making jokes at the expense of her actual character, and even then [[TheComicallySerious with moderation]]. Subverted regularly throughout ''Legends of Aweomeness'' however, where Tigress is almost as buffoonish as Po at times. |
| 660 | * InterspeciesAdoption: She was adopted by Shifu, a red panda. |
| 661 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 662 | ** While it didn’t excuse her rude attitude towards Po, Tigress makes a reasonable point about leaving all the fate into Po's hands while he wasn't even well trained in the beginning. Even Po himself came to agree with her at one point by attempting to run away. |
| 663 | ** Tigress is still regularly harsh and standoffish towards Po in ''Legends of Awesomeness'', though since Po himself underwent a bit of {{Adaptational Jerkass}}ery in the series and is regularly screwing up or [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism letting the role of Dragon Warrior go to his head]], in some cases even acting just as haughty towards her as vice versa, she is somewhat more entitled to lose her temper a lot of the time. |
| 664 | ** While it's a bit cruel because of how badly Po reacts to it, her admonishment that he's not ready to stop Kai because he hasn't mastered chi manipulation and doesn't have a strategy on top of that is quite reasonable. He's frustrated, hurt, and angry that [[spoiler: Li Shan lied to him and wasted what little time they had, and those emotions are blinding him and driving him to jump into a battle with an extremely dangerous opponent completely unprepared, a move that could've easily gotten Po killed or jombie-fied if Tigress hadn't intervened]]. |
| 665 | * JerkassRealization: |
| 666 | ** She's the first one to acknowledge Po as a Kung Fu master after he defeats Tai Lung. Coupled with her expression after her own defeat at Tai Lung's hands, it's obvious she learned something from her loss. |
| 667 | ** A few throughout ''Legends of Awesomeness'', usually concerning her harshness towards Po. "Chain Reaction" in particular brings up her still brewing resentment over Po being chosen as Dragon Warrior. After she lashes out at him again for being unworthy and just acting like an incompetent fool around her in general, Po snaps back at her, having only ever wanted to be her friend. When he later rescues her from the Croc Bandits, she admits remorsefully to being surprised he bothered. |
| 668 | ** A minor one in the third film. After she chastises Po for planning to take on Kai without any strategy and still having not mastered chi, Po eventually laments she is right and he doesn't have what it takes. She suddenly emits a very forlorn, guilty look, clearly having not meant to break down Po like that. |
| 669 | * JerkassToOne: Normally reserved with others, she is outright hostile to Po for most of ''KFP 1''. |
| 670 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Once she warms up to Po, she starts showing a softer side. |
| 671 | * LadyLooksLikeADude: In ''Legends of Awesomeness'', Mei Li refers to her as the scary man with stripes. It becomes a RunningGag. |
| 672 | * TheLancer: To Po. |
| 673 | * TheLeader: Of the Furious Five, being the most senior and skilled member. Even after Po takes up the mantle of Dragon Warrior, it's still Tigress who calls the shots and keeps the team from making bad decisions. |
| 674 | * LovesMyAlterEgo: In ''Legends of Awesomeness'', she falls in love with the Midnight Stranger, who is actually Po in disguise. When Tigress finds out who he really is, she leaves to throw up. |
| 675 | * MamaBear: To Zan in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' and then to Lei Lei in the third film. |
| 676 | * MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: '''Masculine Girl''' to Po's '''Feminine Boy'''. Po is an AllLovingHero, easily emotional, clumsy, and can be one of the most soft-hearted characters in the series. Tigress, on the other hand, is TheStoic, has manly traits, is the physically stronger one of the two, and can take a while to warm up to people. |
| 677 | * MaternallyChallenged: Taking care of Zan in ''Legends of Awesomeness''. Lampshaded when Shifu says she doesn't have much experience with children. |
| 678 | * MyInstinctsAreShowing: [[spoiler: In ''Secrets of the Scroll'', Shifu has her repress her natural feline instincts, claiming that they show a lack of control. It's only when she finally cuts loose that she reaches her true potential and develops tiger-style kung fu]]. |
| 679 | * TheNeedless: {{Invoked|Trope}} during a discussion between her, the rest of the Five and Po in ''1''; as the rest are basking happily on Po's noodle soup and encourage her to dig in, she goes on how rumors say "the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time on nothing but the dew of a single gingko leaf and the energy of the universe" [[ActuallyIAmHim while unsubtly eating meager portions of tofu from her plate]]. |
| 680 | * NonStandardCharacterDesign: While the rest of the Jade Palace students and even the masters have [[BadassAdorable goofy or cute designs]] (even unconventional species like Viper and Mantis), Tigress looks noticably much more angular and intimidating, a design trait more reminiscent of the villains, likely to reflect she was Tai Lung's replacement and even came dangerously close to ending up like him. While her design is consistent throughout the later films, elements such as her attire and expressions become shrewdly brighter and softer to reflect her kinder personality. |
| 681 | * NotSoAboveItAll: ExpandedUniverse media such as the hand-drawn shorts and ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series tend to convey a much more clownish and awkward side to Tigress than the films. Even in the latter, she starts becoming OneOfTheGuys by the second film and enjoying some of Po's more immature habits. |
| 682 | * NotSoStoic: She does have the (extremely) rare moment of actual emotion, most notably near the end of the second movie where she actually hugs Po. Also pops up whenever she is around children, who bring out a much softer side that not even her friends and family get to see. |
| 683 | * NumberTwo: Is the official leader of the Furious Five and the one to keep Po on track. |
| 684 | * OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess: In the first film, she doesn't take it well that Po, a goofy fanboy who just fell out of the sky was chosen by Master Oogway. |
| 685 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 686 | ** Both Shifu and Po suffered a DisneyDeath in separate instances in ''Legends of Awesomeness''. Tigress' response to both being revived was to glomp them in a happy fit... and then quickly try to regain her formal composure. She does this to Po in the third film as well, though since the whole group does the same, it goes less noticed. |
| 687 | ** In the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "The Midnight Stranger", Tigress starts fawning over the title character like a crushing schoolgirl. The others are left completely dumbfounded by this change in character. |
| 688 | ** The episode "Shoot The Messenger" has Po trying to get back a war treaty he unwittingly "autographed". When Tigress insists on the sensible solution of just telling Shifu he screwed up and getting his help, Po reminds Tigress that she directed the messenger to him, thinking he was another annoying fan. Realising ''she'' would also be at risk of disappointing Shifu is enough to make Tigress frustratedly go along with Po's cover-up scheme. |
| 689 | ** The episode "Forsaken and Furious" has an especially jarring case, where she and the other Furious Five members are left so frustrated at [[DudeWheresMyRespect being unappreciated by the village and Shifu in favor of Po]] that they angrily leave the Jade Palace and essentially spend the majority of the episode throwing a snit-fit. |
| 690 | ** In the second movie, she gives Po a CooldownHug when he reveals the reason he's so anxious to confront Shen after infiltrating the castle was a disaster, complete with sincerely calling him her friend and professing that she can't watch him be killed. The rest of the Five (and Masters Ox and Croc) are stunned speechless by this. Right after, when Crane asks if she can't watch him be killed either, she curtly responds with "Don't be a wimp", causing Monkey to snark that "she's back". |
| 691 | * OrphansOrdeal: The Orphanage Bao Gu, where she was raised, was quite the OrphanageOfFear at first, mostly because she was the one everybody was afraid of. Most of her attempts at making friends would go awry because of her sharp claws and intimidating appearance, despite her bashfulness when approaching the other kids. |
| 692 | * PantheraAwesome: She is a tiger and a highly awesome one. Quite popular for subjects at the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom. |
| 693 | * ParentalAbandonment: She is confirmed to be an orphan, though how and why she became one is unknown. |
| 694 | * PerpetualFrowner: Especially in the first movie. By the second, she is lightened up a little, having gotten closer to Po and actually enjoying his company (some of his childish antics aside), but she is still easily the most serious of the Five even then. |
| 695 | * PluckyComicRelief: A humorous Reconstruction in the third film. While she is still her usual serious-minded competent self throughout, during the last half, where she is a FishOutOfWater in the consistently goofy Panda Village, she plays the role of TheComicallySerious against Po's bizarre but effective training methods and Lei Lei's clinginess. She still gets her badass check in the climax against the Jade Zombies, however. |
| 696 | * PragmaticHero: She is an honorable kung fu warrior, but is not above using dirtier tactics against her opponents, like trying to drop a rope bridge out from under Tai Lung.[[note]]Granted, this wasn't a sparring session, the goal was very much to kill him.[[/note]] |
| 697 | * RaisedByDudes: Shifu was the only one who raised her. |
| 698 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Quite talented at this, courtesy of her no-nonsense personality and blunt prose. |
| 699 | ** Her first words spoken directly at Po in the first one are particularly nasty. |
| 700 | --->'''Tigress''': You don't belong [in the Jade Palace]. You're a disgrace to kung fu, and if you have ''any'' respect for who we are and what we do, you will be gone by morning. |
| 701 | ** Her second speech goes into detail about Tai Lung's StartOfDarkness, her backstory and her and Shifu's emotional stakes on the role of the Dragon Warrior, ending on these succinct words: |
| 702 | --->"...and now, [Shifu] has a chance to make things right, to train the true Dragon Warrior. And he's stuck with you...a big, fat panda who treats it like a joke." |
| 703 | ** She gives a harsh one to Po in the ''Legends Of Awesomeness'' episode "Chain Reaction", saying that Po thought of everything as a game and claiming Oogway made the wrong choice in choosing the Dragon Warrior. However, after Po gives a small emotional one to her in return, she regrets what she said. Averted at the end of the episode, where she thanks Po for rescuing her by saying that Oogway made the right choice after all. |
| 704 | * ReplacementGoldfish: She feels overshadowed by [[EvilCounterpart Tai Lung]], and incapable of taking [[WellDoneSonGuy the place he supposedly had in Shifu's heart]]. As ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' reveals, she was adopted by Shifu as well, making her Tai Lung's replacement in all aspects. She is wrong, at least in the sense that Shifu did a very poor job of expressing his love and approval in time to Tai Lung as well. |
| 705 | * TheResenter: She initially resents Po upon meeting him. She more than gets over it when he impresses her by defeating Tai Lung by himself. The ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Chain Reaction" reveals a few remaining demons, though this is finally settled after Po rescues her and she is left openly remorseful. |
| 706 | * RunningOnAllFours: When she is in a hurry. [[spoiler: Ironically, she didn't always used to do this. In ''Secrets of the Scroll'', she runs with a formal, but highly inefficient jog for most of the short. She only tries something different when she sees how easily her new teammates are outpacing her with their efficient, instinct-driven styles of movement]]. |
| 707 | * SarcasticDevotee: Just because she's on Po's side doesn't mean she won't direct some shade his way for not noticing him being adopted. Even when he's shown taking the reins in training the panda villagers, all Tigress can do is stare dumbfounded questioning the validity of the routine. |
| 708 | * SenseLossSadness: {{Implied|Trope}}. When discussing with Po her regular training of punching ironwood trees to strengthen herself, numbing her arms in the process, Po marvels at her "hardcore" attitude, innocently saying how she probably doesn't feel anything anymore. Tigress immediately becomes sorrowful, ignoring Po's hit on her arm. |
| 709 | * ShipTease: With Po in [[ShipTease/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness several episodes]] of ''Legends of Awesomeness'', which takes place between the first two films. |
| 710 | * SleevesAreForWimps: Usually keeps her arms bare, except for special occasions. |
| 711 | ** Averted with her new outfit, which does have sleeves. |
| 712 | ** [[spoiler: Also averted with her robe in ''Secrets of the Scroll'', which she literally tears off (sleeves included) at the end]]. |
| 713 | * SmallParentHugeChild: With Shifu. Much like Po with Mr. Ping, Tigress was already the same height as her master when she was adopted by the red panda, growing up to be taller while he remained the same. |
| 714 | * StatuesqueStunner: She is just barely shorter than the 6'2 Po, which means she is around 6 feet tall. |
| 715 | * TheStoic: She is very calm and collected, always keeping her guard up. |
| 716 | * StrongGirlSmartGuy: With Po. Tigress is the leader of the Furious Five and the fiercest fighter in the Valley of Peace. Po is an AscendedFanboy with an encyclopedic knowledge of kung fu history and trivia, along with the ability to learn new techniques incredibly quickly (at least when properly motivated). |
| 717 | * SugarAndIcePersonality: The Five even lampshade the switch. She is generally friendly, but the least sociable of the Five, and can be very intimidating at times due to her incredibly serious and direct demeanor. In many scenes of the first film in which the other four of the Furious Five and/or Po were joking or having fun, Tigress would often remain quiet and withdrawn. Tigress also shows her "sugar" side towards [[FriendToAllChildren kids.]] |
| 718 | * SuperStrength: Tigers are usually ~40 times as strong as a human, and Tigress is no exception. This caused her problems when she was young- despite being a perfectly friendly little cub, she was still an extraordinarily strong apex predator in an orphanage consisting mostly of smaller prey animals, who feared her until Shifu taught her how to control her strength. |
| 719 | * SuperToughness: Po punches her in the arm and only succeeds in hurting his hand. She doesn't even seem to notice. She also counted half the planks in the Thread of Hope with her back (and two solid hits from Tai Lung in general) without much damage. Also, she took a direct hit from [[spoiler:Lord Shen's cannon]] and ''survived''. For perspective, [[spoiler: another kung fu master known for being ''unstoppable'' died to the same cannon.]] |
| 720 | * TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:For Po against a cannonball in the second film. She survives, though.]] |
| 721 | * TheUnreveal: It’s currently unknown why Tigress’s biological parents left her as a baby and if they’re still alive or not. |
| 722 | * TigerVersusDragon: The Tiger to Po's Dragon. |
| 723 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The Tomboy to Viper's Girly Girl. |
| 724 | * TookALevelInCheerfulness: Tigress starts off as an {{arrogant|KungFuGirl}}, [[TheStoic stoic]] jerk. Later on, she shows her softer side and becomes TheComicallySerious. |
| 725 | * TookALevelInKindness: In the first movie, she openly resented and scorned Po for being chosen as the Dragon Warrior. In the end, she respects him after defeating Tai Lung. Come the sequel, she is his NumberTwo and his most vocal supporter. ''Legends of Awesomeness'' acts as a transitional point of sorts. |
| 726 | * UndyingLoyalty: An ethos of Tigress is no matter the task, the obstacle or the sacrifice, she'll always give it her all for her loved ones and those under her care, with this loyalty being returned in kind, as the rest of the Furious Five accompany her in her journey to face off against Tai Lung in ''1'' and her willingness to take a cannonball for Po in ''2'', which in turn marks his decision to use his newly learned technique to destroy Shen's weapons. |
| 727 | * UnskilledButStrong: {{Deconstructed}}. ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' reveals she was this as a child. She was the only apex predator in an orphanage full of ducks and bunnies, and her terrifying and uncontrollable strength coupled with her non-cuddly appearance made everyone fear her. It also made her OrphanageOfLove look like an OrphanageOfFear because everyone who heard of Tigress thought of her as a monster... when all she wanted was friends. Thankfully, Shifu's training helped her learn control. |
| 728 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: As seen in ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' and ''Secrets of the Scroll'', Tigress wasn't always the {{arrogant|KungFuGirl}}, [[TheStoic stoic]] jerk seen in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1''. |
| 729 | * VagueAge: She looks of similar age to the rest of the Five, however she is much more serious and mature, if still occasionally sharing their childish impulses. She reveals she has been in training for at least twenty years in the second film. PlayedForLaughs in an episode of the TV series where Po assumes Tigress is about forty. |
| 730 | * WellDoneDaughterGirl: It's an open secret that she really wants Shifu to be proud of her. Unfortunately, she has got some major obstacles to overcome, see ReplacementGoldfish and FreudianExcuse above. |
| 731 | * WhenSheSmiles: She always tries to be the serious martial arts warrior, but when she smiles, it's like she is letting you see the true inner beauty she has. While some of her smiles might seem somewhat strained, you get the honest, heartwarming smile if you're Po or a little bunny on Winter Festival Eve. |
| 732 | * YouShallNotPass: After a disastrous first confrontation with Shen in ''2'', Tigress confronts Po on his blunder over letting the peacock escape; after he decides to avoid the question and continues insisting on accompanying them for another shot at destroying the weapons, she simply tells him to stay with Ox and Croc in the prison for his own safety (in as delicate a way as she can, which is stomping her foot down and adding menacing gravitas to the order). As a replay of their sparring in the boat, Tigress adopts her stance, daring Po to try to get around her. Needless to say, his attempts end up deflected by her movements, ensuring he won't leave if she can help it. |
| 733 | [[/folder]] |
| 734 | |
| 735 | [[folder:Master Monkey]] |
| 736 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JackieChan (Films, Legendary Warriors), Creator/JamesSie (TV Series, most video games); Jaycee Chan (young)[[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]][[MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor Jackie Chan (Cantonese, PRC and TW Mandarin)]]; François L'Écuyer (Canadian French); William Coryn (EU French); Stefan Gossler (German); Creator/AngeloMaggi (Italian); Creator/HiroyaIshimaru (Japanese); Ha Seong-yong (Korean); Ricardo Schnetzer (Brazilian Portuguese); Pedro Rodrigues (EU Portuguese); Ilya Lagutenko (Russian); Luis Posada (EU Spanish); Victor Antonio Moreno [''[=KFP=]''], Juan Alfonso Carralero [rest of the franchise] (LA Spanish); Jarosław Boberek (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 737 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Monkey_2_6061.png]] |
| 738 | ->"For once, I'm not the 800 pound gorilla in the room."\ |
| 739 | |
| 740 | The prankster of the Furious Five. He's very approachable, fairly street-smart, and has a good sense of humor. |
| 741 | ---- |
| 742 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: As an old world monkey, he shouldn't have a PrehensileTail. |
| 743 | * BananaPeel: In his younger days, he liked leaving these on the ground for people to slip on. He even tried using them against Oogway, but it didn't work. |
| 744 | * BewareTheSillyOnes: Monkey may be a fun-loving jokester, but he is just as capable a fighter as any of his comrades, so don't mess with him. |
| 745 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Inverted, but he's dedicated to trying to help and protect his older brother, Wukong, a notorious trickster who became a thief. It's mainly because it was his mother's final wish to do so. |
| 746 | * CainAndAbel: The Abel to Wu Kong's Cain. |
| 747 | * ConfusionFu: His specialty. |
| 748 | * CymbalBangingMonkey: Parodied briefly in the first battle of the second film, in which he uses a pair of cymbals to bash a wolf bandit's head. |
| 749 | * DefeatByModesty: Again in his younger days. He could (literally) beat the pants off of anyone... except for Oogway, who didn't wear pants. |
| 750 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: Oogway, after defeating the trickster Monkey in the past, convinces him to use his skills for good. |
| 751 | * {{Delinquent}}: Before Oogway convinced him to change his ways. |
| 752 | * FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: When he and his older brother Wukong were both troublemakers as children, Monkey reformed and became a respected protector of the Valley. Wukong meanwhile would become a notorious "King of Thieves". Monkey tries to protect and watch out for his older brother out of a sense of obligation toward their deceased mother. |
| 753 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine - outgoing, cheerful and has the best sense of humor out of his peers. |
| 754 | * HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: He's a friendly delinquent who happens to be a Gee's golden langur. |
| 755 | * HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Usually doesn't wear a shirt. |
| 756 | * HandyFeet: He's a monkey. Comes with the territory. |
| 757 | * TheLancer: Often comes across as the second-in-command to Tigress while being her opposite in several ways. |
| 758 | * LevitatingLotusPosition: Monkey likes to meditate in this stance, using his tail to keep him off of the ground. |
| 759 | * MartialArtsStaff: He sometimes fights with a bō, making him the only member of the Furious Five to fight with a weapon. |
| 760 | * MischiefMakingMonkey: As his name suggests, he's a monkey and used to be a prankster in his younger years. Even after learning compassion, this trait never truly left him and still manifested in subtler ways. |
| 761 | * MonkeyKingLite: Well, he ''is'' a trickster monkey who reformed his ways upon being shown compassion by a sage acting as a sort of father figure. Heck, he even tends to use a staff whenever weapons are involved. However, he lacks the name, instead going to his older brother Wukong (who just grew to be more notorious and a thief to boot, becoming a ShadowArchetype). |
| 762 | * PrehensileTail: Being a monkey, he naturally has one of these. |
| 763 | * TheQuietOne: In the first film, he has the fewest lines of any of the five. This slowly becomes averted in the second and third films. |
| 764 | * SweetTooth: Strongly hinted at. He ''hides'' a cookie stash from everyone, even before Po joined. |
| 765 | * ThoseTwoGuys: He and Po tend to share the most playful moments out of the six warriors in the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' TV series. The third film reveals that Mantis is Monkey's "bestie" however, which is what Po guessed in the series since they eat together a lot. |
| 766 | * ToughSpikesAndStuds: Monkey wears studded leather wristbands. He is just as skilled a fighter as his teammates. |
| 767 | * TheTrickster: He originally played pranks on people because of an embarrassing event that happened to him when he was a child, making him a laughing stock. While Oogway helped him become more compassionate, he still remained this at heart, just more on the side of good. Also, the "Owl Be Back" episode of the TV series: "Can I borrow that fake doodie?" |
| 768 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: Monkey's reason for being mischievous towards the villagers is because he was bullied as a kid. Fortunately, Oogway was able to help Monkey become a better person. |
| 769 | [[/folder]] |
| 770 | |
| 771 | [[folder:Master Crane]] |
| 772 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DavidCross (Films), Creator/AmirTalai (TV Series), Drew Massey (first video game) [[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Jaycee Chan (Cantonese); Marc Arnaud [''Secrets of the Scroll''], Tomer Sisley [''Secrets of the Furious Five''] (EU French); Ralf Schmitz (German); Creator/DaniloDeGirolamo [Films, ''Legends of Awesomeness'' Season 1], Creator/FrancoMannella [''Legends of Awesomeness'' Seasons 2-3] (Italian); Creator/MitsuakiMadono (Japanese); Jeon Gwang-ju (Korean); Yang Chen (PRC Mandarin); Li Shiyang (TW Mandarin); Albert Trifol (EU Spanish); Creator/MoisesIvanMora (LA Spanish); Tomasz Bednarek (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 773 | |
| 774 | [[quoteright:261:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp_crane.png]] |
| 775 | ->"You can chain my body, but you will never chain my warrior spirit!"\ |
| 776 | |
| 777 | The most patient of the Furious Five, he acts as the group's moderator and tries to avoid conflict when necessary. |
| 778 | ---- |
| 779 | %%%* ButtMonkey: In ''Legends Of Awesomeness''. |
| 780 | * CampStraight: His characterization in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' – he's incredibly close to his mother ("Mother Told Me Not To Kung Fu"), his most profound secret is his love for scented fabrics ("Mind Over Manners") and shows an affinity for organizing weddings, to the point of being overtly fussy should any detail go wrong, especially the flower arrangements ("Bride Of Po"). He still ends up falling for Kwan's assistant, Bai Li, in "Has-Been Hero". |
| 781 | * CulturedBadass: A master martial artist and writer of calligraphy. |
| 782 | * DeadpanSnarker: "So that was Stealth Mode, huh?" |
| 783 | * DefeatingTheUndefeatable: He's the only fighter in the Jade Palace who's managed to decisively defeat Fenghuang in a straight up fight via HighAltitudeBattle in the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Crane on a Wire". While Po and the others managed to stop her in her other showdowns, they always required unconventional tactics like [[PragmaticHero tricking her or fighting as a group]] or [[WorfHadTheFlu her otherwise being incapacitated]]. |
| 784 | * FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: {{Defied}}. The creators decided not to incorporate Crane's beak into his fighting style in order to avoid this trope. |
| 785 | * FeatherFingers: Averted. He's the only bird character in the cast who uses his talons instead of his wings as hands. The one exception is in ''Secrets of the Furious Five'', in which he uses his wings to hold several different things. |
| 786 | * {{Flight}}: As a bird that's a given. He is usually seen flying over the battlefield, observing and attacking from above. Some of his kung fu techniques amplify his speed of flight. |
| 787 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic - sensible and pragmatic, but also snarky and occasionally killjoy-ish. |
| 788 | * FurryReminder: In the first movie, he’s seen sleeping while standing on one leg and with his head tucked under his wing, which is something cranes do in real life. |
| 789 | * HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Rarely seen with a shirt. The giant bird wings probably make it hard for him to put one on. |
| 790 | * HandyFeet: Crane is one of the few birds in the series to not use his wings as hands. He mostly picks up things with his feet. |
| 791 | * IJustWantToBeBadass: He used to be the janitor at a kung fu academy, where he wanted to be one of the students. Mei Ling was the only one who believed in him. |
| 792 | * JawDrop: Twice in the second film, when Tigress first gives a CooldownHug to Po and again when Po hugs Tigress near the end. |
| 793 | ** Also in the ''Legends of Awesomeness'' episode "Forsaken and Furious", after seeing a huge tapestry of Po meditating on a board being held by the Five. Then again, maybe it qualifies as a ''Beak Drop''? |
| 794 | * TheLightfooted: Even by bird standards, Crane is remarkably graceful. He can balance on one leg easily and ascend high into the air in seconds. |
| 795 | * MadLibsCatchphrase: "Wings of X". Lampshaded in the third movie, when Mantis says he doesn't need to attach "Wings of" to whatever it is he's doing, to which Crane responds... |
| 796 | --> '''Crane:''' Wings of Disagreement. |
| 797 | %%* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: He's the Feminine Boy to his friend Mei Ling's Masculine Girl. |
| 798 | * MommasBoy: As revealed in ''Legends Of Awesomeness'', he is scared of his mother finding out he is a martial artist, out of fear he may give her a heart attack. However, [[BerserkButton when some bad guys try to hurt his mother...]] |
| 799 | * MyBelovedSmother: Crane's mother Yan Fan meant well, but because of his skinny frame, weak ankles, and a long list of allergies, she thought he was too frail to fend for himself. She made him wear a full suit of armor until he was six, tied pillows around the sharp corners of the house, and never allowed him to run and play with the other children. At one point, he joined a kung-fu class, but because it was too advanced for him, he got beat up on the first day. Yan Fan found out and she made him swear never to do kung-fu again. Crane agreed but practiced in secret. However, when his mother found out, she suffered from serious heart palpitations, forcing him to stop and instead agree to follow his mother's advice of owning an inn. However, by the time he becomes an adult and is proven to be more than capable of defending himself, Yan Fan admits she was wrong about him. |
| 800 | * NerdActionHero: He's the most neuroses-prone of the Five, has a ton of allergies, and [[MadLibsCatchphrase his attempts at grandeur]] tend not to go great. He's also just as skilled a kung-fu warrior as all of them and, being a bird, supplies in aerial combat. Put to focus in his backstory as well as the ''Legends of Aweomeness'' episode "Crane on a Wire". |
| 801 | * NiceGuy: Not the nicest member of the Five (that would be Viper), but still generally friendly and polite. He disapproved of Po at first, but he certainly still respected him. |
| 802 | * NoodleIncident: In the episode "Owl Be Back" of ''Legends of Awesomeness'', it's revealed he has a story involving a rickshaw driver, a teapot, and hot peppers. Apparently, both Po and Shifu ''hate'' the story and show disdain when mentioning it (with Po even yelling at Crane for it.) |
| 803 | * SameVoiceTheirEntireLife: Retains David Cross as his voice actor in ''Secrets of the Furious Five''. |
| 804 | * SicklyNeuroticGeek: In ''"Legends of Awesomeness"''. He's constantly worried about catching a disease, asking permission by Shifu to sterilize his beak after Tigress sneezes on it in "Scorpion's Sting" and even buying a nasal irrigator for his sinuses in "Crane On A Wire". |
| 805 | * TheSmartGuy: He definitely seems to have the most common sense and supports the idea of following orders if they're logical. He also has a nerdy interest in Chinese Calligraphy. |
| 806 | * SuperStrength: Not to the extent Tigress and Mantis have it, but he regularly carries the heavier team members with no visible effort. He starts breathing hard when he has to carry four of them at once, though. |
| 807 | * TeamMom: WordOfGod describes him as being a "mother hen" to the other members of the Furious Five. |
| 808 | ** It's hinted at in the first film. It takes a MamaBear to simultaneously carry all four of his paralyzed teammates away from a losing battle, even though they are heavier than him even without being deadweights, just to ensure their safety. |
| 809 | ** In the second movie when Po is pulled out of the harbor after Shen's boat explodes, Crane joins the group hug the Five give him over relief that he’s alive while shouting "Don't EVER do that again, please??!" a voice that shows he was ''seriously'' worried. |
| 810 | ** In the third Crane hesitates to fight with Kai in the shipwreck due to Shifu’s orders not to engage with the villain. However, as soon as Mantis was in trouble, he didn't hesitate to jump in. |
| 811 | --> '''Crane:''' Hold on, buddy! I'm coming! |
| 812 | * TenMinuteRetirement: Both of his ''Legends of Aweomeness'' limelight episodes have him pull this due to some insercurity leaving him unwilling to serve as a kung fu warrior anymore. Predictably he bounces back in time to stop the VillainOfTheWeek. |
| 813 | * TokenFlyer: He seems to be the only member of the Furious Five capable of flight, which is justified considering he's a bird. |
| 814 | * WeakButSkilled: Given his scrawny frame, no one thought he was cut out for kung fu and he got a job as a janitor. However, he developed the speed and reflexes he needed while working to become a skilled warrior; all he needed was confidence. In a brief scene in the first movie, Crane can be seen sparring with Tigress and holding his ground against one of the strongest warriors. |
| 815 | * WindFromBeneathMyWings: A couple of times in the sequel. "Wings of Justice! Caw-CAW!" Also counts as a ChekhovsGun. He did it once for the demonstration in the first movie but never used it until the sequel. |
| 816 | * WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities: How'd he become so skilled? He single-handedly (wingedly?) took care of the cleaning of the number one kung-fu school he worked in! |
| 817 | * YamatoNadeshiko: Probably not intentional (the setting is China and Yamato Nadeshiko is a Japanese ideal), but strangely enough Crane actually features the key personality traits: Helpfulness, caring, obedience to authority, humility, soft-spoken politeness, grace, while still knowing how to be badass. Being the TeamMom only contributes to this. Though Crane is about as irritated at Po for one-upping him as everyone else, only Viper shows it less than he does. This exchange shows the closest he gets to losing his temper: |
| 818 | -->'''Po:''' Thanks.\ |
| 819 | '''Crane:''' Don't mention it.\ |
| 820 | '''Po:''' No really, I appreci--\ |
| 821 | '''Crane:''' --'''[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain ever]]'''. |
| 822 | [[/folder]] |
| 823 | |
| 824 | [[folder:Master Mantis]] |
| 825 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SethRogen (Films), Max Koch (TV Series, games except first two), Brian T Delaney (first video game, Legendary Warriors) [[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Sam Lee (Cantonese), Creator/TristanHarvey (Canadian French), Xavier Fagnon (EU French), Tobias Kluckert (German), Creator/SimoneMori (Italian), Creator/TakuyaKirimoto (Japanese), Bang Seong-jun (Korean), Leo Wu (PRC Mandarin), Liu Jie (TW Mandarin), Marco Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese), João Ricardo (EU Portuguese), Oleg Kutsenko (Russian), Xavi Fernández (EU Spanish), Creator/RaulAnaya (LA Spanish); Krzysztof Banaszyk (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 826 | |
| 827 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp_mantis.png]] |
| 828 | ->"Fear the bug!"\ |
| 829 | |
| 830 | The smallest of the Furious Five, but still just as strong as any other kung fu master. He is also a skilled acupuncturist. |
| 831 | ---- |
| 832 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: In the ''Legends Of Awesomeness'' episode "Huge". |
| 833 | * BerserkButton: Being called "cute" or "little" as brought up in ''2''. |
| 834 | * TheBigGuy: The most aggressive of the Five, which is ironic considering Mantis' tiny size. He's even capable of holding and manipulating the rope bridge during their battle with Tai Lung. |
| 835 | * BrutalHonesty: He often comes across as this in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' to Po. In "Secret Admirer", when Po tells Mantis about a love letter he forged to get Monkey to think that Ming had a crush on him, Mantis urges Po to immediately tell the truth to Monkey. In "Kung Shoes", when Po buys dangerous magical shoes, when Mantis deduces that Po got the shoes from the sinister bazaar, he warns Po that Shifu has to know about them, and he secretly informs Shifu and the rest of the Five while allowing Po to go through with the charade of self-deception. |
| 836 | * ChirpingCrickets: While not a cricket, he often makes a facsimile of this sound whenever Po ends up making a crack at his color/size, looking at him unamused. |
| 837 | * DeadpanSnarker: More snarky than deadpan, but still qualifies. |
| 838 | * DisappearedDad: "I don't have ''any'' problems with my dad. Probably cuz Mom ate his head before I was born..." |
| 839 | * FatalFlaw: ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' shows that Mantis' greatest weakness in the past was impatience. He was so fast, the rest of the world seemed to move in slow motion. He was so gung ho to fight a group of bandits, he left without listening to the villager's warning of the bandits' traps. |
| 840 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric - [[BerserkButton quick to anger]], boisterous, violent, and shockingly strong for his size. |
| 841 | * FragileSpeedster: He was known to be very fast, but his fragility came from his impatience as seen in ''Secrets of The Furious Five''. The interquel TV series and the sequels also add his size as a strength, seeing as he can sneak past anything in ''2'', and a weak point, as he can be easily manhandled by his teammates in many episodes of ''LOA'' and even a little panda girl (Lei Lei) in ''3''. |
| 842 | * GotMeDoingIt: Po's slip-ups regarding Mantis's appearance seemed to have rubbed off on him in ''3'', as his first reaction after being turned back to normal is this: |
| 843 | -->'''Mantis:''' I'm still green! It didn't work! Oh, wait, that's my normal green. |
| 844 | * HatesBeingCalledCute: Mantis prefers being seen as a fearsome warrior, so any mention of his size as "adorable" will really set him off. Just ask Shen's minions in ''2'' when they made that serious mistake. |
| 845 | * HeManWomanHater: |
| 846 | ** Somewhat [[AnimalStereotypes logically]]. AllThereInTheManual. The sequel seems to suggest he's actually ''looking forward'' to the day he can settle down with a female mantis and eventually get his head bitten off. [[ZigzaggedTrope Then again]] it may have been GallowsHumor, since [[spoiler:he and the Five were captured by Shen and they all thought China was done for.]] |
| 847 | ** One of [=KFP2's=] deleted scenes included a scene where he goes up to a bar to try to find Master Ox and Master Croc... but he utterly freaks out when he finds out that it's a female mantis who's the bartender. Doing everything in his power ''not'' to attract her attention, he quickly flees. |
| 848 | ** Strangely averted in an episode of ''Legends Of Awesomeness'', where he tried to woo a female mantis, and fights against ''another'' mantis for her hand. Thankfully, it didn't work out. |
| 849 | * HotBlooded: Doesn't like to hang around on the sidelines ESPECIALLY when his allies are fighting, but his concern to go to their aid [[spoiler:screws both him and Crane in the third film, when he jumps into a fight despite Crane's hesitation and Master Shifu's instructions not to engage the enemy - had he not done so, the rest of the Furious Five and Master Shifu may have been able to get away from the Valley of Peace in time instead of getting captured]]. |
| 850 | * LeeroyJenkins: In the past, when he'd rush into battle without paying heed to any precautions. |
| 851 | ** It's not all in the past, either. In the third film, he [[spoiler:ignores Shifu's direct orders to avoid confrontation with Kai at any cost in an attempt to save several masters, despite Crane's vigorous protests. This only gets him and Crane alike drained of their chi, resulting in Kai gaining two extra servants for his assault on the Jade Palace, for which the defenders were not prepared because there was no one to warn them of it anymore.]] |
| 852 | * TheMedic: This is where the acupuncture comes in. |
| 853 | * MetronomicManMashing: A signature technique - a natural consequence of minuscule size and a style that emphasizes leverage. He thrashes (pre-training) Po against the ground like he's trying to knock the dust out in the first movie; is extremely rough with Shen's wolf-mooks in the second movie; and his ''jombie'' uses Monkey as a blunt instrument in the third movie. |
| 854 | * TheNapoleon: Not to the point of it being a BerserkButton, but he does get a bit irked whenever his size is mentioned. It's also [[AllThereInTheManual said in the artbook]] that Mantis does all of his lofty kung fu feats (i.e. breaking buildings instead of bricks) in compensation for his size. He also beats the crap out of a couple of bad guys when they indirectly call him cute in the sequel. |
| 855 | ** ''Legends of Awesomeness'' have him really deal with this to where he risks taking a ''gong tau'' (Chinese black magic) potion to make himself bigger. |
| 856 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: Due to how both he and Po have unusual sizes for kung fu warriors as a result of their species (Mantis being small, Po being chubby), Mantis admits during the acupuncture scene that he doesn't have the right to judge the panda on his body type. It's also one of the main reasons why Mantis is among the first to respect Po. |
| 857 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: Strong enough to hold a broken rope bridge with Tai Lung ''and'' three of his teammates on it, though he was clearly straining at that point. |
| 858 | * PlayingPossum: To escape a bandit trap in ''Secrets of the Furious Five'', Mantis played dead for several days straight until the bandits finally opened the cage to check on him. |
| 859 | * PressurePoint: He specializes in utilizing this, combining it with his impressive speed, jumping, and mantis claws to really know how to mess with foes. He also knows acupressure, and attempts to help Po feel better after his first day of training. Though, in a case of {{Foreshadowing}}, he has trouble with it due to the panda's girth, to the point of tweaking a facial nerve... And possibly stopping his heart. |
| 860 | * ShoulderTeammate: Due to his petite frame, he often climbs on his partners' shoulders for travel. |
| 861 | * SlayingMantis: Very much so. |
| 862 | * SpeedDemon: In the ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' short, Po tells the story about how Mantis used to be [[ArrogantKungFuGuy cocky, impatient and brash because of his speed and agility]]. Getting captured by enemies and being forced to wait for the right time to escape taught him a very important lesson in patience and humility. |
| 863 | * SuperStrength: He is one of the physically strongest members of the Five ''despite'' also being the tiniest! |
| 864 | [[/folder]] |
| 865 | |
| 866 | [[folder:Master Viper]] |
| 867 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/LucyLiu (Films, TV Series, second video game), Erin Torpey (video games except the second one); Creator/JessicaDiCicco (young)[[labelnote:Foreign [=VA=]s]]Josie Ho (Cantonese); Creator/MicheleLituac (Canadian French); Mylène Jampanoï [Films, ''Secrets of the Furious Five''], Laëtitia Godès (EU French); Cosma Shiva Hagen (German); Tiziana Avarista (Italian); Megumi Furuya [''[=KFP=] 1'' and ''2''], Creator/RomiPark [''[=KFP=] 3''] (Japanese); Yang Jeong-hwa (Korean); Selene Zhan (PRC Mandarin); Zheng Renli (TW Mandarin); Priscila Amorim (Brazilian Portuguese); Diana Chaves (EU Portuguese); Anna Semenovich (Russian); Graciela Molina (EU Spanish); Creator/LilianaBarba (LA Spanish); Izabella Bukowska (Polish)[[/labelnote]] |
| 868 | |
| 869 | [[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kfp_viper.png]] |
| 870 | ->"I don't need to bite to fight!"\ |
| 871 | |
| 872 | One of the sweeter members of the Furious Five. She makes up for her lack of venom with her elegant dexterity and precision. |
| 873 | ---- |
| 874 | * ActionGirl: Not quite to the extent of Tigress, but she's still one of the Five. |
| 875 | * ActorAllusion: She is portrayed by Creator/LucyLiu aka O-Ren Ishii of ''Film/KillBill'' fame; Liu previously played 'Bai-Bu-She'' or ''"Hundred-Step-Snake"'' (the amount of time it takes the venom to kill you), or more colloquially in the west as a "Cottonmouth." |
| 876 | * AdaptationalJerkass: While Viper is unambiguously a NiceGirl in the film canon ([[BewareTheNiceOnes if still a formidable one]]), and even in the first film, the one member of the Jade Palace that was sympathetic to Po from the start, ''Legends of Awesomeness'' generally conveys her with the same loftiness and irritable nature as the other Furious Five members and, due to her lack of focus, has more interactions ''subverting'' her nice image for laughs than playing it straight. |
| 877 | * ApologeticAttacker: After her first, um, "[[CurbStompBattle spar]]" with Po. |
| 878 | * BadassBoast: When facing down an armored gorilla who defeated her father. |
| 879 | -->'''Viper:''' I don't have to ''bite'' to ''fight!'' |
| 880 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: As sweet and nurturing as Viper is, it's still '''not''' a good idea to piss her off. |
| 881 | ** In the first film, as she and the rest of her peers are watching Po bounce down the stairs after literally being thrown out of the sparring grounds by Shifu, she comments on his determination not to quit. Mantis then adds, "He's not gonna quit ''bouncing''. I can tell you that", and then starts laughing at Po's misfortune, to which Viper responds by [[DeathGlare glaring fiercely]] and hissing at him, causing him to stop. |
| 882 | ** She has a number of moments in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' where she loses her temper with Po and sometimes even physically attacks him over making rude or insensitive remarks, especially in "Serpent's Tooth", where he constantly keeps unhelpfully bringing up the stereotypes people associate with snakes whenever the villagers start shunning her for simply being a snake. |
| 883 | ** And she is still a very competent warrior like the rest of the Furious Five at the end of the day, so the kind of personality she has is not in any way a reason to take her for granted. |
| 884 | * ChekhovsSkill: Her story in ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' centers around turning her ribbon dancing into a fighting style. |
| 885 | * DaddysGirl: ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' shows that she cared deeply about her father and was eager to please him. |
| 886 | * DanceBattler: She sometimes uses a dance ribbon in battle. In ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' she was also noted as the best ribbon dancer in her village. |
| 887 | -->'''Viper:''' ''(to the gorilla bandit she'd just tied up with her dance ribbon)'' My deceptive dancing ''defies'' your poison proof armor! |
| 888 | * DudeNotFunny: To her, other people getting hurt is ''not funny.'' |
| 889 | --> '''Viper''' ''(watching Po fall down a thousand feet of stairs):'' He's not gonna quit, is he? |
| 890 | --> '''Mantis:''' He's not gonna quit '''bouncing,''' I can tell ya that! ''(Starts laughing at his own joke)'' |
| 891 | --> ''(Viper produces a hiss and a DeathGlare, causing him to shut up)'' |
| 892 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic - coolheaded, docile, kind, sympathetic and ultimately the least aggressive member of the Five. |
| 893 | * FurryReminder: She hisses hard at Mantis when he makes [[DudeNotFunny an insensitive joke]] about Po bouncing down the steps of the Jade Palace. She also tends to make hissing and rattling noises when she moves. |
| 894 | * HandicappedBadass: She was born without fangs, and while she is shown with fangs as an adult they're much smaller than those of the other members of her species. Not that she needs them. |
| 895 | * TheHeart: Viper's the most compassionate of the Five, and mostly concerned with the emotions of her team. |
| 896 | * ImprovisedLockpick: In the second film, when Po and the Five are brought before Shen's cannon, she uses the end of her tail to unlock Tigress's cuffs. It works, and everyone is able to free each other before [[StormingTheCastle storming the tower]]. |
| 897 | * InformedAbility: Po refers to her as having venom in the first film, a skill that (unlike her father) she's never shown using. ''Legends of the Furious Five'' seems to retcon this, as her plot revolves around her inability to bite. |
| 898 | * LadyOfWar: She's even voiced by the current trope poster woman! |
| 899 | * LittleMissBadass: As a little girl, she took out an ''armored gorilla'' with her WaifFu in her first fight. |
| 900 | * NiceGirl: She's a sweet, warmhearted, and considerate young girl, and out of all of the Five, she's the nicest to Po from the beginning, even before she really accepts him. |
| 901 | * ParentsInDistress: In ''Secrets of the Furious Five'', when she challenged the gorilla bandit attacking her father. |
| 902 | -->'''Viper:''' No one beats up my daddy! |
| 903 | * PetTheDog: In ''Panda 3'', after Po's disastrous first day of teaching, Viper makes a point of complimenting him anyway, even though she has to roll a whole spiked training pylon that she has become irretrievably wrapped around to get close enough to do it. In the same movie, when Shifu gives his very thorough list of the people who shared news of how bad Po's first day went, Viper isn't on it. |
| 904 | * ReptilesAreAbhorrent: A notable [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of most AnimalStereotypes associated with snakes. While she does have the [[SnakesAreSexy elegance and grace commonly associated with snakes]], she lacks any of their usual duplicity, treachery, and other villainous connotations. Quite the opposite in fact, she is probably '''the''' kindest member of the Furious Five, and despite being a '''viper''', she is never even seen using venomous fangs. |
| 905 | * {{Retcon}}: |
| 906 | ** Viper is shown to have fangs in the films, yet the short ''Secrets of the Furious Five'' shows that she was born without fangs or venom, and her father was deeply concerned because of it. to have been born without them. Presumably, she simply grew them later. It's also possible that she simply never developed venom glands, making her fangs useless. |
| 907 | ** In the holiday special, Viper fondly recalls when she used to cook with her sisters during the winter feasts, though no siblings appear during her backstory shown in ''Secrets of the Furious Five''. While it's possible that Viper is the oldest sibling, and her sisters weren't born yet, they are also not shown when an teenage Viper is recruited by Tigress and says goodbye to her family in ''Secrets of the Scroll''. |
| 908 | * SnakesAreSexy: She's voiced by the attractive Creator/LucyLiu, wears two flowers on her head, and happens to be a very cute snake with skills as a ribbon dancer. |
| 909 | * ShipTease: A light amount during the end credits of the first movie, where she kisses a training dummy made to look like Po. She also does this to an unconscious Tigress too in ''Secrets of the Scroll''. |
| 910 | ** She gets a few more moments with Po in ''Legends of Awesomeness'', though not as much as Tigress. |
| 911 | * StomachOfHolding: Never in the films, but she's shown at brief times in ''Legends of Awesomeness'' using her snake biology practically in this way. |
| 912 | * StopHittingYourself: A preferred move of hers is to coil around her opponent's arm and neck and make them hit themselves. She uses it against the gorilla bandit, and then against Tai Lung. |
| 913 | %%* SwallowedWhole: What do you expect? She's a snake. |
| 914 | * TeamMom: Like Crane, she tends to act as a reasonable and protective "mother hen" towards her teammates, going hand in hand with being the most gentle and kind-hearted of the group. Along with the other things mentioned above, she is usually also the one who diffuses conflicts between her comrades, such as in the second film, where she begs Po and Tigress not to fight when they're arguing in Gongmen Jail. |
| 915 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The Girly Girl to Tigress's Tomboy. |
| 916 | * WaifFu: Regularly takes down opponents way bigger than her, including the aforementioned gorilla. |
| 917 | ** Her establishing moment, in a kung fu sense, is a two-second sparring match with Po during his initial training. No arms, no legs, and the guy opposite her outweighs her by an easy two hundred pounds. Three strokes later: |
| 918 | --> '''Viper,''' ''slightly distraught:'' I'm sorry, brother - I thought you said you were ''ready!''\ |
| 919 | '''Crumpled Heap of Po:''' [[FanBoy That was awesome!!]] |
| 920 | * WellDoneSonGuy: She was very loved by her father, a kung fu master who relied on his venomous fangs, but he feared that she wouldn't be able to defend herself or carry out his proud legacy because she was born without fangs or venom. She eventually proved herself to him when she used her ribbon dancing skills to beat up a bandit who shattered her father's fangs with armor. |
| 921 | * WiseSerpent: Her fighting style is based on dexterity and precision rather than strength or power. She shows more kindness to Po than the other Furious Five. But she is also clever enough to defeat bigger enemies. And she figures out how to use her tail to pick handcuffs and free Tigress. |
| 922 | * WomenAreWiser: She's the only one of Tigress' subordinates who is female, and is in many ways the most mature and considerate of them. This is showcased particularly in the first film, during Po's early time in the Jade Palace; while she was just as doubtful of Oogway's decision to have Po be the Dragon Warrior as her comrades, she didn't mock him or treat him with any form of disdain like they did, instead expressing concern for his wellbeing and going out of her way to be friendly and respectful to him even before really accepting him as one of them. |
| 923 | [[/folder]] |
| 924 | |
| 925 | !Other Protagonists |
| 926 | [[folder:Zhen]] |
| 927 | See [[Characters/KungFuPandaOtherCharacters Kung Fu Panda – Other Characters]] |
| 928 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / KungFuPandaProtagonists
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
