#gonna put em up on deviantart as an adopt

[nokingsonlyfooles]

The Dark Secret of Kung Fu Panda (Part 1)...

... Shifu is kind of a shitty teacher.

But only if you live in the West!

Apparently, you all like Panda analysis, so let's talk about cross-cultural translations, Theravada Buddhism, filial piety, and the ultimate futility of writers trying to impart a specific interpretation to a diverse audience - just to start! Then, I'll come back on Thursday and we can unpack WTF is the deal with that Dragon Scroll.

American movies can pick up a lot of box office cash in China, so they try like hell to stay inoffensive and relevant to Eastern and Western audiences. Often, they fail spectacularly.

But Kung Fu Panda pulled it off! ...With just a little wobble on the dismount.

Chinese audiences have little to complain about when it comes to these guys:

But here in the West, we can't seem to stop coming up with reasons all three of 'em got a raw deal - even the ones who were a little bit genocide-y.

And especially this li'l guy.

Aw, no, look how cute!

People will bend over backwards to defend that cute kid (and sexy adult), to the point of throwing Oogway, Shifu, Po, Tigress, or the whole franchise under a bus.

There are folks out there who are gonna die mad about Tai Lung's lack of a redemption arc and humiliating demise. Like, literally.

To their credit, the Kung Fu Panda team caught this after some early screenings and tried to fix it. Tai Lung's betrayal and attempt to steal the scroll just wasn't enough, so they added a massacre, and every villain after Tai Lung had an impressive kill count woven into their backstory right from the start.

(Not that it necessarily helped, if you happen to look this bad boy up on DeviantArt.)

In a wuxia film, and in Chinese culture in general, betraying your father/teacher, and asking that they betray their father/teacher is more than enough to make a villain. Given that filial piety is the basis of all ethics, as taught by Confucius himself, what went down in the Jade Palace was an attempt to burn society itself to the ground, all because one guy felt entitled to a shiny piece of paper. That is Captain Planet levels of self-destructive evil.

All three movie villains pulled off some violation of this fundamental ethical duty. Tai Lung betrayed his father/teacher. Lord Shen betrayed his parents - and managed to let his teacher go, with sadness and disappointment on both sides. Kai betrayed his adoptive brother - although from his point of view, his brother betrayed him, so he may be the most sympathetic of them through this lens.

The only way to impart this level of wrong across cultures is to add a lot of murdering, and even then it doesn't quite scan. Tai Lung didn't even necessarily kill anyone in the village; cartoons get nervous about the word "die" around these here parts, so they just said he "laid waste." Well, that could mean a lot of things! Does that guy deserve decades of solitary in a hell-prison for (in my mind) doing nothing more than calling out an unfair action and leaving a bad Yelp review of Mr. Ping's noodles?

I can't trust a bird who eats noodles, I don't care how cute his hat is!

So, it's not just that the violation of ethics doesn't carry, the concept of "unfair" crept into a place where it really doesn't belong. Traditionally, it is perfectly acceptable for a Kung Fu Master to be a total piece of shit who motivates his students to learn out of sheer spite and puts them through hell.

Oh, yeah, I remember him. That moustache looks familiar...

If we're coming from a place where we buy that trope and expect it to be played straight, Shifu's mistake was being too nice to Tai Lung. His student's self-esteem was insufficiently crushed! That boy had the nerve to break his own Master's leg! Thank goodness Shifu became a cold, uncaring, emotionally-distant task master - just in time to raise Tigress right!

Yes. Good. Never let on that you're pleased with anything your student does. That'll keep 'em in line!

But a Western audience isn't going to buy that. Shifu just looks like a jerk, and Tigress is a jerk... In fact, all of the Five, save Viper (who is just that nice) seem like jerks, and Oogway is a troll.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you have something urgent to do? I think blowing out these candles, one-by-one, is rather important too."

Being an utter troll is also a valid way to teach kung fu, and Buddhist practices in general, which is definitely where Oogway is coming from. I peg him as a Theravada Buddhist, due to the way he teaches, and one scene in particular from the third movie.

Enlightenment isn't something you just hand over like a piece of paper, it's something everyone has to find for themself, in their own way. It's not possible to teach Tai Lung or Po self worth, and it's not possible to teach Shifu to lighten up, so the best a smart teacher can do is give them a good nudge, then step back and see what happens.

...Even if that "nudge" requires one to ascend to the Spirit Realm and leave your most stubborn student to clean up his own damn mess.

But there aren't as many Buddhists watching in the West, so what's a writer to do?

Well, they split the difference. Tigress did grow up better than Tai Lung, in accordance with the tropes, but it turns out she's not done learning and growing, and neither is Shifu (or the rest of the Five, but they don't get much of an arc. There are time constraints!). Their arrogance and lack of flexibility render them incapable of working with someone like Po - and they gotta figure out what they're doing wrong fast, 'cos Shifu's other teaching mistake is on his way back! In China, Shifu is learning to be a better teacher. In the West, he's learning to stop being a shitty teacher! And it takes him all three movies to grasp the humility he needs to learn from Po. Tigress, on the other hand, learns to respect Po and soft style by the end of film one.

When Western values are applied, Shifu comes off as a very slow learner, due to his own impatience and inability to slow down. But that's okay. He does learn, he's clearly trying, and we love him anyway.

Well, most of us do. Some of us can't get over that cute, fluffy little leopard, and we don't buy the (admittedly imperfect) attempt to make this story intelligible across cultures. These folks tend to focus their ire, much like Tai Lung himself, on that useless piece of paper the troll stuffed in a temple like it was something important, and the jerk led Tai Lung to believe was rightfully his. Why can't the boy just have his useless piece of paper, huh?

Well, I'll come back later and I'll tell ya.

[skunkes]

Tbh people usually follow others to check out their new art and new characters really! You can also like post bulletins (people usually use these for like life or commission updates etc, I guess kinda like deviantart journals) and writing but I follow my friends and I usually just subscribe to them so I can see what they're doing with their ocs.

Sorry if I end up talking too much, it sounds more complicated in text/when I describe it but it's easier than it sounds - but I hope this can be helpful -> Setting up characters to be traded is a little complicated on the site itself but its easier once you get the hang of it. When you first make a character, you select the "design tradability" dropbox under "designer credit" and you choose if people can regift or retrade etc your character. You have to take it off of "cannot transfer" otherwise you won't be able to actually list it for trade or sale on the site.

If you've already uploaded a character that you want to trade or sell, you go to "ownership" on the character's page and then you can edit character permissions from there!

Now here's the easier part, when you want your character to be set up for trade or sale, you just go under "manage character" on the character profile, click "trade listing" and then choose if you're gonna trade or sell etc!

I'm so sorry if this made it sound complicated sjdjfhe

oh yeah ive seen some ppl post updates there when ive checked out their toyhouse for refs...but i cant imagine being active on there enough to remember to post comm updates. Bc again like...its just a gallery site to me bc im not a roleplayer or someone who comments on stuff or talks to ppl HFJSKFJS. Just like how on instagram i just post and leave bc its personally not community friendly at all, i cant imagine being that active on toyhouse in the same way. Like theres not much for cheye to do on there

Ty for the detailed descrip on trading and selling tho! Will probably look back to this if/when i ever put unwanted/unsold adopts on there ^_^ bc i see ppl doing it and i feel thatd be a good space to group em

[skiploomz]

🖊!! owo

Ok idk which oc to talk about so im just going to talk about randall! I got randal in a moodboard adopt thing on deviantart in like 2015,, and at that time i was super duper into angel stuff so i kin assigned him as a fallen angel.

his backstory was like, he was an angel, a high up one but not an archangel! Maybe a dominion? I dont remember the heirarchy or different sections of heaven anymore! But he was a chill angel dude and he was pretty well respected until he did something bad and everyone was like. no thats bad so they threw him in an angel jail and were gonna let him rot but were eventually like o yeah we forgot angels live forever so they have like,, a hanging for him except they drop him into hell. so yeah hes all gronky and scrawny and they tie his wings and hands and they straight up drop him lmao and also the demons find out that the an angel is getting dropped so theyre like hell fucking yeah man!!! Lets tear his flesh apart and eat this angel dude hahah yeah wait i want to put in a supernatural gif

haha yeah lmao so anyway they drol him into hell and cus hes tied up he cant do shit BUT!!!! Shocking twist!!! he BUSTS his wings out from their bindings but because hes malnourished and shit he still cant fly (dumbass) so hes dropping and shit and hes like halfway there i guess. You cant really tell i mean because heaven and hell are subjective so i have no idea how long the drop would be but its long ok ans hes tryna get his hands untied and shit. Anyways he eventually sees this cliff and hes like "wtf that doesnt look like hell" and he tries to land ontop of it with his wings but theyre gucked so he slams into this xliff and he climbs the cliff face with his feet still boundand theres some little demons tryna nibble at his toes and he gets to the top and hes like yeah what the fuck im not supposed to be here. And he pisses off cuz he doesnt want to get eaten by the little fuckers and yeah he finds out hes on earth so he blends in and shit. There are still demons after him though (they take a human form) so he just kills em !!! So now hes a demon hunter which is cool i guess!! Hes very murderous and does not know how to be a human yet but hes trying!!

now time for some fun and stupid facts about him. hes very obviously named after randal ascot from professor layton and the miracle mask because theyre both ginger and i used to ADORE randal ascot !! Also because randal ascot also falls from a height and is presumed dead but he comes back anyway and rocks everyones ass.

I think randall actually has a typo in his name because when i named him i didnt know how to spell randal. (Is it supposed to have two Ls or one L because i dont know)

art by me lol