app for tushanshu

[kungfood]

Player Information:
Name: Cyn
Age: Over 18
Contact: PM or shoot an email to smuggering@gmail.com
Game Cast: N/A

Character Information:
Name: Po Ping
Canon: Kung Fu Panda (the movies, not the TV show)
Canon Point: Just after the second movie
Age: Early 30s. During the second movie, it’s revealed that the panda village Po was born in was destroyed by Lord Shen thirty years prior. Po is very young at the time, so he could be under a year or over year, it’s never stated. But if it’s been exactly thirty years (the number Lord Shen tosses out), Po would be in his early thirties. It’s never explicitly said.
Reference:
Wiki for Kung Fu Panda
Wiki for Secrets of the Furious Five
Wiki for Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special
Wiki for Kung Fu Panda 2
Wiki for Secrets of the Masters
Kung Fu Panda wiki article for

Setting:

Imagine Ancient China. Only, take out all the humans and fill their places with anthropomorphized animals that are native to China, and that’s a pretty good start.

The majority of the first movie takes place in the Valley of Peace. An area established by Master Oogway nearly a thousand years before the existence of Po, it was specifically chosen because it was in the midst of many tall mountains. Here, those who had no defense against invaders would be able to settle and continue families on in peace, thus the name. Rope bridges (the Thread of Hope) were put in place to guarantee safe passage to those determined for a peaceful existence and give pause to any who would try to invade. Out of a desire to help protect those who could not ordinarily protect themselves, Master Oogway came up with kung fu as means for any who learned it to defend themselves.

Most citizens of the Valley of Peace are pigs, rabbits, ducks, or geese. There are kung fu experts representing all specials. Holiday Special included a dinner with masters that included creatures who look, for all intents and purposes, to be a similar or of the same species as many in the Valley of Peace.

It’s not only the exceptional or “different” (like the animals in the Furious Five) that Master Oogway wanted to help feel protected a safe, after all. It is readily available for all (at least, within the Valley of Peace) to take lessons or to learn, as shown in Secrets of the Furious Five when Shifu has Po teach an audience of bunnies about the art and says that kung fu lives on only when its practitioners pass it down to a new generation.

Kung fu is the main martial art with no mention of any others, and choreography of the fight scenes falls back on moves and styles practiced in kung fu. Each character has a particular style. Shockingly, Mantis practices Praying Mantis, Monkey practices Monkey, Tigress practices Tiger, Crane practices Crane, and Viper practices Snake. Each style focuses on specific strengths in order to combat any other style that can be used against it, be it in sparring or in combat, and it is of great interest to many, even those honestly have no desire to ever learn it. Who doesn’t like a good tournament of highly trained martial artists showing their stuff?

When announced that a tournament will be held before the Dragon Warrior is selected by Master Oogway, most of the Valley immediately ascends a very long set of stone steps to see it. It is also misunderstood as “learning to fight” over anything else, when it’s instead about “excellence of self” and “being the best you can be.” Needless to say, this hardly goes over well with children who are generally in the same mindset as the ones in reality.

There are other areas of China, and these other areas have different animal species. Gongmen City (a very large and bustling city made great by the invention of fireworks by its ruling family of peacocks) is comprised of pigs, but also includes sheep and antelope. Wolves still operate with a pack-like mentality. Animals who are seen as “bad” are usually larger ones, such as oxen, crocodiles, and rhinoceroses. There are variations on the stereotypical “bad” animals, such as Viper of the Furious Five being a snake, a student who encouraged Crane to try out for martial arts being feline, and Master Croc, a former “bad” character who turned good.

Travel takes place mostly by foot (or hoof, or paw, or belly, and so forth. There are rickshaws, but there are no wagons filled with animals needing to move pulled by bigger animals, such as oxen. There is no electricity or running water. Before Lord Shen, there were no instances of real weaponry, and the first “weapon” to be introduced was a cannon. Fireworks existed, but Lord Shen saw a “darker power” in them and turned it into something that could be used as destructive. Weapons before it consisted of things like maces, axes, spears, and swords, nothing that needed anything else than a good craftsman to make it a weapon.

Even though this Ancient China is filled with animals, it still holds true to the real Ancient China. There is an annual celebration simply called Winter Feast (or Festival) that has many similarities to the traditional Dongzhi Festival observed by the Chinese and other East Asians. In Kung Fu Panda, it involves family and friends coming together to dine and enjoy the company of one another, party games, folk music, dancing, and an old tradition of making sun lanterns to hang up every year, similar to Christmas tree decorations. The clothing worn by every character in the movie is also influenced by historical Chinese wardrobes, and there are themes relating to time-honored Chinese values such as selflessness, loyalty, social harmony, and honoring one’s family.

Personality:

At first glance, Po generally only stands out because he’s the largest creature in the Valley of Peace. He’s thought of as fat, even though he’s actually the perfect size for a panda. There’s not much other than that to make him stand out in the eyes of a passerby. He was, for quite some time, the guy that worked at Mister Ping’s noodle shop, and not much else. He spent a lifetime being noticed by the rest of the world for his size and nothing more.

It’s the main thing that’s noticed about him when he’s selected as the Dragon Warrior, too. He has no kung fu training, and he’s a fat, flabby panda. Surely he can’t ever hope to be anything as great as a kung fu warrior! But in Po’s life, there have only been three great loves: his father, kung fu, and food.

Well aware of how poorly he’s thought of, Po has a few methods to overcome it. He eats when he’s upset, which could be the main reason he’s thought of as so overweight. When he’s told he “can’t” do something, he doesn’t spend much time arguing about it—everyone already thinks so little of him, what would words do to convince them otherwise? He may protest briefly, but he realizes it’s not going to do much. Instead of continuing with verbally objecting, Po acts. He goes and does what he needs to in order to achieve the desired outcome. He may need some encouragement to get him out of his gloomy mood (from Master Oogway and his father in the first movie, from the Soothsayer in the second), but he acts instead of talking things out. He’s told that he’s a disgrace and should just give up, that he has no place in the Jade Palace. He turns to eating, and after given some good advice, he decides to show that he’s serious about it. Instead of sleeping the night away and showing up the same as everyone else, he goes to the training area and tries to get his body more acquainted with exercise.

Which doesn’t work as well as he would have liked, but it shows that he has no intentions of quitting and will do whatever it takes to succeed.

Being thought of so poorly has led to Po thinking of himself poorly, and it’s not until he gains some respect from others that he starts to gain respect for himself. It’s not until he expresses his actual feelings after having them “beaten” out of him (which is the easiest way for anyone to get him to open up unless they are his father) about something other than kung fu or food that Master Shifu begins to think of him as a someone as opposed to a something, which is something that’s he only ever felt coming from his dad. And, perhaps, the brief conversation he had with Master Oogway. As much as he loves his dad, he’s still his dad, meaning there’s the assumption that he’s “obligated” to love him no matter what. When Master Shifu finally finds a way to train him, Po gains confidence, something that’s he never really been shown as having much of.

Even then, his confidence dwindles when he finds out the Dragon Scroll is blank, nothing more than a scroll with a reflective surface. Only when his father explains the idea that if someone wants something to be thought of as special, they just have to believe that is that he gains back the confidence he felt gone, that and much more.

This is not to say that Po is a doormat, or that he’s stupid. Po takes a lot of abuse in the first movie, but he’s holding onto the hope that he will learn something and become greater than ever could just living with his father and working at the noodle shop. He does protest after a particularly vicious assault on his body and his hygiene by Master Shifu, but it falls flat as soon as he realizes what sort of kung fu move he’s threatening him with. As Dragon Warrior, he doesn’t stand for injustice of any sort, and if it means he has to find something to be creative with in combat or a means to win the fight, he doesn’t hesitate to go for it, even if it could come across as silly. As long as the battle is won, that is all that matters. Even if he’s not the most eloquent of speakers, he has a mind that works well when it needs to.

For all of his self-esteem issues, Po somehow has a heart that’s far bigger than his seemingly insatiable appetite. He never once degrades anyone but himself. Even when he’s impersonating Master Shifu, it’s him being silly, not demeaning him, and it can be taken as Po actually degrading himself and using the front of pretending to be Master Shifu. When told he’s anything less than worthy, he never fires back with something insulting or rude. He may protest, but he doesn’t “go for the throat” or “aim below the belt” and turn around and verbally abuse the other party. Instead of trying to insist that the other party is also loathsome in some regard, he generally grows silent or tries to veer the topic away.. In the case of Tigress, his most beloved of the Furious Five, he opts to go for flattery as opposed to anything else. There’s a difference, however, in his idol telling him he’s contemptible and going silent compared to anyone else. Who wants to come across even worse to someone they admire? He manages to be the same with his enemies. Even when Lord Shen is talking about him being stupid, he doesn’t respond with anything overly insulting, just that he finds his “evilness” annoying. He doesn’t insult him, he insults his actions, because actions speak louder than words. He gives them both the chance to stop what they’re doing and find redemption in some way. He doesn’t remind either of them that they have done horrible, awful things. He doesn’t tell them that they are despicable and should feel remorse. He doesn’t even tell them that they need to stop and accept the consequences of their actions. Instead, he tries to assure them that they are still a someone and not a something. They are their own being, and they can actively work to change into something more than what they are viewed as.

He tells Tai Lung that the scroll doesn’t show “nothing.” It shows whoever is looking at it, and thus what they think of themselves. It’s not nothing. It’s not blank. It’s just “you” and nothing else. Once he believes in himself, he works to make others believe in themselves, too. It doesn’t always work out the way he’d like it to, but he can’t help that. He realizes that he can’t control anyone other than himself, and he doesn’t try to make choices for anyone but himself. When his father confesses he once thought of running away to make tofu instead of noodles, he asks him why. He does not insist that he do it anyway, but by the time the second movie rolls around? His father has added tofu to the menu. Tai Lung and Lord Shen both choose their fate, to continue fighting and die the villain everyone believes them to be, even after Po gives them the chance to change direction. Po was blessed with the chance to prove to the world that he was far more than a fat panda with a love of food and obsession with kung fu. Refusing to offer anyone else that same chance—even the one who killed his parents and entire species and lied about how it happened—is something he could never do.

For all the love and adoration that Po has for kung fu and its masters, he still loves his dad. When faced with the idea that he has to spend Winter Feast away from his father because of his Dragon Warrior duties, he’s torn. It’s a time for family and companionship, and he’s told he has to spend it hosting a dinner. Not just any dinner, but a dinner with the masters throughout all of China, the ones he’s idolized and adored his entire life. But, eventually, he realizes that there are more important things than duty. There’s family. There’s his father, the one who raised him and stuck by him through everything, who gave him love and wisdom and advice whenever he needed it. He realizes that his duties are important but that being there for his father when he’s been there for him his entire life is even more important. His father may have given him a guilt trip, but he does not do it out of obligation because he’s his family; he does it because he genuinely loves and respects him, and his heart tells him to be with his father in the face of others (mainly Master Shifu) telling him otherwise. While it causes a stir, the sincerity and passion behind his reasoning is enough to make the masters consider what he’s said. Instead of a big fancy dinner at the Jade Palace, they turn to a dinner with the commoners of the Valley of Peace, sharing in a meal that helps the lonely feel welcome and anyone passing by wanted. Even though Shifu was the one who tried to get Po to give up such a “common” sort of festivity, Po assures him that he counts as his family, too, even before he’s complimented on the fact of the matter that while his head doesn’t always make sense to his master, his heart will never let any of them down. He thanks him and assures him again that he’s as welcome as anyone else when it comes to Mister Ping’s. After all, there’s always room for one at Mister Ping’s.

And that carries over to everything in Po’s life. There’s always room for one more student to learn kung fu. There’s always room for one more to join at the tables of his father’s restaurant. There’s always room for one more bean bun. There’s always room for one more chance for anyone, no matter what they’ve done.

Po has a great deal of influence on the people around him. Once he’s finally gained confidence, others find a great deal of joy in his presence or grow into something better than they were before he came along or before he grew into the status of Dragon Warrior. His father rethinks the idea of making tofu and goes through with it. Master Shifu leaves behind the “box” of the training hall and returns to nature after having traveled with Po to train him and seen it pay off exceptionally well. Tigress’ seemingly eternal icy demeanor begins to warm over. Po appearing in his father’s noodle shop without warning causes all within in it to stop and bow, and all it takes is a pat on the head or acknowledgement that he notices a child for them to be far happier than they were before.

Kung fu, as Po explains, is about excellence of self and being the very best one can possibly be. He may not realize it himself, but Po has shown multiple times over that he is, in fact, very excellent. He is not yet the best at everything, but he knows he can always do something to improve.

And, as soon as he realizes what it is, he’ll act on what he has to in order to attain it.

Appearance: Here. Essentially, he's a panda. In pants. He has three black spots between his nose and his upper lip, and the tufts of fur on the very tips of his ears are a little white.

Abilities: As the Dragon Warrior, Po is a highly revered figure among practitioners of kung fu. He’s new to the art, however, meaning he’s not the most refined at it just yet. He will fall back on improvisations without hesitation about whether or it not it can be seen as ridiculous or silly, such as playing a game of “keep away” with woks to hide the Dragon Scroll or using musical instruments in combat. No matter what he has to make due with, he’ll make due with it without complaint. So while he’s not exactly at the top level in regards to technicality, he’s a very adept with his fighting. If he observes something from any style of kung fu, he can work with it and make it his own—in essence, Po absorbs the moves of many kung fu styles and uses them as he needs to.

Po absorbs a lot more than techniques. His body is large, hefty, and padded with fat that not many other creatures in the movies thus far can claim. It’s nigh impossible to really injure him without a weapon, because his body absorbs most attacks. It’s his size that saves him from Tai Lung’s nerve attack. Instead of the touch going straight to the nerves that would paralyze him, it tickles him. It would be easier to far easier to injure him with a sharp weapon than anything else, though that would be difficult, too, unless he was taken totally off guard. His ability to take hits goes with the majority of his attacks, which involve using a great deal of power based on the momentum of his body to take out his opponent. Not only can he take a great deal of damage, he can give it back.

Having achieved Inner Peace at the end of the second movie, there’s very little that can stop Po if he puts his mind to something, combat-wise. There’s also very little that Po can’t stop, or change the direction of. When someone manages to find complete harmony between mind, body, and everything else, they can attain inner peace. In the world of kung fu, this makes what seems to be completely impossible very possible. Master Shifu is capable of moving so quickly it may as well be teleportation, and he’s capable of catching a droplet of water, moving it over his body, and letting it fall to the ground without ever having broken its original shape. Po can not only redirect the flow of a water droplet, but he used the power to catch cannonballs shot at him and throw them elsewhere.

Because, as Master Shifu told him: “Anything is possible when you have inner peace.”

Even with all his strengths and abilities, he can still lose. If his focus is on something troubling other than the fight, he slips up and messes up. If he’s having difficulties with himself—that is, if he’s not as harmonious as he should be—his fighting suffers heavily for it. When it comes to the idea of “stealth mode,” he positively abysmal.

He’s also an amazing cook.

Inventory: Po will be joining with nothing more than the clothes he wears on a daily basis.

Suite: A small, one floor place in the Water Sector. Po grew up living with his father, and spent his life working in a kitchen too small for him to properly stand up in. The room he was given at the Jade Palace was basic and had nothing more than a mattress in it. Po is well-acquainted with not being anywhere near wealthy and yet still being happy with it. Po’s name translates to “precious peace” and he is responsible for bringing about peace to both Master Shifu and the Valley of Peace. He’s not quite on the level of “hippy” but he is all about peacefulness.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person: Meet me with lunch just outside the training hall. We have things to discuss.

That was all Master Shifu had to tell Po for him to know just where he’d be for lunch. Not only had he wanted to meet him for lunch, he’d wanted him to bring lunch. The idea of a talk was important, certainly, but if it was something that could wait, then what to bring for lunch was the second most important thing.

He pulled up every memory he had of sharing a meal with his master as the sun moved in the sky, wanting to figure out the perfect lunch he could possibly bring. He thought briefly about bringing lunch from his Mister Ping’s, but upon realizing the stairs took a while for him to conquer and the food would be cold, he made due with what was in the kitchen of the Jade Palace. It was well equipped and had everything he needed, but cooking always felt more natural when he was doing so with his dad.

Eventually, he settled on (perfectly seasoned) soup and a bowl of dumplings. He made his way from the kitchen, through the halls, and outside with three bowls stacked perfectly on top each other, two pairs of chopsticks balanced on the topmost one, nothing sloshed or jostled or upset in any way. When he realized he was exactly on time and Master Shifu was nowhere to be found, he spent a moment looking around before he opened his mouth to speak.

It was precisely that moment that he heard the whistling of a staff hissing through the air and realized that "discuss" meant "train," moved everything from one paw to the other, and raised his arm to fend off the sneak attack.

They would still have lunch, he assumed, as long as lunch stayed hot and in its bowls. He had things to do first, and that involved a sparring match he hadn’t expected. Years ago, he would have winced as his arm was hit, winced and said something about how that was hardly fair. It wasn’t years ago, and now? He couldn’t afford to say anything at all, because it was on.

Network:

[The image displayed is of nothing human. It is, in fact, nothing more than a panda in a pair of darned pants standing straight up as if he knows no other way to stand. He’s obviously in the new “home” he’s been given, and if it’s possible for him to seem even more out of place, he somehow manages it. It’s similar but it’s not, and he’s never seen anything like the kedan before.

He’s entirely out of his element, and if it was ever doubted that a panda could display that much with expression, he’s living, standing, awkward proof that a panda can do just that.]

Uh. [Brief, something that was almost a word but never quite made it. He has no idea about these devices except for what he’s been told, and he still finds it difficult to believe. Others can see him, he can see them, and they can speak that way. How is that possible?] So. Hi. This showing a picture, right? A…a moving one, I guess. I don’t really understand, but that’s what those guys told me, so it probably does, right?

[He’s blathering. This is hardly anything new with him, and he realizes it, and that also shows. He runs a paw over his face, ears popping right back into place when it passes over them.]

Yeah, so, the introduction thing, I guess. I’m, uh, [awkward] Po [still awkward] and I’m from a place called the Valley of Peace, and [little less awkward] I never really thought that when you ascended, it was to another city. Thought of it more like another plane. But that’s okay, because you can’t ascend anything when you’re asleep, but you can apparently get trapped, and that’s pretty, uh. That really sucks. Like. It sucks a lot.

[He’s still obviously out of his element, but he stands up a little straight and stops fidgeting.]

Is there anything that whoever else here can tell me that doesn’t suck?

[Things that suck less are also wanted, and it’s after a close-up of a bear paw that the image disconnects.]


REVISIONS: his expected reaction to the news that he is in a world that is between of life, dreaming, and death.

The idea of different planes of existence is not a foreign one in the Kung Fu Panda universe. While there is no talk or places like heaven or hell, there is a very real acceptance of things that might seem a little superstitious—not only acceptance, but knowledge of them being fact. Master Oogway tells Master Shifu he had a vision, and he later ascends. When Po has a flashback, he tells his father he had a vision, and he doesn’t mock him for it or tell him he’s being silly. So while there is no named place that the characters believe they will ascend to, they do believe that there is some form of life after death.

Po, however, will not believe he is dead. The last thing he remembers is cooking dinner with his father and going to bed. As the Dragon Warrior, he would be disinclined to believe that someone managed to break into their home and kill him without him hearing them or having any knowledge of it until he found himself on the floor of the Ironwood Emperor’s audience chamber. Since it’s explained as between life, death, and dreaming, he’ll firmly believe that he’s come to it through some sort of dream he can’t remember. He won’t like the idea of being trapped, but if there are others who need his help, he’ll do everything he can. If it was just him in a world of kedan, he’d be inclined to think of it as a test. Since it’s definitely not that, he won’t know what to think of it other than as how it was explained, even if the kedan were a bit curt about answering anything else.

He’ll want to get back home, of course. But once he realizes that there are many in Keeliai who have been there for months, he’ll accept that he may be there for quite some time. He won’t question the validity of it and say there’s no such thing as place in between life and death. He’ll think this one is a little odd with all the creatures in it that are nothing like rabbits, geese, pigs, sheep, antelope, and any other animal that he has come across in China. The oddest part for him will be adjusting to humans (and human-like characters) and the kedan.

And, of course, the rationing, which involves animal products. That will be one of the most difficult parts to get used to, the idea of eating eggs and animals themselves.