I was in a need of making the post about one of my favorite characters of all time - Po Ping from Kung Fu Panda. We all know that he is an overweight who became our favorite badass, the Dragon Warrior. But I wanted to focus more on the things that are overlooked - or at least I feel like they are.
WARNING - this post will contain some MAJOR KFP3 spoilers!
Ok, so let’s get this party started. Po Ping…
-is an artistic soul
-made his action figures all by himself (including carving in wood and painting) the very day he fell in love with kung fu
-has a photographic memory! He saw the Furious Five only once from far away and carved their portraits in wood very accurately
-was able to learn the Wuxi Finger Hold all by himself just from pure observation and while being under the massive distress
-learns fast. Really fast, mostly from his own mistakes. He improved his fighting skills in such a short time
-cares about his art so much and is very proud of it
-is very creative! It usually shows during the fight on numerous occasions (he “drew” the giant dragon with his own chi, for example)
-probably likes to sing when he thinks no one is around (judging from the scene from the holiday special), he’s pretty good at singing
-cooks well
-has/had PTSD
-hated himself for about 20 years of his life
-is craving compliments and affection… or any kind of validation, really
-throws himself into the most dangerous situations without second thinking
-is even ready to sacrifice his own life for a bigger cause if he thinks it’s necessary
-literally jumps into committing a suicide to save his loved ones. And yes, he was pretty sure he would stay dead i will never cope with this
-is probably asexual… heck, he is very likely asexual! I mean…
So in conclusion, Po Ping is an overweight, a fanboy and a badass but he is also…
-an artist with many talents
-a victim of mental illness
-an individual who for the course of all three movies weren’t given a love interest and yet he isn’t illustrated as broken or cold - he is represented as a loving person, as someone who is capable of love, who’s able to show his affection to others
Thank you DreamWorks, for this amazing, fleshed out character.
