Tigress Development And Progression - Tumblr Posts
Tigress-Subtle Characterization and Growth
At first glance tigress is the stereotypical hardcore, feels nothing, and shuts everyone out character, but upon a further look there is so much revealed through the lengths the writers went through to develop her naturally and subtly.
Tigress does start out cold and no nonsense. She initially is angry at Po for being chosen as the dragon warrior. This is revealed to be due to her relentless pursuit to hone her kung fu skills and impress Shifu. She wasn’t truly mad at Po or want to be the dragon warrior what she wants is to be acknowledged by Shifu. Because Shifu believes that he led Tai Lung down the dark path he took Shifu is emotionally distant from tigress. This leads to her reckless behavior; Punching ironwood trees for twenty years until she felt no physical pain, training non-stop, leaving to face Tai Lung alone. These were all in an attempt to win his affection. She used to live in an orphanage where everyone feared her and said she was a monster. She was in an environment devoid of affection and the first person to ever show her any was Shifu. He trained her and helped her control her strength so that she was no longer feared by the children or caretakers at the orphanage. Shifu ended up adopting her. From a young age all she sought was approval and love and she rarely was shown either. It is through Po that that starts to change.
When the second movie rolls around Po and Tigress are close. This is the direct result of the first movie. Their relationship kickstarts because Po got through Shifu’s tough exterior. Po causes Shifu to change after the events of the first movie. Shifu realized that his tough love mindset may not be the best course of action and that his emotional distance actually hurt those he cared about most. He realized worth wasn’t just from how much kung fu you knew, but what you did with your strengths. This directly effected his relationship with Tigress. He believed it was his show of love and affection that led Tai Lung to grow arrogant and believe that he deserved the dragon scroll and power, but it was his lack of show of pride in what tai Lung had already accomplished. Their relationship became more open and more like that of a father and daughter than teacher and student. In the credits of the first movie there are scenes of Tigress and Shifu joking around. This large step in Tigress and Shifu’s relationship causes a shift in Po and Tigress’s relationship as well. Tigress now has no ill will towards Po because she now has Shifu’s approval, so now their relationship can progress.
A lot of Tigress and Po’s relationship growth is due to their shared circumstances. Tigress understands Po’s struggle with identity in the face of his newly discovered past. She was the kid with no family and no identity and much of her inner struggle has been centered around that. It is through this connection that Tigress was the ideal member of the furious five to support and sympathize with him throughout the second movie. Po believes that he needs to hide this beneath the surface and that it shouldn’t bother him. Ironically it’s Tigress, the one who hides her pain behind a self made wall, that reaches out to him and tells him it’s okay to feel pain and starts to lower her walls as well as his.
Tigress is a character of action and that is seen clearly through the animation. Most of this development is seen not outright said. If you were to remove the sound from any of her scenes be it when she told Po the story of Tai Lung and part of her past is seen, when she talks with Po on the boat, or the fight and subsequent hug in gongmen jail, you can still understand the emotions this character is conveying and not truly lose anything from the character. This is a strong point in characterization especially in an animated movie. The great sound and voice acting help though.
All of this development was brought about by the thought the writers put into the character and her backstory as well as fantastic animation. Even the end credit pictures help move the character forward to where she ends up. I think this is a testament to the care the creators have for these characters. Where they are able to make characters who feel real and relatable through subtleties such as an expression or inflection of the voice. This helps Kung Fu Panda be one of my all time favorite animated trilogies.