| “ | Panda King: I see you carry the cane of the notorious Cooper thief clan. Have you come for revenge? To steal back the Thievius Raccoonus? Sly: That was my plan at first, but now I'm more interested in putting an end to your avalanche extortion racket. Panda King: Why should you care if I bury a few worthless villages in snow? You are a thief, just like me. Sly: No, that's actually half-right. I am a thief, from a long line of master thieves. While you? You're just a frustrated fireworks artist turned homicidal pyromaniac! Panda King: Insolent child! You shall pay dearly for your disrespect! Still, to honor your Cooper ancestry, I will send you to your doom with the beauty of my new firework technique: Flame Fu! |
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| ~ The Panda King facing Sly. |
The Panda King is a former villain from the Sly Cooper videogame series. He first appeared in the first title, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus as the main antagonist of "Episode 4: Fire in the Sky", but then became one of the main protagonists in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.
He is an anthropomorphic panda and a skilled fireworks artist. He once served as the demolitions expert of the Fiendish Five until he was defeated by Sly Cooper and then arrested by Carmelita Fox. After some time in prison, he then retired from crime and took up meditation until his daughter was abducted by General Tsao, forcing him to team up with Cooper Gang to get her back. Afterwards, he then joined the group as their demolitions expert to help get into the Cooper Vault before retiring for good.
He was voiced by the late Kevin Blackton, who also played Muggshot and Sir Raleigh in the same series, and also voiced LeChuck in Tales of Monkey Island series, and Giorgio Zott in Time Crisis 3.
Description[]
Appearance[]
The Panda King is a large giant panda who casually wears red pants and flame-like stripes, and a blue sash around his waist. While living as a monk, he wears a white gown and grows out his beard and his eyebrows. After joining the Gang, he wears his regular clothing with fireworks around his torso and his back.
Personality[]
The Panda King is very calm and respectful, but he possesses a short temper. He also takes great pride in his fireworks. When Sly and Panda King must blow up the hopping vampire crypt, Sly shows great reserve on the idea exclaiming loudly "There's gonna be fangs everywhere!". Judging by Sly's concerned and uncharacteristically uncertain tone, its implied in this moment that Sly has begun to open up to the Panda King and show concern for him as if he were a friend despite his role in his parents' death. This endearing quality is the main thing which converts the Panda King over to the Cooper Gang's side, as he states to his evil half that if Sly is willing to put faith in him and forgive him despite his role in killing his parents, than he himself has no business carrying his vendetta over something as trivial as humiliation.
However, Panda King is still the most antisocial and obstreperous of the Cooper Gang. He didn't join the gang when Dimitri's scuba gear was unearthed, though this could be explained as him guarding the gang's ship. He also seems to have the least amount of approval for Dimitri. Of the members of the gang, he gets along best with Murray and Guru. Murray's dedication to his van inspired the Panda King to come to his aid, while the Guru seems to have a spiritual connection to him. The Panda King soon begins to accept Sly after various missions of working together, and so does Sly. His connection with Bentley is unknown although he has never shown much sign of disrespect probably due to the fact it was Bentley's genius planning that rescued his daughter and he has never argued with Bentley's planning. He never really socializes with Penelope although he used one of his fireworks up for her to get her RC Car onto the Drone Pipes on Kaine Island. But Panda king's hatred for Sly has eventually manifested into a second personality who tried to control him. Fortunately, he managed to suppress his darker side and assisted Sly in defeating Tsao. Jing King was saved and Panda King became an official member of the Cooper Gang.
Abilities and Powers[]
As a pyrotechnician and demolitions expert, the Panda King is skilled and competent in the effective handling and use of explosives. He uses his expertise to develop an original fighting style called Flame-Fu, which he demonstrates during his battle with Sly. While working with the Cooper Gang, he primarily uses a fireworks launcher on his back as a weapon, wherein he was capable of engaging roughly half a dozen targets simultaneously. His melee attack is essentially a horizontal karate chop, enhanced by having his hand wreathed in fire. Although preferring to use his fireworks, the Panda King is also very strong and influential, as stated by Bentley. After becoming a monk, he becomes capable of placing himself in a deep and meditative hibernation, apparently not needing food, drink, or sleep (despite physically aging.)
History[]
Past[]
The Panda King grew up poor in a small village in the Kunlun Mountains of western China. There, he was astonished by the colorful fireworks displays given by noblemen every year, and yearned to become just like them. Over the next ten years of his life, he set about perfecting his craft, until he was ready to show off his creations to the noblemen. When he did, however, they couldn't see past his ragged clothing, and turned him away. Enraged by this rejection, the Panda King set about perfecting his craft even further and eventually crafted powerful fireworks that could be used for military purposes, which he first implemented by destroying the home of the noblemen who had shunned him before.
It wasn't long until Panda King's actions were noticed by the evil owl, Clockwerk, who then took him into the Fiendish Five as their demolitions expert. Upon which, his talent with explosives became feared throughout the world, giving him the title of "The Mad Bomber". He then joined his cohorts on their leaders' attack on the Cooper family home, where he helped slay Connor Cooper along with his wife and steal pages from the Thievius Raccoonus, which held the Cooper family's masterful thieving techniques, specifically pages that held Otto Van Cooper's blueprints for a powerful turret. Afterwards, the Fiendish Five split up to spread their evil across the world.
The Panda King settled back in his homeland of the snowy Kunlun Mountains, where he built a base in the form of a large statue of himself carved in the side of a mountain and hired several simians to act as his guards. There, he set up an "avalanche protection service" that involved threatening local villages to pay an annual fee or he will use his fireworks to set off avalanches to crush their homes. At some point, he married and sired a daughter named Jing-King, who never got involved in his criminal career.
Fire in the Sky[]
Panda King utilized fireworks to crush his opponents and bomb entire villages into submission - making him quite a ruthless character. In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Panda King used his fireworks to bury an entire village in snow. Sly arrived to witness this and eventually came to face the villain in a pagoda atop a giant stone statue of his likeness - using, ironically, one of the fireworks to reach the top. Panda King stated he would kill Sly, but honor his Cooper ancestry by using "the beauty" of his new firework technique, "Flame-Fu".
Sly and Panda King fought, the former running to avoid the flame-throwing attacks of the latter. Sly defeated Panda King by hitting him with his hooked cane, which eventually made the panda collapse. Panda King said that he was surprised to have been defeated and was in admiration of Sly's fighting skills, fainting immediately afterwards.
Later, he was accosted by Carmelita Fox and her Interpol forces, who had been in pursuit of the Cooper Gang.
Sly 3: Band of Thieves[]
At some point between the first and third game, he escaped or was released from police custody and returned to his daughter Jing King in China. But when a warlord named General Tsao arrived and kidnapped her, he was unable to rescue her and thus tried to become stronger through meditation. When the Cooper gang found him, they offered to save his daughter in return for him joining their gang. He reluctantly accepted.
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus[]
| “ | Attention, valued employee. Sadly, Hinkau village elect not to pay for avalanche protection service, and so I am forced to bury alive under many ton of snow. Please be on guard for any surviving villager that come looking for revenge. Thank you, that is all. | „ |
| ~ Panda King addressing his henchmen. |
| “ | Attention, valued employee. It has come to my attention that a thief is loose somewhere inside the firework production facility. Please do your part to pitch in by killing this intruder on sight. Thank you, that is all. | „ |
| ~ Panda King warning his men about Sly Cooper. |
| “ | Your skill with that cane is unparalleled. (coughs) Aaahhh! | „ |
| ~ Panda King upon his defeat. |
Trivia[]
- It's unknown why the Panda King would be ever be released from prison after supposedly murdering an entire village, though it's likely that the town was evacuated before he destroyed it, and that it was just his assumption that everyone was killed.
- His daughter Jing King is never actually seen in any of the games and only her shadow is glimpsed.
- In the European and Australian editions of the Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves game manual, Panda King is shown to be about six-foot five in height.
External Links[]
- Panda King on the Heroes Wiki
- Panda King on the Sly Cooper Wiki
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 Villains
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Fiendish Five Klaww Gang Honor Among Thieves Thieves in Time | ||