Elephant

Master Elephant is a character in the Nickelodeon television series Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. He is a master of kung fu and a Member of the Former Furious Five.^[2] He made a cameo appearance in the episode "Owl Be Back", but then later made a featured appearance in "The First Five" where he was invited with the other former Furious Five members to Po's party for Shifu.

Biography[]

Earlier years[]

FuriousFiveFenghuang — A painting of Elephant and his teammates.

Elephant fought alongside Shifu, Snow Leopard, Rooster, and Fenghuang under Oogway for a number of years, facing such threats as the villainous Ding. He and his teammates enjoyed a mostly friendly relationship, though he and the others enjoyed antagonizing their youngest member Shifu. However, his teasing attitude turned into outright contempt after the team's last mission together, in which they battled the demon Xi'an and attempted to claim his magic sword. Shifu laid hands on the sword but ended up casting it into the volcano atop which they had been battling, recognizing the danger of its power.

Though Shifu explained his reasoning, Elephant and the others perceived his actions as cowardice, leading to a rift in their friendship. To make matters worse, Fenghuang followed in the tragic line of other strongest members of previous Furious Fives by becoming corrupt and seeking mastery of the Jade Palace. After a battle with Oogway in which she was defeated, she fled as her teammates watched; Elephant and the others later drifted apart, with Shifu not speaking to any of them for some years.

In Legends of Awesomeness[]

Party-furious-five — Elephant and the others at Shifu's party

Years later, Xi'an's sword reappeared, and Elephant reunited with Snow Leopard and Rooster in hopes of retrieving it; they also retrieved Fenghuang from Chorh-Gom Prison due to the need for her shielding spell, with the promise that she would go free in exchange for her help. Elephant was against inviting Shifu to rejoin them after the previous mission, but the group then received invitations from Po to attend a celebration of the anniversary of Shifu becoming a master. Believing it to be an act of fate, Snow Leopard and Rooster convinced Elephant that they should give Shifu another chance, and the trio attended the party to Shifu's horror. The tension between the former teammates was palpable, and Elephant soon insulted Shifu and angered the incarnation of the Furious Five that he had trained, who engaged their predecessors but were handily defeated.

Elephant and the others soon explained their intent to Shifu and offered him the chance to join them, but were refused, and thus departed to return Fenghuang to prison. However, Po followed the group and offered to go in Shifu's place, and despite their early assertions that he wasn't in their league proved surprisingly formidable. Now numbering five once more, the team traveled to where the sword had been sighted, but were attacked by a pair of possessed Imperial guards. After defeating them, they recovered the sword, only for Xi'an's spirit to possess Elephant-a danger Shifu had been aware of and which had prompted him to discard the sword previously.

In the grip of Xi'an, Elephant attacked his teammates and was engaged by them, Shifu, and the younger Five when they arrived to stop their predecessors. All ten masters were hard-pressed to deal with the possessed Elephant, but Shifu was able to break Xi'an's hold on him by reminding him of their past bond and Elephant was freed. Fenghuang then cast the sword into the volcano and its destruction, but Elephant and the others expressed no intent of honoring their previous agreement to free her. Po convinced them to do so, and Elephant and his reconciled friends then welcomed Po as their newest member in her place.

Personality[]

Elephant is the gruffest member of his Furious Five, and the most vocal and antagonistic towards Shifu after the Xi'an incident. Elephant was hard and uncompromising, putting his aspirations for the Sword of Xi'an over his trust in his teammate, and took it's loss so hard that he refused to hear any explanation offered by Shifu as to his actions. He was quick to let his contempt for Shifu extend towards Shifu's students, though Po surprised him with his abilities. While under Xi'an's influence he became power-hungry and violent; it is unknown how much of this was Xi'an's personality and how much might have been Elephant's own darker tendencies magnified. Elephant did express a desire to "safeguard" China by using the sword's power, and later forgave Shifu after realizing the evil of the artifact.

Fighting style[]

Elephant utilizes an unknown style of Kung fu, but is highly skilled as demonstrated by his ability to fend off multiple members of the next generation of the Furious Five.