1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,400 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:13,360 Welcome to Red Panda Report. This time I am talking about episode 12 of the Red Panda Adventures, 3 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:18,320 The Deadliest Game. Here's the copy and then I'll get right into my thoughts on the episode. 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:25,280 What, oh so first of all this was originally aired or released on June 10th, 2006. Again, 5 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:30,960 this is episode 12 overall and here it is. Here's the copy. What does one do when one has seen it 6 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:36,320 all, done it all, been to every corner of the former empire and hunted every quarry known to 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:43,200 man? Where does the mighty hunter turn for a challenge? Colonel Barker Wuston Smith, 8 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:48,400 late of his majesty's service, turns to the wilds of the urban jungle and his quarry is the new 9 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:54,080 breed of mystery man. But when he sets his sights upon the Red Panda, will he learn the folly of 10 00:00:54,080 --> 00:01:01,280 hunting the Deadliest Game? And that's it pretty much. That's the premise of the episode. It's 11 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:08,160 pretty simple. You get some curious things in this episode. One, I liked it overall. Two, I have some 12 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:14,640 interesting issues with it. And three, there's some kind of landmark nods or mentions or allusions 13 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:21,040 to stuff in this episode that come up a lot later on in the series which is part of what I enjoy so 14 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:26,480 much about Red Panda Adventures and Greg Taylor's writing style even if I have a quibble or two with 15 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:31,600 some of the stuff here. So anyway, we're going to talk about it all and unpack it. And again, 16 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:37,920 if you've got comments about this, thoughts about it, I'd love to hear from you. So here we go. 17 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:46,640 Mentions, first of all. Red Panda is on his way back from a super team team up against a 18 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:52,240 heretofore unmentioned villain called Kid Chaos who had threatened, who had gone back in time. 19 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:59,120 So time travel is a thing in the Red Panda world or universe and was threatening to rewrite history. 20 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:05,920 So Red Panda along with Molecule Max and I don't know who else ended up going back in time. And 21 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:14,320 Kit's insanely jealous when she hears that he has a bracelet I believe from Cleopatra who is, 22 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,800 is it Cleopatra or Nefertari? I think Nefertari said he'd be one of the most beautiful women in 23 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:26,400 the world through history but Cleopatra I think has that ascribed to her as well. So anyway, 24 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,360 so Kit's all jealous. What were you doing with Cleopatra? Why'd she give you something? Did 25 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:33,200 you say you wanted something for your sidekick? You know, all that kind of stuff. So very much 26 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:40,160 a woman, right? It's just the truth, isn't it? Or at least her particular brand of woman. So 27 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:46,560 well, anyway, that was funny. Good moment. Red Panda also mentions a Molecule Max who needs to 28 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:52,080 use the telephone. So I don't know where all these superheroes were. I can't remember what 29 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:57,600 Team Molecule Max is said to be on but he comes up later. I'm just giving you light spoilers. 30 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:03,440 And we hear a little bit more of his team. I don't remember all the context of it and I don't want 31 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,440 to spoil it for you so I'm not going to tell you at the moment because it also is irrelevant to this 32 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:14,240 episode. I really liked something about the introduction of the hunter and I gotta be honest, 33 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,400 his name is so hoity-toity it slips my mind so I'm just gonna call him the hunter. 34 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:27,600 And Mkwekwe, Mr. Mkwekwe is a cool character. I like this idea and the image that I get in my mind 35 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:32,560 of this little British hunter guy with a pin helmet or khakis or whatever and then he's huge. 36 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:40,080 I'm gonna guess like you know, not Sub-Saharan, I mean Indian. He could have been anywhere. I don't 37 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:43,840 know if he's a black guy or if he's an Indian guy but I feel like he's one of the two. So he's either 38 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:50,080 from Africa or from India from the East Indian area and I don't know, it's interesting. It's 39 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:55,440 interesting that in their final confrontation, this is full spoilers of course, right? I mean, 40 00:03:55,440 --> 00:04:01,360 you're ready for these spoilers, that Mkwekwe tells the hunter that he used to be a good man 41 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:07,680 and he was an honorable man and that's part of why he's serving him out of a desire to honor 42 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:13,520 what he did for his people and you know, in his village and for him and that he is no longer that 43 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:18,640 man. And it's interesting because I don't know, what's the message there? What's the lesson? 44 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:27,520 Something about how an obsession with one's duty and one's, I don't know, goal in life can lead 45 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:34,160 one down a dark path and to become a dishonorable man and become basically a monster, I guess you 46 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:41,120 could say, who needs to be dealt with or who can go too far and will, you know, destroy himself 47 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:45,440 through his own actions, which is exactly what the hunter does in this circumstance because he 48 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,960 puts himself in the sights of the red panda and when the red panda freaks him out with his mind, 49 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:56,320 juju, the guy shoots himself. He literally destroys himself with his weapons and as a result 50 00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:02,720 of everything that he's done over the years. So then I wonder what you think about this. Did red 51 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:10,000 panda end up going too far when he was talking to fingers McCoy, I think his name is, you know, he 52 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:16,160 does a very rough, torturous investigation of the man where he breaks maybe all 10 of his fingers. 53 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:21,440 I'm not exactly sure, but he's desperate. I mean, there's a couple of like, you know, lore type 54 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:31,040 things to mention, like whenever Kit and red panda go into or out of the base or the headquarters, 55 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:38,000 the, the lair, they are supposed to check in to a log book that says when they were last there and 56 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:45,360 I think report afterwards from what they did, which is a cool idea, interesting idea. And it gives him 57 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:50,720 all the in a passive way, as long as the system is used, it's good, which is true of almost every 58 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:56,880 system. But in a passive way, it gives red panda all the information he needs to know that something 59 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:05,680 is up and that kit is not safe for now. And then it enables him to figure out what exactly the 60 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,760 problem is. And it leads him to fingers and that leads him to finding her. But like I said, he, 61 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:14,160 you know, he's beating this guy up and then he breaks all 10 of his fingers, which is pretty 62 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:18,640 terrible. And I'm laughing at it because, you know, it didn't really happen, but like, you know, 63 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:23,120 he operates outside of the law. He's a vigilante. I have no problem with that in principle. Like 64 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,960 when I was watching back when I was watching arrow, you know, he's murdering people or killing 65 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:31,040 people depends on how you look at it. And I think it requires some nuance. I think at some point he 66 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,520 murdered a few people, but I think most of the people he was dealing with, he actually killed 67 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:42,320 in a righteous, okay way that I don't think is morally repugnant. But yeah, at some point he 68 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:48,080 went down a dark path for sure. But you know, and red painted typically doesn't kill, but he's 69 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:52,800 doesn't kill, but that doesn't mean he won't break all your fingers in a really, you know, rough, 70 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:59,520 violent interrogation. And yeah, like my morals tell me that, you know, torturing is wrong. 71 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,120 And definitely I don't want like, you know, the government to have the power to legally torture 72 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:08,960 people, which they do anyway, right. Because supposedly it's not effective, but also it's, 73 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:13,760 you know, it's a moral, right? It's a moral to torture somebody like that. You know, he's, 74 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:21,440 he's doing it to save Kit's life. You know, so that's a justification for it. Is it weird that, 75 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,960 you know, this is moral quandary, this big thing, I know it was like the big, you know, season finale, 76 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:32,320 because they did 12 episodes a year at the time or per season, however you want to suss that out. 77 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:37,840 And, you know, he needed to save Kit, but like ultimately she didn't need saving anyway, 78 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,320 because she saved herself because Taylor wants her to save herself and not be the damsel in distress, 79 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,760 because I don't know, Margo Lane had that happen too much or something like that. 80 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:51,920 So I don't know if the justification is he's doing it to save Kit and he didn't know any better, 81 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:59,200 but he was torturing a man needlessly. And at the same time, it is weird. It's weird. 82 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:05,680 Had she truly been in danger, it would make it a little more understandable that he tortured 83 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,000 fingers and, you know, well, then your, your morality isn't clear. Well, I mean, 84 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:15,440 it's practical to some extent, I would say, you know, you shouldn't hurt people, but when you do, 85 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:20,000 but that doesn't mean you can't. And when you do, I think you need to have very good reasons to do it. 86 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,960 You know, how could he have known that Kit was safe and therefore he didn't need to go as far as 87 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:30,640 breaking fingers, fingers, in order to, you know, get the information he needed to save Kit. 88 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:37,280 I don't know. I don't really know how you deal with that, but I think what's more interesting 89 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:41,440 is that as far as I know, it never gets brought back up. And when it gets brought up a second time 90 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:45,840 in this episode, because Kit found out what happened, she thinks it's romantic and is, 91 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,200 excuse me, I'm trying to keep this as family, family, family as possible, but she's basically, 92 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:54,400 she sounds like she's turned on by it, which is weird. And like it makes me think she's a psycho. 93 00:08:54,400 --> 00:09:00,240 And I got to be honest, that's my one quibble with Red Panda is that as cool as the stories all are, 94 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:06,080 I don't know if it's like Taylor's, you know, pro-woman agenda, which I'm not anti-woman, 95 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:11,280 anti-woman by the way. And when you see my superhero stories with women in them, 96 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:16,160 I think you'll be impressed. I like purposely made my original, I'm going to get off an 97 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,640 intense sound like I'm not a misogynist, but you who think I am already, it's not going to change 98 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:25,840 your mind, but those who think I'm a comic skater or whatever, this might change your mind a little 99 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:32,160 bit. I made sure when I made a superhero thing, what, hold on son, I made a whole superhero 100 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:37,200 universe and I purposely made it. So there's only one white woman. Like that's it. There's one white 101 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:43,840 woman out of like 15 or 16 characters I made and everybody else is, oh, half of the cast are men. 102 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:47,760 I've got old people. I've got young people. I have an animal. Yeah. You need to leave that here, 103 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:53,760 sweetheart. I'm sorry. It's not for you. And besides that I have, everybody's from all around 104 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:58,000 the world. And I thought it doesn't make sense that everybody would have superpowers in New York 105 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,920 or Toronto and that they would all be concentrated in that way. But just cause it's, you know, the 106 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:08,240 law of, was it the law of large numbers, the law of averages that doesn't make sense. So that would 107 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:12,880 be the case. I understand why Marvel and Stanley did it and all that stuff. And I know he wasn't 108 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:18,160 the only creator, but just, you know, he's the front man who claimed all the credit for it. So 109 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:22,160 that's why he gets all the credit for it and gets all the accolades. Cause he said, Hey, I'm the guy 110 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:27,680 who did this through believer and everybody else, hold on to that, please. Everybody else, uh, 111 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:32,960 you know, stayed quiet about it for the most part and didn't claim credit. So anyway, um, by no 112 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:36,720 means is Stanley a perfect man. And I know I'm getting off on another tangent, but here we are. 113 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:43,680 And, uh, I just, the discourse about him is insane. I think, so I'm bringing a rational 114 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:47,760 alternative. He gets all the credit, even if he didn't deserve it. Cause he was the one who said, 115 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:52,640 Hey, I did this and nobody argued with him seemingly. So that's interesting. Anyway, 116 00:10:52,640 --> 00:11:00,400 moving on to this. Yeah. I made sure that I am like my first, you know, I'm Mexican, I'm Mexican, 117 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:05,760 you know, half Mexican, half Puerto Rican, all American. And so I, uh, I made sure, 118 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:10,400 not I made sure, but like, I can't even think of who my first character was that I made for my big 119 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:14,240 superhero universe. And I'm slowly working on developing and turning into an awesome thing, 120 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:23,120 you know, partly inspired by the awesome work of Taylor on red Panda. Um, hold on. Anyway, 121 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,880 I'm not an identitarian at all. So that's not, you know, that's not how I operate. That's not 122 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:33,040 how I see the world. Uh, I see the world in terms of good and evil, um, you know, free and unfree 123 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:40,000 and, uh, you know, righteous and unrighteous and, um, noble and innopal. So, uh, anyway, 124 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,320 when I started developing my role, I try to remember who's the first characters I made up. 125 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:49,760 I made up a, hold on. I adapted a bunch of characters. I actually did this, this weird 126 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,840 project thing where I had all these, uh, like different versions of Captain America throughout 127 00:11:53,840 --> 00:12:00,160 the ages that I might show you where, where I am, who I am. And I had a, uh, a Mongolian Captain 128 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:08,720 America, a, uh, you know, like from the past, um, a black Captain America type guy in the, you know, 129 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:14,720 in the present. So it was a little bit more like, um, like the, uh, MCU version of, uh, 130 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,240 uh, of the Falcon, just cause I don't know the Falcon so well. And I wanted these guys to all 131 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,880 be bird. When I say different versions of Captain America, I thought, what if I did, uh, you know, 132 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,640 four different versions of Captain America and they were like golden age, you know, silver age, 133 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:34,160 bronze age, and like nineties. And, um, they were all based on birds and they all had similar, 134 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:38,800 like flight slash gravity powers slash, um, you know, they all have the same power source, 135 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:42,960 which was this jewel instead of all having super serum, super soldier serum. They all had like 136 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:47,760 this jewel thing that collected light and absorbed it and turned it into power for them. And it 137 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:52,560 enabled them to do different stuff and you can bend light and gravity and flying and energy blasts 138 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:56,640 and all sorts of stuff like that. But, but so that was the common factor and that's how they were 139 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:02,240 each these different areas. So I did one that was very much like the MCU is modern, uh, looking guy, 140 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,080 um, like from the movies, uh, the Captain America suit that where they give them, where it's like 141 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:11,760 super modern, super cool. Uh, and I have him be like a military vet and he does stuff in that 142 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:16,800 capacity. And then I had my nineties lady, white lady, uh, be based off of a pigeon and she's like, 143 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:21,440 uh, street art. Uh, she does like graffiti and has like paint balls that she shoots and stuff, 144 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:25,840 kind of like she'd be self-pigance. So it kind of like pigeon poop. That was the idea. And, um, 145 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:31,120 she, uh, it was like a skater cause it's the nineties and she's wearing like a poncho kind 146 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:36,480 of looks like a, like a pigeon. Basically, uh, the other guy was a black guy was a hawk. And then I 147 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:41,520 had, Oh, my silver age guy was he white? I don't remember, but originally it was going to be like 148 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:46,640 a world war two type guy. Um, and then I made him into this. Oh no, I think I do the world war two 149 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,000 type guy. And then I have like, you know, and he's a white soldier or whatever. And then there's the 150 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:56,080 Mongolian guy. So like right there I've got, Oh, no, no, no. I changed that, that one I changed to a, 151 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:02,320 um, Mexican, like a lady in Mexico, Indian lady in Mexico who has these flying power or these, uh, 152 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:09,040 she's kind of like a, like Aztec bird type thing. And, uh, anyway, in no way do I think diversity is 153 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,320 our strength. Cause that's like just a stupid statement. What does that mean? In what context 154 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:20,400 is it our strength? Um, uh, but anyway, I just, something's just driving me up the wall and like, 155 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:25,840 I don't know. Sometimes the way kit or flying squirrels written is like insane. Like it's, 156 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,320 it's from the perspective of somebody who like, I don't know, obviously has a very different world 157 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:38,800 view for me. And like, despite the fact, anyway, I think I've gone off too long talking about some 158 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:43,680 of my own personal things and you know, weird Marvel tangent in this diversity, uh, tangent. 159 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:49,120 And, uh, anyway, I'm going to let it go and just say, you know, I still like it. And obviously I 160 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:55,280 haven't quit red Panda. Uh, and if you had issues with, you know, the torture type thing in this, 161 00:14:55,280 --> 00:15:00,160 uh, it doesn't persist. So that's good. And I know the story continues to be interesting. I think 162 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:05,840 that hit and red Panda are an interesting, you know, pair and interesting, uh, you know, dynamic 163 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:12,560 duo. Well, why was I so negative about things this episode? Uh, cause I'm being truthful and be honest 164 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:19,520 and I want to say despite my qualms with some of the things here, Hey, let's go through the back. 165 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:24,160 Despite my qualms, uh, it's a really quality show and I've stuck with it. And I decided to do this 166 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:29,520 again and I knew this was coming up and yet I, uh, you know, wanted to persist with it because I 167 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:36,240 don't need to agree with everything that I watch, listen to read, enjoy. I need to agree a hundred 168 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,480 percent with all of my media. And that's not something that matters to me. I care if it's 169 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:45,760 if it's entertaining and I think it is. I think this was a solid episode of red Panda. And I think 170 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:52,880 it not that it only gets better from here, but the first season is not the best season, believe it or 171 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:58,880 not. It does get better from here. Anyway, that was a red Panda report done without notes. I jotted 172 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:02,640 a couple of things down when I was listening to it earlier, but I had to do it without notes. And 173 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:10,320 while I was on the move, so hopefully you can, uh, appreciate my passion and the, uh, the diversity 174 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:15,600 of my opinions and my thoughts. Um, but anyway, uh, if you do let me know, if you hated it, let me 175 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:19,520 know. Uh, I want to make these episodes as entertaining as possible for you, the audience, 176 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,800 cause while I'm doing it for myself, for my enjoyment, I also want other people to enjoy it 177 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:28,240 as well. So anyway, with that is MJ, I hope that you're well. And, uh, this is me signing out. 178 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:36,400 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback 179 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:42,640 you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books, 180 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:48,560 tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. Look around. You're sure to find something 181 00:16:48,560 --> 00:17:07,440 else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a story over everything production.