This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to Red Panda Report. This time I am talking about episode 12 of the Red Panda Adventures,
The Deadliest Game. Here's the copy and then I'll get right into my thoughts on the episode.
What, oh so first of all this was originally aired or released on June 10th, 2006. Again,
this is episode 12 overall and here it is. Here's the copy. What does one do when one has seen it
all, done it all, been to every corner of the former empire and hunted every quarry known to
man? Where does the mighty hunter turn for a challenge? Colonel Barker Wuston Smith,
late of his majesty's service, turns to the wilds of the urban jungle and his quarry is the new
breed of mystery man. But when he sets his sights upon the Red Panda, will he learn the folly of
hunting the Deadliest Game? And that's it pretty much. That's the premise of the episode. It's
pretty simple. You get some curious things in this episode. One, I liked it overall. Two, I have some
interesting issues with it. And three, there's some kind of landmark nods or mentions or allusions
to stuff in this episode that come up a lot later on in the series which is part of what I enjoy so
much about Red Panda Adventures and Greg Taylor's writing style even if I have a quibble or two with
some of the stuff here. So anyway, we're going to talk about it all and unpack it. And again,
if you've got comments about this, thoughts about it, I'd love to hear from you. So here we go.
Mentions, first of all. Red Panda is on his way back from a super team team up against a
heretofore unmentioned villain called Kid Chaos who had threatened, who had gone back in time.
So time travel is a thing in the Red Panda world or universe and was threatening to rewrite history.
So Red Panda along with Molecule Max and I don't know who else ended up going back in time. And
Kit's insanely jealous when she hears that he has a bracelet I believe from Cleopatra who is,
is it Cleopatra or Nefertari? I think Nefertari said he'd be one of the most beautiful women in
the world through history but Cleopatra I think has that ascribed to her as well. So anyway,
so Kit's all jealous. What were you doing with Cleopatra? Why'd she give you something? Did
you say you wanted something for your sidekick? You know, all that kind of stuff. So very much
a woman, right? It's just the truth, isn't it? Or at least her particular brand of woman. So
well, anyway, that was funny. Good moment. Red Panda also mentions a Molecule Max who needs to
use the telephone. So I don't know where all these superheroes were. I can't remember what
Team Molecule Max is said to be on but he comes up later. I'm just giving you light spoilers.
And we hear a little bit more of his team. I don't remember all the context of it and I don't want
to spoil it for you so I'm not going to tell you at the moment because it also is irrelevant to this
episode. I really liked something about the introduction of the hunter and I gotta be honest,
his name is so hoity-toity it slips my mind so I'm just gonna call him the hunter.
And Mkwekwe, Mr. Mkwekwe is a cool character. I like this idea and the image that I get in my mind
of this little British hunter guy with a pin helmet or khakis or whatever and then he's huge.
I'm gonna guess like you know, not Sub-Saharan, I mean Indian. He could have been anywhere. I don't
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
from Africa or from India from the East Indian area and I don't know, it's interesting. It's
interesting that in their final confrontation, this is full spoilers of course, right? I mean,
you're ready for these spoilers, that Mkwekwe tells the hunter that he used to be a good man
and he was an honorable man and that's part of why he's serving him out of a desire to honor
what he did for his people and you know, in his village and for him and that he is no longer that
man. And it's interesting because I don't know, what's the message there? What's the lesson?
Something about how an obsession with one's duty and one's, I don't know, goal in life can lead
one down a dark path and to become a dishonorable man and become basically a monster, I guess you
could say, who needs to be dealt with or who can go too far and will, you know, destroy himself
through his own actions, which is exactly what the hunter does in this circumstance because he
puts himself in the sights of the red panda and when the red panda freaks him out with his mind,
juju, the guy shoots himself. He literally destroys himself with his weapons and as a result
of everything that he's done over the years. So then I wonder what you think about this. Did red
panda end up going too far when he was talking to fingers McCoy, I think his name is, you know, he
does a very rough, torturous investigation of the man where he breaks maybe all 10 of his fingers.
I'm not exactly sure, but he's desperate. I mean, there's a couple of like, you know, lore type
things to mention, like whenever Kit and red panda go into or out of the base or the headquarters,
the, the lair, they are supposed to check in to a log book that says when they were last there and
I think report afterwards from what they did, which is a cool idea, interesting idea. And it gives him
all the in a passive way, as long as the system is used, it's good, which is true of almost every
system. But in a passive way, it gives red panda all the information he needs to know that something
is up and that kit is not safe for now. And then it enables him to figure out what exactly the
problem is. And it leads him to fingers and that leads him to finding her. But like I said, he,
you know, he's beating this guy up and then he breaks all 10 of his fingers, which is pretty
terrible. And I'm laughing at it because, you know, it didn't really happen, but like, you know,
he operates outside of the law. He's a vigilante. I have no problem with that in principle. Like
when I was watching back when I was watching arrow, you know, he's murdering people or killing
people depends on how you look at it. And I think it requires some nuance. I think at some point he
murdered a few people, but I think most of the people he was dealing with, he actually killed
in a righteous, okay way that I don't think is morally repugnant. But yeah, at some point he
went down a dark path for sure. But you know, and red painted typically doesn't kill, but he's
doesn't kill, but that doesn't mean he won't break all your fingers in a really, you know, rough,
violent interrogation. And yeah, like my morals tell me that, you know, torturing is wrong.
And definitely I don't want like, you know, the government to have the power to legally torture
people, which they do anyway, right. Because supposedly it's not effective, but also it's,
you know, it's a moral, right? It's a moral to torture somebody like that. You know, he's,
he's doing it to save Kit's life. You know, so that's a justification for it. Is it weird that,
you know, this is moral quandary, this big thing, I know it was like the big, you know, season finale,
because they did 12 episodes a year at the time or per season, however you want to suss that out.
And, you know, he needed to save Kit, but like ultimately she didn't need saving anyway,
because she saved herself because Taylor wants her to save herself and not be the damsel in distress,
because I don't know, Margo Lane had that happen too much or something like that.
So I don't know if the justification is he's doing it to save Kit and he didn't know any better,
but he was torturing a man needlessly. And at the same time, it is weird. It's weird.
Had she truly been in danger, it would make it a little more understandable that he tortured
fingers and, you know, well, then your, your morality isn't clear. Well, I mean,
it's practical to some extent, I would say, you know, you shouldn't hurt people, but when you do,
but that doesn't mean you can't. And when you do, I think you need to have very good reasons to do it.
You know, how could he have known that Kit was safe and therefore he didn't need to go as far as
breaking fingers, fingers, in order to, you know, get the information he needed to save Kit.
I don't know. I don't really know how you deal with that, but I think what's more interesting
is that as far as I know, it never gets brought back up. And when it gets brought up a second time
in this episode, because Kit found out what happened, she thinks it's romantic and is,
excuse me, I'm trying to keep this as family, family, family as possible, but she's basically,
she sounds like she's turned on by it, which is weird. And like it makes me think she's a psycho.
And I got to be honest, that's my one quibble with Red Panda is that as cool as the stories all are,
I don't know if it's like Taylor's, you know, pro-woman agenda, which I'm not anti-woman,
anti-woman by the way. And when you see my superhero stories with women in them,
I think you'll be impressed. I like purposely made my original, I'm going to get off an
intense sound like I'm not a misogynist, but you who think I am already, it's not going to change
your mind, but those who think I'm a comic skater or whatever, this might change your mind a little
bit. I made sure when I made a superhero thing, what, hold on son, I made a whole superhero
universe and I purposely made it. So there's only one white woman. Like that's it. There's one white
woman out of like 15 or 16 characters I made and everybody else is, oh, half of the cast are men.
I've got old people. I've got young people. I have an animal. Yeah. You need to leave that here,
sweetheart. I'm sorry. It's not for you. And besides that I have, everybody's from all around
the world. And I thought it doesn't make sense that everybody would have superpowers in New York
or Toronto and that they would all be concentrated in that way. But just cause it's, you know, the
law of, was it the law of large numbers, the law of averages that doesn't make sense. So that would
be the case. I understand why Marvel and Stanley did it and all that stuff. And I know he wasn't
the only creator, but just, you know, he's the front man who claimed all the credit for it. So
that's why he gets all the credit for it and gets all the accolades. Cause he said, Hey, I'm the guy
who did this through believer and everybody else, hold on to that, please. Everybody else, uh,
you know, stayed quiet about it for the most part and didn't claim credit. So anyway, um, by no
means is Stanley a perfect man. And I know I'm getting off on another tangent, but here we are.
And, uh, I just, the discourse about him is insane. I think, so I'm bringing a rational
alternative. He gets all the credit, even if he didn't deserve it. Cause he was the one who said,
Hey, I did this and nobody argued with him seemingly. So that's interesting. Anyway,
moving on to this. Yeah. I made sure that I am like my first, you know, I'm Mexican, I'm Mexican,
you know, half Mexican, half Puerto Rican, all American. And so I, uh, I made sure,
not I made sure, but like, I can't even think of who my first character was that I made for my big
superhero universe. And I'm slowly working on developing and turning into an awesome thing,
you know, partly inspired by the awesome work of Taylor on red Panda. Um, hold on. Anyway,
I'm not an identitarian at all. So that's not, you know, that's not how I operate. That's not
how I see the world. Uh, I see the world in terms of good and evil, um, you know, free and unfree
and, uh, you know, righteous and unrighteous and, um, noble and innopal. So, uh, anyway,
when I started developing my role, I try to remember who's the first characters I made up.
I made up a, hold on. I adapted a bunch of characters. I actually did this, this weird
project thing where I had all these, uh, like different versions of Captain America throughout
the ages that I might show you where, where I am, who I am. And I had a, uh, a Mongolian Captain
America, a, uh, you know, like from the past, um, a black Captain America type guy in the, you know,
in the present. So it was a little bit more like, um, like the, uh, MCU version of, uh,
uh, of the Falcon, just cause I don't know the Falcon so well. And I wanted these guys to all
be bird. When I say different versions of Captain America, I thought, what if I did, uh, you know,
four different versions of Captain America and they were like golden age, you know, silver age,
bronze age, and like nineties. And, um, they were all based on birds and they all had similar,
like flight slash gravity powers slash, um, you know, they all have the same power source,
which was this jewel instead of all having super serum, super soldier serum. They all had like
this jewel thing that collected light and absorbed it and turned it into power for them. And it
enabled them to do different stuff and you can bend light and gravity and flying and energy blasts
and all sorts of stuff like that. But, but so that was the common factor and that's how they were
each these different areas. So I did one that was very much like the MCU is modern, uh, looking guy,
um, like from the movies, uh, the Captain America suit that where they give them, where it's like
super modern, super cool. Uh, and I have him be like a military vet and he does stuff in that
capacity. And then I had my nineties lady, white lady, uh, be based off of a pigeon and she's like,
uh, street art. Uh, she does like graffiti and has like paint balls that she shoots and stuff,
kind of like she'd be self-pigance. So it kind of like pigeon poop. That was the idea. And, um,
she, uh, it was like a skater cause it's the nineties and she's wearing like a poncho kind
of looks like a, like a pigeon. Basically, uh, the other guy was a black guy was a hawk. And then I
had, Oh, my silver age guy was he white? I don't remember, but originally it was going to be like
a world war two type guy. Um, and then I made him into this. Oh no, I think I do the world war two
type guy. And then I have like, you know, and he's a white soldier or whatever. And then there's the
Mongolian guy. So like right there I've got, Oh, no, no, no. I changed that, that one I changed to a,
um, Mexican, like a lady in Mexico, Indian lady in Mexico who has these flying power or these, uh,
she's kind of like a, like Aztec bird type thing. And, uh, anyway, in no way do I think diversity is
our strength. Cause that's like just a stupid statement. What does that mean? In what context
is it our strength? Um, uh, but anyway, I just, something's just driving me up the wall and like,
I don't know. Sometimes the way kit or flying squirrels written is like insane. Like it's,
it's from the perspective of somebody who like, I don't know, obviously has a very different world
view for me. And like, despite the fact, anyway, I think I've gone off too long talking about some
of my own personal things and you know, weird Marvel tangent in this diversity, uh, tangent.
And, uh, anyway, I'm going to let it go and just say, you know, I still like it. And obviously I
haven't quit red Panda. Uh, and if you had issues with, you know, the torture type thing in this,
uh, it doesn't persist. So that's good. And I know the story continues to be interesting. I think
that hit and red Panda are an interesting, you know, pair and interesting, uh, you know, dynamic
duo. Well, why was I so negative about things this episode? Uh, cause I'm being truthful and be honest
and I want to say despite my qualms with some of the things here, Hey, let's go through the back.
Despite my qualms, uh, it's a really quality show and I've stuck with it. And I decided to do this
again and I knew this was coming up and yet I, uh, you know, wanted to persist with it because I
don't need to agree with everything that I watch, listen to read, enjoy. I need to agree a hundred
percent with all of my media. And that's not something that matters to me. I care if it's
if it's entertaining and I think it is. I think this was a solid episode of red Panda. And I think
it not that it only gets better from here, but the first season is not the best season, believe it or
not. It does get better from here. Anyway, that was a red Panda report done without notes. I jotted
a couple of things down when I was listening to it earlier, but I had to do it without notes. And
while I was on the move, so hopefully you can, uh, appreciate my passion and the, uh, the diversity
of my opinions and my thoughts. Um, but anyway, uh, if you do let me know, if you hated it, let me
know. Uh, I want to make these episodes as entertaining as possible for you, the audience,
cause while I'm doing it for myself, for my enjoyment, I also want other people to enjoy it
as well. So anyway, with that is MJ, I hope that you're well. And, uh, this is me signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback
you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books,
tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. Look around. You're sure to find something
else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a story over everything production.