Master Tigress

Species South China tiger Gender 15 Female Eye color Orange with yellow sclerae Fur color Orange, white, brown, and black Clothing Red qipao vest with golden vine patterns and black pants (formerly) Golden hanfu with red vine patterns and black pants (current)

Master Tigress is the tritagonist of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. She is the unofficial leader of the Furious Five as well as one of Master Shifu's students at the Jade Palace. She is a master of the Tiger Style of kung fu.

Given up by her biological mother and father as an infant for unknown reasons, Tigress first lived at the Bao Gu Orphanage as a cub, where she received help in controlling her strength and temper from Shifu, who later took her in as his student. Over the years, she trained under Shifu's strict instruction, developing into a powerful fighter and forming a stern personality. Eventually, she became a member of the Furious Five along with Mantis, Viper, Monkey, and Crane. Of the Five, she was the most skeptical of Po's calling as the Dragon Warrior, but has since accepted his title. She now fights alongside Po as a loyal friend and ally.

Tigress was left at the doorstep of the Bao Gu Orphanage for unknown reasons by her biological parents when she was an infant.[10]

In Secrets of the Furious Five Tigress-young-SotFF Young Tigress confined at the Bao Gu Orphanage As a young girl, Tigress was raised in the Bao Gu Orphanage, presumably located in the Valley of Peace. However, the residents of the orphanage lived in fear of her due to her violent temper and frightening strength. One night, Tigress escaped from the room and innocently approached the children in an attempt to play. However, her fangs and claws scared them off, and a rejected Tigress roared in rage. After being put in an isolated room, Tigress soon began to see herself as a monster, as everyone else did. Unsure of what could be done with the tiger cub, the caretakers summoned the aid of Master Shifu.

After meeting Tigress, the red panda firmly told her that she was not a monster, and introduced her to a game of dominoes, which required discipline to master. At first, Tigress could not place the dominoes correctly, often breaking the fragile wooden tiles in her grip, which frustrated her. But Shifu was a calm and patient teacher, and over time he instructed her to control her temper and her strength, teaching her the importance of discipline.

Finally, after much training, Tigress presented her hard work to the other children of the orphanage by skillfully placing the dominoes correctly with precision and agility; when she finished, she tipped the placed dominoes to form the symbol of yin and yang, earning the trust and friendship of the caretakers and other orphans. Despite this, the adults who came to adopt children were still afraid of her, and she was still left at the orphanage. However, Shifu decided to take her in, giving Tigress a new home at the Jade Palace.

Even in her new home, Tigress still felt unaccepted due to Shifu's closed and often stern personality, caused by the betrayal of his adopted son and former student, Tai Lung.[1] She also formed an aversion to asking questions, as she had been ridiculed by others for her childlike curiosity in the past.[11]

However, Shifu was seen encouraging young Tigress in a moment where she failed to perform a side kick, and assured her that she would get the move right when she needed it, cheering her up afterward by offering to play a game of checkers.[10] As the years passed, Tigress strove to gain Shifu's approval by bettering herself in kung fu and becoming a strong and dedicated student. One of the many ways of training she endured was punching the iron-wood trees outside the Jade Palace, an exercise that eventually resulted in her having no feeling in her paws.

In Tigress' teenage years, Master Shifu tried to get her to emulate his style. Throughout the short, Tigress tried to impress Shifu, even insisting on fetching the four warriors that Shifu had asked for due to his illness preventing him from protecting the valley from the villain, Boar. However, due to a mix-up involving the scroll given her by Shifu and one written and then thrown away by Po, she ended up recruiting four strangers instead of the specific warriors Shifu had requested. Shifu was bitterly disappointed, but Oogway counseled Tigress that she had to be herself and could not expect to be just like Shifu. Tigress, Crane, Monkey, Viper, and Mantis eventually defeated Boar, and formed the Furious Five.

Over time, Tigress became a master of the Tiger Style of kung fu. As the unofficial leader of the Furious Five, she and her comrades protected the Valley of Peace and gained great fame across China with their many accomplishments in battle.

Tigress is the strongest and boldest of the Furious Five. She is noted to have the typical qualities of a hero: overachieving, brave, fearless, and willing to do anything to save the day. The one exception to her willingness, however, was to believe in Po, whom she thought was a joke. But even the strongest can be wrong, and Tigress learned that destiny sometimes arrives in unexpected ways. Since the events of the first film, she has been unwaveringly loyal to Po and what he represents as the Dragon Warrior. But underneath her stoic, iron-jawed exterior is a warm compassion that others seldom see.[13]

She is generally friendly, but the least sociable of the Five, and can be very intimidating at times due to her incredibly serious and direct demeanor. In many scenes of the first film in which the other four of the Furious Five and/or Po were joking or having fun, Tigress would often remain quiet and withdrawn. At the time, it was strongly believed, by Shifu and herself, that Oogway was about to choose her as the Dragon Warrior before Po's entrance, despite Oogway's statements. As a result, Tigress bitterly resented Po for thwarting her dream, and was the most vocal of the Five in her contempt for the panda and his perceived lack of respect for kung fu, even while her comrades grew to respect him, due to perhaps still believing she was the Dragon Warrior. While rescuing Master Storming Ox and Master Croc from Gongmen Jail, Tigress was able to intimidate Master Croc without even trying to, demonstrated by Croc's visible nervousness and desire to return to his cell to get away from her, although Tigress was not displaying any signs of hostility. When she was a young cub, Tigress had trouble controlling her violent temper. Shifu had helped teach her how to control this temper since then, but she still occasionally loses control. This is shown during the first film while she was telling Po about Shifu's past with Tai Lung and herself, as she had mistaken Po's sudden facial expression into thinking that he was making fun of her. She then reacted by pulling back her paw and unsheathing her claws, having every intention on striking him, but Mantis stopped her before she could do so while confessing that he accidentally hit his facial nerve with one of his acupuncture needles, to which she pulls back.

However, Tigress does possess a "soft side", particularly towards children in some instances. This is shown near the end of the first film where she politely helped some young villagers evacuate the Valley, and in Kung Fu Panda Holiday, where Tigress playfully helped to feed a young toddler piglet during the Winter Feast. Tigress appears to have sustained a more calm and content attitude since the events of the first film and in the holiday special, she is seen to behave in a kinder and friendlier way as demonstrated when she and the rest of the Five help Po with his difficulties in preparing for the Winter Feast. In the third film, she was initially confused and later tried to push Lei Lei away from her before eventually conceding and letting her climb on her shoulders.

However, in "Kung Fu Day Care", Tigress said she does not like children when a small child named Zan is taken for ransom by the Croc Bandits and takes a particular liking to her when he is saved by her and Po. She was assigned to be his guardian by Shifu for this reason, and was very reluctant to do so. In the end, once she remembered how she felt and what Shifu did for her as a child, she felt bittersweet when he went back home with his mother, and promised to visit him.[10]

Tigress is also not without insecurities as a result of years of training under the initially stern and mostly withdrawn Shifu, whom she calls the closest thing to a father she has ever had. Consequentially, both Kung Fu and her master's approval form a very large part of Tigress' self worth, which both the films and series occasionally imply she struggles with. In the first film, as she recalls in a flashback how Shifu has never loved anyone like he loved Tai Lung, young Tigress lands a strong blow on the training doll, only to have her posture silently corrected by a glaring Shifu. As she looks after him sadly, the scene fades into the now adult Tigress, still baring the same sad look for a moment before covering it up with her usual severity. Also, in The Spirit Orbs of Master Ding, Tigress is unable to cope with the idea that Po is becoming better than her in every way that is important to her, since she does not know how to do much else besides kung fu. After Shifu complements Po, Tigress' jealousy finally gets the better of her and causes her to act recklessly, becoming the catalyst for the events of the episode.

Before Po's arrival, Tigress was the only member of the Furious Five who was completely serious and stoic, although her humorlessness in the first film could also be attributed to her anger at Po for accidentally crushing her dream. However, after Po is accepted by, and begins to really integrate with the Five, his general levity seems to cause Tigress to lighten up and become more playful. In the credits of the first film, she is seen toying affectionately with the panda training doll, similar to a cat with a ball of wool, in between savaging it. She is also seen copying Po's imitation of Shifu, this time to her master's face, who seems to enjoy her impression immensely. In the TV series, though still retaining her characteristically serious attitude, she often shown to have a dry and sarcastic sense of humor, and often appreciates, and very occasionally participates in, the jokes and pranks that Po and the Five play on each other. A recurring joke is her making a comment that the others take for a joke, only to ask what they mean when they comment on it. For example, when observing Shifu practicing his deathly dull speech for the Moon Festival, Tigress remarks that she will start practicing sleeping with her eye open and is clueless when Monkey laughs. Also, in "Sight for Sore Eyes", Viper says that everyone except Tigress is smiling, but Tigress says that she is smiling, since her "happy face" matches her generic expression.