Combo Panda (Ryan's World)

Combo Panda "NO! I WAS SO CLOSE!" Combo's reaction that he's on this wiki Gender: Male Type: Unsympathetic and Rude Panda Gamer Age: 10 Species: Panda Portrayed by: Bradley William Smith Status: Alive Media of origin: Ryan's World First appearance: Roblox Natural Survival Disaster

Combo after reading this article.

Combination "Combo" Panda is a major character from Ryan's World. A panda clad only in a pair of red headphones, he's a gamer who plays various video games such as Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Roblox and Fortnite.

Combo is a well-received character, with over two million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He is considered the unofficial mascot of Ryan's World, along with Ryan/Red Titan.

He is voiced by Bradley William Smith.

Development

After the launch of the Gus the Gummy Gator YouTube channel in 2017, Shion Kaji got the idea to make a fourth channel for the Ryan's World universe. He came across content relating to VTubers (not the channel and instead the topic in general) and got the idea to have the new channel be about an animated character playing video games. Production on the channel started, and concepts for the channel's titular character began.

The designers had many ideas for what animal the then-unnamed character could be, before the settled on a panda. Shion Kaji decided to make the then-unnamed panda's design "look a bit more mischievous and rebellious", and wanted the character to appeal to older kids, to contrast the other channels from Ryan's World which were meant for preschoolers and young children. Bradley William Smith was hired as the voice of Combo Panda in June 2017.

In October 2019, Combo Panda, along with the other characters had the designs "modernized"; their outlines were thinner, and the proportions were improved. They also received another redesigning phase from 2022 to 2023, which made them look more "chibi-like", and younger, although these redesigns were fairly minor compared to 2019.

Personality

Combo is defined as being hardcore and easily enraged. Sometimes this, and his aggression, get the better of him, making him a little reckless and stubborn. However, he has enough control so as to not go "overboard" on innocent civilians, no matter how trivial the offense. He is a very experienced gamer who participates in every tournament, and hates losing as much as his enemies.

He is also energetic and very playful with a big appetite. He loves to eat and usually thinks about food or video games if he isn't in the middle of enjoying them. He can be lazy at times, and sleeps in a lot. But he also likes to hang out with the group, valuing his bond with Big Gil above all else. While he acts cool outwardly, he shows that he, like the others has his own concerns and worries.

Why He'll Never Be a "Hardcore" Gamer

1. To start things off, the main problem with his character as a whole is that since late-2019, he's been flanderized from a street-smart, charming, and somewhat memorable gamer into a stupid, obnoxious, and ridiculous gamer who is often an unfunny, annoying, bratty, rude, harsh, and unsympathetic panda, especially since 2019. Particularly, he whines and throws a fit over most things, whether it be accidentally destroying an easy-looking jigsaw-puzzle or losing at a video-game.
   • In "First Day Back to School", he bullies his best friend Big Gil all because he farted in class much to the point where he never stops being a jerk to Gil, to the point where he gets appreciated for drawing Gil farting in art class, and even kicks him out of his friend group (The Combo Crew), only for he and Gil to be friends again after laughing at another student for farting.
   • In "Combo's First Pet", he yells at his new pet dinosaur Shelldon twice, for not being able to use a gaming controller, and then because Shelldon didn't want to eat Combo's food, to the point of making him cry. Later in the episode, he even neglects Shelldon twice, to the point where Shelldon goes missing. The episode is an example of him being a karma houdini, as he's not punished for his animal abuse and neglect.
   • In one scene, he even threw his controller and broke his TV, all because he lost a level at a video game. Later in the episode, he doesn't learn to control his anger, another example of him being a karma houdini.
   • In Learn About the Seasons, he uses Peck's time machine to skip forward the seasons of the year and mess up the Earth's orbit, only so it can be his birthday again, which is stupid since the annual calendar is just a man-made system of organizing days and not something that controls time.
2. He is treated like a Butt-Monkey by some of the other characters. Here are some examples:
   • He gets flattened by a boulder, all because he warned his friends of danger inside a temple.
   • Combo is turned into a rabbit by Gus the Gator because the former struggled to use a magic wand.
   • Throughout the entirety of one episode, he gets injured through slapstick while trying to teach two other characters how to play soccer.
   • There is also an entire episode dedicated to Combo being bullied and mocked by the other characters because of how "bad" his older videos were.
   • He also gets humiliated multiple times throughout Island Adventures: Episode 4.
3. He is also shown to be a naive idiot at times, like when he used the same science experiment in the same science fair two years in a row because he thought "Pepsi and Coke were different" when they're different brands of cola.
   • In "Learn Seven Continents of The World For Kids" he thinks his backyard is a continent/country, which when you think about it, is laughably stupid. While this may be forgiving, he tries to act like a jerkass superior about it here.
   • He also challenged Gus to a pizza-making competition, and when he finished making his pizza, his stand burned down, due to his negligence resulting in his pizza catching on fire. However, he did get his comeuppance in the video, as he lost the competition to Gus.
4. He fails to follow pool rules multiple times throughout one episode, but does not get any real punishment for it, another example of him being a karma houdini.
5. He sometimes even ignores other characters at times. Like in this scene where he wants to make Antarctica a country of his own but ignores Alpha Lexa's warnings about how cold the continent is, which leads to him presumably getting "killed" by an avalanche.
6. His catchphrase, "Combo-Bunga!" is very repetitive and gets old fast.
7. Even though Bradley William Smith does a decently good job voicing him, Combo's voice can be somewhat annoying at times.
8. His design, while alright, for the most part, is generic, as it is just a panda with headphones, and four tufts of blond hair.
9. The fact he is a panda with red headphones makes him look like a rip-off of Alpha Jay's avatar from The Alpha Jay Show.
10. His appearance in Ryan's Mystery Playdate was pointless; he and Gus served little-to-no purpose in the show other than to make cringeworthy, unfunny, unoriginal and lazy jokes.
11. Hypocrisy: His channel claims to be "made for kids" as the videos are automatically marked by YouTube as such, yet he plays T-rated games like Fortnite, Marvel's Spider-Man, and even Bendy and the Ink Machine which are not intended for younger audiences at all. This also makes him extremely hypocritical as well.
12. He sometimes even smashes his head on his keyboard when he gets angry, which can cause damage to his head and the keyboard.
13. He somewhat lacks any real depth to his personality whatsoever to the point where he is one-dimensional, and in addition, his personality is poorly written at times and is inconsistent.
    • On his YouTube channel, where he is most likable, he is portrayed as a confident gamer with an attitude.
    • The Sunnyside School series interprets him into being a mean-spirited kid who is often unaware of the consequences he may get.
    • Videos on the main Ryan's World channel (mainly the skits and the Dr. Ion series) make Combo a naïve child who straight-up acts stupid most of the time.
14. He has been shown to bully others around him such as:
    • In an episode of EK Doodles (a Ryan's World spin-off), Combo and Gus bully Moe (another Ryan's World character) for being scared of a playground slide. This is out of character for both Combo and Gus, as Moe is already their friend. However, they praise Moe for facing his fears later at the end of the episode.
15. Speaking of which, he is somewhat cruel to Peck, a notably likable character from the franchise. Here are some examples.
    • There is a short parody of Combo bullying him on Twitter, making fun of his appearance and for being smart.
    • There is one episode, in which there is a scene where Peck faints, while Combo just stands there and laughs at him.
    • He often messes up with Peck's inventions for no real reason, risking his life doing so.
16. He is the most overused character in Ryan's World, while the other characters are often neglected because of that. This is to the point that it makes him a Creator's Pet, although it's mainly because of the popularity of his own YouTube channel, though.

"Combo-Bunga!" Qualities

1. To be fair, he's not intended to be a bad character, just a flawed one, and his unlikability can also be justified since he's frequently humiliated when he doesn't deserve it.
2. As mentioned above, he used to be tolerable from 2017 to 2019, when he was more adult-like, had a normal-sounding voice and was quite intelligent compared to his current personality. Despite this, he is still an okay character in his gaming channel.
3. Karma sometimes returns to him whenever he does a bad thing, and to make matters better, he sometimes even apologizes for what he does, but that doesn't spare him from being a Karma Houdini, especially due to the fact he barely learns anything.
4. Despite still being a huge jerk, he is likable, sympathetic, and charming in some episodes, such as "The Battery Problem", "The Evil Elf", "Party Plans", "Moe's First Day", "Ryan Finds an Alien Puppy", "Peck is Missing!" and "Big Gil Gets Lost", as well as the "Arctic Adventures" and "Island Adventures" series.
   • He has improved a bit in 2023.
5. He has an evil robot clone who is likable as well.
6. As mentioned above, his voice actor, Bradley William Smith, does a decently good job voicing the character.
7. A few of his quotes, such as "Alright Combo Crew! Next episode, expect me to be putting Robo-Combo in his place, which is the recycling bin!", are somewhat funny and memorable.
8. His design is pretty cool, despite being a bit generic.
9. Since 2019, he has rarely bullied Peck, so they became good friends.

Trivia

• He has a younger sister named Coco and an uncle named Harry, who's the principal at his school.
• He is the leader, main singer, and a guitarist for the band Combo-Bunga!.
• Despite his age. he has a variety of different jobs, such as a magician and a construction worker.
• He has an animated web series that focuses on his school life.
• He is one of three Ryan's World characters to have their own Build-a-Bear plush.
• His design and voice are inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog.
• His birthday is on March 5.
• His favorite color is red.
• His favorite food is bamboo, like all panda bears in real life.

External Links

• Fandom article
• TV Tropes (character folder)

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