Father Panther

Father Panther is the friendship between Bagheera and Mowgli from the Jungle Book fandom.

The Jungle Book (1967)
The story starts when Bagheera was minding his own business until he suddenly heard something unheard of in the jungle: The cry of a "man-cub", a human infant. He goes to inspect the source and finds the infant in a basket, near a destroyed wooden boat, no mother or father in sight. He feels deep sympathy for the child and couldn't bring himself to leave it out to starve or be eaten. Trying to figure out what he should do, he remembered that he knew a family of wolves personally, the mother having recently given birth and thought that they wouldn't mind adopting another child. Placing the basket near the wolf den, Bagheera is relieved when the wolf family take it inside. A decade passes, during that time Bagheera regularly checks on the boy, now named Mowgli. Though Bagheera does comment that, had he known how involved he would be in the boy's life, he wouldn't have done anything.

The council of wolves in in alarm, with Bagheera listening in on their report that the dreaded tiger Shere Khan had returned to the jungle, with the wolves fearing for Mowgli's safety, knowing how much Shere Khan hates humans. As an honorary member of the council, Bagheera provides a solution of escorting Mowgli to a nearby man village personally, confident that Mowgli will trust him since they had been travelling through the jungle together many times. It is decided, and Bagheera takes Mowgli on his back at a later night, with Mowgli protesting that they are getting too far away from home. Bagheera explains to Mowgli that the jungle can no longer be his home, telling him about Shere Khan and his hatred for human, especially human hunters. Mowgli dismisses that and argues that they could just tell Shere Khan that he has no intention of becoming a hunter, but Bagheera tells him that Shere Khan won't listen to reason. Mowgli tells Bagheera that he can take care of himself, but with him already being tired he does not contest Bagheera's advice to get some sleep.

However, Mowgli is visited by the man-eating python Kaa, who takes advantage of Bagheera being fast asleep to try and devour Mowgli alive. Mowgli calls Bagheera for help, but Bagheera is half-sleeping, it is only when Mowgli falls into a trance staring into Kaa's eyes that he wakes up and smacks Kaa before he could do something to Mowgli. In revenge, Kaa turns towards Bagheera to hypnotize him, which is Mowgli's turn to save him by pulling on Kaa's neck and letting him fall out of the tree. When Kaa swears his revenge at them, Mowgli laughs at Kaa's undignified escape, but Bagheera is seriously convinced that Mowgli can't take care of himself at all. Not bothering to argue with Mowgli insisting on him staying in the jungle, he merely tells Mowgli to go back to sleep.

The two of them are rudely awakened by Colonel Hathi's troup causing the earth to rumble the next morning. Mowgli is excited about the "parade" and tries to join the elephants, Bagheera lets him try. However, when Hathi notices Mowgli and begins to argue with him, Bagheera swoops in, telling Hathi that the boy is not here to stay. Hathi leaves and Bagheera intends to continue their journey to the man village. Mowgli however is fed up with Bagheera's constant insistence that he isn't safe in the jungle and tries to hold on to a branch while Bagheera literally tries to pull him to the village by his loins. As Mowgli pushes him away, Bagheera falls into a river and tells Mowgli that from this point on, he's on his own.

Mowgli wanders off to sulk about losing trust in Bagheera, which is where he meets the friendly bear Baloo. Despite Mowgli being in a bad mood, Baloo succeeds in cheering Mowgli up and tries him to prove that he has what it takes to be a real bear. When Mowgli gives a pathetic growl, Baloo demonstrates what a real growl sounds like, alarming Bagheera thinking that Mowgli has fallen victim to some ferocious predator. However, he quickly calms down when he finds Mowgli and Baloo play-fighting each other, already familiar with Baloo, knowing that he is no threat. However, that doesn't stop him from scolding Baloo when he punches Mowgli too hard by accident, letting him fall into a nearby tree. Mowgli insists that he's fine, but Bagheera tells Baloo that the boy should come with him to the man village. Baloo doesn't understand why and takes Mowgli's side in the argument, leading to Bagheera leaving them in disappointment. He only comes back after Baloo calls for him, with him telling Bagheera that he was ambushed and that Mowgli had been kidnapped by monkeys. Bagheera deduces that Mowgli was taken to the Ancient Ruins in front of the king of the monkeys and wastes no time getting there with Baloo in tow.

At the Ancient Ruins, Bagheera tries to hatch a plan to distract King Louie and snatch Mowgli away from him, but Baloo appears to be of no help. So Bagheera just tells him to make a distraction so that he can be one rescuing Mowgli and nearly succeeds in doing so cleanly if it wasn't for Baloo smacking a door into his face as part of his distraction. Nonetheless, Baloo and Bagheera manage to save Mowgli from King Louie and his monkeys, destroying part of the Ancient Ruins in the process. That night, Bagheera notes that Mowgli is fast asleep and uses the opportunity to tell Baloo about Shere Khan. Though Baloo is at first dismissive, like Mowgli was, Bagheera manages to get through to him and Baloo finally understands why Mowgli can't stay in the jungle. The next morning, Baloo takes Bagheera's advice and tells Mowgli that he will have to go to the man village, but that leads to Mowgli losing trust in him too, believing that he's no better than Bagheera. So Baloo has to tell Bagheera that his words only led to Mowgli running out on both of them and Bagheera tells Baloo to split and try to find Mowgli before it's too late.

Bagheera contacts Colonel Hathi and tells him about Mowgli going missing and to watch out for Shere Khan. Though Hathi promises to keep an eye on it, Bagheera doesn't notice that Shere Khan had been listening in on them, now aware of Mowgli and him being completely alone and helpless. He corners Mowgli and Bagheera arrives too late to help him. Despite Mowgli managing to scare Shere Khan away with a burning branch, Baloo seemingly sacrificed himself to save him and Bagheera lays a paw on Mowgli's shoulder, leading him away from Baloo's motionless body and delivers a speech about the place of his "death" becoming his memorial. Baloo then reveals himself to be alive and tells Bagheera that the boy can indeed take care of himself. Bagheera might've agreed with him, but then they're conversation is interrupted by a beautiful voice coming from a nearby village. Mowgli is entranced by the village girl, Bagheera is happy for him and dismisses Baloo's complaints about her luring Mowgli to the village. When Mowgli gets second thoughts, Bagheera encourages him to go on and Mowgli decides to ignore Baloo's pleads to come back. Baloo is disappointed in Mowgli's choice, but Bagheera tells him that he should be happy that Mowgli is finally where he belongs.

Fanon
"Bagheera & Mowgli" is one of the few platonic ships in the "The Jungle Book (Disney Animated Movies)" tag, being the fourth most popular ship for that tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION