| Paani | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | Paani |
| Interests: | Water |
| Occupation(s): | Hydrologist |
| Gender: | Male |
| Color: | Pale Orange; Peach |
| Eye color: | Black |
| Species: | Macaque Monkey |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| First episode appearance: | The Skeleton Coast Adventure |
| Final episode appearance: | The Great Pacific Clean-Up |
| Character played by: | Antonio Aakeel |
Paani is a recurring character exclusively in Octonauts: Above & Beyond. He is a new ally and an Octo-Agent who can be seen working alongside the Octonauts, amongst other new and previously established characters. He makes his debut in the first episode of Above & Beyond Season 1, The Skeleton Coast Adventure, and appears in future episodes of the series going forward.
He is a Macaque monkey from the jungles of India. He's scrappy and has an adventurous personality. Paani is accustomed to working alone in harsh, remote environments. As a hydrologist, he researches water everywhere to determine its impact on creatures.
In his first appearance in The Skeleton Coast Adventure, he is seen spying on the Octonauts and their crashed Octopod in the desert in Namibia from a distance with his binoculars, before seeing their barrels of water and the abandoned Gup-H. Getting enthusiastic about finding a solution to save the exhausted animals on the land from a drought, he attempted to fly the Gup away with some of the water before getting caught by Kwazii.
Due to Kwazii and Paani getting off on the wrong foot, they don’t start off on the best of terms, especially on Kwazii’s end. Paani’s blunt nature doesn’t help, nor does Kwazii’s reluctance to trust or follow anyone else when he thinks they don’t know what they’re doing. Despite this, Paani has been saved by him from dangerous situations, such as almost falling from high ground or getting attacked by creatures multiple times.
Paani’s friendly attitude has allowed him to befriend many creatures throughout his travels with ease, as seen in episodes such as The Fire Ants. However, he can sometimes take others too literally, or not catch certain social cues immediately. In The Alligator-Shark Showdown, an alligator says “Who asked you?” in response to Paani trying to stop the confrontation between them and the sharks, to which Paani replies “No one asked me. It’s simply a fact!” with a confused tone. Furthermore, in The Secret Beneath the Snow, Paani gets excited and talks through the silence Gus requests multiple times, before accidentally getting carried away rambling the entire evening, and not realizing it until the morning.
He can get caught up into trouble fairly often and rather easily. This is mainly due to Paani disregarding his own safety in the face of danger, even if he’s aware what could happen to him, but only applies that knowledge to the creatures he wants to help. If the danger also involves areas of Hydrology, he can get too excited about his studies to notice his reckless behaviour, much like Shellington with his interest in Biology.
Other Friends[]
- Tweak
- Dashi
- Shellington
- Peso
- Kwazii
- Captain Barnacles
- Mabel the elephant and her herd
- Sasha the Siberian Salamander
- Charlie the Himalayan Hot Spring Snake
- Sammy the Falcon
- Pangolin
- Pinto
- Magnus and Stefan the reindeer
- The Fire Ants
- Elton
- Young Marten and his parents
- Mountain Goat Herd
- Barnacle Goose Mama and Gosling
- Ernesto and the Sehuencas Water Frogs
- Gus the Ruffed Grouse
- Debbie the Honey Badger
- Arabian Camel Trio
- Kea Birds
Trivia[]
- In various different languages, such as Hindi and Bengali, Paani’s name translates to “water”, referencing his hydrologist occupation.
- Paani is the first Octo-Agent character to have no prior relations to any of the Octonauts.
- Paani speaks with an Indian accent, seeing that his species are from the jungles of India.
- In general, he shares a lot of qualities with Kwazii. Physically, he has a similar pale, light grayish gamboge palette and a long tail. Personality-wise, he seems just as if not more daring, along with being impulsive and rather acrobatic. He even gets stopped by Captain Barnacles before he does something without thinking and runs off before the other characters can catch up with him in a way that intentionally mirrors Kwazii doing the same thing. They also have a shared love for cooking, eating snacks (such as pudding), tiny/baby animals, and telling stories.
- Paani seems to enjoy surfing and paddle boarding like Dashi, with the two of them even surfing on ice chunks during a mission in The Siberian Salamander episode. They also both like and are skilled at tracking storms.
- It can be assumed that Paani likes to cook/bake as a pastime. When visiting the Octopod as a guest during The Hurricane Hunter Adventure, he could be found in the kitchen making heaps of fish biscuits with the Vegimals. He also mentioned saving a banana pudding recipe onto his Octo-Watch in The Fire Ants episode.
- In The Rocky Mountain Rockslide, he has a friend named Sammy the Falcon who takes him to different locations, on a few occasions, to continue his hydrology research.
- Paani seems to get acquainted with the creatures throughout the locations he visits rather quickly, as multiple episodes (such as The Fire Ants) showcase many groups of various creatures calling out to Paani by name, sometimes actively urging him to get to safety.
- Paani quickly befriends Pinto when he appears in The Curious Penguin.
- Instead of on his wrist, Paani wears his watch on his tail.
- Paani has his own Fish biscuit-esque snack called “Paani Patties”, which are made out of bugs, berries, and seeds. The crew is pretty grossed out by this, but he thinks they’re tasty, most likely because some macaque species in real life do eat insects as a part of their diet. Furthermore, the rats in The Giant Weta and the Pangolin in The Monster Digger also enjoy it, as their diets consist of insects as well.
- Paani has a tendency to get attached to inanimate objects very easily, such as his original paddleboard and his octo-watch. He can get very focused on trying to retrieve them when lost, even if there are bigger priorities, like escaping from a dangerous area.
- Paani, while occasionally seen swimming in shallow bodies of water, has yet to go on a deep-sea mission requiring him to use an air tank. This could be due to his claim that he prefers to study water on land. However, he can be seen swimming underwater in The Arabian Camels, and he does so quite gracefully and comfortably. In The Flooded Forest, he receives a diving mask from Tweak that would allow him to dive deeper underwater.
- Paani is one of the few characters in the show to be fully clothed.
- According to Octonautsofficial on Instagram, his favourite colour is “clear”. However, clear is not a colour, but a transparency.
- At the end of The Lonely Frog, it’s implied that Paani, much like Ernesto, was very lonely prior to meeting The Octonauts. Despite how acquainted he becomes with most creatures on his travels, it seems he struggled to keep closer friendships. This could explain why he’s shown as incredibly attached to his personal belongings.
- Many believe Paani’s specific species is most likely a Rhesus Macaque, based on his colour and region of origin.
- Paani’s favorite food is the jackfruit, as mentioned in Above and Beyond Season 3 when he showed his home in India to Dashi and the Vegimals.
Relationships[]
Quotes[]
- "Just feel the power of that storm!" (The Fire Ants)
- Just go with the flow, in 3...
- "Hello H2O!" (The Antarctica Rescue)
- “That’s splashing!” (The Giant Weta)
- "What in the watery world is that?"
- ”I go with the flow!”
- ''Brilliant!'' (The Rocky Mountain Rockslide)
- ”I’d say more like 6 seconds!”
- "My ears are up here." (The Giant Weta)
- "It's AMAZING!" (The Monster Digger)
Gallery[]
Click here to see the gallery for Paani.