Ok, now that I finally got to see the episode, my thoughts on it AND the first season as a whole.
I felt like the writers did an AMAZING job of cramming so much story and action into thirteen episodes. You can feel that each episode is just a tad too short, leaving you wanting a lot more, and it’s incredible they squeeze as much into the shows as they do. Personally, in a perfect world, I’d much prefer one hour episodes to fully flesh out and incorporate everything possible. That being said, it’s still really great stuff.
I’m very happy that Tygra is still the dominant brother at this stage of the show, 13 episodes in was too short a time for Lion-o to figure it all out and “put it together” and best Tygra. The show, much like the OS, focuses heavily on Lion-o’s development as a leader, and more importantly, as an adult. So it makes sense that Lion-o is still “weaker” at the moment, but trust me, a time will come when he bests Tygra.
I’m also very pleased that Tygra and Cheetara was the final pick, as I predicted. It gives Tygra his own “thing” to have that Lion-o doesn’t, and is a wonderful message to kids that just because you are the “hero” doesn’t mean EVERYTHING goes your way. It will be very fascinating to see how Lion-o takes it from here and handles that fact. I also think getting Cheetara will chill Tygra the @#%& out and he will come to support his brother as leader even more.
I’m sad Grune is gone, but don’t be fooled guys, he WILL be back. He’s too awesome not to. Now to the most “controversial” part of the episode, Panthro’s arms, or lack thereof now. I personally am going to say WELL DONE again by the writers here. This isn’t the OS, if that’s what people are looking for, I suggest they watch that one( I mean no offense by that at all, I freakin’ love both OS and new). It serves a couple of functions, first, it makes Panthro even more of a grizzled veteran and adds to his uniqueness as a character. Second, who else can’t wait to see what he can do with his new “Jax” arms, I can’t wait to see how he handles nunchucks with those upgrades. And it also served to show Panthro really did learn a valuable lesson from Grune, and despite being betrayed by him, Panthro grew and became a tougher, better warrior having known him and learned from him. It’s not a two dimensional relationship, Panthro really valued Grune as a friend and his betrayal hurt even more because of it because they were so close, in a way Panthro lost his best friend. Obviously he lost him as a friend way before that, but this brings some much needed closure to the big cat. *Tips hat to writers/producers
Love it or not, this episode and season really pushed the boundaries of what we knew to be Thundercats and took real risks and backed it up with 100% commitment to those risks, and that’s all I can ask for in a show. Personally, I can’t say how pleased I am that we have such talented people behind the show from the bottom on up, and they have set things up nicely for a very juicy second half. I think Tygra and Panthro both closed the book on a lot of their demons, each character grew in their own way, from Lion-o down to kit/kat and snarf. The most interesting thing for me is to see where Lion-o goes from here. Will he let the Cheetara/Tygra mess with him or will he assert leadership and push forward with the bigger goals in mind? Will he still be able to be close to Tygra now or be pushed even further away from his bigger brother?
My one complaint, and I understand it’s due to cramming so much into so little time, is how easily Mummra got treated like yesterday’s garbage. So far all he’s done is show up, talk a lot of smack, and get his @#$ handed to him each time. I hope in the next half he becomes more of a threat and steps up his game and does some real damage and poses a really big threat, he is the biggest baddie on the show, he needs to. Even still, I think Mummra kicks @#% in this show far more than the OS one. Ok, I talked way too much, that’s it for me guys.
