Hey all,
Just something I’ve wondered for a while, and perhaps I’ve missed the explanation in the episodes.
Lion-O, as Cladius’ son, inherits the role of Lord of the Thundercats, right? Why did Cladius not use the Sword of Omens, but Jaga did? Did Lion-O inherit some double-role, suceeding both Cladius and Jaga?
Thanks!
Here’s my best guess for this situation. Claudius was the Lord of the Thundercats before Lion-O, and Jaga acted as knight/second in command/adviser. Jaga was not Lord, but because of his wisdom and good morals he was also able to wield the Sword of Omens. In the flashback during the Shadowmaster episode we see both Claudius and Jaga use the sword. I believe that when Claudius was blinded in battle, he gave the sword to Jaga since he could no longer fight. Claudius continued to be Lord of the Thundercats, but he entrusted the sword of Omens to Jaga to fight in his stead since he was blind.
I never saw Claudus as a ThunderCat. He’s just simply the king of Thundera, the ThunderCats would be like the ‘knights’ of Thundera. So Jaga was Lord, and now Lion-O.
Lion-O was the hereditary Lord of the ThunderCats; therefore, he had to inherit that title from one of his parents.
I believe it was mentioned somewhere in an episode that after being blinded, Claudus entrusted Lion-O’s safety to Claudus as well as protecting the Sword of Omens. I also think it was mentioned somewhere that Jaga was the Lord of the ThunderCats at one time.
Do you remember what episode its referred in?
My theory is something similar to MOTU.
Claudus, like Randor, is king, but not a knight. The TCs would be the equivalent to the Masters.
I think that just like the powers of the Elders gathered together in the orbe that was kept in Castle Greyskull when the Elder’s Council was destroyed, maybe the power of the TCs were gathered in the Eye of Thundera, which was then inserted in the sword when Thundera was destroyed.
Remember when Excalibur thursted the Eye, the TCs got weak and fell down. Also, in the last ep of season 3 (The Last Day), Jaga told Lion-O to use the powers of the noble TCs, which were gathered in the Eye of Thundera.
So maybe the sword did exist before all that and Claudus used it, but it’s just that it didn’t hold the Eye.
Okay, okay, I’m going to set this all straight 
Claudus was the Lord of the Thundercats, he was leader and wielded the Eye of Thundera…he became blind because of fighting the Mutants, he couldn’t be Lord of the Thundercats anymore so he had Jaga take over till Lion-O was old enough to become Lord of the Thundercats.
He must have lost his eye sight early if Jaga appears young when using the sword of Omens.
Sure you see both a young Claudus and young Jaga both holding the sword of Omens at the same time, but I think they did that just for the show…that or Claudus was already blinded…but never said so.
It’s all up to the fan’s interpretation.
What are the key episodes that weigh in on this at least partially? I’ve got all the DVDs here, but I tend to have trouble remembering which episode is which.
I know there’s a scene in “Shadowmaster” where Jaga and Claudis held the sword at the same time. I hope this helps.
Yep, that’s the ep where Claudus and Jaga hold the sword together.
Some episodes that matter:
Return to Thundera — Lion-O calls himself the Lord of the ThunderCats, to which the guard says, “Any fool knows old Claudis is Lord of Thundera.” So, as any fool now knows, Lord of Thundera and Lord of the ThunderCats are the same thing, and Claudis was still Lord at the time of the Destruction. This jives with Lion-O being the hereditary Lord. The other guard recognizes the Sword as having been “carried by wise Jaga,” which jives with Jaga’s claim in Exodus that the Sword was guarded by him.
The Jade Dragon — The ASOE say that Jaga, at the time of the incident with the dragon, was Lord of the ThunderCats. We also see him wielding the Sword.
Shadowmaster — As mentioned, Claudis and Jaga wield the Sword together.
There is also the possibility that Jaga and Claudis ruled together. Who says there has to be only one Lord?
I don’t think that the Lord of the Thundercats automatically gets the Sword of Omens.
In the first Episode Exodus Jaga says that the Sword of Omens was “guarded and known only to me.” Even tho we know from later episodes that Claudus knew about it too (and obviously in that same episode Slithe knew about it), that pretty much tells me that Jaga was the guardian of the sword.
I think that while the guardian of the sword and the Lord of the Thundercats CAN be the same person (Lion-O), that they don’t have to be the same person.
Even more interesting is that Jaga knew Slithe by name, and admitted that the Mutants would “know that the Flagship would be carrying the Eye of Thundera.” Something is hinted at between Jaga and Slithe, some history that was sadly never explored.
Other than dismissing it as another screw upin the storyline (which lets be honest, it prob will be), I sensed that everybody on thundera thought the eye of thundera was “a legend, a myth” as quoted by Tygra in exodus, but somehow the mutants knew it existed and knew it was on the flagship. However…maybe no1 knew it was embedded in the hilt of the mysticla sword of omens except Jaga! Maybe it was like a safe keeping!
Also, what about the Annointment Trials? If Lion-o had failed, would he have been able to keep the Sword? Would he still have been Lord of the Thundercats?
That’s the same feeling I get, especially since the Sword is recognized by that guard in “Return to Thundera”. Only a few people knew about the Eye, so Jaga could carry the Sword openly and no one would consider it out of the ordinary. The legendary Eye was hiding in plain sight.
This connects to another thread from a few weeks ago, where it was mentioned that the Eye, being the source of their power, is a target, and that perhaps it was put in the hilt of a sword in order to keep it safe.
As you said, these are probably all just writer screw-ups, and here we are trying to rationalize them. But it’s fun!
That could make sense. In Exodus when Jaga first showed Lion-O the sword Lion-O said, “I don’t see any eye.”
What episode was this quote from? I just scanned through Exodus and didn’t see a scene with Jaga and S-s-slithe. Just curious where this comes from.
Also about that quote from Jaga a few of posts back, he actually says the Eye of Thundera rests peacefully in the Sword of Omens, guarded and known only to him.
From the phrasing it sounds like either the Sword of Omen’s LOCATION was guarded and known only to Jaga, or the fact that the Eye of Thundera being embedded in the Sword of Omens was guarded and known only to him. Or both may have been believed by Jaga to be true
S-s-slithe said he had seen the Eye of Thundera when asked by Jackalman in Exodus after he said it would help if he (Jackalman) knew what it looked like. They weren’t actively searching for the Sword of Omens though, or at least didn’t mention it by name until S-s-slithe proclaimed “There it is, embedded in the hilt of the Sword of Omens!” when he saw Lion-O in the sword chamber in the flagship after boarding it in Exodus. He seemed surprised to see it there by the phrasing. He did know both by name though, so he seemed to be familiar with the existence of both, but did not know that both were now combined.
Either one of these assumptions works really. Enemies may not have known that the Eye of Thundera was embedded in the Sword of Omens, and/or apart from when Jaga carried it for battle, may not have known the location of either.
Lion-O referred to himself as Lord of the Thundercats NUMEROUS times before the Trials took place. Also the sword responded to him in virtually every episode except when the Eye was covered (like with the muck in “Unholy Alliance”).
Either the trials were merely a formality, or the Eye of Thundera has some knowledge of pre-destination to have known that Lion-O couldn’t fail the trials, and therefor knew he would be Lord of the Thundercats. There’s probably a thread somewhere discussing this.
I forgot about that, and seriously, it’s hard to believe that not even the noble TCs knew about th Eye and thought it was a myth. I mean, it’s the center of their power, the same their swore to protect… shouldn’t they know it was there somewhere?
Merged Post:
Yes, he adressed himself as Lord of the TCs many times before the trials, but even he was surprised when he learnt about them (the trials). He thought he was already the Lord, and when Sanrf told him about the trials, he couldn’t believe he had to go through all that to prove himself as Lord of the TCs.
Finally, I’ll go with your 2nd theory about that quote from Jaga: that he was the only one to know about the Eye being embedded in the sword. I don’t think that teh noble TCs, not even any thunderian, would not know about the sword or the eye, but they didn’t know where the eye was.
That would be easy to forget because Tygra’s line was actually mentioned in one of several deleted scenes from “Exodus” I’ll have to check YouTube and try to find out which one it is.