So, I don’t like it that things from Earth are on or known about on Third Earth. In one episode Wily Kilt and Wily Kat are picking apples for Snarf to make applesauce. Apples? Really? Couldn’t they make up a Third Earth fruit? For that matter, I don’t like the name “Third Earth”—I want it to have a different name all its original own.
I mean, just come up with a new fantasy fruit, like “boppleberries” or something, lol. But basic ol’ apples shouldn’t be growing in a fantasy ThunderCat world, IMO.
And in one episode I just watched, Panthro referenced Hamlet—Hamlet! What the–?? lol
And what about that line “you look like what the cat dragged in”…that seems to only work somewhere where there are pure cats, like our world; we don’t know if there were “pure cats” or not on Thundera (I think, lol).
Now, Excalibur may get a pass, because an ancient supernatural spirit informs Mumm-Ra of Excalibur and Merlin (I’m watching this one while I’m typing this message). It’s not really clear though how Mumm-Ra went and got Excalibur back from the Lady of the Lake; I guess we assume he traveled by his powers to Earth to get the sword? (if the lake in the Arthurian legend was even based on a real lake, that is).
Unicorns get a pass from me because they’re creatures of myth and fantasy, and as far as I know none have been confirmed seen in our world, lol.
There was mexican food Snarfer got in one episode.
Another tinme, one of the TCs (can’t remember which one) referred to Mumm-Ra as an “Egyptian antique” or something like that.
And in “Chain of Loyalty”, Panthro got mad because someone we never got to know threw out a soda can in the snow, and he complained about people throwing garbage to the floor.
Another one: Mandora used soap to defeat the Living Ooze when she first met Lion-o.
In “Garden of Delights”, Panthro tells Tygra to be careful, and he replies “as a cat”. In that same episode, when Tygra finds about the Mole people, he is surprised and says something like “Mole people. Does the wonders of Third Earth never cease?”, giving a hint that they knew about moles before, maybe in Thundera.
If we can go by Wildstorms comics, than “ThunderCats Origins: Heroes and Villains” tells us that Third Earth is actually our Earth (First Earth) in the future.
Okay, okay, I concede…I just don’t like it, lol. But even if it is the same planet, how would the ThunderCats know about things like Hamlet, for Jaga’s sake? lol
Tygra_Rules, I do like the soap punch line, lol. But I guess I give soap a more universal pass, in that it can be a broader term, whereas apples are…well…apples.
There’s so much to confirm that Third Earth is our own planet Earth far in the future, that things like apples and soap are not a problem.
Hamlet - yes, that’s iffy. I suppose it’s possible Shakespeare’s works are still known to the Warrior Maidens and they could have shown them to the Thundercats, BUT . . .
the worst one has to be when Slithe addresses Monkian as “Sherlock Holmes” - in a season 3 episode, the one where Lion-O asks the Mutants to take him to New Thundera in the Rat Star. I think it’s “Return Of The Thundercubs” but I could be mistaken. Monkian says something about how Lion-O has gained control of the ship and Slithe replies, “thank-you Sherlock Holmes”. That grated on me from the off.
Ha! It’s even better than that. Lion-O flips the Rat-Star, and once they’re all upside-down, Vultureman exclaims, “We’re upside-down!” which warrants Slithe’s sarcastic “Thank you, Sherlock Holmes.”
It’s one of my favorite jokes in the series, though I agree, it’s pretty egregious. But if we can rationalize Shakespeare’s survival among the Warrior Maidens, why not Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
Snarf calling Mumm-Ra an Egyptian relic isn’t that bad, if you consider the preponderance of Egyptian ruins still present on Third Earth. I could imagine the ThunderCats learning the name (or a name) of the ancient culture responsible for it (and for Mumm-Ra).
Apples are apples, and if you cook them you get applesauce. How it can be Lion-O’s favorite food is up for debate, but if you’re looking for more exotic fruit, just visit the Berbil Village, or Cudai’s hovel. As food goes, Mexican takeout in “Sideswipe” is probably the most ridiculous inclusion, and RoBear Roberto is right up there with Tutantiny in the tongue-in-cheek name department.
Whenever I think about Third Earth, I end up with more questions than answers! Even though it is supposed to be our earth in the distant future, why does it have a very medieval feeling? Where are all the humans? Where are all the cities and human inventions and technology? Where are all the “normal” living creatures? Where did all the “weird” Third-earthers (wollos, balkans, trollogs etc) come from?
But then I feel that this is after all a cartoon whose main purpose of creation was to sell toys. A sort of a glorified toy commercial. I don’t think that the creators expected it to be such a phenomenal sucess that people would still be discussing it two decades later! They probably didn’t put that much thought into crossing every T and dotting every I since the viewers were mainly children. That would explain a number of inconsistencies within the show.
I just always think of Third Earth as being our earth but in a parallel universe. That way I still can relate to it as it is still earth (instead of some alien planet like Eternia was in MOTU).
I always assumed the world had undergone some kind of disaster or other apocalyptic event, like Planet of the Apes. I’m sure I recall reading somewhere that this was part of the concept, but it was never overtly stated because it’d be too shocking for the uncynical kids of the 1980s.
Technically a valid question, if we can say the Warrior Maidens have preserved cultural literature like Shakespeare, why not Conan Doyle, absolutely, I agree - my problem is with the Mutants using the reference. I just can’t see them as being in interested in any way about Earth culture.
That’s what I thought even when I was a kid. And the whole idea that Third Earth is our future Earth always appealed to me greatly. And I see no problem with things like Shakespeare’s works and Sherlock Holmes coming up as those have been very large parts of our culture since they were created and we today still even discuss works from centures before that too, even way before the digital age we’re in now when these works can be preserved and accessed far easier than ever before. And who knows how far human culture had spread into space by the point of this theoritcal disaster and been shared with alien races and become part of a universal culture? And as for Slithe knowing Sherlock Holmes, he always did seem one of the smartest and most cunning of the mutants (certainly moreso than Monkian and Jackalman) so perhaps he came across the stories somehow and they appealed to his intellect? I certainly consider Mumm-Ra to be formerly human and survived since that particular age of the egyptians and then you got the already mentioned Warrior Maidens (though I’m not clear how they don’t go extinct seeing as they have no males among them, perhaps they’re a mutated breed of human women who can reproduce without the need for a man? But that’s not something I want to think too much about) and I always thought Mandora was possibly a human from another world where the human race had settled (and possibly by her accent had preserved the movies of John Wayne :P). Snowman could be explained as being descended from humans too as he’s not that far off (perhaps devolved physically to grow the fur needed to endure such cold)
Anyways I’m starting to feel like I’m babbling so I’ll shush for a bit.
