Episode 002 – The Unholy Alliance

Cartoons ThunderCats (1985)
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Episode 002 – The Unholy Alliance

New characters introduced:
Mumm-Ra – Ageless Devil Priest of First Earth
The Ancient Spirits of Evil – Four statues, an Alligator, Bull, Vulture, and unknown.

The Movie version is actually about 20 seconds shorter than the individual episode. I did not notice any differences in scenes, but there is a 20 second difference somewhere.

Panthro: “Main thing in an emergency is to stay calm.” Subtle morals mesh with the actual flow of the story. This helps teach kids without having to take time out of the episode, brilliant.

Tygra: “Lord Lion-O spent 10 Galacto Years in a suspension capsule…” How long is a Galacto Year? And how long is a Thunderian’s lifespawn? Still no shock at Lion-O’s growth in the capsule, yet still no clues to how long they really were in suspension capsules.

Mutants circle Mumm-Ra’s pyramid, decide to get as far away as possible, so naturally they fly right over top of it before leaving. No wonder they got knocked out of the sky.

Of the four statues, one is not an obvious animal. The pointy ears and nose along with fangs reminds me of a bat. But it is hard to say for sure.

Mumm-Ra’s first appearance in the show is about 8 minutes into the second episode, and it is a creepy sight to see something come out of a casket like that.

Mumm-Ra has known of the power of the Eye of ThunDera “for a thousand years, from a time when this was still First Earth.” Now just why would he be aware of the Eye of ThunDera? It was light years away in a distant galaxy back then.

Mumm-Ra sinks the Mutants’ spaceship to maroon them on Third Earth. So what happened to all of the Mutant minions that were on that ship? They were on board at the end of the first episode. And why wouldn’t the other Mutants come looking for them when they did not hear back after a while?

Slithe now knows Lion-O’s name, but he didn’t know it at the end of the previous episode.

The sword will never obey an order to destroy wantenly. It will only come to life to combat evil. Sword Rule #1: Will only allow itself to be used for good.

In the fight between Lion-O and Mumm-Ra, the sword gets tar on it and partially covers the Eye of ThunDera. The sword’s powers cannot be used while it is covered in tar. Sword Rule #2: Will only work if nothing is covering the Eye of ThunDera.

Mumm-Ra knows of the Eye’s powers, but apparently he does not know about Sword Rule #1, as “in a moment the Eye of ThunDera will be mine to command…”

Now, if I were an undead, ever-living source of evil whose only weakness was my reflection, I think I would use some period of time in the last several thousand years to come up with something that would overcome that weakness. I mean, I’d be the laughing stock of the evil universe if I would be defeated the moment someone put a mirror in front of me.

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Mumm-Ra states he has known of the Eye of Thundera’s power for a thousand years in this episode, but in the original pilot proposal of the show, it is stated that Mumm-Ra first learned of the Eye 7,000 years prior, during his first incarnation, while he was mapping the heavens.

Other fun tidbits from the original pilot were that it stated the Thundercats crash landed in Africa, and the Berbils made something called tingo juice, made from the sap of tingo trees, and was a celebratory beverage.

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What was Mumm-Ra’s first incarnation? When we learn of the history between Mumm-Ra and Wizz-Ra, we learn Wizz-Ra was defeated and can only come back for one day every 7,000 years. There must be something to the 7,000 year part. And we also see in that episode that 7,000+ years ago, Mumm-Ra looked almost identical to his current appearance (I think there was a different cape or helmet, maybe not).

Landing in Africa makes sense. There are a lot of Egypian references surrounding Mumm-Ra, and while the Mutants are flying around in their ship, they fly over other pyramids and the Great Sphinx. And throughout the series, it appears to be a relatively short trip to get to Mumm-Ra’s pyramid.

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The wildstorm Comics, Origins offered a good explanation about Mumm-Ra’s connection with Egypt. He was once called Wahankh and was a member of the pharaoh’s council, yet again this can’t be taken for canon.
Merged Post:
Mumm-Ra came up with an idea of wearing special glasses so he couldn’t see his reflection but this happened much later in the Series in “The Mumm-Ra Berbil”. However, I always thought this was a lame way to beat the evil wizzard after a fight.

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Yeah, I remember that episode. That’s why I don’t get why Mumm-Ra didn’t come up with that earlier.

It is easier to hide a weakness from an enemy than to wait until your enemy knows the weakness and try to prevent them from exploiting it. For example, if Mumm-Ra had a weakpoint on his forehead and the ThunderCats found out about it, they’d try to knock his helmet off any chance they’d get. But they never knocked it off so they wouldn’t have found it, had there been one.

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The movie version lacks the scene in which the Mutants discuss how dull Third Earth is. “Nothing like the oceans of boiling foz and the scrum forests of Plun-Darr!”

I had always figured he was a Boar, given the pig nose and the big bottom fangs. Also, if I remember my Egyptian mythology, the boar is associated with the god, Set, as is the crocodile. So the Alligator is probably a Crocodile.

I know this is coming from WAY later in the series, but in “Touch of Amortus”, we learn that Mumm-Ra released Amortus once before, and that it was a group of ancient Thunderians who banished him to the Land of No Return. These ancient Thunderians had tails, much like the Stone Giants, which were “at least two thousand years old”. So, if Mumm-Ra was involved in Amortus’s attack on a group of Thunderians a thousand (or two thousand) years prior, then it’s reasonable to assume he might have encountered (or heard about) the Eye of Thundera way back then. Am I reaching?

Given Slithe’s relationship with Rataro, I like to think that maybe he, Monkian, and Jackalman are sort of outlaws. Not that they’re on the run, but that they’ve struck out on their own, forming a loose alliance and fleeing Plun-Darr in a stolen spacecraft to assault the Thunderian exodus. No one on Plun-Darr really cares what happened to them, especially after so much time has passed. The occasional appearance of other Mutants on Third Earth (Exodus, Fireballs of Plun-Darr, Trouble with ThunderKittens) is a plothole in desperate need of filling, though. And then there’s Vultureman!

I like that the writer’s put some thought into when this information became known to Mumm-Ra. In his next attempt to capture the Sword, in “Pumm-Ra”, he covers the Eye with a cloth, having learned Rule #2. Then, when he attempts to use it, he becomes sorely aware of Rule #1. This informs his next attempt, in “Garden of Delights”, when he enlists Tygra and Willa to do his bidding for him.

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Good catch on that extended scene Zax.

I did not think about a boar, but it very well could be. I always get mixed up on which is which between crocs and gators, I know one has a rounded nose and one has a more pointy one, one lives in salt water, the other in fresh water…

No, I don’t think it is reaching once we learn of the history between Amortis and Mumm-Ra. It is just that at this stage of the series it does not make sense. Plus, if Mumm-Ra has been all over the universe, why is he content to be sleeping away on the relatively nice and peaceful Third Earth?

I know the main Mutant force probably does not care, but in Exodus, there were 2 or 3 Mutant motherships in pursuit of the ThunderCat fleet. Did the other ship(s) decide to abandon Slithe? Or are they somewhere in space in a holding pattern and too incompetent to realize Slithe may be in trouble since they have failed to make contact for the last couple of months?

The other interesting fact in this first confrontation, even if the Sword had not been incapacitated, I don’t think Lion-O would have been able to defeat Mumm-Ra. It was pure luck on his part that the claw shield acted as a mirror and exploited a weakness of Mumm-Ra’s.

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His first incarnation was on Third Earth, perhaps it’s just a special place to him.

I only recalled seeing one Mutant motehr ship and many smaller attack ships, unless i wasn’t paying close attention.

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If we want to be accurate and track down Mumm-Ra’s first acquaintance with Thundera or the Thundercats generally we should see the whole picture as it is laid down in the 130 episodes and rely on some key facts. Amortus was banished by Thunderians to The Land of No Return and indeed he was brought back by Mumm-Ra but there is no mentioning when this incident actually occured and the Cat’s Stones might be there for an indefinite time, besides there seem to be other ‘races’ too turned to Stone which don’t remind of Thunderians at all. When Shadowmaster first appeared in Mumm-Ra’s cauldron, the Evil Sorcerer doesn’t seem to know anything of this " feared and powerful wizard of the whole Thundera". According to Shadowmaster’s story his banishment to the Shadow Realm took place eons ago before the destruction of Thundera. Mumm-Ra feels threatened and becomes afraid of being dethroned, one of the very few moments we see him behaving like that, even the Ancient Spirits show more respect for the Shadowmaster, hence his plan to help the Thundercats! Mumm-Ra has pitted his wits against many magicians across the Universe coming victorious in the end. He beat Zaxx, the most powerful wizard of the Southern hemisphere in Third Earth “lond ago” after a titanic battle. He fought the good Wizz-Ra"from the Ancient Times" sending him to the Seventh Dimension 7.000 years ago. Also, we listen to the imprisoned Brodo saying he was the strongest magiciam in Third Earth “many centuries ago” until Mumm-Ra tricked him into the Astral Prison. Mumm-Ra is aware of the ancient sorceress of Good, Mumm-Rana and manages to bring her under his control. Additionally, according to Snarf’s old tale of Queen Luna and the Magic Belt, Mumm-Rana stopped the wicked Queen Luna from enslaving the natives “in the Ancient days of Third Earth” and i guess Mumm-Ra should have known about both of them since the duel happened in Third Earth. To a further extent, Mumm-Ra summons from TombTown, the Ancient resting place of the greatest wizards and witches, the Alchemist Malcar who apparently goes way back in time and history.
Mumm-Ra who is so well versed in all forms of Evil wizardry with many references to the past and has a vast knowledge of places and figures from the four corners of the universe, how come and he is incognizant of the Shadowmaster of Thundera as well as his immense abilites? The paradox is that neither Shadowmaster knows of Mumm-Ra, he says emphatically at the begining: “This Eclipse will allow me to send a message to the Ancient Spirits of Evil” and adds in front of them " I can do what this misery mummy has failed to do".
My point is that if Mumm-Ra wasn’t fully aware of Shadowmaster’s existense who was the most prominent wizzard of Thundera, then it is impossible to have known of Thundera and the Thundercats. Now, the contradiction is this was supposed to have happened eons ago, but we see young Jaga alongside Claudus fighting against the Shadowmaster. I believe this must have been a mistake unless “eons” count different in Shadowmaster’s narration. However if the rest of the story is correct then Mumm-Ra wasn’t aware of the Thundercats and the planet of Thundera the time when Jaga and Claudus where at their prime.

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I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but Lordore’s post called to me, demanding a robust reply. :slight_smile:

You’ve left out the most important detail, which is that Mumm-Ra released Amortus in the first place. “I released you once before. […] You were treacheous. You tried to take on all the forces of good and become the dominant force of evil. I’m glad the Thunderians were able to banish you to the Land of No Return.” You’re right, we don’t know how long ago this happened. But it occurred long enough ago that the Thunderians in question had tails and looked far less humanoid. As for the presence of other races among Amortus’s victims, I don’t see how that’s relevant.

I’m making the following assumptions:
(1) Mumm-Ra became aware of the Thunderians’ successful imprisonment of Amortus around the time that it happened.
(2) The Eye of Thundera existed at the time and was used openly.
(3) Word of the Eye reached Mumm-Ra, possibly for the first time.

I’ll admit, that’s a lot of assumptions!

But what do we know? We know that Mumm-Ra claims to be aware of the Eye in “The Unholy Alliance.” He also knows Lion-O by name, and his title, “Lord of the ThunderCats.” You spend a great deal of energy and many many words, Lordore, trying to prove how impossible it is that Mumm-Ra could be aware of Thundera or of the ThunderCats. Why? The exercise should not be to prove why it’s impossible, but rather to figure out how it is possible. If we’re going off of facts, then it is a fact that Mumm-Ra is aware of the Eye’s existence. The question is how, and the Amortus affair is one possibility.

Why should we take the Shadowmaster at his word? He’s sweet-talking the ASOE, purposely embellishing his history in an effort to regain his freedom. The reality may be that he was fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and just fancies himself extremely important.

Ignoring the reality that he is telling his tale purely for our benefit as ignorant members of the audience, it is rather telling that Mumm-Ra, and more importantly the ASOE, have never heard of him. He’s hamming it up.

Well, it’s not eons before the destruction. It’s just eons ago. Since the ThunderCats were in suspension for that mysterious “ten galacto-year” period, perhaps it has been eons since the destruction. Or, if not, maybe Jaga and Claudus are just really, really old. :slight_smile:

This is reaching, mostly because I consider it a silly bit of writing on Peter Lawrence’s part, but in “ThunderCubs!”, Tygra estimates that the trip to New Thundera will take “half a Thunderian eon”, to which Cheetara replies, “That’s great. We won’t even have to use the suspension capsules.” So perhaps an eon isn’t very long.

This is your principle argument: that because Mumm-Ra has never heard of the Shadowmaster, he must have had no knowledge of Thundera or the Eye prior to the ThunderCats’ arrival on Third Earth. I’m sorry, but I don’t see how this follows logically. Lack of knowledge of one thing does not preclude knowledge of another tangentially related thing.

Logically, “If Mumm-Ra doesn’t know about the Shadowmaster, then he doesn’t know about the ThunderCats” is the same as “If Mumm-Ra knows about the ThunderCats, then he knows about the Shadowmaster,” and I don’t buy that. Mumm-Ra’s familiarity with the ThunderCats could simply predate the Shadowmaster’s “reign of terror,” during which his interest in Thundera was negligible. I knew about the ThunderCats for about ten years before I heard of the Shadowmaster. Maybe, like me, Mumm-Ra missed an episode or two. :wink:

With the possible exception of Malcar (I haven’t watched that ep in a while), all the characters you mentioned (Wiz-Ra, Zaxx, Brodo, Mumm-Rana) were localized to Third Earth. Mumm-Ra’s familiarity with them follows purely from proximity. If the Shadowmaster was gallivanting around Thundera terrorizing people, only to be defeated fairly easily by Claudus and Jaga, perhaps the whole incident just escaped Mumm-Ra’s attention. Perhaps it coincided with something more pressing on Third Earth. I have no idea. I’m making all this up. But my point is, I don’t think a lack of familiarity with the Shadowmaster necessitates a lack of familiarity with Thundera, the ThunderCats, or the Eye.

ETA: And now, back to “The Unholy Alliance.”

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No worries. The thread didn’t get derailed. We just got ahead of ourselves by about 100 episodes. :slight_smile:

I had thought the last 20 episodes would be a boring section as they didn’t appear to have much to do with the first 110, but I think we can agree some of those episodes will be quite interesting to discuss in more detail.

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Thanks for your response zaxfactor, am always happy to go into lengthy details and hidden meanings.

I laid down all the facts in chronological order and took into account every significant information referring to the past so as to come to a reasonable conclusion, I am not trying to prove anything is impossible or possible regarding Mumm-Ra’s knowledge of Thundera and Thundercats. I wanted to find out, like many of us here, when this first happened. The important points are already there by the writers to help us shed some light on this interesting issue without relying merely on assumptions. We should also keep in mind that in Fantasy, the time is quite relative and not clearly expressed, for instance do we know how many years exactly had passed by the time Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith and fought his son later in Return of the Jedi?

The closest source straight from the show revealing when Mumm-Ra discovered the Sword and the Thundercats as well, which I rationally presume since it is directly connected to them as the eminent part of their legacy and they go hand in hand, is early in the episode “Unholly Alliance”. The Evil Wizard uttered the following words: "I have known of its power for a thousand years, from a time when this was still First Earth». However, by putting together the pieces of the puzzle, something doesn’t fit right. Read below the points to help you judge better by yourself, I took the facts exactly as they were presented during the 130 episodes and not suggesting that Shadowmaster lied or neglecting some testimonies of the story.

  1. The oldest reference we have of Mumm-Ra is 7,000 years ago when he beat and sent Wizz-Ra to the Seventh Dimension.
    2)Mumm-Ra freed Amortus from the Land of No Return where he[Amortus] was banished by the Thunderians -no Time is given of this event.
  2. The Giant Stone Statues in ‘Thundercubs pt.1’ are described by Bengali and Lynx-o as Thundercats of the First Age and at least 2000 years old.
  3. The Ancient-tailed Thundercats you mentioned have little resemblance to the Giant Stones, they differ above all in height. I don’t think they are too 2000 years old.
  4. Mumm-Ra seems panic stricken and almost fell of his chair by the greatness of Shadowmaster, he isn’t aware of the fierce battle between Jaga, Claudus and Shadowmaster which is said to have taken place eons ago before the destruction of Thundera. Also, Shadowmaster was supposed to be the most powerful wizard in the whole Thundera, how come Mumm-Ra had heard of Ratilla the Terrible as well as many other great magicians and crucial incidents across the Galaxy but nothing of him? This isn’t an argument to be taken lightly or simply ignore it. I agree with you that eons ago, despite being stated twice in the episode by Jaga and Shadowmaster himself (you can check it out), is an overstatement confusing things even further but any citation to Thundera’s history, let alone to those 2 notable characters (Jaga, Clauds) has a special gravity.
  5. Mumm-ra is very familiar with the history of the destruction of Thundera in ‘Thundercubs pt.2’
  6. One thing is certain about Jaga’s age, “many centuries ago” he was still young when he released the samurai from the Double-Headed Dragon of Doom, additionally according to the Ancient Spirits narration Jaga was also “Lord of the Thundercats” at that time.
  7. Mumm-Ra tells Mutants that he knows of the Sword’s powers for almost 1000 years.

The only logical way for all the above points to fall into the right place and be coherent is if Jaga and Claudus are very, very old! Mumm-Ra first learned of the Thundercat’s existence, 1000 years ago, Shadowmaster was cast away by Thundera much earlier and the Ancient- tailed Thunderians were around Jaga’s age. Probably through Amortus, word of the Eye reached Mumm-Ra possibly for the first time, like you suggested. Mumm-Ra has also referred to a period of “thee Thunderian ages ago” when he possessed the Golden Sphere of Setti and his power then was even greater than the Ancient Spirits of Evil. I think it’s kind of difficult to track down exactly Mumm-Ra’s first appearance and how far his knowledge of the universe extended.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that Jaga and Claudus or Thunderians generally have such a long lifespan!

About the trip to new Thundera don’t forget that the Feliner has undergone many technical improvements and the Thundercats took from the RatStar’s wreckage and installed the hyper-space mega-condenser to their first air-ship invention, that’s how the Feliner became operational and flew to the planet of Snarfers and I guess after Panthro and Tygra added, later in the series, the hyper-drive units the ship became even better and could reach Thundera in no time without the need of suspension capsules.

The reason why the rest of the Mutant minion don’t come searching for Monkian, Jackalman and Slithe is because the communication module on their ship was destroyed when Mumm-ra sank it in the desert. He says at some point “Gone forever along with the hope of ever summoning any other Mutant ships, you are now stranded in Third Earth…”

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Mumm-Ra is the most frightening villain in any cartoon I watched as a kid, without question (although D’Compose does deserve some recognition as well). He makes an immediate impact and his introduction was nothing short of perfection.

Great reviews man! I’m loving these.