I like Mongor because it’s one of the rare occasions where the Catchphrase proves completely ineffectual! Well, I suppose the Kittens follow its beam, but it doesn’t magically give the others the strength to escape their prisons, that only happens when we see Mongor’s powers weakening later.
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You know why didn’t Mumm-Ra just give them nightmares so bad it made them afraid to sleep at night and they all became insomniacs and couldn’t fight? He also should have gone after Lion-O as well to ensure they all lost.
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While initially that seems like a better “power” for Mongor, I think it is better that he did not use their fears. I say this because Mongor’s mere appearance is quite intimidating. He is a beefy goat demon with sparking horns and a huge Scythe. He is a bit like the Grim Reaper. You see him and you shudder. :eek Giving him the power to “see” other fears and utilize them against them would have been overkill, I feel. He doesn’t really need to exploit others’ fears as he can induce them himself with his mere presence.
On the other hand, it is usually the physically weak villains who utilize others fears because they by themselves have no power or strength. Like how DC comics’ “Scarecrow” does. He is a thin ordinary man who uses his chemicals to bring out people’s fears and thus give him the upper hand. In contrast, a tough guy like say Bane does not need to do such things.
So I personally feel that it is better that Mongor just used his own appearance and powers to induce fear. And on a side not I really dislike that Lion-O’s greatest fear is the destruction of his planet. Sure that is a very disturbing and tragic memory, but a phobia? It just doesn’t make sense. And he is a kid after all, so he should have a LOT of fears. Fears of things that we ordinary people often have.
Even after all these years, I still confuse between the two episodes because they are so similar. I wonder what Peter Lawrence was doing when he approved both these scripts? 
A bit like “Nightmare on Elm Street”? That actually would have been a lot better story! :thumbsup
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What Peter Lawrence was doing when he approved those scripts was making sure the template of “other characters captured/hypnotised, Lion-O is in peril on his own, uses the catchphrase to save the day” was adhered to. Mechanical Plague is another example, in this case one he wrote himself. And that if anything underlines the problem with the template more perfectly than any other episode.
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I agree. It’d have been better if, because of the dfestruction of his home planet, Lion-O got a fear derived from it, like to feel alone and without the help of the TCs (I know he has been alone in any opportunities, but he knew there were the others to rely on), or something like that, and that the destruction of Thundera was on the base of it, but not the fear itself.
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It is a bit odd. Why should you be afraid of something that happened in your past and isn’t going to happen again?
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That’s what I thought when I watched the trial of mind power. That’s why I say Lion-O’s greatest fear could derive from that, but not be precisely that.
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The dreammaster episode was boring and how would capturing a dream self even kill you? It’s just a projection of your subconsciousness. What happens in dream doesn’t affect the real world. and Yes, just like Nightmare on Elm Street. I mean Mumm-Ra is supposed to be nightmare fuel anyway and he actually caused nightmares for a lot of kids way back when. He could have made himself even freakier like he could have made himself look like mongor or something.
As for Mongor himself he kind of reminds me of the goat man a Cryptid in parts of the United tates or the Jersey Devil. He is rather freaky looking.
I liked “Dream Master” as a kid, but I agree with you in that capturing your dreams shouldn’t be lethal. I know when people don’t sleep well, they get tired and it an be lethal then, but there were so many odd things in that episode:
[ul]
[li]By capturing their dream-selves, Mumm-Ra made the TCs sleep, not stay awake, so they shopuldn’t be tired. For example, I never got why they dozed off in the ThunderTank while fighting the Mutants. They should have been well-rested instead (in spite of haveing a “nightmarish” night LOL).[/li][li]How exactly was Mumm-Ra supposed to use that against Lion-O? Besides having teh TCs slept like for ever, did he plan to use the dream-selves toa ttck him? What was the purpose? [/li]
[li]Or how was he going to enslave the TCs? Could he make them do his will by having their dream-selves in those flasks? No sense at all, even more because the TCs couldn’t be awaken. [/li][/ul]
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The episode is a huge mess, Tygra. Nothing made sense and it kind of felt like Mumm-Ra was just making things up as he went along. I thought he was supposed to be smart. lol
Basically that whole episode was dodgy. It is one of the best (i.e. worst) examples of what was wrong with the series. So many episodes stick to this templated format of Mumm-Ra or some other villain(s) capture/enslave all the Thundercats except Lion-O, he’s squaring off against Mumm-Ra or whoever at the end, calls out the catchphrase and suddenly the other Thundercats become magically OK again. Much as I love Thundercats, this element of the show, the catchphrase as a fix-all, has always left me cold.
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Woulda been funny if somebody came up behind him while he was shouting that and smacked him upside the head and told him to shut up.
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As was the writer of that episode I bet!
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Speaking of rewriting episodes somebody should re-write the Zaxx factor so it stops being a huge contradiction to the entire series. If you need to know why please jump to my rant on the subject.
Another thing I’d change on “Mongor” is the fact that Lion-O defeated him by turning his back and not looking at Mongor. I think it’d have been better to say the bets way to defeat far is br confronting it, not turning on it. I understand the “don’t give him importance” thing, but still it’d have been better to confront fear.
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They did that face your fears thing better in “rise of the guardians”.
And in “Defenders Of The Earth”. The episode “Sleeper Awakes” - which coincidentally is one of the episodes for this week’s ROCKS discussion (see the Other Cartoons forum here).
Let’s not forget any episode of Batman TAS featuring the Scarecrow.
I didn’t “forget” them, I’ve never seen the show so I wasn’t aware of them in the first place! A possible future candidate for the ROCKS discussions?
Maybe?