Inconsistencies and Things that don't make sense

Cartoons ThunderCats (1985)
1

In the original cartoon, what things have you noticed that seem to be inconsistencies and what things have you noticed that don’t seem to make sense?

Inconsistencies:

Why do sometimes the Thunderkittens or Snarf have to stay home to help guard Cats Lair and other times everyone shows up to help Lion-O when he summons for help?

Why does the Sword of Omens know when a ThunderCat is in danger but only sometimes? For example, in “Trapped” it didn’t recognize that the Thunderkittens were in trouble but Cheetara’s sixth sense knew that they were.

Things that don’t make sense:
In “The Transfer,” Mumm-Ra can fly, so why does he proceed to climb up his pyramid while holding the device?

2

It’s called “plot device”.

3

MY biggest worry, which isn’t actually an inconsistancy but a query, is why did Tygra manifested his secret ‘mind powers’ to only one episode-The trial of Mind powers-? Ok, the explanation of putting great strain on him is kind of lame, Cheetara’s ‘sixth sense’ caused her the same exact problem, yet she used it in many episodes.

4

It’s true, the sword did seem to keep its own opinions on who needed help the most and when, lol.

It is strange that they would introduce this awesome new power and then in the same episode basically announce that they wouldn’t be using it again, lol. It’s like they were warning us, “Btw, don’t get used to this!” Lol

Perhaps they decided Cheetara was the one who needed something extra to make her standout. That’s always the difficulty writing for female characters; you don’t want them to fade into the background and just be “the girl.”

5

The sword of omens and its warning growl. In the episode Excaliber, why didnt it warn Lion-o THAT YOUR LETTING MUMM-RA IN YOUR FREAKING LAIR?! or in Mumm-ra the Berbil why didnt it warn him while he was making s’more that YOUR FELLOW FRIENDS ARE LETTING MUMM-RA IN YOUR FREAKING LAIR?!

Tygra and the mind powers. I"M EPIC AND COOL! Buuut only this episode. Sorry yea’ll. I’ll go back to being the nerd with an addictive personality…

Cheetara’s staff…what…cant it do? Pole vault? Cage thingy? Weird T…thingy…shoot energy…same with the kittens tricks and belts…what capsules dont they have? Giant inflatable dino? Giant bat..thingy? Gah…

6

Well, at least they were consistent about Tygra’s addictive personality! Lol ; )

7

The sword’s growl was something that always intrigued me. Not only that it just warned Lion-O in some episodes (I’ll add “Pumm-Ra” here to those Sepphara pointed out), but that thing usually waited for ALL the TCs to be captured or inn trouble to warn Lion-O about it. Think of Mongor: he defeated Tygra, then Cheetara, and then Panthro, and just then the sword warned Lion-O… wouldn’t it have been better of it warned Lion-O as soon as Tygra got captured, so Lion-O could summon the others and together defeat Mongor and help Tygra, plus preventing the others from getting captured as well? There were many pes like that, but I can’t remember now.

Tygra’s mind power has already been discussed like for ever, but it also bothered me that they insisted in the fact that he needed the bolowhip to turn invisible, when we say him doing it without the bolowhip in at least 3 eps: “Exodus”, “Pumm-Ra” and “The Trial of Mind Power”.

Same thing with his inability to swim, when we saw him swiming before in “Fireballs from Plun-Darr”. Tygra seems one of the characters that presented more inconsistencies.

In “Safari Joe” they said Cheetara can’t keep her fast speed under high temperatures… I’m pretty sure (not 100% though) that she was able to do it in other eps.

When Lion-O grew up in “Exodus”, his clothes were torn (wonder where they got another suit for him), but when he turned into a baby in “Time Switch”, his clothes shrunk with him. Same with Tygra: his clothes fit his body when he turned old in “Trouble with Time”, but they didn’t in “Crystal Canyon” (they got loose there)… and same when the TCs turned into kids in “ThunderCubs” and “Return of the ThunderCubs”… so sometimes the clothes shrunk and sometimes they didn’t.

Why didn’t Tygra turn invisible in so many episodes that it would have been helpful (for example: “Safari Joe”)? Also with Panthro, why didn’t he use his spikes in so many ocassions? It was like sometimes the TCs forgot about all their powers and weapons.

In “Mad Bubbler” Jaga told Lion-O the only ones who could get into the cave were Snarf and Snarfer because there was no evil or bad feelings in them, but in “Bracelet of Power”, Snarf showed to be jealous of the TCs, resented with them, and abused his power over them.

And so amny others I can’t remember now :smiley:

8

Well I can just picture the writers going, “OK so we’ll make Tygra afraid of water. What’s that? Oh, we had him swimming in the last episode? Oh dear…ummm…Well…he can swim…but only if he’s invisible! Yeah that’s it!” :D:rolleyes:

9

Also upsetting that Tigers are one of the only large cats who love to swim. They are very good in the water, but..lets just forget that fact and mess Tygra up more. haha.

I forgot Pumm-ra as well, but yes, the sword likes to make things difficult, but then again if it went off at any trouble we wouldnt have any episodes it seems. SO why even bother having that warning growl? Why not just let Lion-o keep tabs on things with SBS?

More are going to be brought up in this topic I know, and its going to irritate me. Just because it was a kids cartoon dosnt mean it has to be choppy.

10

Sure! :smiley:

Although, to be fair, being afraid of water and being unable to swim are two different things :wink: I think Tygra couldn’t swim (he didn’t know ho to swim), but he wasn’t afraid of water.

11

Hmm, well that’s certainly true, hehe. :thumbsup:

About the Sword of Omens again (SPOILERS!!):

Throughout the whole Crystal Canyon episode, Lion-O is worried about how Tygra’s being affected by the Keystone and doesn’t seem to know how to fix the situation. But at the very end, of course, it’s Lion-O using the Sword of Omens that cures Tygra of his dependency. I guess because, as usual, whenever Lion-O uses the sword, the other Thundercats are inspired to drop everything and come to his aid, so to speak. So…why didn’t Lion-O think to try that earlier in the episode? :eek:

12

Yeah, the sword seems to snap them out of anything, it’s like “Haven’t you figured that out yet? Try that first.”

13

::claps hands together and laughs:: Yes, exactly! Lol

I mean, at least have an episode where Lion-O tries to use the sword first and finds it doesn’t work. Jaga then appears and says, “Sorry, Lion-O, you still have to learn today’s lesson!” :thumbsup:

14

My least favorite inconsistency is that in “Exodus” Panthro talks about atmospheric compatibility and in a much later one we see characters in space with no problems breathing whatsoever. :confused:

15

Yes. That annoyed the heck out of me too. And also underwater as well? What happened to needing the diving gear like in that earlier episode with the Seahorses? Ugh. headdesk

16

Why didn’t he think of using the sword earlier in EVERY episode? :smiley:

Oh right, because if eh did, there wouldn’t be any episode at all :wink:

17

Everyone has made really good observations. I do wish they had done more with Tygra’s mental powers. I always felt there was so much potential left untouched with his character. He was secretive which we realized when each time his inhibitions were taken away, we discovered he’d been a painfully shy child who wished he had more confidence than he did, they could have explored that. He demonstrated amazing mental abilities in just one episode, they could have explored that.

I can understand that. Lion-O was a 13 year old boy trapped in a man’s body, I can understand him not always thinking of an answer right away. If that were so, he should have seen the affects the keystone was having on Tygra and forced it away from him. But Lion-O, Lord of the ThunderCats, shyed back in spite of the obvious physical signs of Tygra’s addiction let alone the change in Tygra’s personality.

And didn’t he summon the Eye only after an enemy showed up as a threat? I don’t think he summoned the eye just for Tygra. I don’t think he ever thought of summoning the eye to help his friend.
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Although when they were on the moons of Thundera, or whatever they were, they wore devices that helped them jump long distances or did they help them from floating away? Didn’t those have breathing devices on them?

18

Now Herald…there you go ruining the story by thinking logically.!!!:p. I agree, these inconsistencies were bothersome. I too thought about the tiger + water thing. Tigers are great swimmers and one of the few cats that don’t mind it. The breathing in space thing was a head shaker too. I chalk it up to lazy writing.

19

Oh now it’s still one of their best episodes, even with the little inconsistencies, hehe. :smiley:

The breathing in space thing, well so many cartoons or movies have done it, it’s not even worth pointing out anymore, lol.

20

I’m just going to hope the new series has much better consistency. He can swim, he suddenly can’t swim. He’s afraid of spiders… now it’s bats. The sword can do this, now this, now that, suddenly lost the ability to do this other…

I know I’m ADD, but did you really think I wouldn’t notice?