Kit and Kat... ages?

Cartoons ThunderCats (1985)
1

As I’m eating my morning snack of a Kit Kat, I figured this is the time to ask the question. When I watched the series originally as a kid I assumed that Lion-o, Kit, and Kat were all kids. In my mind I figured Lion-o’s stasis chamber had a small leak and that’s why he aged as much as he did while Kit and Kat didn’t age at all. This idea served me well, but now that I’m slowly rewatching the series I’m beginning to question this a bit.

First of all, if the chamber malfunctioned it would seem to me that it wouldn’t just malfunction a “little bit.” If it started to fail it wouldn’t just work at a 95% level and allow some aging but still keep the person in a coma.

Second, even if it did fail like that, there’s no way a body could grow that much without a lot of fuel added it. Now, it’s possible that the stasis chamber provide fuel to the bodies… in fact it would likely have to unless it was doing a total freeze and then thaw. But it would only give a small portion of food. I doubt it would be setup to allow for considerably more fuel to be added if the chamber started leaking.

Yes, I know that it’s a little silly to try to apply logic and all that to a cartoon. I mean if we can accept that there is a planet out there that happens to have a human-like species that just happen to be based on Earth felines, well, is it that much of a stretch to figure that a stasis chamber might leak like that? But I like my scifi to be at least internally logically consistent, and this doesn’t seem to fit.

So, what does Lion-o’s growing have to do with Kit and Kat’s ages? Well, I recently read a script of a movie that never was made. In the script it implied that while Kit and Kat appear young not only in terms of height but also in appearance of face and features, they were actually adults. Just that their particular strain of Feline only gets so big.

This makes a lot of logically inconsistencies go away:

Why are two kids part of the high council of the Thundercats? They aren’t kids, just young looking.

Why does Lion-o age when Kit and Kat don’t? They all aged the same amount. It just happened that this was during Lion-o’s grow spurt time while everyone else, including Kit and Kat, were adults. (A 10-year old human who ages 10 years will grow a lot while a 30 year old human who ages 10 years will not change as dramatically.)

Why does Lion-o get locked in the sword chamber but Kit and Kat are allowed to fight the mutants when the ship is first attacked? Why does Lion-o have a nursemaid (snarf) while Kit and Kat don’t? Again, Kit and Kat are adults, just young-looking adults.

I kinda like this idea… but, it doesn’t solve everything unfortunately. I remember at least a couple of times where Kit and Kat were forced to stay home when the adults when to go deal with some trouble. This would seem to indicate that they are still viewed as kids by the other ThunderCats. The others certainly don’t seem to treat them as equals in the cartoons… at least not that I remember.

So how do most of y’all think of Kit and Kat? Are they youngins or just young looking adults?

Given that most of the logical inconstancies happen in the first handful of episodes while Kit and Kat are treated as kids throughout the series, I suspect that most of us just few them as kids and deal with the inconsistencies the same way we deal with a villain who’s head is a floating yellow skull or the fact that GIJoe and Cobra can fire thousands of laser shots at each other and yet some how no one actually dies.

Sorry for the long post… I tend to ramble. :slight_smile:

2

I like the idea that Kit and Kat are just underdeveloped adults, though I can think of a few inconsistencies with that. Watching the cartoon I’ve always thought they acted like (and were treated like) they were about 10 years old throughout the series. I can’t pull out any specific examples right now, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Further, in the Wildstorm Thundercats: The Return mini-series (set in the future) we see we see Kit and Kat have aged to early adulthood, again implying that they were children in the original cartoon. (I realize this mini-series may not be considered canon.)

I like many parts of your argument against Kit and Kat being kids though, especially concerning Lion-O’s cracked suspension pod. All I can offer is that the cats must not have been travelling nearly as far from Thundera to Third Earth as Charlton Heston and his crew did when they landed on the Planet of the Apes.

3

i think they aged throuout the show and it seemed to me as though it ended w them being bout at most 16 yrs old

4

I am of the opinion that Kit and Kat are of a breed of cat that does not get very large. There is an old thread where I went into greater detail: http://www.thundercatslair.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3329 Basically, I feel that Kit and Kat are actually a couple years older than Lion-O, but as Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O cannot allow himself to act his age. He has to act more mature and lead the ThunderCats. Meanwhile, there is no reason Kit and Kat can’t still act like the young adults they are (think college “kids”). In the episodes where Lion-O and the ThunderKittens are alone, Lion-O seems to un-mature and act more like Kit and Kat almost as if he is relaxing and letting his guard down. And the fact they participated in fighting off the Mutant breach in Exodus does give this theory a good point. As for why Kit and Kat are often left to protect the Lair instead of heading out with the rest of the ThunderCats, well Snarf also gets that duty a lot and no one claims he is too young. I feel it is just a case of they lack special abilities and therefore are the least useful on the battleground, therefore they are the best suited for being on guard duty.

5

Well, we have at least some canonical information… I just watched the Mongor episode (19), where Kit and Kat release Mongor from his tomb. When Kit and Kat fess up to the other cats that it was they who released Mongor, the adults start to berate them. Snarf steps in and interrupts saying that they are just kids and that they should go easy on them.

Now, of course, we don’t know what “kids” means to Thundercats. Even to Humans “kids” can cover a broad range depending on who’s saying it. (ie, a 20-year-old would probably say “kids” about someone 13 or less while a 40-year old might say it of someone 20 or less…) And of course we don’t know a lot about Thunderan levels of growth and maturity. So, while we can’t pin down exactly where on the spectrum between toddler-to-late teen the Wileys are, we can know for sure that they are considered kids by the the other cats, not just adults of a smaller subspecies of Thunderan.

Alright, just because I’m never content to leave well enough alone, let’s try and narrow down their ages a bit more. If I recall correctly, when the cats first got out of the pods of third earth the other commented that Lion-o looked to have aged about 10 years. Then later in the first year of the season Lion-o turns 20 and much go through the trials of anointment. Assuming this happened within the first year or two of the cats landing on Third Earth, that would put Lion-o at around 10 years old at the time of the Exodus. At the time of the Exodus the Wileys also appear to be older than Lion-o. This seems to be supported by the fact that they are allowed to fight the invaders while Lion-o is locked in the sword chamber (though this might also be attributed to the fact that as the Lord of the Thundercats, he’s more valuable and needs to be protected over the others).

Based on this evidence, I would guess that Kit and Kat are around 13-16 years old, and that Thundercats age at a similar rate to Humans. This would seem to fit with them being allowed to go off on their own, but not being considered full adults yet.

6

They don’t really look mature enough, uh, puberty-wise, to be in their early teens. I’ve always thought of them as being about 11.

How much later were the Wildstorm comics set? That could give some clue, even if they’re not exactly canon.

7

In episode 15. The Time Capsule, Jaga flat out states Lion-O was only 12 when they fled Thundera. Elsewhere in the series, Tygra noted that Lion-O spent 10 galacto years in suspension so depending on whatever a galacto year is…you get his accelerated physical age.

The twins are referred to as kids a few times, so they are meant to be youths. Their exact age I don’t know. Cartoon network used to run fact files on them, and those stated their ages at 12 (I think cheezey has a screen shot of those on her site). Canon basis for that is questionable.

8

Very good theory on the siblings.
Personally, I think that both of them were among the most formidable ThunderCats on the battle-ground. They had a great strategy, always working together and coordinating their moves. They sure were very ressourceful!
I think they were meant to be older than Lion-O, but not as old as the other ThunderCats. Without a doubt, Lion-O was much closer to their age, than he was to Tygra, or Cheetara, and much less Panthro, who I view as the oldest and most experienced of the bunch.
I like the idea of them being underdeveloped young adults, it makes a lot of sense for the reasons cited.
The fact of them being told to stay “at home” sometimes might have been more due to the others not trusting them at time due to them being a little impulsive rather than level-headed. Plus, they pretty much were accustomed to do everything together coordinating their moves with one another… maybe the other ThunderCats thought they didn’t interact well in battle with them?
I confess that I never gave much thought to the matter… but I really like the idea of them being young adults, makes a lot of sense to me.

9

I had this very question as well after watching the pilot and I have some evidence that both helps the theory of them being adults as well as evidence that proves it wrong. Like many I read online that Lion-O’s chamber leaked which is the reason he grew and not the others, however this is not in the pilot or the first 25 episodes at least.

Anyways in the pilot Jaga mentions that even though you are in the suspension chamber some aging does occur, this is the reason they let Jaga drive the ship since he wouldn’t have made it to Third Earth anyways. Lion-O also remembers Jaga telling him this when he first see’s that he’s grown up. Of course like we saw the others did not age at all and not only that but they didn’t seem shocked to see Lion-O grown up, at least not too much. An explanation could be that Thunderrians have a long lifespan so that is why they still look the same and Lion-O was in the growing process.

As far as Willykit/kat like I mentioned the theory makes sense even if I don’t like it however it is contradicted since they mention they are kids on various occasions and the reason they can’t venture with the other Thundercats, not to mention they act like kids. However in Lion-O’s Anointment they mention how they were all selected to take care of young Lion-O and I forgot the speech but it basically implied they were all adults selected to take care of the young Lion-O, so why would they select kids the age of Lion-O?

I think I’m going to go with the theory that they all aged since that is backed up by the show itself, and to explain the inconsistency of their ages since Panthro/Chee/Tygra were already adults its not noticeable, Lion-O aged during his growth spurt which is why he grew and WilyKit/Kat are of a different species that does age but their adult cycle begins later which is why they are still young/kids for their species even if they grew the same 10 years Lion-O did (Who really looks more like 30 and not 22).

10

That kind of makes sense, and also lends in to the theory that Kit and Kat may represent something like a house cat more than a wild cat.

11

I don’t know where did this guy take the info from (it’s a Spanish blog after all, and I have never read neither heard any reference to ages), but according to him, these are the TCs ages:

Lion-O = 11 (when Thundera was destroyed… remember his capsule broke, so he grew up phisically but not psychologically)
Tygra = 29
Panthro = 32
Cheetara = 26
Wilykat / Wilykit = 12

No mention about the new TCs’ ages.

http://pensaderoarundhelsnape.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

Merged Post:

I think they were actually kids. Panthro, Tygra and Cheetara (even Lion-O in some occasions) referred as them as the kids (for example, in Safari Joe), and treated them like kids too (not to say they acted like ones themselves); I think they used to call them “the thunderkittens” as well… or was it Mumm-Ra and the mutants?

BUT, I also think that they wouldn’t have grown too much given the fact that they’re based on the wild cat, so maybe the writers found there a way to combine both facts.

As for why they were chosen to take care of “young Lion-O”, maybe because he had no siblings and they considered it important for his growing process (kind of jesters in the middle age… movies picture jesters as funny characters but truth is jesters were really smart people, usually nobles, who were close in age to the prince-to be, so he would have a partner to grow up with). It might also have been a Thunderian tradition that the Lord-to-be trains with TCs of all kind of ages.

12

I’m also thinking they are about 11 years old.