Lion-O's Anointment Trial against Tygra

[The_Living_Ooze]

So, for the longest time, it really bugged me that Lion-O’s trials against Panthro, Cheetara, and the ThunderKittens made perfect sense with those characters’ strengths, yet his trial against my favorite ThunderCat, Tygra, seemed to be pulled out of thin air. I mean, “mind power”? Really?

But I just saw on ThunderCats Wiki that that was technically thought of as “The Trial of Intelligence”, but just referred to as “Mind Power” in the story title and script. And since Tygra was the most intelligent or intellectual, that does make sense to think of it that way; I just wish it were called “intelligence” instead of “mind-power”.

But, before I saw that and reconciled that thought in my mind, lol, I’d often thought that instead of “mind power”, I would have much preferred the trial against Tygra to be based on Tygra’s greatest physical strength (like strength or speed): his agility.

Agility is listed at various sites as one of Tygra’s great strengths, and indeed we see how agile and gymnast-like he is in his combat. I think a good story would be for “Lion-O’s Anointment: The Trial of Agility” to take place in the Tree-Top Kingdom, home of Willa and the Warrior Maidens. Something like, Tygra could tell Lion-O they are to start at one end of the forest and thread their way through the tree tops of the kingdom to the other side, and the first one to do so, without touching the ground, and exit the forest is the winner.

And Willa and her Warrior Women could try to fend off the Mutants when they approach the forest, along with the other ThunderCats running to help them.

Anyway, that’s the little anointment fantasy I’ve had until I saw that about the initial meaning of “intelligence” behind “mind power”.

I do think one thing that bothers me about the whole mind power thing is the fact that it was never mentioned before, and never mentioned again. Now, not having it mentioned before is one thing, cause it kinda neat hearing Panthro explain to the ThunderKittens that the tiger clan has that special mind power and that Tygra’s been saving it up for Lion-O’s trial, but on the other hand, they could have at least have had him use it one other time to make it a little more substantial.

[thezaxfactor]

The unprecedented nature of Tygra’s mind power aside, I think that the illusions Lion-O had to confront were a decent test. As Lord, will he take things at face value, or will he think before acting? Will he allow his own fears to get in the way, or will he be able to look past them? These are important questions that his performance in the preceding trials didn’t answer.

And it’s not just about intelligence, but also thoughtfulness and self-reflection. So, “Mind Power” doesn’t refer just to Tygra’s power of creating illusions, but also to Lion-O’s own mental fortitude. It might be a silly phrase, but it encompasses more than “Trial of Intelligence” would, and is actually a rather apt description of the Trial.

In my mind, none of the Trials are really about what they claim to be about. Cheetara’s trial is much more about confidence and perseverance than Speed. Panthro’s trial is more about ingenuity under pressure than Strength. And the Kittens’ trial winds up being more about diplomacy and loyalty than Cunning. As for Mumm-Ra’s trial, we can chalk it up to Foolhardy Thunderian Tradition.

The important part of all of this is that the qualities of a leader are not strength, speed, cunning, and smarts. They’re ingenuity, confidence, loyalty, and acumen, among others, all of which were tested. That’s the beauty of the Trials. On the surface, they’re about besting his peers, but underneath they’re about so much more.

[Tygra_Rules]

I see both of your points.

One hand, it also bothered me that the trial against Tygra was such thing, given the fact that, as Living Ooze said, that trait of Tygra was never mentioned before, and never mentioned after the trial. I watched every episode looking for Tygra to use his mind powers (other than invisibility, which, I repeat, he could turn invisible without the whip and did it sometimes) at least once. I also thought of “the trial of inteligence” when I was a kid, but then realized it didn’t make justice to the trial neither Tygra, and it would have been really hard to mhandle, I think. I mean, what would it habve been about? Solving crosswords in the lesser time?

Now, the trial of agility would have been good (I never thought of that), because Tygra did seem one of the most agiles TC: his jumps, when he walked in the tree brnaches or over we his whip, etc. But I think all of the trials required some agility at some point, especially Cheetara and the kittens’.

Now, I agree with Zax in that the trials were about way more than what they intended by their names.

[The_Living_Ooze]

Wow zax, you’ve really thought out these trials! lol

@thezaxfactor

The unprecedented nature of Tygra’s mind power aside, I think that the illusions Lion-O had to confront were a decent test. As Lord, will he take things at face value, or will he think before acting? Will he allow his own fears to get in the way, or will he be able to look past them? These are important questions that his performance in the preceding trials didn’t answer.

Ahh, very good points…

@thezaxfactor

“Mind Power” doesn’t refer just to Tygra’s power of creating illusions, but also to Lion-O’s own mental fortitude.

You’re right…I didn’t think of that, simply because the whole “Tygra has special mind powers that he only ever uses once and we never mention it again” thing always bugged me so darned much.

@thezaxfactor

In my mind, none of the Trials are really about what they claim to be about. Cheetara’s trial is much more about confidence and perseverance than Speed. Panthro’s trial is more about ingenuity under pressure than Strength. And the Kittens’ trial winds up being more about diplomacy and loyalty than Cunning.

Wow…I honestly never thought about them this deeply before. Another good word for the Kittens’ trial would be compassion. And I do see your point, but as a kid it was so much fun to identify the trials with the greatest strengths of the ThunderCats: The Trial of Strength, The Trial of Speed, The Trial of Cunning…

@thezaxfactor

The important part of all of this is that the qualities of a leader are not strength, speed, cunning, and smarts. They’re ingenuity, confidence, loyalty, and acumen, among others, all of which were tested. That’s the beauty of the Trials. On the surface, they’re about besting his peers, but underneath they’re about so much more.

True, but “The Trial of Ingenuity”, “The Trial of Confidence”, “The Trial of Loyalty”, and “The Trial of Acumen” just don’t have the same ring to them, lol.

@Tygra_Rules

I see both of your points.

One hand, it also bothered me that the trial against Tygra was such thing, given the fact that, as Living Ooze said, that trait of Tygra was never mentioned before, and never mentioned after the trial. I watched every episode looking for Tygra to use his mind powers (other than invisibility, which, I repeat, he could turn invisible without the whip and did it sometimes) at least once.

Thank you, Tygra_Rules—it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who has always been really bothered by that! lol

@Tygra_Rules

Now, the trial of agility would have been good (I never thought of that), because Tygra did seem one of the most agiles TC

@Tygra_Rules

But I think all of the trials required some agility at some point, especially Cheetara and the kittens’.

Yeah, they all have their own share of it, but online it’s nearly always pointed out in Tygra’s character dossier that agility is one of his greatest strengths (if not worded exactly that way). And loving Tygra so much as I do (he is my favorite TC, after all), it would have been really cool to see him showcase that off to his greatest ability.

[Tygra_Rules]

I get what you say. And even when Zax is right about the trials being about something more in a deeper level, in a more superficial one they did mean the TCs most notable and biggest strenghts. So Tygra’s being the “mind power” one didn’t make him too much justice, IMO

Oh, and I’m a big Tygra lover too.

[thezaxfactor]

@Living Ooze

Wow zax, you’ve really thought out these trials! lol

What can I say, haha? This is what happens when you can’t let go!

@Living Ooze

The whole “Tygra has special mind powers that he only ever uses once and we never mention it again” thing always bugged me so darned much.

It bugs me a whole lot also. It really was an odd device to begin with, and then to never have used it again just seems like such a waste.

@Living Ooze

Another good word for the Kittens’ trial would be compassion. And I do see your point, but as a kid it was so much fun to identify the trials with the greatest strengths of the ThunderCats: The Trial of Strength, The Trial of Speed, The Trial of Cunning…

No, I know, and that was clearly the intention, in terms of a story hook. But I really do think that Leonard Starr had something deeper in mind in each case.

@Living Ooze

“The Trial of Ingenuity”, “The Trial of Confidence”, “The Trial of Loyalty”, and “The Trial of Acumen” just don’t have the same ring to them, lol.

Haha, I agree. I don’t think such clunky titles would have gone over very well, even for five-year-old me!

As for Tygra, I’m a bigger fan of his character than his abilities. I think it’s very interesting, for instance, that someone who admits to having been shy as a child is blessed with the gift of invisibility. Funny enough, his agility never really stood out to me—I always considered him rather unathletic compared to the other Cats. But maybe I’m just projecting!

[The_Living_Ooze]

@thezaxfactor

I really do think that Leonard Starr had something deeper in mind in each case.

Completely understandable, but it would be funny if he didn’t, and saw this thread and was like, “Well whaddya know, I wrote all those deeper underlying themes and didn’t even know it!” lol

@thezaxfactor

As for Tygra, I’m a bigger fan of his character than his abilities.

I love him as a whole; it all ties in together for me. Plus, his weapon was one of the coolest, too.

@thezaxfactor

Funny enough, his agility never really stood out to me—I always considered him rather unathletic compared to the other Cats. But maybe I’m just projecting!

Interesting, because yeah, Tygra’s agility always stood out to me. He was like such a “gymnast cat”, especially with the whip as a very complimentary weapon sometimes.

I think Lion-O should have been pitted against the Living Ooze: “The Trial of Stickiness”, haha lol.

[Tygra_Rules]

Zax, three things about your ideas on Tygra:[ol]
[li]Thanks! I never made the connection between his alledged shyness and his power of invisibility. Very “fitty”.[/li][li]His agility always stood out to me, more than the other TCs, at least the male ones.[/li][li]I’m a fan of the character (more than his abilities) as well ;)[/li][/ol]

[MarianaTCdreams]

Maybe it was about mental agility.

[The_Living_Ooze]

@Tygra_Rules

Zax, three things about your ideas on Tygra:[ol]
[li]Thanks! I never made the connection between his alledged shyness and his power of invisibility. Very “fitty”.
[/li][/ol]

They did with Sheila in the Dungeons & Dragons '80s cartoon, too. She was the shyest one with timid tendencies, and the magic weapon she was gifted with was the cloak of invisibility.

[Tygra_Rules]

As soon as Zax pointed out that fact, I thought of Sheila from D&D.

Maybe I didn’t make the connection before because Tygra didn’t “confess” his shyness after many many many eps after he got his whip. I mean, for the first season and half of the second one, you don’t have enough reason to think he was shy… maybe a little quiet (which wasn’t a trait of his in the very early eps), but not shy.

[CodeofThundera]

You know I never really cared for all the mind games Lion-O had to go through in that episode. My favorite scene in that whole episode was when Tygra and Lion-O got to fight hand to hand and then that was cut really short. I would have liked to of seen their fight drawn out a little longer. As it was, it made Tygra look awfully weak. But I guess wasn’t it said in some episode that his mind powers drain him?

[Tygra_Rules]

Nice to see you again CoT!

You’re right. As a kid, I wished that scene would have been longer, and I also felt Tygra came out of it in a really bad shape, like a weak easily defeatable guy (although he sent Lion-o backwards first), and then watching Lion-o sitting on Tygra’s back and twisting his arm back was worse. Did any of you felt a “revenge” vibe from Lion-o? When I saw it, I felt like Lion-o was angry and frustrated, which would have been understandable after all what he had to go through on the trial, but he jumped a little too hard and fiercely over Tygra once he was already iun the floor, like trying to make him “pay” for all what he made him pass through, and forgot the trial wasn’t about strenght or fighting. Even Tygra had to remind it to him “Enough Lion-o, you’ve won”, maybe fearing the Lord of the TCs could actually break his arm lol.

And that’s what you say. I think it was so easy for Lion-o to defeat Tygra in the hand to hand combat because he was exhausted; in the next trial against Mumm-Ra, when the TCs are gathered in the Sword Room, Tygra says “I’m still exhausted from it”. Not that Tygra had any chance to defeat Lion-o (I always thought Lion-o was stronger than him, although Tygra was more agile IMO), but I think in better conditions he could have put up a better fight.

[The_Living_Ooze]

Come to think of it, with the subject of mind power and illusions, it seems like they had Cheetara “hog” some of Tygra’s powers.

I was just watching “The Ghost Warrior” the other day, and it hit me—instead of making Cheetara have psychic powers, why not have that be part of Tygra’s “mysterious Tiger clan” powers? He can already produce illusions for others to see that seem very real, so it seems familial in that sense that he should be able to call forth visions and images from the past. There was even the talk of how it’s a strain on Cheetara, can take her weeks or months to recover, etc., just like Tygra with his mind powers (except instead of “weeks” or “months” after calling up the visions of Grun, she ran out of Cat’s Lair protecting the kids like a strong maternal figure…so much for making her spent, lol).

Cheetara is more than welcome to keep her strange sixth sense if they can make that a different enough attribute, but that would have been so nice and totally in character if they had made it Tygra who could call up visions. This would have been a particularly nice prelude to Tygra’s trial, since many of our fans’ chagrin with that is that these mysterious mind powers of his were never demonstrated, much less even mentioned, before or since.

[MarianaTCdreams]

@The Living Ooze

Cheetara is more than welcome to keep her strange sixth sense if they can make that a different enough attribute, but that would have been so nice and totally in character if they had made it Tygra who could call up visions. This would have been a particularly nice prelude to Tygra’s trial, since many of our fans’ chagrin with that is that these mysterious mind powers of his were never demonstrated, much less even mentioned, before or since.

Hmm… it would’ve been interesting to see Tygra summon psychic visions, especially since, as you said, his mind powers were shown once (if I understood you).

[Tygra_Rules]

I think it was Cheetara because women are supposed to have a more developed sixth sense than men, but you’re right, it would have been completely in character, not to say nice and interesting, to see it in Tygra.

[LiamABC]

@Tygra_Rules

As soon as Zax pointed out that fact, I thought of Sheila from D&D.

Maybe I didn’t make the connection before because Tygra didn’t “confess” his shyness after many many many eps after he got his whip. I mean, for the first season and half of the second one, you don’t have enough reason to think he was shy… maybe a little quiet (which wasn’t a trait of his in the very early eps), but not shy.

Strangely enough, I’d always suspected Tygra of being “the shy one” of the bunch - and when “Crystal Canyon” actually confirmed this, I felt pleased to have been right.

As for his being quiet - I don’t think that was necessarily a conscious decision on the part of the writers, it just came about that way. I always felt that’s also why Panthro was the only character (other than Lion-O, of course) to appear in every episode of season 1 (although Snarf was only absent from one episode, “Out Of Sight”) - because Earle Hyman didn’t have any other regular characters to voice. Obviously in season 2 he was Red-Eye, and one of the Berserkers (Cruncher I think but I could be wrong), and of course he did the voice for the Ancient Spirits Of Evil in both seasons (except in “Excalibur”, when for some unexplained reason it was Robert McFadden).

[The_Living_Ooze]

Tygra_Rules, yeah, I know that’s why they gave Cheetara her sixth sense, the “women’s intuition” and all that (which she actually references). But for purposes of being able to call up visions and images from the past, yeah, that would have been great if Tygra could have had that instead of her. She could keep other things about her sixth sense, lol (I love her character, I just wish that “psychic part” could have been part of Tygra’s mind powers).

@LiamABC

Strangely enough, I’d always suspected Tygra of being “the shy one” of the bunch - and when “Crystal Canyon” actually confirmed this, I felt pleased to have been right.

As for his being quiet - I don’t think that was necessarily a conscious decision on the part of the writers, it just came about that way.

Yeah, as much as I love Nick Mills’ interviews with the people behind the scenes of the original series (thank you, Nick!!), it bugs me to hear the script consultant and a writer or two say things like, “Who cares about Tygra? Tygra was bland”, or “Nobody could get a hold on Tygra, lol”.

Tygra obviously has a lot of love at this board, and among other TC fans. He is definitely his own character. He is extremely intelligent, he’s the scientific one (has his own lab and all), he is traditional, and laid-back (for a ThunderCat that is, lol); In LiamABC’s last point, considering the interviews I’m quoting, if the writers ever did have Tygra quiet in some scenes because of not knowing what to do with him or how to write him, that actually adds to his character for me. It shows me that he’s content to share the floor, let others have their say, and not be someone who has to put their opinion in in every point of a discussion. And since they made him shy from childhood, that just strengthens that point.

Though he’s sometimes the quieter one, I do love it when Tygra has the “meat” of a discussion scene. For example, his explaining to the others how it’s good to let Lion-O go and explore Third Earth, while they’re salvaging things from the spaceship, and also remind the others outside on Anointment Day 1 of the importance and tradition of Lion-O’s next 5 days, and pep talking them up.

As for his being traditional, I could easily see Tygra putting together some sort of book or computer program on the history of Thundera and the ThunderCats. He’s the natural one to be an archivist. He would love to preserve all of that to keep it alive for them on Third Earth.

So, whether some of the behind-the-scenes team “knew what to do with” Tygra or not, his character comes across with definite definition (though I know others would say not as strongly consistent as Panthro, for example), and we fans find his great intelligence, sense of history and tradition, science, and mystical powers anything but “bland”.

And, of course, he has that kick-ass bolo whip.

[MarianaTCdreams]

Well said!

[Tygra_Rules]

@The Living Ooze

Tygra_Rules, yeah, I know that’s why they gave Cheetara her sixth sense, the “women’s intuition” and all that (which she actually references). But for purposes of being able to call up visions and images from the past, yeah, that would have been great if Tygra could have had that instead of her. She could keep other things about her sixth sense, lol (I love her character, I just wish that “psychic part” could have been part of Tygra’s mind powers).

I get your point and couldn’t agree more

@The Living Ooze

Yeah, as much as I love Nick Mills’ interviews with the people behind the scenes of the original series (thank you, Nick!!), it bugs me to hear the script consultant and a writer or two say things like, “Who cares about Tygra? Tygra was bland”, or “Nobody could get a hold on Tygra, lol”.

Tygra obviously has a lot of love at this board, and among other TC fans. He is definitely his own character. He is extremely intelligent, he’s the scientific one (has his own lab and all), he is traditional, and laid-back (for a ThunderCat that is, lol); In LiamABC’s last point, considering the interviews I’m quoting, if the writers ever did have Tygra quiet in some scenes because of not knowing what to do with him or how to write him, that actually adds to his character for me. It shows me that he’s content to share the floor, let others have their say, and not be someone who has to put their opinion in in every point of a discussion. And since they made him shy from childhood, that just strengthens that point.

Though he’s sometimes the quieter one, I do love it when Tygra has the “meat” of a discussion scene. For example, his explaining to the others how it’s good to let Lion-O go and explore Third Earth, while they’re salvaging things from the spaceship, and also remind the others outside on Anointment Day 1 of the importance and tradition of Lion-O’s next 5 days, and pep talking them up.

As for his being traditional, I could easily see Tygra putting together some sort of book or computer program on the history of Thundera and the ThunderCats. He’s the natural one to be an archivist. He would love to preserve all of that to keep it alive for them on Third Earth.

So, whether some of the behind-the-scenes team “knew what to do with” Tygra or not, his character comes across with definite definition (though I know others would say not as strongly consistent as Panthro, for example), and we fans find his great intelligence, sense of history and tradition, science, and mystical powers anything but “bland”.

And, of course, he has that kick-ass bolo whip.

Loved this post and, again, copuldn’t agree more. Those interviews made me mad as well. Those writers definitely didn’t know how beloved of a character Tygra was and how many fans he has. Just because maybe they didn’t like him, they assumed nobody did.

I agree, for me, Tygra being quiet was part of his essence and one of the things that made me like him more, not less.