Like you, I think Lion-o’s mother died in birth labor, adn that Claudus adopted Tygra from a friend couple he and his wife were friends to.
I’m getting pretty tired of the “dies in labor” card. It makes it look like getting pregnant is suicide. God I hope they get more creative. =/
They might (Example: She was a warrior queen who died in battle shortly after her son’s birth). But I’m guessing they’ll take the easy way out and not mention Lion-O’s mother at all, whoever she was.
I like the theory that Tygra was the equivalent of a godson to Claudus, maybe the child of well-connected tiger nobility, so he was taken in and raised by him when Tygra’s parents died.
It would be nice to know what happened to Lion-O’s mother or who she is. The death in childbirth card is over-played. Killed by lizards would be too cliched for my taste, too. (Same with Tygra, now that I think about it.) Plus, if that was the case, I’d expect Claudus to have said something about how they killed his mother and/or Tygra’s birth parents when Lion-O wanted them pardoned. If Lion-O’s mom is dead and they address it, hopefully they’ll say she died of an illness or accident or something.
Maybe she was a gentle, peacemaker type who was captured, tortured and killed by Slythe. Thus driving Claudus to be really against the lizards and the population of all Thundera to really hate them.
Maybe she was attacked by a lizard wanting to kill Claudus’s unborn child, the injuries killed the mother but they managed to rescue the unborn infant. 
Ah, like Anakin Skywalker craving revenge on the entire Sand People tribe that caught and tortured his mother Shmi to death. Not bad. 
I’m hoping that they could bring Bengali into the show by making him a biological relative of Tygra. Bengali could explain to Tygra how he ended up in Thundera. Of course, they don’t have to make Bengali older, he could be told the story, and, in turn, tell it to Tygra.
Another way they could introduce Bengali is to have him be like a childhood friend of Lion-O. Somehow, he survived the attack on Thundera, and joins up with the others.
I like that idea! I’ve always believed that Tygra and Bengali should be related, and I’ve always championed the idea that they should be biological brothers who were somehow separated at birth, with Bengali being adopted out before Claudus started raising Tygra. The original drafts of Bengali do have him as Tygra’s younger brother, but they changed him into a Thunderian commoner, probably because they thought they had enough of a “family feel” for the show with the ThunderKittens, Snarf, and Snarfer.
I hate when everyone’s related. I’d rather Bengali still be that commoner that’s not related to Tygra.
I’d like to see him and Pumyra paired up, but I don’t want him attached to Tygra simply because they’re both tigers. I’ve always liked the fan fictions where white tigers are considered their own clan separate from orange tigers with their own abilities and culture.
Really? Didn’t know that (the bolds). Where did you get it from?
Tygra even calls Bengali “brother” at the end of the five part Thundercats Ho! series. Though it may just have been out of friendship and kinship as they are both tigers.
I think Tygra called him “brother” acknowledging him as a TC as well.
Count me in as one of the ones that thinks that Tygra and Bengali should be related.
Heck, if you’re going for complicated family relationships. Go for it. And with the dymanics they have now I think it would be a very interesting seeing Tygra’s two ‘brothers’ interact.
They could do that or simply have Tygra seperated from his people.
Do a flash flood or some other natural disaster. Tygra was the only survivor that Claudus and his men stumbled on at the site. They took him in thinking his family or clan was dead.
The funny thing was I always had the impression there were distinct cultural divides in the TCats just by uniform styles. There were vast differenes in styles between say Lion-o and Pathro compared to Lynxo and Bengali. Tygra you kind of got the impression might have been a little mix of both.
If they’re related I hope it would be cousins rather than brothers. I don’t really want them related
That being said it might be interesting story-wise if they were brothers. Tygra’s reaction to finding out he has an actual blood related brother, and even Lion-O’s reaction of having to “share” his only remaining family.
That’s what I was thinking.
Add in I’m betting that Tygra and Lion-o are destined to unit a fractured Thunderia.
One reason I’m still betting there’s a rebel Tiger kingdom out there that was a thorn in Claudus’s side that our heroes will stumble on later. Will train Tygra on the use of his mind gifts before Grune and his army show up. My bet that’s where they’ll meet up with Bengali.