I have noticed that there seems to be to two different types of Thunderians:
Ones that look more like Humans - the Thundercats (Jaga, Claudus, Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, Tygra, Thunderkittens, Lynx-O, Pumyra and Bengali)
Others that are more “cat-like” - Grune, Pumm-Ra, the guards in the episode “Return to Thundera”.
So, could this mean that the ones that are more Human-like are the top of the evolution in Thundera (like Homo Sapien in Humans) and others like Grune, Thunderian Guards are in a lower position in evolution, like Neanderthal to Humans.
Or are they not in different stages of evolution but instead are different races, like a domestic cat and a savage lion that developed in different ways?
So you could have a “pure lion” like Lion-O and a more “savage lion” like the Thunderian Guards (I think Grune is a saber-tooth).
Although certain characters from later, New Thundera-based episodes would slightly debunk this theory, I’ve wondered whether the ThunderCats are more human-like because of their status as the finest of their race, the nobles of their people. By virtue of the fact that they are ThunderCats (as opposed to “Thunderian commoners” as Mumm-Ra refers to Lynx-O, Ben-Gali and Pumyra in “ThunderCats Ho! The Movie”), one would expect them to be the best of the best, and thus perhaps, if you like, the most perfect examples of Thunderians!
This is a really great thread - I love stuff like this where people really explore the ThunderCats’ universe in depth!
There’s also the subject of tails. On the two occasions that we see ancient Thunderians (stone giants in Return to Thundera Part I, and statues in Touch of Amortus), they have tails. However, the stone giants have more human faces, while the statues have more feline faces. So this face distinction even existed way back when, before they lost their tails!
You’re absolutely right, thezaxfactor, I’ve just watched those episodes and in fact, “ancient” Thunderians / Thundercats" did have tails!
In the episode “Return to Thundera - part 1”, Lynx-O tells that those statues are “2000 years old” and in “Touch of Amortus”, it seems that those statues (of imprisoned Thunderians) are there for a while too.
So, maybe we could say that the two types of Thunderians existed as distinct races for a long time and both could achieve the rank of Thundercats (although, as Chris said, the ones we know better (Lion-O, Tygra, etc) are the “finest of their race”, perhaps more advanced intellectually than the others).
About the tails, since the only ones that have them are the ancient statues and stone giants, we could assume that the “recent Thunderians” had some kind of ceremony (like Jewish boys have their Briss or Brit Milah) where the newborns had their tails cut. It could be motivated by religion or something else…
Chris, I think that Thundercats have so much material that it could be much more explored, like in the comics (even if I’ve just read one or two, Dogs of War). I wish the new series could follow a different line of events than the original, telling other stories that, together with the original from the 80’s, create a wider universe of stories.
I think it’s fair to say that different clans with different degrees of feline features have existed for a long time. To separate them along an intellectual line is silly, though. Grune is one of the smartest villains we meet during the whole series. Just because he looked less human didn’t make him stupid.
I’ve often wondered whether lacking certain feline features posed some advantage, though. The thing that comes to mind is the Magic Flute, which has power over animals, and could have been used to enslave, say, the extremely feline ancient Thunderians from “Touch of Amortus”. If some sort of animal-specific weapon were used against Thunderians, only the most humanoid would survive. Of course then we run into the problem of how Grune’s race, and the race of the two capital guards, managed to survive.
Oh, well… it’s fun to ponder! I do like your tail-removing ceremony. I mean, what the hell good is a skinny tail like that? Wouldn’t it just get in the way?
Indeed, Grune is not stupid, he is very smart (trying to fool Jaga and managed to steal the Sword of Omens) but what I mean by “more advanced intellectually” is that Grune probably wouldn’t be capable of building a Thundertank for instance.
I just wanted to separate the two Thunderian races in a way that was similar to Humans. I once saw a documentary on TV that it could be plausible that Neanderthal were killed by Homo Sapiens, who were more adapted to the environment (also I read that they interbred and then the two species merged). So, in a peaceful Thundera, Grune and other cat-like Thunderians were seen more in physical jobs (guards, soldiers, etc) than behind a control center, for example.
Or maybe they were all in the same level of intelligence… The beauty of all of the “unanswered questions” one may have about this kind of universes is that we can imagine everything!
I personally think that they all used to have tails, but as the ages wore on, they adapted to a more technical and less animalistic society, and lost their tails.
The main Thundercats in particular are probably more human-like so the audience could relate to them better, perhaps.
But yeah, I noticed the sometimes wide variation of features on different Thunderians. Plus it seemed like whenever times of really old were brought up and Thunderians from that era shown ( thinking of that time the statues were animated on Thundera, or in the Land of No Return in Touch of Amortus ) they all had very feral features.
My theory, and that of a few others judging by some fan fics I’ve run across, basically involves some genetic engineering and a feral beginning for them all. Eventually, some of the cat-humanoid hybrids continued to mix with human dna, bringing out more human features in some lineages, while other lines that didn’t remained more feral looking (Grune, those Thunderian guards, etc). I simplified it a lot there but that’s the gist.
I believe ThunderCats and Thunderians started out as a primitive species of feral cat that evolved in the same way as primitive man evolved - both lost their tails and learned to walk upright. Later on, in parallel development, the two species learned to make fire, created a picture and written language, and gradually evolved to the point where their societies developed. This is a typical theme in sci-fi/fantasty stories, so it applies to the Cats with no problem. Unlike Purrsia, however, I don’t believe the Cats blended human and feline DNA to help in the evolutionary process. I think it occurred naturally for ThunderCats and Thunderians alike.:bengali:
Hey guys - not sure if this thread is dead yet or not but I did have one question to add to it? –
Surely the races of ‘thundarians’ and ‘thundercats’ can’t be different if it is possible to promote a thunderian commoner to a thundercat noble as is done to the new thundercats at the end of the movie?
While the the idea of ‘circucising’ a cats tail is rather scary, it is interesting in it’s own morbid way; The idea of one part of the species being more ‘evolved’ than another doesn’t, to me seem overly plausable, as the time taken to evolve being so great, the more feline races must be severely retarded and I’d love to hear what survival of the fittest has to say about that…
My own thoughts are simply that they probably come from different parts of Thundera. In the same way that humans come in black, white and yellow, there are cats who are more feline and more some are more human looking. Further, compare that a Turkic man tends to have a lot more facial or body hair than a Brit for example.
As for the Thundercats all being similar but not necessary better than, e.g., Grune - I would think that the Thundercats are from one area of Thundera, e.g. the UK’s royal family are all from the same lineage… This doesn’t make them any better or worse than the Danish royal family, but they do possess different characteristics…
It’s an interesting concept you present. And, yes, the theory of ThunderCat/Thunderian evolution can be explained by using the theory of human evolution as a model. But the ThunderCats were never better than Grune. Grune was just as good a ThunderCat as Jaga or any of the others, except that he went renegade. And that’s a perfectly acceptable idea when you think of the numerous examples of good people who went bad over the course of time for whatever reason.:bengali:
