I think it’s very clear that the two societies, cat and dog, have had a lot of past interaction, and their is some bad blood their on both sides with both societies tending to look down their noses at each other and reinforcing negative stereotypes. Not everyone is like this of course and there are individuals who buck the trend and get on fine, and dogs have visited Thundera on occassion and vice versa.
This is extremely clever and simply reflects real life, it holds a mirror up to how real societies interact with each other, and I can see many parallels with our own world.
As regards to Tygra, I don’t think it is racism at all, he is just reinforcing a view based on a mixture of socialised stereotypes and past experience. All of the cats will feel this to a greater or lesser degree, Tygra is just very vocal about it.
I think that there will be a subtle arc where the dog and cat society have to work together at some point to defeat mumm ra, and you will see some of these barriers break down, with perhaps Tygra learning to respect a dog warrior for example and through that questioning his own views on their society.
Hammy, the next episode features Rataro, and the cats travelling to mount plundarr to rescue the Thunderian citizens who are enslaved there. There is also a plot about the sword of plundarr too but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details at the moment, I think Rataro has the Thunderian slaves looking for it but I’m not 100%.
It seems like the writers are fond of self-fulfilling prophecies.
In Native Son, Tygra likely would not have been an enemy of the Ancient Spirits of Evil if the ASOE did not call for his death. If they had saved his people without his death as a price, he probably would have been one of their biggest supporters (next to Mumm-ra). Since they demanded his death, it resulted in Tygra being sent off to Thundera, watching Mumm-Ra & the lizards destroy his people, and therefore becoming an enemy of Mumm-ra and the ASOE in turn.
Now in The Pit, they’ve got this raccoon who steals things in advance of needing them without knowing why he needs them. When he has Kit and Kat steal the cane, button, and blanket, they wound up needing those objects to defend themselves against the same people they stole those objects from. They wouldn’t have needed them if they hadn’t stolen them in the first place!
I liked the episode, it was a 6 or 7 outr of 10. My two cents:
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[li]I liked Dobo, and his name (form Doberman… at first I heard Dogo and thought it came form dog, and thought of the witers’ originality when it comes to names lol).[/li][li]The Panthro - Dobo meeting reminded me of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian’s meeting in Bespin in TESB (too many SW references in this so IMO).[/li][li]Have you noticed the cats are the less animal-ish beings in the whole series? Thy look almost humans compared to the other species (I know this happened in teh OS as well).[/li][li]I’d have liked to see a bigger reaction from both Cheetara and Tygra.[/li][li]The twins’ chasing sequence was funny but too long, it wasted some valuable time IMO.[/li][li]I don’t think Tygra was being racist with his comment about them getting fleas from the dogs.[/li][li]Lion-o said Pumyra is a ThunderCat. It confused me even more about who is a ThunderCat in this show.[/li][li]I liked that they made Pumyra go against Lion-o, and she showing no loyalty towards him. That shows loyalty doesn’t come automatically, you have to earn it no matter how much of a king you are.[/li][li]I know Lion-o had to be the hero, and needed screentime, and the cell chat was important and all that, but I agree in that it would have been wiser to send and invisible Tygra, or a quick Cheetara, to rescue Pumyra. Lion-o seems to forget about Tygra’s invisibility sometimes (this happened in the OS as well, many times Tygra said “I’ll go”, Lion-o hesitated and Tygra replied “I can turn invisible and sneak my way in”. I wonder though if Lion-o wasn’t more worried about Tygra getting captured again lol. I can picture Lion-o thinking “I know you can turn invisible, but I’m afraid you’ll go and end up screwing it up somehow like you always do, and then we’ll have not only to fight Mumm-Ra and the Mutants, but to save your butt as well, so I think I’ll better send… mmm… Snarf!” every time Tygra volunteered… or was it that Tygra had an urge to be the one who saves the day at and redeems himself least once? lol).[/li][/ul]
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but I think it would be rather repetitive of the writers to put Lion-O in yet another love-triangle where he looses. So, if it is going to be established that Pumyra and Bengali already have something going, they best do it without complications.
Still, I’m very curious as to why some think there might be something between Pumyra and Bengali in this series. With Tygra and Cheetara we previously had them been an item already in the Wildstorm comics, so, that seemed logical. On the other hand, there was no romance suggested in the OS between Pumyra and Bengali. Now, I didn’t read all of the Wildstorm stories, so someone tell me; was there a romance between Bengali and Pumyra there?
Now, if the answer is “no”, I’m sure some will say “well, there wasn’t any romance established between Lion-O and Pumyra in the OS or comics either”, but, to put it a bit bluntly, ultimately Lion-O is certainly a much more central/significant figure than Bengali is.
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[li]Lion-o said Pumyra is a ThunderCat. It confused me even more about who is a ThunderCat in this show.[/li][/quote]
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The cat-likes basically
I know Lion-o had to be the hero, and needed screentime, and the cell chat was important and all that, but I agree in that it would have been wiser to send and invisible Tygra, or a quick Cheetara, to rescue Pumyra. Lion-o seems to forget about Tygra’s invisibility sometimes (this happened in the OS as well, many times Tygra said “I’ll go”, Lion-o hesitated and Tygra replied “I can turn invisible and sneak my way in”. I wonder though if Lion-o wasn’t more worried about Tygra getting captured again lol. I can picture Lion-o thinking “I know you can turn invisible, but I’m afraid you’ll go and end up screwing it up somehow like you always do, and then we’ll have not only to fight Mumm-Ra and the Mutants, but to save your butt as well, so I think I’ll better send… mmm… Snarf!” every time Tygra volunteered… or was it that Tygra had an urge to be the one who saves the day at and redeems himself least once? lol).
He had an “oh wow look at that hottie” reaction when he first saw her, ofcourse he’ll want to go himself and not send anyone else
Don’t get me wrong, i (more or less) understand where some of you are coming from when you say that Pumyra’s anger was justified. But it really sounds like no one believes that the fall of Thundera wasn’t Lion-O’s fault (which i still say it wasn’t). You’d think that if Pumyra would be mad at anyone, it would be Claudus (the actual king at the time) or Grune (the one who wrought the tragedy in the first place).
What’s more, Pumyra’s attitude and Panthro’s original attitude just don’t sit well with me. I know, Loyalty is a virtue that shouldn’t just be passed out like candy. But you’d think with their Empire in ruins, the cats (particularly the Generals of of their Army) would be concerned with keeping the Royal family alive. And i doubt that gives other cats the right insult, boss around and even assault their apparent monarch. In times of war, the Royal family shouldn’t be allowed to get snuffed out like that, that’d just lead to anarchy.
Also, there’s just one more thing that bothered me: did even occur to Pumyra that maybe Lion-O was dead? A lot of Thunderian likely lost their lives on the day of the assault, what made Pumyra so certain that Lion-O wasn’t one of them?
I think both Pumyra and Panthro took their anger and sadness out on Lion-O because he was the only one logical enough to blame. Though it basically was Claudus’s fault, Lion-O became king and inherited all the weight that his father would’ve had on his shoulders if he lived after the fall. Pumyra especially seemed to believe that Lion-O is at fault because only the people higher up on the social ladder in Thundera even knew what was going on. The others were forced into underground tunnels and left to come up with their own stories of what happened.
Speaking of the Thunderians, I wonder if we’ll see a few more who feel anger/resentment toward the Cats when they turn up to rescue them from slavery in the next episode? I mean in any given society you get the gamut of emotions and thoughts, I’m sure some will feel grateful, thankful, whatever, others may even know on some level that their rulers didn’t abandon them, but a few at least must feel like Pumyra does. Unless Lynxo is in there with them telling them how it is.
I think being forced to fight innumerable gladiator matches as a slave put Pumyra in a foul mood, and Lion-O was an easy target to blame for everything that’s happened to her. Not fair at all (but then, that’s been the story so far).
I don’t think Lynx-O would feel the same way. He is older, and a high-ranking officer. I suspect his perspective would be more balanced. Can’t predict how Bengali will turn out.
Tygra’s dislike for dogs is probably a reflection of how most cats in thunderan society feel towards their canine neighbors. Dogs seem to feel the same way about the cats.
I think Tygra is the most vocal about it because he is the proudest of the group. Some thought he got over his pride issue in previous eppys..he did…he learned humility..but that doesn’t mean he still can’t be proud..and clearly he’s proud of being a cat and isn’t afraid to show it (which is typical for Tygra’s character)…it’s in his nature act this way. It seems the only thing that makes him “shy” is Cheetara LOL.
Since Mumm-Ra was in disguise as Panthro in Thundera, I’m surprised no one’s accused him of killing Claudis. That would be an interesting scene.
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He may see it as speaking honestly rather than pride.
I’m not surprised at that at all. They were secluded when that happened. No one but Lion-O and Tygra saw it and they know who it really was already. And even if there were other witnesses Mumm-Ra transformed back to normal immediately after killing Claudus so any witnesses would’ve seen that.
Good episode, the best things was Pumyra’s introduction. Kind of senseless and boring the Wilykat/kit adventure with Took-it!However,I understand that we didn’t get to see much of them in the first 15 episodes so now they want lay emphasis on them too.
I am not implying the writers ‘stole’ the idea or anything but Pumyra’s reaction to Lion-O was very much like Cheetara’s in the WS comics The Return where she had a grudge against Lion-O for abandoning and not doing nothing for Thundercats when the Mutants attack.
As we reaching towards the end of the first 26-run it’s funny to see that Lion-O has been having all this trouble from his own race!! Mocked, beaten, threatened, doubted! It’s really a tough thing being Lord!
I thought this was a very good episode and an improvement over the last one; I really like how the central plot about the Pit & Pumura played out and I enjoyed the goofy subplot; Dobo and the klepto raccoon guy Tookit were both pretty good new characters. I also liked how they handled Pumura with her agressiveness and hatred & disappointment for towards Lion-O (although they maybe made her appear a wee bit too bloodthirsty); good thing she started to warm up to Lion-O at the end, though.
Next up; the gang is heading for Castle Plundarr. Maybe we’ll get Vultureman then?
Panthro states as he tells his story of how he met Dobo for the first time that ‘a long time ago… i was a prisoner of war’ who ended up in the pit.I try to figure out when that might have happened in the chronological order of the events. We have seen Panthro much younger fighting along side Grune in the battlefield against the Lizards armies.They were both portrayed as new warriors with the ambition to rise to the ranks and prove themselves worthy of a higher position in Claudu’s militia.Later, when Claudus orders them to go searching for the Book of Omens instead of making them Generals, Panthro is much older featuring the scars and battle wounds. So Panthro must have been a ‘Prisoner of War’ much earlier but in the period after he met Grune.
Lion-O listens for the first time in the story arc so far that his people are sold as slavery and on top of that his race wait for him to stand up and fight for them. Pumyra’s words are sharp as razor but she brings foreward a very crucial point: Lion-O has to speed up his maturity process and finally live up to the expectations as he is ought to. No one has hammered home in Lion-O so poignantly that he is already late for the enslaved Tcats and wait to free them from their torment.The realization of this is actually what made Lion-O choose not to fight back to Pumyra in the pit, a touching moment with allegorical meanings for both sides. So, now Lion-O has three goals:
1)Find the rest of the stones and fully understand the content of the Book Of Omens
2)Seek and free the enslaved Thunderians across Third Earth
3)Reclaim his Kingdom and beat Mumm-ra.
I believe the introduction of the ‘New’ Thundercsats will help in splitting the targets.The addition of three cats or more would certainly help in achieving them goals. However, i wonder what will happen in the chain of commands when Lynx-o appears, who by Claudus is a General, above Panthro.
I think we can assume that at some point the cats and dogs have been at war, probably more than once. Its a really difficult thing to pin down a timeline. Initially I was thinking that it may have been when Panthro was a raw recruit, but he already had the ronin hairstyle and a scar in the limited flasback we saw.
That’s a very good point about Lynxo and Panthro. Lynxo technically has the higher rank, but as it has been stated, Panthro has more experience. Two very different but equally important traits. Im guessing Liono will use Lynxos leadership ability and post him in charge of the tower of omens, where he will look after the Thunderian survivors and take charge of the initial rebuilding of their society, whilst he retains Panthro at his side whilst they search for the other stones and get ready to defeat Mumm Ra.
Lynx-O isn’t a general over Panthro, they’re both generals but they have different jobs. Lynx-O was in charge of the armies while Panthro and Grune were Lion-O and Tygra’s tutors who were sent to search for the Book of Omens. Neither one can really order the other around.
They were both given different occupations. Panthro’s (in my opinion) seemed much more important than Lynx-O’s. It doesn’t seem like they had many wars between when Lion-O was born and the fall of Thundera.
