ThunderCats Episode 21 "Birth of the Blades'" OFFICIAL TALKBACK THREAD!

[Lady_Ocelli]

@hammy0924

So, other than the flashbacks being seemingly thrown-in, it was a nice, action-packed episode. Probably give it an 8 or 9.

I agree that this a solid 9.

[Solace316]

I doubt Tygra would playfully tease Lion-O about Pumyra.
If anything, he might call out on Lion-O’s, what Tygra and perhaps Cheetara might see as bad decisions because of Pumyra seen by them as a distraction.

[catspat]

@hammy0924

The best part is Lion-O will try to come up with comebacks even though he can’t really insult Tygra back because he has a girlfriend too.

My thought exactly.

[Lady_Ocelli]

@hammy0924

I have all 21 taped, or DVR’d I guess.

Unfortunately, mine only hold 5 episodes of any show so another reason to get the DVD.

[hammy0924]

@Lady Ocelli

Unfortunately, mine only hold 5 episodes of any show so another reason to get the DVD.

I have to say, watching them all in order is really quite a different experience. it makes every episode (even the ones you don’t like as much as others) seem so much better.

[Lady_Ocelli]

@balgus82

Did anyone else get the feeling that the ancient Cats from the flashbacks thought Mumm-Ra was a good guy when they first started working for him? It occurred to me when Leo said something like “He’s not the leader I thought he was.”

I wonder if he had united the animals or at least the cat clans. ::thoughtful smiley::

[Vsavior]

While watching this episode I couldn’t help wondering more about Mumm-Ra. Just who is he really? Where did he come from? How did he end up working for the ASOE? Though I don’t expect it this season, I’d really like to see an origin/backstory on him.

On another note, it’s amazing how much character Pumyra has shown, no wonder she stands out so much from the rest. I do like how they are handling the growth between her and Lion-O. Now she just has to meld with the rest of the team…that should be interesting…

All in all, another great episode!

[hammy0924]

@Lady Ocelli

I wonder if he had united the animals or at least the cat clans. ::thoughtful smiley::

That could be possible. I think he may have sugarcoated his reign as one of peace and equality in order to have multiple races fall for him. Then, once he assumed full control, he could do whatever.

[Lady_Ocelli]

@balgus82

I haven’t rewatched the episode yet and I didn’t catch the “disapproving glances” Tygra and Cheetara had, so this is just speculation. But couldn’t they have just looked troubled because they didn’t like the idea of Lion-O going off and drawing all the danger to him?

I’ll have to watch it again later because I missed it the first time.

[hammy0924]

@Lady Ocelli

I’ll have to watch it again later because I missed it the first time.

I missed it too. I saw them the second time, but they seemed to just be thinking that Lion-O was putting himself and Pumyra in too much danger.

[WilyKatfan]

@hammy0924

I missed it too. I saw them the second time, but they seemed to just be thinking that Lion-O was putting himself and Pumyra in too much danger.

I remember there was a look.

[MarianaTCdreams]

I was hoping that Panthro would make some jokes during this episode. Oh, well. Anyway, the episode was good, but it was even better when Pumyra became a lot nicer in the end.

[Daremonger]

The last time we heard the Ancient Spirits of Evil speak was in “Native Son.” It was good that they spoke again in this episode, even if it was in flashback.

[hammy0924]

@Daremonger

The last time we heard the Ancient Spirits of Evil speak was in “Native Son.” It was good that they spoke again in this episode, even if it was in flashback.

Since one of them is a vulture, I think we’ll be seeing Vultureman most likely at the beginning of the second season.

[Urazz]

@hammy0924

If you think about it, it has been portrayed as much less powerful in the NS. I mean, it’s basically just scrap metal!!!

Not only that but the Sword of Plundar is being protrayed as being more powerful of the two when it comes to being without any of the stones of power.

Anyways, I liked this episode. If anything, this is getting me thinking that Pumyra is here to stay. She’s unique within the group and serves the role as someone more concerned with their people while the others are more focused on defeating Mumm-Ra. Well, asides from Lion-O who is concerned about all races/people and focused on defeating Mumm-Ra.

[0xhe]

Wasn’t Leo able to beat Mumm-ra with SoP + The Stones with just Sword of Omens? I think Lion-O would do just fine.

[Michael]

@MouseCat

Pretty solid episode…it really gave us a good understanding of where the sword of omens came from. Good back story here. Of course the whole sunlight excuse for Mummra to runaway from the fight AGAIN was pretty lame. The episode made an excellent recovery with the touching Pumyra and Lion O scene at the end…I think it’s pretty clear she is here to stay folks!!!

While I know this isn’t a superhero show or martial arts show like Legend of Korra..man they really need to regroup for season 2 and deliver some more physical and creative action sequences. This is hard to do because the basis of the Thundercats is “magic swords and stones” which worked well in the no-contact violence 80s.. Today though..kids clearly want more action..more creative choreography…more contact! While story wise the creators of THundercats are excelling..action wise they are totally being owned by their competitors.

Mousecat, sorry about the late reply (damn work!) I absolutely agree though and I’ve said this myself a number of times. Thundercats is an amazing show with strong writing, excellent animation etc, but they ARE falling down a bit on the action. It is supposed to be an action adventure show at the end of the day, and isn’t the prime demographic 8 - 11 year old boys? So WHY are they putting SO much emphasis on love triangles and setting Liono and Pumyra up as a couple, etc etc. I’ve said countless times theres nothing wrong with it in moderation, when it is subtle, but it HAS in my opinion started to become a little too much. At the end of the day they are very limited in terms of minutes they have to fill, so I think they should make the relationship stuff much more subtle in the background and squeeze a few more minutes of action in. I mean ideally if they could extend every episode by a full 10 minutes and fill it all with action, fight sequences and Panthro blowing the hell out of stuff with the tank, then the balance would be fine, but they don’t.

I agree with the contact thing too, I mean it would be easy enough to add a few sword techniques in each fight before they resort to the power shield and blasts etc, or have panthro take on a general with hand to hand combat (and win of course!) lol!

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@hammy0924

I’m not disagreeing, but wasn’t Lion-O taught in the trials to listen to other cats instead of just doing what he thinks is right?

Anyway, I think she’ll only become more competition if she starts developing more of a relationship with Lion-O. However, I think she learned her lesson in this week’s episode to not try to go against Lion-O.

Yes, but also HE is the king and has ultimate responsibility for making that call as well.
Merged Post:

@hammy0924

Shipping OVERLOAD!!! Haha!

Anyway, eyah. I don’t think we’ll see anymore of her angry side towards Lion-O. I wonder how the rest of the group will warm up to her? I think Cheetara and Panthro will think she’s cuckoo and Tygra will constantly tease Lion-O about her being his love interest.

I hope not because it will start to get a bit tiresome very quickly if it continues too long. She needs to calm down a bit.
Merged Post:

@Sir_Sapphire

But it’s not a martial arts series, it’s a fantasy epic with swords and sorcery and evil wizards and good princes. It’s just not an even comparison. Thundercats is more in line with The Legend of Zelda than it does with Avatar.

I agree with you, and in that respect there is room for the energy shields and sword blasts etc, there’s nothing wrong with them. But there IS room for a combat/martial arts aspect too which I think people are clamouring to see. Panthro for example is a martial arts expert, a military general, he should get into some hand to hand combat. I’d also love to see for example more of the clerics specific combat skills from Cheetara or Addicus trying to pummel the cats the way an ape would, etc etc etc.

[Tygrafan]

Finally watched this episode, I still enjoyed it even it was definitely not one of my favorite episodes.

@chique

Maybe. I think they were just put off by the plan. It was obvious everyone ( well except Pumyra) thought it was a really stupid. Then Lion-O starts to question it when he and Pumyra are running through the cave. It was a bad plan, and could have been avoided had Lion-O ignored his emotions. But that’s not our Lion-O. His heart is was makes him different Kind or reminds me of Ramlak Rising. Lion-O lets his emotions dictate his leadership, and we can see Tygra and Cheetara are really not feeling it.

agree with you. And like the rest of the group I also thought it was a stupid plan.

@MouseCat

Pretty solid episode…it really gave us a good understanding of where the sword of omens came from. Good back story here. Of course the whole sunlight excuse for Mummra to runaway from the fight AGAIN was pretty lame. The episode made an excellent recovery with the touching Pumyra and Lion O scene at the end…I think it’s pretty clear she is here to stay folks!!!

Agree, I dislike the sunlight excuse for Mummra, but therefore I like the scene at the end.

@hammy0924

I’m not disagreeing, but wasn’t Lion-O taught in the trials to listen to other cats instead of just doing what he thinks is right?

Right, but don’t forget his age, he is still a youngster. Even though he passed the trials and matured a lot, he still will do mistakes. And I love him for that I like him for his emotions and not being perfect.

@Tygra_Rules

Didn’t like this episode at all. It was a step back from the past ones, IMO.

It did feel as “The Lion-o and Pumyra hour” and sent the others to the background… and I’m afraid that will continue. Also, the flashbacks were boring, and the present actions were rushed and contradcitory.

Also, Pumyra is really annoying. One minute she love Lion-o, one minute she teases him, the other she hates him. And she must chill off. As Lion-o asked her, will she ever give him a break? Please Lion-o, just let her die in the mines. I thought and hoped I’d like her more as eps go by, but I dislike her more and more with every ep.

I must confess it helps that I don’t like that she’s getting more focus and develpomenmt in 3 eps than all the other TCs together in 21 eps… and she’s taking Tygra’s role as Lion-o’s mainly opponent in the group. But even without that she’s annoying.

Now quoestions and thoughts:

[ol]
[li]Is Addicus dead?[/li][li]Will it be always so easy for Lion-o to defeat Mumm-Ra?[/li][li]Will Lion-o ever be able to summon the SoO? And the other TCs with the Eye of Thundera? He did summon Panthro at the end of “Song of the Petalars”.[/li][li]I think we might see Bengali after all as the blacksmith (even if not a Tiger) seemed really important this time.[/li][li]I don’t think Tygra and Cheetara’s look was of disapproval towards Pumyra or the plan (any of those would be understandable anyway, as the group isn’t that integrated after all and Lion-o rarely paid attention to them to their advice, why does he listens Pumyra now?); I think the look was because they were more concerned for Lion-o.[/li][/ol]

mmmh, I think it wasn’t that bad, we learned in the flashbacks more about the two swords. But I also don’t like that they put the other Thundercats in the background.

1. I think he is still alive.
2. probably yes, if I counted right, it’s the third time that Lion-o could beat Mumm-Ra quite easy.
3. I hope so
4. I agree, of course they were concerned, it was a bad plan.

What I like in this episode that it’s the first time that Lion-o’s plan doesn’t worked out at the end.
He saved Pumyra, but he lost Sword of Plun-Darr. And no luck or somebody else helped him this time.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Lion-o very much, I like him almost as much as Tygra, but I don’t like it if wrong decissions always work out somehow in the end.
Of course it wasn’t easy to find a quick plan in this moment, but I just don’t understand Lion-o’s decision, why he only took Pumyra with him and send the rest to the tank?

[Kienkaro]

@Tygrafan

Finally watched this episode, I still enjoyed it even it was definitely not one of my favorite episodes.

agree with you. And like the rest of the group I also thought it was a stupid plan.

Agree, I dislike the sunlight excuse for Mummra, but therefore I like the scene at the end.

Right, but don’t forget his age, he is still a youngster. Even though he passed the trials and matured a lot, he still will do mistakes. And I love him for that I like him for his emotions and not being perfect.

mmmh, I think it wasn’t that bad, we learned in the flashbacks more about the two swords. But I also don’t like that they put the other Thundercats in the background.

1. I think he is still alive.
2. probably yes, if I counted right, it’s the third time that Lion-o could beat Mumm-Ra quite easy.
3. I hope so
4. I agree, of course they were concerned, it was a bad plan.

What I like in this episode that it’s the first time that Lion-o’s plan doesn’t worked out at the end.
He saved Pumyra, but he lost Sword of Plun-Darr. And no luck or somebody else helped him this time.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Lion-o very much, I like him almost as much as Tygra, but I don’t like it if wrong decissions always work out somehow in the end.
Of course it wasn’t easy to find a quick plan in this moment, but I just don’t understand Lion-o’s decision, why he only took Pumyra with him and send the rest to the tank?

What:confused: when do anything Lion O plans ever workout.
It feels like for me that he is always wrong even when his ideas are logically sound. He gets berated and contested in every episode and have to learn a new lesson again and again why? Because plot said so.

[Tygrafan]

@Kienkaro

What:confused: when do anything Lion O plans ever workout.
It feels like for me that he is always wrong even when his ideas are logically sound. He gets berated and contested in every episode and have to learn a new lesson again and again why? Because plot said so.

Yeah, agree, it seems that he was often wrong, but everything he did still worked out somehow.
Sometimes another Thundercat appeared to save him (and other members of the group) and sometimes Lion-o - not only he, also the other Thundercats - had damn luck.
In the end the plans worked out somehow and he reached his goal.

But this time he lost the sowrd to Mummra, IMO it’s the first time a plan really failed in the end.