I like balgus’ idea and his design. It looks really good. I will say however that I would still prefer him to be about Lion-O’s age. The primary reason is because throughout the show Lion-O has almost always had to command teammates who are older than he is, save for Kit and Kat, and I’ve never quite felt that he can really relate to anyone on the team.
His relationship with Tygra and Cheetara is still kind of complicated, Panthro is part of a previous generation, and Kit and Kat aren’t even teenagers yet. While they are are certainly his friends and family, none of them are really his “buddy,” so to speak. Pumyra was kind of like that, but she was his love interest, which is a bit more intimate than what I’m getting at, and she did betray them so it didn’t work out. I think Kit has come the closest to having this sort of relationship with Lion-O, but not quite. Kit’s still a little kid, and there are some things Lion-O probably can’t relate to her on a mature level, although Kit has shown to be mature for her age. Her best friend is still her brother though. I want Lion-O to have a relationship with Bengali a bit like Panthro and Grune’s, before Grune’s betrayal of course.
Right now it just seems like Lion-O has no real best friend. A loving family to be sure, but to me none of them really seem like people he would want to just hang out with. And if Bengali’s an outsider, he may not see Lion-O the same way all the other cats do. I guess I’m just saying I want Bengali to become Lion-O’s best friend, to form a bond that Lion-O can’t quite have with any of the other ThunderCats. It’s just something I’ve always felt was missing. Kit has Kat, Tygra has Cheetara, Panthro and Lynx-O are probably going to get along great. Lion-O had Pumyra for a while, which became something more and then went horribly wrong. Lion-O just really needs a true best friend right now. Tygra and Kit come close to that for him, but to me it just never feels quite there.
Another reason is because I liked the idea of Bengali being a really inexperienced fighter who has to transfer his blacksmithing skills to combat. He’s lived his life learning to be a blacksmith, not a soldier, but he can still be outgoing, adventurous and very eager to fight like Aquaman or Thor. It was my idea that Panthro and/or Lynx-O could mentor him on their travels, or something like that.
Don’t get me wrong, I think a Thor like Bengali is a really cool idea, I’m just not sure about him being a 30 year old man. Maybe what I have in mind could still work that way, I’m just not sure. If we do really decide to go with older warrior Bengali, he could form a sort of bond with Panthro and Lynx-O and the three of them can be their own little group of older warriors, while Lion-O, Tygra, and Cheetara form their own little squad. I really feel though that making him older means less opportunity for character development. Maybe Bengali could start out a clumsy, poor fighter, but starts to develop into a much braver, stronger, and louder warrior like balgus showed us. I also like the idea of him being not too tall, but very buff like Bolin from Korra.
I’m in the lobby at the moment.
