Synopsis: [FONT=arial][FONT=arial][SIZE=2]Mumm-Ra learns of the legendary magical sword known as Excalibur, the most powerful sword in existence. He disguises himself as King Arthur, and manages to swindle the sword from the Lady of the Lake. Still dressed as a knight, he is given passage into Cats Lair, where he plays on Lion-O’s sense of honor to trick him into accepting a jousting tournament. The two adversaries compete, and it soon turns into a sword fight. Both seem evenly matched, but then the two swords themselves fight each other. Excalibur wins by plunging itself through the Eye of Thundera! All of a sudden, the source of the Thundercats’ powers is destroyed, and the Thundercats all fall down helpless (even their Thundercats signals on their uniforms and Cat’s Lair disappear). Before Mumm-Ra can savor his victory, Merlin appears and turns Excalibur upon him! He then heals the Eye of Thundera, and the Thundercats are restored. LionO, now the victor, returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]Review: This episode had it all. The first part of the episode reviews the Sword In the Stone legend via Mumm-Ra’s bubbling cauldron. The we get an epic battle between Lion-O’s Sword of Omens and Mumm-Ra in the guise of King Arthur of Camelot wielding Excalibur. In it we also get to meet Merlin, the greatest sorcerer of all time and the Lady of the Lake who guarded Excalibur for aeons. This episode has a serious tone to it that is different than most of the other TCats episodes. The two most powerful swords in existence go blade to blade! And the ThunderCats come eeriely close to losing it all. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]It’s my all time favorite TCats episode.[/FONT][/SIZE]
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I don’t know if I have a favorite episode, but not too long ago I watched The Totem of Dera and really liked it. Not sure why. I enjoyed seeing Wilykit get to have an adventure with Lion-O that didn’t involve her brother and I got chills (kinda odd) when Jaga spoke to Snarfer, and I liked seeing Kit with the sword trying to defend a fallen Lion-O. Overall, I just really liked the episode.
I liked “Totem of Dera” for the same reason: Wilykit without Wilykat… guess that was in response to season 1’s “Shifter”, where there was some Kay w/o Kit.
you should check out my countdown list of my top 50
your fave excalibur is 4th on my list though its an awesome ep and it gives u the feel mummra could of won this as well as my number one ep mummra berbil which is mine casue he was very close to beating the thundercats as well which were two of his greatest feats without any help
I have many favorites (The Last Day, All That Glitters, The Time Capsule, etc.) but my all-time favorite is Ghost Warrior. I love it because Jaga is my favorite Thundercat and we learned just a little bit more about his past in this episode.
Episodes that focused on individual characters, rather than a group, tend to be my favourites. Psyche Out is probably one of my favourites because it’s Alluro operating largely on his own with a reasonably solid plot. Lynx-O being defeated struck me as an added wallop in that he’d always resisted Alluro’s powers.
It still cracks me up (especially the Snarf and Panthro scenes) It was my hangover viewing a few years back!
I also love the Annointment Trials and Snarf Takes Up The Challenge (I love it when people underestimated come out on top and the doubters are proved wrong with egg on their faces!)
It contributed so much to the mythology of T-Cats including some Thundarian history, Jaga’s past, Thundrainium, & even Cheetara’s Sixth Sense.
I love the atmosphere of the episode. Except for a couple short day time scenes, everything else is at night. Its dark, spooky, and there are violent rainstorms. And the look of Grune’s tomb really sets the tone of the episode nicely. Its says right off the bat this isn’t going to be a typical episode and it follows through on that. Even the setting on Thundera during the flashbacks are more harsh & dark than we are used to at this point. I actually wish the day time scenes hadn’t happened (except for the final one after Grune is defeated) just to keep it going.
Grune is an awesome villain. I love the idea of an Evil Thundercat and Grune just fit the mold perfectly. Not only was he a great physical threat, but he was a perversion of what we were led to believe was a utopian society prior to Thundera’s destruction. He’s a black eye on the legacy of the Thundercats that quite literally haunts them in this episode. It was nice to have a villain that couldn’t just be easily defeated by the Sword of Omens as everything Lion-O & the others tried was completely useless.
In addition to that, I like that The Mutants & Mumm-Ra were left out of the story. There was enough material with Grune’s character to write the entire episode around, and the inclusion of the main villains only would have muddied it up a bit.
This is definitely Jaga’s best episode. Usually he is just a plot device to point Lion-O in the right direction. Here, he’s the hero, and the only one that can save the day. The title “Ghost Warrior” actually works both ways, as it could refer to Grune (which I think most people assume) or it could even apply to Jaga. I came away from this episode having twice as much respect for Jaga as I did before. He is truly the greatest Thundercats of all (up to this point anyway). While Grune represents the possibility of evil in the Thundercats ranks, Jaga represents everlasting & incorruptible good.
Building off of that, the fight between the ghosts of Jaga & Grune is my personal favorite action sequence in the series. Its a personal fight between two ancient rivals & the comments from the T-Cats are just awesome: Pantrho “Its as if they set the entire heavens a flame!” or Tygra “Has there ever been a battle such as this?”. Just great stuff. Great atmosphere. And Lion-O lending Jaga a helping hand was also an awesome moment. When he gives his strength over to Jaga, it creates a nice role reversal with Lion-O having to help Jaga in his battles. And it really is a powerful moment: “I command you Jaga! As Lord of the Thundercats, I COMMAND YOU TO TAKE MY STRENGTH!!!”.
In addition to Thundarian history, we get a bit of Third Earth’s as well with the legend of Grune the Destroyer predating the arrival of the current Thundercats and become a legendary tormentor of the innocents of Third Earth. It always made me wonder what happened while Grune was on Third Earth. I mean, did he make a deal with Mumm-Ra? Is it because of Grune that Mumm-Ra knows of the existence of the Eye of Thundera & motivates him to possess it for himself? This is also the episode where I felt like the Third Earthling fully & collectively accepted the Thundercats as we see them grouped outside Cat’s Lair asking them to stop Grune.
And I have to say, I love the ending. Usually, T-Cats would end with a cheesy explanation of the moral and the T-Cats just chilling & relaxing after the events of the episode. We get that here, but in a way that ties into the episode nicely rather than just feeling like a force fed message. The Balkins fess up to their mistake and get some words of wisdom from Lion-O, who is quickly compared to Jaga, the hero of the episode. Its just a really nice moment and one last little nod of respect to Jaga.
So yeah, great story, great action, great characters, great mythology contributions. What more could you want?
The episode isn’t perfect as there are some MINOR nitpicks I have:
Seriously? The T-Cats don’t know about Grune already? Its not like the new show where the society has completely changed or anything. Here, Grune worked directly with Jaga & invaded a Thundarian society very similar to the one we see not long before the planet’s destruction. It just seems weird that they don’t know about Grune, the rogue Thundercat that invaded the planet and former friend of Jaga.
How old is Jaga?!?! I mean my God, Grune is stated to have attacked Third Earth Centuries prior to this episode, and Jaga knew & fought him??? Jeez. By the time Exodus rolled around, Jaga must have been as old as Mumm-Ra or something, lol. Its not so much a nitpick as much as it is a weird observation.
Small thing, but how does the Thundrainium not effect Grune? I mean he draws strength from Thundrillium, so its not like no longer being a Thundercat changed his biological make up or anything.
Edit: Seriously though CoT; you can’t single out one episode that excelled in quality above the others? That one special episode that had you saying: “Hell yes that was pure awesomeness!!!”?
I must agree that “ghost Warrior” has the best butterflies in my stomach/lump in my throat/tingles in my arms feeling moment when Lion commands Jaga in that epic quote…
however being a massive Tygra fan I also liked the “trial of mind power” as was the only time we go to see those powers of his being used (and epic finish when Lion-O realises his greatest fear n overcomes it!)
…oh oh and one more…I used to have Queen of 8 legs on repeat so much as a kid cos I was an arachnaphobic and was enthralled at the TCats kicking arse in the kingdom of webs!!
I’m just gonna go out and say it; I LOVE The Terror of Hammerhand!! This is regarded as a poor episode but I love it! I love the old-school animation, the story is great, characters are fantastic: love seeing the pre-LJN Berserkers! Just a very cool episode! In fact, I’m gonna watch it..right now!
Ljn never made the Warrior Maidens.
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