Here are the Top 5 things that bugged me about the original T-Cats:
Snarfer…do I even need to elaborate here? This is coming from someone who actually loves Snarf. I sort of saw myself in him. A little annoying? Sure, but always loyal and always wanting to help, but introducing his nephew just proved to be too much of a good thing. His voice was even more obnoxious than Snarf’s and him being a know it all just made me hate him. And don’t even get me started on “Rocket Ship Baby”. Out of the main cast of characters (T-Cats, New T-Cats, Allies, Mumm-Ra, Mutants, Lunatacs), Snarfer was by far my least favorite character. The only one I might have disliked more is Kudi, but she only showed up once in the entire series. We had to put up with Snarfer all through Season 2.
The Breathing in Space = Even for a show like this, that seemed to be a pretty big pill to swallow that they could breath in space, especially when the first episode establishes that they need to find a planet where they can breath the air. Sound in space, I can buy. Star Wars broke that rule all the time, but it made the movies better for it. But breathing in space? No way. Even a five year old knows nobody can do that.
Sword of Omens Deus Ex Machina = This wasn’t as much of a problem in Season 1, but later in the series, it just got ridiculous. There was literally nothing that Sword couldn’t do. I remember watching “Return to Thundera Part 5” for the first time and when Lion-O used the Sword to literally create a new Gyroscope out of thin air, I just said “Well, the T-Cats are cheaters”. I mean that’s just not fair.
Snarfs are Immune to everything = This got to be a huge overused plot device used in Season 2. The Snarfs were immune to everything. WHY?! The Mad Bubbler can’t effect them because they don’t possess the capacity for evil. Well that’s just not true, but OK whatever. The Beacon of Ravage Island can’t effect them. Uh…why? Strong will power is the answer given, but Snarf fell victim to The Doom Gaze, so I don’t buy that. And the WORST one by far was in Thundercups Part II. The Snarfs were immune to The Varicannon, so in essence, a big gun. They got shot by the same blast as the T-Cats and were completely unphased by its effects. So they are immune to Plundarrian technology? That’s absurd.
The only one I can recall that made any kind of sense was Snarf being immune to The Bracelet of Power because I can buy that the artifact was designed to only effect the Thundercats. But come on. Its easy enough on the T-Cats to have the unstoppable Sword of Omens. They don’t need allies that are immune to everything.
Lynx-O being blind makes him awesome = OK we get it. Blind people can do amazing things. I perfectly understand, but they made sure to state and show how awesome Lynx-O was time and time again to the point that he felt like he was a Mary Sue. I mean he could do anything! He was perfect. I can accept that a blind character can still do amazing things in spite of his blindness, but they kept starting it show after show to the point that he felt like a walking PSA.
OMG, yes! My head’s been rattling on this fact for a long time! Even Claudus, Jaga and the palace guards were clothed on Thundera. I had watched the OS as a child, but never from beginning to end, so I never knew the Cats were unclothed when they set out to Third Earth until ‘Thundercats-HO! The Movie.’ I was so surprised, when I saw them in just boots. Also, yeah, I agree that it was surprising Pumyra, Lynx-O and Ben-Gali were dressed on Thundera.
Which gets me to the comics. I understand that the writers wanted to darken the story a bit, but then in ‘The Return’ we see a grown-up WilyKit in skimpy slave dress and Cheetara’s leotard practically torn, both ladies at the mercy of the villains, so if we all knew that they wore no clothes at the start of ‘Exodus’ anyway, why bother with all the fetish fuel?
Another thing which I always found irritating was when new Thunderians seemingly popped out of nowhere. It was made clear to us in “Exodus” that the Thundercats were the only survivors to escape from Thundera before its end. However, as the seasons progressed, every now and then you would see a Thunderian or two appear in an episode. I think that if the show had continued for 7 or 8 seasons, we probably would have the whole population of Thundera surviving!
I also found this same annoying concept in the “Superman” franchise. Krypton was destroyed and only infant Kal-El (Superman) survived, yet new Kryptonians were introduced all the time who had also (God knows how!!!) survived Krypton’s explosion.
Come to think of it, there are quite a few similarities between Thundercats and Superman:
We have the main character(s) escaping from their doomed planet in a spaceship just before it (the planet) explodes.
The spaceship eventually makes it way to earth.
The main character(s) are more powerful than the residents of earth and and help them in their problems and combat evil (“Truth, Justice and the American way” for Superman, “Justice, Truth, Honor, Loyalty” for the TCats)
Pieces of their exploded planet are lethal to the main character(s) but harmless to everyone else.
One of the villain(s) used to be a resident of their planet but was imprisoned and banished for his evil deeds. (Grune vs General Zod and his two partners.
Can anyone think of any other similarities that I have missed?
How about Yellow as well? Lion-O’s skin is yellowish and Superman’s belt and logo have yellow in them. So I guess we could say that both the main characters have a “Red-Blue-Yellow” color scheme.
And the ‘Red-Blue-Yellow’ scheme also applies to Power Rangers, because in all the seasons, the stock colours in all Power Ranger teams are ‘Red-Blue-Yellow.’
Also, among my less favorite things were some characters that a) didn’t seem to fit in the whole TC universe and mythology (Mandora), or b) were just lame and seeme dto be intrroduced due to feminist -no offense- tendencies that were so strong back in the 80s only to have a female counterpart for some male characters (Jagara, Mumm-Rana).
Also, in season 2 some eps made no sense at all, like “Chain of Loyalty”. So waht? A chain breaks and that means the TC are eager to kill each other? Not being loyal to someone doesn’t mean you hate that someone.
I agree with “Lady O”. I mean I can be forgiving about many of the other inconsistencies and plot holes. For a child enjoying the show, many of these inconsistencies can easily go unnoticed. (I myself didn’t notice many of them until I was much older). But the “space breathing” goof up stuck out like a sore thumb. Either the TCats can breath in space or they can’t. You can’t have them sitting on the fence!
I mean, having him written off of the last 20 eps or so was already hard to process (I watched all of those eps expecting to see him, either in a visit to NT or in Third Earth, at least for 2 mins), but not having him (and Pumyra) in the very last episode of the series was really frustrating. I was so mad, angry and sad then (and still a little lol).
posts and here’s a few things I didn’t like either.
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