ThunderCats ranks among the best cartoons of the '80s, alongside the likes of Masters
of the Universe and Transformers.
You may not have noticed at the time, but ThunderCats had some truly unusual touches
that read very differently to adult eyes.
"Thunder, thunder, thundercats!
HO!"
ThunderCats is a bit of a sweeping epic, and it all begins with an oft-forgotten origin
story.
The Thundercats have to leave their doomed home planet of Thundera, and at the time,
Lion-O is just a young boy.
They're also mostly undressed, by the way, but that changes quickly.
Because of a long journey ahead of them, the Cats have to spend time in suspended animation
on the way to their new home.
When they arrive on Third Earth, young Lion-O finds that his body has grown into that of
a muscular adult man, but his mind is the same.
"Why, I'm grown!"
Even though the original team includes three actual adults, Lion-O is still the team leader
because he's the hereditary "Lord of the Thundercats."
Early on, Lion-O's immaturity and naivete is a story point, but before long that aspect
mostly falls by the wayside.
There are plenty of moments when Lion-O's behavior makes more sense when you remember
that he's just an enormous kid, but it's almost never made explicit after that first episode.
"A fine figure of a Thundercat you’ve grown up to be, Lion-O.”
“So handsome, too!"
As Thundera falls apart during the show's premiere, the central Thundercats escape the
destruction under the leadership of their wise old leader, Jaga.
Jaga doesn't live to see their new home on Third Earth, but he frequently returns as
a shimmering blue ghost.
No specific explanation for the destruction of Thundera is given in that first episode;
it's only much later, in the third season episode "Thunder Cubs," that we learn the
reason for the entire planet falling apart, and it's all Jaga's fault.
"Come join me for a history lesson."
Years earlier, when Jaga was a much younger man-cat, he'd defeated a mutant leader named
Ratilla, who had carried a double-bladed magical weapon, the Sword of Plun-Darr, which is basically
the evil equivalent to the Thundercats' own Sword of Omens.
Upon defeating Ratilla, Jaga threw the Sword of Plun-Darr into a volcanic canyon in order
to destroy it.
However, he underestimated the sword's evil magic, and the Sword of Plun-Darr works its
way to the core of Thundera, splitting the planet apart.
Surprisingly little is made of the fact that the wise adviser who has guided the Thundercats
all this time actually made the mistake that cost them everything.
ThunderCats largely takes place on a planet called Third Earth, but that can't possibly
be our Earth, right?
It just looks too weird.
We live on First Earth, or as we call it, Earth.
The third one must be out in space somewhere.
However, if you pay attention, the show makes clear that "Third" is a matter of time, not
space.
This is Earth in its Third Age, when humans are no longer the dominant species, and many
of the planet's inhabitants are alien colonists and refugees from across the cosmos.
This fact is made especially clear in the episode "Excalibur," when Merlin makes a guest
appearance and reveals that the King Arthur stories took place on the same planet where
the Thundercats now live.
Merlin isn't the only ancient immortal who's survived from First Earth to Third.
The show's main villain, Mumm-Ra, falls into the same category.
With his glowing red eyes, deathly gray pallor, and twisted face, Mumm-Ra is terrifying as
'80s cartoon villains go, which is all the more reason that it's not entirely obvious
that he's the only human being in the main cast of ThunderCats.
At least, Mumm-Ra used to be a human being.
He's an ancient Egyptian sorcerer who was granted immortality by his gods, who he calls
the Ancient Spirits of Evil.
Egyptian history is avoided on ThunderCats, but it's hard to miss that Mumm-Ra is a mummy
who lives in a pyramid, and the Ancient Spirits of Evil have human bodies and animal heads,
just like many gods of Egyptian mythology.
Mumm-Ra's name is a portmanteau of "mummy," and the Egyptian sun god Ra.
So, while the ThunderCats arrived from Thundera, and the mutants come from the planet Plun-Darr,
and even the Berbils arrived on Third Earth in a spaceship, Mumm-Ra has been here all
along.
Of all the ThunderCats characters, he's the one with whom we share DNA, and he's not completely
wrong about being upset at the invasion of his planet.
Early on, the powers of the Thundercats' mystical Sword of Omens seem pretty clear.
It magically extends from dagger-length into a full sword.
It casts a big red cat signal into the sky to summon the other Thundercats.
It shoots energy beams, and it allows Lion-O to see across great distances.
“Sight beyond sight!"
As the series goes on, however, the Sword of Omens has whatever powers it needs to have
to resolve a particular plot.
It can project both fire and ice at various moments, can project solid objects like walls
and bridges.
It flies, and even allows its bearer to fly, whenever that's convenient.
It even prevents the Thundercats' home planet from exploding for a second time.
A magical sword with many uses is fine, but as an adult viewer, it's pretty clear that
the writers would just give the Sword of Omens a new power anytime they wrote themselves
into a corner.
"Think I'm funny do ya?
Snarf snarf."
For most of the series, Snarf is just another in a long line of annoying little squeaky-voiced
characters who don't fit in their shows, a lineage stretching from Scrappy Doo to Orko
to Screech.
But Snarf once had a very specific job, acting as Lion-O's nanny.
"Just let the boy come down with a fever, or the pip, or something, and who gets the
blame?
Poor old Snarf, that’s who.
Snarf snarf."
When Lion-O was a kid, Snarf was employed to watch over him and keep him safe.
Once he has an adult body, Lion-O tells Snarf he doesn't need that anymore, even though
he's become even more prone to getting into trouble than ever before, and Snarf's entire
existence is pretty much rendered pointless.
Snarf is a chronic worrier, which makes him suited to babysitting, but when he doesn't
have that job anymore, the same quality is what makes him incredibly annoying.
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