ThunderCats (2011 series)/Tropes F-I

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Tropes for ThunderCats (2011), F-I

  • Faceless Eye: The Eye of Thundera lives up to its name; the red cabochon develops a glowing white slitted pupil when it sends a vision through the Sword of Omens, and is sometimes depicted with a black chatoyancy in its resting state.
  • Face Palm: Lion-O at Tygra's actions after he accidentally drank a love potion meant for Pumyra.
    • Panthro's frequent reaction to the antics of his teenaged companions. "Oh brother!"
  • Facial Markings: Used with the Cats to highlight their eyes, cheekbones and jaws.
  • False Reassurance: Mumm-Ra (speaking to Jaga) "Come now, don't be afraid".
  • Famed in Story/Shrouded in Myth: The Sword of Omens, The Eye of Thundera, The Book of Omens, Mumm-Ra and Lost Technology all play important parts in Thunderian legend, but their history is so ancient that Thundera has inevitably forgotten parts of it, and remain skeptical or dismissive of others.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Lasers, lasers everywhere!
  • Fanfare: Kept, along with the Epic Riff in the Truncated Theme Tune.
  • Fan Service: Much of the officially released concept art and character sheets feature main characters in various states of dress and undress. Since the pilot of the original series had all of the leads stark naked, this may be a nod to tradition.
    • It extends even further in the animation itself,. "Recipe for Disaster" has two scenes that are lifted directly from the opening of the 1985 series.
  • Fandom Nod: In "Between Brothers", Panthro shouts "I don't need a stinkin' nursemaid!" at Snarf, which is the role he played in the 1985 series.
  • Fantastic Caste System: Word of God splits Thundera's Cats into two types. Those without tails are society's elite, while those with tails are consigned to a life of poverty in the slums. The Thunderkittens, who have tails, are introduced as pickpockets on the streets. Among the tailless, the line of royal succession is reserved for Lions like Claudus and Lion-O.
  • Fantastic Drug: Played with the Ro-Bear's Candy Fruit. It's tasty, nutritive... and made of pure sugar. Wilykit and Wilykat quickly become hooked to it and for all means and effects, they behave as if they were eating a cocaine/amphetamine combo. Both purposely get high on Candy Fruit to achieve Caffeine Bullet Time.
  • Fantastic Ghetto: Thundera's slums. This is where the caudate Cats and specific minorities like Dogs must live. The Thunderkittens have a hovel on the Wrong Side of the Tracks, while Lion-O braves muggers in The City Narrows to shop for Lost Technology in the Black Market.
  • Fantastic Racism: By way of Animal Jingoism. A hapless Dog is beaten and mugged by vicious Alley Cats in the slums. At a large festival, Lion-O very narrowly averts a public lynching of two stockaded Lizards, who the Cats enslaved for the crime of petty theft.
    • In "The Pit", the Dogs don't think very highly of Cats, believing them to be disloyal creatures. Pumyra's and Lion-O's display of loyalty to each other during their match earns the entire crowd's adulation.
    • In the flashback in "Birth of the Blades", Mumm-Ra displays plenty of this in regards to the Cats and the Lizards. He makes disparaging remarks about the Cats' intelligence right to Leo's face and treats the Lizards as cannon fodder.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Stuffed to brimming.
  • A Fete Worse Than Death: The Angry Mob of Thunderian townspeople thinks it'd be fun to cap off Grune's homecoming festival with a bit of Lizard lynching. Lion-O and the Lizards aren't so keen on the idea.
  • Feudal Future: Thundera is stuck in Medieval Stasis with a dash of magic and technology for spice.
  • Fictional Sport: "The Games" in Thundera's Thunderdome: A racing Chase Fight between two Cat competitors climbing, swinging, jumping and running up a tree to to ring a bell at its top, violent kicking and punching included. Ring Out involves knocking a player off the tree into a pool of water.
  • Fighting the Lancer: The frequent manifestation of Lion-O's Sibling Rivalry with Tygra. Feeling testy over Tygra's petty insults, Lion-O challenges him to a match of Thundera's Chase Fight Gladiator Games, hoping to embarrass him in front of Grune. Lion-O is defeated soundly, and publicly humiliated. Otherwise, they tend to engage in back-and-forth sniping, like arguing over whether to retreat from the Lizard army.
    • "Between Brothers"
  • Final Exam Boss: Lion-O uses the lessons he learned in his Trials to save the Cats in the 16th episode.
  • Finders, Rulers: Grune seeks to exploit the Cargo Cult of the Book of Omens this way

Panthro: Look at them, they're already hailing us as heroes.
Grune: If we come back with the Book of Omens, we'll be hailed as gods.

Wilykat: Snarf! That was all the food we had left!
Wilykit: Now we're doooomed!
Cheetara: Aren't you two being a little dramatic?
Wilykat: Dramatic? What if they never come back? What if we starve to death?
Wilykit: What if we have no food and we have to choose who gets eaten?
...
Panthro: You know what? It's about time you two learned some hard life lessons!
Wilykat: He's gonna kill us!
Wilykit: I told you he would!
...
Cheetara: *breaks a branch over her knee, tossing the two resulting sharp pieces of wood between the two of them* No more games, you two.
Wilykat: ...I think they want us to fight to the death.

  • Genre Blindness: The Thundercats find a locked door at the end of a narrow walkway over a pit of spikes with numerous keys available, and they don't think the wrong key will trigger a Booby Trap?
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: When the Thunderkittens interrupt Cheetara trying to help Lion use Sight Beyond Sight with a Hands-On Approach, we get this little exchange:

Wilykat: Whatcha doin'?
Wilykit: Ooh, I know what they were doing! [makes kissing noises]
Lion-O: NO. We were... just... trying to get my sword to work...

    • In Episode 14 "New Alliances," we get this little gem:

Cheetara: That reminds me: thanks for watching my back. [kiss]
Tygra: Well, your... back's real easy to watch.

      • Please note, this was the first episode to air in the new time slot traditionally reserved for younger demographics.
      • Also provides an in-universe example of the trope, as the Thunder-Kittens are standing right there during the exchange, and completely miss the innuendo. As a pair of 8-year-olds, they react accordingly. Especially Wilykat.
    • In Episode 20, "Curse of Ratilla", Tygra and Cheetara are caught in a cave-in. Convinced they're going to die, they kiss. In the next scene, the cave-in stops.

Cheetara: I think we just got lucky
Tygra: *big grin on his face* Yeah, we did!

Wilykat: I thought that was a myth!

Panthro: So did we.

  • Giant Squid: A Hybrid Monster, the Ramlak moves this way, ship crushing tentacle-vines included.
  • Giving the Sword to A Noob: Claudus' reaction to Lion-O's failure of his Rite of Passage. "The Sword is ready, Lion-O, but you are not." Subverted in that Lion-O passed his test, and was granted a vision by the Sword of Omens, but lied out of fear and ignorance of its significance.
  • Glad You Thought of It: Jaga pulls one of these, carefully cloaking references to "Sight Beyond Sight" in aphorisms about kingly behavior, to coax Lion-O into admitting he's had a vision. Unfortunately, he decides that having won Lion-O's trust, the details can wait...
  • Gladiator Games: Downplayed. Though Thundera's "games" have all the violent, decadant trappings of an Ancient Grome Blood Sport, including The Thunderdome and gladiator competitors, participation appears voluntary and nonlethal, as Lion-O and Tygra decide to compete in them on a whim.
  • Glamour Failure: Inverted. When a disguised Mumm-Ra's voice creepily bleeds through his facade as a Voice of the Legion, it's implied he's simply doing it to gloat and show off.
  • Go Through Me: Inverted as Lion-O interposes himself between two stockaded Lizards and an Angry Mob in the mood for a Vigilante Execution.
  • Golden Age: "These were days of peace and prosperity on Third Earth..."
  • Gotta Catch Em All: According to an interview shown on Cartoon Network, the story will center around power stones that the group must gather, the Eye of Thundera being only one of them.
  • Grail in the Garbage: The Black Box Lion-O purchases in Thundera's Black Market comes in handy later, when he witnesses how it might be used, and later employs it during The Siege of Thundera to blow up a War Mech.
  • Grand Staircase Entrance: Unusually Played for Drama (and horror) Mumm-Ra's second reveal, in Flash Back, has him slowly descending a stair, wheezing and shuffling and looking no less disturbing for his infirmity, again backed by his personal Leitmotif and Con Lang Ominous Chanting.
  • Grave Robbing: The Thundercats perform a heroic variant, since the Book of Omens is kept in the Tower of Omens, which served as the final resting place for the Clerics who transported it there.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The legendary Book of Omens, both an ancient history of Thundera and a Tome of Prophecy and Fate, assumed lost. Generals Panthro and Grune mounted a futile search, but during The Siege of Thundera, Jaga informs Lion-O that it exists, and sends him racing to find it before Mumm-Ra does.
  • Great Offscreen War: Beyond the conflict with the Lizards, the inferred historical conflicts that "brought law and order to a world of warring animals."
  • Green Aesop: "The Forest of Magi Oar" has "There's no justification for disrupting ecology with rampant industrialization."
  • Gunship Rescue: Panthro's Dynamic Entry in the Thundertank, saving the other Thundercats when they're surrounded by Lizards.
    • Happens again in "Into the Astral Plane," when Tygra uses the Thundertank to save the day when Grune orders his troops to open fire on the disarmed Thundercats.
    • Once AGAIN in "New Alliances" when Panthro saves the other three from Sslithe, Addicus, and Kaynar in a newly-upgraded, much bigger version of the Thundertank.
  • Half Truth:
    • Jaga's Opening Monologue neglects to mention that Third Earth's "peace and prosperity" belongs to the upperclass Cats, or that the ruler's "just heart" does not extend to other species.
    • Grune pulls a doozy in his Death Notification, particularly when he notes "It is only through [Panthro's] sacrifice I stand before you today."
  • Hammy Herald: In disguise, Mumm-Ra manages to pull off being his own herald as a method of showing off, smugly adopting a telltale Voice of the Legion and boasting of the existence of "the things of your worst nightmares" before dropping his facade and making his Big Entrance.
  • Hands-On Approach: Cheetara holds Lion-O's shoulders and tells him to relax while advising him on how to induce Sight Beyond Sight. Lion-O does not relax.
  • He Didn't Make It: Grune performs the silent headshake variant when telling Claudus of Panthro's loss
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Lion-O discusses this trope in regards to the Cats' war with the Lizards while explaining his defense of the Lizard prisoners and demanding their release.
  • Hearing Voices: General Grune hears the evil variety, courtesy of Mumm-Ra.
    • Kaynar also apparently hears voices in his head because he's insane. He also likes talking back.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: In Native Son, Tygra's act of forgiveness is the counter to the Ancient's curse borne of pride.
  • The Hedge of Thorns: The Briar Woods serves as one to the Thundercats, who enter to flee their Lizard pursuers, get lost, and search for a way out along with the Lilliputian Petalars.
  • Here We Go Again: In the two-minute short "Snarf: Butterfly Blues" Snarf goes to enormous lengths, risking his own hide to keep baby Lion-O from harm while he chases butterflies. Snarf finally puts Lion-O to bed, only for him to awaken at the sight of even more butterflies!
  • Hesitation Equals Dishonesty:
    • In "Omens Part 1" Lion-O's "tell" when lying about whether he's seen anything in the Sword of Omens, which Jaga can see right through.
    • In "Legacy" it's Leo's "tell" when his superior makes noise about a rebellion, though he doesn't catch it.
  • Hey, Catch!: During Lion-O's Rite of Passage, Tygra abruptly yells this while tossing Lion-O a practice sword, giving Claudus an opening to charge at Lion-O with Sword of Omens in hand.
  • Hidden Elf Village: The Tiger clan has spent generations in a secluded village in the mountains after their ancestors were shunned by the other Cat clans because they remained loyal to Mumm-Ra during the rebellion. The Tigers' pride and reclusiveness ultimately dooms them.
  • Hidden Purpose Test: Lion-O's Rite of Passage is not just a test of his skill at handling the Sword of Omens, or the Eye of Thundera deciding his worth, but specifically whether he's able to see visions within the sword itself.
  • Higher-Tech Species: The Lizards, much to Thundera's shock.
  • Homage: The two-minute short "Snarf: Butterfly Blues" pays tribute to WB cartoons like Animaniacs and the Looney Tunes, and the babysitting episodes of Tom and Jerry.
  • Honorable Elephant: The meditative elephant village.
  • Hope Spot: Surely loyal General Grune/General Panthro will help his old friend Claudus fight against the Lizards! Wait, what is that in his hand?
  • The Horde: General Slithe and his Lizard army, in service to Mumm-Ra and Grune
  • Horse of a Different Color: Thunderian mounts used by the military and royal family are pale-blue-furred Mix-and-Match Critters
  • Horseback Heroism: How Lion-O enters during his Big Damn Heroes scene. His father even pauses to bow to him.
  • Hostage for Macguffin: ZigZagged. Grune attempts to engineer a trade: the Sword of Omens in exchange for a hostage he's holding, but Claudus rejects the offer, and both the Clerics and Lion-O interrupt Grune's retaliation long enough for Claudus to mount a successful rescue. But the hostage isn't Panthro...and isn't a hostage.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: Slithe gloats, "How quickly things change for the Cats. From top predator to Endangered Species, in a single day!"
  • Humanoid Aliens/Petting Zoo People: Damn near everyone and everything on Third Earth, all given Intelligent Gerbil characterization.
  • Humiliation Conga: In the two-minute short "Snarf: Butterfly Blues" Badly-Battered Babysitter Snarf has to go through a gauntlet of pain and anguish to keep the infant Lion-O out of trouble.
  • Hybrid Monster/Planimal: The Ramlak, a Man-Eating Plant with the M.O. of a Giant Squid.
  • I Am Your Opponent/I Got You Covered: Tygra jumps in when Lion-O puts himself between two stockaded Lizards and an Angry Mob that wants to make him move, informing the crowd "You better be sure you want to do this because I've got his back." Cheetara soon follows suit.
  • I Have This Friend: Inverted, when Jaga gently nudges Lion-O towards admitting that he's seen a vision in the Sword of Omens by announcing that "The Book says that our greatest king will possess the ability of "Sight Beyond Sight," which has the desired effect of prompting Lion-O to ask a Trial Balloon Question... "Like having visions?"
  • I Shall Taunt You: Oh, Lion-O...
    • In "Omens Part 1" Tygra goads Lion-O into a telegraphed move during their Chase Fight game with a calculated: "When it comes to everything except the crown, you're always going to be second place." He even lampshades the effectiveness of it: "When are you gonna learn, brother?"
    • In "The Duelist and the Drifter", the Duelist goads Lion-O into a fight by calling him a coward. It works since he also indirectly mocks Lion-O's father Claudus in the process.
    • Later in the same episode, the Drifter gets in some pointed digs at Lion-O's impatience and overexertion, the better to dance circles around him.
  • I Will Only Slow You Down: Jaga says this word-for-word before his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Identical Grandson: In "Journey to the Tower of Omens" Captain Tygus and Leo, shown in Flash Back, look a lot like Tygra and Lion-O respectively.
  • If Jesus, Then Aliens: Discussed by Mumm-Ra by way of self-introduction: "Have you not considered that if technology is real, then so are the things of your worst nightmares?"
  • Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Thundera is a prideful kingdom, ill-prepared for what the outside world can offer compared to its Medieval Stasis.
  • I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: When the Thundercats flee The Siege, a wounded Jaga insists on stopping to conduct a hasty succession ritual where he presents and fits Lion-O with his father's scabbard-gauntlet, speaks an oath and powers it up by tapping it with his crozier.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The Lizards are pretty bad shots when it comes to dealing with Lion-O and the surviving Thundercats. The Cats themselves almost equally so, the arrows fired against the Lizards hit a grand total of two targets on-screen.
    • Possibly justified for the Lizards: it's implied that all the hi-tech weaponry they use in the Seige had been locked up with Mumm-Ra for centuries, and they've only just been outfitted with it since Grune opened the sarcophagus. Therefore they've not had a lot of time to practice with it.
  • Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The Eye of Thundera, alias The Warstone. A Power Crystal taken as Plunder from a red planet by Captain Tygus for his commander, Mumm-Ra.
  • Impossible Task: A sullen and paranoid Grune discusses his and Panthro's thus-far futile search for the Book of Omens this way, rapidly escalating into declaring it a Snipe Hunt and a Uriah Gambit engineered by Claudus purely to get him out of the Kingdom. Panthro can only snap incredulously at him, and wonder why Grune is ranting about Claudus fearing his ambition.
  • In a Single Bound: Lion-O and Tygra jump to absurd heights in their Chase Fight game.
  • In the Back:
    • In "Omens Part 2" Claudus is stabbed by Mumm-Ra disguised as Panthro and mortally wounded, with just enough time to inform Lion-O he's So Proud of You before dying.
    • In "The Duelist and the Drifter", this is attempted and failed by the Duelist after Lion-O wins their second duel, but the Drifter stops him with a willow reed.
  • In the Hood: The Clerics helms feature full hood and veil
  • In Working Order: Tygra's Ray Gun and Lion-O's Black Market find the Sticky Bomb are highly intuitive, fully functioning and easy to use.
  • Incoming Ham/Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: You are but insects to the power of MUMM-RA, THE EVER-LIIIVIIING!
  • Inexplicably Tailless: In-story, there has thus far been no explanation as to why lowerclass Cats like the Thunderkittens have tails, while the upperclass do not. However, it's All There in the Manual that tails are the distinguishing marker of Thundera's Fantastic Caste System. In particular, Panthro has an obvious tail in flashbacks but none in the present.
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: Lyricless, though an Ethereal Choir underscores it.
  • Insult Backfire:

Lion-O (in Sarcasm Mode): You're just so perfect, aren't you, Tygra?
Tygra: Why, thank you, Lion-O!

  • Intelligent Gerbil:
    • The Cats are expansionist predators who've placed themselves at the top of the Animal hierarchy.
    • Thundera's games are also a giant Visual Pun. The Cats race up a tree, while fighting to ring a bell and lose when they hit water.
  • Internal Homage: Lion-O's invocation of "Thundercats! Ho!" is a shot-for-shot remake of the Stock Footage used in the original series.
    • In a brief flashback in "Between Brothers", we see a younger Panthro, without the muttonchops and scars; he looks just like his classic incarnation.
  • Internal Reveal: When they're Locked in the Dungeon, Lion-O admits to Tygra that he saw a vision of Mumm-Ra in the Sword of Omens just the day before. Tygra does not take this well.
  • Ironic Echo: The defeat of your enemy is worth any sacrifice.
  • "You like her, don't you?" Both times spoken to Lion-O about two very different women. The first time he denies it, but the second...
  • Irony: Between Lion-O and Tygra, each brother wants what the other has. Tygra wants the throne and can never have it, Lion-O really doesn't want to be king all that badly but was chosen for it, all he wants is to beat his brother at something and never can.
    • In "Recipe for Disaster" Cheetara comments that Pumyra "isn't exactly the friendliest cat" only for it to be immediately followed by a scene of her tenderly helping a baby creature back to its nest.
  • It Got Worse: In the two minute short, "Snarf: Butterfly Blues," Snarf's life gets difficult the very second after an infant Lion-O sees a butterfly.
  • It Has Been an Honor: In "Song of the Petalars" The group reacts this way when surrounded by Lizards, assuming this is their Last Stand. But then Panthro shows up...
  • It's Always Sunny At Funerals: It's a beautiful day in the smoldering ruins of Thundera during Claudus's Viking Funeral.
  • It's the Journey That Counts: Emrick tells Lion-O that the good we do and the friends we make are what matter most.
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