SITS Cliff Notes – Era Two

A New Decade (Ch 31):

A prologue told through the perspective of the Eye of Thundera, we’ve fast-forwarded about ten years after the events of Era One.

Everyone is older, the children in the Lair are growing while Kit and Kat have become adults. Panthro has taken WilyKat under his wing.

Age has marked everyone in its own way – Tygra, for example, needs glasses when he joins Felina for a lesson.

Velouria copes well with her deafness, and can communicate through signing as well as lip-reading. Thanks to the invention of the Braille board, she and Lynx-O can also communicate through touch. She does sometimes feel isolated, and spends time with the Sword until one day the Eye showed her all she’d missed in the world of sound.

However, where Velouria was curious and bonding in her own way with the Eye, Lion-O had lost interest over the years. The relative peace they’d enjoyed since Mumm-Ra remained out of commission, was lulling him into a state of complacency, given even the Mutants or Grune weren’t posing much of a challenge lately.

He had become an involved and loving father to his children, however, and was grooming his son, Leon, for the Lordship already.

Meanwhile, Jax had wandered his way back to Third Earth but now he was a lanky teen. He came across Felina and her offspring along a path, and when unable to recognize him, she turned away in fear, he felt rejected. The rejection was quickly turning to much uglier emotions which the Eye knew may not bode well for the Thundercats in the future.

Heavenly Nobodies (Ch 32):

Worlds away from Third Earth, survivors flourish on a planet they dubbed ‘New Thundera’. On it, one young teen named Torr still holds vigil hoping the heroes he’d heard about called Thundercats would someday find their way to their new home. Though some suspect they died with Thundera – and while others even hoped it might be true, happy to shed the old ways and old woes with it – Torr remains hopeful.

Lynxana, once-ousted Thundercat, was also there and in a position of leadership. She surely was among those that hoped the nobles of the old days were long gone.

Back on Third Earth, the Thundercats discuss a signal Tygra had picked up on some time ago….a homing signal that served to guide Thunderians to their original destination planet. Elation soon gives way to problems and questions as the Thundercats discuss leaving Third Earth undefended. Or worse yet, the possibility of their troubles following them to the new settlement.

Lion-O becomes driven to find a way to leave Third Earth secure and yet not drag their problems through space with them either. He proposes rounding up the Mutants and leaving them to the mercy of their courts on Plun-Darr but the others are lukewarm to it, knowing it’ll probably mean death for the incompetent failures. Grune is another matter entirely, and Lion-O leaves the meeting in a huff, obsessed anew with rejoining his people and fulfilling his entire destiny as not only Lord of the Thundercats, but also Lord of Thundera – or rather, the ‘new’ Thundera.

Cheetara in particular is bothered by Lion-O’s attitude and mindset, and asks WilyKat to keep tabs on their Lord to make sure he doesn’t do anything too rash.

Otherwise, Jax lingers in the forests near the Lair, unsure of where to go or what to do now that his last refuge had rejected him. He is just about to move on when he encounters Grune, someone he would have been happy to live his life having never seen again.

The Slim (Ch 33):

Lion-O awakes hurt and alone in the evening, and makes his way back to the Lair in the rain. When he arrives, everyone is clearly upset with him for trying to handle Grune on his own. But what was worse, was realizing another Thundercat paid the price for his stubbornness. As memories of the prior day come back to Lion-O, he concludes it had to be WilyKat that didn’t survive the battle that followed Grune’s ambush.

Lion-O feels beyond horrible, but it seems it’ll be some time before his friends forgive him much less speak to him. When it is decided the cubs in the Lair will go down to the infirmary to view the body and say their final goodbyes, Lion-O quietly follows, telling himself he too must see with his own eyes what his misplaced determination wrought.

Once there, Felina pulls back the sheet and Lion-O can’t look right away. To his shock and surprise, he instead sees a very much alive WilyKat enter the room with his sister. Puzzled, Lion-O cannot figure out who then is lying dead on the gurney beside him, for the other adult male Thundercats had been accounted for with his own eyes.

Steeling himself to look, he’s doubly shocked to see himself lying lifeless. However, his friends ‘ignoring’ him now made sense because apparently, they could not see his spirit. Still, Lion-O has a hard time accepting this even as he goes to the Astral Plane where Jaga waits to confirm the grim truth. He has great difficulty letting go of the material world he must leave behind.

That night, Felina must cope with the loss of her good friend and father to her children. She’d often heard Lion-O reference Jaga appearing to him from beyond the grave and bitterly wondered why then he would not appear to offer comfort to his own family.

Your Ghost (Ch. 34):

A short time of a few days has passed, during which the business of Lion-O’s successor was determined. Tygra would fill the shoes of Lord of the Thundercats until young Leon came of age, to which Tygra was of mixed emotion. He worried his age would count against him, as well as worry that the Sword of Omens would not bond with him powerfully enough to stave off their enemies. To take his mind off his weighty new responsibilities, he resumed work on one of Lion-O’s last ordered projects, which was the building of the ThunderStrike to aid them in returning home with other refugees.

But, the day had arrived in which the traditional ceremony must be performed to surrender Lion-O’s remains to the beyond. He and Cheetara discuss his self-doubts, and her worries about vague premonitions and her inability to foresee all they try to tell her. Both decide they must simply do they best they can and carry on.

Meanwhile, Grune and Jax wait out their battle wounds and the rain in a cave on Third Earth. Grune mulls his victory over Lion-O, and Jax’s role in it. The jackal teen had been taken under his wing since their meeting in the forest outside the Lair. It was he that tipped off Grune that Lion-O was in the area so that Grune could set up the ambush, and it was Jax that kept WilyKat from interfering until the damage was done. Like many of his race, Jax wasn’t physically that powerful but he could be quick and cunning when it most counted. Over all, Grune figured he was wise to appeal to the boy’s obvious hunger for acceptance and belonging, rather than control the lad through brute force. He knew he had at least one ally whose loyalties he could be more sure of. Grune planned to take revenge on the remainder of the Thundercats, certain it would be easier to accomplish with Lion-O out of the way.

Back at the Lair, Tygra oversees the Ceremony of Rites inside due to rain outside. The book and Sword commit Lion-O’s still body back to the stars, while the ghosts of Jaga and Lion-O bear witness. Seeing his own funeral, Lion-O is once again faced with the hard reality that he has passed on and Jaga hopes this means Lion-O will give his soul a rest and come to accept its fate. However, Lion-O desires to communicate with Felina and give her some comfort, but Jaga knows Lion-O does not have the mastery to appear to her in ghost form as he could do for Lion-O when Lion-O was alive. Instead, Jaga offers an alternative way to communicate with the living that he hopes will work.

The other kids learn that Jonca can see the ghost of her dead father, but cannot hear what he’s saying. Leon angrily accuses Jonca of lying, and Velouria seems skeptical too, causing Jonca to wonder why it’s only she that can see him.

In the Control Room, Felina sits idly by pondering how her family would cope with Lion-O’s death when she hears Lion-O calling to her over the static of the radio. Cheetara comes by to bear witness to the phenomenon but the voice is gone leaving Felina feeling foolish. Cheetara suggests Felina try to get some rest, to which she complies. Lion-O comes to Felina in a dream and at first it is comforting. But then, Lion-O’s presence is pushed out by a nightmare of the Lair crumbling and Grune’s mocking laughter. In the dream, Felina catches a note fluttering in the wind where Lion-O had been. Awakening, she realizes she’d been dreaming yet there is a note in her hand with a comforting note penned by Lion-O. It was part of an old letter he’d written her long ago, and Felina suspects Cheetara put it there while she’d been sleeping in the hopes it would bring her comfort.

Dismayed that his best efforts to reach her – the voice, the dream and the note – were ineffective Lion-O is at a loss with what to do. The only thing he’s sure of is that he cannot leave his family and cross over until he can be sure they’re going to be okay. Thinking of his children, he makes his way to their bedroom and finds Jonca playing alone. He realizes she sees his ghost but learns she can’t hear him. They interact until Leon comes back and is angered by her claims that Jonca can see Lion-O. The siblings begin to fight until WilyKat comes in to break up the fight. Lion-O at least finds some peace in knowing he has a connection with someone he loves.

Shadow Play (Ch. 35):

WilyKat thinks back to the fateful day Lion-O was defeated for good and can’t help but feel he should have been able to do more to prevent it.

That night, Tygra has a nightmare in which Mumm-Ra has returned, powerful as ever, and Tygra fails to adequately lead the remaining Thundercats as the interim Lord. Awoken and disturbed by the dream, Tygra makes his way to the Control Room where Bengali and Pumyra sat on watch. Some heated words are exchanged between the tigers, and Bengali hits Tygra right in his deepest insecurities about his new role which was brought on by Tygra’s lack in acting to make Grune answer to what he did to Lion-O. Furthermore, Tygra felt he was having trouble bonding properly with the Sword of Omens. Felina had even tried to expediate the bond with the help of the Book and even that didn’t seem to help much. It had been decided he would act as Lord, much like Jaga did for Claudus, until Leon came of age to claim his birthright. Tygra stepped up to the challenge, but not altogether happily.

Warrior Maidens, Willa and Nayda, show up at the Lair to find out face to face if what they’d heard is true: Was Lion-O really gone at the hand of Grune? Tygra confirms the unhappy news along with the fact that he’s taken over as acting Lord. Willa pledges her continued alliance with the Thundercats and both offer condolences.

Meanwhile, Lion-O ponders his encounter with Felina in her dream and decides that the frightening turn it took was a prophetic consequence of his presence – which Jaga had told him sometimes happens. He decided he must warn his friends, and realizes he can in fact get through to his daughter using the language all in the Lair had become adept at since Velouria had been a tot – sign. Careful not to alarm the child too much, Lion-O appears to her before breakfast with his message.

Felina, in the meantime, seeks out Cheetara to confront her about the note she’d awoken with in hand the other night. She becomes agitated at Felina’s denials and Snarf’s sensible explanations for the note. When Jonca appears to deliver her message to be wary of Grune, Felina writes it off as the child’s own fears of the Thunderian that took her father away, and refuses to believe that Lion-O would chose to appear to the girl and burden her with such frightening messages. The child is devastated that nobody believes her, and begins to doubt herself.

In the desert, evil finally stirs in the Black Pyramid. Mumm-Ra has finally had adequate rest from his near-devastating battle with the Thundercats nearly a decade before, and quickly catches up on the happenings of Third Earth. He is unpleased until he sees Lion-O’s fate, and senses now is the era ripe for his revenge on the remaining ThunderCats. It seems the Ancient Spirits of Evil have been able to invigorate him to bigger and better levels of evil, which further bodes ill for his enemies. Mumm-Ra decides that he should have council with Grune to put his plot in motion.

Later, the Thundercats track Grune to the Balkan Bar and call him out. Grune has also brought backup in the form of the Mutants, and the two clash until the Mutants are driven off and Grune is knocked cold. But then, Mumm-Ra makes his re-appearance and it seems Tygra’s worst dream is about to come true. However, events happen a bit differently, and the Thundercats survive to see another day. Tygra is not wholly enthused, for he correctly guessed that Mumm-Ra was testing the new Lord of the Thundercats and found what Tygra already knew himself – he was slow to react and the Sword’s connection with him wasn’t as strong as it had been with Lion-O. The others, however, are pleased enough with his leadership and feel renewed hope that they can survive the changes Lion-O’s death brought about.

Back at the Lair that evening, a feeling nagged at Cheetara. Jonca’s words that morning coupled with her old fears bombarded her. She hadn’t been able to get Jonca to tell her more, for the girl was already closed to the idea that Lion-O had ever appeared to her in the first place. She still felt strongly that somehow, Jonca and Lion-O’s fates were tightly intertwined. But one thing Cheetara was able to figure out was that her fears about Lion-O and Felina needing to succeed in bonding was a bit misplaced – it was a fear about bonds, but having more to do with Tygra’s lack of a strong one with the Sword. She was pondering how to discuss the issue with him when Felina entered the Council Chamber speaking of a way to bring Lion-O back.

Tygra confirmed a Lifting of the Dead as possible from his own studies of the Book, but remembered the great uncertainty, cost and peril of such great magic. So great, it was unprecedented in ThunderCat history. Felina however, was fixated on the act, even though it meant one of the two spell casters would be lost for all eternity on all planes of existence. She was willing to be that soul, but Cheetara and Tygra would not hear of it. It was too much to risk, the magic too powerful and untested. It was decided that Felina was to be separated from the Book until she came back to her senses. On the way out of the room, Cheetara and a hysterical Felina passed by Jonca who seemed intrigued by the commotion.

With Lion-O’s last thread to the world of the living broken since Jonca was closed and could no longer see him, he’d reverted to the place Jaga had sorely hoped he never would. Jaga found his spirit locked in what could be a permanent replay of his final moments, the parts of the living actors played out by shadows of themselves. Jaga has to find a way to break Lion-O’s spirit out of the cycle and take him back to the Astral Plane before it’s too late.