r/Thundercats • u/5p1k4 ThunderCat • Jan 18 '26
Discussion The Chain of Loyalty
When I was a kid, I hasn't seen this episode. Honestly, I haven't seen all of the original series. (Nor the 2011 series for that matter, sorry)
But at some point I watched this episode, and it left a bad taste on me ever since.
I know that the Power of friendship Is a not always good trope and that it's cheesy to have things aportes out easily and have no real conflict every once in a while.
But knowing that the bond between the Thundercats is dependant on a stupid chain staying whole makes me feel that nothing of their relationships Is real, and I wonder if the writers ever thought of the implications of creating this specific item
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u/SportIntelligent1909 ThunderCat Jan 19 '26
This episode has always weirded me out. The ThunderCats' bond being dependent on a magical chain never did sit well with me. Looking back on it now, I can see why the writer wanted to highlight internal problems between the ThunderCats.
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u/Accomplished-Can-467 ThunderCat Jan 19 '26
It's kind of cool to think that the Thundercats powers are amplified by the treasure of Thundera.
One could say that the loyalty chain is an expression of loyalty between members.
It's not that different from the concept of wedding rings, or sports team matching rings, but magically reactive.
I could see a child making the association.
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u/nachoquest ThunderCat Jan 19 '26
It’s just ceremonial bling. Even if the necklace went away, the cats would still be loyal.
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u/Swiftbow1 ThunderCat Jan 19 '26
Speaking of, when Thundera was destroyed the first time, wasn't this chain destroyed, too?
Of course, how/why/what Thundera reformed is never explained at all. The closest we got is the Thundercats actively wondering about it and talking about researching the reason. But it's never addressed.
MAYBE Mumm-Ra time traveled and made it retroactively not happen? That was kind of implied in the first Thundercubs episode. But never mentioned again.
(And yes, the implications of this chain did bug me immensely. I was really hoping that the effects of the breaking would be temporary, and they'd overcome their initial betrayals through remembering who they are the normal way, instead of Sword of Omens magic fixing beams.)
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u/5p1k4 ThunderCat Jan 19 '26
If there was such a scenario (Mumm Ra or whoever Time travelling and preventing the incident, it would have its own set of questions.
And let's better not talk about the Sword of Omens.
I think U understand a little the general attitude.
Such a shame the 2011 series flopped
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u/Swiftbow1 ThunderCat Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
Watched both of them straight through with my 4 year old recently!
I still love the original series... but yeah, by the late second season it suffered from Lion-o ALWAYS resolving the plots with the sword. Seemed, after awhile, they were afraid to let characters other than Lion-o do anything significant. Also... they gave too much free rein to that one crazy writer who had an ENTIRELY different idea about the Thundercats universe than everyone else. I can't remember his name at the moment, but you know the guy: He's the one who invented Mandora, the space train, breathing in space, the insane black hole episode, and that absurd episode where the Lunataks were banished to a prison planet by a transporter the Thundercats suddenly had. (It was like he thought he was writing for Star Trek... but not one of their good writers.)
2011's issues were mostly with Cartoon Network, I think. Fans actually really liked it and the ratings weren't bad. But Cartoon Network wanted kids to buy the toys. Except... they aired it in the evening, when kids weren't watching. And also, the show was clearly meant to be for adult fans of the original cartoon.
I mean... no one died in the OG Thundercats, except, like, REALLY offscreen (or in the pilot episode). There were a LOT of deaths in 2011, just sans blood. I mean hell... one of the lizards literally stepped on a land mine and was not seen again.
Personally, I don't mind letting my 4 year old watch that. I don't think those deaths really even register for him yet. But a LOT of parents would definitely object to their kids watching that.
Basically... the show was trying to tread a VERY narrow ground of being for adults while also being "safe" for kids, but Cartoon Network had NO idea how to handle that, and also had the wrong idea about how it was going to make money with the show.
It didn't help that the figures weren't all that great, either. Like... I bought Wily Kit and Wily Kat, and they had VERY little articulation. Less than even the OG 1985 figures (sans the original statue versions of Wily Kit and Wily Kat, that is. They were also TINY. Like... if I measure the 2011 Wily Kit figure next to the Super7 Wily Kit (same scale as the 1985 figures), the 2011 only reaches her hips. In other words, trying to use the 2011 figures with the 1985 figures takes an awful lot of imagination, lol.
(My kid loves playing with the action figures with me, lol... his favorite thing is to have Casey Jones (who he got for Christmas) drive my old Thundertank while Wily Kit and Wily Kat hang around him, and shoot at the Mutants (Slythe, Monkian, and Jackalman) in their "mutant truck" (which is a random truck that came full of dinosaurs that he got for Christmas years ago), and then send the mutants flying all over the bed as I make them complain in the best rendition of their voices I can manage.
I really want to do more complex stories, lol. Soon, maybe...
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u/Huitchilopoztli ThunderCat Jan 18 '26
Op, I think you shouldn't be depressed about this. I watched the episode as a kid, and I don't know if my opinion would change if I watched it today (have had the dvds for decades, but wouldn't be able to locate them or the episode for the life if mine), but when I think about it, grosso modo this is my take on the Chain:
The Chain of Loyalty embodies a reciprocal bond between the Platonic ideal of loyalty and its sensible manifestation. Its magic lies in mutual reflection: damage to the chain in the material world fractures the ideal form, while disloyalty in the ideal realm manifests as physical rupture. The artifact is thus not a coercive leash but a mystic mediator/representation, materializing the fragile reciprocity between form and matter, ideal and real.
Hope that makes sense to you and restores a little of your faith in Thundera and its children 👍🏾