In the previous post (you can read it here: http://animevigil.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-politics-of-third-earth-part-1-lion.html) I described how Lion-O learnt from others and became an ideal leader after his Trials. Because Lion-O is basically a flawless
leader with his second life, it is valuable to judge other leaders against the
king of the Thundercats, considering up to this point Lion-O has learnt from
others, such as the elephant Aten or the forest guardian Viragor, but now
others will learn from him.
First we could of course compare to his rival for the throne and adopted brother, Tygra. Straight after Lion-O proves himself as a leader
Tygra gets his opportunity to become a leader of his own tiger clan. However,
Tygra finds himself wanted (as well as the other leaders within the village)
when it comes to pride. The tigers' pride (in relation to asking for help from the
other cats) means a disease and then curse ravages the whole village. At the
same time they lose sight of the bigger picture as they are willing to kill the
baby Tygra in a “one life for many” deal with the ancient spirits. However,
they realise that this would be counter-intuitive, killing for the sake of
living, and Tygra too forgets his pride, showing humility by forgiving his
father rather than holding him accountable for his mistakes. Even though the
tigers themselves are not saved Tygra learns a valuable lesson just as Lion-O did.
However, Tygra’s pride still pops up, for example he is easily baited by the
Prefect of the bird city, but on the other hand Lion-O’s pride never seems to reappear. We should note how Lion-O learnt to forget his pride, but Tygra did not.
Tygra, potential leader of the Tiger-clan, should be the first to be compared, as the two were rival throughout the first part. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/248/7/4/tygra_by_pm9402-d48y0pf.png
Pumyra is another cat who could learn a lot from
Lion-O. She is full of anger due to the fall of Thundrea and how she saw Lion-O
escape to fight another day but unknowingly did not save her when she was
trapped under some rubble. Lion-O however tries to quell her anger, first by
not fighting her in the Pit, which subsequently turns her anger into loyalty.
Although she never really lets go of her anger and revenge as she always is
prompting Lion-O to make decisions based on these feelings. Most notably she
wants Lion-O to steal the Tech Stone, both because it is their goal and because
she holds resentment towards the birds that had imprisoned her, shown by how
she kidnaps and threatens the Prefect of the City. Now that Lion-O has let go
of such emotions when it comes to leading the series needs some agent to put
these kind of choices in front of Lion-O, and Pumyra is exactly this. Lion-O
never indulges in these feelings and we see Pumyra’s flaw as Lion-O’s growth. At
the same time we could see Pumyra’s character fault as Mumm-Ra’s. Just as the
Thundercats will look to learn from Lion-O, Pumyra learnt from Mumm-Ra. She is
in fact a dead cat having been raised to life by Mumm-Ra, how could she not be
influenced by him? Her anger, obsession with power and revenge are all aspects
of Mumm-Ra’s leadership. The only reason she follows him is also to exact
revenge on the king that abandoned her. However, as stated, Pumyra’s man role
is to show how Lion-O is now an ideal leader without feelings of anger, pride
or revenge.
Pumyra, after her twist betrayal. http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/220/6/d/untitled_drawing_by_dingo107-d5aalyf.png
Of course the one who Lion-O should be most
compared to is really Pumyra’s master Mumm-Ra. Mumm-Ra is violent, merciless
and absolutely power-hungry. He will do anything, absolutely anything to
achieve his goals. The main distinction between himself and Lion-O (as well as
Leo the first Thundercat) is the way in which each comes to power and how they
look to use their power. Lion-O admittedly was given his power by inheritance
but he proved his worthiness by going through his trials, both of his ancestor
Leo and at his death. Mumm-Ra on the other hand seems to have been given power
by evil ancient spirits and by the masses of soldier he uses to get the artifacts
he uses to fight. Why they fight is the biggest difference of all. Lion-O fights
for freedom, for peace and for equality amoungst all races. Although the
Thundercats had not always upheld these values Leo held true, Lion-O is looking
to make amends. We can see this especially with his treatment of the lizard
army. Rather than fighting his people’s long time enemies he lets them go and
tells them to just desert Mumm-Ra’s army and stay home. Mumm-Ra on the other
hand has only one goal. This is domination of the universe for his sole
benefit. He doesn’t care who or how many he has to step on or even kill to get
to this position. The main example of this is when he is making the Sword of
Plun-Darr. To do this he uses the material he gathers from destroying the star
of Plun-Darr, despite being warned by his generals Leo and Panthera that doing
so would end billions of lives (as the Star of Plun-Darr supported life on ten
planets, three of which were inhabited by intelligent life). Mumm-Ra shows
little concern for this and it is this that actually leads to the rebellion,
led by Leo, against Mumm-Ra. Lion-O is put into the same situation when he is
made to choose between Pumyra and the Sword of Plun-Darr, when he fights with
Mumm-Ra after the fall of Ratar-O. Lion-O, rather than choosing the power of
the evil sword, chooses to save his fellow cat. He leads for his people. This
type of decision arises again, more obviously, when he is told by Pumyra to
steal the Tech Stone, but refuses on the basis it will kill thousands as it
keeps the birds’ city in the air. This contrast is then further developed into
a contest between power and emotions. As I said before emotions, particularly
anger and pride, can cloud judgement, however here emotions allow Lion-O to see
and retain a strong grip upon the “bigger picture”. Compassion, it seems,
allows Lion-O to remember what he is fighting for, the freedom and ultimately
the lives of those on Third Earth. Thus Lion-O’s feelings and goals for
leadership are in stark contrast to those of Mumm-Ra.
It is also worthwhile to look at the generals Mumm-Ra
surrounds himself with. First of course there is Slithe the lizard general, who
basically acts as the right hand of Mumm-Ra. He destroys whatever it takes to
catch Lion-O, such as the forest of the Petalars. He shows he is ruthless and
sneaky and cares very little about his own people. Lion-O on the other hand
shows concern for all races throughout the series. This is most notably done in
the beginning of the series with two lizards and then again at the end of the
series when he shows concern for the bird city. Then there is Grune, who looks
to betray all those around him, Panthro, Claudus (the first king and Lion-O's father) and even Mumm-Ra himself, in order to fully advance
his political position. Even as a lowly soldier he knew he wanted to be king
and will do all that he can to be king. Lion-O never shows wavering loyalty to
his people and is even willing to sacrifice his life for them (after his failed
trials) and refuses to fight Pumyra (in the Pit), things Grune would never do.
He is solely focussed on his own promotion, not helping others and this is why he seems so bad.
Grune was willing to do whatever it was to get power. http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/073/2/f/thundercat_commission_by_njay-d4ss636.jpg
After Grune's death or entrapment Mumm-Ra gets two replacements, Addicus the monkey and the jackal Kaynar. Both show themselves to be likewise ruthless and even want to kill others just for fun, shown when they are being set free by Slithe they just want to kill those that imprisoned them rather than simply escape. Lion-O numerous times chooses just to escape and fight another day. In fact these generals were brought in to stop the lizard army’s desertion rate, not through good leadership, but through ruthlessly punishing those who did revolt. During their roles as generals they continue to lead through anger and revenge rather than compassion. Mumm-Ra’s generals, just like Mumm-Ra himself are starkly contrasted to Lion-O who is controls his pride after his trials and never acts on anger or revenge, especially when dealing with the birds and their Prefect. Thus Lion-O shows himself to be an ideal leader when compared to Mumm-Ra’s generals. Thus the things Lion-O learnt to do and to be as a leader are further reinforced to the audience when we look at comparing him to Mumm-Ra's generals.
After Grune's death or entrapment Mumm-Ra gets two replacements, Addicus the monkey and the jackal Kaynar. Both show themselves to be likewise ruthless and even want to kill others just for fun, shown when they are being set free by Slithe they just want to kill those that imprisoned them rather than simply escape. Lion-O numerous times chooses just to escape and fight another day. In fact these generals were brought in to stop the lizard army’s desertion rate, not through good leadership, but through ruthlessly punishing those who did revolt. During their roles as generals they continue to lead through anger and revenge rather than compassion. Mumm-Ra’s generals, just like Mumm-Ra himself are starkly contrasted to Lion-O who is controls his pride after his trials and never acts on anger or revenge, especially when dealing with the birds and their Prefect. Thus Lion-O shows himself to be an ideal leader when compared to Mumm-Ra’s generals. Thus the things Lion-O learnt to do and to be as a leader are further reinforced to the audience when we look at comparing him to Mumm-Ra's generals.
Mumm-Ra's lizard general, Slithe, and one of newer mercenary generals, Addicus. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/052/3/6/thundercats_concept_art_by_dingo107-d4qivsa.jpg
So too Lion-O seems ideal when compared to leaders
from the second half of the series that are unrelated to Mumm-Ra. I could also
include Zig, the Wood Forger, and the Fishman captain here too, but I feel
above I have described how these two are used for Lion-O to learn from, rather
than to compare Lion-O to. First an independent rival and enemy of the cats,
the rat king Ratar-O. He has enslaved the Cats who escaped Thundera into mining
into Mt. Plun-Darr, where the Sword of Plun-Darr was buried by Jaga. Not only
does the Rat king (or rather tyrant) treat the Cats like slaves but he also
treats his loyal rodent subjects the same way. Lion-O calls the other Rats and
Mice slaves behind the whips and Ratar-O’s right-hand mouse Mordax says that
Lion-O treats him better than Ratar-O ever did (after Lion-O shows him mercy
but Ratar-O just whips him for obedience). This ultimately leads to Ratar-O’s
downfall as Mordax shows loyalty to Lion-O, giving him the Sword of Omens, and
shows why Lion-O is an ideal leader and Ratar-O is not: because a good leader
shows mercy and compassion, not only to his own people but peoples of other
leaders. Thus Lion-O and Ratar-O are polar opposites and Lion-O is seen as the
right way to go. Likewise their reasons for leading are different. Ratar-O
wants the Sword of Plun-Darr for the same reason as his ancestor who first
found it, Ratilla. This is to dominate other nations and make Rats the master
race. Lion-O however uses his sword to create peace and equality. Yet again the
two leaders are seen as vastly different and we side with Lion-O.
The other leader Lion-O should be compared
to is the Prefect of the Bird City, Vultaire. Vultaire is seen as arrogant
and dishonest from his manner of speech and actions towards the Thundercats,
especially when they make a wager for the Tech Stone. Not only does he
arrogantly think he will win (after he has given Tygra an inferior airship), Vultaire
also refuses to give the Thundercats the Stone of Power when Tygra wins. He
then treats the Thundercats as prisoners and only trusts them when it turns out
to be his only hope of defending his city against the forces of Mumm-Ra. The
Thundercats help the Birds but Vultaire betrays them, only looking out for his
own neck, as he joins Mumm-Ra’s forces and helps them attack Lion-O. Vultaire’s
dishonesty, constantly changing sides and generally immorality shows he is a
bad leader. He is concerned with himself more than his people too, as all his
actions leads to the city of his people falling to the ground, and he is not
the one to save them, the Thundercats do. Lion-O on the other hand is very
morally righteous, he objects to stealing the Stone of Power, to kidnapping and
threatening Vultaire (this was done by Pumira of her own accord) and generally
cares about those others around him. Vultaire is, like many others, seen as
inferior to Lion-O mainly in terms of morality and how this relates to his
leadership of his people.
Vultaire, the Prefect of the bird city. http://th05.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/164/d/1/vultaire_by_dirgeyoucandanceto-d53bgmu.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment