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It's a rare treat when a TC show kicks off with a scene featuring Panthro** in sunglasses. He and Tigra are testing out one of Third Earth's minerals to see if it's useful in their ongoing efforts to build feline-themed tanks. The substance turns out to be gold, which is entirely useless to Panthro's needs. In fact, he spends the better part of two minutes complaining about how stupid gold is, putting any rumors to rest that he's supposed to be the stereotypical gangsta Thundercat.
Cheetara, on the other hand, decides that gold is really nice and shiny, so she fashions herself a little necklace and prances along as if any of her comrades were more interested in her accessories than her big cat breasts. Come on Cheetara, the only other female on the planet is a flat ten-year-old. You've pretty much cornered the market, save your money.
 Elsewhere, Lion-O and Snarf come across the land of 'Giants and Trolls' - a series of caves that either play host to huge bumbling cavemen or small scheming gnomes. They live together in harmony, so we know that on Third Earth, size doesn't matter.
One of the cool things about the Thundercats series was that it all took place on an alien planet, where the writers were free to introduce weird, foreign characters without having to spend ten minutes explaining how they got that way. On G.I. Joe or even the earlier Transformers episodes, if anyone showed up who wasn't human, we'd have to waste half the episode learning their secret origins so we could better accept their ability to fly or their skin being bright fuschia. On this show, we just take everything at face value, and the flow of the story really becomes stronger because of it.
And now that I've said that, I can tell you that neither the giants or the gnomes play any real part whatsoever in this episode, and for all intents, this could've very well been The Land of Goat-Faced Cheese-Thieves without messing with the story at all.
 They meet up with one of the trolls, named Gregory. Lion-O gushes over this little guy to no end, cracking up at everything he says and stopping at one level before confiding love. Turns out the troll needs some help with something - apparently some thieves stole something of great value from him. You know this guy's setting up Lion-O because there's no way our hero should be acting that friendly towards anyone, much less a useless dwarf.
 When Lion-O goes into the cave to confront his new pal's enemies, he strikes out immediately before realizing that it's Tigra on the opposing side. Now what's Tigra doing all alone in a dark cave with nobody around, you ask? I think the possible answers, while varied, all point directly to one of two things: secret spot where Tigra contemplates life, or the place he goes when he wants to play with himself. It's an embarrassing situation no matter how you look at it - but it begs the question: just what was Greg the Troll talking about?! There's no thieves here...just cats!
Methinks Greg the Troll isn't exactly who he says. Or maybe Tigra likes to spend his free time bullying around dwarves in the Land of Giants and Trolls. I think I'll cast my vote with Option #1.
 Indeed, Greg the Troll was Mumm-Ra in a brilliant disguise. He sure tricked them! Course, neither of our heroes are too sure why he'd go through all this trouble just to get them to take one swing at each other, but Mumm-Ra's intentions were always vague-by-design. Maybe he had to be at a sleepover party at 7 PM sharp but didn't want to let the whole day go to waste by not doing one single evil thing.
While Lion-O considers the possibilities, Tigra explains the true reason he hangs out alone in caves: the limited light allows for great practice sessions in shadow puppetry.
 S-S-S-S-S-SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSXYXSSSSSSSSSS-Slithe asks Mumm-Ra about his plot back at the tomb, and then it's revealed: when Lion-O used the Sword of Omens against a fellow Thundercat, he put a curse on himself that renders the sword's powers useless and puts his entire team in a situation of peril. Funny how Mumm-Ra has the inside scoop on all of the Thundercats' long-forgotten rules and regulations. That's why you should never overlook sideshow psychics...never know what they'll pull out their ass if you pay them high enough.
Much like He-Man's sword, or She-Ra's sword, or Rodimus' Matrix, or Luke's lightsaber, or Ross' spider-monkey, the Sword of Omens is the ultimate power against evil. Without it, Lion-O and the Thundercats at large are sitting ducks, waiting for the next Mumm-Ra attack to do them in. This is serious stuff. I'd be crying if I wasn't entirely uninterested.
 Sure enough, the Sword of Omens is broken in half, prompting a rare appearance by Jaga-Wan Kenobi, who quite literally tears Lion-O a new daffodil cat asshole for being so hasty in swinging the sword and putting his friends in this terrible position. If you've yet to see Jaga angry, it's a sight to behold. You really feel for Lion-O because he really can't refute anything the big blue ghost says - when Jaga speaks, you're supposed to just stand there, nodding like some Harlem Globetrotters head-bopping dashboard figure.
Jaga explains that the only way to restore the sword is by going to a conveniently located volcano nearby. Turns out a small star landed in there and the intense heat is great enough to reforge the blade. Man, is Jaga a walking encyclopedia or what? He's got the answer for everything. I'd hate to be on the opposing side of his team during a round of Thundercats Trivial Pursuit. Not because he's so smart - but because I don't want to get caught laughing when his ghostly hands go right through the plastic orange pie pieces. I don't think it'd go over all that well.
 As Lion-O climbs up the volcano; Tygra tells the other cats about what's going on, so they all pile into the Thundertank to make sure he doesn't kill himself trying to rock climb into an active volcano. For some reason, one of the damn Berbils is with 'em. Berbils are a colony of bear-like robots Lion-O stumbled upon in an earlier episode - and as much as I'd like to make fun of them, I've always loved the little guys. Who comes up with this stuff? Robot bears who gather bamboo shoots and sound like they're underwater? Sounds suspiciously like one of those slumberparty games where you have to pass the story on to another kid and keep repeating the process till nothing makes any sense.
Berbils are also great because, if you remove the ears, their heads double as ultra-durable soccer balls.
 The cats come across a once-powerful giant who's now a withered, smoldering toad. He explains that GOLD is the only way to save the Sword of Omens. I'm not sure if that's *exactly* what was said, but at this point in the review, everything seems serviceable. Panthro pouts because he threw all the gold into a bottomless pit earlier, thinking it was useless. God Panthro, do you do that with everything you find that ya don't need? I mean, that's taking organizational skills a tad too far.
Fortunately, Bedazzled Cheetara liked the gold so much that she saved a truckload of it. They return with piles of it, only to find that they've been tricked again!
 The little toad turns back into his majestic devil god self with the help of the gold, but he's no peaceful god: he's a vengeful fool determined to throw lots of fireballs at the Thundercats. For whatever reason, he also forged the Sword of Omens back to normal, I guess out of spite.
Lion-O won't give up, though -- despite being a good 300' away from the sword, he's able to call upon it's powers. In moments, the creature pretty much explodes and the sword is back in the hands of the good guys. I guess that monster will think twice before putting the only weapon that could hurt him back together for no apparent reason.
 The Sword of Omens is good as new, and Lion-O's learned an important lesson about knowing all the facts before making a move. I guess Jaga's off somewhere being proud, but I'm not really sure: he was really pissy in this episode. Cats have their off-days too.
Everyone celebrates back at the Cat's Lair - Tigra and Panthro thank Lion-O for saving the sword, prompting Lion-O to thank Cheetara for saving the gold, prompting Cheetara to thank Lion-O for being so brave, prompting the Berbil to thank the Academy, prompting Mumm-Ra to thank Vultureman for being a friend. Basically a lot of thank-yous in this particular episode. Manners are an important lesson, too.
Overall: Not bad. Guest appearances by Berbils are always a plus, and this is a rare episode that didn't feature Mumm-Ra screeching after seeing his damn reflection. Would've been better if Jaga appeared not as a ghastly apparition, but as a ghastly apparition wearing a "tuxedo t-shirt" in the midst of eating Kentucky Fried Chicken with Jean Stapleton.
** Did you know that Earl Hyman (the guy who played Cliff's father Russell on The Cosby Show) did the voice of Panthro and many other "minor" characters
MY Score : (out of a possible ten)
7
RAVEN-SYMONE'S Score : (out of a possible ten)
6
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