Lion-O and Tygra wander through a snow filled canyon searching for a shortcut through. Eventually they stumble upon a cave. The cave leads the duo to discover the tiger clan that Tygra is from. Initially excited, the two learn a dark, dark secret about why Tygra was sent away and why he cannot rejoin the clan.
Read on to check out our review of Thundercats Episode 17: Native Son. The Story
Lion-O and Tygra venture away from the crew in search of a shortcut through a snow filled landscape. After a bit of brotherly rough housing, an avalanche comes down upon them. After the chaos clears, the two discover a hidden entrance to a cave. As they venture in, they are confronted by a group of tigers. The tigers realize that Tygra is a lost member of their clan, and hurry the two into the main chamber. There, we meet Tygra’s father, Javon. During the conversation, we are shown a series of flashback’s.
The flashback’s show Claudus and his wife wishing for a child. Suddenly, Tygra arrives, as a baby, to Thundera via a balloon. Claudus and the queen quickly adopt the cub as their own and begin grooing him to take over the kingdom. We are then shown the moment when Tygra finds out that the Queen is pregnant. We get a tender, but sad moment, where the Queen refrains from calling Tygra her little “Prince”, revealing that Tygra is no longer in line for the throne. And the final flashback shows the Queen dying in labor.
As Tygra feels a moment of relief the he has found his people, Javon warns him that they must leave. The cave is apparently cursed and the tigers all leave. Tygra, angered soon finds out why they warned him to leave. Lion-O and his brother are attacked by a large group of creatures. As they flee the cave, the block the exit. The next morning, Lion-O notices that there are no tracks to or from the cave. He also noticed no food for the tigers to sustain their lives. He brings these concerns to Tygra, who thinks Lion-O is attempting to sabotage his chance at learning who he is. Tygra storms off in anger. Lion-O, convinced that something is amiss, uses his Sight Beyond Sight. There he finds out that the tigers ARE the monsters. As Lion-O exclaims his shock, Javon approaches. He tells the tale of what happened to the Tiger’s.
After the uprising by the animals against Mumm-Ra, the tiger’s decided to side with Mumm-Ra instead of the rest of the animals. This caused them to be shunned by the other cat clans. They took refuge in these snowy mountains, but began to succumb to disease. While Javon wanted to seek help from the Thundercats, he is talked into requesting help from the Ancient Spirits (of evil?) by his friend Caspin. They grant his request, but on the condition that his infant son, Tygra, is killed. They foresee that Tygra will become a powerful enemy to the Ancient Spirits. They tell him “One life for many” and reveal the blade with which he is to use. He reluctantly agrees. Javon takes the blade and the next morning he heads to the cliff to kill the child. But instead, he places him into a balloon and sends him off into the sky, in the hopes he will escape the curse. When the Ancient Spirits discover that he has broken the bargain, they curse them to become the monsters every night. He begs Lion-O to keep this from Tygra and to leave before nightfall.
When Tygra confronts his father, in an attempt to mend old wounds, Javon lashes out at him. He berates Tygra in the hopes of inflicting enough emotional pain to force him to leave. His ploy works and Tygra grabs Lion-O and tells them they are leaving. As they begin their exit, they are attacked by a group of tigers, lead by Caspin, hoping to kill Tygra to break the curse. Before they can do much damage, Javon attacks and fatally wounds Caspin. Javon tells Tygra what is happening, but before he can continue, the tigers begin to change into the creatures and they attack Lion-O and Tygra.The creatures get the upper hand and the Javon creature attacks Tyra. Tygra, wanting to let his father know that he understands, exclaims his forgiveness for what has transpired. The forgiveness breaks the curse. An act of humility has broken a curse born out of pride. Tygra wants to stay, but Javon reveals that he cannot. The curse was what had kept them alive. With the curse broken, their spirits can now pass into the afterlife peacefully. Before disappearing, Javon tells Tygra how proud he is of him and that he will be watching him from above.
Tygra, upset exclaims the he feels doomed to lose the things he loves most. Lion-O comforts him by saying he will not lose his brother. The two venture back out into the cold, in hopes of finding the shortcut they had been searching for.
Review
This is exactly the type of episode this show needed after the “Trials” episodes. It’s a quick, contained story that fills in a ton of blanks from one of the characters’ past. We not only have a better understanding of Tygra’s constant state of mind, but get to see a different side to him. The flashbacks pull some great emotional strings, and the writers do a great job of having us truly sympathize with a character who has, for the better part of the series, been kind of a dick. It’s good to see them let he character grow and the brothers a chance to bond and support each other.
By the end of the episode, it really felt that the two were finally able to see eye to eye, and that heir bond has a chance to be stronger as the series progresses. The writers seem to work best when there are fewer characters struggling for screen time. This week, by having only Tygra and Lion-O from the main cast, and no comic relief at all, we get the strongest story of “season 1 part 2” .
Bottom Line
Strong writing, an interesting story and some nice character growth give us a really enjoyable episode. It also doesn’t hurt that we’re given some nice juicy back story bits that help us understand Tygra’s emotional state. More episodes of this nature will really serve the story well.
Overall 9 out of 10
- Native Son Review
Use this thread to talk about Thundercats Episode 17: Native Son. It airs Saturday April 14th at 9:30 AM EST on Cartoon Network.
I just saw the previews. I not only lost a bet (and such a sore loser that I am), it was nothing like we (I) expected. As for Lion-O's mother... I'm not a fan right now. Nope.
Definitely looking forward to this episode. Tygra is slowly becoming my favorite character from this new series, and it's nice to see an episode focus on him and his back story. Should be interesting to see where they go with it.
Also, it's REALLY nice to finally see the Queen. She's pretty much exactly what I thought she would be like. Most especially with her being the one that decided to take Tygra in.
now I have to wonder....where is Tygra's mom?
So the tiger clan made a Faustian bargain.
LOVED that episode. Only two things I didn't like.
1. No mention of Tygra's mom.
2. No mention of why Lion-O and Tygra were off on their own (unless I missed it).
Awesome episode!!!
This shows you again, the writers don't have enough time to fit everything in.
Where was the TCat that we would know?
It 952 and I wanted more.
Hated to see them all die, but I like how lion-o said he will always have him. Tygra heart melted.
I think tygra will be different, he has defeated the pride in his life.
1. No mention of Tygra's mom.
2. No mention of why Lion-O and Tygra were off on their own (unless I missed it).
Also really interesting the pride thing was hereditary.
If Humility was all the Tygra needed to learn, he passed his trial. Now where's his prize.
This shows you again, the writers don't have enough time to fit everything in.
Where was the TCat that we would know?
It 952 and I wanted more.
Hated to see them all die, but I like how lion-o said he will always have him. Tygra heart melted.
I think tygra will be different, he has defeated the pride in his life.
This shows you again, the writers don't have enough time to fit everything in.
Where was the TCat that we would know?
It 952 and I wanted more.
Hated to see them all die, but I like how lion-o said he will always have him. Tygra heart melted.
I think tygra will be different, he has defeated the pride in his life.
I know this is a Tygra episode, but Lion-O came off great here. It looks like his lessons have finally stuck and he's on the road to becoming a great king.
One thing I can't help wondering, Were the Tigers truly treated unfairly by the other cats or were they so blinded by their own pride they refused to work with anyone else? It would be interesting to see how that played out.
I normally don't post on forums but after today's episode, I have this to say....TO ALL THE TYGRA HATERS/BASHERS out there....
The Heavy - How You Like Me Now? (Official Video) - YouTube
I'd make a video out of it but I don't know how, snaps.
And it's now all about the lyrics...lol. Just the chorus.
EAT MY TIGER DIRT. And I mean that in the nicest way diabolically possible.
I didn't get to watch the episode, but did anyone's negative opinion of Lion-o's mom change? Cause i've seen a lot of bashing her for not calling him prince and that's pissing me off.
Definitely a great episode. I so called it with the tiger clan and the bat-things being the same. Though that part of the story turned out a little different than I was expecting.
Did anybody catch the queen's name? I thought I heard Claudus say something, but couldn't really tell what he had said. For some reason I thought he called her Wyoming...
Speaking of which, I also called it back when I said that she would have most likely died giving birth to Lion-O. Though part of me was hoping I was wrong about that.
The whole thing with the tiger clan's background was interesting. Part of me finds it curious that they knew that their ancestors once worked for Mumm-Ra, when that info seemed to have been lost on the cats in Thundera.
Was nice to see the ancient spirits of evil at work, and how they sort of fit into things. Hopefully their involvement is something the show expands on in future episodes.
Tygra is still on his way to becoming my favorite character. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him use that new whip of his, and whether or not we'll get it in toy-form.
The Heavy - How You Like Me Now? (Official Video) - YouTube
I'd make a video out of it but I don't know how, snaps.
And it's now all about the lyrics...lol. Just the chorus.
EAT MY TIGER DIRT. And I mean that in the nicest way diabolically possible.
I have not heard anything about the "prince" comment, so I will gladly eat my words if it come to it. No hot sauce included.
I have not heard anything about the "prince" comment, so I will gladly eat my words if it come to it. No hot sauce included.
I think the Queen was sending the wrong message to Tygra out there. It's like she's saying, well, I'm having a new baby so you won't be MY prince anymore. And maybe she meant well trying to give him a heads up that he may need to share Mommy's love, but you do not tell a three or four year old that he won't be your little prince anymore. That's just...wrong. My two cents...not that it matters.
I wish they showed Tygra's Mommy too. Or they could have made this episode a two parter.
Remember to tweet your support of the show at 9:30am if you are so inclined followed by the hashtag #Tygra
Let's see if we can get it trending!
It seems the writers played dumb on Tygra saying he was truly alone forgetting that he has his love Cheetara, unless this is some underlying hint that Cheetara and Tygra might not be as close as we thought.
Seems like with a better picture the features of the Ancient Spirits of Evil are more clear. They are the Jackal, Lizard, Monkey, and Bird, left to right.
anyone have a torrent of link????
This episode was amazing. Tygra was amazing, Lion-O was amazing, Javon(?) was amazing.
Oh Javon. You can tell he really loves Tygra and even after all of this time, he still wants to protect him. The difficult choice, to be a king or a father?
Also, I thought the you're never happy for me, figures you wouldn't be happy for me line was a reference to the love triangle.
Someone mentioned this on another forum and I thought it was an interesting thought. Remember in episode 13 when Tygra said "You took her!"? What if he was actually talking about their mother instead of Cheetara?
Native Son focuses on Lion-O and Tygra and none of the other Thundercats appear. They encounter the Tiger Clan, led by Tygra's real father and we get the full origin of how Tygra was adopted by Claudus and Lion-O's mother and the circumstances that led to it. The reunion between Tygra and his real father started out with resentment to reconciliation and forgiveness. I had a feeling that the Tiger Clan were the evil creatures.
We also see the real source of Tygra's jealousy and resentment towards Lion-O since the day he was born. When they fought in Between Brothers, Tygra accused Lion-O that he took her he was really referring to Lion-O's mother and not Cheetara, even though it could have been either way.
Lion-O came across wiser since the trials and he's still mischievous when he threw a couple of snowballs at Tygra, whose character flaw is that he doesn't want to admit he's wrong. I was hoping they'd address Tygra's leadership from last episode. I agree that the writers are acting like Tygra is not in love with Cheetara, who could have appeared in this episode. Another good episode as the second season is shaping to be better than the first.
I agree that Tygra may have feelings of isolation for a long time, since its something that has been brewing since he was a kid. I wouldn't be surprised if he was ostracized even when he was a child because he was a tiger. Tigers weren't exactly welcome in Thunderan society because of their history. It's not something he could overcome in a short period of time.
Maybe the writers got sick of listening to everyone whining about the love triangle and axed it out,
Something else to point out - Tygra was closer to Claudus than Lion-O was, here Lion-O is closer to Tygra's real father than Tygra is. It's a reverse to Omens.
Great episode
I really enjoyed this episode. I liked seeing the Queen of Thundera, though I wish she'd have been named. Sad that she died giving birth to Lion-O, but I had a feeling that was the case, and the fact that they were having trouble conceiving when Tygra dropped in was the proverbial nail in the coffin.
And Tygra's got a new whip!
The mother calling Tygra Prince was more of a pet name than an actual title. Once pregnant, she realized it would have been in bad royal etiquette to call Tygra Prince anymore since Lion-O would be the official prince.
This was one of those defining episodes for the series. Now when we go back to watch Season 1, we'll have a different take on Tygra. Hard to believe that his genetics played a part in his behavior.
Now on to the real news, there was a Mumm-ra doll. The toy-line better release a Mumm-ra doll like the one in this episode.
We also see the real source of Tygra's jealousy and resentment towards Lion-O since the day he was born. When they fought in Between Brothers, Tygra accused Lion-O that he took her he was really referring to Lion-O's mother and not Cheetara, even though it could have been either way.
Lion-O came across wiser since the trials and he's still mischievous when he threw a couple of snowballs at Tygra, whose character flaw is that he doesn't want to admit he's wrong. I was hoping they'd address Tygra's leadership from last episode. I agree that the writers are acting like Tygra is not in love with Cheetara, who could have appeared in this episode. Another good episode as the second season is shaping to be better than the first.
This was one of those defining episodes for the series. Now when we go back to watch Season 1, we'll have a different take on Tygra. Hard to believe that his genetics played a part in his behavior.
Now on to the real news, there was a Mumm-ra doll. The toy-line better release a Mumm-ra doll like the one in this episode.
I hate how the behaviors of some of the cats are chalked up to genetics. I think it sends a really odd message. Though, pride is not always a bad thing.
I agree. I think most people will walk away from this episode understanding why Tygra is the way he is.
So, we saw tygra got a upgrade (whip).
Kit and Kat in the next episode and then cheetara. We haven't see their new toys.
This was one of those defining episodes for the series. Now when we go back to watch Season 1, we'll have a different take on Tygra. Hard to believe that his genetics played a part in his behavior.
Now on to the real news, there was a Mumm-ra doll. The toy-line better release a Mumm-ra doll like the one in this episode.
Anyone else notice the bolo update is kind of a throwback to the 80's one? I dig it!
There is nothing wrong with pride as long as you don't let it blind you as Caspin and the other Tigers did.
Lion-O never took anything from Tygra, it was thrust upon him by law. The death of their mother is just cruel circumstance, and as bad as you feel for Tygra he never had to ask the question "Why don't I have a mother?"
Understanding his pain and condoning his behavior are two different things, and while I feel bad for all he has suffered he then spent the rest of his life taking out his frustrations on Lion-O, essentially blaming him for being born. It looks like things are getting better between them though, can't wait to see what the future holds for them.
The episode was good, but not enough to start cheerleading for Team Tygra.
Yes, Tygra was a charming cub but a single episode isn’t enough to address the issues surrounding his character:
-Tygra doesn’t even mention Cheetara once. Not even when he mentions staying with the Tiger Clan. Are the writers attempting to downplay this triangle or does it not matter anymore?
-Tygra’s father did not know what the Ancient Spirits would demand from him when he asked for their help. What exactly did Tygra have to forgive his father for? Not killing him and instead sending him to Thundera where he had quite a good life and was raised by a loving mother and a father who favoured him?
-Tygra implied that Lion-O’s birth led to him losing his mother and his kingdom. Is he so selfish that he forgot that Lion-O never got to meet her? Tygra had three parents who loved him; Lion-O had only one who wasn’t even very nice until the end.
-Lion-O just gambled his soul in order to save the others and he is still rewarded with Tygra’s perpetual whining. How much more could he have possibly griped about losing “everything” he cares about or Lion-O “taking” everything away?
-Finally, why is finding a place where he could “belong” suddenly such an important issue for Tygra? The writers have never really focused on this before. On the contrary, it was Lion-O who never really ‘belonged’ in Thundera – Tygra did a much better job at that.
If it takes Lion-O, who can be brash and immature 16 episodes to learn his “lessons” then 1 episode should not suffice for Tygra who is way too self-centred and arrogant.
So after this episode now I have a new theory about Pumyra: With Lion-O's mother dead he would need a nurse to look after him, what if Pumyra was the daughter of that nurse and the two of them were children together until they were separated by their respective educations (Lion-O started taking lessons with Panthro and Gune while Pumyra is apprenticed to an accomplished doctor) and they meet up years later in the Pit?
Given the show's love of backstory through flashback I'd think this is plausible.
I can't be a fan of that particular one not because of how she looks, but because from a mother's point of view that's not the right way to treat a child who is about to become an older sibling. As a parent, you feel like you're betraying your -so far- only child by bringing another into the family with who she/he will have to compete for your attention. And as such, what you do is reassure your kid that your love will not waiver.
Not suddenly change your pet name in a manner that can be construed to signify that he is less than he was before. I'm not going to say she did not love him anymore, but it sure looked like he was down one step in the ladder of her affections. In reality a mother shouldn't be able to choose one over another.
Before I read again that she meant he wasn't the crown prince anymore, she did not call him "my handsome little crown prince". We also know he was still going to be prince, since he is Prince Tygra to this day. She's their mother, she could have called him anything she pleased and could have even upgraded him to big prince with Lion-O inheriting the little prince pet name. She consciously made a decision there to take something from him, and as a mother I can't be a fan.
Welcome!
-Tygra implied that Lion-O’s birth led to him losing his mother and his kingdom. Is he so selfish that he forgot that Lion-O never got to meet her? Tygra had three parents who loved him; Lion-O had only one who wasn’t even very nice until the end.
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Jelenic and crew will be forever be remembered as the man and crew that tainted the TCATS brand. Hopefully J.M. DeMatteis will remove some of the taint.