So I've been watching a lot of cartoons lately, Young Justice being one of them (obviously, if you read my last blog entry). Normally I just watch television shows on my computer, either on Youtube or by downloading them (shhh...don't tell). Well, I enjoyed Young Justice so much that I actually shelled out the money to buy it on DVD--that and Walmart had a great deal: 12 episodes for $15--and even got up one morning (afternoon) to watch the newest episode. As I did so, I caught an episode of the new Thundercats. It wasn't great, but it was interesting enough to entice me into watching more of it, so I downloaded the episodes in an attempt to catch up. I used to watch the original Thundercats a bit, and I was curious to see how they reimagined the series.
While I don't intend to write a review of the Thundercats series, it would be remiss of me to not at least say what I thought of it: a resounding meh. It's got some interesting themes and it has a bit of nostalgia value. Unfortunately, it suffers from some hit and miss writing and animation, falling prey to what I like to call the Disney syndrome--if you watch the Disney animated serieses like Gargoyles and Aladdin, you'll notice some episodes are amazingly animated and others are just garbage. Thundercats' variance in animation quality isn't quite so gaping as some of the Disney shows I used to watch when I was younger (I swear to God, some of those old Gargoyles episodes were animated by a seven year old). As for the writing...in general it's been somewhat vapid, but there have been some really significant moments that made me continue watching. Overall, you could do worse, but it's far from perfect...which leads me to the subject of this blog: flawed characters. Specifically, flawed heroes.
I love a good, flawed hero. Perfection is so overrated, after all. A "perfect" hero is one that we do not relate to, one that we do not necessarily care about. We don't care about them because they just don't seem real. They're not us, or our family, or our loved ones. They're not someone we could actually meet and have a drink with. They're just caricatures of a human being. A character with real flaws comes alive to us. After all, overcoming our own weaknesses to persevere and become greater than what we are is what it means to be human. It's interesting. If the character is already great, already someone who has overcome their weaknesses, there's no journey for them. This is particularly important in serial adventures, television shows that are expected to continue for a dozen episodes or more. We have to believe the character is going to progress somewhere, so common practice is to make the characters, particularly the heroes of the adventure, start out as green novices. Usually, this manifests as a character who is reckless and brash, jumping into danger without thought, though just as often they can be lazy or arrogant or heartless or any number of other flaws to overcome.
Thundercats is no exception. I don't remember the old series in any great detail, but I do remember Lion-o was a fairly unremarkable character. He was regal and brave and kind and gentle and all the good stuff we expect in our heroes...he didn't have any room to grow. Lion-o in the new 2011 series is the exact opposite. I don't mean to imply that he's not kind or good or brave or whatever, but he lacks the almost hyper-competence that his 80's counterpart had. He's somewhat foolish, often making silly mistakes and being goaded into dangerous situations, and more than a little reckless. Neither of these things are especially uncommon--I could have been describing any number of heroes from any number of series. The problem with Lion-o is that he doesn't always act foolishly--and, in fact, is quite often reasonably intelligent--but he is always made to look the fool. From the very beginning, he's painted out to be a bit...different. When his adopted brother, Tigra, is attending sword fighting lessons or tactical classes, Lion-o is off in the slums, bumming around with the locals and trying to get his hands on miraculous "technology" that everyone seems to think is a myth. Having an outsider be thrust into greatness is nothing new,and can be a powerful writing tool, but to continue having him remain the outsider is problematic unless you find a way to conform the rest of the cast to his way of thinking--the surprise twist that the outsider was right all along. The technology thing never really panned out because it turns out that it really /does/ exist and half the supporting cast ends up having more of an affinity for it than he does (in fact, Lion-o never really /uses/ technology after the first episode...Tigra has a gun and Panthro pilots the Thundertank, as well as making general repairs of it). They all seem to magically know how it works when it appears in their lives again...turns out the stuff is everywhere. There's even a race of robot bears hanging out not too far from Thundara. So they can't really fall back on that (turns out you really /were/ wasting your entire childhood, Lion-o, if your brother who hated technology is better with it than you are). Lion-o also has a soft spot for other species, wheras the rest of the cast seems to have a cat-centric sort of speciesism about them, believing the Thundercats are meant to rule Third Earth in some great empire. However, even this seems to blow up in Lion-o's face every time he exercises it...and this is where the character development starts to get a bit wearying: everything Lion-o /does/ ends up being wrong...even when he's being perfectly reasonable and intelligent.
A few examples:
In one episode, when faced with overwhelming lizard forces, Lion-o decides to turn tail and run instead of face them (entirely reasonable in my book!), hiding in a bramble forest where the enemy mechs can't follow. Tigra complains that this seems cowardly. At the end of the episode, Lion-o is bolstered by their experience in the forest and decides to charge back and fight the enemy head on after all. His decision is reinforced by the timely appearance of the long-lost Panthro and the Thundertank, which saves them.
In another episode that seems to be focused on Tigra's jealousy of his brother, who possesses but has failed to earn everything Tigra has ever wanted, Lion-o suggests that they enter a besieged city under the cover of night rather than risk a frontal assault. This is perfectly reasonable and everyone but Tigra agrees with him. After all, the lizards have far greater number...and hostages that they threaten to kill. Well, it turns out that the stealth approach was doomed to fail...but when Tigra brashly runs away to disobey Lion-o's orders and drive the Thundertank right through the front door, he saves the day. His brashness is rewarded with yet another victory and another chance to save Lion-o's tail (something he's constantly reminded of), while every time Lion-o attempts something so brash, he's punished for it.
After a major victory against Mum-ra, the enemy armies have begun to see an increased number of defectors. Lion-o has devised the tactic of ambushing enemy squads and releasing the soldiers, giving them the option to go home to their families or continue fighting a war that they have no stake in. Again, a sound tactic, but one that is met with criticism from his fellows...though only light criticism. The real trouble comes when Lion-o attempts to save a group of these defectors that have been captured. Both Tigra and Cheetara make the rather cold-hearted (and uncharacteristic in the case of Cheetara) comment that they shouldn't waste their time trying to save lizards that would probably just turn on them, but Lion-o argues that it's the right thing to do and charges in to save them. Well, it turns out this was a trap and once again (not that the prisoners turned on them, but they were being used as bait). Lion-o is punished for making what is obviously the "right" decision while the others get yet another "I told you so" moment.
In general, this is the feeling I get from the show. Lion-o makes constant mistakes while his supporting cast racks up a never-ending supply of "I told you sos." While there is nothing wrong with having a flawed character, having one that is /constantly/ proven wrong while his supporting cast is constantly proven right is trying. Having that same character constantly proven wrong while making perfectly reasonable, even well thought-out and logical decisions is especially troublesome. Of course, the show is still in its infancy. The equivalence of a single season has passed (maybe even less...Young Justice is up to episode 23 and it's still technically in season one, Thundercats only has 16 episodes to its name) and I'm sure, especially given the events of the last two episodes, Lion-o will continue to grow. There wouldn't be much to entice us if he was introduced at the apex of his character development...but for my part, I don't see him making a lot of "mistakes." I see the wrong actions being rewarded while the right ones being discouraged.
Maybe I'm not quite sure what I'm saying. I do feel like I'm rambling a bit, but I do know this: it's trying to see the main character always proven wrong, even when making the right decisions, while his supporting cast always seem to know what's best. Far from the writers making me grow more fond of the supporting cast, this just makes them feel like insufferable know-it-alls and Lion-o more like an unfortunate child who may never get a chance to grow.
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