When I was growing up, I used to be a bit of a fan of ThunderCats; often times I would find myself enraptured by the adventures of the Lion King, Lion-o, and his band of feline companions. I found myself, more often than not, wandering along with the cats on their journey towards prosperity, hoping for a brighter future for Thundera. When the show came to an end, I was a bit disappointed. It felt like a piece of my childhood was slipping away. So, it came as no shock to myself that when I discovered that the show would be revamped in 2011, I would be picking back up my watching of it. After watching a few of the episodes, differences could be found between the two series. The characters were a bit different than the originals; they were younger with a lot more vibrancy in their coloring. Besides that; however, the show was still a hit with me.

http://toonami.wikia.com/wiki/Thundercats

http://www.sidereel.com/thundercats_(2011)

From my memories of the original ThunderCats, the episodes seemed highly action packed in comparison to the rebooted version. Although ThunderCats (2011), has its own fair share of action, it was more about the life lessons Lion-o would be learning as the new leader of the Thunderian citizens. The lessons were memorable with the viewers, often times making them relate one way or another with the characters. One would not believe how an animated series could hold so much depth; however, somehow it was able to. Although it may have gone over some of the younger viewers’ heads, the older ones, like myself, definitely took away some moral lessons. I had especially found myself learning something from time to time from the show.

One that particularly stuck out to me was that sometimes you have to look deeper than what is at the surface; sight beyond sight. As stated before, Lion-o is placed in situations where he has to learn and grow as a leader, in his kingdom and on the battlefield. While going through these lessons, Lion-o is given the mighty Sword of Omens, which can grant him certain privileges such as enhanced senses like seeing beyond what is shown. I know many people would benefit from a tool such as the sword due to their inability to discern between reality and what is just a lovely fantasy. We, as human beings, tend to lose sight of ourselves at times while trying to fit into what is the “status quo” of society. I have even found myself at times trying to flow with the rest of the crowd while simultaneously losing the essence of my being. I found from this experience that attempting to be like others so you are not the odd man out is hard, but it is even harder to live with it. It took a great amount of time and will power to end this way of thinking, but eventually I got over this mind set through the moral lesson behind this particular episode of the show. Although I cannot give all the glory of my recovery of character to the show, I can say that it did have some influence on my actions.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/798459/...

Many might not have had the same experience as myself with ThunderCats; maybe they had their own television series that helped them through their own internal struggles. For me personally, ThunderCats will always hold a special part of my soul with its hand in my adolescence and assistance with life’s many obstacles.