The WORST episodes of ThunderCats
Every episode of ThunderCats ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of ThunderCats!
The inhabitants of the planet Thundera evacuate just before it is destroyed. They were pursued by a band of mutants. All but one of their escape ships was destroyed. Only a small group of Thunderans (Thundercats) remained. With only half engine power, the group, which was led by Jaga, had to set a course for the nearest planet. Jaga commanded their ship while the other seven were in their stasis tubes. Jaga died on their journey to Third Earth and their ship crashed there. Soon they made friends with various groups in the area and they designed a fortress. Mumm-Ra the centuries-old embodiment of evil, along with the mutants that destroyed the rest of the Thunderans are a constant threat. But Lion-O, the new leader of the Thundercats, with his weapon the "Sword of Omens" will help the Thundercats to have a standing chance.
#1 - The Shifter
Season 1 - Episode 64 - Aired 12/19/1985
Vulture Man creates a device that shifts minds and bodies. He gives Panthro Snarf's body, and gives Snarf Panthro's Body. He also shifts Lion-O and Wiley-Kat, and thus makes the sword of omens unusable. Eventually, Vulture Man shoots the sword, and it causes a reaction that restores all the Thundercats to their rightful bodies.
#2 - Snarf Takes up the Challenge
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 10/11/1985
Nearly all the Thundercats have been captured by the Mutants and imprisoned in Mumm-Ra's Pyramid, forcing Snarf to use his own talents to free them.
#3 - Ma-Mutt's Confusion
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 9/21/1989
Mumm-Ra has a new device, the Babylonian Barbarian Boiler, that he plans to use on Cats Lair. Ma-Mutt fools around too much and Mumm-Ra banishes him from the Pyramid. Later, the Thunderkittens, Snarf, and Snarfer bring Ma-Mutt back to Cats Lair and then Mumm-Ra fires the Boiler's beam at the Lair, which causes it to start melting. Snarfer makes a communicating device (because Ma-Mutt was trying to tell them about the beam), so they can understand Ma-Mutt. Ma-Mutt starts telling them of the Boiler, but Mumm-Ra sees this and through the Cauldron's magic brings Ma-Mutt back to the Pyramid. Then the ThunderCats construct a giant Light-Shield and use it to protect the Lair, but Mumm-Ra just boosts the power on the Boiler, destroying the Shield. Lion-O uses the Cat Signal to push back the beam, which causes the Boiler to explode, and the Signal restores Cats Lair. Mumm-Ra, who was lonely without Ma-Mutt, welcomes his dog back to the pyramid
#4 - The Formula
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/21/1988
Aluro invents a ""booster"" potion in hopes that it can make Sky Tomb able to fly to Thundera. It doesn't work, and he throws the potion into the forest. Then he notices everything in the forest has grown huge. He and Luna give the potion to the Mutants, who sprinkle it around Cats Lair. The Mutants also capture Lynx-O and Snarf. But while the Mutants are preparing to transfer Lynx-O and Snarf from their cell, a mouse in the cell who Snarf had befriended gets some of the potion and attacks the Mutants. That lets Lynx-O and Snarf analyze the potion and come up with an antidote. Meanwhile, Lion-O, Pumyra, and the Thunderkittens are fighting off huge bugs in the forest that has grown around Cats Lair. Lynx-O and Snarf arrive, sprinkle the antidote over the forest, and then watch as everything turns back to normal.
#5 - Chain of Loyalty
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 9/13/1988
After looking at the Book of Omens, and seeing a picture of a necklace, Lion-O discovers that there are pictures of the Thundercats on the necklace. Jaga appears to Lion-O and tells him that he is looking at a picture of the Chain of Loyalty. Jaga tells Lion-O that if the chain gets broken, it would cause the Thundercats to turn against each other. In hearing this, Lion-O and the Thundercats (Panthro, Tygra, Cheetara, and the Thunderkittens) set off to Thundera to find the chain. Mumm-ra, eavesdropping on Lion-O through his pool at the pyramid, goes to Thundera, kidnaps and disguises himself as Snarf. When the Thundercats arrive, they split up into groups to find the chain, and Mumm-Ra goes with Lion-O and the Thunderkittens. Lion-O's group finds the chain and Mumm-Ra gets it, breaks it, and returns to his true form. For a while, the Thundercats, except Lion-O, fight against each other until Lion-O uses the sword of Omens, which magically puts the necklace back together. Mumm-ra is def
#6 - Mandora and the Pirates
Season 1 - Episode 31 - Aired 11/4/1985
Mandora, on space-patrol, encounters an old pirate ship which doesn't meet inter-galactic standards. She boards the ship, arrests the pirate, and sends the ship to a space prison . Little does she know that she has boarded the Jolly Roger, the home of the evil Captain Cracker. Mandora is captured by the creature. Lion-O intercepts one of her distress calls, and must go into space to save her -- easier said than done, as Cracker orchestrates a prison break.
#7 - Together We Stand
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/18/1987
Mumm-Ra summons the Berserkers and coats their armor with Thundrainium and sends them to attack the Thundercats at the Tower of Omens. Realizing that their armor is coated with Thundrainium, the Thundercats at the tower need help and Lion-O and Tygra rescue them. They create a windstorm to rub off the Thundrainium and the Berserkers retreat. Meanwhile the Lunataks invade Cats' Lair and the Thundercats must rush back to save the Thunderkittens and Snarf who are being held as the Lunataks' slaves.
#8 - The Heritage
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/13/1989
Wily Kit and Kat, exploring New Thundera, stumble upon an Orb of Gold, and pick it up thinking that it is apart of their Heritage. Possessed by the power of the Golden Sphere of City, the ThunderKittens get greedy, and let the power of the orb overcome them. Mumm-Ra manages to get a hold of the orb, and his powers get four times more powerful. He gets so powerful, he destroys the Sword of Omens. Jar, the scrap metal collector reforges it for Lion-O. He gets so powerful that he challenges the power of the ancient spirits of evil. They lock him out of his pyramid until he surrenders the Orb to them. The spirits of evil let him back in, but destroy the Golden Sphere of City.
#9 - Hair of the Dog
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 10/1/1987
With only Lion-O and Snarf guarding the Lair, Mumm-Ra decides this is a perfect opportunity to invade the Lair, so Ma-Mutt captures Snarf and Mumm-Ra switches Snarf and Ma-Mutt. Ma-Mutt (who now looks like Snarf) goes to Cats Lair and gives Lion-O some poisoned candy fruit. Lion-O becomes ill and realizes that this Snarf is really Ma-Mutt and Mumm-Ra arrives and defeats Lion-O. Snarfer's bad dream of Snarf becoming a dog causes him, Ben-Gali, and Pumyra to go to Cats Lair, but Mumm-Ra lays a trap for them. He sends Ma-Mutt to get Snarfer and Lion-O becomes better again and distracts Mumm-Ra. When Lion-O summons the other Thundercats, Snarf (who looks like Ma-Mutt now), using Mumm-Ra's chant that changes Mumm-Ra into the everliving, becomes... Snarf-Ra the everliving and he rescues Ben-Gali, Pumyra and they in turn rescue Snarfer from Ma-Mutt. Then Snarf-Ra challenges Mumm-Ra and defeats him. After the battle is over, Lion-O uses the sword to restore Snarf to his original state.
#10 - ThunderCubs (3)
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/7/1988
Mumm-Ra retrieves the Sword of Plundarr and the Thundercats arrive on New Thundera. While the Thundercats want to get the Sword and treasure, Snarf and Snarfer want to free their fellow snarfs. While the Thundercats sleep, Snarf and Snarfer sneak away, but are discovered and captured by Mumm-Ra. He disguises himself as Snarfer and he leads the Thundercats to where the treasure is located, but it can only be freed by the Sword of Omens. Once the treasure is freed, Mumm-Ra reveals himself and defeats the Thundercats with the Sword of Plundarr. Now Mumm-Ra possesses the Sword of Plundarr and the Treasure of Thundera
#11 - The Micrits
Season 1 - Episode 41 - Aired 11/18/1985
Micrits, a tiny race of human-like figures, happen to live right outside Cats' Lair. Unaware of their existence, Lion-O manages to continuously step on their village and destroy their homes. Upset at this disrespect, the Micrits decide to take a stand and manage to trap Lion-O. With the Thundercat Lord in trouble, the Mutants attack Cats' Lair. After much talk, Lion-O manages to convince the Micrits that he is a "good guy" and convinces them to let him go to help save his friends. Once again, Lion-O saves the day, and befriends the Micrits.
#12 - Mumm-Rana's Belt
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 9/28/1987
After overhearing Snarf telling the Thunderkittens and Pumyra a story about Mumm-Rana's magic belt and Queen Luna (Luna's grandmother), Luna and Amuk journey to the white pyramid and take Mumm-Rana's belt, destroying her pyramid in the process. Pumyra tries to stop her but she gets sealed up in the pyramid. Amuk becomes jealous when Luna no longer needs him and during his ""little temper"", he accidently frees Pumyra. Then Luna forces Slithe and Monkian to help her ambush Lion-O and Panthro. During the battle with ""Princess"" Luna, Lion-O uses the sword to restore Mumm-Rana and she retakes the belt and defeats Luna. Amuk later arrives and destroys the belt.
#13 - Vultureman's Revenge
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 10/2/1987
Vultureman creates a weapon that shoots pure Thundrainium in hopes of destroying the Thundercats. His first victims are the Thunderkittens who fall into a deep cavern and become injured. Lion-O and Snarf search for the missing kittens. Meanwhile Vultureman must get more Thundrainium from Chilla in Darkside and is also ordered by Slithe to fix the Mutants' machines. The Thunderkittens are saved by a Wollo and they discover that the Wollo village has been ""iced"" and they are captured and used as bait to lure Lion-O. When Lion-O and Snarf arrive, they are shot down by Vultureman's weapon and Lion-O becomes weak and summons the Thundercats. Just as Vultureman is about to finish off Lion-O, Ben-Gali arrives, wrecks Vultureman's weapon and drives the Mutants and Chilla away. Lion-O then uses the sword to restore the Wollo village.
#14 - Sword in a Hole
Season 1 - Episode 35 - Aired 11/8/1985
Mumm-Ra hires Captain Shiner no send a fake distress signal to the Thundercats. With their new vehicle, the Feliner, the Thundercats set out into deep space to help the "ship in distress". When they arrive, Shiner captures Lion-O and the Sword of Omens. He gives the Sword to Mumm-Ra, and Mumm-Ra throws it into a black hole. Cheetara returns to Third Earth to get Panthro. They rescue Lion-O, and seize Shiner's ship. Panthro sets a course into the black hole to recover the Sword. They enter, and must battle the robotic city of lost space ships to recover the Sword of Omens and escape.
#15 - The Evil Harp of Charr-Nin
Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 11/11/1985
Wilykit and Kat find an ancient harp that has a genie in it. His name is Charr-Nin. Mumm-Ra appears to the genie and tells him that if he destroys the Thundercats, he will be freed from his eternal prison in the harp. Foolishly, Char-Nin agrees, and begins trapping the Thundercats in his harp one by one. Mumm-Ra's plan works, and he betrays Charr-Nin. During their arguing, the Thundercats manage to escape, leaving Mumm-Ra and Charr-Nin battling beneath the earth
#16 - Sideswipe
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/25/1987
Snarfer is making a trip back to Third Earth bringing food for the Thundercats, but he gets sideswiped by Chilla. Mandora, evil chaser sees this and pulls Chilla over. Chilla, however, ices Mandora and makes a run for it. Mandora insists on the Thundercats' help to capture Chilla. But when she and Lynx-O go to Darkside to capture Chilla, they fall into one of the Lunataks' traps. It seems that the Lunataks wanted the Braille board so that the Thundercats could not get to them. But when the board disappears, they try to get the information from Lynx-O as to where it went, but Mandora escapes and frees Lynx-O. She is tricked however and she and Lynx-O are shot up into space in a pod. Lion-O brings them down by using the Sword, and they return to Darkside and Mandora succeeds in capturing Chilla.
#17 - Mongor
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 10/3/1985
Wilykit and Kat accidentally free an ancient monster that was banished to an old shrine centuries ago. The evil monster, Mongor, begins to destroy the planet, and is much stronger than the Thundercats. He captures all the elder Thundercats with his powers. Wilykit and Kat return to the shrine to find a way to destroy him. They report back to Lion-O and tell him that in order to destroy Mongor, he has to fight the monster without looking at it. Lion-O defeats the monster and all is returned to normal.
#18 - Exile Isle
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/16/1988
The Thundercats capture the Lunataks and, tired of dealing with their evil ways, decide to exile the Lunataks to Exile Isle, an island in space far away from Third Earth. When the Lunataks arrive, they meet up with Captain Cracker, a pirate who the Thundercats also exiled. Together, the Lunataks and Capt. Cracker send out a distress signal to a passing ship. When the ship comes near the island, the Lunataks send up a cloud of fog, which makes the ship crash. They use the engines of the ship to push the planet out of orbit and towards Third Earth. Snarfer, on his way home from Thundera, crashes on the island when it runs into him. Lion-O goes to rescue Snarfer and stop the island, because it has a deadly gas that will blow up if it enters Third Earth's atmosphere. He goes without the Sword of Omens. He gets cornered by Capt. Cracker, but the Sword awakens and flies to Lion-O, without him even calling it. He then uses dirt to stop the engines, and the planet/island eventually returns to
#19 - Totem of Dera
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/12/1988
Mumm-ra finds the Totem of Dera (a part of the T-cat treasure) which has special healing powers and can bring inanimate objects to life. He gives it to Vulture-Man and the Mutants so they can make a device to destroy the T-cats. After making the device, the mutants decide to test it near a swamp. At Cat's Lair, Lion-O sees that there is some mutant activity near the swamp. He, Wilykit, and Snarfer decide to check it out. When going to the swamp, the Hovercat is brought down by a swamp monster made by the device. The Hovercat crashes in the swamp, and Lion-O gets intoxicated by the deadly swamp water. Jaga appears and tells Snarfer that he must get the Totem of Dera to heal Lion-O. Snarfer gets the Totem and succeeds in healing Lion-O. Lion-O calls on the T-cats to try to kill the swamp monster. When all their weapons prove ineffective against the monster, the T-Cats come up with the idea to dissolve the monster in water and they succeed in defeating it.
#20 - The Crystal Queen
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 10/9/1985
The Thundercats think that Snarf is getting too old, and that he is not up to doing as much as he does. To prove them wrong, Snarf saves the Thundercats from another mess. The evil Crystal Queen, Tartara, captures the Arrietta bird, whose songs enchant the Berbils' harvests. Lion-O, upset with her selfishness, goes off to save the bird, but gets caught and put under an evil spell. Snarf, managing to slip through the crystal queens defenses, saves Lion-O and frees the Arrietta bird.
#21 - Helpless Laughter
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 9/18/1989
A convergence of the Moons of Plun-Darr causes a drought on Thundera. Panthro and Snarf go looking for water, then Ezuka, the flying Serpent of Dreary Canal wanting to get water itself, attacks Panthro and Snarf and causes them to fall into the Swamp of the Laughing Lilypads, making them laugh out of control. Ezuka attacks the Lair, still looking for water. Lion-O uses the Sword to make some rain, then he and Ben-Gali use the Thunderstrike to melt some ice, but Mumm-Ra comes along and causes a flood. Lion-O calls for the others, which also free Panthro and Snarf from the laughter and they use some of the Swamps water to cause Mumm-Ra to laugh uncontrolably, and he falls in the flood waters and is washed away.
#22 - Dream Master
Season 1 - Episode 56 - Aired 12/9/1985
Mumm-ra transforms himself into the Dream Master, and gains the power to control the Thundercats' dream selves. All except Lion-O. They all become slaves to Mumm-ra the Dream Master in their sleep, but when they wake up, they are just tired. However, when the Thundercats sleep again, Mumm-ra captures their dream selves in little bottles, and when Lion-O tries to wake them up, he can't. He goes and fights Mumm-ra, and frees the other Thundercats' dream selves. They wake up, come running, and help to defeat Mumm-ra again.
#23 - Runaways
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 9/30/1987
Bored and feeling that they are no longer needed, the Thunderkittens run away from home, but soon run into problems when they become ill from berries they had picked. A creature known as Cudi saves their lives. When the other Thundercats find them, the Thunderkittens invite Cudi to Cats Lair. But Mumm-Ra has been observing the situation and disguises himself as Cudi to gain entrance to the Lair. Many disasters occur and the blame is put on the false Cudi, who traps the Thundercats in the council chamber. The Thundercats realize it's Mumm-Ra and they manage to escape and defeat him.
#24 - The Wolfrat
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 10/30/1985
MUMM-RA has a phial of miniaturization gas. VULTUREMAN builds a mechanical WOLFRAT to infiltrate the gas into the Cats' Lair. The THUNDERCATS are immediately reduced to nine inches high. Knowing how vulnerable the THUNDERCATS are in this state, MUMM-RA orchestrates a MUTANT attack on the Cats' Lair. The THUNDERCATS' only hope is SNARF; they armor SNARF and use him as a battle charger while TYGRA works on an antidote. The THUNDERCATS finally take the antidote, and SNARF, getting an accidental whiff of it, grows to huge proportions. In his gigantic state, SNARF terrifies the MUTANTS and puts them to flight. Moral: Sometimes in our minds we may overemphasize the importance of certain physical characteristics. We may feel bad or worry that we are at a disadvantage if we don't possess a quality. For some, physical size and strength is a desirable trait. But often it is given too much importance. In reality, the lack of a physical quality does not have to be a deficit and it may be counterbalanced by other characteristics. In this episode, the ThunderCats find themselves physically mismatched in fighting the Wolfrat, when they are cut down in size. However, they use speed, improvisation, teamwork, and determination to persevere against the robot and the Mutants. The lesson for us is that we must never place too much importance on any one characteristic, but should strive to grow in and use all of our personal qualities. It is our whole personality that counts, not any one trait.
#25 - Swan Song
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 9/25/1989
An Ecology Inspector (EI) comes to Thundera to inspect the new Cats Lair. His ship uses the SWAN system (Space Way Airborn Navigations) to direct him to planets all over the universe. When he arrives on Thundera, he gets ambushed by Two-Time (see Return to Thundera, Part III). Two-Time uses a hologram to make the EI's ship crash into a mountain, and then when the Thundercats come to rescue the EI in the Feliner, Two-Time uses the hologram again. Lion-O manages to fly around the mountain and lands the Feliner. Meanwhile, Two-Time flies to new Cats Lair in his spaceship, Dome-Down. He actually picks up the whole Lair and keeps it inside Dome-Down. The Thundercats fix the Feliner, rescue the EI, and then fly to catch Dome-Down. Once they catch the spaceship, Lion-O uses the sword to defeat Two-Time and send him flying out of the ship. Then they return Cats Lair to its proper place.