History WesternAnimation / Thundercats

* ''WhipItGood'' Tygra uses a bolo-whip, but when he uses it correctly, he can turn ''invisible''.

* FullSetBonus: The gems Mumm-Ra is after.

* ShoutOut: Snarf is basically a SuperDeformed [[TheHobbit Smaug]].

* AdultChild: Lion-O, especially in the earliest episodes.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Every adult Thundercat had one (Lion-O's was based on the main theme), the kittens share one, Snarf had a ComicRelief Leitmotif, and Mumm-Ra had his own scary theme.

* PetTheDog: Mumm-Ra, [[CompleteMonster of all people]]. Not only is Maa-Mutt his pet, but Mumm-Ra actually shows it affection.
** It can fly, and it's hideous. Of course he shows it affection.

* TheCode: The Code of Thundera: "Justice, Truth, Honor, and Loyalty."

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Tigers are one of the few felines that don't hate water. Guess which Thundercat can't swim...

* ActionGirl - Cheetara. Remarkably, in several episodes she gets to save the day, on her own, when all the rest of the team has been defeated.

* AchillesHeel – Mumm-Ra's reflection instantly defeats him. Averted in [[strike:later seasons]] season 2.
** Doubles as WeaksauceWeakness.
* AdultChild - Lion-O, especially in the earliest episodes.
* AfterTheEnd – The Thundercats' original homeworld blows up during the {{Premiere}}.

* AmazonBrigade – The Warrior Maidens.

* AnimationBump – The TitleSequence, "Crystal Canyon", "The Telepathy Beam" and "The Wild Workout".
* AppliedPhlebotinum – Both Thundrillium and Thundrainium fall into this category.)

* ArtisticLicensePhysics – Aside from [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathing, speaking, and being generally fine in space]] (which has gravity!) while wearing normal(ish) clothes, a black hole is said to be a ''force field'' generated by a computer called Neptune which was created by a long-dead advanced society on Venus to suck in derelicts and other junk to keep the spaceways clear. It keeps any travelers in a rather nice prison cell by sucking them in with magnets (the people, not anything they're wearing/carrying) and the heroes escape when Captain Shiner [[ReversePolarity reverses the magnet's charge]] to push them out again. Which causes the computer to [[BigNo die screaming]] and explode. And the nuclear engines of spaceships are powered by people pushing a wheel around in a circle, [[AssPull just next to a single switch labeled "Power Off."]] The one believable thing they said? "[A black hole is] possibly formed by a collapsing star... once something goes in, it never comes out." And they turn out to be ''completely wrong''!

* AsLongAsThereIsEvil – "And wherever evil exists… Mumm-Ra lives!"
* BaldOfAwesome - Panthro and Lynx-O.
** BaldOfEvil - Safari Joe.
* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace – The Thundercats universe blatantly disregards many physical facts, but none are as jarring as the fact that apparently everyone can breathe and speak in outer space just fine, thank you.
* BatSignal – The Sword of Omens can do this when Lion-O invokes "Thundercats, HOOOOOOOOO!"
* BeautyEqualsGoodness – The episode "Good and Ugly" subverted it: the beautiful alien was the evil one, the ugly one good. From the good alien's perspective, Lion-O and Snarf were ugly.

* BigBad – Mumm-Ra
* BiggerBad - The Ancient Spirits of Evil.
* BrotherChuck – All the mutants besides Ssslithe, Monkian, and Jackylman disappear after their first few appearances. It's possible they were still on the ship when Mum-Ra destroyed it in the second episode.

* BullyBulldog - Ma-Mutt

* CanonForeigner – Lynxana, an exiled Thundercat rebel from the Marvel comics
* TheCaretaker – Snarf, especially in the early episodes
* CatFolk - They were supposed to be this, but most of the Thunder Cats didn't really look so much like animals, but more like 80's glam rockstars with a cat-theme.

* CatchPhrase – Both the caption, and Mumm-Ra's transformation spiel. Panthro often says "If we're gonna do it, let's do it."
* ChristmasCake - Cheetara. She appeared to be in her late teens/early twenties in the first episode, when Lion-O was still a cub. Then again, nobody ever seems to age in this show.
* TheCode - The Code of Thundera: "Justice, Truth, Honor, and Loyalty."
* CoolSword - The Sword of Omens not only provides Lion-O with "sight beyond sight"; it can seemingly do pretty much ''anything'' he commands it to, including (but not limited to) levitation, shooting energy blasts, and creating force fields.
* CosmicKeystone – The Treasures of Thundera

* CuteMachines – Robear Berbils
* DarkerAndEdgier – ''The Return'' comic series, and its sequel ''Dogs Of War''. [[{{Squick}} Not kid-friendly]], folks.
* DealWithTheDevil – In "Monkian's Bargain", Monkian agrees to allow Mumm-Ra to make him powerful enough to defeat the Thundercats and rule Third Earth. He's so impatient that he leaves without hearing what the price is, and he's too GenreBlind to question why Mumm-Ra is giving him the power and not using it himself. After he manages to defeat the Thundercats, what happens to him is pretty scary, even if he does recover.

* DeathWorld – Visit beautiful Third Earth, home to locales such as the Field of Daggers, the Crumbling Cliffs of Vertigo, and the Burning Sands of the Phosphorus Desert, and that's just for starters! No wonder most of humanity seems to have died out.
* DefeatMeansFriendship - Lion-O's theory in challenging Snowman.
* DescriptiveVille – Their home planet, Thundera
* DidNotDoTheResearch - Tigers are one of the few felines that don't hate water. Guess which Thundercat can't swim...
* DistractedByTheSexy – Lion-O versus Tashi in the episode "The Doomgaze." And this is ''before'' she uses her titular HypnoticEyes against him. Lucky for him that [[ActionGirl Cheetara]] was there to intervene.

* DoesNotLikeShoes – The Warrior Maidens go barefoot.

* DoomyDoomsOfDoom – The Doom Gaze

* EmpathicWeapon – The Sword of Omens

* EverybodyLaughsEnding – Normally at something Snarf says.
* EvilIsNotWellLit – Mumm-Ra's pyramid
* EvilMinions – The Mutants
* EvilSorcerer – Mumm-Ra

* FashionableAsymmetry – Wilykit and Jackalman get this treatment.

** [[TagalongKid The Tagalong Kids]]: Wilykat and Wilykit
* ForTheEvulz – Mumm-Ra ''could'' just ignore the Thundercats and wait for them all to die (since he's, y'know, immortal), but where's the fun in that?

* GenderBender – Several of Mumm-Ra's plots involved him transforming into a female of some form to trap or trick the Thundercats.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar - In "Crystal Canyon". when Alluro gets the Keystone and has control over Lion-O and Lynx-O, he says some... interesting stuff.

* GoodSamaritan – What the Thundercats typically are, much to the [[TheFarmerAndTheViper advantage of Mumm-Ra]]
* GRatedDrug – In "Crystal Canyon" and "The Garden of Delights"
* GrowsOnTrees – The "fruit" trees include bread trees, candy trees, eggplant trees, cabbage trees, etc.
* HeyItsThatVoice – Panthro is voiced by Earle Hyman, aka Granddad Huxtable from ''TheCosbyShow''. Makes those outtakes even more hilarious now, doesn't it?
* HilariousOuttakes – The infamous blooper reel, often [[FanNickname referred to as]] ''[[http://www.google.com/search?q=blundercats BlunderCats.]]''
* HumanPopsicle – How the Thundercats made the trip from Thundera to Third Earth; Lion-O undergoes a PlotRelevantAgeUp because of a faulty cryogenic pod
* IdiotBall – Apparently being in cryogenic stasis not only gives you outrageous muscles and martial prowess, it also makes you [[EasyAmnesia retarded]].

* JamesBondage – Tygra, and the [[NeverLiveItDown fandom runs away with it]]
* KryptoniteFactor – Thundrainium to the Thundercats

* LeotardOfPower – Cheetara
* {{Leitmotif}} – Every adult Thundercat had one (Lion-O's was based on the main theme), the kittens share one, Snarf had a ComicRelief Leitmotif, and Mumm-Ra had his own scary theme.
* LetsYouAndHimFight - Interestingly enough, used by the heroes more often than the villains.
* LightIsGood / DarkIsEvil – The evil Mumm-Ra is in a dark, dreary pyramid and everything is shades of black or dark blue. The good Mumm-Rana is in a bright pyramid where everything is white and golden.
* MasterOfDisguise and MasterOfIllusion – Mumm-Ra. A great many plots revolved around him disguising himself as an innocent or ally to sabotage the Thundercats. In one episode it's revealed that Tygra's also a master of illusion, not just invisibility. It puts a severe strain on him, though, and takes tremendous concentration and meditation to do (which also provides the necessary [[BellisariosMaxim handwave]] as to why he had never used it before – he was saving it up for [[spoiler:Lion-O's [[RiteOfPassage Anointment Trials]]]].)

* MirrorMatch - In "Fond Memories", Mumm-Ra merges himself with a statue of Lion-O to match his physical appearance, abilities and weapons before dueling against him.
** ColourCodedForYourConvenience - Mumm-Ra's armor suit (a copy of Lion-O's) is colored red, in contrast with Lion-O's blue.
* MushroomSamba – Tygra in "Garden of Delights"
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands - Cheetara's psychic powers, Tygra's illusion abilities, the list goes on.

* NeverSayDie – As per the usual, but Wilykit's cry of "He… isn't alive!" is the apex of this.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero - The reason that Thundera blew up in the first place is because in the past, Jaga threw the evil Sword of Plundar into the planet's core in order to destroy it and keep it from ever being used for evil. The evil energies apparently caused the seismic catastrophe.

* NonHumanSidekick – Snarf
* TheObiWan – Jaga, on occasion
** He even glowed blue...

* OneSidedArmWrestling - Lion-O vs a Caveman
* OneWingedAngel – [[LargeHam "ANCIENT SPIRITS OF EVIL!!! TRANSFORM THIS DECAYED FORM TO... MUMM-RA, THE EVER LIVING!!!"]][[hottip:*:Known as The Ever-Spying in the fandom.]]

* TheOtherDarrin – Earl Hammond replaced Bob [=McFadden=] as Vultureman after a few appearances.
* PetTheDog – Mumm-Ra, [[CompleteMonster of all people]]. Not only is Maa-Mutt his pet, but Mumm-Ra actually shows it affection.
** It can fly, and it's hideous. Of course he shows it affection.
* {{Phlegmings}} – Mumm-Ra, natch
* PlotRelevantAgeUp – See HumanPopsicle.
* ProductPromotionParade – The title sequence
* PsychoSerum – A crystal which made Tygra think he was smarter and more powerful, and was painfully addictive. Alluro stole it and was the worse off for it.
* PutOnABus – The Luna-Taks and Mutants are put on a prison train near the end of season 3 and aside from one episode do not appear again.

* RememberTheNewGuy – Vultureman, Maa-Mutt
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent – S-S-Slithe and the Reptillians
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething – The Thundercats were the noble class of their people, with Lion-O as their ruler.
* SchizoTech – Hunter-gatherer robot bears.
* {{Seers}} – The Sword of Omens. Cheetara now and then when the plot calls for it.
* ShouldersOfDoom – [[spoiler:Tashi]] gets these in ''Enemy's Pride''.
* ShoutOut – Snarf is basically a SuperDeformed [[TheHobbit Smaug]].
* SugarBowl – The Berbils' village
** SugarApocalypse – They often had said village burned or attacked; they were pretty much the designated DistressedDamsel of the series.
* SummonToHand - the Sword of Omens can do this.
* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands – Both Mumm-Ra and Lion-O have this. Mumm-Ra from a fetid [[CrystalBall scrying pool]] and Lion-O from the Sword of Omens' "Sight Beyond Sight". Really good to find out who's in trouble and where, that.
* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: The Sword of Omens does this a lot.
* TalkToTheFist – In "Monkian's Bargain", Wilykit and Wilykat actually ''attacked Mumm-Ra while he was transforming''.
* TeamMom – Cheetara, so damn much.

* TertiarySexualCharacteristics – Female Berbils? They had flowers on their ears.
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself – To prove himself worthy of leadership, Lion-O must vanquish Mumm-Ra unassisted. He succeeds(!), but Mumm-Ra is still back the next episode [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil of course]].
* ThemeMusicPowerUp – Despite the theme music playing at various [[PerfectlyCromulentWord dangery]] intervals, it would never be completed. It would go for a verse at most – or more often just a single line – then switch to some other background music.
* VerbalTic – Snarf has this, snarf.

* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill – There was an episode of ''{{Thundercats}}'' that had Lion-o attack an innocent alien visitor, then out of embarrassment help the next alien he met, who turned out (of course) to be evil.

* YouFailPhysicsForever – Aside from [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathing, speaking, and being generally fine in space]] (which has gravity!) while wearing normal(ish) clothes, a black hole is said to be a ''force field'' generated by a computer called Neptune which was created by a long-dead advanced society on Venus to suck in derelicts and other junk to keep the spaceways clear. It keeps any travelers in a rather nice prison cell by sucking them in with magnets (the people, not anything they're wearing/carrying) and the heroes escape when Captain Shiner [[ReversePolarity reverses the magnet's charge]] to push them out again. Which causes the computer to [[BigNo die screaming]] and explode. And the nuclear engines of spaceships are powered by people pushing a wheel around in a circle, [[AssPull just next to a single switch labeled "Power Off."]] The one believable thing they said? "[A black hole is] possibly formed by a collapsing star... once something goes in, it never comes out." And they turn out to be ''completely wrong''!
** They called it a black hole because that's what they thought it was. Then they learned better.
** Then there was the time someone literally pulled the plug out of the bottom of the ocean. And it all started to drain away...
*** Breathing in space is explained by 'force-fields' that are near-skin tight and allow for oxygen replenishment by alien means (it was actually in [[WordOfGod the new comic compendium]] a few years ago) but the gravity thing only got partial explanation.

* LargeHam\NoIndoorVoice: MUMMMM-RAAAAAA, THE EVERRRRRRR LIVIIIIINGGGGG!!!!!!

** On the other hand, Panthro did say dead when referring to the ThunderTank's controls not working. And Mumm-Ra was mentioned as deadly at one point.

* PsychoSerum – Crystals which made Tygra smarter and more powerful, but were painfully addictive. Vultureman stole them and was the worse off for it
** There was only one crystal, it only made Tygra think he was smarter and more powerful, and it was Alluro who stole it.

* ReforgedBlade: The Sword of Omens is broken and reforged not twice, but ''three'' over the course of the series.
** Once by the [[MeaningfulName Inflamer]], a second time by [[TheBlacksmith Bengali]], and a third time by a four-armed interstellar blacksmith.

* AnimationBump – The Opening, ''Crystal Canyon'', ''The Telepathy Beam'' and ''The Wild Workout''.

* BaldOfAwesome - Panthro and Lynx-O
** BaldOfEvil - Safari Joe

* BeautyEqualsGoodness – The episode "Good and Ugly" subverted it: the beautiful alien was the evil one, the ugly one good. From the good alien's perspective, Lyon-O and Snarf were ugly.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness – The episode "Good and Ugly" subverted it: the beautiful alien was the evil one, the ugly one good.

* BatSignal – The Sword of Omens can do this.

-->'''Alluro''': If you're good, I may even give you to [[DarkActionGirl Chilla]]. [[FetishFuel What a wonderful pet you'd make.]]

* CatFolk - Though most of the Thunder Cats didn't really look so much like animals, but more like 80's glam rock bandmates with a cat-theme.

* DealWithTheDevil – In "Monkian's Bargain", Monkian agrees to allow Mumm-Ra to make him powerful enough to defeat the Thundercats and rule Third Earth. He's so impatient that he leaves without hearing what the price is, and he's too GenreBlind to question why Mumm-Ra is giving him the power and not using it himself. After he manages to defeat the Thundercats, what happens to him is pretty scary, even if HeGotBetter.

* StaffChick – Cheetara. Later added with Pumyra.