Thread bump; the 2011 reboot as well as the original series and Roar are all streaming on Hulu, at least in America.
I kind of agree what was said earlier. While I would have liked the series to have continued, I don't really like the direction planned.
Here's what I would have done differently in a nutshell; don't kill as many characters. Don't kill Robear Bill. Let Lion-O save Pumyra and let her find some kind of redemption. Her being just evil is so stupid.
Lynx-O can still be responsible for killing Slythe's family, but instead make him regret it. Let the event haunt him, because before that incident he didn't take war personally. Maybe Lynx-O even lost his sight from the fire he started to destroy Slythe's home, but he's forever haunted by the sight of what he did. He allows Slythe to kill him in order to finally atone, and it's this that sets up Slythe's own eventual redemption.
And like, I'm not a fan of Lion-O and Kit getting together, time displacement or not. If they handled it really well then maybe, like Lion-O being uncomfortable with Kit being in love with him, but slowly growing to see her as more than just the kid he once knew.
I'd still prefer him and Pumyra together after she has a redemption. They don't need to get together right away, Pumyra can go off on her own to rediscover herself and then come back to rescue Lion-O, or something. I just think it's such a waste of a character to kill her off.
Here's what I would do; have Lion-O try to talk Pumyra down while she's in her gross bug form. Tygra is getting ready to take the shot, but Cheetara tells him to trust his brother, and so he obliges right when it seems like Pumyra is going to attack. He doesn't shoot, and she doesn't kill Lion-O. She breaks free of Mumm-Ra and Lion-O uses the Spirit stone to give her a second chance.
Pumyra goes through a similar trial that Lion-O did, but he's there to help her through it, and she works through some of her grief, expelling the hatred that Mumm-Ra captured to resurrect her.
This avoids the stupid tension between Lion-O and Tygra that should have gotten over after s1, and in fact would finally resolve it. I'd also not do Lion-O being trapped in the book of Omens for 10 years. That seems like it was only planned so Lion-O and Kit could be a thing.
Other than that, I'm cool with most of what else was planned. Tygra sacrificing himself at the end I'm ok with, regardless of if Lion-O brings him back or not.
I've heard that plenty of times, but I honestly don't think many female villains get redemption.
Look at Lord Dominator or all the female villains in Disney films. There's plenty of them, they just tend to be the ones that don't get much development, and even when they do it's not guaranteed.
Azula from Avatar still hasn't been really redeemed in the comics, and like Pumyra she's also a victim (of her dad's abuse and mom's neglect, and that's all I'm going to say on her).
I see way more male villains get redemption arcs, and I don't think female villains are a special case. I think it's just that whenever a villain gets their backstory told and they develop with some sympathetic traits, they gravitate towards turning good.
The problem here is that Pumyra being a villain is less interesting than when she was supposedly heroic, and if she has to be a villain, being redeemed would actually fit with the narrative themes that the show established. Part of Lion-O's mission is to redeem Thundera as a whole, to rebuild it and allow his people to heal, grow, and turn away from the bigotry that caused their downfall.
Even if not getting a redemption is more original, I think it's worse in this case mainly because of context. Pumyra is, or at least SHOULD BE a victim in this scenario. If she were 100% willing to serve Mumm-Ra and do evil just to get revenge on Lion-O then yeah, I'd say she shouldn't be redeemed, but I think there is some kind of ind control going on.
If it isn't mind control, then sorry, I think that just completely ruins the character and makes so little sense for plot and a story. Even if Pumyra hates Lion-O, she shouldn't be willing to work with Mumm-Ra.
With being killed and resurrected, I'm just saying that there's enough evidence to justify writing Pumyra as being a victim of mind control and then writing a more interesting story around that. I just think killing her off to cause more tension between Lion-O and Tygra to be extremely frustrating and unsatisfying compared to a potential story about Tygra learning to have faith in Lion-O's ability to help his people.
Pumyra losing all nuance just to make some kind of point about "you can't save everyone" just irks me. She was actually interesting before the reveal and I actually really liked her development with Lion-O. I don't think all that should be sacrificed just to make her betrayal more shocking.
And really, I think the story needs to have more hope in it and stop kicking Lion-O around so much. Yeah, you could just let Pumyra die a villain, but redemption just feels more interesting to me. I'm kind of sick of just having tragedy for the sake of it. It just feels shallow.
It happens so often there's a trope for it, High-Heel–Face Turn.
There's plenty of aversions though, and outside of female minions you still have loads of main female villains who stay evil and die evil. If Pumyra did get a redemption, it would technically qualify as a High-Heel–Face Turn since she's the only female villain (if you don't count one of the Wood Forgers, who didn't get redeemed). I just don't think being unoriginal in this case is a bad thing, and Pumyra at least starts out with more justification for it than most.
Pumyra staying evil still wouldn't be refreshing to me though, as I think subverting the High-Heel–Face Turn expectation is kind of overdone, and it always come across to me as doing it specifically just to mess with viewers and not to make a good point. It's gotten to the point where I'd actually be surprised by a redemption.
Edited by StarOutlaw on Sep 2nd 2020 at 8:26:20 AM
I mean High-Heel–Face Turn still happens a lot in recent media. I see way more examples of male villains getting offed while their female sidekicks/minions get a redemption
Prettiest Meta Knight Gijinka, nglI think being a minion or being a big bad is a major factor in whether a villain gets redemption.
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No, that isn't what I wrote. The reasons I gave for Pumyra to get a redemption were emphasizing the show's themes, to develop Lion-O's leadership and character, to be more hopeful, to avoid retreading old tensions between Lion-O and Tygra, and because I think it's more interesting regardless of originality.
Wanting Pumyra to get redeemed just to fulfill a 'ship is incredibly shallow. It's stuff like that that makes me dislike High-Heel–Face Turn in general. All I said was I would prefer Lion-O with Pumyra over going through time shenanigans just to end up with Wilykit. Pumyra doesn't have to end up with Lion-O. What would be refreshing is if she got redeemed and they didn't get together, regardless of if Lion-O ends up with Kit.
And since we already had Grune stay evil, then Pumyra staying evil is redundant and there's even less reason for it. We already had one traitor Cat who never got redeemed, we don't need another. Unless they were able to make Pumyra interesting as a villain, which is doesn't seem like they would have, then I think it's a waste of a good character.
Edited by StarOutlaw on Sep 2nd 2020 at 8:50:43 AM

What if the Lunataks and Ma-Mutt were in the 2011 series?