ThunderCats: "Song of the Petalars" Review

Four seasons in one day!

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Even though, on their journey to find the Book of Omens, theThunderCats run across yet another exiled race of Third Earthians who pine for their true home, "Song of the Petalars" was a surprisingly emotional journey. There was an unexpected sadness to this tale, and even though the earnest and true flower-folk, the Petalars, were really only there to teach Lion-O the meaning of "hope," this chapter was way more effective than last week's "Ramlak Rising."

Though it doesn't fully make sense if one were to pick it apart, the Petalars' life-in-one-day story came off as really touching due to the character of Emeric, who when we first meet him is as cutesy and fun as WilyKit and WilyKat. Watching Emeric grow, over the course of the episode, into a a frail old creature was amazing and what really sold it was Emeric himself and how he never even noticed how short his life was and lived it as though it was a century spent battling beasts and having grand adventures. Essentially, the Petalars were doomed to remain lost forever because of their single day lifespan and so in the end, when they road up on the rising embers of the burning woods, it was hard to not feel a swell of triumph.

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Perhaps one day the Cats will realize that Third Earth is filled to the brim with disenfranchised beasts and species just like them and that maybe their kingdom was more a symbol of pride than harmony. Tygra was back to his old series premiere-self in this episode, which just made it seem all the more strange why his character shrunk so much last week. I have to say that I did not expect Lion-O's take-away from Emeric's death to be "let's all die fighting the lizards!" But it still worked given that Lion-O was trying to fight off a stinging bout of Cat-depression: "What's the point of it all? Are we even around long enough to make a difference?"

Kevin Michael Richardson Talks About Playing Panthro
And even though there's no explanation yet as to how Panthro is alive or where he's been all this time, it was pretty badass to see him ride to the rescue in the ThunderTank; blowing up mechs and nunchucking lizard troopers! We all knew he was coming back in this week's episode, but I'm glad they saved it for the end in order to give us a big blowout while still treating us to an enchanting story that I don't think we expected to be as poignant as it was. Excellent work!