my nostalgia can beat up your nostalgia

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:19:54 GMT

good morning space cadets.

let me talk to you a moment about a tv show i've been dutifully (and regretfully) watching. it's about to wrap up its second season.

this tv show is called "the new version of thundercats" and hey, i won't lie, the art design is really nice. the animation isn't too shabby i guess. the series started off with a LOT of promise. but then they did something stupid. they wouldn't meet the first episode writer's pay demands, and fired him, and hired some absolutely atrocious writers in his place. the series has been in a steady downward spiral since that point. it's almost painful to watch. the writers have no idea what they're doing. liono has a cathardic revelation that he must prove himself as king and stop being jealous of his brother about once every three episodes and never changes his behavior, in spite of this.

"blundercats" about sums it up, really.

the fact of the matter is that i wouldn't be writing this except for one thing: the new thundercats fandom? is quite active on twitter. and last week i watched them go biz-zonkers crying that this was the "best episode yet" and "taught the dangers of drugs" and how "deep" the show was. i was extremely skeptical. but i thought maybe the writers were throwing me a bone, here, and actually did a propaganda episode!

alas, this was not the case. it was just a lame throw-away side gag where tygra accidentally drinks a potion and goes all lovey dovey telling liono his feelings and picking flowers and cuddling catterpillers and shit. there were really no negative repercussions, no lecture, and it wasn't the focus of the episode at all. i found myself sitting there shouting
REALLY? REALLY NEW THUNDERCATS FANDOM? YOU THINK THIS IS PROPAGANDA?? REALLY?? REALLY. REALLY???

so i had to bust out my screencaps.

i know what you're thinking. "but icarus, you already did the thundercats propaganda episode!" I SURE DID. FOR SEASON THREE. the original thundercats had not one, but TWO propaganda episodes! and you know me. propaganda collection is my favourite hobby, next to drawing comics about emotionally crippled aliens.

join me, won't you?

( season 1, episode 9. 315 images. )

so there you go. the first thundercats propaganda, though the second one i posted. this one had subtler undertones relating to the drug (silky fruit) causing strife and danger for everyone, but in the end kind of had a more realistic solution to it in tygra just finding the willpower to stop on his own. part of me thinks this is because of how early in the series this was, because when you look at the era of propaganda between the 60s and 70s, it generally has the moral of "be careful" instead of "DRUGS ARE EVIL EVIL EVIL ANYONE WHO DOES THEM IS EVILLLLL"

naturally that all changed by season 3. but yeah.

TAKE THAT, NEW THUNDERCATS.
YOU THINK YOU CREATED AN EPISODE WITH HINTS ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?
FUCK YOU, YOU DIDN'T. IN FACT, INSTEAD, YOU HAD LIONO TRY TO DRUG A WOMAN INTO "LIKING" HIM. SO FUCK YOU. SOME HERO YOU'RE WRITING LIONO INTO, NEW THUNDERCATS.

I HOPE YOU GET CANCELLED AND BURIED AT SEA. WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER FIND YOUR HORRIBLE SCRIPTS EVER AGAIN.

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my nostalgia can beat up your nostalgia