ThunderCats (2011) - "The Soul Sever" Episode 24 Recap
While investigating the whereabouts of the next stone, Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro end up losing the Book of Omens to a group of robots led by the “The Soul Sever”: an ambitious cyborg who desires to resurrect his family members from the dead.
The ThunderCats return to the City of Dogs and continue to investigate why the Book of Omens continues to point “up” for the location of the next stone. Lion-O encounters a merchant cat named Jorma, who managed to escape the fall of Thundera. Jorma investigates the book of Omens, which leads to him explaining to the group that the next stone is literally up in the sky somewhere. He leads Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro to a scrap pile where various metals fall from the sky, a place where they can salvage the parts they need to reach the sky. Suddenly, a group of Nechromech robots emerge and quickly steal the Book of Omens before the three ThunderCats can react. Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro discover that the robots who stole the book are led by a cyborg named “The Soul Sever”.
Upon finding the Soul Sever’s domain, they begin to learn of his origin and objective. It’s revealed that the entity known as “The Soul Sever” is actually an alien that was turned into a cyborg by his benefactors. However they disapproved of his various ideas to bring back his family from the dead, which led to him killing them out of rage.
Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro proceed to clash against The Soul Sever, but have their backs against a wall when his power turns out to be strong enough to suck out their souls with his machines and place them into robotic bodies. However, thanks to the help of Jorma’s robotic assistant, Lion-O is able to snatch back the Book of Omens before Tygra loses his body completely. The battle concludes with the Soul Sever weeping in despair and having to accept that he has to let go of his family’s souls.
The Soul Sever is as one of the more enriching episodes thanks to its darker tone and it introducing viewers to the first (and sadly last) tragic villain in the series. “The Soul Sever” is basically a cyborg (with a Grim Reaper design) who lost his family to sickness and disease. Amazed at technology, he decided to embrace it and try using it in order to bring his loved ones back from the dead. I didn’t think of this at first, but a fellow Toon Zone member cleverly remarked that this character is in a similar tragic situation to that of Mr.Freeze from Batman: The Animated Series. Both characters transformed into their own unique twisted forms and attempted to use their new powers to save their loved ones from demise. The Soul Sever tries to use technology to insert their souls into robot bodies (which look like Transformers, may I add), while Mr. Freeze freezes his beloved to buy her time as he works to find a cure for her.
An interesting issue in this episode is the evil aspects of technology. When this series first began we were introduced to Lion-O being amazed at what technology can do and how it relates to past history. His own father even told him to forget about such things, and now in this episode we see how twisted the inventions introduced in this series can be. I know I’ve said plenty of episodes were one of the the best, but this episode really makes me rethink what deserves to be called great and awesome. If anything, The Soul Sever upholds stronger imagery and metaphors, and succeeds at tugging a viewer’s heartstrings.
Jeffery Combs performed a very well done performance while playing as The Soul Sever as well. For those who aren’t aware, his acting performances and voice work are often associated with scary / evil characters from 1981 to the present day. Some some familiar roles include The Rat King from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Kiteman from Batman:Brave and the Bold, and Ratchet from Transformers:Prime.
Next time we go into what is basically the “finale” of this 2011 adaption. Some may like it, and others like myself may possibly be left just wanting more. Currently I’m in the state of feeling like I’m in the middle of a novel, rather than anywhere near a great stopping point.