Fortress of Fear
I just watched the best goddamn episode of Thundarr the Barbarian.
I bought the DVDs about a year ago off eBay, and have only watched season one. Tonight I decided I’d had enough of the Man Apes, and popped in season two to watch “Fortress of Fear”.
The episode reveals a clever understanding of its narrative context, and has plenty of fun with established character tropes. Thundarr becomes an aggressively dense brawler with no regard for others. Mid-episode, they flee into a dark jungle to escape the wizard villain. The jungle saps Ariel’s power, and makes her tired and ill. As Thundarr understands this, he rears back on his horse and declares “Then we will clear this jungle by dawn!” Plus he hogs the fighting on all the henchmen, which often ends with him overpowered by a large group of foot soldiers, and either Ariel or Ookla are carried away in a surprise attack. Nobody can ever fully subdue him, as he simply will not stop fighting.
Ariel is a sex object; vulnerable as a captive of the wizard who seeks to make her his bride, yet nearly always capable of solidly kicking ass. A creature attacks the party in the jungle – a giant Cyclops ape with a Vulcan’s head – and carries off Ariel to hand her over to the lustful wizard. She bends compliantly over the creature’s shoulder, looking back over her shoulder in a classic cheesecake. Later she destroys the villain with her magic, in what is easily the most gruesome end I’ve yet seen in the series.
Ookla takes orders from Thundarr, but it’s made clear yet again in this episode that Ariel is Ookla’s girl, and it’s impossible to not find that funny.
The villain, Argos, is way badass. He drapes a yellow cloth over his head for the first half of the episode – when he confronts Ariel for the first time, he removes it to reveal human features – except with blinking eyes covering his cranium! He’s got another eye-opening surprise that seals his rank as Thundarr’s best opponent yet.
There are wolfmen in this episode, and flying robots for security guards. Thundarr frees human slaves. Check it out.
I bought the DVDs about a year ago off eBay, and have only watched season one. Tonight I decided I’d had enough of the Man Apes, and popped in season two to watch “Fortress of Fear”.
The episode reveals a clever understanding of its narrative context, and has plenty of fun with established character tropes. Thundarr becomes an aggressively dense brawler with no regard for others. Mid-episode, they flee into a dark jungle to escape the wizard villain. The jungle saps Ariel’s power, and makes her tired and ill. As Thundarr understands this, he rears back on his horse and declares “Then we will clear this jungle by dawn!” Plus he hogs the fighting on all the henchmen, which often ends with him overpowered by a large group of foot soldiers, and either Ariel or Ookla are carried away in a surprise attack. Nobody can ever fully subdue him, as he simply will not stop fighting.
Ariel is a sex object; vulnerable as a captive of the wizard who seeks to make her his bride, yet nearly always capable of solidly kicking ass. A creature attacks the party in the jungle – a giant Cyclops ape with a Vulcan’s head – and carries off Ariel to hand her over to the lustful wizard. She bends compliantly over the creature’s shoulder, looking back over her shoulder in a classic cheesecake. Later she destroys the villain with her magic, in what is easily the most gruesome end I’ve yet seen in the series.
Ookla takes orders from Thundarr, but it’s made clear yet again in this episode that Ariel is Ookla’s girl, and it’s impossible to not find that funny.
The villain, Argos, is way badass. He drapes a yellow cloth over his head for the first half of the episode – when he confronts Ariel for the first time, he removes it to reveal human features – except with blinking eyes covering his cranium! He’s got another eye-opening surprise that seals his rank as Thundarr’s best opponent yet.
There are wolfmen in this episode, and flying robots for security guards. Thundarr frees human slaves. Check it out.
posted by Sam at
9:30 PM
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