Hear the roar

[austin_dern]

There wasn't anything surprising in discovering there was a DVD set of the ThunderCats, Season One, Volume Two, in the HMV; what did surprise me was they had the French-language version as well. That versions is dubbed the CosmoCats, which isn't a bad name, but doesn't have the same ring, somehow. I was curious about it, but I've got too much stuff to go around buying novelty versions of TV shows that, really, I'd never get around to watching.

It does bring up something I'd started talking about with skylerbunny, that occupies my mind since I'm flying home in the morning and don't have time to fret about it. Still, in a fight, who'd win: Mumm-ra the Ever-Living from ThunderCats, or Aku, from Samurai Jack?

Initially they seem pretty evenly matched competitors, what with being shapeshifting masters of evil ruling twisted future Earths before some pesky interloper drops in. Both have a primary foe whose best weapon is a magic sword -- and one which claims to be powerless if used for evil (so we can put a Mumm-Ra with the Sword of Omens versus Aku with Jack's Sword right out of the running, unless of course the value of fighting the evil opponent outweighed the advantage given the evil user). Both are quite comfortable hiring subcontractors to do specific parts of the evil tasks -- the Digger or the Mutants, for Mumm-Ra; any of a host of minor officials for Aku. Both claim to be immortal, but heck, you and I could claim that too, so far.

Aku seems to have an easier time with shifting shape altogether, which anyone who's seen The Sword in the Stone and who understands germ theory should be able to use to become quite unbeatable. And Mumm-Ra is extremely vulnerable to shiny objects, what with how they make him flee in terror (at least up until the New Thundera stuff when they started overloading the ThunderCats mythos).

I have to give the edge in a quick fight to Mumm-Ra, since he's capable of amazing quick bursts of energy, but to Aku in a more drawn-out battle, since he seems to have more staying power. Mumm-Ra keeps retreating back to his sarcophagus. I can't help thinking the ultimate winner would be Mumm-Ra, though, since there is that whole where-evil-exists, Mumm-Ra lives factor, and Aku doesn't seem to have a matching clause in his existence.

Trivia: The cost for a United States patent, as established in 1790, was US$3.70 plus the copying of patent specifications at 10 cents per sheet. Source: Yankee Science in the Making, Dirk J Struik.

Currently Reading: The March of Folly, Barbara W Tuchman.