Mumm-ra's pyramid

What creature is mumm-ra's skull shaped sarcophagus in his pyramid? Have you noticed when mumm-ra awoke from his 1000 years sleep in the unholy alliance, the sarcophagus eyes glows blue and then before mummra returns back to his sarcophagus the eyes of the sarcophagus glow blue before closing. Have you all guys noticed?? It seems like mummra has all the buttons of his powers in his coffin. How did mumm-ra knew mutants flying over his pyramid? What made mutants to crash land before his pyramid and had to enter without their weapons using the help of ball of light?? Isnt mumm-ra's sarcophagus a part of the ancient spirits of evil?? Please watch the episode the unholy alliance and please notice every single detail.

Just off the cuff, I'm thinking that he probably sleeps/hibernates until there's something useful to do -- but for all we know, he's got an entertainment center in there. I'd say it's a safe bet that there's some technological or magical method of him detecting important events, one of which would have been the introduction of the Sword of Omens. Once that caught his attention, it would have been easy to use whatever means are at his disposal to set up the encounter with the mutants.

Edit: As for the kind of skull that the sarcophagus is shaped like... To me, it kind of looks like a gray alien, which makes me wonder whether there was some writer's intent to connect that with the whole "ancient aliens" concept that's been popularized recently. Lots of ideas have been around for a long time, bandied about in fiction, so it's not so strange that they should coalesce in a cartoon with such an amalgam of history, mysticism, and sci-fi.

There are various stock footage of the sarcophagus opening especially in 1st season: Berbils, The spaceship beneath the sands, The demolisher and the rest.
However in Monkians bargain, when Monkian entered the throne room of mumm-ras pyramid, he called out mumm-ra's name and the sarcophagus glow in blue light, where mummra appeared from the shadows before giving Monkian his power to bring the eye of thundera to mumm-ra. And again when Monkian defeated mummra and sent back to his sarcophagus, Monkian said "I will rule all of third earth" then mumm-ra awoke from his sarcophagus saying you can rule third earth but you will never leave my pyramid.

Again in rock giant when the rock giant threw a boulder at cats lair, the cats lair lasered at rock giant, then mummra saw the events via his cauldron. There is a technical animation error as the sarcophagus eyes glow red before it shuts off, have you guys noticed??

I noticed the sarcophagus eyes glowing red in "The Rock Giant," when they should be glowing green.

It was glowing green in Pumm-Ra, when a kidnapped Cheetara was brought by the mutants before Mumm-ra.
In The Heritage when mummra had the golden sphere of sete and taunted the ancient spirits of evil when he was speaking to mamutt then sarcophagus eyes glowed orange then the pyramid shook mummra as the ancient spirits of evil were very angry with mummra. Season 2 during Mumm-Ra lives Part 3 until Thundercubs Part 1, the ancient spirits of evil statues eyes glowed I green and not red. Is this animation error?

Another factor to consider might be who wrote the stories. If the examples were all from Leonard Starr, then chances are they're not a one-off oddity, and might even have some meaning in what he envisioned.

Mumm-ra's 1st 2 appearances in The Unholy Alliance and Berbils - very good, unhostile looking, centered white/red eyeballs, not very scary looking, except his ever living form
After that, mumm-ra had a slightly different appearances, take episodes like The Doomgaze, Spitting Image, The Wolfrat, Feliner Part 2, Sword in a Hole, The Evil Harp of Charr-Ninn, Trial of Speed(Lion-O's Annointment Trial Part 2), The Mumm-Ra Berbil, Trapped, The Dream Master Thundercats Ho Parts 1, 2 and 3 - mumm-ra looks more uglier, grey skin rather than normal blue skin, with his white eyeballs aligned to left side of his eyes. Have you noticed? Is this a different design to Mumm-Ra? How come this design does not repeat in Seasons 2 to 4? Seasons 3 and 4, mumm-ra's white eyeballs are a bit larger which means less red in his eyes, have you guys noticed??

I suspect that the white shapes you're referring to are meant to be reflected light on an otherwise completely red eyeball, with the changing shape perhaps being simply illustrators' differing techniques for drawing it. (I think that's what makes his eyes creepy -- no pupils to indicate whether he's looking at you!)

"1F409, post: 134832, member: 27715" said:

I suspect that the white shapes you're referring to are meant to be reflected light on an otherwise completely red eyeball, with the changing shape perhaps being simply illustrators' differing techniques for drawing it. (I think that's what makes his eyes creepy -- no pupils to indicate whether he's looking at you!)

Thanks for correcting me.
Have you noticed the sky of The Desert of Sinking Sands is blue in Lion-O's Annointment Trial of Mind Power?? In other episodes The Unholy Alliance, Spaceship Beneath The Sands, Thundercutter, Dimension Doom, Trapped, Transfer, Trial of Evil, Thundercats Ho Part 2 and 3 it's mostly green, with black and red clouds surrounding mummras pyramid. Thank you very much Leonard Starr. However in Return To Thundera Part 1, the sky of The mumm-ra's abandoned pyramid turned light before the pyramid was destroyed by Panthro before leaving third earth. By nightfall, in the ruins of the destroyed pyramid, the power of the ancient spirits of evil managed to rebuild the cauldron to summon mumm-ra from his exile, which the ancients sent him from third earth to New Thundera in no time.Have you so noticed blue night sky in Snarf Takes Up The Challenge when scarf enters the pyramid with help from creatures to rescue the Thundercats and again at the end of Trial of evil, when there was sunlight which turned to red and black which meant the spirits brought mumm-ra to life via his new sarcophagus. AS LONG AS EVIL EXISTS MUMM-RA LIVES MUMM-RA LIVES MUMM-RA LIVES MWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Bernard Hoffer created mumm-ra's background theme which obviously gives goosebumps to some, otherwise it just chills your spine. I don't like season 2 remix version. That's my opinion so pls don't be offended.

"1F409, post: 134812, member: 27715" said:

Just off the cuff, I'm thinking that he probably sleeps/hibernates until there's something useful to do -- but for all we know, he's got an entertainment center in there. I'd say it's a safe bet that there's some technological or magical method of him detecting important events, one of which would have been the introduction of the Sword of Omens. Once that caught his attention, it would have been easy to use whatever means are at his disposal to set up the encounter with the mutants.

Edit: As for the kind of skull that the sarcophagus is shaped like... To me, it kind of looks like a gray alien, which makes me wonder whether there was some writer's intent to connect that with the whole "ancient aliens" concept that's been popularized recently. Lots of ideas have been around for a long time, bandied about in fiction, so it's not so strange that they should coalesce in a cartoon with such an amalgam of history, mysticism, and sci-fi.

The mutants arrived 1st time in the black pyramid, they guessed that the ancient spirits of evil statues look like an ancient race of mutants, but they are NOT!

You've obviously put some serious work into scrutinizing these details. I'm not nearly as familiar with the individual episodes, though, so my answers are limited.

I'm sharing through my own experience by watching the show. It can feel a bit emotional (Jaga's death, Lynx-O's blindness, Lion-I being defeated by mumm-ra, etc) but again it's my own experience.

"1F409, post: 134812, member: 27715" said:

Just off the cuff, I'm thinking that he probably sleeps/hibernates until there's something useful to do -- but for all we know, he's got an entertainment center in there. I'd say it's a safe bet that there's some technological or magical method of him detecting important events, one of which would have been the introduction of the Sword of Omens. Once that caught his attention, it would have been easy to use whatever means are at his disposal to set up the encounter with the mutants.

Edit: As for the kind of skull that the sarcophagus is shaped like... To me, it kind of looks like a gray alien, which makes me wonder whether there was some writer's intent to connect that with the whole "ancient aliens" concept that's been popularized recently. Lots of ideas have been around for a long time, bandied about in fiction, so it's not so strange that they should coalesce in a cartoon with such an amalgam of history, mysticism, and sci-fi.

I looked at mumm-ra's chest insignia in detail and one of the snake heads looks like mumm-ra's skull sarcophagus. Another toy website mentioned that mumm-ra's skull sarcophagus is a snake skull. How can this be? We know the ancient spirits of evil have heads of boar, crocodile, bull and vulture. The skull is also featured on Thundercubs Part 1, in the mumm-raft, where mumm-ra rests for journey to thundera and the watery grave, when lion-o and panthro fell , after chasing mumm-ra's holocaust image and water coming out of that skull.

If mumm-ra is dependent on his sarcophagus, it got destroyed in The Trial of Evil by Lion-O. However, in The Last Day, the sarcophagus got destroyed by mumm-ra's super size along with the pyramid. In Return To Thundera, the pyramid on 3rd Earth got destroyed, along with the pillars and ancient spirits of evil statues. However, the ancient spirits of evil were very efficient and powerful to rebuild mumm-ra's cauldron to release mumm-ra from his exile. That was the final entry of mumm-ra's pyramid on Third Earth. Actually, its shown at a south east direction of Third Earth.

"1F409, post: 134879, member: 27715" said:

You've obviously put some serious work into scrutinizing these details. I'm not nearly as familiar with the individual episodes, though, so my answers are limited.

I actually can't help noticing details in Thundercats.

First, keep in mind that the longer the series went on, the further it drifted from the designs of Leonard Starr. If you believe that all of the episodes must be treated as canon, then you'll eventually run into details that conflict.

Now that you point it out, I do see how the sarcophagus' alcove bears some resemblance to a snake's skull. A search for images confirms that certain species do have that sizable gap between left and right rows of teeth, so it seems plausible that the design was inspired by that. Wikipedia confirms a tidbit which fits the theme: "Snake worship [...] where snakes were seen as the holders of knowledge, strength, and renewal."

I agree with you. Mumm-ra is dependent on his sarcophagus, the ancient spirits of evil and the power of his pyramid. If one fails, mumm-ra will weaken. In Mumm-Ra Lives Part 3 and 4, Mumm-Ra claims that the ancient spirits of evil are mighty ancestors of mumm-ra, who give him their combine power or he will to cease to exist if the spirits do not listen or help him.

The eyes of the Ancient Spirits of Evil glowed green instead of red in season 2 and occasionally in seasons 3 and 4, especially when Mumm-Ra had to change into his ever-living self.

"Daremonger, post: 134981, member: 25241" said:

The eyes of the Ancient Spirits of Evil glowed green instead of red in season 2 and occasionally in seasons 3 and 4, especially when Mumm-Ra had to change into his ever-living self.

That is because of the stock footage of Mumm-ra Lives Part 4 transformation.