The Fighting Hawks

At Hawk Haven the Steel twins are preparing the final test run of the Fighting Hawks: Sideman, a flying laser guitar for Bluegrass; Mayday, a radar tracker for the Copper Kidd; Stronghold, a rocket-powered set of claws for Steelheart; and Rayzor, a flying tomahawk for Steelwill. Stargazer tells them to test as fast as they can. Meanwhile Mon*Star and Hardware break into Automata, planning to fit a disc into Monotone, the planet's central computer, so they can program its machines to turn out copies of Sky-Shadow.

Hawk Haven is alerted, and Quicksilver goes to investigate with only Tally-Hawk for backup, because the Fighting Hawks are not ready. The two of them get past Sky-Shadow, but Hardware finishes reprogramming Monotone, and when Quicksilver tries to arrest the pair, Monotone captures him on Hardware's orders. Mon*Star has the machines put into overdrive, and Tally-Hawk is left to fight a growing army of Sky-Shadows alone.

At Hawk Haven the twins, with the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass helping, are behind schedule, but after one last round of modifications the Fighting Hawks check out and are handed to their partners. The team flies to Automata in the Mirage, where Sideman clears the Sky-Shadows pouring out of the factory and the pods launch to find Quicksilver. Inside, Steelwill sends Rayzor into the fight, and Mon*Star boasts to the captive Quicksilver that soon the universe will be filled with Sky-Shadows. Hardware decides they have made enough, and the Mob flee, promising to come back.

With Quicksilver back among them, the team regroups. Bluegrass admits he was too busy shooting down Sky-Shadows to see the Mob escape, and a couple of hundred of the birds are still out there, but the SilverHawks decide that with Tally-Hawk and his new pals on their side, they have nothing to worry about.

The Steel Twins devise new weapons, the Fighting Hawks, which are specially-powered versions of each SilverHawk's favorite tool, just in time for Mon*star's attack on the planet Automata.

Quicksilver: "We'll win this one with brains instead of brawn."

"Sir, even with the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass helping, we're way behind schedule."

"You're right, kid. As long as we've got Tally-Hawk and his pals, we don't need to worry about Mon*Star's buzzards."

What is one good bird worth against a factory full of copies? Kimberly Morris sets the question up in her opening scenes. At Hawk Haven the Steel twins present Stargazer with the Fighting Hawks, a new partner apiece for most of the team, each built around a job: a flying laser guitar for Bluegrass, a radar tracker for the Copper Kidd, rocket-powered claws for Steelheart and a flying tomahawk for Steelwill.[1] On Automata, Hardware slots a disc into Monotone so the planet's machines will make Sky-Shadows for Mon*Star in bulk.[2]

For most of the episode, the case for one well-made bird against a flock of copies rests on Tally-Hawk. Quicksilver flies out with nobody else, telling Stargazer he has all the backup he needs, and when Monotone takes him prisoner, his bird is left alone in the sky against a flock of Sky-Shadows that keeps growing while the factory runs in overdrive. The Mob's answer to every setback is to turn the dial: "Put that machine into overdrive Hardware." Quicksilver, meanwhile, keeps his nerve, and before the capture he tells Tally-Hawk "We'll win this one with brains instead of brawn."

The animators clearly like the bird. Tally-Hawk is drawn full-spread against the stars, chrome wings open wide and his cream-and-brown breast catching the light, and even with a pink beam slicing across his body he is still flying. The villains get the opposite treatment. In the shot of Quicksilver hanging in Monotone's clamps, Mon*Star and Hardware stand with their backs to us, a wall of red armour and a bedroll, facing a panel of orange lights; the only face in the frame belongs to the prisoner.

The standout scene is the workshop. With Tally-Hawk in trouble and Stargazer asking for the Fighting Hawks now, one of the twins has to tell him "Sir, even with the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass helping, we're way behind schedule." They try the new modifications, and there is a pause before the test: "Come on. Come on. It has to work this time." This time the Fighting Hawks check out, and each is handed to its new partner.

Its weakness is that the four new partners arrive as equipment. Each gets a job title, a nickname and one trick, Sideman scattering Sky-Shadows and Rayzor sent into the game by Steelwill, but none gets a scene, and Stronghold and Mayday barely register before the credits. The likely reason is the slot: four introductions, a rescue and a factory raid will not fit into twenty-two minutes with room left for character. The ending suffers the same way. The Mob leave once they have made enough Sky-Shadows, and nobody shuts the factory down.[3]

With the birds still out there, the answer from the team is "You're right, kid. As long as we've got Tally-Hawk and his pals, we don't need to worry about Mon*Star's buzzards." The factory can make as many copies as Mon*Star likes, and the team still backs Tally-Hawk against the lot. It is more introduction than story, but Tally-Hawk carries it!

1 ^ The teaser gives each a second name: Sideman the Riff Hawk, Mayday the Sonic Hawk, Stronghold the Claw Hawk and Rayzor the Tomahawk. Mayday's tracking is put to use in the next episode, The Renegade Hero.

2 ^ Monotone first appears in The Great Galaxy Race, where he introduces himself as a computer programmed to aid vehicles in distress. Here, reprogrammed, he captures a SilverHawk on Hardware's word.

3 ^ Hardware's reason for leaving is that they have manufactured enough Sky-Shadows. What the Mob plan to do with them is never said.

1. The four Fighting Hawks make their first appearance here: Sideman for Bluegrass, Mayday for the Copper Kidd, Stronghold for Steelheart and Rayzor for Steelwill.
2. Monotone, the central computer of Automata, returns from The Great Galaxy Race, where he was built to help vehicles in distress; here Hardware reprograms him with a disc.
3. The Mob come to Automata for its machines, which Mon*Star wants turning out copies of Sky-Shadow in bulk.
4. Quicksilver and Tally-Hawk get past Sky-Shadow on their own before Quicksilver is captured, and Tally-Hawk spends the middle of the episode fighting alone.
5. At the end a couple of hundred Sky-Shadows are said to be still at large, and the Mob promise to be back.
6. The closing quiz is on Mars: the Kidd names it the Red Planet, says it is about half the size of Earth, and guesses its moons correctly.
7. The team's names for the Sky-Shadows by the end are overgrown canaries and Mon*Star's buzzards.

4 names enter the series in this episode.

• Sideman
• Mayday
• Rayzor
• Stronghold

Appearance lists compiled from the episode articles on the ThunderCats wiki, checked against this site's encyclopedia. Names we have no entry for are shown without a link rather than left out.