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thebestcomesecond) wrote2018-04-22 07:20 pm
thebestcomesecond) wrote2018-04-22 07:20 pm
Whips And Guns And Tiger Claws
𝑨𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔
Being a feline alien, Tygra boasts a good number of enhanced abilities, like all Cats, including superhuman levels of strength, speed, and agility. His strength is a good deal higher than humans due to his biology and warrior training; he’s knocked out opponents in one hit, sent people flying several feet through the air with the force of his physical blows or weapon-based attacks, leaped straight up several times his own height, shattered a tree trunk twice as big around as his waist with a single stomp even as an adolescent kitten, and held heavy burdens bodily or with his whip. Physically, his body is somewhat tougher than other races, capable to taking blunt trauma without too much affect, and both his claws and teeth can gouge solid wood. His speed, flexibility, and agility are also similarly advanced thanks to his musculature and physical build (though he’s way outclassed by Cheetara), capable of rushing to better vantagepoints without being noticed, creeping through ventilation shafts without discomfort, and keeping up with Lion-O in a fierce swordfight. In fact, he’s shown split-second reflexes when dodging gunfire and his speed and dexterity are honed enough to deflect laser machine gun barrages with his whip. While running headlong into the spray.
Due to his feline nature, Tygra possesses heightened senses similar to normal cats. He can see in the dark without a problem and can both track and identify through scent if needed. The adage “cats always land on their feet” is also true for him and he’s been shown several times righting himself after being knocked away and landing on his feet. Similar to this, Tygra has excellent balance instincts, perching on tree branches without wobbling and even jumping through the treetops to traverse the forest at night without running into anything or missing his footing. If he needs a burst of speed, Tygra can comfortably run on all fours, but this is only an occasional thing and he mostly frequents the method of moving when he’s scaling vertical inclines.
While a positive for a warrior, but not exactly “fun,” Tygra is superhumanly durable, and has withstood a lot of abuse during the ThunderCats’ adventures. He’s survived a should-have-been-fatal plane crash, been thrown through the top of a vehicle, was only knocked out when electrocuted, and remained conscious enough to make sarcastic remarks when tossed out of a moving airship and ruthlessly beaten up by two hulking brutes. He’s even had his soul ripped from his body and still walked away from the encounter.Of course, this is somewhat rationalized due to the rating of the show and its intended audience, but Tygra still can put up with a lot of injuries and keep coming back for more.
Finally, the Cat species itself is considered, as a whole, to have great potential (for what, exactly, was left vague) and is considered by far to possess the most cunning when compared to the other species. Because of this, the Cats were initially given the ability to wield superior authority over the other animals due to the belief that they “inspire fear” in them, though this trait ultimately led to their downfall.
Bolo-Whip
Tygra's favorite weapon is his bolo-whip, a weapon uses offensively and defensively. It consists of an ornate, three-pronged handle containing an extremely long, retractable blue cord that branches into three bolo-like cords at the end, each bolo capped in a jewel-red sphere (or in the case of his first whip, diamonds). An expert in handling the whip, Tygra uses his weapon’s flexible length offensively to attack his enemies from afar with pinpoint strikes or full-length impacts. The whip itself is strong enough to shatter boulders and split the ground with blunt force, making it easy for him to knock his enemies off their feet. His skill with the weapon enables him to take on opponents ranging from giants to average-sized humanoids, as well as tearing through smaller enemies such as swarm of carnivorous insects. Defensively, Tygra uses his whip to deflect incoming projectiles or attacks, capable of blocking even multi-shot projectiles like bullets with intricate lashes.
Tactically, Tygra can use the whip to reach items far outside his bodily range, ensnare the item with the bolo ends, and either to drag the target back to himself or throw the trapped item (or enemy) at another opponent. This allows him to disarm opponents from substantial distances and confiscate, then use, their weapons for himself. It additionally serves as both a form of locomotion for him, enabling him to traverse areas by catching onto an outcrop with the whip and then swinging from it for both speed and efficiency; he’s also used the weapon several times to catch himself and others from a fall, adding to its versatility. Considering it can be retracted into itself, this allows him to adjust its distance from him and literally “reel” things back to himself or pull himself towards whatever he’s gripping onto. Lastly, his weapon of choice has a great failsafe, in that most enemies are unfamiliar with how to make use of a whip as a weapon, preventing them from effectively wielding his bolo-whip against Tygra if they do manage to get it.
Though his bolo-whip is impressively strong, he does have to contend with two glaring weaknesses. The first is his range. Given his weapon’s preferred range, Tygra needs to keep his distance from his opponents to make the most effective use of his skills; once an opponent gets inside his attack area, he’s forced to resort to hand-to-hand combat (not that he’s a slouch in that department) or attempt to regain his distance. The second is his connection to his whip. Obviously Tygra has to hold his weapon’s handle, which has led to a few enemies catching hold of his whip and slinging him around by it instead. The resulting impacts were as painful to him as they are to the enemies he dashes into the ground.
Invisibility
The bolo-whip’s most powerful ability, however, is being able to render Tygra and his whip completely invisible, enabling him to sneak up on his opponents to assault them without detection. This gives him a great edge in combat since so many opponents rely on their sight to locate even the speedy Cats. While invisible, Tygra can move and fight without any detriment to his physical skills; he can speak when cloaked if he desires, but normally stays silent to keep up the stealth. His invisibility is likely achieved by some form of magic, but it’s not completely out of the question that it’s achieved by some form of high technology. When Tygra wants to activate his invisibility, he does so by either wrapping the whip around himself or performing a simple whip crack, at which point the ability activates and he vanishes within a second. Notably, there were a few rare instances where he was shown to go invisible without moving his weapon and once where he was invisible without his whip even being on his person, so it’s unclear whether he actually needs the whip at all. Currently, however, these instances are exceptions; he almost always needs his whip to turn invisible otherwise.
Still, similar to his whip, Tygra’s invisibility has its own weaknesses. Though he’s hidden from sight, enemies can still track him by scent and sound (but considering he’s a tiger, the latter is extremely unlikely). Also, if he’s attacked while cloaked, the invisibility wears off very quickly. While it’s never happened so far, friendly fire is also a risk to him running around invisible, but considering his reaction speed and attention, it’s unlikely. Additional weaknesses are that his invisibility doesn’t hide him from other senses, such infrared, x-rays, or sonar, and getting covered with some kind of substance or being caught in a deluge of attacks makes it pretty easy to see him before his invisibility falters. Trivia-wise, Tygra’s invisibility is a subtle reference to and play on how a natural tiger’s stripes help them blend in with the environment.
Technology
Due to the Cats’ previous aversion to technology, Tygra is, understandably, somewhat inept with technological things, having not been exposed to it his entire life and believing it a myth. Despite this, he takes to technology rather quickly and shows good aptitude in it when it comes to tinkering with machines and weapons (though he’s definitely not as skilled with it as his brother, Lion-O, or the team tech, Panthro). Apart from his whip, Tygra possesses an energy pistol given to him by Lion-O and he shows great accuracy when using it. His superb shots approach the skill of a trained marksman despite having never seen anything like a gun before in his life. Of course, this is somewhat justified, since his laser pistol has no recoil, so it's mostly a matter of point-and-shoot. Still, Tygra effortlessly wields both his whip and pistol simultaneously, making it quite a hassle to get in close to him. Similarly, he’s made excellent use of a sniper-type rifle to protect his comrades during battle, despite having little to no experience in utilizing such technology before.
On top of weaponry, Tygra shows considerable innate natural skill as a pilot; despite zero training and experience he's able to effortlessly pilot two different airships on his initial attempt. The first time he took the controls of the ThunderCats’ jet, Tygra eased the jet out of a spiraling nosedive and piloted the ship the rest of the way without much confusion or effort, saying the controls felt “just feel natural” to him. He’s even skilled enough to boast—and successfully back it up—that he’s better at piloting a ship than the Bird race. His prowess enables him to run obstacle courses with an airship he’s never been in before and deftly engage in aerial combat despite his newness to the technology. It’s assumed his expertise with marksmanship came through training with the Thunderian archery, and his natural talent for piloting comes from the Tiger Clan’s past as expert fighter pilots.
Of side note, Tygra is the only other ThunderCat that has driven the ThunderTank (albeit without permission), the team’s mass-produced siege tank used for transportation and protection. He capitalized on this chance by driving the vehicle clean up the side of a mountain, using a mixture of the tank’s grapples and powerful treads, to bring it to the ongoing battle atop said mountain. He and Lion-O have also showed impressive displays of driving skills when they took the ThunderTank’s pods (motorcycle-like vehicles) out for a race across a mountainous region, deftly dodging rocky spires, riding up the sides of half-pipe canyons, ramping off stone hills at high speeds, and even dodging a hail of accidental friendly-missile-fire.
Unarmed Combat
Beyond his whip and pistol, Tygra is extremely proficient at unarmed, close-quarters combat. Taught by the Thunderian military, he utilizes a martial arts style formed around power and speed, focusing a good deal on heavy punches and strong kicks. He tends to put his whole body into his blows, in attempt to either end the fight in one attack or put distance between himself and his opponent. His impacts are strong enough to send his opponents flying several feet from him, knock them out with one hit, or cripple a limb to prevent further attacks. When invisible, Tygra usually employs grappling techniques once he maneuvers behind his opponent, utilizing chokeholds, headlocks, arm and leg jams, and even suplexes to bring them down. Of a special note, while Tygra doesn’t make use of them regularly, he won’t hesitate to use his claws or teeth to aid him in more ferocious, unarmed fights. Slashes, stabs, and bites, like any big cat, can put a huge hurt on his opponent. If he’s out of options and pinned, he’ll go for the jugular. Literally. Despite his skill in unarmed fighting, however, he still prefers to utilize his whip and invisibility intermixed with his physical prowess and usually attempts to regain his weapon is separated from it. Of course, that’s normally after he’s trashed his opponent for thinking they’ve got the upper hand.
Swordsmanship
Tygra is also quite a skilled swordsman, having trained in the art since a young cub. His swordplay is as adept as his skills with his whip, despite not being his preference, and he has continuously defeated his brother, Lion-O, who is himself a very accomplished swordsman, without much of a problem. In fact, his brother has never once bested him in a sword duel. When dueling, Tygra comes across as very aggressive, relying almost on pure offense and using powerful slashes to break open his opponent’s defense. While he doesn’t use some of the agile movements his brother does, he instead makes use of jumping attacks and fast, momentum-fueled assaults, not giving his opponent time to mount an offense back. And since he’s just as comfortable fighting in a one-armed style as he is wielding with both arms, Tygra has no issue mixing in kicks and punches with his swordplay.
Strategist
Atop all of that, Tygra is also a trained military strategist and tactician, having studied military strategy under the Thunderian King. However, while he is a better strategist in terms of “on paper thinking,” he’s admitted Lion-O’s natural ability to lead and formulate plans exceeds his own. Interestingly, while his personal fighting style is disciplined and tends to prefer stealth mixed in with direct combat, Tygra’s style of command is generally blunt and forceful, preferring a strong strike offensively instead of waiting. Like his brother, this eagerness and aggression sometimes backfires on him, leading to trouble for him and the group he leads. Outside of battle, Tygra is a very capable hunter and survivalist; he knows how to track animals and take them down for the kill using both weapons and traps, as well as stealth and his own physical traits (aka: his claws and teeth are not just for show). Ultimately, Tygra prefers stealth mixed in with direct combat, and his combination of strength, speed, invisibility, and versatility make him a key candidate for stealth missions and direct confrontations. His ability to work effectively as both a reliable teammate and a successful solo fighter round out his impressive array of skills.
Being a feline alien, Tygra boasts a good number of enhanced abilities, like all Cats, including superhuman levels of strength, speed, and agility. His strength is a good deal higher than humans due to his biology and warrior training; he’s knocked out opponents in one hit, sent people flying several feet through the air with the force of his physical blows or weapon-based attacks, leaped straight up several times his own height, shattered a tree trunk twice as big around as his waist with a single stomp even as an adolescent kitten, and held heavy burdens bodily or with his whip. Physically, his body is somewhat tougher than other races, capable to taking blunt trauma without too much affect, and both his claws and teeth can gouge solid wood. His speed, flexibility, and agility are also similarly advanced thanks to his musculature and physical build (though he’s way outclassed by Cheetara), capable of rushing to better vantagepoints without being noticed, creeping through ventilation shafts without discomfort, and keeping up with Lion-O in a fierce swordfight. In fact, he’s shown split-second reflexes when dodging gunfire and his speed and dexterity are honed enough to deflect laser machine gun barrages with his whip. While running headlong into the spray.
Due to his feline nature, Tygra possesses heightened senses similar to normal cats. He can see in the dark without a problem and can both track and identify through scent if needed. The adage “cats always land on their feet” is also true for him and he’s been shown several times righting himself after being knocked away and landing on his feet. Similar to this, Tygra has excellent balance instincts, perching on tree branches without wobbling and even jumping through the treetops to traverse the forest at night without running into anything or missing his footing. If he needs a burst of speed, Tygra can comfortably run on all fours, but this is only an occasional thing and he mostly frequents the method of moving when he’s scaling vertical inclines.
While a positive for a warrior, but not exactly “fun,” Tygra is superhumanly durable, and has withstood a lot of abuse during the ThunderCats’ adventures. He’s survived a should-have-been-fatal plane crash, been thrown through the top of a vehicle, was only knocked out when electrocuted, and remained conscious enough to make sarcastic remarks when tossed out of a moving airship and ruthlessly beaten up by two hulking brutes. He’s even had his soul ripped from his body and still walked away from the encounter.
Finally, the Cat species itself is considered, as a whole, to have great potential (for what, exactly, was left vague) and is considered by far to possess the most cunning when compared to the other species. Because of this, the Cats were initially given the ability to wield superior authority over the other animals due to the belief that they “inspire fear” in them, though this trait ultimately led to their downfall.
Bolo-Whip
Tygra's favorite weapon is his bolo-whip, a weapon uses offensively and defensively. It consists of an ornate, three-pronged handle containing an extremely long, retractable blue cord that branches into three bolo-like cords at the end, each bolo capped in a jewel-red sphere (or in the case of his first whip, diamonds). An expert in handling the whip, Tygra uses his weapon’s flexible length offensively to attack his enemies from afar with pinpoint strikes or full-length impacts. The whip itself is strong enough to shatter boulders and split the ground with blunt force, making it easy for him to knock his enemies off their feet. His skill with the weapon enables him to take on opponents ranging from giants to average-sized humanoids, as well as tearing through smaller enemies such as swarm of carnivorous insects. Defensively, Tygra uses his whip to deflect incoming projectiles or attacks, capable of blocking even multi-shot projectiles like bullets with intricate lashes.
Tactically, Tygra can use the whip to reach items far outside his bodily range, ensnare the item with the bolo ends, and either to drag the target back to himself or throw the trapped item (or enemy) at another opponent. This allows him to disarm opponents from substantial distances and confiscate, then use, their weapons for himself. It additionally serves as both a form of locomotion for him, enabling him to traverse areas by catching onto an outcrop with the whip and then swinging from it for both speed and efficiency; he’s also used the weapon several times to catch himself and others from a fall, adding to its versatility. Considering it can be retracted into itself, this allows him to adjust its distance from him and literally “reel” things back to himself or pull himself towards whatever he’s gripping onto. Lastly, his weapon of choice has a great failsafe, in that most enemies are unfamiliar with how to make use of a whip as a weapon, preventing them from effectively wielding his bolo-whip against Tygra if they do manage to get it.
Though his bolo-whip is impressively strong, he does have to contend with two glaring weaknesses. The first is his range. Given his weapon’s preferred range, Tygra needs to keep his distance from his opponents to make the most effective use of his skills; once an opponent gets inside his attack area, he’s forced to resort to hand-to-hand combat (not that he’s a slouch in that department) or attempt to regain his distance. The second is his connection to his whip. Obviously Tygra has to hold his weapon’s handle, which has led to a few enemies catching hold of his whip and slinging him around by it instead. The resulting impacts were as painful to him as they are to the enemies he dashes into the ground.
Invisibility
The bolo-whip’s most powerful ability, however, is being able to render Tygra and his whip completely invisible, enabling him to sneak up on his opponents to assault them without detection. This gives him a great edge in combat since so many opponents rely on their sight to locate even the speedy Cats. While invisible, Tygra can move and fight without any detriment to his physical skills; he can speak when cloaked if he desires, but normally stays silent to keep up the stealth. His invisibility is likely achieved by some form of magic, but it’s not completely out of the question that it’s achieved by some form of high technology. When Tygra wants to activate his invisibility, he does so by either wrapping the whip around himself or performing a simple whip crack, at which point the ability activates and he vanishes within a second. Notably, there were a few rare instances where he was shown to go invisible without moving his weapon and once where he was invisible without his whip even being on his person, so it’s unclear whether he actually needs the whip at all. Currently, however, these instances are exceptions; he almost always needs his whip to turn invisible otherwise.
Still, similar to his whip, Tygra’s invisibility has its own weaknesses. Though he’s hidden from sight, enemies can still track him by scent and sound (but considering he’s a tiger, the latter is extremely unlikely). Also, if he’s attacked while cloaked, the invisibility wears off very quickly. While it’s never happened so far, friendly fire is also a risk to him running around invisible, but considering his reaction speed and attention, it’s unlikely. Additional weaknesses are that his invisibility doesn’t hide him from other senses, such infrared, x-rays, or sonar, and getting covered with some kind of substance or being caught in a deluge of attacks makes it pretty easy to see him before his invisibility falters. Trivia-wise, Tygra’s invisibility is a subtle reference to and play on how a natural tiger’s stripes help them blend in with the environment.
Technology
Due to the Cats’ previous aversion to technology, Tygra is, understandably, somewhat inept with technological things, having not been exposed to it his entire life and believing it a myth. Despite this, he takes to technology rather quickly and shows good aptitude in it when it comes to tinkering with machines and weapons (though he’s definitely not as skilled with it as his brother, Lion-O, or the team tech, Panthro). Apart from his whip, Tygra possesses an energy pistol given to him by Lion-O and he shows great accuracy when using it. His superb shots approach the skill of a trained marksman despite having never seen anything like a gun before in his life. Of course, this is somewhat justified, since his laser pistol has no recoil, so it's mostly a matter of point-and-shoot. Still, Tygra effortlessly wields both his whip and pistol simultaneously, making it quite a hassle to get in close to him. Similarly, he’s made excellent use of a sniper-type rifle to protect his comrades during battle, despite having little to no experience in utilizing such technology before.
On top of weaponry, Tygra shows considerable innate natural skill as a pilot; despite zero training and experience he's able to effortlessly pilot two different airships on his initial attempt. The first time he took the controls of the ThunderCats’ jet, Tygra eased the jet out of a spiraling nosedive and piloted the ship the rest of the way without much confusion or effort, saying the controls felt “just feel natural” to him. He’s even skilled enough to boast—and successfully back it up—that he’s better at piloting a ship than the Bird race. His prowess enables him to run obstacle courses with an airship he’s never been in before and deftly engage in aerial combat despite his newness to the technology. It’s assumed his expertise with marksmanship came through training with the Thunderian archery, and his natural talent for piloting comes from the Tiger Clan’s past as expert fighter pilots.
Of side note, Tygra is the only other ThunderCat that has driven the ThunderTank (albeit without permission), the team’s mass-produced siege tank used for transportation and protection. He capitalized on this chance by driving the vehicle clean up the side of a mountain, using a mixture of the tank’s grapples and powerful treads, to bring it to the ongoing battle atop said mountain. He and Lion-O have also showed impressive displays of driving skills when they took the ThunderTank’s pods (motorcycle-like vehicles) out for a race across a mountainous region, deftly dodging rocky spires, riding up the sides of half-pipe canyons, ramping off stone hills at high speeds, and even dodging a hail of accidental friendly-missile-fire.
Unarmed Combat
Beyond his whip and pistol, Tygra is extremely proficient at unarmed, close-quarters combat. Taught by the Thunderian military, he utilizes a martial arts style formed around power and speed, focusing a good deal on heavy punches and strong kicks. He tends to put his whole body into his blows, in attempt to either end the fight in one attack or put distance between himself and his opponent. His impacts are strong enough to send his opponents flying several feet from him, knock them out with one hit, or cripple a limb to prevent further attacks. When invisible, Tygra usually employs grappling techniques once he maneuvers behind his opponent, utilizing chokeholds, headlocks, arm and leg jams, and even suplexes to bring them down. Of a special note, while Tygra doesn’t make use of them regularly, he won’t hesitate to use his claws or teeth to aid him in more ferocious, unarmed fights. Slashes, stabs, and bites, like any big cat, can put a huge hurt on his opponent. If he’s out of options and pinned, he’ll go for the jugular. Literally. Despite his skill in unarmed fighting, however, he still prefers to utilize his whip and invisibility intermixed with his physical prowess and usually attempts to regain his weapon is separated from it. Of course, that’s normally after he’s trashed his opponent for thinking they’ve got the upper hand.
Swordsmanship
Tygra is also quite a skilled swordsman, having trained in the art since a young cub. His swordplay is as adept as his skills with his whip, despite not being his preference, and he has continuously defeated his brother, Lion-O, who is himself a very accomplished swordsman, without much of a problem. In fact, his brother has never once bested him in a sword duel. When dueling, Tygra comes across as very aggressive, relying almost on pure offense and using powerful slashes to break open his opponent’s defense. While he doesn’t use some of the agile movements his brother does, he instead makes use of jumping attacks and fast, momentum-fueled assaults, not giving his opponent time to mount an offense back. And since he’s just as comfortable fighting in a one-armed style as he is wielding with both arms, Tygra has no issue mixing in kicks and punches with his swordplay.
Strategist
Atop all of that, Tygra is also a trained military strategist and tactician, having studied military strategy under the Thunderian King. However, while he is a better strategist in terms of “on paper thinking,” he’s admitted Lion-O’s natural ability to lead and formulate plans exceeds his own. Interestingly, while his personal fighting style is disciplined and tends to prefer stealth mixed in with direct combat, Tygra’s style of command is generally blunt and forceful, preferring a strong strike offensively instead of waiting. Like his brother, this eagerness and aggression sometimes backfires on him, leading to trouble for him and the group he leads. Outside of battle, Tygra is a very capable hunter and survivalist; he knows how to track animals and take them down for the kill using both weapons and traps, as well as stealth and his own physical traits (aka: his claws and teeth are not just for show). Ultimately, Tygra prefers stealth mixed in with direct combat, and his combination of strength, speed, invisibility, and versatility make him a key candidate for stealth missions and direct confrontations. His ability to work effectively as both a reliable teammate and a successful solo fighter round out his impressive array of skills.