Cheetara

The fastest ThunderCat

A captivating mixture of feminine beauty and gentility coupled with athleticism and the fighting skill of her male comrades, Cheetara has served many roles in the ThunderCat team - her relationship to Lion-O has evolved from being a maternal, almost mother-like figure to being an equal and advisor in times of need, and the others all look to her for the intuition and insight she is able to bring to a situation. Gentle but tough, Cheetara is no damsel-in-distress, often proving a pivotal figure in the downfall of the ThunderCats’ enemies.

Speed with a limit

The series is unusually careful about her power. Tygra clocks her in Pumm-Ra at thirty seconds for the mile while she is merely jogging, and her true top speed is higher still. What she does not have is endurance. Roughly two miles at full pace and she is spent, which is why her speed solves a scene and rarely an episode.

That limit is the whole shape of the Trial of Speed. Cheetara is a mile and two thirds ahead when Lion-O gambles on a dangerous western route and closes the gap in the final stretch. When he suggests afterwards that she might have let him win, she is insulted. The Code of Thundera does not permit it.

The staff

Her staff rides on a cuff at her left forearm, six inches of gold that extends to any length she asks of it. It splits into several staffs, fires bolts of energy, and serves as a vaulting pole. It is also the thing enemies reach for first. Charr-Nin turns it into a cage holding Cheetara and Snarf in The Evil Harp of Charr-Nin, and it is magicked into binding her more than once after that.

The sixth sense

Cheetara sees. Visions of what is coming, glimpses of what has already happened, and a sharp sense of danger closing on people she cares about. It arrives unbidden and it hurts, and a vision forced on her can cost her days or weeks. She has described it as a curse rather than a gift, which is a notably bleak line for a show of this vintage.

Sixth Sense builds a whole episode on it: a crashing alien craft becomes linked to her power, and destroying the ship would kill her. Later, after The Telepathy Beam, the visions stop costing her, and she appears to have finally taken control of the thing that had been using her.

The one who goes in

Her speed makes her the ThunderCat sent where nobody else can survive the trip. In Trouble with Time, Tygra is ageing to death inside the Cave of Time and Cheetara is the only one who can get in and out fast enough to reach him. She is also the strongest swimmer of the ThunderCats, and the only one who actually enjoys the water.