Luna tricks Hachiman into helping her by claiming that her tiny size and physical weakness prevent her from returning home during a Third Earth storm. Hachiman obliges and carries her to the Ice Cave. There, Aluro and Chilla attack him. Trapped in the Valley of Chains, Hachiman loses his sword, the Thunder-Cutter, and his honor to the Luna-Taks. The Luna-Taks build an Automaton and program the machine to carry Hachiman's sword. The Automaton attacks Lion-O and the other Thundercats. The real Hachiman defeats the Automaton by retrieving the Thunder-Cutter, which, like the Sword of Omens, cannot be used for evil purposes.

Honor means allegiance to what is right and the respect shown to those who manifest excellence of character. Hachiman, who shares with the Thundercats a strict code of honor and is deserving of this esteem, feels in this episode that his respect is lost when the Luna-Taks steal his sword, the Thunder-Cutter. He sat out with great determination to his yang both his sword and his lost honor. He finds, however, that the Luna-Taks have created an automaton and have armed it with his sword. The sword cannot distinguish good and evil, because it is used by machine that has no conscience. But when Hachiman, with his acute sense of morality, is able to touch the sword Sandy police, and it responds to him and the automaton is destroyed.

The figure of Hachiman reminds us of the value of the concept of honor, allegiance to what is right. Our ability to follow a code of honor depends on our developing a strong conscience, the faculty to discern right from wrong, and applying it in our own everyday lives. At times, we are confronted choices regarding honor, doing what we know to be right. The choice may involve a sacrifice, like reporting some wrongdoing or giving back a prize because we find we unwittingly violated a rule or was not eligible for the award. We can choose to avoid the necessary action or we can follow our conscience and do the honorable thing. Only then can we feel self-respect and deserving of esteem that is due those who act honorably.

Hachiman's sword is also a reminder in this episode, signifying that the meanings we choose to achieve an end. Only when Hachiman directed it was its force used rightly on behalf of just and honorable means. We must take care not only to develop a strong conscience, but also safeguard that the courses of actions we take in our lives are consonant with just and noble ends.

This episode can be found on

Disc 4

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