Cringer (Netflix)

Cringer is one of the main characters in Netflix's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and the alter ego of Battle Cat.

Cringer
Cringer is a tiger of average size, as such his body length is twice that of most adult human/humanoid characters. His most distinguishing features are his fur colors: forest green on his back, head and limbs, with yellow stripes and yellow bushy eyebrows; white fur on his the tips and inside of his ears, around his eye sockets, his muzzle and underside of his head, his chest, his stomach, his paws and his tail. The fur on his body mostly stays flattened, with the exception of the thick bristles around his cheeks, a goatee and tufts of fur at the base of his joints. His nose is thick and black with two small but noticeable scars running down the lower side of his nose and over his left cheek. A close inspection of his paws reveals that he is missing his claws, the result of R'Qazz having declawed him. To compensate for this disability Cringer was outfitted by Duncan with a pair of mechanical razor bladed-knuckledusters on his front paws.

Battle Cat
As Battle Cat he is essentially a much larger version of himself, three times his normal size. In this form Cringer's eyes are glowing bright yellow. In this form he is clad in dark-red battle armor over his back, legs and a bulky helmet. His mechanical claws are also larger and sharper than in their regular state.

Personality
For all intents and purposes Cringer's attitude towards Adam and the other Masters is akin to an experienced father or a wise old mentor. After their first encounter Cringer took an immediate liking to the orphaned prince Adam and adopted him out of sheer kindness. He leans on caution and always opts towards avoiding needless risks in order to ensure the safety of his tribe and allies. His unwillingness to fight is the result of his declawing. With such a clear disadvantage at his side Cringer instead opts to outmaneuver his enemies and intimidate them instead. Only after Duncan had outfitted him with metal claws Cringer began to rekindle his former fighting spirit. As the experienced and mildly jaded adult among the Masters of the Universe he comes across as occasionally snide, with a dry sense of humor. This had been illustrated in the case when he jokingly implied that he would have normally reacted violently towards Duncan's "pet" jokes had he still retained his claws. Likewise he scoffs at the children's lack of an interest towards reading.

Biography
Cringer was a grown member of the Tiger Tribe, which consisted of tigers living together with humans in the jungle of Eternia. In his younger days, Cringer lost his claws and received his name when he was a young tiger cub and had been forced into R'Qazz's employ together with several others of his tribe, including Katuna, Prowler and Bash. R'Qazz removed Cringer's claws when the tiger refused to fight in the hunter's pitt. Some time after that, he found a lost boy named Adam wandering in the woods and adopted him into the tribe.

Cringer was always lamenting the loss of his claws, and often felt the urge to go out hunting again. One time, he went into the jungle and found himself confronted by Poacher Bots, which captured him for R'Qazz and loaded him into a containment unit that hung from a transport vessell. Adam and Krass came to Cringer's rescue, and by emulating a game of Ram-Ball, managed to destroy the Poacher Bots, crash the ship and free Cringer.

When they returned to their village, they were surprised to find a young Hand Witch named Teela up in a tree. Soon, the village was under attack from Teela's former accomplices Evelyn, Kronis and Duncan attacked the village, using reprogrammed Poacher Bots. The Bots began to burn down the village and Krass tried to ram Duncan, but Cringer stopped her, as Duncan had seen the error of his ways and had just saved Cringer from one of the bots.

During the battle, Adam unsheathed the weapon Teela had brought with her, the Sword of Grayskull. The crest on his cuff interacted with the similar one on the hilt of the sword, causing magical runes to be projected around the blade. As Adam read aloud the magic words "By the Power of Grayskull, I have the Power", he transformed into the most powerful man in the universe in front of Cringer and Krass's eyes.

In his new, powerful form, Adam defeated the Poacher Bots, but knocked himself out and depleted the power of the sword in the process. Cringer and Crass took on Kronis, and were rescued by Duncan flying the Wind Raider. They also picked up Adam, who had reverted to his normal self and, against Krass's wishes, took Teela aboard as well.

The next day, another large group of Poacher Bots attacked the young heroes, but they were repelled by a man named Keldor, who claimed to be Adam's uncle. However, Keldor soon grabbed the sword and blasted his nephew, then told Kronis (who was stationed on a rock out of sight) to kill the others with a rocket. Cringer and Duncan were outside of the blast radius, and attempted to rescue their friends. To do so, Duncan hastilly cobbled together a pair of mechanical claws for Cringer to wear. Cringer made enough of a hole in the rocks to enable Duncan to turn on the ships enginges by remote control, rescuing his friends.

Duncan piloted the Wind Raider to Grayskull, who's secret location had been made visible by Keldor using the sword. Adam found the sword and transformed himself into He-Man for the second time. Keldor had been waiting for this, as the sword would not work for him. Keldor threatened the life of Adam's friends and ordered his nephew to re-activate the magic chamber and cure him, or he would turn the others into cursed monsters like himself.

Teela freed herself by picking the lock on her cuffs, and Cringer and the children escaped. He-Man pulled up a barrier between themselves and the villains, and decided to share the power with all of his friends. Cringer became Battle Cat, and fought his own shadow brought to life by Evelyn's magic. He received aid in defeating the shadow from Krass, now to be known as Ram Ma'am. Keldor thrust this scepter into the power emiting from the chamber and dragged his two accomplices into it, thereby making their escape.

After returning to their original forms, Adam mistakingly thought Keldor and his minions were vaporized. He was surprised when the spirit of the original Sorceress appeared and refered to him as "a master of the universe".

Duncan received a call for help from a squad of Royal Guards who's transport crashed in the Badlands, Teela and Krass at first refuse to lend them any help, but reluctantly agree. In the Badlands, Adam uses the sword to power himself and his friends up, but Teela preferred to stay herself instead of becoming the Sorceress.

They soon realized that the guards were looking for Teela and He-Man, and that they had been attacked by Battle Bones, bones of dead creatures brought back to life by Havoc magic. This made He-Man realize that his uncle was probably still alive. The group was able to defeat the Battle Bones when Teela finally accepted her place in the group as the Sorceress.

Eldress began instructing the young heros in the ways of the Masters of the Universe. The young Masters returned to Eternos in search of RK-o, a bot reactivaed by Duncan who thought itself to be the ancient court magician Orko the Great. When Teela used a spell to hide them all from the eyes of King Randor Cringer's tail made her sneeze and the spell was broken. Cringer powered up to battle Colossor, a collection of armor animated by RK-o in the image of an ancient foe vanquished by the real Orko.

Adam, Krass and Cringer decided to visit the Tiger Tribe while Teela remained at Grayskull, to try and figure out where Keldor is hiding. Cringer was confronted by Poacher Bots was soon being hunted by his old tormentor, R'Qazz. R'Qazz was surprised to learn that Cringer was still going by the name given to him as an insult. Cringer explained that it was a more honourable name than "Killer". Cringer is reunited with Katuna, Prowler and Bash. Unfortunately, they are all under R'Qazz's spell and are ordered to attack Cringer. Adam and Krass came to Cringer's aid after escaping from a net, but Cringer called upon the power of Grayskull and transformed into Battle Cat without the use of the Sword of Grayskull, which was in the posession of R'Qazz at the time.

Adam and Krass came to Cringer's aid after escaping from a net, but Cringer felt the power of Grayskull flowing through him to the new claws constructed by Duncan, leading him to call upon the power itself and transformed into Battle Cat without the use of the Sword of Grayskull, which was in the posession of R'Qazz at the time. Adam grabbed the sword and also transformed, together with Krass. Battle Cat told He-Man and Ram Ma'am not to hurt the three tigers under R'Qazz's control, while Battle Cat faced R'Qazz himself. When Cringer grabbed the hunter's whip and control device, the other three tiger's spell was broken and they returned to their normal self.

Ram Ma'am felt they should stay and protect the village of the Tiger Tribe, but He-Man refused, feeling his responsibilties had become larger. Battle Cat sided with He-Man, causing Ram Ma'am to become angry and head for the village on her own.

When the young Masters arrived in the Fright Zone, they decided not to power up immediately lest they announce their presence to Keldor. Duncan was swallowed by a large Battle Bone in the Fright Zone, but was rescued by Cringer. They soon realized Keldor was already aware they were coming, and powered up before entering Snake Mountain. There they were led into a chamber of sacrifices. Keldor introduced himself to them as "Skeletor" and then shared his Havoc power with his henchmen, transforming Evelyn into Evil-Lyn, Kronis into Trap Jaw and R'Qazz into Beast Man for the first time. Beast Man faced Battle Cat, using his "Battle Echo" attack to counter the cat's "Blade Wheels".

However, when Skeletor Havoc Power broke He-Man's Sword, all the Masters of the Universe immediately reverted to their normal selves and were captured and chained. At that moment the Red Legion of Eternos commanded by General Dolos arrived at Snake Mountain, but Dolos was under Skeletor's command and informed his master that the Legion had been upgraded to Trap Jaw and Beast Man's specificiations. Skeletor took command of the Royal Guardsmen with his Havoc Staff, and told the captive Masters to join him or drown in Havoc matter.

Eldress contacted the Masters in the spirit plane after they were captured by Skeletor and sentenced to drown in Havoc fluid, to tell them they did not use their weapons to escape. The Masters managed to escape their bonds, but would not have made it if Krass and Orko had not come to their rescue. Duncan then used what was left of the Kirbinite to repair the Masters' broken weapons, although they remained unstable after Adam called upon the power of Grayskull to transform them all into the Masters of the Universe.

Feeling the Wind Raider was too slow, Teela discovered a new power of teleportation, causing the Masters to appear in the sky high above Eternos. As they began to fall, they disabled as many of the Red Legion's red Sky-Sleds as they could. Teela opts to go for the source of the dark power, Skeletor's staff and He-Man realizes Skeletor is going after King Randor. As they headed towards the palace, Skeletor and his "Dark Masters" confronted them, and the heroic masters attempted to get hold of the Havoc Staff. However, Skeletor revealed that he had now taken control of all of the guards in Eternos and had sent the Red Legion to attack Castle Grayskull.

Orko cast a spell to teleport the heroes, including King Randor, to a safer location nearby. There Adam de-powerd the masters, and his father told him tjat he misjudged his son and that Eternia needed the power of Grayskull now more than ever. Adam, Duncan, Cringer and Krass took the Wind Raider and headed back to Grayskull, using the Sword to contact Eldress. Krass suggested that Eldress use her powers to relocate the Castle. But in her weakened state, Eldress knew she had no control over where it would re-emerge. After the Wind Raider entered the Castle, Eldress closed the jaw bridge and relocated the entire building, saying "And so a new adventure begins".

Powers & Abilities
Predatory Senses and Tracking Cringer is a tiger, thus he has sharper senses than that of humans, and he is skilled at tracking.

Grayskull-empowered Physical Prowess When empowered by Grayskull, Cringer becomes Battle Cat. He boasts greater strength, senses, speed, and ferocity, and he gains armor, a helmet, and enhanced mechanial claws. He also serves as He-Man's steed.

Enhanced Size When he transforms into Battle Cat, Cringer grows at least three times his normal size.

Energy Claws As Battle Cat, Cringer can channel the Power of Grayskull through his prosthetic claws and focus that power, allowing him to launch claw-shaped waves of energy at his enemies. While sparring with Teela, Battle Cat displayed the ability to launch his claws in the form of projectiles, similar to shuriken.

Blade Wheels Battle Cat's primary attack, he focuses the Power into his claws to create three "wheels" of eenrgy blades and then launches them at his enemies with a mighty roar.

Combined Skills After reforging the Sword of Power and the other Masters' weapons with kirbinite, the Masters of the Universe (He-Man and Battle Cat, and the Sorceress and Man-at-Arms) discover they can combine thier skills to unleash even more powerful attacks.

Trivia

 * Cringer's name comes from R'Qazz as a mocking nickname due to Cringer refusing to fight for the poacher's amusement, and because he prefers being called 'Cringer' over 'Killer'. This differs from his prior incarnations, where Cringer is so named for being something of a scaredy-cat in his normal form.

Netflix series

 * The Sword of Grayskull
 * The Power of Grayskull
 * The Heirs of Grayskull
 * The Champions of Grayskull
 * We Have the Power
 * Orko the Great
 * He-Man, the Hunted
 * The Calm Before the Storm
 * Cry Havoc, Part 1
 * Cry Havoc, Part 2