He-Man is back and he still has the power!
Now that "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" is out on Netflix, many viewers will want
to look back at the original show for more muscle-bound action.
We're here to catch you up on lore and anything else you may have forgotten about.
When most people think of He-Man it's about muscles, action, and the fights against Skeletor
to save Eternia . Each episode creates a new conflict that sends the hero into battle to
help someone or keep the peace — but that can't be all that the titular character does
with his time, right?
He-Man was eventually given an alternate identity in the form of Prince Adam within the pages
of the comics.
This was kept a secret from many of the supporting cast, so that Skeletor couldn't simply kill
his foe while he wasn't powered up.
But it also gave the character a weakness and created some entertaining story moments
when Adam couldn't easily slip away to transform, or had to make excuses to exit a battle so
his alter ego could help out.
During the classic show's episodes, viewers are given a few small glimpses into Adam's
duties as a member of the royal family: attending events like the joust, and watching performances
from Man-E-Faces and other entertainers, as well as other small diplomatic outings.
When those duties aren't taking up his free time, the Prince is seen training, or more
often opting to skip these lessons with Teela to nap or enjoy other leisure activities.
For a series that takes place on Eternia, everyone would be forgiven for assuming there
were no Earthlings in the story, but that's not true.
The show sees its fair share of people from the planet, mostly in the form of kids — as
we saw in the Christmas special.
However, a couple of members from the main cast are hiding that secret origin as well.
Queen Marlena, He-Man's mother, was originally an astronaut from Earth who was thrown off
course after meteors hit her ship, the Rainbow Explorer.
This detour to Eternia was supposed to last a few days, but after we are shown a flashback
of this in the episode "The Rainbow Warrior," she explains that love took hold instead.
This sequence might have meant more had she not dropped a random, "back on Earth," line
during the joust earlier, but it's still an intriguing revelation.
Marlena gets to show off her piloting skills and save the day in this adventure, while
Prince Adam is stuck without his powers, temporarily at least.
This means that Prince Adam is also half-Earthling, and even he — as He-Man — is shocked to
see that it was his mother that freed them, meaning it is unlikely many other than King
Randor knew much of her past as a captain of the stars.
This is also the episode where Queen Marlena not-so-subtly hints that she knows who her
son truly is.
"Adam, a mother always knows her own son and what he is capable of doing."
His name is a cringe-inducing attempt at a pun, but the backstories for the comics tried
to make "Man-E-Faces" more serious, giving him the origin of a tortured actor, transformed
by one of Skeletor's potions and given split personalities.
The character would make only two main appearances and a couple of cameos in the show, leaving
more of an imprint with his gimmick than time on screen.
He was originally going to pop in for a side gag in the episode "Into the Abyss," but was
cut to help the tone.
Those who do recall Man-E-Faces remember him as a hero, fighting alongside He-Man, or at
least are aware of his reputation as the greatest actor in Eternia.
But in "The Mystery of Man-E-Faces," viewers are also shown that he began on the wrong
side of the law, terrorizing people smaller than him, even if he wasn't purely evil.
Man-E-Faces tells He-Man that these acts were because others were afraid of him, fearful
of his abilities, and shunned him for this.
In his own words, this led him to be "cruel" toward everyone and steal from them.
After a run-in with Skeletor and Beast Man, who abused him for their own purposes, He-Man
and Teela helped free the future actor, and Orko even gave Man-E-Faces his name.
Teela is arguably one of the most interesting characters in the He-Man universe, but having
several changes made to her backstory and altering the relationship she shares with
the group for various incarnations can make it difficult to keep up with her.
In the original mini comics, Teela was a clone of the Sorceress created by Skeletor, an element
that was probably inserted to help explain the armor on the original action figure.
In other versions, Man-at-Arms is her biological father.
There's also a theory that Fisto might actually be her dad, and in the 1983 cartoon Duncan
adopts Teela and keeps the identity of her mother a secret — which is revealed in the
episode "Teela's Quest."
Here, Teela gets a bit envious of Prince Adam's relationship with Queen Marlena and sets off
to find out who her mother really is by seeking the oracle.
Being a bit rash, Teela heads off to a dangerous place by herself and runs afoul of Mer-Man
and a sea monster, but He-Man shows up to help.
She goes through all of this and discovers that her mother is none other than the Sorceress,
only to have those memories erased.
The knowledge is treated as an incredibly important tidbit that she can't know, but
now He-Man is aware of it also.
This is brought up one other time in "Teela's Triumph," where she temporarily assumes the
role of the sorceress.
Many viewers were not fond of Orko.
This could be because the character didn't appear in the initial run of the toy line
— having been created for the cartoon.
Or perhaps it's because he typically played the role of comedy relief.
He is the King's Royal Buffoon, after all.
Orko was a klutz, never really able to do his magic correctly, often hindering the heroes
on their missions and constantly damaging Man-at-arms' lab.
Somehow, he's still one of Prince Adam's closest allies.
It isn't surprising that most fans were more upset at the lack of Battle Cat in the live-action
film than not seeing Orko.
He's a powerful character – even if he has trouble getting his spells to work properly.
As a Trollan, Orko possesses a mastery over matter creation, his hat opens up into a dimensional
space where he can keep any number of items, as well as an extra hand comes out of there,
and his teleportation powers allow him to easily escape many traps.
His potent tricks do seem to work somewhat better back in his home dimension, where the
laws of physics work differently.
There is a medallion that helps him as well, but some of these points contradict themselves
as the show progresses.
More importantly, in "Creatures from the Tar Swamp," Orko saves Adam and Cringer at a young
age, before they had their powers.
He-Man was originally supposed to wield a battle axe back when he was in toy form, but
looking back now, he wouldn't seem right without his Power Sword.
The "Masters of the Universe" toys also came with two swords, and these had to be put together
to unlock Castle Grayskull.
In the '80s, however, shows came under fire from parent groups and politicians alike,
prepared to blame much of society's ills on the pop culture of the day.
As pre-emptive measures, Skeletor got a staff, He-Man held back on his swordplay, and other
creative decisions were made to walk a tightrope ensuring that the series could be kid-friendly,
yet still be appealing to the older crowd as well.
"Teela!
Could you put your finger here for a second?"
He-Man barely uses his fists, let alone his sword, and most of his aggressive actions
are levied against large monsters or robots.
Whenever the hero is dealing with humanoid-type characters, his tactics become more about
subduing the enemies.
His preferred method is usually to throw large rocks, or simply to pick the perpetrator up
and toss them.
Public Service Announcements — often shortened to PSAs — have a long and complicated history
that can arguably be traced back to the Civil War.
Filmation is often mentioned for modernizing these messages with their work on "Fat Albert
and the Cosby Kids" and "He-Man."
The latter almost had to have these little lessons due to how closely parents related
the show to violence, and the producers tried hard to balance out the program.
Running 130 episodes, the show covered a lot of ground with these messages, so it makes
sense that they don't all land quite right.
A few are uncomfortable and others are just plain silly.
Consider, for instance, the PSA that had Ram Man telling kids not to run their heads into
things.
"Trying to use your head the way I do's not only dangerous; it's dumb."
Others were a bit more serious, and included a wide variety of pertinent topics, such as:
inappropriate touching, ageism, judging people based on their appearances, not taking shortcuts
for wealth and power, accepting failures and learning from mistakes.
Within the episodes themselves were some solid examples of needing to have faith and that
even He-Man can lose his confidence, which the creators say paid off based on stories
fans told them years later.
It's no secret that Filmation was banking on "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe"
to help put the company on the map, and to make sure everything worked out the way they
wanted it to, costs had to be kept low.
This pride in an American-made show kept under budget led to cuts all around, with voice
acting and animation taking the largest hits.
As anyone who watches the show can hear, various small characters have familiar voices, and
zoomed-in shots frequently take the place of actual animation, as reused assets, rewound
motions, and replayed sequences became the norm.
Speaking of cutting corners, the character of Orko originally had another name, Gorpo,
which can still be heard in some Portuguese translations of the show.
This late alteration seems to come from a financial standpoint instead of a creative
one, because if the character had a large letter G imprinted on his clothing, it would
be harder to flip footage of him and make scenes look different without having to redraw
the floating magician.
This brings into question how many other changes might have happened all in the name of saving
a few dollars, even if Orko is the better name.
Most folks don't think of great writing or production value when recalling "He-Man and
the Masters of the Universe," but the truth is that the program had some incredibly skilled
behind-the-scenes talent.
Not only was there a tremendous group of voice actors who brought the characters to life
– many of them having to talk to themselves in a majority of the scenes – but other
voices had to be filled in by one of the founders of Filmation, Lou Scheimer.
Additionally, his wife and daughter even lent a hand, making it quite a tight-knit group.
The energetic music was handled by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy , giants with stellar resumes
in the world of children's programming.
Behind the scenes was Bruce Timm, now known as the mind behind some of DC Comics' greatest
animated projects.
One of his earliest gigs was as a background artist and designer for "He-Man," while he
was also given a chance to work with the mini-comics.
Some of his fellow comic book brethren were present to help on scripts, with Paul Dini
and J. Michael Straczynski working on the show early in their careers.
"Star Trek" scribe D.C. Fontana contributed an episode featuring the origin of Battle
Cat as well.
Even if children's show trappings restricted what could be done, no one could ever say
that He-Man didn't have a wealth of talent behind him.
"Masters of the Universe: Revelation" is attempting to give fans a proper continuation to the
'80s cartoon, but it's not the first time this has been attempted.
Although rarely remembered, there was an attempt at a direct sequel that mutated into its own
strange oddity.
Sales for the toy line had begun to decline drastically by 1986, and it was evident that
the franchise needed some sort of rejuvenation.
This came in the form of a redesigned set of toys, which would require a new show to
help sell them like last time.
Enter "The New Adventures of He-Man."
This show uprooted Adam from Eternia, placing him instead on the ultra-high-tech planet
Primus.
Leaving most of the cast behind, Skeletor did tag along to remain his nagging nemesis.
This near-complete rehaul of He-Man featured a protagonist that didn't look like the musclebound
warrior kids were accustomed to seeing, as well as one of the worst designs for Skeletor.
Other than the upgraded visuals, almost everything else was worse, and the show is often remembered
— if at all — as the weakest of the franchise.
Somehow, "New Adventures" ran for 65 episodes.
There were rumors of a second season that would send Adam back to Eternia, but instead
the '90s led He-Man into relative obscurity.
With "Masters of the Universe: Revelation," perhaps it is finally time once again for
He-Man to have the power.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite animated shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.