Thoughts About Revelations. · 10:56pm Jul 24th, 2021
The latest installment to the He-Man franchise came out recently to… “mixed” reviews. Or, at least that’s what some journalist sites say. In reality, the reviews are a lot more negative and the episodes are being bashed online.
For those of you who actually want to watch He-Man Revelations but haven’t yet, I’d recommend skipping this blog because there will be slight spoilers ahead.
As someone who’s writing a story about Skeletor, or at least a guy in a suit slowly turning mad and becoming Skeletor, I’ve become very familiar with his character.
First, I want to applaud the painted intro sequence that uses the original design to set the stage for the show. I thought it was surprisingly nice and a good treat for fans who were familiar with the original comics and toy line… Then the show actually starts.
Skeletor’s initial introduction into the show, disguising himself as Spikor for Faker (He-Man’s Robot double) to escort them in was pretty clever and again, a good surprise for the fans. Also, I did think it was funny that Skeletor was cut off from his monologue by a magic blast from the Sorceress…
But then he kept talking… You see, Skeletor said something that really struck me as odd.
”After all these years, I realize that Grayskull is not the prize I’m after. This castle is merely a shell. The pearl I seek is trapped inside…”
Now, this is referring to the Secrets of Grayskull and… That’s what he’s always been after. It wasn’t like he just wanted to sit in Castle Grayskull and use it like a house (though he does do that when he wins just to rub it in). He’s specifically after the power of Grayskull which also has the Secrets of Grayskull. This has been established from the early days of Filmation.
The voice you just listened to, if you clicked on that video, was Scott Neitlich, the man who knows He-Man like the back of his hand. He worked closely in the toy production, comics, and the 2002 He-Man series that I used as inspiration for SMoTE.
Anyway, if this is a continuation as Kevin Smith claims, then he should already know and desire the secrets and powers inside.
Moving on, I do like Skeletor’s character for the most part. I love his new various spells, Mark Hamill’s voice mostly works for the character, and he has a lot of the same wit and charm the original had… Except there are moments where it’s pretty obvious, at least to me, that this is Mark Hamill and not “Skeletor”.
In the fifth episode, Skeletor has returned from death and thanks Evil-Lyn for unknowingly helping him.
”Ya did good, Lynnie.”
Now, I know this is a nit-pick, but by god does that not sound like Skeletor. You know who it does sound like? The joker, it sounds like the Joker possessed him for a moment and confused Lyn for Harley. Now, aside from that, most of his barbs and jabs are good.
8/10, 2002 Keldor was better for Skeletor.
Now, Teela… Oof… I won’t lie, I feel sorry for her.
The Teela from the original series was great. She was an amazing sword fighter, a quick thinker, and I honestly liked her a lot more than She-Ra… But this isn’t Teela. This is some whinny teen stuck in her body.
I suppose I should start with her shouting at two mourning parents, but fuck that, I’m gonna go forward because they just keep killing her character.
But first, I’m going to talk about something else to cleanse my pallet. Does anyone remember Guardians of The Galaxy? Because I do, and I feel like it has one of the most memorable lines I’ve ever heard in a movie. Basically, this mercenary and thief for hire, Star Lord, is one of the only people who can save the universe, despite being one of the most under qualified people to do it. And I love the simple answer he gives when asked why he wants to save it.
Rocket Raccoon:
Why would you wanna to save the galaxy!?
Peter Quill:
'Cause I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!
It’s simple and effective. It’s not because his mom died, or some tragic past, he just wants to live, and the death of the galaxy means he dies too. It cuts past all the bullshit fluffy reasons other heroes would give and makes it realistic.
Now, Teela is faced with a similar (read almost exact) same problem. The death of the universe is upon them, and she scoffs at it. She has the gall to ask, “Why should I help?”
Mother fucker, because you’ll die otherwise. Not just her, but her “Friend,” Cringer, her dad, everyone she likes, everyone on Eternia, everyone in the universe will be dead. How is that not enough of a motivation?!
She thinks that the universe will actually survive without magic, and who knows, maybe it will. Except everything in He-Man’s lore, even the show itself, says that the universe may die without it. So yeah, inevitable death isn’t enough to motivate her.
Fuck, even Evil-Lynn, a woman who has Evil attached to her name, is willing to be less evil for the sake of the universe since, to quote Peter Quill…
I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!
She understands that everyone, including her and the few people she cares about, will undoubtedly die if she does nothing. She’s such a selfish character that she was willing to betray Skeletor over a dozen times, she wore her vanity on her sleeves and was damn well proud of it. But even she understands that she needs to help because, and I will never get tired of using this,
I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!
Evil-Lynn is more of an interesting character than Teela at this point, and I don’t feel comfortable saying that.
This is just sad. A lot of people are complaining that they’ve sidelined Prince Adam and killed off or banished most of the male cast, but look at Teela. They absolutely butchered her.
Fuck, in the Filmation series she had more personality and a more understanding character. For a show with such repetitive and stiff animation, it did one thing right, and that was character. Revelations might have beautiful animation and a few nice designs, but it lacks the heart of the original cast.
Well, the human characters at least. I will say this right now, and I know it’s a controversial statement… I have always hated Cringer.
I didn’t like him in the Filmation one, and I hated the stock cat sound effects they used for him in 2002 instead of giving him a damn VA. I love 2002’s He-Man, but they somehow found a way to make Cringer more annoying by removing the voice.
But, I love the new Cringer. The speech he gave about Adam trusting more than his secret with Teela was heartfelt and really special. It gave me hope again for the other episodes, thinking that she’d turn back to the Teela from Filmation, that she’d become a hero again.
Even Orko became a really interesting character. I love the backstory of his name really being “Oracle,” and his interactions with Evil-Lyn were genuinely heartfelt.
Hell, I’d even go as far to say that Roboto is one of the most interesting robot characters I’ve seen in television so far. It was interesting to find out that he was based off of Duncan’s mind, something I actually didn’t know, and it raises an interesting thought about him being Teela’s technical mechanical sibling, even if it is only for a second. And by god, his death scene was beautiful. He’s afraid of dying, but that fear confirms his emotions, it makes him alive. He only realizes his life right before he dies, which was goddamn breathtaking. I really like the concept of identity and what it means to be an individual, whether it’s your thoughts, memories, or actions that define you, and his logic at the end really struck a chord with me.
As for Beast-Man’s character, I choose to believe he’s under a hex. No other version of Beast-Man has called anyone “Mi’Lady,” and I refuse to believe he’s doing it of his own free will.
Anyway, episodes one and two are really hard to stomach, but the rest so far are pretty good. Are they perfect? Well, no, but they’re better than the ending half of episode one. Well, at least if you ignore Teela’s initial argument with Adam.
“You left me!”
“I died!”
“And we had to mourn.”
It’s an annoying argument, but one you can fast forward past. Roboto’s death scene more than makes up for it.
Overall, the five episodes released are fine. The other problems I have with it are a few voice acting choices and some dialogue. I can understand why other people are upset, and while I’m disappointed in Revelations, it has more to do with Kevin Smith and those first two episodes. I’m hoping that Teela returns to her old 80s self by episode seven or so.
I have mild expectations for the rest of the episodes, but at least they’re higher than the low bar I set for a few other reboots and “continuations.” If you haven’t watched the show yet, or don’t want to, I’d at least say you should look up those clips online of Cringer, Orko, and Roboto, because they’re worth more than the rest of the show.
Anyway, those have been my thoughts on Revelations. Maybe it’ll get better later on, maybe not, who knows? Hell, I don’t even know when the damn thing will air. All I know is that we still have another He-Man series to look forward to.
Yeah it was quite the ride. It felt like they took the show and made it a dark anime.
I agree with ”Ya did good, Lynnie.” being a Joker line.
Poor trapjaw got demoted in this universe, merman was treated much better. Triclops is gonna get his ass kicked when daddy comes home though.
The next half has a lot of potential. I think them using the 80's character design felt like a sucker punch with all the character changes they made.
It felt like the Lynne show and that's not bad. I really feel like she's going to carry the finish if they don't completely destroy her character build up.
im not going to bother from what i heard of the show plus Kevin smith attacking fans for not like it enough for me to not give it a chance
I never watched HE-Man. I was more of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles guy when it came to the 80s. I was a 90s kid, so I did see a lot of 80s stuff.
That said, I knew He-Man was a super madly man. That kind of guy who is so manly he shits bullets. I heard in the new one, they made him a wimp. And made women super great and powerful, and made all the men useless.
Don't get me wrong. I do like strong women. (see all the macro fics I have with super women I made.. horse women I guess) Leela from Futurama for example. Female Commander Shepard, Twilight Sparkle, etcetera. At the same time, I hate overly weak women in fiction as well. Such as Bella Swan from that awful Twilight series.
In short, I like good characters, weak or strong. Fluttershy might be considered 'weak', but she could be easily underestimated. I love to see a movie about Geisha from Japan. Deadly female assassins that use their good looks to kill men, and lead them into a false sense of security before making a strike. They use hidden blades and poison to get the job done. Although, I'm not sure if the Geisha were really like that in real life.
Shogun: Total War Geisha
I just came to ask (convenient that this blog was here) if in the next chapter we'll now be getting an argument between Skeletor and Avid Value about his near-death. Avid insisting he needs around-the-clock escorts or something.
"Do we have to talk about this right now? I nearly DIED, Avid!"
"Yeah, and the rest of us would have had to live with it!"
5559971
Don't. Don't tempt me, because that'd be hilarious.
As for updates, sorry. Things have been hectic, for lack of a better word. Trying to start my animatic for senior year, and aa lot of family stuff is happening. I'll try putting in at least 500 or so words a day, but it's tough.
Thanks for being patient!
5560007
I ain't worried. You'll get around to it. You're too far in at this point to just drop it; that mostly happens to stories that are two or three chapters in.
And I will tempt the shit out of you. Especially with the irony that it's Skeletor in this case.
Skeletor means that he thought the Power and Secrets were directly inside the Castle, not underneath it in a hidden chamber.