"Conan The Adventurer's" Possible Easter Eggs To The Conan Movies Before It?

Conan the Adventurer is no doubt a sanitized version of Conan the Barbarian. There was the 1982 movie which was LOOSELY based on the novels by Robert E. Howard. There was Marvel Comics adapted the story in 1970. It was rumored that Mattel wanted to create a Conan toyline but found the content too mature so He-Man was created. Heck, even the first episode had Cartoon!Conan raising the sword like He-Man did. All that was missing was to give Comics!Thulsa Doom an adaptation and not the Movie!Thulsa Doom adaptation. More on that later...

I remembered watching Conan the Barbarian (1982) which is still better than Conan the Barbarian (2011). I think 1982!Conan was truly terrifying and what Conan should be - very much unlike the Cartoon!Conan who was more morally upright even if he was somewhat bullheaded. Cartoon!Conan had to learn to read unlike the other adaptations of Conan. I think it was quite perfect when Hasbro had the rights to finally adapt the very much adult Conan franchise for Saturday morning. 1992 would be the tenth anniversary of Conan the Barbarian (1982). I guess it was really intentional that a Conan cartoon was created on the tenth anniversary of the 1982 movie. 

So, I did write about my experience of seeing the 1982 film as a child. It would be TOO OBVIOUS that censorship was done to get the TV-Y7-FV ratings passed. The serpent men were sent to the Abyss rather than getting massacred like Movie!Thulsa Doom's minions were all butchered on the spot. So, let's get started, shall we?

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The first episode features Wrath-Amon attacking the village

Before Wrath-Amon's more inhuman origins are explored - we see a scene that was obviously taken (but censored) from the movie). We have the serpent men of the serpent god Set attack the village in search of STEEL. Though this isn't any ordinary stell but the fabled Star Metal - the very thing that could create the seven pyramids with a Star Metal Disc. The very objective of Wrath-Amon was to free the serpent god Set. 

It can't be denied that this was censored. We can't have Wrath-Amon leading a bloody expedition and murdering Cartoon!Conan's parents. Also, Cartoon!Conan was practically an ADULT when the attack happened. Cartoon!Conan does a He-Man tribute when he got the sword from the rock. Conan's quest is focused on undoing the spell of living stone than avenging the death of his parents. 

Movie!Thulsa Doom was seeking to spread the influence of worship of Set worldwide. The original modus operandi was that Movie!Thulsa Doom would acquire weapons of steel to conquer the world for his dark god Set. The statement that Wrath-Amon's evil is a legend and the serpent wizard's influence can clearly throw back to the first Conan movie. 

You may have noticed that Conan occasionally wore an outfit from the first movie

The Hasbro toyline had a Conan toy variant known as Conan the Explorer. The outfit had a horned hat. This would really resemble this outfit from the 1982 movie...

The scene where 1982Movie!Conan battles Movie!Thulsa Doom's army of Serpent Men at the mounds wears that outfit. Heck, Conan even uses an axe as well. I guess that's why the Conan the Adventurer toy's default hero had an axe and a duller version of the Atlantean sword! The throwback is really there! Conan both used a battle axe. Cartoon!Conan NEVER used a battle axe in the series. The Conan the Adventurer action figure had that axe. It really does sound weird but it's true. 

You may notice there are footnotes for the villains from the first two Conan movies starring Schwarzenegger

Basically, Wrath-Amon was a Thoth-Amon expy BUT he was more of a Cartoon!Serpentor expy. I mean, it's too obvious that Wrath-Amon, like Cartoon!Serpentor, were both artificially created, had a hammy temper, and were the chief enforcer of a Bigger Bad. Cartoon!Serpentor was created to carry out the will of Golobulus to take over humanity. Wrath-Amon was practically entrusted by Cartoon!Set to carry out humanity's destruction as well. Both are pretty parallel. Both even became lizards in the end. Though, Wrath-Amon started out as a lizard and was corrupted with malice. Later, Wrath-Amon is reverted back to his normal self. 

Mesmira... the queen of Stygia may obviously be Queen Taramis...

Earlier on, Mesmira was taken into the pages of Conan the Adventurer. The appearance really resembles that of the Movie!Taramis. The original Taramis was a good queen with a wicked sister known as SALOME. Yeah, we know what you're thinking. Mesmira, like the Movie!Taramis is a queen at her own right while being a worshiper of some evil god. In this case, Dagoth was replaced by Cartoon!Set and she hates being under the shadow of Wrath-Amon. I guess she's among a few people who fully knew Wrath-Amon's dark secret origins - all before Conan simply changed the way that Wrath-Amon was born. 

Although Conan the Destroyer was a flop - it seemed that Movie!Taramis still remained a good thing. I don't think Sarah Douglas would be willing to voice Mesmira. However, Kathleen Barr did a good job making Mesmira sound like Movie!Taramis. The wicked queen herself proved to be more cunning and evil than Wrath-Amon could be.

It's said that Conan and the Young Warriors was supposed to have her as the main villain. After all, it was HER FAULT that Greywolf's twin siblings were turned into wolves. Instead, that lame DiC cartoon ended up giving us Sulinara - a rather pathetic sorceress. Sure, Mesmira was a watered-down Movie!Taramis BUT she knew how to be better than Wrath-Amon any day. 

Meanwhile, Movie!Thulsa Doom may have gotten his chance to appear in the censored cartoon after all...

It would be very interesting how it's said Serpentor was based on Movie!Thulsa Doom and Comics!Thoth-Amon. Wrath-Amon is obviously an Expy of Cartoon!Serpentor more than an Expy of Thoth-Amon. Heck, Wrath-Amon even said, "This I command by the power of the Black Ring!" in the finale arc! It's obvious Hasbro was throwing back to Cartoon!Serpentor than Movie!Thulsa Doom or any incarnation of Thoth-Amon! However, it seemed Hasbro decided to finally bring another movie reference. Yes, we're talking about Movie!Thulsa Doom though the design was clearly based on Thoth-Amon's Pharaoh-like garbs. We had another person known as RAM-Amon. Heck, many incarnations of Thoth-Amon wore RAM horns. Was the name purposely a pun?

I think that Hasbro probably wanted to hire James Earl Jones for this role. If they were able to - it'd be awesome if Jones portrayed Ram-Amon. Instead, we had Arthur Burghardt dub Ram-Amon. No wonder Thoth-Amon sounded like 80sCartoon!Destro in many ways. Burghardt and Jones are both African-Americans with that distinct accent. Though, I still wish that Jones voiced Ram-Amon. Ram-Amon first appeared in "The Birth of Wrath-Amon" where Cartoon!Conan only changed the way Wrath-Amon came to be. the anomaly only changed the way Wrath-Amon was born. Hmmm... Cartoon!Conan did break into Ram-Amon's house, tried to steal his property, and almost killed one of his pets. Those were the things Movie!Thulsa Doom charged 1982Movie!Conan with, right? 

Like Movie!Thulsa Doom, Ram-Amon is pretty much not the combat type but had extreme cunning. Like Thoth-Amon in many incarnations - Ram-Amon was a manipulative high priest. Ram-Amon may have lost the Black Ring of Set (how it originally happened isn't explained) but he had many tricks. Ram-Amon could still do some limited magic, mix potions, etc. proving that he didn't depend on the ring as much as Wrath-Amon. The only thing missing IMHO is for Ram-Amon to do a snake transformation. If only Ram-Amon were able to turn himself into a snake - he could've escaped imprisonment. Instead, Ram-Amon had to be freed by Cartoon!Conan. 

Ram-Amon only appeared in a few episodes but was obviously better than Wrath-Amon. Wrath-Amon was pretty much like Cartoon!Serpentor. Ram-Amon, like the 80sCartoon!Cobra Commander, was trying to get rid of his usurper one way or another. The 80sCartoon!Cobra Commander did manage to finally overthrow Cartoon!Serpentor by turning the latter into an iguana. The idea was copied into Wrath-Amon towards the finale. Ram-Amon later escaped hinting at a Sequel Hook that NEVER HAPPENED. I felt that Conan and the Young Warriors should've had Ram-Amon as the main villain instead of that idiotic Sulinara. 

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What other movie easter eggs did you find watching the series?