Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

The lore of He-Man and She-Ra were meant to be tied tightly. I enjoyed both 1980s cartoons even if She-Ra was meant primarily for a female audience. The three-parter introduction for She-Ra featured the expansion. It's revealed that Skeletor was once a member (and the favorite apprentice) of Hordak. Skeletor was once a member of the Evil Horde. The flashback involved Hordak and Skeletor attempting to steal both Adam and Adora. Skeletor was left behind by Hordak. Skeletor ratted out Hordak. It's revealed that Snake Mountain was once a base of operations for the Evil Horde.  Skeletor became a secondary antagonist to She-Ra. It's something that Skeletor was once a member of the Horde. It's possible that Skeletor agreed to work with Hordak, learned fast, but soon became more ambitious in the process. Hordak does use a combination of technology and sorcery. Later episodes of She-Ra reveal that Hordak did learn sorcery at some point. My only assumption is that Skeletor learne...

Source Some openings during the 1980s to 1990s cartoons can be VERY MISLEADING. Who can remember how X-Men: The Animated Series featured Juggernaut among the goons in Magneto's Mutant Terrorists then the show reveals otherwise? Who can remember the catchy jingle of Conan the Adventurer featuring Wrath-Amon as the main villain when the true villain is the serpent god Set? Who can remember Biker Mice from Mars featured Laurence Limburger as the main villain all the while he answered Lord Camembert for his LACK OF PROGRESS? She-Ra says they want to free Etheria from the evil forces of Hordak.  However, just a few episodes later, Horde Prime's name is mentioned in episode 11 "The Peril of the Whispering Woods". Horde Prime later showed up in episode 18 where the MORAL STORY doesn't match the episode . Horde Prime doesn't really show up all too often but when he does - there's some comedic effect to him showing up! Horde Prime's family tree is revealed. App...

There was the urban legend that He-Man was supposed to be a Conan toy line . It's been refuted but we can't deny the similarities. Maybe, the most obvious one is how He-Man is based on Conan and Skeletor is based on Comics Thulsa Doom. Another really creepy similarity is the birth of the Snake Mountain fortress. The Conan movie came out in 1982 and He-Man came in 1983.  Conan the Barbarian (1982) had the Movie Thulsa operate from the MOUNTAIN of Power. Movie Thulsa also had a pet wild cat. Skeletor would also have a wild cat named Panthor. Many incarnations of Skeletor operated in Snake Mountain. Apparently, both fortresses were created by hallowing several caves and the main villain operates there.  The He-Man (1983) episode had the episode "Golden Disks of Knowledge". The episode explained that Skeletor had the golden disks to create Snake Mountain. In She-Ra , it's revealed that Skeletor used to serve alongside Hordak (and therefore, answered to Horde Prime, th...

There's always this myth that the He-Man toyline was supposed to be a Conan toyline. Some say it was supposed to be cased from the Conan the Barbarian (1982) film though the blatant inspirations are taken from the COMICS. For example, it's too obvious that Skeletor is indeed a lighter version Thulsa Doom (no, NOT the Movie Thulsa Doom) as both have a skull for a head. The more subtle (or not) was when the cartoon (and the later toyline) snuck past the snakemen into the He-Man mythos.  I guess the 1983 He-Man cartoon never spared to take some notes from the movie. Skeletor's base is known as SNAKE MOUNTAIN while the 1982 movie had a base called the Mountain of Power. In the comics, Thulsa Doom was a worshiper of the great serpent god Set centuries before Thoth-Amon. One of Skeletor's minions is Kobra Khan, a member of the Reptons. The Reptons are a distant relative of the original snakemen. King Hiss NEVER made an appearance in the 1980s cartoon. King Hiss was introduced...

I did some rewatching of a few He-Man and She-Ra cartoons from the 1980s. What I failed to see was that Haim Saban and Shuky Levy provided the sound score for the cartoon. Sure, I don't like the soundtrack of Power Rangers BUT I think Saban and Levy knew what they were doing with American franchises. One of the episodes I'd like to review is "Horde Prime Takes a Holiday". It's a cool episode but ends up in a very awkward note. I guess Saturday morning cartoon villains do have to do some absurd plots, right? Horde Prime, the real main antagonist of She-Ra , calls for Hordak (who I believe is his brother) on an "important matter". Horde Prime mentions that he's going on a two-week vacation to Tropica (so the episode takes place in a span of two weeks as a timeframe). Hordak tries to weasel his way to Horde Prime's favor. I do laugh at how Horde Prime mentions Hordak's CONSTANT FAILURES like any good villain. Horde Prime talks about using the Ve...

He-Man, supposedly inspired by Conan in many ways but loosely anyway. So I thought about it that the hero is Prince Adam who transforms into a barbarian-like hero with a giant tiger named Battlecat (in the comics, Conan had a lion named Amra) whenever he used the mystical sword to battle the evil sorcerer Skeletor who is somewhat a parody of the Robert E. Howard version of Thulsa Doom while He-Man somewhat combined aspects of Kull and Conan except that Kull must have inspired the creation of He-Ro instead of He-Man as He-Man may supposedly be Conan. In the Conan comics (not the novels), the skull headed wizard Thulsa Doom was a major enemy too. So I personally thought that only a few characters here were ever inspired by Conan. Most of them were derived from other sources, which prevents He-Man from becoming a Conan rip-off as alleged. A spin-off series was called She-Ra: Princess of Power revealing that He-Man had a twin sister and an interesting side story of He-Man's archene...