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...

I remember watching He-Man (2002) and a new villain was introduced. This was none other than King Hiss. I made a comment that King Hiss was pretty much like Wrath-Amon from the  Conan the Adventurer cartoon from 1992. Is it a strange coincidence that He-Man (2002) would be on the 20th anniversary of the Conan the Barbarian (1982) movie? Wrath-Amon was a nasty-tempered boss. Instead, King Hiss was pretty much Thoth-Amon and the Movie Thulsa Doom when dealing with his minions.  Both King Hiss and most versions of Thoth-Amon were focused on the advancement of the Serpent Men. Both of them were the respective high priests of their respective serpent gods. He-Man (2002) reveals that King Hiss seeks to release his god Serpos. Serpos was a character created for He-Man (2002) and it reminded me of Set the serpent god. Marvel Set the Serpent God is represented as a multiple-headed snake, unlike Cartoon Set from Conan the Adventurer . What made King Hiss interesting was that he wasn't r...

The name of the Boxer in the Japanese is really MIKE BISON. It's an obvious pun for Mike Tyson . Now, it's time to discuss another name called Vega. Capcom America renamed Boxer from Bison to Balrog, Claw from Balrog to Vega, and Dictator from Vega to M. Bison. I Googled what Vega meant and it's a very common Spanish surname (which was probably why the renaming of Claw to Vega happened). However, another meaning for Vega is the brightest star of the constellation Lyra or landing eagle.  The Dictator who went from Vega to Bison The design of the Dictator was based on Wakizashi from the Riki-Oh series. Wakizashi means EAGLE CAPE. Both of them wore a cape and had the same military theme going on. It might be very noticeable that Shadaloo had the symbol of eagle wings and a skull.  It would be noteworthy that the Dictator himself has a series of aerial attacks. Early on, his Psycho Crusher was a special move. Though the Psycho Crusher was later made a highly damaging super move...

Street Fighter presents Balrog to be a bad guy - unlike the Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Balrog's real name was actually MIKE Bison. Sounds very much like Mike Tyson right? Balrog's special attacks involve names like Charging Buffalo. Now, think about it that Capcom actually took note of the crimes of Mike Tyson to create Balrog (Vega's Japanese name) under the name MIKE Bison. The Crime Museum gives this detail of Mike Tyson as a crook : Mike Tyson is a former heavyweight world boxing champion from Brooklyn, New York. Nicknamed “Iron Mike,” Tyson committed several crimes in his youth, including robbing stores, pick pocketing, and mugging people. In September 1991, Tyson was indicted on one count of rape, two counts of criminal deviant behavior, and one count of confinement. He was accused by Desiree Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America Pageant, who claimed that Tyson forced himself on her in his Indianapolis hotel room. Tyson was convi...

Heihachi will probably be those villains that will always be "too popular" in the eyes of the fans. Heihachi would be in the rank of the likes of fighting game villains like Shao Kahn from the  Mortal Kombat series, General Bison (General Vega in Japan) from the  Street Fighter series, and Geese Howard from the Fatal Fury series. They're all too iconic. Now, the new character Reina has the gossip flying over that she's secretly Heihachi's illegitimate daughter. However, she looks very young which may suggest that there's a significant time gap here and there. Tekken 6 reveals that Heihachi sired a half-breed son in Lars Alexanderson. Lars has the appearance of a man not so much younger than Kazuya. If Heihachi Mishima was 76 in Tekken 7 then I think he probably messed around with a much younger woman at some point. Maybe, Heihachi may have had a child of his old age. Maybe, Heihachi wanted to prove once and for all that the Devil Gene wasn't from his linea...

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...