Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!

He-Roâ„¢

Heroic Cosmic Warriorâ„¢

Real Name: Ro

Given the sword of He by the Overlords of the Timeless Dimension on Trolla, Ro was told to “go forth and combat evil.” During one such epic battle, he was infected by a techno-organic virus by Horde Supreme and sent through a vortex to the magic planet of Eternia. Once there, he was healed by Eldor in a mystical pool which absorbed his virus. In gratitude, He-Roâ„¢ swore to help free Eternia from the Snake Menâ„¢ and Horde Invaders. He defended the free people alongside the great King Grayskullâ„¢, eventually bequeathing his sword to the King upon his noble death.

Portrait art source: Mattel internal concept art

Before we go any further, it’s important to be aware of the history of He-Ro. He-Ro was intended to be a big new character for the 1987 Powers of Grayskull sub-line, the “Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe” and the greatest hero of Preternia (prehistoric Eternia). A prototype was created and even shown in the 1987 Mattel retailer catalog, but neither He-Ro nor his mentor, Eldor, ever made it to toy stores.

However, Mattel did go pretty far in preparing the concept, even going so far as to create a licensing kit complete with a bio for He-Ro. You can read his original bio here, but the only thing you really need to know for this discussion is that it says he’s an ancestor of He-Man and She-Ra, and his real name is Gray. So, one of the roles He-Ro was to serve in the MOTU mythos was as the legendary ancestor to He-Man and She-Ra.

However, in a case of convergent creative evolution, when the Millennium cartoon came along King Grayskull was created to fulfill what was basically the same role. The roles were so similar that at one point, the makers of the Millennium comics plotted out a story that explained He-Ro had turned into King Grayskull by somehow being merged with the giant Tytus (oddly prefiguring the Demo-Man controversy). For better or for worse, the idea was nixed before it could be published. The writers of the MOTUC bios also seem to have struggled with the similarity of the King Grayskull/He-Ro roles, putting them together on Eternia and having He-Ro bequeath the Sword of He (more on that later) to King Grayskull.

Backing up a bit, regarding the “real name”…I suppose they didn’t want to use “Gray” because it implied a connection to Grayskull, which is now officially tied to King Grayskull. But “Ro”? Yuck. While I think they should have just kept the Gray and not worried about the whole “Grayskull” thing, any name would have been better than Ro.

Where exactly is He-Ro from originally? Trolla? Because the bio just tells us he’s given the Power Sword and told to go fight evil, and next thing we know he’s locked in battle with Horde Supreme (first mention of him, by the way) and then dumped on Eternia.

Then there’s the “Sword of He.” When L.E. Bryce was writing her excellent MOTU fanfic in the nineties, she suggested “He-Man” was a term in an ancient Eternian language for “great warrior” or something to that effect. I think that’s the sort of thing the bio writers are going for here.* But let’s face it, “the Sword of He” is a bit risible. The Power Sword is a perfectly memorable term, much like The Legend of Zelda‘s Master Sword. I appreciate the bio writers’ efforts to come up with an explanation for the goofy “He-Man” name, but I’m afraid it’s never going to sound cool.

I’m a disappointed the bio doesn’t even mention He-Ro’s staff. Called the Power Staff in the 1987 media, there’s a lot of story potential there–for instance, some fans suggested that the jewel in the staff could be where the jewel in She-Ra’s sword comes from, but ToyGuru recently shot that down. Apparently, it’s just a plain old magic staff. Pretty weak effort for such a great accessory.

A few last thoughts: The out-of-left-field “techno-organic virus” plot point will be revisited in Tytus’s bio; all I’ll say is, Eternia could apparently have used some good hazardous waste disposal in those days. It’s good to see Eldor mentioned and given a place in the MOTUC canon, though we learn precious little about him.

Next time: Tri-Klops!

* The entire “He-Man” toy concept came out of the “Big Jim” “G.I. Joe” and “Action Jackson” tradition, whereby a guy with a generic name would get dressed up in various outfits and could become any sort of hero you wanted–a soldier, an adventurer, a knight, an astronaut, etc. But, due to the immense success of Kenner’s Star Wars line, by the time He-Man was being developed generically-named action figures were out and media-based toylines with dozens of unique characters were in. And so the MOTU concept became this weird blend of a traditional 1960s action figure concept merged with the strong media narratives of most other 1980s toylines. Hasbro would do the same thing with G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, but were smart enough to name the team G.I. Joe, not the main character.