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

FAKER

Real Name: N/A

Originally built by Man-At-Arms to cover for He-Man when Prince Adam is needed, Faker was abandoned in the royal junkyard after his first mission and salvaged by the evil warrior Tri-Klops. At the request of Skeletor, Faker was reprogrammed to replace He-Man and convince the people of Eternia that He-Man had betrayed King Randorâ„¢ and turned to evil.

Portrait art source: Faker figure card back

There are few characters in MOTUC with more unrealized potential than Faker (figure review). He “appeared” in a single episode of the Filmation cartoon, where he was just a regular He-Man (with normal skin color) except for a pair of glowing eyes. A holographic/robot He-Man also appeared briefly in the Mike Young Productions episode “The Courage of Adam”–when it was defeated, there was a brief moment where it turned blue, but to call that thing “Faker” would be a misnomer.

There are so many possibilities for Faker. While I like that he’s a robot–the little robotic eight-track sticker on his chest was very appealing to young Poe–I always assumed he was also partly magic, in some way.

I think this bio is at best uninspired. Man-At-Arms creates an android–one of the most complicated achievements of technical expertise I can think of–and tosses it in the junkyard after one mission? A “royal” junkyard that’s apparently so poorly guarded Tri-Klops can just wander in and pick through it? During the Roast Gooble discussion of this bio, Pixel Dan, in a great imitation of Skeletor’s voice, said, “We’ve got to keep checking that garbage! That stuff’s gold!”

(On a side note, I hate that it was Tri-Klops who salvaged and, presumably, reprogrammed Faker. I prefer Tri-Klops as the badass bounty hunter of the early minicomics, not the tech geek of the MYP cartoon–and since the badass merc is how TK is described in his own bio, I don’t understand why he’s the one who salvaged Faker here. Shouldn’t Trap Jaw be the mechanic/tech guy?)

I’ve never bought the idea that Faker was intended to fool anyone into thinking he was the real He-Man. For one thing, he’s blue. I always saw him as a robotic twin Skeletor made in hopes of having his own evil counterweight to He-Man’s strength, and that’s all. It explains the blue skin: it’s He-Man made in Skeletor’s own image. There are some weird psychological interpretations to make there (especially now that the whole Gar/racism idea has been introduced in the Keldor bio).

More and more, I’m starting to read these bios less as a “canon” and more as a barometer of what depiction of the characters I prefer. Here’s how I might have written Faker’s bio:

FAKER
Evil Robot of Skeletor
After using a powerful spell to make an ethereal imprint of He-Man’s spirit, Skeletor had Trap Jaw build a cybernetic clone of the hero in hopes of creating his own version of the hero of Eternia–one who was loyal to Skeletor! But when the Lord of Destruction enchanted the robot with the imperfect imprint of He-Man, it went berserk, nearly destroying Snake Mountain before Skeletor could bring it under control. Torn between vague impressions of his former heroic identity and his evil programming, Faker learned to hate the heroes of Eternia whom he believed had forsaken him. Faker now knows he is no mortal man – he’s the evil robot of Skeletor!