Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!
Teela® Bio
Real Name: Teela®
The adoptive daughter of Duncan™, the current Man-At-Arms®, Teela® grew up in the palace of King Randor™. Trained from an early age in the ways of battle, at age 18 she became Captain of the Guard, leading the troops of King Randor™ and acting as a de facto member of the Masters of the Universe®. She is yet to become aware of her true heritage as the magically cloned daughter of, and heir to, the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull®. She carries the Staff of Ka, which was once used by the Snake Men™ in their epic battles against the Horde and King Grayskull™ during the Great Wars. Teela® uses her magical staff to track her foes’ every move!
Portrait art source: “He-Man and the Power Sword” minicomic
First off, it’s important to note that the bizarre notion of Teela being a clone of the Sorceress comes straight out of the 1980s comic “The Tale of Teela.” While as far as I know there’s no extant evidence for it, I suspect the reason behind this comic was to explain to young fans why the Goddess in the earliest minicomics looked like their Teela figure, and why Teela then looked like the figure herself later on. The real reason, of course, is that Mattel’s original plan was for two figures, one Teela and one Goddess/Sorceress, and that’s what was given to the early comic creators. But somewhere in the production process, the official “Teela” was cancelled and the figure that was supposed to be the Goddess became Teela.
Now, all that said, most fans are far more familiar with the Filmation cartoon’s version of the story, in which Teela is simply the daughter of the Sorceress, as depicted in “Teela’s Quest.” The same concept was expanded in the Millennium cartoon, where Teela was given a father as well (the plan was to reveal her father to be Fisto, though the show was cancelled before this came about). Technically, only the Millennium version directly contradicts the minicomic; the Filmation Teela could still be a clone of the Sorceress.
Now, of the two versions, I prefer the idea of Teela being a normal daughter and not a clone. It’s a weird, unecessary concept whose ostensible original purpose–explaining some confusion resulting from the toyline’s early development process–is not present in MOTU Classics. Furthermore, the bio doesn’t even mention the involvement of Skeletor, leading one to wonder who (or what) cloned Teela from the Sorceress and why. And I reserve the right to change my mind on the cloning thing if we eventually get a good story about it.
I want to point out another thing about these bios–the inchoate sense of time and place. The bio states Teela is “yet to become aware of her true heritage.” That’s been true for both the cartoons and comics of all incarnations, so I guess we should assume that the “now” of MOTUC is taking place around the same time in He-Man’s life that the cartoons did. King Grayskull, the Goddess and Wun-Dar are in the past, and Optikk, I guess, is in the future?
The idea of Teela becoming captain of the guard at age 18 doesn’t work for me. No matter how good she is, no one should be a captain at that age unless all the other potential candidates turned it down or are dead. Even Captain Kirk was 34 when he got his own ship, and he was famed as the youngest starship captain ever. More to the point, though, neither the original Teela, nor her Filmation version, nor the Classics figure looks much like they’re 18–they look more like they’re in their mid-to-late twenties, an age where being a captain of the guard seems a bit less unlikely.
Naming the Staff of Ka and connecting it to the Snake Men is a cool idea whose time has come, but I worry we’ll never hear anything else about it. I’m less interested in who Ka is and whether the staff was wielded by, say, King Hssss–something we might learn in Hssss’s bio–as I am interested in finding out how Teela got the staff, and what it can do.
In the end, I’m not in favor of this bio. It draws on some obsolete ideas, and opens up some plot holes that might have been better left closed. The Staff of Ka stuff is interesting, though.
Thrawn
It's not the fact that she's a clone. In Star Wars Boba Fett is a clone of Jango Fett and I thought the way it was portrayed gave him quite a bit of pathos to work with.
What I dislike about the mini-comic origin is what you directly stated here:
Teela was a clone in that story. So what? She was her own person with her own experiences, thoughts, and feelings. That alone doesn't diminish her. Again see Boba/Jango.
It's the idea that in this particular story the Goddess could decide to just reabsorb her "lifeforce" if she chose to. Teela's not really a person, or even a true clone in the scientific sense. She's just a separated portion of the goddess that's become selfaware.
I find that to be diminishing, as the entire mess could simply be avoided by having the Sorceress have an affair with Man at Arms or some other unknown soldier. I feel that adds pathos and some tragedy to both characters where the clone crap doesn't.
Now that's only my opinion. I'm fine with anyone liking that version of Teela. Having this discussion is fun for me.
Damien wrote:
To a small extent, yes. Clones can be done really well, but in the case of how it's presented with Teela, I really find it diminishing to her, and it casts a potentially malevolent light on the Goddess.
I don't like it at all.
@ Dark Angel
That's an interesting take on the charms and totems in motu.
MegaGearX
@Damien:
Teela is not diminished by the Goddess/Sorceress because they are two different characters (i.e., The Goddess/Sorceress isn't a warrior, doesn't command guards, isn't acrobatic, doesn't train with Adam or try to bust his balls). If Teela did the exact same things as the Sorceress or vice versa, then I'd understand.
misterbigbo
As time moves along, my initial impression that the MOTUC story is being made up as it goes has been reinforced again and again. Though I despise his methods and seeming desire to destroy the Star Wars universe through overexposure, George Lucas has managed to control the continuity of his intellectual property (thankfully with help from people who care), unlike what I think I'm seeing here. I'm not as schooled about the behind-the-scenes machinations of the MOTUC world as many collectors, but does anyone know who the hell is responsible for writing these bios?
With other IPs expanded through comics, movies, TV shows, et al, we can point to the individual(s) responsible for taking the story in whatever directions it goes, and therefore heap praise or pissiness. But who's at the helm of this ship? It would be nice to exert a little fan pressure in focused ways when incongruities pop up, rather than just spinning wheels on discussion boards. Maybe even have the writers participate in give-and-take. Do they appear at Matty's panels at SDCC or other conventions?
I get the distinct impression that more study and consultation about Teela's bio, and any of them, really, was done by you folks on this page than in Mattel's office.
For me, the bios and fiction are relatively unimportant, but they clearly matter to a great many, who should probably be treated with a bit more respect.
Heli
@Damien: "That’s also practically a rape story, without the much-disliked cloning."
Well, just as long as it's still a rape story. ^_~
I prefer to think that the Sorceress was a lonely old lady, and she built a little wooden puppet girl to keep her company. One day, the Goddess came to Castle Greyskull and brought the wooden girl to life. Her curse, though, is that every time she lies, her Staff of Ka grows, and her head turns into a giant snake. There's a whole long story where she gets eaten by a Gigantasaurus, but that's neither here nor there.
MegaGearX
@Damien:
You know something ironic? Mini-comic Teela ISN'T destined to be the next Goddess, while Filmation Teela IS. Mini-comic Teela, although she is a copy of the Goddess, is ultimately free to do something different with her existence.
PrfktTear
I guess in this day and age of sheep and bad sci-fi/horror movies, when I hear the word clone it automatically brings to mind gene splicing and test tube babies. One could be magically cloned, but I agree that it somehow takes away from Teela. I'd prefer that she was conceived the good old fashioned way. I think Sorceress as her mother and as Man-At-Arms being her real dad; I think that’s my favorite origin. I wasn’t a fan of the notion that Fisto was her father/Duncan’s brother. I could even live with an “immaculate conception” story too. This bio just seems to be all muddled up.
Damien
@MegaGearX: I think what Thrawn is saying, and I'd somewhat agree, is that the very idea of being a 'clone' diminishes the character by making them not truly their own person. She's, essentially, a flawed carbon copy of the original. Whereas a person born of two parents is, to ut it simply, unique, a person formed wholesprung from the essence of one character is not unique. By that logic, it also diminishes the Goddess.
It's like having two He-Mans running around. Even if one is just a clone of Adam unable to transform – it still diminishes the uniqueness of the character.
For what it's worth, I think in my MOTU, Duncan will be Teela's father, but not actually know it, and will actually believe himself to be just a foster-parent. That works well for me.
dayraven
@Dark Angel: you know what's oddly not a magical artifact on eternia? he-man's axe. and yes, in one sense, it could diminish the importance of the power sword BUT despite the overwhelming cool of the power sword (and the power) he still carries the axe too… whether mattel knows this or not, the axe overshadows the sword anyway.
to put this another way, if you owned a superleggera, that would get you a lot of attention. if you left it parked in the driveway and rode a vespa everywhere you went, ALL your neighbors would be discussing this bizarre occurence, and they'd all be asking the same thing… what's so cool about the vespa?