Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!
The Goddess
Real Name: Sharella
After the death of King Grayskull™, the Power of the Universe was transferred from the Sword of He to the Council of Elders, who hid it deep within his castle. Knowing the full sword was the key to channeling the power again, they split it in two to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil. For five centuries, they waited for a worthy heir to be born. During this time their spirit guide, the creature known as The Goddess of Eternia®, trained secret heroic guardians to keep the two halves of the sword separated. Many of these brave warriors took the name “He-Man®” in honor of the sword they protected giving birth to many different legends of the protector of Eternia®.
Portrait Art Source: “He-Man and the Power Sword” minicomic
In all the MOTUC bios so far, you can tell the BW (Bio Writers) are trying to put together at least a somewhat cohesive narrative. Sometimes they seem to slightly retcon what’s gone previously (despite any protests to the contrary), but they always try to have it hang together as much as possible. In general, they also tend to really elucidate the histories of the more mysterious MOTU characters.
Not so with the Goddess, however. Perhaps befitting her status as a repaint inspired by some early confusion during MOTU’s initial development, her MOTUC bio doesn’t really explain who or what she is at all. She’s referred to as the Council of Elders’ “Spirit Guide,” but your guess is as good as mine as to what that means. Her job, apparently, is to train the various heroes referred to as “He-Man” over the centuries (thus Wun-Dar, Oo-Larr and Vikor).
So this bio introduces the idea of the “He-Man through time” concept– a long line of heroes who, evidently, take the name He-Man without being “the” He-Man. This raises more than a few questions, most important being: where did the name “He-Man” come from in the first place? I don’t think it was really necessary to introduce this “multiple He-Man” concept, and I can’t say I like it much. I know it was probably intended to allow them to make a “barbarian He-Man” figure based on the same minicomic as this figure. So this was the beginning of Mattel choosing to bend over backwards to fit “concept” or alternate versions of characters into the MOTUC canon rather than just calling it a concept figure and giving it the same bio as usual. (In this particular case, the figure and character are different enough that it makes sense–you really can’t call this figure “Concept Teela,” although you might get away with “Concept Sorceress.”)
We do get one potential clue to the Goddess’s identity–her real name. It’s taken from the licensing guide for the Powers of Grayskull/Preternia toy line, where she’s referred to as a “tribal chieftess” who helped raise He-Ro alongside Eldor. Unfortunately, that’s all we get, but it’s possible that if we ever get an Eldor figure, his bio might reveal more about Sharella.
I believe this is the first reference we get to the sword having been split in half. There’s a big question here, though–where are the halves kept? It seems a safe bet that one is held at Grayskull, but where’s the other one? Does “the He-Man” know where both halves are? It seems to me it’d be safer if he didn’t know, so he couldn’t be coerced into telling someone.
You may not have noticed, but this bio also tells us exactly how much time passed between King Grayskull and Prince Adam–five centuries. I prefer the “thousands of years” idea of the original Preternia concept; this narrowing of the interval between the time of Grayskull (and He-Ro) and our He-Man seems to diminish some of the grandeur of the original idea behind Preternia. However, I suppose it makes more sense from a continuity standpoint–otherwise Hordak is in exile for thousands of years, and Castle Grayskull apparently hangs around intact for the same period.
dayraven
@Mysterious Stranger: right you are sir. whoever was taking notes at that meetig needs a canning STAT!
Mysterious Stranger
Also, didn't Toyguru say at one point that all of the bios were written at the beginning of the line? If so that would make the perceived continuity errors and inconsistencies all the more embarrassing. Its one thing to mess up if you're making it up as you go along but if its all done at once then there is no excuse for these issues.
dayraven
@Thrawn: thanks, i try. 😉
Mysterious Stranger
The thing that bothers me the most about this bio is the lack of any real information on who the Goddess is. It feels more like exposition than a true bio. Like they were in their bio writing meeting and said "okay we need to get these pieces of information out there so let's put it all into Goddess' bio" and that's what they did.
Thrawn
There are several things that I don't like about this bio.
First, I strongly dislike the idea that there were other people calling themselves "He-Man". That's stupid. I'm fine with the idea that there were other protectors of the sword and Grayskull, just not with them calling themselves "He-Man".
Secondly, I think the idea of splitting the sword in two is stupid and would have been best left in the dustbin of history. I mean why split it at all? Why not just leave it hidden in Grayskull? The fact that Skeletor gets one half of the sword, but can't get into Grayskull, seems to validate me on how stupid that idea is.
Third the idea that only 500 years passes seems a tad to short. It doesn't feel as legendary. It should be somewhere between 1 and 3 thousand years in my opinion. But no more than 3 tops, I think.
I mean Eternian dinosaurs went extinct in only 500 years?
Dayraven wrote:
I was eating sauteed mushrooms when I read that. You almost cost me a monitor, I was laughing so hard.
PrfktTear
I too prefer to think that thousands of years passed between the death of Grayskull and the birth of Adam of the House of Randor. Hordak and the Snakemen would have been long forgotten, merely stories parents would tell to frighten their children. "Be good, or the Snakemen will get you". Castle Grayskull would have all been forgotten as well, with only the magic of the ancients keeping it together. Pyramids have lasted for thousands of years, as have the ruins of various Mayan/Incan temples, so I think it’s safe to say that a castle built by a giant and protected by magic would be able to survive a few millennia.
Perhaps in the time of Grayskull the Eternians had enjoyed a renaissance, but the Great War had many casualties and thus humanity's population dwindled down to near extinction. New tribes were formed and they essentially had to start over. As humanity tried to rebuild itself, there were evils, but none so great that of Hordak, King Hiss, or Skeletor.
This is of course where The Goddess comes in. Maybe think of her as a spirit or some sort of omniscient being, rather than an actual "God". She serves as sort of a bridge between the physical and non-corporeal world. When a hero is needed she takes a physical form and begins to train a new warrior to protect the land.
Thousands of years pass by; Miro is king but disappears, Keldor and Randor defeat Marzo, Keldor is betrayed and leads a rebellion with Eternia’s outcasts, but is squashed by Captain Randor and his elite team. Keldor and his forces are driven to the dark hemisphere and Randor takes the mantle of King. Years pass and Randor bears a son, Adam but Keldor made a deal with the devil turning himself into Skeletor and thus begins Eternia’s greatest threat since the days of the Horde and Snakemen, so finally the true power of Grayskull must be unleashed bringing forth Eternia’s greatest warrior.
FakeEyes2w
I guess there'd have to be a lineage of heroes, even when considering the current He-Man. Adam isn't going to live forever(if he transforms at age 70, is He-Man still young? Weird.)
When Adam's long gone, the power still exists and it will find some way to fight evil. We don't even know if Skeletor is mortal, as far as aging goes at least. If Adam dies suddenly of some crazy gooble flu, the Elders' He-Man Defense Plan is going to go south real quick without future heirs to the power…or sword, or sword halves, or whatever it is that makes He-Men happen these days.
Barbecue17
I don't know. In a world with so little technology, it seems likely that 500 years would be enough time. Think about all the urban legends in our own societies that probably only stem from the last 50 years or so, and we have newspapers, internet, and such to help keep track of information.
Snarf! Snarf!
@dayraven: While 500 years is enough for technological revolution (or de-evoltion), rise and fall of kingdoms. peace and war periods, and all that but it's not enough to have certain events become nearly long forgotten legends, possibly dismissed as fairy tales. (You'd better behave or the Snakemen might eat you! Don't wander the woods at night or the Grizzlor might get you…)
Otherwise Castle Grayskull would still be a top priority for EVERYONE before the rise of Adam THE HE-MAN
dayraven
i'm not in agreement w/ you guys about the 500 years thing… for one, by compressing the timeline a tad, we always have room to expand it later, but the 500 years thing means eternia could still have rested and had peace and prosperity, in between terrible calatimities… look at earth's history from 2000 to 1500. there's PLENTY of space in there to tell cool stories of the ascendence of technology, politicial intrigues, and the fall of nobility.
i like this bio, in part because it melds some details of my personal mythos w/ the official canon (such as the fracturing of the swords) and i'm a firm believer in the virtues of the "keep it hidden, keep it safe" mentality of the "sword of grayskull" while the average joe protecting the castle gets the "sword of he" which anybody can use. it also explains why there's two power swords. (which, BTW, is great, mattel can easily justify having two good guy swords, but ask for new skeleswords and you'd think we'd just rochambeaued toy guru)
i also like the ambiguity of the sharella info, cuz we can kind of fill her in where we want her. maybe she helped marzo cook meth in his trailer until she decided to get her life together and start a music career? maybe she was on a soap opera, "the green and the restless?" perhaps one evening she was coming home from a night of partying and was on dead man's curve when her brakes gave out and while she was careening out of control, she suddenly struck a wandering eternian named Ho-Bo and killed him, but she didn't want to get caught, so she dumped the body into the sea of raqash and drove off, but the next morning, a nosy he-ro noticed she had chunks of scalp in the front grill of her '67 eternos charger and started asking uncomfortable questions till she eventually had to sneak a poisonous asp into his gym bag, but unfortunately, grayskull opened he-ro's gym bag first, to get out the new "axe body spray" he-ro was bragging about and instead it was grayskull who was bit, making him weak and sickly when hordak and the ramblin' horde showed up for the football game and king grayskull and the eternos men at arms lost the game for state championships 27 to 7, so for her eternal shame, she pledged that never shall hordak lay hands on the precious championship trophy?
Snarf! Snarf!
the only problem with that bio for me is the 500 years.
Millenia would've been a better time from King Grayskull all the way to Adam. That way the legends of King Grayskull and the Fabulous Secret Powers hidden within his Castle could be almost forgotten. Plenty of Time for Karak Nul to turn inot Scareglow, Gygor attempting to take the powers of Grayskull, Wun-Dar being Savage, Oo-Larr's adventures, Marzo's Great Unrest issues, and Keldor's "Rebellion" without having all these events crammed down in such little time.
Castle Grayskull is a place full of magic, so that would protect the Physical Castle for millenia or something. Also there's plenty of time to have a Sorceress lineage.
The only drawback would be Having Hordak prisoner for Millenia. Easily fixed by saying that Hordak was captured for Millenia on Despondos. Keldor tried to free him during the unrest (Trying to reclaim his throne) but failed. Add the Birth of Skeletor and failed Kidnapping of the twins. Forcing The Sorceress and MAA to create the Mystic Wall.
Barbecue17
Nice analysis of a unique bio. I personally am glad that Mattel is at least attempting to work the alternate He-Man figures into the storyline. Sure it complicates things a bit, but I like the idea of a long line of protectors, all of whom play different roles. I'd rather see that some effort went into working them into the line rather than just saying something is a concept figure.
I assume the name He-Man simply comes from the fact that they are Men who guard the sword of He (Aren't we supposed to learn who He is at some point?) Maybe they derive their name from He-Ro, who first brought the sword of He to Eternia as an honor to him. Perhaps every He-Man has had some varied and unique threat which led to their calling by the Goddess. Besides Wun-Dar, Oolar, and Vikor, are there any other He-Man concepts that we know about? What if the NA He-Man was reinterpreted in the Classics storyline as He-Man's son or something, taking over the fight while Adam rules Eternia?
Or maybe He-Man is kind of like Dr. Who. Maybe every time He-Man dies, he regenerates himself. J/K