MOTUC Bio Discussion #18 > Adora

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

Princess Adora Bio

Real Name: Adora of the House of Randor (Leader in the Great Rebellion)

When Adora and her twin brother, Adam, were born, the Sorceress recognized they were the twins prophesized to wield the Power of Grayskull™. She magically cloned the Sword of He, enhancing it with the Stone of Protection so that each twin could have a key to unlock the Power. But Hordak™ also learned of the twins and arranged for his Eternian pupil, Skeletor®, to abduct the infants. Man-At-Arms® prevented Adam from being taken, but Adora was stolen away to the planet of Etheria, deep in the Dimension of Despondos. There, she was raised by Hordak™, until the day her brother returned, handing her the Sword of Protection, which she held aloft to become She-Ra™ — The Most Powerful Woman in the Universe!

Portrait Art Source: She-Ra Style Guide

First things first: I’m going to be a jackass and point out that “prophesized” is not a word. It should be “prophesied.”

So. The Sword of He. This incredibly powerful mythic weapon, bestowed upon Eternia by the Trollan Overlords of the Timeless Dimension of Ancient Eldritch Colossal Epicness–so powerful that when King Grayskull died, it had to be split in half and hidden lest the dark powers ever catch wind of its existence–this amazing artifact of universal power? CLWNED, BITCH.

Yes, here we get the first controversial mention of the Sorceress having “magically cloned” the Sword of He, which was then enhanced with the Stone of Protection. I’m sure the Bio Writers (BW) could cook up some sort of story whereby, through this vastly complicated one-time-only spell, the Sorceress managed to clone the Sword of He–cloned and enhanced it, mind you. I usually try to give the BW the benefit of the doubt, but I think this cloning idea represents a significant paucity of imagination. I’d rather the Sword of Protection have its own origin unrelated to the Sword of He than get this. At the very least, couldn’t have the Trollan Overlords have bestowed both swords? I think making it a cloned sword weakens the independence and strength of She-Ra’s character. Suffice to say, I’m ignoring this angle.

By the way, don’t even THINK about connecting this Stone of Protection with the one in He-Ro’s staff. DON’T EVEN THINK IT!! NO, STOP! STOP THINKING IT! They’re not the same thing. Do not imagine some sort of intriguing connection between He-Ro and She-Ra that better incorporates her into the mythos and prevents Adam from having a monopoly on the mythic forebear angle. It never happened. It totally wouldn’t be cool if it turned out that He-Ro was She-Ra’s mythological antecedent, as King Grayskull was He-Man’s.

The rest of the bio is nearly identical to the familiar bio we know from the cartoon, and I have no problems with it. But it does reference the fact that King Grayskull evidently banished Hordak and the Horde to a dimension that had an inhabited planet. Kind of sucks for Etheria. I’m going to hope that KG was unaware of this when he banished them. (In the Millennium cartoon version, I believe Hordak had opened the dimensional portal which KG then co-opted and sent Hordak into, so that couldn’t really be blamed on him.)

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20 Comments

  1. AJ

    The "cloned sword" business sucks!

    Since when do you have non-identical clones? The Sword of He looks like the "toy" version, the Sword of Protection (which probably should be named the Sword of She) looks like the "cartoon" version.

    In my personal "canon", She-Ra's sword is He-Ro's staff in the form of a "sword". After all, She-Ra's sword was able to change its shape/form, so while He-Ro may have preferred a magical staff, She-Ra uses a magical sword. It also helps tie in the similarities in their abilities and their costumes/armour (since She-Ra's costume looks nothing like He-Man's "barbarian" costume). And I like that She-Ra then gets her own "history" as opposed to simply being an add-on to the history of the "Sword of He".

    Finally, what is with the Sorceress and cloning stuff? She clones herself to make Teela. She clones the Sword of He. Is she addicted to cloning stuff? Is that her super-power? Is her "real name" going to be Clone-Her? And if she's so good at cloning, couldn't she clone another sword for Randor (if it is the blood-line that activates the "power" of the swords) not to mention cloning 1,000 versions of Adam and giving each of them a cloned version of the "Sword of He" to make an army of He-Men?

  2. Lycor

    First things first: I’m going to be a jackass and point out that “CLWNED” is not a word. It should be “CLONED.”

    sorry – really couldnt resist . . .

  3. Thrawn

    I have many problems with this bio. Almost all of which you guys have already addressed above.

    1. The cloned sword. Crap, what a stupid idea.

    How do you clone the most powerful weapon in the universe? All you had to say was that the Trollans gave them two swords, which makes sense if you read the subscriber's map of Eternia.
    It states that the Trollans and the Eternian elders knew the twins of power were going to be born on Eternia. It then states that the sword was split while awaiting the worthy heirs. So does that mean that Adora and Adam were only supposed to each get a split sword? I'm lost.

    There should have just been two swords to begin with since apparently they knew there was going to be twins.

    2. Why couldn't they attach some significance to He-Ro's stone in his staff by saying that it was the stone in Adora's sword. That at least would have kept everything in balance.

    He-Man/Grayskull. She-Ra/He-Ro. He-Man gets the more physical aspects and she gets the more magical aspects (healing, talking to animals, etc). With some hybridization between the two. Also since Grayskull and He-Ro both get their powers from the same source there's no contradiction and it reconciles both He-Ro and Grayskull.

    3. Lastly why is an idyllic planet like Etheria populated by hot women doing in what is basically a hellish dimension? That's just dumb. MYP really screwed that up.

    What they should have done was state that it was Horde Supreme that fought, killed, and was subsequently defeated by Grayskull. Then he could have been banished with a sizeable amount of the Horde to hell never to return.

    With a much weakened and severely lessened Horde, Hordak takes over for his brother. Then he goes to Eternia and starts the great unrest with what's left of the Horde. That way it keeps the Filmation timeline intact, and it allows me to get a MOTUC 200x variant of Hordak that can be used as Horde Supreme.

  4. Dankone

    Uhhh… Attack of the Clones… Anyone? 🙂

  5. Damien

    I'm not much of a POP fan so take it with a grain of salt but, I dislike this bio. I find it generally boring and I'm not really sure I even care for the Hordak kidnaps and then raises Adora angle.

    But the worst is the idiotic cloning of the sword. SO stupid. In my MOTU – He-Ro's magic staff utilized the stone of protection, which after his death was forged into a new, different 'power sword.' Makes WAY more sense than this cloning crap that keeps going on.

  6. PrfktTear

    Haha… OF COURSE! What was I thinking?! 😉

  7. Dead Man Walking

    @PrfktTear:

    King Grayskull was huge, wasn’t he? So his sword had to have been pretty freakin’ huge too. What if after the coming of the twins was prophesied, the Sword of He was melted down and from that came two power swords?

    You're thinking of 200X. In MOTUC KG is maybe an inch or two taller than He-Man, or basically about Teela's height. Remember, in MOTUC every male has the exact same proportions, as God intended.

  8. PrfktTear

    The cloning of the sword of He kinda sucks. To me a clone is essentially a fascimilie; an exact copy, but inferior to the original. I would rather believe that the swords were forged at the same time, perhaps deep in Eternia by one of the Caligar master blacksmiths.

    King Grayskull was huge, wasn't he? So his sword had to have been pretty freakin' huge too. What if after the coming of the twins was prophesied, the Sword of He was melted down and from that came two power swords?

  9. Mose

    I’d rather they have said that the Stone of Protection was from He-Ro’s staff. It would have made more sense to me. It’s like they’re trying to make her sound inferior.

    PS: Wasn’t one of the stones He-Ro came with called the spell of protection?

  10. Poe

    @Dead Man Walking: I'm going to hope/assume that Hordak merely learned of the twins' existence and planned the kidnapping as a way to get leverage on King Randor. He presumably didn't know about the prophesy–because if he did, that's a plot hole you could drive a truck through.

  11. Dead Man Walking

    Wait, if Hordak knew that Adam and Adora were prophesied to wield the Power of Grayskull–or at least that they were very important, and threat to him–and he informed Skeletor, for the sake having them kidnapped, then wouldn't Skeletor know that Adam is He-Man, or at the least have a constant goal of destroying him?

  12. FakeEyes22

    @Snarf! Snarf!

    Wow, I hadn't considered the big picture.

    If you trace He-Man back to KG and She-Ra back to He-Ro, no only do we explain the sword of wisdom, but KG and He-Ro no longer seem as redundant. With his headband and abundant gold, He-Ro wouldn't have even looked out of place in a PoP flashback episode.

  13. Replicant

    In my bio She-Ra's sword was originally created by Queen Veena.

  14. Snarf! Snarf!

    Magic Cloning… Blegh!

    So she rejoined the sword to clone it or did she clone half?

    If she did the first why not Keep the Sword within Grayskull and call it a day.

    If she cloned half, well that's saying that she-Ra's crappier than He-Man…

    On the Stone of Protection. Moronic move on Mattel's part. They had the Perfect explanation on why the Twins' powers were so different by using He-Ro's stone.

    Sword of Power is more aligned with KG's Physical Might.

    Sword of Protection while having access to KG's physical might, the sword is more aligned with He-Ro's magic powers because of his stone.

    Don't Like having Etheria within Despondos since that means that Hordak's been the Etherian ruler (dictator) for over 400 years or something.

  15. Barbecue17

    I like how anytime story based questions are asked in the Q&A's, we are told to wait and see, even when the questions seem to be only asking for something to be clarified.

    Honestly, by looking at the writing of these bios, someone is just hacking stuff out. I like the bios, but they definitely do not convince me that Mattel has all of this story planned out through 2016. They might have a general direction and some ideas, but the details are often just too bizarre.

  16. Nik

    I'm not very dedicated to, or educated in, the canon but it seems to be that the cloned sword was inferior, being a clone, and the stone was just a magical addition, to bring it back up to par.

  17. FakeEyes22

    Oh yeah, about the sword/stone connection, I don't tend to pick on the bio writers much but I'd call this aspect a failure. A bunch of fans found a very easy way to take elements of their current continuity and have them make perfect sense. I declare a fan based retcon on this one.

  18. Raf

    *cough*Jump*Cough*shark*Cough*

  19. FakeEyes22

    I'll always believe that She-Ra is a great, active female character, but even as a kid it felt a little like a forced, cheesy, cash grab. As far as spin offs and retcons go, she was fortunate enough to be well done. Otherwise we'd have a similar disdain as we do for Star Wars prequels.

    Time and childhood memories are on her side too. If MOTU was at retail and she was introduced today, the adult fandom would explode with typical unreasonable rage, despite the relative quality.

    The idea of Skeletor being an amazing warrior who has possibly been to or lived in the Palace, who is merged with a demon monster but then poops his loincloth in his feeble attempt to kidnap his own nephew has made a very silly situation into a hilarious one.

  20. Griffin

    I haven't really joined in on these, because in general I ignore the bios completely and rely on my memory of the cartoon and my imagination to fill in the character details. But I completely agree that this bio is just lazy writing. Plus the idea of cloning the sword is just silly. Its THE sword of power, not a sword of power. I like your connection with He-Ro much better. It was just sitting there staring them in the face too. Sword of protection, stone of protection, easy. But turns out to be just lazy naming.

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