Rattlor
Real Name: Slltyo of the Rattlor House
A loyal leader in King Hssss’ army, Rattlor was the first of the Snake Men to escape their imprisonment in the Void. He worked with the Snake Men descendent Kobra Khan to liberate the entire serpent army. Once freed, Hssss quickly began a three-way war against the Masters of the Universe and Skeletor’s Evil Warriors, with Rattlor leading the attack. Eventually, Khan manipulated Hssss into demoting Rattlor and he defected to the evil Horde army. Under Hordak, Rattlor became known as “The General†for his keen insight into enemy strategy. After sounding his sinister battle rattle, Rattlor lashes out at victims with his terrible quick-strike head!
This bio is interesting because it strives to provide in-universe explanations for two completely incidental aspects of MOTU history.
The first is Rattlor’s inclusion in the Horde. The Snake Men, of whom Rattlor was a member, were created as a new sub-line of villains for He-Man to fight in the vintage 1980s Masters of the Universe toy line. By the time the Snake Men showed up at toy stores, the Filmation He-Man cartoon had been off the air for a while – but She-Ra: Princess of Power was still in production. The show already had the Horde for its villains, but the Prime Directive could not be denied, and so Rattlor, as well as fellow Snake Man Tung Lashor, made a few appearances on She-Ra as members of the Horde. (For a rundown of his role on She-Ra, visit The Ultimate She-Ra Guide.) Oh, and then he popped up as one of Skeletor’s Evil Warriors in the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special, but apparently that wasn’t worth twisting the bio story to explain.
Then there’s “The General.” When Mattel brought MOTU back in the early 2000s, it found that a few of its former trademarks had expired, and that included “Rattlor.” So while they could use the name Rattlor on the show and in the comics, it couldn’t be slapped on a toy package. (A similar problem occurred with Fisto/Battle Fist.) The solution Mattel came up with was to call him “The General” on his toy package. Why not “General Rattlor” (just like Hasbro does with “Autobot Ratchet” and so forth)? I don’t know. But anyway, this bio really goes out of its way to explain that discrepancy.
Is this fanservice? I feel like this is fanservice. Or does that only apply to gratuitous shots of scantily-clad female characters?
AmericanHyena
Fan service or no, they included the Horde arm band, which they really didn’t need to do, and I was more than happy to have it for Horde Prime.
PrfktTear
Or in many cases where people are giving it to Cy-Chop.
PrfktTear
I think of these bios like a buffet… there's always the good stuff you keep going back for — but then theres the sketchy items that looks like it hasn't been touched all day and starts to have sort of a funny looking film over it… I digress.
Honestly they should have stopped at "Rattlor leading the attack" — adding the bit in there about being demoted and defecting to the Horde is definitely fanservice. I guess to some people it may be nice to explain how he ended up working for the Evil Horde of Evil. The bit in there about how he became known as "The General" was just dumb. Did they explain how Fisto became known as "Battle Fist" in his bio?
The last sentence, "After sounding his sinister battle rattle, Rattlor lashes out at victims with his terrible quick-strike head!" is a nice nod to the old action feature though!
The_Fun_has_been_Doubled
Personally, I think the name should have been Rattlor of the Slltyo clan. and be the Snakemen's General. Then after being betrayed by
StarscrKobra Khan he and Tunglashor are captured and brainwashed by the Horde; who now use them against the King they used to serve. Sadly, I'm no writer.dayraven
i think thids qualifies as fanservice, to make the motuc client feel like loose and ready to burst… at the wallet.
i hate titles-as-names. just in general prinicipal, the "archetype word as a name" is bogus (and yes, even on characters i like such as he-ro) it is the bottom of the creative barrel.
the bio doesn't do anything though to accommodate tung lashor… what evil will khan work on lashor to send him to the horde too? it's not a very artful nor is it very wise of hordak to fill your ranks from the enemy army, especially in light of such an obvious ruse… i mean, come on, once a snake man always a snake man, these guys are using a classic "which side am i on?" swerve! they infiltrate the horde, feed information back to king hsss, and the snakes strike when hordak is least able to fight back… they're snakes!
Poe Ghostal
At least in the various fantasy fiction, like "The Shadow Kingdom" or V, the reptoids take the trouble to make themselves look like humans when they're doing their infiltrating. In the MOTUC world, only King Hssss does that, and as the king he's probably the least likely to be actually doing the grunt work of infiltrating enemy groups.