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

Count Marzoâ„¢ Bio

Real Name: Marzo Kalifâ„¢

A fifth degree wizard raised by evil mystics in the Dunes of Doom, Marzo spent most of his early life learning of the many advantages of magic over technology. Seeing the suffering of warriors in the Dark Hemisphere, Marzo become convinced that Eterniaâ„¢ would be better off with him as its leader. He staged a series of strategic uprisings across the planet and challenged King Miroâ„¢ for his crown. Unable to defeat the King’s army, Marzo used his magical amulet to banish Miro into another dimension. In their father’s absence, Miro’s royal sons heroically joined together and defeated the wizard, trapping him in the form of a powerless old man.

Right off the bat, I have questions here. What’s a fifth-degree wizard? That means nothing to me without a frame of reference. I’ve never done karate, so I don’t even have the whole black belt analogy to work off of. For all I know, Criss Angel is a fifth degree wizard. I suppose by context–Marzo ended up being pretty badass–the fifth degree is pretty high, but if you’re not going to explain the system, why not just say “a powerful wizard”? Details, details.

It seems that Marzo had the same epiphany Keldor did: that Eternia would be “better off with him as leader.” Once again, a bad guy is given a mildly heroic motivation, in this case, the “suffering of warriors in the Dark Hemisphere.” I suppose there might genuinely be a humanitarian crisis question regarding the whole Mystic Wall/Dark Hemisphere concept; we don’t know the details on that, so for all we know, thousands or millions of innocents were trapped on the dark side of the Mystic Wall (kind of like how King Grayskull gifted Hordak upon Etheria).

I examined much of the rest of this bio in the Keldor discussion; I’m still really curious about the timing of everything, though. I want to know when the following events occurred in relation to each other: Keldor’s banishment, Miro’s disappearance, Keldor and Randor working together against Marzo, and Keldor’s ultimate betrayal of Randor. The particular sequence has dramatic consequences for the storyline. When Keldor and Randor worked together, was it when Keldor was still a welcome member of the court, and the brothers still pals? Or was it a reluctant joining of enemies against a common foe–with Keldor scheming solely to take a potential rival (Marzo) out of the picture? I have to say that’s a very Skeletor-style move (see the She-Ra episode “Of Shadows and Skulls”).

I almost forgot–the real name. A “caliph” was a term used by Islamic countries for centuries to refer to their rulers. It’s an interesting choice, because it gives Marzo a Middle Eastern character, reminiscent of the villains of One Thousand and One Nights (or, y’know, Jafar). I actually like this allusion to “caliph,” and I think it works. At the very least, it resolves my previous uncertainty as to whether 200X Marzo was more Middle Eastern or more Eastern European (the accent on the MYP cartoon was somewhat ambiguous).