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

Real Name: Gygorâ„¢

Shortly after the Great Unrest, Keldorâ„¢ was driven behind the Mystic Wall and Gygorâ„¢, Lord of the Vine Jungle, led an army of beast men in a series of raids against the long forgotten Castle Grayskull, believing the many tales of its great and mysterious power. It was only through the combined powers of Oo-larrâ„¢ — the jungle He-Man — and The Goddess that Gygorâ„¢ was defeated and placed in a state of suspended animation. Eventually, Hordak returned to Eternia and the savage gorilla was freed by Evil-Lyn in her attempt to bolster Skeletor’s forces against the new Horde army. Gygorâ„¢ uses his great strength to fight the Heroic Warriors.

Portrait Art Source: Recolored Big Jim marketing/packaging art

As you may or may not know, I’ve already expressed my thoughts on the Gygor bio as a guest on the 23rd episode of the Roast Gooble Dinner podcast. But since you guys didn’t get a chance to chime in like usual, I’ll re-post my thoughts here.

First off, I reiterated my stance that I think Gygor should have been a good guy. I’ll admit that part of this comes from personal bias; I just want him to be a good guy. But I think I also make a pretty decent argument as to why he should be a good guy.

It has nothing to do with the fact that a Gygor prototype in the 1980s apparently had a saddle for He-Man, suggesting he was therefore good. I specifically tried to set that fact aside when I asked Mattel about it, but they sidestepped and went right back to it. What I wanted to know was why they’d chosen to make him evil in Classics. Was it the black armor? The roaring face? Was it because they thought it would just be cooler?

Here are my main reasons for why I think Gygor should be good.

First off, Masters of the Universe was always about balance. Battle Cat and Panthor, Stridor and Night Stalker, Tytus and Megator–particularly in the case of the beasts, there was always a good and evil version. What’s more, we’re already getting another version of Gygor–the Shadow Beast, who’s explicitly evil. By making Gygor good, we could have had the classic MOTU balance between good and evil. Instead, the Evil Warriors–who, let’s face it, are already loaded with awesome characters–get two giant beasts.

What’s more, Gygor’s colors are just as good as they are evil. Who’s the other major beast with a yellow and green color scheme? Battle Cat. Who else has a yellow and green color scheme? Man-At-Arms, the Wind Raider, and Mer-Man. So that’s 3-1 in favor of the yellow and green better representing the good guys.

Of course, the color issue is a more spurious point. Ultimately, I just think it would have made more sense for Gygor to be good. On the other hand, I don’t have to give a shit about the bios, so my Gygor is good and there’s not a thing any of you can do about it.

But the point of these posts is to discuss the bios, so let’s discuss. As I noted in the RGD podcast, the first half-sentence there seems to serve no purpose other than to anchor the events at a certain time. It makes it clear that Oo-Larr and the Goddess were running around just a few years before the Prince Adam He-Man arrives, though to what degree Eternians were aware of Oo-Larr as He-Man is unknown. It also suggests that the Sorceress and the Goddess may have been contemporaries, which seems kind of weird, but given that the Goddess is evidently a “spirit guide” that is alive from at least the time of King Grayskull to the era of the Great Unrest, perhaps it’s not so odd. It does make me wonder what the relationship between her and the Sorceress is, though.

The whole bit about Oo-Larr and the Goddess defeating Gygor and placing him in suspended animation almost seems contrived solely to add another item to the list of awful things that the Pandora of Eternia, Evil-lyn, unleashes. Fortunately, the bio implies that Gygor actually did just work for Skeletor (though why a former Lord of the Vine Jungle would agree to do so is beyond me).

Finally, there’s the fact that Gygor evidently led an army of beast men. This has led to much discussion as to whether Beast Man can control Gygor, and again, I’ll reiterate my argument. My theory is that Beast Man and others of his race can only control creatures that aren’t fully sentient. This explains why he can’t control Battle Cat, but can (somewhat) control Man-E-Faces’s monster form, which isn’t very intelligent and is more like a mindless “berserker.” That lack of self-awareness while in monster form allows Beast Man to partially (but, as shown in MYP, ultimately unsuccessfully) control MEF.

Of course, I’m making a lot of assumptions here based on previous canons, i.e., that Battle Cat is sentient. I think the Filmation/talking minicomic Battle Cat was obviously sentient, but the MYP one I’m not so sure about (although I don’t recall Beast Man ever being able to control him). As for Man-E-Faces, we don’t know anything about his MOTUC incarnation yet, but given how much the bios borrow from MYP I feel comfortable with my theory–for now, at least.