Hi, this is Gary Jock, and you're listening to
the Geekcast Radio Network. I am Adam, Prince
of Eternia, defender of the secrets of Castle
Grayskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend.
Fabulous... This is Man at Arms, and you are
listening to the Masters of Greyskull. Hello,
this is Optimus Solo, and welcome to the 123rd
chapter in our Powers of Greyskull series. With
me for this journey into the Masters of the Universe
franchise is TFG1 Mike. Hello, sir. Hello, sir.
How are you? I'm doing fabulous. I have He -Man
and Skeletor watching over us on this record,
so I think that's apropos. And I have Funko Pop
Prince Adam and Funko Pop Slime Pit He -Man watching
over me. So, you know. The first He -Man and
Skeletor figure I've purchased in... 40 years?
No, it might be ever. Because I'm sure those
were purchased by somebody else to give to me.
Well, of course, yes. Okay. This might be the
first ones I've ever bought. Well, no, I take
that back. I bought a... I might have bought
one off of eBay of the original series when I
was doing my hero and villain collection, which
I need to bust back out and get displayed somewhere.
But yeah, this is the new series of the origins
of He -Man. There was a Prince Adam and a Skyslade
available. It was kind of expensive. There was
also a Battle Cat available, which was also kind
of expensive. I just sprung for just Skeletor
and He -Man. They didn't have any of the other
figures yet. And I don't know if I'll get any
other ones or not. They are decent figures. They
are flexible. They pose well. The sword, the
power sword, or the sword for Skeletor and for
E -Man, they both come with one. They're a little
disappointing, only because it's like half a
sword, because they're supposed to, I assume,
be able to be put together. Yeah, I think so.
I'm probably most likely, since you're talking
about this, I'm probably most likely going to
post up Pixel Dan's YouTube video about these
figures in the show notes for this episode of
Powers of Greyskull. But yeah, I noticed that
when I was watching his videos, that it's a half
sword kind of thing. And I never liked that when
it came to that. It would be fine if they would
have designed the other half of the sword to
at least look okay when it's apart. Yeah. But
it looks like it's just been cut in half. Yeah.
But I do like that he came with his axe as well
and the shield. And Skeletor obviously came with
the Havok Staff as well. And obviously they're
more poseable than the 80s version. So I dig
them. They're fine. And they're watching over
us on this record. So there we go. Are you ready
to return to Eternia, sir? Yes, for the final
time. Well, at least in this iteration, because
this is the last time we can call this the Masters
of Greyskull. Because after this, we're done
with the 2002 He -Man show. Yes, and in this
episode of Masters of Greyskull, we will be giving
you our thoughts on the entire 2002 series as
we wrap up this installment to the MOTU franchise.
So we hope you're ready, because it's time one
last time, for now, to go back to Eternia. All
right, that's right. It is time for the wrap
-up of the 2002 Motu series. The way we're going
to do this, guys, is we have a couple different
sections outlined. We're going to do a little
bit of character talk where we discuss our favorite
and either least favorite or most disappointing
characters that we observed or watched during
this series. We'll bounce back and forth on that
a little bit, and then we'll go into some episode
talk, giving you guys our thoughts on what the
best and worst episodes are of the series, in
case you're just looking to check out a few episodes.
Oh my god, He -Man just did a nosedive. Alright,
and then after that, we're going to give you...
Skeletor wins! Yes! He just pushed him off of
a cliff, literally. So we've got some live action
going on with you guys today. And then towards
the end, we're going to be giving you some of
my statistics, like I always do. So some trivia
and statistics as far as the rate... Go and how
Mike and I fared on this series. Talk about the
writers, maybe a tiny bit, and then just an overall
discussion of our final thoughts of the 2002
series and just some quick notes about the future
of our podcast here. So are you ready, Mike?
Of course. All right. Well, why don't you go
ahead and start us off with your fifth favorite
character? If you have five, did you have five?
Yeah. Okay. What's your number five? Alright,
fifth favorite character is Man -at -Arms. Okay,
why? First of all, it's Gary Flippin' Chalk.
Man -at -Arms, I mean, I love what Alan Oppenheimer
did with him in the original series, but Gary
Chalk's Man -at -Arms voice... Prince Adam, should
the forces of evil attack... What forces of evil?
My father and the Defenders drove him away years
ago. They're history. Right. Just love that.
I love the care. I love the way the character,
he, he, he wants to create battle plans, but
he doesn't want to rush into everything. But
then there are times where he does rush into
things. I love that about him. I love his relationship
with, with Tila and the sorceress and all of
that history. I think that's great. Uh, he's
just a really, really fun character to watch
in this. And I think it's, kind of depressing
how he ends up in the comic episode that we talked
about last time. That's a good one. I do like
that because I do like Gary Chalk as this voice.
If I was thinking more when I was getting this
episode ready together, I should have done most
improved over previous versions or most unimproved,
I guess, over previous versions. Because that's
one, Man at Arms is one that is definitely, I
think, better than the original series, the man
at arms in 2002, I would take over the man at
arms and film nation. Um, not that there's anything
wrong with the film nation character. I just
think we get a lot more of, uh, in depth of him
in this series. We learn more about him. And,
uh, and I think it's just performed to a little
bit more depth. So, um, I like that for my number
five, it's no surprise that this guy's going
to make an appearance, even though he doesn't
make a whole lot of appearances in the series.
If he shows up in the series, though, he's going
to be one of my favorites. So my number five
is going to be Zodak. I just love Zodak as a
character. I could do without the chair. So that
almost kept him off the chair that he has in
this series. But he is still a badass. He's still
one of the most powerful people in this franchise.
He does do some things that, I mean, he kills
freaking King Hiss. Yeah. At least for a temporary
moment. Temporary moment, yeah. But I mean, he
throws him off of Greyskull like a freaking defeated
piece of garbage. And for that alone, he should
be on here. So I love Zodak. He's only number
five because, let's face it, he doesn't get a
whole lot of time or a whole lot of appearances,
but he's still important to the series. And he
also gave what I feel is Prince Adam's best moment.
Which one? In that finale. Oh, okay. He's like,
He -Man is... Obviously, I'll throw a clip in
here somewhere, folks, but He -Man is needed.
Wait, you know... Could you at least turn around?
Oh, yeah. That was a good moment. Fine. And then
the... That literally could go down as my favorite
Prince Adam He -Man moment of the entire series.
It's one of my favorite moments, too. It's okay.
What's your number four? Huh? He -Man is needed.
He -Man? You mean... you know? Uh, could you
at least turn your back? Fine. By the power of
Grayskull! I have the power! Uh, that would be...
Okay, I'm going to say this right now. My number
four through number one, I kind of cheated a
little bit, but I'm just going to give that out
ahead of time. I'm going to write down what your
number four through one are real quick. All right,
go ahead. Cringer slash Battle Cat. Obviously,
Cringer, Battle Cat, same person, but kind of
two very different characters up until that last
moment when Adam says, you've got a lot more
Battle Cat in you than you think, Cringer. You've
got more Battle Cat in you than you think, Cringer.
I just love the way they did Battle Cat and Cringer
in this. Yes. I love that he doesn't talk. I
love that he talks in Filmation. Because again,
you've got to remember, two very different...
1983 to 2002. That's almost 20 -something, 30
-something years, whatever you want to call it.
20. That kind of thing. Whatever. You know, it's
one of those things where two different eras,
two very different reasonings, and almost every
single animal in the 80s, 70s, and 80s talked.
I mean, between Gleek and all the snorks and
the smurfs and the whatever, you had talking
animals out the butt. So, while I absolutely
love Cringer from the original series, Cringer
and Battle Cat in this, they were so much more...
I don't want to say timid for Cringer, but so
much more cat -like for Cringer, and so much
more almost lion -like for Battle Cat. Like,
I would not want to come face -to -face with
this Battle Cat when he was mad. I'm going to
keep that clip of talking animals out the butt.
Stop it. Also, I'm not sure if snorks and smurfs
are animals. I don't know what they are, but
I get your point regardless, and I agree. Snorks
are fish -like people. And smurfs are little
blue -like humans. I don't even know what they
are. Mushrooms. I don't know. I mean, anyway.
but I agree. Battle cat and country are definitely
good characters in this series as well. My number
five and my number four are kind of, I'm not
cheats, but they're kind of weird because they're
not huge characters in the series. My one through
three will be like your main, some of your main
people. But my number four, just because I loved
the fact that this character appeared at all.
And I was so stoked and so excited the very first
time I watched this series to see more of this
character, even though we don't ever get to.
So my number four is Hordak. I just think that
this version of Hordak had the potential to be
so awesome. Way better than the version that
we end up getting in She -Ra. Nothing against
that character, but what they did with She -Ra
is similar to what they did with He -Man in Filmation,
and they were making Hordak more of a comedic
character. And I like that in this series, he
was coming across more as the ultimate evil character.
Very able to do a lot of things that other villains
that they've come across have not done. And the
whole hierarchy with him and Skeletor and King
Hiss, etc. So I was just really looking forward
to see more of that version of that character.
So even though we didn't get to see much besides
a flashback and a brief appearance. Eternia.
Almost like a cameo. I still got to put Hordak
in here, so he's my number four. Awesome. What's
your number three? Randor and Marlena, the king
and queen, because you cannot have the king without
the queen. And they are good in this series.
They are amazing in this series because they're
used more. Now that the Council of Elders is
no more, where is the power of Eternia? I told
you, I don't know. But if I did, I would reveal
nothing. Perhaps a little not -so -gentle persuasion
is in order. Say hello, Pantheon. Randor, King
Toreus has agreed to our terms and signed the
agreement. So soon? Your diplomatic skills put
my own to shame, Marlena. Now hurry home. Your
king misses you. And your queen misses her king.
Tell Adam I'm flying over the corridors of Lithos.
When he was a child, we'd often come here with
Cringer to explore the caves. Out of, like, we've
been doing this a decade, folks. Like, seriously,
this podcast has been going on since 2011. And
I honestly... don't remember a lot of tales of
Eternia. I don't remember a lot of us praise.
I'm sure we did. I don't remember a lot. There
was the one episode where we get the earth connection
with the right with Queen Marlena. Yeah. Really
background. Yeah. I mean, but overall, even just.
having them as characters in the story kind of
thing. Normally they're off doing royal duties
or they're just sitting on their thrones while
He -Man and Skeletor are fighting, whatever else.
That's the one thing I love about this series.
It is so story and continuity driven. Oh, I love
it. And Randor has his moments. Marlena has her
moments. They have moments together and it's
just makes them such great characters in this.
I agree. I think that they're much better used
and more utilized in this series as well. They
would be on the short list of most improved over
Filmation versions if I were making a list of
that, which maybe one day I'll do. For my number
three character, I'm going to stick with the
evilness. I'm going to go from Hordak on number
four to I believe I'm going to gag. Then Skeletor
at number three. He could have almost been higher,
but Skeletor is just... hilarious in this series.
And I guess the difference between this and Filmation,
one of the main differences, is in Filmation,
over the course of obviously a lot more episodes
than we got here, it almost got to a point where
Skeletor was redundant. It got to the point where
they've already done everything they're going
to do. They're not going to give us much more
depth or character for him, so he just became
the same character every episode type thing.
And here I'm left at the end actually wanting
more because of how little they utilize Skeletor
in the second season. Yeah. Half of this series.
Like, I really wish he would have been more of
a character because I really enjoyed him over
the course of the first season. He seemed like
he was a little bit more evil. He was still funny,
but not in a belittling way. Not in more of a,
it's not an over the top kind of way. It's more
of a, it's more subtle humor because the story,
drives his character well and they did they did
him they made him funny At the expense of other
characters and not at the expense of his own
character. So he became cheesy and over the top
and somebody you were just throwing to the side
because he's pathetic. Like he still held on
to the powerful, the evil, the sinister aspects
of his character while being funny at the expense
of other characters. So I prefer that versus
him just being a joke himself. I'm not saying
he was a complete joke in the filmmation series,
but it was more towards the. comedic character
side than what they could balance in this series.
And that's what I really appreciated. I wish
it would have been different. Yeah. Yeah. I wish
he was more in season two as well. I think the
difference. Revenge is like Jafari stew. It tastes
best when served cold. All you will taste is
the bitterness of defeat, Keldor. I think not.
And the name is Skeletor. Is, and I'm just going
to say it right now. Skeletor slash Keldor. Again,
they're the same character, but it's still cheating.
It's two character names. He's my number two,
so I'm just going to go right into it. The difference
is between 2002 and Filmation is that they were
not... I did not feel like they... This is not
a cartoon I would show your newborn daughter.
When your newborn daughter gets to the age that
we were in 84, 85, I would not show this to her.
Because the 2002 series was for those of us who
did grow up with this. Those of us who knew Skeletor
as the bumbling fool. And no, I know I can't
do a Skeletor. But it's one of those things where...
I have a lot of the same traits. Yeah, but that's
the thing. Hey, shut up. That's the thing, though,
that the traits here are much more subtle. And
like you said, he's not the butt of the joke.
Everybody else is when he wants to be funny.
But when he gets sinister, I wish we had a little
bit more Kaldor. I wish we had a little bit more
of the origin there. I know we had the beginning
three -parter, and that was a great three -part
story to start this off. But I just wish that
that transformation from... from Keldor to Skeletor
was a little bit, this is why I love the DC comics.
All those comics that a DAS Baron and I have
covered over on the pull bag. This is why I love
those because you get so much more character
out of the mo two characters, but Skeletor is
still easily my number two because he, he is
just that awesome in this series. Yeah, obviously
I agree. For my number two, I'm going to go to
a character that's not going to be on your list
and a little bit maybe more off the beaten path,
but still a main character in this series. And
again, the reason I'm putting her in this spot
is because of, again, how much I believe that
it has improved over previous versions. And that
would be the guardian of Castle Greyskull herself.
I'm going to go with the sorceress at number
two. I just think... Well, okay, I admit it looks
kind of like me. How old is this carving? 17
seasons of the field. Well, there you go. I wasn't
even born. I'm only 16. A sorceress can appear
as any age she pleases. Well, trust me. I'm no
sorceress. Man -at -arms. Come to Grayskull.
At once. What I am about to recount, no mortal
has ever been told. It was many years ago. The
isolation of these walls had become too much
for me to bear. I longed to walk amongst Eternians,
to hear the laughter of children. Skeletor's
evil had not yet infected the land. The power
of the Elders was secure within the Crystal Chamber.
a peaceful village. The villagers were welcoming
and generous, offering me food to eat and a place
to sleep. There were simple pleasures to be had.
For the first time in as long as I could remember,
I felt... at peace. But the peace was shattered
when an evil warlord by the name of Props attacked
the village. The villagers tried to defend themselves,
but a young boy had informed the warlord of where
the weapons were kept. You see that? Easy target,
just like Oedipus told you. Oedipus is a big
help. Can Oedipus join up? Though much of my
power had been left behind in Grayskull, I summoned
what power I could. They explore her power, her
backstory, the history and origin of her character,
but then she gets to do so much more. I mean,
obviously, unfortunately, she gets infected by
King Hiss and is a little bit not able to perform
up to the top of her level or her abilities.
But again, that was for a reason, because if
she wasn't infected, she could have just, you
know. been a badass and made things how they
are. But, um, I just, I just think they used
her so well. I like the, the relationship that
she has in this series with, um, Adam slash He
-Man. And, uh, I don't know. I just, I just think
the, I like the design of the character better
than the filmmation one. Uh, I probably like
the voice acting a little bit better, um, not
to take anything away from, from Linda Gary.
Um, I just like the character overall better.
And I think she made a very strong presence in
this series. So sorceress is my number two. And
her best, her best motherly scolding was Zodak.
When she yelled at him to wake his ass up. Right.
So that's my number two. You already gave your
number two. So it's down to our number ones.
I have a guess what yours is, but I'll let you
reveal it. Go ahead. It is none other than, again,
and I'm cheating, so I fully understand. I'm
glad you did what you did, though, because at
first I thought you were going to do something
different, and I'm glad you didn't, so go ahead.
Well, you might be surprised, because I'm putting
both He -Man and King Greyskull as my number
one. No mortal has entered this chamber in an
eon. That's the guy in my dreams. Looks like
He -Man, but different. Your ancestor, King Greyskull.
I thought for a second what you were going to
do is you were going to say that Battle Cat was
your number four, Cringer was your number three,
Adam was your number one. No, no, no. He -Man
and King Greyskull. I absolutely love Prince
Adam. I really do. I love the learning he goes
through in the series. However, He -Man was...
Except for that one moment that I mentioned,
I think in episode 121 of the podcast, where
I felt that he could have been a little smarter
dealing with Hiss and figuring all of that out.
Other than that one moment, overall, I loved
He -Man this entire series. And King Greyskull
is his ancestor, and it's just as awesome. There
was a King Greyskull? So that means this castle
was once his. The very seat of his kingdom. When
my sword was lost in battle with the Snake Men,
I had hoped it was a sign that a time of peace
was upon us. Sadly, my king, that time has not
yet come. Even now the forces of evil are clashing.
One will emerge victorious, and then the true
battle for Eternia will be upon us. Though I
yearn for nothing more than an eternity of free
of bloodshed. If battle I must, then battle I
will. I like that. I think that's a clever way
to sneak King Greyskull in here. He was like
the OG. I like that. Very good. My number one,
most people might be surprised that this is going
to be my number one character. But I just think
there's a whole lot of depth to this character.
And yes, I'm going to actually stay with another
female character. Before your head breaks, it's
not Teela. I'm going with my number one character
as actually another evil character. I'm going
with Evil Lynn. Oh, wow. Yeah, I just think,
like, she's so smart in this series. She's so
conniving. She's manipulative. She is, and I'll
get into this more in a second, but outside of
Skeletor, obviously she is the most prominent
evil warrior that we get. But she's also smart
enough to somewhat form alliances with the Snake
Men so that she's around for that and trying
to play off that. She even has flirtations with
Hordak in a way of being aligned with him. All
these different things. Skeletor disappears for
most of the second half of this series, and Evil
Lynn remains. And it's like the one thing that's
tying that evil warrior presence to this whole
series. I like her character. I like the look
of her character. I like the performance of it.
We get a little bit more of her backstory in
one of the better episodes of the series where
we get to see a little bit more of her history,
which we never got in Filmation. So I was a huge
fan. I think this is, again, one of the ones
that's probably most improved over the Filmation
version. Because in Filmation, she was just another
one of the... the you know evil warriors kind
of on their same level she had a little bit more
power and maybe a little bit more smarts than
like a beast man but she wasn't much above them
and in this series she was elevated quite a quite
a bit above oh yeah i mean she has a bitch slapped
once yeah i mean she has the single greatest
evil villain story out of the i mean outside
of like keldor and and and all that but like
finally we get an origin for, for evil in, and
it's just so good. It's a good one. And it introduces
a good character as well with the, with the faceless,
faceless, nameless, faceless one, faceless one.
So yeah, I really enjoyed that episode as well.
So those are our favorite characters during the
2002 series. We're going to take a quick break,
let you hear from a couple of those characters.
And when we get back, we're going to talk about
maybe some of the characters that disappointed
us a little bit. We were just spending some time
on what, characters were better than the filmmation
version. We might get into a few that are worse.
So stay with us. Hordak defeated the snake man.
I never wait. Hordak. Hordak was in my dream.
Perhaps the past and present, your dreams and
destiny are more intertwined than we know. We
must discover how. With King Hiss defeated, the
true prize is now within my reach. The conquest
of Eternia. All right, thanks for sticking with
us. It's time to go negative for a second. Mike,
we're going to talk about least favorite or most
disappointing characters or characters that maybe
went the opposite direction from their Filmation
counterparts. I think there's one that we're
going to have in consensus. I'm interested to
see if you have any others. I have a few offside
of that, but let's go over the one that I know
we're both in agreement with, and that would
be which one, Mike? King Hiss? Oh, no, that's
one of yours. I figured we'd go with Orko first.
You know, it's funny. I did not actually write
him down because I felt as I felt as the series
progressed, he either wasn't around enough or
he had moments where he his character grew. I
think for sure, for me, he's worse than the filmmation
version. I just like the Filmation one better.
I know a lot of people don't like sidekicks and
don't like those types of characters and are
probably annoyed by Orko in Filmation. But I
actually kind of enjoyed him. I enjoyed him being
the bumbling guy that always got it wrong. I
enjoyed the voice of him, even if it's not for
everybody. I enjoyed the fact that occasionally
he would get something right and occasionally
he would help out in a plot. He was always right
there in the mix. This series, he's either absent
or at the beginning it's so weird because he's
just... I just don't like the combination of
the look and the sound and the performance of
him. No offense to those doing it, obviously.
I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead or anything,
but yeah, I just was not a fan of Orko in the
series overall. I could have done without him.
In fact, I think you could remove him from the
series and not much changes. But you have one
good episode again, one good learning moment,
Orko's garden. I thought that was a good. teachable
teaching time for him. I just mean like in the
continuity of the whole over. Right, right, right,
right. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. This,
this series is so serious and Orko is that not
necessarily kid character, but he kind of is,
he is, but generally he's the, he's the humor.
He's the, this, he's the, that you're not going
to have a moment where. He's in the back of the
Wind Raiders. I remember this distinctively because
I have it in one of our old Powers of Grayskull
series ads. It's at the end of it. Orko, what
are you doing here? I'm trying to sleep. This
Orko is not that Orko, and this series does not
have room for the comedy parts that Orko encompasses.
Right. But let's get over to King Hiss because
I know you had mentioned him. I will say that
he is my least favorite of the Snake Men. I don't
have him written down, so I'll let you take the
lead on this one. But why the hate for King Hiss?
I just... He's an okay character, but again,
it more so goes to... I wanted his story to be
wrapped up sooner rather than... Like, I would
rather... And I know they couldn't have done
this because the series only got 39 episodes.
I wish he would have gone into the void. And
then we had Hordak back. And King Hiss' story
would have gone away for a while. And we had
Hordak and Skeletor and this, that, and... I'm
not... The only... I just want to say probably
two. The only two Snake Men I actually like are
Cobra Khan and Tongue Lash. Or... You don't like
Rattler? Nah. I... like him for his voice because
it's Richard. It's frigging Rhinox. I like a
lot of the Snakemen. I like Squeeze. I like Tongue
Lasher. I like Rattler. I like Cobra Khan. I
don't know about Snakeface. Snakeface, yeah.
Honestly, if we could have just taken King Hiss
out, and obviously I don't think you can make
Rattler in charge. I don't think you can make
one of the other ones in charge because they're
all kind of henchmen. But let's go ahead and
do the crossover that I usually hate. Just bring
Serpentor in. He can be in charge of the Snakemen.
We've tried to get Serpentors in anyway, so just
bring Serpentor in. He can lead them. Boot King
Hiss out. But no, I'm with you. I think he should
have been thrown into the void. We should have
continued with the Hordak story, and that would
have been great. So I'm fine with King Hiss being
listed here. I was trying to come up with a master
that I could put in here. I'm not saying that
it's a least favorite necessary or that they're
disappointing or whatever, but... I guess if
I'm going down the rankings of all the masters,
the one, if I had to boot one out that I could
boot out, it would probably be buzz off. Oh,
easily. Because anything that you needed buzz
off for, we could have just given more time to
Stratos for, and then we just wouldn't have had
to have buzz off. So buzz off can buzz off. And
we would have been fine. Give Stratos some time
or give some other master some time. But if you
need a flying one, we already have Stratos. So
I think the combination of trying to do stuff
with Stratos and Buzz Off left me thinking that
Stratos got the shorthand. Right. And plus, they
had the whole thing of Stratos versus Buzz Off,
the Andrinids versus the Avions. And I'm like...
That was fine. Have that episode. But then...
For that episode. Everything else could have
been Stratos. Yeah. So any other characters you
have written down? Only because I'm not a spider
fan. I mean, not, not, not a creepy spider fan.
I'm not, I'm not an arachnophobia film, you know,
nineties film fan kind of web store, web store
creeped me out. I'm going to go a step further
on that one and say not just Webster, but I'm
going to cheat and say almost the entire group
of evil warriors in this series is a little disappointing.
I don't know if it's because we went so fast
into the Snake Men and Hordak and those different
stories, or if we had enough of just one -off
things, but Evil Lynn, as the exception, the
rest of the evil warriors I felt were made almost
to be too stupid, like too bumbling. And I know
that there's supposed to be a bit of that, but,
and I know like beast man's not supposed to be
smart. Like I get that for beast man, but they
made beast man. Um, they made a merman. That
one's really one of the ones that bugs me. Like
they made merman real dumb in this. Yeah. And
I don't see him like that. I see like in my vision,
trap jaws, not dumb. Um, He just has a certain
trait. He's the guy with a bunch of stuff he
can put on his arms. He's going to be your every
situation guy. Triclops is not supposed to be
dumb. He's supposed to be able to come up with
a lot of things and clever things. I thought
Triclops had a few good moments. I just felt
like they just treated the evil warriors in general
as kind of bumbling idiots and didn't give them
much time overall. if you were to like list off
the good moments by each of the evil warriors
over the course of 39 episodes, you wouldn't
have very many. Um, so I was a little disappointed
with some of those. I think they kind of pushed
them aside to focus on other things. Um, and
I, I mean, I, I do enjoy the fact that evil Lynn
has been so elevated above them that it's not
quite on their level, but I would have liked
a more of like, uh, almost like a hierarchy like
instead of evil in way up here and then all the
other evil warriors down here at the bottom i
would have liked evil in and then you know maybe
triclops and then trap jaw and then merman and
then be you know what i mean like some type of
like each one had a skill set or wasn't quite
as dumb as maybe the other one but i don't know
yeah i'll say this though i i feel that there
are two that do stand out to the point of what
we got for them Was better than what we potentially
would have, could have gotten from the old series.
And that's too bad. And stink or their origins.
I mean, you know, edifice, edifice, whatever
his name is, that becomes stink or, and then
Tuvra and, and Badra or whatever their names
are individually, how they did their origins
and how Skeletor put them together and, you know,
separated them and created the whole separation
of. of of the planet and this that and the other
thing and tried to get into the light hemisphere
dark hemisphere all i think all of that is really
really well done i think if we would have done
more of that that would have been fine i think
what makes me come more hard on the evil warriors
is more of the presence of two other characters
that for some reason i didn't mention yet that
also were featured a lot more than they were
in filmation and that would be clawful and whiplash
and i just think that the combination of those
two and beastman maybe it was the trio of them
And the way they treated Merman, that just made
me feel like it was like Three Stooges dumb at
that point. And I feel like he didn't need as
many characters to be that dumb. Agreed. I mean,
I'm not mad that they gave them more time, but
I just wish they could have done more like what
you talked about with Too Bad and Stinkor. Even
Webster at least got his thing. You might not
like him, and I'm not a Spider -Man either, but
he got his moment. But, yeah, so those are some
characters that we maybe didn't care about as
much as we would like to. We're going to take
a quick break, and then we're going to come back
and shift gears to talking about some of our
least and most favorite episodes. So stick with
us. We're going to talk about some episodes next.
Forgive me, Great Hordak, but perhaps now is
not the time. The clash with the Snake Men has
left our forces depleted. That is good counsel,
Kallax. But I so hate bad news. Alright, we're
gonna flip it this time and talk negative first
so we can end the episode talk with some more
positivity. So we're gonna go through our least
favorite episodes from the 2002 series. Before
you start, Mike, I just gotta say, we've done
this before for other series and whatnot. It
was hard for me to come up with a bottom five.
Top five was easy as, as easy peasy, like no
problem. The bottom five is hard in this series.
And the reason is, is because there's not that
many bad episodes. There's not that many bad
episodes. And again, there's only 39 versus 130
for each of man and Shira from the eighties.
Right. But here's the thing for me, I had. What
I had a harder time with was... You might have
had a problem with the favorite episodes, I guess.
I had problems picking my number five favorite
episode. Four through one, it was easy. However,
with the negative ones, with the ones I didn't
like, it was more of, okay, I have all these
ones that I didn't like. Where do I want to place
them and where do I want to rank them against
each other? As far as, like, which one is worst.
Right, right, right. It just feels weird to me,
because I'm going to have episodes that are in
my bottom five that I gave a three to. Like,
that's just a bizarre thought. Like, just because
we had so many episodes to choose from for the
Filmation version, like, your bottom five is,
like, zeros and ones and one and a halves and
twos and stuff like that. we're listing off episodes
we ranked as a three, which is an average episode.
So it's kind of bizarre to, I'm not going to
like hate on some of these that much. Um, but
it's going to be interesting. So what is your
number five least favorite episode of this series?
Buzz offs, pride, buzz offs, pride. I, it hurts.
I know it hurts you to say that. I only gave
it a three. Well, here's the problem. Like, And
I'm glad I reached out to Christy Marks because
she and her husband, Randy Littlejohn, wrote
that episode. I'm glad we got the behind the
scenes of someone who wrote on this series, wrote
an episode, and how it was, I don't want to say
dictated, but I will use that term, to them about
what the creators wanted them to write. From
what she initially had told us, you can go back
to whichever episode of this podcast that BuzzOff's
priding on. I don't remember off the top of my
head, folks. It's episode 20, by the way. Episode
what? It's episode 20 of the series. That's not
what... No, I mean the podcast episode. I don't
remember what podcast episode it is that we talked
about it, but it's one of those things where
it's nice to see that they had issues with...
doing that episode with he -man being the prideful
one and finding a character that the pride thing
and i think it worked with buzz off they made
it work and i remember us i remember me saying
this in the podcast when we did that when we
talked about the episode however it's not an
episode when i think of this series that i would
ever go back to and watch so it's one of my least
favorites yeah and it's unfortunate that um you
know obviously they had the the back and forth
they had to deal with during that time because
it probably could have been better without that.
But yeah, if you want to hear more about that,
that's episode one 14 where we talk about buzz
offs pride. I had that in the running too, as
one of mine. I had a real debate going on who
was going to be my number five pick for the worst.
And it was in the running, but I didn't quite
go with that one. I'm going to go with one that
you're going to disagree with just to rile you
up. But I'm going to go with, Episode 3, which
is The Beginnings Part 3. Oh, come on! This is
He -Man trying to save Ram -Man, who is captured,
and Teela trying to save Man -at -Arms from Merman.
And if you want to go back and listen, this is
the first episode that we did in this section,
but there's a whole subplot in here with Teela
trying to save Man -at -Arms from Merman that
is absolutely pointless. It does not belong.
It is filler in order to make this three -parter
three parts instead of two. We talk about it
back when we did this episode, but they had enough
content for like two and a third episodes. So
they stretched it into three episodes by making
this episode over bloated, not necessary and
not nearly as good as the first two. That's my
thought on the beginnings. Part three. What is
your number four? My number four is the deep
end. And I had to actually look this one up to
remember it, because if I don't remember the
damn episode, but this is the episode where.
He -Man must save man -at -arms from the belly
of a sea beast. Wait, what did you just say?
He -Man must save man -at -arms from the belly
of a sea beast threatening Castle Grayskull.
Yep. I am not a fan of this. Nope. It's about
as ridiculous as the plot. you mentioned in um
in beginnings part three it's the same plot yeah
that's the same yeah uh tila was trying to save
man -at -arms from merman and he was in the belly
of a sea beast and then we got he -man being
saved by saving man -at -arms from the belly
of a sea beast also in episode six happens in
episode three happens in episode six it wasn't
the first time it's not good the second time
Yeah, I'll get into that in a second. Oh, boy.
Back up. I should have said the beginnings part
three was written by Dean Stephan. He did a lot
of episodes, but that's who was in my number
five. Obviously, you've mentioned that Chrissy
Marks did Buzz Off's Pride. The Deep End, which
you just mentioned, was written by Brooks Wachtel.
For my number four, I am going to go with Kevin
Campbell's episode, episode number 36 in the
series, and that is Web of Evil. Fisto and Man
-at -Arms are drinking in the tavern, shooting
the shit, catching up on all times. They're brothers,
I guess. This is a confusing episode. It's not
needed at this point in the series. Episode 36,
it just doesn't belong. It should have been 15
episodes earlier, at least. There's no Skeletor.
We had Voltron. We had Donkey Kong rollercoaster
throughout the castle. Um, we had way too many
spiders that I don't care for. So there was,
it was, there was a lot of things involved in
this episode and I didn't care for most of them.
So yeah, web of evil is just not good. It's,
it's a bizarre episode. I don't know what was
going on. I think Kevin Campbell was drunk or
high or, or on acid or something when he did
this episode, or maybe he had like six episodes
that he was working on at the time. And they
were like, Oh, you were canceling the series.
So you only can write one. He just decided to
throw a whole bunch of shit in this one, but
it's weird. Weird. What's your number three?
That would be... I kind of hate to say this,
but it is. It's Second Skin. First of all, too
much Snake Men. Second of all, too much Snake
Men pulling a mask where they have to find whatever
MacGuffin Matrix thing you can think of kind
of thing. And then, you know, turning everybody
into snake people. And then that rubbing off
into Man -at -Arms later, because once you go
snake, you can't go back, apparently. Yeah. I
mean, I gave this one a four, so I didn't hate
it as much as you. I remember you not liking
it, so I'm not surprised that she was up here.
For my number three, I don't even remember who
wrote yours. That would be the second skin, right?
That's Steve Melching. Oh, I'm sorry, Steve.
Yeah, that's why it's so bizarre that you had
that there. Anyways, for my number three, I'm
going to go with the Michael Reeves episode.
This is number 13 in the series. It's called
Night of the Shadow Beasts. They turned the entire
episode into a PSA, and they even stopped the
episode at halfway through to explain it to us,
the PSA aspects of it. And also, the Shadow Beasts
look stupid. Um, they look silly, especially
from a distance. So this, I don't need, um, a
whole lot of PSA in my episodes. I certainly
don't need an entire episode that has turned
into a PSA. So I get people are afraid of the
dark. This episode suck though. Yeah. And that
episode was written by a really, really good
animation writer and storyboard and story. television
person, which is Michael Reeves. He's worked
on Batman the Animated Series, Gargoyles, a bunch
of other things in the 80s and 90s. I think the
series could have been, or the series, the episode
could have been decent, done a little bit differently,
but it just came across so preachy that it just
wasn't for me. So, sorry, Michael. I know you
do good stuff, just like Maltune does good stuff,
and Mike listed him. So, go ahead. What's your
number two? Web of Evil. Yes. There could have
been some other way you could have featured Web
Store. Yes. There could have been some other
way where... you'd have him up against Skeletor
or something like his whole thing in this episode
is he wants to take over. He wants to rule. He
wants to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh my
God. He now has ambrosia. Oh my God. He can now
lay all these disgusting spider eggs. Oh my God.
Oh my God. Oh my God. But yet there's nobody
here other than the masters. Like Skeletor isn't
stepping up to him. Skeletor disappeared at this
point. So yeah. yeah it's not good obviously
said on that one so my number two we haven't
talked about it yet also written by dean stefan
again he wrote so many episodes that he was bound
to come up and probably both parts of this but
uh i'm going with episode number 22 of the series
and that is called the island um this is the
episode that features decker who is um obviously
uh a friend of man at arms And we see crabs and
claw people against the masters. We see stupid
-looking jellyfish that make no sense whatsoever.
But really, it's just the whole fact that this
episode just seems completely out of place. This
comes between... Snake Pit happens right before
it, which is the introduction of the Snake Men.
And then we get this. And then we go back into
eventually the Council of Evil, etc. So it's
just like... I don't get this episode. It's weird.
I like Decker as a character. I wish he could
have had a better episode, but something just
didn't work with this one. So Island is my number
two. What is your number one? Number one would
be everybody heading down to Cobra Commander's
place. Awaken the Cobra. Awaken the Serpent,
huh? It was the worst series finale, and I know
they didn't plan it this way. This is the final
episode of the series written by Dean Stephan.
Right. I know they didn't plan it this way. I
know the story was supposed to continue, but
again, Cartoon Network is a fickle, fickle bitch
that only likes their own stupid animated stuff
that they do. You know, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny
Bravo, all that notwithstanding, but all the
more recent stuff. I just don't like Cartoon
Network original stuff anymore. I remember when
I was watching this back in 2002 and 2003, I
was like, Ooh, yay. New He -Man. Yeah. 22, 23
year old me acting like a four year old, but
it's one of those things where I was like, Oh,
this is what some things don't change. Hey, now
watch it. But it was like, oh, this is really
cool. Oh, very cool. Again, continuity this,
continuity that. Story -based this, story -based
that. These characters are really fun. Awesome.
I have more He -Man now. Because before this,
we had the new adventures. Anyway. But it just...
I don't know. May the man rest in peace. Dean
is Dean. Stefan is no longer with us. I don't
know what the, the hubbub was with this. I don't
know why, if it was cartoon network, if it was
Mattel, if it was whatever, maybe the toys weren't
selling. Cause I know you always stand up for
the whole, Oh, it's just a toy commercial thing
when really it isn't. But a lot of times toy
sales do affect animation at times. So it's one
of those things where. I wish we knew the story
of why I wish we knew was who was it that made
the decision? Because if they had just given
us like 45 episodes, if they had just given us
a little bit more to get a proper series finale,
you know, this is like, you know, sci -fi channel
canceling alphas or, you know, firefly only getting
one season or something. This just hurts. And
for this to be the final episode, It was just
underwhelming because it's more Snake Men stuff
that I don't, even back then I didn't care about
it, especially now I don't. Yeah. I mean, I get
that it's disappointing as a series finale. I
still don't think it's that bad of an episode.
I gave it a four, but I do get the disappointment
of the series overall ended on that note. So
I do understand that. So you had Awaken the Serpent
and Second Skin, two of the Snake episodes as
you're in your bottom five. I didn't have those
two. If I would have put a snake episode in here,
I didn't have it in my bottom five, but it would
have been rattle of the snake men for me. Cause
that was just like the third time that the snake
men were looking for another artifact to get
another bean free stuff like that. So that was
the one that I kind of had timed out on her,
you know, basically been ready to tune out on
the snake men by that point. That was episode
37. Um, so that would have been the one that
I put in there, but instead, um, for my number
one, it's one that's already been mentioned.
That is episode six written by Brooks Wachtel.
This is the deep end. This is the worst episode
in the series to me. Um, real close, but this
one's just so bad because we literally three
episodes prior had already gotten the story like
when they needed more room and, and. The beginning
is part three. So they stuck in a storyline with
Merman being inside or Merman capturing Man -at
-Arms, having him inside of Sea Beast. Fill that
episode out. And then they kept and they clearly
stole that from another script that they were
going to do. But yeah, that episode anyways,
three episodes later. Yep. Like there were some
good interactions between Skeletor and Evelyn.
So it wasn't like 100 % bad. I did give it a
two. This isn't like a one or a zero or something
like this. But it was just a redundant, not necessary
episode that just wasn't done well. So The Deep
End is my least favorite episode. And if you
were to go by our actual rankings, it was the
only episode that both Mike and I gave a 2 -2.
We did not give any scores out lower than a 2,
and it is the only episode that we both gave
a 2 -2. So, 2 -2. Please, stop saying that. So
that's with that. You didn't stick quite true
to your rankings, sir. I went by three and under.
So I like that. I went by with whatever that
photo was that you sent me. So that's what I
went by. Cause you had the deep end was your,
your only episode you gave a two and then you
had the Island and web of evil, which you gave
a two and a half. And then, like I said, we were
going to have to rank some threes. So you had
a couple of threes in there, which makes sense.
I had the Island in the Deep End at a two, Night
of the Shadow Beast at a two and a half, and
then I had to pick a couple of threes as well.
So those are episodes I would stay away from.
But like we said, some of those are still threes.
So it's just a sign that this series overall
wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Or
it probably benefited from the fact that there
was only 39 episodes because I didn't have a
whole lot of time to get bad episodes in there.
So when you have 130 or something, you're going
to have a few stinkers along the way. Yeah, and
like I said, if they had gotten to at least,
let's just say, two more seasons, 65 episodes
in total of the entire series, and worked on
the story and realized, oh, this is continuity
driven. We don't need a one -off episode where
Web Store is going to try to take over and no
one's going to stop him other than the good guys
kind of thing. Maybe we would have gotten more
with Skeletor. Maybe we would have gotten more
with Hordak and we would have left the Snake
Men alone. But there's nothing we can do about
that now. Yeah. We are going to take a quick
break and then we're going to talk some more
positive stuff. We're going to tell you which
episodes you should check out. If you only have
a chance to check out five episodes of this series,
we're going to tell you which ones those should
be. So stick with us. Never was there a heart
as pure and good as yours, my husband. I must
act. You must help me. If you choose this path,
there is no turning back, and you may perish.
And if I do nothing, then all of Eternia shall
perish. All right, thanks for sticking with us.
Like I said before the break, if you only have
a chance to listen to five or watch five episodes
of the 2002 series, this is going to be Mike's
and my opinion on which five you should watch.
All right. This is a little bit harder for me
because there were so many more good episodes
in this series than there was bad. But my ranking
system kind of helped because I really only gave
five episodes of five. So that was pretty easy
for me. You gave like a thousand episodes of
five. So it's going to be a lot harder for you.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven. You have 12 episodes of five.
So you had a harder time probably narrowing this
down. But what did you come up with your fifth
best episode of the series? My number six and
number five. Number five is a tie between Mackinac's
Lament and Sweet Smell of Victory. Okay. I love
what they did with Mackinac here. I love that
they kind of tie him into Count Marzo in the
beginning kind of thing. I thought that was really
cool. I thought that was a great way to introduce
Marzo, a great way to show off Mackinac. I think
that's great. Sweet Smell of Victory is just
a fun. frigging episode because you have an origin
for stink or you have this little character that
everybody's looking for that he just wants to
fit in kind of thing. And then he, you know,
finally just rebels against everything and says,
screw it. I'm going to be an evil warrior and
smell is going to be my, my evil power. And I
just, I love that. I thought that was great.
Interesting. You did not rank Sweet Smell of
Victory as a five when we watched it. I know
I didn't. That's interesting. You gave that one
a three and a half. So I'm interested that that
made it in there amongst your 12 fives. But Mechanic
Lament, you gave that one a five. I gave that
one a four and a half. So obviously I'm not going
to disagree with that. That was written by Laura
Olson and Eric Runnels. Sweet Smell of Victory
was Kevin Campbell. But interesting. That's not
what I thought was going to be your tie. All
right, all right. For my number five, I am going
to go with episode 21, written by Stephen Melching,
and that is Snake Pit. That would be the initial
introduction to the Snake Men. We got a lot of
Cobra Khan in here. We get the history of Snake
Mountain. We get the history of the Council of
Elders. It's first appearance by Zodak. So there
is just a whole lot to enjoy and like about Snake
Pit. It's also kind of a kickoff or kind of when
the tide turned in the series. Like from Snake
Pit through the end, it's a different vibe. It's
a different set of stories for the most part.
So it's almost... I mean, it's a new season,
basically. So I enjoyed Snake Pit. Obviously,
I already talked about how Zodak was one of my
favorite characters. I like the Snake Men being
involved in this. I know it sounds like we don't
because we bitched about King Hiss being one
of our least favorite characters. We rattled
off a couple of them as our less favorite episodes.
But Snake Men overall are good in this series,
and I enjoy that they're there. It adds a lot
to the second season. So Snake Pit is my number
five. What is your number four? My number four
is... Which, by the way, I'll time out. Snake
Pit, we both gave a five, too. So, it's definitely...
No, absolutely. Again, origin episodes are always
good. Origin episodes give us backstory of what
we may not have known before or maybe what we've
always wanted to know. That's absolutely fine.
The rest of the Snake Pit episodes? Eh, whatever.
There's a couple other good ones, but anyways,
go ahead with your next one. Number four for
me is Out of the Past. Because we get Teela's
origin, we get Sorceress's origin, we get this
whole cool Sorceress story. It's easily the best
Teela episode of the entire series. Still a Teela
episode, though. That's why I only gave it a
four and a half. But no, it's a good episode.
I'm not trying to be too hard on it. Out of the
Past is a good episode. I was trying to find
out who wrote that one. That would be Dean Steffen.
Yep, Dean Steffen. That was one of the ones that
kind of came in at the end, too, with the second
season, so to speak. So I enjoyed that one. Episode
three of the second season. Yeah. So out for
mine, I'm going to cheat just like you did. And
I'm going to go with a tie for my number four
pick. And my tie, my tie. Not the drink. But
my tie would be Rise of the Snake Men Part 1
and Rise of the Snake Men Part 2. These are episodes
30 and 31, both written by Stephen Melching.
So, yes, that's three Stephen Melching episodes
in a row. We got the introduction of the Snake
Men and Snake Pit, like I said before. In Rise
of the Snake Men, though, this is when we get
to meet Squeeze and King Hiss and Snake Face
and Tongue Lasher. They're finally, you know,
basically released. This is like where we hit
the ground running. So I thought this two -parter
was fantastic. I had given a five to both parts
of it. I know you had only given a five to one
of them and you gave a four to the other one,
but that's still pretty good. I just think this
was a really kind of cool way to continue the
Snake Men story in this. And I had not soured
on the Snake Men yet. You know, we got Snake
Pit. We've got a few other episodes. We get the
two -parter for Rise of the Snake Men and a little
bit more. And then is, I think, when it starts
to go off the chains a little bit. As we get
to Second Skin and Rattle of the Snake Men and
Awaken the Serpent, that's when it kind of gets
into Overkill. But at the beginning there, I
still think it was hitting on all cylinders.
So I like the Rise of the Snake Men two -parter.
Absolutely. What's your number three, sir? That
would be... Oh, boy. That would be The Last Stand,
which technically should have been Council of
Evil Part 3. It is, but I was so... Also written
by Dean Stephan. Yep, written by Dean Stephan.
I was so ready for Council of Evil to wrap up
the season, and then they cliffhangered it, and
I'm like, oh, really? Come on. The Last Stand
has one of the best He -Man battles I've seen
in a long time. It's just full on. He man doing
his thing against Skeletor against the evil warriors.
It's his last stand and it is just so good. Yeah.
I was not on the same page with you on this one.
I gave this one a three and a half. Didn't even
get into my fours, but Mike liked it. So maybe
you should check it out. Um, for my number three,
I'm going to go to episode 32 written by Larry
Dottilio. And that is the price of deceit. This,
um, you, you know, it's interesting cause they
have the beginnings part three and then, you
know, you have the council of evil, which you
said last Dan could be a part three of that price
of deceit could almost be a part three of rise
of the snake men because it's a followup to what
happens. And this is where we go into what we
talked about during the character talk about,
um, evil Lynn. And, you know, the faceless one
and her history and everything about that. And
it's just done so well. It's just cool to see
sides of characters that we had never seen before.
And I think Larry Dottilio crafted a great episode
with price of deceit. You gave it a five as well.
So obviously we're in agreement on this one,
but I think the rise of the snake man combination,
and then this one followed up with it three fives
in a row for me. And then they all happen to
be on the same podcast episode, which I don't
think has ever happened for me to have three
fives in the same episode. And this was the culmination
of that. So I'm a big fan of price of deceit.
Absolutely. Your number two. My number two is,
regardless of the antiquated, overused, multi
-plot layer in part three, overall is the beginning.
Because, holy crap, I've never seen stories like
what we got in the beginning. Like, I mean, I've
seen, not with these characters, not with this
universe, the fact that we got, you know, Keldor
and Randor as brothers. And Keldor obviously
becomes Skeletor and Kronos becomes Trapjaw and
all of this and everything else. I remember when
I watched this back in 2002 when it aired, I
was literally glued to my television at the time
because I was like, huh? What? Really? They did
that? That's the way they're going to do that?
Oh, Adam looks so cool. He doesn't look like
people put him in some sort of fairy YouTube
video or something or other thing. And it just
was so, so much of a great opening origin to
tell you where these characters come from and
how these characters came to be. Are you saying
part one, part two, or part three? All of it.
Okay. All right. I was going to say, because
you gave them all different radiance. Yeah, I
know. I agree with part one and part two are
pretty good. I gave them both fours. You were
somewhat in agreement. You gave one of them a
four and one of them a four and a half. And then
you gave part three a five, which is silly. But
I don't fault you for liking the beginning of
the series overall because it does set the stage
pretty well. For my number two, we disagreed
on this one, but I don't see how anyone can see
this as a bad episode like you did. So I'm going
to go with. Until the last time, I'm going with
Larry Dottilio this time. This is episode 38,
the second -to -last episode of the series. It's
called History, and I loved this episode. We
got the culmination of a lot of things here,
but also a lot of history when it came to what
went on. We learned a lot about Eternia. We learned
a lot about Grayskull. We learned a lot about
a lot of the characters involved. history is
easily one of the top two episodes for me overall
like when it came down to do this like my number
one and my number two were pretty easy picks
it was just ordering the other three and history
came in at number two for me i know you didn't
like it but i think you shouldn't re -watch it
sometime what is your number one my number one
is oh great oracle i seek your help The namesake
of the podcast, folks. Ah, you made it. Oracle,
what sort of trickery? I journeyed to find great
power. Open the box. It contains a sword of power.
But this is my sword. I lost it in battle with
the Snake Man. It possesses no great power. No,
but you do. You discovered that on your journey.
The power of Greyskull. Interesting. One of 12
fives that you had. I loved this. You picked
out one of the 12 fives. I only had six fives.
And you somehow picked out the one that I also
have at number one. We're both in agreement here.
Power of Grayskull, number one. This is written
by Dean Stephan. It's episode 35. I'll let you
take it away. Why did you like this episode?
This episode sets up so much that sadly never
gets to be explored more. We get the, oh, you
know, and we almost get the fact that He -Man
and Adam are separate people. Because how is
King Grayskull He -Man's ancestor if, you know
what I mean? If Adam never was He -Man before
this, is he also Adam's? I assume. I would assume
so because that's just how lineage works, whatever.
But it's one of those things where seeing Eternia's
past, seeing Castle Grayskull in its heyday.
seeing hordak for the first time seeing what
king grayskull had to give up in order for things
to right go the correct way for everybody on
the planet it's just such the animation in it
is amazing the character designs all of it is
so so good right another interesting thing that
they do with that one is they do have some that
are like basically their counterparts and their
ancestral counterparts. So you have King Greyskull,
you have He -Man, you have Battle Cat, you have
like... Hulk lion, whatever that guy's name was.
So a lot of them are like, you know, you have
a sorceress that's almost identical to the other,
you know, et cetera. But then they also have
some characters that are completely different.
Obviously, you know, the council of elders isn't
like one for one for anybody that we got now.
So I like the way that they kind of switch that
up a little bit, but you're right. It's just
like, if you're like origin stories, if you like
continuity, if you like history of characters
and things like that, then this episode has all
of that in spades. It's unfortunate they didn't
get to go anywhere after it, basically, after
this episode. But there's only a few episodes
left of the series after this. It was good nonetheless.
So we're in agreement. Number one, how the hell
did that happen? So that's bizarre. Let's see
what else we have in common or not in common.
After the break, we're going to touch on some
statistics, talk about some writers a little
bit, and some overall scores for the series.
We'll be right back. Kindness and strength. It's
all inside you, Greyskull. I believe I'm going
to gag. DeCien, the superhero webcomic. DeCien's
got superhero antics and sexy girls. For action,
comedy, mayhem, and more, read it now at DeCien
.com. D -A -S -I -E -N .com. Do you like retro
cartoons? Then Saturday Morning Rewind is the
podcast for you. Join them each month as they
talk about classic cartoons and interview legendary
voice actors like Jim Cummings, Corey Burton,
Rob Paulson, Nancy Cartwright, and many more.
So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms. Put on your hammer
pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind .com. And
be prepared to feel like a kid again. Once again,
that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com. Saturday Morning
Rewind was voted best podcast ever by its host,
Tim Nydell. So it's got to be good. Because the
world needs another movie podcast. Radio Network
presents, for your listening pleasure, The Cinema
Geek. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan.
Each week, we dive headfirst in the landscape
of movies as we discuss movie news, play movie
games, go in -depth on reviews, and even have
a top -ten countdown or two. Also, don't miss
our director retrospective series, where we review
noted directors' movies, film by film. Bottom
line is, if you love movies and love podcasts,
you need to experience The Cinema Geek. You can
find us on iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, or geekcastradio
.com. It's Showtime Synergy. The latest review
podcast from the Geekcast Radio Network is here.
So join TFG1 Mike, Nicole Hailstorm, and myself,
Lady Rec, as we will be reviewing all 65 episodes
of Joe and the Holograms in a 25 -episode long
podcast. You can find Showtime Synergy on iTunes
and geekcastradio .com. We are the truly outrageous
podcast that you want to be listening to. I know
what we're doing today. Okay, Michael, if we're
going to tackle this podcast thing, we've got
to do something really special. It has to be
cool, daily, in audio form, and undetectable
by radar. Something that screams summer. I know,
let's do a Phineas and Ferb review podcast. We'll
call it the Podcast Organization Without a Cool
Acronym, or PALCA for short. What do you think?
I think if we're not careful, Candace is going
to bust us. You can find PALCA on the Geekcast,
Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all
of the other methods you find podcasts. Okay
then, carry on. Thanks for sticking with us.
As we start this, Mike, I want to just go over
some that we had in common and not in common
when it came to episodes. Just finish up a little
bit, talk about that. So if you combine our rankings,
we had four episodes that ranked a five overall.
That would be Snake Pit, which was on my top
five. Rise of the Snake Men Part 2, which was
on my top five. The Price of Deceit. which was
also on my top five, and The Power of Greyskull.
So those were the four that we agreed on as fives.
Lowest episodes would have been Deep End, which
we had the two, and then The Island and Web of
Evil, which we both had at two and a half. We
had one, two, three, four, five episodes that
combined at a 4 .75, two at a 4 .5, three at
4 .25. 7 at 4, about another 7 at 3 .5, and then
3 at 3 .25. So a lot of good rankings in there
overall. Interesting when you look at the writers
a little bit. I didn't realize this going into
it or as we went along the way, but you can see
a distinct difference between the writing team
in the first season and the second season. Oh,
yeah. If you look at the second half of the series,
let's just take, for example, episode 21 on.
So 21 to 39. If you take 21 to 39, there was
only one, two, three, four, basically four writers
that did episode 21 through 39 with one exception.
The one exception would be Michael Halperin did
one episode. But other than that, we had Kevin
Campbell did two. We had Larry Dottilio did three.
Stephen Belching did five. And then Dean Stephan
did the rest. Right. Um, so that's, so if you
look at the second half, you're only looking
at like four or five names. If you look at the
first half outside of the first four episodes,
which were all Dean Stephan, and then he did
one more episode later. And Michael Reeves did
three. Um, Larry Dottilio did two. William Forrest
Cleverius did two. Um, everybody else, or Len
Uli did two and everybody else did one. So we
had a lot more one -offs in the first half, and
that probably makes sense because we had a lot
more episodes that were just about one random
character or something of that nature versus
the continuing story that we seem to get a lot
more in season two. It seemed like those people
that did more episodes, like the Dean Steffens,
the Larry Dottilios, the Stephen Melchings, those
were the ones that had the highest ratings. For
example, Stephen Melching, if you go with our
overall ratings, he did have two threes. But
then he has a 5, a 4 .5, a 5, and a 4 .25. So
that's pretty good. I know Dean Stephan did a
lot of episodes, but we have a 5, 4 .75, 3 times,
4 .25, twice. 4 .5 once, 4 twice. So he had a
lot of good rankings as well. Larry Dottilio
had a 4, a 5, a 4 .75, a 4, and then one 3 .5.
So those seem to be the ones that we liked the
most. And it came to people like Brooke Swachtel,
who only did one episode, which would rank as
a 2. Mark Michael Edens did one that was a 3
.5. Christy Markson and her husband did one that
was a 3. Kevin Campbell only did the two episodes,
and they were a 2 .5 and a 3 .5. So that seemed
to be where we had more of our... low rankings
was people that just didn't do as much with the
series yeah but i just kind of found that interesting
overall when we kind of look at that as far as
some other statistics and things that we wanted
to give you guys um basically i just wanted to
reveal the overall rankings that mike and i had
for this series we never know how this is going
to turn out as we rank these episodes going through
the podcast you know we were ranking them in
time as we're doing it With no thought of what
came before or what came after it. So once we're
all done and we tally it up, it is kind of interesting
to see where we fall. Right. And one of the things
I wanted to point out, I should have pointed
out at the beginning of this episode, we also
do not share our scripts. No. You craft the scripts
for us, but we then put our notes in, our favorite
characters in independently of each other. So
we never know. That's why you get reactions like
Kevin's horrible reaction to me ranking something
high or something low. Beginning part three of
five, which is as it should be. You know, let's
see. Even now, it's ugh. And that's the spontaneity
of it. I think that's cool. I think that's interesting.
I think that's a good way to do it because you
never know. Again, going back to a classic film
trope. Podcasting is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're going to get. Right.
And as you can expect, based on the fact that
I did reveal that Mike had like 12 episodes that
he ranked as a five, you're probably going to
expect that he had the higher overall rating
for this series, which would be true. But it
wasn't off by that much. We're going to just
for math purposes, we're going to round to the
second decimal. So I don't have to go into too
much detail here. But you gave the series overall.
Remember, we're ranking these from zero to five.
Mike's ranking for the 2002 series overall was
a 3 .87. 3 .87. Not quite enough to get into
the fours, but a 3 .87 on a scale of 1 through
5 or 0 through 5 is pretty darn good. Mine, so
you were 3 .87. I, with only six episodes that
I ranked number five, still didn't fall too far
behind you. I was at a 3 .81. Oh. 3 .87 and 3
.81. I had to round up to get to .81 because
I was actually 8 .07, but regardless. So really
only six -tenths of a point difference between
the two of us. And 3 .87 and 3 .81 out of five.
is not a bad rating at all. You should consider
that a 2 .5 to a 3 is an average, so we're up
to almost 4, so that's pretty darn good. That
is our rankings overall for the series. I just
wanted to give you a chance. To give some final
thoughts on this series, I know we've kind of
touched on different things overall, but obviously
we enjoyed the series. But what else did you
want to say that you haven't had a chance to
say about the 2002 series? I've watched it twice
now in the last 10 years. I watched it like right
before we started prepping to do this overall
in -depth. powers of grace golf series podcast
that we've done i you know we were both watching
all of these cartoons with the exception of new
adventures um the three out of the four we were
both watching at the same time just to watch
them because you hadn't even seen 2002 until
i had originally i think i had said something
about the dvds or maybe you got the dvds from
your behind the voice actors people or what i
don't remember how you got it whatever but like
I've watched it twice in the last decade and
I still love it. I still think it's cool. I still
think it's interesting. I still want more out
of it. I know we're not going to get more out
of it, but it's one of my favorites. Yeah, if
you're a fan of continuity, if you're a fan of
more character depth and history, backstory of
characters, and you're a fan of any type of...
you know, in general of He -Man as a franchise,
then you're going to enjoy this series and you
should have already seen it. I guess if I'm going
to be a nitpicky, the only things that you can
find to complain about for me is two things.
Number one, I feel like Skeletor gets put in
the backseat a little bit too much, especially
in the second half of the series. And then the
second thing would be just what we talked about
already, partially to blame probably because
it doesn't get its true and fair ending. So who
knows what they would have had planned. Right.
But obviously hindsight 2020, if we can go back
and rewrite this, you know, armchair quarterback
Monday or Monday afternoon quarterback or Monday
morning quarterback, whatever they call it. We
would have rewritten this to have King his be
the one that was defeated. You know, Hordak would
have been the one that was brought back and we
would have shifted from our snake man story to
Hordak and his minions. fighting with Skeletor
and the evil warriors, fighting with He -Man
and the masters. And then in my opinion, at the
end of the series overall, Skeletor double crosses
Hordak or sides up with He -Man for just a brief
encounter to defeat Hordak and to reestablish
He -Man versus Skeletor. And that's where we
would have ended it. So that's how I would have
done it. But again, they didn't even get the
chance to end it. So who knows what their plan
might have been if they had one. So it's a good
series on it's definitely worth watching. Oh,
absolutely. Yes. So, all right, that is it for
me. I'm going to turn it over to Mike to tell
you all the deets about how you can get in contact
with us and to tease the future of what we're
doing here. All right. So let the teasing commence.
We are, we ain't done folks. Nope. We are completing
the original journey. Episode 124 will be our
film commentary of the 1987 Masters of the Universe
film starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella
as He -Man and Skeletor, respectively. Episode
125, I'm entitling Powers of Greyskull series,
This Was Your Life. This is basically a clip
show. However, we will also be comparing and
contrasting all four. masters of the universe
cartoon series that are out to this point. Yes.
Now I know there is another one that's already
out currently, but again, I'm talking in the
way that we were talking about setting this show
up a decade ago. This show was planned to be
125 episodes. It was planned to be 125 episodes.
We will get there and we will actually surpass
it. I am going to reveal now. in this episode
that we will reach 130 podcasts for now with
the potential to get more with the potential
to get more because 126 to 129 .5 it's the only
way i could get all five seasons in a single
episode it's just a numbering thing folks it's
not a less episode than anything else so 126
to 129 .5, we are going to review the Netflix
She -Ra series season by season. So if you listen
to any of the season stuff that ToonCast has
done, we're going to talk about the entire season,
the characters in each season, the plot lines.
We'll have favorites and least favorites and
that kind of thing. I will try my best not to
be a diva when it comes to this series because
I'll straight up tell you right now. I watched
each of these seasons and I hated the show more
and more as I watched. I dreaded Netflix. Yes.
I watched all of them. Okay. Okay. I watched
four out of the five. I watched the first episode
of season five and then I watched the series
finale in season five. So I haven't seen the
middle part of season five, but I did watch the
first four seasons of Netflix Shira when it came
out. However, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna, Originally,
Kevin was like, oh, let's do this episode, but
I said, nah, no. I will do seasons. We will recover
it, but no, we need to change that up because
there's no... I would basically pull a Kevin...
I'd basically pull a you when you were tired
of Mask. I'd leave. So in order for us to even
do this, he had to concede to do it season by
season. And I just think for the Netflix show,
that's a much better way of doing it. Cause most
of the, most of the seasons out of the five seasons
that there are, they're like 13 episodes each.
And that's not, I don't want. And once we're
done with that, depending, I mean, I, this is
going to. to happen motu cartoon complete series
recap for episode 130 and this is more my thing
than kevin's thing however we're both gonna do
it as long as we both can do it but it also leaves
me open to do it if he's not available I introduced
it with the pull bag eight years ago. I have
now introduced it into our new podcast, Studio
2009. We're going to be introducing it on ToonCast
as well. It is called The Origins Episodes. So
we are going to have people on here. We're going
to talk to you, the fans, you, the listeners,
you, the people that have been... in the Motu
fandom, and we have somewhere between, I think,
25 or 27. We haven't finalized it yet. We have
25 or 27 questions to ask you guys, and we're
basically going to turn the podcast into an interview
show after episode 130 until we finally get some
new He -Man cartoon thing, whether it be Netflix,
whether it be whatever. The Kevin Smith Show.
There's two series that are supposed to be airing
on Netflix. One of them is supposed to be with
Kevin Smith. The other one is not. And if they
ever eventually happen, because COVID threw a
wrench into the mix, we will eventually cover
those. And we will determine how we're going
to cover those at a later date. It might be episode
by episode as they release. It might be season
overarching episodes. We will determine that
later. Depends on how good or bad they are. Well,
if we're doing it episode by episode, we won't
know. That way we can get live reactions as they
air, maybe. Or if they're like Netflix usually
does where they release a season or six episodes
or whatever at a time. That way we'll see. Just
to tease 125 when it comes up because we talked
about we're going to talk about the overall franchises
that we've covered so far and compare and contrast.
Um, just to kind of write the ship, because I
mentioned this numerous times when we were giving
our new adventures episodes that I was not compiling
rankings. I was not totaling rankings. I would
score. Guess what, guys? I lied. I have rectified
that. And when I was doing the Motu 2002 series
rankings, I went back and did the new adventure
ones as well. So we will have our overall ranking
of every series that we have done so far, both
Mike and myself. So that'll be coming in episode
125 as well. 130, actually. 125 is the clip show.
Oh, yeah. Whichever episode, we cover everything.
Right. All right. Anything else, Mike? I think
that's it. All right. Well, take us away, sir.
Will do. Thank you for listening to us as we
are the masters of Grayskull for the last time
in this episode. If you'd like to get in contact
with us or leave feedback for the show, there
are several ways to do so. Visit the website
geekcastradio .com where you can comment on this
and all of our other episode posts from all the
other written stuff, podcast stuff, everything
we do, cinema geeks, talking in circles, altered
geek. Basically any other show that isn't me,
because my shows suck. Here are all the ways
you can listen to us nowadays. Apple and Google
Podcasts, Spotify, and of course the home where
our files exist, Spreaker. You can also use any
other podcatching client you choose, but I prefer
you use those. Leave the show's feedback in iTunes.
Please do this. I actually did just check this
because I was getting the iTunes links for other
promotional purposes. social media stuff. So
people could actually leave us reviews. We currently
do not have any new reviews. Follow us on Twitter
at geek cast. Radio is the network. Twitter at
pow of gray skull is the show Twitter. I am at
TFG and Mike. What is your Twitter? My Twitter
is at Optimus Solo, and if you have comments
about any of the series that we've talked about
so far, now would be a good time to send us that
feedback. Either send a direct message on Twitter,
leave us feedback on iTunes, because we should
be able to include any of that in the clip show
or in the 130 show. We'll try to find a way to
fit it in one of those two episodes, if you leave
it to us in a hurry. Yep. You can also email
us feedback at geekcastradio .com. So there's
that. I got to put that in the, in the, in the,
so there's lots of ways to get in touch with
us. So no excuses for many of you. Absolutely.
Even if there's only one of you out there. Exactly.
I'm looking at you, Tim. Become a fan on Facebook.
Go to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.
We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness today.
I finally fixed that typo. And don't forget to
join us on our next adventure when we will present
you with our commentary on the 1987 Masters of
the Universe live -action film. For now, I am
TFG1 Mike with Optimus Solo. By the power and
for the honor of Grayskull, We have the power.
Then let it be done.