Blog 13:Another Messy Reboot

*WARNING THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATIONS SERIES ON NETFLIX*

So Hollywood seems to have a fetish for reviving old shows and movies instead of making new/original ideas. Most of these revivals usually have the goal of just being a cash-grab (i.e. Star Wars Episode 7-9), but some of these revivals were made with good intentions (i.e. Bumblebee). With that being said, let’s discuss Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation.

Summary

This five-episode season was meant to act as a “part one” too a much bigger story, but these episodes did leave a sour taste in some people’s mouths. The season started off like an old school episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, opening with Skeletor and his minions attempting to take over Castle Grayskull, and He-Man, with the Masters, trying to stop him from doing so. Skeletor reaches the lower levels of the castle, and he reveals that he never wanted to rule the castle, but instead he wants the ancient power hidden within it. He finds “The Ord of Power ”, an ancient relic containing all the magic that flows through Eternia, and he aims to destroy it so he can absorb its power. He successfully destroys it, but the Sorceress manages to slow down time to relay a message to both He-Man and Teela, warning them that Eternia will be destroyed when the Orb explodes. He-Man asks if he can use his Power Sword to act as a conduit for the Orb’s power, which the Sorceress says it’s possible but too risky. He-Man enacted on his plan anyway, and he actually pulled it off! Unfortunately his plan killed him, but he did take Skeletor with him.

This sacrifice saddened everyone in Eternia….well everyone except for Teela, who was full of rage. When He-Man was acting as the conduit for the Orb, the Power Sword split into two swords, and He-Man reverted back into Prince Adam before he died. Teela witnessed the whole thing, and she was upset that she found out that her best friend and everyone around her lied to her about He-Man’s true identity. She lashed at everyone who was mourning, and she renounced her rank in the royal guard.

A few years pass, Teela, now partnered with her new friend (or romantic partner?) Andra, works as a mercenary (not a bad profession). The two of them seem to make a living out of hunting ancient artifacts for their clients. After completing a job, they get hired by an old woman to retrieve a silver chalice from Snake Mountain, the former lair of Skeletor. They are hesitant at first, but the woman makes an offer they can’t refuse. Teela and Andra venture to Snake Mountain to discover the place has undergone a massive facelift. There is advanced tech everywhere, and a new cult, led by Tri-Klops, inhabits the mountain in the name of a technological deity called the “Motherboard”. A huge fight goes down, both Teela and Andra kick ass, and they run off with the silver chalice. They return the chalice to the old woman, they get paid, and then the old woman tells them there is one more part of the mission she needs help completing, and it involves taking the chalice to Castle Grayskull.

The three of them arrive at Castle Grayskull, and they find both the Sorceress and Cringer guarding it. The old woman reveals herself to be Evil-Lyn, and she reveals that she’s been working with the Sorceress to save Eternia. The silver chalice turned out to be Skeletor’s havoc staff, and the Sorceress needed to draw its power into the last remaining magic from the Orb of Power. Both the Sorceress and Lyn explain that when He-Man used his sword to absorb the explosion from the Orb, he merely held off Eternia’s inevitable destruction. All of Eternia was created by the magic from Preternia (Heaven) and Subternia (Hell), and the two relics that stabilized the planet’s magic were both the Orb and Sword of Power. With those relics destroyed, all the magic in Eternia is fading away, which will trigger the destruction of the planet.

Their new mission is to reforge the Power Sword and use it to recreate the Orb of Power, but this won’t be an easy task (it’ll take them three episodes to do this). Since the Power Sword was split in half, those pieces returned to their home dimensions, Preternia and Subternia. Now before they even think about going on their little treasure hunt, Teela, Andra, and Lyn have to find someone to reforge the sword, and only man had the mind and arms to do this. They set out to find Man-At-Arms, who has been banished from the kingdom because he hid Prince Adam’s secret about being He-Man. The three eventually find Man-At-Arms deep in the forest, taking care of Orko, who has been growing weaker due to Eternia’s magic fading.

Teela tries to convince Man-At-Arms to help them on their quest, but he refuses because he still feels like he’s failed his kingdom. Luckily the robot Roboto was also living with Man-At-Arms, and since his AI was created by Man-At-Arms’ memories, he volunteered to help Teela reforge the sword. Orko also volunteered to join them, which made Man-At-Arms reconsider his decision on joining them, but Teela said it would be best for him to travel to Castle Grayskull to help the Sorceress and Cringer defend it against Tri-Klops’ cult, who have been going around destroying any places of magic. Also Beast Man joined their party. They ran into him during a fight with Tri-Klops that happened earlier in the episode.

Now that everyone was rounded up, the six of them set off to Subternia to find the first half of the sword. They eventually arrived at the gates to Subternia, after dealing with Mer-Man and his goons, and they travelled down to the literal depths of Hell. Unfortunately they were all separated and sent on their own little adventures. Andra, Roboto and Beast Man were fighting zombies, Lyn and Orko were bonding while fighting a shadow demon, and Teela was busy fighting Scare Glow, who was using her greatest fears against her.

Teela eventually overcomes her fears and defeats Scare Glow, taking the sword half she came for. Once Scare Glow was defeated, the six heroes were reunited, and Lyn was able to use the sword half to open a portal to Preternia. As they were all about to enter the portal, Scare Glow unleashes his final attack, but is stopped by Orko. He sacrifices himself to completely defeat Scare Glow, and with an awesome magic explosion, the remaining five get sent through the portal. Once arriving in Preternia, the five are greeted by Prince Adam (which makes sense since Preternia is Heaven), and he gives them the final half of the Power Sword. Adam takes some time to mourn Orko’s death, and then he tries to explain himself to Teela, but she’s still too angry at him to listen. Adam also introduces the group to the previous Grayskull Champions, which included the mighty King Grayskull, the first champion.

Adam accompaines Teela to meet the other champions while the rest go speak with He-Ro so they can reforge the sword. Roboto is able to reforge the Sword of Power, but he used too much of his core power to accomplish this feat, and this killed him. Back with Adam and Teela, she is still furious with him about keeping his identity of He-Man a secret, and she won’t let Adam explain himself. She also refuses to tell Adam what is happening on Eternia because she doesn’t want to burden him. This leads to Adam volunteering to travel back to Eternia with Teela and her team, but he is warned by King Grayskull that when Adam dies again he won’t be able to return to Preternia.

The five of them arrive at Castle Grayskull, Adam has a small reunion with Man-At-Arms and Cringer, and he goes straight to work with restoring the Orb of Power. He says his famous line “By the power of Grayskull ”, and the magic from the sword is transferred to the Orb, completely fixing it. It looks like the heroes have saved the day, but we must remember that this season is only Part 1. Adam says “I have the-” and gets stabbed through the chest by Skeletor, who reveals that he hid his essence inside of Evil-Lyn’s wandstaff. Adam collapses, dropping the sword. Teela rushes to Adam’s aid, and Evil-Lyn and Beast Man reunite with Skeletor. Skeletor picks up the Power Sword and recites the words “By the power of Grayskull! I have the POWER!”, and transforms into Champion Skeletor, and he proclaims himself as the Master of the Universe.

Review

I did not love these episodes, nor did I hate them. The animation was awesome and all the fight scenes were epic, so I would say that I thought it was a pretty good first act. Some of my issues with the show are a little minor to some people, but I’ve been seeing that other people have been expressing the same issues I’m having. Firstly, I did not appreciate what Kevin Smith did with Teela’s character. There were times that she acted a little noble, but most of the time she was acting a pretty obnoxious. Her getting angry with Adam, even in Heaven, is a clear sign that she is not ready to grieve yet, but for fucksake I wished she let Adam explain himself.

Another issue I had was Adam dying in the first episode!!! Why the fuck would you advertise Part One as He-Man centric show and kill him off in the beginning?! I understand that his death was used to establish the plot, but there was zero indication from the trailers that Teela was going to be the main protagonist in the series. Also killing Adam again, or giving him a life threatening injury in episode 5, was a dick move.

This series has a lot of die-hard He-Man fans upset, and since I’m not a die-hard fan myself (the show was before my time), I almost can’t identify with their level of hate. Almost….

I just hope that Part 2 of Revelations is better than Part 1 because I don’t want this show to tank. With the growing popularity of the She-Ra series on Netflix, I feel like He-Man deserves a good revamped show too! If you are confused about why Masters of the Universe: Revelations is getting a lot of hate, tune into my next blog where I explain the hatred everyone has towards the new show and Kevin Smith.