Some of the characters’ personality overhauls can be easily explained by their Age Lift in this series.
Cringer in this show is no longer a nervous wreck as previous versions were, even though the implications of his past would give him every right to be. He's older and wiser, having gone through the trials of life without someone strong to rescue him from the worst parts, and so whatever cowardice he may have once had has been tempered by years of necessary courage.
Duncan is no longer the fatherly mentor of the original series, even though it’s clear that he is every bit as talented as the original Man-At-Arms. He’s prone to excitement, nerves, and emotional outbursts under stress. This is because he is much younger and has not had the years or experience to temper his brilliant racing mind yet.
The Secret Test of Character posed to Keldor by Eldress. To channel the power of Grayskull, a focus must be chosen: the Sword or the Scepter. The thing is, both are legitimate powerful focuses, the Sword for Light and Justice and the Scepter for Havoc, which is antithetical to the power contained in Grayskull. Keldor chooses the scepter after some consideration of the symbolism of the two, but there’s a tone of rationalization to his monologue. The symbolism doesn’t actually matter because Keldor is inherently drawn to the power of Havoc over Light and only needs to justify this decision to himself!
Then comes the revelation that Sword cannot be used to take a life while the Scepter has no such limitation, King Greyskull initially using the sword before switching to the scepter when he decides to stop showing mercy to his enemies.
Teela's initial fear of cats makes sense considering her Sorceress motif is birds.
Likewise, Krass's fear is justified, not just by her backstory, but also by her powerset. Small, tight places make it harder for her to use her head/helmet to break out. She needs a running start.
He-Man sharing the Power of Grayskull with his friends. The original He-Man did this with Battle Cat all the time. It’s not that previous incarnations couldn’t do this with more people, it’s that this incarnation of Adam was the only one who thought to share it with more people!
And why would this version of Adam think to share the power with more than just Cringer while his other animated incarnations didn't? It was a case of status and background, not personality. Most versions of Adam depict him as a prince expected to become king of Eternia one day and has been told that he must shoulder that burden alone; this Adam became an amnesiac orphan and was adopted by the Tiger Tribe, and then spent his formative years in a group that shared duties and work, so now Adam would apply that thinking to the Power of Grayskull!
Taking it further, this means the law that restricted the royal family from using the Power was because a monarch doesn't have the right mentality to wield such great power even with good intentions, but Adam's combination of royal lineage and raising by Cringer and the Tiger Tribe means he's the best suited to wield this awesome power by not hoarding it to himself like a groomed ruler (i.e. Randor) would under the impression that he would know best when it came to using it.
How does He-Man first start to overpower Keldor during their fight in the bowels of Grayskull? With a headbutt! Of course he would use that move, his childhood friend is Ram Ma'am!
Why is the personality of the ancient court wizard Orko such a condescending pompous jerk? Well, because he apparently never struggled with controlling his magic the way that Orko of the original series did, he never learned humility and likely never had anyone he could look up to as an example or even relate to as an equal, only able to relate to others positively through Condescending Compassion.
Why is Ork-0 using a rhyming ‘abracadabra’ chant for his effort to help everyone escape Skeletor’s forces in episode 10? He’s known and accepted that he’s a robot without real magic since episode 7. It’s because he knows he can’t cast real magic, which means that it doesn’t matter what words or gestures he uses, all that matters is that he has everyone’s attention for the blinding flash of light he’s about to unleash!
A good magician employs diversion as a magic tool to distract people from how/what is actually being done. It's prestidigitation, a conjurer's classic trick.
After the first trailer dropped, a major point of contention from the detractors was He-Man's top-heavy design, with some complaining that he looks like he's wearing an oversized muscle suit. But when you think about it, that's exactly what the He-Man transformation is: a magical muscle suit that Prince Adam wears.
People often complain that He-Man and Skeletor are disproportionate in their powered up forms. The thing is, they are proportionate... to the original He-Man toys that started the franchise.
When facing Keldor in Episode 4, He-Man says that the Power of Grayskull brought out the best in his friends. He's right:
Even as a child, Adam had an innate desire to protect and help others that didn't vanish with his memories. As He-Man, his physical form basically becomes a Hero stereotype being tall, muscular, and powerful. An imposing figure that could bring a sense of relief to the oppressed when he stands between them and their oppressors.
Duncan is a straight-up whiz with technology and a mind that worked faster than any tool he ever touched. As Man-at-Arms, he has a Swiss-Army Weapon that responds to his thoughts and can slow down time to build or reconfigure complex objects in an instant. He and Kronis also represent the two most common sides of the sentient machinery depictions, Duncan embodying the more humane depictions of living machines as he treats Ork-0 and Triclops with respect and dignity.
The implications of Teela's past is that she had very little beyond a talent for magic and a connection to Castle Grayskull she didn't understand. While she stole, when the call came to defend the sword from Evelyn and Kronis, she didn't question it, showing trust in her instincts and faith in Grayskull. With supreme magical talent as the Sorceress, she effectively becomes Grayskull's new protector as Eldress's successor.
Cringer dislikes violence, and prefers to try and reason with opponents instead of hurting them. However, since he lacks claws, his efforts are seldom taken seriously by anyone who poses a credible threat even though he's still a full grown tiger. As the massive armored Battle Cat, the kind of implicit threat he carries just by existing would be enough to convince most rational opponents to try more peaceful means of settling conflicts.
Krass faces almost every problem in her life head on, often literally. As Ram Ma'am, she's armored and reinforced to be able to take the harsh punishment her chosen methods carry while also gaining boosters to give her head-first approach all the oomph it needs to be as effective as it has to.
Havoc empowers people by bringing out the worst in them and giving it shape, Evelyn lampshading that Havoc also brings out one's inner truth. You can see the worst in the Dark Masters through their transformations, having their personal truths laid bare in their transformed appearances.
Skeletor is as bulky as He-Man and the undisputed master of Havoc. Keldor wanted a power he could use to subjugate his enemies and take the throne for himself, something at least equivalent to the power Grayskull had represented to him. Keldor doesn't care about anything but being in control, any land he ruled would rot away under his negligence and cruelty, which is why he has rotted away into a partial skeleton. It also connects him to his ancestor King Greyskull, who made similar choices that also reduced him to a partial skeleton.
Evelyn's desire for Havoc is entirely Driven by Envy of Teela. Once Teela became the Sorceress and trounced Evelyn in magic, Evelyn became obsessed with proving herself better than Teela. Everything about her Evil-Lyn transformation, from the Magic Staff focus to her ethereal wings and long hair, is to make her the most blatant Evil Counterpart of Sorceress compared to the other Dark Masters. Her Animal Motif, which she questioned due to hating bats, also foreshadows her familial ties to ''Hordak'', who has a bat-like appearance with his empire heavily using bat imagery in most incarnations of the franchise.
Kronis was always proud of his rank as Man-at-Arms for Eternos, even if he turned lazy. He still wears his original uniform under his clothing, with the crest for Eternos scratched out. He sees all of the weapons and technology of the highest authority as his legacy, to the point that his computer password is that he's "the greatest at everything". As Trap Jaw, he's become the weaponry he is so proud of, stripped down to its most crude and brutal form, as he was described as making tools to break things at the end of the day. The patchwork design of his Trap Jaw form is also an embodiment of the heartless machine stereotype, Kronis treating Duncan and his various creations as disposable tools.
R'Qazz is barely more than a rabid animal. He's capable of using advanced technology, but only to enslave animals and make them fight in Beastly Bloodsports. Havoc stripped away what little humanity R'Qazz had, turning him into the truly savage Beast Man.
Krass fears being abandoned in life, having lost her parents at a young age. She clings to the Tiger Tribe too tightly to the point of selfishness. Havoc turns Krass's fear into resentment, seen when Rampage physically and verbally attacks He-Man for seeming to abandon her for the life of a prince in Eternos.
Adam is still sixteen years old. He has a good heart and wants to protect people, but he can rush into things and be a little selfish regarding things like his father or his destiny as He-Man. As "Havoc-Man", Adam becomes a Psychopathic Manchild, petulantly running away from and later lashing out at his friends because they're telling him 'no'. His desire to protect others is also twisted, turning him into a Knight Templar who sets out to kill Skeletor to save Eternia while insisting he's strong enough to do it all on his own. He only snaps out of his mindset upon learning his ancestor King Grayskull had the same Knight Templar motives when he decided to kill the Snakemen and it resulted in him being driven mad by Havoc.
When Teela accidentally transports the Masters and Ork-0 back to Eternos in the season one finale they're hundreds of feet in the air, which Teela certainly didn't intend because only she and Ork-0 can fly. Most likely Teela was picturing the city as one would see it from a distance when her upgraded powers kicked in, instead of a specific location like the wards she grew up in.
During season two, we finally meet more magic users, the Hand Witches in the Undercity who serve Man-E-Faces, and presumably taught Teela. Although only a loose theory, it seems to suggest that the Lower City favors Hand Magic, and Evelyn, who was once part of the royal court, uses the Voice Magic as part of the Upper City. This makes a degree of sense, politicians and nobles love to talk (Evelyn certainly does), whereas the dregs of society have to use their strong backs and hands to make a living. The respective magic schools probably came into being this way.
The fact that both Havoc and "Grayskull Juice" can blend with each other, due to being 'two sides of the same coin'. Not only does it make a great deal of sense, but it turns Krass's lack of a special move or a personal nemesis from a curiosity in Season 1 into a major plot point in Season 2.
Krass being empowered by the Havoc Staff makes sense considering her status as a Chekhov's Gunman and Spanner in the Works figure in Season 1 and 2's finale. Havoc and Chaos deal with the unexpected and unplanned, and disrupts any order/plans set out. She disrupted her enemy's plans in Season 1, and her ally's plans in Season 2.
Furthermore, her status is Master of Demolition. That doesn't make her a good person, nor a bad person. She belongs to both and neither, and so is able to switch between them.
It seems a bit odd that Teela has character traits of original series Teela and motifs of the original series Sorceress, who was Teela's mother (made more odd in that Duncan, who was Teela's father in the original series, is now the same age as her). The reveal that Teela is Eldress's Reincarnation and her full name is Teela Na, the same as the Sorceress of the original series, turns this assumption on its head and reveals that Teela was never a counterpart to the female warrior Teela of the original series and is instead a fully Age Lifted version of the Sorceress alone.
Beast Man makes a qualified successor to Skeletor. He is the cruelest of Skeletor's group, his status as a poacher makes him disruptive to the ecosystem (the purpose of Havoc is to upset order), and he has bone motifs with his skulls and necromancy powers, which Skeletor possesses.
As it turned out, the region where Snake Mountain is located wasn't called the Fright Zone as a Mythology Gag, but as Foreshadowing the area destined to become a staging ground for Hordak's invasion.
