YMMV / Masters of the Universe: Revelation

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• Angst? What Angst?: In the first episode of part 2 Fisto and Clamp Champ are quickly killed off, and Skeletor sends their souls to Subternia. None of the characters react to this with the gravity it should, with He-Man mockingly laughing at Skeletor seconds later.
• Ass Pull: In the conclusion of Part 2, Sorceress tells Teela that all Sorceresses must give up earthly attachments in order to serve the will of Zoar. She tells Teela about how much the decision anguished her and how she wanted to be with Teela every moment of her life, but wants Teela to be prepared to make the same sacrifice, as it is required. In response, Teela simply...chooses not to with no apparent consequences for this decision, as Teela is still able to perform the station of Sorceress while also leaving Grayskull whenever she chooses.
• Awesome Animation: It is agreed, the animation for the show looks fantastic. Special mention goes to Adam's amazing Transformation Sequence, his Heroic Sacrifice, and Roboto's reforging of the Sword of Power.
• Awesome Music:
  • The teaser trailer gives us a slow yet awesome build up to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for A Hero", a perfect song for the return of one of the most iconic heroes of the '80s-'90s.
  • Bear McCreary as the composer has quite a few fantastic scores. The battle between Scare Glow and Orko and the reforging of the Sword of Power are appropriately heroic and bombastic.
  • Speaking of McCreary, the amazing song he composed fittingly titled "He-Man Transforms" that plays during the iconic By the Power of Grayskull! Transformation Sequence is absolutely awesome. It turns an already beautifully animated scene and elevates it further with a bombastic and heroic orchestral piece that's nothing short of epic, words can almost hardly describe how great the song is.
  • "The Power Of Grayskull" is an absolutely bombastic and awesome piece that plays throughout the entire battle for Castle Grayskull, and is fittingly filled with great symphony and melody. Special mention goes to it picking up as Adam commits his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Part 2 gives us the epic "For Eternia" suite, with McCreary himself citing Part III as his favorite part of the climactic cue.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Teela's portrayal has been VERY divisive since the release of the show when it was leaked she would be the main character, at least for the first half. One side absolutely despises her for her Jerkass and selfish attitude, how the narrative portrays her in the right despite her questionable actions, and her haircut which many criticized as being overused for many female characters. The other camp loves how badass she is and points out that her being a jerk is deliberate in order to give room for Character Development, which does happen in Part 2 when she apologizes to Adam for the way she treated him and took his sacrifice for granted.
  • Evil-Lyn in the second half. Some sympathize with her and her motives, while others aren't so forgiving of her particularly on how despite her almost destroying the Universe, she gets away scot-free.
• Broken Base: The Masters of the Universe fans were pretty divided on the series. Some fans liked the more mature take, enjoyed the focus on characters besides He-Man and the inclusion of lesser known elements of the lore. Others however disliked the shift to a Darker and Edgier tone and were unhappy that He-Man and Skeletor weren't directly involved in events until about midway through the story.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Lena Headey's voice is so distinctive that it's not very hard to predict a certain character will turn out to be Evil-Lyn.
  • Skeletor's resurrection alongside Adam's has next to no foreshadowing, however, we all knew it was coming.
• Character Rerailment: Though it's for more complicated reasons than in the original cartoon, Evil-Lyn betraying Skeletor in Part 2, taking his power, and declaring her hatred for him puts her back in line with her 80's version, who planned to betray Skeletor as soon as she became powerful enough.
• Common Knowledge: Many fans and detractors alike believed that Teela and Andra were in a lesbian relationship, some even going into Part 2 believing they would receive a Relationship Upgrade. While there are a few strange moments (one scene from episode 2 where Teela puts her arm around Andra and looks into her eye while repeating Adam's line about going everywhere together has become particularly infamous), Andra never drops the slightest inclination of being into Teela nor anyone else, while Part 2 shows that Teela has feelings for Adam after all.
• Complete Monster (includes Revolution): Skeletor was once Keldor, the older half brother of Randor who was denied the throne because his mother was Gar. Joining the Horde when it invaded Eternia, he was given a staff that melted off his face while Hordak implanted false memories in his head. Abandoned after the Horde was driven off Eternia, Skeletor led numerous campaigns to overcome the power of Castle Grayskull and Eternia, culminating in an assault that nearly leads to him annihilating the entire universe. After his seeming death, Skeletor returns after feeding off the life force of Evil-Lyn, using her as nothing more than a tool to seize control of Grayskull's power. Making himself a God and killing the Sorceress, Skeletor attempts to turn all of Eternia into his undead slaves after killing them, damning two of He-Man's allies to Subternia for spite. After Evil-Lyn steals his power, Skeletor turns on the heroes just so he can kill He-Man before existence ends. After Motherboard recruits him back into the Horde, Skeletor disguises himself as Keldor and manipulates Prince Adam into giving him the crown, using his position to infect the people of Eternia with the Horde’s techno virus. Recovering his memories, Skeletor almost kills Hordak and starts plotting to turn the entire universe into copies of himself using a combination of the techno virus and magic. Skeletor faces He-Man again and tries to damn his brother's soul to Subternia.
• Critical Backlash: Some viewers who heard all the drama and contention around the series have found the division overblown and felt the series holds up much better than they expected.
• Critical Dissonance: The show has received near-universal acclaim from critics for the way it reimagines the original source material. However, the fan reaction has been very mixed with huge backlash coming from a subset of the He-Man fandom for much the same reason.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Even fans who didn't enjoy the show have nothing but praise for its portrayal of Scareglow as Eternia's God of the Dead and a terrifying Knight of Cerebus who feeds off fear, hailing it as a very creative take on the character bolstered by a great performance from Tony Todd.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Skeletor, of course. His performance by Mark Hamill was well-received, his powers are awesome as usual, and while he doesn't get much time to shine, when he returns from his seeming death, he takes the Power of Grayskull and becomes a god! Definitely a solid showing from the self-proclaimed Lord of Destruction, especially one who (in the original franchise) lived only to get made a fool of by He-Man every week.
  • Scare Glow was well-received in his brief appearance due to his imposing nature, voice, and awesome fight scenes. Many called his fight with Teela, as duplicates of He-Man and herself respectively, highlights of the show, noting their gorgeous animation and his brutal deconstruction of her.
  • Evil-Lyn was was already well-received in Part 1, but she absolutely reclaimed the "evil" part of it in Part 2, when she turns on Skeletor and becomes a bigger threat than he ever was, claiming the Power of Grayskull, before having a lengthy and constantly escalating brawl with Adam, Skeletor, Orko, and even a Sorceress Teela. The fact she's a remarkably complex character doesn't exactly hurt either.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Even though the series is intended as a direct continuation of the original '80s series, not all of the fandom sees it that way. Some people hate the series, refuse to see it as canon, and consider it a mockery of the original series. Others like the series but feel that the story has so many changes over the original, that it is more of an Alternate Universe than a direct sequel (The He-Man wiki, for example, considers the continuity of Revelation as a separate timeline).
• Franchise Original Sin: Teela became a very divisive character, with her being criticized for being arrogant, selfish, and for her treatment of Adam. Teela always had a Jerk with a Heart of Gold aspect to her since the original cartoon and the 2002 series, but it was much more subdued in comparison to this version, who borders on being an outright Jerkass before her character development kicks in.
  • Several plots seem to hint to Teela being more significant than just a soldier, contributing to complaints about her takeover of the show, but Teela's importance has been secondary only to He-Man and Skeletor going back to their original comics. The implications in Revelations, that she is the Sorceress' daughter and a goddess in her own right, have been subplots in every incarnation of the character other than the live action film.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: While many love Skeletor's new voice, there are some who feel that it sounds a bit too much like a deeper rendition of Mark Hamill's Joker, as opposed to the more high-pitched voice used in the original and 2002 cartoon by Alan Oppenheimer and Brian Dobson respectively.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Skeletor like always remains a fan favorite with fans, due to being his usual hammy self as well as a lot more competent in this series. Teela however gets the brunt of the ire with her selfish attitude and berating of Adam and his parents, while Skeletor is a villain, Teela is supposed to be the hero that's supposed to be rooted for which many don't. The fact that Teela has a completely new design here also makes it easier for fans to treat her like a different character, compared to her otherwise more well-liked counterpart from the original.
• LGBT Fanbase: Teela. Her Amazonian Beauty design and personality had a lot of appeal with queer audiences. Needless to say, some people weren't happy when it was shown that like previous iterations, she has feelings for Adam.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Like they would really kill off He-Man for good. Sure enough, he comes back from the dead in episode 5. Although he gets gruesomely stabbed, he's still alive at the end.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The himbo-ification of He-Man.^ExplanationDue to the more detailed art style, Adam looks more appropriately wimpy and skinny, or a "twink", before transforming into the very muscled and toned He-Man. Since He-Man is a Nice Guy and an All-Loving Hero but is seen in pop culture as Good Is Dumb (attributed to the ridiculousness of the franchise, and that in some depictions, Adam would act dumb or be a dumb teenager, as well as his twin Adora's most recent depiction portraying her as dumb due to her upbringing), it's been joked by younger viewers that this makes He-Man the perfect himbo (derived from "him" and "bimbo") and that the show's art just further enforces it.
  • He-Man is a Magical Girl.^ExplanationThe iconic transformation sequence immediately got comparisons to Sailor Moon's transformation sequence, due to a part where Adam's body turns into a colorful outer space-patterned silhouette as his accessories and gear as He-Man appear, just like with Usagi as she turns into Sailor Moon. This meme goes all the way back to the 80s series, originating once Magical Girl Warrior shows became popular during the 90s.
  • "Still know the tune?" “Some things you can never forget... AND I SAID HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA."^ExplanationOne scene in the Official Trailer had Teela and Prince Adam have this exchange and fans were more than happy to bring back the old "Fabulous Secret Powers" meme, in the comments.
  • Tri-Klops the Techno Pope.^ExplanationThe story trailer shows Tri-Klops at one point wearing preacher's robes in front of an altar as if he's leading a congregation (which, as it turns out, is not far from the truth). Fans immediately dubbed him the "Techno Pope" due to the fact he's still wearing his trademark three-eye headpiece.
  • "It's the Teela Show" ^Explanation Taken from IGN's early review of the series, confirming many suspicions that Teela was really the main heroine of the series instead of He-Man/Adam before the show premiered.
  • "It's not a He-Man show."^ExplanationA common argument by the show's defenders whenever someone complains about He-Man hardly being in a show that's supposed to be about him, is that unlike the original series, He-Man's name actually doesn't appear in the title, so it's a valid creative choice. Although detractors have started to parrot this defense mockingly, it should be noted that Mattel cannot legally call it "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" even if they wanted to.
  • "They turned Skeletor into an incel" ^ExplanationIn Episode 5, Andra asks Skeletor why he is doing all these evil things, and he tells her that, because of his skull head, he has had a lonely life where none would have him "as a man." This has people mocking Skeletor for being an evil dictator just because he couldn't get laid. Even when it is clear that the speech concludes with him revealing his quest for power by proclaiming "then let me be a god".
  • Jokes about Skeletor appearing to wear Castle Grayskull as shorts in the final shot of Part 1, often with people theorizing what comes out of the jawbridge.
  • "I'd jump/bone him in a heartbeat." ^ExplanationIn response to the above, many people, both male and female, have proudly admitted that they would happily have sex with Skeletor, regardless of his skull face.
  • "He-Man dies, Teela most affected." ^Explanation Based on the "Man dies, women most affected" meme that mocks Teela for berating Adam for dying and accusing him of not caring for her own feelings.
  • "Adam has an N-Word Pass." ^Explanation In this series King Grayskull, who is Adam's ancestor, is shown to be a black man, so fans started joking that Adam could actually say the N-word, because of his black ancestry.
• Mis-blamed: Kevin Smith did pitch the initial story overview and as the showrunner, he does command a good share of responsibility for how the show turns out. However, those that seem willing to castigate him for single-handedly being responsible for They Changed It, Now It Sucks! and unilaterally taking the characters in directions they were never intended seem to be ignorant that Kevin was brought in by Rob David, Vice President of Content Creative at Mattel Television, and Ted Biaselli, Director of Original Series - Netflix (and massive MOTU fan) who had already decided they wanted to tell an adult MOTU story with real stakes and real danger. Many of the "behind the scenes" stories reveal that Rob and Ted were heavily involved in the stages of the series creation. So this is an interpretation that has had the full support and backing of Mattel which created the entire franchise in the first place.
• Moral Event Horizon: Evil-Lyn crosses it when she destroys Preternia, dooming all the inhabitants, the late heroes of Eternia, to Cessation of Existence. This rallies almost everyone against her, whether they be Evil or Heroic Warriors. While she abandons her plan of destroying the Universe, it's pretty clear she's not going to be integrated back into society after destroying Heaven and is Walking the Earth.
• Narm: Evil-Lyn's backstory is too over-the-top to take seriously. Her parents were so poor and starving they tried to eat her, chasing her with knives. On her Birthday. It feels more like a Hilariously Abusive Childhood than a serious backstory.
• Narm Charm: For a Darker and Edgier reboot, there's a noticeable number of puns. However, because of the tributes to the original 80s series, they can dial back to being downright hilarious without taking away from the rest of the series' elements.
  Evil-Lyn: Sorry, Sorceress, I'm not Clawful - but I can be awful!
• Never Live It Down:
  • Whatever else happens in the series, it will be remembered by many (mostly its detractors) as the show that killed off Adam/He-Man in the first episode even if he gets better and reclaims his main character status.
  • The other thing the shows detractors remember it and Teela for is how she lashed out at King Randor and Queen Marlena after they just learn their child died. Her behavior throughout part 1 only really reinforcing the already negative opinion they had of her. While part 2 did a lot to do anyway with this behavior, perhaps even making Teela nicer than she ever was, for many the damage was done.
• Older Than They Think:
  • A big deal is made about the fact that this show is a Darker and Edgier squeal to the classic 80's show. While this is the first time this tone has been done for the cartoons, DC comics did a very successful run of Masters of the Universe comics that lasted for 8 years and 75 issues that was also a Darker and Edgier squeal to the classic show (to the point that, in the first story arc for the series, Skeletor beheads the Sorceress and then shows her severed head to Adam on panel).
  • A lot of people did not like how Orko's backstory has him as just as much of a failure back on Trolla as he was on Eternia, rather than the hyper-competent "Orko the Great." But even the original cartoon was extremely inconsistent with this backstory, and several episodes had Orko as just as much a screw-up on Trolla. The Universe Bible for the unproduced Sequel Series He-Ro: Son of He-Man even describes Orko as having been "notorious for being the most incompetent of mages" back on Trolla.
  • Skeletor being an extradimensional demon, rather than He-Man's Evil Uncle, was also his backstory in the earliest minicomics. The later 80s minicomics retconned him into being King Randor's brother Keldor and this was the backstory featured in the 2002 version. Though the sequel series reveals that Skeletor is indeed still Keldor and that the interdimensional demon origin was just a false memory implanted by Hordak.
• One-Scene Wonder: Ram Man (Played by Danny Trejo) being dropped as a bomb onto Skeletor, then wading into battle to wreck some undead. Given what happened to most of He-Man's other friends who weren't part of the main cast, this was about the best he could hope for.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Despite the questionable reception by fans, the series is mainly well known for becoming one of the latest battlegrounds of what is called by some as the "culture war" between USA's radical left and right, with people in the right accusing the left of injecting "woke" propaganda in the show and arguing the backlash is the product of pent-up frustration at the deconstruction of childhood icons, while people in the left accuse the right of outrage-farming, chauvinistic behavior and overall hypocrisy concerning the empowerment of female characters. Hence, any discussion about the series' content and quality has been buried by heated political arguments and accusations.
• Periphery Demographic: While the target audience is older viewers that grew up with the original show, it's also gotten the interest of younger fans brought in through the She-Ra reboot or people who just enjoy geek media but have never seen anything from the He-Man franchise.
• Rooting for the Empire: Skeletor like always. But it's become very prominent in this case as many fans are turned off by Teela's actions and find it hard to sympathize with her to the point that they would rather let Skeletor win than deal with Teela.
• Signature Scene:
  • Adam shouting his iconic By the Power of Grayskull! catchphrase and the beautifully animated Transformation Sequence.
  • He-Man's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the first episode, is pretty much the signature scene for a lot of reasons. From the awesome animation and the soundtrack playing an awesome symphony.
  • Teela's rant at Adam's parents about being left out of Adam's secret and quitting just after He-Man's death and her berating Adam's ghost. Both of which are seen as a Never Live It Down moment for her.
  • Orko's "Go back to your shadow" confrontation with Scare Glow in episode 4.
  • Skeletor coming back to life, taking the power of Grayskull, and becoming a god at the end of episode 5.
• Tainted by the Preview: Many of the fans were a bit cautious of the series after some of its promotional material didn't focus towards He-Man, with many guessing that instead of the show having He-Man or Prince Adam as the focal character, instead it'd give Teela the spotlight, due to how prominently she was featured in the early material. This was not helped by Kevin Smith repeatedly saying He-Man was indeed the focus of the series, only for early reviews to challenge that claim since three of the first five episodes featured He-Man primarily in flashbacks. It also didn't help that the story was crafted as a ten episode mini-series yet Netflix chose to split the release into two halves, breaking the narrative at a "cliffhanger" that wasn't intended to be a true mid-season "cliffhanger". This has caused the fandom to evaluate the tone of the mini-series based upon promotional material and half a story instead of the series as a whole.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Most criticism from some of the fanbase was that the show was feeling like it was trying too hard to cast the series in such a Darker and Edgier light through all its Deconstruction, stating that while there's nothing wrong with doing a less light-hearted version, it felt like it did it at the expense of making fun of what made the original so beloved, which was a major turn off with some fans. As one YouTube comment put it "It's like a Robot Chicken sketch done completely straight."
  • Many also despise Teela's new design for looking too masculine and having none of the femininity of her design from the original series. The fact she is also given a more unpleasant personality does not help matters in the slightest.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The Heroic Warriors are very underutilized in the show and most of the ones that do show up die. Moss Man appears and gets killed by Skeletor, then gives Adam some advice in the afterlife before getting killed again when Evil-Lyn destroys Preternia. After a brief cameo in the first episode, Fisto and Clamp Champ show up to just get blown up and sent to hell. Stratos and Buzz Off only get very brief cameos in the final battle. Ram Man just shows up out of nowhere for his scene before vanishing again. Only Roboto get much of a role in the story and he dies as well! We never get any indication on how they handled the reveal of Adam being He-Man despite many of them being his close allies. The Heroic Warriors could have easily had a chance to shine in the final battle but only three show up and they don't really accomplish much.
  • The "Savage He-Man" only gets one fight with Skelegod and a brief rampage before ultimately being talked down by King Randor and never seen again. Some viewers feel that this version of the character was underutilized and could have made for an interesting plot with Adam being more reluctant to call on his power due to the uncontrollable nature of this version of his alter ego.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • As several comics have shown, the idea of the entire kingdom knowing Adam is He-Man has a lot of story potential with him balancing the two lives and Teela dealing with not knowing the truth. Instead, Adam/He-Man vanishes right after the revelation, with the fallout more on the reactions of Teela and others before a Time Skip.
  • The prequel comic has Skeletor explain a genuine tragic backstory to Evil-Lyn, involving him having a wife and daughter— and while he admits it to be a lie, the last panel heavily implies that it was Real After All. This could give him an extremely compelling reason to want the Power of Grayskull and make Skeletor more sympathetic. The show never acknowledges this, instead characterizing Skeletor as a Practically Joker character whose obsession is with destroying He-Man^note The prequel comic is alluded to with the fact Skeletor is in his Horde uniform when he arrives on Eternia and the Orlax of Primeria's presence, so it's clear that the writers were aware of it and being considered He-Man's archenemy out of narcissism. Then come Revolution where it's revealed that Skeletor's backstory, along with his wife and daughter, in the prequel comic were just false memories implanted by Hordak when he introduced Keldor to Ha'vok magic.
  • Smith opined that he was most interested in focusing on everyone in Teela's life keeping her locked out of He-Man's secret, but this plot gets sidelined in favor of a collection quest.
  • In the climax of Part 2, Teela is faced with the hard choice of becoming Sorceress and shouldering the responsibilities that came with it (being unable to leave Castle Grayskull and leave behind her days as a warrior). It also provides an opportunity for Teela to understand her mother's sacrifice and overcome her resentment for her mother for being absent in her life. It thus becomes a complete cop out when Teela becomes Sorceress without having to make that sacrifice with no explanation why.
• Uncertain Audience: Revelation was promoted as a love letter to the famously campy He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) and has many references that are best understood by hardcore Masters fans (Such as instances of Unexpected Character, the use of Skeletor's original backstory rather than his more common "Keldor" backstory, alongside keeping the franchise's penchant for jokes and silly names, but also deliberately aims to play the role of deconstruction to said series, taking He-Man and Skeletor out of focus for its first half and intentionally painting their rivalry as a childish nuisance that He-Man hates indulging. In addition, it has a Darker and Edgier tone with things like Adam and Skeletor dying twice the sudden and ignominious deaths of Fisto and Clamp Champ, Evil-Lyn's horribly dark backstory, and the erasure of Preternia that can leave fans of the lighthearted original show turned off, and its grounding in a cartoon they've likely never watched alongside its dark tone means it's hard to sell to an audience of children^note In fact,He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021) is a sister series deliberately aimed at children. Audiences who loved the original show and want a good time are likely to be put off by the darker tone and lack of the principal hero and villain, while new audiences are likely to have a hard time investing in the story due to unfamiliarity with the source material. Notably, Masters of the Universe: Revolution took this criticism to heart and was instead a loving, fanservice-laden sequel series that centered He-Man and Skeletor once again and significantly lessened the dark tone, which bought it widespread love.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Even those who know who Scare Glow is never expected him to show up in this series.
  • Episode 5 features a bunch of very obscure characters in Preternia: if King Greyskull can be sorta expected since he was in the 2002 series, the same can't be said for He-Ro (an ancestor of He-Man that was supposed to get a toy in the 80's but was cancelled, getting toys only in newer lines), Wun-Dar (a character based on a mail-away exclusive recolor of He-Man, whose name started as a Fan Nickname due to the misconception that it was released for a Wonder Bread promotion) and Vikor (a character based on early concept arts for the original Masters of the Universe toyline).
  • The second half of the series features a group of very obscure villains: Pigboy and Blade, from the live action film, and Goat Man, a one-shot character from a Little Golden Book.
  • The very end of Part 2 shows Hordak taking over Skeletor's minions.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Teela and King Randor's anger towards Adam (and by extension even Duncan/Man-At-Arms) for being kept in the dark with his dual identity comes off as this, considering that not only have the two been constantly rough on poor Adam^note Teela considers Adam cowardly or admonishes him every time he disappears to transform into He-Man. King Randor is often overly strict, sometimes outright dismissive of his son and not really thinking too highly of him, and even sometimes outright unfavorably comparing poor Adam with Teela or He-Man., the secret wasn't exactly his to tell, since he was under strict orders from the Sorceress herself to not let anyone else know about his power, lest Skeletor learn the truth about Grayskull and lead him to lose the protection. Not helping matters is Teela having taken a level in being a jerk to poor Adam, making it hard to sympathize with her feelings about his secret. Part 2 actually addresses this somewhat, with both characters apologizing to Adam for the way they reacted and expressing more understanding for why he kept his identity as He-Man a secret, even if they were hurt by how the truth was revealed to them.
  • In Teela's case, it really doesn't help that by abandoning Randor's service over the discovery that Duncan, Orko, Cringer and Marlena all knew Adam's secret, she's effectively lumping him in with the aforementioned four. Right after seeing firsthand that he was just as much in the dark as she was over Adam being He-Man, and is almost certainly reeling over the discovery that his low opinion of his freshly deceased son was entirely misplaced.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Even though this series is a continuation of a classic 1980s children's cartoon, it includes a scene where Skeletor is quite obviously about to have sex with Evil-Lyn. (It's all a ruse on her part, as she has no intention of actually sleeping with him, but he clearly gets aroused by her advances.) It's also implied this is hardly the first time they've done the act. To add on, this show is also way more violent than the 80s cartoon due to featuring several onscreen kills and a decent amount of blood on a few occasions.
  • Even with this, toys based on this series are still placed alongside Kids' toys and the other MOTU figures as they are recommended for ages 6 and up.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Prince Adam pretty much had to sacrifice most of his life and reputation as a teenage Prince, in order to spend it protecting Eternia as He-Man. Having to play The Ditz and being Willfully Weak has somewhat tarnished his reputation with his father King Randor and even Teela, neither of whom think too highly of him, yet heap praise on He-Man. If that wasn't enough in this series, when he dies do they actually mourn his Heroic Sacrifice to try and save Eternia? No, they just get angry at him posthumously for keeping his dual identity a secret, even though as noted elsewhere he was under the Sorceress's instructions to do so. Then when he comes back to life and with Roboto's help gets the Sword of Power reforged, he gets stabbed in the gut by Skeletor and left to die, while his arch-enemy steals the power of Grayskull for himself. The kid can't catch a break.
  • Orko is an adorable small imp-like Inept Mage who is seen as a joke by most other characters. After He-Man dies, he has not only lost a close friend, but is exiled with the King along with Man-at-Arms. As the magic disappears he becomes sick and frail, not having much time left and needing to be cared for by Duncan. In episode 4, it's revealed that even on his home world he was an outcast, including in the eyes of his parents.

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