Western Animation / Masters of the Universe: Revelation

It is recommended that you watch at least the first episode of Revelation before continuing to read on. Major spoilers are ahead.

"By the Power of Grayskull!, I HAVE THE POWER!"

Masters of the Universe: Revelation is an animated series for Masters of the Universe, designed as a continuation of the 1983 series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe rather than a Continuity Reboot. Kevin Smith leads the production team with it released on Netflix and produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios and animation by DR Movie.

Beginning with the final battle between He-Man (Chris Wood) and Skeletor (Mark Hamill), the duel results in Eternia being pulled to the brink of destruction and the fracturing of He-Man's companions. With the Sword of Power missing, Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar) leads an alliance of both Heroic and Evil Warriors to find the Sword, re-form the Masters of the Universe, and save Eternia.

The first five episodes were released in July 23, 2021 as Part 1, with the second five released on November 23 of the same year as Part 2. A four-issue comic book prequel, titled Masters of the Universe: Revelation and by the same creative team as the show, was published by Dark Horse Comics.

Though also released on Netflix within a couple of years, the show has no relation to its sister show She-Ra and the Princesses of Power due to different owners claiming rights to each sibling. It is also not to be confused with the other He-Man show for Netflix titled He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), which unlike Revelation is an All-CGI Cartoon targeted at a younger audience.

Mattel Television, the producers of Revelation, does not have rights to the 2002 adaption of He-Man so any plot details or character presentations from that series couldn't be incorporated into this story.

Here's the Teaser Trailer and the Official Trailer for Part 1.

In June 2022, a sequel titled Masters of the Universe: Revolution was announced. It released in January 2024.

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He-Man and the Tropes of the Universe!

• Abnormal Ammo: Ram Man is launched as a missile from a fighter jet during the Final Battle.
• Actionized Sequel: The show has much more varied and frenzied action than the original show, with much more varied choreography and even has blood drawn at certain points.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Mark Hamill briefly uses his Joker voice for Skeletor as a nod to himself voicing him in various Batman cartoons and video games.
  • In addition to the obvious humor behind Alan Oppenheimer threatening Skeletor, this isn't the first time he played a plant monster, either.
  • At one point the Queen, voiced by Alicia Silverstone, says "As if!" — her iconic catchphrase from Clueless. Kevin Smith confirms in the aftershow that it was indeed intentional.
  • More of a Director Allusion, but Evil-Lyn telling Skeletor that he would destroy her if he had sex with her in his Skelegod form certainly calls to mind a conversation in a famous scene from Executive Producer Kevin Smith's film Mallrats about Lois Lane and Superman.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Was marketed as a sequel to The 1983 He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe but had some elements of the 2002 reboot, such as Roboto being built by Man-At-Arms instead of coming from space.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Moss Man, despite making an impressive entrance as a massive plant-man is reduced to ashes by Skeletor in a few seconds.
  • Zig-Zagged with Orko. In the original Filmation series, he was a powerful wizard on Trolla but his magic doesn't work properly on Eternia. In Revelation it's been changed so that he apparently was always a magical failure even on Trolla, which led to self-esteem issues. However, in episode 4 Orko appears to overcome his self-doubt as he levitates a dozen or so stalactites to save his friends, then sets up a shield that withstands Scare Glow's constant attacks, and then summons golden bands that bind and banish Scare Glow. When he returns Back from the Dead in Part 2, he's arguably the most powerful interpretation of the character, able to actually defeat Scare Glow with no harm to himself and knock down an empowered Evil-Lyn without much effort.
• Adaptation Name Change: Orko reveals his name was originally Oracle, but due to being unable to pronounce it as a child, the Orko nickname stuck.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: The Ram Skull that always topped Skeletor's Havoc Staff is implied to have originally been the severed head of a guardian at the gateway into Subternia.
• Alien Blood: Skeletor's blood is purple.
• All There in the Manual: The Orlax of Primeria's origins, powers, and how it came to be locked in the dungeon are explained in the tie-in comics, published by Dark Horse.
• Alternate Continuity: The show is set in a timeline that is based primarily on the original 1983 cartoon. Some characters have been Race Lifted and others have different characterizations than the original 80s show.
• And Then What?: The thing that finally convinces Evil-Lyn to turn against Skeletor is learning that even with all the power of Greyskull, the only thing he can think of to do with it is kill He-Man, with no thought as to what he'd do next if he actually managed to accomplish that.
• Another Dimension: Several are mentioned or visited.
  • Skeletor explicitly mentions that he's an interdimensional demon.
  • Preternia and Subternia are Eternia's Heaven and Hell, which are alternate dimensions with specific entry and exit points.
  • The tie-in comic explains that The Orlax of Primeria is able to exist in two dimensions simultaneously (Primeria and Eternia) which is why it can't be killed.
• Art Evolution: The show's art style is more realistic and polished — just take a look at Orko, who looks less like a cartoony dwarf wizard and more like the Cheshire Cat minus the Slasher Smile. The updated character designs are also meant to be more accurate to the original toy line.
• Apocalypse How: The story deals with two Class X-4 Apocalypses involving annihilation on the Universal Scale.
  • After the orb is destroyed in the Hall of Wisdom it is revealed that magic has left Eternia. Without magic, Eternia will die, and if Eternia dies, the entire universe will die.
  • After Dark-Lyn sees the futility of the universe, she plans to unmake it. Her reasoning is that not existing would be kinder than toiling in a void of emptiness, loneliness, and pain.
• Ascended Meme: Episode 9 is titled "Hope, for a Destination", coming from a lyric from 4 Non Blondes' song "What's Up?", used in the "Fabulous Secret Powers" meme.
• Back from the Dead: Unsurprisingly, He-Man and Skeletor return from the dead right before the mid-season cliffhanger and Orko returns in the finale when Evil-Lyn resurrects everyone in Subternia for her army.
• Bad Boss: Per usual, Skeletor frequently berates and abuses his minions when he's angered or frustrated by the actions of the heroes.
• Bait-and-Switch: When King Randor is ripping into Duncan, Teela looks like she's going to defend him... only to call him out as well.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: At the end of the first half of the season it looks as if Skeletor as Skelegod will be the Big Bad. Then Evil-Lyn steals the Sword of Power, calls down the Power of Grayskull herself, and becomes Dark-Lyn.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Whiplash's tail has been modified with an electrified club, courtesy of Tri-Klops's cult.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: Skeletor is the classic archnemesis for He-Man and leader of the evil warriors. But he is killed along with He-Man in the first episode. The next Big Bad we're introduced to is Tri-Clops, who is worshipping a mechanical being called Motherboard and forcefully converting others, and Mer-Man, who attacks them with his Aquatican mooks. After that, Scare Glow menaces the heroes when they journey to Subternia, before Skeletor suddenly reemerges as the Big Bad and remains that way for most of Part 2. He is then co-opted by Evil-Lyn, who remains the principle antagonist for the remainder, although Skeletor still attempts to be a menace to He-Man on his own terms. The finale then reveals that Hordak is the real force behind Motherboard as a Sequel Hook.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: "Boob" is used as an insult at least three times, by two separate characters.
• Bittersweet Ending: Revelation ends on a mostly positive note, but with too much loss to be a proper Happy Ending:
  • The good news: Teela becomes the Sorceress, and is able to convince Evil-Lyn that while the universe is chaotic, it is also beautiful, causing her to spare the universe and release the power of Grayskull, allowing Teela and He-Man to send the demons back to Subternia while also keeping Orko resurrected. Teela also becomes the first Sorceress who can leave Castle Grayskull, allowing her to have a life with the people beyond the castle. Meanwhile, Adam no longer needs to hide his Secret Identity as He-Man, and it's implied that Adam and Teela are pursuing a romantic relationship. King Randor and Queen Marlena reconcile, and Randor rescinds the exile of Duncan, Cringer, and Orko, while also appointing Andra as the new Man-At-Arms.
  • The bad news: Roboto, the Sorceress, Fisto, Clamp Champ, and hundreds of other Eternians were killed by Skeletor in his quest for revenge. Preternia was destroyed by Lyn, meaning the souls of the former heroes of Eternia have been destroyed. While redeemed, Lyn begins Walking the Earth. The final scene shows Skeletor being assimilated by Motherboard, who is revealed to be an agent of Hordak.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Downplayed but still noticeable. Unlike the tame and bloodless original cartoon, there are two instances of blood being drawn in this series, as well as some jarringly visceral Body Horror in the form of Tri-Klops's assimilation process. Part 2 takes it up a notch by showing visible bleeding wounds and actual gore, though the latter skirts the line by virtue of the recipients being undead.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • As he sacrifices himself, He-Man reverts back to Adam in front of Teela. In the aftermath, angered that everyone (including her now dead friend and her own father) lied to her about Adam being He-Man, Teela quits the Royal Guard and strikes out on her own as a mercenary. It's Played With in that, as Cringer says to her, she isn't actually angry at Adam for keeping his identity as He-Man a secret from her, but more that she's frightened of the responsibility he left her with after he died.
  • Villain Example with Skeletor. After his death, all of his former allies and subordinates seem to lose whatever respect they might have had for him, realizing that he was an incompetent villain with ridiculous plans. Ends up being Subverted with Evil-Lyn and Beast Man, who return to his side immediately once he returns from the dead and manages to steal the Sword of Power. And then it turns into a Double Subversion for Evil-Lyn after she realizes that he has no grand plans beyond killing He-Man.
• Brought Down to Badass: While Adam losing his sword in Part 2 means that he can no longer access the Power of Greyskull, having sworn off using the unrefined transformation into his Savage He-Man form due to the danger he presents to his allies, that doesn't stop him from picking up a regular blade and challenging the empowered Evil-Lyn alongside Skeletor and reminding everyone that Adam was a warrior long before he became He-Man when he gives a good showing and even lands a wound on her.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A heroic example with Orko. He remarks that after having so many adventures with He-Man over the years, he has trouble remembering the details of any particular one of them. The remarkable became routine and the details all blurred together.
• Call-Back:
  • When Orko comes Back from the Dead he rehashes his line about Man-at-Arms feeling "man-y" emotions. Later he seals Scare Glow in a bubble with a spell very similar to the one he used on Cringer in the first episode.
  • In the first episode, Battle Cat overwhelms Beast Man and pins him down. In the Final Battle after being empowered by Dark-Lyn Beast Man is able to turn the tables and at one point gets Cringer in the same position.
  • "Family is what you make of it." Said first by Roboto in "The Most Dangerous Man in Eternia." Echoed by Duncan in the season finale.
  • Roboto remarks that he does not feel fear in Subternia. Before he dies he remarks that he is afraid. This makes him oddly happy.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Andra is from Marvel Comics' version of Masters of the Universe.
  • The Orlax of Primeria from the Revelation spinoff comic-book appears and participates in part 2.
  • Blade and Pigboy from the 1987 live-action film appear briefly in part 2, as does Goat Man from the MOTU Golden Book Secret of the Dragon's Egg. Duncan playfully chides the latter two's appearance as the Evil Warriors' reaching "the bottom of the barrell".
• Casting Gag:
  • Evil-Lyn, voiced by Lena Headey, dislikes men and kicks herself for never taking the opportunity to become a Master of the Universe, instead having served another person for her entire life. Guess not every villainess can be Cersei Lannister...
  • Once again, Mark Hamill voices a villain who cruelly strings along a female lackey who bizarrely loves him. He has also upgraded from playing a Skeletor-like villain to the man himself.
  • This isn't Chris Wood's first time playing a prince from another world.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar plays an Action Girl who must fight a death-themed villain that impersonates herself, and later escapes from a warrior heaven. Buffy Summers did the former in the seventh season, and the latter in the sixth.
  • Tony Todd plays a terrifying and relentless underworld spirit whose mere name chills the breath of anyone who mentions it.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Isaac Bardavid voices Scare Glow, a villain with a Skull for a Head who's mistaken for Skeletor in-universe; the very villain he voiced in the other incarnations.
• Chest Insignia: The most notable departure in He-Man's character design is that his chestpiece that has a stylized symbol that could be interpreted as an H or an M (i.e. He-Man). This is the same symbol used for later He-Man figures, most notably the Battle Armour version, rather than the first wave toy where the symbol resembled an Iron Cross. It was presumably changed for the same reason as the toys.
• Clothing Combat: Orko's tabard has a long tail that he uses to grapple with opponents during the Final Battle.
• Cosmic Keystone: In the first episode, Skeletor finds the orb which contains the collected magic of the Elders of the Universe and shatters it. This releases enough energy to destroy the entire universe. He-Man invokes the By the Power of Grayskull! while still in his champion form, which allows the Sword of Power to absorb the blast. However, the magnitude of energy causes the sword to be split in twain; this ultimately vaporizes him and casts the two swords to Subternia and Preternia. After the time skip, the Sorceress and Evil-Lyn explain that the Sword of Power is what allowed magic to flow between Eternia and the rest of the universe, and that without it the planet is dying, and once Eternia dies, so does the entire universe.
• Costume Evolution: Several characters go through this.
  • Skeletor has a new design at the beginning of the series. In a flashback he has a costume much more similar to his classic design, (Including a belt buckle with the Hoard emblem). When he becomes Skelegod, he gets a gaudy upgrade with glowy bits and Shoulders of Doom.
  • Man-At-Arms starts in his classic 1983 costume, but shifts after the Battle of Castle Grayskull to a modified look with different shoulders.
  • Teela has a variant of her classic costume to begin with, which she also wears in a flashback. After the Battle of Castle Grayskull she wears a completely different costume with pants and a heavier chest plate. Once she becomes the Sorceress she has a look that integrates elements of her classic design with the colors of Zoar sprinkled in.
  • Orko has his standard red and purple costume to start. When he comes Back from the Dead he has an upgraded white robe with a red tabard and scarf trimmed with gold.
  • Evil-Lyn's first look mirrors her classic design. Her second costume has a longer coat and boots, and she eventually ditches the helmet. When she's made Sorceress of Grayskull she gets a bat-themed getup otherwise similar in design to her predecessor's birdlike regalia. When she steals the Power of Grayskull to become Dark-Lyn she gets a completely new costume similar to He-Man's trimmed in gold with a spiky collar of doom and her own chest emblem. After the Final Battle, she's left in an elegant dress as she sets off to wander the Mystic Mountains and leave her old life behind.
• Creative Sterility: Addressed by Skeletor. After becoming Skelegod with the power of Greyskull, he chastises Adam for using that power in such an uncreative manner, as it is capable of so much more. But after Adam was able to call upon the power without the sword to turn into a savage version of He-Man, this unexpected use of the power shakes Skeletors' confidence in what he knows about the power. For the rest of the season it becomes evident Skeletor is so obsessed with his rivalry with He-Man he is blinded to what he can actually accomplish.
• Cult: Tri-Klops leads a cult worshipping the Motherboard, and drinking a substance from it can turn people into cyborgs, converting their flesh into completely functional machinery.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • When Adam calls the Power of Grayskull without the Sword of Power, he transforms into a being of pure power and rage, easily destroying Skelegod's undead minions. Skelegod himself has a difficult time combatting this form.
  • Teela deals with Stinkor rather quickly.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Genderflipped. The Sorceress reveals that she had to abandon Teela to fulfill her duties.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original and '02 reboot, at least. Although the situation is much more grave and various characters die, the inherently camp aspects of the franchise are still present. The series goes out of its way to draw attention to this change with flashbacks to events set during the original series with a radically different tone.
• Darkest Hour: He-Man and Skeletor's final battle resulted in Eternia being broken, with much of its magic dwindling and slowly leading to its destruction, as well as the rest of the universe. He-Man's companions lose hope and go their separate ways. It's up to Teela to lead a group to fix everything by restoring the Sword of Power, which has split in two and sent to two different planes; an equivalent of Heaven and Hell.
  • Exaggerated when Dark-Lyn plans to unmake the entire universe.
• Death by Cameo:
  • Moss-Man, played by Alan Oppenheimer — voice of the original Skeletor and many other characters — appears to stop Skeletor from reaching the Orb, but Skeletor takes advantage of his weakness to fire and immolates him within seconds. Ultimately played with in "The Forge at the Forest of Forever", where he reappears as one of the hallowed heroes of Preternia and talks with Adam about the nature of death and rebirth.
  • Fisto and Clamp Champ show up in part two, only to be quickly killed off when Skeletor floods Eternos with zombifying gas. Later, the depowered Skeletor brings Panthor with him against the goddess-level Evil-Lyn, who kills Panthor out of spite.
  • Blade from the 1987 live-action movie shows up in the sewers to stop Teela and Andra only to be unceremoniously killed by the Orlax of Primeria.
• Deconstruction: The series deconstructs a number of tropes from the original series.
  • Secret Identity: Teela is deeply hurt by the revelation that Adam was secretly He-Man and is furious that she alone of He-Man's companions (who were in the room - she's never told that all their other companions didn't know either) was kept in the dark about it. King Randor isn't at all pleased either, to find out his subjects and his wife were keeping this from him and expresses it.
  • Big Bad Wannabe - Harmless Villain: After his apparent death, Skeletor is mocked by several of his minions/allies as a raging egomaniac who failed so often that it was hard to take him seriously. However, it's noticeable that this mockery only started after the demon mage was gone, and within the show itself Skeletor is depicted as being surprisingly dangerous when given the opportunity: he successfully infiltrates Castle Grayskull, kills Moss Man, and nearly destroys the entire universe in the first episode and makes a nightmarish return at the end of episode 5.
  • Enemy Mine - Evil Versus Oblivion: Evil-Lyn and Beast Man ally with the heroes to save magic/Eternia, since magic fading would kill them along with the rest of the world; but once magic is restored and Skeletor returns from the dead, they turn against their temporary allies. Then in part two, Skeletor allies with the Masters after Evil-Lyn snaps and decides to destroy the universe; but once Teela and Evil-Lyn take the fight away from Castle Greyskull, he immediately goes back to trying to kill He-Man.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Orko's magic misfiring constantly has left him with deep seated self-esteem and confidence issues. This has become a perpetuating cycle; he believes no spell he casts will work, so they often don't.
  • Arch-Enemy: Part 2 delves into how much of a hindrance Skeletor's single-minded obsession with killing He-Man is. He is capable of some incredible planning, and was implied to have had grand ambitions at one point, but all of that gets tossed out the window just so that he can remain continually locked in battle with He-Man until the day he finally kills him in a manner he thinks will be suitably grandiose. Naturally, such circumstances would be nearly impossible to occur even with planning, so this just leads Skeletor to constantly giving He-Man ways to win. Coupled with discovering just how vast and random the universe really is, the fact that Skeletor has no grand ambitions beyond his petty feud with He-Man leads Evil-Lyn to turn on him. Skeletor also ends up interfering with the plan to save all of existence in the end just for another shot at killing He-Man, which leads He-Man to pointedly tell him that the universe doesn't revolve around their feud before defeating him for the umpteenth time.
  • Essentially everything that was more light-hearted in the original takes a more cynical turn in this one.
• Decoy Protagonist: Adam/He-Man seems like the main hero for the first episode, but then he dies at the end of it, leaving Teela to take over. It's ultimately Played With, as Adam returns in Episode 5 and shares equal screen time with Teela in Part 2, making him more of a Deuteragonist.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • When Evil-Lyn joins the heroes, she's just as insulting to them as you would expect, but she gradually becomes warmer to them (particularly Orko). This lasts until Skeletor returns to life and Evil-Lyn abandons the heroes to rejoin him. She actually expresses regret over it, noting that "I was really starting to like you kids."
  • In the time between He-Man's death and magic fading from Eternia, Teela has become angry, bitter, and jaded. She hates magic and resents everyone in her old life. It's implied that she hasn't spoken to her friends, her father, or her unwitting mother for months. As she undertakes the quest to reforge the Sword of Power, she reconnects with her friends and family and eventually reconciles those relationships on the way to fulfilling her destiny.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Most of Skeletor's evil minions, aside from Evil-Lyn, Beast Man, and Mer-Man, have joined Tri-Klops's Motherboard cult and have very few lines.
  • The Heroic Warriors outside of the main cast are hit pretty hard by this as well. Roboto is the only one to have much of a major role. Moss Man, Fisto, and Clamp Champ all get killed off without much screentime. Stratos and Buzz Off have only brief cameos. While Ram-Man shows up for one scene before vanishing.
• The Devil Is a Loser: Played With regarding Skeletor. In-Universe several people (the Sorceress, Tri-Klops, Mer-Man) bring up his raging ego and the sheer number of times he has failed to achieve his goals. However, the series shows to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain who is capable of cold blooded murder and surprisingly smart plans. Ultimately is a Double Subversion. Skeletor can be competent and is undoubtedly dangerous, but all of his talents and power have gone completely to waste because he can't get over his petty feud with He-Man to aim for anything truly grand.
• Dismantled Macguffin: Absorbing the magic blast in the first episode splits the Sword of Power into the two halves it initially was and sends them to Subternia and Preternia respectively. The first story arc is retrieving them to reforge the Sword of Power to restore the flow of magic through Eternal and the universe before it all dies.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Skeletor allows the power to return when Lyn suggest they have sex. He doesn't notice her stealing the Sword of Power before it's too late.
• Doppelgänger Attack: During the Final Battle Orko appears in the sewers, Castle Grayskull, and on the battlefield at the same time.
• Double Entendre: Probably to be expected with Kevin Smith involved.
  • In "The Poisoned Chailace" Teela and Andra recover a magical gauntlet for a mystic order. When the head of the order mentions that their followers felt empty without it, Andra remarks, "No glove, no love." A slang term popular during the height of the 90's AIDS scare for refusing to have sex without a condom that still sees some use in 2021.
  • Fisto happily boasts to his friends that he "sure would like to fist" Skeletor.
  • When Skeletor puts Evil-Lyn on his lap during her seduction, he whispers, "I'm happy you took my... point."
• Downer Beginning: Teela being promoted as her father's successor as Man-At-Arms is immediately overshadowed by Skeletor and Evil-Lyn successfully infiltrating Castle Grayskull and almost stealing its secret, which would've resulted in the end of the universe had been not for the Sorceress stopping time so that He-Man can perform a Heroic Sacrifice. In the process, He-Man is revealed to be Adam and seemingly dies along with Skeletor; but the revelation of kept secrets and the loss of Eternia's prince causes King Randor to banish Man-At-Arms while Teela leaves.
• The End... Or Is It?: In Revolution, the combined efforts of Adam, Teela, and the rest of Eternia's forces, defeat Skeletor after he takes down Hordak and Motherboard and attempted to rule the world again. He loses his Ha'voc power and is turned back to Keldor before he is thrown in prison below a restored Castle Grayskull. Preternia is revived by Teela so that Adam's father, King Randor, and other fallen heroes and allies can rest in peace. Lynn is forgiven for her actions from Revelation thanks to her atonement to help restore Preternia and becomes a Cosmic Enforcer to continue maintaining balance in the universe. Eternos is free once more but, after admitting that the monarchy is flawed, which led to Keldor/Skeletor's uprising, Adam declares the system dissolved and the kingdom now a republic, giving power and independence to its citizens, while he and Teela finally become an Official Couple. Despite all this, however, Hordak barely survives Skeletor's betrayal and a mysterious acolyte retrives him for recovery, vowing in the name of Horde Prime that they will return to Eternia to take revenge on the heroes.
• Enemy Mine: Evil-Lyn teams up with our heroes because she doesn't want the destruction of Eternia, the universe, and magic. Though both sides initially agree it's purely business, she ends up bonding with Orko and, to some extent, Teela. Beast Man also joins the heroes, but only out of sheer loyalty to Evil-Lyn.
• Everyone Can See It: Well, at least Evil-Lyn can. While they head to the gates of Subternia, she remarks about how Teela hasn't "moved on" and is still "carrying a torch" after He-Man/Adam's death.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Skeletor is trying to understand how Adam can call down the Power of Grayskull without the sword, he interrogates Man At Arms to find out how Adam "manipulates" the power. Duncan tells him that the fact that he calls it "manipulation" is why he'll always lose. He then explains how Adam never used the power selfishly, and chastizes Skeletor for not letting the power return.
• Evil Gloating: In "Cleaved in Twain" Skelegod has the heroes trapped in the Eternian throne room and outnumbered with his undead minions. He stops to talk about all the power he possesses and brags he could unmake Adam with a thought. He finds Adam's heroics laughable and even offers him a free shot. This, of course, buys Adam the time to try calling down the Power of Grayskull without the sword which transforms him into Savage He-Man.
• Evolving Credits: The title for Revolution and Castle Grayskull undergo various changes throughout the season, eventually corrupted to cybernetics and dark magic by the Horde. The end of the episode "The Scepter and the Sword" shows the title a bright gold, representing the heroes' victory.
• Exact Words: When told that there's no-one alive who'd ally with them, a powered-up Evil-Lyn reaches into Subternia and raises up an army of the dead.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Within the Time Skip between "The Power of Grayskull" and "The Poisoned Chalice", Teela has cut her hair drastically short.
    • When she becomes the Sorceress of Grayskull, it grows long again.
  • It's the opposite for Man-at-Arms; he has a short, slicked-back hairstyle that has grown out considerably by the time he's reunited with Teela.
  • When Evil-Lyn steals the Power of Greyskull, her hair changes from long to short.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Evil-Lyn and Beast Man are evil through and through, but they have no wish to let the universe die.
• The Farmer and the Viper: In the Final Battle, He-Man empowers Skeletor to fight at his side against Evil Lyn. Once it looks like all hope is lost, Skeletor invokes The Only One Allowed to Defeat You and turns on He-Man so he can at least have the satisfaction of killing him before the end of the universe.
• Fate Worse than Death: Evil-Lyn's plans for Skeletor, since killing Skeletor won't be enough to repay him the misery she feels he visited upon her.
• The Fellowship Has Ended:
  • A consequence of He-Man and Skeletor's final battle was He-Man's true identity as Prince Adam being revealed very shortly before he dies from his Heroic Sacrifice. Unfortunately, the two people not in the know, King Randor and Teela, end up taking this incredibly poorly; Randor banishes the other Masters of the Universe for keeping Adam's secret from him and Teela outright leaves due to being unable to handle her incredibly complicated emotions about the matter. The Masters of the Universe are all brought back together once Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress reveal that the destruction of the source of magic threatens the very universe itself.
  • Beast Man and Evil-Lyn team up with Teela, Andra, Orko, and Roboto, with them going through literally heaven and hell together, and proving a pretty good team through it all — only for Beast Man and Evil-Lyn to desert Teela the instant Skeletor revives.
• Fiery Redhead: Redheaded Teela has quite a formidable temper when pushed to it.
• First-Episode Twist: He-Man and Skeletor are killed in the first episode, and the consequences of why and how that happened drive the plot from there.
• The Fog of Ages: Orko has been around long enough that he's started to forget so many of the adventures he's been on. He tells Andra to keep a journal and record it all, even the silly stuff.
• Forbidden Zone: The term's actually used when King Randor calls Castle Grayskull off-limits after He-Man dies there.
• Forging Scene: Since the Sword of Power was broken into two swords, we naturally get a scene of Roboto reforging it in Episode 5. Unfortunately, it requires a Heroic Sacrifice as the energy needed to restore the Sword Of Power overpowers Roboto's systems, causing a critical failure.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "Land of the Dead" once Teela admits that her greatest fear is her destiny, she's surrounded by an aura very similar to the one that surrounds The Sorceress when she uses her magic. The marks on her forehead from her mother's blessing upon her also light up.
  • The Sequel Hook at the end of Part 2 is foreshadowed during the flashback to Evil-Lyn's first meeting with Skeletor, as it can be seen that Skeletor's belt has the winged crest of the Evil Horde in it.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Evil-Lyn when Skeletor shows her the universe, and she realizes there is no pattern or plan to anything. She seduces Skeletor, steals the Power of Grayskull, and plans to destroy the whole universe, believing that not existing is kinder than what she has learned.
• A God Am I: Skelegod, Skeletor's new form after obtaining the power of Castle Grayskull. It's right in the name.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Evil-Lyn pulls an Enemy Mine, actively helping the group that seeks to restore the Sword of Power to stop the universe from withering away.
  • Turns out Adam can invoke the power of Grayskull without the Sword of Power. He just never did because he had no idea exactly how it would affect him. Turns out to be reasonable since doing so turned him into a mindless berserker of ridiculous power and he refuses to do it again, realizing it could cause more damage than it might prevent.
  • After Dark-Lyn destroyed Preternia all of Eternia put aside their differences to assault Castle Greyskull.
  • When Evil-Lyn becomes Dark-Lyn and plans to unmake the universe, Skeletor turns himself in to the Eternian royal guard. He even lampshades it with, "I can't believe I'm saying this," when he proposes the alliance.
• Grief-Induced Split: Randor and Marlena's marriage crumbles in the aftermath of their son's death.
• Hates My Secret Identity: King Randor admires He-Man but seems to find Prince Adam a disappointment. He's shocked when he finds out they're the same person.
• Heel Realization: Randor comes to an off-screen one over the Time Skip, which he expresses when he reunites with Adam in Part 2. He apologizes to Adam for treating him like a disappointment, realizing that he was putting pressure on his son to fit his specific vision rather than be his own person.
• Hidden Depths: Queen Marlena is an ace pilot, which was implied back in a couple of the 1983 series' episodes.
• Humble Hero: Every past Champion of Eternia has chosen their empowered form in Preternia - all except for Prince Adam, whom they call "Flea-Man" because of his much smaller appearance by comparison.
• Idiot Ball: In the original series, Skeletor has tried before to enter Castle Greyskull through deception, so it's jarring that in Episode 1, the Sorceress opens Castle Grayskull's drawbridge before she has fully checked things out in her bird-form. While the story shows she was aware of Skeletor disguised by his shaping staff, it's odd that she blindly accepts that it was "He-Man" who delivers the villains without double-checking him as well.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: While flying a fighter jet, Queen Marlena is able to hit a man-sized target at high speed who is engaged with King Randor in melee combat without posing any danger to Randor. Later she does something similar; firing Ram Man as a missile at Skeletor through a hole in the roof of a darkened building, without endangering He-Man. Skeletor and He-Man also switched sides of the room after she fired, so she anticipated where Skeletor was going to move to after she's already launched.
• Informed Ability: Skelegod taunts Adam that he could rip the soul from his body. Evil-Lyn suggests doing this to Randor later. Skelegod doesn't do this to either character or any of the other dangerous characters opposing him. Even if Skeletor's excuse is that he wants to defeat He-Man in battle, Dark-Lyn never uses this supposed power, either. When Dark-Lyn's whole motivation for taking the Power of Grayskull for herself was because Skeletor couldn't get over his obsession with beating He-Man in battle; she should have no qualms about killing her enemies in such a way.
• Internal Reveal: Played straight. Teela and King Randor learn that Adam is He-Man, and Marlena officially reveals that she already knew. Neither Teela nor Randor are at all happy at the revelation.
• Just Before the End: He-Man and Skeletor's confrontation at Grayskull in the first episode results in a shattering of all magical powers across the universe, and as Eternia was forged by magic, the planet is slowly dying. After a Time Skip, magic is exceedingly rare and very weak compared to what it was before. While there is something of a societal infrastructure, there is general sense of impending destruction hanging over everyone.
• Kick the Dog: Poor Panthor. Lyn kills him purely to spite Skeletor..
• Killed Off for Real: Quite a few characters are killed without resurrection.
  • Moss Man.
  • Roboto.
  • Clamp Champ.
  • Fisto.
  • The Sorceress.
  • Panthor.
  • Beast Man, though they Never Found the Body.
• Knew It All Along: Teela reveals that she already knew she was the Sorceress' daughter, and that she's known it all along when Adam tries to tell her in the Mystic Mountains.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • The Sorceress and Evil-Lyn explain that the two halves that made up the Sword of Power can be found in Preternia and Subternia (the Land of the Dead). Immediately after hearing this, Andra says it sounds like Heaven and Hell.
  • After Evil-Lyn makes some mean remarks, Andra snidely remarks to Teela that she's not sure what she expected from someone with a name like "Evil-Lyn".
  • The third episode opens with Teela recalling to Andra a time she and He-Man fought Skeletor in the Crystal Sea, which ended with He-Man making a quip that Skeletor "is all wet". Andra thinks it's a lame one-liner, and Teela agrees but notes that after learning he was actually a teenager, it made more sense.
• Large Ham:
  • Henry Rollins' turn as Tri-Klops presiding over the cult ritual in Snake Mountain. He's clearly having fun.
  • Skeletor, naturally, given the history of the character and his current voice actor.
  • Diedrich Bader plays Randor with quiet reservation and dignity...right up until the Final Battle.
    King Randor: "Come on, demons. Come kiss the ring!" *Complete with Audible Gleam from said ring.*
• Last of His Kind: An ambiguous example. Orko realizes that he might the last Trollan after he sees an abandoned Trolla and a dried-up Spellspring; but given that this is an illusion in Eternia's Hell, it's not clear how true this is.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • After He-Man stabs Skeletor in the torso, Skeletor remarks that he finally used that sword for its intended purpose, winking at the Bloodless Carnage of the original show. He actually means that the sword is the key to open the vault containing all the magic of the Elders, which He-Man unknowingly did by stabbing through Skeletor into the lock.
  • Teela tells Andra about a nonsensical, heroic one-liner that He-Man made ("You're all wet!"). Andra lampshades that it's dumb, which Teela says made sense in hindsight since He-Man turned out to be a teenager and had the type of wits of that age, which also retroactively explains some of his behavior in the original series.
  • After Skeletor returns and attacks, and then Andra attempts to talk him down, he questions who she is, as he'd never encountered her before; a view shared by most of the audience, who are likely not familiar with the comics of the franchise by Marvel, from which Andra is a Canon Immigrant.
• Legacy Character:
  • Adam and the alter-ego of He-Man is only one of several champions of Grayskull over the centuries, as Skeletor is not the first to seek its power. Preternia turns out to be the paradise for those like him, such as He-Ro and King Grayskull himself.
  • The Sorceress of Grayskull is passed from mother to daughter.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Evil-Lyn first removes her helmet to allow her hair to flow freely when having a heart-to-heart with Teela. She removes it completely as a Due to the Dead to Orko.
• The Magic Goes Away: In the story trailer, the Sorceress explains that the consequence of the battle between He-Man and Skeletor is that magic is leaving Eternia. Worse, without magic, Eternia as a planet will die, and because Eternia is the center of the universe, the universe hinges on its survival and will inevitably be destroyed as well.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Invoked by Lyn when she hatches her plot to steal the Power of Grayskull from Skelegod. After seducing Skeletor, she tells him that his godlike power would destroy her in the act.
• Matchstick Weapon: Skeletor can shoot fireballs from his Magic Staff.
• Meaningful Rename:
  • When Skeletor steals the Power of Grayskull he becomes Skelegod. Though the name is never used in-universe, promotional materials, toys, and the series creators refer to him as such.
  • Scare Glow refers to Evil-Lyn as Dark-Lyn when she summons him from Subternia for the Final Battle.
• Muggles Do It Better: Set up but quickly subverted. The final battle with Skeletor destroys the source of all magic on Eternia, causing what magic remains to become a quickly-dwindling finite resource. In the second episode, Teela scoffs at the idea of relying on magic, pointing to Andra's invention as proof that technology can fulfill everyone's needs just as easily. Then Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress reveal that the absence of magic will quickly cause all life on Eternia and eventually the whole universe to wither away, necessitating the quest to restore it. It's implied that Teela's rejection of magic is her attempting to run away from her old life and her associated responsibilities.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • He-Man has this after he stabs Skeletor through with the Sword. And again when Skeletor then reveals that this was his plan all along.
  • Evil-Lyn shows a brief flash of regret in her eyes after transforming Beast-Man into a giant attack dog.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Skeletor in the final episode:
  "Well, then, what are we going to do? Ask her to [mocking] 'Please, stop destroying the universe?'"
  [Prince Adam smirks and crosses his arms]
  "Oh my god, we are."
• Mystical White Hair: Both the Sorceress and Evil-Lyn, when they remove their distinctive headpieces, are revealed to have long white hair, though The Sorceress' white hair comes from age. A flashback reveals she was a redhead in her youth.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Before fighting with He-Man in the first episode, Skeletor declares: "Let this be our final battle!", the same line Skeletor used in in the Film before their climatic battle. In the final episode's finale, after making his grand return, stabbing Adam and stealing the Sword of Power to become the Skelegod, Skeletor proclaims "Now, I, Skeletor... am Master of the Universe!" the same line used by his movie incarnation before assuming his "Hyper Skeletor" form.
  • In these promo images, Teela's hairstyle in her first design resembles the bangs she had in the 2002 series.
  • The Sword of Power being split in half is a nod to the original Bifurcated Weapon version of the sword in the toyline and comics. In which, it started out as a mystical object in the early stories, in which Skeletor tries to obtain both halves and put them together in order to gain power, while He-Man's role is to stop him and use conventional weapons rather than the magical sword.
  • Speaking of the sword, it's design also harkens back to it's appearance in the comics.◊
  • Several character designs call back to the 2002 series. Whiplash goes from looking like his Filmation self in flashbacks to resembling the 2002 design with his techno upgrades. Beast Man looked nigh identical to his 2002 design in his original appearance.
  • Stinkor's design is lifted from his Classics figure, with the gas mask head and back tanks from the 2002 series.
  • King Grayskull's harness has a very similar symbol to the one He-Man, and by extension King Grayskull, had in the 2002 series.
  • The elderly appearance of the Sorceress after losing her magic is reminiscent of her appearance in the 1987 film.
  • Skeletor quips "smells like pine", after burning Moss-Man to death in "The Power of Grayskull." The original figure did indeed have a pine-tree scent added.
  • The showrunners of both previous series used Moss-Man only sparingly, as there were concerns that his powerset might end up becoming a plot Deus ex Machina too often. He's killed off in the first episode here, removing that concern.
  • Preternia is a giant nod to the canceled Powers of Grayskull spinoff toyline, complete with He-Ro and Dinosaur riders.
  • Kuduk Ungol the predecessor to the current Sorceress in the Filmation series shows up in Preternia, alongside Wundar, the Wonder Bread variant He-Man.
  • Tri-Klops' Machine Worship cult (and sinister cyborging of converts) is a nod to his role in the 2002 series, where he was portrayed as the cyborg / gadgeteer of the Evil Warriors.
  • For that matter, the source of his cult's nanobots is a blue version of the heroic Zoar/Sorceress — incredibly minor character Screeech, now seemingly killed or tortured by Tri-Klops as the source of his power.
  • Evil-Lyn's staff getting bisected by Teela's sword and turned into a wand is a possible reference to her old toy's wand-staff◊ that was shorter◊ compared to how it was in the series.
  • The purple saber-toothed cat that King Grayskull chases slightly resembles Skeletor's Panthor. (Panthor himself appears in part 2.)
  • He-Man's sword also being a mystical key, which works by being inserted into an object hidden within a very significant location, is similar to another weapon and location that figures in the "Rise of the Snake-Men" episode of the 2002 series. It can also be seen as a reference to the original toyline and the earlier takes on the story (like the pack-in minicomics), where the Sword of Power was the key needed to open Castle Greyskull.
  • Evil-Lyn still hails from Zalesia as in the 2002 series. And in one episode there she mocked the wizard Count Marzo being reduced to surviving as a pickpocket, while in this series she survived by being a pickpocket in the past.
  • Both Skeletor (on his mantle) and Evil-Lyn (her headdress) have slight bat motifs, a callback to their origin as Hordak's apprentices.
  • In the finale episode of part 2, Spikor has a trident instead of his left hand like his original toy, a detail that wasn't kept in previous episodes or the original cartoon.
  • Like Mer-Man in the 2002 series, Panthor is turned to stone and then shattered into pieces. Unlike in the previous series, Skeletor can't restore him back.
  • Skeletor returning to Snake Mountain only to find it taken over by someone more powerful who overwhelms him, also happened in the 2002 series.
  • The robes the tech cult wear have a resemblance to those worn by Horde wraiths. This is not a coincidence.
  • Episode 1.10 is called "Comes with Everything You See Here", a common line from toy commercials of The '80s, including He-Man toys.
  • In the Final Battle Man-at-Arms gives his arm cannon to Andra after finding a gold-colored mace lying on the ground, saying that he has everything he needs. The mace is nearly identical to the weapon his original action figure came with back in 1983.
  • The bat headdress of Evil-Lyn's Sorceress outfit nearly looks like the skinned-off head of Batros, a one-episode character from the original series.
  • The same Disney Villain Death with Never Found the Body at Castle Greyskull with Beast-Man also happened to King Hiss.
  • Savage He-Man is inspired by the He-Man of the earliest minicomics, which had a figure released in the Masters of the Universe Classics collection in 2005 and was named Oo-Larr, Additionally, Savage He-Man is also a name Wundar is known by.
  • Queen Marlena offhandedly references that she came from Earth. This was the origin given in the 1983 series, where she was a NASA astronaut who crashlanded on Eternia.
  • Panthor is given the horned helmet (based on the skull on Skeletor's Havoc Staff) which was first introduced with his Masters of the Universe Classics figure.
  • In the first episode, Man-at-Arms remarks that Teela looks like a "Warrior Goddess", which was the description given to her in the original toyline.
  • In the first episode, Skeletor takes the appearance of Spikor by using the Shaping Staff, an artifact that appeared in an episode of the original cartoon. In its original appearance, Evil-Lyn used it to disguise herself as a street magician called Majestra, the same name she uses in this series when disguised as an old lady.
  • The exposition that opens the first episodes of Part 1 and then Part 2 presents portraits with just about all the Heroic Warriors and the Evil Warriors battling — the portraits resembling the original promotional images for the entire original toy line.
• Never Trust a Trailer: A number of the trailers, particularly the early teasers, tended to feature the He-Man vs Skeletor fights quite heavily, implying that these frequent battles would be the main focus of the story. While there are many skirmishes and one massive climatic battle, the series primarily involves a quest to re-forge the Power-Sword, which He-man and Skeletor only participate in directly at the end and the ensuing struggle to regain control of the magic of Grayskull.
• No Name Given: We never find out the Sorceress' real name, even while her true love is begging her not to die.^note Oddly, the subtitles with the flashbacks of her just before becoming the Sorceress identify her as "Teela-Na".
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: All of the magic is restored after Teela shows Lyn the meaning of the universe, convincing the villainess to give up her plan to destroy everything and instead leave her evil life behind. The old Sorceress is gone, but Teela becomes the new Sorceress and has the ability to remain unbound from Grayskull. She and Adam strive to protect Eternia without needing to keep Grayskull's secrets anymore. And though Skeletor tries to take back his remaining minions, he is usurped by a new threat via Motherboard, revealed to be under the command of Hordak.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Skeletor's reaction to Evil-Lyn calling on the Power of Grayskull.
  • Scare Glow when Orko comes Back from the Dead.
  • Dark-Lyn when Adam catches the Sword of Power and becomes He-Man in the Final Battle.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Dark-Lyn who plans to unmake the universe after seeing what she believes is the futility of everything.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Liam Cunningham is putting on an English accent as Duncan, and some of his natural Irish slips through from time to time.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Skeletor is fixated, as usual, on being the one to kill He-Man.
• Parents as People: Lampshaded by Adam in regard to his parents after finding out that they separated after his death.
• Parting-Words Regret: Randor's last interaction with his son was him subtly berating him for seemingly failing to shape up into an accomplished man, not knowing that he was constantly fighting the forces of evil as He-Man. Then he finds out the truth and that he should've been proud of him all along after his son has died - and that everyone around him kept this knowledge from him the entire time. It's honestly not that surprising that he ends up lashing out.
• Pet the Dog: During their time in Subternia, Evil-Lyn and Orko end up in the same fear scenario. By the end of it, Lyn has clearly grown rather fond of the little guy, and treats him much more kindly than she originally had. His Heroic Sacrifice obviously gives her pain.
• Physical God: Calling the Power of Grayskull without the sword turns Adam into Savage He-Man. He has greatly magnified strength, pushed to greater extremes than even He-Man's, can Flash Step, effortlessly kills Skeletor's undead, has inexhaustible stamina, and is seemingly impervious to any damage. Skeletor's most powerful spells are shrugged off without even scratching him. Being thrown through several buildings doesn't stop him. Fire doesn't burn him. The downside is that he is gripped with Unstoppable Rage, barely able to tell friend from foe, and is likely to harm innocents and destroy anything around him.
• Poor Communication Kills: Queen Marlena actually pieced together He-Man's identity as her son Adam sometime in the past, but never divulged this information to her husband. Needless to say, when she finally reveals this in a bout of grief after finding out about Adam's Heroic Sacrifice, it proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back for both Randor and Teela, leading to the former exiling Man-At-Arms and forbidding access to Castle Grayskull in a grief-fueled rage over those closest to him hiding his son's heroism from him. Teela, meanwhile, abandons her duties out of an inability to deal with the knowledge that "everyone I trusted since I was a child" knew about He-Man's true identity, on top of her already complicated feelings towards Adam's sacrifice.
• The Power of Friendship: When Teela becomes the Sorceress of Grayskull she refuses to give up the bonds she shares with her friends and family, realizing that her bonds with them only make her stronger.
• Precision F-Strike: Evil-Lyn mutters, "Oh, bollocks," when her magic craps out while in Subternia.
• Pun: Teela warns Andra not to trust Evil-Lyn, saying that she has a Skeletor in her closet, a pun on "skeleton in the closet".
• Race Lift: King Grayskull. His appearance in the 2002 series and the Classics toyline were basically as giant sized He-Man due to him reusing a prototype design from the 2002 series. Here he's black, likely to match the ethnicity of his voice actor, Dennis Haysbert.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Skeletor is on the receiving end of a few castigations.
  • Man-at-Arms gives him one flavored with Evil Cannot Comprehend Good while he's locked in the dungeon of Castle Grayskull. He explains the differences between Adam and Skeletor, and why they use their power.
  • Evil-Lyn delivers hers when she decides to steal the Power of Grayskull for herself. She chides Skeletor for having—quite literally—all of the power in the universe at his fingertips and still only wanting to use it to kill He-Man and having no plan for what to do after that.
• Refusing Paradise: He-Man gives up his place in Preternia to come back to life and save the universe.
• Retcon:
  • Orko is stated to be powerful in his dimension in earlier franchise works. Here, he's stated to have been humiliatingly bad even there and it's caused him major self-esteem issues.
  • Originally Evil-Lyn had no affection for Skeletor and only worked for him so that she could become stronger than him and betray him. Here she is treated as if she had always been devoted to him, to the point of secretly loving him.
  • Beast Man had gotten very little character development in the 1983 show, but here it's indicated that he is absolutely devoted to Evil-Lyn, whom he addresses as "my lady." He outright states that he is the enemy of anyone or anything which poses any sort of threat to her.
• The Reveal: It is finally explained why the good guys have a castle whose main theme is skulls - it's an illusion to hide the Hall of Wisdom, and the actual 'Castle Grayskull' looks far more like a place the good guys would inhabit.
• Rhymes on a Dime:
  • Orko's spellcasting consists of rhyming couplets that he makes up on the spot.
  • Skeletor spouts off an elaborate poetic verse when he first comes Back from the Dead.
• Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!: A major theme explored in the series is the revelation that there appears to be no higher power or meaning to the universe, which means that the rules built around the power of Grayskull are based upon tradition and dogma instead of actual restrictions or celestial enforcement, with no immediate penalty for violating them.
  • Despite no longer having the sword, Adam says he can call down the power anyway and tries it to see what would happen. Nobody except Adam was even aware that this was possible, and even scouring the reaches of the universe grants them no answers.
  • After Evil-Lyn tricks Skeletor into relinquishing the power, she takes the sword and becomes both Sorceress and Champion. Her action is motivated by her newfound nihilism; after realizing that there is no higher power or meaning to the universe, she believes that she can do anything she wants.
  • The Sorceress explains to Teela that she will need to give up earthly attachments and stay confined to Grayskull for eternity once she takes up the mantle of Sorceress. Teela simply chooses not to do that after she does become the new Sorceress.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Skeletor quickly flees through a portal once Evil-Lyn calls on the Power of Grayskull to become Dark-Lyn.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: While only implied in the original series, here it's confirmed that Queen Marlena secretly knew her son was He-Man.
• Self-Duplication: When Orko returns as Orko the White he has duplicates of himself appear to help at three different locations in the climatic battle. The first helps Man-At-Arms and Adra escape. The second defends King Randor from Scare-Glow. The third helps Adam battle Dark-Lyn.
• Sequel Hook: Skeletor is assimilated by the cult's Motherboard, which flashes the Horde's symbol in the final shot of the series.
• Shock Stick: Of the magical variety as Evil-Lyn can fire electricity from her Magic Staff.
• Shout-Out:
  • The trailer shows Skeletor using some portal magic to enlarge and launch his fist at He-Man, just like the supermove of Darkseid in Injustice 2.^note Amusingly enough, the Masters Of The Universe and the Injustice verse have crossed over once.
  • Faker is even more reminiscent of the T-800 in this incarnation: a blankly staring robotic creature with glowing red eyes, a metal hull covered by false skin, and seemingly no reaction to being damaged.
  • Tri-Klops religious awe of machinery, proclaiming "The flesh is weak" during his sermon, and the robed cyborgs that comprise his cult are all things shared with the Adeptus Machanicus and the Iron Hands.
  • Kevin Smith has said Teela's new hairstyle was inspired by Alex Danvers' look.
  • The doorway from Subternia to Preternia has a strong resemblance to the Doors of Durin from The Fellowship of the Ring and Orko's confrontation with Scare Glow is similar to that of Gandalf and the Balrog including the command to "go back to your shadow!" For bonus points, he later comes Back from the Dead in bright white robes and is considerably more powerful.
  • The design of He-Ro's tower has similarities to the Cat's Lair.
  • Possibly unintentional, but Duncan's appearance after the time skip bears a strong resemblance to another Duncan - the Fereldan Warden-Commander in Dragon Age: Origins.
  • Episode 9 is titled "Hope, For a Destination", a quote from the song "What's Up?" by the 4 Non Blondes - which to many people is best known as the song in a popular He-Man parody video.
  • Motherboard's reveal is framed like a less visceral version of Lilith's.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In the final battle, Skeletor decides that if the universe is going to die, he'll spend his last few moments fighting He-Man, and says that the only thing that matters is them fighting together in eternal battle. Adam is so disgusted by Skeletor's Skewed Priorities that he refuses to even fight him in earnest, catching his punches and shattering his gauntlets, and then yells out that "It's not about us!" before flinging him away.
• Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Orko summons a mystic lens to see the others, only to incinerate a birds' nest nearby.
• Soul Jar: Skeletor hides his soul in Evil-Lyn's staff moments before his body is obliterated by the destruction of the Orb.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While He-Man and Skeletor have a continuous presence in the show and heavy influence on the other characters, the bulk of the screentime and emotional drive of the series lies with Teela and, later, Evil-Lyn.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Both He-Man and Skeletor die in the first episode. Both are reversed in Part 1's final episode.
• Summon Bigger Fish:
  • When escaping from Tri-Klops' techno cult under Snake Mountain, Teela disturbs the lagoon of slime and agitates some kind of giant Tentacled Terror.
  • Duncan turns the Orlax of Primeria loose in the sewers to stop Skeletor's henchmen.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Teela's weapon can become a staff, a sword, a flashlight, a spear, a polearm, and a grappling hook.
• Taken for Granite: Happens to Panthor, which Skeletor can't reverse.
• Tentacled Terror:
  • There's one in the slime underneath Snake Mountain.
  • The Orlax of Primeria shares a jail cell with Man-At-Arms.
• Thinking Up Portals: As well as using one for transport, Skeletor sticks his fist into a small one and has a giant fist emerge from a larger portal.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Scare Glow's reaction once Teela overcomes her fear and reclaims his half of the Sword of Power.
  • Skeletor's reaction to Adam calling The Power of Grayskull without the Sword of Power.
  • And Skeletor again when Motherboard comes to life and starts implanting nanites into him.
• To Hell and Back: The gang have to enter Subternia which is basically Hell to get half of the sword. The other half is in Heaven.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Orko, when he comes Back from the Dead. From bumbling comic relief character to being able to project himself in three places at once, fight Dark-Lyn, make a door appear in the sewer of Castle Grayskull, and single-handedly defeat Scare Glow.
  • Teela when she becomes the Sorceress of Grayskull. Moreso, she's actually able to leave Castle Grayskull, unlike her predecessors.
  • Lyn takes two. First when Skeletor makes her the Sorceress of Grayskull. Then she steals Skelegod's power and becomes a goddess herself.
  • Cringer actually finds the courage to attack powerful foes while he's not transformed into Battle Cat.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Subverted in "The Forge at the Forest of Power". Adam comes back to life and the sword has been reforged. He invokes the power of Grayskull and the transformation begins. Magic is restored to Eternia, the Sorceress moves to reclaim her power, the Hall of Wisdom blossoms with life, Tri-Klops orders his forces to retreat, and everything is heading toward The Status Quo Is God. Then as Adam utters "I have the pow-....", Skeletor moves in and stabs Adam through his gut bringing everything to a halt.
• The Unreveal: When they reunite, as part of keeping his promise about "no more secrets," Duncan attempts to tell Teela one more thing he has kept from her. Evil-Lyn cuts him off, saying they don't have time. Presumably he's trying to tell her that the Sorceress is her real mother.
• Un-Reboot: The series is intended as a continuation of the 80's cartoon show. While there is some modern touches with heightened violence, some language and a continuing storyline; the character designs are very close to the original with the comedy and lore building just as grandiose and over-the-top.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Adam calls upon the Power of Greyskull without the sword, he transforms into a larger, more powerful being of pure rage and power, similar to The Incredible Hulk.
• Villain Has a Point: Skeletor during the climax of "Comes With Everything You See Here" when he turns on Adam. His argument is that Teela will lose to Evil-Lynn and, from his perspective, this assesment isn't entirely wrong. Lynn's a well-accomplished magic user who's also now tapped into the Power. Teela, by contrast, is a newly-elevated Sorceress who, despite the talent and power at her command, lacks practical experience with it. While Skeletor's assessment of their odds is ultimately wrong, his reasoning does make sense in the context of that moment. That said, it doesn't make it any less pathethic that with oblivion nigh, he chooses to spend what could be his last moments alive trying to kill He-Man one more time.
• Warrior Heaven: Preternia has been turned from Eternia's prehistoric past into an afterlife for dead heroes.
• Was Too Hard on Him: Randor realizes that he was too harsh on Adam for not being more like He-Man. He confesses this to Savage He-Man, which gets Adam to return to normal.
• Weaponized Stench: Stinkor attacks Teela and Andra in episode 2, when they try to take back the Glove of Globula which he had stolen. Stinkor tries to incapacitate them with his fumes but Teela uses her saff to clear the air and then knocks him out.
• Wham Shot: The Motherboard of Snake Mountain, worshipped by Skeletor's ex-followers after he was killed? Works for Hordak, as shown while she assimilates Skeletor.
• When the Planets Align: The Celestial Apex is the rare moment when Eternia's rotation will put it in the physical center of the universe. As the Cosmic Keystone for all magic in the universe, that magic will flood back into Eternia during the Apex. Whoever wields the Power of Grayskull at that time will have so much magic at their command that they will be a Reality Warping Physical God.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Evil-Lyn's name. Andra lampshades that it's a cheesy and obvious name, while Orko asks her if he can call her "Lyn". Eventually, she tells Orko that the "evil" part was something she added later.
• Why Won't You Die?:
  • Skeletor asks why Savage He-Man isn't dead yet after being hit with several powerful spells, and thrown halfway across Eternos, through several building, and having fallen several hundred feet.
  • Dark-Lyn realizes that Skeletor can't die, so she decides to unmake the entire universe to finally be rid of him.
• Wizarding School: Orko and Evil-Lyn hide out in an academy of magic when trapped on an illusion Trolla
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Despite his godlike power, Skeletor doesn't kill Man-At-Arms. He has him thrown in the dungeon. When Duncan asks why he hasn't been executed Skeletor says that it is out of respect, and warriors deserve to die in battle.
  • Evil-Lyn considers Man-At-Arms to be the most dangerous man in Eternia, more so than even He-Man.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • The Sword of Power is split in two after channeling ALL the power of Grayskull in an effort to prevent a cataclysmic explosion. It's later said the two halves of the sword were the original form, and they were merged together eons ago to create the Champions of Grayskull.
  • Skeletor's Havoc Staff was also broken in the same encounter, with the ram head implied to have Subternian origins.
  • Evil-Lyn's staff is cut in half by Teela in the first episode. It remains like that as she carries the top part for the following episodes.
  • Scare Glow catches and melts King Randor's Sword in his grasp.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • When Teela initially refuses to save Eternia, Cringer tells her that he knows that she's not angry about the lies, but afraid — afraid of letting down Adam by not being able to protect Eternia in his place.
  • Evil-Lyn, of all people, gives one to Orko after he tells her about how he disappointed his family and the other Trollans for being a terrible sorcerer. She tells him that to their enemies and especially their friends, what they believe people like the two of them possess is simply sorcery, something that anyone can use, but to each individual sorceress, it's more special — magic.
• You Should Have Died Instead: Teela says as much to Evil-Lyn after Orko sacrifices himself to hold back Scare Glow while everyone escapes to Preternia. Before the two of them can come to blows, Adam appears, causing the confrontation to completely defuse.