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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Difference between revisions

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* [[Action Girl]]: Teela -- allTeela—all incarnations. Both [[The Eighties]] series and the 2002 revival shows Teela as being better in combat than Adam as well as being a reliable ally for the entire team. This is complicated by the fact that Adam makes a point of [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretending to be a goof-off to protect his secret]] but it doesn't change the fact she's one of the best warriors in the King's service.
** Evil-Lyn, especially in the 2002 series.
** Even the Queen of Eternia, Marlena, gets a moment to flex her abilities. In the Eighties show, she's revealed to have been one of Earth's best fighter pilots when she leads a squadron against Skeletor to rescue her kidnapped family. In the 2002 series, she gets to reveal her swordsmanship.
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* [[Broken Aesop]]: All OVER the place.
** Pretty much the whole 2002 episode "The Courage of Adam" implies that Adam is useless as Adam and really needs his ''alter ego'' form to be of any use. It also contradicts many subsequent lessons, about [[Be Yourself|being yourself]] and trying hard being the way... Adam is never allowed to develop his own, more realistic character. What we see instead is an instant of little-effort, power-gain Transformation.
** The original series was the real king of the [[Broken Aesop]], sometimes making and breaking an Aesop over the span of one or two scenes, or having the [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]] scene clash with the episode -- orepisode—or even the ''series premise''.
** For example, that episode that ends with an anti-violence message... after one more episode of an action show.
*** Three fights in that one. He-Man ''vs''. Demon, He-Man ''vs''. Wizard, Dragon ''vs''. Dragon.
* [[Burning with Anger]]: Skeletor.
* [[By the Power of Grayskull]]: The [[Trope Namer]]. In ''The New Adventures of He-Man'', he would actually say "By the Power of ''Eternia''", though.
* [[Canon Immigrant]]: Orko, The Sorceress, and Evil Seed were originally created just for the Filmation cartoon. They all have since been adopted into the He-Man canon -- thoughcanon—though in Evilseed's case, a toy has yet to be made.
** The Sorceress '''was''' in the original comics and all. She was just known by a different name: "The Goddess". The particular ''look'' of the Sorceress, nevertheless, puts her closer to this trope. "The Goddess" in the mini-comics looked like Teela in her snake armor form. The bird-woman look was from the cartoon, and, like Orko, was incorporated into the toyline and comics later.
** Depending on your point of view, the Snake Men and Stinkor may count as well. Absent from the original cartoon (because the show had ended when the Snake Men's toys came out and Stinkor was judged "waaaaay too stupid to use"), they became fairly large parts of the 2002 series. Fellow original toyline characters not featured in the original cartoon Rio-Blast, Clamp Champ, and Snout Spout were integrated into the 2002 canon in its comic and statue lines.
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** Taken to an extreme with the Snake-Men. Not only did the majority have freakish two-toed feet, but only their king wasn't barefoot... and he wore ''sandals''.
* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Tytus, a giant twice He-Man's size, wields a similarly gigantic hammer. Hammers were also the preferred weapons of three giants who appeared in the 2002 show.
* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Both versions of Ram Man, the original Tri-Klops, 2002 Clawful, Baddrha, and to a lesser degree Grizzlor, Beast Man, Trap-Jaw, Whiplash, and Spikor. Clawful is probably the single most emblematic example -- theexample—the show's writers mention in DVD commentary that they once drew up a hierarchy of intelligence among the evil Masters, and Clawful was dead last. It's eventually revealed that he's more or less illiterate in his own native language; Evil-Lyn had to translate a message sent by his cousin for him. However, when it comes to physical might, he knows few true equals, and he can outmuscle even He-Man.
** ''The New Adventures of He-Man'' also gives us Butthead and Staghorn.
* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: For the 2002 series, in "Snake Pit" and "Separation" respectively, King Hiss and Hordak make brief, shadowy cameos. Their roles are expanded (particularly the former) in Season 2.
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* [[Fog Feet]]: The Faceless One is always portrayed, both in animation and comic books, as a ghostly figure with mystic smoke around his legs. When he finally received an action figure that had no representation of the smoke, many fans were displeased.
* [[Forgotten Birthday]]: In one episode everyone ''seems'' to have forgotten Orko's birthday, and Orko decides to run away. In the end, Orko is told that he should have known that everyone would remember his birthday, [[Broken Aesop|even though they were flat-out lying to him to cover up his surprise party]]. [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|Stupid Orko!]]
* [[General Failure]]: Flogg in ''The New Adventures of He-Man'' isn't a particularly intelligent mutant and his strategies often leave something to desire, but he manages to subvert this occasionally -- heoccasionally—he's not ''smart'', but he's a savvy and intimidating military commander who can draw up a battle plan that'll leave 'em reeling sometimes.
* [[Genre Savvy]]: In the '02 series, Skeletor demonstrates this now and then, especially when berating the failures of his team:
{{quote|'''Trap Jaw''': We would've won if He-Man hadn't shown up.
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* [[Hidden Depths]]: Regardless of continuity, Cringer can be a lot braver than even he thinks he's capable of.
{{quote|"You got more Battle-Cat in you then you think."}}
* [[High-Class Glass]]: After being hit by a "brain ray", Butthead (shut up, we know) starts wearing a monocle. Later he completes the ensemble with a bowler hat and a fancy suit -- thoughsuit—though he doesn't take off his helmet at any point.
* [[Hollywood Cyborg]]: Trap-Jaw.
* [[Hot Amazon]]: Teela, and Evil-Lyn (especially the 2002 version).
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* [[Hot Witch]]: Evil-Lyn.
* [[Human Alien]]: Every 'human' character is this.
* [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]]: Granamyr's general opinion of humans.
* [[Hunk]]: He-Man himself.
* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]: When King Hiss turns some Heroic Warriors into Snrake Men:
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* [[Lady of War]]: Teela and Evil-Lyn.
* [[Legion of Doom]]: After all of his normal minions are captured by the Masters, Skeletor teams up with every villain not affiliated with him up to that point in the series (Evilseed, Count Marzo, and the three giants. Webstor was there, too, but apparently he just happened to live in one of Snake Mountain's hidden corridors), thus forming the Council of Evil.
* [[Leotard of Power]]: All the [[Action Girl|Action Girls]]s, good or evil.
* [[Living MacGuffin]]: "The Starchild"
* [[Loin Cloth]]: Part of He-Man's outfit. Sadly, She-Ra does not wear a [[Fur Bikini]].
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* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: {{spoiler|Teela, searching for the identity of her true parents, learns -- and is promptly made to forget -- that the Sorceress of Grayskull is actually her mother, and that at some point in time, she will have to take her place. In the 2002 series, it was planned to have Teela discover this and ''not'' be forced to forget, but it got canceled before that could happen. And for it to be Teela's choice whether she would become the new Sorceress.}}
** Two examples, actually: {{spoiler|Although never covered in the series itself, the later minicomics (which notionally conformed to the animated canon) were set to reveal that Skeletor was in fact Keldor, Randor's [[Cain and Abel|long-lost brother]] and thus Adam (and He-Man)'s uncle. In the 2002 reboot, Skeletor was even shown in his Keldor days in the pilot and through flashbacks, but they didn't get around to pointing out the familial relationship (although they probably intended to: the writers discussed the fact that they were half-brothers on the DVD commentary).}}
*** It goes much deeper than that in the 2002 reboot: We learn that Fisto is actually Man-At-Arms' brother, and -- hadand—had the show continued -- wouldcontinued—would've revealed not only that Teela was the Sorceress' daughter (as in the original series, but she wouldn't have forgotten, afterwards), but also that Fisto is her father. (Though there were also vague allusions that Man-At-Arms might be her biological father rather than just adoptive.)
* [[Magical Girl Warrior]]: Oddly enough, this show is fairly close to that particular sub-genre of [[Magical Girl]] in spite of its macho overtones.
* [[Male Gaze]]: A common occurrence when the female cast is involved in the 80's series. How many times has the viewer been treated to Teela's backside, whether she was landing or being crept up upon by a villain?
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* [[Missing Episode]]: A 40th episode of the '02 series was scripted, but never animated. A [[Comic Book Adaptation]] of it was included as a special feature on the DVD, though. {{spoiler|King Hiss is fully healed and Man-At-Arms is turned into a Snakeman again to be ''their'' [[Gadgeteer Genius]].}}
* [[Mordor]]: The Dark Hemisphere of Eternia.
* [[Morph Weapon]]: Man-E-Faces has a weapon with three modes, much like himself. Staff, gun, and club -- respectivelyclub—respectively well-suited to his human, robot, and monster faces.
* [[The Movie]]: ''Secret of the Sword'', and in Live Action, ''[[Masters of the Universe (film)|Masters of the Universe]]''.
* [[Mythology Gag]]: The 2002 [[Continuity Reboot]] series has an identical opening narration except that it is cut off by attacking villains:
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* [[Overtook the Manga]]: Or, in this case, overtook the mini-comics.
** Then again, Filmation's show wasn't really based on the mini-comics anyway.
* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Man-E-Faces. Also Faker, who looked ''exactly'' like Prince Adam -- onlyAdam—only ''blue''.
** It gets worse; in the Filmation cartoon they [http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/feature.php?id=44&fid=47 didn't make him blue.]
*** Allegedly they intended to have him become blue in his next appearance... which never ended up happening. Funnily enough, virtually identical events transpired in the '02 show as well.
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* [[Popcultural Osmosis]]
* [[The Power of Acting]]: Man-E-Faces once received three standing ovations for concurrent performances; suffice it to say, the guy's good.
* [[Power Fist]]: Sort of with Fisto -- yesFisto—yes, he's wearing a glove, but his hand really is that big.
* [[Poor Man's Substitute]]: Serpenators are this to dragons. King Hss accuses {{spoiler|He-Man of being one to King Grayskull}}, and he's kind of right despite the tropes used to describe him.
* [[Psychological Torment Zone]]: The Valley of Winds.
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* [[Use Your Head]]: Ram-Man: "''Duuuuuh'', good door! Soooo-lid!" Ram Man, as you might expect, loves to rush at things headfirst. Mekaneck also likes to land a good headbutt when he gets the opportunity. ''The New Adventures of He-Man'''s unfortunately named Butthead was essentially an evil Ram Man.
* [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]: He-Man and most of the male characters on the show.
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Meckanek's extendable neck, with [[Lampshade Hanging]] on it in the 2002 series. Mekanek's power is even more pathetic if you know the original toyline, because included therein was Extendar, who could extend his entire body outward, making Mekanek redundant. Rattlor has powers similar to Meckanek's, but they're much better suited to a Snake Man. Additionally, the toyline only character Blast-Atak is a robot who can explode -- whyexplode—why go through the trouble of building a sophisticated robot if it's just to have it blow itself up? Snout Spout, meanwhile, could... fire water out of his snout. Stinkor also gets ribbed for the power of "smelling like, really, like, really really bad" -- but—but it's a lot more effective than you might think.
* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: He-man is sometimes pretty clever in how he defeats his enemies in the 2002 series but most of his solutions usually involve crushing something since he's not quite as versatile as most of the bad guys. Supposedly, that version would always have enough strength necessary to complete any given task he just needed to apply it correctly.
* [[Whip It Good]]: Whiplash, as his name implies, is very fond of using his long tail as a whip, but he also has an actual handheld whip that mimics its appearance somewhat (though he uses it less often). Beast Man uses a whip -- butwhip—but rarely as a weapon. Rather, he uses it to tame animals. Two-Badd also uses a whip in one episode.
* [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]: Evil-Lyn, though she rarely takes off her helmet to display it.
* [[Who's Laughing Now?]]: In one episode of the 2002 series, Skeletor spends the episode being mocked by his minions, because he is wearing a belt that shocks him whenever he thinks an evil thought, and seemingly can't be removed. When he finally gets the belt off, he gets his revenge by suspending his minions over a tub of lava.
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