Should Hordak have been more menacing?

[Canadian_He-Man]

I recently re-watched "Secret of the Sword", and I remember thinking... "Wow... Hordak really did have a lot of potential to be a great memorable villian here. He comes across as very commanding, menacing, and powerful, and with Adora and Shadow Weaver's help CONSTANTLY has He-Man on the ropes."

Also, I found that Hordak's voice carried a greater presence with it in the first five episodes - it was like George Dicenza knew that he was doing a movie with the first five episodes, but would 'just be doing a cartoon' the rest of the way.

There's also one scene of Hordak looking down at He-Man just after He-Man ripped through the roof of the Fright Zone to get to the Magna Beam that was very cool. Hordak being completely unflinching in the face of He-Man, and just casually mocking him, was awesome. Actually, it's too bad He-Man vs. Hordak never happened much - I think it could have been like Optimus Prime vs. Megatron.

Then... he seemed to lack a certain presence through out the broader She-Ra series.

In "Secret of the Sword", you actually FELT that this guy was a planetary despot, and an opponent to be reckoned with - after that, you get the impression that he's someone who gets his butt kicked all the time, and is remaining alive (let alone in power) by the sheer virtue that She-Ra has a soft spot for him (my own controversial thinking there, admittably).

I think that Horde Prime himself probably hurt his image a bit.

Also, as much as I love Skeletor, maybe Hordak should have actually won one of their fights - losing all the time to Skeletor certainly didn't help Hordak's image.

What do you all think?

[SKELEPIMP]

This is an interesting thread, Canadian He-Man.

I think Hordak was played down a bit and could have remained a more serious threat. I know MYP Productions had an interesting plan for Hordak that would have made Hordak a serious threat that would have put everyone on the run to eventually have Skeletor defeat him.

I like this idea, a lot. I think most people agree that there's something kind of cool about Hordak's pupil becoming more powerful. Skeletor and Hordak have a history. He-Man and She-Ra a little bit but not like ol' Bonehead.

I kind of understand how Hordak became a tad silly in the series. The same goes for Skeletor. He started out a cold, heartless fiend and Christmas came and he's playing kissy with a puppy! I think the writers wanted to play around a bit.

But, yes, Hordak is Bad. He's Meaner then Skeletor. But is he tougher? I don't think so. But it would have been Awesome to see him face He-Man more. That's what he was made for.

.

[thor]

too bad he was made into too much of a clown in the she-ra series.

Good potential at the beginning, but totally ruined afterwards.

[Poody]

I always thought he was meaner and tougher than Skeletor. But Skeletor was a LOT more entertaining!

[Seth Carmody]

I haven't seen too much of the series - only a few episodes that have been loaded onto YouTube actually - but yeah there's definitely a difference in the voice characterisation and presentation of that character. The inflection is different and the voice timbre slightly higher, leading the character to sound a little more pathetic, and the writers seem to fall into the cartoon cliche of involving the bad guy in slapstick scenes with incompetent henchmen. I think it might have been the Stone in the Sword episode where his arm turns into a vacuum cleaner. Imagine Vadar vacuming

Perhaps it was intentional - the change in voice representing declining confidence as a character that was once an unrivaled ruler is successively beaten by a stronger opponent. Or maybe there was an inhouse or Mattell directive to make the show lighter for the intended audience, which were kids, not 20-30 somethings 20 years down the track.

Bow's voice is another that changed dramatically. He has something of a British accent in SOTS but a strong American one in the later few eps I've seen. Adora also sounds more whiny.

[Canadian_He-Man]

This is an interesting thread, Canadian He-Man.

I think Hordak was played down a bit and could have remained a more serious threat. I know MYP Productions had an interesting plan for Hordak that would have made Hordak a serious threat that would have put everyone on the run to eventually have Skeletor defeat him.

I like this idea, a lot. I think most people agree that there's something kind of cool about Hordak's pupil becoming more powerful. Skeletor and Hordak have a history. He-Man and She-Ra a little bit but not like ol' Bonehead.

True. That idea for the MYP series sounds awesome. It would have made up for how Skeletor was presented in the MYP series too.

I kind of understand how Hordak became a tad silly in the series. The same goes for Skeletor. He started out a cold, heartless fiend and Christmas came and he's playing kissy with a puppy! I think the writers wanted to play around a bit.

But, yes, Hordak is Bad. He's Meaner then Skeletor. But is he tougher? I don't think so. But it would have been Awesome to see him face He-Man more. That's what he was made for.

.

Agreed.

I also tend to see Hordak as meaner than Skeletor.

I see Skeletor has having more in the way of sheer personal power (i.e. being more of a threat in one-on-one situations) than Hordak does, but being a bit less polished/more theatrical overall (i.e. Hordak's schemes should be a bit better than Skeletor's, really - Hordak trained Skeletor after all).

Skeletor should be like that unpredictable wild card that does amazing things some times, while Hordak should have carefully constructed plans that are pretty well executed, but typically fail due to She-Ra finding a small loophole, or He-Man showing up out of nowhere, etc...

I remember reading a synopsis for one PoP episode where He-Man has to rescue She-Ra from Hordak - I look forward to seeing that episode one day. That's the sort of thing I want to see after "Secret of the Sword".

[gbagok]

I agree that Hordak was made more comical as the show progressed. But he's not alone. I thought Skeletor had many goofy moments in the latter episodes of He-Man too.

I think Filmation in general became more goofy with it's villains somewhere in the 80s. Compare Tex Hex from Bravestarr and Prime Evil from Ghostbusters with Ming from Flash Gordon or Overlord from Blackstar--there's an obvious shift to comedy. I think they were under more scrutiny from parent groups thanks to the wide success they achieved through He-Man, and that might have affected things a little. They probably also found that many of the kids watching liked the comic relief. I confess I remember liking the trap door. It does nothing for me now, but back then it was part of what entertained me.