MOTUC Bios & Canon Discussion (updated as bios become available)

[Uki]

All valid points, phantom1592, and to a large extent, I agree. I would hate for the mystery of Castle Grayskull to be spelled out in clear detail. I have always felt it should be a McGuffin similar in clarity to the Briefcase of Pulp Fiction, albeit in much grander scale, both physically, and in power as well.

[HeManOfGreyskull]

Remember, when King Grayskull built the Castle, it wasn't dark and scary and run-down looking, it was bright and shiney and had a city surrounding it.

[phantom1592]

Bahh still a giant WHITE skull that you walk through its gaping maw.... Still like the idea that it was around before HE was.

of course then you have a white castle named greyskull...... hmmm

[baileyrecords]

Bahh still a giant WHITE skull that you walk through its gaping maw.... Still like the idea that it was around before HE was.

of course then you have a white castle named greyskull...... hmmm

Here in Columbus, Ohio we have White Castles on nearly every-other corner.

[Uki]

God, I miss White Castles...

We do have Krystal Burger down here, but it's just not the same. White Castle was a fanastic way to take a few hours off of your life.

That's true though... Why was the Castle white/Ivory when the King was GRAYskull? Hmmm... I get the feeling that this was retconned...

[MegaGearMax]

Make him a seperate character who possibly reached higher potential or what not, but not in an overshadowing way. KG was bigger, his cat was bigger, he could fight the entire Horde by himself, what's the point of this pansy He-man?!?!

I think the point of KG was to show what He-Man could eventually become AND surpass. KG just fought King Hsss and Hordak, while He-Man is fighting King Hsss, Hordak, Skeletor and possibly Flogg as well.

And don't forget, He-Man is still a 16 year old kid in MYP and 19 in Filmation. He isn't at his prime yet. He-Man still could get even more powerful. Imagine if 200X Adam worked out? (It worked for She-Hulk; Jennifer Walters worked out and when she transformed into She-Hulk, she went from pressing 75 tons to Class 100) It could translate to an even more powerful He-Man.

[phantom1592]

I think the point of KG was to show what He-Man could eventually become AND surpass. KG just fought King Hsss and Hordak, while He-Man is fighting King Hsss, Hordak, Skeletor and possibly Flogg as well.

And don't forget, He-Man is still a 16 year old kid in MYP and 19 in Filmation. He isn't at his prime yet. He-Man still could get even more powerful. Imagine if 200X Adam worked out? (It worked for She-Hulk; Jennifer Walters worked out and when she transformed into She-Hulk, she went from pressing 75 tons to Class 100) It could translate to an even more powerful He-Man.

Maybe... but while Adam was 16-19 they always portrayed He-man as an adult. And it is kind of an evolution that we would NEVER see. He-man is who he is, and no series would ever let him grow to be the man-mountain that grayskull was. Its like He-man should be ammended to say "the most powerful man in the Universe... Now"

I guess i just always liked looking at He-man as the end result of the power of grayskull instead of a "step one" with further potential.

[PaTrIcKfOgArTy]

[QUOTE=phantom1592;2021222] If I were writing the story.... I would have had him named after the castle. If he had a "regular" name its been lost to history. KG would be the first defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull (remember there was a sorceress back then too). The castles origins should ALWAYS be shrouded in mystery. I don't want to see anyone laying the bricks for it. It always was and always will be. Originally KG was just permentaly enchanted, but after he fell his sorceress bound the power to grayskull's sword to honor him forevermore./QUOTE]

Funny, this is how I envision King Grayskull too and what you wrote I agree with 100%. I think that the Castle was defended for years by various "Kings" who all took on the Castles name...perhaps it was almost like the White House in a sense, a home for the defender. When King Grayskull (the last one, the one we know of) was killed, there was a shift. The land had been destroyed and the era of Castle Grayskull being lived in by King's ended and secretly only Sorceress's guarded the secrets of Castle Grayskull?

Who built the castle? Why and what secrets are truly their should never ultimately be revealed, it's better for us to leave that to our own minds

[Uki]

AMEN! That's my line of thinking as well. And with that, KG is an easier pill to swallow.

[MegaGearMax]

Maybe... but while Adam was 16-19 they always portrayed He-man as an adult. And it is kind of an evolution that we would NEVER see. He-man is who he is, and no series would ever let him grow to be the man-mountain that grayskull was. Its like He-man should be ammended to say "the most powerful man in the Universe... Now"

I guess i just always liked looking at He-man as the end result of the power of grayskull instead of a "step one" with further potential.

MYP He-Man might have looked like an adult but he was still The Power of Grayskull powering up a kid, not a man. All throughout the series, He-Man was always getting better and improving showing subtle evolution. Even King Hsss alluded to He-Man not being at KG's level saying "You're no King Grayskull."

MYP wasn't Filmation, keeping characters stuck in limbo. For example, in Filmation, Teela would have never learned of her heritage. In MYP, she would have learned about it in Season Three. Hell, we even got to learn who her father was, even though it wasn't well liked.

[Heidi]

For me the power He-Man wields always comes from the elders led by Keclar. King Grayskull was just one person wielding that power.

The story on He-man's bio is very interesting. Did Skeletor originally posses the second half of the power sword? Will Prince Adam lose his power to transform into He-man when the sword is split? Does Prince Adam have a secret identity? I do hope that the Prince Adam figure will reflect the early DC-comics versions of him and that he will come with an axe and a shield. Maybe he could have something related to the energy vest too?

heidi

[PaTrIcKfOgArTy]

Updated w/Faker's from mattycollector.com

[Mike Bock]

I love the Bios.
Faker's is a little weak though.

[davidlogan]

I love the Bios.
Faker's is a little weak though.

Yeah...I was hoping for a bit more myself.

[phantom1592]

I do wish they had done a little... MORE with Faker. I kind of like the idea that MAA built him and all. Its nice to have SOME backstory, but I was hoping for more.

If it were me, I would have backed off (just a little) from the Robot aspect, and changed him more into some kind of clone or magical duplicate. Perhaps cybernetically controlled or something.

Reasons being

1) Nobody REALLY believes the blue guy is He-man. Its a lousy duplicate

2) What makes this robot on par with the mightiest man in the universe? He-man goes through robots by the dozen, what makes this guy important enough to be a threat?


Give him the bizzaro treatment. Just like He-man, but an imperfect copy.

he comes with a power sword, Work it into the story that somehow he's accessing the power through Skeletor's half.

on an added note, I think i would make the swords have some kind of.... I don't know.... mood ring properties. Whoever holds it gives it a different color based on personality. He-man is shiny, Skeletor is dark, Adam is kind of pinkish. techniquely Adam's sword and He-man's sword is the same item, why can't skeletor and Faker be sharing a blade. When anyone combines both of the halves... it becomes their own complete sword. If Skeletor has it, its' a dark blade. When He-man gets them its a whole gray one.

[Eric]

I've had similar ideas for a while, phantom. I always wanted him to be a clone rather than a robot because an emotional human is more interesting.

I posted my rough idea a few weeks back in the 200X forum:

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...78&postcount=4

[GrtEternal]

Faker - Evil Robot of Skeletor
Real Name: N/A

Originally built by Man-At-Arms to cover for He-Man when Prince Adam is needed, Faker was abandoned in the royal junkyard after his first mission and salvaged by the evil warrior Tri-Klops. At the request of Skeletor, Faker was reprogrammed to replace He-Man and convince the people of Eternia that He-Man had betrayed King Randor and turned to evil.

Man-At-Arm's made Faker say WHAT?!?!

[Mern-Ra]

I know that's basically what was going to happen if the MYP series had continued, and I think it's a VERY cool idea, but yeah, compared to the other bios, Faker's feels kinda phoned in.

[GrtEternal]

Well, these supposedly to be a CLASSICS line. Why changed the original story?

Besides, it's not like Man-At-Arms to just discard things that he created, especially if it did worked once! I don't think that's in his personality.

[Uki]

Right. Why exactly would he be in the junk yard if he did in fact work? Or maybe, in this new mythology, he did not, in fact, work out quite right... I don't know. It sounds like the MYP story up to the junkyard part. In the new toon, the robot was left outside of Snake Mountain, where it can be assumed the Evil Warriors came upon it and would have eventually put him to use as Faker-with obvious problems as far as color correction.
I like the idea of a magic-created clone and/or the Comic Would-Be version that Val and Co. cooked up...but it flies in the face of the Evil Robot idea. Great, fantastic ideas, and they're certainly worthy of a nemesis genesis for The Most Powerful Man in the Universe, but at the center of each character in any continuity is a certain kernal of truthiness, and for Faker, I feel (in my opinion) that he is and always will be a Villainous Droid version of He-Man.
This bio reads like the last bit of business Mattel phoned in before going on Holiday.
Mattel Fella: "Hey, great week, gang, enjoy your time off!"
Mattel Dude: "Oh wait. What about that Faker Bio we were supposed to work on?"
Mattel Chickie: "Shut up, Dude! I have a flight to catch!"
Mattel Fella: "Um...He's a Robot. An Evil one. Case closed. Print it."
Mattel Dude: "The fans are going to expect more."
Mattel Chickie: "Duncan built him."
Mattel Dude: "Duncan is a good guy, Chickie."
Mattel Chickie: "...He is?"
Mattel Fella: "Tri-Klops found him in teh Royal Junk Yard. Let's get out of here."
Mattel Dude: "That sucks. We owe it to the fans to give this guy a wicked story. Staples and his goons had a bada** Bizarro thing going on before we yanked the plug on them. Heck, even some of those losers at He-Man.Org have better ideas."
Mattel Fella: "You're not getting any overtime, Dude."
Mattel Dude: "Junkyard it is!"
Mattel Chickie: "...So Duncan's not the Fish Guy? ...Guys?"

[Neo]

Well, these supposedly to be a CLASSICS line. Why changed the original story?

Classics doesn't mean everything has to be copied from the 80's. Filmation is off-limits so basily the mini comics is the only source they can use from that era. Besides, a lot of characters didn't have any story to them back then. I am all for making things coherant and giving the world of Eternia solid backgroundstories. That is also probably the reason why they change stories.

[phantom1592]

Well, these supposedly to be a CLASSICS line. Why changed the original story?

Besides, it's not like Man-At-Arms to just discard things that he created, especially if it did worked once! I don't think that's in his personality.

1st: There are too many stories. between the mini comics, Filmation, and 200x most of these characters have 3 stories, then you have to decide which is actually "classic." The "original" was savage barbarian with a strength vest. A personal favorite of mine, but NOT the most popular version

They've chosen to combine them where ever possible, a good call in my opinion.

2nd: Some characters don't have an origin at all. Faker for example. "evil robot of skeletor" is not an origin backstory. Its nothing really. i've no problem with them throwing together some flavor text for unknown characters.

[capitalzero]

Well, these supposedly to be a CLASSICS line. Why changed the original story?

Besides, it's not like Man-At-Arms to just discard things that he created, especially if it did worked once! I don't think that's in his personality.

because, they already said they were incorporating elements from all eras.

"Classics" is just a name.

[JVS3]

While I personally dislike most of the 2002 story concepts that altered existing canon (even some of our comic ones like IoE because those were handed down by Mattel),
we're going to find that all the MOTUC bios are composed of MYP canon mixed with classic mini-comic canon.

The bios are going to be about what Mattel owns (or has rights to) legally, not necessarily what is better.
Anything where ER owns the content, or where Mattel isn't sure if they own the story, they aren't going to use it.

[GrtEternal]

But it had already been established that it was Skeletor who created FAKER and not Man-At-Arms. The Coloring Books and I think it was shown in some classics book too, like Golden Books or Ladybird, not sure which one, that it was Skeletor who made him.

I still like the figure and I can't wait to get mine, but I guess I 'll just go with whatever version I like most! Namely the classic one.

And for the record, Man-At-Arms is not a person that just throws or discard things especially if it has the face of He-man on it. That is highly irresponsible on his side and it's not in his personality to throw something like that.

Anyone can just walk into that junkyard and will think at first that they found He-man and he's dead! Then closer examination proves that it's a machine and then they'll assumed that He-man is nothing more than a robot. And anyone who has half a mind, especially in Skeletor's army would wonder, Why would a Royal Junk Site would have a He-man robot? Tri-Klops would probably assumed something's up. Then Evil-Lyn, then Skeletor! Then the list goes on.

Then rumours start flying and before you know it, someone will deduce that somebody in the palace is hiding a secret about He-Man. And since it's a robot, it won't take long before they know that it's Man-At-Arms who threw that thing and before you know it, he'll deny everything and it will be like Roswell, New Mexico in Eternia and everyone's after everything and no one will be trusting the government, in this case Randor's rule. Then of course since the King is in the dark, he'll be interrogating Duncan about the He-man robot and how did Skeletor get his hands on it. And Why would he (MAA) had a He-man robot in the first place?

See! So many loose ends and loopholes! Just my 2 cents! Or 24, in case someone's counting...

Yes! It's the holidays. I just ate and now I'm bored!