I think that Revolution is much improved from Revelation.The characters are more watchable and in keeping with their classic counterparts . The action scenes and the transformation scenes (particularly the magical girl/Super Senshi transformation) are fun to watch, and it does feel more like a MOTU series overall. I enjoyed the banter between Orko and Gwildor, and I appreciate their efforts to combine different aspects of the lore (Skeletor's multiple origin stories, Gwildor, Snake goddess Teela, etc). However, I did take issue with a number of plot holes that I think could have been fixed. I agree that the plot point of King Randor refusing to let Sorceress Teela heal hm (or at least attempt to do so) to be weak. I would have wanted to know what limits on Teela's powers prevented her from healing him, why she couldn't heal him, or why King Randor thought it wasn't possible. To that effect, I really liked that they put limits on Teela's powers. (Having an all-powerful Mary Sue gets boring after awhile.) I would have liked to have seem more limits specified. I think that the plot point of Adam having to give up his powers to rule is contrived because He-Man is only a magnification of Adam's own abilities, not separate person. No reason is given for Adam/He-Man being unable to do both other than King Randor thinks it can't be done (the will of the ages) .I don't understand how King Randor would know. He has never had to protect Eternia as He-Man. In fact, he (and most of the other characters) didn't even know that the power of He-Man came from his son's sword until recently, and he doesn't seem to understand what being He-Man entails. He says that being He-Man involves going off on adventures, but he seems to have forgotten how many times He-Man defended his kingdom and Castle Grayskull against Skeletor. He also seems to have forgotten about King Grayskull, who seemed to do both fine. Also, not being able to do both contradicts our own history, in which some of the greatest rulers were also warriors (eg, Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan, Julius Cesar, etc), who actively participated in battles after they came to power. I would have liked to have known what makes Eternia different from Earth and would prevent He-Man/Adam from ruling Eternia like our warrior rulers did with their empires. It would have caused what Adam/He-Man does to the monarchy in episode 5 to make more sense. (What makes He-Man/Adam think that the people in the kingdom want democracy? I think for that to work , they should have given a hint that the Eternian people were unhappy with the monarchy. Also, why wouldn't a constitutional monarchy work?) I found the plot point of Adam/He-Man simply allowing a stranger to assume the crown to be weak. While I do understand that He-Man can be trusting at times, I would think that Adam/He-Man would be smarter than that. I also don't understand why Queen Marlena can't rule. She ruled with her husband before he died. I find it rather convenient that she has to abdicate the throne just because her husband passed away. (They seem to have forgotten that Queen Marlena is not a figurehead. She could be formidable in her own right. [See "The Rainbow Warrior" in the Filmation series.]) They seem to have forgotten that (per them) the facade of Castle Grayskull is supposed to be an illusion for the Hall of Wisdom. So I don't understand how Motherboard can mechanize its facade like she did, unless the mechanized facade is also an illusion. (Granted, Castle Grayskull was destroyed at one point during Revelation, but they don't clarify that the illusion is no longer valid). I do think t that the plot holes are not as glaring, and the fact that they are not as glaring helps to improve Revolution over Revelation. I think they could have improved it further if they could have fixed or clarified some of these plot issues.
Excellent point about Queen Marlena. I didn't even think about why they wouldn't have had her rule. She is certainly capable even as a warrior when she needs to be.
I feel like they handled Randors death well. It wasn't a question of whether Randor "should" have died, but whether that event would be part of the story we got to see. If you ask the question "how does He Man end? How does the story of HeMan and MOTU end? Then there are certain events that are going to take place. The sorceress dying, and Teela fulfilling her destiny was a future event that was part of the lore. He Man either dying, sacrificing himself to save the world, or living to fulfill his role as Prince Adam, and future king, upon his father's death. The "final defeat" of Skeletor. The Horde invasion. Adam/He Mans secret coming out, and Teela and Adam/ He Man's relationship developing, as they step into their role as future leaders. This show showed us several possibilities, really. Several answers to the question of how this story ends, and still made a story that didnt go back and try to reset the status quo. They just took a different direction than king, at the end. And barely, as He Man is still looked at as the one making that decision. They must have went through every longform fanfic for the last 25 years, in addition to the comics and all the itinerations of MOTU. Glad they didn't go the New Adventures route, although I respect anyone who is a fan of that version. I hope they get to incorporate Adora's story in the next installment. And I thought the whole storyline of Keldor was well done. The bastard son of a king was plenty of explanation. And it was ironic that It was really family secrets, not great magic or technology, that proved to be the challenge Adam (He Man) had the most difficulty with. He Man and Skeletor's story just makes more sense to me, in this version.
*Fan Theory!!* Don't stomp me out for saying this, but I think I know why Skeletor was able to fuse Magic and Technology together. I have done so much research and fandomizing the Lord of Destruction, I have watched every series and read every comic. Skeletor told Hordak that "The Havoc staff once held, is not so easily discarded." I would like to look deeper into this statement. As we learned from season 2 of Revelation, Adam was able to hold the power without the sword. This I feel was because of how long he has been a champion of Grayskull. The fact that he has held the power for so long, it has become a part of him, which he has with or without the sword. And as we learned in Episode 1 of Revolution, Zoars power may lay within Grayskull, but he is only 1 of the 3 gods, and Havoc was one of them. Skeletor has had Havoc for years now, even before Adam was born. That's nearly two decades of Skeletor having Havoc flowing threw him via the staff! But with Hordak erasing his memories, he most likely forgot how he got the Havoc Staff, and knew nothing about its affect on him. But, with Keldor back inside his mind, he finally remembers his connection to Havoc, and now knows that like Adam, he is the spark to call down the power of Havoc. Fusing his magic with the technological power granted to him by Motherboard and Hordak, he was able to become the Techno Warlock he was at the very end. And even though He-man used the powersword to drain Keldor of Skeletor, we saw in the dungeons that Keldor still has some connection to Skeletor. And Teela in the second episode of Revolution, she saw that there was a fourth tower of Havoc, most likely where the Havoc Staff draws its power, much like how He-man and Teela draw their power from Zoar in Grayskull. As long as Havoc exists, Keldor has a link to the power! It may take time, but as long as Havoc exists, so does Skeletor!
I TOTALLY agree about Revolution feeling like the 200x MYP series. I felt the exact same thing, and thought it was great to go back to that feel of storytelling.
Very thorough vid!! Can't overstate, the motu: revolution team has done the greatest MOTU, POP, and/or MOTUPOP related thing in animation ( MOTU Classics toys/minicomics and the DC/Mattel comics collaborations have been doing it right since about 2010 ) in over 35 years since the last Filmation MOTUPOP episodes wrapped up on the She-ra side of the fable/franchise in 1987: they have reunified the twins, who never should have been separated, they have restored the single greatest He-Man family drama of the original MOTUPOP era, including the dark fairytale worthy abduction of the infant Princess Adora from her twin brother Prince Adam's side by the evil warlock/warlord/bogeyman Hordak. The recreation in revoltuions episode 3 of the classic He-Man & She-ra: The Secret of The Sword movie scene of Hordak abducting Adora from her and Adam's shared nursery was FLAWLESS!! They made it keep all the main points, but also made it much more visually stunning and much darker ( the shift from day to night was genius for such a straight-out-of a child's [ and any parents' ] nightmare scene ), even including such details as the unicorn plush by Adora's overturned crib and the green tiger plushy beside Adam's. Even if they didn't get the She-ra rights and have to use the alias character name of Despara, everybody still knows who she is, and the worst of the separation damage is still healed, HOWEVER, because Mattel has FAR more rights and claims to She-ra, Catra, Frosta etc ( all of whom Mattel co-created and all of whom had original era Mattel toys and minicomic inclusion ) than they do to Horde Prime ( or even the Horde troopers ) who was TOTALLY a Filmation creation ( Horde Prime had NO original era toy and NO minicomic appearances, and the horde troopers didn't get toys and minicomics until over a year AFTER Filmation introduced them in the He-Man & She-ra: The Secret of The Sword movie ), the fact that "Despara" mentions Horde Prime at all strongly suggests that some agreement has been reached over the convoluted rights between the parent companies.
Someone pointed out to me the Catholic overtone of Keldor giving the people the techvirus on their tongues like a Priest giving communion. I didn't think anything of it, but they were offended. 😅 As for Evil-Lyn saying K.I.S.S.I.N.G. I thought was too much of an earth thing and not an Eternian thing. Just because Eternian sounds like English, doesn't mean we spell things the same way. Or maybe Marlena made it a thing and it spread. Plus I would have loved to see Marlena more involved at the end or beginning with her piloting skills, instead of Randor, bringing back her Rainbow Warrior skills just a bit. Love you guys. Thank you for such a great TH-cam channel.
Paul!! I didn't even think of the church analogy with how Keldor was placing those chips onto their tongues. I'm not offended either, but wow how clever!
I wonder if it is possible for them to use She-ra the same way marvel use hulk like as long as she isn't in her solo cartoon they use the same way marvel can use the hulk as long as he does appear in a solo movie
Why? His Bastard status alone would still keep him from inheriting the throne. Beside they don't seem to be prejudiced against the Gar in the Comic so why would that be a factor. No it was him being a Bastard that kept him off the throne nothing more.
Definitely can appreciate the prejudice angle. I think if there was more time to flesh out the Gar, it would have worked better for me. Though we did get more information in the prequel comic like Fenris mentioned. I need to give it another read!
I think that Revolution is much improved from Revelation.The characters are more watchable and in keeping with their classic counterparts . The action scenes and the transformation scenes (particularly the magical girl/Super Senshi transformation) are fun to watch, and it does feel more like a MOTU series overall. I enjoyed the banter between Orko and Gwildor, and I appreciate their efforts to combine different aspects of the lore (Skeletor's multiple origin stories, Gwildor, Snake goddess Teela, etc). However, I did take issue with a number of plot holes that I think could have been fixed.
I agree that the plot point of King Randor refusing to let Sorceress Teela heal hm (or at least attempt to do so) to be weak. I would have wanted to know what limits on Teela's powers prevented her from healing him, why she couldn't heal him, or why King Randor thought it wasn't possible. To that effect, I really liked that they put limits on Teela's powers. (Having an all-powerful Mary Sue gets boring after awhile.) I would have liked to have seem more limits specified.
I think that the plot point of Adam having to give up his powers to rule is contrived because He-Man is only a magnification of Adam's own abilities, not separate person. No reason is given for Adam/He-Man being unable to do both other than King Randor thinks it can't be done (the will of the ages) .I don't understand how King Randor would know. He has never had to protect Eternia as He-Man. In fact, he (and most of the other characters) didn't even know that the power of He-Man came from his son's sword until recently, and he doesn't seem to understand what being He-Man entails. He says that being He-Man involves going off on adventures, but he seems to have forgotten how many times He-Man defended his kingdom and Castle Grayskull against Skeletor. He also seems to have forgotten about King Grayskull, who seemed to do both fine.
Also, not being able to do both contradicts our own history, in which some of the greatest rulers were also warriors (eg, Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan, Julius Cesar, etc), who actively participated in battles after they came to power. I would have liked to have known what makes Eternia different from Earth and would prevent He-Man/Adam from ruling Eternia like our warrior rulers did with their empires. It would have caused what Adam/He-Man does to the monarchy in episode 5 to make more sense. (What makes He-Man/Adam think that the people in the kingdom want democracy? I think for that to work , they should have given a hint that the Eternian people were unhappy with the monarchy. Also, why wouldn't a constitutional monarchy work?)
I found the plot point of Adam/He-Man simply allowing a stranger to assume the crown to be weak. While I do understand that He-Man can be trusting at times, I would think that Adam/He-Man would be smarter than that.
I also don't understand why Queen Marlena can't rule. She ruled with her husband before he died. I find it rather convenient that she has to abdicate the throne just because her husband passed away. (They seem to have forgotten that Queen Marlena is not a figurehead. She could be formidable in her own right. [See "The Rainbow Warrior" in the Filmation series.])
They seem to have forgotten that (per them) the facade of Castle Grayskull is supposed to be an illusion for the Hall of Wisdom. So I don't understand how Motherboard can mechanize its facade like she did, unless the mechanized facade is also an illusion. (Granted, Castle Grayskull was destroyed at one point during Revelation, but they don't clarify that the illusion is no longer valid).
I do think t that the plot holes are not as glaring, and the fact that they are not as glaring helps to improve Revolution over Revelation. I think they could have improved it further if they could have fixed or clarified some of these plot issues.
Excellent point about Queen Marlena. I didn't even think about why they wouldn't have had her rule. She is certainly capable even as a warrior when she needs to be.
I feel like they handled Randors death well. It wasn't a question of whether Randor "should" have died, but whether that event would be part of the story we got to see.
If you ask the question "how does He Man end? How does the story of HeMan and MOTU end? Then there are certain events that are going to take place. The sorceress dying, and Teela fulfilling her destiny was a future event that was part of the lore. He Man either dying, sacrificing himself to save the world, or living to fulfill his role as Prince Adam, and future king, upon his father's death. The "final defeat" of Skeletor. The Horde invasion. Adam/He Mans secret coming out, and Teela and Adam/ He Man's relationship developing, as they step into their role as future leaders.
This show showed us several possibilities, really. Several answers to the question of how this story ends, and still made a story that didnt go back and try to reset the status quo. They just took a different direction than king, at the end. And barely, as He Man is still looked at as the one making that decision.
They must have went through every longform fanfic for the last 25 years, in addition to the comics and all the itinerations of MOTU.
Glad they didn't go the New Adventures route, although I respect anyone who is a fan of that version.
I hope they get to incorporate Adora's story in the next installment.
And I thought the whole storyline of Keldor was well done. The bastard son of a king was plenty of explanation.
And it was ironic that It was really family secrets, not great magic or technology, that proved to be the challenge Adam (He Man) had the most difficulty with. He Man and Skeletor's story just makes more sense to me, in this version.
*Fan Theory!!* Don't stomp me out for saying this, but I think I know why Skeletor was able to fuse Magic and Technology together. I have done so much research and fandomizing the Lord of Destruction, I have watched every series and read every comic. Skeletor told Hordak that "The Havoc staff once held, is not so easily discarded." I would like to look deeper into this statement. As we learned from season 2 of Revelation, Adam was able to hold the power without the sword. This I feel was because of how long he has been a champion of Grayskull. The fact that he has held the power for so long, it has become a part of him, which he has with or without the sword. And as we learned in Episode 1 of Revolution, Zoars power may lay within Grayskull, but he is only 1 of the 3 gods, and Havoc was one of them. Skeletor has had Havoc for years now, even before Adam was born. That's nearly two decades of Skeletor having Havoc flowing threw him via the staff! But with Hordak erasing his memories, he most likely forgot how he got the Havoc Staff, and knew nothing about its affect on him. But, with Keldor back inside his mind, he finally remembers his connection to Havoc, and now knows that like Adam, he is the spark to call down the power of Havoc. Fusing his magic with the technological power granted to him by Motherboard and Hordak, he was able to become the Techno Warlock he was at the very end. And even though He-man used the powersword to drain Keldor of Skeletor, we saw in the dungeons that Keldor still has some connection to Skeletor. And Teela in the second episode of Revolution, she saw that there was a fourth tower of Havoc, most likely where the Havoc Staff draws its power, much like how He-man and Teela draw their power from Zoar in Grayskull. As long as Havoc exists, Keldor has a link to the power! It may take time, but as long as Havoc exists, so does Skeletor!
I TOTALLY agree about Revolution feeling like the 200x MYP series. I felt the exact same thing, and thought it was great to go back to that feel of storytelling.
Definitely inspires a much needed rewatch of 200X
I started watching 200x because of Revolution lol
Very thorough vid!! Can't overstate, the motu: revolution team has done the greatest MOTU, POP, and/or MOTUPOP related thing in animation ( MOTU Classics toys/minicomics and the DC/Mattel comics collaborations have been doing it right since about 2010 ) in over 35 years since the last Filmation MOTUPOP episodes wrapped up on the She-ra side of the fable/franchise in 1987: they have reunified the twins, who never should have been separated, they have restored the single greatest He-Man family drama of the original MOTUPOP era, including the dark fairytale worthy abduction of the infant Princess Adora from her twin brother Prince Adam's side by the evil warlock/warlord/bogeyman Hordak. The recreation in revoltuions episode 3 of the classic He-Man & She-ra: The Secret of The Sword movie scene of Hordak abducting Adora from her and Adam's shared nursery was FLAWLESS!! They made it keep all the main points, but also made it much more visually stunning and much darker ( the shift from day to night was genius for such a straight-out-of a child's [ and any parents' ] nightmare scene ), even including such details as the unicorn plush by Adora's overturned crib and the green tiger plushy beside Adam's. Even if they didn't get the She-ra rights and have to use the alias character name of Despara, everybody still knows who she is, and the worst of the separation damage is still healed, HOWEVER, because Mattel has FAR more rights and claims to She-ra, Catra, Frosta etc ( all of whom Mattel co-created and all of whom had original era Mattel toys and minicomic inclusion ) than they do to Horde Prime ( or even the Horde troopers ) who was TOTALLY a Filmation creation ( Horde Prime had NO original era toy and NO minicomic appearances, and the horde troopers didn't get toys and minicomics until over a year AFTER Filmation introduced them in the He-Man & She-ra: The Secret of The Sword movie ), the fact that "Despara" mentions Horde Prime at all strongly suggests that some agreement has been reached over the convoluted rights between the parent companies.
Someone pointed out to me the Catholic overtone of Keldor giving the people the techvirus on their tongues like a Priest giving communion. I didn't think anything of it, but they were offended. 😅
As for Evil-Lyn saying K.I.S.S.I.N.G. I thought was too much of an earth thing and not an Eternian thing. Just because Eternian sounds like English, doesn't mean we spell things the same way. Or maybe Marlena made it a thing and it spread.
Plus I would have loved to see Marlena more involved at the end or beginning with her piloting skills, instead of Randor, bringing back her Rainbow Warrior skills just a bit.
Love you guys. Thank you for such a great TH-cam channel.
Paul!! I didn't even think of the church analogy with how Keldor was placing those chips onto their tongues. I'm not offended either, but wow how clever!
Yeah, I was shocked I didn't notice it either. 😅 But thought it was clever too.
I wonder if it is possible for them to use She-ra the same way marvel use hulk like as long as she isn't in her solo cartoon they use the same way marvel can use the hulk as long as he does appear in a solo movie
It would be great if they could work something out.
I don't consider anything as having happened in the Mastersverse until ya'll weigh in.... Mastercast RULES!
Dude... YOU have the power!!
He-Man’s ponytail cold also be a nod to New Adventures
Exactly what I was thinking! Little details like that are such nice nods to the fandom
I disagree with Jon regarding the Gar angle. It’s a better story if he’s the victim of prejudice
Why? His Bastard status alone would still keep him from inheriting the throne. Beside they don't seem to be prejudiced against the Gar in the Comic so why would that be a factor. No it was him being a Bastard that kept him off the throne nothing more.
Definitely can appreciate the prejudice angle. I think if there was more time to flesh out the Gar, it would have worked better for me. Though we did get more information in the prequel comic like Fenris mentioned. I need to give it another read!
Zanthor
Ohhh… good catch!