Sorceress, poor Dunncan and poorer Adam, this Teela is just over dramatic.
I still can belive that Evil-Lynn (one of the mos evil, selfserving and doblecrossed characters in the original show) has showed more compassion, empathy, kindness and will to save the magic and the universe than our protagonist across the show EVIL-LYNN!!!!
"And you eater of world. May you taste our righteous fire, And choke on it. For my planet's sake, I spit my last breath at thee"
"The Marvel EIC Chair has a certain curse that goes along with it: it tends to drive people insane, and ultimately, out of the business altogether. It is the notorious last stop for many staffers, as once you've sat in The Big Chair, your pariah status is usually locked in." Christopher Priest
Given that I'm well over a decade over the too age you mention and was a fan of the original show I guess it had a wider age appeal than you believe.
I remember watching the original with my younger sisters Kids and loving it. I bought the action figures for them for birthdays etc.
More observations:
The Most Dangerous Man in Eternia
- Mer-Man referring to himself in 3rd person reminds me of "Zoolander" ("MerMAN...cough cough..MERMAAAN!")
- Evil-Lyn tossing tossing some shade at Andra is pretty great. I honestly rather like Andra, and the race bending doesn't bother me as she was practically a non-character in the MOTU universe to begin with. (I read all those old Star Marvel Comics as a kid and had no recollection of her.) I do wonder if her role as inventor sidekick would have been better served by using an actual toy based Master though. In the Dark Horse comics Clamp Champ was shown to be Man-At-Arms heir apparent when the latter was irreversibly transformed into an evil Snake Man.
- Beast Man's "m' lady" and constant defense of Evil-Lyn comes off very "white knightish" for lack of a better term. Interesting sidenote, in the original story Bible Beast Man, Evil-Lyn and Tri-Clops were originally human astronauts from Earth who were mutated upon crash landing. Only Queen Marlena escaped this fate.
- Duncan tries to tell Teela an important secret (probably that Sorceress is her mother) only for Evil-Lyn to interrupt with a "we don't have time for this!" Another lazy hand wave to keep the angry Teela-fueled drama going. Sorry, this is just weak writing in my opinion.
Land of the Dead
- "Skeletor?" "Not quite but I remember that name..." Once again muddling the waters of if Scare Glow was a dead version of Skeletor or merely a ghost in the SERVICE of Skeletor, as the original toy package description was very ambiguous in it's phrasing. Mattel's official stance is that they are two separate characters.
- The large Shadowbeast is visually based on the characters seen in the Filmation cartoon, only they were smaller and often in service to Beast Man.
- I guess Teela's greatest fear is that deep down she may be just a little.... too awesome. (I know it's all about character growth and whatnot, but just once I'd like to see a story where the hero's fear is something stupid like clowns or Triscuits or whatever.)
- "WHAT ARE YOU???" "I'M BATMA--, err He-Ma-- I'm your worst nightmare!" I guess Teela didn't honor her part of the deal? Usually it's the bad guys who renege on their part of a bargain.
- Orko might have escaped through the portal too if after freeing themselves from the rocks Teela and the gang didn't just stand around like a bunch of dumbasses and watch him hold off Scare Glow for the rest of the battle. (Granted he may be still alive somewhere.)
The Forge at the Forest of Forever
- we see the floating disk things from the '87 Cannon film, Adam and Teela also rode similar flying surfboard things in the 2002 MYP cartoon.
- the Horde gets a quick little shout out. Missed it on first viewing.
- King Grayskull is riding Bionatops, one of the last toys produced for the original toyline.
- Adam's great reward is that he gets to be bullied by the other deceased champions for all eternity!!! (put in head locks, noogies, mockingly called "Flea Man.") That's like if in a "Back to the Future" sequel Marty died and he was greeted at the pearly gates by Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen and Mad Dog Tannen. ("HELLOOOO McFly!")
- "Ya did good Lynnie!" A very Joker-esque sounding line from Mark Hamill.
Honestly, what bothers me most that at no single point in the narrative Teela ever bothers to ask "WHY?" "Why did Adam keep this secret from her?" Despite multiple opportunities to do so. Any rational person WOULD do this, but Teela needs to be angry for the story to work I guess. It's bad and lazy writing, and yet critics keep referring to this series as "brillant" when it is really just "ok."
"The White Queen welcomes you, TO DIE!"
LioConvoy's Reviews on Youtube...he has a lot great videos on the MOTU Revelation controversy.
Things I love: Batman, Superman, AEW, old films, Lovecraft
Grant Morrison: “Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.”
Teela had every right to be fucking furious about this. This was someone she fought and defended her life with--so many episodes things would have been way easier if she just knew his secret. They were right to have Teela be angry. (Especially given her character in the early cartoon). But it was so jarring and sudden and she did not seem to care for other people who were also coming to terms with a devastating lie. Honestly, I would have loved an episode with just Teela talkin to various people among the castle an Eternia about this issue. (Before maybe deciding to step back and move on from life in the castle)Honestly, what bothers me most that at no single point in the narrative Teela ever bothers to ask "WHY?" "Why did Adam keep this secret from her?" Despite multiple opportunities to do so. Any rational person WOULD do this, but Teela needs to be angry for the story to work I guess. It's bad and lazy writing, and yet critics keep referring to this series as "brillant" when it is really just "ok."
I think the greatest fault of the first half is trying to figure out if this wants to be a kid show or an adult show.
That is a great idea and all but it bogs down the action. Not sure if that is a good idea for an action show, much less a kid's show. It wants to be all-ages but then it saws a face, makes a condom joke, or skewers a main character in a gory fashion.
"Pick a lane" is the saying I'd go with (for the show, not you).
I think Vegeta's quick idea about, "Why did you lie?" could've happened at several points in the first half and been less than a few minutes. Shrink a flashback or two to make it happen ...
Last edited by BeastieRunner; 07-30-2021 at 01:26 PM.
"Always listen to the crazy scientist with a weird van or armful of blueprints and diagrams." -- Vibranium
The first episode requires some stupidity to work.
Like there's the Sorceress falling for a simple camouflage trick, He-Man stabbing the "Rock of Eternity", everyone standing around and letting Skeletor break the orb, The King and Teela throwing a tantrum about Adam's death.
Then she should've regained her composure and ask Duncan and the others why the need for secrecy. Some friend.
"Cable was right!"
A problem for the show is that the original had 130 episodes. Clearly Teelas reactions are built on those. Yet they can’t bet on that viewers have seen the show seeing how many episodes and how old it is. So it’s more the cliff note version. Hopefully most viewers have seen some episodes or are in any other way familiar with the characters, story and tone.
This of course leaves us with problems with Teela. To understand why she is so angry you need to understand what Adam and He-man meant to her and also to the world. You need some understanding of her relationship with the two men. Even if the show is about her. Even if she is interested in Andra. It doesn’t have to be romantic it can just be as an equal friendship. Clearly her relationship with He-man/Adam drives her. Yet we only know she is angry about the secret. Not if she has romantic feelings for any of them. Nor why she was friends with them. We don’t now much about anything from revelation. It’s five episodes and many important interactions or talks are handwaved away to move on with other plots. So it’s hard to symphatise or understand Teela since we aren’t spending time on it.
So if you want a story that is driven by a characters feelings over relationships. Then you need to explore said relationships. Not only to make us understand but to get invested in them.
It’s fine to show different characters and have them have rather short story arcs like Orko. They work with the time they are afforded.
I don't think she has "right to be angry" she is just acting as an inmature teen who can't handle that world dosen't moves around her. Ever single master of the universe fight and defended Adam, he was the prince after all, yes, life would have been a lot easier FOR ADAM if he were able to tell his secret but the problem is that he was forbidden to tell it, he dosen't selected the secrecy, it was forced on him something that Teela could have know if she were able to ask WHY? instead of just trown a tantrum.
As I pointed previously there are a lot of people who dosen't know the secret and were close to Adam, like HIS OWN FATHER, but they don't let the world be destroyed because his poor feeling were hurt. Let's remember that his mother just know it, because she deduced it herself, no one told her, and never blamed anyone for not being included. Damn, I don't even remeber if Orko was told or also knows by accident.
She is supposed to be a soldier, strong in mind and body, she should know that sometimes people keept secrets to protect others or because are ordered so (as her father) but her reaction was more the one of an enttlited child than a force Captain. Seeing her worried about why she who, always mocked and humillated the prince, wasn't the first person he trusted with a secret (A secret wasn't his to share in first place). Instead of being worried about how he died a traumatic death, how everybody is suffering, how his father has lost everything (rank, home, friends) how Orko is dying, how the dessaparition of magic is affecting the kingdoom is as you said jarring and talks volumes about her priorities.
"And you eater of world. May you taste our righteous fire, And choke on it. For my planet's sake, I spit my last breath at thee"
Putting aside whether Teela's reaction was selfish or reasonable, I wasn't crazy about Smith focusing so much of this reboot/sequel's narrative around Adam's secret identity and its impact on Teela. I'm okay with the "Revelation" occurring but I think in the hands of better creators, they would've just had Adam's friends finding out the secret and shrugging it off before embarking on heroic adventure stories featuring He-man and his friends battling Skeletor. No "subverting expectations" with two He-Man deaths.
The Little Rascals predicted this almost a hundred years ago:
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