Masters of the Universe Revelation Part 2 Review

When the first half of Masters of the Universe Revelation part 1 dropped it caused a huge stir within the fan base of all things He-Man and Skeletor. The choice to kill He-Man in the He-Man show sure was a bold choice, and understandably many fans were upset. Other fans liked it’s new direction, but whichever side of the fence you fell on, I think everyone can agree that when you make controversial decisions with beloved franchises the best you can expect is a controversial and split reaction.

Part 2 opens with Teela as a baby where we see that Man At Arms is left holding her as a baby and her mother, who it turns out is the Sorceress, leaves to do Sorceress stuff.

We are then taken back to where the first part finished off. Skeletor had become Skelegod having taken the Sword of Power from Prince Adam, whom Skeletor stabbed. The Sorceress is frail and dying and all hope looked lost for Teela, Cringer and company.

Prince Adam shows some fight is still left in him and Cringer creates a distraction enough for the Sorceress to use what little magic she has left to teleport Teela, Andra, Adam and Cringer away. She attempts to save Man at Arms too, but Evil-Lyn prevents it. Skeletor then kills the Sorceress in front of the Man At Arms Duncan, and sets after our heroes. With the revelation (justifying the shows title) that Teela is the daughter of the Sorceress, Teela shows that she has the power of the Sorceress, but Skeletor also makes Evil-Lyn the new Sorceress setting up some sorceress vs sorceress action down the line.

They aren’t safe for long as Skeletor arrives and Prince Adam shocks the world by calling upon the Power of Greyskull without the sword. This gives us an epic He-Man vs Skeletor battle although without the sword He-Man is just like the Incredible Hulk, a mindless barbarian.

Oh and I almost forgot that there is an amazing line where a friend of Adam’s Fisto sees Skeletor and proclaims that he would like to fist him. I can only imagine the writers room had a good chuckle out of this line, and it’s sure to live in meme history for years to come.

Skeletor is shocked that Adam could call the power without the sword and sets the new goal of learning how to harness the power without the sword himself. This is a kinda dumb move as it allows the heroes a chance to regroup which of course they do. Unknown to Skeletor, having now made Lyn a new Sorceress, she is having a crisis of conscious and with Man at Arms and Beast Man both in her ear we see her turning further away from Skeletor. Especially when we get the revelation (there’s that show title again) that Skeletor was leeching off of her to revive himself.

Shockingly we also learn to Evil-Lyn’s parents were going to eat her as a child…this is a hard to process fact of the character when I think back to watching the show as a child. This show really is made for the exact audience who watched the show as children and are now used to watching Dexter or American Horror Story.

He-Man finds his way back to his father in the Mystic Mountains and is able to calm Hulk-Man back into Prince Adam form. Hilariously Teela attempts to calm him with more than a nod to Black Widow calming Hulk in the Avengers series.

Again shockingly for an update of a children’s show we literally get Evil-Lyn seducing Skeletor who falls for her plot for him to give up the power for a booty call. This leads to Evil-Lyn having the power and leaving Skeletor defeated not by He-Man or Teela, but betrayed by one of his own. This is a super interesting choice, but again doesn’t quite feel like what many fans would have wanted out of the show.

Lyn turns out to be as evil as her name suggests and kills everyone – evil those in heaven so we see Moss Man die again. Kinda cool, but also kinda ridiculously Skeletor turns up to join Adam and Teela to fight Evil-Lyn. The idea that they would take the idea of the enemy of my enemy is my friend with Skeletor is a super stretch. He literally just killed the Sorceress and killed Adam and countless others in his years fighting He-Man.

He-Man and Skeletor working together is the buddy cop movie we never knew we needed and this unlikely pairing is a fun thing explored here. Their plan just to talk to Lyn and then fight her didn’t seem wise as she is both Sorceress and has the power. This distraction for Teela to rescue her father didn’t feel like the best use of time as Adam and Skeletor get mostly obliterated in the fight. Literally Panthor gets turned to stone which gives Skeletor the emotional reaction to call to kill Evil-Lyn for that.

This show takes no prisoners with killing many well known characters which makes it feel more real and adult, but still pushes the show in a realm which long term fans may struggle with. Maybe the child good memories were better left alone then all these characters being killed and aged and their power taken away.

I can certainly say that this half of the show felt a big improvement over the first half. Where as that felt like a long quest to set up the eventual battle, this half pays off big time with lots of epic fights and I can say coming into it knowing that He-Man was to be barely featured it was at least an improvement to get him in Hulk and Prince Adam forms still being heroic. Doesn’t change that the He-Man character literally doesn’t appear in almost any of this He-Man show.

I suppose with Sarah Michelle Gellar voicing Teela here, the apt comparison would be having a Buffy show with little to no Buffy in. Which of course did happen in the form of the show Angel, but that was different in the sense of we still had a separate Buffy show at the same time. In a similar sense there was always a She-Ra show, so it’s a shame that He-Man is absent to this degree in his own show as they could have done this exact story as another spin off, but as it is, it’s just a He-Man and Skeletor show where both take a back seat.

I feel this show will be more appreciated in years to come, as even though the story is bold and jarring, there is still a lot to enjoy, and builds to Lord of the Rings scale epic battles.

The production values, animation, sound track and voice acting are for the most part all top notch, and the show does pay off with an ending which is good and leaves the characters in a good place.

Orko returns for the finale episode and proves to be more powerful then Evil-Lyn somehow. This is odd for the comic relief character but is a great feel good moment when I was thinking he would be forgotten in this second half of the series. Of course Orko here is a bigger hero in that his assist allows Adam to get the Sword of Power back from Lyn and He-Man returns on screen for the first time with about half an episode of the season left.

Everyone gets their own individual battle with Battle Cat/Cringer fighting Beat Man who Lynn powers up to be more beast than man. Andra, who hasn’t had much presence in the second half of the show is left to fight along side Man at Arms in the big battle, whilst Teela has a out of body Black Panther style moment speaking to her past elder and mother, and He-Man battles Evil-Lyn.

Skeletor is restored as Skelegod by He-Man who forgets all the bad he has done, but again the enemy of my enemy is my friend etc etc. Just when it looks like Lyn is too powerful Teela as the now new Sorceress shows up for the final confrontation. This leaves Skeletor predictably turning in He-Man basically so they have something to do. This is short lived though as childhood favourite Ram Man shows up and knocks Skeletor out. This leaves us to get some action if He-Man fighting off an army of the underworld and all but declare victory until Skeletor returns again…again.

Where as He-Man deals with him with a punch, Teela turns Evil-Lyn to see some sense. All is able to end mostly happy, although they do tease Orko being sent back to the afterlife, but Lyn saves him. Why the others couldn’t have done that is a mystery, but whatever.

Andra becomes the new Man at Arms, Teela and He-Man get their moment where they both need each other and we get a final tease of what may be coming next. The mother board seems to turn Skeletor into some kind of AI infused computer Skeletor so we can expect a new season in a year or two.

Conclusion

This was a vast improvement over the first half which seemed to push itself far away from what He-Man fans would have hoped for. This approach allowed this second part to bring all these things back and whilst I’d question the approach to take everything fans like away just to be able to make people happy by bringing them back, it does work to a degree.

Teela is a much more developed character and we even get development for the likes of Beast Man which I didn’t expect going in. Knowing this show was going to flip expectations and hopes going in allows you to accept it more for what it is, which whilst not going to make everyone happy is still a fun ride and one which gives hope for the next series to build upon more.

A new base line has been set for who these characters are and it looks like He-Man and Skeletor will be lined up to battle Mother Board and Teela to fight another day.

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