Dragon’s Brood, Turnabout, and Meckaneck’s Lament

This is Man at Arms and you are listening to

the Masters of Grayskull. Thank you Mr. Gary

Chalk as Man at Arms from the 2002 He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe cartoon series for

giving us that promo. I'm of course TFG and Mike

joining me is Optimus Solo. Hello sir. Hello.

We just want to put this at the beginning of

every episode for... Masters of Grayskull we

dedicate every single episode of this to the

memory of Dean Stefan Dean who is the writer

storyboard art and not storyboard story editor

all that kind of stuff on the 2002 He -Man series

passed away May 15th of 2018 and Not only are

we doing this because we're finishing our powers

of Grayskull series podcast We're also I feel

at this point doing this in the memory of him

because the stories that he helped Create and

build for this series It revitalized the motu

franchise in my personal opinion. Yeah, absolutely

It's unfortunate that we didn't have a chance

to ever talk to him before the show, but we can

at least remember him as we move forward Absolutely,

and now on with the show. I am Adam Prince of

Eternia Defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull.

This is Cringer my fearless friend fabulous Hello,

this is optimus solo and welcome to the 1 1 1

the 111th chapter in our powers of grayskull

series with me for this journey into the masters

of the universe is the More positive more friendly

version of TFG 1 Mike. Hello. I'm sorry. I just

can't get past this Can't get past what? It's

the eleventy first episode. Oh Lord. Yeah. Oh

Lord is right because you can take that ring

and shove it Don't even know what we're talking

about anymore. So alright, so let me explain

when I was For 13 or 14 my dad has always worked

for bus companies as mechanics and that kind

of thing and Whenever people would leave like

motor coach buses not school buses So, you know

like trips to Gatlin Berg or trips to casinos

and things like that Well, you know all the old

people in the scratchers and whatever Well, people

would leave stuff on the bus. So in 1993 or 1994,

I forget which year it was, he brought home a

copy, a very old copy, of the Fellowship of the

Ring. I read up until they said, Bilbo's eleventh

-first birthday, and then I had to go look in

a dictionary or look in wherever you look back

then, because there was no internet to figure

out what the hell eleventh -first meant. It says,

111th birthday. I hate Tolkien's language. Ugh.

All righty. Are you ready to go back to Eternia?

Yes. All right. Let's do it then. It's time to

go back to Eternia. Wait, but before we do that,

I got to tell you about what episodes we're going

to be talking about today, which are 10, 11,

and 12, which are... You don't even know. Turnabouts.

and Mechaneck's lament. So we're going to start

with the dragon's brood in episode 10, then we're

going to turn about things in episode 11, and

finally we're going to lament with Mechaneck

in episode 12. So we hope you're ready because

now it's actually time to go back to Eternia.

Not even supposed to be here today! Racing in

mind when he sent us on this mission First up

today is episode 10 Dragon's Brood. Airdate of

November 1st, 2002. Written by, I'm assuming,

brothers Mark and Michael Edens. Racing their

sky sleds through the evergreen forest, Prince

Adam and Tila stumble upon and rescue a large

dragon trapped in a cavern by a rockslide. That

dragon continues to be a major part of the episode

as Orko discovers its eggs. And they hatch, and

chaos ensues. What did you think about our first

dragon episode in the 2002 series? Interesting

episode. Again, thankfully none of the animals

talk. This is a series that is rooted in reality,

I almost feel. As reality as we can have when

we have Beastman and Merman. Yeah, but I'm saying,

like, this isn't a filmation where... And Beastman

is just, you know, a guy with a furry coat on.

Burban? mutated fish. It's olive turtles. Whiplash?

Whiplash? I don't know about that one now. But

my point is that obviously in filmation, almost

every single animal talked, including Cringer.

I think the only animal that didn't talk out

of the main cast was Panther. He just growled

and ran and did whatever cats do. the maroonish

dragon here does remind me of Granamare in look

and obviously because Adam and Tila helped him

or her because probably a mother dragon most

likely um god she's the mother of all dragons

oh god I don't even watch that show why do I

have those references in my head winter is not

coming it's gone It's you know, it's still coming.

No, it's not it's gone. No, it's not Anyways

moving on to this episode here a little bit for

me Cringer was kind of funny in this episode

because as they start to scale the rock Formation

to get to the dragon the or whatever they think

it's stuck in the cave Cringer just is like do

I have to still do I have to wait here for this?

And he just kind of like puts his head down and

like a board Look on his face. So I thought that

was funny I thought it's fun that we got dragons,

because that's kind of a staple of Eternia. We

should have dragons. You know, Granamir and other

dragons existed in the Filmation series, so we

need dragons here, and they've found a way to

include them. Each episode tries to do some type

of cliffhanger. I thought the one in this episode

was pretty good. I don't know if you remember

this or saw this or caught it or whatever, but

dang, Teela just got hit upside the head by a

rock. Yeah, she did. And that was brutal. The

way that they did that looked like it really

hurt. Even though I disagree with him, Ramman

has a cool line as he's battling with, I believe,

whiplash. Heads beats tails every time. I mean,

I always pick tails, but in this situation, I

guess heads does beat tails every time. Ramman

takes his helmet off. Yeah. At the end, we get

to see Ramman. Yep. Very cool. So that was interesting.

And a nice save, I guess, by man -at -arms at

the end, because there is a situation here where

basically during the story we have Orko gets

a hold of these eggs that obviously belong to

the dragon that Adam and Tila saved. The dragons

hatch, they wreak havoc on Eternia. They like

shiny things. Eventually, Evil -Lyn makes the

Castle of Grayskull shiny. The dragons attack

Castle Grayskull. Skeletor shows up with his...

Dragon like thing whatever that's supposed to

be and then there's a battle and the dragon that

they saved helps because the sniffs He -man and

realizes that it's the same person that saved

him Etc. So now we have a situation where teal

is put in two and two together and saying wait

a second. Why did the dragon? Take pity on he

man. He's never seen human before Adam was the

one that saved him What is going on here and

Ram and basically tries to blow it off and somewhat

saves it I guess I like the fact that they at

least acknowledged that there would have been

an issue there I don't know. I don't know if

it's the best way to like solve it, but hey,

whatever. Yeah What I find is interesting that

we've always assumed all these years, you know

30 plus years almost 40 whatever that Beastman

could control all beasts and apparently he can't

control dragons Yeah, that's interesting bit

of trivia. I guess too that I didn't remember

Also In this episode, I guess my only nitpick

is when he man is basically see figuring out

that the dragons the same one that he saved I

don't think we really needed the flashback to

show the sequence from the beginning of when

they saved the dragon again. I don't think kids

are that dumb. Like, they show his claw that's

been scratched and then they show the other one

back again at the beginning of the episode. It's

like, yes, we get it. They're the same. We already

knew that. I don't know. Even 2002, there were

a lot of kids that just... I don't know. I mean...

I guess a little bit of trivia here for you.

There was another little side story This is kind

of going back to what I said in last week's episode,

which is that they are kind of on the down low

subtly Reaching out to different people throughout

Eternia trying to gather them to join the masters,

etc So we did have basically Adam and Tila originally

were on this mission to visit one of these such

people which is led by chief carnivous carnivous

and his cat people and basically trying to recruit

them and that was also released as an action

figure by Mattel in 2010 in the classics line.

So another side guest character that you could

pick up from that classic line if you if you

have enough money um i don't know how much it

costs these days but um i'm sure you'd have to

go on ebay or something to find them um unless

you can still order them through uh some type

of mattel related the thing which i doubt i don't

think so yeah but he's a cool looking dude um

reminds me of some other catlike characters that

uh came in a different show yeah but uh anything

nitpicky for you or anything else you didn't

get to talk about that this episode My only snake

mountain moment that I wrote down was Orko. Always

Orko. Doesn't matter what he does in this series,

I just don't like him. I can see that. I do have

one Havoc staff to give out for today's episode.

And I am giving out the Havoc staff, I guess

I gotta give four of them out, to the baby dragons.

Because at the end, their mom is fighting another

dragon -like beast, and they're not helping.

Like, why are they not there also helping the

big mama dragon defeat Skeletor and the big serpent

thing? I don't know what that thing is. Do you

know what that thing is? It's not a dragon, so

to speak, is it? I don't think so. It's like

half dragon, half eel. Something like that. It's

weird. I'm at a three and a half on this episode.

It's it's fine. It's good. It's above average

Some things to like about it for sure but nothing

Crazy that's gonna make me bump it up into the

four or five range. Yeah, I'm right there with

you three and a half. All right, so Both at three

and a half. I don't like how much we're agreeing

with each other these days. It's not natural.

It's not normal, but I don't know about actually

sold items because we're not looking at sold

items right now, but the first Results I get

on on eBay is like 40 bucks Could be worse Could

be better. All right, so we're gonna take a break

when we come back. We're gonna see if turnabout

is fair play Things go wrong. He still gets away

takes a certain kind of talent. Oh, yeah He might

even be an okay guy here if he wasn't so evil

Raman you just gave me an idea Your plan is a

bold one man Can you help us make it work? This

vessel contains waters from the magical lake

vortex which appears on this plane of existence

but once every thousand years. This is the only

remaining liquid from the lake. It will do what

you propose. The challenge will be to attach

it to Skeletor. I think I have a way. All right,

we are in episode 111 today, and now it's time

to talk about episode 11 from this series. So

episode 11, Turnabout, Airdate, November 8th,

2002. Ones are wild if you hadn't figured that

out. Written by Len Uli, I'm going to say. I

love how they wrote this plot. It snaps us on

IMDB. Mad at Arms punishes Skeletor with a magical

belt that prevents him from being evil. What

did you think about this episode in which Skeletor

can't be evil? this is great this is awesome

again spotlighting a character well now we're

fully spotlight you know Skeletor has had I would

say obviously the most overarching spotlight

in the first 11 episodes obviously the beginning

with the origins and all that and everything

else with the three -parter but I mean Actually

making him hurt because he wants to do evil that's

ingenious and then obviously they turn that around

and try to do that with he man to make him hurt

whenever he wants to do good, but He man's the

most powerful man in the universe. You can't

do that to him. He's just gonna overpower it.

Yeah You know, I like a couple things again.

We get a very subtle nod to the filmation series

because in the beginning Skeletor is after the

diamond ray of disappearance and He -Man just

immediately destroys it It's kind of like a funny

way to kind of have a nod but not have it be

a central thing So it's not a complete ripoff

of the other episode Obviously, I'm quoting stuff

about the diamond ray of disappearance episode

from the filmation series in 1983 And I like

the continuity with the the fact that the cat

people I don't I can't pronounce the race that

they're part of, so I'm not gonna try, because

the credits make it really hard to see if it's

a Q or a D at the beginning. It's like quadrant

or something weird. But I like that they're appearing

in this episode as well, so it adds a little

continuity to the fact that we were introduced

to them in the last episode, they're appearing

in this episode, so it's not just a one -off,

and He -Man has to save like a mom, cat, and

her baby. maybe cat um so i guess that's cool

um really the only thing for me is is like they

had to get this the amount of stuff that they

had to do to pull off getting this liquid from

this lake that like is only available every thousand

some years. And this is the last of the liquid.

And this is going to be what shows makes Skeletor

not be able to be evil. And we're going to put

it in a belt and put it around his waist, et

cetera, et cetera. Cool. All right. And then

they're just like, oh, so we're going to go back

in the lab and make something that does the same

thing to He -Man. Yeah, like that. Come on, that

shouldn't be easy. Well, again, the episode is

called Turnabout, so I get it, but it shouldn't

have been that easy. Like, maybe I would have

believed if they could have gotten, like, some

of the liquid out of there, like, extracted some

of it, which they did, and they tested, but like,

I don't know, just the fact they were just able

to, like, reverse engineer it that easily made

it seem a little bit too convenient, but not

a breaking point of the episode. Mainly, this

is Skeletor's comical night, I mean. Yeah. Because

He -Man, you know, He -Man obviously has reactions

to them, you know, putting the thing on him,

but I mean, as I said, He -Man just powers out

of it because the Sorcerer says, you know, your

goodness is more powerful, you know. Right. By

the way of the good and for the power of the...

Oh, stop it. You should have just got electrocuted

like Skeletor in this episode. Every time you

say something like that, you should get electrocuted.

I don't think so. What else do you have to say

about this episode? Aren't we getting a little

close to Snake Mountain? Don't worry, Tila. Skeletor

is probably off licking his wounds. How wrong

you are, Prince Adam! The only wound suffered

will be yours first rule of battle never allow

your enemy to gain high ground Like you said

What are you wearing Never mind this contraption

I Just found it really really funny and enjoyable

and I just enjoyed the damn thing all the way

through I thought it was a neat plan that they

tried to make Skeletor be good and having pretty

much good half of the episode with them trying

to figure out why it's doing that and then obviously

the other evil in and the other evil warriors

realize oh you can't do any evil you know yeah

kind of reminds me of Christmas I like being

evil yeah and then of course he gets to torture

them at the end but I think you're gonna be a

little bit higher on this episode than I am.

I'm down a step. I'm down to a three. I thought

it was fun. I thought it was average. I don't

think there was anything really cool about it

except for the allusion to the diamond rate of

disappearance. And I just I don't know. It was

like they did the same gag over and over and

over again. Skeletor trying to be bad and getting

zapped. Skeletor trying to be bad and getting

zapped. He -Man trying to overcome and getting

zapped. So like it kind of wore on me a little

bit. I mean, I think it's cool. It's unique.

But for me, not quite as great as some of these

other episodes. So I'm at a three. What are you

at? Four. Alright, four for Mike, three for me,

one more break, and we're gonna come back and

talk about the last episode of today, which is

all about that dude with the long neck. Hey,

what you do is a big deal. Remember He -Man's

first battle? You found him and my father trapped

in that abyss. You totally saved them. Yeah,

I guess I did help out. Oh, maybe you ought to

let Man -At -Arms take a look at that. All right

last episode up today is episode 12 Mechanex

lament not even supposed to be here today. It's

November 15th 2002 Conflicting reports on who

wrote this one IMDB says Laura Olsen perhaps

That's a married name or maiden name the actual

episode on screen credits Eric and Laura Runnels

Plot synopsis while Mechanex is depressed at

the apparent uselessness of his ability an evil

sorcerer Talk about who that is manipulates him

for his own ends before we go too far This is

one of those episodes that you know, we talked

about how the the fact that I we both I think

rewatched the entire series Whatever ten years

ago eight years ago, however long it was ago

I had never seen it so I was kind of going through

it for the first time capturing all the images

etc and This is one of those episodes that I

very much remember It's one of the ones that

stuck with me and I remember a lot about it.

Some of these it's like re -learning or re -watching

and being like, oh yeah. And it's like remembering

on the spot or practically watching for the first

time again. But this is definitely one that I

remember very much. So from our previous watch

there, I don't know about you, but what did you

think about Mecha Next Limit? I love this episode.

I loved it back when I originally watched it

when it aired. I love it now I loved it like

you said seven eight nine ten years ago when

we watched it. No this episode is amazing Yeah,

and I think it's valid like you know like he's

talking about Some brain man can bust down a

damn wall. You know Stratos can fly You know

Manny faces is just hella cool Mechaneck has

a long neck So he's useful for reconnaissance

which in a lot of senses people would think that

that's it's like, you know Army Navy military

think of it, you know who gets all the credit

the reconnaissance people that that's You know

view satellite images and stuff like that or

the people that are right there, you know killing

Osama bin Laden or you know whatever they're

doing the the work it seems like and there's

a stigma to those that were and providing the

intelligence or doing the reconnaissance so I

get it it's a legit uh feeling for him to have

um but this episode is way more than just that

so we get the introduction for the first time

in this episode of Count Marzo so obviously the

character was created for filmation appeared

in three episodes back in that series that we

talked about um did also get an action figure

in the 2010 um maddie collector etc um but that

figure was based off of this incarnation not

the formation uh so we get count marzo here we

also get a reference to king miro i sense grave

danger the evil count marzo has returned count

marzo name doesn't ring many years ago Mazo's

thirst for power had become all -consuming. He

attacked the Hall of Wisdom. If not for the army

of Captain Miro. My grandfather. Capture him!

What did you think about this episode? I know

you said you liked it, but that's why... Yeah,

I mean, no, it's great. It's, you know, we get

character development on Mechaneck, we get, you

know, him almost having a broken neck, and then

he fixes it, but it's dealing with his... Again,

this series... I know you're a little down on

the Tila thing, but this series is more so dealing

with the emotional... Problems of the Masters

and of the evil warriors as well kind of thing

like where they came from What is going on with

them? Yeah, I mean Mecha neck his neck is what

he's known for Yeah, I don't know and he even

uses it to obviously tie up Marzo later. I love

this. I think it's great. I think this is a much

better version I remember when I watched this

episode and then we went to watch the film Asian

version of Marzo Oh god, I hate that. I hate

the filmation version of him because I watched

this first and this is so good. Kind of makes

me feel like the old man version of him is like

the little old man in Aladdin. The street peddler,

dude. Or he's a shorter... version of the the

old version of Jafar in the yeah in the in the

jail cell kind of thing so I you know got an

Aladdin vibe off of that but yeah basically Marzo's

thing is oh the palace oh the king oh revenge

has nothing to do with greyskull has nothing

to do with finding the power of greyskull this

episode doesn't even have Skeletor in it And

that's a testament to this series. You don't

have to rely on Skeletor with the storytelling

that they're doing here all of the time. You

can introduce characters like this. Like, we

always complained in He -Man and She -Ra. when

they would introduce like weird one -off characters

because it wasn't done properly or whatever or

that one character that was on the planet trying

to do something for Skeletor remember that one

episode that one guy whatever his name was kind

of thing like with this you have starting out

with Mechaneck and telling his story which leads

into Count Marzo showing up and Promising him

three wishes and blah blah blah blah blah and

whatever and obviously mechanite falls for it

and then we have the whole battle and Like you

said, you know Involving or not involving but

you know mentioning King Mero he man's grandfather

and all of that just Great great history Part

of yeah this series and there's a cool visual

too that's showing King Mero and then it fades

into he man The kind of show the resemblance

and whatnot I mean basically like I've talked

about ad nauseam throughout these 111 episodes

like two things that are gonna get me Liking

there are two things that I like about these

types of cartoons and specifically in this franchise

that I'm looking for in the episodes is both,

well three things, honestly. Continuity from

episode to episode in little bits and pieces

doesn't have to be a story that's literally part

one part two But something that's like like I

said before the cat people showing up in a second

episode. That's continuity You know the the character

development so when we get a character centric

episode That's really kind of getting into that

character and what makes it tick and then the

mythology or the history when we can connect

You know to what happened in the past origin

story is what happened in previous series Etc

and this really gives you two of those things

in spades with the history mythology aspect and

the development so I like that a lot I love the

the look of marzo he sounds a little silly I'm

not gonna lie now that I'm watching this again

he is very much if you played a clip of him and

then you played a clip of subalba from Star Wars

it's almost the same thing He is very much the

Bulba like he sounds a little silly I wanted

him to sound a little bit more impressive a little

more intimidating So I had a slight problem with

his voice, but he looks badass as hell So I'll

give him that I don't know, man. It's just cool

that the fact that they also left this episode

open to be revisited because the amulet they

showed at the end is not destroyed. Like he said,

I like that they have a Skeletor, mostly Skeletor

absent episode. I believe he appeared like in

the first scene or sequence or whatever, but...

Basically not in this episode So I like that

and it does show that they can do some stories

without the Masters or without the villains That's

another thing that's kind of cool in these Series

when you can not just do the human versus Skeletor

in every episode where you can find other things

to do to kind of keep it Fresh that's helpful.

There's really not much to pick on With this

episode And Michael Donovan versus John Irwin,

well I love John Irwin and what he did with He

-Man and everything else. I just... Marzo's voice

in filmation just... I didn't hate Marzo in filmation

as much as you do, I don't think, but... It's

not that I don't... It's not that I hate him,

it's just that... I find the 2002 one to be a

superior character than... the filmation one.

Again, it's comparing and contrasting, you know,

20 -30 years between the two kind of a thing,

and... Oh, I said Subalba. I meant to say Watto,

by the way. Of course you meant to say Watto.

He's a little bit like Watto from Star Wars.

That's why it's a little bit silly. A little

bit. But other than that, not too much to complain

about. This is going to be one of the highest

rated episodes that I have so far, and that is

a four and a half. quite ready to give out a

perfect rating yet, but four and a half for me,

and I'm assuming five from you? Yep. All right.

Anything else to say about this episode? No.

Go watch it, folks. All right. We'll take a quick

break. And when we come back, Mike will wrap

it up and send us away. I know what we're doing

today. OK, Michael, if we're going to tackle

this podcast thing, we've got to do something

really special. It has to be cool. daily in audio

form and undetectable by radar, something that

screams summer. I know, let's do a Phineas and

Ferb review podcast. We'll call it the Podcast

Organization Without a Quillacronym or Pauka

for short. What do you think? I think if we're

not careful, Candice is going to bust us. You

can find Pauka on the GeekCast, Radio Network,

iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all of the other

methods you find podcasts. Okay then, carry on.

Because the world needs another movie podcast.

The GeekCast Radio Network presents for your

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with... The Reason Everyone's Here, Optimus Solo.

Yeah, that's not the reason. Oh. By the power

and for the honor of Grayskull, we have the power.