Night of the Shadow Beasts, Underworld, and The Mystery of Anwat Gar

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

112th chapter in our Powers of Grayskull series.

I haven't got the number wrong in quite some

time. With me for this journey into the masters

of the universe franchise is TFG1 Mike. Hello.

Hello. Well, that's because, you know, you're

not actually recording a podcast about a shitty

cartoon. I mean, you know. Numbers matter all

of a sudden. Are you ready to return to Eternia,

sir? Of course. All right. Well, in this mass.

There we go. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha That's what I get for doing

20 scripts at the same time. Yeah, I mean, not

that we really, you know, give this out to people,

but I'm like, I have like 17 Skype messages.

Script, script, script. I'm trying to blow you

up. And I'm like, wait a second here, didn't

you see that message where I said send it to

me in email? Nah, Skype. So anyways, today it's

Night of the Shadowbeasts Underworld and the

mystery of Anwar Ghar. I got it right that time,

just in case there's any confusion. So we hope

that you're ready, because I think we're finally

ready. Time to go back to Eternia. Are you sure?

Awesome. This had better be good, Beastman. I

was in the middle of planning my next assault

upon Castle Grayskull. Oh, it's real good. See

for yourself. What I see is nothing, you mangy

moron. First up today is episode 13, Night of

the Shadow Beasts, one day before my birthday,

November 22, 2002. Written by Michael Reeves,

we've seen him in a few other shows that we've

done, Beastman introduces Skeletor to the Shadow

Beasts, large, powerful creatures that can attack

at night in vast numbers and unleashes them on

the palace and the masters. Mike, what did you

think of this Shadow Beasts episode? This is

awesome. I mean, an entire episode done at night,

or at least in the envelope of being at night.

Skeletor's plan to blot out the sun. Very, very

cool. Absolutely love it. Again, introducing

a new kind of sub -character or seeing a sub

-species or a secondary species on the planet

that we might not have known about before. And

that's the thing with... These episodes this

week and the episodes that we'll be doing in

next in the next podcast episode They introduce

so much stuff and it's so cool Yeah So I it's

kind of cool I guess that they're relating this

episode in a way to kids being scared of the

dark Yep, or just anybody being scared of the

dark. Yep. That's all I got for good things Well,

there is one really good thing only what seems

like to be a half -second of oracle on screen

whoo -hoo uh... skillet or his mighty mighty

heard not many many don't let the shadowbeast

bite night night don't show that was funny i

thought that was hilarious uh... who i forgot

one thing was that uh... up close the shadowbeasts

look crazy good yeah they do uh... using shadow

beasts to attack the palace and the castle Was

very cool, it shows that Skeletor really is willing

to try and do anything he can to conquer Eternia.

Yep. The interesting thing here though is, like,

he didn't... Up to this point, he's always said,

I want Grayskull, I want the Elder's power. He

hasn't really gone after the palace before. Like,

they've attacked the palace, but he hasn't actively...

used a lot of force to go after the palace. The

palace isn't where the power is. That's true.

Very true. I got some negative stuff. Okay, well

hang on one second. You said earlier about the

focus on Ramman and fear being afraid of the

dark and, you know, hey, this is, you know, a

updated version of the Nickelodeon show. Are

you afraid of the dark, Ramman? Yes, he is. i

was uh... until i wasn't at this point in my

life when i was younger i i i was at times of

late very scared of the dark uh... as i said

many times in many episodes of this podcast another

podcast less than ten and a half almost eleven

years my podcasting my mom and i used to watch

unsolved mysteries at night all the time And

as much as I love Robert Stack, may the man rest

in peace and all of that, Ultra Magnus is fucking

creepy when you watch Unsolved Mysteries at night

in the dark. Whereas now as an adult, yes, that

still creeps me out, but I actually prefer darkness

over daylight most times because I have light

sensitivity stuff with my eyes now, so. If I

go outside in the bright sun, I sneeze instantly.

You need to have a man to capture that on video.

Basically, I wasn't I don't know if I was necessarily

afraid of the dark as a child, but I was afraid

of my room specifically in the dark and note

to any parents out there Be careful of this because

what had happened was is my bedroom door which

when I was a kid had to stay open For safety

security whatever parents wanted all the doors

to be open As most doors do it had at least Maybe

not most doors, but my bedroom door had hooks

on the back Mm -hmm, and so there was I don't

know if it was like sweatshirts or jackets or

or whatever some some type of clothing or hanging

on those hooks basically all the time and when

you turn the my light off, but then the Adults,

you know, maybe they had the hall light on or

a different room down the hall or something like

that So there was still light in the house it

would perfectly cast a shadow against my wall

behind my door and it looked perfectly like a

witch's hat and it used to freak the hell out

of me basically I had to like shut the light

off and then like jump into bed real quickly

so that the witch behind my door didn't get me

so I was afraid of that yeah basically That's

why I said I think it was cool to relate this

to that because I think a lot of kids do have

different times where they're I Mean being in

the dark is I guess inherently scary because

you can't see So if you're trying to walk or

trying to do something you're gonna run into

stuff and that type of thing or something somebody

could more Easily sneak up on you. So I guess

it's not like unfounded. It's not just a kid

thing But I guess my problem with this episode

is they turn the entire episode into a PSA like

It wasn't just an episode that had this theme

like they even stop at the midway point almost

pause the episode to explain about him being

afraid of the dark in it that kind of rubbed

me the wrong way because I like it a little bit

better when it's just more subtle and they might

do something at the end that says hey this episode

was about this and we're gonna explain it to

you but it was a little too like over -the -head

beating me with it on this episode and my other

complaint was although the shadow beast looked

really crazy and cool up close When they do the

wide shots of the palace Yeah, that looks damn

silly Yeah honestly the the palace at times looks

damn silly not just in this episode, but But

they were like allowing those things to move

way too quickly and you know wait little of detail,

but it just looked silly it looked like not Professional

almost I don't know so I don't know this episode

kind of drained on me a little bit because of

the whole PSA Feel that I just couldn't get away

from throughout the entire episode But other

than that, I mean I had some cool elements. I

just think an execution It was a little heavy

-handed for me. What did you give this one for

rating? This one's three and a half. Okay, it's

not full middle ground, but it it's not Like,

yes, I love the story parts with Ram Man and

why he, you know, that kind of thing, even though

it kind of interrupts the flow of the thing.

I love that the, like we said, the shadow beasts

and Skeletor using different things, but at the

same time, it doesn't really, like, if this had

been a full -on character spotlight on Ram Man,

where it, like, showed him as a little ram or

whatever it is, you know, like... furthering

that character story like so many of the other

episodes have, like when we've been introduced

to the new characters and things like that, that

would've been maybe a little bit higher, but

it's set at three and a half for me. All right,

maybe one of the lower radians I've given so

far, but I'm down to a two and a half. Just like

I said, it just didn't, it wasn't entertaining

to me because I just felt like I was being taught

the whole time about being afraid of the dark.

Needed something else with that. So we're gonna

take a break. We'll come back and we'll venture

into the underworld Not on my watch Your highness,

I think it would be best if you return to the

palace and let me handle No Duncan. I made a

pledge to defend Eternia from the forces of evil

and I mean to honor my word with my own blood

if necessary Next up today's episode 14 underworld

aired date December 13th 2002 written by Stephen

Melching with the peace talks between this The

Leons and the Caligars having broken down King

Randor Prince Adam and man -at -arms journey

to subternia To help them reach a settlement.

I like that subternia Clever play on that so

we get introduced to a new side of eternity that

we've never seen before really the underworld

and some new Species, what did you think of that?

I thought it was really really cool and for a

half of a second I Recognized one of the voices

It's the former Skeletor yep And was this the

episode that also had No, that's the no it. Yeah,

it is this one It it had Richard Newman to What's

his name? Those spoleons leader? Lord Lord actus

is voiced by Rhinox from Beast Wars Yes, he is

Campbell in's not in this episode though. He's

in the next one. Yeah, he comes in this one was

the Richard Newman. Yeah So yeah, he's definitely

in this and then You also have Gary Chalk. Not

Gary Chalk. Yeah, Gary Chalk is one of the underground

warriors. He doesn't get a name. And then Brian

Dobson is the other main bad guy. So Brian Dobson

and Peter Newman. This is the start of a stretch

that... I'm gonna sound like a fanboy here for

a while, because these episodes get real good

and they stay real good for a little while. Yeah,

they do. Oh, I absolutely love them, yeah. Yeah,

so I like the idea of going down here. I like

the idea of the fact that there's factions that

used to be together that fought alongside King

Randor. And then since, for some reason or another,

they've had this, you know, this feud, this tension

behind them, and now we're gonna get to see if

Randor can... piece it back together and then

how Skeletor is going to play into it, etc. Also

interesting because it gives you an idea of where

Whiplash came from. Yeah, it doesn't give you

an origin for him, but it gives him where he

came from. Right, so you see where his people

are, you see that he's somehow a traitor. They

don't really define exactly what he did to kind

of get booted out other than siding with Skeletor.

But it's interesting that you kind of get to

see the seeds of where he came from. The other

thing is with this episode is Adam and his teenage

deals that he's got going on. He doesn't see

his father... I understand randor is now the

king he's no longer just a soldier he is the

king he is royalty they they made him royalty

and that's all well good and fine however did

you notice when like yeah I think yeah it is

he Adam tries to say call him dad and they go

and he changes it and says father like you don't

have to be that proper With your dad like you

know not all the time anyway But basically this

episode shows not only us because we already

knew but shows Adam That hey his dad was a warrior

his dad is a warrior king essentially Yeah, for

sure. This is the first time That we've seen

that that he's got to see that we've saw it a

little bit in one of the episodes But he had

necessarily saw that so yeah a lot of a lot of

good things to like on this episode I'm just

gonna go down bullet by bullet, so I don't forget

anything I thought it was funny that You know

in the beginning Skeletor has a line that's like

surprisingly good idea from you whiplash You

know as far as him being normally not the brightest

in the batch, but he has a good idea And I think

it is a good idea. It's a good idea for the evil

warriors It's a good idea for this just a plot

in general from Stephen milching I like the idea

of the sub training world the plot makes sense

so all that's good. We get some development with

whiplash Dactus and his people look cool As do

the other species. I think this series does a

good job with most of the different animals and

beasts and species and stuff like that of making

them look cool. I like the other part when he

comes in. I can't remember who says this now.

They say allow me to offer a second opinion.

That would be Heman? No, that might have been

Skeletor. It was one of the two. Yeah, yeah.

Also, we got to see a pretty cool thing with

Skeletor with his two swords. At one point, he's

handling two swords against Randor, which that

was cool. And again, like you mentioned, cool

seeing Skeletor versus Randor again, also with

the subplot of Adam getting to see it was interesting.

He -Man's entrance was cool. Yeah, it was. when

he's on the other side of the the thing when

it opens the brick of the wall the rock face

basically um so that was all good man i'm saying

cool a lot but i mean that's just what this episode

was it wasn't like it wasn't heavy into the mythology

or the origins as much as maybe i would like

but it's fine because the the story the characters

the action is good enough to not really make

me care too much about it um So, I mean, overall,

great episode. I had some trivia for you guys.

Obviously, the Maddie Collector line was doing

a good job of picking out some of these characters,

so you have Lord Dactis and Serratus. Both were

made into figures in 2013 and 2015, so you can

seek those out if you want to. We already talked

about this being the first time Adam witnesses

his father fight Skeletor. And, of course, through

the story, they've created another way to get

to Grayskull, so it's not just always going through...

I'm trying to get to the front door, the drawbridge,

etc. That scene was not necessarily copy for

copy, you know, line by line. Not the actual

what is said, but the animation. That is basically

the Diamond of Disappearance, the very first

episode of filmation, where He -Man is just there

in the castle and Skeletor gets spooked. this

did that again right in a different way it didn't

do it the exact same way but because obviously

he man went through gray skull the normal way

and ended up down in the, in the, in the, in

the subterranean entrance. But again, as you

said, showing that there is a different entrance

to Castle Grayskull, there would be, I would

think at some point they have to have some sort

of evacuation plan. Right. For sure. The attorney

and fire department might not like if they don't,

if they don't, but it's one of those things where

very, very cool. As soon as the draw, the jaw

bridge, whatever opened and you know, there's

He -Man right there. It was like, how did he

get down here? I'm not 100 % sure, but I'm 90

% sure that we do get to see the Caligars again

later on in the series Yeah, I am pretty sure

yeah, so we'll get to see them again, which is

gonna add to some continuity So I'm pretty high

on this one. I was only a two and a half on the

last episode this episode I'm all the way up

to a four and a half. I mean this is a damn near

perfect for me Yeah, I'm in a four Alright, so

very positive ratings for this episode and guys

I'm not trying to spoil anything But it's gonna

remain positive at least for a little while So

we're gonna take a break and we're gonna come

back and discover what is the mystery of Anwagar?

It began in the ocean of Gnar At first I thought

I was envisioning the birth of some new creature

But then, I could see what it was. A skeleton.

With a whim, he plunged Eternia into a new age.

Last up today is episode 15, The Mystery of Anwadgar,

airdate December 20th, 2002, written by Kevin

Campbell, not familiar with him. After receiving

a distressing vision, the sorcerer sends Prince

Adam and Man -at -Arms to the small island of

Anwadgar to retrieve the legacy stones, which

are ancient artifacts of great power that are

believed to still exist. Of course, also interested

in these powerful legacy stones would be Skeletor.

So what did you think of Anwar Ghar and where

it takes us and who it takes us to? I thought

it was very interesting. I going back and watching

it now for the podcast, not just to watch it.

I remember when the cyclone action figure was

revealed and it was like super, super cool. Cause

again, you're talking about the master's classics

line from Mattel. This isn't your old, it isn't,

you know. our original He -Man. It isn't the

2002 stuff, because there was a 2002 line that

I don't think did that well. But putting it in

the classics, and I'm like, oh yeah, Cyclone.

It's nice to see him again. Very, very cool.

I love that they approach this whole thing as

a mystery. I love that neither one of them kind

of knows, He -Man and Skeletor, knows exactly

what's going on. I do love the fact that, and

this is in your trivia here, in the story the

legacy stones which give them armor, what I'll

say about it is, is that look at the cartoon

we just reviewed, the series we reviewed right

before this, and Skeletor had three different

looks for no apparent reason. Obviously that

was because of action figures or something. You're

gonna do something like that to change to fit

the action figure releases Make it a story point

and they do here. It makes sense, right? It doesn't

look bad. It looks badass like, you know But

yeah, no, I mean this was super fun episode Yeah,

apparently also same with the toys. So obviously

there was a Samurai He -Man and Samurai Skeletor

in 2003. That's somewhat what this outfits are

based off of. Also, the classics line in 2008

apparently elaborated on the history of Anwar

Gar and its people, which are called the Gars,

has revealed that all blue skinned characters

from Masters of the Universe, such as Keldor,

Skeletor, Cyclone, Shakodi, and they're all members

of this species. I don't know what else we know

about that species, but that's interesting. And

obviously it's a plan anchor watt a temple in

Cambodia But this is a cool way to introduce

another one of our masters obviously cyclone

is the one that we're talking about and he is

such a badass like he is to me in this series

the equivalent of And I'm not talking about anything

that hasn't been we haven't reviewed yet. Just

looking back on what we already have reviewed

He is like the equivalent of what we got from

zodak in the filmation series To me like he's

just kind of this mysterious powerful More than

meets the eye type character, so I enjoyed him.

I always spell cyclone wrong in my head. It's

S Y C L O N E Instead of C Not like the actual

weather phenomenon. Yeah, see I always spell

I've spelled it with a C. Yeah, it's Apparently

according to all the credits. It's always s But

yeah, this episode is is really cool Everything

about it is just kind of like more badass with

the visuals. Yeah What did you keep going? Well,

I thought that the Like I thought Skeletor was

eventually gonna get off the island like and

then he man goes he man gets the stone from Beastman

and goes after and i'm like all of their we're

gonna see these these these armor suits and in

front of graceful no it's not a bad thing that

we don't i just thought we were because the way

that they sell a skill to are so far ahead he's

going to grace call it well the obviously men

stops and before he can get off the island what

i do know again from the comics from dc in the

last four five six seven years now um the gar

people are a part of the you know the mythos

and the mythology and all that and everything

else in the backstory and as you said you know

already Skeletor is one um because they actually

in the comic in the comic that Adas Baron and

I were reviewing uh they actually give you like

how Skeletor's birth happens and how he is you

know a brother or half -brother or whatever kind

of brother to Randor in the comics that I was

reading at the time. I can't say enough, folks.

Go read the DC Comics stuff that was put out

back in 2012, 2013. It's as good as this. Another

interesting thing that I like about this episode

is that they kind of show The cyclone is not

on one side or the other through most of the

episode He's kind of his own independent individual

with his own duty And I like how they've been

introducing characters and they're not just automatically

good or automatically bad They're they're deciding

on their own through the events that we get to

see as to what side they're gonna be on So that

was kind of cool seeing him Even conflict with

He -Man a little bit as far as what to do what

not to do obviously at the end of the episode

He -Man's destroying the stones Because he's

too powerful and too dangerous and cyclone doesn't

want that because he's been sworn to protect

them And then he basically has nowhere to go

so they invite him to be one of the masters basically,

so Definitely cool on that any sword staffs or

ratings Uh, sword, staffs, and ratings for a

cyclone, he -man, skeleton, man -in -arms. Uh,

rating would be four out of five. Alright, I

give a power sword to the cyclone as well, and

um, I'm right there between four and four and

a half, so I guess I'll stick with you and say

four, but it's a good episode, and definitely

one of the things that this series did really

well as far as introducing new characters. Absolutely.

Well, that's it for this week. We're gonna take

a break when we come back. Mike's gonna get us

out of here. Oh well, we all have bad dreams.

This was not a dream. It was a vision. And its

meaning? I believe Skeletor has learned of the

secret of Anwotgar. So, who's Anwotgar? Not a

who, a what. An island, once said to be home

to the Legacy Stones. Ancient artifacts of great

power. The Legacy Stones are believed to still

be hidden in the Citadel at Anwotgar. Adam, we

should... I'm way ahead of you! what we're doing

today okay 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 cool acronym or palka for short what

do you think i think if we're not careful candice

is gonna 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 listening pleasure, The Cinogeek. Hosted

by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each week we

dive headfirst in the landscape of movies as

we discuss movie news. play movie games, go in

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It's showtime synergy the latest review podcast

from the geek cast radio network is here So join

TFG one Mike Nicole hailstorm and myself lady

rec as we will be reviewing all 65 episodes of

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You can find showtime synergy on iTunes and geek

cast radio comm we are the truly outrageous podcast

that you want to be listening to You took my

face Randall today. I take your life and then

your kingdom We are back here on the Masters

of Grayskull section of the powers of grayskull

series podcast on geek cast radio network uh...

thank you for listening to us as we are the masters

of graceful if you like being on tap with us

to leave you back for the show there's some ways

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you can also follow at power of grace call for

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twitter at optimus solo Begin with final Facebook

by going to Facebook .com slash Geocast or Radio

Network. We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness

today and don't forget to join us on our next

adventure when we will take a look at the next

three episodes of He -Man and the Masters of

the Universe which are The Monster Within, Roboto's

Gambit, and Trust. For now, I am TF2 and Mike

with Optimus Solo. By the power and for the honor

of Grayskull, we have the power. It's over, Skeletor.

Never.