The Island, The Sweet Smell of Victory, and Separation

This is Man at Arms, and you are listening to

the Masters of Greyskull. Thank you, Mr. Gary

Chalk, as Man at Arms from the 2002 He -Man in

the Masters Universe cartoon series for giving

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

joining me as Optimus Solo. Hello, sir. Hello.

We just want to put this at the beginning of

every episode for... Masters of Greyskull. We

dedicate every single episode of this to the

memory of Dean Stephan. Dean, who is the writer,

storyboard art, 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 Greyskull 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

and it's unfortunate that we didn't have a chance

to ever talk to him for the show but uh 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 115th

chapter in our Powers of Greyskull series. With

me for this journey into the Masters of the Universe

Ranch, as is TFG1 Mike. Hello, sir. Hello. Are

you ready for another return trip to Eternia?

Of course. Always? At least in this series case.

Yeah, that's good. In this episode of Masters

of Greyskull, we'll be giving you our thoughts

on the next three episodes. of the series episode

22 which is entitled the island episode 23 the

sweet smell of victory no pun intended and episode

24 separation so we hope you're ready because

it's time to go back to eternity oh there's a

pun intended there Well, this sunshine's quite

a change from the old days. Used to be a day

worker down in the Spillian Mines. Now, how about

you? Teacher at arms. Eternian kingdom. No kidding?

You ever meet King Randor? Used to call him Randy

back when he was a cadet. He and Duncan were

my favorites. This kid, Duncan, can he ever amount

to much? You might say that. He heads up the

Masters of the Universe. You don't mean Man -at

-Arms? Mm -hmm. Gotta get ready, fry a few of

these up. He's coming for a visit. Man -at -Arms

coming here? My cousin Clawful's boss would be

mighty interested in that information. So, why

don't you give him a call? First up today is

episode 22, entitled The Island, air date April

5th, 2003, written by Dean Stephan. On Orcus

Island, Decker, the former teacher to Man -at

-Arms, is looking forward to a visit from his

former pupil. News of the meeting does not go

unheard, however, and Decker is captured by the

member of Clawful Species. So we have a little

backstory episode here with the teacher of Man

-at -Arms. What did you think of this one? I

liked this one. I thought it was interesting.

I know I've heard Decker's voice before, not

necessarily that I can remember where from, but

it's a voice that I think I know. I think it's

interesting that, again, you're using the mythos,

you're using the characters the way they should

be used, and the fact that you don't have to

rely on Skeletor doing every little damn thing.

I mean, technically... I guess in the background,

Skeletor was supposed to be in this episode because

Clawful's cousin or brother or whatever the hell,

whatever the hell, you know, is like, oh, my

blah, blah, blah works for this guy. And, you

know. Right. You know, so I guess technically

Skeletor is at not necessarily the heart of this,

but. he's on the ass end of it anyway. But for

the majority of the episode, it's the Krabs versus

the Masters. Yeah, that is true. Just so you're

aware, Decker is voiced by Blue Man Kuma. Aha!

I knew it! Who did the voice of Tigatron. Tigatron

and Beast Wars, yep. And Beast Wars. Among other

things. I knew I recognized... I gotta love Blue.

So that's where you recognize that voice from.

Yeah, like you said, it's the masters against

the claw people, the crabs, I guess. But I like

Decker. So Decker is a cool character. I think

he has a good look for sure. I like the eye patch.

I like the long white hair. It looks cool. It's

kind of in comparison to the African -American

skin tones and everything. So I think it's a

cool look for a character. And I think it's decent

character development for man. Or Duncan. Kind

of showing some of his backstory. So I like that

part. That's the part of the episode that I like.

Is the interaction between the two of them. And

Decker's appearance. Just in general. And hey

Skeletor is in the series again. Barely. The

cameo at the end. That's about it though. I got

to come down a little bit negative on this episode.

Because I feel like. This episode is out of place.

I feel like this episode belongs in like. The

first. handful of episodes of the series like

it doesn't connect to any of the stuff that we've

been seeing lately um it doesn't really have

any of the other master so to speak it's got

you know just one of the original villains um

and it doesn't connect to what we saw with the

snake pit or any of that mythology so i feel

like this backstory in a man -at -arm should

have come much earlier in the series like maybe

in the first five six seven episodes something

like that um that thing That monster that they

summoned, the crab summoned. The jellyfish, essentially.

The jellyfish. I think that thing looks stupid

as hell. It has no form. I get it. It's a jellyfish,

but it's just like, I don't know how it's walking.

Is it hovering? Is it shooting like these a thousand

million quills or darts at them? I didn't dig

that. And I think my main problem was. Basically,

Man -at -Arms, spoiler alert here, Man -at -Arms

gets shot with some of these darts, poison darts,

quills, whatever you want to call them. And at

first he's like, you know, I'm fine, no big deal,

I got armor on. But then it's proven to be that

he actually did get hit with at least one of

them, pierced his skin, and now he's dying because

this stuff's super toxic, etc. And we need an

antidote. And I think that's where the episode

really lost it for me, because that was way too

easy of a resolution. Like they're like, Oh,

the antidote is in these pods that are like a

bunch of miles away, like way far away in the

Southern hemisphere or something like that. They

say, but they float through, but they float.

So we'll just go out in the water and we'll find

one floating by and we'll grab it and then we'll

save him. Like that didn't work for me at all.

Okay. There's, I don't know about you. There

are two things in the episodes that we're talking

about today that I kind of really dig. because

I dig more than these two things, but specific

to what you're talking about, because they don't

just have He -Man cut around a mountain filled

with water and throw it at something. So what

you're talking about with him swimming out and

whatever, I thought it was a little... expositioning

kind of thing. Cause hello, you have to fill

the time for the episode, but it also brings

back to like, you know, Duncan's like dying and

he's like, Oh, the lessons, the lessons, the

poison. And Decker's like, I don't know what

he's talking about. Teal is like, Oh, I know

what he's talking about. Cause I finally listened

to my frigging father. And you know, and obviously

he, man knows, even though technically he, man

shouldn't know he should, but he shouldn't let

T anyway. Right. Yada, yada, yada. I like that

he actually went out. He couldn't just reach

across the bar and grab this thing. He couldn't

just go five miles down the road. He had to go

other places. And then later, I don't think it's

this episode. I think it's either the next one

or the last one. He ends up cutting off part

of the mountain with his sword, part of whatever,

and throwing it at one of the villains. I like

that he actually cut it and didn't just, like,

try to rip it out of the ground with his bare

hands like they would do in 1983. Yeah, I think

my problem with this one is, and they do make

it seem like it's a little bit harder than, it's

not super easy because they do kind of put him

out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. And he's

swimming forever, and they just fill up a bunch

of time with that. But, so, I mean, they made

it seem not super simple, but my problem is at

the point where they're discovering that there's

these... pods or these there's this antidote

and we're gonna have he -man save it we know

there's only like five minutes left in the episode

um and it just wrapped up way too quickly and

neatly for me so i ended up not liking this episode

as much as i thought i might i i don't know i

just think decker deserved a better episode i

think they could have done something different

with him um instead of having man -at -arms you

know incapacitated for a good portion of the

episode that could have had something where the

two of them were doing something together i don't

know like Maybe I just don't like the crabs as

the villain. Yeah. Something about it just didn't

work for me. Yeah, I've never, even when I watched

this, when we did this, when we did our original

watch through 10 years ago or whatever it was

or however long ago it's been, and even before

that when I watched it on TV back when it was

airing. I have never liked Clawful, and I have

never liked his people. What's his name? Whiplash

and the Spillians? They're cool. I mean, Whiplash

himself, whatever, but the Spillian species,

they're fine. They're cool. But the crab people,

I'm like, okay, where in the hell is Mr. Krabs

and some Krabby Patties? Because I'd rather deal

with that than deal with these crab people. Yeah,

it also takes away from the fact that we already

have Merman, and he's supposed to be kind of

the king of the waters and things of that nature,

so all these episodes that are involving Clawful

and his species could have been Merman episodes,

and I think I would have enjoyed that better.

Well, yeah. Trivia -wise, Decker was released

as an action figure by Mattel as part of their

November 2012... Club Eternia subscription at

the Manicollector website, so that is out there

and obtainable if you want a figure of Decker.

Don't know how much that costs these days, but

it's out there. Any Havoc Staffs or Power Swords

for you, or any other final thoughts on the episode?

Final thoughts, did you notice the little bit

of continuity we did get for Man -at -Arms, Teela,

and the Sorceress? Yeah. When he's on his deathbed,

she has so much to be prepared for. She has so

much to do in the feud. I thought that was kind

of cool. The one thing I really did dig about

this episode is the fact that they made Adam

work for the transformation. He runs off into

the cave. He's being chased by several of these

crab people. He goes to... pull the sword, and

then through the water or through some reflection

or whatever, I believe it's a small puddle or

whatever, he sees the reflection of the crab

person and he stops. He doesn't just pull his

sword and change. He runs away and then finally

gets a little privacy. I love the fact that Adam

is the one that says, teenagers. I thought that

was hilarious. On a whole, though, this episode,

while I do absolutely love it, while I do love

Decker, Blue Man Kuma is an amazing voice actor.

They're all amazing voice actors in this series,

except sadly for Orko. Sorry, Gabe. But it's

one of those things where this is very much,

as you said earlier, Kind of feels out of place.

Especially after the last episode. Or the last

couple. With all the continuity. Havokstaff's

power swords. I'll give a power sword to Adam

and He -Man. Or Adam slash He -Man. Because like

what I just said. I'll give a power sword to

Decker. Because I think he's really cool. Yeah,

I want to see him and Man -at -Arms in Indiana

Jones and Dr. Jones kind of tie -up kind of thing

from Last Crusade or something. Which they kind

of were here, because they're like, oh, remember

this? And then they start fighting T -List like,

what the hell is wrong with you guys? And she

doesn't get it. Yeah, I just thought it would

have been cool if they would have used it in

some way to like... have decker reveal something

about man -at -arms or teach him something about

his past or like bring in something to like i

don't know a little bit more than they did yeah

so i still give a power to decker though yeah

very cool i think he's a cool character yep uh

rating for me I know I'm going to have to choose,

but I'm bordering on a 2 .5 or a 3, and I'm just

going to say a 3. It's middle ground at best.

It's not as bad as like a 2 .5 or below, but

it's not, you know, I don't know. Yeah, that's

kind of, you're borderline between 2 .5 and 3.

I'm borderline between 2 and 2 .5. Like I said,

it just didn't work for me, so I'm going to land

on a, I put down 2, so I'll stick with that on

the paper here. I could see it. It would be a

tiny bit better by some people, but something

about it just... I don't think I would... If

I was like, okay, we're re -watching this for

the second time now in our lives, all the way

through at least, so I probably won't watch it

all the way straight through again, but if I

was to pick it up and want to watch an episode,

I don't think this would be the one that I would

throw in. Yeah. That's it for this episode. We're

going to take a break and come back with episode

23. I'm Oedipus. Lotions. Potions. Lots of good

stuff. Easy to carry. Easy to sell. The evil

warriors of Skeletor. These guys are like legends.

Oh, Oedipus. What you wouldn't give to be one

of them? Alright, next up today is episode 23,

The Sweet Smell of Victory, or The Sweet Stink

of Victory. Airdate April 12, 2003, written by

Kevin Campbell. Odofus, a petty Eternian criminal,

witnesses the evil warriors victorious over the

masters of the universe. That's a terrible plot

synopsis. Basically, Odofus is a petty criminal,

and he observes a battle between the evil warriors

and the masters of the universe, and decides

that he wants to become part of the evil warriors,

and he goes to... Try to basically audition or

see what that's all about. And then some crazy

hijinks ensue and he's turned into a new character.

What did you think of this origin story for Stinkor?

Finally, I know you have this in the trivia,

but finally, the toy I had as a kid is actually

in a cartoon series. Yeah, voiced by Brian Drummond

here. But just to get to that trivia here, this

episode marks the first ever animated appearance.

of the character stinker who was first introduced

in the original masters of the universe toy line

in 1985 so a toy since 1985 not animated until

this 2002 series um also um he was originally

meant to be a part of shira princess of power

in 1985 the tv series as a member of the evil

horde but he was considered to be too silly of

a character um so considering the fact was basically

a humanoid skunk character whose only power was

that of releasing a horrible stench from his

body so he It was never used in the Sphero series.

Obviously, He -Man had already concluded its

run at that point. So, yeah. So this is where

we get him. He's introduced in the series and

was given a backstory to why he retains his terrible

smell. So your toy was finally animated. What

did you think of his backstory in this episode?

Man, I love it. I thought it was great. Yeah.

I mean, finally we get, you know... I understand

back then, way back when, you know, they weren't,

you know, they didn't really want to do that.

But, I mean, Hosno's got an appearance in She

-Ra. Like, like, um, Eternian Fireman, um, you

know, or Etherian Fireman, I should say, or whatever.

Um, but, like, they didn't just throw the character

there to say, hey, you know, here's stink or

because stink or was a toy. They actually, they,

I don't want to say they, uh, magical girl transformed

him, but they, they kind of put a thing together

where, like you said, it's a full on character

development thing. Like he starts off as this

one, basically Lukey like character. And Or,

honestly, he reminded me of a cross, even though

it's not really a cross, between Luki and Imp

from She -Ra. I have a different comparison I'll

make, but... More Imp -ish than Luki, but...

Yeah, and then turning him into Stinkor, that's,

like... He just wants to be... There's actually

three levels of this, because you start with

Oedipus, and he becomes Stinkor as a character,

but without the armor. that he eventually has

in the final reveal as the evil warrior Stinkor.

So once he gets his whole gear so that he can

withstand his own smell and whatnot at the end

final scene of this or whatever. So kind of like

three stages of his transformation which I think

is very cool. And I like when they do that with

characters where they have a different look or

a different appearance than what we're used to

and then they kind of show how they get to where

they are the person we know. I think that's kind

of fun. I mean you're going to have some times

where you're introducing a character and they

immediately look exactly like we're supposed

to see them, you know, like the toy looked or

like we envisioned in our head, but I kind of

like occasionally thrown in that curve ball where

it's like, Ooh, this isn't this person. And we

learned how they become that person or how they

get to that final look. Um, so I think that's

cool. I like the voice work for Oedipus by Brian

Drummond. I think that's pretty good. Um, do

you know what it reminded me of? What? Oedipus

to me was like the Gollum of He -Man. Oh. Or

the Smeagol. Because he does have that diminutive

size. And he refers to himself in the first person.

So he says his own name a bunch. And he's like,

oh, I don't know if this wants to do this or

whatever. And it's almost precious with Gollum

or something like that. So that's who he reminded

me of way before. Well, when did Lord of the

Rings come out? It probably was coming out around

the same time. So it might have been an influence

of how he decided to do the voice for this. Yeah,

I don't know. I mean, that's when Lord of the

Rings was being released. So I don't... Oh, I

would have to look at the exact dates to see

if he could have possibly had that as an influence.

But I like the character of Oedipus. Did you

notice Roboto doing the moonwalking? Yes, I did.

I was actually going to mention that. And I'm

like, hey, Roboto's doing an 80s move. That's

kind of cool. They went out of the way to showcase

his moonwalk backwards. They went out of the

way to have the camera down there. Right. A couple

other things I liked in the episode of Dutch.

Cyclops took a major hit to his forehead where

he has his power source or whatever you want

to call it. So that was kind of interesting because

it almost damaged him pretty majorly for a second

there. And when it was damaged, just like Mechanek,

when Mechanek's neck was damaged, when it was

damaged, he realized, oh shit, I better not do

this because if I do, I could hurt myself. Right,

right. There's some hilarious quotes in this

episode. I don't know if you noticed any of them

or not, but there's one from Oedipus where he

says, I am Oedipus and I have the power of stink.

That's how he presented himself to Skeletor the

first time. And I'm like, that's kind of funny.

And then there's another line where Stratos says,

he says the word something stinky about the 14

minute mark or so. That was kind of funny the

way he did that. I feel like the pacing was really

good in this episode. There was very little moments

of lulls, dead space, or filler. Like, they packed

a lot into this episode. They have the whole

Oedipus thing going on where he's observing and

all that type of stuff. Then they have a side

story going on with Roboto where he's kind of

trying to deal with his different logic robotic

parts and if he's... Anytime he doesn't achieve

success or doesn't do something right, it weighs

more on him than others, I guess, because he's

trying to figure out how his programming could

allow him to fail or something of that nature.

So they have kind of a side story of that going

on. So I thought that was interesting, and I

thought it was a good choice to do that, obviously,

with Roboto, since he is going to be the one

character on the Masters that's not going to

be prone to the smells. So it makes sense that

he's going to be the Master that we kind of focus

on, and it was kind of cool seeing him be...

kind of an episode where he's going to get some

character development as well. What other things

did you like? Just everything about it. It was

one of these, it was a good comical episode without

being too corny or anything like that. There

are, like you said, a couple of funny lines,

but just again. going for the character development

versus just, hey, here's Oedipus who turns into

Stinkhorn. He's the villain of the week. When

they were doing this show, they were not thinking

in terms of what 80s and 90s cartoon villain

of the week stuff. They weren't thinking of what

stupid plan can Miles Mayhem come up with this

week? As far as Lord of the Rings and its original

three films, 2001, 2002, and 2003 were Fellowship,

Two Towers, and Return of the King. Who knows?

Maybe you're right. Maybe that did influence

Drummond if he saw those films. I just got a

lot of that out of the voice experience. Not

once he becomes Sting or just an Oedipus character.

It's just Oedipus. Other good things? Because

I have a couple nitpicks. Okay. I like that even

though Roboto has his issues and he has his hang

-ups on failing... I like that they highlight

that and make him learn from that. He has to

go back to what Man -at -Arms said. You don't

dwell on your failures. I do like that it shows

his ability to replay things. Exactly. And learn

things. He's not just a robot to be a robot.

He's not just an Optimus Prime or a Soundwave

or whatever. He's there to learn and adapt. What

the hell was I going to say? So I like that.

I don't know. What nitpicks do you have? I'm

going to go all Man of Steel on you here. Oh,

no. For a second. Or other complaints of Marvel

or stuff at times. Is it just me? Or why do the

Masters and... this episode have no concern over

what they destroy or what they demolish, whether

it comes to buildings or doors or different things.

So first we have in the opening sequence, you

know, the evil warriors are fighting the masters

and Oedipus is watching and whatnot, and they're

all doing their different things. Well, Roboto

does the moonwalk, and then he, like, unleashes,

like, six different guns and just completely

destroys this entire building, causing it to

collapse and almost kill everybody. And the problem

I have with it is that, yes, they show that he's

upset, but he's not upset because he overreacted

and went crazy and ruined this whole building

and almost hurt everybody. He's upset that he

failed as far as the evil warriors getting away.

He specifically says, I let them get away. There

should have been something about, I overdid it,

or I didn't realize the bigger picture. or something

or I'm sorry I put everybody in harm's way or

something like that like he went crazy in that

episode in that sequence and then later on we

have Ram and trying to come in and warn Adam

about something I think is this character he's

warning and he just breaks down his door yeah

he does like he doesn't open it he doesn't do

anything he just breaks down which I get he's

Ram and that's his character but it wasn't like

it was uh saving somebody from a burning building

or something like that like there was he can

I don't know It's like, oh, sorry about the door.

So apparently the masters don't give a shit about

houses or construction or architecture. So I

had a minor problem with that. My bigger problem,

though, and why I'm going to knock this episode

down just a touch, is so eventually they come

up with this plan and Stinkor is going to go

towards the palace and he's going to be causing

a diversion because everyone's going to have

to be trying to run from him, etc. And while

they're concentrated on Stinkor, Skeletor and

the other evil warriors are flying in and they're

going to take over. The palace. All right. Well,

we've already seen Stinkor at Snake Mountain

with his smell. And immediately he had a mask

that he put on. It was the same mask that Triclops

was using when he was doing his experiments and

building his inventions and stuff like that.

So Stinkor puts that mask on so he can't smell.

And then when he's in the main part of Snake

Mountain, you see Skeletor and all of the other

evil warriors also have similar masks that they

put on so they can talk to Stinkor. We've already

established that he stinks. We've already established

that the evil warriors know about him. And we've

already established that both Stinkor and the

evil warriors are wearing masks to make sure

that they're immune to the effects. Okay. Fast

forward. Stinkor is using his smell to affect

all of the royal palace, all the guards, all

the masters, etc. So we know that that's the

plan. Stink up the place. Why are Skeletor and

the evil warriors flying in without their masks

on? Yeah, I don't know. Because they fly in on

these animals. Yep. And they don't have their

masks on, so then the smell starts to get to

them, and they have to immediately retreat. Like,

you already know he stinks. You already know

you have masks. I don't understand. So I had

a major problem with that. And then there was

a flatulent sound at the end of the episode that

was not originally planned, according to the

trivia. It was a last -minute joke added by one

of the editors, and the filmmakers thought it

was so hilarious, and it remained in the episode.

That was a bad decision. That was stupid. they

didn't need stink or to fart at the end of the

episode so that was where it got a little bit

cheesy and a little bit childish where I could

understand like that part would they how they

wouldn't want that in the original She -Ra or

He -Man series but this episode did a good job

of not making the character cheesy or whatnot

and then they had to add that at the end which

I think destroyed all their not destroyed all

their work but it was like really you're doing

a good pretty good job of not making him comical

and then you make him fart at the end And the

problem with that is also it's after he's revealed

in kind of this badass gear and this badass outfit.

So it's like, oh, now Stinkor has finally armored

up and here's his, like, we're going to show

a shot of him in all his glory. And then they're

going to have him fart. Yeah, they should have

had him fart way earlier. So, yeah, it should

have been, like, immediately at the beginning

or something. I don't know. So those are my problems.

Any nitpicks for you or any Stink Mountain moments?

I don't know. I mean, I felt that the episode

was... It's still a good episode. It's still

a good episode. You know, I actually... You gotta

love technology, folks. Normally I watch these

the night before we record or something, depending

on how many episodes we have to record kind of

thing. I was dog -ass tired last night. I woke

up at... I don't know, 5, 6 a .m. this morning.

Just rolled over, pulled my phone out, and went

to YouTube on my phone and just watched all three

of them on my phone without having to get up.

Of course, you know, I still have to get the

audio for the podcast, so I've watched these

episodes two times within seven hours. And both

times I watched this episode... I still didn't

feel... I actually laughed at the fart at the

end. Yes, I see where you're coming from, where

it shouldn't have been there, because he is now

supposedly supposed to be a more serious character.

Right. But again, it's a character that evolved

from a previously established character within

the same episode. Take Adam and He -Man, for

example. Two sides of the same character. or

take Batman and Bruce Wayne, you know, whatever,

Superman, Clark Kent, whatever it is, you're

still going to have glimpses of which, like,

if Superman's got his cape on and he's not being

Clark Kent, there's still going to be a time

when no one's really looking that he's going

to have some sort of Clark Kent tendency because

he thinks he can get away with it. And I think

that's, even though they say it was just a joke

at the end, I think that's kind of like the Oedipus

coming out, because even though he wasn't a stupid,

silly character, he was kind of like this character

that wanted to be super evil. He still had funny

moments in the episode. Yeah. Any Havocs after

Power Swords, or any other notes in this episode?

No, not really. I mean, I'll give a Power Sword

to the writers and the staff, because I felt

that they did this... a hell of a lot more justice

than Kevin Campbell and whoever else worked on

it. Taking the toy and crafting a whole story.

That's some good shit right there. So I'll give

the writing staff a power sword on that. I have

a minor havoc staff just to give to Roboto for

not being conscious of what he's destroying.

You're a good guy. You're not supposed to just

be wanton and shooting everybody. That was my

only award to give out. What about a rating for

you? Three and a half. I kind of dug it. I gave

it a three and a half, too. I think it's a great

origin episode for Stinkler. I think they do

a pretty good job with it. There's some minor

beefs. I don't like the fact that Skeletor and

his minions don't have their masks on at the

end, and that just causes the resolution to be

very quick and unsatisfying. So that's what kind

of caused me from not being up in that four,

four and a half range. So three and a half for

me as well. We're going to take a break and we're

going to see if we are united or separated when

we come back with episode 24. You are the most

disgusting. Now see what you've done. Not my

fault we share stomach. No look at me. Stinker

wonders why you're always fighting. Aren't you

happy to be an evil warrior? You've been inhaling

too many of your own fumes, stinkface. Being

attached to this oversized wart is ruining my

life. In that case, you should go see Stinkor's

old pal Vormus, biggest dealer of spells and

potions in the Dark Hemisphere. It was magic

that fused us together. stands to reason that...

Where we find this Vormus? Stankar will take

you there. That's okay. We find him ourself.

It looks bad, your majesty. Courage, Duncan.

We've never lost a battle to this enemy before.

Well, there's a first time for everything. Our

move, Adam. It seems our children have finally

surpassed us. Oh, it could have gone either way.

God, lucky! Yes! Last up today is episode 24,

Separation, written April 19th, 2003. I think

we know the writer. His name is Larry Dottilio.

In an effort to separate themselves, Tuvar and

Badra, still trapped in the single form of too

bad, seek out the three pieces of the Triad of

Dissidium to try to separate. So this whole episode

is about... Too bad trying to separate back into

their separate forms and the triad of Dissidium,

which is going to allow them to do that. What

did you think about this plot in this episode?

Wow. Again, another episode with virtually no

Skeletor. Right. You start out at Snake Mountain

with them eating, arguing, whatever. You end

with them eating, arguing, whatever in the middle.

You have the entire Palace of Eternos, or the

Eternium Palace, whatever the hell you want to

call it, getting ready for the end of the world.

And nobody in Snake Mountain notices this? Like,

seriously? No one notices this at all? I love

the obvious history, the obviously backstory

for revealing why there is a light and a dark

hemisphere. I think that is super cool. Something

about the game? troubled you? Seeing Prince Adam

and Teela with their parents has brought back

memories of my own family, now long gone. My

data tracks indicate this unit you call family

constantly creates new members. Logically, some

of your family should still exist. You were right.

I must seek out these new generations. We require...

Spell of separation. So you do. Well, just let

me check the archives. Regeneration. Salivation?

Ah, here we are. Separation. The great spell

of separation. Sounds like it'll do the trick.

Hmm, here, here. Requires three artifacts to

be joined together at the Well of Darkness, and

then... Oh, oh my, oh my, no, no, no, no, no.

I cannot sell this at any price. You got that

right. Says here the first artifact can be found

on the ocean floor. Prince Adam, He -Man is needed

in Castle Greyskull at once. Something big is

up, Grinch. upon the Triad of Decidium He -Man.

Its tale has not been told for many years. Long

ago, the Triad was created by evil sorcerers

at the command of the Dark Warlord, Hordak. He

joined the pieces of the Triad together, and

the terrible spell of separation was cast. In

a matter of minutes, Darkness covered half the

planet. The creation of the light and dark hemispheres.

Yes. Hordak assumed his evil legions would thrive

on the dark half and one day conquer the realm

of light. But the energies he released proved

too powerful. Realizing that even his own evil

existence was in peril. Hordak commanded his

minions to stop the spell. Though the triad was

indestructible, they were able to separate the

pieces, scattering them to the farthest corners

of Eternia. Thus, the planet was saved from total

devastation. The artifacts remained hidden and

were eventually forgotten. But now someone has

found the first piece and, I fear, Seeks the

other two. But why? Even Skeletor isn't mad enough

to destroy the whole planet. The thief may not

realize the true nature of the spell. But if

he succeeds in reassembling the triad, our world

is doomed. Then succeed he won't. Damn it. Yeah,

this is the first appearance of Mordecai. This

has nothing to do with Mike Young Productions

or Dean Stephan or anybody that was working on

the show. Whoever the hell is at Cartoon Network

and canceled this thing before they got to implement

whatever the hell was going to happen in Season

3, fuck those guys. Because this show should

have continued on. Damn it. We'll get more to

that later. Well, obviously, much later. But

it's one of those things where I see Hordak now,

and I'm like, oh, damn it, so much lost potential.

But this episode was super cool. Yeah, absolutely.

The Triad of Dissidium, trivia -wise, that's

Latin for division or separation. And yeah, first

appearance of Hordak in the new series, and the

first time the origins of the Dark Hemisphere

is revealed in the entire franchise. Very interesting

there. I think this is good for a couple different

reasons. Number one, it's always good after a

character makes their debut in a main episode,

like we got with Stinkor in the last episode,

to then the following episode have them appear

in a small part or a cameo. I think that's always

good for continuity. So you get Stinkor here,

who is basically telling Too Bad about somebody

that knows a spell or knows... Them off on how

they might be able to separate so I thought that

was good use of stink or and adds continuity

there I have just whore deck and all capital

letters with four exclamation points Because

that was cool you don't really see him do much

he has a laugh And you could see him as basically

creating the dark hemisphere, but that's about

it, but it does kind of It's an interesting point,

and I can just imagine if you were watching this

series and back in 2002 What it would have been

like you know put yourself. I guess this was

April 2000 but put yourself back into 2003. If

you're a He -Man fan and you've grown up on the

Filmation series, maybe you watched She -Ra,

maybe you didn't, regardless of if you watched

New Adventures, who knows. But this series comes

along, and you're like, oh, an updated He -Man.

I feel like this is the moment in the series,

right here in episode 24, where your mind is

going to be blown because now it's a direct correlation

with Hordak, which is a She -Ra character, in

the He -Man show. And that there wasn't intermingling

in filmation in the Shiro series. Like you got

some little bits and pieces where Eternians were

present or you had some connection there, but

not in a He -Man show. And the idea that Hordak

is this all powerful being or possibly more powerful

than Skeletor. I mean, this moment just has to

have your head spinning when you're watching

this in 2003. Like what's going on? Yeah. Like,

Ooh. Hordak. Yay. This means the whole mythos

is going to expand. And sweet. Because you know,

and I don't know, but I'm just going to say you

as in quotation marks, you know that if they

were able to continue, they would have brought

in Etheria. They would have brought in the Rebellion,

the Horde. We might have actually gotten a good

version of Bo. Because, I'm sorry, the current...

Oh, God, I can't. I can't, Netflix. I just can't.

It's so horrible. It's not. It is. I also like

that it's kind of wrapped up in this other plot,

which is too bad trying to separate. That makes

sense for them to have that desire. They want

to get away from each other. They used to be

separate characters. Now they're conjoined. They

don't want to be. I think that's a completely

logical plot to have. So it makes sense. It's

not just a villain of the week. It's something

that ties into the character. I like that. I

like the funny fighting in fighting between them,

especially when they're actually punching each

other and stuff like that's kind of hilarious.

Or when one's eating something and the other

one has to burp because of it. So I like all

that. And I really didn't have any negatives.

I don't think it's the best episode in the series

or anything like that. You know, I don't think

there's enough to like put. it's over something

like we saw last podcast with like snake pit

or something like that i don't think it's on

that level but there's nothing bad about the

episode yeah it's it's getting there it's getting

to the point where we not necessarily saying

that we're like you you most definitely won't

but i might it's not getting to the point where

we would give out consistent fives but right

it's almost there like you know snake pit For

me, easily, it was a five last week. Right. This

is more in the lines of, I'd say, a three and

a half, maybe four. I'll go three and a half

just to be on the safe side. But it's one of

those things where we're starting to see the

seeds of the future. Right. I'm locked up with

you again. I'm three and a half. That's what

I had written. down for the Hordak appearance

and for a decently plotted episode that kind

of, you know, they didn't need some extra monster

or some extra whatever. They're explaining the

dark hemisphere and how that works. They're trying

to save the world, so to speak. So I don't know.

I thought there was enough in this where three

and a half is where I landed. Not quite good

enough to be in that four range, but just on

the precipice. Yep. All right. Absolutely. We're

going to take a quick break. When we come back,

we're going to let you know what's coming up

next podcast. All right, that's it. New driver.

Agreed. I'm Thomas DJ, top professional. I'm

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go to Patreon .com slash DeCien. On the Simplistic

Reviews podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV.

We talked. Hello, Julie, what the heck are you

doing? Trying to make our spot sound more exciting

by adding explosions. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you

could have got the point across with sound effects,

not the real thing. Download this show on iTunes

or at simplisticreviews .blogspot .com. I'm sure

your insurance company will cover that. No, they

won't. No, they probably won't. How come the

stinky guy isn't being punished, too? Because,

unlike the rest of you, Oedipus has proved himself

useful. Oedipus? Who's Oedipus? here in Masters

of Greyskull episode 115. That's going to do

it for us. Any final thoughts? Anything so far

that we are almost pretty much done with season

one of this series? Anything you want to tease

for next time? Because that is our kind of final

two episodes of season one of the He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe. I'm just looking

forward to it because we've got a two -parter

coming up. uh, two part season finale, so to

speak. And I think it's going to be, um, this

is where it kind of launches into season two

and, and into the goodness that is the series

even more than it has already. Yep. Absolutely.

Same here. Thank you for listening as we are

the masters of gray skull. If you'd like to get

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There are several ways to do so. Visit the website,

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We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness today,

and don't forget to join us in our next adventure

when we will take a look at the next two episodes

of He -Man and the Masters of the Universe, which

are The Council of Evil Part 1 and 2. For now,

I am TFG1 Mike with... The Great Optimus Solo.

Bullshit! By the power and for the honor of Grayskull,

we have the power. That was the stinky TF2 mic.

You do realize I'm the one that edits this shit,

right? I can just edit that out. Nah. You know

I will. I just cut it off. I circumcise you.

That's gross. Teenagers. What you doing, He -Man?

Why? You're He -Man! You're the best! And practice

helps me stay that way, Orko. You learn your

lessons and you put them into action. That's

the key to success. Gotta go! Where to? Gotta

practice my magic!