Rise of the Snakemen & The Price of Deceit

Hello folks TFG1Mike here and before we get to

episode 118 of the Masters of Grayskull with

Optimus Solo and myself I wanted to put this

before this episode because I thought episode

117 was the last episode we had recorded and

I thought I would have to record a special content

update But it turns out I still had one episode

in the can with episode 118, so I'm putting this

here. This will be the final episode of the Powers

of Grayskull series, Masters of Grayskull, until

further notice. Karen and I are moving over the

holidays. And this is the last episode that Kevin

and I recorded. So yeah, yay. I don't know when

the podcast will come back. I'm not sure when

we will be getting settled out on the West Coast

up in the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure about

anything right now. All as I know is as of November

30th of this year, my computer will be in storage

for at least two and a half, three months. So

it might be until March of 2020. I want to thank

everybody on behalf of myself, on behalf of Kevin,

on behalf of the GeekCast Radio Network for listening

these last seven going on eight years of this

show. It means a lot. Thank you to everybody

who has listened, who has downloaded, who has

followed along. Thank you to Tim Silvers, thank

you to Arch Designs for all of your comments

and your reviews and everything else. It's been

a long journey. It's been a good journey. Hopefully

in the next new decade coming up in the roaring

2020s, we can close out this podcast and put

a period on it for now. However, until then,

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I hope Optimus Solo has a very happy birthday

because I'm releasing this episode on his birthday,

November 23rd. So send him, at Optimus Solo on

Twitter, all the birthday wishes you can, folks.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season,

whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah,

whatever, Merry Christmas, Merry Merry, Happy

Happy, whatever the hell. I can't believe we

are now at the end of another decade. Wow. And

Powers of Greyskull series has been online since

2012. So we've been around for a good majority

of this decade. Yes, there have been hiatuses

and everything else, but it's been amazing. It's

been a joy even in the stuff that I didn't enjoy.

if that makes any sense. New Adventures almost

made me quit this show, but we're almost at the

finish line even though we have to take this

minor hiatus here. I can see the end is in sight.

Thank you to everyone. Thank you, thank you,

thank you. And now... on with the show. This

is Man at Arms and you are listening to the Masters

of Grayskull. Thank you Mr. Gary Chock as Man

at Arms from the 2002 He -Man and the Masters

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

a 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, and 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 118th chapter

in our Powers of Greyskull series. With me for

this journey into the Masters of the Universe

franchise is TfG1 Mike. Hello. Hello. Oh my god.

Well, we have snake men today, so... So that

means you got a burp? That's right. I haven't

done a burp on air in a long time. I know I was

so pleased about that. Now I've lost all ability

to be classy. Are you ready besides burping to

return to Eternia, sir? Yup. On a side note,

before we announce the episodes today, maybe

some business to take care of, we did get a mention

from another He -Man podcast. Why don't you tell

the listeners about that? Since we started this

show seven years ago, off and on I have been

trying to get onto the official he -man .org

website, their forums, to interact with other...

They call them he -fans and she -ravers. Whatever,

that's their thing, that's cool. To interact

with them and tell them about the show and whatever

else. Well, all of a sudden... Five months ago,

just as I'm about to go into brain surgery, Val

Staples, the leader over there, Val Staples has

been in comics since 2001. He's done a lot of

official and unofficial stuff with Mattel and

with everything. He's got his hand in all the

pots. He does a podcast called Roast Google Dinner.

And people might be scratching their heads listening

to this saying, what the? is a Roast Google.

If you remember back in the Filmation series,

they talked about Roast Google in several of

the He -Man episodes when they were having dinner,

lunch, meals, whatever. I think there was a whole

Thanksgiving episode, if I remember correctly.

I don't remember, right? So anyway... On the

latest episode as of this recording, now this

has been out for a while, so as we're recording

this, episode 175 of Roast Google Dinner just

came out, or came out as of this recording, because

this will be out way later than when we're actually

recording it, and they were talking about other,

they were putting a spotlight on other He -Man

podcasts around the net. Behind master's cast

and longevity, we are number two. No, they didn't

rank them or anything else. They just went by

who was around the longest and Masters cast has

been around the longest Apparently at seven years

seven almost eight years. We've been around the

second longest yeah, and they had some and you

could tell that it wasn't just like looking up

he manned podcasts and Mentioning them at least

two of the people that were on that podcast had

listened to multiple episodes It seemed like

based on what they were saying they had nice

comments about What we get into and what we talk

about? Then and they did a pretty decent job

of describing what we do The luckily the one

the second guy did correct him that we do more

than just the filmation that we have covered

everything but it was it was nice to be mentioned

on that for sure and hopefully if a few of you

are listening now because you listened to that

episode. So welcome to the powers of Grayskull.

This is probably like two years ago though, because

you have to go through like 117 episodes to get

to where I just said welcome. So welcome in retrospect.

That's another thing. We're going off on tangents

here because my brain is mush and I don't care

about the format right now. That's the other

thing. What I want to know is when people subscribe

to podcasts, are they like me? and go back to

that very first episode, whether it's an episode

zero or an episode one, or do they listen to

the actual most current episode first? I can

tell you what I do. I have tried catching up

with or checking out other podcasts, whether

it be movie podcasts, whether it be cartoon podcasts,

whether it be wrestling podcasts. And typically

what I do is I will first listen to episode one

and then... Depending on how that goes. I will

just continue on in numeric order I guess there

could be a thing where you would listen episode

one and then you would listen to the most recent

and then decide if you're gonna go back I think

the only ones that I don't go in order are some

of the rest the one wrestling one I don't go

in order because there's like 200 episodes total

and it's covering a long range of span of time

and so some of the stuff I don't feel like I'm

gonna be as interested so I bounce around based

on topics and then as I eliminate, as I check

off episodes that have been listened to, as I

go back through I might catch some of the other

ones and then eventually I'll catch the ones

that have the least amount of interest once there's

no other ones to be listened to. So that's probably

the only one I jump around because it's not,

there's no need to go in order. I feel like with

a podcast like what we're doing, You're either

gonna go through all the filmation episodes in

order or you're gonna or you're gonna start at

when we started the series or you're gonna start

at the Shearer series and you're just gonna go

and listen to the whatever series you're interested

in. But other than that it wouldn't make a whole

lot of sense I don't think to bounce around.

I did want to quickly comment too on one other

thing they said because they had mentioned that

it was a podcast done by people that are not

necessarily in the fandom so to speak or in the

He -Man community. And that's not to say that

we are not as diehard He -Man fans as maybe some

of the people in the community are. I think what

he meant or what they meant was that we're not

as omnipresent on their... Well, we're not as

active in their forums, but we're also not attending

Power Con. We're not doing all those things.

But most of that's a logistics thing that we're

just not able to from either a financial or a

time standpoint. And also with what we're trying

to do at both GeekCast Radio Network and just

in general with our interest is we try to do

multiple things, so we're not. pigeon -holed

into one genre or one franchise. Granted, we

have spent more time on He -Men than anything

else outside of Transformers, but that's not

to say that we're not huge fans. I just wanted

to throw that out there. Oh yeah, no. Like I

said, I think what they meant was more so of,

like, we're not on the .org forums. We're not

on, like, we're not... Although I should be,

because a lot of those sites need some updating

as far as plot synopsises. Oh boy. Well, maybe

we can talk to Val about that because I'm, no,

seriously, I'm seriously trying my hardest. And

I think I've, I think I've got him. I think I've

got him convinced to come on the show at some

point after we end the 2002 series or before

we end the podcast or before we put it on a hiatus

or whatever, we're going to end up doing it.

Cause at this point, I don't know. I know that

we have a plan folks. The 2002 series will end

at episode one 21. Uh, we have a plan for episodes

122 to 125. I know Kevin is trying to twist my

arm and break my leg to review the Shitra, I'm

sorry, She -ra Netflix series. Um, but I've -

We got a new Gman series coming too. Well, yeah.

I don't know. Like you just said, later on in

the future, I agree too. Right now, continuing

this podcast, after we are ready to be done,

or at least I'm ready to be done with it for

a little while, like you just said earlier, we

do multiple things, we do multiple interests,

so we're not just pigeonholed into one thing.

After seven and a half, almost eight years, I'm

old, I'm tired, and I need a retirement from

Grayskull. We are the second longest running

he man podcast Mike we can't we can't stop now.

I'm just kidding So anyway his that's thank you

for mentioning us again to those guys Check out

that episode and you can hear some other references

to other podcasts and you can get a lot more

he man fix well In between while you're waiting

from episodes for us or once we get to 125 You

can you know tune over to one of those guys's

podcast and check them out in the meantime But

in this episode of Masters of Grayskull, we're

going to be giving you our thoughts on the next

three episodes of the series. Episode 30, which

is entitled Rise of the Snake Men Part 1, Episode

31, Rise of the Snake Men Part 2, and Episode

32, The Price of Deceit. So we hope you're ready,

because once again, it's time to go back to Eternia.

Silence! The elders are awake. Soon, all of Eternia

will fall before us. No! Another meal for our

king. Take him! First up today is episode 30,

Rise of the Snakemen, and since this is a two

-part episode, we're going to cover these guys

together, and then we'll break and we'll come

back for episode 32. So, Rise of the Snakemen,

part one and two, they aired November 8th and

November 15th, 2003, written by Stephen Melching.

Yay! From both episodes. And in the first one

it says for plot synopsis in a desperate effort

to stop the return of the snake men The Masters

of the universe seek out the aid of the evil

warriors, but Skeletor looks to capture the heroes

when they arrive That's what we're gonna talk

about first and then we'll kind of go into the

plot as a halfway point for the next one and

then we'll kind of go from there so What did

you feel or what did you think of this beginning

of rise of the snake men? I? Thought it was awesome.

I mean in general. I'm not a fan of snakes, but

I mean I know the snake men are part of the master's

lore and everything else but I thought it was

awesome because you have the continuing story

of Cobra Khan and all his scheming that he did

a few episodes earlier in like season one and

the beginning of this and beginning of the second

season here so I dug it I thought it was great

and then after a while once they get to the battle

part of it I'm like this is really cool But I'm

just going to shut my brain down while I'm watching

this carnage, because there's not really any

story being told here. Because again, you have

battle scenes, you have fight scenes. There's

like, unless General Rattlor or Cobra Khan or

even King Hiss himself, unless they're revealing

their plot as they go, there really wasn't much

discussion here. Right. So basically, I mean

we have Cobra Khan and Evil Lin trying to aid

the snake men and getting King Hiss and their

army to return, etc. And we have the Skeletor

faction and then we have obviously He -Man and

the master section. So we have three different

kind of competing groups in this episode. Some

things that I thought were funny, I thought Cringer

had some funny moments in this episode. Little

rodent fear. We got new transformation and battle

armor for He -Man in this episode. I hate it.

I like the new transformation, but that battle

armor is dumb. Yeah, I don't like the battle

armor either I think the transformation is fine

And I think that I get the battle armor because

that was something that obviously was done You

know originally in the toy line etc. And then

you know Back in the film Asian days, but I just

didn't don't necessarily care for the look of

it as much I think in this one I think that's

my main problem, but it's there and it's gonna

be there for a while. So I mean it is a thing

now Thought there was a cool like future vision

with the palace and snake mountain and castle

greyskull where they were kind of like showing

What could happen if things were not dealt with

properly? If the snake men were to come to power

and King Hess was to rule over all of Eternia

I thought that was kind of a cool little almost

like apocalyptic view at what could happen on

Eternia zodiac showed up and This is one thing

that you need to know if you're just getting

into the human Fandom or just starting to watch

human cartoons Anytime zodiac shows up guys.

It's almost a sure sign that you're about to

watch a good episode Mm -hmm. It was zodiacs

involved chances are it's a good episode And

we get to look at more of the snake men. I one

of them that always stands out to me a snake

face It is such a creepy design on that guy that

character always freaked me out even You know

what? I wasn't that young when this show came

out, but even the the toy and some of the I mean

He was around even though he didn't make the

cartoon originally He was still a thing, you

know I mean he was still a toy or in the comics

or something because I do remember seeing him

as a child But this is the first time I got to

see him in animation and I was like man They

captured the creepiness of that character design

perfectly Second rule watch your back indeed

There's some funny moments there. We get to see

under triclapses eyes in this episode So that's

something I don't ever remember seeing before

getting to see under his as a gear there Yeah,

and then Did they just kill Merman? I mean, no

spoilers, but I'm just saying, like, I didn't

remember this from the first time I watched through

this series when I was rewatching this episode,

and then they just, like, completely annihilated

Merman, and I was like, oh my god. I guess one

of my favorite bad guys is dead now. Well, okay,

so everybody gets basically, I think it's Snakeface.

Yeah, Snakeface. Okay, so Snakeface is basically

the medusa of the snake people. Right. And basically

turns everybody to stone. In turning skill a

tortoise known as too much. He has to get swallowed.

I'm jumping ahead He has to get swallowed by

a snake Lane point is they basically had merman

Turned to stone and then somebody tapped him

on the head and he just crumbled away Leaves

him pieces. Yeah and then this episode obviously

the part one ends with a pretty good cliffhanger

with zodak so i thought it was a real good setup

for this whole two -part episode i thought it

was cool seeing more of the snake men i think

it's cool introducing that third faction that

you don't know how things are going to go you

don't know who's going to double cross who who's

going to be loyal to who you don't know if he

man and the masters are going to have to be friend

and form an alliance with Skeletor, you don't

know what's going on with you, you'll win exactly,

so I mean there's a lot of cool questions and

then we get a lot of cool battle sequences throughout

these two -parters, so I really enjoyed the episode.

What else did you have as far as things you liked

or didn't like? Okay, between snakes and spiders,

I'm kind of definitely afraid of them, as anyone

should be, so... All the snake men stuff is just

kinda a little creepy. I understand, and I would

have to go back and actually do research on this,

but I'm fairly certain the reason why He -Man's

snake armor was introduced was not to give him

more power. It was just because they probably

put out a snake armor He -Man action figure at

the time. Right, it was part of season two. Right,

and they wanted to incorporate, because less

fate, like... Other than protecting his right

arm and allowing him some sort of snake -like

grappling hook out of his hand, that armor doesn't

do nothing. It doesn't do shit. That little,

like, it's almost like a fireplace thing. Like

a, I guess a poker, but it's more like a grappling

hook. But that thing seems to come in handy a

couple times, but yeah, this is season two, so

there's gonna be new versions of some of the

toys, so this makes sense, and season two is

all about the snake man to give... He meant some

type of snake armor. Yeah, it does make sense.

I just wish they gave him some other kind of

snake armor because it's just stupid I like the

fact I like the fact they show the transformation

and I believe they showed it originally where

Adam is growing like it's not just Adam becoming

he man with a flash of lightning behind him They

actually show his muscles his legs his this is

that they show him transforming not just a flash

of lightning and boom. Hey Here's a muscle -bound

guy in place of the wimpy teenager kind of thing.

I like that, but the armor I could... I want

different armor. I want like, you know, I don't

know, some sort of protection. Like, yeah, I

get it. It's metal. It's whatever, but it's only

protecting one arm. It's not like, I mean, that's

like saying I could become He -Man and put snake

armor on my arm that's my cerebral palsy arm.

It's still going to look stupid. Wow. I'm not

going to go there. Some trivia for this episode,

besides what we've kind of already mentioned,

but first appearance of Squeeze, first appearance

of Snake Face and Tongue -Lash -Or, as well as

the first full appearance of King Hiss all happened

in this episode. First appearance of, obviously,

he meant Snake Armor, like we talked before,

and the first time, like we said before, we see

Triclops' visor, how it's connected to his eyes.

What did you think of Squeeze, Snake Face, and

Tongue -Lash -Or? Love tongue lasher. I've always

loved tongue lasher ever since I was a kid. Mm

-hmm. Um Squeezing snake face there. They're

all right The only one of the toys that I had

as a child that was a part of the snake men was

ratlore I had his action figure which was really

cool and Pretty solid like it was a decently

big figure and his tail did have the rattlesnake

part to it. So that was kind of cool. But I always

wanted more of the snakeman action figures, but

I only had rattler. So as far as who stood out

in this first half of the episode, did anybody

kind of get any award worthy performances for

part one for you? Skeletor easily. Yeah. Because

he's not he's not just going to bow down to a

former supposed leader. You know, former suppose

whatever king his thinks he is like the true

ruler. He's like, unless you force me to do it,

I'm not going to bow to you. And of course, he

has the little snake thing, wrap him up and has

him on his knees after a while. But seriously,

Skeletor not giving up on his convictions and

not wanting to give up on his scruples. That's

definitely power sword worthy. I got one for

all of the snake men because I like that they're

here and I think they're cool I also am tempted

to give one to Evelyn because I do think that

She is somewhat making the right choice whether

it works out or not and whether the execution

goes through or not Obviously we will see as

we go forward But if you're just looking at these

two factions on one hand you have Skeletor and

on the other hand you have King Hiss Arguably

you could say that they're neck -and -neck as

far as you know, who's better who's more powerful

It seems like King has might be a little bit

more powerful, but Skeletor also has some things

going for him So I mean that might be a toss

-up but when you go to the rest of the the ranks

I guess the evil warriors versus the snake men

the snake men are far more formidable. They're

far more Ruthless, they're far more intelligent

So it's because, okay, the intelligence, like,

ruthless and formidable, I will say that's because

they are a army of all -in -one. Like, you look

at Skeletor as evil warriors. Hell, you look

at Too Bad. Too Bad can't even, you know, tie

his shoelace without hitting, like, Tuvra and

Badra. whatever, you know what I mean? Like,

and all the other evil warriors, other than Evelyn,

who is actually being the smartest one out of

all of them, you're right. Beastman ain't gonna,

Beastman will like, scratch his head, and Merman's

like, well, as long as it has fish in it, or,

you know, they're not, whereas the snake men,

they're all the same species, they're all snakes,

they're all, I don't wanna say beholden, but

they're all, You know loyal to King Hiss they're

all loyal to the end goal of them Ruling Eternia

and taking snake Mountain back and they have

a structure I mean, you know generals and lieutenants

or privates or captains whoever else they know

we know we know what they got a general and there's

other You know people amongst them that are right

So I mean it just seems like if you're gonna

go with a side like that's the side that you

should probably align with so I don't blame Evelyn

for kind of trying to side with them at the beginning

obviously she's not given full information from

one of the characters which we'll get to in a

little bit but overall rating for this episode

for me it's an easy five what about you i gotta

give it a four a four i gotta take a point off

because that armor is ugly oh lord this is a

great episode this is this is deserving of a

high five it is it is a great episode i'm sorry

though that that armor doesn't just it's just

ugly and stupid I mean, I don't like the army

either, but I'm not gonna knock the episode for

it. It's a point. It's still a good score. It's

not like I'm giving it a two. It should be perfect.

There you are. Forget the rodent. We're after

snakes. Yes, Prince Adam, and Grayskull's power

shall reach out through the ages to better prepare

you for what may come. Uh, how? You shall see

me upon your transformation to He -Man. By the

power of Grayskull! Having overthrown snake Mountain

the snake men seek the power of the elders after

align herself with King his evil Lin informs

him of the power within the walls of Castle Grayskull

so basically in the last part King his has overtaken

Skeletor so now he sits up atop the throne of

snake Mountain we see snake Mountain transform

into the three snake heads instead of the one

and He's about to do away with evil Lin But evil

Lin talks about you know, the power of Castle

Grayskull, etc. The elders sorceress, etc. So

He lets her live. There's also where we get to

find out that Cobra Khan was lying to Evelyn

the whole time, and regardless of all the promises

or things that he said to Evelyn, he has no power

within this group. So that didn't do well for

her, and she was a little pissed off about that.

So we have King Hiss making his way with his

army to Castle Grayskull, and He -Man and the

Masters are going to try to stop that. Meanwhile,

Skeletor and all his evil warriors are all stone

and not present to do anything. What do you think

of how this two -parter kind of culminates in

this part two? I think it's very interesting.

I think it's something that, like, there are

certain things you kind of see where it's going.

And I kind of saw a little bit where the whole

Evil In angle was gonna go, but the rest of it,

I was like, oh, that's a nice surprise. Right.

You know, oh, that's great. And what I love is

after King Hiss and the Snake Men are defeated

and Skeletor gets his staff back, how he basically

unstone -ifies everybody. And Merman looks like

he just kind of, he crumbles up and then, you

know, he's obviously himself again. What I find

most interesting about the two -parter overall

is how they dispose of Skeletor, where he's smart

enough to know, oh, well, my eyes are closed.

And then even when it's like, he has no eyes.

Yeah, that is funny. I thought that was... It

wasn't meant to be funny, but it's like... I

thought that was just ingenious on their part.

I thought that was just super fun. I like Zodak

kind of being this almost anti -hero figure,

even though there might be some parts where you

could say, oh, you know, he was overcome with

his vengeance because we did learn that King

has killed his brother. But I still like the

fact that he's kind of still this like Lone Ranger,

this... Wild card that you don't quite know he's

in it mostly for himself But also for the protection

of you know, the universe etc So I like him as

a character what they do with him here. Um, I

find it funny that Evelyn, you know Obviously

at the beginning finds out she's not getting

what she thought but then does end up to save

herself but then this episode kind of turns into

a cool progression of These epic battles. So

like if you're a marvel fan or a dc fan or like

whatever you're always waiting for, you know

Oh, what if so -and -so had to fight so -and

-so who would overpower who and who's the strongest

person in the universe? And who's could best

superman or whatever and we get a lot of that

in this episode. So first we get a duel Um, well

obviously you have the showdown. It's not really

showdown, but you have the interaction between

skeletor and king hiss. So obviously king hiss

One up Skeletor towards the end of last episode

into this episode so we get that kind of but

then in this episode We get a duel between he

man and zodak So that's something that you're

not expecting because they're both good quote

-unquote So it's kind of interesting to see them

actually have a battle with each other and kind

of a fight together In which he man prevails

and then convinces zodak to kind of come with

them and do it together He doesn't need to do

this on his own. He's fighting the whole fucking

snake army. So he shouldn't do this on his own

Then, we get a clash between King Hiss and the

Sorceress. And that's crazy, because number one,

it happens inside of Grayskull. Number two, you

have the Sorceress just sitting on the throne

when he walks in, somewhat bewildered or looking

like she has already been vanquished almost,

because it was her power against King Hiss' power

to try to break the spell to get inside of Grayskull.

Which was not going anywhere was spending a bunch

of their energy and then evil Lynn helps King

has and pushes it over the edge so that he can

come in so it looks like she's already beaten

she's sitting there and then she looks up. And

her eyes are like zodiac size where they're not

or whoever where they're just white or you can't

see anything I know so extra black usually but

it's just kind of that that clear circle river

and then she like. bust out some power that's

even destroying her own castle while she's also

trying to destroy King Hiss. And then they go

back at each other. We see her flying and fighting.

We see the snake stuff that King Hiss can do.

It's a very cool animated sequence. So we get

another duel like that. Before I keep going,

what did you think of the He -Man -Zodak duel?

And what did you think of the King Hiss -Sorceress

duel? Oh, I loved it. I thought it was great.

I mean, the action in this show and the way that

the animation is done for the action scenes and

for the fight scenes as well is very, very well

done. I think it's interesting having The Sorceress

go up against King Hiss and having He -Man and

Zodak fight yet again. You'd think that they

would be on the same side by now, but that is

what it is. The rest of the snake men are outside

fighting the master, so you also get some shots

and some kind of sequences where they're showing

off some of those duels, which is cool, only

for me for the fact that it does show off some

of the snake's individual powers. It tries to

highlight key man's snake armor a little bit,

but you get to see Squeeze doing his thing. You

get to see Rattler doing his thing and Tongue

-Lasher. Like you get to see all of them doing

some of their individual power. So that's kind

of cool in the kind of this. background of also

this King Hiss and Sorceress duel. Yeah, that

was very cool. And then it leads us to yet another

showdown. So we've already had Zodak He -Man.

We've already had Sorceress and King Hiss. King

Hiss does overpower the Sorceress and sting or

bite her, inject her with venom, whatever you

want to call it. And then we get Zodak versus

King Hiss. So it's like we took one from each

one even though it wasn't the two winners. It

wasn't He -Man against King Hiss It's actually

Zodak against King Hiss because He -Man had had

promised Zodak that he would let him Do King

Hiss if if they all work together at the rest

of it Yeah, and that's interesting because again

it goes into the crystal caverns or the crystal

cave or whatever you want to call it and The

best part of that fight is how it culminates

with Zodak walking out on top of Castle Grayskull

Holding King Hiss above his head with both arms

outstretched and being like here's your leader

and in some type of like fucking gladiator style

move just tossing him off of Castle Grayskull.

I wanted, did he toss him into the abyss or did

he just - He bounces off of the castle a couple

times and then just falls into what we can't

see. Okay so but basically again going back to

Filmation I would like to think, and especially

looking at this series, that Grayskull is up

on this thing, so there must be some sort of

abyss. Castle Grayskull here and Castle Grayskull

in filmation, there is no moat or anything around

it. It's just an abyss. Yeah, we see it in the

next episode, actually. I'll talk about it when

we get to the next episode. I thought that was

super cool that he just went up, because I think

this is the first time anyone's been on the top

of Grayskull, this entire series, to this point.

Right. So as far as other things... Jesus Christ,

what are you doing? Moving. As far as other things

here, I thought you were falling off of Castle

Grayskull there for a second. But the only things

that I might nitpick about this episode is we

have this epic clash. We know the snake men are

formidable. We know King has a history of ruling

and is very powerful. He's overpowering the sorcerers,

or at least trying to. So I get that zodiac is

gonna work together with the Masters. My question

though is where the fuck are all the other Masters?

Like if this is gonna be this big of a battle,

why do we only have like Stratos and Mechaneck

like where's Cyclone or Cyclone where's Roboto

where's Ramman where's Moss man like Yeah, that

was a little much that they weren't there They

should be here for this if this is supposed to

be this big of a battle It was literally like

five masters in zodiac against the snake army

And then the only other thing I enjoyed all of

the epic battles, you know Like I'm outlined

before the three big power showdowns and who

has the most power the only thing that I question

is if you're following the sequences Even though

he man is the only one that doesn't get beat

because zodiac gets beat By he man right sorceress

gets beat by King his King his gets beat by zodiac

He man's the only one that doesn't get beat,

you know, he only has the one showdown. Mm -hmm,

but It almost is trying to show that zodiac is

more powerful than the sorceress Now I get that

the sorceress was already kind of going into

it like not as full power or not at full strength

But by having her get beat by King his and then

zodiac beating King his are we supposed to then

take away that? zodiac is more powerful than

the sorceress I Think so because I would have

liked there to be something that kind of either

aided him like he man helped him or Something

because that would have also done more with the

with the moral where they were trying to get

into this whole like Teamwork and help each other

out, you know don't Vengeance and going off on

your own is not a thing Like if you were beating

if if him and King has were going back and forth

and back and forth and whatever and then he man

Just did like one little thing that helped him

it would have helped justify the fact that he

was able to beat King has to me but I still don't

think I have a huge problem with it, but it was

just something that I was like is zodiac more

powerful than the sorcerers? I don't know So

that was kind of my one question, but I think

this is a great two -parter I think this is a

probably if you put these two episodes against

any two episodes that we've talked about they'd

probably be in the top You know two or three?

Two part things that we've talked about it. I

give this one a five again. I don't know about

you Yeah, there wasn't too much here I still

don't care for the snake armor on He -Man, but

there wasn't too much negative here. I think

the thing about not, like, having the rest of

the Masters there is... Well, it's not the end

of the series, so I guess they could be saying

that. Well, right. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing,

like... Maybe they were protecting the palace.

Who knows? I mean... Whatever. Couldn't even

get Buzz off? He flies. He's too prideful. He's

too busy with the purple giant. For me, I will

give it a five. I did very much enjoy this a

little more than the first part. And like I said,

even though I still don't like He -Man's snake

armor, I'm only gonna take a point off for one

part of it. Yeah, and I also do have a power

sword to give out, and that is to Stephen Melching

for writing a great two -part episode. Um, so

I think this one is phenomenally written, phenomenally

animated. We get some cool battle sequences and

we get some cool backstory and visuals that we'd

never seen before. So I think this is a great

two -parter and Stephen Melching is probably

one of the main reasons for that. Absolutely.

All right. We're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, we're going to talk about

episode 32 and we're going to find out what is

the price of deceit, Evil End. Father, help me!

Silence! Take her to the Pool of Shadows. Curse

the forces that keep me prisoner inside these

walls. I cannot help you, my daughter, but I

will contact one who can. So basically, obviously,

like we said before, Evelyn had aligned herself

with the snakemen, and now that Skeletor is back

in power and King Hiss has been thrown off of

Castle Grayskull, which we forgot to mention

last time, but all the other snakes just jumped

off after him. They just fucking lemminged it

off of the damn bridge to Grayskull and fucking

went into the abyss with King Hiss. We know they

didn't die, but anyways they they all jumped

off of there, but Skeletor is back in power So

now obviously Evelyn has to come to a reckoning

with what she did So she's on the run the evil

warriors are after her a couple things we get

to see Evelyn with no helmet on so that's very

interesting both in present -day and then also

in flashbacks because it's gonna go through a

whole bunch of flashbacks and backstory where

we get to see Crazy stuff we get to see the first

time that Eva Lynn came into contact with Keldor

we get to see Keldor becoming Skeletor And and

things of that nature. We also obviously get

to see Eva Lynn's father again, which is the

the faceless one And get to see Eva Lynn back

in the day with the whitish hair blondish But

mainly white hair and the current with white

hair until she puts her mask thing back or her

helmet thing back on Um, and we're basically

just seeing, uh, the faceless one trying to save

his daughter and then Evelyn trying to convince

Skeletor that she is back on his side and she's

always been loyal, blah, blah, blah, bullshit.

Um, but, but that's what she's trying to do.

One other thing that is I just wanted to bring

up because you mentioned it in the last episode

as far as how the castle was set up in this series

We do get to see what I've never seen before

which is an aerial view of the castle Towards

the end of this episode and it shows a 360 like

everything around the castle so you can see that

it is basically Floating in the middle of nothing

and there's that one little like half bridge

type and jut out that the drawbridge would connect

to so That is something cool that I've never

seen before, so I thought that was interesting.

But what did you think of the Price of Deceit

and all the kind of the Evil Lin -centric episode

here? I loved it. I thought it was great. I thought

it was very interesting. I knew this episode

was coming. Um, this episode is much like how

the council of evil two parter and the last stand

are the same thing with the return of the rise

of the snake men to parter. And then this episode,

they're basically a three part, like this is

the aftermath and just like, yeah. And I love

that they did this. I thought this was absolutely

great. They didn't just go to another... And

again, this series, for the most part, is sort

of serialized. Not all of it is, but the majority

of it is. And when they get into that continuity

stuff, which I love, you know... The only, like,

you couldn't open this show and have Orko juggling

whatever. You know, you couldn't do that. You

couldn't have Orko in his garden, you know, playing

chess with Mossman and Roboto or whatever kind

of thing. You had to do what they did. And, you

know, things have consequences for the episode.

Price of Deceit, you know? It's interesting,

too, because we get to see, like, I know a fan

probably has already done this, but that's not

official. So, like, But I would like to see like

a power ranking of all the different people I'd

like to see where the faceless one ranks As far

as the power hierarchy. I know right now he's

trapped inside that That tower or whatever you

want to call it that structure And he can't leave

so he has to do some other things in order to

help out his daughter and he does actually to

seek out He -Man to try to help Evelyn, which

He -Man does, which is crazy. He -Man's basically

coming to the aid of Evelyn multiple times in

this episode. But I would like to see, like,

where Faithless One's power ranks, because obviously

that's where Evelyn gets most of her power. And

also, a couple things that this episode kind

of sneaks in as some side touches. Number one,

it shows that the Snake Men are still alive.

It shows that they're still plotting and they're

still doing their thing. But also, when it shows

the completion of Skeletor's origin and explains

the source of his power and how Keldor became

Skeletor, we see that that comes from none other

than Hordak. And the way they did that was very

cool. So you have Hordak, you have Skeletor,

you have King Hiss, you have the Faceless One,

all very powerful people in this universe. And

it's just interesting to see how all of that

is kind of lining up or how each one influences

or impacts the other as far as that goes. Yeah.

What else did you have to say about this episode?

Planting the seeds for Hordak that we will never

fucking get. This is what pisses me off so much

about this show is that I don't know if it was

Cartoon Network. I don't know if it was the fact

that the toys weren't selling and Mattel was

like, yank it, whatever. But this show. There

were plans to introduce, and we'll talk about

this at a later time, later episode after we

finish this, but there were plans to introduce

in the third season, Hordak, the Horde, the whole

Masters and Princes of Power mythos thing, and

damn it, I wish they could have done that, because...

It's funny because when you listen to the commentary

tracks on this episode because there's commentary

tracks on all Two or three of the episodes we

covered today one of the guys I don't know if

it's Stephen Melching or if it who it was at

the time But one of them is talking about yeah,

if we were ever to pick this back up Well, we'd

have to set some rules as far as the power goes

and who has what that's what made me kind of

think about that But it was just interesting

hearing him say like if we ever picked this back

up or if we were ever given a chance To finish

this or do this again or something. I was like

man we wish you could. Yeah. But yeah, we'll

get more into that as we get towards the end

and talk about some of the unaired episodes and

storyboards and comics, etc. But yeah, so we

get to see a young Evelyn, a young Keldor, Cronus,

who would later become Traptra, we get to see

again. So just a lot of backstory and a lot of

continuity stuff. So this is a fabulous episode

for me. I think it's a great way to follow up

a good two -parter with not just a crazy, high

-jinks funny, you know, joker, Villain of the

week type episode so I like that they directly

continued with what they were doing here So it's

another five for me. I don't know if it's the

first time I've ever given out three fives, but

I think it is I am also gonna give it a five

as well. I absolutely dug it. I thought it was

great I do have a power sword for the faceless

one because I do like what he did in the length

that he was willing to go to try to help his

daughter. Yeah, that's very cool. So I thought

that was cool. Evelyn is somehow able to like

get back in Skeletor's Good Graces somehow. So

I guess she deserves some credit for that. But

I just think five for me. Any rewards or awards

or anything else you want to say about this one?

I'll give one to the faceless one and I'll also

give one to He -Man because He -Man is like Evelyn.

Like you said earlier, uh, she's an evil warrior

Okay, she's your daughter. I'll do my best and

he kind of hesitates at first He kind of has

like a puzzled look on his face. Mm -hmm. And

then he's like, okay, I'll do the right thing

So, you know Yeah. All right. So that does it

for today We're gonna take a quick break and

we're gonna come back and tell you what you can

expect next from the powers of grayskull series

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We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness today,

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

as we will take a look at the next three episodes

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

are of Machines and Men, Second Skin, and The

Power of Grayskull. For now, I am TFQ on Mic

with Optimus Solo. By the power and for the honor

of Grayskull, we have the power. I am He -Man.

Call She -Ra and me at 1900 -909 -2233. We'll

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kill you makes you stronger, okay, Kelly Clarkson

Hold on I'm eating a fruit snack. Yeah. Yeah,

I hear that Is it a he -man fruit snack at least

no boo Some generic strawberry market pantry

target fruit snack I don't know why I put that

in my mouth, but take it forever to eat Ha ha

ha