Rise of the Snake Men and The Price of Deceit

Hello folks, TFG1 Mike here, and before we get

to episode 118 of the Masters of Greyskull 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 Greyskull series, Masters of Greyskull, 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 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 OptimusSolo 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 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.

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 gotta

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? Yep. 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

on to 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 Gooble Dinner. And people

might be scratching their heads listening to

this saying, what the... is a roast gooble. If

you remember back in the Filmation series, they

talked about roast gooble 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. They didn't rank them or anything

else. They just went by who was around the longest,

and Master's Cast has been around the longest,

apparently, at seven years. Seven, almost eight

years, we've been around the second longest.

Yeah, and you could tell that it wasn't just

looking up He -Man podcasts. mentioning them

that 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. And they did a pretty

decent job of describing what we do. Luckily,

the second guy did correct him that we do more

than just the filmmation, that we have covered

everything. But it was nice to be mentioned on

that for sure. And hopefully, few of you are

listening now because you listened to that episode

so welcome to the powers of gray skull um 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

uh okay that that's that's another thing but

and 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 to episode one and then

you would listen to the most recent and then

decide if you're going to go back. I think the

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

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 going to be as

interested. bounce around based on topics right

and then as i eliminate as i check off episodes

that have been listened to you know as i go back

through i might catch some of the other ones

and then eventually i'll catch the ones that

i have the least amount of interest once there's

no other ones to be listened to so um that's

probably the only one i jump around because it's

not you know there's no need to go in order i

feel like with a with a podcast like what we're

doing you're either going to go through all the

Filmation episodes in order, or you're going

to start at when we started this series, or you're

going to start at the She -Ra series, and you're

just going to go and listen to 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 PowerCon. 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.

pigeonholed into one genre or one franchise granted

we have spent more time on he -man than anything

else um outside of transformers um 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 what they meant was more so of like

we're not on the dot 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 synopsis is 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

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 because at this point, I don't

know. I know that we have a plan, folks. The

2002 series will end at episode 121. 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 shira netflix series um

but i got a human series coming too well yeah

I don't know. People will come back and do both

of those later on in the future. 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

Greyskull. We are the second longest running

He -Man podcast, Mike. We can't stop now. I'm

just kidding. So anyway, 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 in between while you're waiting for episodes

for us. Or once we get to 125, you can tune over

to one of those guys' podcasts and check them

out in the meantime. But in this episode of Masters

of Greyskull, 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. You cannot do

this! I am Sheila, brother to Zodak and ambassador

to the Eldar! Silence! The elders are awake.

Soon, all of Eternia will fall before us. No!

Another meal for our kin. Take him! First up

today is episode 30, Rise of the Snake Men, 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 Snake Men, part one and two, they

aired November 8th and November 15th, 2003, written

by Stephen Melching. Yay! 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 going to 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 Season 1 and the beginning of this and the

beginning of this 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 Rattler 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

in getting King Hiss and their army to return,

etc. And we have the Skeletor faction, and then

we have obviously He -Man and the Masters 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. A 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

I get the battle armor because that was something

that obviously was done originally in the toy

line, etc. back in the filmmation days but i

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

of it as much i think in this one um 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 um I thought there was a cool 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 Hiss 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. Zodak showed up.

And this is one thing that you need to know if

you're just getting into the He -Man. fandom

or just starting to watch He -Man cartoons, anytime

Zodak shows up, guys, it's almost a sure sign

that you're about to watch a good episode. If

Zodak's involved, chances are it's a good episode.

And we get to look at more of the Snakemen. One

of them that always stands out to me is Snakeface.

It is such a creepy design on that guy. That

character always freaked me out, even... I wasn't

that young when this show came out, but even

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 what I mean? He

was still a toy or in the comics or something.

Because I do remember seeing him as a child.

But this was 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

Triclops' eyes in this episode, so that's something

I don't ever remember seeing before, getting

to see under his gear there. That was very awesome,

yeah. 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 re -watching

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.

And turning Skeletor to stone is too much. He

has to get swallowed. I'm jumping ahead. He has

to get swallowed by a snake. Point is, they basically

had Merman turn to stone and then somebody tapped

him on the head and he just crumbled away. He's

in 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 befriend. form an alliance with Skeletor.

You don't know what's going on with Eolyn 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, I'm...

Between snakes and spiders, I'm kind of deathly

afraid of them, as anyone should be, so... All

the Snake Man stuff is just kind of 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 let's

face it, 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. Yeah.

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 2, so

there's going to be new versions of some of the

toys. So this makes sense, and Season 2 is all

about the Snake Man to give. He -Man's 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 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, his 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 Lashor, 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

Lashor? I love Tongue Lasher. I've always loved

Tongue Lasher ever since I was a kid. Squeeze

and Snakeface, they're alright. The only one

of the toys that I had as a child that was a

part of the Snakemen was Rattler. I had his action

figure, which was really cool. pretty solid.

Like it was a decently big figure. Um, and his

tail did have the rattlesnake part to it. So

that was kind of cool. Um, but I always wanted

more of the snake man action figures, but I only

had rat lore. So, um, 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 just going to bow down to a former supposed

leader, you know, whatever King Hiss 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 Eva Lynn

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. It's

because, okay, the intelligence, like, ruthless

and formidable, I will say, that's because they

are an 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 Bad...

Whatever. You know what I mean? Right. 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 going to...

Beastman will scratch his head. And Merman's

like, well, as long as it has fish in it. Right.

They're not... Whereas the snake men, they're

all the same species. They're all snakes. They're

all... I don't want to 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 they got a general and there's other

people amongst them that are right. So, I mean,

it just seems like if you're going to 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 got to give it a four. A four? I got to

take a point off because that armor is ugly.

Oh, Lord. This is a great episode. This is deserving

of the highest rating. It is. It is a great episode.

I'm sorry, though. That armor doesn't just, it's

just ugly and stupid. I mean, I don't like the

army either, but I'm not going to 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. King Hiss, we've got to move. We're

going to need... I know. I'll catch up as soon

as I find Cringer. 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 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

aligning herself with King Hiss, Evil Lynn informs

him of the power within the walls of Castle Greyskull.

So basically, in the last part, King Hiss has

overtaken Skeletor, so now he sits 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 Lynn. But

Evil Lynn talks about the power of Castle Greyskull,

etc., the elders, sorcerers, etc. He lets her

live. This is 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 stoned and

not present to do anything. What did 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

Evelyn angle was going to 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

un -stonifies everybody. And Merman looks like

he just kind of crumbles up. And then 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 Evelyn'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, 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 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 evil and 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 if you're

a Marvel fan or a DC fan or whatever, you're

always waiting for, 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 could best Superman or whatever? And

we get a lot of that in this episode. So first

we get a duel. Well, obviously you have this

showdown. It's not really a showdown, but you

have the interaction between Skeletor and King

Hiss. So obviously King Hiss. one -upped 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 a 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 Greyskull. 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 Greyskull. Which was not going anywhere

but spending a bunch of their energy. And then

Eva Lynn helps King Hiss 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 Zodak's

eyes. Or whoever, where they're just white. Where

you can't see anything. I know Zodaks are black

usually. But it's just kind of that clear circle

or whatever. And then she like... busts 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? 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 um meanwhile well sorry to

interrupt but meanwhile just on a side note while

king hiss and the sorceress are fighting The

rest of the snake men are outside fighting the

masters, 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 snakes'

individual powers. It tries to highlight He -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. You get to

see all of them doing some of their individual

powers, so that's kind of cool. 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 promised

Zodak that he would let him do King Hiss if they

all worked together at the rest of it. 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,

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

did he just. He bounces off of the castle a couple

of 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 Greyskull is up

on this thing. So there must be some sort of

abyss. Castle Greyskull here and Castle Greyskull

in Filmation, there is no moat or anything around

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

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

get to the next episode. Yeah, so 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 Greyskull, 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 Zodak is going to work together

with the Masters. My question, though, is where

the fuck are all the other Masters? Like, if

this is going to be this big of a battle, why

do we only have, like, Stratos and Mechanic?

Like, where's Cyclone? Where's Roboto? Where's

Ramman? Where's Mossman? 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 Zodak against a snake army. And then the only

other thing, I enjoyed all of the epic battles,

like I 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 Zodak gets beat, by He -Man.

Sorceress gets beat by King Hiss. King Hiss gets

beat by Zodak. He -Man's the only one that doesn't

get beat, even though he only has the one showdown.

But it almost is trying to show that Zodak 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

Hiss and then Zodak beating King Hiss, are we

supposed to then take away that Zodak 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 him and King Hiss 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 Hiss 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 Zodak 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 probably, if you put these two episodes

against any two episodes that we've talked about,

they'd probably be in the top two or three two

-part things that we've talked about. 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 having the rest of the masters there

is... Well, it's not the end of the series, so

I guess they could be saving that. Yeah, I mean,

that's the thing. 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 going to 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.

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 Melchin

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 -Lyn. 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. Last up today

is episode 32, Price of Deceit, air date November

22nd, 2003. This was the last day of my 21st

year on this earth. Written by Larry Dottilio.

Having been revealed as a traitor, Evil Lynn

is being pursued by Skeletor and the Evil Warriors.

At least that's how the episode begins. So basically,

obviously, like we said before, Evelyn had aligned

herself with the Snake Men, and now that Skeletor

is back in power and King Hiss has been thrown

off at Castle Greyskull, 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 Greyskull and fucking

went into the abyss with King Hiss. We know they

didn't die, but anyways, they all jumped off

of there. But Skeletor's back in power, so now

obviously Evil Lynn 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 Evil Lynn with no helmet on, so that's

very interesting both in present day and then

also in flashbacks because it's going to go through

a whole bunch of flashbacks and backstory where

we get to see... Crazy stuff. We get to see the

first time that Evil -Lyn came into contact with

Keldor. We get to see Keldor becoming Skeletor

and things of that nature. We also obviously

get to see Evil -Lyn's father again, which is

the faceless one. And get to see Evil -Lyn 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 evil in 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.

Um, One other thing that 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. 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 Eva Lin -centric

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

I thought it was very interesting. I knew this

episode was coming. This episode is much like

how the Council of Evil two -parter and The Last

Stand are. The same thing with The Rise of the

Snake Men two -parter and then this episode.

They're basically a three -part. This is the

aftermath and just like... It's like the epilogue.

Yeah, yeah, 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. Right. That

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

you know, things have consequences. For sure.

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. 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.

seek out He -Man to try to help Evil -Lyn, which

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

coming to the aid of Evil -Lyn multiple times

in this episode. But I would like to see where

Faceless One's power ranks, because obviously

that's where Evil -Lyn 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. It was awesome. 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 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 pick 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 all wish you could

uh 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 um yeah so we get to see a young evil

in a young keldor cronus who would later become

trapped we get to see again um 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 hijinks 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 this is the first time i've ever given out

three fives but i think it is uh yeah i i am

also gonna give it a five as well i absolutely

dug it i thought it was great um i do have a

power sword for the faceless one because i do

like what he did in the lengths that he was willing

to go to try to help his daughter. Yeah, that's

very cool. So I thought that was cool. Evil -Lyn

is somehow able to get back in Skeletor's good

graces somehow. So I guess she deserves some

credit for that. But I just think, yeah, 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 Evil -Lyn. Like

you said earlier, 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. 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

going to take a quick break and we're going to

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We are back here on Masters of Greyskull, and

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He -Man and the Masters of the Universe, which

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Power of Grayskull. For now, I am TFG1 Mike 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 1 -900 -909 -2233. We'll

journey to distant worlds, explore the universe,

and probably battle Skeletor along the way, huh?

Probably, Orko. There's a new adventure every

day. We'll also tell you how to get an action

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a... What doesn't 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 it's taking forever

to eat. Ha ha ha.