Web of Evil & Rattle of the Snake Men

Hi, this is Larry DiTilio, writer for He -Man

and Beast Wars, and you are listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. 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

120th chapter in our powers of grayskull series

And not a year in between this episode in the

last episode So with me for this journey into

the Masters of the universe franchise is TFU

and Mike. Hello. Hello. Hey, I just want to say

that Yes, it is not a year between the episodes

It's more like a couple of weeks kind of thing

between the episodes because this The 120th episode

of the Powers of Grayscale series here on the

GeekCast Radio Network will be released on a

special day. A Thursday release because this

is the last episode of this podcast in 2020.

The first episode. What's the couple weeks ago

this is the last of the year for us to go out

of twenty twenty with episode one twenty one

twenty that's right we're gonna do this but hey

we promise that it wasn't gonna be off in between

and we were good with our word no promises on

how long between this and the next episode but

here we go so are you ready to return to return

is there. Yes, yes, I am. All right in this episode

of Masters of Grayskull we'll be giving you our

thoughts on the next two episodes of this series,

which are episode 36 Web of Evil and episode

37 Rattle of the Snake Men. So we hope you're

ready because it's time once again to go back

to Eternia. If the ancient stories are true,

there will be no stopping me. AMBROSIA! There's

a lot of twenty so we got episode one twenty

the last twenty twenty this is December twentieth

but three was the year so seventeen years ago

and some change writer was kevin campbell and

having driven the snake men away from the mystic

mountains the masters enter a local tavern where

man -at -arms confronts his brother. Bisto who

he accuses of being a deserter during the great

unrest and then we got some other shenanigans

happening as well what especially with the well.

Somebody named webster. What did you think of

this episode, sir? I Felt completely disconnected

Okay So I in order to prep for the podcast. I

watched last time episode 119 cartoons. I watched

a day before recording Normally when I normally

when I record anything I usually if I'm like

If I'm recording with let's say JT from Saskatoon

for a comic episode For the pull bag, I will

be up at 5am that morning reading comics until

we record at like 10 or 11 or whatever time in

the morning that we record. So it's super fresh

in my mind. I did this where I'm like, okay,

it's five episodes. I'm not going to sit at my

computer for five half hours, five, 22 minutes,

whatever you want to call it an hour or whatever

it is. I just can't. So I split them up. I watched

episode 119 episodes and then I watched these

two episodes between King, between power, gray

skull and web of evil. There there's like some

wibbly wobbly disconnect here because I didn't

know what the hell was going on in this. Like

this feels like an episode of the week kind of

thing. It kind of feels like that other episode

of machine and men. It's not bad. It just feels

like. Yep. There should have been more here or

should have been a different episode. It's kind

of like how, um. Oh, that two parter council

of evil and in the last stand or something or

how the last stand fits into the price of deceit

or whatever it is. Like, there's no connection

here to me between the ending of, uh, of power

of grayskull and the beginning of this. Like

there's just nothing. Part of me thinks I can

I can see two different lines of logic. Number

one, and this is probably the way that I would

go about it because I'm anal like this. I would

have probably had Web of Evil and of machines

and mice and machines and men and whatever else

put in there. I would have had episodes like

that. I would have aired all those prior to us

ever entering into the snake world. And then

I would have done all the snake episodes almost

back to back just because for me, these existed

prior to that almost. Um, and I can see the other

the argument though, which was kind of something

that you alluded to a little bit in our last

podcast Which was that you were getting tired

of king hiss? So i'm wondering if they were throwing

these in here just to try to break it up So we

weren't getting the same characters a week after

week and it was you know Kind of altering things

off. I know that one argument from a lot of people

will be no they had to sell different toys So

we had to different get different characters

in here, etc, etc But i'm wondering if they were

trying to break it up a little bit between all

the episodes of the snake men to kind of keep

it fresh Um, yeah, it still feels a little bit

weird. Um, coming in with this, it's almost like,

Oh, Hey, we just did all this stuff with the

snake, uh, man and gray skull and all this stuff.

We had dreams of Hordak and things of that nature.

And now we're going to go to the Tavern and have

some drinks and chill out. And then, Oh, web

stores returned and he's causing some havoc.

So it's like, what is going on here? So King

Hiss grows hungry. A few miners will fill his

belly. All are bellies. You do enjoy fresh meat,

do you not? Of course! I am a snake man, am I

not? Deserted. No food anywhere in sight. And

the thing of it is, is it felt like, again...

Okay, I know the snake men are the... second

core class of villains outside of Skeletor. I

mean, technically they're the third, because

if you look at Masters, you have Skeletor and

his evil warriors, you have Hordak and the Horde,

and you have King Hiss and the snake men. So

technically they're the third on the chain of

evil, I guess you could say. I thought Web Store

was one of Skeletor's warriors. And here we have

an episode that's dedicated to him. wanting to

control Eternia by himself. Skeletor should have

come in here and done something. Or it should

have been Skeletor's plan to get him to do something.

I don't know. Why have we just abandoned Skeletor

for a lot of episodes, I guess is the one thought.

So is Cool C and Fisto? Before we get into that,

though, I'd like to go into the trivia because

it all sheds some light on that before we talk

too much about it. Obviously, this is a first

appearance of Fisto. In this series, Fisto's

backstory was altered so that he is Man -at -Arms'

brother. Prior to this, there was no relation

between them and any other iteration of the Masters

of the Universe. The copyright for the Masters

of the Universe character, Fisto, had expired

by the time this episode was filmed. So his action

figure was released under the name Battlefist,

because... Because the animated character was

still under copyright protection though he was

still called Fisto in the actual episode. Web

Store's death, we didn't talk about that yet

but he dies in this episode. So his death was

left somewhat ambiguous. Just in case anybody

that was doing the show wanted to bring him back

in a later episode but obviously since this series

doesn't last very much longer this never happened

so we are left actually with webster being dead

which is kind of weird because it's back to back

episodes where we've had characters killed or.

back -to -back or at least two podcast episodes

where we've had characters killed because we

had calyx from the last episode and now we get

web store but yeah so that's interesting um so

i like the fact that we see festo even though

i'm not a hundred percent sure i like him being

man in arms brother but i'm not necessarily against

it i just kind of ambivalent i don't know about

that um i think it's better i think it's better

because you don't just have some random strange

random new masters show up i think it fits in

with the story I think it's cool to continue

the family line of Duncan and all of that and

everything else. As far as the whole Fisto versus

Battlefist name, I was 22, 23 when these action

figures were coming out. I don't know. I was

not into like, yes, I watched this cartoon series

when it aired. But or when I could catch it when

it aired because you know, let's face it Cartoon

Network is notorious for not airing action cartoons

when they should But it's like I had no knowledge

of the name the copyright the name thing, whatever

whatever is in the cartoon That's the action

figure I'm gonna look for and if the action figure

is a slightly different name as long as it's

the same character model, right? I don't care.

Yeah Yeah, Justin just a trivia bit. I know I

know I'm just saying like You know, back then

I wasn't even aware about that. Yeah. I had so

much problems with this episode because of my

arachnophobic, uh, predilection. So I don't necessarily

enjoy episodes that are centered around massive

amounts of spiders or giant spiders or a thousand

baby spiders or anything with spiders. But I

will say that it was actually decent seeing that

Webster was doing spider things. Spider -man

but spider things Where he's not just like a

character. He's not just an evil warrior He's

actually doing stuff with webs and with you know

Weaving people into the webs and all the different

stuff that spiders do so I mean it was kind of

cool seeing that it reminded me a lot of Another

spider that we saw in a different animated series

back in the 90s called Well spiderman no not

spiderman a little spider that we saw in beast

wars because it seems like going out on his own

and kind of yeah well almost more like tarantulas

because he's kind of just going on his own and

doing his thing without skeletor being involved

so it reminded me of that. Then we also, I didn't

know that Voltron was going to be involved in

this episode, but we had like the Voltron lion

mobile that was being used to transport the blasters

around, so that was kind of interesting. And

then at some point we involved the roller coaster

sequence in Donkey Kong Country, the video game.

So that was interesting because I don't ever

remember a mineshaft area with roller coaster

tracks ever being involved in Eternia ever, but

it's in this episode, so it must have always

existed. This episode is a mashup of a lot of

things. I was waiting for barrels to be tossed.

And then a giant rhinoceros being used to collect

coins, but it didn't happen. So I was a little

disappointed in that. I'll double check to make

sure no one was trapped inside. Inform the locals

of the situation. Right. This is madness! No

sign of anyone in Avion! Same with Andrinos.

Deserted. It appears to be... Spiderwebbing.

Webstore. Our fear of spiders aside, have you

ever seen Arachnophobia? Yes. Okay. There's only

one scene I remember from that movie. Cause I

hate, I don't hate the movie itself, but I like

you. I'm not a fan of spiders at all. The only

spider that I care about wears, you know, a red

and blue mask and actually has, you know, mechanical

web shooters, not organic ones. Spider pig. So

my, my one note was. Spiders you get the nail

gun because the first thing I thought of was

a scene in arachnophobia when he has the nail

gun and he's firing at the giant spider The flamethrower

ready. I've already actually had the Chills twice

while we've been talking about this episode Just

thinking about spiders. So I'm ready to be done

with this episode. But no overall it's it's like

you said it's very much like what we talked about

last podcast with machines and Man, I want to

just want to keep calling it mice and Machines

and men, but um it's one of those episodes. It's

just there. It's not a bad episode It's a little

all over the place, but it doesn't do anything

necessarily bad I don't have all this I didn't

have like a list of things outside of where did

the rollercoaster mine shaft come from and why

is Voltron lion in this? Outside of that there

was no nitpicks. There was nothing that someone

did to piss me off, so I'm just right there in

the middle. I don't have any Havoc staffs to

give out. Nobody pissed me off. I don't have

any power swords to give out. Nobody made me

happy. I'm sitting at a three for a rating because

it's just an average episode. I'm at a two. All

right. A little bit below average. I see that.

So not a great way to start the episode off.

I'd rather just be involved with more of the

Snake Men no matter how much King His might be

annoying some people. But take me back to that.

Take me back to the Snake Man City where Hordak

is there and nothing's pretty. That's what I

want to go. easy my brother let's move we've

still got an army of spiders to defeat all right

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

it looks like we're getting there because we're

gonna have an episode called rattle of the snake

man Spider army, landslide, you and your masters

trapped. You rescued us by punching through the

mountainside, shattered your hand in the process.

I thought that as long as you needed a replacement,

we'd go a little bigger. Strongest right hand

in the land. Duncan, about what happened during

the Great Unrest? Father, the King needs us.

Some kind of trouble in Spalia. Trouble, huh?

I'm coming too. All right, last up for today.

It's a short one, guys. It's episode 37, Rattle

of the Snakemen. I wonder who this will involve.

Airdate of December 27th, almost to the day from

when we're releasing this, 2003, writer Stephen

Melching. It's almost like we planned it. The

Masters are called to Spalia, where they discover

Lord Dactus and his warriors defending themselves

from a Caligar attack. So we're getting... way

back into the DeLorean there to go back to the

beginning of the series when we had to deal with

the Caligars and Lord Dactus and their feud between

the two people that live underground. I can't

remember everybody involved, but we've already

been there. So we're going to revisit that. But

then we also have, you know, the snake part of

this. And before you go and give general thoughts,

I just the one thing that probably bugs me about

this episode. Outside of I do like, you know,

hey, we're getting to see some old friends, etc.

That's cool. Whatever. The tracks that led us

here weren't more than a few hours old. We're

getting close. Snakemen ought to think about

putting in a staircase. So King Hiss and the

Snakemen once conquered Eternia, and now just

the four of us are gonna take them on. Oh yeah,

that makes sense. If you don't think you're up

to it, you know the way back. You gave me this,

Fist. How'd you like it back? I just don't like

that we keep having the snake men that are searching

for a new artifact. Or a new gadget or a new

or a new way to up their power and we're doing

that yet again. Yes. Adam. Right. Find my way

back to Spalia and alert my father. You dare

to dishonor this temple. Destroy the infidels!

Come and get it! Ooh, fast little devils! I know

they're going places with this, but I miss Skeletor.

It's like, I just, you know, and I know this

series and I'm very thankful and grateful that

it is continuity driven. And like you already

said, we meet some of the old friends from the

beginning of the series and things like that

and whatever else, but you're right. The whole.

Snake man artifacts we need to find this to someone

the great serpent or whatever because i actually

think i could be wrong i think the thing that

they're trying to summon is some other more powerful

snake person called serpent or if i remember

correctly i could be wrong. One thing i want

to do at some point in the show is i want to

get steven melching on here we actually interviewed

him number years ago for transformer stuff. But

I wanna get him on here because I wanna talk

to him about what the whole writing process for

this show was. But yeah, I mean, this just doesn't...

Like I said, it feels like they're going places.

They're just not getting there fast enough. Right,

right. I agree with that. I do like, again, more

evidence of continuity. We have Fisto involved

right from the beginning. It's almost like this

took off right after the last episode ended.

Man... Half of the masters, including Tila, get

spit in the eye. Man, that was brutal. That sucks

that they were all getting blinded, basically,

but it was a cool story element, so I like that

they involved that. Again, it's one of those

that's a decent episode. It's fine. It's not

bad, but it's just like the last one and some

other ones we've talked about where it's just

kind of in that middle realm. It's not necessarily

progressing the story or the... The mythology

too much. It's given us an entertaining episode.

The actions fine. You know, the characters are

fine. So there's nothing to complain about it.

There's nothing bad about the episode. It's not

what I want right now. Nobody eats my friends.

It's just you and me, Hiss. How fitting it should

end here. My temple, your tomb. Yeah. So that's

my problem. Absolutely. Once again, I don't have

any power swords. I don't have any Havoc staffs.

I'm still at a three for a rating. So it's just

kind of like, well, this is another one. We're

winding down. We only have so many episodes to

go and I want us to get somewhere where we're

not going to get. So it's frustrating. Yeah,

I'm also out of three. This was slightly better

than the last episode we just talked about today

in today's podcast. No spiders, thank God. Do

what? No spiders, so that's good. I don't know

if I said this on air or off air or last week's

episode or whatever. I don't know where I am

anymore. But just like spiders, I'm not a fan

of snakes at all. I don't mind snakes. Nope.

But it's not I'm not I'm not not a fan of them

as much as I am more not not a fan of of spiders

if that makes me like But if you make me choose

between the two spiders are worse to me But at

the same time snakes freak me out and a lot of

the stuff they didn't like the one thing we need

to mention about this episode is the fact you

know you mentioned last last time in episode

119 about ratlore being a prisoner everything

he did in this episode to escape. Yeah, like

having the skin and having the melting thing

and having the this and the that. I'm like, it's

too much snake crap for me. Like they showed

kind of how he was going about getting out of

there, though. I forgot to mention that was that

was really good. Yeah. But yeah, that's it for

that's the only thoughts I have for this one

is like, it's fine. It's fun. Like there's there's

good things about the episode, but there's nothing

that's like there's nothing that's going to tip

the scale for me. Yeah, no. There wasn't enough

moments of like the battle scene the animated,

you know how the animation was in the battle

scenes That was amazing. There just wasn't enough

of a story Right, it's a snippet of potentially

what's what's kind of a cross almost as like

a time filler like hey We need to know we need

we need to hit so many episodes So we're gonna

add another MacGuffin and this that and the other

and it just becomes frustrating in retrospect

Because we know what's gonna happen and it's

like you could have just used a few of these

episodes To get to where we were going. We might

have got a complete series instead. We're gonna

get screwed. So We're going to take a quick break

and when we come back Mike's going to let you

know what's coming next. Yeah, it's always better

to be safe than sorry. Until next time. Choose

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I was incorrect It is not called serpent or the

person that they are trying to summon is called

Serpos so Sounds okay Don't come in that Anybody

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am TF2 on Mike with a sad optimus solo. There's

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power and for the honor of grayskull we have

the power