Masters of Grayskull – EP 123 – 2002 He-Man Cartoon Recap!!

Hi, this is Gary Jock, and you're 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... This is Man at Arms, and you are

listening to the Masters of Greyskull. Hello,

this is Optimus Solo, and welcome to the 123rd

chapter in our Powers of Greyskull series. With

me for this journey into the Masters of the Universe

franchise is TFG1 Mike. Hello, sir. Hello, sir.

How are you? I'm doing fabulous. I have He -Man

and Skeletor watching over us on this record,

so I think that's apropos. And I have Funko Pop

Prince Adam and Funko Pop Slime Pit He -Man watching

over me. So, you know. The first He -Man and

Skeletor figure I've purchased in... 40 years?

No, it might be ever. Because I'm sure those

were purchased by somebody else to give to me.

Well, of course, yes. Okay. This might be the

first ones I've ever bought. Well, no, I take

that back. I bought a... I might have bought

one off of eBay of the original series when I

was doing my hero and villain collection, which

I need to bust back out and get displayed somewhere.

But yeah, this is the new series of the origins

of He -Man. There was a Prince Adam and a Skyslade

available. It was kind of expensive. There was

also a Battle Cat available, which was also kind

of expensive. I just sprung for just Skeletor

and He -Man. They didn't have any of the other

figures yet. And I don't know if I'll get any

other ones or not. They are decent figures. They

are flexible. They pose well. The sword, the

power sword, or the sword for Skeletor and for

E -Man, they both come with one. They're a little

disappointing, only because it's like half a

sword, because they're supposed to, I assume,

be able to be put together. Yeah, I think so.

I'm probably most likely, since you're talking

about this, I'm probably most likely going to

post up Pixel Dan's YouTube video about these

figures in the show notes for this episode of

Powers of Greyskull. But yeah, I noticed that

when I was watching his videos, that it's a half

sword kind of thing. And I never liked that when

it came to that. It would be fine if they would

have designed the other half of the sword to

at least look okay when it's apart. Yeah. But

it looks like it's just been cut in half. Yeah.

But I do like that he came with his axe as well

and the shield. And Skeletor obviously came with

the Havok Staff as well. And obviously they're

more poseable than the 80s version. So I dig

them. They're fine. And they're watching over

us on this record. So there we go. Are you ready

to return to Eternia, sir? Yes, for the final

time. Well, at least in this iteration, because

this is the last time we can call this the Masters

of Greyskull. Because after this, we're done

with the 2002 He -Man show. Yes, and in this

episode of Masters of Greyskull, we will be giving

you our thoughts on the entire 2002 series as

we wrap up this installment to the MOTU franchise.

So we hope you're ready, because it's time one

last time, for now, to go back to Eternia. All

right, that's right. It is time for the wrap

-up of the 2002 Motu series. The way we're going

to do this, guys, is we have a couple different

sections outlined. We're going to do a little

bit of character talk where we discuss our favorite

and either least favorite or most disappointing

characters that we observed or watched during

this series. We'll bounce back and forth on that

a little bit, and then we'll go into some episode

talk, giving you guys our thoughts on what the

best and worst episodes are of the series, in

case you're just looking to check out a few episodes.

Oh my god, He -Man just did a nosedive. Alright,

and then after that, we're going to give you...

Skeletor wins! Yes! He just pushed him off of

a cliff, literally. So we've got some live action

going on with you guys today. And then towards

the end, we're going to be giving you some of

my statistics, like I always do. So some trivia

and statistics as far as the rate... Go and how

Mike and I fared on this series. Talk about the

writers, maybe a tiny bit, and then just an overall

discussion of our final thoughts of the 2002

series and just some quick notes about the future

of our podcast here. So are you ready, Mike?

Of course. All right. Well, why don't you go

ahead and start us off with your fifth favorite

character? If you have five, did you have five?

Yeah. Okay. What's your number five? Alright,

fifth favorite character is Man -at -Arms. Okay,

why? First of all, it's Gary Flippin' Chalk.

Man -at -Arms, I mean, I love what Alan Oppenheimer

did with him in the original series, but Gary

Chalk's Man -at -Arms voice... Prince Adam, should

the forces of evil attack... What forces of evil?

My father and the Defenders drove him away years

ago. They're history. Right. Just love that.

I love the care. I love the way the character,

he, he, he wants to create battle plans, but

he doesn't want to rush into everything. But

then there are times where he does rush into

things. I love that about him. I love his relationship

with, with Tila and the sorceress and all of

that history. I think that's great. Uh, he's

just a really, really fun character to watch

in this. And I think it's, kind of depressing

how he ends up in the comic episode that we talked

about last time. That's a good one. I do like

that because I do like Gary Chalk as this voice.

If I was thinking more when I was getting this

episode ready together, I should have done most

improved over previous versions or most unimproved,

I guess, over previous versions. Because that's

one, Man at Arms is one that is definitely, I

think, better than the original series, the man

at arms in 2002, I would take over the man at

arms and film nation. Um, not that there's anything

wrong with the film nation character. I just

think we get a lot more of, uh, in depth of him

in this series. We learn more about him. And,

uh, and I think it's just performed to a little

bit more depth. So, um, I like that for my number

five, it's no surprise that this guy's going

to make an appearance, even though he doesn't

make a whole lot of appearances in the series.

If he shows up in the series, though, he's going

to be one of my favorites. So my number five

is going to be Zodak. I just love Zodak as a

character. I could do without the chair. So that

almost kept him off the chair that he has in

this series. But he is still a badass. He's still

one of the most powerful people in this franchise.

He does do some things that, I mean, he kills

freaking King Hiss. Yeah. At least for a temporary

moment. Temporary moment, yeah. But I mean, he

throws him off of Greyskull like a freaking defeated

piece of garbage. And for that alone, he should

be on here. So I love Zodak. He's only number

five because, let's face it, he doesn't get a

whole lot of time or a whole lot of appearances,

but he's still important to the series. And he

also gave what I feel is Prince Adam's best moment.

Which one? In that finale. Oh, okay. He's like,

He -Man is... Obviously, I'll throw a clip in

here somewhere, folks, but He -Man is needed.

Wait, you know... Could you at least turn around?

Oh, yeah. That was a good moment. Fine. And then

the... That literally could go down as my favorite

Prince Adam He -Man moment of the entire series.

It's one of my favorite moments, too. It's okay.

What's your number four? Huh? He -Man is needed.

He -Man? You mean... you know? Uh, could you

at least turn your back? Fine. By the power of

Grayskull! I have the power! Uh, that would be...

Okay, I'm going to say this right now. My number

four through number one, I kind of cheated a

little bit, but I'm just going to give that out

ahead of time. I'm going to write down what your

number four through one are real quick. All right,

go ahead. Cringer slash Battle Cat. Obviously,

Cringer, Battle Cat, same person, but kind of

two very different characters up until that last

moment when Adam says, you've got a lot more

Battle Cat in you than you think, Cringer. You've

got more Battle Cat in you than you think, Cringer.

I just love the way they did Battle Cat and Cringer

in this. Yes. I love that he doesn't talk. I

love that he talks in Filmation. Because again,

you've got to remember, two very different...

1983 to 2002. That's almost 20 -something, 30

-something years, whatever you want to call it.

20. That kind of thing. Whatever. You know, it's

one of those things where two different eras,

two very different reasonings, and almost every

single animal in the 80s, 70s, and 80s talked.

I mean, between Gleek and all the snorks and

the smurfs and the whatever, you had talking

animals out the butt. So, while I absolutely

love Cringer from the original series, Cringer

and Battle Cat in this, they were so much more...

I don't want to say timid for Cringer, but so

much more cat -like for Cringer, and so much

more almost lion -like for Battle Cat. Like,

I would not want to come face -to -face with

this Battle Cat when he was mad. I'm going to

keep that clip of talking animals out the butt.

Stop it. Also, I'm not sure if snorks and smurfs

are animals. I don't know what they are, but

I get your point regardless, and I agree. Snorks

are fish -like people. And smurfs are little

blue -like humans. I don't even know what they

are. Mushrooms. I don't know. I mean, anyway.

but I agree. Battle cat and country are definitely

good characters in this series as well. My number

five and my number four are kind of, I'm not

cheats, but they're kind of weird because they're

not huge characters in the series. My one through

three will be like your main, some of your main

people. But my number four, just because I loved

the fact that this character appeared at all.

And I was so stoked and so excited the very first

time I watched this series to see more of this

character, even though we don't ever get to.

So my number four is Hordak. I just think that

this version of Hordak had the potential to be

so awesome. Way better than the version that

we end up getting in She -Ra. Nothing against

that character, but what they did with She -Ra

is similar to what they did with He -Man in Filmation,

and they were making Hordak more of a comedic

character. And I like that in this series, he

was coming across more as the ultimate evil character.

Very able to do a lot of things that other villains

that they've come across have not done. And the

whole hierarchy with him and Skeletor and King

Hiss, etc. So I was just really looking forward

to see more of that version of that character.

So even though we didn't get to see much besides

a flashback and a brief appearance. Eternia.

Almost like a cameo. I still got to put Hordak

in here, so he's my number four. Awesome. What's

your number three? Randor and Marlena, the king

and queen, because you cannot have the king without

the queen. And they are good in this series.

They are amazing in this series because they're

used more. Now that the Council of Elders is

no more, where is the power of Eternia? I told

you, I don't know. But if I did, I would reveal

nothing. Perhaps a little not -so -gentle persuasion

is in order. Say hello, Pantheon. Randor, King

Toreus has agreed to our terms and signed the

agreement. So soon? Your diplomatic skills put

my own to shame, Marlena. Now hurry home. Your

king misses you. And your queen misses her king.

Tell Adam I'm flying over the corridors of Lithos.

When he was a child, we'd often come here with

Cringer to explore the caves. Out of, like, we've

been doing this a decade, folks. Like, seriously,

this podcast has been going on since 2011. And

I honestly... don't remember a lot of tales of

Eternia. I don't remember a lot of us praise.

I'm sure we did. I don't remember a lot. There

was the one episode where we get the earth connection

with the right with Queen Marlena. Yeah. Really

background. Yeah. I mean, but overall, even just.

having them as characters in the story kind of

thing. Normally they're off doing royal duties

or they're just sitting on their thrones while

He -Man and Skeletor are fighting, whatever else.

That's the one thing I love about this series.

It is so story and continuity driven. Oh, I love

it. And Randor has his moments. Marlena has her

moments. They have moments together and it's

just makes them such great characters in this.

I agree. I think that they're much better used

and more utilized in this series as well. They

would be on the short list of most improved over

Filmation versions if I were making a list of

that, which maybe one day I'll do. For my number

three character, I'm going to stick with the

evilness. I'm going to go from Hordak on number

four to I believe I'm going to gag. Then Skeletor

at number three. He could have almost been higher,

but Skeletor is just... hilarious in this series.

And I guess the difference between this and Filmation,

one of the main differences, is in Filmation,

over the course of obviously a lot more episodes

than we got here, it almost got to a point where

Skeletor was redundant. It got to the point where

they've already done everything they're going

to do. They're not going to give us much more

depth or character for him, so he just became

the same character every episode type thing.

And here I'm left at the end actually wanting

more because of how little they utilize Skeletor

in the second season. Yeah. Half of this series.

Like, I really wish he would have been more of

a character because I really enjoyed him over

the course of the first season. He seemed like

he was a little bit more evil. He was still funny,

but not in a belittling way. Not in more of a,

it's not an over the top kind of way. It's more

of a, it's more subtle humor because the story,

drives his character well and they did they did

him they made him funny At the expense of other

characters and not at the expense of his own

character. So he became cheesy and over the top

and somebody you were just throwing to the side

because he's pathetic. Like he still held on

to the powerful, the evil, the sinister aspects

of his character while being funny at the expense

of other characters. So I prefer that versus

him just being a joke himself. I'm not saying

he was a complete joke in the filmmation series,

but it was more towards the. comedic character

side than what they could balance in this series.

And that's what I really appreciated. I wish

it would have been different. Yeah. Yeah. I wish

he was more in season two as well. I think the

difference. Revenge is like Jafari stew. It tastes

best when served cold. All you will taste is

the bitterness of defeat, Keldor. I think not.

And the name is Skeletor. Is, and I'm just going

to say it right now. Skeletor slash Keldor. Again,

they're the same character, but it's still cheating.

It's two character names. He's my number two,

so I'm just going to go right into it. The difference

is between 2002 and Filmation is that they were

not... I did not feel like they... This is not

a cartoon I would show your newborn daughter.

When your newborn daughter gets to the age that

we were in 84, 85, I would not show this to her.

Because the 2002 series was for those of us who

did grow up with this. Those of us who knew Skeletor

as the bumbling fool. And no, I know I can't

do a Skeletor. But it's one of those things where...

I have a lot of the same traits. Yeah, but that's

the thing. Hey, shut up. That's the thing, though,

that the traits here are much more subtle. And

like you said, he's not the butt of the joke.

Everybody else is when he wants to be funny.

But when he gets sinister, I wish we had a little

bit more Kaldor. I wish we had a little bit more

of the origin there. I know we had the beginning

three -parter, and that was a great three -part

story to start this off. But I just wish that

that transformation from... from Keldor to Skeletor

was a little bit, this is why I love the DC comics.

All those comics that a DAS Baron and I have

covered over on the pull bag. This is why I love

those because you get so much more character

out of the mo two characters, but Skeletor is

still easily my number two because he, he is

just that awesome in this series. Yeah, obviously

I agree. For my number two, I'm going to go to

a character that's not going to be on your list

and a little bit maybe more off the beaten path,

but still a main character in this series. And

again, the reason I'm putting her in this spot

is because of, again, how much I believe that

it has improved over previous versions. And that

would be the guardian of Castle Greyskull herself.

I'm going to go with the sorceress at number

two. I just think... Well, okay, I admit it looks

kind of like me. How old is this carving? 17

seasons of the field. Well, there you go. I wasn't

even born. I'm only 16. A sorceress can appear

as any age she pleases. Well, trust me. I'm no

sorceress. Man -at -arms. Come to Grayskull.

At once. What I am about to recount, no mortal

has ever been told. It was many years ago. The

isolation of these walls had become too much

for me to bear. I longed to walk amongst Eternians,

to hear the laughter of children. Skeletor's

evil had not yet infected the land. The power

of the Elders was secure within the Crystal Chamber.

a peaceful village. The villagers were welcoming

and generous, offering me food to eat and a place

to sleep. There were simple pleasures to be had.

For the first time in as long as I could remember,

I felt... at peace. But the peace was shattered

when an evil warlord by the name of Props attacked

the village. The villagers tried to defend themselves,

but a young boy had informed the warlord of where

the weapons were kept. You see that? Easy target,

just like Oedipus told you. Oedipus is a big

help. Can Oedipus join up? Though much of my

power had been left behind in Grayskull, I summoned

what power I could. They explore her power, her

backstory, the history and origin of her character,

but then she gets to do so much more. I mean,

obviously, unfortunately, she gets infected by

King Hiss and is a little bit not able to perform

up to the top of her level or her abilities.

But again, that was for a reason, because if

she wasn't infected, she could have just, you

know. been a badass and made things how they

are. But, um, I just, I just think they used

her so well. I like the, the relationship that

she has in this series with, um, Adam slash He

-Man. And, uh, I don't know. I just, I just think

the, I like the design of the character better

than the filmmation one. Uh, I probably like

the voice acting a little bit better, um, not

to take anything away from, from Linda Gary.

Um, I just like the character overall better.

And I think she made a very strong presence in

this series. So sorceress is my number two. And

her best, her best motherly scolding was Zodak.

When she yelled at him to wake his ass up. Right.

So that's my number two. You already gave your

number two. So it's down to our number ones.

I have a guess what yours is, but I'll let you

reveal it. Go ahead. It is none other than, again,

and I'm cheating, so I fully understand. I'm

glad you did what you did, though, because at

first I thought you were going to do something

different, and I'm glad you didn't, so go ahead.

Well, you might be surprised, because I'm putting

both He -Man and King Greyskull as my number

one. No mortal has entered this chamber in an

eon. That's the guy in my dreams. Looks like

He -Man, but different. Your ancestor, King Greyskull.

I thought for a second what you were going to

do is you were going to say that Battle Cat was

your number four, Cringer was your number three,

Adam was your number one. No, no, no. He -Man

and King Greyskull. I absolutely love Prince

Adam. I really do. I love the learning he goes

through in the series. However, He -Man was...

Except for that one moment that I mentioned,

I think in episode 121 of the podcast, where

I felt that he could have been a little smarter

dealing with Hiss and figuring all of that out.

Other than that one moment, overall, I loved

He -Man this entire series. And King Greyskull

is his ancestor, and it's just as awesome. There

was a King Greyskull? So that means this castle

was once his. The very seat of his kingdom. When

my sword was lost in battle with the Snake Men,

I had hoped it was a sign that a time of peace

was upon us. Sadly, my king, that time has not

yet come. Even now the forces of evil are clashing.

One will emerge victorious, and then the true

battle for Eternia will be upon us. Though I

yearn for nothing more than an eternity of free

of bloodshed. If battle I must, then battle I

will. I like that. I think that's a clever way

to sneak King Greyskull in here. He was like

the OG. I like that. Very good. My number one,

most people might be surprised that this is going

to be my number one character. But I just think

there's a whole lot of depth to this character.

And yes, I'm going to actually stay with another

female character. Before your head breaks, it's

not Teela. I'm going with my number one character

as actually another evil character. I'm going

with Evil Lynn. Oh, wow. Yeah, I just think,

like, she's so smart in this series. She's so

conniving. She's manipulative. She is, and I'll

get into this more in a second, but outside of

Skeletor, obviously she is the most prominent

evil warrior that we get. But she's also smart

enough to somewhat form alliances with the Snake

Men so that she's around for that and trying

to play off that. She even has flirtations with

Hordak in a way of being aligned with him. All

these different things. Skeletor disappears for

most of the second half of this series, and Evil

Lynn remains. And it's like the one thing that's

tying that evil warrior presence to this whole

series. I like her character. I like the look

of her character. I like the performance of it.

We get a little bit more of her backstory in

one of the better episodes of the series where

we get to see a little bit more of her history,

which we never got in Filmation. So I was a huge

fan. I think this is, again, one of the ones

that's probably most improved over the Filmation

version. Because in Filmation, she was just another

one of the... the you know evil warriors kind

of on their same level she had a little bit more

power and maybe a little bit more smarts than

like a beast man but she wasn't much above them

and in this series she was elevated quite a quite

a bit above oh yeah i mean she has a bitch slapped

once yeah i mean she has the single greatest

evil villain story out of the i mean outside

of like keldor and and and all that but like

finally we get an origin for, for evil in, and

it's just so good. It's a good one. And it introduces

a good character as well with the, with the faceless,

faceless, nameless, faceless one, faceless one.

So yeah, I really enjoyed that episode as well.

So those are our favorite characters during the

2002 series. We're going to take a quick break,

let you hear from a couple of those characters.

And when we get back, we're going to talk about

maybe some of the characters that disappointed

us a little bit. We were just spending some time

on what, characters were better than the filmmation

version. We might get into a few that are worse.

So stay with us. Hordak defeated the snake man.

I never wait. Hordak. Hordak was in my dream.

Perhaps the past and present, your dreams and

destiny are more intertwined than we know. We

must discover how. With King Hiss defeated, the

true prize is now within my reach. The conquest

of Eternia. All right, thanks for sticking with

us. It's time to go negative for a second. Mike,

we're going to talk about least favorite or most

disappointing characters or characters that maybe

went the opposite direction from their Filmation

counterparts. I think there's one that we're

going to have in consensus. I'm interested to

see if you have any others. I have a few offside

of that, but let's go over the one that I know

we're both in agreement with, and that would

be which one, Mike? King Hiss? Oh, no, that's

one of yours. I figured we'd go with Orko first.

You know, it's funny. I did not actually write

him down because I felt as I felt as the series

progressed, he either wasn't around enough or

he had moments where he his character grew. I

think for sure, for me, he's worse than the filmmation

version. I just like the Filmation one better.

I know a lot of people don't like sidekicks and

don't like those types of characters and are

probably annoyed by Orko in Filmation. But I

actually kind of enjoyed him. I enjoyed him being

the bumbling guy that always got it wrong. I

enjoyed the voice of him, even if it's not for

everybody. I enjoyed the fact that occasionally

he would get something right and occasionally

he would help out in a plot. He was always right

there in the mix. This series, he's either absent

or at the beginning it's so weird because he's

just... I just don't like the combination of

the look and the sound and the performance of

him. No offense to those doing it, obviously.

I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead or anything,

but yeah, I just was not a fan of Orko in the

series overall. I could have done without him.

In fact, I think you could remove him from the

series and not much changes. But you have one

good episode again, one good learning moment,

Orko's garden. I thought that was a good. teachable

teaching time for him. I just mean like in the

continuity of the whole over. Right, right, right,

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

this series is so serious and Orko is that not

necessarily kid character, but he kind of is,

he is, but generally he's the, he's the humor.

He's the, this, he's the, that you're not going

to have a moment where. He's in the back of the

Wind Raiders. I remember this distinctively because

I have it in one of our old Powers of Grayskull

series ads. It's at the end of it. Orko, what

are you doing here? I'm trying to sleep. This

Orko is not that Orko, and this series does not

have room for the comedy parts that Orko encompasses.

Right. But let's get over to King Hiss because

I know you had mentioned him. I will say that

he is my least favorite of the Snake Men. I don't

have him written down, so I'll let you take the

lead on this one. But why the hate for King Hiss?

I just... He's an okay character, but again,

it more so goes to... I wanted his story to be

wrapped up sooner rather than... Like, I would

rather... And I know they couldn't have done

this because the series only got 39 episodes.

I wish he would have gone into the void. And

then we had Hordak back. And King Hiss' story

would have gone away for a while. And we had

Hordak and Skeletor and this, that, and... I'm

not... The only... I just want to say probably

two. The only two Snake Men I actually like are

Cobra Khan and Tongue Lash. Or... You don't like

Rattler? Nah. I... like him for his voice because

it's Richard. It's frigging Rhinox. I like a

lot of the Snakemen. I like Squeeze. I like Tongue

Lasher. I like Rattler. I like Cobra Khan. I

don't know about Snakeface. Snakeface, yeah.

Honestly, if we could have just taken King Hiss

out, and obviously I don't think you can make

Rattler in charge. I don't think you can make

one of the other ones in charge because they're

all kind of henchmen. But let's go ahead and

do the crossover that I usually hate. Just bring

Serpentor in. He can be in charge of the Snakemen.

We've tried to get Serpentors in anyway, so just

bring Serpentor in. He can lead them. Boot King

Hiss out. But no, I'm with you. I think he should

have been thrown into the void. We should have

continued with the Hordak story, and that would

have been great. So I'm fine with King Hiss being

listed here. I was trying to come up with a master

that I could put in here. I'm not saying that

it's a least favorite necessary or that they're

disappointing or whatever, but... I guess if

I'm going down the rankings of all the masters,

the one, if I had to boot one out that I could

boot out, it would probably be buzz off. Oh,

easily. Because anything that you needed buzz

off for, we could have just given more time to

Stratos for, and then we just wouldn't have had

to have buzz off. So buzz off can buzz off. And

we would have been fine. Give Stratos some time

or give some other master some time. But if you

need a flying one, we already have Stratos. So

I think the combination of trying to do stuff

with Stratos and Buzz Off left me thinking that

Stratos got the shorthand. Right. And plus, they

had the whole thing of Stratos versus Buzz Off,

the Andrinids versus the Avions. And I'm like...

That was fine. Have that episode. But then...

For that episode. Everything else could have

been Stratos. Yeah. So any other characters you

have written down? Only because I'm not a spider

fan. I mean, not, not, not a creepy spider fan.

I'm not, I'm not an arachnophobia film, you know,

nineties film fan kind of web store, web store

creeped me out. I'm going to go a step further

on that one and say not just Webster, but I'm

going to cheat and say almost the entire group

of evil warriors in this series is a little disappointing.

I don't know if it's because we went so fast

into the Snake Men and Hordak and those different

stories, or if we had enough of just one -off

things, but Evil Lynn, as the exception, the

rest of the evil warriors I felt were made almost

to be too stupid, like too bumbling. And I know

that there's supposed to be a bit of that, but,

and I know like beast man's not supposed to be

smart. Like I get that for beast man, but they

made beast man. Um, they made a merman. That

one's really one of the ones that bugs me. Like

they made merman real dumb in this. Yeah. And

I don't see him like that. I see like in my vision,

trap jaws, not dumb. Um, He just has a certain

trait. He's the guy with a bunch of stuff he

can put on his arms. He's going to be your every

situation guy. Triclops is not supposed to be

dumb. He's supposed to be able to come up with

a lot of things and clever things. I thought

Triclops had a few good moments. I just felt

like they just treated the evil warriors in general

as kind of bumbling idiots and didn't give them

much time overall. if you were to like list off

the good moments by each of the evil warriors

over the course of 39 episodes, you wouldn't

have very many. Um, so I was a little disappointed

with some of those. I think they kind of pushed

them aside to focus on other things. Um, and

I, I mean, I, I do enjoy the fact that evil Lynn

has been so elevated above them that it's not

quite on their level, but I would have liked

a more of like, uh, almost like a hierarchy like

instead of evil in way up here and then all the

other evil warriors down here at the bottom i

would have liked evil in and then you know maybe

triclops and then trap jaw and then merman and

then be you know what i mean like some type of

like each one had a skill set or wasn't quite

as dumb as maybe the other one but i don't know

yeah i'll say this though i i feel that there

are two that do stand out to the point of what

we got for them Was better than what we potentially

would have, could have gotten from the old series.

And that's too bad. And stink or their origins.

I mean, you know, edifice, edifice, whatever

his name is, that becomes stink or, and then

Tuvra and, and Badra or whatever their names

are individually, how they did their origins

and how Skeletor put them together and, you know,

separated them and created the whole separation

of. of of the planet and this that and the other

thing and tried to get into the light hemisphere

dark hemisphere all i think all of that is really

really well done i think if we would have done

more of that that would have been fine i think

what makes me come more hard on the evil warriors

is more of the presence of two other characters

that for some reason i didn't mention yet that

also were featured a lot more than they were

in filmation and that would be clawful and whiplash

and i just think that the combination of those

two and beastman maybe it was the trio of them

And the way they treated Merman, that just made

me feel like it was like Three Stooges dumb at

that point. And I feel like he didn't need as

many characters to be that dumb. Agreed. I mean,

I'm not mad that they gave them more time, but

I just wish they could have done more like what

you talked about with Too Bad and Stinkor. Even

Webster at least got his thing. You might not

like him, and I'm not a Spider -Man either, but

he got his moment. But, yeah, so those are some

characters that we maybe didn't care about as

much as we would like to. We're going to take

a quick break, and then we're going to come back

and shift gears to talking about some of our

least and most favorite episodes. So stick with

us. We're going to talk about some episodes next.

Forgive me, Great Hordak, but perhaps now is

not the time. The clash with the Snake Men has

left our forces depleted. That is good counsel,

Kallax. But I so hate bad news. Alright, we're

gonna flip it this time and talk negative first

so we can end the episode talk with some more

positivity. So we're gonna go through our least

favorite episodes from the 2002 series. Before

you start, Mike, I just gotta say, we've done

this before for other series and whatnot. It

was hard for me to come up with a bottom five.

Top five was easy as, as easy peasy, like no

problem. The bottom five is hard in this series.

And the reason is, is because there's not that

many bad episodes. There's not that many bad

episodes. And again, there's only 39 versus 130

for each of man and Shira from the eighties.

Right. But here's the thing for me, I had. What

I had a harder time with was... You might have

had a problem with the favorite episodes, I guess.

I had problems picking my number five favorite

episode. Four through one, it was easy. However,

with the negative ones, with the ones I didn't

like, it was more of, okay, I have all these

ones that I didn't like. Where do I want to place

them and where do I want to rank them against

each other? As far as, like, which one is worst.

Right, right, right. It just feels weird to me,

because I'm going to have episodes that are in

my bottom five that I gave a three to. Like,

that's just a bizarre thought. Like, just because

we had so many episodes to choose from for the

Filmation version, like, your bottom five is,

like, zeros and ones and one and a halves and

twos and stuff like that. we're listing off episodes

we ranked as a three, which is an average episode.

So it's kind of bizarre to, I'm not going to

like hate on some of these that much. Um, but

it's going to be interesting. So what is your

number five least favorite episode of this series?

Buzz offs, pride, buzz offs, pride. I, it hurts.

I know it hurts you to say that. I only gave

it a three. Well, here's the problem. Like, And

I'm glad I reached out to Christy Marks because

she and her husband, Randy Littlejohn, wrote

that episode. I'm glad we got the behind the

scenes of someone who wrote on this series, wrote

an episode, and how it was, I don't want to say

dictated, but I will use that term, to them about

what the creators wanted them to write. From

what she initially had told us, you can go back

to whichever episode of this podcast that BuzzOff's

priding on. I don't remember off the top of my

head, folks. It's episode 20, by the way. Episode

what? It's episode 20 of the series. That's not

what... No, I mean the podcast episode. I don't

remember what podcast episode it is that we talked

about it, but it's one of those things where

it's nice to see that they had issues with...

doing that episode with he -man being the prideful

one and finding a character that the pride thing

and i think it worked with buzz off they made

it work and i remember us i remember me saying

this in the podcast when we did that when we

talked about the episode however it's not an

episode when i think of this series that i would

ever go back to and watch so it's one of my least

favorites yeah and it's unfortunate that um you

know obviously they had the the back and forth

they had to deal with during that time because

it probably could have been better without that.

But yeah, if you want to hear more about that,

that's episode one 14 where we talk about buzz

offs pride. I had that in the running too, as

one of mine. I had a real debate going on who

was going to be my number five pick for the worst.

And it was in the running, but I didn't quite

go with that one. I'm going to go with one that

you're going to disagree with just to rile you

up. But I'm going to go with, Episode 3, which

is The Beginnings Part 3. Oh, come on! This is

He -Man trying to save Ram -Man, who is captured,

and Teela trying to save Man -at -Arms from Merman.

And if you want to go back and listen, this is

the first episode that we did in this section,

but there's a whole subplot in here with Teela

trying to save Man -at -Arms from Merman that

is absolutely pointless. It does not belong.

It is filler in order to make this three -parter

three parts instead of two. We talk about it

back when we did this episode, but they had enough

content for like two and a third episodes. So

they stretched it into three episodes by making

this episode over bloated, not necessary and

not nearly as good as the first two. That's my

thought on the beginnings. Part three. What is

your number four? My number four is the deep

end. And I had to actually look this one up to

remember it, because if I don't remember the

damn episode, but this is the episode where.

He -Man must save man -at -arms from the belly

of a sea beast. Wait, what did you just say?

He -Man must save man -at -arms from the belly

of a sea beast threatening Castle Grayskull.

Yep. I am not a fan of this. Nope. It's about

as ridiculous as the plot. you mentioned in um

in beginnings part three it's the same plot yeah

that's the same yeah uh tila was trying to save

man -at -arms from merman and he was in the belly

of a sea beast and then we got he -man being

saved by saving man -at -arms from the belly

of a sea beast also in episode six happens in

episode three happens in episode six it wasn't

the first time it's not good the second time

Yeah, I'll get into that in a second. Oh, boy.

Back up. I should have said the beginnings part

three was written by Dean Stephan. He did a lot

of episodes, but that's who was in my number

five. Obviously, you've mentioned that Chrissy

Marks did Buzz Off's Pride. The Deep End, which

you just mentioned, was written by Brooks Wachtel.

For my number four, I am going to go with Kevin

Campbell's episode, episode number 36 in the

series, and that is Web of Evil. Fisto and Man

-at -Arms are drinking in the tavern, shooting

the shit, catching up on all times. They're brothers,

I guess. This is a confusing episode. It's not

needed at this point in the series. Episode 36,

it just doesn't belong. It should have been 15

episodes earlier, at least. There's no Skeletor.

We had Voltron. We had Donkey Kong rollercoaster

throughout the castle. Um, we had way too many

spiders that I don't care for. So there was,

it was, there was a lot of things involved in

this episode and I didn't care for most of them.

So yeah, web of evil is just not good. It's,

it's a bizarre episode. I don't know what was

going on. I think Kevin Campbell was drunk or

high or, or on acid or something when he did

this episode, or maybe he had like six episodes

that he was working on at the time. And they

were like, Oh, you were canceling the series.

So you only can write one. He just decided to

throw a whole bunch of shit in this one, but

it's weird. Weird. What's your number three?

That would be... I kind of hate to say this,

but it is. It's Second Skin. First of all, too

much Snake Men. Second of all, too much Snake

Men pulling a mask where they have to find whatever

MacGuffin Matrix thing you can think of kind

of thing. And then, you know, turning everybody

into snake people. And then that rubbing off

into Man -at -Arms later, because once you go

snake, you can't go back, apparently. Yeah. I

mean, I gave this one a four, so I didn't hate

it as much as you. I remember you not liking

it, so I'm not surprised that she was up here.

For my number three, I don't even remember who

wrote yours. That would be the second skin, right?

That's Steve Melching. Oh, I'm sorry, Steve.

Yeah, that's why it's so bizarre that you had

that there. Anyways, for my number three, I'm

going to go with the Michael Reeves episode.

This is number 13 in the series. It's called

Night of the Shadow Beasts. They turned the entire

episode into a PSA, and they even stopped the

episode at halfway through to explain it to us,

the PSA aspects of it. And also, the Shadow Beasts

look stupid. Um, they look silly, especially

from a distance. So this, I don't need, um, a

whole lot of PSA in my episodes. I certainly

don't need an entire episode that has turned

into a PSA. So I get people are afraid of the

dark. This episode suck though. Yeah. And that

episode was written by a really, really good

animation writer and storyboard and story. television

person, which is Michael Reeves. He's worked

on Batman the Animated Series, Gargoyles, a bunch

of other things in the 80s and 90s. I think the

series could have been, or the series, the episode

could have been decent, done a little bit differently,

but it just came across so preachy that it just

wasn't for me. So, sorry, Michael. I know you

do good stuff, just like Maltune does good stuff,

and Mike listed him. So, go ahead. What's your

number two? Web of Evil. Yes. There could have

been some other way you could have featured Web

Store. Yes. There could have been some other

way where... you'd have him up against Skeletor

or something like his whole thing in this episode

is he wants to take over. He wants to rule. He

wants to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh my

God. He now has ambrosia. Oh my God. He can now

lay all these disgusting spider eggs. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Oh my God. But yet there's nobody

here other than the masters. Like Skeletor isn't

stepping up to him. Skeletor disappeared at this

point. So yeah. yeah it's not good obviously

said on that one so my number two we haven't

talked about it yet also written by dean stefan

again he wrote so many episodes that he was bound

to come up and probably both parts of this but

uh i'm going with episode number 22 of the series

and that is called the island um this is the

episode that features decker who is um obviously

uh a friend of man at arms And we see crabs and

claw people against the masters. We see stupid

-looking jellyfish that make no sense whatsoever.

But really, it's just the whole fact that this

episode just seems completely out of place. This

comes between... Snake Pit happens right before

it, which is the introduction of the Snake Men.

And then we get this. And then we go back into

eventually the Council of Evil, etc. So it's

just like... I don't get this episode. It's weird.

I like Decker as a character. I wish he could

have had a better episode, but something just

didn't work with this one. So Island is my number

two. What is your number one? Number one would

be everybody heading down to Cobra Commander's

place. Awaken the Cobra. Awaken the Serpent,

huh? It was the worst series finale, and I know

they didn't plan it this way. This is the final

episode of the series written by Dean Stephan.

Right. I know they didn't plan it this way. I

know the story was supposed to continue, but

again, Cartoon Network is a fickle, fickle bitch

that only likes their own stupid animated stuff

that they do. You know, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny

Bravo, all that notwithstanding, but all the

more recent stuff. I just don't like Cartoon

Network original stuff anymore. I remember when

I was watching this back in 2002 and 2003, I

was like, Ooh, yay. New He -Man. Yeah. 22, 23

year old me acting like a four year old, but

it's one of those things where I was like, Oh,

this is what some things don't change. Hey, now

watch it. But it was like, oh, this is really

cool. Oh, very cool. Again, continuity this,

continuity that. Story -based this, story -based

that. These characters are really fun. Awesome.

I have more He -Man now. Because before this,

we had the new adventures. Anyway. But it just...

I don't know. May the man rest in peace. Dean

is Dean. Stefan is no longer with us. I don't

know what the, the hubbub was with this. I don't

know why, if it was cartoon network, if it was

Mattel, if it was whatever, maybe the toys weren't

selling. Cause I know you always stand up for

the whole, Oh, it's just a toy commercial thing

when really it isn't. But a lot of times toy

sales do affect animation at times. So it's one

of those things where. I wish we knew the story

of why I wish we knew was who was it that made

the decision? Because if they had just given

us like 45 episodes, if they had just given us

a little bit more to get a proper series finale,

you know, this is like, you know, sci -fi channel

canceling alphas or, you know, firefly only getting

one season or something. This just hurts. And

for this to be the final episode, It was just

underwhelming because it's more Snake Men stuff

that I don't, even back then I didn't care about

it, especially now I don't. Yeah. I mean, I get

that it's disappointing as a series finale. I

still don't think it's that bad of an episode.

I gave it a four, but I do get the disappointment

of the series overall ended on that note. So

I do understand that. So you had Awaken the Serpent

and Second Skin, two of the Snake episodes as

you're in your bottom five. I didn't have those

two. If I would have put a snake episode in here,

I didn't have it in my bottom five, but it would

have been rattle of the snake men for me. Cause

that was just like the third time that the snake

men were looking for another artifact to get

another bean free stuff like that. So that was

the one that I kind of had timed out on her,

you know, basically been ready to tune out on

the snake men by that point. That was episode

37. Um, so that would have been the one that

I put in there, but instead, um, for my number

one, it's one that's already been mentioned.

That is episode six written by Brooks Wachtel.

This is the deep end. This is the worst episode

in the series to me. Um, real close, but this

one's just so bad because we literally three

episodes prior had already gotten the story like

when they needed more room and, and. The beginning

is part three. So they stuck in a storyline with

Merman being inside or Merman capturing Man -at

-Arms, having him inside of Sea Beast. Fill that

episode out. And then they kept and they clearly

stole that from another script that they were

going to do. But yeah, that episode anyways,

three episodes later. Yep. Like there were some

good interactions between Skeletor and Evelyn.

So it wasn't like 100 % bad. I did give it a

two. This isn't like a one or a zero or something

like this. But it was just a redundant, not necessary

episode that just wasn't done well. So The Deep

End is my least favorite episode. And if you

were to go by our actual rankings, it was the

only episode that both Mike and I gave a 2 -2.

We did not give any scores out lower than a 2,

and it is the only episode that we both gave

a 2 -2. So, 2 -2. Please, stop saying that. So

that's with that. You didn't stick quite true

to your rankings, sir. I went by three and under.

So I like that. I went by with whatever that

photo was that you sent me. So that's what I

went by. Cause you had the deep end was your,

your only episode you gave a two and then you

had the Island and web of evil, which you gave

a two and a half. And then, like I said, we were

going to have to rank some threes. So you had

a couple of threes in there, which makes sense.

I had the Island in the Deep End at a two, Night

of the Shadow Beast at a two and a half, and

then I had to pick a couple of threes as well.

So those are episodes I would stay away from.

But like we said, some of those are still threes.

So it's just a sign that this series overall

wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Or

it probably benefited from the fact that there

was only 39 episodes because I didn't have a

whole lot of time to get bad episodes in there.

So when you have 130 or something, you're going

to have a few stinkers along the way. Yeah, and

like I said, if they had gotten to at least,

let's just say, two more seasons, 65 episodes

in total of the entire series, and worked on

the story and realized, oh, this is continuity

driven. We don't need a one -off episode where

Web Store is going to try to take over and no

one's going to stop him other than the good guys

kind of thing. Maybe we would have gotten more

with Skeletor. Maybe we would have gotten more

with Hordak and we would have left the Snake

Men alone. But there's nothing we can do about

that now. Yeah. We are going to take a quick

break and then we're going to talk some more

positive stuff. We're going to tell you which

episodes you should check out. If you only have

a chance to check out five episodes of this series,

we're going to tell you which ones those should

be. So stick with us. Never was there a heart

as pure and good as yours, my husband. I must

act. You must help me. If you choose this path,

there is no turning back, and you may perish.

And if I do nothing, then all of Eternia shall

perish. All right, thanks for sticking with us.

Like I said before the break, if you only have

a chance to listen to five or watch five episodes

of the 2002 series, this is going to be Mike's

and my opinion on which five you should watch.

All right. This is a little bit harder for me

because there were so many more good episodes

in this series than there was bad. But my ranking

system kind of helped because I really only gave

five episodes of five. So that was pretty easy

for me. You gave like a thousand episodes of

five. So it's going to be a lot harder for you.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, eleven. You have 12 episodes of five.

So you had a harder time probably narrowing this

down. But what did you come up with your fifth

best episode of the series? My number six and

number five. Number five is a tie between Mackinac's

Lament and Sweet Smell of Victory. Okay. I love

what they did with Mackinac here. I love that

they kind of tie him into Count Marzo in the

beginning kind of thing. I thought that was really

cool. I thought that was a great way to introduce

Marzo, a great way to show off Mackinac. I think

that's great. Sweet Smell of Victory is just

a fun. frigging episode because you have an origin

for stink or you have this little character that

everybody's looking for that he just wants to

fit in kind of thing. And then he, you know,

finally just rebels against everything and says,

screw it. I'm going to be an evil warrior and

smell is going to be my, my evil power. And I

just, I love that. I thought that was great.

Interesting. You did not rank Sweet Smell of

Victory as a five when we watched it. I know

I didn't. That's interesting. You gave that one

a three and a half. So I'm interested that that

made it in there amongst your 12 fives. But Mechanic

Lament, you gave that one a five. I gave that

one a four and a half. So obviously I'm not going

to disagree with that. That was written by Laura

Olson and Eric Runnels. Sweet Smell of Victory

was Kevin Campbell. But interesting. That's not

what I thought was going to be your tie. All

right, all right. For my number five, I am going

to go with episode 21, written by Stephen Melching,

and that is Snake Pit. That would be the initial

introduction to the Snake Men. We got a lot of

Cobra Khan in here. We get the history of Snake

Mountain. We get the history of the Council of

Elders. It's first appearance by Zodak. So there

is just a whole lot to enjoy and like about Snake

Pit. It's also kind of a kickoff or kind of when

the tide turned in the series. Like from Snake

Pit through the end, it's a different vibe. It's

a different set of stories for the most part.

So it's almost... I mean, it's a new season,

basically. So I enjoyed Snake Pit. Obviously,

I already talked about how Zodak was one of my

favorite characters. I like the Snake Men being

involved in this. I know it sounds like we don't

because we bitched about King Hiss being one

of our least favorite characters. We rattled

off a couple of them as our less favorite episodes.

But Snake Men overall are good in this series,

and I enjoy that they're there. It adds a lot

to the second season. So Snake Pit is my number

five. What is your number four? My number four

is... Which, by the way, I'll time out. Snake

Pit, we both gave a five, too. So, it's definitely...

No, absolutely. Again, origin episodes are always

good. Origin episodes give us backstory of what

we may not have known before or maybe what we've

always wanted to know. That's absolutely fine.

The rest of the Snake Pit episodes? Eh, whatever.

There's a couple other good ones, but anyways,

go ahead with your next one. Number four for

me is Out of the Past. Because we get Teela's

origin, we get Sorceress's origin, we get this

whole cool Sorceress story. It's easily the best

Teela episode of the entire series. Still a Teela

episode, though. That's why I only gave it a

four and a half. But no, it's a good episode.

I'm not trying to be too hard on it. Out of the

Past is a good episode. I was trying to find

out who wrote that one. That would be Dean Steffen.

Yep, Dean Steffen. That was one of the ones that

kind of came in at the end, too, with the second

season, so to speak. So I enjoyed that one. Episode

three of the second season. Yeah. So out for

mine, I'm going to cheat just like you did. And

I'm going to go with a tie for my number four

pick. And my tie, my tie. Not the drink. But

my tie would be Rise of the Snake Men Part 1

and Rise of the Snake Men Part 2. These are episodes

30 and 31, both written by Stephen Melching.

So, yes, that's three Stephen Melching episodes

in a row. We got the introduction of the Snake

Men and Snake Pit, like I said before. In Rise

of the Snake Men, though, this is when we get

to meet Squeeze and King Hiss and Snake Face

and Tongue Lasher. They're finally, you know,

basically released. This is like where we hit

the ground running. So I thought this two -parter

was fantastic. I had given a five to both parts

of it. I know you had only given a five to one

of them and you gave a four to the other one,

but that's still pretty good. I just think this

was a really kind of cool way to continue the

Snake Men story in this. And I had not soured

on the Snake Men yet. You know, we got Snake

Pit. We've got a few other episodes. We get the

two -parter for Rise of the Snake Men and a little

bit more. And then is, I think, when it starts

to go off the chains a little bit. As we get

to Second Skin and Rattle of the Snake Men and

Awaken the Serpent, that's when it kind of gets

into Overkill. But at the beginning there, I

still think it was hitting on all cylinders.

So I like the Rise of the Snake Men two -parter.

Absolutely. What's your number three, sir? That

would be... Oh, boy. That would be The Last Stand,

which technically should have been Council of

Evil Part 3. It is, but I was so... Also written

by Dean Stephan. Yep, written by Dean Stephan.

I was so ready for Council of Evil to wrap up

the season, and then they cliffhangered it, and

I'm like, oh, really? Come on. The Last Stand

has one of the best He -Man battles I've seen

in a long time. It's just full on. He man doing

his thing against Skeletor against the evil warriors.

It's his last stand and it is just so good. Yeah.

I was not on the same page with you on this one.

I gave this one a three and a half. Didn't even

get into my fours, but Mike liked it. So maybe

you should check it out. Um, for my number three,

I'm going to go to episode 32 written by Larry

Dottilio. And that is the price of deceit. This,

um, you, you know, it's interesting cause they

have the beginnings part three and then, you

know, you have the council of evil, which you

said last Dan could be a part three of that price

of deceit could almost be a part three of rise

of the snake men because it's a followup to what

happens. And this is where we go into what we

talked about during the character talk about,

um, evil Lynn. And, you know, the faceless one

and her history and everything about that. And

it's just done so well. It's just cool to see

sides of characters that we had never seen before.

And I think Larry Dottilio crafted a great episode

with price of deceit. You gave it a five as well.

So obviously we're in agreement on this one,

but I think the rise of the snake man combination,

and then this one followed up with it three fives

in a row for me. And then they all happen to

be on the same podcast episode, which I don't

think has ever happened for me to have three

fives in the same episode. And this was the culmination

of that. So I'm a big fan of price of deceit.

Absolutely. Your number two. My number two is,

regardless of the antiquated, overused, multi

-plot layer in part three, overall is the beginning.

Because, holy crap, I've never seen stories like

what we got in the beginning. Like, I mean, I've

seen, not with these characters, not with this

universe, the fact that we got, you know, Keldor

and Randor as brothers. And Keldor obviously

becomes Skeletor and Kronos becomes Trapjaw and

all of this and everything else. I remember when

I watched this back in 2002 when it aired, I

was literally glued to my television at the time

because I was like, huh? What? Really? They did

that? That's the way they're going to do that?

Oh, Adam looks so cool. He doesn't look like

people put him in some sort of fairy YouTube

video or something or other thing. And it just

was so, so much of a great opening origin to

tell you where these characters come from and

how these characters came to be. Are you saying

part one, part two, or part three? All of it.

Okay. All right. I was going to say, because

you gave them all different radiance. Yeah, I

know. I agree with part one and part two are

pretty good. I gave them both fours. You were

somewhat in agreement. You gave one of them a

four and one of them a four and a half. And then

you gave part three a five, which is silly. But

I don't fault you for liking the beginning of

the series overall because it does set the stage

pretty well. For my number two, we disagreed

on this one, but I don't see how anyone can see

this as a bad episode like you did. So I'm going

to go with. Until the last time, I'm going with

Larry Dottilio this time. This is episode 38,

the second -to -last episode of the series. It's

called History, and I loved this episode. We

got the culmination of a lot of things here,

but also a lot of history when it came to what

went on. We learned a lot about Eternia. We learned

a lot about Grayskull. We learned a lot about

a lot of the characters involved. history is

easily one of the top two episodes for me overall

like when it came down to do this like my number

one and my number two were pretty easy picks

it was just ordering the other three and history

came in at number two for me i know you didn't

like it but i think you shouldn't re -watch it

sometime what is your number one my number one

is oh great oracle i seek your help The namesake

of the podcast, folks. Ah, you made it. Oracle,

what sort of trickery? I journeyed to find great

power. Open the box. It contains a sword of power.

But this is my sword. I lost it in battle with

the Snake Man. It possesses no great power. No,

but you do. You discovered that on your journey.

The power of Greyskull. Interesting. One of 12

fives that you had. I loved this. You picked

out one of the 12 fives. I only had six fives.

And you somehow picked out the one that I also

have at number one. We're both in agreement here.

Power of Grayskull, number one. This is written

by Dean Stephan. It's episode 35. I'll let you

take it away. Why did you like this episode?

This episode sets up so much that sadly never

gets to be explored more. We get the, oh, you

know, and we almost get the fact that He -Man

and Adam are separate people. Because how is

King Grayskull He -Man's ancestor if, you know

what I mean? If Adam never was He -Man before

this, is he also Adam's? I assume. I would assume

so because that's just how lineage works, whatever.

But it's one of those things where seeing Eternia's

past, seeing Castle Grayskull in its heyday.

seeing hordak for the first time seeing what

king grayskull had to give up in order for things

to right go the correct way for everybody on

the planet it's just such the animation in it

is amazing the character designs all of it is

so so good right another interesting thing that

they do with that one is they do have some that

are like basically their counterparts and their

ancestral counterparts. So you have King Greyskull,

you have He -Man, you have Battle Cat, you have

like... Hulk lion, whatever that guy's name was.

So a lot of them are like, you know, you have

a sorceress that's almost identical to the other,

you know, et cetera. But then they also have

some characters that are completely different.

Obviously, you know, the council of elders isn't

like one for one for anybody that we got now.

So I like the way that they kind of switch that

up a little bit, but you're right. It's just

like, if you're like origin stories, if you like

continuity, if you like history of characters

and things like that, then this episode has all

of that in spades. It's unfortunate they didn't

get to go anywhere after it, basically, after

this episode. But there's only a few episodes

left of the series after this. It was good nonetheless.

So we're in agreement. Number one, how the hell

did that happen? So that's bizarre. Let's see

what else we have in common or not in common.

After the break, we're going to touch on some

statistics, talk about some writers a little

bit, and some overall scores for the series.

We'll be right back. Kindness and strength. It's

all inside you, Greyskull. I believe I'm going

to gag. DeCien, the superhero webcomic. DeCien's

got superhero antics and sexy girls. For action,

comedy, mayhem, and more, read it now at DeCien

.com. D -A -S -I -E -N .com. Do you like retro

cartoons? Then Saturday Morning Rewind is the

podcast for you. Join them each month as they

talk about classic cartoons and interview legendary

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Rob Paulson, Nancy Cartwright, and many more.

So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms. Put on your hammer

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be prepared to feel like a kid again. Once again,

that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com. Saturday Morning

Rewind was voted best podcast ever by its host,

Tim Nydell. So it's got to be good. Because the

world needs another movie podcast. Radio Network

presents, for your listening pleasure, The Cinema

Geek. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan.

Each week, we dive headfirst in the landscape

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you need to experience The Cinema Geek. You can

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So join TFG1 Mike, Nicole Hailstorm, and myself,

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and geekcastradio .com. We are the truly outrageous

podcast that you want to be listening to. I know

what we're doing today. Okay, Michael, if we're

going to tackle this podcast thing, we've got

to do something really special. It has to be

cool, daily, in audio form, and undetectable

by radar. Something that screams summer. I know,

let's do a Phineas and Ferb review podcast. We'll

call it the Podcast Organization Without a Cool

Acronym, or PALCA for short. What do you think?

I think if we're not careful, Candace is going

to bust us. You can find PALCA on the Geekcast,

Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all

of the other methods you find podcasts. Okay

then, carry on. Thanks for sticking with us.

As we start this, Mike, I want to just go over

some that we had in common and not in common

when it came to episodes. Just finish up a little

bit, talk about that. So if you combine our rankings,

we had four episodes that ranked a five overall.

That would be Snake Pit, which was on my top

five. Rise of the Snake Men Part 2, which was

on my top five. The Price of Deceit. which was

also on my top five, and The Power of Greyskull.

So those were the four that we agreed on as fives.

Lowest episodes would have been Deep End, which

we had the two, and then The Island and Web of

Evil, which we both had at two and a half. We

had one, two, three, four, five episodes that

combined at a 4 .75, two at a 4 .5, three at

4 .25. 7 at 4, about another 7 at 3 .5, and then

3 at 3 .25. So a lot of good rankings in there

overall. Interesting when you look at the writers

a little bit. I didn't realize this going into

it or as we went along the way, but you can see

a distinct difference between the writing team

in the first season and the second season. Oh,

yeah. If you look at the second half of the series,

let's just take, for example, episode 21 on.

So 21 to 39. If you take 21 to 39, there was

only one, two, three, four, basically four writers

that did episode 21 through 39 with one exception.

The one exception would be Michael Halperin did

one episode. But other than that, we had Kevin

Campbell did two. We had Larry Dottilio did three.

Stephen Belching did five. And then Dean Stephan

did the rest. Right. Um, so that's, so if you

look at the second half, you're only looking

at like four or five names. If you look at the

first half outside of the first four episodes,

which were all Dean Stephan, and then he did

one more episode later. And Michael Reeves did

three. Um, Larry Dottilio did two. William Forrest

Cleverius did two. Um, everybody else, or Len

Uli did two and everybody else did one. So we

had a lot more one -offs in the first half, and

that probably makes sense because we had a lot

more episodes that were just about one random

character or something of that nature versus

the continuing story that we seem to get a lot

more in season two. It seemed like those people

that did more episodes, like the Dean Steffens,

the Larry Dottilios, the Stephen Melchings, those

were the ones that had the highest ratings. For

example, Stephen Melching, if you go with our

overall ratings, he did have two threes. But

then he has a 5, a 4 .5, a 5, and a 4 .25. So

that's pretty good. I know Dean Stephan did a

lot of episodes, but we have a 5, 4 .75, 3 times,

4 .25, twice. 4 .5 once, 4 twice. So he had a

lot of good rankings as well. Larry Dottilio

had a 4, a 5, a 4 .75, a 4, and then one 3 .5.

So those seem to be the ones that we liked the

most. And it came to people like Brooke Swachtel,

who only did one episode, which would rank as

a 2. Mark Michael Edens did one that was a 3

.5. Christy Markson and her husband did one that

was a 3. Kevin Campbell only did the two episodes,

and they were a 2 .5 and a 3 .5. So that seemed

to be where we had more of our... low rankings

was people that just didn't do as much with the

series yeah but i just kind of found that interesting

overall when we kind of look at that as far as

some other statistics and things that we wanted

to give you guys um basically i just wanted to

reveal the overall rankings that mike and i had

for this series we never know how this is going

to turn out as we rank these episodes going through

the podcast you know we were ranking them in

time as we're doing it With no thought of what

came before or what came after it. So once we're

all done and we tally it up, it is kind of interesting

to see where we fall. Right. And one of the things

I wanted to point out, I should have pointed

out at the beginning of this episode, we also

do not share our scripts. No. You craft the scripts

for us, but we then put our notes in, our favorite

characters in independently of each other. So

we never know. That's why you get reactions like

Kevin's horrible reaction to me ranking something

high or something low. Beginning part three of

five, which is as it should be. You know, let's

see. Even now, it's ugh. And that's the spontaneity

of it. I think that's cool. I think that's interesting.

I think that's a good way to do it because you

never know. Again, going back to a classic film

trope. Podcasting is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're going to get. Right.

And as you can expect, based on the fact that

I did reveal that Mike had like 12 episodes that

he ranked as a five, you're probably going to

expect that he had the higher overall rating

for this series, which would be true. But it

wasn't off by that much. We're going to just

for math purposes, we're going to round to the

second decimal. So I don't have to go into too

much detail here. But you gave the series overall.

Remember, we're ranking these from zero to five.

Mike's ranking for the 2002 series overall was

a 3 .87. 3 .87. Not quite enough to get into

the fours, but a 3 .87 on a scale of 1 through

5 or 0 through 5 is pretty darn good. Mine, so

you were 3 .87. I, with only six episodes that

I ranked number five, still didn't fall too far

behind you. I was at a 3 .81. Oh. 3 .87 and 3

.81. I had to round up to get to .81 because

I was actually 8 .07, but regardless. So really

only six -tenths of a point difference between

the two of us. And 3 .87 and 3 .81 out of five.

is not a bad rating at all. You should consider

that a 2 .5 to a 3 is an average, so we're up

to almost 4, so that's pretty darn good. That

is our rankings overall for the series. I just

wanted to give you a chance. To give some final

thoughts on this series, I know we've kind of

touched on different things overall, but obviously

we enjoyed the series. But what else did you

want to say that you haven't had a chance to

say about the 2002 series? I've watched it twice

now in the last 10 years. I watched it like right

before we started prepping to do this overall

in -depth. powers of grace golf series podcast

that we've done i you know we were both watching

all of these cartoons with the exception of new

adventures um the three out of the four we were

both watching at the same time just to watch

them because you hadn't even seen 2002 until

i had originally i think i had said something

about the dvds or maybe you got the dvds from

your behind the voice actors people or what i

don't remember how you got it whatever but like

I've watched it twice in the last decade and

I still love it. I still think it's cool. I still

think it's interesting. I still want more out

of it. I know we're not going to get more out

of it, but it's one of my favorites. Yeah, if

you're a fan of continuity, if you're a fan of

more character depth and history, backstory of

characters, and you're a fan of any type of...

you know, in general of He -Man as a franchise,

then you're going to enjoy this series and you

should have already seen it. I guess if I'm going

to be a nitpicky, the only things that you can

find to complain about for me is two things.

Number one, I feel like Skeletor gets put in

the backseat a little bit too much, especially

in the second half of the series. And then the

second thing would be just what we talked about

already, partially to blame probably because

it doesn't get its true and fair ending. So who

knows what they would have had planned. Right.

But obviously hindsight 2020, if we can go back

and rewrite this, you know, armchair quarterback

Monday or Monday afternoon quarterback or Monday

morning quarterback, whatever they call it. We

would have rewritten this to have King his be

the one that was defeated. You know, Hordak would

have been the one that was brought back and we

would have shifted from our snake man story to

Hordak and his minions. fighting with Skeletor

and the evil warriors, fighting with He -Man

and the masters. And then in my opinion, at the

end of the series overall, Skeletor double crosses

Hordak or sides up with He -Man for just a brief

encounter to defeat Hordak and to reestablish

He -Man versus Skeletor. And that's where we

would have ended it. So that's how I would have

done it. But again, they didn't even get the

chance to end it. So who knows what their plan

might have been if they had one. So it's a good

series on it's definitely worth watching. Oh,

absolutely. Yes. So, all right, that is it for

me. I'm going to turn it over to Mike to tell

you all the deets about how you can get in contact

with us and to tease the future of what we're

doing here. All right. So let the teasing commence.

We are, we ain't done folks. Nope. We are completing

the original journey. Episode 124 will be our

film commentary of the 1987 Masters of the Universe

film starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella

as He -Man and Skeletor, respectively. Episode

125, I'm entitling Powers of Greyskull series,

This Was Your Life. This is basically a clip

show. However, we will also be comparing and

contrasting all four. masters of the universe

cartoon series that are out to this point. Yes.

Now I know there is another one that's already

out currently, but again, I'm talking in the

way that we were talking about setting this show

up a decade ago. This show was planned to be

125 episodes. It was planned to be 125 episodes.

We will get there and we will actually surpass

it. I am going to reveal now. in this episode

that we will reach 130 podcasts for now with

the potential to get more with the potential

to get more because 126 to 129 .5 it's the only

way i could get all five seasons in a single

episode it's just a numbering thing folks it's

not a less episode than anything else so 126

to 129 .5, we are going to review the Netflix

She -Ra series season by season. So if you listen

to any of the season stuff that ToonCast has

done, we're going to talk about the entire season,

the characters in each season, the plot lines.

We'll have favorites and least favorites and

that kind of thing. I will try my best not to

be a diva when it comes to this series because

I'll straight up tell you right now. I watched

each of these seasons and I hated the show more

and more as I watched. I dreaded Netflix. Yes.

I watched all of them. Okay. Okay. I watched

four out of the five. I watched the first episode

of season five and then I watched the series

finale in season five. So I haven't seen the

middle part of season five, but I did watch the

first four seasons of Netflix Shira when it came

out. However, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna, Originally,

Kevin was like, oh, let's do this episode, but

I said, nah, no. I will do seasons. We will recover

it, but no, we need to change that up because

there's no... I would basically pull a Kevin...

I'd basically pull a you when you were tired

of Mask. I'd leave. So in order for us to even

do this, he had to concede to do it season by

season. And I just think for the Netflix show,

that's a much better way of doing it. Cause most

of the, most of the seasons out of the five seasons

that there are, they're like 13 episodes each.

And that's not, I don't want. And once we're

done with that, depending, I mean, I, this is

going to. to happen motu cartoon complete series

recap for episode 130 and this is more my thing

than kevin's thing however we're both gonna do

it as long as we both can do it but it also leaves

me open to do it if he's not available I introduced

it with the pull bag eight years ago. I have

now introduced it into our new podcast, Studio

2009. We're going to be introducing it on ToonCast

as well. It is called The Origins Episodes. So

we are going to have people on here. We're going

to talk to you, the fans, you, the listeners,

you, the people that have been... in the Motu

fandom, and we have somewhere between, I think,

25 or 27. We haven't finalized it yet. We have

25 or 27 questions to ask you guys, and we're

basically going to turn the podcast into an interview

show after episode 130 until we finally get some

new He -Man cartoon thing, whether it be Netflix,

whether it be whatever. The Kevin Smith Show.

There's two series that are supposed to be airing

on Netflix. One of them is supposed to be with

Kevin Smith. The other one is not. And if they

ever eventually happen, because COVID threw a

wrench into the mix, we will eventually cover

those. And we will determine how we're going

to cover those at a later date. It might be episode

by episode as they release. It might be season

overarching episodes. We will determine that

later. Depends on how good or bad they are. Well,

if we're doing it episode by episode, we won't

know. That way we can get live reactions as they

air, maybe. Or if they're like Netflix usually

does where they release a season or six episodes

or whatever at a time. That way we'll see. Just

to tease 125 when it comes up because we talked

about we're going to talk about the overall franchises

that we've covered so far and compare and contrast.

Um, just to kind of write the ship, because I

mentioned this numerous times when we were giving

our new adventures episodes that I was not compiling

rankings. I was not totaling rankings. I would

score. Guess what, guys? I lied. I have rectified

that. And when I was doing the Motu 2002 series

rankings, I went back and did the new adventure

ones as well. So we will have our overall ranking

of every series that we have done so far, both

Mike and myself. So that'll be coming in episode

125 as well. 130, actually. 125 is the clip show.

Oh, yeah. Whichever episode, we cover everything.

Right. All right. Anything else, Mike? I think

that's it. All right. Well, take us away, sir.

Will do. Thank you for listening to us as we

are the masters of Grayskull for the last time

in this episode. If you'd like to get in contact

with us or leave feedback for the show, there

are several ways to do so. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com where you can comment on this

and all of our other episode posts from all the

other written stuff, podcast stuff, everything

we do, cinema geeks, talking in circles, altered

geek. Basically any other show that isn't me,

because my shows suck. Here are all the ways

you can listen to us nowadays. Apple and Google

Podcasts, Spotify, and of course the home where

our files exist, Spreaker. You can also use any

other podcatching client you choose, but I prefer

you use those. Leave the show's feedback in iTunes.

Please do this. I actually did just check this

because I was getting the iTunes links for other

promotional purposes. social media stuff. So

people could actually leave us reviews. We currently

do not have any new reviews. Follow us on Twitter

at geek cast. Radio is the network. Twitter at

pow of gray skull is the show Twitter. I am at

TFG and Mike. What is your Twitter? My Twitter

is at Optimus Solo, and if you have comments

about any of the series that we've talked about

so far, now would be a good time to send us that

feedback. Either send a direct message on Twitter,

leave us feedback on iTunes, because we should

be able to include any of that in the clip show

or in the 130 show. We'll try to find a way to

fit it in one of those two episodes, if you leave

it to us in a hurry. Yep. You can also email

us feedback at geekcastradio .com. So there's

that. I got to put that in the, in the, in the,

so there's lots of ways to get in touch with

us. So no excuses for many of you. Absolutely.

Even if there's only one of you out there. Exactly.

I'm looking at you, Tim. Become a fan on Facebook.

Go to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.

We hope you enjoyed the Grayskull goodness today.

I finally fixed that typo. And don't forget to

join us on our next adventure when we will present

you with our commentary on the 1987 Masters of

the Universe live -action film. For now, I am

TFG1 Mike with Optimus Solo. By the power and

for the honor of Grayskull, We have the power.

Then let it be done.