Capture the Comet Keeper, The Ancient Mirror of Avathar, and The Games

It's showtime synergy the latest review podcast

from the geek cast radio network is here So join

TFG one Mike Nicole hailstorm and myself lady

rec as we will be reviewing all 65 episodes of

John the holograms in a 25 episode long podcast

You can find showtime synergy on iTunes and geek

cast radio comm we are the truly outrageous podcast

that you want to be listening to I am Adam, Prince

of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle

Grayskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend.

Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the

day I held aloft my magic sword and said, By

the power of Grayskull! and I became He -Man,

the most powerful man in the universe. Only three

others share this secret. Our friends, the Sorceress,

the Man -at -Arms, and Orko. Together, we defend

Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

There it is, the final game piece. Hello, this

is Optimus Solo and welcome to the 43rd chapter

in Tales of Eternia. With me for this journey

into the Masters of the Universe franchise, as

always, is TFG1 Mike. Are you ready for some

more powers of Greyskull, sir? Yes, but only

if we can go to the Crystal Palace, please not

yet. Not yet soon soon, but not yet. We have

a few Pieces of business. We still got to take

care of we are five episodes to go as far as

reviews So and none of these episodes feature

grayskull in them at all. It's okay It is okay,

but before we get into what we're talking about

today, obviously he man has been in the news

a little bit lately And most recently through

Twitter, somebody involved with the behind the

scenes of the future Masters of the Universe

film tweeted out a concept art image of Battle

Cat that made the rounds and went viral pretty

quickly. What do you think when you saw that

image of Battle Cat? Well, first of all, I...

Every so often and I don't know if this is just

on mine or if it's on everybody's Facebook But

if you look on your just your main page of Facebook,

not your page specifically, but the main Timeline

whatever the hell Under where it says, you know

where it has an ad there It says trending and

it has the first top three things trending and

I looked the other day and I'm like Wait, why

is battle cat trending? What the hell is going

on here? And I looked at it and it looks awesome.

I mean, yeah sure. It's only concept art, but

it it looks great Yeah, I mean it definitely

has a certain feel for it definitely looks Realistic

badass you know almost like a dark tone and definitely

a ferocious battle cat there if that's anywhere

near what they end up going with obviously it's

got some sapia tones to it etc which would not

uh we'd probably be seeing it in full color at

some point but uh yeah definitely has potential

absolutely so definitely something very cool

to see also uh human is is is more in the forefront

than you think um just got back from seeing chappy

at the movie theater, and obviously it was in

a lot of the trailers, but there's a scene where

he turns the TV on. He has a remote in his hands,

and he's learning how to use it, and he hits

power, and the first thing you see on the TV

is the filmation letters. And it goes on to do

the intro to He -Man. And that's just an awesome,

awesome moment. And of course the robot Chappy

is kind of mimicking He -Man when he pulls his

sword out. So that was a cool moment. So He -Man's

all over the place. Great choice by them to include

that in there. Alright, so back to business though

for today. In this episode of Tales of Eternia,

we'll be giving you our thoughts on episode 126,

Capture the Comet Keeper. Episode 127, The Ancient

Mirror of Avatar, and Episode 128, The Games.

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

go back to Eternia. This is my little one, Doodles.

Oh, he's very timid, don't you know? And he sometimes

doesn't do everything I tell him, but he has

a very good heart. Gee, he reminds me of someone.

Yeah, reminds me of you, little buddy. Yeah,

that's right. Maybe we can play sometime. Oh,

you're welcome to play with Doodles any time

you want. Gee, thanks. Maybe we see just a little

more Zagras. Alright, we start today with episode

126. Capture the Comet Keeper written by Robert

Lamb, airdate of Tuesday, December 4th, 1984.

Plot goes something like this. Skeletor orders

Too Bad to capture Zagraz, the Comet Keeper,

so he can force him to direct his comets to destroy

Castle Grayskull. Soon the comets are causing

trouble all over Eternia without Zagraz's direction.

So the bad guys, evil warriors, we have Skeletor

and Too Bad. and for the masters we have the

regulars uh... what do you think about the uh...

the idea that's go to our has here to uh... use

the comments to his advantage and uh... try to

use that to destroy castle grayskull i think

i've seen this in season one the one that for

her good the comment keeper first showed up yeah

except for skeletal wasn't trying to kidnap him

in use the comments that no he but he was trying

to know he was going to use the comet for evil

in that episode as the same thing he's doing

here It's slightly different. No. Yeah. No, not

really. In the original Comet Keeper episode

when we first meet Zagraz, Skeletor has corrupted

one of the comets and is going to use it to blow

open Castle Grayskull. Or he's going to try to.

It's exactly the same. That one specific part

of the plot. I will say that, other than that,

this episode is awesome. Okay. It's slightly

similar, slightly different. I do like the idea

that it's revisiting something from way back

when in season one, coming full circle towards

the end of the series here. I didn't have a problem

with it. Obviously, it gets too bad in there,

which we'll talk about a little bit later. Again,

not a brand new plot idea. Again, like I say,

your broken record here comes down to execution

when it comes to something like this, because

I'm not going to be sold on it completely just

based on the plot. It's going to be how they

execute it and how much fun it is along the way.

So let's see exactly how much fun we had with

this episode and see how many Castle Grayskull

moments we have for episode 126. No, you stop

you don't know what you're doing the comments

the condo will stop please my comments need me

Welcome to snake Mountain. I'm pleased to have

you as my guest Oh, don't give me that. My comets

will go wild without me. You're causing a great

deal of trouble. Don't I always? I want you to

use your comets to help me defeat E -Man and

break into Castle Grayskull. Never! Oh, you must

let me go, for goodness sake. I never, ever do

anything for goodness sake. Everything I do is

for the sake of evil. But there's some good in

everybody. Not in this body. When are you goody

goody fools going to understand? I am completely

and utterly evil. I live to be bad. I care for

no one and no one cares for me. What about your

friend here? Watch your mouth. Yeah, don't ever

call me that. You see, the, uh, that is, he hates

me. But what is more important, he fears. That's

the way I like it! You can trust someone who's

afraid of you! Oh, that's terrible! How can anyone

be as evil as you? Oh, you flatter me, Comet

Keeper! And speaking of comets, you're going

to use yours to help me, or I shall keep you

in my dungeon forever! Alright, it's time for

Castle Grayskull Moments for Capture the Comet

Keeper. What did you like about this episode,

sir? Like everything about this episode and I

have more castle I only have one snake mountain

moment and that's what I already mentioned earlier

in that It's the exact same plot as the cosmic

comet from season one, but for castle grayskull

Skeletor I feel so much better when I do something

bad. Yeah, that's funny I like his explanation

of himself even when Zagras is trying to He's

trying to argue and say oh, no everyone has a

little bit of good in them somewhere Skeletor

not a chance The animation on the flying when

they're in the wind Raider and chasing the comments

those those turns and those what are probably

You know stock animation shots of the wind Raider

turning. I thought that was just excellent Skeletor's

quote again. They say two heads are better than

one. I think they're wrong Okay, so throughout

this entire exchange between He -Man and Skeletor,

that was the PSA, so we don't need a PSA at the

end of this episode, right? Yeah, not really.

I just found it funny that they're hitting us

over the head twice. Skeletor, so many comedic

lines in this episode, and the comet chasing

Skeletor into the mud, that was hilarious. What

about you? What else you got anything? Like I

said, I like the continuity as far as the full

circle moment with Zagros and calling back to

it They even do it in the episode remember the

time or you know, so they they referenced the

other episode. So I like that I always like seeing

too bad. I think he's a cool character Skeletor

I never do anything for goodness sake Like that

And he had some other funny moments when he's

like they I mean He and full evil in this episode

man Skeletor went full evil in this episode.

He was all about how bad he was and how evil

he was and it says in the on the DVD list that

Robert Lamb was actually told by somebody had

filmation that he was going a little too far

and making them too much pure evil and they needed

to calm down a little bit. It's funny when he's

talking to two beds constantly asking him for

directions and at one point someone's coming

towards snake Mountain or whatever in two beds

like would you like me to you know do whatever

and Skeletor kind of makes fun of him a little

sarcasm sarcasm there and of course I want you

to defend snake Mountain like Don't just let

him come right in he's like no open the open

the door for him and let him in you idiot And

then he makes a comment to Zagraz. I don't suppose

you have the same problems with your comets So

and then he also makes fun of two head. I thought

two heads would be better than one So I mean

Skeletor is evil and also funny in this episode

I didn't realize it that every single one of

my greyskull moments are related to Skeletor.

Yeah So that's all I had I really liked Skeletor

in this episode All right. Well, let's make our

way to Snake Mountain and see What there is to

detract from this one? I just love the view from

this balcony. Me, me too. It's so peaceful. Hey,

look. Zockraz must be playing with his comets

again. That's odd. We shouldn't be able to see

them from here. I wonder what's going on. Yes,

Duncan, what is it? I think you better come down

here right away. Something's wrong. I'm in the

lab. I'm on my way. Zagraz's comets are not even

close to where they're supposed to be. That's

what has me worried. There's no telling what

effect these comets may have on the world. Have

you tried calling, Zagraz? Yes, but he doesn't

answer. Maybe you and Teela should fly out to

his mountain. He may be in trouble. Hey, look,

that one's heading for the ocean. Boy, it's a

pretty good thing there are no people out there.

The comet is too near the water. It's causing

a tidal wave. The comets are going all over Eternia.

That tidal wave is only the beginning. Those

comets will start windstorms and avalanches and

who knows what else. Look at all that. Tidal

waves, sandstorms, avalanches. So far, no one's

been hurt. The Comets have wandered into vacant

areas. Oh, no. Oh, no. One of the Comets is heading

this way. Quick! We need He -Man! By the power

of Grayskull! All right, sir, I'm gonna let you

take it away here for Snake Mountain. Capture

the Comet Keepers. What didn't you like? Okay,

again, I'm going to point this out, and no, there

are no differences. The Cosmic Comet, episode

1, directed by Steve Clark, September 30th, 1983.

A comet has turned evil and is working for Skeletor.

He -Man must convince an old wizard named Zagraz

with power over comets to help save Eternia.

There's a difference here, and the main difference

here is that Skeletor has convinced one comet

to be evil in that synopsis. In this one, Skeletor

is not controlling the comets. He's simply taking

the guy who is controlling them out of the equation

and letting them kind of run amok and be chaotic.

But he wants Zagress to control them for him

for evil. He's not taking one comment and controlling

them. He's letting all the comments run loose.

It's a little different when you put semantics

into it with one little wording of a different

phrase, but it's essentially the same damn plot.

Still using the comments. He tried it before.

It didn't work, so he's trying a different angle

with it. He still knows that those are a powerful

item, so let's try it again. What else? What's

that old saying? Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me. You know, 130 episodes

in, you got to try to, you know. You got to repeat

yourself. You don't have to repeat yourself.

You just got to go back to a certain ally or

a certain enemy and say, look, let's try this

again. Maybe we can go about it a different way

and maybe it'll work. Yeah, no. What else didn't

you like? That's it. That's the only thing I

don't like about this episode. All right Well,

that's one more thing than I had because I didn't

have a single snake mountain moment in this episode

I'm not saying it's the best episode of the series

or anything like that I'm not even gonna rate

it as high as I do some episodes But when it

came time to watching it and jotting down stuff

that I didn't like about it I really just didn't

have much so yeah. All right. Let's see exactly

where we fall on this one as far as What rating

are we gonna give it? So let's get to the awards

and ranking segment That's gonna hurt if we fall

in the power swords you might know by the time

I'm with this episode. I don't think so All right

as far as our first episode today who gets some

hardware we running out of Opportunities to give

people hardware Mike who gets one for a capture

the comic keeper I'm gonna give three out. Uh,

yeah. Power Swords to Doodles, Skeletor, and

He -Man. To who? Doodles, the comet. Oh god.

Come on! I didn't even think about that. He chased

him out of his own house and had him land in

mud. Come on now. Yeah, I can see that, somewhat.

I'm gonna give a power sword out to Skeletor

if it wasn't a surprise based off of my Castle

Grey Skull moment, so I will agree with the Skeletor

part. I did not give anything to He -Man or the

actual Comet, though. The reason why I gave a

power sword to He -Man is he has a few good lines

against Skeletor. Even though Skeletor has the

better comedic lines, He -Man does have a few

quips in there. Yeah, fair enough. As for ratings

go, like I said, I made it sound like this is

gonna be like a five or something because I had

all kinds of good things and nothing bad to say

about it. I don't think it's quite like that.

Like I said, it is somewhat of a recycled plot

and I didn't find it as entertaining as I could

have, especially from the master's standpoint.

To me, mostly entertainment came between Skeletor

and Too Bad, so I'm gonna give this one a four

out of five. I'm going to give it 4 .5. If it

wasn't for the recycled plot, it would have gotten

a 5. You're on a streak there. Three episodes

in a row, four, five, and four and a half. Excellent.

Well, let's see if that streak can continue as

we get to episode 127x. Uh, no. I don't think

so. Well, madam, everyone and everything is on

board. Well, except Mossman. He should have been

here by now. What is that? Good you made it.

I got tired of waiting and took a nap. That seaweed

is Mossman? Yes. Whenever Mossman goes to sleep,

he changes into whatever plants are nearby. In

this case, seaweed. Mossman, meet Malakva. He's

our archaeologist. Well, glad to know you. Oh,

please excuse me. I'm always leaving bits of

me everywhere. All right, you stragglers, jump

to it. Now, come on. Let me show you the ship.

Now, you pay attention, Opie. This is very, very

important. I'm listening, Father. Good. Now this

panel is the Beacon Rotational Control. Tell

me what it does. The BRC controls the beacon's

turning or rotation. It monitors the speed and

direction and tells us if the beacon stops turning.

And what else? The control can be used to stop

the beacon in emergencies to aid a ship in trouble.

Father, I don't see why I have to learn all this

stuff. Most of these machines are unautomatic

and we never have emergencies. Only because I

have kept this beacon working all these years.

Machines need repair and maintenance from time

to time. But it's so boring. Check this, check

that. Look at the weather report. Nothing ever

happens. Not every job is exciting, son. Most

jobs are quite ordinary, but they're still important.

Alright, up next is episode 127, The Ancient

Mirror of Amathar, also written by Robert Lamb.

Airdate of Wednesday, December 5th, 1984, Prince

Adam, Malacta, and Mossman board the Fairwind

on an expedition to the ancient island continent

of Amathar. But Trapjaw is also on board, disguised

as a sailor slash pirate. So the bad guys, Skeletor

is mentioned, otherwise we see Evil Lin, Trapjaw,

and Too Bad. Masters is just Prince Adam, He

-Man, and Mossman. and the PSA is he -man about

boring jobs that seem unimportant still being

important and some stuff like that. A little

bit of trivia here. The story started life as

a freelance script titled Angus Og, Lighthouse

Keeper, which Robert Lamb heavily rewrote to

work in the context of the series. He put in

so much exposition about the history of Eternia

that the story became a two -parter. But... When

the filmation heads realized the series was coming

to an end, the decision was made to keep it as

one part. Thank God. So that's kind of explained

some stuff as far as why it might seem like a

lot of stuff is trying to be crammed into one

episode because originally there was a lot of

history of Eternia, a lot more interesting backstory

probably that all kind of got shoved into one

episode. So what do you think about this whole

idea of this ancient area? Of avatar and the

continent that they're trying to explore with

malacta and moss man and then trying to retrieve

artifacts, etc. I Feel like we've gone back To

the treasure hunting days of venom at this point.

Yeah, I don't mind it though because we don't

get it a lot well yeah i know and i know you're

one of those types of people that you love the

treasure hunting stuff and i get that but it's

just one of those things where this is the fourth

to last episode of the series Want a he -man

Skeletor battle damn it, and I'm not getting

it. I know I'm not getting it I want a big friggin

battle. I don't want these little one -off stories

I'm so glad this wasn't a two -parter because

there would be no point in This episode with

the way that it exists now that you could split

it like there's no cliffhanger in here There's

yeah, but you don't know what it was before they

started I know and I understand that and I you

know I get that but I'm saying like as is even

on when they go to the, you know, they do the

commercial cliffhanger kind of thing. There's

nowhere in this where you could have broken it

up and then said, you know, come back tomorrow

or come back next week for. Part two would just

I don't mind the idea of the sense that you haven't

overdone it a lot But you know, this is the first

we're ever hearing of avatar and it's you know

X number of episodes and I do like that They're

bringing malact but in to be a part of it since

it is kind of more of like an archaeology You

know that type of storyline So I don't mind that

part of it You know, there's nothing like super

Spectacular exciting about the plot, but it is,

you know, well, we're gonna go venture on here

We haven't seen human, you know on the seas very

much in a ship or you know Kind of traveling

away to something like that also presents some

dilemmas as far as Adam turning into human and

vice versa But I'm not I'm not against the plot.

I'm not super excited about it, but I'm not against

it So kind of similar to last episode it's gonna

come down to the execution and this is exciting

or interesting or fun and adventurous along the

way or not, so I mean, out of the 130 episodes,

to this point, we've had three episodes where

He -Man has been on the sea or been in a boat

or something. Nothing like this, where he's traveling

from a dock to a mysterious island. But there

have been several episodes where, you know, it

was set on the sea. And because this is set on

the sea, why the frig does... Don't get me wrong,

I love Trapjaw. Why the frig does Trapjaw have

to be... the villain disguised on a boat. Why

couldn't it be, you know, Merman under the boat

trying to dissuade them? I would have been fine

with Trabzell being the one on the boat and trying

to disguise himself as a sailor if Merman was

the one, you know, in the distance or underneath.

But that's what I'm saying. That's like. You

know, you said this one isn't too exciting, but

it isn't completely boring either, but it's one

of those things where, for me, it would have

made it more exciting if, because this takes

place on the sea and Merman says he's king of

the seas, it would have made it a hell of a lot

better if he was in this episode. Yeah, I can

agree with that. It would have been a good time

to have Merman in here. I'm not going to fault

it for not having Merman, but it was a missed

opportunity of sorts, so I can see that. I would

have liked to see what this script was originally

when it was a two -parter so I could judge it

based on that instead of the hacked up version

that we end up getting. But I do think there

are some good moments about this episode, so

let's make our way to Castle Grayskull so I can

tell you what they are. Alright, Castle Grayskull

is here, and what do you have good to say about

the Ancient Mirror of Avatar? Moss man yay landing

on moss man is much better than hitting the ground.

That's true I Will say also as a third moment

now that I think about it It was kind of cool

seeing how moss man's powers work and seeing

him slither and change and do all that kind of

stuff I thought that was really cool other than

that I have so many more snake mountain moments

than Castle Grayskull moments. Well, I am the

opposite. I have more Castle Grayskull moments,

so let's begin with that. Like I said, I like

the Malacta continuity that we have him. He's

still an archaeologist. He's still, you know,

doing that thing. Mossman reappearing is awesome.

I wasn't expecting that. They definitely have

been giving me one of the things I asked for

as far as seeing more of the Masters and Warriors

that I hadn't seen. Got two bad now, two episodes

in a row. We get Mossman, and Mossman was great

in this episode. I know we'd seen him before,

but this is probably his best episode. We get

to see more of his abilities, and he does a lot

more, which I think is very interesting. Trapjaw

the Pirate, I thought that was somewhat funny.

I can't picture anybody else pulling that off

in the Evil Warrior horde, so see what I did

there. But Trapjaw I think is a good choice for

that, even though I still wish Merman would have

been somewhere calling the shots in the distance.

I think it's a good lesson about jobs being important.

And how, you know, it's something we haven't

got as much from the kids Lesson moral segment

as far as you know, it might seem not in this

it might seem boring But that doesn't mean it's

not important to some bigger factor A lot of

backstory here. Like I said, I wish I would have

got to see the whole picture of that but I do

like that the writer acknowledges that they are

out on sea and That there's really not gonna

be an explanation if he man is there at one point.

So he makes a point to one at one point in the

episode where Adam needs to change to He -Man.

He changes to He -Man, does something, and then

super quickly changes right back to Adam. So

that, you know, we don't have to deal with the

fact that there's no explanation for why He -Man

would suddenly be on the ship. So I like that

he did that at that point. I thought it took

a little thought from the writer as far as doing

that. But yeah, I mean, I think there was some

good things to like about this episode, especially

Moss Man, so. Maybe like this episode a tiny

tiny bit more than you did, but again, I think

there's some As far as the re -editing of the

two -parter down into one that always causes

some complications So alright, let's see what

everything you have to say when we make our way

to snake Mountain Imagine all we could learn

about this ancient civilization from this mirror.

I can't wait to get this mirror back to the palace.

I could spend the rest of my life just researching

Avatar's past with it. Mossman, would you please

start packing up the treasures in the other chamber?

Be happy to. I'll give you a hand with that mirror.

All right, we've arrived at Snake Mountain for

Mike to get on his soapbox and tell us everything

that's wrong with the ancient mirror of Avatar.

Hey, now you've gotten on your soapbox. I know,

so now it's your turn. Go ahead. Inform us. That

was a boy. I thought it was a girl until the

father called him son. Damn girly voices. And

since when are there leprechauns on Eternia?

I mean, I mean Irish people. How the hell is

that even a disguise? Come on, Trapjaw, you can

do better than that. I liked it. Come on, that

was the worst pirate disguise ever. Um, there

are switches in that place, really? There are

just lights, you know, random looking switch?

Uh, give me a break. Yet another kid wanting

to just shuck his responsibilities. This series

is almost over. Couldn't they have dropped this

type of storytelling like 20 episodes ago? Seriously,

water got into the lighthouse, really? Because

the kid wasn't watch this? We'll stretch there.

So glad this was not a two parter, so damn boring.

Wait, the kid's name is Opie, really? Andy Taylor's

son is way better than this kid. The episode

had no plot whatsoever other than teaching the

kid a lesson and the villains do nothing. They

don't do anything at all. How'd you really feel

I just told you what about you um I have some

major problems with this episode actually Outside

of the annoying kid which we've gotten away from

it seemed like for a little while But yeah annoying

kid making a reappearance before the show is

over How are they expecting to get that mirror

out? I? Don't know I get in there, and they're

just like oh, let's grab everything and get out

of here, but like I Didn't understand what the

physics was behind that and does trap John know

he man's identity now Apparently so because they

didn't really I don't know My biggest problem

though with this entire Episode is Malak that

is supposed to be this archaeologists character.

He's supposed to be super smart You know an educated

and intelligent individual Apparently not how

is he not smart enough to understand moss man's

powers Like they could they even explain it to

him at one point Somewhat as to why moss man

can do things or what he can do But he still

spends half of the episode questioning moss man

and saying oh you can't do that or that's not

that won't work or I don't believe you that type

of stuff like it just made him come across as

not a smart person at all Like if you're an educated

person in your your you see this character That's

completely made up moss and he's you know coming

out of his disguise And he's you know speaking

to the moss and having them do this that and

the other I don't understand why he doesn't get

on, you know, understand it at that point. He

continues to question Mossman's powers over and

over again. I just didn't get it. So that was

my most striking problem with the episode, so.

Like I said, Lackler should be smarter than that,

so. Let's get to awards and rankings and see

how far we drop from the last episode. It's gonna

be pretty far and pretty fast. All right, it's

awards and rankings for the ancient mirror of

avatar first What do you got hardware to give

out? I'm gonna give a power sword to moss man

since it's his last appearance and he pretty

much is pretty awesome in this one Other than

that I'll give a havoc staff to the kid because

all the kids in this series deserve havoc staffs

That could go down a very bad path if we follow

that train of logic Well process with the exception

of the star child maybe but um all right Yeah,

I was not a big fan of moss man as far as my

memory served you know going into this I wasn't

like oh moss man He's one of my favorite characters

anything. He's kind of like a throwaway character

to me like I didn't really know much about him

I remember the toy I remember what he looked

like, but I was always just kind of like eh whatevs

But I actually liked moss man in this episode

if if there was more episodes like this. I probably

would have Become a fan of his because I definitely

enjoyed him. So I'm gonna give him a power sword

as well for this episode So you gave the last

episode a four and a half orko out of five. What

are you doing for ancient mirror of avatar? Zero

point five it only gets a point five because

of moss man ouch I did not think it was that

bad Yikes. Like I said, I had some problems with

it. I have some story issues with it and some

interest levels that weren't high enough for

me. So I went down to a three on this one. Loses

some points from a lack that being retarded for

some of the physics not to work for them letting

He -Man apparently give his identity to Trapjaw

Had potential so I'm not gonna give it a terrible

score and there were some things I liked about

it, especially Mossman So I'm sticking with a

three. I'm not going as far down as you did so

Alright, so Mossman must have shielded the blow

with that episode a little bit for me We'll see

how we end today as we make our way to episode

128 entitled the games Looks like you're getting

the whole tour, Fisto. Yes, He -Man promised

if I ever came to the palace I would be well

treated, but I had no idea. I never thought I'd

see the day when Cringer would willingly run

anywhere. And you still haven't. Ready, set,

three, two, one, go! But they aren't moving.

When does the race start? It already has. The

race is to see who can do nothing the longest.

You see, they can't move, blink, or make any

visible motion. The first one who does loses.

And I always win. You do not? Oh, you lose again,

Cringe. I -I -I -I lost? But how? When you talked,

your lips moved. And if you move, you lose. B

-b -b -but Orko talked first, so his lips moved

too. Yeah, but with Orko, how can you tell? I

hate to say it, Adam, but you've got a point.

Excellent race, Prince Adam. Would you not agree,

Man -at -Arms? Yes, Fisto. Man -at -Arms? What's

that? It's a ship. Oh, it's big! And it's coming

in fast. I wonder what it wants. Well, whatever

it wants, I think we're about to find out. People

of Eternia, hear us. We are the Vendari, seekers

of truth. We come to you with a problem. Where

we come from, there is no evil, only good. But

here, the powers you call good and evil are eternally

in conflict. Boy, he can say that again. We wish

to understand the difference between good and

evil. Therefore we have arranged for a test,

a game, that will help us understand. We shall

search among the most powerful representatives

of good and evil, and they shall be asked to

compete in a game to see which is greater. We

shall make our choices tomorrow at midday. Alright,

it is time for the last episode today, episode

128 of the games, written by... Another one by

J. Michael Zyrzynski, aired 8 Thursday, December

6, 1984. So we almost got our human versus skeletor

showdown here that you are looking for We're

bad guys in this one our skeletor spike or beast

man and merman in his final appearance and the

Masters we have all the regs plus Fisto making

a reappearance and the PSA is about man -at -arms

with the value of trying and don't give up and

you know Keep on keeping on kind of thing if

you don't succeed at first try try again type

Scenario so the games what did I'm gonna go first

actually? This is the closest we ever came in

128 episodes to getting a plot that literally

is something almost taken out of Star Trek The

Next Generation What I mean by that is this is

the type of storytelling that Star Trek did really

well Where they would have an alien race come

in that was trying to examine humans or trying

to examine different races Trying to learn about

morality or this that and the other And I really

enjoy that type of that type of scenario where

it's you know a completely foreign group and

they're trying to learn about Eternia or about

you know, what makes good good what makes evil

evil, you know? different things like that. Give

us your best examples and let's see what happens

with it. So I love the plot setup. Again, that

doesn't go into execution, that doesn't go into

how well they do it or how poorly they do it

or if it's exciting or if it's funny or if it's

boring, et cetera. But from just a purely plot

standpoint, I was 100 % behind this one. What

about you? Nope, not again. The second episode

of the day that has a reused plot. Pretty much

the exact same thing as what happened in One

of the other game master or whatever the hell

it was plots from season one or hell It might

have even been earlier in this season I'm trying

to find it as I speak this but it's one of those

things where as I've already said today You know

we're five episodes left they could have done

so much better this season two is just turning

to shit for me, honestly Disagree with that big

time. How can you say it's turning into shit

for you when you've rated? This is the last four

episodes you've rated above a four This is the

exact same plot as a previous episode Yes, it

is. Yes. It is the one where The alien was talking

to randor and said oh, I want to learn so much

about your planet I want to learn about good

and evil, and I'm gonna have a contest and blabby

blah blah blah It's not it wasn't someone where

they picked out the strongest evil evil and yes

person Yes, it was two people and had them sued

against each other. Yep. It was he man and Skeletor

What episode are you talking about? I'm trying

to find it well you need to figure it out because

I don't ever remember seeing something that was

quite done at this angle There was a there's

been episodes where alien has has come down and

wanted to learn about them But there wasn't give

me your most evil warrior. Give me your greatest

good guy and let's see Yes, there was Yes, I

know I remember this is there was you keep trying

to find that but from a plot standpoint Like

I said a hundred percent behind this something

straight out of like a science fiction TV series

like Star Trek Love the idea of examining ourselves

through the eyes of an alien entity Especially

one that's not ever seen and it's just kind of

like the voiceover type thing So again, I'm not

saying if I like the execution or not or how

I'm gonna rate this episode But based purely

on what the plot was setting up 100 % 100 % behind

it So he'll do your research as we take a break

and make our way to Castle Grayskull to see how

the execution went and if it lives up to the

actual plot Uh -oh! I made the evil geyser for

myself, but then I found that it may have certain

unforeseen dangers. On second thought, it's not

my kind of invention after all. Mine either.

Ah, a volunteer! Congratulations, Spy Corps!

And good luck. You're going to need it! Alright

we're back and we're at castle grayskull but

before we go too far into it we have some some

business to clear up here was referencing the

last segment of the episode the arena from season

two. Episode 16 of season 2 I'm gonna read the

synopsis and I'm gonna tell tell you why you're

wrong Mike The synopsis as man -at -arms has

made contact with an immensely powerful yet peaceful

alien being known as ohm When King randor and

his subjects welcome home to eternal Skeletor

attacks with the help of general totterin and

his goblin army during the mighty battle Ohm

decides to pit one warrior from each side against

each other and ends up choosing he man to face

Skeletor Here's the difference. All right, the

major major difference is This was an alien that

was all about peace. He was an alien that was

all about peace. What happened was he is observing

a battle that he can't understand. He can't wrap

his brain around. Hold on. Let me finish. Let

me finish. Let me finish. he's he's figuring

he's trying to figure out what's going on with

this battle he's against it because he's a peaceful

alien and what he does is he comes up with a

way to solve the battle problem and instead of

letting everybody fight he says let's just have

these two individuals fight and that can determine

who wins this war and we don't need to do this

violence we don't need to have this battle that

was not about good versus evil that was about

peace versus Fighting that was about war versus

peace and that was a no a way to avoid the battle

and have these guys fight So we can determine

a winner in the episode that we're talking about

right now at the game We're talking about not

a peaceful alien. We're just talking about an

alien that wants to learn about good and evil

and they've pick the best good person and the

best evil person to figure out what kind of tactics

they would use to try to get the one -ups on

each other. Will they stick to honor? What morals

and ethics do they have? It's a completely different

type. I understand that it's still pitting two

people against each other, but that is where

the similarities end. One is about peace and

war, and this one is about good and evil. Yeah,

so I mean it's a definitely a stark difference.

I mean, yes They are choosing two individuals

to face off each other in order to learn about

them. So there are some similarities There's

an alien being and there's a face -off between

two individuals But as far as the motives behind

it and what they're trying to learn out of it

and why they're putting them against each other

Completely different this one With human and

skeletal or the arena They're literally fighting

each other to try to decide who wins a battle

and they're actually physically fighting each

other in the games It's it's they're not fighting

each other. They're going after these objects.

They're trying to go after a goal So number one,

they're not fighting each other because it's

not about fighting It's about if we have this

goal and you have good morals that you're living

by and you have evil morals that you're living

by How are you gonna come up with with achieving

that goal? And how are you gonna deal with the

other person that's doing it maybe from a different

stance? point so there's a lot of differences

in these two episodes all right I understand

that they're similar in some ways but not when

it comes to the heart of it as far as Castle

Grayskull moments what did you like about this

episode honestly nothing oh come on nothing honestly

like I mean The spike or falling was the was

the funniest moment for me. All right. Well,

I liked Fisto being in here All right, get a

Fisto appearance again. We asked for certain

things about ten episodes ago. We asked for stable

writers that aren't just one -off writers and

we asked for more outside of the normal villains

and good people. We've gotten a lot of that since

then. We've gotten a lot of the same writers

and we've gotten a lot of new characters or repeat

characters. We got Too Bad for two episodes this

week. We got Moss Man. Now this episode we have

Spike Gore and Fisto. We've gotten a lot of repeat

writers. I love Fisto being in this. I love that

Merman was in this. Love that it was like I said

a Star Trek style story. I like the idea that

there's these games or trials It's not just a

fight between two people. It's this trial that

they have to go after And collect points etc.

I thought that was cool thought also an interesting

take that it's not Skeletor and human that there

was there was a way to Have two different people.

It's not just your typical. Oh he man Skeletor,

so I like that even if It had the cool element

of Heyman eventually tagging in like a tag team

in the WWE here He man got the tag and got to

come in. I thought there was a lot to like about

this episode. I I can't believe you didn't have

anything written down I'm not rating this episode

super high. I'm gonna give that away right now

I do think there's some some parts that are bad

about this but to say there's nothing good. Come

on, man No Tim will once again agree with me

because I'm right, so let's make our way to Snake

Mountain to see what the heck Mike's talking

about unless he just recycles his old this has

been done before argument. Wait a minute. Practice

isn't over yet. Yes, but I... Ah, there you are,

my friends. I wanted to say goodbye before I

left for my forest. And we'd better say goodbye

if I'm to turn into He -Man in time for the Bandari

to make their choice. Oh, no, you don't. You're

not going anywhere until you say goodbye to Fisto

and we finish our practice. Look! The Vendari!

Now they go to find He -Man. Somehow I don't

think they're going to find him. What? I'm glowing!

You have been chosen by the Vendari to represent

good on eternity. But He -Man is the logical

choice! Our equipment cannot locate this He -Man.

You are our choice. Do you accept it? Yes, I

am. Honored. And now, to choose your opponent.

It's time! The Mendari are about to make their

decision! Now, to activate the Evil -gizer! There,

that's it! It's working! It worked! You have

been selected to represent evil on Eternia. Alright,

it's time for Mike to get on his soapbox and

give us all the different reasons, not just one,

all the different reasons why this episode was

not good. Okay, I know it didn't happen yet,

but Jesus Christ, an evil -gizer, Megatron did

it better in Heavy Metal War. Get off the Transformers

train. Well, of course evil has no rules, otherwise

they wouldn't be evil, you dumbass. Oh, there's

evil that has rules. There's there's unwritten

rules and codes and and honor and different things

among among the thieves sometimes Spike or is

so like the last half of the episode every every

time spike or opens his mouth So annoying where

the hell is trap jar or triclops or merman or

hell even whiplash? Anyone would be better than

spike or in this You you say the same thing about

whiplash and now you're saying that you'd rather

have whiplash. Yep, pretty much wrong with spike

or No, just no, that's it Yep, that's why you

hated this episode so much because spiker was

annoying that and the recycle. Oh my god continual

recycle continual It's completely fucking different

All right, the the little lights for me in this

one, there's some wonky animation on the evil

warriors I don't like all the Looney Tune gags

in this one. They do funky stuff with the animation

to make them stretch and do different things.

So I just thought the animation wasn't consistent

with what we've seen for the rest of the series

and I don't like when they do that. And then

my only other question is, what is Skeletor doing

that whole time? He keeps checking in and he's

monitoring the battles and whatnot, but what

is he in that driller exactly doing? What is

the purpose of that? It's just like and we'll

go to skeletor underground drilling through the

dirt For apparently no reason I maybe I missed

something maybe I fell asleep for a second But

I wasn't sure why skeletor was doing that or

what the purpose was For the whole time like

merman is out there and beastman or whoever is

out there like trying to help Spike or do different

things and meanwhile skeletor is just drilling

drilling through the planet Maybe it was all

the diversion. He was doing other things while

this whole thing was going on That we never got

to I'm not sure but basically just the animation

being wonky is probably the biggest thing being

the biggest problem of this episode, but otherwise

a decently entertaining episode overall So all

right regardless of what Mike's thinks Please

make sure guys that you go to the website and

let him know why this is not a recycled plotline

Two similarities does not make it a recycle plotline,

but let's get to the awards and rankings and

see what kind of idiotic rating Mike gives us

one. All right, it's awards and rankings time

as things have got heated here during the games

Obviously, I am fighting for the side of good

and Mike is fighting for the side of evil He's

been evil jazzed. Like he said earlier by Megatron

and Skeletor and all kinds of other people So

what kind of hardware do you have to give out

for the game, sir? Havoc stack staff to strasinski

for using the same damn plot Not the same plot

what part of my explanation. Did you not understand?

No, I understood it. I just don't agree with

it because it is the exact Don't say the word

exact when it's not exactly isn't it isn't them

fighting each other. It's not about the others

in war, you know Well, yeah, but it's still two

people going for a goal. It's the same anytime

two people go from a goal That should be eliminated.

That should be used. Okay. This is episode They've

used it one other time in 130 episodes. They

used it where they paired off two people against

each other So therefore that is recycled and

reused and can't be done again They used it 47

episodes ago from now I'm gonna I'm gonna go

back and get some of the arguments you've made

on these series and then I'm gonna I'm gonna

remember that I'm gonna write them down and I'm

gonna use them against you if we ever do really

Transformers or this that and the other because

come on man just because two people are pitted

off against each other They're never allowed

to do that like no but this felt like the exact

same episode that we saw before I was watching

watching back to back All right, what kind of

reading do you give it? Alright, well I'll give

it a more appropriate rating and give it three

and a half battle cats out of five Not not great

like I'm not trying to make it sound like it's

a five or a four star episode, but it's nowhere

near a zero It's the middle of the road which

to me was slightly better than average, so I'm

gonna give it a three and a half Good lord good

night Alright, we're gonna take a quick break

to let Mike find the rest of his brain And we'll

be right back with our thoughts as we wind down

to our final two episodes next episode Some people

think the only way to solve a difference is to

fight. Skeletor, for example. His answer to every

problem is fight. He doesn't care who's right

or wrong. He thinks that might makes right. Well,

it doesn't. He -Man knows that. Even with all

his power, he always tries to avoid fighting.

Fighting doesn't solve problems. Fighting only

makes more problems. See you soon. This is the

worst day of my life! We've told the tales of

Eternia, now we head to a different dimension

to explore the Myths of Etherea. Join Optimus

Solo and TF2 on Mike as they continue their Mo

-2 journey by exploring She -Ra, Princess of

Power, 35 podcast episodes covering the entire

run of She -Ra the Christmas Special, and more.

You can find Myths of Etherea on iTunes and www

.geekcastradio .com. For the honor of Grayskull,

we all have the power. Have you ever had a job

to do you thought was boring and unimportant?

We all have. Opie did. But no job is unimportant.

Opie learned that if he'd done the little jobs

his father gave him, things would not have gone

wrong. So remember, any job worth doing is worth

doing well, no matter how dull it may seem at

the time. Bye for now. So let's say you're looking

for a podcast of your favorite 80s comic books,

G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man,

etc. Where are you going to go to find this?

Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast. I'm your host

Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right everybody,

we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast called

Star Joe's Podcast where we talk about your favorite

comic books, your favorite toys of all the 80s

properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

M .A .S .K., Thundercats, Voltron, you name it,

we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we will cover

it at some point. Yes, so what you want to do

to find us, you can go to iTunes, you can go

to www .starjoes .com, and remember, the Force

will be with you, because knowing us is half

the battle. Today we learned about the value

of trying, even when the odds are against you.

Sometimes when people around us aren't playing

by the rules or the job seems too big, it's easy

to become discouraged. But that's when you really

have to stick with it and keep trying, because

that's how winners are born. So whether you're

playing a game or doing your schoolwork, no matter

how far behind you think you are, don't give

up. Remember, you can't win if you don't try.

See you next time. Hey, I'm Gary. I'm Mike. I'm

Chuck. And I'm Justin. Join the four of us every

week on the internet's number one and longest

-running GI Joe podcast, What's On Joe Mind?

It's Joe news, reviews, and interviews like you've

never heard them before, delivered right to your

MP3 player. Our guests include Jason Marsden,

Kevin Michael Richardson, and Matt Yang King

from GI Joe Renegades, Larry Hama, Robert Adkins,

and John Barber from IDW Publishing, and many

more from around the online Joe community. Yeah,

it's guys talking about Joe. Think of it as Joe

Talk meets Sports Talk. And we make fun of Chuck.

Right, and we, hey, again? Come on, Chuck, we're

just kidding, kinda. Sometimes Chuck makes fun

of himself. Right, and we, okay, seriously, this

is just getting ridiculous now. It's What's On

Joe Mind, every week on the Geekcast Radio Network.

Inside Pulse .com, Stitcher Smart Radio, and

iTunes. Download and listen today. I suppose

I still can't say something about Transformers,

can I? Come on, man. Good grief. What about sports?

Yeah, that's alright. Yeah, you're wrong. I think

about ruling all Eternia more than I think about

fighting. Fighting is a close second. You think

you must fight to get your way. Fighting is no

way to solve differences. I think it is. That's

why you'll lose. Wanna bet? As long as I'm around,

I will not let you do evil. You meddlesome muscle

man! Now what, more trouble? Wonder what that

could be. Zagraz, what's the matter? Why, why,

it's Doodles, don't you know? He made it over

to this side of Eternia and he's coming this

way. Is this one of your tricks? No, no, I can't

do anything when I'm bound. Release Zagraz so

he can stop the comets. I don't need his help

to stop one measly comet! I'll do it myself!

Alright, thanks for sticking with us, and that

means there's only two episodes remaining for

He -Man and the Master of the Universe from 1980,

so we're down to our final two episodes of this

part of the podcast. We'll have our next episode

where we cover the last two episodes, and then

we'll have our look back at the entire series.

We have two episodes left. There's really not

much that you can say as far as things You're

gonna look for or whatever they only have two

opportunities to give us anything with to save

the creatures in the cold zone coming up but

uh... you you've got a good a good run there

for a while uh... uh... five five four four and

a half a five a four four four five a four and

a half also you're given a half point and a zero

is that just so you're just going out you've

you've had enough so no i know it's not just

that i'm tired of the series i watch these episodes

Nothing about them made me happy nothing about

them. No, I'm serious I mean, there's a couple

of things, you know in you know, I gave well

I gave a four and a half to the first one that

one was really enjoyable the other two here today

it was just He man in the Masters of the universe

is going out with a whimper in my personal opinion.

It really really is First of all, I was expecting

Lots of more triclops. I was expecting first

where the fuck is stink or? Remember stink or

being a toy as a kid. He's not in here at all.

No, he's just a toy, you know Where the hell

of the damn snake man? Where's tongue lash or

where's where's King Hiss? Where's all that stuff?

Like I serious like I'm wondering what the hell

I was doing in 1985 toys, man I'm serious over

all the different characters that are only toys

or that didn't appear No, and I I know we will

but I'm not trying to sit here and list them

all I'm just saying that After you know, we're

coming down to the wire like you said next week

We got two episodes left and it's like I was

expecting so much more out of season two than

we got Yes, we got a lot of really cool things

We also get a lot of really shitty things and

as it's winding down It's the series is going

out with a whimper in my opinion. I disagree

I haven't I haven't given anything a low rating

since Beauty and the Beast back at episode 17

So I've given 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 Episode

straight higher than three except for the toy

maker. I only give it two so I mean, I think

it's been strong You know, you can't obviously

we don't know which characters were in plans

to be in episodes going into season three If

they would have had one or you know What toys

were released later on that would have been turned

into characters that would have been in the series?

Actually think it was going we'll get into next

episode, but I don't think this series goes out

with a whimper by any means But I can understand

you know I didn't have great radiance for the

ancient mirror avatar or the games I give a three

and three and a half So I'm not necessarily saying

they're great episodes, but I'm but I disagree

with the series going out with a whimper I don't

think that's the case, but We'll have to see

exactly how it goes out when we get to our next

two episodes as we wind down the series once

and for all. But you'll have to wait until then

to hear how exactly we think the series goes

out literally. Thank you for listening to the

Tales of Eternia. If you'd like to get in contact

with us to leave feedback for this 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. Send email

to feedback at geekcastradio .com, put in the

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do this. Follow us on Twitter, at geekcastradio

is the network Twitter. Mine is dfgwmike, what

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If you guys wanna call and leave us voicemails,

we need them before March 15th. So you got one

week to give us voicemails to put into episode

45, which is the overall recap. We hope you enjoyed

the tales today and don't forget to join us on

our next adventure when we'll conclude this season

2 and the series discussing episodes 129 and

130 to save the creatures in the cold zone. For

now, I am TF2 Unmiked with... The one and only

and always right, Optimus Solo. Always wrong,

Optimus Solo. By the power and for the honor

of Grayskull, we all have the power.