Season 1 Recap: Ratings, Best Episodes, and Writer Analysis

What do we have here? It's Castle Grayskull!

And it's mine! Not so fast, Beastman! He -Man!

You can pit He -Man against Beastman, playing

for the power of Castle Grayskull. You have to

put the castle together. Beastman's escaping!

The throne, Dad! Dad, you saved the castle! Castle

Grayskull, from the Masters of the Universe collection.

He -Man and Beastman, each sold separately. From

Mattel. Prince of Eternia, 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! Hello, this

is Optimus Solo and welcome to the 22nd chapter

of Tales of Eternia. With me for this journey

into the Masters of the Universe franchise, as

always, is TFG and Mike. Hello? Yay, season one

is finally over. Well, that's one way to look

at it. Alright, let's stay optimistic here. No,

just kidding. Are you ready for Powers of Grayskull,

sir? Yes, I'm ready for Season 1 to be done.

Alright, well in this episode of Tales of Eternia,

we'll be giving you our thoughts on Episode 64,

Golden Disk of Knowledge, and the final episode

of Season 1, Episode 65, The Heart of a Giant,

as well as a look back on Season 1. We'll break

down some statistics, look back at episode ratings.

Power Swords, Havoc Staffs, and a quick look

ahead to Season 2. So hopefully you'll remember

all of that because it's time to go back to Eternia.

from here in Castle Grayskull. Something is wrong

here at the castle. I dare not take the form

of Zoa the Falcon in order to summon you in person.

You must come to Grayskull at once, as he manned.

I'm on my way, Cerberus. By the power of Grayskull!

We start today with Thursday, December 1st, 1983.

Yes, the first December issue of 1983 here. And

we're starting with episode 64, the Golden Disk

of Knowledge, which teleplay from David Wise.

There was also another writer listed on there,

but who cares? All right. And David Wise, obviously

he was involved with about six or seven episodes

before this. In the plot for the Golden Disk

of Knowledge goes something like this. At Castle

Grayskull, the sorceress is disturbed by strange

images, as well as a drawbridge that seems to

be spazzing out. He -Man, Battle Cat, and Orko

discover Xanthor is responsible, a criminal banished

to the Phantom Zone. Zodak attempts to pass judgment

on Xanthor, but He -Man decides that if Xanthor

truly does want to make amends, then he will

accompany him on his mission. The mission at

Snake Mountain, the heroes find the vault where

the disc, the golden disc of knowledge, should

be located, but they only find fake discs. Skeletor

appears before them and they are captured. As

Xanthor escapes and claims the real disc, Skeletor

tempts Xanthor to do evil once more. For bad

guys we have Skeletor, as well as a quick shot

of Beastman, Evelyn, and Trapjaw. Masters we

have He -Man, Battlekirko, and the Sorceress.

And the PSA is all about giving people a second

chance. chance. First of all, the introduction

of a new character in Xanthor, the whole idea

behind the Golden Disk of Knowledge, a little

backstory behind the creation of Snake Mountain,

and then of course the addition of how Zodak

plays into all of this, as well as the journey

at Snake Mountain. What did you think of the

plot here for Golden Disk of Knowledge? It might

be one of the best episodes the entire season.

Oh my goodness! I will have something about this

in episode 65 in my final thoughts before we

get to all the lists and everything else as far

as like the overall, but No, I really enjoyed

it. I thought it was good. I thought it was interesting

Unique and yeah, I'm well kind of not the whole

second chance part But the unique as far as in

the world of human we haven't seen and so it's

like this yet Right except for one part that

I've seen many many times before we actually

saw it in 1978 because Somebody calls Superman

and General Zod because they stole the Phantom

Zone from Superman We have had the Phantom Zone

before Skeletor went there once Was it called

the Phantom Zone or was it called Phantom Region

or Phantom Zone the Phantom was in the title

somewhere But but as far as like the whole we

had any stories that have been dealing with the

creation of snake mountain We haven't had a lot

of stories about the whole council of elders

and and the history of Eternia We've had a few

obviously when we've seen zodiac before so to

me it was a but you know It's not necessarily

your your villain of the week or anything like

that it is introducing a new character, but it's

Kind of enveloped into a different story as far

as not just Xanthor as a villain of the week

Well, yeah, exactly. How about the the PSA as

far as giving people second chance? Second chances

are all well and good, but when you get down

to third fourth fifth and sixth That's when you

kind of have to draw the line. I thought it was

one of the more fitting ones as far as for a

real moral or ethical PSA that also fits completely

hand -in -hand with the episode in question we've

had some kind of just like silly like kids be

safe and don't play in the dark, and don't ram

your head against stuff, and that type of stuff,

so this is a little bit heavier of a message,

but a good one. Yeah, exactly. Yep, completely

agree. Alright, well let's see what other good

stuff we can say about the Golden Disk of Knowledge

as we travel once again to Castle Drayskull.

Get inside, you two! Boy, the Sorceress wasn't

falling when she said something was wrong here.

Let's go find her. Sorceress, are you alright?

Yes, He -Man. Whatever is happening, it seems

to be harmless. It's almost as if something is

trying to get your attention. He -Man, you just

may be on to something. Offhand, I'd say whoever

it is is trying a little too hard. Oh, Mystic

Mirror, all singing, all knowing, with strange

and futile to us, now be shown. Thank you, Saucilus.

It's such hard work trying to get your attention.

Sandor, ah, I might have known it was you. You're

being rather bold in light of your past crime.

Uh, what, I mean, who is he? Who's this? That,

he man, is Sandor, former keeper of Eternia's

greatest treasure, the Golden Disks of Knowledge.

Met ourselves at Castle Grayskull. The drawbridge

is going crazy. There's pictures of weird stuff

everywhere. We need some help. that only Xanthor

and Zodak can help up with. What are your highlights

and favorite moments of the Golden Disk of Knowledge?

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really

great episode overall, so much so that I don't

even need to make a journey to Snake Mountain

this time. Adam the Artist, that was interesting.

Usually Adam's sleeping or fishing. He's not,

you know, trying to become the next Van Gogh.

Finally some great backstory that has to do with

the Masters universe characters we know and love

And it's nice to see that there was a council

at one time see I don't I never remembered I

know of the 2002 storyline in the council I never

remembered them ever bringing up a council in

this or anything to do with I remember the a

couple episodes where they had to go back in

time and fight the snake people and stuff like

that, but I don't remember them ever remembering.

I wasn't ever remembering them mentioning a council.

Yeah, I don't either. Finally more Skeletor,

that's always a good thing. The message of this

episode was really good. Like I said before,

second chances, that's always a good thing. He

-Man versus the villains, now that was awesome.

Which part in particular do you remember? The

entire thing. Oh. Gotcha. That makes sense. The

episode has everything. Great story, amazing

action, and more. Yeah, I mean maybe not quite

as much of comedy that we got with Ramman and

Orko at times and even Cringer But I don't think

there was needed in this one a lot of good stuff

I like the idea of something weird happening

at Castle Grayskull and that the drawbridge is

going crazy and that looks like We haven't seen

too much of that type of thing We've seen people

trying to break into it and this and the other

but not like where something going on where they

can't explain Like what's happening? So I like

that I like that we got the backstory that the

only original member of the council left is Zodak.

That the council had been disbanded at some point

and he's the only one there. And the fact that

Zodak was going to be involved in this episode

at all made me happy. Again, I agree with the

whole second chance moral, underlying moral.

That's a good one. I liked that they had assembled

a group of four that were going to get trapped

into Skeletor's Force Shield that the way they

assembled it the two of them were easily going

to have a way out being that Xanthor could you

know just he's not a physical person or whatever

so you can just go walk right through it and

that also obviously Orko can can easily get through

there as well so I thought that was a nice touch

that two members could get out immediately and

then they could hopefully free the others we

got backstory of the building of snake mountain

because I was told that Skeletor with the knowledge

that he learned from the Golden Disk of Knowledge

was able to somehow in the power or whatever

help him construct Snake Mountain in a way. There

was actually some good original animation in

this episode. I mentioned that a little bit last

episode as well of the podcast that we're starting

to see a few more different takes from He -Man.

two or three different times where we saw a human

do things that we haven't seen before. So I thought

that was cool. Skeletor had a hilarious face

when the snake came after him. Yeah. And I like

the kind of twist at the end where Xanthor becomes

a cosmic enforcer and gets suited up in Zodak's

gear and goes off with him. Go ahead. You had

a thought on that? That was a little... little

wonky it's a little wonky but i like that they

didn't just be like okay i mean they didn't have

anywhere else to go with him like we can't send

him back to the phantom zone because he he did

right um but maybe we don't necessarily want

him on eternia so you can go as though to be

his henchmen or whatever that's fine um no i

mean the outfit the way oh yeah armor that's

what's wonky to me because he it made him look

like a slave leia That's true, a little bit.

But yeah, a lot of good stuff about this episode

in general, as well as, like you said, He -Man

and the evil warriors going, you know, at it,

which is something that we have seen a lack of

in the second half of this season. So all good

stuff and actually... We're going to take your

advice there and we are not going to take a trip

to Snake Mountain because first of all, that

snake is still out there riding around the hallways

of Snake Mountain and I don't want to deal with

that. So we are going to skip right to the awards

and rankings today for Golden Disc of Knowledge.

Since the Council of the Wise disbanded, I have

served the overlords of the Eternal Dimension,

keeping watch on the affairs of mortal men, but

never interfering. But since this matter involves

decision made when I was on the Council, I will

hear you out, Xanthor. I am Xanthor, Zodak. I

wish to be released from the Phantom Dimension

so that I may atone for my crime. And how do

you intend to do this? By returning the Golden

Disks of Knowledge. from the Skeletor's clutches.

And what makes you think you can? Because I know

where he has hidden them. What? How do you know

this? I have been to Snake Mountain in my phantom

form unseen by Skeletor. I even tried to take

them from him, but in my phantom form I could

not hold them. And how do we know that this isn't

more of your treachery? Perhaps you plan to sell

the discs again to a higher bidder than Skeletor.

Alright, it's time to hand out some hardware

and some Golden Disk of Knowledge to people,

so what kind of stuff are you wanting to give

out for Golden Disk of Knowledge? I'm gonna give

Xanthar a power sword for making up for his mistake,

and I'm gonna give one to He -Man for actually,

you know, sticking up for him. We haven't seen

a lot of, okay sure, He -Man always sticks up

for people, but I don't think I've ever seen

more recently, I'd say in the last 15 episodes,

He -Man directly stick up for someone who has

committed a crime. Yeah, that's probably a first

I mean, I mean sure the beginning of the season

there were a couple of times where you know What

worker was like, you know, he man, why don't

we just get rid of Skeletor now and he man's

like Well, he's a person too, you know So but

it's been a while since he's kind of done that

kind of thing. So I like that So power swords

for Xanthor and He -Man. What about you? I will

also give a power sword out to He -Man. I thought

he did a really good job in this episode. I like

that he defended the second chance, that he defended

Xanthor when there was no reason to, but he saw

that, you know, hey, you made a mistake, but

let's not just write him off for it like so many

people would do. So just for sticking up for

that principle in general, I liked He -Man a

lot in this episode. And I don't have any Havoc

staffs to give out this time. Me either. How

about a raid? one of the final ratings of season

one. What do you give this one? I think you can

guess. Probably a five. Yep, there you go. Well,

we are going to be in complete agreement. I also

give this one a five. This is obviously the top

score we can give. There's only been a few times

where we've given out fives and this one is a

well -deserving one. A nice second to last episode

here. I will say again that close to the end

after this the final episode, I will have something

that I think that would have made the end of

the season a little bit better, so... Alright,

well, we'll have to wait and see what that is,

but before we can do that, we need to talk about

a giant heart, so let's get there. There's no

monster. Now, tell us what happened. Oh, I found

some sockweed, and then this big ugly monster

attacked me! He must have hit me! Quick, we gotta

get out of here! Orko, are you certain he attacked

you? Yeah, I mean, well, I could have run into

a tree, I suppose. Hey, wait a minute! How did

I get back here? Well, this monster, as you call

him, brought you back, along with your pouch.

Hmm, let's look inside. This so -called monster

must be pretty bright. He knew what you were

looking for, Orko. None of this adds up. I want

to know who that giant is and how he knew that

we were looking for Salkweed. Couldn't we just

leave well enough alone? He must be a spy for

Skeletor. Or he could be someone in trouble.

We better go after him. Do we have to? Yes. So

we have made it to the end of season one of the

original He -Man cartoon series which ends for

us on December 2nd. It's a Friday, the end of

the week, the first week of December back in

1983 for episode 65, The Heart of a Giant written

by David Wise and Robbie London. During a storm

while searching... For Salkweed, Orko encounters

a giant that scares him into knocking himself

out by flying into a tree. After the storm passes,

the giant stands before Prince Adam, man -in

-arms and cringed, drops off Orko, then departs.

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure known as the Keeper

watches the action from above in his flying spaceship.

His goal is to capture the giant for his ever

-growing sideshow. He succeeds and captures Orko

in the process. He -Man and his friends must

save Orko and the giant from the Keeper's sideshow.

For bad guys, we don't have any. For masters,

we have He -Man, Cringer, Oracle, Man -At -Arms,

and the PSA is all about don't judge any book

by its cover. Everybody was afraid of the giant

even though he had the heart of gold. Thoughts

about this plot other than the fact that we've

already seen it this season? Okay, the stuff

with the giant is great. Everything else, a beastly

sideshow did it better. Yeah, we've basically

seen this not only in a beastly sideshow I think

we even saw it in another episode too where people

were basically trying to gather up all these

The pawns of the game master. Yeah saw it there.

So I mean, we've seen it a multiple times here,

but it's definitely not unique The difference

between this one is something I'll get to at

Castle Grayskull There is something that sets

this one slightly apart. But as far as just straight

plot I've seen it a lot before and I was I understand

the whole giant having a heart and being you

know judged unfairly etc but i was kind of bored

by that as well yeah so i'm pretty sure you could

probably i don't want you to but i can i'm pretty

sure you can guess what my final note is that

i've been teasing throughout this whole episode

when we get to the uh the overall but uh but

yeah no the stuff with the giant all the you

know the interacting with orco and and showing

the giant and and showing the giant interacting

with everybody else all that's great the overall

plot of a collector or a you know a circus ringmaster

or you know somebody going out and finding the

best of the best of the best to add to this this

that and the other thing it just It's old and

stale at this point for me And like I said, I

think beast man and a beastly sideshow did a

little bit better I like the concept and I like

the whole idea of gathering up like this awesome

collection of People and things like that. But

yeah, it's been done before and and although

they did one part better in this one They did

a lot of parts of worse. So I just I don't know

it a Little disappointed for the last episode

of the season It wasn't a terrible episode. I

don't want to make it seem like it's awful But

uh, right just coming off the other one a little

bit of a letdown Yep, pretty much. All right

Well, let's try to say something good about this

one as we travel for the last time in season

one to Castle Grail For days I've been tracking

that giant. I almost had him until that blasted

storm jammed my equipment. But I'll get him!

My sideshow will be the greatest ever seen! You,

you mindless brute! They'll pay to cringe at

your ugliness! And they'll pay to see your forearms.

Too bad you don't even know how to use them.

And you, they'll line up for miles to see the

thing with two heads. Ha! Two heads and no brains.

My sense souls have picked up something. The

giant... Alright, well we're at Castle Grayskull

for the final time. What good things do you have

to say about this giant heart? It's a messy heart.

Holy crap. Atriums and ventricles and all that.

Blood. Blood, yep. Orko's Magic, we've seen it

work more regularly, which is kind of a good

thing. True. That's a good thing. And finally,

Stratos, yay! Where has he been? Yeah, so nice

to see some of the other bird people as well.

And I do really love this mess, you know the

message that this gives us not just don't judge

a book by its cover But you know try to get to

know someone before you judge them, right? But

that's all I got um my favorite part about this

this individual instance of gathering up all

of the You know circus sideshow villains slash

whatever is that They chose to go a unique route

and actually pick characters from all the episodes

we've already seen. So all of the people that

were involved in this had already been seen in

a prior episode. And for that, I give them credit

for. Yes, it's a cheap way of just reusing character

designs that have already been used, but... It's

awesome seeing those people that they still exist

in the universe and that instead of creating

all new people Which it makes more sense if you're

trying to get these like great villains from

the world that we should have seen them already

So it makes sense that they they went back and

recycled some, you know, all of those characters

So I thought that was probably the best part

of the episode Yeah, I completely agree. I mean

this episode didn't bore me, but it wasn't as

good And it was a very good episode, but it wasn't

as great as episode sixty four. I still I couldn't

I personally couldn't find anything to I mean,

what are you going to write down? There's no

villains. There's no trap job doing something

stupid. There's no merman doing something stupid.

There's no evil in trying to take over and rule

it herself. There's no kids, thankfully. There's

no weird. cousins um and Teela really had nothing

to do with this episode so yeah this is I didn't

write anything down for snake mountain all right

then well I actually don't have much either for

snake mountain like there wasn't a lot to hate

on there wasn't anything really to like bash

the episode for other than the plot is like I

said a little stale a little done already And

I got a little bit bored by the giant, but I

didn't have like any actual specific moments

that really stood out to me that were bad. So

we will do our last session of handing out some

hardware for season one and see what kind of

awards and ratings we give the final episode.

Just great! I start out the day looking for salt

wheat and I wind up as part of a circus sideshow.

Can't you say anything? Well, I'm gonna try to

get us out of here. Don't! Those bars are electrified.

You spooked! Well, it sure took you long enough.

Longer than you know. This is the first time

I've said a word in many years. I don't get it.

Why not? Because I was ridiculed for my great

size. Because I was hated for my fearsome appearance.

Because I was an outcast from the world of men,

because people are cruel. Even you feared me

at first. I know, and I'm sorry. Years ago, I

fled the cities to live as a hermit in the evergreen

forest with my friends. Friends? The wild creatures

of nature. They do not ridicule me. In all that

time, I've spoken to no one. Until now. Well,

I'm sure glad you did. My name's Orca. What's

yours? It's Canberral, little friend. Well, now

we've got to get out of here somehow. I could

bend the bars, but they aren't safe to touch.

That looks like the control panel over there.

If there was some way to shut it off... Hey,

well, I've got a few magic tricks up my sleeve.

Thunder and lightning, clear and hail, make my

body thin as a rail! Alright, last chance for

hardware. What are you giving out for the heart

of a giant? I'm gonna give a power sword to Orko,

because Orko, sure he was scared of the giant

at first, but he wasn't openly making fun of

the giant, he wasn't openly teasing the giant,

he wasn't really, like, he didn't, Orko never

made any snarky remarks in this episode, like

he sometimes will. Um, he didn't ever get suspicious.

There have been, uh, times in the past in this,

in these 65 episodes where Orko, I think it was,

it was one of Adam's cousins. It wasn't Jeremy.

It was, um, Ed Weiner where he got really suspicious

of her when he had just met her. Um, so, and

Orko really kind of excelled in this one for

me. So I'm going to give a power sword to Orko.

What about you? Oh, I actually don't have anyone

that stood out to me on this one. Even the keeper

was a little not. special like he was just kind

of an average whatever so you know the giant

the giant really didn't do too much for me I

just kind of I don't know I guess I wasn't into

this episode I don't have hardware to give out

either way okay for me on the writing the only

reason why it gets this is because I don't think

it was a good season ender it's a good episode

Don't get me wrong. I just don't think it's season

finale worthy, but this gets a three out of five

or goes for me. All right. Fair enough. You give

it a three out of five. Um, I am going to agree

and give it a three out of five because to me

it just is one of those. Like I've said many

times this season, it just sits in the middle.

It's nothing that makes it bad, but there's nothing

really that makes it good. So I will leave it

right where it sits in the middle. And that is

how we will end with season one. I agree it's

not the best season finale. I don't know if they

really had any concept of season finale at this

point. Not really. But we will take a break and

we will come back with a special look at The

conclusion now of Season 1. Kid? Yes. Shut up.

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this and every other lifetime. Fantastic. Allons

-y! Today I learned something about judging other

people by the way they look. Just because Canbro

looked different, I was frightened of him and

I thought he was some kind of monster. But he

turned out to be kind and gentle and smart. I

hope you'll try to remember not to judge people

by the way they look. and not to make fun of

them if they look different. People deserve to

be judged on their words and especially on their

actions. From now on, I'm going to give them

a chance. I hope you will too. Bye! Alright,

welcome back, and it is time to take a special

look back at Season 1. So some of the stuff we're

going to talk about real quickly. First, we're

going to start off with just some overall thoughts

on the season now that it has concluded, and

then I have some stats for you as far as episode

ratings, the best episodes, the worst episodes.

Mike's thoughts so far on an average rating that

he's been given will break it down into the first

half of the season the second half and overall

as well as the number of power swords and havoc

staffs given out some information about episode

appearances by characters and a little bit about

the writers so first let's start with your overall

thoughts on season one so far and how it ended

how it began how it's gone throughout the whole

thing how it began was great How it ended was

kind of lackluster. I would actually switch episodes

64 and 65. I would have Golden Disks of Knowledge

be the final episode for season one. It was a

better series, not series, but it was a better

season finale type of thing in my mind. Yeah,

I agree. I like the idea that they summed up

a lot of the villains and brought them, like

the side villains and monsters and whatever and

brought them back together, but they could have

done that in episode 64 and had 65 more, something

that either wraps stuff up, finishes a character,

still arc, gives us the last look at something

or the first look at something that we're gonna

see in season two that just didn't seem to be

much thought about. Episode was gonna be actually

the last one, more so like they just had all

the episodes and just put them in order and randomly

had 65 episodes. Will say again. I do remember

back when we did Prince Adam no more When he

I think it's that was it was this season wasn't

it? Yeah The one where he throws the power sword

back Yeah, or maybe yeah There's an episode.

I'm trying to remember. I think it was in season

one. I could be wrong There's an episode where

he gives the power back. He doesn't want to be

he man anymore Damn, I was gonna say if that

was in this season, that would be a really good

season finale. Yep, something like that would

have been a lot more of a cliffhanger. Not that

it has to be a cliffhanger, but just something

to leave it. No, no, no. Yeah, something that

puts a kind of a stamp on it and that's why I

say now that... Golden discs of knowledge really

did that with it. It introduced a new character,

but it also wrapped up You know gave us what

like we said, you know backstory with snake mountain

or anything else But that was my only real final

thought so far as far as it's definitely been

an interesting journey so far Like you said,

it was a good Beginning obviously all this stuff

was fresh to us. So we hadn't really seen you

know that much of any of it so for a long time

so it was good to kind of get that initial look

at it but it's interesting to see kind of the

patterns that happen throughout the first season

which we're going to get into especially when

we get into a character appearance and the difference

between how the season starts and how it ends

and we'll get more into that but first of all

just getting into some ratings if you were to

break it down into the two halves of the first

season we'll look at the first half and we'll

look at the second half and at the halfway point

My average rating for an episode was 3 .39. Alright,

3 .39. So just under 3 .5 was my average rating,

and your average rating for this half was 3 .42.

So you slightly enjoyed the first half even a

tiny bit better than I, and we were both hovering

around that 3 .5 mark, which puts it above average.

Alright, obviously 3 would be the middle. So

we were both above the middle mark as far as

how we rated the first half of the season. If

you look at the second half of the season, my

rating went from that 3 .39 down to 3 .20. So

just a drop for me, I'm still above a 3, but

I went from about, you know, right around 3 .4

down to 3 .2. You however went from a 3 .42 down

to a 2 .53 so you went from a three and a half

down to a two and a half so still again um hovering

right around that middle mark which isn't a surprise

since we're taking the average here but you went

all the way from a three and a half on the first

half down to a two and a half during the second

half of the season which would total out to give

us uh if we're looking at the season as a whole

my rating is about a 3 .3 And yours is 2 .95

So mine just above a three and you are just below

a three Do you think that's an accurate portrayal

of how you felt first half second half? Yeah,

because I mean like like I said the beginning

of the season when we first started this journey

There are things that I remember Moments that

make me emotional like the first time he man

has the as the job ratio open, you know the first

time I saw the transformation, you know, the

first time I heard the theme song, you know,

that kind of stuff. As the season progressed,

I wanted more from Skeletor and the Evil Warriors.

And we did get a lot of it in certain parts,

but the last, the second half of the season just

wasn't good. It really wasn't because 90 % of

the second half... had nothing to do with Skeletor

and the Evil Warriors. Yeah, you were not very

friendly with your ratings during the second

half. We'll get to that in a little bit. Well,

we can talk about it a little bit now because

we're actually very similar as far as our high

ratings and our low ratings. What I did is I

went back and I looked at anything that we rated

one and a half or below and anything that we

rated four and a half or above. to see what were

our favorites and our least favorite episodes

and you know it's similar you know we look at

the first half we had about the same amounts

of four and a halfs and fives we had about the

same amounts of ones and zeros we had the same

amount of four and a half to fives in the second

half of the season but where I only had one two

three four five of one and a half or below during

the second half you had 13 ones or zeros during

the second half of the season That's because

it's so bad. Well, I mean we both had the same

amount of good episodes, too. So You just definitely

did not like the second half of the season as

much if you were to try to give a rating Of the

first season overall one through five open just

the whole season together How would you grade

it if you're just looking at it as one entire

item? three out of five, okay and I and I say

that because I see Okay, sure on a on a scale

on a on a scale That's one to five with half

points because I know you've used a lot of half

points at times, right? You know, we are using

half points here. I don't you do but That's technically

a ten point scale and I figure three is like

right there in the middle I know technically

two point five is is is the middle of a five

point scale, but I still say three overall because

I mean, I grew up watching the show. You know,

I had a lot of emotion as a child and even now

as an adult about some of the certain moments

of this show. But, as I said a second ago, certain

episodes just... they're just bad. And I'm not

even saying they're bad compa - I'm not comparing

it to cartoons today at all. No. I'm just saying

it's a bad episode in the context of it being

a bad episode. Like, take Valley of Power. We

both agree that's a bad episode. Well, that's

getting into what we can talk about next here,

because I also went through and I saw which ones

we paired up on and which ones we differed on.

And if we were trying to make, you know, I know

like a lot of cartoon series do like a disc where

it's like, oh, these are the 10 best episodes

or 10 fan favorites. I have no idea what their

formula is to do that. But if we were to be doing

some type of thing where we were trying to get

that together, we easily have a seven. episodes

that we agree would be in contention for the

best episodes because we have seven where both

of us either scored it four and a half or five

we also have six episodes where we both scored

it one and a half or below so we agree on that

but there's six episodes also that we completely

differ on and I'm gonna name those first before

we get into the ones that we agree on this in

the six episodes that we very much Disagree on

and if you are a listener of the podcast and

want to weigh in on these particular to tell

us who's right and who's wrong Beastly sideshow

you gave a five Yeah, and I gave that one a two

and a half. So there was a there was a difference

there Which we interestingly just kind of referenced

beastly sideshow in this episode And a tale of

cities on the on the vice versa there a tale

of two cities I gave a four and a half and you

gave a one So that was episode 26 and 27. We

definitely disagree on those. So the jury's still

out on those two, as well as Ordeal in the Darkness,

which I gave a four and a half and you gave a

one. Teela's Trial, I gave a three and a half

and you gave a one. Orko's Missing Magic, you

gave a four and I gave a one. And Wizard of Stone

Mountain, I gave three and a half and you gave

a one. So those are the six that we disagree

on the most. so we'll have to revisit those at

a future time maybe but as far as the bad of

the bad and if if if you have mike and myself

agreeing on something you can take it to the

bank that these episodes are bad regardless of

how count marzo or anybody else feels about these

episodes all right you would call him out would

well i'm just saying any any other one if you

and i both agree on this it's it's it's crazy

all right um starting with uh one that I guess

would be the least bad out of the bad here. But

we have two of them where I rated it at one and

a half and you rated it at one. That would be

Keeper of the Ancient Ruins and the Royal Cousin.

Obviously the Royal Cousin included Jeremy, which

we've referenced multiple times. Are we going

to regrade some of these episodes so we can lower

the grades? We'll have to see how it all pans

out here. But Keeper of the Ancient Ruins and

the Royal Cousin, like I said, I gave them both

one and a half, you gave them both one. Then

we had a couple other ones that are interesting

here. We had the Return of Evil, which I gave

a one and a half and you gave a straight zero.

We have Return of the Gryphon, which I gave a

one and you gave a zero. And we have Colossal

Awakes, episode three. That's the one Marzo likes,

I think. Which I gave a one and you gave a zero.

Yeah. And then we have the only episode to achieve

this. A double zero for Valley of Power by Doug

Booth, which was full of animation mistakes,

awful writing by Doug Booth. Valley of Power,

I guess, is what we're agreeing on is, as far

as our grade -by -grade as we were going through,

that's the only episode we both gave zeros to.

So yeah, Colossal Awakes, Valley of Power, Keeper

of the Ancient Ruins, The Royal Cousin, Return

of Evil, Return of the Gryphon. Do not watch

those first if you're trying to, you know, fill

your nostalgic need and watch some He -Man. Those

would be bad episodes to watch. As far as the

flip side, the best of the best, we had, like

I said, seven of them. that we agree are the

top of the class here. So we'll have to see how

season two pans out. And if we were making our

top 10 or top 20 episodes of these, we'll still

hold up afterwards. But looking here down the

list, first of all, we have, let's go from the

most recent ones that we talked about. Golden

Disk of Knowledge, we both gave a five. That's

one we just talked about. The Witch and the Warrior,

which featured Evelyn and Tila in major roles,

we both gave fives. The Return of Granamir. Everybody

remembers Grand Amir his return was awesome.

We both give that a five The search which featured

zodiac I gave a four and a half you gave a five

We had the mystery of Manny faces the only episode

that featured Manny faces I gave a four and a

half and you gave a five We had Dragon's gift

which was Grand Amir's first appearance. I gave

a four and a half and you gave a five We had

Prince Adam no more which featured Merman we

both gave fives and Tila's quest which was episode

number two Well, which really gave some backstory

in the Tila. We both gave fives Yeah, see when

you were talking earlier about Tila's trial I

was like wait a second. I don't remember. Oh

wait. It was Tila's quest that I gave the good

rating So if you're looking for a season one

episode to start you're watching it should be

Tila's quest or dragon's gift mystery of many

faces the search Return of Grand Amir, or the

Witch and the Warrior, or finally the Golden

Disk of Knowledge. Those are the best episodes

that we had to offer here. Interestingly, if

you were looking at the writing team, which we'll

get into before we get into actual Power Swords

and Havoc staffs, take those episodes that we

hated. All right, your writers for those, one

was that J. Brinn Stevens, One was Doug Booth,

one was Lee Robert, one was Richard Pardee, one

was Robbie London, and one was David Wise. So

outside of maybe David Wise and maybe Robbie

London, more so not your name brand writers that

you would expect too much from, I did find it

interesting though, if you take our episodes

that we similarly ranked high, when we had no

idea that this was happening, we had no idea...

You know, we oftentimes didn't rank something

based on the writer or didn't know the writer

and we didn't keep track of how they were doing

throughout the season. This is just something

I just compiled. But if you take the seven episodes

that we both rated at the top of the list, here's

your writers. All right, David Wise, Larry DiTillio,

Larry DiTillio, Paul Dini, Paul Dini, Paul Dini,

Paul Dini. That's right. And even if you look

at some of the other ones there was because there

were some individual ones where we The other

episode that you gave a five that I didn't quite

give as high and it was a Larry DiTillio I gave

a five to a Paul Dini episode There was another

one where you gave a four and a half to or I

gave a four and a half to Paul Dini You gave

a five to Larry DiTillio where we didn't quite

agree. There was one where I gave a four and

a half to Paul Dini. There's Another one where

you gave a five to a Larry DiTillio episode Um,

and there's one more that I gave a four and a

half to Paul Dini. So it's not that we're Paul

Dini and Larry the fanboys. It was as we went

through this, this is how it scored out that

they really had the better episodes. Well, Larry

is, Larry was one of the guys that they went

to at the time. When they brought him in, him

and Robbie London, Paul Dini, those were the

guys. Those were the guys that created... I don't

know if they all had a hand in the series Bible.

I think Larry did a huge part of the series Bible

from interviews that I remember listening to

and the interview that we did a number of years

ago on GCRN. I mean, those three guys were, you

know, Larry, Paul and Robbie. Those three guys

were the guys that were like head staff writers.

Don't get me wrong. I love David Wise. I love

his writing. I just don't think. OK, there was

one episode, right? The search. You know, you

know, the search that we didn't really like.

That was the one that we really liked from David

Wise. Oh, it was? Yeah, The Search and Golden

Disc of Knowledge, which was a new one that I

didn't mention. So there was two David Wise,

two Laird Attilio, and four Paul Dini. There

was one David Wise episode where I think I ranked

it poorly. Yeah. Because I just didn't... But

I remember watching interviews with him and he...

That would be a tea list trial, by the way. Okay,

yeah, there you go. I've seen interviews with

David Wise and he doesn't... He's not a sword

and fantasy kind of guy. He's a giant robot kind

of guy Yeah, so when he came in to write some

of these episodes, I believe I've heard him say

this that he was just Doing what you know? What

they needed he was I don't think he was really

That into it and just so you know that we're

not fanboys Like you said Mike gave a one to

one of David wise episodes. I gave a one to Larry

to tell yo You gave a one to the Paul Dini Janis

Diamond compilation. You gave a one to Ponds

of the Game Master, which was Paul Dini. You

gave a one to the Huntsman, which was Larry DiTilio.

So we did score them bad when we felt that they

needed to be scored bad. So it's not like we're

just strict fanboys. And you could say that,

well, they just wrote more episodes. But there

was a lot of people that wrote multiple episodes

that that we just didn't score as high. So it

seemed like Paul Dini especially turned out the

best episodes of season one. Interesting, though,

if we're going to look at the other stuff that

we got, which was the power swords and the Havoc

staffs. Not only have I broken down to which

character received the most of each, I've broken

it down into which person gave the most out to

certain people. So looking at it this way, the

person that received the most power swords throughout

season one, really without a doubt here, is Orko.

Oracle received the most power swords. I gave

him five and gave him ten. So he had 15 power

swords handed out so I guess you could say that

he was, at least in Mike's situation, his favorite

character of the season and overall combined

we would do it that way. Second, we would probably

have to look at Cringer slash Battle Cat. Battle

Cat only received one but if we combine that

in with the Cringer votes then I gave him The

combination of those guys three power swords

and you gave them eight So we're at 11 power

swords for Cringer battle cat after that He man

had 11 seven from me and four from you Ram man

had eight four from each of us So those are your

top dogs as far as power swords. And then coming

in next, I guess the only bad character that

we've mentioned so far, Skeletor, had seven total.

Three from me and four from you. So those are

the highest rankings. Other ones that got power

swords out of the main characters. Tila ended

up with five of them. Evil Lin ended up three.

Prince Adam ended up with three, if you take

that version of him. Stratos with one. Panther

with one. Merman with three. Zodak with two.

Manny faces with two the king and queen a one

Attack track one cloth a one beast man one man

at arms, too So that's how the rest of it played

out So it seems like we're we're fans of the

comic relief with orco with ram man and with

cringer And then we could fall back on the standards

with human and Skeletor as far as power swords

go Yeah, see for me with power swords and orco.

It's not that Said it this episode. I think I

said it in episode 21 a couple weeks ago. It's

not just Orko it's my I mean if I really had

to give out who was my favorite best character

for the entire season It would be Cringer slash

battle cat but because I don't normally give

power swords out to him Just for his witty one

-liners, right? I mean, like, with Orko, giving

Orko a power sword, it's because either he did

something awesome, or he did some magic that

actually worked for once, or he did learn a lesson.

Right. So, you know, that's why they have the

most for him. All right. And if you flip it on

the back side, and we're looking at having this

test, first of all, it should be something to

give Havoc staffs out to side characters, to

villain weak, to relatives of the royal family,

to the writing team. We didn't actually hand

out a ton of Havoc staffs to kind of the traditional

He -Man characters outside of one character.

And that would be the queen of the Havoc staff,

Tila with 13, five from myself and eight from

you. So T -Lib by far reigns supreme as far as

the Havoc staff. If you're looking at the only

other ones that we gave out to the traditional

characters, Skeletor received one from you. Orko

received one from you. Zodak somehow received

one from you. I think it was in his initial appearance.

I don't think I liked the way he spoke to He

-Man or something like that. The combination

of the King and Queen each received one from

each of us. I gave one to Jitsu, even though

he was just a guest character. He's someone that

the fandom would know. And the Sorceress received

three Havoc Staffs from you. So she would probably

second in command after Tila. Like daughter,

like mother. So that's how the Havoc Staffs and

the Power Swords worked out there. If we are

looking at... actual episode appearances I thought

this was something interesting to look at because

looking back I'm trying to think you know we

talked a lot about you know the evil warriors

not being there, Skeletor not being there I was

like well how would it all actually break down

if we saw who appeared in which episodes over

the 65 episodes from season one? All right well

if you take would look at the good side first

obviously He -Man appears in all the episodes

all right there was no episode that was He -Man

-less If you look outside of that, Orko appeared

in 58 of the episodes. So there was only seven

episodes where we did not see Orko. Next would

be the combination of Man -at -Arms and Tila,

who each appeared in 54. Then we have Cringer

slash Battlecat, which was roughly 48 episodes.

There was a few episodes where he was not present.

Then we have the Sorceress, who appeared in 43

episodes. So those are your main main... Episode

appearances so we did have you know 22 that sorceress

did not appear in King and Queen King was actually

in more episodes in the Queen the Queen was only

in 15 episodes whereas we got the King in 27

I Did not realize that there was 12 times that

we saw the King without the Queen That happened

Next up is Ram man who appeared in just 14. I

was out of the 65 Then Stratos who appeared in

10 Zodiac appeared in three Manny Faces appeared

in one. Out of that group, if we just take the

good side of He -Man and the Masters of the Universe,

as far as the traditional characters, not just

like guest characters, which of those is your

favorite? Which did you want to see more of?

Which could you see less of? We have Stratos,

Ram -Man, Manny Faces, Zodak, King and Queen,

Sorceress, Man -at -Arms, Tila, Orko, Battlecat.

Could always see less of Tila over this version.

I I don't I don't and I don't think she ever

gets any better She's always going to be bitching

at Adam. She's always gonna be you know hypocritical

She just she's she will never I will never ever

be able to say Filmation Tila was a favorite

character of mine. She's not People I wanna see

more of. I do wanna see more of the King and

Queen. I'd like to see more of the King in battle.

There was one episode where he and He -Man fought

together, I believe, earlier in the season. I'd

like to see some more of that. And Cringer. I

mean, any time Cringer, and what I was saying

about episode 20, I think I said it two weeks

ago in episode 21, but what I was saying when

we did... Tales of Returning, episode 20. There

is a audio piece in one of the episodes where

they blend the audio from the back and forth

between Cringer and Adam about doing the transformation

right into actually the transformation itself.

I want to see more of that kind of fluidity as

far as how well the episode plays. So yeah, more

Cringer, please. Also, I would say that I'm somewhat

surprised. I did not know going into this that

we would see Stratos and Ramman only in 10 and

14 episodes. I just from my memory thought that

they appeared more often. So I was very surprised

that they only appeared in you know 10 out of

65 Episodes so I could see some more of Stratos

and Ramman and I would be fine You know zodiac

Manny faces all those like side heroes. I would

like to see all of them more I won't spoil it,

but I will say out of the ones I just mentioned

Stratos Ram and Manny faces zodiac You know the

Sorceress King Queen and obviously the main crew.

There is somebody that we have seen for the last

time And whether that's sad or happy for you,

there is one of those characters that we will

not see at all in season two, unfortunately.

If we are flipping it to the evil side, the one

that we discussed the most, we know that we were

both shocked to see how many episodes they did

not appear in. Yeah. All right. Elator, he appeared

more than anybody else. As shocking as that is,

he appeared in 32 of the 65 episodes. See, that's

too low. So under half of the episodes. He should

be in at least 48, 49, 55 of the episodes. Like

I said before way earlier on, I enjoy. Time where

the main guys are not seen like I wish we would

get a mask that doesn't have venom in it You

know, I like seeing the random Transformers episode

that doesn't have Megatron or a GI Joe episode

that doesn't have Cobra commander I don't mind

seeing it once or twice. I don't half of the

episodes to not feature the main villain And

there's a stark difference if we break it down

into the first half of season one in the second

half of season one in the first half of season

one He only was missing from nine of the episodes

The second half he was missing from 23 That's

too much. See that's the thing. It's like and

there was a point in the second half of the season

where it was like Bam -bam bit like seven eight

nine and one two three four five six seven eight

We went the longest stretch we had was a nine

episode run without them. Yep A nine episode

run without Skeletor, then we had him for two,

and then we lost him for four right away again.

So missing from 23 of the second half episodes

is just ridiculous. And then if you look at the

rest of the evil warriors, Evil Lin and Beastman

each appeared in 20 of the 65 episodes. So just

about a third of the episodes had Evil Lin or

Beastman. Trapjaw, we dropped down to 14. He

was only in 14 episodes. Merman was in 10. Triclops

was in seven. I don't remember seeing him seven

times I don't remember seeing him seven times

either, but he was in there seven times and clothel

was in there three times Are you surprised at

the amount of episodes of these guys gotten?

Do you expect it to be more and do you want to

see which one of these if you could only pick

one? Would you see more of going forward? Want

to see more triclops because I honestly do not

remember the seven episodes he was in I want

to see more of both triclops And if I had to

only pick one I want to see more merman. I like

merman. I want to see more merman I just want

to see more evil warriors all together and obviously

that's something that we'll talk about when we

talk about Looking forward to season two because

there's a lot of characters that we have not

seen yet So they have to be somewhere in season

two See I definitely a trend that if you're looking

back that the first half of the season was definitely

very much different Than the second half we went

the first 13 episodes and we got Skeletor in

all 13 All right, and then we saw him in six

out of the next eight after that and that's when

the trend started around episode 22 and My thought

process is, were they basically just trying to

sell the toys, which I, we understand that there

was a toy selling thing or, you know, even if

you take it a step back further, where you're

just trying to introduce characters. So we've

spent 13 episodes where you're introducing all

these different characters and did they just

really feel the need to go off of that? And they,

did they feel like they had done everything they

could with those characters? Did they just try

to make a break and just introduce? Cause it's

not, you know, you say this is about selling

toys. This actually season one of He -Man. Against

goes against that It does yeah, if they were

trying to sell toys Explain to me how all of

the bad guys disappear for more than half of

the season Mm -hmm. That's not a toy salesman.

If it was a toy selling show every episode you

would be getting a toy Do you remember off the

top of your head? When battle armor he man and

Skeletor came out no toy. Okay. See that's the

thing if And again, this is something for the

listeners, because I'm not going to stop the

show to look it up right now. If Battle Armor

He -Man and Skeletor came out during Season 1,

why wouldn't you have featured them in... Going

by your logic here of having to sell toys, why

wouldn't you have featured them... in the cartoon

the designs of battle armor he -man and skeletor

if it was done in season one if it was if they

weren't released till season two fine but i mean

i the main point i don't know because because

i don't i don't remember as a child i remember

playing with battle armor he -man and skeletor

but i didn't coincide it with watching the episodes

at the time so i'm not sure The main point here

though is if you're truly feeling the logic that

everybody just likes to blanketly throw at 80s

cartoons that this is only to sell toys Why why

would you have more than half the episodes? Why

would you have 33 episodes that don't feature

a bad character that is represented in toy form?

Like yeah, that's not good. That's not a very

good marketing campaign then So and then obviously

we're saying we would like more of it, but it

definitely seemed like yeah, they they took about

at the 2025 episode mark they just abandoned

the evil warriors all together um because there

was not more than 10 episodes from that point

on that that featured so uh just an interesting

look at season one and as we shift to look towards

season two um how much of that do you think is

going to continue how many of the quote unquote

new toy line will we see um will it do the same

thing where we have the first half introduces

a bunch of characters in the second half we just

are done I think we're gonna see a lot of new

characters. I know, for example... Well, we can

go... Hold on one second, because I got a list

here that we can go through real quick of characters

we haven't seen yet that you can expect to see

in Season 2. And I might be missing some, but

we have not seen Whiplash. We have not seen Mechaneck.

We have not seen Spike Gore, too bad. Cyclone,

Webstore, Buzz Off, Modulac. We haven't seen

Roboto. So I mean, there's a lot of characters

we have not seen yet. The one I was going to

say was that I know that's coming up actually

next episode and episode 23 of the podcast is

Fisto. So we'll see him. One thing that you and

I both glossed over, it was I think it was episode

18 or 19 of the podcast. I meant to mention it.

I don't remember mentioning it because after

we finished the recording session, I was like.

Damn, I forgot to mention that we both forgot

to mention the appearance and debut of stridor

Stridor was the robotic horse that threw Adam.

Okay, and I remember hey I either remember having

the stridor toy or I remember One of my friends

having it and I remember playing with it. Yeah

sure, but I was really shocked to see stridor

He was only like in like, you know those one

of those beginning scenes where you know adam

and tealer goofing off and stuff like that and

it wasn't like he was predominant in the episode

but right i just found it interesting that they

put him in there because i remember the toy of

the character I'm interested to see when these

characters appear and if the trend will continue

that they are the only in one episode. Do they

become recurring characters? Do they stay for

the entire season? Do we have evil warriors more

throughout season two or not? Do we get more

backstory of any of these characters? And which

of those characters that we saw in season one

have sung their swan song and are no longer to

be heard from or seen again? So a lot of questions

for season two. Are you looking forward to season

two? Are you kind of burned out with this? series

overall are you what's your thought at this point

for season two they better ramp it up I want

to see are you hopeful are you optimistic are

you thinking they're gonna let us down I'm hopeful

but I'm cautiously up to I'm cosh I'm cautiously

pessimistic actually because they ended the sea

and I know back then it wasn't driven by season

finale season premiere type things I get it it

wasn't but Like like I said earlier in this little

recap here that we're doing Episode 64 and 65

should have been switched around to have episode

64 be the last one as 65. I'm hopeful for all

the characters I know and love to appear and

show up. Like I mentioned in one of the episodes

today, yay, Stratos. It was like, I haven't seen

Stratos in so long. Like, you know, same thing

with Triclops and all the characters. I just,

I want to see more of the actual He -Man characters.

I don't want to see anymore. villains of the

week are one -off characters. Which I'm sure

we'll get a little of that, but hopefully not

as much. Alright, any other thoughts before we

close out today? Nope, that's it. Alright, well

thank you for listening to Tales of Eternity.

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We hope you enjoyed the tales today and don't

forget to join us on our next adventure when

we will turn the calendar to 1984. So we're leaving

you at December 1st, 1983. We will rejoin you

at September 11th, 1984 for season two, discussing

episodes 66, 67, and 68, or if you want a number

at one, two, and three, The Shadow of Skeletor,

The Energy Beast, and Fisto's Forest. For now,

I'm Optimus Solo with... Chief Joe White. And

by the powers of Grayskull, you all. Have the

power. Is Snake Mountain ready to take on He

-Man? Anytime! Snake Mountain battle on where

He -Man and Skeletor eat souls separately. You

put the mountain together. Fatal is not included.

Is your serpents ready to strike? Yes! Come,

He -Man. Come to Snake Mountain. If you dare!

Snake Mountain with echo microphone new from

the Masters of the universe collection action

figures each so separately from Mattel