Masters of the Universe: Revelation - Netflix series
- Thread starter JoeG
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Iskelderon
Sr Member
Yesterday, the trailer for this finally dropped and it seems like a glorious celebration of the original!
Egon Spengler
Master Member
Looks good. Love that it has nothing to do with the terrible She-Ra reboot.
Iskelderon
Sr Member
That one was really weird. It was nice to see something with a common thread running from A to Z, but when the execution feels inferior to a decades older show made on a shoestring budget, it's really ridiculous.
Source? Because everyone involved with this has seemed to debunk this rumor that originated from a clickbait YouTube channel. They claimed they had an "anonymous inside source". And by the way, this rumor had started before the writer's room had even been assembled.
Kevin Smith himself said the show centers on Teela. The title refers to her journey. Considering most fans are tuning into the series to see He-Man and Skeletor, the main protagonist and antagonist, focusing the show on Teela is a bait and switch.
Time stamp at 4:10 to 5:36
This is right from the creator's mouth.
Time stamp at 4:10 to 5:36
This is right from the creator's mouth.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
I just watched the video and where you see 'bait and switch' I'm hearing 'we decided to actually develop the characters besides he-man in order to tell a lengthy story instead of 21 minute toy commercials'
Here's the official synopsis of the show:
"After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe."
"After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe."
So yeah, I see a bait and switch going on. Like I said earlier, 98% of people tuning into this are looking to watch He-man duke it out with Skeletor, and it's clear that Teela is the main protagonist, which certainly feels a lot like the Star Wars sequel trilogy where they tried to rope old fans in by using familiar and beloved characters to prop up a new/ supporting character. You can deny it all you want but Teela is the lead. No question about it now. She-Ra was the female power fantasy for girls and He-Man was the power fantasy for boys. Why make Teela the lead when it's actually He-Man's show? Develop the supporting characters and give them believable story arcs, regardless of their gender, but don't shift the focus entirely because then it's not the same show at all.
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Paul Andrew
Master Member
It's not the same show, and it's never been promoted as such. Also, the name of the show is Masters of the Universe: Revelation, not He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. That alone should tell folks the focus isn't going to be the same as the 80's cartoon.
I'm sure there will be plenty of He-Man fights, but man who punch good isn't that interesting in and of itself anymore. If that's all we got with a smattering of other window dressing characters the show just wouldn't have legs. We can, and should, expect better than we got as kids back in the day.
I'm sure there will be plenty of He-Man fights, but man who punch good isn't that interesting in and of itself anymore. If that's all we got with a smattering of other window dressing characters the show just wouldn't have legs. We can, and should, expect better than we got as kids back in the day.
Considering it's the reimagining of a show and toyline based on He-Man as the protagonist, it's not exactly honest marketing to use the iconography, catchphrases, and characters if it's recasting the lead character, who was the very reason for it's success in the first place. As I said above, it's not like they can't develop and deepen the supporting cast to have their own arcs and why you would assume that all fans that don't like He-Man getting shoved to the side would want nothing more than dumb, brute action alone is really strange to me. He-Man was cool because despite his strength, he had a moral code that was epitomized by the coda at the end of each episode and Lou Scheimer did this intentionally to give young boys a good male role model and not just a power fantasy alone. No one watched He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the 1980's and wished Teela was the focus. They created She-Ra for that very purpose so that girls would have a powerful and moral female to look up to and it worked very successfully.
There are very few if any children now who even know about the show or toys at all because the target audience for this are 40 somethings who grew up on the original, so to make the claim that this new iteration is for a new generation is a tenuous reach at best.
There are very few if any children now who even know about the show or toys at all because the target audience for this are 40 somethings who grew up on the original, so to make the claim that this new iteration is for a new generation is a tenuous reach at best.
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Egon Spengler
Master Member
Well, that sucks and leaves me no longer interested.
Ah yes, a He-Man show minus He-Man. Brilliant. And effeminate Adam and butch Teela is exactly what my 8 year old self always wanted out of his favorite power fantasy cartoon. Much better than that 2002 remake that somehow managed to give us good new stories while staying true to the original.
Here's hoping we get a new Thundercats show without Lion-O.
Here's hoping we get a new Thundercats show without Lion-O.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
Didn't even watch the trailers did you? I saw plenty of He-Man in there. Also, I think it's inspired for Prince Adam to be a shrimpy little dude, his secret identity in the old cartoon was even more poorly hidden than Clark Kent's with his spectacles.
As far as "butch Teela" is concerned, there's nothing wrong with Teela kicking ass just as hard as He-Man and if you think there is I don't know what to tell you. It's 2021. Women kick ass now. Get used to it.
Again, it's 2021. Eventually the people who sign the checks realized that there's a whole lot of audience besides little boys (and little boys in 40 year old bodies), and catering exclusively to them limits how big you can be and how much money you can make. Decisions that have the potential to widen the audience are going to be par for the course for these nostalgia trips more often than not, I'd expect. They aren't doing this show just to get our nostalgia clicks. After the success of the new She-Ra they're definitely counting on us getting a whole new generation of kids hooked, and they're not just after the boys. It makes perfect sense to put a strong female character with her own motivations front and center with He-Man.
I watched the hell out of that cartoon as a kid, and frankly I mostly just remember spending the whole episode waiting for He-Man to show up and kick Skeletor's ass because no one else could. I think it will be awesome to have other character's who can do things and be rad without leaning on a He-Man shaped crutch all the time.
That "crutch" was entire point of the show. Not to mention his name was in the title. Widening the audience is fine, but does it have to be at the expense of changing the core of the show? Especially considering that this is a sequel to the original cartoon. Why He-Man needs to share the spotlight is kind of absurd when they already have She-Ra as their powerful female lead. It kind of negates the argument that Teela should be the focus, no?
The potential problems with this show run much deeper than this. It mostly has to do with Hollywood rehashing old properties for gold rather than take a risk and create something wholly new. Nostalgia mining is fast becoming the tired excuse for not having to bother creatively. It doesn't help that they got Kevin Smith to helm it. A person who is on record saying he was never a fan and now he lies and claims he was always a fan. What he was a fan of was the money Mattel paid him to reboot their property and he may have become a fan in the process of working on the show but his claims that he grew up adoring the series and toys are actually lies.
The potential problems with this show run much deeper than this. It mostly has to do with Hollywood rehashing old properties for gold rather than take a risk and create something wholly new. Nostalgia mining is fast becoming the tired excuse for not having to bother creatively. It doesn't help that they got Kevin Smith to helm it. A person who is on record saying he was never a fan and now he lies and claims he was always a fan. What he was a fan of was the money Mattel paid him to reboot their property and he may have become a fan in the process of working on the show but his claims that he grew up adoring the series and toys are actually lies.
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Too Much Garlic
Master Member
Hollywood and their bastardization of male and female characters. Snore.
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