Hi folks! Welcome to our weekly recap of Masters of the Universe: Revelation. This week’s episode is named “Reason and Blood” and we finally see Savage He-Man in action! Let’s dive right in.
1. A Dragon Ball-worthy fight
This episode began with an incredible fight between Savage He-Man and Skeletor, it involved the unlimited strength and speed of the former, and the deceiving and magic tricks from the latter, it lasted about five minutes and I just loved it, it was dynamic, jumping from one place to another, moving both the setting and the stakes.
To be honest, I never expected this kind of quality on the show, I knew it had great writing and voice acting, but if someone had any doubts about the art, this is the episode where every doubt is settled.
2. The Orlax of Primeria
This new Savage He-Man opens new possibilities, what could happen if Skeletor attempts to do the same? How can our heroes be safe against an uncontrolled He-Man?
Skeletor is clearly upset of this new development, and he goes to Man-at-Arms to answer his questions. This scene was short, and at first it might seem like a transitional scene, but there were some nuggets of information dropped here, Skeletor now knows that Adam’s secret was known by Duncan, and tries to discover what else does he know, if Adam attempted to “manipulate” the power like that before. But Duncan tells him that “manipulation” is not the word, if he doesn’t respect the Power, how can he use it to his benefit?
3. The Camp at Point Dread
Meanwhile, after escaping from Skeletor and his gang of zombies, Andra, Teela and the Savage He-Man arrive at the Mystic Mountains, and He-Man runs trough the woods, Andra is clearly scared of him, and eventwally the whole team, but then, He-Man hears a sound and leaves them.
He finds the camp of his father, and is uncontrollably angry, when the king’s guards manage to stop him, King Randor, voiced by Diedrich Bader, stats monologuing to He-Man, he tells the savage that he realized his mistake, the king loves his son, and he tells him that he is proud of his son. Savage He-Man frees himself, and is about to kill his father, but he hugs him, maybe for the first time ever, and that brings back Adam, now having a moment with his father.
All he needed was the love of his father, and I am crying with the revival of a cartoon created with the purpose of selling toys.
4. The Power flows through Evil-Lyn
At the end of the episode we have a brief scene between Evil-Lyn and Beast Man, her sworn protector, he reveals his fidelity to Lyn, not to Skeletor, and encourages her to defend herself, because he says that it is her the one imbued with Magic, and it is her the one that is channeling it through Skeletor, and not the other way around.
In her last line, she reveals that she is going to look for other instances where the power was relinquished. This scene might have been brief, but it revealed to us that Evil-Lyn might not be on the side of her lover, and it is even possible that she will betray him, will she be an important tool for Skeletor’s demise? We’ll only know on the upcoming episodes.
5. Andra is us
I finally understood.
The one character that is now a main but wasn’t on the original series was Andra, she only appeared in few issues of Marvel’s “Masters of the Universe” comic, so, she practically is a new character for this show, and, although she has been part of many fights and has been there on important moments, not many emotional moments actively involved her, and I sometimes wondered why was she on an already packed show.
And, while watching this episode, it hit me, she is on the show not because she is an elemental part of the story, she is the Audience Surrogate, and we are supposed to feel reflected in her, and it works, but I hadn’t noticed before.
As you might now because I said this earlier, I watched He-Man on re-runs in public television here in Mexico, even though I loved watching He-Man, I’m not from the first generation that saw the cartoon, so, I often feel nervous writing these reviews because I’m not the biggest expert, and when the characters explain things to Andra, it also helped me understand what’s happening.
… Now I think I know why this show is often repudiated by grown white men: their Audience Surrogate is a young, black, female character, it is possible that they never had to relate and feel reflected in a character like Andra! So, it’s hard for them to empathize with it, but it’s not a problem of the show, this is on them, how could you ever go on with life without trying to put on other people’s shoes?
And that’s it for this episode, I cried, and enjoyed and the plot moved, it might be the best episode so far, the only thing I missed was Orko, but this episode is a ten out of ten, I loved it. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on the next episode, “The Gutter Rat”.
