Editing Masters of the Universe

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'''Masters of the Universe''' refers to three things. Firstly, it refers to a universe created by action figure company Mattel to cover two related toylines; ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra'', both of which were popularized by [[/co/|series of comics and cartoons]]. Secondly, it refers to the lesser heroes who assist He-Man in his battle against his archnemesis, Skeletor. Finally, it refers to an upcoming tabletop RPG set in said universe, officially presented in the 2020 Power-Con.

The MotU-verse is classic 80s [[Sword & Sorcery]], revolving around super-powered magical [[barbarian]]s armed with blatantly anachronistic super-tech seeking to defend their respective worlds, Eternia and Etheria, from different would-be world conquerors. They are generally regarded as stupid yet awesome by old-school fans.

Of note is the 2002 reboot, which manages to be a cartoon reboot done right. The storytelling is a bit more serious than the super goofy original, several toy-only characters promoted to speaking roles, and a few small tweaks are made to improve the overall product (He-Man is no longer just Adam in less clothing, leaving a question how nobody can tell they’re the same person, but a much buffer guy with slightly different hair), but it’s still recognizable as a successor and clearly done by people who gave a damn about the franchise. Naturally, it only lasted two seasons.

=Eternia=
The first half of the combined MotU-verse, Eternia was originally presented as a [[Sword & Sorcery]] world of the "magical [[Post-Apocalyptic]] remnants of a hyper-advanced civilization", leading to the [[Conan]]-esque tiger-riding [[barbarian]] He-Man facing off against tanks and [[cyborg]]s. The first cartoon in 1983 presented as slightly closer to a standard fantasy world, in that there were functional governments beyond tribes, but still left it with that iconic 80s S&S style mixture of magic and tech with no explanation given whatsoever. Also, it's an alien world - Prince Adam's mom is actually a human astronaut who visited the place and decided to stay and marry a local king.

Eternia is home to the legendary Castle Greyskull, a mystical fortress which is shaped so its front looks like a giant, slightly demonic skull and which houses ancient sources of magical knowledge and power that would elevate anyone who could gain control of it to basically the role of a living god. Naturally, this means the evil [[warlock]] Skeletor wants it for himself. Since the nameless sorceress who currently acts as Greyskull's glorified housekeeper suffers a curse that prevents her from using her power or even leaving Greyskull without being stuck in the form of a telepathic falcon, it relies on a guardian. That guardian is Prince Adam, who discovered the enchanted Sword of Power. By holding it into the air and speaking the magic phrase, "By the power of Greyskull", he is transformed into He-Man, who can draw upon the magical energies of Castle Greyskull to gain superhuman physical abilities. To protect his family and limit the amount of people who know about Castle Greyskull, Prince Adam treats He-Man as a secret identity, using a very Batman-esque routine of pretending to be a cowardly, klutzy fop to disguise the connection between them.

=Etheria=
After the success of the He-Man cartoon, Mattel decided to snort a bunch of cocaine and came up with the craziest idea of the 80s: what if we tried making a He-Man-style show, but aimed at girls?

The result was an animated movie "Secrets of the Sword", which introduced the planet Etheria; a magical world being invaded and all but conquered by the Horde; an army of space-faring mutants, aliens, cyborgs, robots and wizards, led by the shapeshifting cyborg sorcerer, Hordak (who was later established as Skeletor's former teacher). Hordak's right-hand woman is Adora, who over the course of the movie is revealed to be Adam's twin sister (she was kidnapped as a baby and raised by Horde Prime) and gets the Sword of Protection, a twin version of Adam's own Sword of Power that lets her become a super-powered barbarian in her own right by chanting the phrase, "For the honor of Greyskull". Having learned the truth of her origins, She-Ra (as she calls herself) turns against the Horde and becomes the champion of Etheria's resistance against the invaders.

=Legends of Grayskull=
An RPG based on the franchise, to be filled in once the game actually comes out in 2021 and /tg/ gets their hands on it. It's based on the [[Cortex Prime]] system.

There was also a "simple" MotU RPG released in 1985 by FASA, but it was basically a glorified boardgame with some RPG elements, ala [[Warhammer Quest]], so it flopped badly.

=Cartoons=
The basic idea behind Eternia and Etheria first evolved in mini-comics distributed with the action figures into the Filmation cartoons of the 80s; ''He-Man & The Masters of the Universe'' in 1983, and spin-off series ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' in 1985. The basic concept of is outlined above. They were then followed by a couple of other cartoons as the years rolled by and Matel tried to rekindle the magic of the early 80s.

==The New Adventures of He-Man==
The first attempt to revive the Masters of the Universe cartoon universe came in 1990, with this single-season, 65 episode series. It abandoned the [[Sword & Sorcery]] aesthetic for a purely science fiction one, with the backstory being that the Galactic Guardians, the defenders of the far-off planet Primus, come to Eternia seeking aid against their enemies; the evil mutants of Denebria. The evil Commander Flogg, ruler of Denebria, follows the Guardians, and forms an alliance with Skeletor, whilst at the same time He-Man agrees to aid the Galactic Guardians in the fight against Denebria. This results in the two archenemies being taken from Eternia to the far-off star system of Primus and Denebria.

Unusually for an 80s/90s cartoon, this show actually had at least a semblance of a concluded story arc, ending with the seeming triumph of He-Man and the Guardians over the Mutant Armada and Skeletor alike.

At the time, the show was widely panned amongst MotU fans for the changes in setting, new art style and tweaked characters, even though it was supposed to be a continuation of the original 80s cartoon. Ironically, after seeing how Mattel revived the series in the post-2010s, fans are willing to concede that maybe they were a little too harsh about this show.

==He-Man & The Masters of the Universe 2002==
The first attempt at rebooting the series. Toned down the camp and the humor, turned up the action, improved the animation, and generally gave the classic He-Man show a more serious look without going full grimdark overload. Was beloved by the fans of MotU who actually watched it, but was marketed absolutely terribly, so it got canned after only two seasons.

==She-Ra & The Princesses of Power==
2018 reboot of the original She-Ra. Immediately put fans on edge for its artstyle, which took the already contentious "Anime Style" akin to [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|Avatar: TLA]] and deliberately cranked up the androgyny meter for all the cast. Given that when one thinks of anything from He-Man, the first thing to come up is <u>'''''NOT'''''</u> [[Weeaboo|'moe anime uwu',]] some fans were understandably irritated by the style change. There are a few fans, however, who go one step further and accuse the writers, designer and director of being a bunch of [[SJW]]s because of the overt homoerotic subtext; even believing that it would flop. This bitching and moaning is, of course, [[Derp|rendered fucking redundant]] when one considers the original setting is filled with a bunch of [[Gay|half-naked, beefy men physically wrestling each other in an intense passion for domination]]. Nevertheless, said bitching and moaning started to rapidly die off and any bets on the show flopping [[Fail|backfired]] when, surprise surprise, the series seems to hold its ground quite well despite the blunder of the first few episodes, with multiple seasons and even a movie in production; creating an active fan base on its own with reasonably high ratings. Guess to never judge a book by its cover, that and the possible fact that bitching about a kids show aimed for little girls in the first place is bound to make anyone participating in this, look fucking [[Lorgar|''pathetic''.]]

==Masters of the Universe: Revelation==
2021 series advertising itself as a continuation of either the original '83 He-Man or the '02 He-Man. Fans were initially cautiously optimistic when they saw it was going to be done in gloriously well-defined animation all the 2002 He-Man instead of in the CalArts Style like She-Ra or [[Thundercats]] Roar. But alarm bells started ringing when character design was presented, including Teela looking ''literally'' like a guy if you remove the makeup. The alarmists sadly turned out to be right when the show aired and it immediately turned into an [[SJW]] dumpsterfire, with He-Man getting killed off in the first episode, the iconic Masters of the Universe team being disbanded and instead being replaced by Teela, Evil-Lyn and Andra (a black engineer woman ported over from the old Marvel He-Man comics), with Beast-Man and Orko as sidekicks, and Teela turning into a self-centered unlikable bitch.

Fans are split... on whether this series is ''as'' bad as what happened to [[Star Wars]] and [[Star Trek]], or if it's ''worse''.

[[Category: Roleplaying]]