Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!
He-Roâ„¢
Heroic Cosmic Warriorâ„¢
Real Name: Ro
Given the sword of He by the Overlords of the Timeless Dimension on Trolla, Ro was told to “go forth and combat evil.” During one such epic battle, he was infected by a techno-organic virus by Horde Supreme and sent through a vortex to the magic planet of Eternia®. Once there, he was healed by Eldor in a mystical pool which absorbed his virus. In gratitude, He-Roâ„¢ swore to help free Eternia® from the Snake Menâ„¢ and Horde Invaders. He defended the free people alongside the great King Grayskullâ„¢, eventually bequeathing his sword to the King upon his noble death.
Portrait art source: Mattel internal concept art
Before we go any further, it’s important to be aware of the history of He-Ro. He-Ro was intended to be a big new character for the 1987 Powers of Grayskull sub-line, the “Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe” and the greatest hero of Preternia (prehistoric Eternia). A prototype was created and even shown in the 1987 Mattel retailer catalog, but neither He-Ro nor his mentor, Eldor, ever made it to toy stores.
However, Mattel did go pretty far in preparing the concept, even going so far as to create a licensing kit complete with a bio for He-Ro. You can read his original bio here, but the only thing you really need to know for this discussion is that it says he’s an ancestor of He-Man and She-Ra, and his real name is Gray. So, one of the roles He-Ro was to serve in the MOTU mythos was as the legendary ancestor to He-Man and She-Ra.
However, in a case of convergent creative evolution, when the Millennium cartoon came along King Grayskull was created to fulfill what was basically the same role. The roles were so similar that at one point, the makers of the Millennium comics plotted out a story that explained He-Ro had turned into King Grayskull by somehow being merged with the giant Tytus (oddly prefiguring the Demo-Man controversy). For better or for worse, the idea was nixed before it could be published. The writers of the MOTUC bios also seem to have struggled with the similarity of the King Grayskull/He-Ro roles, putting them together on Eternia and having He-Ro bequeath the Sword of He (more on that later) to King Grayskull.
Backing up a bit, regarding the “real name”…I suppose they didn’t want to use “Gray” because it implied a connection to Grayskull, which is now officially tied to King Grayskull. But “Ro”? Yuck. While I think they should have just kept the Gray and not worried about the whole “Grayskull” thing, any name would have been better than Ro.
Where exactly is He-Ro from originally? Trolla? Because the bio just tells us he’s given the Power Sword and told to go fight evil, and next thing we know he’s locked in battle with Horde Supreme (first mention of him, by the way) and then dumped on Eternia.
Then there’s the “Sword of He.” When L.E. Bryce was writing her excellent MOTU fanfic in the nineties, she suggested “He-Man” was a term in an ancient Eternian language for “great warrior” or something to that effect. I think that’s the sort of thing the bio writers are going for here.* But let’s face it, “the Sword of He” is a bit risible. The Power Sword is a perfectly memorable term, much like The Legend of Zelda‘s Master Sword. I appreciate the bio writers’ efforts to come up with an explanation for the goofy “He-Man” name, but I’m afraid it’s never going to sound cool.
I’m a disappointed the bio doesn’t even mention He-Ro’s staff. Called the Power Staff in the 1987 media, there’s a lot of story potential there–for instance, some fans suggested that the jewel in the staff could be where the jewel in She-Ra’s sword comes from, but ToyGuru recently shot that down. Apparently, it’s just a plain old magic staff. Pretty weak effort for such a great accessory.
A few last thoughts: The out-of-left-field “techno-organic virus” plot point will be revisited in Tytus’s bio; all I’ll say is, Eternia could apparently have used some good hazardous waste disposal in those days. It’s good to see Eldor mentioned and given a place in the MOTUC canon, though we learn precious little about him.
Next time: Tri-Klops!
* The entire “He-Man” toy concept came out of the “Big Jim” “G.I. Joe” and “Action Jackson” tradition, whereby a guy with a generic name would get dressed up in various outfits and could become any sort of hero you wanted–a soldier, an adventurer, a knight, an astronaut, etc. But, due to the immense success of Kenner’s Star Wars line, by the time He-Man was being developed generically-named action figures were out and media-based toylines with dozens of unique characters were in. And so the MOTU concept became this weird blend of a traditional 1960s action figure concept merged with the strong media narratives of most other 1980s toylines. Hasbro would do the same thing with G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, but were smart enough to name the team G.I. Joe, not the main character.
George
Poe! You graduated from Harvard?
Poe
@George: I did, although I don't really see how that's relevant to He-Ro…
FakeEyes22
Funny you mention the pre-80s style heroes who played different roles, it fits in with how I think Roger Sweet's creation of He-Man was supposed to go, courtesy of his oft repeated "He-Man Trio." A super-ripped dude in tons of different outfits made sense being called He-Man, the term "he-man" has been used for a while to describe buff sexy dudes(Sweet seems especially proud of this in He-Man)
Keeping this name after the line was determined to have a set narration and location pretty much doomed He-Man's successors to emulate the monicker. She-Ra sounds pretty cool. He-Ro…not as much. It is pretty impressive that the line was such a monster success that people don't say he-man outside of Masters of the Universe anymore!
I found it odd that He-Ro isn't called a wizard at all, since that was going to be his whole deal. He does make a goofy looking wizard I suppose. The whole sword origin, times of battles, deaths and bequeathing is making Preternia a bit hard to follow at this point, but thd introduction of the Techno-virus suggests they've got more plans for fleshing out the story.
RM
Wow, "Ro" is much worse than "Squidish Rex".
*shudder*
Snarf! Snarf!
Oh He-Ro… What did they do to you!?
Ro!? Couldn't they have used another name? (or at least Gray in another language)
Gris, Grau, Grijs, Cinzento, Grigio… All of these are still Gray, which sounds better than Ro.
-So the sword was given to him by the blah blah blah overlords on trolla.
the on trolla part confuses me. are the overlords from trolla or was the sword given to him on Trolla? Is Ro a Trollan?
-The Techno Virus + Battling Horde Supreme + ending in Eternia's past… kinda reminds me of a certain X-Person…
-So He-Ro teams up with KG and passes on the sword to KG… Having He-Ro and KG at the same time is a bit convoluted…
I would've had He-Ro (and Tytus) further in the past than KG. Perhaps KG could've been a descendant of He-Ro. He-Ro had the Magics and honor and KG had the power and determination. That way KG having the Sword of He doesn't seem so forced. (KG could've used a more plain version of the 200X sword Without the techno junk added by MAA to channel the power of the king for Adam)
toyman2581
There's a lot going on in this bio but at the same time it doesn't tell us much. Techno-organic virus? Lame. What is he Cable from the Marvel universe now? Also, no mention of his awesome staff is confusing.
He's obviously an important part of the MOTU story and a cool character but a card-back bio just isn't enough space to clearly tell us what was going on with him.
Dead Man Walking
1) The name is bad, but not nearly as bad as Squiddish Rex.
2) I too hate that they give not mention to his really cool staff.
3) I'm confused as to where the power that Adam receives comes from. Troll? The Cosmic Enforcers? He-Ro? King Grayskull? The Elders? Some combination of these?
4) Techno-virus. UGH. What a hackneyed plot devise. We all know that was what was used for Cable in the MU, but it's also popped up in IDW Transformers as the source of Micromasters (organic beings infected by a technovirus that changes them into small Tf's). And I'm sure it's popped up in countless other places, thought I won't waste any more time thinking about it.
bobshumway
So what was the original idea, have him named Gray and then die and have the castle named after his skull?
Maybe his skull was turned into the castle by Eldor or some stupid shit like that.
Anyway, the techno virus thing is a way to explain why all those Power of Grayskull dinosaurs had lasers and jet engines attached to them. The Horde must've been trying to create new weapons with the local wildlife.
It still doesn't make any sense that Pre-eternia is only 500 years from the time of the Adam He-man.
IMO He-ro is a sucky charater with an even suckier name and a cool staff.
Fuck him!
AJ
I was disappointed that they didn't make a connection between He-Ro and She-Ra to create the kind of "legacy" that is evidence with King Grayskull and He-Man.
I have a vague recollection that the "Power Staff" has the ability to shape-shift which could have indicated that She-Ra's "Sword of Protection" was actually the "Power Staff" as a "sword" instead of "staff".
Given the physical similarities in their costumes and the otherwise lame explanation for the Sword of Protection (a non-identical "clone" of He-Man's Sword of Power/He), in my personal canon, He-Ro is to She-Ra what King Grayskull is to He-Man.
He-Dan
Wasn't there a version of He-Ro as the son of Adam and Tela somewhere?
I like the idea that he is a decendent/ inheritor of the He-Man legacy. A blend of technology and magic, the two dichotomus elements of the MOTU cannon.
The idea that He is from the future but goes to the past to help his ancestor (Grayskull), passing on the Power Sword, thus creating a causality loop of pre-destiny is an interesting layer.
PrfktTear
Considering I didn't even know about He-Ro until I stumbled upon him when I first started exploring the internets, he isn't really a big factor in my whole MOTUverse.
On one hand I like how they are fleshing out the backstory and giving us info as to where the "Power" came from, even though its not quite clear, and letting us know where Castle Grayskull came from, etc, but sometimes less is more. Having there by some mystery, like "where does this power come from" or "who built Grayskull?" is essential to any mythos/lore.
Also, I don't know if I like how much importance the "Overlords" of Trolla are beginning to play in this.
Not everything needs to have some deep meaning or explanation. But I guess I just rest on the fact that these can be taken as gospel or ignored.
George
@Poe:
Sorry I saw your Facebook page today…Anyways sorry I was being all stalker is was one of those friend suggestion type thing.
Anyways very nice.
Thrawn
I don't like the real name. That's pretty lame.
I'm neutral on the whole Sword of He thing.
The technovirus thing had better not start being thrown around as being responsible for every horde member. If the techno virus was lethal to He-Ro, why did it just mutate the dinosaurs mentioned in Tytus' bio and not kill them?
Other than that, I don't care at all about He-Ro. I have no nostalgia for him, and I think he looks like a goofy super-hero. He reminds me of Quasar from Marvel comics. He's easily my least favorite figure in the entire line so far. He's a fine figure, that's just my personal opinion.
dayraven
@Thrawn: because eldor moved the virus into a healing pool, thus diluting it's virulence.
i love the character of he-ro and the figure we got, but that bio smells like week old road kill in august. the real name is god awful, the sword of he exposes us to the notion that there's a preternian hero named He *shudder* and the TO virus does sound like something liefeld would do… but at least he-ro has feet. 🙂 also, the overlords of trolla/cosmic enforcers now allow dc comics to sue for likeness rights… i'm astounded he-ro didn't come w/ a power ring. it's also true that they, like he-man's axe, they missed a major opportunity to add a new, and very cool, accessory to the official storytelling of the bios. i know guru keeps saying the bios were all laid out, and everyone has a backstory and all this, but i have to call shenanigans… if this is the quality of the guys working on these bios, they should have chocked up and hired a real writer. cuz this sucks. you find better fiction in Tor paperbacks.
Harlan Rosen
@He-Dan: Yeah, at one point, one of the He-Man sequels would've involved Adam becoming King of Eternos and his son, an adopted "wild child" archetype named Dare would inherit the power of Grayskull to become He-Ro. Several of the characters from the original series would make their return in older forms, including a racier-than-ever Evil-Lyn.
There was a series bible made and I believe it is/was on He-Man.org or another site. Having a helluva time finding a link for it, though.
EDIT: Found it, http://old.he-man.org/cartoon/exclusivefeatures/e…
LBD "Nytetrayn&
"Sword of He" has grown on me. I can see why they wouldn't use "Power Sword," since that would probably evoke Power Rangers for a number of people– not only was it the name of the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger's weapon, but his Megazord's, too.
Meanwhile, I don't know if there would be many who would reuse "Sword of He."
gambit320
@Harlan Rosen: I'm curious if those characters are off limits or not. I'd love a Battle Bird, and Saw-Tooth sounds like he'd make for an interesting figure.