Sunday, April 19, 2015

Skeletor For President!

Every Saturday, Skeletor would plot to topple He-Man and take over Eternia.  Every Saturday, as the cartoons had it, Skeletor was undone by his own greed and stupidity, allowing He-Man (or, God help us, Orko) to save the day.

Kids were supposed to cheer for He-Man, to want to be him, with his blond page-boy and teutonic good looks.  Fuggeddaboutit.

Skeletor was the real inspiration.  He never gave up.  Every week, he was knocked down, or undermined by disappointing (or, in Evil-Lyn's case, downright dangerous and alarming) henchmen.  And every week, he would get back up, brush himself off, and try again.  Skeletor was a study in tenacity.

And the deck was stacked against Skeletor:  he didn't have the advantage of He-Man's charming good looks, his pink skin.  What a brave soul, constantly confronting the world without masks, and without a face, but with naked skull.  He had no eyes, no nose, no lips, no cheeks, just raw bone.  What could be more honest and courageous in its honesty?

I wish Eternia would have given Skeletor a chance.  I don't think his ideas were the problem so much as his execution of them.  Maybe if He-Man and company had just listened to Skeletor, really listened to him, a lot of Eternia's ills could have been solved.

We'll never know, because no one had the heart or the bravery to just give poor, misunderstood Skeletor a chance...

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