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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