200X When Does the Great Unrest Take Place?

[Matthew L. Martin]

This is something that's been bugging me for years--when does the Great Unrest take place relative to Keldor's rebellion? Is it in the aftermath, as Randor tries to cement his claim as king and deal with the remnants of Keldor's forces, or is it the events leading up and culminating in Keldor's attack on the Hall of Wisdom? The shot of the Crystal Orb and mention that the Power of the Elders is secure within the Crystal Chamber suggests the former, but I've never been wholly comfortable with that for some reason. Does anyone have any more information?

[Jukka]

I think that them showing the Orb in the flashback was a mistake.
Just like the background-artists made a mistake with showing vegetation around Snake Mountain in "Rise of the Snake Men" flashback.

But lets go with what they provide us.
I've been doing research for a video about the Mystic Wall and all this is tied to it, too.

Sorceress goes to village of Pelleezia during the Great Unrest. She conceives Teela with the unknown soldier. The Pelleezian folk carve the
image of Sorceress, which was "17 seasons of the field" when Teela comes to visit. And she's 16.
So by that, the Orb of Elders has been in Grayskull atleast the 17 years. During which time the Mystic Wall has been up.

She does refer in "Out of the Past" that Skeletor's Evil had not yet reached the land. She does not speak of him as Keldor, so that would support
the theory that when Skeletor's evil reaches the land = mystic wall breakdown.

Add to Sorceress saying that the isolation behind the Wall of Grayskull had become too much to bear. So that adds more years as to how long the Mystic
Wall was up. It could be 5 or more years. Meaning that the Mystic Wall was up somewhere around 17-25 years?

In "Of Machines and Men", Sortech says he built the Ergon in a time when power was low on supply. After he built Ergon, the villains (Prahvus) came with their War Machines.
We see Prahvus take the Ergon. But Sortech says "The Power of Ergon destroyed them", and Prahvus shield his face with his right hand.
Not sure how literal to take Sortech's word about Ergon destroying the villains.
- Since in "Out of the Past" flashback, Prahvus attacks the village of Pelleezia and there he has a black glove for a hand, which he the loses in the fight against Sorceress.

So it's possible Prahvus lost his hand to Ergon. Then he lost his black-glove hand to Sorceress.

If we go by that the mistake is of them showing Orb of Elders in the flashback.
Then it could be that Sorceress was with child right before Keldor's attack on the Hall of Wisdom. She mentions in "Out of the Past" that she could feel the forces of evil gathering, gaining in power. And Elders beckoning her to return to Grayskull.
So by that, when she says "Skeletor's evil had not yet reached the land", could be interpreted as "Keldor had not yet been transformed into Skeletor".

And Mystic Wall would have been up about 16-17 years. Teela and Adam being conceived very close to the time of the attack at Hall of Wisdom.


So they can be read either way.

[Matthew L. Martin]

I think that them showing the Orb in the flashback was a mistake.
Just like the background-artists made a mistake with showing vegetation around Snake Mountain in "Rise of the Snake Men" flashback.

That was my first instinct as well. But I checked the script for "Out of the Past", and it contains this:

CUT TO: CRYSTAL CHAMBER - SORCERESS looking down at the CRYSTAL ORB. Then she turns away and WALKS PAST Camera.

49. Sorceress (VO)
Skeletor's evil had not yet infected the land -- the Power of the Elders was secure within the Crystal Chamber ..

(As an aside, the script for "Rise of the Snake Men" does say that the terrain around Snake Mountain is jungle. I'm not entirely sure how to reconcile that with "Separation" and "The Power of Grayskull"; I'd need to check the sky in that episode to see if it's daylight, or if it's darkness and the Spell of Separation was recent enough that the jungle hasn't fully withered at that point. The script does include the notation of "Ext. Dark Hemisphere--day". Zodac's vision was also supposed to include the bit from the comic of a "cosmic snake head" swallowing the planet.)

In "Of Machines and Men", Sortech says he built the Ergon in a time when power was low on supply. After he built Ergon, the villains (Prahvus) came with their War Machines.
We see Prahvus take the Ergon. But Sortech says "The Power of Ergon destroyed them", and Prahvus shield his face with his right hand.
Not sure how literal to take Sortech's word about Ergon destroying the villains.
- Since in "Out of the Past" flashback, Prahvus attacks the village of Pelleezia and there he has a black glove for a hand, which he the loses in the fight against Sorceress.

By contrast, the script for "Of Machines and Men" just refers to a Warlord--no mention of Prahvus. This could be a change by story editors or a mistake by the animators. Personally, I find "Of Machines and Men" an odd episode that doesn't quite gel with the rest of the series, and so tend to ignore the reference to 'the Great Unrest' (the script contains an alternate bit of text there; "era of the" before "Great Unrest") and place the flashback considerably farther back in the timeline. After all, if it happened during the Great Unrest as described in OotP--which could only be 17 years ago--you'd think Randor would have heard of Sortech.

If we go by that the mistake is of them showing Orb of Elders in the flashback.
Then it could be that Sorceress was with child right before Keldor's attack on the Hall of Wisdom. She mentions in "Out of the Past" that she could feel the forces of evil gathering, gaining in power. And Elders beckoning her to return to Grayskull.
So by that, when she says "Skeletor's evil had not yet reached the land", could be interpreted as "Keldor had not yet been transformed into Skeletor".

And Mystic Wall would have been up about 16-17 years. Teela and Adam being conceived very close to the time of the attack at Hall of Wisdom.

This is an interpretation I'd like to favor--that the Great Unrest climaxed in Keldor's rebellion and the disappearance of the Elders. .But that bit with the Orb is problematic. And the Great Unrest makes nearly as much sense the other way--with the Elders and Keldor both gone, there's a power vacuum that leads to all sorts of chaos and strife as Randor tries to fulfill the Elder's mandate and other villains and factions struggle for their piece of the pie.

I was just curious if anyone had heard anything from other sources that might clarify it. Of course, I'm quite willing to ignore the sources for my own canon. (IM200X, Marlena isn't half-Gar, and Man-at-Arms is Teela's biological father.)