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It's not only that! At SDCC alone, five variants were revealed that were not part of the vintage lines: NA She-Ra, Oolar, Snake Armor He-Man, BA King Hiss, helmetless Man-At-Arms...
But no Masque, Darius, Tuskador etc.
I'm happy with tribal he-man (oolar is such a shitty name) and BA Hiss as I am a 200x guy (but I never liked SA He-Man) but generally I can do without variants unless like in the case of Hiss it's an improvement over the other release (a 2.0 of sorts) or Tribal He-Man to give me that pre filmation savage era.
I hope they leave her for 2016 to start a new DC comics inspired line. I'm not gonna collect that line.
“Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." ― Henry Steele Commager
Lol. I'd actually like a Classics Despara. I think she is pretty cool. Given the bio for NA She-Ra I think it is a foregone conclusion that she is coming.
She-Ra - Galactic Protector
Real Name - Adora of the House of Randor
After years of fighting the Space Mutants and Horde Empire, the Protectors drew a truce with Skeletor to stop Horde Prime once and for all. After He-Man and Skeletor were blasted by Prime’s vortex beam, She-Ra was left alone against his might. Calling upon the Honor of Grayskull, She-Ra sapped magiks from Prime’s armor, ending the spell that prolonged his and all Horde members extended lifespans. In an exception to her policy to protect life, Adora smote Prime’s body against his own thorne, forever ending the threat of the Horde empire! But in doing so, Prime’s evil soul lashed out at her, binding itself to her armor. Overwhelmed by darkness, She-Ra once again became Despara, the evil warrior-queen persona she originally created under Shadow Weaver’s spells. Unleashed again, Despara resurrected Skeletor and helped bring about the Fall of Eternia!
Despara - NO. End of discussion. This bio is the ultimate proof that the current brand manager neither understands the mythos nor cares. It is stupid, it is genuinely insulting, and it makes me truly angry. And I don't like me when I'm angry.
Not every beast is tender, especially if there is genius in his making.
Despara - NO. End of discussion. This bio is the ultimate proof that the current brand manager neither understands the mythos nor cares. It is stupid, it is genuinely insulting, and it makes me truly angry. And I don't like me when I'm angry.
Are you stating that TrollScrewYou does not understand the mythos, possesses no creative talent, and strongarms his ideas into the line with complete and utter disregard for the fans?
You should be banned. You should also be forced to return all your MOTUC figures for Mighty Spector replacements immediately.
I have no problem with DC New 52 variants. Even though I am not a fan of the comics (The plot idea started good, but He-Man's become far too violent, sexist and corny, and the art is boring, uninspired, and the comics is way too slow and generic IMO) I am happy to see new things being brought to the table. Anyway.
So She-Ra kills Horde Prime... um...
In an exception to her policy to protect life,
So in order to infuse some "new story" to this figure, She-Ra goes against 30 years of characterization, kills her enemy, but not really, because then Prime's soul makes her turn evil... again... so essentially, She-Ra breaks her moral code and 30 years of characterization for no reason.
I had little respect for the bios before, but this opens up a whole can of "destroy characterization" to the POP series and is straight-up stupid.
- If Prime is dead, then how does his soul corrupt her? Isn't he, like, defeated, and... dead? If he's able to be an ethereal spirit, then what effect would killing his body have in the first place?
- Wasn't the DC Comics story enough to warrant this figure? Couldn't they just do a synopsis of the DC story Despara is featured in?
- If She-Ra is evil again, doesn't that basically undo the entirety of POP... all the good done in the Filmation series? Doesn't this just bring us back, character-wise, to the origins of POP?
- Would He-Man ever kill and turn evil like this? Why is it OK to do that with She-Ra and not He-Man?
- Is there a reason why it's the main female character of the series turning evil, again? Why is it that the main antagonist of POP has to turn evil again? Is it because... gasp... she's a strong woman?
- Is there a reason beyond Scott that MOTU has to feature killing, after all these years of no death? This IMO was what made He-Man & She-Ra unique from Batman, or Wonder Woman.
- Why resurrect Skeletor? Why not resurrect, I don't know... Horde Prime? Since that is the soul possessing her? Or even Hordak? Doesn't Horde Prime hate Skeletor?
Here's an even better idea: Make Despara a new, unique character, with her own backstory, instead of just an Evil Adora (which we've already seen) with a Hordak mask. Because, MOTU/POP needs new, quality characters.
You don't hire a plumber to fix your car.
You don't hire a cashier to fix your roof.
Why do they let the marketing guy write?
What is the aversion of marketing guys in general to real, legitimate writers and artists?
Why do they see so little value in writers?
Who at Mattel seriously thinks the "Skeleteen" idea Scott's stubbornly working towards is even close to a good idea to say out loud?
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist."― Salman Rushdie
Design wise, I like the look of Despara. Character wise, I'm not a huge fan. I especially don't like the idea of her reverting back to Despara in the mini-comics. It gives the impression to the audience that Adora has no free will of her own. It turns her into a weak female character (strong in body/weak in mind). To me, Despara seems like she was created because her creator thought she had the best chance of winding up in a film someday, and not because she was what was best for the story.
"We must always value life. Even the life of one who opposes us." ― He-Man
Despara was who she was as a teen, suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. After she found out the truth and who her true parents are, Despara should have been vanquished for good. Good triumphs evil. That has always been the basis for MotU. She-Ra turning back into Despara is not only a regression and damages the character, but it's also not true to the mythos. I hate how dark the SC comics have become and now even the bios are getting dark with the death of Sorceress and MAA. Where is the good triumph evil? This isn't Batman or the brooding 90s anti-hero culture. This is MotU!
“Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." ― Henry Steele Commager
I'm fine with MOTU being a bit darker than the norm, it gives it a little of that gritty medieval fantasy vibe that was lost from the original mini-comics, however I'm not a big fan of the new direction that DC and Neitlich have been messing up with, too much crap and deaths that could've been replaced with good adventures and fun battles!
So.... Adora becomes good, but then turns evil again. Check.
Keldor becomes good, but then turns evil again. Check.
Wow, this is brilliant storytelling.
There are many examples of characters in story telling being redeemed, switching sides, or falling from their respective grace into misery. Sometimes its great story telling material.
However, some characters are the backbone of a mythos and really shouldn't be screwed with. For me, Despara is a disposable evil character from a mythos that I don't care for. However, knowing that she is Adora, makes her less appealing to me. Is it the fact that she is Adora that bothers you?
No issue with Adora being evil to start with in the DC comics, but turning her evil again in the mini-comics seems like an excuse to get a toy made in that likeness. Having her be brought back to the 'dark side' seems very forced. My other issue is that this seems to be a theme that Scott is drawn too. We even see it with Man-at-Arms turning evil due to the Snakemen, and then becoming good again as he dies in battle. Although he stole that idea from the MYP cartoon, Duncan was never suppose to die in the cartoon --- he was suppose to get cured. Hopefully we won't see Duncan come back from the dead in the mini-comics as an evil being again, but it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe King Hiss will resurrect him and turn him into Blast Attack... :/
I want a Despara figure and she will simply be two things:
Despara I = Force Captain Adora's battle suit.
Despara II = A physical Manifestation of She-Ra's inner demons created by Horde Prime during his "Final Battle".
As Hordak's right hand, Despara arguably makes more sense than Force Captain Adora. She fits in better with the Horde's look and motif.
The problem is, Neitlich is once again Trying Too Hard to fit everything into this grand, sweeping story, when really, I think we'd be better off with bios that tell us who the character is and what they can do, without nearly so much attention being paid to the Single Continuity. That continuity went out the window the moment Halperin started typing the series bible and didn't make Eternia a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland.
How does this relate to Despara? Because the Adora bio already establishes that Force Captain Adora was her identity before she joined the Rebels, and we absolutely mustn't fiddle with that. So, we've got to find some other way to shoehorn Despara into the mythology instead of just saying "this is the character based on the DC series".
Now, I admit, I turned New Adventures He-Man evil in my own fanfic 15 years ago, so I may not have a leg to stand on. But in that case, he traveled back to before he left, so it was more an alternate future than the one arc of the character. And it actually wound up having parallels to where Man-at-Arms would have gone in Season 2--He-Man making the 'hard choices' and 'necessary sacrifices' to preserve the human race.
(Curiously, IM200X, Adora winds up as a sort of midpoint between FC Adora and Despara--short hair, darker outfit, worshiping Hordak as a god, but no mask, and still believing--thanks to Shadow Weaver's lies and half-truths--that she's doing the right thing by reclaiming Eternia from those who usurped her birthright.)
I still feel like it was a mistake of the artist and writer of the DC series to assign the Despara design to Adora. It's a neat design and would have worked well as a new character. I just don't get why today's creators can't just come up with their own new characters and go for it, instead of retconning, retelling, changing, reshaping.
As Captain Atkin says, the way it is, it makes Adora have no will of her own. The most powerful woman in the universe is always the pawn. What a great message to send to the girls of today
Adora might not visually fit in with the rest of the Horde- but that fits with the storyline. She's not evil like the other Horde members. To me there's no need for every Horde member to be covered in Hordak's Heads like a NASCAR driver.
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist."― Salman Rushdie
"Despara resurrected Skeletor and helped bring about the Fall of Eternia! Realizing what she did Adora re-asserted control of herself, expelled Prime's evil soul & broke Shadow Weaver's spells forever becoming She-ra!"
It's a great design for a figure, sadly once again it's been proven that guru can't write for crap and the character has been shoe horned in with no valid reason for existing except to simply exist Plus I wouldn't put it past his to just stick it to pop fans again
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