Masters of the Universe: Revelation

The latest "Masters of the Universe" series is an almost perfect example of the He-Man universe - like the old school show form the 80's it has a goodly number of genuinely good ideas, but it's then wrapped up in a whole load of nonsense and the sort of insipid storytelling we should really have come to expect by now. There's a reason "Animaniacs" chose to parody the show's Wheel of Morality...

It's bad, but it's also interesting enough that I'm happy I watched it, if only to rip it off for ideas.

(Incidentally, it's an almost perfect example of what any new D&D show should be.)

That's actually more or less all I have to say about the show, except perhaps to address the backlash from the old school fans.

As far as I can see, much of the backlash is driven by the fact that the show sidelines He-Man in favour of the female characters. Which is, of course, truly horrible - I mean, who could possibly imagine?

That said, there is one thing that the creators did do wrong in all of this: when the trailers dropped, sections of the fandom voiced their unease at what they thought was coming - that He-Man was being sidelined and that this was going to be the Teela show. At which point, the creators loudly and noisily denied this... only for the show to be released and for to indeed be the Teela show.

What the creators should have done is simply told it as it is - that He-Man is, frankly, not a particularly interesting character, that his story has been told to death, and that they wanted to work with other characters instead. And, yes, that that meant bringing Teela to the fore. Just don't lie to the fans, especially when those lies are inevitably going to be revealed.

But that's a minor quibble. And it's not actually as if telling it like it is would really have made all that much difference - let's face it, a very large part of the objection to this being the Teela show, or to the lead Jedi in the new Star Wars films being Rey, or to Rose Tico, or... is rooted in something pretty nasty, and something that really shouldn't be humoured.

(Even there, though, telling it like it is is the right thing to do - if there are toxic elements of fandom that are going to boycott the show because of sexism, it's probably better to say what needs said, and let them have their boycott - you're better off without them anyway.)