For the Honour of Grayskull

@bobmcfaceshield​ I’m planning to go back to the liveblog when my classload lightens up a little. Uni has been kicking my butt the last year and I haven’t coped with it very well lol. 

I haven’t watched it on my own, I’m saving the fun for myself since I really was enjoying going through it bit by bit a lot. Though I have watched the 1980s series through twice this year and also every single Pokemon episode. All of them. They’re great background noise when I’m doing assessment work. 

Hordak is literally begging for Adora to remove her from the Fright Zone. There are flowers in everything. The McGuffin of Ultimate Power featured in the episode is being willingly handed over to She-Ra on the condition that she please remove Perfuma from the Fright Zone right now! WHY ARE THERE FLOWERS THERE?

To talk about one of the best pieces of Hordak lore we don’t actually start with Hordak. We start with his older brother. No joke here guys, we’re starting with Horde Prime. 

Yes, Horde Prime is in that picture. He’s the gas, it kind of glows in time with his speech. 

Horde Prime splits his time between being angry magical semi-luminescent gas and possessing his created form of a giant trash robot person. 

It was the 1980s, just go with it.

Now Horde Prime is an  ancient eldritch, unknowable being of apparently mysterious origins who has a bad habit of murdering everyone he comes across and conquering entire galaxies to serve his whims. 

He’s so evil that Hordak looks almost kind and benevolent in comparison. 

Horde Prime doesn’t really have a proper body of his own. Presumably he occasionally dabbles in creating/cloning himself one for the evilulz. 

We can assume this not just because of the extremely improbable existence of his ‘younger brother’ Hordak (who I always assumed was the inconvenient result of a potential body spontaneously developing it’s own consciousness) but because Horde Prime has a (presumably) biological son who was born relatively recently in the timeline of the universe. 

Everyone say hi to Prince Zed, half human heir presumptive to The Evil Horde and the bratty nephew of Lord Hordak. 

Hordak himself was extensively modified by technology, not just so he could turn into a cool rocket or use his arm to vacuum up messes, but also because there was presumably a great deal of trial and error involved in the cloning process.

Eventually, after one of Horde Prime’s allies failed to conquer Eternia he sent Hordak to take care of things, setting off the events that would lead to Adora’s eventual kidnapping and Keldor’s ultimate decent into the evil Skelator. 

Imp doubtless factors in here somewhere as well but given Horde Prime’s apparent predilection for cloning himself extra bodies and/or siblings his exact position in the family tree is somewhat hazy.

So, where did Horde Prime come from? 

Once upon a time, long before the recorded history of Eternia there was a mage named Gorko, a Trollan from the Planet Trolla in the Timeless Dimension (yes, you read that right). 

Gorko used his magic to become an Overlord of Trolla but was eventually stripped of his form and banished from the Timeless Dimension and into the Nameless Dimension by the Trollan council after he betrayed them by trying to steal the Power of the Universe. The same power which would eventually be used to help create the Swords of Power and Protection.

Here’s where the timeline gets a bit muddled/contradictory depending on which set of lore you take from. 

Gorko’s surviving essence eventually escaped the Nameless Dimension and created the Snake Men to strip magic from planets throughout the universe in preparation for his revenge against Trolla. Now known as the Nameless One he terrorised a great deal of the galaxy for many decades, apparently coming into conflict with the Horde at some point (who were busy trying to conquer the universe) because why not.

Eventually the Nameless One attempted to strip Eternia of magic but was banished once more, this time by He-Ro, son of He-Man, and trapped in crystal for all eternity. 

Somehow during or just before his original banishment Gorko’s essence was split in two. Half remained with his physical body/was banished to become the Nameless One, while half was transported into the dimension inhabited by Etheria and Eternia. This formless essence took shelter in a giant robotic body on a virtually abandoned garbage world. 

This evil giant possessed garbage robot would go on to be Horde Prime, evil despotic universe conquering ruler of the Horde and occasional dabbler in poorly regulated cloning technology.

Both the Nameless One and Horde Prime’s essence yearn to reunite with their other half and re-attain both their physical form and the ultimate power they once commanded. Luckily for the universe, that never occurred.

Now for the best part. You see the little guy on the left in the picture below? 

That’s Orko, a Trollan from Trolla in the Timeless Dimension, incompetent mage, comic relief and staunch ally of He-Man. 

That’s right kids. That’s what both Horde Prime and Hordak would have originally looked like before all the magical, genetic and/or cybernetic augmentation.

Glimmer’s level of chill is seriously in the negative digits... She extracted herself from under Bow and absolutely flung herself at the Horde Soldier in order to stop Adora making a move on the sword before Bow could even react

Then Bow somehow manages to extract himself from where he’s just been crushed between the two of them without detaching Glimmer-

-and despite all of this, even though she has two people holding her back-, even though Bow clearly has her in a choke-hold- 

Adora is still. Moving. FORWARD

Pictured: The future saviours of Etheria fighting over a magic sword

Not Pictured: Light Hope and/or The Sorceress face palming in despair that this is the group they’ve got to work with to help save the planet

Poor Glimmer, she just has no idea whats happening right now

I say again, Adora just launched herself HORIZONTALLY ACROSS THE SCREEN

I say he should keep the knife in his boot because my son is clearly very dedicated to his look and a boot knife should be easy enough to conceal form sight.

Glimmer, my love, Adora could not more clearly be about to crash tackle you form off screen. Every single law of narrative causality tells me this is so

Glimmer- Glimmer you could have ended the fight right at this second just by teleporting in behind Adora and attacking while she was blind and off balance. 

You had the perfect opportunity and you wasted it by going after the magic sword at a leisurely pace like ‘pick up sword’ was a free action.