#snake men

[katkalis-the-fanartist]

Clingy, protective snake men, elder serpent Ingo idea (with his partner ofc!), and concepts for my take of them as dragons!

[lord-prey]

Doodle

[queenofspoons]

So I finally bought the MOTU art book off Amazon because it was on sale. It’s a fascinating read,there’s stuff that I haven’t seen before in this book and one of those things that caught my eye was this Preternia battle drawing that isn’t explained or has an artist credited.

This may be the most violent piece of MOTU art work I’ve ever seen: a three headed Snake Man being decapitated, Rattlor bitting some guy in the chest and blood gushing out, Spittor bashing some guys head in, and another Snake Man sniping someone while on a Turbodactyl.

And to top it off theirs Giants in the background destroying a whole city with their feet.

THIS IS EPIC!!

[ssjrodimus]

Lady Slither (Mattel Creations Exclusive) - Masters of the Universe Origins - Mattel

[lemaistrechat]

Phases of Skeletor’s Life

Sources are what I’ll call “the main 80s continuity”. This includes both Filmation cartoons, mini-comics packed with the action figures near the end of the line but not before, the newspaper comic and The New Adventures of He-Man.

PHASE 1, Backstory. Skeletor was either a demon from another dimension who always had a bare skull for a head, or King Randor’s brother Keldor. If the latter, his experiments with magic caused him to uncontrollably cross spacetime (”The Search for Keldor”).

He studied magic under Hordak (making it possible that his extra-dimensional demon homeland was Horde World, but no writer has explicitly said so) and arrived/returned to Eternia with his invasion fleet. As the Horde conquest failed, Skeletor was stranded behind enemy lines at the end of a half-successful commando mission to steal the King and Queen’s twins (She-Ra, “The Secret of the Sword”/”Reunions”)

Between the Horde invasion landing and its failure, they made Snake Mountain their base. Skeletor convinced Zanthor, a member of the Council of the Wise, to betray its Golden Discs of Knowledge to him, using knowledge their contained to shape the Snake Mountain base. Zanthor was banished to a phantom dimension by Zodac and the rest of the Council of the Wise, then they disbanded. (He-Man episode “The Golden Discs of Knowledge”)

Besides Hordak any other named Hordesmen in the invasion force, and briefly Zanthor, Skeletor’s earliest allies were Beast Man, Mer-Man, Trap Jaw (AKA Kronis), Tri-Klops and Evil-Lyn. The 2002 continuity showed the order they joined Keldor (Beast Man -> Kronis / Tri-Klops or vice versa -> Evil-Lyn, Mer-Man implicitly last) but this one didn’t. Fisto also held his forest domain as a fief from Skeletor for some time, defecting when Prince Adam was 16. (He-Man episode “Fisto’s Forest”)

PHASE 2-1 (Filmation Season 1)

Skeletor and Beast Man reassemble the Evil Warriors. They spend many months on various schemes to take over Eternia, though rarely in the full group of six. Prince Adam is 18.

PHASE 2-2 (Filmation Season 2)

New Evil Warriors join: Clawful, Webstor, Whiplash, Kobra Khan, Two Bad, Spikor and Modulok.

PHASE 2-3 (Filmation She-Ra)

Skeletor meets Hordak again. They briefly team up (”Secret of the Sword”/”Battle for Brightmoon”), then fight whenever they meet (”Gateway to Trouble”, “My Friend My Enemy”, “Of Shadows and Skulls”, “Horde Prime Takes a Holiday”, Christmas Special). Modulok soon defects to the Horde. Prince Adam turns 20 or 21. Skeletor, Beast Man and Trap Jaw are last seen together assaulting the Bee People’s Hive starship (She-Ra, “Assault on the Hive”).

PHASE 3, honorary Snake Man and new Evil Warriors

One day when only he and Kobra Khan are at Snake Mountain, Skeletor goes spelunking into unexplored caves beneath Snake Mountain. King Hiss is released from mystic confinement. Rattlor and Tung Lashor are summoned from the Etherian Horde to join him. Hypothetically, Skeletor and King Hiss are independent allies living together and each planning to backstab the other when He-Man and Hordak are defeated, but all the old Evil Warriors stop coming to Snake Mountain and the pair act like co-commanders of the Snake Men. King Hiss manages to free Sssqueeze and Snake Face from where they were mystically banished. The robots Blast Attack and Twistoid are added to this group. (mini-comics “King of the Snake Men”, “Snake Attack”, “The Ultimate Battleground!”, “Revenge of the Snake Men”, “Energy Zoids”. Alternate telling in “Vengeance of the Viper King” newspaper comic.)

Eventually the Snake Men are banished again. Either before or after this, Skeletor summons Scare Glow and Ninjor from across space and time to serve him. This doesn’t seem to work out long-term. (”The Search for Keldor” mini-comic, “Ninjor Stalks by Night” newspaper comic)

With the Snake Men gone, Skeletor summons alien mercenaries Saurod and Blade. Evil-Lyn and Beast Man return to him, though at one point they also try to run away from him and conquer Blade’s home planet Merrian.

PHASE 4, The New Adventures

Some time later, Skeletor has become a cyber-lich, with advanced prosthetics all over his remaining flesh.

He lives at Snake Mountain with none of the Evil Warriors except a tribe of humans who wear ram hides. He also has a different staff from the old Havoc Staff.

He makes his way onto a starship from Primus and joins the Mutants of Denebria led by Flogg. (New Adventures, “A New Beginning”)

On the moon of Nordor, he finds a power crystal that changes his body/armor again. (New Adventures, “Sword & Staff”)

He falls in love with a Mutant woman, Crita.

His beloved Crita schemes her way into a position of power independent of Flogg as the Queen of the Gleanons of planet Necron. When a peace treaty is signed between the rulers of Primus and Flogg’s Mutants, he and Crita do not abide by it and attack He-Man and his friends. He-Man knocks them into a small spacecraft and sarcastically officiates their wedding before tossing it into orbit. (”The Final Invasion”)

That was the last we saw of him before continuity reboots. Really.

[catulhu333]

Hordak and the Unnamed One in SPOP

As in the title, it's interesting it's specifically noted that in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Hordak started out as literally Unnamed (something noted in the series) and only took on the name Hordak some time after coming to Etheria. Making me wonder if this is a coincidence (more probable), or a reference to a fan theory that in the 1986 Powers of Grayskull storyline, Hordak was the Unnamed One, instead of Gorpo, or as was to be the case in the 200X comics (kinda) Horde Prime. (I elaborated on this theory in my discussion with @lemaistrechat here). Though as I discussed with @toonjukka , the identity of the Unnamed One in 80s seemed to had been undecided.

SPOP did reference some obscure lore, and even maybe fan lore/theories - up to for example, in Origin of Hero, the novelization of The Sword two part pilot, Octavia, in what is meant to be an offensive and insulting joke, suggested Catra (and probably her kind) are from Beast Isle...and in gbagok's fan lore, Catra was from Beast Isle, and the book possibly referenced it in a creative way...

Still, like the Unnamed, and Hordak in He-Man and She-Ra Power Tour lead Snake Men, SPOP Hordak' forces were in large part composed of Rogelio's lizard men species, being kinda Snake Men like (if separate from them), with Rogelio and the rest of his kind seemingly being inspired by the prototype design of Rattlor, as is some of Rogelio's characterization.

Still, this would be just a reference then - Hordak rather wasn't present on ancient Eternia/Preternia, seeing it's strongly implied Hordak is relatively young in SPOP/not ancient. (Unless the portal to Despondos/Etheria transported him 500 to 1000 years into the future..., but that's just a rather a pretty improbable theory).

[emperorsfoot]

This new design for King Hiss is much more regal and kingly...

... .. .but I don't think I like it...?

[tyrannus555]

King Hiss

I gave him a tail. And I made the muscles in his arms abnormal to show that something isn't quite right with him, and something might be moving beneath his skin.

Tyrannical ruler of the snake men who once fort King Grayskull and was driven from snake mountain during the days of ancient Eternia. But ultimately defeated by Hordak and the Horde. Until one day of the few remaining snake men on Eternia freed him and his army from their prison.

[kollectorsrus]

[hasbr0mniverse]

Reign Of Darkness & Villainy Month! In The Shadow Of Snake Mountain By Carlos Valenzuela

[retrogamechampion]

That one time I read a really horrible not-licensed-by-Nintedo novel from the '90s live while attempting not to crack up at comments in the chat. I failed. A lot.

New episodes coming at some point this year!

[edgar-allan-possum]

2021 MOTU Snake Men headcanons

Nobody can really tell me I'm wrong about these so far, so I'll continue to believe them until someone contradicts me.

The Snake Men call themselves "The Sons of Serpos" and believe that Serpos is a primordial mother goddess who was the broodmother of the first snakes. Other Eternians shorten it and just call them all Serpos.

Tung Lashor and Rattlor were generals in King Hsss' army that were the templates for the magically created Lasher and Rattler gestalt forms.

The giant snake that Skeletor unleashed in Leviathae was a Kobra Khan, and there was also a Kobra Khan individual in the past.

Serpos' fossilized corpse is Snake Mountain, just like in the 200x series. Dunno if she could come back to life in this version, though.

[capndragn94]

Do you have any spop headcannons for the snake men sorry if I’m asking for too much stuff

No it's fine, I headcanon that the snake men aren't just one species, but are in fact different reptilian species from a bunch of different worlds. The snake men began as a reptilian supremacist group that became an empire under King Hiss. After Horde Prime defeated Hiss and the snake men he sealed them away on one of his dead worlds. While the star siblings were scouting out the planet for the rebellion they accidentally released King Hiss, who plans on picking up where he left off.

[thewormsingularityisnear]

[ssjrodimus]

8x Masters of the Universe Origins (Snake Men) figures - Mattel

Serpent Claw Man-At-Arms, SSSqueeze, Spikor, Snake Men Infiltrator, Tung Lashor, Hypno (Sun-Man), Snake Armor Skeletor, Roboto.

[lemaistrechat]

Masters of the Universe: Snake and Lizard Men

Reptilian humanoids started appearing in MotU in the first, 1983, season of the Filmation cartoon.

Here’s Lizard Man, a supporting hero who appeared in four episodes.

Here is Fang Man, a bad guy who only appeared in “The Time Corridor”.

Bands of unnamed reptile men then appeared as wizards’ henchmen in two episodes, “House of Shokoti” and “Ordeal in the Darklands”.

So it already looks like we have two races of lizard people on Eternia. In Season 2, Kobra Khan was introduced.

In the very last episode, “The Cold Zone”, writer J. Michael Straczynski revealed that Kobra Khan had left the underground Repton civilization to commit crimes with Skeletor and friends. While their name was generically reptilian, named characters such as King Pythos indicate the entire people’s snakiness.

In 1986, the Snake Men faction was introduced to the toy line and its accompanying mini-comics. Members King Hiss, Sssqueeze and Snake Face were treated as having been banished by the Elders to a timeless dimension while living their evil lives thousands of years ago. Writer Steven Grant alluded to Kobra Khan’s people as descendants.

However, by the time kids would have opened this comic, the entire first season of (literal) sister show She-Ra would have aired, in September-December 1985. There, two other characters identified as Snake Men, Rattlor and Tung Lashor, were seen as members of Hordak’s Etherian Horde.

Both the mini-comic “King of the Snake Men” and newspaper comic arc “Vengeance of the Viper King” addressed these two being magically teleported from Etheria to Eternia to join King Hiss.

Unnamed Snake Men made two further appearances in the 80s: as hunter-gatherers who preceded Eternia’s first humans on the planet in the newspaper comic arc “Terror Takes Time” and as disorganized enemies of the five good wizards (Elders?) who organized under Hordak in the Power Tour stage show.

So much for official Snake Men. But we’re not done:

Almost simultaneously with him joining the Snake Men, Kobra Khan was seen commanding a band of evil lizard men (not to be confused with Lizard Man the hero) in the mini-comic “The Fastest Draw in the Universe”.

Jump forward to the summer of 1987 and fans were introduced to Saurod, a blue-scaled, bronze-armored mercenary employed by Skeletor in the live action film. He also appeared in all sorts of comics (mini-comic with the 3 film-related action figures, monthly comic, newspaper comic).

(pictured: Classics toy from 2015.)

While his armor looks like a fuller version of the partial plate armor we saw in the Repton culture, whether he was even native to Eternia was not explained at the time.

Then there’s one more before the Classics era. When He-Man traveled to another solar system in The New Adventures of He-Man, the Mutants of Denebria has their own lizard person, Lizorr.

He was said to be from the Gorn Desert of Denebria (a homage to the original Star Trek’s reptilian Gorn). His name suggests there’s no connection between his people and any Eternian Snake Men who ended up making their homes on Horde planets in the past two millennia or more.