When it comes to people of a certain age, there wasn’t a cooler set of toys than the ones from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. They were bigger than typical action figures and featured everything from He-Man and his allies to Skeletor and his evil minions to giant battle cats, castles, and even a huge Snake Mountain playset. When the toys became a cartoon, it was even cooler to follow the story of He-Man as he battled his hated enemy Skeletor. However, in the mini-comics that came with the toys, the cartoons, and even the live-action movie that followed, one thing remained true. There were a lot of things about Skeletor that made no sense.
Skeletor was originally an alien invader who wanted to conquer Eternia but had that origin story retconned into one with more Shakespearian origins. Skeletor went from being a demon from another dimension to someone who was disfigured, giving him the skeleton face and anger issues. However, even that origin left his body in a state that was puzzling to anyone who gave it any thought. With a mixture of magic and science, fantasy and science fiction, and comic book storylines mixed with cartoon sensibilities, the entire character of Skeletor became even more confusing.
While he remains an iconic villain and one that remains a high-point of many people’s childhoods, there are too many questions about what makes this villain even work. Here are 20 things about Skeletor that make no sense.
HOW CAN SKELETOR TALK?
One of Skeletor’s best traits isn’t his skillful battle planning or his magical abilities, it is his ability to deliver some of the best insults in the history of the world. However, while his insults always hit on the mark, one has to wonder – how can Skeletor talk at all?
As long as he keeps the insults going, we have no problem not knowing the science behind his ability to talk.
Skeletor has no tongue. He also doesn’t have a neck, so there are no vocal chords there. However, he is able to talk normally and there is no problem understanding him at all. Of course, this is a cartoon and Masters of the Universe could just explain it away using magic, but they never touched on it and just expected people to believe that Skeletor could talk, despite it being scientifically impossible.
SKELETOR HAS ALLERGIES
The ways that He-Man was able to beat Skeletor bordered on ridiculous at times, since the writers really needed to find original ways to bring down the evil mastermind to keep things interesting. However, when it comes to plans that made no sense at all, the time that He-Man used flowers to beat Skeletor tops the list.
He-Man used a power at one time that turned some of Skeletor’s monsters into flowers. This beat Skeletor because he is allergic to pollen. Skeletor actually said that he was allergic to pollen as he slinked off in defeat. The problem is this – Skeletor has no nose. Even if he had a nose, the fact that he is allergic to flowers is just hilarious regardless.
SKELETOR’S ORIGINAL ORIGIN
While this should come as no surprise, through the years the origin story of Skeletor has changed. When something goes through so many iterations in comic books, television cartoons, toy sets and even a movie, there will be changes. However, the changes to the origin of Skeletor were drastic. In today’s canon, he is the half-brother of King Randor.
Family reunions must get a little confusing. Yeesh.
However, when Skeletor first appeared he was a demon that came from another dimension. He learned about the power of Grayskull and wanted to use it to open a hole to his world, to bring his people to Eternia for a full-scale invasion. That was a solid sci-fi origin story, but making it more Shakespearian with the family ties ended up being a change for the better.
WHERE IS SKELETOR’S NECK?
Thanks to Dem Bones, everyone knows that the neck bone is connected to the head bone. However, Skeletor has no neck. Sure, at some points, it looks like there is something there connecting it to his head, but there isn’t anything there. He has no neck, so he shouldn’t be able to talk and his entire head should fall off.
Of course, this could be attributed to magic, but that excuse only works sometimes and shouldn’t be a catch-all explanation for everything. The reason that Skeletor has a skeleton for a face was that he had acid splashed in his face to melt the skin away, but that does not explain why his head is able to just float there above his body.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS POWER SWORD?
Most people who watched the cartoons know that He-Man has a power sword and Skeletor has his Havoc Staff. He-Man can use his Power Sword to summon the power of Grayscull to gain immense power. Skeletor can use his Havoc Staff to shoot mystic energy from it, giving him a nice weapon to fight back with. However, that is not how things originally started.
Skeletor had a Power Sword as well in the mini-comics. These were the books that came with the original Masters of the Universe toys and they showed that there were two halves of the Power Sword. The hero and villain teamed up to beat Trap Jaw by combining the swords into one, and then He-Man kept it for himself.
WHO MADE SNAKE MOUNTAIN?
The origin of Snake Mountain has changed throughout the years in the Masters of the Universe world. This might be explained easiest by just saying that Skeletor is a liar. See, originally, the series claimed that Skeletor used magic to create Snake Moutain to serve as his home base and house his minions. He built the entire thing using his magic and that showed the immense levels of his power.
That changed in 2002 when the new He-Man cartoon series showed that Snake Mountain was actually created when Serops, a snake god, was bound to land by the Council of Elders. When King Hiss releases Serpos, he comes after Skeletor too because the villain was nothing more than a squatter, claiming Snake Mountain as his own.
WHO IS SCARE GLOW?
One of the most confusing things for Masters of the Universe fans comes in the form of Scare Glow. This evil being is a ghost who serves Skeletor. He is confusing at first because he has a solid body that is translucent and glows, but is supposed to be a ghost. He also has a nifty purple cape and carries his own Scythe of Doom. What really threw off fans was that he was called the “evil ghost of Skeletor.”
Scare Glow first showed up in the toy line (and could glow in the dark, a huge bonus for kids). In his mini-comic, Skeletor called him for help from “space and time” and some fans thought he was the ghost of Skeletor from the future after the character passed. However, later, Masters of the Universe revealed Scare Glow was the ghost of Karak Nul, and not Skeletor himself.
SKELETOR LOVES ANIMALS
Skeletor hates almost everyone. He hates He-Man and all his allies and wanted nothing more than to conquer the world and bring it to its knees before him. Skeletor even has a hatred for most of his minions, using them to pull off his dastardly plans but insulting them and seeming disgusted to have anything to do with the creatures.
However, interestingly, there is one thing that Skeletor has a true love for – his animals. As the series showed, if there is one creature that has felt Skeletor’s undying affection and love, it is Panthor, his purple panther. He also later showed great affection for a mutant animal named Grr that his evil minions gave to him, a creature he cared about more than any of his minions.
SKELETOR LOVES CHRISTMAS
Skeletor is evil and he wants to destroy everything for good. However, he also has a love-hate relationship with a certain festive holiday. Skeletor has no choice but to love Christmas. The evil demons love for Christmas was shown during a Christmas special on the Masters of the Universe cartoon when he encounters two children and ends up learning the joys of Christmas from them.
He gives them warm clothes to keep them warm, takes them on a trip with a mechanical puppy and asks them lots of questions about the holiday. Skeletor even becomes the hero in this episode when he rescues the kids from Hordak and does so in the name of Christmas. Of course, Skeletor also said he is happy he only has to act this way once a year.
SKELETOR WASN’T EVEN THE ORIGINAL BIG BAD
Most people assume that Skeletor was the main bad guy throughout history for He-Man, but that wasn’t the case. In the original stories, he was from another world and tried to take over. In the reboot, he was the half-brother of King Randor, shunned and turned evil. However, in the series, he was also second in command to a different villain – Hordak.
Fans of She-Ra: Princess of Power recognize that name because Hordak is the main villain in that cartoon series. With that said, the movie He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword proves that Skeletor worked for Hordak before he ended up betraying his master, rising to power and taking over the battle against He-Man and Eternia himself.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS FACE?
It wasn’t until 2002 that the reason that Skeletor had a skeleton face was revealed. While there are so many things that make no sense about his face, it turned out that the skeleton face was a tragic accident as he battled his own half-brother, King Randor. Still going by his name of Keldor, he was having a sword fight with his brother when he lost his weapon.
Keldor was treacherous even then, and took out a vial of acid and threw it at his brother. Randor deflected the vial with his sword and it ended up splashing back into the face of Keldor – melting his skin away from the bone. Hordak was able to save his life but by doing so, he left Skeletor with the skeleton-looking face, something that probably led to the villain holding a grudge against the man who saved him.
DOES SKELETOR USE MAGIC OR SCIENCE?
When it comes to Masters of the Universe, there has always been a strange mishmash of fantasy magic and science-fiction technology. When Skeletor was coming up in the ranks of Hordak’s army, he witnessed his master’s intense use of science and technology when it came to creating weapons and devices.
However, Skeletor seems to fall more on the side of magic, even referred to as a sorcerer in the series. It seems that Skeletor is most successful when he combines his magic with the science and technology that Hordak used. It is strange to watch, but he is able to combine magic with creating machines and that works well for this specific universe. In the Masters of the Universe world, this strange combination actually makes a little sense.
WAS SKELETOR THE VICTIM OF DISCRIMINATION?
In 1986, the Masters of the Universe mini-comics introduced the actual origin of Skeletor. In the Search for Keldor, it turns out that Skeletor was, in fact, the uncle of He-Man and the half-brother of King Randor. He was also the older brother of Randor and expected to become the king of Eternia. However, much like Loki in Thor, racial discrimination reared its ugly head.
Much like Loki, Keldor was not just Randor’s half-brother, but he was also a half-breed – half Eternian and half Gar. In the past, the Gar learned of the prophecy that a descendant of Grayscull would lead to death and destruction so they killed King Grayscull. King Miro never trusted his son Keldor due to his lineage, passed him over, and helped create Skeletor as a result.
HOW CAN SKELETOR SMELL WITHOUT A NOSE?
With everything about Skeletor’s face not making sense, his nose has to be the strangest, most nonsensical part of his entire body. Skeletor has no nose and there is a hole where the nose should be. That means, scientifically, he should not be able to smell anything – but he can.
One of the weirdest and most disgusting minions that worked for Skeletor was introduced in the 1985 toy line, although he never showed up in the television cartoons until the 2002 reboot of Masters of the Universe. This creature was known as Stinkor and he was basically a mutated skunk creature that let off a stench. In the cartoon, Skeletor was even repulsed by the smell – even though he has no nose.
SHOULD SKELETOR BE THE FUTURE KING?
Skeletor started off as an alien invader from another dimension but became much more interesting when his story changed to a Shakespearian tragedy. Skeletor was Keldor, the elder son of King Miro. While he was a halfbreed, and part of his lineage took out King Grayscull in the past, he was still the rightful heir to the throne.
King Milo passed on him and chose his younger son, the pureblood King Randor to become the next king. At the end of the day, Skeletor had every right to claim the role of the throne but was dismissed by his father and held a grudge – simply because of his race. With Prince Adam the next in line, the former Prince Keldor knew that one man stood between him and the throne that he honestly deserves – and yet Skeletor is called the villain of the series.
SKELETOR CAN’T BE TRUSTED BY ANYONE
Skeletor is a villain that rules by fear and wants nothing more than to gain control of everything. As a result, he is also someone who needs people loyal to him to complete his tasks. The biggest problem with Skeletor is that he is not someone that anyone can trust. This might be because of how he became a villain – his own father turned his back on him.
Skeletor could have worked inside the system with his brother, the future King Randor – but he betrayed him and tried to overthrow the throne. He then became a villain and served under Hordak, a villain who actually saved his life when he had acid thrown on his face, but he then betrayed Hordak to become leader himself. He wants to rule Eternia but has proven that he can’t be trusted by anyone.
WHY DID SKELETOR GET CYBERNETIC UPGRADE
In Masters of the Universe, it was He-Man and his power of Grayskull against Skeletor, his minions, and his interesting mix of science and magic. It was pure fantasy and worked great. With that in mind, why did The New Adventures of He-Man feel the need to add cybernetic upgrades to Skeletor and turn the two characters into a mix of professional wrestling superstars and sci-fi action characters?
The entire story moves the two characters onto a new planet, where they continued their lifelong battle. It all started in a minicomic where Prince Adam decided to become He-Man permanently, and in the process released energy that hit Skeletor as well, injuring him. Skeletor created the cybernetic new clothes to help treat his wounds.
HOW DOES SKELETOR NOT KNOW HE-MAN IS PRINCE ADAM?
The identity of Prince Adam was revealed when Masters of the Universe rebooted and moved He-Man and Skeletor to a new planet to continue their battles. However, it makes no sense at all that Skeletor was fighting He-Man for years and never once realized that his enemy was not also Prince Adam – his nephew.
Look, at least Clark Kent puts on a pair of glasses to make sure that no one recognizes that he is Superman. That still makes absolutely no sense at all and is great fodder for comedians and spoofs to make fun of. For He-Man, it is even worse. All Prince Adam does is strip down to his undies, which makes it extremely hard to believe that no one in Eternia – especially Skeletor – connected the fact that the two were one and the same.
DOES SKELETOR JUST NEED A FRIEND?
If there is one thing that makes no sense about the live-action He-Man and the Masters of the Universe film, it is the emphasis on the fact that Skeletor is just a lonely guy. He had a chance for love at one time with Evil-Lyn before the acid destroyed his face, but he drove her away after his descent into madness and thirst for vengeance.
The New Adventures of He-Man also featured a flirtatious relationship with one of his minions named Crita, but then he kept putting her life in danger every step of the way, proving he cared about no one but himself. He even pushes away all his minions with insults, refusing to allow anyone to care about him. So, with all that said, why did Skeletor mention the “loneliness of evil” in the movie, since he is responsible for being alone?
WHY DO SKELETOR’S MINIONS FOLLOW HIM?
Skeletor needs help if he wants to conquer Eternia and rule the kingdom. He has all the help he could want when it comes to his minions – the Evil Warriors. Any kid who bought toys in the ’80s recognizes some of the most iconic of these mutants, from Beast Man and Mer-Man to Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops.
Through it all, they work for and remain at the beckon call of Skeletor – despite the fact that he does nothing but ridicule them, insult them, demean them, and turn his back on them all the time. It makes no sense at all that Skeletor has any minions who will stand by him and put their life on the line for him with the way he treats them.
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Which of these confused you most? Let us know in the comments!
