This has been considered as the fastest snub in the history of animation. Within 24 hours of Kevin Smith's new animated Netflix series "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" debuting online, the show have been "unfavorably reviewed," with fan reaction veering wildly towards a very negative critical reaction.
So far, "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" has a 94 percent Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes from 36 critics and yet a 29 percent from more than 1,700 fan votes.
So what gives? For those who are familiar with the original animation, the reasons are clear as day and Smith is trying to ignore it. Note: SPOILER ALERT.
Go Woke, Go Broke
This is a very familiar phrase to those who seek to reinvent the original content to suit their ideal, twisted, illogical desires to promote wokeness.
The first season showed that Smith is determined to replace He-Man by Teela, which wouldn't be a surprise at all and would fit with Hollywood's agenda of replacing male characters (Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Doctor Who, etc). He-Man is the manliest of all the characters in the story, not to mention He-Man is blond.
While previously Kevin Smith seemed to have refuted and shot down this idea by stating his series is "all about He-Man," the first episode revealed that He-Man (Chris Wood) is killed, as does Skeletor (voiced by Mark Hamill) and then only appears in flashbacks throughout the remaining four episodes, while the character Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is the main character throughout the main story.
Of course, Prince Adam is not really "dead," or as dead as can be in a fantasy series - the cliffhanger suggests that He-Man will definitely return and regain his power from Skeletor for Part 2 of the series, but the damage has already been done.
Worth mentioning is that all the attempts at replacing characters with woke ones have failed - certainly, Mattel, Netflix, and Smith are now worried is going to happen with He-Man due to the huge amount of backlash.
More Girl Power or a Very Butch Teela?
As if "killing" He-Man in the first episode is not enough, Smith turned all the male characters into either idiots or just pandering sad sacks. It became show about now unattractive, unlikable, and very butch Teela.
The Teela most people remember was both a tough warrior and a loving friend. She would have been devastated about learning the death of her friend Adam and understanding of him for not telling her a secret he kept to protect her and her family. She never would thrown a tantrum and shaved half of her head in feminist rage (tantrum). Teela that everyone knows have mourned and tried to understand her friend's point of view.
Teela is a woman. She was on the original. She was on the cartoon network reboot. You can be a woman and a warrior simultaneously.
Evil-Lyn also has some major screen time and it appears that she is siding with Teela for more girl power. Without waiting for the remaining episodes, it seems likely that Skelegod either banishes her because he feels he no longer needs her, and/or she feels like he has too much power and he needs to be stopped.
Teela's Victimhood
In one particular scene, Teela spends the entire episode being angry at He-Man for never telling her who he really was. Yes, even in death, even after sacrificing himself to save her life and everyone else’s, she is still furious at him.
But here’s the weirdest part:
We see Teela say that Adam told everyone but her that he was He-Man. However, we literally see in episode 1 that this isn’t true when Adams own father didn’t even know that he was He-Man. Teela witnessed this.
The point is... Teela distorts the truth in order to make herself seem like more of a victim, or the only victim who matters. Adams own father was devastated to find out he was He-Man, and thus dead, but Teela just wipes this from the record because it contradicts her own concept victimhood.
And so Kevin Smith basically has the female hero personify some of the ugliest, sexist stereotypes towards women.
Blatant Bait and Switch
To boot, it appears as if Smith is pulling a bait and switch, as he previously shot down rumors about the show being about Teela and said it was all about He-Man, but again, the plot for the series says the exact opposite. He changed the lead from the titular hero to a modified version of a side character that is written to be selfish and unlikable.
He made the main character second fiddle with extremely limited screen time. He changed multiple original characters to add diversity to the show instead of creating new and interesting characters. He killed off two well liked characters for "grimdark" Netflix points.
He utterly butchered the behaviors of existing characters to fit the narrative. He talked smack about fans who didn't like it while stating earlier that he was never a fan of the show as a kid and only "hate-watched" it (his words). Gosh, no wonder why fans gave this a bad review?
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