Just like last year's Club Eternia saw subscribers get a free map, so too does this year's. Along with Preternian Disguise He-Man, we get a map of the planet Etheria:
Etheria
Beautiful Planet of DespondosAfter the Overlords of Trolla harnessed the aura of the Gods, they used this "Power of the Universe" to become immortal and vowed to maintain neutrality in all Five Dimensions. Sensing how dark the Dimension of Despondos was, they used the Power to create a being of formless light and sent him to Despondos to bring hope to those trapped there. It settled on the Planet Etheria, turning the small planet into a lush paradise, standing out in an otherwise dark dimension. Protected by magic, Etheria remained a home for free beings until Hordak discovered it during his banishment. Overthrowing the local monarchs, he declared Etheria his new homeworld and ruled for years as its tyrannical dictator.
Much like the bio for the Eternia map, the Etheria bio primarily adds to the ever-growing MOTUC cosmology. My first question is: who are these gods? Procrustus? Following the progression of this aura/power, it would seem that He-Man wields the power of the gods themselves.
We learn that upon gaining this "aura" of the gods, the Trollan Overlords immediately took it upon themselves to "maintain neutrality" throughout the Five Dimensions. Not order or justice, but neutrality. They deliberately send Light Hope to make Despondos a little less despondent. Does that mean that in a dimension where everything's going great, they send bad guys? The same goes for Zodak/Zodac: if they're tasked with maintaining neutrality, why don't we ever see them shilling for Hordak or Skeletor? We really need an evil-leaning Cosmic Enforcer (maybe Strobo?).
"Protected by magic, Etheria remained a home for free beings until Hordak discovered it..." So, I guess that magical protection was only so good.
At least we do get confirmation that Etheria really is the only good place in the otherwise miserable dimension of Despondos. However, it does suck that King Grayskull is inadvertently responsible for Etheria's enslavement by the Horde.
The Aura of the gods is the only WTF part of the bio… at least to me.
I'm unclear how I should be viewing the trollans now. Before they were just a race of powerful magicinans from their own planet. Now they're like super demi-gods who have decided to inluence the galaxy as they see fit. Or am I reading that wrong?
Not as many places as Eternia, huh?
Etheria gets used less often, since that's one of the things Filmation owns. So Eternia had the benefit of several different comic series from several different companies, more than one cartoon series, and all the MOTUC bios up to now. This map may become outdated now that Princess of Power characters are showing up in Classics. At least, it might if ToyGuru cares enough to add anything new.
i love any mention of procrustus, even heavily veiled... that character has always fascinated me, and most of my fanfic involves or mentions him one way or another. good stuff.
that said, this, as pointed out above, has lots of holes in it. weirdness.
True neutrality begets inaction, not action for each side. I always cringe at the idea that Zodak can be "neutral" if he is helping both sides. If Zodak helps He-Man save a bus full of nuns on Tuesday, and helps Skeletor kill a bus full of school kids on Friday, can you really say that he's nuetral? I'd call him a sociopath.
I think that's stories are all terrible!!!
They have tried to do a mix with mini-comics, Marvel MOTU Comics, Dc MOTU Comics, MOTU Classic Animation, MOTU 200X Animation, MOTU movie and New Adventures.
All that stories are diferent. Sometimes Teela is a Clone of Sorceress, sometimes she is a daughter of Sorceress, sometimes she is a real daughter of Man-at-arms. Skeletor sometimes is a man ho came from other galaxy, sometimes is a King Randor brother wich a skin problem?
Sorceress is Teelana, Veena,... and a lot diferents persons in each history.
Then they, Mattel, insist in mixed all that stories montly after each figure and the complete history have no logical.
All times I have received one figure and I take it, the bio, to check and asked: Why??? It´s like "Lost"... a lot of confusion!!
Zodak DID help getting Hssss out… True that it was to kill him, but that kinda counts as helping evil, right?
MOTUC bios are like Pirate's Code –
They're more like "guidelines".