Masters of the Universe secretly hinted at a dark origin for Castle Grayskull. Prince Adam of Eternia is literally the stuff of legends; a royal who learned he could be something far greater. By the end of Masters of the Universe, Adam had embraced his destiny to become He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. In a fantastic twist, he learned the Power Sword did not contain this power; rather, he did. Previous champions of Grayskull had been “brutes,” but Adam combined strength with compassion, and so he had chosen as the power’s bearer.
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Masters of the Universe turns compassion into Adam’s true superpower, and he’s even willing to try to see the good in Skeletor. In one delightful moment, he stuns hero and villain alike when he offers Skeletor a chance to sit down and talk this through like adults. Naturally, Skeletor doesn’t take him up on the offer, but this one moment showed why He-Man is so much better than any of Eternia’s other heroes. More importantly, though, Adam’s willingness to do this subtly hints at the dark side of Grayskull.
Is There More To Skeletor Than a Skull For a Face?
The other Masters of the Universe characters likely wouldn’t have been able to believe Adam would give Skeletor a chance. But this was neatly signposted earlier in the film, when Adam stunned Teela by trying to understand why Skeletor was evil. Adam’s time on Earth had taught him empathy, and he didn’t really want to win by landing a jaw-breaking punch; he wanted to win by disarming his opponent and turning him into a friend. Teela, staggered at the idea, simply pointed out that Skeletor has a skull for a face. He is the villain, and there’s nothing more to it than that.
She’s proven right, of course. But that scene is important for a very different reason; as they’re talking, they fly past Castle Grayskull itself. Teela’s words about Skeletor – her point that the bad guy has a skull for a face, meaning there’s nothing to empathize with – deliberately parallels this shot of Grayskull. After all, Grayskull itself is a castle in the shape of a skull. If Skeletor is bad because of this aesthetic, why is Grayskull good?
Masters of the Universe doesn’t really draw out the point. It’s there in the implications, in the timing. Teela’s prediction proves accurate when it comes to Skeletor, of course, because there’s nothing good in him. But the viewer is left wondering whether the same is also true of Grayskull itself. Is there something rotten about Grayskull, something that complicates He-Man’s lore in an unexpected way?
The Previous Champions Were Brutes
The Masters of the Universe doesn’t really have a standardized lore, with every animated show, comic, and toy range tending to reinvent it. Depending on the lore, other champions of Eternia have included characters like He-Ro (“the most powerful wizard in the universe,” the sorcerer named Gray who built Grayskull and fashioned the Power Sword). The Masters of the Universe film seems to set many previous champions up in Adam’s intro voice-over, but then criticizes them in the strongest possible terms: in the Sorceress’ view, none of these champions was anything compared to Adam.
According to the Sorceress, the previous champions of Grayskull were essentially brutes. They embodied raw power without compassion, giving no quarter to their enemies. No other champion of Grayskull would ever have thought to offer Skeletor a chance, let alone hoped he would take it. The Sorceress sees this as an implicit criticism of everything Eternia has seen before, a recognition that power needs to be balanced by compassion.
Viewers can be forgiven for seeing Masters of the Universe as a pretty simple morality play, that good must vanquish evil, but the Sorceress’ decision to choose Adam stands against that. She believes such black-and-white thinking is flawed on a fundamental level. Combine this with the subtle Teela comment about the bad guys having skulls for faces, and you’re left with an intriguing possibility; perhaps Grayskull’s power wasn’t previously used for good quite so much as we thought.
Grayskull has had many different histories in Masters of the Universe lore (one is currently being explored in the Sword of Flaws miniseries). But there’s undeniably something rather ominous about accumulating all the power of the universe in a single place. Putting the pieces together, it’s quite possible Masters of the Universe is setting up a much darker origin story than audiences expect. If that’s the case, we’ll hopefully learn more should Amazon push ahead with further He-Man plans.
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