Awesome / He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983)

"IIIII HAAAAVE THE POWEEEEER!!"

• The transformation sequence. It's so iconic and awesome it's become a trope in its own right, especially when the iconic lines are shouted aloud. The fact it sounds plainly different from Adam's normal voice actually works, making it sound far more epic.
• The theme music by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban (who would later make great theme tracks for She-Ra: Princess of Power, Inspector Gadget, Dragon Ball Z, and Power Rangers) really makes you want to kick ass.
• In one episode where the Royal Family of Eternia is falsely accused and their palace surrounded by a mob whipped up by a disguised Evil-Lyn, the sorceress convinces the mob to throw a carnivorous plant used for executions to start to destroy the palace. Meanwhile, He-Man and his friends managed to find a powerful sphere that was claimed stolen to exonerate the royal family and they arrive to expose Evil-Lyn. However, the sorceress inflicts a spell to make the sphere, which has the power to stop the plant, float away along the ground at high speed. Desperately, He-Man chases after it on foot and with the Theme Song thundering, we see He-Man sprinting at full speed to catch the sphere and throw it back to save the day.
• It may be a Funny Moment, but you must admit, it IS pretty awesome of Orko to pretend to be He-Man in order to convince the Ice Lord to free the Royal Family, considering so much could have gone wrong, and he's basically putting his own safety at risk to do it.
• In "The Rainbow Warrior," Skeletor has kidnapped pretty much the entire Royal Court (including a powerless Adam) and is holding them hostage. Left behind, Queen Marlena (who had been revealed in an earlier episode to have originally been an astronaut from Earth who crashed on Eternia years before^note Her full name is Marlena Glenn.), puts on her old flight suit, takes her still working spacecraft out and personally leads a fleet of soldiers to attack Skeletor's forces. The distraction allows Adam to transform into He-Man to help but it's still Marlena who's credited by Randor for saving the day.
  • Even better is the reaction by everyone when Randor removes the helmet to reveal Marlena. Teela is rocked to realize the queen she thought just a quiet royal was an ace pilot and even He-Man can't believe his mom is such a bad-ass.
  • Further, Adam questions why Marlena freed him well before the others. Her answer heavily implies that she's known his secret the whole time.
• The first time Cringer is transformed into Battle-Cat, He-Man is thrown by it but they quickly bond as a team.
  • When the duo first appear, Ram-Man is thrown by this monstrous cat while Man-At-Arms remarks "I'm glad he's on our side."
• In the book "He-Man Meets the Beast", Skeletor tricks Prince Adam into the Labyrinth of Perpetua, where the prince is attacked by a giant Behemoth and forced to flee for his life (he didn't bring the sword with him). Orko is the only one available to come to Adam's aid, and does so magnificently - he causes an orc to get tangled up in flags, tricks a giant centipede into tying itself into a knot, and when the Behemoth causes him to lose the sword, he's so angry that he punches it on the nose - which startles the Behemoth into backing off, as no-one had ever attacked it before.
• In "The Secret of Grayskull", Skeletor and his minions capture the Sorceress after revealing they have Orko as a hostage. As soon as He-Man rescues him and lets her know, she effortlessly breaks her chains and curb-stomps the villains.
• One of Skeletor's evil plans involved erasing He-Man's memory, then trapping him in the crossroads of the universe, leaving him with no idea who he was or where he came from.
• Skeletor's plan in "The Problem With Power" was particularly inspired. Taking advantage of the fact that Goblins have no heartbeats, he recruits their general into participating in his scheme. He first enslaves an innocent village, forcing them to build what He-Man and Man-At-Arms recognize as a dimensional gate, leading the heroes into assuming he's trying to summon the Goblin army. During the fight, by using an illusion and a force field-generating belt Skeletor maneuvers He-Man into thinking he'd killed an innocent man (secretly the Goblin general), since when he tries listening for a heartbeat there is naturally none. Skeletor then rubs salt in the wound by disguising himself as a villager and wailing that He-Man had just killed his brother. If not for the fact Orko stumbled upon the truth by sheer luck, his plan would've worked to perfection.
• The battle between He-Man and Skeletor in "The Arena" is one of their better confrontations. They go back and forth, with Skeletor throwing out spell after spell and He-Man fighting back with imaginative use of his super strength, both bantering all the while.
• Admit it, you cheered when Skeletor saved the children in the Christmas special.
• Adam's transformation in "Into the Abyss" is widely considered the most epic transformation in the Franchise and shows what He-Man's Transformation looks like when you're at Grayskull and as one commenter put it
  gutz1981: I'll put this in dramatic terms. Adam holds up his sword. Before he can say the magic chant, the ground of Grayskull begins to shake as if with anticipation of the pure energy that is about to be released from its core. Adam says the words to send a request. The heart of Grayskull answers and sends him an unlimited supply of power that his sword conducts and passes through young Adam, transforming him into a being of pure immense power known as 'He-Man'.
• Just in case you thought the Trollans were all comic relief: Orko's Uncle Montork and his pet are summoned to Eternia and mind-controlled by an evil wizard. Montork uses his magic to infiltrate Castle Grayskull, take the Sorceress by surprise and locate the inner chambers of power. He then engages the Sorceress in a magical duel, which he was winning. She calls He-Man for help and openly admits that he's stronger than she expected. Fortunately, He-Man and Orko arrive to break the spell, otherwise Montork would have single-handedly taken the castle and all its power.
• One for Evil-Lyn in "Journey to Stone City": after stealing the "Life Bringer" from Stone City she, Kobra Khan and Webstor are confronted by the irate king of the place, Vokan, and are quickly defeated... So Evil-Lyn convinces him that He-Man did it and put it into Castle Grayskull. Cue the Castle being breached, as Vokan is that strong.
  • He-Man arrives just in time to bar Vokan's entry. Vokan attacks... And actually gives He-Man a run for his money.
  • After Vokan is defeated and realizes he's been fooled, Evil-Lyn demands He-Man surrenders Castle Grayskull in exchange for the Life Bringer, and then teleports back to Snake Mountain. Knowing where Evil-Lyn was likely to have hidden the machine, He-Man goes there with Vokan... And they start levelling the mountain. Skeletor, who was for once not involved in the plan and wanted to keep the thing because He-Man wanted it, throws the Life Bringer at the heroes when he realizes that He-Man and his companion can and will beat down the mountain if he doesn't surrender the device.
  • The Life Bringer is brought back to Stone City to revive its inhabitants, but by the time they arrive the moon has moved from the spot it has to be for the crystal powering the Life Bringer to work, and it won't be another thousand years until the moon is right over the mountain of the Life Bringer. So He-Man moves the mountain right under the moon.