"I think because we as a show have so much interest in humanizing our villains, I really wanted Horde-Prime to be different. There is evil in this world. It's dishonest to say that everyone is capable or worthy of redemption. There are people who have stewed in their own hatred for so long that the only thing you can do is just... She-Ra banishes him. 'There's no place for you in this world.' If there was ever any good in Hordak-Prime, if there ever was love or kindness, this is someone who has prolonged his life for so long by taking over the bodies of others, for centuries. Eventually, everything became about his ego about remaking everything the way he wanted it, remaking it so he had complete control over it. In its most mundane form, I think that is what evil is."
Masters of the Universe is a franchise that has been around since the 1980s, and He-Man and She-Ra have fought numerous foes. These are the worst villains to menace Eternia and Etheria.
Unless noted, works in each folder are by publication date/release date/air date.
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Comics
Minicomics Examples
- First continuity/"Mineternia": Skeletor is a being from another dimension, who ended up on Eternia by accident and decided to conquer it. Repeatedly trying to breach Castle Grayskull to learn its secrets, Skeletor would do anything to achieve his goals. In the past, Skeletor forcibly extracted part of a magical essence from Sorceress in order to create her duplicate, wanting to raise said duplicate to become his wife. And when Man-At-Arms saved her from this fate, naming the girl Teela, Skeletor tried several times to brainwash her, and at one point tried to sacrifice her to a demon. In the present, abusing his minions, Skeletor creates the machine to steal the magic from all Eternia to power himself up, which would result in all magic users dying and Eternia being torn apart. Kidnapping the powerful flying machine Point Dread, Skeletor led the attack on Eternian palace, killing dozens of guards in his attempt to seize the Eternian throne.
- Second continuity:
- Skeletor, strongly hinted to be the long-lost brother of King Randor called Keldor, is a powerful warlock with a strong desire to conquer Eternia. Constantly trying to breach the walls of Castle Grayskull, Skeletor uses various schemes to get more power. One time, Skeletor used Man Eating Plants to attack an Eternian city with the intent of razing the place and killing all the people there in order to get to the royal family. Skeletor later tried twice to starve the Eternian people to weaken their defenses, and ordered his minion Stinkor to pollute the ecosystem of the planet, simply because he didn't liked how happy Eternia was that day. Skeletor orders another one of his minions Spikor to burn down a village, while he kidnaps Teela to force He-Man to choose who he wants to save. Later, Skeletor tries to use his Stormbringer to cause destruction all over Eternia, simply to destroy Castle Grayskull. Going to the past, Skeletor tries to change history so he would be the only ruler of Eternia by manipulating King Hiss and helping him raze villages.
- King Hiss himself is an ancient ruler of the Snake Men, who rampaged throughout the universe thousands of years ago, conquering several planets in his bloody campaign, before he set his eyes on Eternia, where he started burning everything down until he was banished to the timeless void by the Elders. In the present, he was freed by Skeletor, forming an alliance with him, while secretly planning to betray him. Telling Skeletor about three Towers of Power, King Hiss and Skeletor caused a dangerous earthquake all over Eternia in their attempt to raise them from the ground.
- Hordak is a ruthless leader of the Evil Horde, who was banished to the Fright Zone of Etheria many years ago. At one point kidnapping princess Adora from Royal family of Eternia, Hordak starts to plot various schemes to conquer Eternia. Acquiring a magical Slime Pit, Hordak uses it to brainwash and transform He-Man into his slave monster, later on preparing to do the same thing to several peaceful Rock People from a nearby village. Experimenting on an innocent person, Hordak transforms him into his deadly soldier, while intending to repeat the process on thousands of Eternian peasants. Creating a machine, which was capable of making near-indestructible soldiers out of the solid matter, Hordak prepares to raze Eternia, as he tries to transport his machine to Golden Isles, which would have destroyed them.
- The New Adventures of He-Man minicomics: Skeletor is once again presented here as the most diabolical enemy of He-Man. A powerful warlock, Skeletor tries to steal the powers of Eternia by tricking travelers from the future into absorbing said powers in their space ship, which Skeletor plans to use to turn everyone into his slaves. Failing at that and escaping into the future, Skeletor forces Flogg and his Mutant Army into serving him, repeatedly trying to destroy He-Man and his allies. Taking control of the crystal which controlled the atmosphere of the planet Primus, Skeletor thwarts He-Man's attempts at to get it back, despite knowing that without the crystal the entire planet will be destroyed.
- Masters of the Universe Classics's "The Fall of Eternia" arc: Gorpo is a former member of the overlords of Trolla who has gone rogue due to his desire to rule the universe alone. After being banished to the Unnamed Dimension, Gorpo uses the alias of the "Unnamed One" to take control of the Snake Men and attempt to use them to free himself. After King Hssss and his Snake Men were defeated and failed to free him, Gorpo sent his Revenge Squad through a crack in the space-time continuum to Trolla and has them decimate most of the world, transforming it into a barren wasteland. Using the opportunity to free himself during a Horde attack on Eternia, Gorpo immediately tasked his minions to locate the ancient Sword of Power, while taking his time to free King Hssss from his banishment, only to kill him for his failure. As he acquires the magical tablet, Gorpo tries to destroy the whole planet by breaking it in half.
London Editions Magazines
Examples
- Masters of the Universe & She-Ra: Princess Of Power:
- Hordak is once again presented as an evil dictator who rules most of Etheria and wants to conquer the rest of it. Kidnapping Princess Adora as a baby and raising her to his top solider, Hordak enacted several wicked schemes to destroy the Rebellion and conquer Etheria. Stealing water from a village—causing a drought—to power an alien power source, Hordak creates a monstrous machine that would let him destroy the Whispering Woods and kill most of the rebels. Hordak orders his troops to raid several villages and force the villagers to become his slaves, making them work in a factory that will build more Horde robot troopers to extend Hordak's empire. Hordak places a bomb at Etheria's arctic pole and threatens to set it off, flooding most of Etheria, if She-Ra does not surrender to him. Later on, Hordak attaches a rocket to an asteroid and plans to have it crash into the Whispering Woods, not caring how many millions of innocent people die in the process. Arriving to Eternia, Hordak constantly tries to kill off his former pupil, Skeletor, while also attacking several villages; is fully willing to kill children; and tried to destroy the great city of Eternos and kill everyone in it. Endangering all of Eternia several times, Hordak also nearly destroyed the entire world of Rock People, solely to test his new weapon.
- Skeletor is once again presented as one of the evilest beings in the universe. Raising in the ranks of the Evil Horde, Skeletor dreams of betraying his master, Horde Prime, and taking over the universe. Conquering and enslaving several worlds for Horde Prime, Skeletor attacked Eternia, becoming the sworn enemy of He-Man. From there, Skeletor constantly schemes to either conquer or destroy the city of Eternos, at one point using his magic to draw a meteor shower toward Eternia, in hopes of bringing death and destruction to the whole planet. Trying to destroy Eternos and all people in it, Skeletor attacked several villages and tried to break the giant dam to flood the countryside. Later on, Skeletor kidnapped all the children of Eternia and turned them into adults, brainwashing them as well, as he planned to use them to attack Eternos and force Eternians to either surrender or kill their own children. Afterwards, attempting to use his new war machines to destroy the entire planet, Skeletor then used his virus to spread deadly plague and sickness across Eternia to weaken its population.
- Horde Prime is the true master of the Evil Horde. Desiring to conquer the universe or destroy it, Horde Prime spreads his army across the cosmos to attack and enslave everyone they see. Meeting the resistance in the form of Rio Blast from the planet Loredos, Horde Prime destroyed his homeworld and all the population within it out of spite. Gathering all the villains of Eternia and Etheria, Horde Prime ordered them to extract the Core of Eternia from the planet, as he plans to use it as an energy source, while leaving Eternia and everyone in it—including his minions—to their ensuing death.
- The New Adventures of He-Man: Skeletor, tired of constant defeats, decided to use the heroes of Primus to escape from Eternia, so he could conquer the Tri-Solar Galaxy. After He-Man followed him, Skeletor managed to take over the army of Evil Mutants and use them to attack the planet of Primus several times. Infecting the traveling heroes with deadly plague germs, Skeletor ensured that they would be retrieved and spread the plague across Primus, nearly killing everyone there, as he tried to stop He-Man from delivering the cure. Later on allying with RAM, Skeletor convinced it to be more extreme and attempts to use it to cause destruction and death all over Primus. After that, Skeletor enslaved the population of cavemen from a different planet and forced them to dig out magical gems, which he planned to use to reduce Primus to a cosmic dust.
Masters of the Universe (Star Comics)
- Skeletor starts off as an unremarkable villain, but becomes a nightmare by the end of the series. Skeletor tricks He-Man into getting a magic crystal for him, not letting him know that this crystal is the only thing keeping a flying city afloat, forcing He-Man to choose between capturing him or saving this city. But Skeletor is at his worst in the final two issues, when Prince Adam is teleported 30 years into the future. Without He-Man to oppose him, Skeletor conquers Eternia. Skeletor becomes a tyrant who rules with an iron fist, Skeletor has murdered Man-At-Arms, trapped the Sorceress in a crystal prison and has imprisoned anyone who defies him, including King Randor and Queen Marlena, into labor camps where they are worked to death. Skeletor has also caused massive famine and is sending the children of Eternia to reeducation camps where they are brainwashed into becoming his slaves. Adam teams up with the rebellion against Skeletor but is quickly captured by Skeletor. Skeletor plans to kill Adam and the rebels in front of all Eternia, to crush the people's last remaining hope of ever being free of his rule.
He Man And The Masters Of The Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips
Examples
- Hordak is an alien conqueror from outer space and a former mentor of Skeletor. Tricking Skeletor into giving him control over the big comet, Hordak wastes no time turning on him and binding Skeletor and He-Man to his machine to suck away their power. When King Randor points out that Hordak's demand of transporting all weapons of Eternia to his ship in 30 minutes is not physically possible, Hordak happily sends the comet to Eternia in an attempt to destroy the whole planet. When Skeletor and Masters of the Universe break out from his prison, Hordak breaks the controls of the ship in an attempt to stop the Masters from changing the course of the comet. Later on, Hordak goes back to prehistoric times and enslaves a bunch of Etherians to force them to dig out a rare metal, from which Castle Grayskull will be made, in an attempt to stop the power of Grayskull from ever being created, so that Eternia would be free for the taking. Harshly abusing his slaves, Hordak attempted to murder them all when they rebelled against him.
- King Hiss is an ancient ruler of the Snake Men, who was imprisoned by the Sorceress thousands of years ago. Using the remaining Snake Men, King Hiss managed to free himself from his prison and immediately began gathering his forces to take over Eternia and enact his revenge on the Sorceress. Sending Kobra Khan and the army of snakes and reptiles to the Eternian palace, King Hiss joins Skeletor in an attempt to breach Castle Grayskull. When the Masters of the Universe defeat him, an enraged King Hiss uses Skeletor's staff and his own to summon the giant world-destroying snake Sarcedon to cause destruction all over Eternia out of spite.
- Evil-Lyn is a traitorous right-hand of Skeletor, who got tired of serving him and decided to go her own way. Recruiting mercenaries Blade and Saurod, Evil-Lyn orders them to distract the Masters of the Universe by causing trouble in the town of Ettlain, while she takes the form of a Thenurian female and befriends the Thenurian Gwildor solely to steal a gravitonic oscillation grenade from him. Ordering Saurod to burn the barn, which threatens to spread throughout the town, Evil-Lyn escapes with her cohorts to her hideout, announcing her plan to take over the planet of Merrian. Sending her partners there to prepare the planet for conquest, she uses her Thenurian female form to gain the trust of the Masters of the Universe, to have them travel to Merrian and tries to have Gwildor take control over Merrian. When he refused, she put him in a cage and tries to have the volcano Vuldan to erupt and kill many people.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002-2004, by Image Comics and CrossGen)
Examples
- King Hsss is an ancient ruler of Snake Men, who is bent on his genocidal conquest of Eternia. In the past, he kidnapped an infant Evil-Lyn from her father, an unnamed powerful magician lord of Zalesia called the Nameless One, who King Hsss tried to force to help him revive and control a giant snake god Serpos, so that Hsss could lay death and destruction all over Eternia and become its supreme ruler. When the Nameless One seemingly upheld his end of the bargain, Hsss refused to give him back his daughter, wanting to further force the magician to do his bidding. The Nameless One ends up backstabbing Hsss and escaping with his daughter, but as revenge Hsss found another way of controlling Serpos and use it to annihilate all of Zalesia and its people, before he was banished to the Void by the Nameless One and Council of Elders. In the present, freed by Kobra Khan and Evil-Lyn, King Hsss resumed his quest of conquering Eternia, trying to free Serpos once again with the help of the Nameless One by promising to heal his mortally wounded daughter in return, only to try to betray him anyway once again once the Nameless One did his bidding.
- Merman is a former self-proclaimed ruler of the Sea and one of the Skeletor's Evil Warriors. In the past conquering all the underwater territory, Merman has led attacks on surface ships and terrorized the whole Ocean. Reducing his people to pathetic cowardly beggars, Merman regularly abuses his army, not letting them have a proper rest after battles and threatening his advisors with death when they argue with him. Finding out about an underwater village which is free from his control, Merman immediately attacks it, destroying it and then takes off, planning to send his ambassadors later for a "proper" taking over. When the villagers retaliated over his unprovoked attack, Merman tries to have them killed, not caring about any of his own people caught in the crossfire. When the war resulted in the whole Ocean rebelling against him, Merman was able to chase away and kill the attackers, only to find out that his kingdom is already destroyed and nearly all of his people are dead, falling victims to Merman's ego and carelessness.
- Trapjaw, formerly known as Kronis, is a Gar cyborg and another of Skeletor's Evil Warriors. In the past, trying to usurp leadership over the Evil Warriors, Kronis was banished from the Snake Mountain, leading to Kronis vowing revenge on Skeletor. Forcing a gang of criminals to work for him, Kronis used them to sneak into a nearby criminal camp and kill its leader, after which he surrounded it and demanded the camp's people to either join him or die. Using his newfound small army to conquer tribe after tribe in the Dark Hemisphere, Kronis waged numerous bloody wars until he acquired the largest army in the continent. Leading his army of thousands at a suicidal charge against Skeletor, Kronis cared nothing when they started to get decimated almost immediately, only using them as a way at catching Skeletor alone and trying to kill him there. When he got quickly defeated and crippled, Kronis was spared by Skeletor and turned into the half-robotic Trapjaw. In the present, Trapjaw tried to conspire against Skeletor once more in exchange for his own lands and slaves, only to immediately beg Skeletor for mercy when this betrayal was discovered.
Examples
- Masters of the Universe (1982), written by Paul Kupperberg: Skeletor is a demon who invades worlds, bringing death and chaos to every planet he visits. With the goal of conquering Eternia, Skeletor has kidnapped the Goddess, this story's version of the Sorceress, to force He-Man to get him 3 talismans that will allow him to gain the Sword of Power. Skeletor has his Beast Men attack Stratos's kingdom, just so that He-Man can discover one of the talismans there. Later, Skeletor teleports his minion Merman away to be tortured when Merman tried to gain the sword for himself. Manipulating an evil wizard named Damon to get him closer to the heart of Castle Grayskull, where the Sword is kept, Skeletor then kills him. Obtaining the sword, Skeletor uses its powers to try to kill He-Man, as he plans to use the sword's power to start a campaign of carnage across the galaxy, starting with Eternia.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2012-2016):
- Skeletor is the Arch-Enemy of the Masters of the Universe and the most personal foe they face throughout the entire story. Originally a half-Gar bastard son of King Miro named Keldor, he developed a lust for power due to not being able to ever becoming a king. Making a deal with the monstrous entity Hordak, Skeletor started a civil war within the kingdom, leading to a countless deaths, before he kidnapped his infant niece and gave her to Hordak, who then began corrupting her. Responsible for the deaths of thousands while under Hordak's command, Skeletor eventually abandons him to pursue his own ambitions. With no care for anyone but himself, Skeletor regularly abuses his own minions and tries to betray his masters. Tricking She-Ra into restoring him and revealing him location of millions of souls that Hordak tortured, Skeletor uses them to kill Hordak and create a weapon that he uses to destroy dozens of planets and their populations, later intending to use it to annihilate everything that has ever existed across every dimension and rebuild the multiverse and rule over it as a god of death and evil.
- Hordak himself is an ancient "space vampire" and the root of all evil in the story. Once a member of a heavily-populated race, Hordak tricked his enemies, and his own people, into massacring each other in a huge war, at which point he absorbed their souls into himself, leaving them in tortured agony. Using his victims' corpses as his army, Hordak tried to take over Eternia before being banished into an alternate dimension, which he quickly took over as his own, and then used to enter the realm of Etheria, where he slowly slaughtered and devoured the souls of billions. Using Skeletor to kidnap Adora, sister of Prince Adam, while she was an infant, Hordak corrupted her into becoming his killing machine. When she gave him access back to Eternia, which he invaded immediately, Hordak threw her aside since she had served her purpose. After dominating Eternia and regularly gorging on the souls of hundreds of citizens, Hordak destroys the planet Primus to show his newfound power and reveals his plan to dominate the entire universe and turn it into a nightmarish realm where he is worshiped as a god while all those who oppose him suffer horribly.
- King Hssss, an ancient ruler of the Snake Men, was in control of Eternia a thousand years before the arrival of Man. Desiring to become greater than his god Serpos, Hssss attempted to absorb the power of the core of Eternia. As a result, he and his Snake Men were punished, with him being the only survivor. Plotting to take control of Eternia once again, King Hssss wears the faces of many people during Eternia history, setting in motion plan to resurrect the Snake Men and raze the whole of Eternia until it becomes his domain. Possessing a leader of the Gar, Hssss tricks them into committing a coup against King Grayskull, killing him, his wife and countless men, women, and children, and then setting the whole capital on fire. Because of his manipulations, the Gar ended up being banished to their home island, suffering the hatred of whole Eternia and being reduced to cowardly backstabbers. Killing and wearing the skin of King Randor, Hssss tricked Masters of the Universe into coming to the Underworld, where he planned to use He-Man to resurrect his Snake Men and absorb the power of Eternia. When that fails, he ends up possessing Prince Adam himself, and when Adam takes back control over his body and kills him, King Hssss destroyed his own species out of spite, leaving Eternians without an army to reclaim their world.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse issue #1, written by Tim Seeley: Demon-Wizard Skeletor trapped Prince Adam and Sorceress in Castle Grayskull in the very first page of the comic. Skeletor then forces them into a Sadistic Choice: If they refuse to let him into Castle Grayskull, he will unleash the Moon of Cataclysm upon the great city of Eternos, which would reduce the city to ashes and kill Adam's father, King Randor, and thousands of innocent people; or they let him in the Castle, and he promises to do something far worse. When Prince Adam transformed into He-Man and goes to face him, Skeletor wonders about who among Adam's friends he will torture first. Despite appearing only on the first few pages, this version of Skeletor proves himself to be the vilest Skeletor of the entire comic.
- Crossovers:
- Injustice: Gods Among Us & Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe: Darkseid is the despotic ruler of the planet Apokolips and one of the most sworn and powerful enemies of Superman. Torturing Black Racer into submission, Darkseid allows his son Kalibak to lead an assault on Earth, killing tens of thousands of people, before his army was destroyed by Superman. Angered at the fact that Superman sullied his reputation by killing Kalibak, Darkseid starts scheming the destruction of Superman more aggressively, first hiring Lobo to take him down and then, when that failed, joining the conspiracy with Ares and Hera, manipulating humans, superheroes, and Olympians into a bloody conflict, with the human government even launching nukes as a result. After this, Darkseid found the weakened Skeletor in the cosmos, and from him, he found the location of the solution to Anti-Life Equation to be in Castle Grayskull. Invading Eternia, Darkseid kills, captures and transforms thousands of people into his obedient slaves, as he tries to uncover Anti-Life Equation, to take control of the multiverse, killing the minds and personalities of every living being aside from himself.
- He-Man/ThunderCats: Mumm-Ra is an evil servant of the Ancient Spirits of Evil who aided their attack on Eternia, leading many monsters to attack the great city of Eternos and personally impaling Prince Adam, sadistically mocking him. Joining forces with Skeletor, Mumm-Ra helped him enslave his former masters, making them spread death and destruction around the planet, openly sharing Skeletor's plan to conquer the world and transform it into a horrific place, where the opposition will be brutally executed and the rest of the population enslaved. Transforming with Skeletor into the powerful Mumm-Ator and trying to take over the multiverse, Mumm-Ra wanted to help Skeletor to create this future for the whole multiverse.
- He-Man/ThunderCats & Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe: Skeletor is a vile warlock and the most relentless enemy of He-Man. Discovering the existence of another universe, Skeletor has made a contact with the Ancient Spirits of Evil, having them bring their world closer to Eternia, causing a cataclysm that destroyed part of the great city of Eternos, before he captured their agent Mumm-Ra and transformed him into a liquid, which he drank, despite Mumm-Ra still being alive and sapient. Later bringing Mumm-Ra back to his original form, Skeletor joined forces with him, enslaving the Ancient Spirits of Evil and having them spread chaos and destruction all over Eternia, killing thousands. Desiring to transform Eternia into a horrific place, where all those who oppose him will die and the rest of the population will be enslaved, Skeletor transformed himself and Mumm-Ra into Mumm-Ator, before he tried to take over the multiverse. Failing at that and being banished, Skeletor starts pretending to serve Darkseid and the brutal version of Superman, using them to get his way into Castle Grayskull again, while assisting Superman in upholding his tyrannical regime and revealing to Darkseid that the answer to Anti-Life Equation was always in Castle Grayskull, leading to Darkseid attacking Eternia, slaughtering thousands and brainwashing thousands more.
Western Animation
Examples
- The New Adventures of He-Man: Skeletor is He-Man's ever-present Arch-Enemy who desires to conquer the Tri-Solar Galaxy. Immediately becoming the right hand of Flogg, the leader of the Evil Mutants of Denebria, Skeletor uses him in his attempts to destroy He-Man and take over the planet Primus, while openly planning to eventually betray Flogg and take all the power for himself. Creating plans to lower the shields of Primus to allow the Mutants to conquer it, Skeletor, upon briefly taking over Primus, attempts to destroy the village for hiding He-Man from him and planned to destroy the city of Levitan by raising it up with a tractor beam to the cosmos and dropping it to the ground. After being driven off, Skeletor tried to destroy Primus and all life on it several times, first by trying to use Energon to transform Primus into an energy sun and then by trying to move Primus from its orbit to cause catastrophes on the planet. At one point, Skeletor tries to kill off all of the Mutant army, including his supposed Love Interest, and the Galactic Guardians by luring them into a prison ship and attaching a magnetic generator to lure a comet upon the ship. Causing chaos and destruction on several planets, Skeletor stops at nothing in his attempts to obtain more power.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002):
- Skeletor, formerly known as Keldor, is the main antagonist for most of the series and the would-be conqueror of Eternia. Destroying the wall that separates the Dark and Light Hemispheres of Eternia, thus setting himself free, Skeletor continues his quest to conquer Eternia. Plotting various schemes, Skeletor does whatever he can to get more power, such as instigating a war between the Andreenids and the Avions, just to get a free access to the Andreenids' supply of Ambrosia, razing villages and trying to take away Eternium—the strongest metal on Eternia, vital to Kulataks' survival—from Kulataks. Regularly abusing his Evil Warriors, Skeletor at one point tried to sacrifice his minion Evil-Lyn to eldritch horrors in exchange for their service.
- Count Marzo is a vile and powerful sorcerer, who attacked the Hall of Wisdom in the past in his pursuit of power. After being defeated by Captain Miro, grandfather of Prince Adam, and transformed into a hideous looking dwarf with all his powers being removed from him and placed in a magic crystal, Marzo planned his revenge. Tricking Mekaneck into retrieving the crystal for him, allowing him to get back all his powers, Marzo immediately attacked the kingdom of Eternia and knocked everyone out. When He-Man and Mekaneck confronted him, Marzo gleefully turns the magic crystal into a time bomb, which he attempts to use to destroy the whole kingdom of Eternia with all the residents inside.
- Webstor is a spider-like creature who works for anyone who pays. Becoming one of the members of the Council of Evil, Webstor assists Skeletor in capturing the Masters of the Universe and helped him attempt to breach Castle Grayskull, before departing from him after they failed. Deciding to work for himself, Webstor sneaks to the Andreenids' supply of Ambrosia, where he eats it and mutates, obtaining more power. Kidnapping a large portion of Andreenids and Avions, Webstor plans to feed them to his deadly spiders, before going on to terrorize the whole of Eternia.
- King Hiss is an ancient ruler of the Snake Men, who was on the verge of conquering Eternia, feeding on many innocents and desiring to destroy whole civilizations to keep himself at the top. After being banished to the Void by the Elders and Zodac, he was freed by the combined effort of a descendant of the Snake Men Kobra Khan and Evil-Lyn, King Hiss wasted no time trying to eat Evil-Lyn, only stopping when she promises to help him obtain Power of the Elders. Wanting to be at the top of a food chain again, King Hiss plots various schemes, while eating more and more innocent creatures alive. First, he tries to turn every person into a Snake Man who he can control, and when that fails, he tries to set his god Serpos free to cause destruction upon Eternia, planning to "cleanse" the land, with the survivors becoming either slaves or food.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Horde Prime, true ruler of the Horde, is an ancient being who exists by stealing the bodies of his clones who he breeds to be mindlessly loyal drones, any hint of individuality or imperfection resulting in erasure. Having exterminated countless worlds in the name of order, Prime is only swayed from destroying Etheria by the realization he can use it as a weapon, sending his discarded "brother" Hordak to have his identity erased. Later brainwashing Catra, Horde Prime tries to force Catra's suicide before Adora when she resists, using those he controls as weapons against their loved ones. Seeking to activate the Heart, Prime launches attacks on Etheria with threats to destroy the world, ending by trying to have Hordak himself kill his beloved Entrapta when she tries to warn him of the consequences. Finally activating the Heart, Horde Prime gleefully attempts to annihilate the entire universe as the ultimate culmination of order and his twisted ego.
- Revelation & Revolution:
- Skeletor was once Keldor, the older half-brother of Randor who was denied the throne because his mother was Gar. Joining the Horde when it invaded Eternia, he was given a staff that melted off his face while Hordak implanted false memories in his head. Abandoned after the Horde was driven off Eternia, Skeletor led numerous campaigns to overcome the power of Castle Grayskull and Eternia, culminating in an assault that nearly leads to him annihilating the entire universe. After his seeming death, Skeletor returns after feeding off the life force of Evil-Lyn, using her as nothing more than a tool to seize control of Grayskull's power. Making himself a God and killing the Sorceress, Skeletor attempts to turn all of Eternia into his undead slaves after killing them, damning two of He-Man's allies to Subternia for spite. After Evil-Lyn steals his power, Skeletor turns on the heroes just so he can kill He-Man before existence ends. After Motherboard recruits him back into the Horde, Skeletor disguises himself as Keldor and manipulates Prince Adam into giving him the crown, using his position to infect the people of Eternia with the Horde's techno virus. Recovering his memories, Skeletor almost kills Hordak and starts plotting to turn the entire universe into copies of himself using a combination of the techno virus and magic. Skeletor faces He-Man again and tries to damn his brother's soul to Subternia.
- Revolution only: Hordak is the general of the Horde who leads their vile forces across the universe. Under Hordak's command, genocide and enslavement are committed across numerous worlds. While leading an assault on Eternia many years ago before being driven away, Hordak also corrupted Prince Keldor into a twisted madman. Having sent Motherboard to Eternia, Hordak uses her to painfully cyber-convert its inhabitants to become his slaves, allowing him an easy invasion to add Eternia as another planet to his list of conquered worlds.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021): Skeletor began as the would-be usurper Prince Keldor. After trying to kill his young nephew and being trapped for his crimes, the reborn Keldor quickly resumes his plans of trying to claim Eternia's throne for himself. Killing multiple people and risking countless lives to achieve his ends, Skeletor takes the throne. When deposed and seemingly killed, Skeletor persuades a hesitant Krass to join him and raise an undead army. Possessing the bones of King Grayskull, Skeletor then surpasses his previous crimes in scale by trying to unleash a flood of Havoc that would turn the strong into his brainwashed undead minions and kill the weak, with intent to purge all those living. Skeletor then continues by torturing Krass, only stopping when He-Man gives him the Sword of Power and the opportunity remake the universe in his own visage as a narcissistic tribute to himself. Repeatedly proving he was evil from the very beginning and abandoning all that made him human in pursuit of power, Keldor even bemoans his own life being saved, having relished both the power of Havoc and the inhumanity it gave him.
Literature
Examples
- Golden Books:
- Golden Books Hardcover Masters of the Universe series: Skeletor is the sworn enemy of the Masters of the Universe, who constantly tries to take over Eternia. Always insulting his minions, Skeletor at one point flooded an entire village full of people, nearly drowning them, solely so he could enslave fishermen to force them to dig for Eternium. Later on, Skeletor has his minions seek out the components to the Sunbird, weapon and after building it, sent it towards the Royal Palace in hopes of destroying the whole palace and all people within it.
- Golden Super Adventure Princess of Power series: Catra is She-Ra's nemesis who does everything she can to make life miserable for the heroes. At one point, Catra kidnaps Glimmer to force her mother, Queen Angella, to surrender the kingdom of Bright Moon to her; Catra later on tricked Glimmer into wearing the Crooked Crown, leading her to nearly drown a group of sailors and then almost flooding the entire village and all the people in it, while Glimmer herself felt the unbearable pain from the effects of the crown. After being defeated, Catra decided to ruin the wedding between Ellanella and Daniel by having Ellanella turned into a deer, and then sent her black panther to turn her and Daniel into stone and petrify them.
- Ladybird Books:
- Masters of the Universe series: Skeletor is a constantly scheming warlord who desires to conquer Eternia. Trying to kill He-Man and the rest of the Masters of the Universe in various ways, Skeletor tried to drown Castle Grayskull and after that tried to feed Prince Adam to the Beast, simply to cause grief in the Royal Family. Having his minions attack and terrorize locals and at one point unleashing his giant robot upon the lands, leading to a family of farmers nearly getting killed, Skeletor later on tried to steal the antidote to a rare deadly disease from the snow dwarves, planning to breed his own virus and unleash it upon Eternia, intending to spread death across the whole planet.
- Masters of the Universe series & Princess of Power series: Hordak is a vile leader of the Evil Horde, who kidnapped Adora from the Royal Family of Eternia and escaped to Etheria, enslaving most of the population there and having his minions abuse them. Trying to get rid of the rebellion, Hordak at one point kept unleashing the monster from the Dark Pool upon innocent people, having him cause chaos and destruction across the lands, solely to force the rebellion to surrender. Trying to conquer Eternia as well, Hordak unleashed a stegosaurus upon them, believing it to be a dragon, by destroying the mountains which held it, resulting in a shockwave from his bomb destroying farms and villages for many miles around the mountain.
