What If He-Man And She-Ra BOTH Grew Up On Eternia?

He was calling her “pretty lady” a little while earlier. I wonder if Marlena ever told Adam about the movie Star Wars?

We 80s kids know the true origin story of He-Man and She-Ra…well, more She-Ra than He-Man. We never saw how Prince Adam became He-Man but we did see how Adora, lost princess of Eternia, was located on the sister planet Etheria and became its champion, She-Ra. Kidnapped as a baby by Hordak, she almost never gained her legacy…except she stayed on Etheria in the hopes of liberating it from Hordak, at least on the show. In the minicomics and some other media, Hordak returned to Eternia to conquer it because the Evil Horde was intended as a third column, a second threat so dangerous that He-Man and Skeletor would even join forces to oppose him on occasion.

That’s not how it was supposed to happen. At least in the mythology of Eternia. The show and other media did it so the Princess Of Power toyline could exist and Filmation could capitalize on the strong women of He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe with a girl centric show that boys might also enjoy the show the way their sisters did their show. Then they could play together if Mattel was smart enough to make the two toylines compatible. Which they didn’t due to internal struggles between the boys and girls divisions I won’t get into here.

So what would of happened if the bearer of the Sword Of Power and the bearer of the Sword Of Protection had not been separated by the Horde? What if Adora had remained on Eternia, raised alongside her brother, and granted her powers at the same time? She would need another steed (but for sake of following along we’ll still call him Spirit/Swift Wind alongside Cringer/Battlecat), but what else would change about the dynamic of having the most powerful man and woman, siblings, working together to defend Eternia and Castle Grayskull? Well, why should Game Theory and Film Theory have all the fun with fictional theorizing, especially when they probably wouldn’t cover this one. Let’s have some fun today and figure that out.

In order to make any scenario work I’m going to borrow from the only He-Man origin we really have outside of the early illustrated booklets telling us some dude left his village to protect Grayskull for literally no reason given. That means the 2003 series, which is a slightly different take on the Adam we know from the 80s show. He’s younger, convinced that all the big evil forces are behind a mystic wall and there’s nobody asking for it to be taken down except the big evil forces. So he didn’t see the need for training or Teela’s nagging. How 80s Adam and Adora would respond to a similar situation we can’t know for sure. This Adora didn’t grow up being groomed to lead the bad guys despite an inherent goodness. She grew up a princess, but because she did have to be conned or brainwashed into being the force captain of the Horde we’ll assume she wasn’t as standoffish as her brother. Maybe she thought of it as a game and encouraged Adam. I’m really not looking that far into their history. It’s what roles He-Man and She-Ra would play working as a team.

If I could make t-shirts, “Don’t $%#% with She-Ra, she’ll butterfly you” would be my first one.

So circumstances lead to Adam and Adora being brought to Castle Grayskull on their birthday by Man-At-Arms. Cringer follows Adam everywhere, but we know that in the 80s show he didn’t become Battlecat until Adam had been going all superhero for awhile. We’ll assume the same for this version of Spirit the horse. So it’s just Adam and Adora, with Orko following along out of curiosity since we don’t know how he learned the truth in the Filmation world. There’s also no Light Hope, Madame Razz, Kowl, or Loo-Kee involved as they’re staying on Etheria (hopefully one without Horde rule) so only the original three confidants will know Adam and Adora are He-Man and She-Ra: the Sorceress, Man-At-Arms, and Orko. Cringer and Spirit will learn when it’s their time to become steeds. Their first adventure will happen as however it happened, but if we go by the 2003 series it’s two warriors who face Skeletor and his Evil Warriors to rescue their father or whatever first tale they had. That’s all the backstory we need to deal with, so on to the jobs.

He-Man carries the Sword Of Power and She-Ra the Sword Of Protection. I think this says what their roles would be when it comes to Eternia and Grayskull. In both of their regular scenarios both of them had to act as defender and attacker. If Skeletor’s forces stole or kidnapped someone, He-Man had to come to the rescue and go on the attack. He would also leave the area of Eternos and Grayskull to battle evil in other locations. Technically that left Eternos (the capital of Eternia) and Grayskull without someone to protect them so we’re lucky that when He-Man had to battle Shakoki that Skeletor didn’t decide to capture the royal family or something. He-Man had to serve as both defense and offense.

That wouldn’t have been a problem if She-Ra had been there. Going by their toys and She-Ra’s added powers (healing and communicating with animals, the sword transforming into ropes and shields) He-Man would be on offense and She-Ra defense. He-Man’s figures were always new weapons while She-Ra’s figures had…a sparkly cape or bubbles. Not exactly the same as self-repairing armor, “flying fists” or a backpack that superboosted the wearer’s punches with thunderous power. So when forces attack I believe He-Man would go right into battle while She-Ra protected any civilians or stopped any villains who got past the “front lines” and moved in to battle. She-Ra would definitely have to see some action. She has a magic sword after all. She would also be the one behind so if He-Man had to take the fight to Skeletor nobody had to worry nobody would be around to stop Count Marzo from pulling some stunt. She-Ra would be there for that.

Also, who’s to say that they wouldn’t back each other up. Two superstrong people are better than one in the battle to protect the innocent and battle evil. So maybe there would be a situation where She-Ra had to travel with He-Man to stop some evil plan in another location. Imagine Evil Itself having to deal with two pure-hearted heroes instead of just one. If He-Man alone would be a stalemate, He-Man and She-Ra together, who have roughly the same proportional physical power plus her bonus powers would be able to actually beat him. I’m not going to recreate every episode with the two of them. Some stories might have ended quicker. I can imagine Adora would have picked up on Karyn’s attraction to Malek while Teela was distracted dealing with his advances and Adam and Ram-Man were busy ribbing Teela. {heh} Or maybe Adora would stay to stop Malek’s further actions being controlled by Lokus. She would help clear up the dam and rescue people while He-Man would rush to stop the person destroying the dam. Then She-Ra would just rebuild the dam with rocks and a blast from the Sword Of Protection. “Sword to laser cannon!”

Now imagine if that warrior woman wasn’t Teela but She-Ra. From demon to butterfly.

On the flip side if the proverbial wolfbats are at the gate, She-Ra is going to need help because they don’t listen to reason when their hungry, even with She-Ra’s telepathy. So He-Man would be there with her on the defensive front. We’ve seen the two of them stop an army together so it wouldn’t be hard. He-Man could battle the army on one side while She-Ra goes to the other side after someone realized it was a distraction and the real attack was from behind. Both would still see battle, but they’d have all the angles covered with the other Heroic Warriors and Teela’s Royal Guard helping out. Shadowbeasts from the front acting as a distraction while Beast Man moved in from behind? It’s covered. Either would do the heavy lifting (possibly even literally) in their chosen role but as siblings and comrades in battle would join the other if needed to. There could even be stories where one was now out of their “comfort zone” and He-Man couldn’t just rush off into battle or She-Ra was the only one there who could. In the stories we got both heroes had to take on both roles on their respective planets, but in this scenario they’d have each other’s backs and reduce some of that weight and stress by taking different positions.

(For the usual suspects who would get mad at me because the girl is “staying home” and the man is “going out to do the real work”, how is protecting people not real work? I’m basing this on their powers. If He-Man had the healing powers, the Sword Of Protection versus the Sword Of Power–and there is an episode to be made where they’re forced to switch swords and powers, and the defensive gear, then I’d say he’d be the defender. It does seem more accurate based on male and female preferences, especially in an 80s kids show. Like it or not, She-Ra and even Adora proved to little girls that they could be feminine and still kick butt. She-Ra would see plenty of action and would on occasion go offense as He-Man would do the same on defense. I’m looking at their personalities and powers, not modern stereotyping. We see plenty of women kicking butt on both the good and evil side. Evil-Lyn was Skeletor’s most competent lacky…which isn’t saying much.)

Of course this isn’t what we got. Instead Adora is taken, forcing Adam to take on the role of defender more often than not, since that would be the more important of the two roles. (Note that as well, usual suspects! “The best defense is a good offense” but don’t leave yourself undefended.) Someone has to defend the homefront, meaning the villains would keep getting away to be used again in another story because nobody can give chase if they have to go into rescue or protection mode. Meanwhile Adora has push back against Horak’s forces, taking on a more proactive role in stopping the Horde and someday free Etheria from their rule. They essentially swapped roles out of necessity, but if there was no Evil Horde and Eternia had two superpowered siblings protecting them from evil tyrants, threatening dream attackers, killer plants, and everything else Planet Deathtrap had to offer while keeping the secrets of the universe safe, things would have gone a lot easier for the forces of good. Though whether or not it would make for better stories is lost to time.