Written by Mr. Mouseburger 28th Jun 2006
Kindly submitted by Kooshmeister
Skeletor, He-Man's archenemy, has acquired the Sword of Grayskull and been granted godlike powers - and a cool gold outfit - by the powers of the universe via the Great Eye of the Galaxy. He has He-Man as his prisoner and he now controls Planet Eternia. Things could not be better for old Skeletor. That is until He-Man's friends, plus a couple of Earth teenagers and a cynical detective, are zapped into the middle of his throne room by the Cosmic Key, and a huge battle breaks out between them and Skeletor's soldiers.
The most ridiculously unnecessary headdress in all of Eternia
Amidst this spectacular free-for-all, He-Man manages to get free and retrieve the Sword of Grayskull, holding it aloft and giving his trademark cry of, "I have the power!" Skeletor, furious, snarls at his long-time foe, "I ache to smash you from existence! To drive your cursed face from my memory forever!"
"Enough talk!" He-Man growls. Skeletor agrees. "Let this be our final battle!" He-Man swings his sword, and Skeletor his battle staff. The moment that the two weapons clash all the lights in the throne room go out and we watch the two enemies clash for a short while against a backdrop of light effects created by a colour wheel (according to the director's commentary on the DVD).
The fight finally ends when He-Man manages to break Skeletor's staff, which for some reason houses all of Skeletor's new godly powers. As soon as the staff is broken, Skeletor reverts, screaming, to his original, non-godlike self.
Erm....Skeletor gets a shock...
"Skeletor, it's over," He-man tells his beaten foe, lowering his sword. "Yes," whispers Skeletor, covertly pulling his own sword from somewhere on his person, then snarls, "For you!" and lunges at He-Man. A few more blows are exchanged between the pair, who are now dangerously close to the edge of one of the gigantic, bottomless shafts that exist in Skeletor's throne room for no readily apparent reason (and into which several of Skeletor's minions have already fallen during the preceding battle). Ultimately, He-Man knocks Skeletor off the edge, and the villain fall to his doom, screaming "No! No! Noooooo!" over and over again.
Skeletor rues the day he did not get the contractors to fill that whopping great gorge in his throne room
However, after the end credits, we see that Skeletor is not quite dead, as he surfaces from the water that fills the bottom of these shafts and vows to anyone who has stuck around through the entire credits, "I'll be back!". Obviously, this was an attempt by the director to build in the possibility of a sequel, but judging by the poor box office takings, this was the last the movie going public would ever see of him.
Skeletor is green with envy at He-Man's prowess
For all those who are saying “hang on, he isn’t dead!”, read on. Since this final little scene is like a DVD Easter Egg before the fact, Skeletor's demise is rock-solid within the actual story of the film before the credits.
I expected a higher rating from the often-nostalgic members of MDDB! Even if this is after the fact, would this be "Cheating-Death" in addition to not quite dead?
Skeletor=Skeet?
yes,i tihnk you might be right here, it does sound like a cheats death, albeit in a DVD easter egg!
What do you think Kooshmeister?
Mouseburger
I had thought about it while writing the death, but I didn't select it as one of the categories. Now that I think about it, though, you guys are right, it's definitely a "Cheating Death"-worthy entry! Too bad we can't say the same for Saurod earlier in the film - although in the comic adaptation, he isn't killed, while Skeletor is irrefutably killed (ironically, when Evil-Lyn throws a rock at his head while he is battling He-Man; guess she wasn't so loyal after all!).
ok, changed it from not quite dead to cheating death.
Kooshmeister, i have added some of the grabs you have kindly donated to the site. I will add a few more in in the coming days - i know it took a while, but we got there in the end
Nice grabs.
Dolph Lundgren's second death on the site, they seem to be a bit, er... different though!
[quote Mr Mouseburger]Kooshmeister, i have added some of the grabs you have kindly donated to the site. I will add a few more in in the coming days - i know it took a while, but we got there in the end
Nice grabs.[/quote]Awesome! Thank you, I was beginning to think I as submitting too many... XD
Sorry, but I've removed Cheating Death - that was one of my original categories and it isn't intended for characters that look as though they die only to crop up at the end, it's more subtle than that - please read the category description for what it's for.
You should add Not Quite Dead..., then.
Why? It doesn't sound from the writeup that Skelly suffers all that much damage before dying, let alone unfeasible amounts of damage (which is needed for NQD to apply).
I've updated the NQD category description to clarify what is needed to qualify