Hi everyone, and welcome back to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
Sorry it's been a while since my last entry, I've been delayed by a busy schedule and technical difficulties.
Hope you're all preparing well for Christmas!
God gave me a strange sort of inspiration for this year’s Christmas entry on
the Nightcrawler Experience. It’ll be a series of entries I am calling “A Very
80’s Christmas”!
The 1980’s were an incredible decade. Reagan was president, hair and fashion
styles were cool and innovative, some truly incredible movies, music and TV shows
came out then, and of course, I was born in the 80’s!
So, to that end, these
next few entries will be faith- based looks at 80’s TV Christmas specials.
First up, we’ll be taking a trip to the magic world of Eternia with ‘He- Man
and She- Ra: A Christmas Special’!
Made largely to promote its action figure line (Heck, you’d be hard- pressed to find an 80’s cartoon that WASN’T basically just a thirty- minute toy commercial), the action- fantasy series “He- Man and the Masters of the Universe” centers around Prince Adam of Eternia. He is given a magic sword that lets him transform into the mighty warrior He- Man. Together with his warrior friends, the Masters of the Universe, he regularly must protect Eternia from being conquered by the evil sorcerer/ warlord Skeletor and his henchmen. It’s been made into shows a few times, with the one that I remember most being the rather short- lived but excellent series that came out in 2002, but the original, and the one that comes into play in this entry, was from the early 80’s.
It also had a spinoff series, “She- Ra: The Princess of Power.” Basically He- Man for girls, it involved his long- lost twin sister and her own group of friends facing the villain Hordak. I never watched that show (Either the original, or the reboot they did for Netflix), so I can’t speak on it.
This Christmas special from 1985 combines the two shows. Long story short, through a mishap involving the bumbling but good- hearted Orko, a pair of children from Earth are accidentally sent to Eternia shortly before Christmas. The two kids, named Alisha and Miguel, immediately win over He- Man, She- Ra, and their friends, and begin introducing everyone in Eternia to the concept of Christmas. The Eternians like what they hear, and decide to throw a big Christmas party in the palace.
Not everyone is so excited about it, though. Skeletor and Hordak are both summoned by their sort- of boss, the intergalactic tyrant Horde- Prime. He tells them basically that he can’t stand the concept of these children bringing Christmas, and all the love and joy and goodwill that comes with it, to Eternia, so he hires the two villains to capture the little tykes and bring them to him. Skeletor and Hordak aren’t exactly the biggest fans of each other, so they immediately decide to compete with each other for this to see who can capture the kids first and be rewarded by Horde- Prime.
He- Man and She- Ra attempt to protect the kids when they find out about this, but eventually Skeletor captures them along with this little alien- puppy named Relay. The hoverbike he was using to drive off with them is shot down by Hordak, though, and crash- lands in some snowy mountains. So, Skeletor decides they’ll need to get to the rendezvous point for Horde- Prime by foot. Along the way, Skeletor repeatedly finds himself being uncharacteristically kind in various ways (i.e. Using his magic to conjure up warmer winter coats for the kids, taking Relay the puppy with them rather than leaving it to freeze, and fighting off a giant “Snow- Beast” that attacks them), in spite of his then trying to convince the kids and himself that he is rotten to the core.
Finally, everyone arrives at this rendezvous point, leading to a big battle. He- Man and She- Ra are soon distracted by Hordak’s robot army attacking them, Skeletor has been wounded after Hordak reflects his own magic blast back at him, and the children are being pulled by a giant mechanical claw into Horde- Prime’s ship. Just then, Skeletor says while lying on the ground, “I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I MUST…. SAVE… THE CHILDREN!” If you’re watching the special, that scene/ line will likely have you torn between bursting out laughing, cheering, and loudly saying “AAAAWWWW!”
Skeletor regains his strength from this, gets to his feet, and blasts Horde- Prime’s ship, which releases the kids and then crashes. He- Man and She- Ra then finish the job by tossing Horde- Prime’s now- damaged ship into space.
The assorted good guys have their first Christmas party be a huge success, and
the children are returned to Earth in time for Christmas Eve, complete with a
pretty darn cool Christmas present/ souvenir from their new friends: A matching
pair of magic belts that enable them to fly.
‘He- Man and She- Ra: A Christmas Special’ makes for great
campy, cheesy fun. It’s something that’s enjoyable to watch just as- is, OR for
riffing purposes.
In nearly every
incarnation of He- Man, Skeletor is often the most interesting and entertaining
character to watch, and that certainly holds true here. The special especially picks up
the pace in the last twenty minutes or so, starting in the scene when the old
bone- head and the kids crash- land in the mountains, and have such hilarious
and adorable interactions with each other. Here’s just a sample:
(Aww, doesn’t that smile he briefly has after Alisha calls him “Wonderful” look sweet? This video was uploaded to Youtube by the user "bustatoons" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVppuv9Pcqk)
This special obviosuly has a few issues with it. First up, it's so jam- packed with characters from the two different shows (Mostly in the background) that it can be hard to keep track of them all. Also, Skeletor’s arc in the special felt a
little incomplete. If I were a writer for that special, I’d have it end either
with He- Man and She- Ra inviting Skeletor to join them and the Masters for
their Christmas party, or possibly with Skeletor and his henchmen throwing
their own Christmas party in their headquarters at Snake Mountain (Complete
with exploding presents, as he seemed to like that idea).
Nevertheless, 'He- Man and She- Ra: A Christmas Special' remains great cheesy fun that I've watched every year at least since 2019. If you want a good laugh and a little heart, check it out.
The first Scriptural message to be taken from ‘He- Man and She- Ra: A Christmas Special’ is on being a good witness for Christ. We see the children in a way doing that through their efforts to bring Christmas to Eternia. They eagerly, yet not in a pushy or offensive way, tell each of the Eternians about Christmas. In fact, when they first tell Orko about it, it’s even clearly implied that they tell him that it involves celebrating the birth of Jesus (They tell him it started “A long, long time ago,” then it segues into a different scene; Later, we return to the kids finishing the story to Orko, and they say “And the three wise men followed the star until they finally reached Bethlehem,” and Orko responds, “What a beautiful story!”). Even when Skeletor has captured the kids and is intent on taking them to Horde- Prime, they still happily tell him about the joys of Christmas, and as pointed out earlier, their witnessing in this way leads to him having a remarkable change of heart. It calls to mind several real- life accounts I have heard, in which Christians who have been imprisoned for their faith have managed to even lead the jailers and guards who mistreated them into finding salvation through Jesus. This echoes the Great Commission that the risen Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19, telling His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Also, Psalm 96:3 says to “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!” The Gospel can be spread in a lot of different ways: Through in- person interactions, through writing as I'm doing through this blog, and any one of a multitude of different ways. The only condition is that you should demonstrate tact, kindness and humility in how you present it, to ensure that the message is received well. Do that, and much like how the kids in the special ended up being to everyone in Eternia, we can shine the light of Christ to all around us!
As you can probably guess, another Scriptural message that
can be taken from ‘He- Man and She- Ra: A Christmas Special’ lies in the almost
Grinch- like redemption arc that Skeletor goes through over the course of the
special. This was a guy who in the series was constantly portrayed as one of
the most evil beings in Eternia (Albeit not very competent in his evil schemes
most of the time). Yet, through his interactions with the children and them
encouraging him into various acts of kindness, we see his heart start to
gradually melt and we learn that, although he would never admit it and insists
he’s all evil, he miraculously DOES have at least some small trace of good in
him. This, of course, comes to its completion in the honestly epic climax moment of
Skeletor confronting Horde- Prime and saving the children from him. It brings
to mind Ezekiel 36:26, which says “I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh.” It shows how God can help soften the hearts of even the seemingly
worst of us, and change them entirely. Jesus came to Earth and died to save ALL
of us, particularly those who seem the worst of us and most irredeemable.
Remember, after all, the thief on the cross as well as Saul of Tarsus. Think on
if you know someone like that in your own life, a “Skeletor” who may not be the
most likable person around, but who is still just as much a child of God as you
are, and make an effort to show the love of Christ to them.
That about sums up my look at 'He- Man and She- Ra: A Christmas Special.' While not exactly the most memorable tv Christmas special, it's corny fun and teaches great messages about kindly sharing the Gospel to others, and how even the worst of us isn't beyond saving. Those messages pack more might than He- Man and She- Ra combined!
That's all for this entry of the Nightcrawler Experience. See you soon with the next entry in this series. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
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