Written by Some people unfortunately continue to accuse “Masters of the Universe: Revelation”, the spiritual sequel to the 1983 Filmation series, for improperly mischaracterizing the character of Teela.
In Revelation they found Teela brash, irrational, emotional, disrespectful, and argued she was never these things in the Filmation “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” show, nor would she ever quit the Palace against King Randor’s wishes.
But the truth is, every single one of these behaviors described above were actually expressed by Teela in the original 1983 Filmation Series, some on multiple occasions.
Here is a taste:
And once you apply Teela’s established behavior pattern within the framework of an adult continuation of a classic television series, and then have Teela watch both her friend and love Adam and He-Man die (which to this point, they were two separate people to her, so she really didn’t know them at all), and at the same time have Teela find out that almost everyone she loved including her own father have been liars for decades, hiding the biggest, most important secret of all time from her…. and it’s quite easy to recognize her behavior was quite fitting.
Finally someone did a video like this!
Not even close to the same thing. Her insubordination in these scenes is born out of a desire to fulfill her duty, not abandon it. And it’s completely different to resign from your post because you feel you don’t deserve it and have failed, compared to what we got in Revelations, where she quit because she got mad that Adam was He-Man. Especially, given the timing, since he just died.
Had Teela resigned because she felt responsible for Adam’s death, that would have been great. We could have sympathized with her and it would have been in line with her character.
While I do appreciate your perspective, I do believe “she quit because she got mad that Adam was He-Man” is quite an oversimplification. 🙂
Maybe a little. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say she quit because she was angry she was lied to. I feel she turned her back on her responsibilities because she failed to comprehend why they felt the need to keep Adam’s secret, and I don’t really think that made a lot of sense. Compared to Filmation, where even when she ‘quit,’ it was out of responsibility. She felt she had failed and was unworthy to continue in her position.
In my opinion, that’s how the scene in Revelation should have played out: Teela quits out of guilt. Prince Adam was her responsibility for so long and he was gone, and she blames herself. And maybe, she thinks, had she been let in on the secret, she would have been better prepared to protect him. That would have made her more sympathetic and would have fit better with her character.
As Cringer says an episode later, she thinks she’s angry, but she’s scared. It’s also implied she’s still grieving years later.
What I took from her leaving the palace in ep 1 and giving everyone an impressive tongue-lashing was that she was angry – and sad and guilty. This might be my own headcanon, but people don’t behave rationally in the face of loss. Perhaps it could have been written with more nuance, but the writers were restricted to what, 22 minutes an episode? All in all, I don’t believe the scene is terribly out of character for Teela.
Everything she knew for years was based on a pretty significant, but important lie. I would have liked to see Adam struggle with keeping the secret from her as they grew older.
The Revelations episodes after ep 2 show her character gradually grows to accept it was necessary.
Just my friendly two cents; a fan of all the series. No flames please 🙂
I like your thoughts on this
She disobeyed orders from her Dad all the time and it wasn’t out of a desire to fulfill her duty. Plus she did not care that the King refused her resignation. This aint well thought out behavior. Shes always acting on emotion