The
primary evil character in the 1985-87
cartoon She-ra: Princess of Power, which was a spin-off of
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Hordak was a poor-man's
Skeletor. When the marketing men at
Mattel and
Hanna Barbera decided to repackage He-Man for girls, Hordak was brewed up as the main
bad guy. He has the same
bone and skull motif as Skeletor, dresses in similar
colors, and acts in a familiar
bumbling fashion, and is always
foiled at the last minute by the show's
heroine. Hordak always seemed a bit more
evil than Skeletor, but it was probably because he liked to
pick on girls. Voice actor
George DiCenzo provided his snarling voice for the entire run of the cartoon.
The sordid life story of a mass marketed villain
As the leader of
the Horde on
Etheria, Hordak had it pretty good. The Horde, a galaxy spanning
army that conquers planets for a living, originally sent Hordak to conquer
Eternia, home planet of
He-man. He and Skeletor had been allies in that failed
venture.
Skeletor sold him out to
King Randor. As a way of getting revenge, Hordak stole the King's new born daughter
Adora and fled to
Etheria.
She-ra /Adora ,
He-man/Adam's twin sister, grew up to be a
force captain in the Horde. In a
cross-promotion like few others, He-man himself was sent in '
The Secret of The Sword' to find his long lost
sister and restore her to her rightful position as a
Princess of Eternia. He-Man succeeds and Adora, now
She-ra, remains in Etheria to lead the
Rebellion against her
former master.
Hordak spends most of his time on his throne in
Doom Tower in the
Fright Zone, a dark and dismal factory-type fortress that the tyrant uses to oversee his army and hatch his
fiendish schemes. It also houses Hordak's
Slime Pit, used to torture would-be rebels. All of these places where lovingly recreated as
playsets by
Mattel and sold in the millions. Hordak's fits of
rage would usually mean a drop into the watery-depths of the
Fright Zone for his
minions.
So, Hordak ultimately caused his own
worst nightmare by kidnapping Adora. Week after week he sought to crush the Rebellion. Advised by the witch
Shadow Weaver, he concocted many
bizarre tasks for his
minions, all of which invariably
fail in
comical ways. These failures mean that poor Hordak will have to face
Horde Prime, his successful
brother and merciless
master. The watchful eye of
Horde World is always on poor Hordak.
So, what
wonderful things can a
supervillain world dictator do? Hordak had some
weird powers. A handy teleportation
ray helped him escape on an almost weekly basis, but not until he was finished cursing the
meddling heroes and heroines. He had some handy
eye lasers for zapping his foes, but his most effective power was his ability to
transform his body parts into other
objects. Need to
shoot at some one? No problem! Make your arm a
laser gun! Hordak tried all sorts of variations, becoming such things as a
missile, growing
giant scissor hands and transforming into a
net. As it goes for Hordak, very few of these transformations
worked.
Yes, I did watch too many cartoons as a kid. Even girly ones. No, you can't play with my toys.