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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Villano" data-source="post: 396378" data-attributes="member: 505">Regardless of the make-up of the audience, the audience that the writers are aiming at is really what's important since that is what determines the level of complexity of the stories.If your target audience is pre-teen/early teen (your merchandising core), you aren't going to include too much subtext in your writing. This isn't to say that it can't be done, of course.  You can do a kids' based show which is intelligent and adults can enjoy (compare Seasame Street to, say, Barney).However, that doesn't excuse lapses in logic.  I can understand and accept the monsters and magic of He-Man, but they've never given a good explanation as to why he has to keep his identity a secret.  He's already a prince and son of the man who disfigured Skeletor, who looks to be one of the most powerful magic-users on the planet.  All this makes him a pretty big target.And why doesn't he stay He-Man all the time?  If you could magically transform into someone who looked like that, wouldn't you stay that way all the time (especially if you were a kid)?Both of these problems could be fixed by saying that he can only stay transformed for a certain period of time (even if that period lasts several days or weeks).  If he makes his identity known, his enemies will target him during the times he is human.It's a small problem which bugs me because it can be so easily fixed.Sorry for chopping up your post, but I wanted to touch on this separately.This story of the army reminds me of an episode of Buck Rodgers (during the years where the series was set aboard that spaceship.  I never really cared for that time period, myself).Anyway, the crew happens upon a ship which i manned by a group of midgets.  These midgets are aliens with telekinetic powers.The episode was mostly comedy with the aliens all being generals except for one, sole private (who also happened to be the only black midget).  He's the one who has to do all the diry work because, after all, you can't expect a general to do that.Plus, no decisions can ever be made because none of the generals ever agree with the others. We also learn that they only have one female in their entire species, a queen (I think she lays eggs).  This causes the aliens to be especially curious of Wilma Dering (and her mysterious "bumps" which their queen doesn't have).They eventually try to strip her with their powers to get a better look at her.  However, Buck walks in and they stop. Needless to say, I was very disappointed by this as a kid. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />I wouldn't be surprised if the writers read that Oz book.  Or, maybe, they just watched a couple episodes of Monty Python.  Well, now you are dealing with fairy tale logic, which, in the best cases, can also work as satire.  I've never read any of the Oz books, but they seem to really work within this framework: modern fairy tales.Fairy tales function in the theatre of the absurd.  Look at Alice in Wonderland with its "unbirthdays" and croquet matches with like animals as the equipment.The nature of the fairy tale is to rebel against logic (possibly using their new world as a vehicle of a morality tale). Well, the main difference is that they are, well, differnt. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It's kind of like comparing a Bond film to a realistic spy drama.Both can be good movies, but the realistic film will use the confines of the real world to build their story upon, whereas Bond has its own world and rules.Granted, there is no "real" world of fantasy, but He-Man's world is a place of simple morality.  Adventure is the key.  It is the Bond of fantasy.LotR, on the other hand, would be like The Ipcress File.  A place where the spies all look like accountants and spend most of their time filing reports or locked in musty attics watching the house accross the street and recording who comes and goes and when.LotR tries to build a world with a clearly defined sense of logic.  A place where A leads to B leads to C.Another big difference is that LotR has a beginning, middle, and end, while He-Man is an open ended serial.  This means that LotR can develop its characters with a definite outcome in mind, while He-Man characters must remain static (iconic, if you will).If you want to talk about the differences in their personalities and heroics, He-Man is a child trying to prove his worth.He tackles things head-on because that is what a child would do.  You can fix a problem by smashing it (which is why Man-At-Arms is so necessary to both him and the stories; to tell him and the audience that you also have to think your way through things).However, He-Man and his sword are imbued with what appears to be all the "lost" magic of the elders, so he has the power to survive head on encounters (which only reinforces his recklessness).Frodo, on the other hand, doesn't want to be a hero.  Sure, he wants to see the world, but he won't leap into a fight (as you can see in the cartoon, Adam is expected to be a fighter as well as a leader).Frodo would pass the ring off to someone else if he knew they could get the job done.  Adam wants to be a hero (although he'd rather be "Adam the hero" as opposed to having He-Man get the credit).At its core, it's sort of like the difference between high-fantasy and low-fantasy, except, in this case, its high-fantasy (LotR) and epic-level, super-high-fantasy (He-Man).You can be reckless when you have the power to topple a mountain and survive having one dropped on you.Personally, I prefer low-fantasy to high in both movies and gaming.  I like playing in a world where you can't grow or shrink by drinking a handy potion or come back from the dead (although I am looking forward to an upcoming high level, high-fantasy, evil, monster game we will be playing).With cartoons, however, I like the super-high-fantasy.  If you are going to go with a cartoon, you may as well take advantage of the medium.  And I don't really think that suspension of disbelief really is a matter of age as it is personal taste.  Sometimes your tastes change as you grow older.There are some cartoons and movies that I used to watch as a child that I don't like now, while there are others I enjoy now most likely because I liked them as a kid (I want a dvd of that cheesy Hercules movie that Lou Ferigno did.  You know, the one where he and the villain turn into neon, cartoon outlines and recreate the dinosaur/gorilla fight from King Kong).It's a bad, bad movie, but I smile every time I see it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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