Master of the Universe: Revelations- Hope, for a Destination

 I witnessed the death of God at the beginning of time!"

This is basically, in its concluding episodes, a study in Evil Lyn as nihilist, seeing no purpose and thus no point in the existence of the universe, and so wanting to destroy it. Alas, Eternia has no Jean-Paul Sartre to put her right with existentialism. Yes, perhaps God is dead (as alluded to in Lyn's dream) and the universe has no plan for us, but does that not set us free to live for ourselves, decide our own purpose and meaning, and do good because it's the right thing and not from a selfish desire for heavenly reward? Perhaps Lyn did the right thing in destroying heaven, but the actual universe matters precisely because it has and needs no meaning.

And yet Lyn remains a sympathetic character. Her nuhilism comes, as is nailed home in her hard-hitting monologue to Skeletor, from a lifetime of psychological and physucal abuse, gaslighting, and coercive control. She speaks with the justified rage of an abused woman who has found freedom from her abusers control- including the parts of the control based inside her own mind. I suspect the conclusion will see some sort of healing catharsis for her. I hope so.

Meanwhile we also see Teela come to terms with her power, which she wields better than she thinks, and a conversation with her late mother about how being the Sorceress means abandoning all human attachments- including to one's child, which Teela's mum seems to get away with here a little too likely. I suspect Teela will make a better choice, in the end, than her mother.

But it's all looking very epic, excited as we are by the brief appearance of Blade from the movie and the Adam/Skeletor double act. This is truly excellent telly.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations- The Gutter Rat

 "Nobody around here fears you, Evil Lyn. We all pity you."

This series gets better and better, really making the most of the opportunity to use this setting without a reset button. So we have Adam's parents both overjoyed to see him alive- but they've grown apart in his absence, and Adam feels guit over that, as he does with how his secret hurt Teela. The other thread of the episode is, of course, the edgy subject of Skeletor's domestic abuse of Evil Lyn, and her depressingly typical downplaying of it, until the worm turns after some hard-hitting words from Duncan.

There's some joy in that Andra finds belonging in Eternos, yet we also hear of Lyn's tragic upbringing, and how appalled she is at the cold, impersonal emptiness of the universe and Skeletor's lack of ambition. In the end it's almost easy how she usurps the power of Skeletor, who has always been her inferior. And she does have ambitions... first with a very literal deconscruction of the concept of heaven. Wow.

Then, just when it looks as though there can be no suprrises left to spring, bloody Skeletor turns up wanting to help our friends...