Masters of the Universe opened Thursday night and immediately split the content creator community that had been loudest about its red flags. Two prominent YouTube voices with large audiences in the conservative geek culture space came out with opposite verdicts — and the exchange between them became its own story.
Shadiversity (Shad M. Brooks) runs a YouTube channel focused on medieval history, weapons, and culture that has built a large following through his willingness to engage honestly with geek culture controversies. He watched Masters of the Universe and came out enthusiastic. His initial post: “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was BRILLIANT!! I LOVED IT and anyone saying it’s about toxic masculinity is RETARDED. Skeletor is one of the best characters in it and is simply a classic unrepentant unapologetic villain that loves being evil and afraid of losing his power. Saying he is the embodiment of toxic masculinity is retarded. This film celebrates masculinity and what it really means to be a man and have power which is its biggest compliment. It’s not perfect but because it understood the core of what HE-MAN is, I love this film!”
He followed with a longer breakdown: “He-man, Masters of the Universe, is NOT woke! It has race swaps but that’s it. Just like portraying a woman as a ditsy, sexualised, or a throwaway character isn’t inherently sexist — having a male character be a goof, a bum, or the butt of a joke isn’t inherently woke. What determines it is context and what is it promoting or undermining. Prince Adam’s goofiness and weakness does not undermine his strength as He-man, it actually compliments it due to his conflict averse personality and incompetence at fighting and conflict. Teela shows up Adam but He-man shows up Teela and she is completely outclassed by his power. Man-at-arms has a full redemption arc and reclaims his strength and heroism, due to Adam helping him and teaching him the same lesson he taught Adam in his youth. Duncan is a massive positive masculine father figure and correctly contextualises what it means to be a man as he says in the film: ‘No rewards for trying.’ ‘You win with muscle.’ ‘Poets don’t save people.’ ‘This world is no place for the weak.’ ‘When you fall it’s your chance to stand tall.’ ‘I didn’t teach you to fight I taught you to protect.’ ‘Protecting and saving your family is what a man does.’ These are all sentiments shared by Man-at-arms which embody true masculinity and are reinforced by the film and Adam’s arc. Adam’s masculine journey is the best which teaches the concept of reluctant violence and restrained violence and controlled power. That peace and avoiding conflict should be sought first, but when given no other option you unleash your full power and don’t show mercy to the unrepentant. It’s hardcore and awesome.”
Tom Connors, better known as the face of Midnight’s Edge, the YouTube channel that covers Hollywood controversies and franchise mismanagement, saw a completely different film. He posted: “Sounds like you’re making up a lot of excuses for this woke piece of shit. I know what I saw, it’s one big fat meme. He-Man kills his own dad, and Skeletor wants to fuck him. Teela has to save him constantly, and he is a fool and a bimbo soy boy. They destroyed Man At Arms and the rest of the characters and turned it into a big gay allegory. He-Man even gets friend-zoned ffs. You can lie to yourself but don’t lie to people.”
Shad pushed back directly: “I like you Tom, I love how passionate you are, but calling people who disagree with you about a film liars, is a bad look. He-man did not kill his father, he was controlled by Evelyn and she and Skeletor killed his Dad through manipulating him. This is important because it exposes how reliable your accounting of the film is. You are objectively, categorically, undeniably wrong on what you said about the death of the father and it exposes that you’re presenting the film, at least extremely uncharitably, and at worse, wilfully misrepresenting it. All your other points are also false or uncharitably framed, except the friend zoning which was funny.”
Tom replied: “No his ANGER killed his father. Funny, I can understand that and still be passionate. If you want to give it that, then fine. This guy is unhinged more than me.” He then added: “Everyone who made fun of me for liking Superman and is praising MOTU slop owes me an apology. This is SO much worse than anything Marvel, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and even Ghostbusters has done to the franchises. At least Paul Feig understood half of the assignment, he just didn’t understand the tone. This is a f---ing Taika Waititi movie, plain and simple. There was a great series to draw from that built upon the original lore and they gave us Barbie 2.”
On the lore question, Shad addressed Tom directly: “You’re saying it breaks the lore because everyone in the new film knows who He-Man is? I love the cartoon but come on Tom, we can be objective about this I hope. The cartoon had a lot of problems too, one being that Adam and He-man looked EXACTLY the same and no one else noticed it. I hope we can agree that was dumb. The change in the film does not break lore, but fixes a blatant plot hole from the original.”
The Shad/Tom split is genuinely interesting because both are operating from conservative geek culture premises. Neither is a mainstream press critic. Both care about the franchise. Their disagreement is substantive rather than tribal.
What makes the context messier is the documented record from the creative team before either of them sat in a seat. Director Travis Knight told Empire magazine in February: “Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.” Camila Mendes told Entertainment Weekly that Teela was “affected by toxic masculinity just as much as the men in the film” and had “adopted masculinity to protect herself in this very masculine world.” The Globe and Mail’s review confirmed the director’s framing landed in the finished film: “Make no bones about it, the villain Skeletor represents toxic masculinity.”
Shad’s argument is that the film’s execution transcends the messaging of its press tour, that the actual Man-at-Arms dialogue and Adam’s arc celebrate masculinity regardless of what the director called Skeletor in an Empire interview. Tom’s argument is that what the creative team telegraphed is what they delivered. Both are responding to the same film. The first-week box office will tell us which read the broader audience shared.
Director Travis Knight described Skeletor as the “embodiment of toxic masculinity” while discussing Jared Leto’s portrayal in the press tour. Teela actress Camila Mendes described her character as one “affected by toxic masculinity just as much as the men in the film.” The tracking, which had put the film at $25-30 million domestic, now looks like it may land even lower. A $200 million film opening to those numbers would make it one of the clearest IP-driven commercial failures of the summer.
The Shad/Tom debate will outlast the opening weekend numbers. Whether the film is a genuine celebration of masculinity that got misrepresented in press, or a Barbie-style franchise revision that a few good Man-at-Arms lines cannot redeem, is a question worth having. Shad watched it and came out persuaded. Tom watched it and came out furious. The audience voting with tickets this weekend will have the last word.
Did you see Masters of the Universe? Let us know in the comments.
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