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Skeletor () is a supervillain and the main antagonist of the Masters of the Universe franchise created by Mattel. He is usually depicted as an evil skull-faced, blue-skinned sorcerer who serves as the archenemy of He-Man. In the storyline of the franchise, Skeletor is determined to discover the secrets of Castle Grayskull, which he believes will allow him to conquer the planet Eternia and the entire universe, and become the titular Master of the Universe. Appearances Pre-Filmation minicomics ("savage Eternia") The first minicomics that accompanied the 1981–1983 line of Masters of the Universe toys presented the earliest version of continuity and displayed many differences from the more widely known continuity of the later cartoon made by Filmation, and the later minicomics which complemented it. He-Man was depicted as the scarcely superhuman champion of a tribe of stone-age jungle-dwellers. There was no royal court of Eternia, King Randor, Queen Marlena, or Prince Adam yet. These very first minicomics, which were actually more like storybooks, with a single image per page footed by prose, stated that Skeletor was originally an inhabitant of another dimension, populated with others of "his kind". During "The Great Wars", an ambiguous concept which is largely ignored in later continuities, a hole was opened in the dimensional wall and Skeletor was thrown from his world into Eternia. Significantly different from the lonelier and entirely self-serving Skeletor of later depictions, the villain's key motivation in this first story is to reopen the rift between his world and Eternia, thus allowing Skeletor's race to invade and conquer Eternia alongside him. This motivation was the initially stated reason behind Skeletor's desire to obtain the powers of Castle Grayskull, not merely seeking power for its own sake as is generally the case in later depictions. Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) In the 1980s cartoon series, Skeletor is a former pupil of Hordak, a high-ranking commander of the Evil Horde. When Hordak invaded Eternia and kidnapped one of the King and Queen's twin babies from the palace, Man-At-Arms and the Royal Guard captured his apprentice, Skeletor, and forced him to divulge the whereabouts of his master, who had retreated to his base of operations, Snake Mountain. When cornered, Hordak opened a random dimensional portal (later revealed to have led to Etheria) and leaped through with the baby Princess Adora in his possession. Skeletor remained on Eternia, raised an army of powerful minions of his own and took over as ruler of Snake Mountain. Skeletor's main goal is to conquer the mysterious fortress of Castle Grayskull, from which He-Man draws his powers. If he succeeds, Skeletor would be able to conquer not only Eternia, but the whole universe. At the same time, his other goal is to take revenge on Hordak and overthrow Horde Prime in his bid to conquer the universe. Skeletor appeared in 71 of the 130 episodes of the 1980s He-Man cartoon (33 episodes in the first season, 38 in the second) and in 9 of the 93 episodes of the spin-off She-Ra: Princess of Power, for a total of 80 appearances. He also prominently features in the Filmation produced animated theatrical feature film He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword and in Filmation's hour-long (with commercials), primetime Christmas special He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special (both the theatrical movie and the Christmas special are in the same continuity as the original Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power series). He was voiced by Alan Oppenheimer in both series. While he was occasionally seen as a bumbling figure whose plans were always foiled by He-Man and his friends, his intentions to conquer Eternia were taken seriously by He-Man, and sometimes by She-Ra. He-Man regarded Skeletor as his arch-foe, and Skeletor's plans were sometimes ruined through the fault of his minions rather than by his own incompetence. Post-Filmation series minicomics In the later minicomics by Mattel, it is hinted that Skeletor is in fact Keldor, King Randor's long-lost brother. This contradicts both earlier minicomics and cartoon series. This implication occurs specifically in the 1986 minicomic entitled "The Search for Keldor", a story that involves Prince Adam and Randor searching for Randor's lost brother Keldor. When Skeletor learns of their quest, he muses that "they must never discover the secret of Keldor", as the truth will lead to his destruction. In this story, King Randor announces that Keldor disappeared years ago. "He thought to master magic; when his experiments went wrong and he was lost in a dimension beyond time!" One of the few elements of Skeletor's back story that remains consistent throughout the various continuities is that he had come to Eternia from another dimension. It is likely that Randor's statement about Keldor disappearing to another dimension is an attempt to reconcile Skeletor being He-Man's uncle with his Extra-Eternian origins. To find out what happened to Keldor, Randor and the Sorceress attempt to peer through a space-time rift that opens once every year. Randor announces "I think I see Keldor... Or is it..." Before he can see anything else, Skeletor appears, determined to stop them from finding out any more. Although Skeletor is defeated, he is able to prevent Randor from discovering Keldor's fate as the rift once again closes for another year. Skeletor's frantic effort to cover up what happened to Keldor, combined with the fact that Keldor vanished to another dimension when attempting to become a master sorcerer, is taken as a heavy implication that the two characters are indeed one and the same. Unfortunately, because the original MOTU toyline came to an end before the story could be resolved, it was never fully disclosed if this was officially intended to be the case. Steven Grant, the writer-for-hire of the minicomic in question, stated in a he-man.org interview that "As far as I remember, Keldor was Skeletor... But, I don't think that was ever going to be revealed... I seem to remember it as one of those things Mattel came up with out of the blue... Slur Keldor and you end up with Skeletor... His back-story wasn't really worked out. Some sort of evil cosmic energies altered him. I think they were going for a Darth Vader thing, but it was a tack-on... The main idea was that if they found out Skeletor was Keldor, they'd be able to find out what had changed him and might find some way to reverse it." In the new continuity of the 2002 animated series, Skeletor's original name was definitely Keldor; his appearance as such is shown and his exploits partially depicted. However, it seems unlikely that he is related to Randor in this continuity, as he has Skeletor's blue skin and some other slightly nonhuman features while he was still Keldor. In a he-man.org interview with one of producers of the 2002 series, it is revealed t.... Discover the Robb Pearlman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Robb Pearlman books.