Snake Men
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The Snake Men are a fictitious race of evil humanoid snakes in Mattel's toyline Masters of the Universe.
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[edit] History
In the distant past the snake men were a vast army that conquered numerous worlds. They served a ruler named King Hiss. Hiss and the snake men tried to conquer the Planet Eternia, and created Snake Mountain as their base of operations. However, the Elders of Eternia proved too powerful for the snake men and used their magic to cast Hiss and his army into a limbo like dimension. This caused the empire of the snake men to collapse, although a small number of snake men remained on Eternia (Presumably they were elsewhere when the Elder’s performed their spell). Eventually, Hiss was set free by Skeletor, who had made Snake Mountain his base.
Hiss and Skeletor formed an uneasy alliance against He-man, the greatest opposition to their mutual dreams of conquest. Skeletor’s snake man minion Kobra Khan served as Skeletor’s ambassador to King Hiss. Together the two villains were able to trap He-Man. They attempted to use their combined magic to pull the entire snake man army back into Eternia, but even both their magical abilities united were only strong enough to return two snake soldiers: Tung Lashor and Rattlor. Realizing that they needed more potent magic to resurrect the entire army Hiss and Skeletor took from He-Man his Power Sword and attempted to use it to summon forth all the snake men. However, He-Man was able to free himself and recover his sword, foiling the return of the reptilian hordes.
Despite their initial failure King Hiss and Skeletor moved forward with their plans of conquest. The two villains once again combined their magic to raise three great towers that had been buried eons ago by the Elders of Eternia. These Elders (the same who had cast King Hiss and his army into limbo) Had sunk the towers below the earth to ensure that they would never fall into the hands of the Snake Men or any other evil forces. The three towers were Grayskull Tower, which possessed the power of good, Viper Tower, possessing the power of evil and Central Tower which possessed the power of both. Hiss and Skeletor both secretly planned to betray each other once they had taken control of the towers. Though Skeletor was unable conquer Central Tower (a feat which would have given him the power of all three towers), King Hiss was able to seize Viper Tower. Using the magic of Viper Tower he was able to translate two more Snake Men from limbo, respectively Snake Face and Sssqueeze (sometimes called Tanglor).
Not long after, in a battle in Viper Tower, He-Man turned all the Snake Men into stone, by reflecting Snake Face’s power of petrifaction back at them. He-Man said he would later use his power sword to restore the Snake Men it is certainly he did it, since Snake Face and Sssqueeze appear in the later minicomic "Energy Zoids".
Later He-Man and the Sorceress ventured into Eternia’s past, to the time when the Snake Men originally invaded Eternia. Witnessing the Snake Men terrorizing a village He-Man wanted to set in, however the Sorceress prevented him, as his interference could alter history. However, unbeknownst to the Sorceress, Skeletor had followed them through the time stream. Upon arriving he joined forces with King Hiss, saying that he wished to help them and that his magic powers could help destroy the Elders. King Hiss accepts Skeletor offer and thinking to himself “Perhaps this is an emissary from the Unamed One who we serve.” The full meaning of this statement was never disclosed. The snake men rode into battle on the backs of mechanically augmented dinosaurs.
Seeing that Skeletor had entered the past the Sorceress decided that it was necessary for He-Man to become involved, disguising him with her magic, she sent He-Man into battle against Skeletor, King Hiss and the Snake Man army. However before the battle could conclude a shadowy figure (He-Ro) intervened. Using magic he hurled Skeletor, the Sorceress and He-Man back to the future. The final fate of the Snake Men was never revealed, as the Masters of Universe toyline and its accompanying mini comics came to end.
None of the Snake Men were never featured on Filmation's MOTU animated series, unless one counts Skeletor’s minion, Kobra Khan, and two who were featured as members of the Evil Horde (Rattlor and Tung Lashor) in the She-Ra series. This is because the series ended before the Snake Men toys were created.
[edit] 2002 appearance
The snake men played a large role in the final series, called Masters Of The Universe Vs The Snake Men. They were a diverse group led by King Hiss who proved to be as much a danger as Skeletor (in fact, Skeletor only made three appearances through the entire story arc.) Similar to the old story, the snake men were an ancient threat that plagued Eternia in the distant past until they were locked away in the void by the power of the Elders. The threat of the snake men was so ancient that in a way it predated the creation of the Elders themselves during the time of King Grayskull who fought against this menace.
[edit] Characters
- King Hiss: Leader, shed humanlike "skin" to become a mass of five snakes from the waist up. Only appeared in the 2002 animated series.
- Tung Lashor: Super long extending tongue. Appeared in the She-Ra animated series as a member of the Evil Horde and in the 2002 animated Series.
- Rattlor: Extending neck, rattling noise, tail. Appeared in the She-Ra animated series as a member of the Evil Horde and in the 2002 animated Series.
- Kobra Khan: Sprays a water "hypnotic" mist. Appeared in the He-Man animated series as one of Skeletor's Evil Warriors in which he sprayed a sleeping gas, and in the 2002 animated series in which he sprayed an acid.
- Snake Face: Snakes extend from face and shoulders to "petrify" opponents. Only appeared in the 2002 animated series.
- Sssqueeze: Super-long bendable arms. Only appeared in the 2002 animated series.
[edit] Trivia
- The snakemen appear in both He-Man and She-Ra. He-Man had Kobra Khan as the only snakeman but She-Ra had two dumb snakemen- Rattlor and Tang-Lasher who in the comics were later reprimanded by King Hiss for daring to serve the Horde.
- In 2002, the snakemen serve King Hiss who never appeared in the original cartoons.
