Sep 21, 2019

A fresh new look at Hordak

The Ruthless leader of the Evil Horde... what can we say about Hordak: Nosferatu Tiki Mask looking being who leads the Evil Horde. He's had multiple incarnations:
From the bumbling brother of Horde Prime to the Defective Clone of Horde Prime.

Things that MOST Hordaks have in common are:
Related to Horde Prime, Skeletor's former Master, uses his evil forces to conquer the Universe.

The characterization across each medium is what varies on him.

His design, as mentioned before is mostly inspired by Nosferatu's Orlok combined with a Tiki mask. I have mentioned in the past that the Horde armband is evocative of the NAZIS...

In various pieces of Media, Hordak has been able to show how evil he can be. Even in the squeaky clean Filmation version he drained the life force off from his prisoners.
Moat Hordaks have remained consistent in their evil. I'd say that 200X and DCNU52 have been the most evil versions.
Ironically, the two most discordant Hordaks have been the ones from the She-Ra cartoons.
One is a bumbling micro manager, while the other is a distant, hands-off presence.
I hate that the censorship at the time wouldn't allow villains to truly be evil, which made Filmation Hordak a buffoon. On the other hand I hate that the dreamworks Hordak is evil because he needs a friend angle. So, if I were to make a New Hordak, here's how I'd go about it:

Hordak would be a "clone" of Horde Prime... but not in a Normal sense of the word, like Ben Reilly is to Peter Parker. My "clone" definition is closer to ADVENT CHILDREN's Remnants of Sephiroth. Imperfect copies drawn by the Original's desire, but with personalities of their own. Basically, Horde Prime  sends fragments of his soul in cloned vessels to conquer worlds.

Nearly destroyed by Grayskull, Hordak builds a Robotic body to act as a vessel as his true body recuperates.  Once he has Adora, he draws her blood in order to have a physical body WITH the blood of Grayskull flowong within. Hoping that he can finish off Prime.
His ridiculously long longevity allows him to learn dark arts in tech and magic. He trains Keldor in the dark arts and tricks the young alchemist in a Faustian pact.

Basically I took bits and pieces of all Hordaks to make a new one.

Designwise, I wouldn't stray much from the normal design. I would add an alternate outfit for non-battle events. Basically a robe similar to the Pope's outfit but made for Hordak.
His battle look would be a hybrid between DreamWorks and 200x version of him.

As a character, hordak works in all levels.
He's a a ruthless force of nature aligned with evil. And he's skeletor's teacher which means that if Skeletor is stuff hordak is even tougher. From a design point of view he still works as a character because it evokes fear by his monsters appearance and his evil despot attire helps sell that evil imagery on him.

Let me know in the comments below who would you like to see analyzed.

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