Well I have mixed feeling about the NS, wont go on about it here. Some things I liked and enjoyed it for what it was but I don’t think it was anywhere near as good as it could have been.
I loved the Snarf character in the OS. I never thought of him as an annoying comic relief character like some other shows had.
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Me neither. ^-^
Love him to bits!!! :snarf
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Coolness!
I agree. One of the things I really approved of in the 2011 version was that Jackalman and Vultureman (and Monkian) were all given actual names.
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Yes, I completely agree. It was nice to see them get the respect that Slithe has always had in having an actual name!
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The Snarf of the old series definitely had his moments, like in “The Transfer,” where he managed to trip Mumm-Ra over. 
Agreed - Snarf definitely had his moments. In particular, “Snarf Takes Up The Challenge” is one of the very best episodes in the series.
It’s particularly good because Snarf doesn’t suddenly develop the power to defeat Mumm-Ra himself as such, but he uses what skills he does have. Granted, Robear-Bill’s line about his ability to communicate with the animals is only introduced in this episode, but it’s an ability that does resurface (in “Divide And Conquer” and probably others). Snarf saves the day simply by doing what he is good at. He gets into the pyramid and frees Lion-O, and then takes a back seat, he’s done enough to get the credit, now the other characters can do the fighty bit.
Episode Rating: *****
It’s also worth comparing this episode to other shows that have equivalent episodes that teach the kids the same moral lessons. Some are good, some are awful. May contain a few spoilers . . .
Defenders Of The Earth - The Sleeper Awakes
This naturally enough had Kshin as the one full of self-doubt. Like Snarf, Kshin is a character you either love or hate. My opinion of him varies from episode to episode.
This episode created a situation where Kshin’s size made him the only person who could get into a particular place. Once inside, he had to climb all the way to the top of the robot, and we saw him climbing and getting more and more determined. Once in the control centre, he followed Rick’s instructions in terms of the technical tasks, but that’s reasonable enough, Rick was the computer whiz of the team. Kshin was still the one with his fingers on the buttons.
Episode Rating: *****
Visionaries - Feryl Steps Out
This is a trickier one. There’s no “goofy sidekick” type character in this show, so they used Feryl, the youngest of the Spectral Knights, as the lead in this episode. He’s the driver of their main vehicle, the Capture Chariot. It’s not that bad a treatment I suppose, but it’s just not quite right that after performing passably well in earlier episodes, one bad day at the start of this one and he thinks he’s a complete failure. He’s old enough to know better already. But the really dodgy bit is that when he then walks out on the Spectral Knights, he takes the Capture Chariot with him! He has just said, “better that I leave the Spectral Knights than endanger them” - and he then deprives them of their main vehicle, the most powerful weapon at their disposal! He doesn’t think that’s endangering them? (Of course, it does come in useful for him later on!) One of the few weak episodes from an otherwise pretty amazing show.
Episode Rating: **
King Arthur And The Knights Of Justice - Assault On Castle Morgana
Now this is a dodgy show in general - it requires more suspension of disbelief than most cartoons. (But with a theme tune like this has, I’ll give it a bit of leeway!) However, if you can swallow the dodgy initial premise, it does have some good episodes, and this is one of the high points. The obvious thing to do here would be to put one of the squires, Everett or Tyrone, in the centre seat here. But no - although Tyrone does play a significant part in this episode, it is one of the knights, the put-upon Lug, who learns to believe in himself a bit more. After what I just said above about the Visionaries treatment of this moral, you’re probably expecting me to tear into this even more, after all, this series isn’t a patch on Visionaries. But no. I’ve already said, this is one of the high points of this series. Lug as the star of this episode makes sense, as the other knights are often putting him down (well, some of them), he’s often picked on, the victim of one-liners, and so forth. As such he’s a perfectly good choice for this story. Actually, this little moral lesson takes more of a back seat than it does in other shows, we don’t see him constantly at war with his fears in the episode, he’s included in the mission, but he’s not pushed front and centre. And it works. When we do see him, we see his turmoil, and it is resolved at the end quite well.
Episode Rating: ****
Bravestarr - The Good, The Bad And The Clumsy
Ugh. This one has been a few years since I saw it, but I have seen it as an adult. Fuzz messes up at the start of the episode, and quits as Bravestarr’s deputy, much like Feryl in Feryl Steps Out. However, this is not as good. Fuzz is admittedly the natural character for the episode, but it’s just too cliched. Even worse is the ending. Thirty-Thirty asks Bravestarr why he didn’t just call on Strength Of The Bear to escape his predicament - exactly what we’re all thinking. Bravestarr explains that he needed to give Fuzz the chance to redeem himself . . . yeah, but this is a life-or-death situation, it’s hardly the time to hang about and hope that your nervous sidekick comes good in the end!
Episode Rating: *
I never saw as much of He-Man, and don’t know the equivalent episode it had. I’m guessing it put Orko centre stage?
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Not the best Bravestarr episode, but Fuzz did get to shine in a couple episodes, Shake Hands With Long Arm John comes to mind.
There were a couple Orko based episodes. Can’t recall the names off the op of my head but I think Dragon War was one.