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jasonhohoho — Horde Prime

Published: 2007-04-09 09:10:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 4261; Favourites: 58; Downloads: 0
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Description originally posted on my sketchblog in january 07:
[link]

For the uninitiated, this is kind of a complicated one. In the She-Ra cartoon, the bad guys were a totalitarian regime known as "The Horde," and they were lead by a cyborg-ish guy with a skull-like face named Hordak. Skeletor, incidentally, was originally Hordak's apprentice, but I digress. Hordak's boss was an entity named "Horde Prime," who was also supposedly Hordak's brother. The only pieces of Horde Prime that were ever seen by the viewers were two glowing eyes and his gargantuan metallic hand (whether armored or robotic, we don't know). And the only reference to his appearance mentions that he has two heads. Aside from the cartoon, there are also one or two minor and completely contradictory appearances of Horde Prime in the UK comic books.

All in all, this has lead to a lot of discussions amongst He-Man/She-Ra fans about the nature and appearance of Horde Prime. This is my interpretation:

A lot of hardcore He-Man/She-Ra fans don't like Horde Prime, because he takes away from the impact of Hordak, who was always billed within the toys as the leader of the Horde. The strongest argument of opponents of Horde Prime is this:

If Horde Prime was the leader of the Horde, then why was Hordak's face on the emblem of the Horde?

And this is what got my geeky little brain rolling. The basic assumption that I make in my illustration is this: it is not Hordak's face on the Horde emblem. For my version, the armor was based on the UK comic book version, while the hand was based on the cartoon depiction. His head and face are, of course, based on the Horde symbol (or by retro-continuity, the basis for the Horde Symbol). As for the secondary head, I just wanted to give him his extra head in an unexpected way. Oh, and I assume that Horde Prime is, like Hordak, a shapeshifter, so the secondary head can retract and morph back into an eyeball. I view Horde Prime as Hordak's brother, who started out roughly-human sized like Hordak--over time, his shapeshifting abilities developed further, and eventually he was able to use his powers to increase his size.
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Comments: 17

CosmicFalcon-70 [2011-05-14 22:58:23 +0000 UTC]

I really dig this Horde Prime...so that's what he looked like on the other end of that giant metal hand that kept gesticulating at Hordak

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kragf [2011-04-10 04:26:59 +0000 UTC]

Okay, just read your whole description there.

Considering everything that you said, the picture not only makes perfect sense logically, but emotionally it is superbly fantastic. Before I read your description I immediately thought that this was actually a dam good one if we had to finally select something, but then AFTER reading your paragraph it triggered in my mind how it's all perfect as it works out just exactly RIGHT!!

To be honest, I always imagined that Horde Prime looked just like "STAMPEDE" from Lou Shciemer and Filmations OTHER superhero character; BraveStarr. For the uninitiated; BraveStarr was a cowboy type superhero with powers and Shaman Indian ethnicity. The prime superVillain was Stampede, a cosmic type entity who lurked in a pit of shadow and flame, with terrifying motives to rule and conquer. Anyhow, THAT's what I basically imagined Horde Prime to look like, but your piece here is pretty dam good, and I'd say beats it.

Btw, I've never heard of fan not liking Horde Prime, but if there are a scant few, then that's just silly. If HordePrime takes away from Hordak, as stated above, then Hordak takes away from Skeletor!! But he doesn't, hordak actually ADDS to Skeletors devious mythology. I mean, it's like in Star Wars, you THOUGHT the storm troopers were bad, but Darth VAder was badder. BUT you thought Vader was bad but the EMPEROR was badder and bigger! So it just brings that epic sense to the whole universe of it all, but even better than the Emperor because we would see the emperor, we never really saw Horde Prime, basically like Inspectors GAdgets villain. Never seeing the face behind the manipulation not only added this intrigue and mystery, but it demonstrated their devious genious, they NEVER get their hands dirty. They fight like a Phantom Menace; never present and "invisible".

Anyhow, a great rendition of how HorddePrime should and would probably look like. REALLY good job man. Now do a piece of Horde Prime devouring Galactus! lol

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VALMAR3000 [2010-05-29 18:49:12 +0000 UTC]

Horde prime was the real villain.

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jasonhohoho In reply to VALMAR3000 [2011-01-07 08:35:47 +0000 UTC]

the man behind the man!

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VALMAR3000 In reply to jasonhohoho [2011-01-07 18:35:59 +0000 UTC]

Amen.

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Granamir30 [2010-02-05 15:53:56 +0000 UTC]

Wow this is great!!

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jasonhohoho In reply to Granamir30 [2010-02-07 11:11:25 +0000 UTC]

thank you very much! here's a more recent version: [link]

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KaijuDuke [2008-02-20 08:01:18 +0000 UTC]

very imaginative and scary as HELL!

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jasonhohoho In reply to KaijuDuke [2008-04-09 02:48:21 +0000 UTC]

thanks, i'm trying to finish up a revised version; keep your eyes peeled.

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NeterG [2007-04-29 18:42:05 +0000 UTC]

LOL. If you replice Hordak for Link, that made a great Zelda boss

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jasonhohoho In reply to NeterG [2007-05-01 08:03:27 +0000 UTC]

hahaha--i love it! first you destroy the hand, then the mini-head, and then the main head! are you reading this, nintendo?!

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NeterG In reply to jasonhohoho [2007-05-01 18:13:46 +0000 UTC]

LISTEN!: This is Horde Prime. Have you seen the glow in his eyes? Maybe you need to shoot him something with even more glow. (next)

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happymonkeyshoes [2007-04-20 09:38:30 +0000 UTC]

I do love your version of Horde Prime. Its very original and itsvery creepy. I am going to use GBAGOK's in my final chibi line up, as it fits the style, but I'm going to chibi yours up, cos I'll regret it if I don't...love the head eye

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jasonhohoho In reply to happymonkeyshoes [2007-04-24 17:00:26 +0000 UTC]

cool--i love it when you chibify my stuff! i am working on a full body shot of horde prime, so let me know if you want reference--PM me on he-man.org!

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happymonkeyshoes In reply to jasonhohoho [2007-04-28 23:36:26 +0000 UTC]

Actually I'll wait till thats done. Heh in retrospect, it'll be done ages before I'm ready

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jasonhohoho In reply to happymonkeyshoes [2007-05-01 08:02:15 +0000 UTC]

ok, let me know when you're winding down on the horde chibi's, so i can have it colored and everything for you... btw, i do also have one other horde fan character, if you're interested in increasing your workload... LOL

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happymonkeyshoes In reply to jasonhohoho [2007-05-05 22:57:42 +0000 UTC]

Let me have ya Horde character, not enough Bootleg inspired characters in this lineup I just got through doing most of Doompuppets.

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