Yesterday I asked a rhetorical question* on Twitter: Who is more evil? Is it Skeletor (from He-Man) or Gargamel (from the Smurfs)?
* I assumed that it was seen as a rhetorical question as I did not get ONE single reply
In the interest of trying to get this burning issue laid to rest, I’ve decided to carry out a detailed case study on these two important figures in Pop Culture and how they measure up against each other. This article contains a few categories and comparisons in each of these categories. Each of these categories can be seen as rounds where a winner will be declared after each round.
I am going to try and be as impartial as possible here and try and base my findings in the context of the cartoon each of them appears in.
1. Famous for:
Skeletor
Skeletor first made his appearance in the 1980’s as the main villain in The Masters of the Universe, or more affectionately known to us 80’s kids simply as “He-Man”. In a nutshell, if you grew up in the 80’s, you knew of He-Man. If you knew of He-Man, you knew of Skeletor. If you grew up in the 80’s and did NOT know of He-Man, your parents were probably prudes. Who remembers the whole “He-Man is Satanic” thing back then?
Gargamel
Ok I know that Gargamel made his first appearance in comic books in the 50’s or something, but let’s be honest. We all got to know him in the 80’s television series where he was the sworn enemy of the Smurfs. I think even prudish parents allowed their kids to watch this show.
Winner:
Ive decided to hand this one to Skeletor for the sole purpose of Masters of the Universe being more bad-ass that The Smurfs.
2. Appearance
Skeletor
Skeletor is purple, super muscular and is in essence a talking skull.
Gargamel
He kinda looks like the crazy man who one can usually find with either:
a. Owning shit-loads of cats
b. Owning shit-loads of pigeons
He sports a set of rotting teeth, has a worn coat and is bald.
Winner:
I’m not saying Gargamel does not look evil, but what counts against him is the fact that his look also screams “Rapist!!!”
But to be fair to Gargamel, he never really stood a chance here. I mean, A TALKING FUCKING SKULL!!!!
3. Success against Enemies
Skeletor:
Skeletor’s main objective was to enter Castle Gray Skull and learn all the secrets of the universe. As we all know he never managed to do that and always failed laughably. Or did he?
After some research, I’ve found that in the very early days, Skeletor frequently managed to gain access to the Castle. And in the cult 1987 live adaption of Masters of the Universe (which I still find an awesome movie), he managed to not only gain access to the Castle, but also imprison the Sorceress.
In both these scenarios he came pretty close but was ultimately defeated by He-Man. But I still believe it has to be seen as some measure of success. You see for the unfortunate villains in entertainment, especially in cartoons, the decks are always stacked pretty much against them from ever achieving something meaningful.
Gargamel:
Probably the closest he has been to success, was creating Smurfette. Yes that’s right! See, for those who didn’t know, Gargamel created Smurfette to cause jealousy amongst the Smurf colony which he hoped would ultimetly cause their fall. Unfortunalty (for him and probably for her too) his plan back-fired and she became one of them.
Winner:
Draw
“WAIT!!! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?!” you may be screaming. The reason I’ve put this down to a draw is due to the fact that Gargamel was but ONE man versus 100’s of Smurfs. Yes, I know they were small, but Gargamel is exactly Mr. Olympia. I believe that if Gargamel had some allies such as these fuckers he would have had a lot more success:
4. Strengths
Skeletor
- Skilled Sword’s Man
- Shoots Lazers from his hands
- Muscular as fuck
- Can kill you with his mind
Gargamel:
- Great potion Maker
- Life creator
Winner:
Gargamel’s strength of being able to create life (See Creation of Smurfette), should have served him FAR better. With that ability, you can create armies and armies of undead Smurf-hating Zombies, but all he did, was create Smurfette. So I’m sorry Gargamel, but with great power, comes great responsibility. And in this department, you have failed.
5. Pets
Skeletor
His pet was named “Panthor”. An evil, purple demon Panthor.
Gargamel
He also had a feline as a pet, Azrael (which is also known to be the Archangel of Death). Pretty Bad-ass.
Winner:
Gargamel
Neither one of the pets ever had any real impact on the outcomes of stories, but at least Azrael was always loyal to Gargamel even though he was sometimes treated like shit. Loyalty through thick and thin in the world of Villains is of upmost importance. Allies are few to come by.
6. Real Live Movie Adaptions
Skeletor
He was portrayed by Frank Langella in the movie Masters of the Universe as an extremely dark, vengeful and super intelligent sorcerer.
Gargamel
In the upcoming Smurf’s movie, he will be portrayed by Hank Azaria . you might know his voice from watching from The Simpsons where he is the voice of bartender Moe Szyslak (amongst many others).
Winner
Draw.
Unfortunately I have not yet seen the Smurf movie, but I can say that it is going to take a lot of to beat Skeletor in this department.
Conclusion
So scores have been tallied and the winner with a score of 3-2 is………….. SKELETOR!!!
I probably knew that he was going to win before I even started writing this, but now there is proof. If you have different views, please share.
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