Evilseed–sometimes spelled “Evil Seed” so it doesn’t look like a typo–is one of the most powerful villains to ever attempt to take over Eternia. Essentially a living plant (wait, but aren’t plants living plants? You know what I mean!), he tricked many of the kingdom’s farmers–and even Teela–into planting his, well, evil seeds. Mind you, I can’t really blame them for accepting the guy’s gifts. I mean, if this person came up to your door, wouldn’t you trust him?
Soon, weeds and vines were spreading all over Eternia at an uncontrollable pace, overpowering everything and everyone, including Skeletor and his minions. Evilseed is so powerful that in order to be taken down, it will require the combined magic of He-Man, Sorceress, and yes, even Skeletor (and also Orko, so let’s give credit where it’s due). Skeletor is extremely reluctant to team up with his sworn enemy, but he’s also not a total madman. After all, if Evilseed destroys everything, there will be nothing left for him rule over once he conquers the planet. This makes Skeletor smarter and more responsible than most of the real life villains we are dealing with today. Think about that for a moment. Or don’t, because it’s really depressing.
Now, Evilseed is a man (well, kind of) of theatrics, and eventually can’t resist the urge to unmask himself so he can explain his evil plant plan…and reveals that he ultimately looks like a talking vegetable wearing Jedi robes. His design is equal parts creepy and ridiculous, and instantly iconic. And the reason he has such a memorable appearance is…Jason Vorhees? More on that in a bit.
Like Quest for He-Man, Evilseed is a fan favorite episode (it was voted the fifth best of Season One for The Best of He-Man DVD). It features a truly menacing bad guy and forces He-Man and Skeletor to put aside their differences in order to kill him. Yes, you read that right. Evilseed fucking dies, something which of course almost never happened on the show, as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe really wasn’t a violent cartoon at the end of the day. But they got away with it in this case, probably because Evilseed was a plant and technically couldn’t be “killed” in the traditional sense. Also, he promises he’ll come back as he perishes, so maybe that was a loophole as well.
Evilseed was written by Barney Cohen, who was also the screenwriter for Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. His initial instructions by the higher-ups was to cook up a gruesome way to dispose of Jason, and the death he penned originally had the slasher’s “head being split open like an artichoke.” Ultimately, the studio would tell him to change that–it turned out they didn’t want to permanently get rid of their cash cow after all, meaning they wanted a death he could come back from–but the word “artichoke” stuck in his head, until he finally came up with an adversary for He-Man who would have one for a head. So there you have it. Masters of the Universe and Friday the 13th share an unlikely connection.
Just like Plundor the Spoiler, Evilseed was intended as a one-off villain and as such didn’t get an action figure at the time when He-Man was absolutely dominating pop culture. But he would get his time on store shelves years later both in the Masters of the Universe Classics line and in the Super 7 Retro Collection. Evilseed would make a return to TV screens in three episodes of the 2002 Masters of the Universe reboot cartoon, and while it was awesome to see him on that show (you guys should really check it out if you haven’t already), he didn’t quite pack the same environmental punch as the original.
Have the power tonight, y’all!