Keldor

The 2002 series opens on Keldor. In Dean Stefan's "The Beginning Part 1," first shown on August 16, 2002, his forces march on the capital and Keldor himself storms the Hall of Wisdom, where Captain Randor has come to warn the Council of Elders. "How long I've waited for this, Randor," he says, and when Randor tells him "It ends here, Keldor," he answers that appearances can be deceiving. The duel ends with Keldor screaming "My face!" and his army in retreat. In Part 2 he comes back with a skull, the name Skeletor and the claim that Randor did it to him.

Larry DiTillio's "The Price of Deceit," first shown on November 22, 2003, fills in what happened between. Skeletor has turned on Evil-Lyn, and her defense is a history told in flashbacks. A blue-skinned young man with his face intact finds her in a storeroom, having beaten Beast Man and Tri-Klops to the Orb of Agony, and introduces himself: "I am Keldor, future ruler of Eternia. I could use someone with your talents."

Later, dying from the wound he took at the Hall of Wisdom, he has her activate a device with her magic, and Hordak answers. "Save me, Hordak, so I can continue my conquest of Eternia," he begs; Hordak warns there will be a price, and Keldor says no price is too great. When the smoke clears he tells her "Keldor is no more. Now... there is only... Skeletor." Brian Dobson voices Keldor and Skeletor alike.^[2]

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Ascension (Masters of the Universe: Revolution, 2024), 19:51 to 21:30, 1 minute 39 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

Netflix's Masters of the Universe: Revolution, in 2024, takes up the name and gives it a family. In Kevin Smith's "Even for Kings," Adam's eulogy for King Randor is cut short by a blue-skinned stranger in the rain who calls himself "Keldor, brother of Randor and the rightful ruler of Eternos." Tim Sheridan's "Ascension" opens on two boys hunting for their father's hidden fruit juice, then on the argument they overhear: King Miro's elder son by another mother is his blood but not his heir, and Queen Amelia wants him sent home to Anwat Gar.^[3] The grown Keldor tells Adam he never wanted the crown, and by the end of the episode He-Man is placing it on his head.

Diya Mishra's "More Things in Heaven and Eternia" turns that around. The new king is Skeletor in a Gar disguise, part of a deception run for Hordak, but he is told the story was woven from the truth, and that Keldor's banishment was the royal family's deepest secret. When Motherboard squeezes his mind, a hologram of the crowned Keldor appears and tells him what Hordak hid: "You really are Keldor, son of Miro, his first-born, denied the throne of Eternia." In "The Dogs of War" Skeletor owns the name and turns on Hordak, and the finale tells him he may have been born Keldor but will always choose to be Skeletor. William Shatner voices the grown Keldor and Brett Rash the boy.^[4]

Mattel's figures of him include a Masters of the Universe Classics Keldor from 2010. The Origins 200X Cartoon Collection Keldor is the 2002 design, and the Masterverse line has a New Eternia Keldor as well.