Are Prince Adam / He-Man the same person?

Cafe Society
1

As well as Cringer / Battlecat of course. I always assumed that He-Man was just Prince Adam in a different form and a somewhat different personality and the only difference between Battlecat and Cringer was that he was much more fierce and aggressive when transformed but they were otherwise the same person, the only thing that was different is physical form and personality. This is much more noticeable with Cringer / Battlecat because while Prince Adam is only pretending to be cowardly and running away from danger Cringer really was that timid. Of course not being brave doesn’t make him cowardly, those are two different things.

However I read something recently which suggested that He-Man and Battlecat are really different entities that time-share Prince Adam and Cringer’s bodies, that the latter are dormant when the former are active and vice-versa. I doubt this is the case but now I’m not sure if I’m the one misunderstanding things.

Have I been assuming wrong all this time?

2

I can’t think of anything in the original cartoon that would suggest that. In fact, I remember various things that suggest just the opposite.

We needn’t go further than the text that Adam/He-Man narrates in the opening credits:

“I am Adam, Prince of Eternia, Defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said “By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!” Cringer became the mighty BattleCat and I became He-man, the most powerful man in the universe. Only three others share this secret: our friends the Sorceress, Man-At-Arms and Orko. Together we defend Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.”

3

Question: If the physical form and personality are different, how are they the same person? Isn’t a physical form and personality added together essentially what a person is?

4

I would suggest that memories would also play a part in that. Also possibly knowledge, though you could consider knowledge a subset of memory.

The way that the OP is using “personality,” it seems they mean something like “disposition.” In their first paragraph, Battlecat is Cringer but with a more aggressive disposition. He-Man is Adam but with a more confident disposition.

I would suggest to the OP that giving someone more power could explain both of these. Cringer is timid because he is much less powerful than he is as Battlecat. Adam is similarly less confident when he has less power.

I don’t agree with @themapleleaf that the narration is unambiguous. The word “became” could imply becoming a different person temporarily. However, I also don’t remember anything suggesting that He-Man thinks of Adam as a different person, or vice versa. There’s no Yugi/Pharaoh moment. No situation where He-Man has to talk to Adam or vice versa.

I’m also pretty sure there are times when his compatriots refer to He-Man as Adam, in the same way someone might refer to Batman as Bruce. Something like telling He-Man that he needs go do something as Adam.

@Celtic_Kitsune, do you have a link to what you read, or can you at least give the argument they gave?

5

Same person? Other than changing his shirt into some sort of German S&M harness and getting a bit tanner, it’s not clear to me how Prince Adam and He-Man could ever be confused for DIFFERENT people.

6

I was just thinking.

If you look at the two screenshots, it even looks like they copied the animation cel drawing from one picture to the other. Even the lines in his hair are the same.

7

That was typical of Filmation, which re-used the same sequences of animation over and over to the point of absurdity. Every time He-Man threw a punch, lifted a boulder, or ran across the screen, it looked exactly the same. But yeah, the way that Adam looked exactly like He-Man apart from his outfit and his skin tone was particularly silly.

At least She-Ra got a slightly more elaborate hairstyle when she transformed!

8

Well, there’s also continuity of memory. It’s not like whenever He-Man goes back to being Adam, he forgets everything he did as He-Man.

9

I can think of how The Doctor described regeneration, as him dying, and another man walking away with his memories. He doesn’t consider the new Doctor to be him.

Unlike the Doctor, He-Man can change back, and that may give Adam enough sense of continuity that he doesn’t really see them as different people.

At the same time, the hair style doesn’t change an iota, so how different can they really be?

10

As BigT said, you could temporarily become another person though. Especially in the sort of fantasy setting of Eternia.

If someone loses an arm or sustains a brain injury that changes their personality that doesn’t make them a different person though.

Yes I guess that’s what I meant, though I’m not really certain of the difference?

And sorry no, it was some time ago I read it and it wasn’t much more complicated than what I mentioned above, that He-Man and Battlecat are different entities entirely to Prince Adam and Cringer and they temporarily take over them when they transform. For Prince Adam / Cringer its more like falling asleep and then waking up, but the as Psychonaut mentioned Prince Adam remembers his time as He-Man so that really can’t be the case. It didn’t make much sense to me but then I was wondering if I was the one who didn’t really understand how the whole thing functioned!

Well it’s the whole Clark Kent / Superman thing isn’t it? In the context of the story you just have to go with it. In the rather excellent 2003 series reboot though Prince Adam and He-Man were physically quite distinct.

Thank you for the answers everyone!

11

Or for anyone who watches Star Trek (particularly DS9 or Discovery), the Trill species can inherit a symbiote that brings the memory of its last host. Though technically the symbiote is a separate living being.

It’s a bit complicated. Whether it’s a new person or not seems very much dependent on your perspective.

12

Well, I’m going to throw an opinion here, and I’ll base it in part on some of the newer versions, so feel free to disagree.

First, in all of the more recent versions (that don’t suffer nearly as much from filmation’s economizing) Prince Adam and He-Man have distinct differences in physical size and features (size mostly, features are still pretty close), so if we consider those canon, we can leave that part of the argument out.

Second, in the most recent version (Netflix)

Summary

He-Man dies in combat and ends up in the heroic afterlife, where he presents entirely as Prince Adam. And there is no secondary ‘soul’ for He-Man distinctly. However, when he attempts to use the power without the governing Sword of Power, he becomes yet another variant with a more savage appearance, the physical power, but very little of Adam’s compassion. Until when the story demands it, it is awakened by those closest too him.

Massive spoilers, so double blocked.

In short though, I consider He-Man to be Adam, but Adam with a great deal more confidence due to his overwhelming power-up. Cringer is more drastically changed, but there were plenty of episodes where we see quite a bit of latent courage as well, which brings me to my last point.

Over the multiple series, quite a few other people gain the power of Grayskull (though most frequently temporarily) and they also have physical and emotional changes. In many, it’s not quite as dramatic as Adam’s, but it is distinct and includes both emotional and physical changes. Even if it was just the psychological effect of the overwhelming power, it’d be potent, and I’d argue that it works more like a super-amphetamine, where it amplifies existing traits and removes inhibitions (with differing results depending on the underlying personality).

So, rather than considering whether they’re different people before / after a brain injury or the like, a better comparison may be ‘Is a person the same or different after having some awesome shit, like, man?!’

Sure they’re different, but they’re still the same person. Just add a dash of magic, and let the drug actual make you as powerful as you feel when using, and you’re there.

Which was part of the premise in many ways throughout the multiple series, Adam is the best choice to wield the power of Grayskull because it changes his core morality so little.

13

You can say that again.

14

And yet, whenever the Doctor talks about something that happened during a previous incarnation, he always says “I did such and such.” Never “he did such and such,” or even “my prior self did such and such.” They talk a lot about how “the new Doctor will be a new person, not me” during regeneration episodes, but most of the time they don’t really treat it that way.

15

I always wondered what inspired him to do that. Did he read it in a scroll somewhere? Did the idea just come to him randomly, and he happened to be right? Maybe he held his sword aloft and said all kinds of weird stuff before hitting on the correct combination.

16

That sounds like a good description of what happens, kind of like the mask in the Jim Carrey film, it amplifies and boosts the personality and inner-being of whoever is wearing it, and I suspect brings out hidden character depths as well.

If I recall correctly the Sorceress both gave him the sword and told him what to say. Actually in retrospect for the quintessential 1980’s boys cartoon He-Man had a several strong and interesting female characters. I don’t recall watching She-Ra though for some reason.

And actually there was a similar thing to your suggestion in one of the Green Lantern comics set in an alternate-universe where Superman landed in the USSR not the USA, which is why I bought it. Anyway Lex Luthor and the US government get their hands on a Green Lantern power-ring and spend decades trying different combinations of words until they hit on the correct sequence to activate it. I suspect even given decades that wouldn’t be possible unless the ring gives some sort of subtle hint that you’re guessing along the right lines.

17

I thought that Prince Adam was The Narrator and He-Man was Tyler Durden.

Adam wakes up and Man At Arms and Fisto keep calling him “sir” and mentioning, “The First Rule” whenever he asks why they keep smirking slyly.

18

What, they had someone wear the ring, touch it to the lantern and recite random words hoping it would do something? How did they enough to do even that?

19

It’s been a long time since I read the comic so I don’t recall exactly how it was done, just that a lot of resources and time were put into it. They then started manufacturing copies of the ring and issuing them to their own American Green Lantern Corps to use against the Soviet Superman.

They put up a good fight but - Superman uses superspeed to take the rings from their fingers, “A thought based weapon against someone who can move faster than thought? Not very clever, Captain.” He then has them taken away to have their minds reprogrammed, which seemed a little downright evil for Superman in my opinion, even an alternate version of him.

20

I believe @Celtic_Kitsune is speaking about the ‘Red Son’ otherworlds sequence.

Superman in this isn’t exactly evil by his standards, but due to the very different nature of his upbringing after coming into his powers (and other spoilery issues) is very much about a view of the greatest good for the greatest number. Individuals . . . not so much.

It’s an awesome take on the character (the animated version is much weaker IMHO though), and even his ‘evil’ is coming from the good intentions mentioned above, so I generally give it a pass. There are versions out there that make this one look like a saint.