The protagonist of the classic ‘80s TV series and toy line He-Man and the Masters of the Universe may be a sword-wielding pretty boy, but everyone knows that the true face of the franchise is He-Man’s archnemesis, Skeletor. Conceptually, Skele♌tor really was the perfect Saturday morning cartoon villain for the 1980s: he was hilarious and borderlꦍine incompetent much of the time, but showed enough flashes of humanity to endear himself to viewers who otherwise would have been put off by his intimidating exterior.

Skeletor made his debut with the first wave of Mattel's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy line back in 1982. When it came time for the accompanying animated series, the show's writers only had limited backstory details to work with and had to fill in the blanks as they went. Along with Alan Oppenheimer's now-iconic vocal performance, Skeletor be🅺came one of the most popular cartoon characters of the decade, to the point where he's become just as well known as the franchise's main hero (if not more so).

For a character with such simplistic beginnings, Skeletor has morphed into a surprisingly complex antagonist throughout the many different incarnations of He-Man. Here are 25 spooky facts about the Lord of Destruction/Overlord of Evil that you may not ⛎be aware of.

25 🌄♒ Skeletor Is Human (Sort Of)

While the name Keldor was only briefly mentioned in the ‘80s minico𒆙mics, it wasn’t until the 2002 animated series that we’d find out the truth about King Randor’s long💧-lost brother.

Skeletor was once a half-human, half-gar warrior.

Gars are a race of blue-skinned humanoids. He led an as💎sault on the Council of Elders, only to be thwarted by Randor. This kicks off a series of events that lead to Keldor becoming Sk♕eletor, which also means that …

24 Skeletor Is He-Man’s Uncle 🍒

That’s right: Skeletor’s nephew is also his greatest foe! However, this revelation is complicated by the fact that the Keldor in the 2002 series has no blood relation to the royal family of Eternia. It wasn’t until the 2012 one-shot comic Master of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor that the connection was explicitly revealed, confirming that He-Man’s nemesis was also his uncle. If you go back and watch Masters of the Universe with this knowledge, it makes the interactions between He-Man and Skeletor much more ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚinteresting!

23 ♊ Acid Burned Skeletor’s Face Off

At this point, yo♉u might be wondering how Keldor actually became the Skeletor we know and love. It was always clear that something grosssh must have happened to Skeletor’s face, but it wasn’t revealed what🌼 that was until the revival series.

It turns out there was a strange reason for that.

During Keldor’s battle with 🙈Randor, the former attempts to hurl a vial of acid at his opponent, only to have it deflected back into his own face. The acid burned Keldor’s blue skin off, but it wasn’t the only reason for his transformation.

22 🦋 ...But A Curse Was Iꩵnvolved Too

Following his confrontation with Randor, Keldor returned to his master Hordak (more on him below), begging for the sorcerer to spare his life. Hordak obliged, turning Keldor’s head into a floating skull and dubbing him “Skeletor.” An alternate origin story was revealed in Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor. In this version of events, Keldor searches for his brother Randor after the latter is captured by Horda🅠k, leading to a confrontation with Death itself. Keldor defeats the ▨spectre, but the encounter leaves a curse that rots his flesh away. Yuck.

21 ⛦ Skeletor Originally Worked For Hordak 💯

One of Skeletor’s defining traits is his disdain for his underlings, as evidenced by the frequent (and hilarious) insults he hurls at them. Although he fancies himself the big bad of Eternia, it’s revealed in the He-Man sister series (literally) She-Ra: Princess of Power that Skeleto𝔍r started out as a pupil of Hordak, an even more powerful sorcerer.

Skeletor was a pupil of Hordak, an even more powerful sorcerer.

Skeletor didn’t take too kindly to being left for dead by his former master and actively works against Hordak when the opportunity presents itself; even going so far as to team up with He-𒁃Man to thwart one of his plans.

20 He’s From A Different Uni💛verse

Granted, it’s hard to say whether we can even consider this to be canon anymore, but the comic series that accompanied the original Masters of the Universe toyline paints a much different picture of Skeletor’s origins than the one detailed above. This early iteration presented He-Man as the leader of a barbarian jungle tribe and Skeletor as a being from another dimension who ends up in He-Man’s world unintentionally. Needless to say, the franchise and its backstory have changed dramatic🌌ally over the years.

19 ﷽ Skeletor May Oౠr May Not Have A Neck

Though his appearance has shifted with various incarnations of the He-Man series, Skeletor’s neck remains a source of mystery. That is to say, it’s unclear whether or not he e🍬ven has one! In the original Filmation series, Skeletor’s neck area is covered in shadow by his hood and in the rar💎e cases where the hood was down, it was conveniently never far enough to reveal anything.

Skeletor’s neck remains a source of mystery.

The 2002 reboot series went a step further by giving Skeletor a floating head, further complicating m൲atters and leaving 🎃the question of his neck up for debate to this day.

18 He Might Also Have Eyes ༒

Even more concerning than Skeletor’s lack of neck is his lack of eyeballs, as it’s unclear how he’s able to see anything (we’re assuming the explanation is “magic”). However, a couple incarnations of Skeletor have had actual eyeballs and the results are just as disturbing as you’d imagine. The short-lived 1990 animated series The New Adventures of He-Man depicted a Skeletor with intact ocular orbs, as did Frank Langella’s live-action version from the 1987 movie Masters of the Universe. Looking at all th🉐꧂e incarnations of Skeletor, we much prefer him sans eyes.

17 His Appearance Wa꧂s Inspired By An Actual Body

As iconic as Skeletor’s appearance is, it’s not all that complex from a conceptual perspective. He’s a muscular skeleton wizard with a funny voice—not exactly the most original character design out there, right? As it turns out, the inspiration for Skeletor’s♌ design runs quite a bit deeper than a concept art🍌ist thinking skeletons are cool.

Skeletor was inspired by a real body a concept artist saw as a child. 

As revealed by Mattel concept artist and designe꧙r Mark Taylor, Skele𝄹tor was inspired by a real dead body he saw at Pike Amusement Park as a child. That’s… a much creeper origin story than we were expecting.

16 ꧑ He Has Hair Sometimes

While the existenc𓆏e of Skeletor’s neck remains a subject of debate, there can be no dispute over the villain’s hairline (or lack of one). Skeletor doesn’t have hair, case closed.

Or is it?

Anyone who watched the singular season of The New Adventures of He-Man knows that the show rebooted Skeletor with strands of scraggly hair (deep-rooted skull follicles?). This was rev🌳ealed in the episode “The Tornadoes of Zi” when Skeletor’s helmet was destroyed, revealing the frightening locks still clinging to his head; a remnant of h🍷is former self.