CONAN vs HE-MAN: SAVAGERY vs CHIVALRY

[00:00:00]You fight like a king, yet you spare men who would gladly put steel in [music] your back. Tell me, is that courage or the life of a man who has never known true savagery?

[00:00:13]>> I've known it, Conan. I simply refused to let it decide who I became.

[00:00:18]>> No, you escaped it. There's a difference. [music] >> You think honor belongs only to men who have never suffered.

[00:00:26]>> Honor is easy when your belly is full.

[00:00:29]Mine was not. [music] I saw my village burn. I saw my father die with a sword in his hand. Then I pushed the wheel of pain until my hands bled.

[00:00:42]No god came. No king came. Only the strong lived long enough to break their [music] chains.

[00:00:49]>> Chains can forge a man, but just as often they break him. [music] >> Then he was never strong.

[00:00:56]Sometimes strength is buried, not lost.

[00:01:01]>> Have you ever killed because your stomach [music] demanded it?

[00:01:04]>> No, I haven't.

[00:01:06]>> You've never slept wondering whether Dawn would bring food [music] or wolves.

[00:01:12]>> No.

[00:01:12]>> Then don't tell me what a savage [music] is.

[00:01:15]>> You're right. I haven't walked your road, but I've watched men become monsters without ever wearing [music] chains. Skeletor wasn't shaped by hunger. He chose power until power was all he had left. [music] >> Power. Men like that word. A wolf has no [music] use for it. He kills because he must.

[00:01:39]>> A wolf survives today. People [music] must survive tomorrow.

[00:01:44]>> Tomorrow belongs to the man who lives through today.

[00:01:48]>> And after he survives, [music] what then? He fights again.

[00:01:54]Men speak of peace after they've forgotten war. [music] Soft beds make soft men. High walls make weak [music] sons.

[00:02:04]Soon they wait for another man to carry the sword. They begin believing someone else will fight for their sons.

[00:02:12]>> Should every father teach his child how to kill before teaching him how to live?

[00:02:18][music] >> If he loves the boy, yes. The world will not spare him.

[00:02:23]>> King Randor taught me something different. [music] He taught me strength exists so others don't have to live by it.

[00:02:31]>> A good king. If the world listened, we would need no warriors.

[00:02:37]>> Then it needs more men willing to teach it.

[00:02:40]>> And when those men die, >> others stand.

[00:02:45]>> You place much faith in people. [music] >> No. Responsibility.

[00:02:50]Faith came later. My father once told me, "Seel is nothing. The hand is everything." [music] So I became harder than grief, harder than pain, harder than mercy. [music] Tell me, when your enemies see you, what do you want them to feel? [music] Not fear, because fear dies the moment someone stronger appears. Respect outlives the [music] warrior.

[00:03:20]Can respect stop a sword?

[00:03:23]>> No.

[00:03:24]>> Then why [music] chase it?

[00:03:26]>> Because swords end lives. People [music] end wars.

[00:03:31]>> I've ended wars with a sword.

[00:03:34]>> No, you've ended battles. [music] A battle ends when one army falls. A war ends when the next generation no longer wants revenge.

[00:03:45]>> That day never comes. [music] >> It can. You have lived too long believing strength can [music] protect men from the world.

[00:03:55]>> Castle Grey Skull isn't a wall. It's a reminder. Power exists to protect what cannot protect itself. [music] >> And if what you protect refuses to fight for itself, >> then you teach it.

[00:04:10]>> Teach.

[00:04:12]>> Not everyone is born knowing courage.

[00:04:14][music] Someone has to show them. In my world, the first lesson was pain. The [music] second was whether you survived the first >> and the third.

[00:04:26]>> Never expect fairness. Fair men died young. Merciful men often beside them.

[00:04:33][music] >> Yet here you are.

[00:04:36]>> Because I learned.

[00:04:39]>> Or because somewhere along the way someone showed you mercy.

[00:04:44]>> What makes you think that? You're still capable of sitting beside someone who disagrees with everything you believe.

[00:04:51][music] A truly savage man would have reached for his sword an hour ago.

[00:04:56]>> You [music] mistake patience for kindness.

[00:05:00]>> Savagery didn't make you who you are.

[00:05:03]People did.

[00:05:05]>> People also forged [music] the chains.

[00:05:08]>> Exactly. People choose every day to become better or worse. [music] choice.

[00:05:17]A starving man has fewer choices than a prince.

[00:05:21]>> He has fewer, not none.

[00:05:24]>> You truly believe that?

[00:05:26]>> I have to because if I stop believing people can choose, then [music] every battle is already lost.

[00:05:33]>> Then let me ask you something, Prince [music] Adam. When you raise that sword and become He-Man, do you ever enjoy being stronger than everyone else? The [music] strength sometimes the responsibility.

[00:05:49]No.

[00:05:50]>> Most men would kill [music] for your power.

[00:05:54]>> Most men think power makes them free. It doesn't. It chooses what you're allowed to become. Every time I raise this sword, [music] Prince Adam disappears.

[00:06:06]The world doesn't see a man. It sees a symbol. Symbols [music] don't get to fail. They don't get to be afraid. They don't get to [music] rest.

[00:06:16]>> I never trusted magic. Steel doesn't promise. Steel doesn't lie. It only asks whether the hand is worthy. [music] >> Even steel becomes dangerous in the wrong hand. [music] >> How many times has Skeletor escaped you?

[00:06:35]>> Enough.

[00:06:36]>> Enough to kill again. Enough to return stronger.

[00:06:41]>> [music] >> Yes.

[00:06:42]>> Then answer me honestly. How many graves carry his name because you spared him?

[00:06:50]You see, that is chivalry's curse. A good man holds back his hand and someone [music] else pays for it.

[00:06:59]>> Do you think I have never stood over him wondering if this should be the last time?

[00:07:05]>> Have you?

[00:07:07]>> Every time. The easy choice would be ending him. The difficult one is believing there's still a line I should never cross.

[00:07:17]>> Even if others die.

[00:07:19]>> If I decide that any life becomes expendable for the greater good, then someday someone weaker than me will make that same decision. Power teaches by example. And if your example gets innocent people [music] killed, >> then I'll carry those names for the rest of my life.

[00:07:39]>> You carry the dead, [music] I carry the living.

[00:07:43]>> And which is harder? [sighs] >> Both.

[00:07:47]>> Then you know a warrior cannot carry one and abandon the other.

[00:07:52]>> No, a warrior chooses which burden he is willing to die for.

[00:07:59]>> And you? I have already chosen.

[00:08:02]>> Perhaps the greatest warriors must carry both.

[00:08:06]>> Perhaps.

[00:08:07]>> Then perhaps you understand me after all.

[00:08:11]>> Do not mistake understanding [music] for agreement.