We know that Adam's son Dare is eventually the last man to don this mantle, but was he the 2nd or the 3rd to do so?

There is a SEEMING contrast at https://books.google.ca/books?id=rbmvDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA392

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: A Character Guide and World CompendiumGoogle Books

We know the first He-Ro was a man named Ro who took up the "Sword of He" to battle "Horde Prime". After amnesia he was adopted by Eldor who nicknamed him "Gray". We know that Ro/Gray the 1st He-Ro (per 2008 MOTU Classics) died SAVING King Grayskull.

The King Grayskull that he saved was D'Vann Grayskull, to whom Ro passed on the "Sword of He".

2012 DC MOTU COMICS has this descrip:

>In contrast to other depictions, the 2012 DC comics established He-Ro as the lone surviving son of King Grayskull and Queen Veena.

>He led the resistance against Lord Adi and the Gar after his father's death.

>Upon recovering the Sword of Power, he and Eldor chose to hide it away until destiny revealed the rightful heir.

I'm assuming the "Sword of He" was renamed the "Sword of Power" somewhere along the way.

The "rightful heir" in this case would be He-Ra, since SHE is the next person to wield that sword.

I would argue that there is actually NO CONTRAST AT ALL. Simply because this could be an ENTIRELY SEPARATE version of He-Ro. More specifically: I think the 2012 He-Ro could actually be the SON of D'vann Grayskull and Queen Veena.

We know that He-Ro also had a son (though it's unclear who the mother was) because that son married the daughter of D'vann and Veena (my pet theory is that this daughter could have been Kuduk Ungol) and together they had a daughter who became He-Ra.

IE this would mean that the 2nd He-Ro and Kuduk Ungol were brother and sister, much like Adam+Adora. Maybe they were even twins!

That would mean that the un-named son of the 1st He-Ro probably filled a role similar of what Sea Hawk played to Adora: being Kuduk's boyfriend eventually He-Ra's father.

If the 2nd He-Ro was the son of D'Vann that would make complete sense:

1st He-Ro passes sword to D'Vann

D'Vann dies and 2nd He-Ro inherits sword.

We know that He-Ra gets the sword later. Most likely from her UNCLE, the 2nd He-Ro, who was probably friends with the 1st He-Ro's son (whose name we do not know)

He-Ra being the daughter of Kuduk Ungol would also work out in an interesting way. What if He-Ra was actually the transformed version of Teela Na before Teela took over for Kuduk Ungol as the sorceress?

You can say "but wait: Kuduk Ungol never gave any indication that she was Teela na's mother!"

That's all well and true, but in most episodes, Teela Na (3rd sorc) doesn't give any indication of being Teela's mother anyway. The current Teela (Adam's girlfriend) is basically ignorant of that (mindwiped) and thinks Duncan (Man at Arms) is her biological father... so wouldn't it be ironic/appropriate if the very same thing that was done to current Teela by Teela Na was also done to Teela Na by Kuduk Ungol?

Of course: if He-Ra actually was the prior identity of Teela Na, since we know that He-Ra is the ancestor of Adam/Adora (and we know she isn't their mom Marlena) and since we know that the royal lineage comes through Randor's father Miro, this could mean that Teela Na is Randor's mom (making current Teela Randor's sister and Adam's aunt) or that Teela Na is Miro's mom (making her Randor's aunt and Adams' great-aunt).

500 years is a lot of time for intermediate generations though, so that's a LOT of speculation about direct lineage, and hinges on assuming that the 'sorceress' role is passed down mother>daughter (based on Teela Na being destined to give it to Teela).