Duncan is one of the main characters in Netflix's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and the alter ego of Man-At-Arms.
Appearance[]
Duncan[]
Man-at-Arms[]
Personality[]
Duncan is a somewhat flustered young man with a passion for tinkering, engineering and inventing. His technological expertise is somewhat dodgy, as he sometiems fears whatever tech he's working on will blow up but deny he ever said that later on.
Although he apprenticed under Kronis, Duncan possesses a strong sense of moral integrity that he refused to aid his former mentor in attacking and burning the village of the Tiger Tribe, and though he might be scared in the face of danger Duncan will do the right thing.
Biography[]
Duncan served as an apprentice to Kronis, the disgraced former Man-At-Arms of the Royal Palace of Eternos. When Kronis and his partner in crime, Evelyn, tasked the young Hand Witch Teela to steal the Sword of Power from the Royal Armory, Duncan was flying their getaway ship, the Wind Raider.
When Teela refused to give the Sword to Evelyn and disappeared, the others went in pursuit of her. Evelyn concluded that the magic of the sword made her harder to track, but they came upon a wreck of a Poacher Ship, and Kronis ordered his apprentice to get the Poacher Bots up and running again so they could track Teela's scent. Duncan reprogrammed a small army of Bots, and they made their way to the village of the Tiger Tribe. But when Evelyn ordered Duncan to use the Bots to burn down the village, he refused. Kronis grabbed the control device from him and began operating the Bots himself.
Feeling guilty, Duncan used his wrench tool to save a large tiger from one of the fire spewing bots, only to be surprised when the tiger thanked him for it. He was then almost knocked down by Krass, before Cringer ensured her that Duncan was helping them.
After Adam called upon the Power of Grayskull for the first time and quickly depleted it, Duncan took control of the Wind Raider and rescued Cringer, Crass, Adam and Teela from the battlefield. Some time later, Krass, Duncan and Cringer all took turns trying to call upon the Power of Grayskull, with no success.
The next day, another large group of Poacher Bots attacked the young heroes, but they were repelled by a man named Keldor, who claimed to be Adam's uncle. However, Keldor soon grabbed the sword and blasted his nephew, then told Kronis (who was stationed on a rock out of sight) to kill the others with a rocket. Cringer and Duncan were outside of the blast radius, and attempted to rescue their friends. To do so, Duncan hastilly cobbled together a pair of mechanical claws for Cringer to wear. Cringer made enough of a hole in the rocks to enable Duncan to turn on the ships enginges by remote control, rescuing his friends.
Duncan piloted the Wind Raider to Grayskull, who's secret location had been made visible by Keldor using the sword. Adam found the sword and transformed himself into He-Man for the second time. Keldor had been waiting for this, as the sword would not work for him. Keldor threatened the life of Adam's friends and ordered his nephew to re-activate the magic chamber and cure him, or he would turn the others into cursed monsters like himself.[1]
Teela freed herself by picking the lock on her cuffs, and Cringer and the children escaped. He-Man pulled up a barrier between themselves and the villains, and decided to share the power with all of his friends. Duncan became Man-At-Arms and fought his old mentor Kronis, breaking his jaw during the fight. Keldor thrust this scepter into the power emiting from the chamber and dragged his two accomplices into it, thereby making their escape.
After returning to their original forms, Adam mistakingly thought Keldor and his minions were vaporized. He was surprised when the spirit of the original Sorceress appeared and refered to him as "a master of the universe".[2]
Duncan received a call for help from a squad of Royal Guards who's transport crashed in the Badlands, Teela and Krass at first refuse to lend them any help, but reluctantly agree. In the Badlands, Adam uses the sword to power himself and his friends up, but Teela preferred to stay herself instead of becoming the Sorceress.
They soon realized that the guards were looking for Teela and He-Man, and that they had been attacked by Battle Bones, bones of dead creatures brought back to life by Havoc magic. This made He-Man realize that his uncle was probably still alive. The group was able to defeat the Battle Bones when Teela finally accepted her place in the group as the Sorceress.[3]
Duncan repaired an RK unit that had saved his life during the battle against the Battle Bones at Castle Grayskeull, using a piece of tech he used in an old trunk in Grayskull's archives. The tech contained a legacy recording of the knowledge of Orko the Great, a wizard from the time of King Grayskull. This caused RK-o to believe he was the actual Orko the Great. RK-o started searching the archives of Grayskull, and because he felt 'chilly' somehow managed to set them on fire. After Teela doused the fire by magical conjuring up rain indoors, RK-o left the castle and headed for the Royal Palace of Eternos.
Teela read up on the real Orko's history in a book she found in the same chest from where Duncan had taken the tech. She explained his history, and Adam deduced that RK-o would be searching for the King of Eternos. Duncan realized that if RK-o was neutrilized and linked back to the RK hivemind, his data would be synched with that of all the other RK units in the kingdom, turning them all into 'Orko the Great', or as Duncan referred to it: "The Orkening". The new Masters of the Universe decided they could not let this happen and went in pursuit of RK-o.
At the palace, Duncan realized that Kronis had somehow used the "Maker Override" function on RK-o, who simultaniously began announcing his presence to the people of Eternos and magically summoning every piece of Guard armor nearby to him. The armor was combined to form the giant form of Colossor, an enemy defeated by the real Orko the Great in ages past.
Duncan figured out a way to get RK-o back to normal. In order to do so, Duncan's friend had to call upon the power of Grayskull and fight Colossor. During the battle, Duncan, in the form of Man-At-Arms, launched himself at RK-o and got close enough to use the override password "Kronis is the best at everything". RK-o returned to normal and Colossor exploded. But before any of the pieces could do any damage, Duncan gathered them together into the form of a tree, just like the real Orko the Great had turned the actual Colossor into a tree.[4]
Unable to return RK-o to it's original programming, Duncan and Teela took RK-o to the last place any Trollans were seen. They used a Sky-Sled to get to this location, where there was a large statue of Orko the Great. By reading it's inscription, Teela realized it was actually a communication totem for any Trollans left behind after the real Orko the Great helped his people ascent to another dimension. RK-o was sad to discover he did not belong anywhere, but Duncan and Teela reminded him that they all belonged to gether. Teela promised to help 'Orko' become a better wizard, and Duncan to help him be a better machine. RK-o then renamed himself Orko and decided to stay at Grayskull with his new friends and honor the memory of Orko the Great.[5]
As Man-At-Arms, Duncan was sparring with He-Man at Grayskull. Later, Duncan suggested to Teela that she should boost her signal in her search for Keldor's secret location. Together with Eldress, Teela discovered that Keldor was hiding in the Fright Zone. Adam decided that they should go there and face their enemies.[6]
When the young Masters arrived in the Fright Zone, they decided not to power up immediately lest they announce their presence to Keldor. Duncan was swallowed by a large Battle Bone in the Fright Zone, but was rescued by Cringer. They soon realized Keldor was already aware they were coming, and powered up before entering Snake Mountain. There they were led into a chamber of sacrifices. Keldor introduced himself to them as "Skeletor" and then shared his Havoc power with his henchmen, transforming Evelyn into Evil-Lyn, Kronis into Trap Jaw and R'Qazz into Beast Man for the first time. Trap Jaw introduced himself as "Dark Master of Weaponry" to Duncan/Man-At-Arms and used his "Mecha Maw" attack against his former apprentice to counter his "Speed Built" strike.
However, when Skeletor Havoc Power broke He-Man's Sword, all the Masters of the Universe immediately reverted to their normal selves and were captured and chained. At that moment the Red Legion of Eternos commanded by General Dolos arrived at Snake Mountain, but Dolos was under Skeletor's command and informed his master that the Legion had been upgraded to Trap Jaw and Beast Man's specificiations. Skeletor took command of the Royal Guardsmen with his Havoc Staff, and told the captive Masters to join him or drown in Havoc matter.[7]
Eldress contacted the Masters in the spirit plane after they were captured by Skeletor and sentenced to drown in Havoc fluid, to tell them they did not use their weapons to escape. The Masters managed to escape their bonds, but would not have made it if Krass and Orko had not come to their rescue. Duncan then used what was left of the Kirbinite to repair the Masters' broken weapons, although they remained unstable after Adam called upon the power of Grayskull to transform them all into the Masters of the Universe.
Feeling the Wind Raider was too slow, Teela discovered a new power of teleportation, causing the Masters to appear in the sky high above Eternos. As they began to fall, they disabled as many of the Red Legion's red Sky-Sleds as they could. Teela opts to go for the source of the dark power, Skeletor's staff and He-Man realizes Skeletor is going after King Randor. As they headed towards the palace, Skeletor and his "Dark Masters" confronted them, and the heroic masters attempted to get hold of the Havoc Staff. However, Skeletor revealed that he had now taken control of all of the guards in Eternos and had sent the Red Legion to attack Castle Grayskull.
Orko cast a spell to teleport the heroes, including King Randor, to a safer location nearby. There Adam de-powerd the masters. Adam, Duncan, Cringer and Krass took the Wind Raider and headed back to Grayskull, using the Sword to contact Eldress. Krass suggested that Eldress use her powers to relocate the Castle. But in her weakened state, Eldress knew she had no control over where it would re-emerge. After the Wind Raider entered the Castle, Eldress closed the jaw bridge and relocated the entire building, saying "And so a new adventure begins".[8]
Powers & Abilities[]
Technological Expertise
Duncan was (formerly) apprenticed to Kronis, who taught him in engineering technology. While Duncan is an expert, he isn't quite on his former boss's level, and his engineerings have sometimes backfired. Still, he perseveres and his technology often comes through.
Power of the Universe
When empowered by Grayskull, becoming its Man-at-Arms, Duncan becomes clad in advanced technological battle armor and his wrench becomes a techno-mace. His helmet sports a retractable face-shield, his armor can make an energy shield, launch drones that fire lasers or rockets, summon his mace to his hand if he drops or loses it, rocketboosters in his boots to enhance his jumps, and he demonstrated his mace can emit an effect that freezes everything around him as though time has stopped, and his mace can emit beams of electromagnetism to move metal objects.
After becoming a true Master of the Universe, Duncan found his own Power and was able to regain his powers, armor, and weapons as Man-at-Arms.
Speed Build
Man-at-Arms can channel his power through his mace and strike the ground to bring up raw materials and build them into constructs, like walls to form a labyrinth, almost instantly.
Combined Skills
After reforging the Sword of Power and the other Masters' weapons with kirbinite, the Masters of the Universe (He-Man and Battle Cat, and the Sorceress and Man-at-Arms) discover they can combine thier skills to unleash even more powerful attacks.
Trivia[]
- In The Power of Grayskull, Teela refers to Duncan as "Dincan" and Krass gives him the nickname "Dinky".
- His armor was similar to Samus Aran's varia suit from Metroid series.
- His hammer, which is demonstrated to be throwable like a boomerang, which is very similar to Mjölnir, Thor's hammer.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Netflix series[]
- The Sword of Grayskull
- The Power of Grayskull
- The Heirs of Grayskull
- The Champions of Grayskull
- We Have the Power
- Orko the Great
- He-Man, the Hunted
- The Calm Before the Storm
- Cry Havoc, Part 1
- Cry Havoc, Part 2