Philip Kassel

Richard Trueblood

How can two young boys losing their father's ax lead to Bow getting captured by Mantenna? Watch this episode to find out! You just might learn a valuable lesson about owning up to your mistakes.

Spirit (Swift Wind), Princess Adora (She-Ra), Kowl, Bow, Madame Razz

Mantenna

Captron, Horde soldiers, scruffer, various Etherian citizens (including Mock, Thad, and Kyle), Arrow, Twiggets (including Sprag and Sprocker), various horses, beaver-like creatures

Horde slave transport, wagons

Princess Adora, on a ride through the woods to meet up with Bow, is distracted by the sounds of a cute animal being oppressed. A Horde soldier is firing lasers at a furry scruffer, with the aim of adding the pink unicorn/dog to Hordak's zoo. We can't have that, can we? Adora changes to She-Ra and confronts the soldier, who sics a new robot, called a Captron, on her. She-Ra spins the Captron into a confused state of malfunction, causing it to imprison the soldier in the energy cage he'd meant to put around the scruffer. Leaving the Hordesman in this ironic state, the blonde wonder uses her healing powers to fix the critter's injured paw, but then must move on, remembering her appointment with Bow.

In another part of Etheria, the very same Bow has been spending his morning hanging out with the humble woodcutter Mock and his sons, Thad and Kyle. After Bow has shown off his archery prowess to the boys, Mock offers the rebel and his buddy Kowl a free meal, while Thad and Kyle extract their father's permission to run off and chop some kindling with the family ax. Quickly tiring themselves with this pursuit, the boys decide to cool off in a nearby brook, leaving the precious ax leaning against a log. Mere moments after they depart, a pair of Twiggets show up and spot the abandoned tool. Concerned that the ax be reunited with its absent owner, the Twiggets lug the thing off to show it to Madame Razz and perhaps toss it into a Twigget lost-and-found box. When the boys return and find their father's ax (which, as he has portentously reminded them, is the sole source of his livelihood) has vanished, they realize the true story of their irresponsible actions will get them into big trouble with old Dad. To avoid a blow-up, they concoct a story between them of a purple-cloaked thief running off with the ax.

The boys run back to their father and Bow to relate this whopper of a tale, and a riled-up Bow decides it is his duty to right this injustice. Theorizing that the non-existent thief will try to sell his misbegotten wares in the nearby town of Green Thatch - well known to be crawling with the fully armed members of a Horde occupation force - Bow throws on a completely unconvincing and pointless cloak disguise and takes himself to the market square. While waiting there to catch the thief, Bow is himself spied (again, the cloak did nothing) by the wicked Mantenna. A chase ensues, and though Bow puts up a good fight, he gets swarmed by Horde soldiers and is eventually zapped by Mantenna's distortion beams while trying to scale the town wall. The rebel hero is tossed into a Horde slave transport and carried away; but, as has now become a recurring theme in the series, Bow's friend Kowl has avoided capture and is free to wing his way back to the hut of Mock.

There our large-eared friend meets up with She-Ra, who went searching for Bow after he failed to show up at their appointed rendezvous at Lavender Pond. Showing herself a keener judge of character than the men in the story, She-Ra has quickly discovered that Thad and Kyle invented the story of the purple robber, thus sending Bow haring off on a wild goose chase. Kowl arrives in time to add the even more tragic intelligence that the archer has gotten himself nabbed by the Horde, and is now on his way to the energy mines in the Dark Mountains. Taking charge of events, our heroine directs Kowl to consult Madame Razz (who supposedly is an expert on the Dark Mountains), then takes off on Swift Wind to overtake and waylay the slave transport.

Spotting the vehicle as it trundles its way through desert terrain, She-Ra deploys an ambush, blocking the transport's path with the well-timed toss of a giant boulder. The pair of Hordesmen driving the transport know this boulder spells trouble, but aren't able to back out of the situation before She-Ra peels her way into the hull and captures the pilots in the curled strip of metal. But the ambusher is herself ambushed by the wily Mantenna, who was prepared for just such a rescue attempt. She-Ra has to hop around like mad to avoid the minion's eye beams. Eventually she works herself up to such a speed, and puts on such an acrobatic display, that Mantenna's eye stalks get tangled up and he collapses, leaving our heroine free to pry off the transport door and release the prisoners inside.

Among them, of course, is a very grateful Bow, who promises to play the lovely She-Ra a song he composed during his short, enforced vacation. The heroes assemble again back at Mock's abode along with Kowl and the fetched Madame. The woodsman is pleased to see his friend safely returned, but still determined to punish his repentant children for their misdeed. Just as he's mentioning his still-missing ax, the pair of Twiggets from the beginning of the episode trudge into the shot, still carrying the tool between them and relieved to have finally found their wise counselor, Madame Razz. Everyone has a good laugh at the happy resolution of today's dramatic conflict.

• Thad (or Kyle?): You must be the best shot in all Etheria, Bow! / Kowl: Oh no, not the best shot - just the luckiest. (Kids laugh)
• Sprag: Any walk's a long one when you're a Twigget!
• Mantenna: Thank you for the target practice, rebel. / Bow: Yes - you really need it!
• She-Ra (having trapped a pair of troopers in a curled cylinder of steel stripped from their own slave transport): Maybe Hordak will send you a can opener!
• Bow: And my thanks to you, She-Ra. My bow, my music, and my magic (produces dove out of thin air) are always at your service.

• Bow runs away from the viewer: Twice, as he flees from Mantenna's stun beams

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one full

10:59 - Loo-Kee can be seen peeking out from behind some baskets of goods in the back left of a village scene, as Bow tries to escape from Mantenna.
Did I spot him? YES!

In a doom-laden warning, Loo-Kee explains that the delicate and fragile edifice of trust can be shattered by the slightest lie. Look what happened to Kyle and Thad with their purple-clad thief. Even if you've done something wrong, tell the truth! Otherwise, you risk busting up the Jenga tower of other people's trust in you; and those things are annoying to set back up!

Hordak-less episodes in Season 1
Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Yes, it's time to dig out that well-worn MOTU episode category; and this time, make it a double! The indistinguishable Thad and Kyle will both learn the same lesson today!

• Today's episode introduces yet another new Filmation writer to the MOTU/POP universe, with Philip Kassel. Kassel will contribute a total of four scripts to She-Ra.
• Even though we established in 67007's "The Sea Hawk" that the Horde troopers are meant to be robots, today's Horde soldier is accompanied by a much more obviously robotic robot, called a Captron. Can you guess what the "Captron's" purpose might be, kids? It's a very cool-looking robot, anyway - sort of Robotech-ish.
• To save the scruffer (a pink unicorn/dog thing), Adora makes the change to She-Ra, but curiously opts to leave Spirit alone. I guess a flying horse wasn't necessary for this situation, but you'd think the animators would have gone ahead and used the full transformation clip, regardless.
• "So Hordak has a zoo," remarks She-Ra. I guess so - just like Skeletor's menagerie (MU068)! It's even harder to imagine Hordak feeding zoo animals than Skeletor caring for his menagerie, so I have to think that Grizzlor (Etheria's Beast Man - it would be just too cruel to call him "the poor man's Beast Man"!) is tasked with the upkeep there. We'll learn more about Hordak's zoo in the well-named "Zoo Story" (67038).
• She-Ra makes use of her healing abilities, introduced in 67005, to fix the boo-boo on the adorable little scruffer.
• I've decided to go ahead and name both axe-wielding Twiggets in this episode, even though they are never directly named here. It's easy to positively identify one as Sprag on the basis of the very distinctive chin; the other is likely Sprocker, first met in 67006's "Duel at Devlan." I'm going to go out on a limb here (no pun intended!) and assume our Twiggets will remain the same few familiar faces throughout the series.
• One of the boys - either Thad or Kyle, I have no idea which one is which - challenges the other with "last one is a rotten cranical." Etherians don't have a different name for an egg, because they got doused in eggs in 67006; so my guess is a cranical is some kind of fruit.
• Among the many busy villagers seen in the background of the Green Thatch market square, we can see one woman in a pink dress who appears to be playing with a yo-yo. I just wanted to mention that because I thought it was funny.
• Adora is just all over the cute little critters today. We find her handing out twigs to some beaver-looking guys in her next scene after aiding the scruffer. On a side note, if you're a creature who depends on someone else for your twig supply, it's only a matter of time before natural selection gets the better of you.
• In the Filmation tradition of parsimoniously doling out character names, we don't learn that Kyle and Thad's father is named "Mock" until the last quarter of the episode.
• To defeat Mantenna, She-Ra leaps around at lightning speed until the Horde minion's stalked eyeballs are tied in knots. Adora managed almost the same trick at the beginning of the previous episode, 67008's "The Red Knight." I have a feeling this uncomfortable fate will befall Mantenna many more times in episodes to come. (Actually, as it turns out, not so much; Mantenna's real niche will be as Hordak's scapegoat, whipping boy, and most miserable of minions. See 67013 for the kickoff of this characterization. -Future Guy-Dor)
• Bow reveals a new talent that personally surprised the heck out of me, when at the end of the episode he mentions his "magic" and promptly conjures a white dove out of nowhere. Um, since when has he been able to do that?? Stay in your lane, bro; there's plenty of other magic-wielders in the Rebellion. (Our Bow bro will not stay in his lane, however; there will be plenty of later references to his knowledge of magic tricks. For the next one see 67019.)
• This is a very rare episode in that it features Madame Razz but does NOT feature Broom! Usually the pair are inseparable. I suppose she rode on the back of Arrow with Kowl to get to Mock's house, rather than using her more disaster-prone mode of transportation.

• She-Ra orders the defeated Captron to "Tell Hordak She-Ra said hello" - right before its head explodes. Um, I don't think it'll be passing on that message.
• By the way, the appearance of the Captron, and the whole animal rescue scene in which it features, ends up feeling very tacked-on, since it proves to have no connection to the main story.
• Observation: Mantenna has four feet, but he only wears boots on two of them. Why? Is it a fashion statement, like Michael Jackson's single glove, or are some of his feet tougher-skinned than the others? (Actually, I suspect this was done by the animators to more easily differentiate all his same-colored limbs; but that's a boring reason.)
• Just as in 67008's "The Red Knight," we again find Adora very quickly resorting to She-Ra in order to find a missing Bow. She-Ra is a crutch! Does Princess Adora not have eyes?
• Kowl avoids capture: I'm not saying Kowl is a coward - nobody's saying that! Frankly I don't know why you brought it up. All I'm saying is, he doesn't help Bow at all when his best friend is being chased all around the town of Green Thatch by the Horde, and none of the Hordesmen make the slightest attempt to restrain or impede the owlish fellow. This fortunately allows him to run back on Arrow and warn She-Ra of the problematic circumstances - which really shows how sensible he was.
• Animation error? As She-Ra advises Kowl to go get some advice from Madame Razz, we see a shot of Kowl sitting atop Arrow's head. The painting of the scenery behind them looks weirdly unfinished, with the bottom half one solid color, almost identical to the color of the sky. It really looks as if the background painters clocked off early!
• I've got to hand it to the Horde troopers driving the slave transport; their instincts are spot on when they agree amongst each other that the huge boulder that suddenly blocks their path "doesn't smell right." Too bad their good guess doesn't do them any good!
• Mantenna is just nearby, ready to pounce on She-Ra when she tries to free the captives from the slave transport. How, exactly? He doesn't appear to have been on the transport, but there is no other vehicle in evidence.
• The random bonus prisoners that She-Ra frees from the transport look absurdly happy, many of them wearing open-mouthed, slack-jawed grins as they file out of the ship. Several of them look suspiciously similar to each other as well - maybe it was "Sibling Kidnap Day" on Etheria.
• She-Ra's suggestion to Kowl to fetch Madame Razz, ostensibly for her in-depth knowledge of the Dark Mountains, is clearly contrived so the witch can be on hand to receive the titular missing ax in the final scene. The idea that anyone would actively seek out Madame Razz for help is highly suspect; and her expertise proves unsurprisingly unnecessary.
• The episodes leading up to this one have all impressed me with their maturity and sophistication as compared to the typical MOTU stories; but this one feels very much cut from the He-Man loincloth. It's a clear entry in the "wayward child learns a valuable lesson" trope, which with a few character replacements could easily have featured in the other series. One of the boys is even named "Thad," the identical name of the lesson-learning page boy from MU049. I could also easily imagine Orko making up the story of the purple-cloaked stranger to cover his own negligence, in order to once again learn that he shouldn't BS people. I've never been a huge fan of these lesson-focused stories, and there isn't much else to this one; but the wealth of characters was fun to see, and our heroes got off some memorable one-liners.
• I am left wondering on the boys' behalf whether they are still going to be grounded, now that the ax has been recovered. Logically it shouldn't change anything, since they still did wrong by lying and got Bow into a lot of trouble; but Mock is clearly in a much better mood now that the tool of his livelihood is restored, so he just might be willing to let them slide.