Francis Moss

Lou Kachivas

The Great Rebellion faces a terrible test when the son of their oppressor, Horde Prime, falls into their grasp - just when the Whispering Woods and its Twiggets are perishing to a deadly Horde-sourced poison! Will they take revenge on Prince Zed, and forever soil their legacy? ... Again, no: kids' show here, folks.

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

Prince Zed, Hordak, Horde Prime (mentioned only), Mantenna, Scorpia, Catra, Shadow Weaver, Leech

Horde soldiers, Twiggets (including Sprag, Sprocker, Spritina), various rebels, old farmer and his horse Old Mocky, Styrax, citizens of Mandaville, Arrow, eagles

jetmobiles, Horde shipping trucks, armored trucks, ground buster, Horde tanks, wagons

It's time for that Great Rebellion to do some actual rebelling! Our friends, safely hidden from view in high perches, prepare an ambush on a heavily guarded Horde tax collection shipment, unfairly wrested from the poor citizens of Mandaville. The lead truck drives into a hidden pit trap, causing a pile-up of the convoy, and the resulting confusion gives the rebels all the opportunity they need. In the attack, Glimmer and Bow manage to hijack the truck carrying the goods, while She-Ra assists in covering their escape - and simultaneously harvesting a farmer's field of grain for him. The Horde, in hot pursuit, are stymied by the enchanted Whispering Woods, which resists their attempts to enter or destroy the vegetation. A frustrated Hordak has no choice but to retreat - a doubly irritating result given that his failure is witnessed by the young Prince Zed, his supposed nephew and son of the big boss, Horde Prime. Prime, as Zed notes, was already disappointed in Hordak's lack of progress against the Great Rebellion.

Luckily for Hordak, his magic wielder Shadow Weaver has just gotten hold of a nasty book of magics, which allows her to brew up the deadly "poison of Gandahar." Weaver demonstrates on some sample plants she has in the Fright Zone that the stuff can wither enchanted bushes without any pesky regrowth. All unaware of this threat, the rebels are busy redistributing the stolen goods to the Mandavillians when they get word from Madame Razz of trouble in the forest. The plants on the edge of the woods are dying off - they being the ones with the weakest magic and most susceptible to the poison. Adora naturally suspects the Horde, and is soon proved right. As the rebels are living their lives in their base, another dose of the choking clouds descends on them from Hordak and his men, distributed from a fleet of jetmobiles fully stocked with tanks of the DDT-like substance. It turns out this poison is not just bad for plants: the Twiggets are also sickening, their health inextricably tied to the health of the Whispering Woods. What can be done? The strength of She-Ra can have no effect against this insidious illness, Madame Razz is clueless, and even as the Twiggets fade, the rebels' home and only shelter is being systematically destroyed!

Our friends at least have a little bit of a plan: when the Horde returns for what they believe will be their final raid on the woods, Bow has rigged some defenses and She-Ra has instructed a pair of eagles to net and bring down the riders of the passing jetmobiles. The rebels' spunk ultimately puts their enemies to flight; and by great good fortune, the eagles' chosen target proves to be Prince Zed, who has extorted his uncle to include him in the battle. Coming upon the downed Hordesman, the enraged rebels are ready to exact revenge on one of the people responsible for their decimated home and sickened friends. But She-Ra counsels compassion. Returning evil for evil is not the answer! Instead, she carries Zed to the infirmary tent and ensures that he is nursed back to health. Zed is swayed by her kindness, and surprised and upset at seeing the fraught condition of the Twiggets. The prince decides to take action.

Back at the Fright Zone, Hordak - whose jetmobile had been shot in the recent attack, forcing his withdrawal - is busy yelling at Catra for calling a general retreat and leaving Horde Prime's son behind on the field of battle, when he receives a message from the rebels. It proves to be a letter from Prince Zed, who has sent his royal signet ring as proof of his identity and charged Hordak with calling off the poison attacks. Otherwise, Zed threatens he will tattle to his dad about Hordak's endangering of the royal personage. An irate but impotent Hordak has no choice but to submit to negotiations with the rebels for his nephew's safe release. As Hordak is sulkily promising to Adora and company that he'll leave the Whispering Woods alone and do away with the poison, a sneaky Madame Razz steals a sample of the poison from the villain's jetmobile and works up a quick reversal potion, which she injects back into the jet. When Hordak, with a safely retrieved Zed riding behind him, inevitably goes back on his word and releases more poison, he is dismayed to find it instead undoing the destruction and bringing the forest back to life.

Whew! The forest - and the Twiggets - are saved, and the Great Rebellion has earned itself a valuable ally in Horde Prime's heir.

• Hordak: We are passing near the Whispering Woods, home of the so-called "rebels." / Prince Zed: My father, Horde Prime, has spoken of this rebellion. He thinks you should have taken care of the rebels long ago. / Hordak (stammering): Ah. Ohh. Well, my prince, they pose no real threat to the power of the Horde.
• Glimmer (to Bow, who is recklessly driving a stolen Horde truck): Look out for that tree! / Bow: Tell the tree to look out for me.
• She-Ra (of a dazed Prince Zed): We cannot harm this boy. / Random Rebel: But he's destroying our Whispering Woods. / She-Ra: No! Do not return evil for evil. ... Getting even means you become like the Horde. Is that what you want? ... It may be the way of the Horde to hurt those who are helpless. But it is not the way of the Great Rebellion.
• Prince Zed: Why did you take care of me? I am your enemy. / She-Ra: When you fight me, you are my enemy. Now, you are in need of help.
• Hordak (laughing, to Zed): You want to watch Whispering Woods die? (seeing the opposite happening) What?! / Prince Zed: Ha! Too bad, Uncle. Watch Whispering Woods live!

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: Just after a transformation

Two full

8:28 - Loo-Kee is again not challenging viewers in today's episode; he can be seen looking directly at us from between the bushes on the far right of the screen, about halfway down from the top, just as Madame Razz is flying by to deliver some news to the rebels.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee teaches us the well-worn Golden Rule: that, as She-Ra did to Prince Zed, we should "treat others the way you want them to treat you." That's pretty hard to do when they're being jerks, Loo-Kee.

Changing hearts and minds: She-Ra convinced the residents of Devlan to fight for themselves in 67006, and convinced Sea Hawk to join the Great Rebellion in 67007; today she achieves perhaps her greatest coup by winning over none other than the son of Horde Prime!
Landmark Episode: for its first reference to Horde Prime, and the appearance of Prince Zed

• In what is becoming a bit of a trend here in the opening non-SOTS episodes, we are introduced to yet another newbie writer in Francis Moss. According to my Wikipedia list (which for now is my main source for such things), Francis will contribute on the writing of 7 separate POP scripts. Our director, Lou Kachivas, is an old hand from the MOTU series, as the directors tend to be.
• I haven't mentioned in this database before now that there are at least two kinds of typical tanks employed by the Horde. The more typical "destructo" model features a gray, pointy, vulture-like face. Today's tank is the other model, with a white, more Hordak-like face, which I'll just refer to as a Horde tank. Unfortunately, due to the poor and inconsistent naming of Horde vehicles over the course of the series, I won't be able to maintain this specificity. See my complaints and further details on this score in the commentary of 67022 and 67038.
• This is an important episode that brings us a few interesting firsts. This could (arguably, it's true) be considered the first time since the SOTS rebel attack on Bright Moon that we've seen the Great Rebellion actually doing some unprompted, non-reactive freedom fighting. They execute a well-planned and successful ambush on a Horde goods shipment - while we're watching! 67010's "Laughing Dragon" only showed us the aftermath of the Rebellion having freed a town from the grip of the Horde.
• The opening sequence of the Horde truck convoy and the pit trap ambush will be reused in the opening for 67042's "Enemy With My Face," and again in 67045's "Huntara." Note that I've included in my list of vehicles the name "ground buster" to describe the Horde truck with a gun mounted on its roof; the name is not used in this episode or in 67042, but is eventually used by Grizzlor in the beginning of 67038.
• In the realm of first character appearances, this story introduces Prince Zed, a young and snotty humanoid boy whose only non-human feature is a pair of very pointy ears. We soon hear that he is purportedly the "son" of someone named Horde Prime. This is our first time hearing about Horde Prime in the POP series, but it definitely won't be the last. We don't get to see Prime here (that pleasure will be delayed until 67027), but his presence is certainly felt, and we learn that Hordak is not actually the leader of the Horde. We had already heard our ostensible archenemy reference a "Horde World" in 67004, implying that Etheria was not the corporate headquarters; now we learn that even Hordak has a superior that he doesn't want to be reported to.
• By the way, we hear Horde World mentioned again in this episode; Zed notes that it will be the seat of his eventual rule when he inherits the "throne" from his dad.
• Having watched things somewhat out of order, I come to this episode already very familiar with the He-Man/She-Ra Christmas Special, which actually aired after the first POP season had concluded, and gave us a glimpse of Horde Prime. In that story, he was a smoke-shrouded giant who dwelled in an asteroid floating through space and sported a truly Cyclopean bionic arm. How a creature of such magnitude could have managed to birth a normal-sized humanoid child like Prince Zed is anyone's guess. Disturbingly, Zed also refers to Hordak as his "uncle" and himself as Hordak's "nephew," suggesting a familial relationship with the bony, snorting, transmogrifying fellow which is just as difficult to fathom. Perhaps these family labels are all just for show, and like his counterpart in the rebooted Princesses of Power series, this Horde Prime is busily generating clones out of vats for his generals and pseudo-offspring. It will be interesting to see whether the idea of Horde Prime evolves as the show continues. (As noted earlier, Prime will make his animated debut in 67027, looking surprisingly identical to how he looks in the Christmas Special. If you want to learn more about Horde Prime, further lore - some of it seemingly contradicting what we get here - can be found in 67049's "For Want of a Horse.")
• Even though it seems like there's a lot of content in this episode, it still features two full (and time-wasting) She-Ra transformations, a new record in the series. The first transformation comes mere seconds after we first see Princess Adora, and it includes the horse transformation - even though we haven't seen Spirit at all until he gets zapped. (For the record, it seems poor judgment on Adora's part to wait until the rebel attack is underway before commencing her transformation; why not get that out of the way ahead of time? Potty breaks and magical transformations should both be taken care of before starting an ambush!)
• She-Ra reveals a heretofore unknown talent of somewhat questionable utility: she can cut and harvest grain really well. And from horseback!
• This story also teaches us a few interesting facts about the Whispering Woods, the first of which helps explain why Hordak hasn't gone in and rooted out the rebels ages ago: as Prince Zed helpfully spells out for us, "These woods are enchanted!" When members of the Horde try to enter, they are slapped back out; and when Hordak tries to torch the plants with a flamethrower arm (which, by the way, is a new Hordak transformation), they simply grow back. Given this enchantment, it does make you begin to doubt the ultimate success of his plan from 67003 to transplant the entire woods using his Magnabeam Transporter. Who knows? Even if He-Man hadn't smashed the thing, maybe the beam would have just been magically deflected!
• The other fact we learn about the Whispering Woods is that its well-being is directly tied to the health of the Twiggets. As the woods are poisoned, so are our little forest friends - making for a very upsetting predicament.
• We find that Shadow Weaver has a vulture-like pet named Styrax, a green bird that acts as a messenger. A toy of the bird was not forthcoming, and this seems to be his only POP appearance.
• Speaking of birds - it seems we get further evidence of She-Ra's ability to communicate with animals in this story, as she tasks a pair of eagles with netting a jetmobile-riding Prince Zed.
• Speaking of communicating with animals - this episode features more evidence that Spirit can speak even when he hasn't been transformed into his winged form, something we heard proof of back in 67006's "Duel at Devlan." In 67007's "The Sea Hawk," a suggestion seemed to have been made that Adora wouldn't want to reveal Spirit's powers of speech to people who didn't know her own secret - but when Spirit speaks in this episode, it's right in the middle of a crowded rebel camp, as he's standing next to Bow. So I guess a horse talking has now been downgraded to a mere Cringer-level rarity.
• It's very strange to consider that Prince Zed's first question to She-Ra on waking ("Are you an angel?") is the same one that a disturbingly young Anakin asked of Padme on their initial meeting in Episode I of Star Wars.

• Continuity error: The very beginning of the episode has a very clear continuity error that I found amusing. The opening distant shot of trucks driving across the landscape shifts to a closeup of what should be the same collection of trucks driving towards us; but the type and sequence of the trucks has clearly changed in the closeup sequence, and a couple of Horde tanks that were entirely missing from the long shot have been sprinkled in. The following dialogue scene in which Sprag passes on the word that "the goods are in the fourth truck" is also clearly belied by the preceding shot, where the fourth vehicle to pass by was a tank, not visibly carrying any goods.
• We see a lot of vehicles in this episode: not just trucks and tanks, but some Horde "jetmobiles" (as Madame Razz eventually calls them) much like the MOTU sky sleds of old. Also, we see that Hordak rides around in a pretty sweet exta-wide tank, maybe something he had whipped up to try to impress Prince Zed. Many of these vehicle models will be reused often in later episodes, though sometimes under conflicting names (as I've already had call to complain about).
• This is a shockingly dark and disturbing episode. Watching the rebels all hacking their lungs out after the Horde has dropped nasty poison over the forest is bad enough; but the sickened and clearly dying Twiggets are even worse. Hearing the ill but naive Spritina apologize to Adora for getting sick is heartbreaking!
• Speaking of Spritina, in their touching scene together, Adora incorrectly calls her "Spiritina," which somewhat undermines the emotional impact of the moment. "Oh no - not what's-her-name!"
• The otherwise disturbing story content is lightened somewhat by the sequence of the Horde torturing their prisoners by forcing them to sit in a series of carnival dunk tanks. Oh, they're getting wet; how... horrendous?
• This episode has a mature and sophisticated message against blind revenge, or, as She-Ra puts it, returning "evil for evil." It's a powerful lesson, but it's somewhat hindered by having it delivered by our title character, who after all is a newbie in the Great Rebellion. Glimmer and Bow were leading this fight before Miss Mini-Skirt showed up; why do they need to get schooled on forgiveness by someone who's only a week out of the Fright Zone? It would be nice if Glimmer were the one counselling compassion and the taking of the high road.
• Hordak is busily berating Catra for abandoning Prince Zed in her ordered retreat from the battle with the rebels, when a message arrives from said rebels. Our Horde leader then comes to the very illogical conclusion that the rebels are going to surrender. Um, you literally were just talking about the fact that they have Prince Zed, the son of Horde Prime, at their mercy. Their position has honestly never been stronger. Why the eff would they be surrendering?
• Zed's support of the rebels here is an incredibly promising development. The impression we get at the end of this episode is that the Rebellion doesn't need to win against the Horde at all: they merely need to survive long enough for power to be handed over to the prince. Once Zed has taken charge - unless he's become corrupted by power in the meantime - he'll surely stop all this slavery and oppression. So the important question is: how old is Horde Prime? How healthy is he? Can the rebels slip him a cyanide-laced cigar or something? (Unfortunately, since this proves to be the only episode of the series to feature the prince, we'll never get to see how this turns out.)
• Madame Razz apparently is able to concoct a reversal/antidote potion for the poison in the time that it takes the Horde and Rebellion to negotiate Prince Zed's transfer. It's hard to see how. First of all, she's a senile and very bumbling witch, who we've never before seen playing with test tubes - she can barely manage a trip through the forest on a fully sentient broom. Secondly, the negotiations seem to last about ten seconds, and most of that time is needed just for Razz to snag a sample of the poison out of what looks to be Hordak's gas tank. Third, in squirting the miraculously produced antidote back into Hordak's gas tank, we are asked to believe that it somehow simultaneously happens to the tank of every other Horde jetmobile present - or that the antidote somehow spreads itself through the eventually released cloud of poison. However you look at it, it's a fairly clumsy resolution to what was, up to that point, a tight and well-told plot.
• When you think about it, She-Ra's very Christian message of forgiveness and giving kindness even when kindness is not given to you is at odds with the goals and methods of the Great Rebellion. Raiding a supply shipment is a pretty long way from turning the other cheek. Her lesson is a powerful and a good one, but it's hard to live by when you're busy fighting for your freedom. Something to think about!