Story - Drew Lawrence, Teleplay - Robert Lamb, Francis Moss

Tom Sito

Mum's the word when Shadow Weaver uses her magic to take away the voices of some rebels - including Adora! Without her voice, our princess can't say her magic words and summon She-Ra!

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Bow

Imp, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Mantenna, Scorpia

slow tow, various villagers (including Vesser, Therin, and Barris), Twiggets (including Sprag and Sprint), Horde soldiers

cart

In a cozy tavern in the town of Gailbreth, three prospective rebels consider whether they should be signing up for the Great Rebellion. While they sit around a table arguing the pros and cons, they don't realize that the portrait of a gentleman hanging on the wall just behind them is actually Hordak's spy, Imp, in disguise! (As an oil painting? Yes. This is a thing he does.) Imp is using a wrist communicator to broadcast the villagers' seditious talk directly to Hordak, who is listening in from his throne room in the Fright Zone. The enraged dictator complains to Shadow Weaver, standing at the foot of his dais, that the rebels' persuasive words will draw more and more to the cause. Weaver reassures her boss that she has a magical way to prevent inspiring speeches. Using the hapless Mantenna as a test subject, she casts a spell that takes away the Horde minion's voice, capturing it in a bubble! Hordak is thrilled at the potential of this idea - and even more thrilled when Weaver suggests that she could use it on that troublesome former force captain and most inspiring of rebel leaders, Adora!

It so happens that our Adora is just then trudging her way through the swampy forest alongside Bow and some Twiggets, on her way to the town of Gailbreth. It seems the citizens have specifically requested that the princess come speak to them about all the perks of being a freedom fighter. Before they even reach the town, however, Adora and her friends are set upon by a troop of Horde soldiers, led by Scorpia! While Bow works some acrobatic (and disturbingly seductive) moves and archery skills to combat the attackers, Adora leaps to a high tree branch so she can discreetly transform into She-Ra. As this muscular champion, she easily twirls Scorpia away, then confirms with Bow that the Twiggets are unharmed and sends him on ahead. Using her sword of protection, She-Ra splits open a chasm in the ground and, posing as her own bait, lures an entire legion of Horde troopers to leap into the crack. If only all life's problems were solved so easily.

Returned to her Adora form, the princess catches back up with Bow and the Twiggets, and they arrive safely at Gailbreth. The female rebel leader holes up with the three villagers in their local inn and starts right in with her pitch; but her Great Rebellion TED Talk is soon interrupted by the wicked Shadow Weaver. Adora sneaks off right away to make her transformation, but she's not quick enough to avoid Weaver's voice-stealing spell. The three villagers and the princess are all rendered mute; and without the ability to speak her magic words, Adora is unable to summon She-Ra! Shadow Weaver meets Imp - who I guess was hanging out in the bar all this time (is he of legal age?) - and gets him to turn into a handheld box for convenient stolen-voice-bubble storage. As the sorceress hunts through the tavern to find the princess so she can bring the valuable prisoner back to an eagerly waiting Hordak, Bow (who was posted outside the inn and heard the commotion) storms in and fires a smoke arrow. The resulting obscuring cloud gives the rebels and villagers time to make their escape.

Regrouped with her compatriots on the outskirts of town, Adora has to brush up on her charades so she can nonverbally convey her very simple plan to Bow: they need to go to the Fright Zone and get those voices back. The three citizens of Gailbreth also use pointing and gesturing to volunteer for the rescue mission, but Bow turns them down, arguing that a smaller party will succeed more easily. Leaving the villagers with the Twiggets, Bow and Adora make their stealthy, unencumbered way to the Fright Zone and all the way into Hordak's throne room. They find the villain remonstrating with a returned Shadow Weaver: he's quite annoyed that she was unable to bring Adora along with the voices. When Weaver stands up for herself, arguing that her magic (which he has denigrated) is capable of plenty of mischief, Hordak punishes her impudence by zapping her with an energy field and pointing out that he can take away her powers whenever he wants. His sorceress safely cowed, Hordak fetches in Mantenna and gives him back his voice - only to then drop him through a trapdoor.

Adora and Bow, spying from behind a convenient chunk of random machinery, spot the box of voices on the arm of Hordak's chair. Again resorting to waving her arms, Adora mimes to Bow to create an explosive distraction, which he obediently achieves by the use of a firework arrow. While Hordak and Weaver's heads are turned by the pyrotechnic display, Adora makes off with the box. Running off to a quiet corner of the throne room with her prize, the princess soon discovers the box is alive. A frustrated Imp, who doesn't like ladies holding him against his will, transforms back into his usual shape, leaving the voice bubbles floating in the air. (Imp himself flutters off; according to him, he's about to tattle on Adora to Hordak, but we never see the guy again, leaving us wondering whether he somehow got lost on the way.) Listening to each bubble in turn, Adora is able to identify her own and pop it, successfully restoring her voice. It's She-Ra time!

And a good thing, too; our heroine can hardly leave an exposed Bow to fight off Hordak and Shadow Weaver alone. Bow is menaced by the sorceress, who comes at him with one of her hands turned to crackling flames; but he cleverly fires an arrow at Hordak's throne controls and activates the energy field that Hordak used on her earlier. That takes Weaver out of the fight! She-Ra then tasks Bow with wrangling up the voice bubbles, and does her part by tangling with Hordak. Our villain is feeling particularly versatile today, and takes on several different full-body forms in his attempts to defeat our heroine. Naturally, none of them succeed. He's given up and gone back to his humanoid form just as a dripping Mantenna makes his way back up to the throne room from whatever dank pit the trapdoor dropped him into. Seeing the situation, Mantenna chooses petty vengeance over helping his boss, and hits the throne button that drops Hordak through the trapdoor. While Mantenna is lounging on the throne chuckling at his own prank, Bow and She-Ra decide the moment has come to head out with their sack of voice bubbles. By the time a confused and irate Hordak has launched his way out of the pit using yet another full-body transformation, the rebels are gone and Mantenna has prudently made himself scarce, leaving his boss to discover that Shadow Weaver is still stuck in the energy field.

Back at Gailbreth, a resurfaced Adora talks the villagers through restoring their powers of speech, and the unmuted trio all lustily announce their intention to join the Rebellion. Hooray for freedom - and free speech!

• Shadow Weaver: May I use Mantenna? / Hordak: Take him, I have no use for him.
• Bow: You certainly inspire me. / Adora (clearly having failed to mention her long one-on-one walk with Captain Sea Hawk in the previous episode): Why thank you, Bow.
• Sprint: Why, I'm so brave, people come from all over to hear my tales of daring. / Sprag: Yeah, everyone likes a good laugh.
• Bow: Usually I sing, but this time, I'll swing. (We've never yet heard him do the former, and we definitely don't want to see him do the latter!)
• Bow: It's never too late to smoke out evil! One smoke arrow, coming up.
• Hordak: Bah! I should never rely on sorcery. That's what I hated about Skeletor. Science, machinery: these I can count on! / Shadow Weaver: But do not underestimate my powers, Hordak. The magics of darkness are vast. / Hordak: It was the Horde who gave you those powers; and they can be taken back quite easily.
• Shadow Weaver: I owe everything to the Horde. / Hordak: Of course; you were nothing but a second-rate sorceress from Mystacor when I found you.

• She-Ra spins Scorpia in a circle: By her tail, before throwing her away
• Bow runs away from the viewer: At an absurdly sped-up pace, as he tries to escape Hordak

Two partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one aborted
Variation - In the aborted sequence, Adora attempts a transformation in Gailbreth's inn, but discovers her voice has been taken. (In a clever extra touch, when Adora finds her own voice bubble later, she hears it saying "For the honor of -," the part of her magic spell she was trying to utter at the time her voice was taken.)

3:36 - Just after cutting away from Hordak to the outskirts of Gailbreth, we can see Loo-Kee in profile on the left side of the screen, peeking out from behind a column of rock.
Did I spot him? YES! I shouldn't jinx myself, but I'm on quite a run, here...

Connecting the dots on today's metaphor, Loo-Kee links this story's freedom fighters and their stolen voices to the concept of freedom of speech. He suggests we ask our parents or teachers for more information about this freedom, which gives us the ability to mouth off with impunity about anything we want.

Changing hearts and minds: Since (rather implausibly, I will argue) the three villagers of Gailbreth are convinced by their terrifying ordeal that fighting for the Rebellion is a great idea.

• This episode features one of the most complicated set of writing credits we've yet seen in Filmation's MOTU/POP oeuvre. The story writer, Drew Lawrence, was the writer of MU122's "Search for a Son," the Mekaneck origin story and final appearance of Count Marzo. This will be Lawrence's only POP writing credit. Robert Lamb wrote several MOTU scripts and will contribute a few to POP, this one being his first. Francis Moss did not work on MOTU but will be a semi-regular writer on POP; he already contributed 67011's "The Peril of Whispering Woods."
• The opening sequence of a slow tow (a beast of burden common to both Eternia and Etheria) passing across the screen pulling a cart is probably identical to the creature and cart that Adam and Cringer saw when they first arrived in Etheria in 67001. The following shots of the interior of an inn are identical to those of the Laughing Swan Inn, also from 67001 (and they were already reused once, for an inn in the town of Devlan, in 67006). This town is not Thaymor, the village of 67001, or Devlan from 67006, but is instead Gailbreth - as the first speaking character notes in his opening dialogue.
• It's the return of Imp! We haven't seen this Horde rapscallion since he was spying on the "Laughing Dragon" of 67010. Here we first see him in his improbable disguise as a portrait on a tavern wall.
• Mantenna again tries to lighten the situation with humor, just as he suggested to Hordak in 67013 - and to just as little good effect. The unfortunate guinea pig's attempt to tell a joke comes right before his voice is stolen by Shadow Weaver.
• This story brings us a new named Twigget in the apprehensive Sprint. For a long time I referred to Sprint as the "first male specimen" of Twigget, because I'd somehow made the assumption that both Sprag and Sprocker were female. I never questioned my judgment on this until I encountered other sites referring to Sprocker by male pronouns, which I thought was an error. However Wiki Grayskull has both Sprag and Sprocker labeled as male, which just about blew my mind. I immediately went from thinking there was a gang of little female sprites in the woods to realizing the Twiggets are just like the Smurfs - they've only got one girl (Spritina). If you count the queen, who'll appear in 67028's "Bow's Farewell," there are two girls.
• The rebels' altercation with Scorpia and Horde soldiers in the swampy woods outside Gailbreth recalls their swampy altercation with Scorpia and other Horde characters outside Blackmoor at the beginning of 67008's "The Red Knight." This time, Adora finds a chance to turn into She-Ra and manages to conquer her foes without any knightly assistance.
• When Bow asks, She-Ra does the standard "She's safe" covering for her absent alter ego, Adora. Later in the episode, just to change things up a bit, a reappeared She-Ra assures Bow that the missing Adora is "fine." Note that, unlike Teela with Adam, Bow doesn't complain that Adora is never around when she's needed.
• We've seen Hordak sitting on his throne in the Fright Zone many times, but I'm not sure we've been shown until now that the chair can rotate on its circular, gear-like base. Cool! We also see him making use of a large video screen, generated out of thin air by some electrode-like zappers on either side. (He'll use this screen again to give us our first look at Horde Prime, in 67027.)
• We've seen Imp transform himself before - he turned into a bouncing ball in 67010. This time, after having mimicked a portrait, he transforms into a sort of jewelry box, so Weaver has something to store her voice bubbles in. So, he's got other people's voices... inside him? That's kind of icky.
• This should probably "go without saying" (ha ha!), but one rule we can definitively take from this episode is that Adora can't turn into She-Ra without speaking her magic words aloud. By extension, the same rule should apply to Prince Adam. Certainly I can't think of a time that Adam ever achieved his transformation without saying the words - though there was that one time he somehow turned into He-Man without unsheathing his sword first (MU087).
• Shadow Weaver calls Bow's smoke arrow "a magician's trick;" reinforcing Bow's boast from the end of 67009, that he can perform "magic." At the time I was doubtful of Bow's claim, but I guess you have to take it as gospel when even an experienced magic-user like Weaver will call what Bow does magic! It's also odd, and particularly hypocritical, that she would scoff at a magician's trick... isn't that her bag?
• Hordak unexpectedly brings us some great lore and back story today. In his annoyance at Shadow Weaver's failure to capture Adora, he poo-poos her reliance on sorcery, commenting: "That's what I hated about Skeletor. Science, machinery: these I can count on!" An interesting and revealing statement! It's actually a little hard to see Skeletor as a poster child for sorcery, as over the course of MOTU he grasped at both magical and technological means to conquer Eternia; but perhaps Hordak is speaking from his memories of Skeletor as a younger lieutenant in the Horde army. It's easier to agree that Hordak tends to depend on science and machinery, given how he seems to have turned himself into a body-altering cyborg - a feature that's especially emphasized in this episode!
• A few seconds after the previous admission, Hordak specifies that it was the Horde who gave Shadow Weaver her powers. Another interesting point; you'd think it would be the other way around, and the reason Shadow Weaver was recruited in the first place would have been her magical prowess. Perhaps when she was inducted she already had some natural skill, and the Horde just gave her access to more powerful tomes and spells. As Hordak elaborates, "You were nothing but a second-rate sorceress from Mystacor when I found you." Spill that tea, Hordak! I bet Castaspella - current ruler of Mystacor - would also have some juicy stories to tell about the young Weaver! (In all modesty, this comment will prove to be surprisingly prophetic and perceptive on my part; see Casta and Weaver's magical duel in 67027. For even juicier Weaver lore, definitely check out 67047.)
• Mom and Dad are fighting again! The Hordak/Shadow Weaver relationship, which seemed so symbiotic and coequal in the opening SOTS storyline, again sees some strain here as Hordak seemingly tortures his sorceress and threatens her with the removal of her magic. Weaver is also surprisingly fearful and generally nonplussed in an earlier scene where the irritating Imp threatens to tell their boss she was mean to him. (The Hordak/Weaver bickering last happened in 67015.)
• Trapdoor time! Hordak gives us more evidence that dropping minions through trapdoors ranks among his favorite pastimes. We've seen him do it in 67010, 67012, 67013, and 67015. Here the receiving minion is once again Mantenna, the target of two dunkings in 67013. "I just love doing that," the pleased Hordak remarks. But Mantenna gets his own back in the end!
• Hordak transformations: This episode is quite a doozy for this category! Hordak first shows off a stretchy, Inspector Gadget-esque arm when taking the "voice box" from Shadow Weaver; a few moments later, he changes his arm into the typical cannon in order to return Mantenna's voice bubble. It's during his fight with She-Ra that things get really crazy, however; his first full-body transformation is to a one-wheeled, torpedo-shaped thing with four arms projecting at right angles from his upended lozenge of a torso. Perhaps not the best choice; She-Ra quickly turns the spinning ability of this form against him. To get himself free of the floor, Hordak then changes into a four-legged, spidery type of thing. This only lasts for a second or so before he opts for a more tank-like shape with caterpillar treads and a pair of pincer arms. When this form too proves unable to defeat She-Ra, Hordak seemingly gives up at last, returning to his usual humanoid shape. But he still gets in one more transformation, to a sleek, jet-like flying machine somewhat different from his usual rocket form, in order to escape from the trapdoor pit where Mantenna so vengefully put him. That makes a grand total of four new full-body shapes in one episode! (We'll see this Hordak/She-Ra battle recreated almost blow for blow in 67077's "The Caregiver.")
• A light episode on main rebel characters: just Adora and Bow. In fact, this is the first episode since ... the first episode (67001) to not feature Spirit!

• Continuity error: The jungle-like area where Adora and friends fight the Horde has a normal-colored, light blue sky; so it's very noticeable when Adora raises her sword for the typical transformation sequence, showing a dark purple sky! The strangest thing about this error is, we know from other episodes that the animators are perfectly capable of placing the sword-raising animation on a sky that would have color-matched the previous scene; they just didn't.
• In their first scene together, Bow specifically refers to Adora as "the leader of the rebellion." I find this definitive claim disappointing. The now largely absent Glimmer seemed to be the leader of the rebellion back in 67001; and when the rebels rescued her mother Queen Angella in 67004, it seemed likely that the older stateswoman would take on that role. Indeed, in 67008, Hordak was under the impression that re-capturing Angella would stop the Rebellion cold. Regardless, both Angella and her daughter have been around longer and have more experience fighting the Horde than this upstart force-captain-turned-rebel, Adora. On top of that, there's the fact that during most of the important battles against Hordak, Adora mysteriously disappears, to be replaced by She-Ra. What exactly about this blonde screams "leader"? The simple explanation is, Adora is the main character of this show, and as such the writers feel obliged to make her the leader of the good guys, under the impression that their immature viewers wouldn't accept anything less. But it defies the show's own logic and lore; I find it offensive! (See 67025 for even more disappointing treatment of Glimmer, which indeed will become a trend of the series.)
• Bow brings us some homoerotic undertones when he shows off his "swinging" abilities by pincering a Horde soldier between his muscular thighs. Whoa there! You should ask a fella first, Bow! Some extra touches: The first thing Bow does with the Horde soldiers is ask if they want to dance; and after he lets go of the pincered soldier, the Hordesman's line is: "Don't leave me!" (To be fair, Bow strands the soldier on a high tree branch, so his request is probably not prompted by any mutual attraction - but you never know!)
• Hordak again shows his obsession for Adora in this episode, but only after Shadow Weaver leads him there by suggesting a potential target for her voice-stealing party trick. "Adora?" he asks, as though he hasn't thought about her for a while; then, gleefully, "Adora!"
• A couple of times in this episode we hear a sound effect that sounds very similar to the one used for opening and closing doors in Star Trek. It's definitely not used in the same context here; for instance, one use comes when a Horde trooper turns his head.
• Continuity error? The disposition of the Twiggets once the rebels arrive at Gailbreth gets a little muddy. The first shot of Adora talking to the villagers in the inn has the pair of Twiggets standing right next to her; but once Shadow Weaver teleports in, the little fellows vanish. They're later seen outside the inn with Bow, as if they never crossed the threshold.
• This episode's gimmick is a clever one, but the creators' intentionally taking dialogue away from their animated characters is a shot to their own feet. Any shortcomings of the animation are much more blatant without sound to support it. Adora's wordless nods and gestures are at times jerky and difficult to interpret. Even the initial reaction of her character to losing her voice is more of a non-reaction; as Adora's inner monologue describes the magical mishap that's befallen her, her face betrays absolutely no emotion whatsoever.
• We also miss the rather obvious chance for some added goofiness, when the writers decide not to have anyone pop the wrong voice bubble. Why not have Hordak mess with Mantenna by giving him a rebel's voice instead of his own? Or have Adora accidentally pop Vesser's bubble, and be forced to speak her magic words in a masculine baritone? Though I suppose that would tend to undermine or satirize the show's themes of female empowerment...
• A couple of other potential continuity errors, though I almost hate to point them out, because even to myself they sound extra nitpicky...but I'll do it anyway. Shadow Weaver demonstrates that she can pretty much instantaneously travel between Hordak's throne room and the inn at Gailbreth. Yet when she returns to the throne room to show Hordak the box of voices, Bow and Adora - who presumably had to travel using only footpower, since horses have been outlawed from this episode - are somehow already there. Did the fact that Shadow Weaver was carrying the Imp-box preclude her use of teleportation on the return voyage? Did she stop to take a shower and eat something before heading to Hordak?
• The other continuity error in the same scene has to do with Hordak's fingernails. When he reaches out to grab the voice box, both of his hands are clearly sporting a full set of talon-like claws. In the very next close-up of his hand pushing the button to activate the energy field, his forefinger has no pointy nail on the end. I don't know; maybe he can retract them, like a cat (or a Catra).
• Yet another continuity error (either I'm watching more carefully today or this episode really is full of them!): During Hordak's fight with She-Ra, there's a point where his tank form gets stuck in the ceiling by his pinchy clamp hands. He manages to free one and uses it to snip the wire of a hunk of technology hanging nearby, in an attempt to crush She-Ra standing below him. In a subsequent shot of the villain, however, the machinery has magically been restored and is back hanging from the ceiling next to him.
• Mantenna had better hope that Hordak never finds out who pushed that trapdoor button! Can you imagine? I think Mantenna's choice here is telling, and supports the subtext of this episode, which is that Hordak is a terrible manager. If your underling would rather drop you in a pit than help you fight your common enemy, you maybe need to revisit your workplace culture and morale! It wasn't cool how Hordak tortured Shadow Weaver, either.
• Animation error: At this point I'm starting to hate myself for listing all of these... sorry animators! I know you're trying your best. In the scene where Mantenna is sitting in Hordak's throne enjoying his trapdoor prank, the animators solve the problem of his two extra legs by tucking them up behind him and draping them over one arm of the chair. But when the laughing Mantenna adjusts himself in the seat, the bonus legs stay exactly where they are, as if the limbs aren't attached to him at all.
• I mentioned this in the plot summary, but will just take a moment to reiterate here the mysterious disappearance of Imp. It's not like he's much of a fighter - the only purpose he serves for the Horde is as a spy and messenger - so he wouldn't have been much help if he stuck around for the final battle against Bow and She-Ra. But it remains odd that we never see him again after he flies away from Adora.
• Continuity error: Yes, one more. In the ending scene, we find Adora giving instructions to the villagers for how to get their voices back, and popping a bubble for one villager to demonstrate. But we soon find that the other two villagers in the room have already had their voices restored, so it's hard to understand why she would need to be telling them how to do it.
• The conversion of the three Gailbreth citizens (apart from a brief glimpse of one other bar patron in the opening shot, there seem to be only three guys in the whole town) to the Rebellion at the end of the episode is hard to credit. In the beginning, Therin is arguing that they should not join the Rebellion, because if they do, the Horde will violently retaliate. The events of the rest of the episode prove him absolutely right. So why, after having been horribly abused for just considering the idea of turning against their oppressors, would the villagers all be convinced it's the right course of action? I guess this attack from Hordak has already pegged them as rebels, so they have nothing further to lose by signing up. It also helps that, when they were attacked, She-Ra saved their asses.
• My complaints aside, this remains a cool idea for a story. I appreciate the magical way the importance of free speech was demonstrated. I liked the lore we got from Hordak, in addition to his several imaginative transformations. It was amusing to see Mantenna turning the tables on Hordak with the trapdoor, also!