Francis Moss

Ernie Schmidt

To save a kidnapped prince and earn an ally for the Great Rebellion, our heroes attempt a daring interplanetary rescue from the perilous Mines of Mondor.

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Queen Angella, Glimmer, Kowl, Bow, Madame Razz, Broom

Scorpia, Hordak, Catra, Imp (squirrel), Shadow Weaver

Horde soldiers, King Duplis, Prince Hazar, various rebels, various citizens of Grador, Krytian birds, various miners, Overseer

Horde tanks, Bright Hope, Hordak-faced ship

Somewhere on Etheria, in a kingdom we've never visited before (though I'm sure it's nice), Hordak and his minions Scorpia and Catra have come to interrogate the local ruler, King Duplis. Apparently the Horde endeavors there have suffered from suspiciously well-informed attacks of the Great Rebellion, and Hordak (aided more than he desires by the overzealous comments of his minions) believes there is a traitor at work. The miserable King Duplis pleads ignorance. Later that night, we discover the king's son, Prince Hazar, sneaking through the woods to contact the rebels. But - oh no! - the prince and the freedom fighters are ambushed by a Horde patrol with Catra at its head. The rebels, old hands at escaping from situations like this, throw up a smoke screen and scramble down a concealed hole, calling to the prince to join them. The confused and unprepared Hazar instead winds up grabbed by Scorpia.

Cut to Castle Bright Moon, where the desperate King Duplis has come to beg audience and assistance from Queen Angella and her rebel forces. He explains that his son is bound for the planet Krytis and the insidious Mines of Mondor, there to slave away digging for a dangerous mineral that will surely ruin Hazar's tender constitution. Duplis vows that he will shift his allegiance to the rebels if Angella and her people can rescue his son. The queen agrees to the terms, only wishing that she could count on She-Ra's aid on this adventure. It's most fortunate, then, that She-Ra makes an appearance, just after Princess Adora has wandered off down a corridor.

The full rescue party consists of She-Ra, Glimmer, Kowl, Bow, Madame Razz, and Broom. They all traipse outside to Queen Angella's dimensional gate, which is apparently a thing that she has. The gate will take the heroes directly to the planet Krytis (or is it Kyrtis?), from whence they'll have to arrange their own transportation to the mines. This is no holiday excursion, though: they'll only have three days to reach the prince, free him from the mines, and get back - after that, the gate will shut down, sealing off their way home! After the rebels have marched resolutely through the gateway and disappeared, we find their departure has been observed by a squirrel hanging in a nearby tree - a squirrel that turns out to be the Horde spy, Imp! It's a sure bet that Hordak will get to hearing about this rescue mission.

Unaware that their mission has already been compromised, the rebels emerge on the other side of the gateway in the pleasant coastal town of Grador, peopled by a charmingly quaint bunch of miserable, grumpy, and heavily armed inhabitants, who for some reason don't seem thrilled by Bow's attempts to entertain them with a musical poem. While She-Ra is trying to book passage to the mines on the one ramshackle ship currently tied up at the harbor, the rest of her party fall afoul of the Gradorians and wind up in a dockside brawl. Thanks especially to Bow's martial skill and Razz's serendipitous magic, they manage to hold off the thugs until She-Ra returns and chases off the remainder. The golden-haired heroine then explains to her fellow landlubbers, none of whom have the slightest idea of how to man a ship, that they are now the owners of their own sailing vessel. When she couldn't convince the ship's captain to carry her party to the mines, She-Ra instead purchased his ship, now re-christened the Bright Hope.

As it happens, sailing is very easy for the rebels to teach themselves, and they make good time across the sea. They're a short distance from their destination when bad fortune arrives, in the form of Hordak and his Hordak-faced ship. Shadow Weaver is also on board, and she casts a stormy spell in the skies above the Bright Hope. With the storm-tattered rigging and masts tumbling down around their heads, the rebels have no choice but to abandon ship, taking to an improvised liferaft. Once Hordak has departed and the skies have cleared, our friends are left stranded on the open ocean; but they still have mobile lookouts in the form of Broom and Madame Razz, who are able to lead the way to land.

On their cross-country trek to reach the mines, with their return window narrowing with every passing hour, the rebels unintentionally frighten and enrage a large indigenous bird, who retaliates by grabbing Glimmer in its large talons. She-Ra leaps on the bird and ends up catching Glimmer (gee, it would be real handy to have a flying horse about now, wouldn't it?), but the trio crash, leaving the bird stunned and injured. The compassionate She-Ra pauses to heal the bird before they move on.

Finally reaching the entrance to the mines, the rebels do some reconnaissance, finding a collection of scraggly, downtrodden miners being cruelly mistreated by a troop of Horde soldiers and a whip-cracking Overseer. She-Ra decides stealth and surprise will be key and convinces her friends to wait until nightfall to make their move. Sneaking about in the dark, they find the miners - including Prince Hazar - huddled in a hut, and set them free. That's when all heck breaks loose, with Hordak swooping down with his ship to cast a spotlight on the escape attempt. The alerted Horde troops and Overseer are joined on the ground by Hordak, Catra, Shadow Weaver, and Scorpia, all determined to hold onto their slaves. Unexpectedly, it's Madame Razz who does for the Overseer, casting a spell that leaves the unpleasant fellow tied up by his own whip. Prince Hazar rallies the miners to fight back, and a flash of light from Glimmer blinds the Hordesmen, giving the miners enough time to steal Hordak's flying ship and get away. Hazar and his would-be rescuers, meanwhile, end up pinned down by an avalanche, thanks to a well-aimed shot from Hordak's arm cannon.

Things are looking desperate! The perfect time for the cavalry to arrive, which it now does, in the form of an entire flock of the same type of Krytian bird She-Ra healed earlier. They've come to repay her favor. The birds haul off the rebels and return them to the dimensional gate just in time to get through before it shuts for good (and with just a few seconds to spare for She-Ra to express her heartfelt thanks to the lead bird). Back at Castle Bright Moon (with Adora mysteriously returned to the party), it's now time for the grateful King Duplis to keep his side of the bargain and pledge his kingdom and people to the cause of the Great Rebellion. But, just as Glimmer suspected (not sure why), the king refuses! He never intended to join the rebels, and just wanted his son back. Why put the kid in danger again by setting him against the Horde? The words of Duplis's own son and those of Angella - who also worries about her only child going off to fight, but knows the war against the Horde is too important to be swayed by such considerations - finally convince the king to keep his word. The rebels have earned a new ally - hopefully! It's good enough news for Bow to turn to Adora and flash her the OK symbol - and a cheeky Filmation wink.

• Catra: Purr-haps the son of King Duplis can tell us about the rrrrebels. Or he can work in the Mines of Mondor until he does.
• Bow (of the unhappy citizens of Grador, who've reacted poorly to his performance): They just don't appreciate good music. / Kowl (scoffing): They haven't heard any yet.
• Glimmer: See, Mother? I told you so! / Queen Angella: I knew you had no intention of keeping your promise to help us. / King Duplis: How did you know? / Angella: Glimmer is my only child, too. I know how I worry when she goes off to fight Hordak. Every parent wants to keep his child out of danger. And yet, it's because of my love for her that I know Hordak must be driven from Etheria. / Duplis: I've been very foolish. I'm - I'm sorry.

• A look through widespread legs: A concealed rebel leaps down to reveal himself
• She-Ra runs at the viewer, bug-height: Showing up at the dock brawl; and later as she flees the mines
• She-Ra, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back: Just the hands on hips part is used for some close-up dialogue of our heroine, claiming that she "could never resist a sale."
• Bow rolls along the ground: A close-up of the well-worn loop is used, as the archer dodges falling bits of ship

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)

2:03 - Loo-Kee can be found in the lower left corner of the screen in an establishing shot of a forest. He's leaning against his favorite haunt, a tree, while looking off-screen to the left. He stays on screen as the view shifts and Prince Hazar walks by, making the elf hard not to notice.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee reminds us of She-Ra's act of kindness today in healing the injured bird. Avoiding the transactional nature of this assistance, with its later payback (somewhat mimicking the way in which Duplis insincerely and then sincerely promised his aid in return for the retrieval of his son), Loo-Kee would rather claim that helping people "makes you feel good," and that's why you should do it. That's still a pretty self-centered motivation, isn't it? Loo-Kee closes out his lesson with a piercing shriek of laughter - yikes.

Changing hearts and minds: Even though it's a dirty sort of quid pro quo, and it takes a lot of shaming and convincing on the part of Prince Hazar and Angella, King Duplis does ultimately offer his support for the rebellion in exchange for his son's safe return.

• This makes the fifth POP script by writer Francis Moss, out of what will be a total of 7.
• In terms of sequence, on my DVD set this episode has traded positions with the higher-coded 67042's "Enemy With My Face." I believe this to be all Modulok's fault; he appeared in 67042 and the episode was positioned earlier to keep his character's development in logical order. (See more of my theories on this point in my entry for that episode.)
• Today's story brings us to a new Etherian kingdom (which will remain mysteriously unnamed) and its new ruling family, in King Duplis and Prince Hazar.
• There are some very familiar rebel faces among the group who ambush Prince Hazar early in the episode. We've not only seen these folks posing as rebels before; we've also seen them playing various characters in MOTU. (Examples include Mallek, Palos, and a generic old man who seems to populate many Eternian and Etherian villages.) Amusingly, we'll see many of these same faces again near the end of the episode, posing now as slaves in the mines.
• We have heard tell of today's "Mines of Mondor" before - curiously enough, in the episode this one changed places with, 67042's "Enemy With My Face." Hordak plotted to exile She-Ra to the mines in the other story, as part of a shipment of slaves. Today, we learn from King Duplis that the mines are located on the planet "Kyrtis" - you'd think they'd be on the planet Mondor, but whatever - and that the minerals mined there are dangerous and sicken those who mine them. (I put the planet name in quotes because its spelling and pronunciation are variable - see commentary.)
• Though it seems like he'd be useful to have on any adventure, this one just has to make do without Swift Wind. The horse does not appear in today's episode.
• We learn that, like the Sorceress back at Grayskull, Queen Angella is the proud owner of a "dimensional gate," providing easy access to planet Krytis. And it's just sitting out in the woods! (See commentary for more on this point.)
• Imp, now appearing for his third consecutive episode by my reckoning, shows us his greatest disguise work yet in his introductory scene, where we see him perfectly mimicking a tree squirrel. The spy's previous disguises have all been colored the same blue hue as his main form, and usually retain his pig-nosed face; but his squirrel is a perfect shade of brown, with perfectly squirrel-ish features. Is he improving? Scary thought!
• One of the more imposing citizens of the coastal town of Grador, a pointy-eared fellow with an underbite first seen standing by a building brandishing a big wooden club, is identical to the ogre Gamrack employed by MU063's "The Huntsman."
• Bow believes that what the dour, downtrodden populace of Grador need is some music; but instead of actually singing a song, as he did in 67030's "Play It Again, Bow," he opts to recite a sort of spoken-word poem to accompany his strumming on the harp/lute.
• Madame's Magic: It's been a while since Razz cast a spell that didn't go quite as expected; today she chants a rhyming couplet that turns a patch of ground into very bouncy rubber. She's surprised, though pleased, by this result.
• In an amusing little sequence that didn't quite make it into the plot summary, Hordak decides he doesn't like what one of the pilots of his Hordak-faced ship is telling him and ejects the poor fellow out of a door set in the vehicle's nose. We can't quite add it to the growing list of examples of Hordak dumping people down trapdoors; but it's trapdoor-adjacent. Incidentally, it seems Hordak's ship is making a rare interplanetary journey here, since the remaining soldier informs Hordak that they're "approaching Krytis."
• On board the Bright Hope, we see Bow resort to his instrument again, this time demonstrating that it can extend out of a small shaft, just like his bow (something we've never seen the harp do before). He even sings a little - though we rather wish he hadn't; even She-Ra looks a tad irritated as he goes on - about how great it is to be a sailor. The sequence rather makes you wonder if his extending bow is the same tool as his harp, both implements somehow living together in one compact pole, similar to She-Ra's Swiss army sword.
• I was just thinking that the high cliffs and green valley where the rebels were climbing looked like MU038's "Valley of Power," when lo and behold, a bird very similar in design to that episode's Ro bird appeared to grab Glimmer. It even makes the same sound as the Ro! This version is colored differently, and has some horns added to the sides of its head. (The Ro character design was recycled several times in MOTU episodes as well.)
• She-Ra doesn't seem to have time to use her animal communication skills on the beast, but she does use her healing powers - in a move that, even during my first viewing, I was 100% sure would pay dividends later in the episode. Our Filmation writers have used this "Androcles and the Lion" trick before, in MOTU (see the helpful takdryl of MU064's "The Remedy") and in POP (see the healed tyrosaur of 67014's "Friendship").
• Madame's Magic: Razz's second spell of the story seems to go off without a hitch, and surprisingly allows her to take care of the wicked, whip-wielding Overseer, when she turns the guy's own weapon into rope that binds him. (I had pegged the Overseer as destined for a nice, swift kick from She-Ra!)
• Glimmer gets a rare chance to contribute to the fighting today, as She-Ra requests a dazzling light from the pink-haired princess that successfully distracts all the Hordesmen. It makes you wonder why she doesn't do that more often!
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra goes for her sword-shaped pile of rope today, but unusually is able to generate it without any verbal commands (because she's too busy at the time spouting off sassy remarks to her enemies).
• Hordak transformations: Though his angry tantrum at the miners' escape puts him into the same pose he would usually use to transform into his full-body rocket, the Horde leader doesn't go to the trouble, instead opting a few moments later to use his familiar arm cannon to cause an avalanche to pelt down on the fleeing heroes.
• I've already had call to mention the MOTU episode "The Huntsman" (MU063) on an unrelated topic. In a second connection, the last-minute and complete turnaround of King Duplis from a Horde collaborator to a rebel ally is just as unbelievable as the about-face of MU063's title character. (By the way, the king's name sounds like "duplicitous," which may have been intentional.)
• I realize I've gotten all the way done with this episode without discussing the Tolkien connection. "Mondor" is one letter away from "Mordor," and the "Mines of Mondor" is not a far cry from Tolkien's "Mines of Moria." There. It had to be said!

• We learn in the opening scene that Hordak believes someone from Duplis's kingdom has been feeding information to the rebels. In the following scene, we see Prince Hazar sneaking off to contact said rebels - the obvious conclusion being that he's the mole Hordak is looking for. But the rebels have clearly never met Hazar before, and question his affiliation. So... was he the one helping them, or not? Maybe Hazar had found a way to pass intelligence without revealing himself and, up until then, had not contacted them in person. Like Deep Throat! Yes, Prince Hazar is this unnamed kingdom's Deep Throat.
• Interesting that King Duplis, a former supporter of the Horde forced to desperate, rebellious action by the imprisonment of his son, chooses to visit Queen Angella. This is the first time I can remember that we see her and her kingdom acting as a real focal point for the Great Rebellion. For instance, when the wizard Catillus, owner of the Moon Mirror, went looking for rebels (67015), he didn't go to Bright Moon; he blundered around the Whispering Woods until he came across Bow and Glimmer.
• We've seen Hordak trying to destroy Angella's castle before; heck, he just tried it in the previous episode (67041). Why hasn't he ever tried to steal, use, or break the queen's dimensional gate? He was very interested in having Modulok's gatemaker in 67035. We can't even generously conclude that Hordak doesn't know about Angella's gate, because just after it's used, we discover that Imp was there to see it. And in the event, it's not the gate's existence that excites the winged spy; Imp's only concern is that the rebels have used it to get to the mines. Perhaps the thing only operates through Angella's magic, making it useless to any other potential owner.
• Continuity error: Our characters don't agree on how to pronounce the name of the planet where the Mines of Mondor are. King Duplis calls it "Keer-tiss," but a scene or so later we hear Queen Angella call it "Cry-tiss." A nervous Horde soldier reverts to Duplis's pronunciation; but at the end of the episode, Glimmer favors her mother's version. Probably just those regional Etherian accents! Since I had to pick one or the other for consistency's sake, I have opted to use Krytis in the plot summary (following Wiki Grayskull's lead).
• So just where on her person was She-Ra keeping that sack of 100 gold coins that she uses to buy the boat? And does she always carry around a huge sack of gold for emergency purchases?
• Kowl avoids capture: Well, not really, since none of his friends get captured; but I can't resist bringing up this sub-category to address the moment just before the dock brawl begins, where Bow's retiring bird decides to sit things out by fluttering away to perch on a nearby rooftop.
• Frankly, She-Ra's buying a broken-down old ship and setting to sea with a bunch of people who have no idea how to sail it doesn't rank among her brightest ideas. Just have to go and test that plot armor, don't you, ma'am? (Ironically, in a later scene she stops to make sure one of the miners knows how to pilot Hordak's ship before hustling the freed slaves onto it. Can't they just trust to their own optimism to save them?)
• In fact, She-Ra's purchase proves even less of a bargain when Shadow Weaver's storm hits, and the novice crew find their ship has no tender or lifeboat. Even the Titanic had some of those! Our heroine is forced to rip off a cabin wall and toss it into the sea as a raft. The raft is the source of a small continuity error, since the panel that She-Ra tears free has a large window cut into it, but later shots of the raft show a solid, unbroken sheet of planks.
• Animation error: In the scene where Madame Razz and Broom are flying too low and skimming the surface of the sea, Razz's eyes are incorrectly colored white instead of her usual yellow. When she rises out of the water, they turn yellow again.
• Another instance of - shall we say - "interesting" judgment comes when the rescue party witness the cruel overseer whipping an exhausted slave. We see She-Ra looking very grim, clearly upset at the sight, and Glimmer and Bow suggest that they go down right away and help; but our heroine demurs, saying they must wait until nightfall. It's hard to forget that He-Man in a similar situation didn't stop to think; when he saw slaves in the factories of Phantos, he acted! Or anyway, he got himself caught. (See MU005.) Also, the rebels just got done saying they didn't have much time until the return dimensional gate closed, so why waste time now?
• Speaking of wasting time - was there not enough room on Hordak's ship for the rebel rescue party and their most important rescuee? It's hard to understand why She-Ra and friends wouldn't take the opportunity to pile onto the stolen ship, especially given the ever-approaching deadline on their door home. It's almost like She-Ra knew those birds would show up. Maybe she read through the script ahead of time.
• I found it pretty funny that, though the heroes went to all the trouble of waiting until nightfall, presumably so that they wouldn't alert the Horde forces to their presence, Bow VERY LOUDLY calls out to his fellows when he finds the prince.
• Instead of wasting time, how about saving some time? Our animators did, when they showed all the slaves boarding Hordak's ship: it's literally the same slave in the same outfit, doing the same walk cycle, copy-and-pasted over and over. Ha!
• Continuity error: When the heroes return to the seaside town of Grador, the background painting shows the fully restored Bright Hope back in place at the docks. It's a miracle! (Though I'd like to think I would have noticed this without any help, I have to admit I read this error first on Wiki Grayskull.)
• Some strange choices in today's story, the most positive of which were the writer's letting the other rebels take some agency over the course of the mission. Note that most of the dock fight is handled by Bow and Razz, while She-Ra is busy buying their boat; and even in the final confrontation with the Horde forces at the mine, She-Ra requests aid from Glimmer and gives Razz the chance to defeat the slavedriver. I was just complaining (67041) about a tendency of the series to rely too heavily on She-Ra Power to solve the problems, and as seems to happen with such complaints, I get an immediate comeuppance.