Don Heckman

Richard Trueblood

She-Ra rescues a space-traveling boy and his Robo-Friend pal from a Horde attack. But the Horde aren't done with this prince from space or his valuable robot - and our Etherian heroes aren't done teaching him a valuable lesson on sharing!

Spirit (Swift Wind), Princess Adora (She-Ra), Queen Angella, Bow

Imp, Hordak, Grizzlor, Catra, Leech

Robo-Friend, Prince Joel, various young Etherians, Horde soldier

Prince Joel's spaceship (and escape pod), Horde flyers, glonders

It's a beautiful day for a flight - in space! She-Ra and Swift Wind are in the midst of a casual jaunt through the star-studded vacuum above Etheria when they spy an innocent victim in need of rescue. A spaceship is being attacked by Horde fighters! Our heroine promptly dispatches the robotic attackers, faster than you can say "giant tennis racquet;" albeit just too late to prevent them destroying their target. Before exploding, the doomed ship launches an escape pod, which tumbles out of control toward the surface of Etheria. She-Ra must race ahead of the plummeting pod so she can catch it and place it safely on the ground.

A single survivor emerges from the pod, a young boy who introduces himself as Prince Joel of Antaris. He's grateful for having been rescued, but dismayed to discover that his "Robo-Friend," a mechnical pal tucked in a well behind the cockpit, was damaged in the attack. The compassionate She-Ra, her rescuing work not yet done, escorts Joel to the nearby Castle Bright Moon, where Queen Angella promises to contact Joel's parents to come and collect him. In the meantime, Bow the archer takes the prince under his manly wing, introducing the boy to some Etherian children in the same age group. When the friendly kids try to engage Joel for a healthy game of arm ball, the boy begs off; he's used to doing everything with his Robo-Friend. As he explains, back home on Antaris, every kid has a Robo-Friend which sees to their every need. The Etherians' suggestion that Joel share the robot by having it assist in their chores causes the prince to quiver with disgust - no one should touch another boy's Robo-Friend!

Besides, the robot is damaged beyond repair, right? Well, not anymore! Bow demonstrates that he can add "mechanical engineer" to his long list of talents, when he reassembles the busted machine. He and Princess Adora present the restored robot to the boy as a sop, since they haven't yet been able to get a hold of his parents. Too bad there's no way to power up the Robo-Friend, right? Perhaps there is, though, because a pleased Joel totes the thing back to his room, claiming that he's forgotten something there.

It's about time we turn our attention to the darker, grimier side of Etheria, to see what the Horde have been up to. Those villains were attacking Joel and his ship for the sole purpose of obtaining the Robo-Friend - a fact we learn when a Hordesman reports to Hordak of their failure in that regard. The soldier admits that the boy and his robot were escorted to Bright Moon by She-Ra. For his pains, he's summarily dumped down a trapdoor, and Hordak's pet spy, Imp, volunteers his snooping services to gain intelligence on the Robo-Friend. Hordak, it seems, is anxious to keep the powerful robot out of the hands of the rebellion, who he fears are capable of almost anything with the tool in their possession. Imp is accordingly sent to Bright Moon, where he's on hand to witness Joel booting his Robo-Friend back up. Uh-oh!

Even without the Horde getting involved, the newly operational Robo-Friend can cause problems; as we see when Joel tries showing off his toy to the other kids. Revealing that the robot can transform into pretty much anything, Joel commands it to become a catapult and prepares to launch a rock into the air - ignoring the objections of the other children, who sensibly predict that the rock might hit something. A passing Adora, sensing that superpowered help may soon be needed, transforms herself and her horse and is available to quickly react when the catapult's fired projectile inevitably strikes the top of a tall tower, breaking off its pointy tip. She-Ra leaps into the bucket of the catapult, launches herself into the air, catches the falling bit of building, and makes a perfect landing in Swift Wind's saddle. Whew! After carelessly throwing away the broken chunk of masonry, She-Ra lands and changes back into Adora so she can help Bow lecture the chagrined prince on his own carelessness.

To forget their troubles, the Etherian children venture off to Big Ditch Canyon - a trip to which they very magnanimously invite the self-centered and danger-prone Joel. After some coaxing from Bow and Adora, the boy eventually decides to join his peers, and he and his Robo-Friend traipse through the forest, bound for the rebels' camp in the canyon. Little do our heroes know that the Horde are on their way as well! After informing Hordak of the fully operational robot, Imp was given a tiny device which he can plug into the hacking port on the Robo-Friend, placing it under the control of the Horde! When a spying Imp relays the rebels' and robot's location, Hordak sends Horde forces in the form of Grizzlor, Catra, and Leech, to create a distraction. The dastardly trio show up to the camp on their hover bikes (AKA "glonders") and do just that, drawing Bow into an argument over territorial rights.

Most unfortunately, Joel has chosen this same moment to finally wean himself from the company of his Robo-Friend. One of the Etherian children (there are five of them, and they all remain nameless throughout the episode, so that's as specific as I can get) has convinced Joel to leave the robot behind in a tent while he teaches the prince how to climb on rocks. This fact, combined with the frontal assault of the Horde minions, gives Imp all the opportunity he needs to sneak into the tent and install the malware in the robot. The newly recruited Horde gadget emerges from the tent at just about the same time as She-Ra arrives on the scene. She and Bow are momentarily taken aback (and shoved over) by the Robo-Friend's change of allegiance, but our heroine swiftly recovers and manages to use the robot to smash together all the Hordespeople on their hover bikes. The collision is enough to convince Catra and company to wander on home.

Not to be defeated so easily, the Robo-Friend dupes Joel into coming within grabbing distance, then kidnaps the boy, sailing off into the sky - and towards the Fright Zone - with its hostage. She-Ra follows on Swift Wind, confusing and blinding the robot by changing her sword into a smokescreen (don't ask; it's magic). This allows her just enough time to swoop in under the Robo-Friend and catch a dropped Joel, right before the blinded robot slams into the side of a cliff, handily disintegrating itself.

Afterwards, Prince Joel tells his young Etherian acquaintances that he has learned an important lesson about robots: they only help you because they're programmed to. Humans make much more dependable servants - I mean, friends! Friends. He's learned this lesson just in time, because (as Bow and Adora inform him) his parents are arriving any minute to pick him up. And Bow has managed to repair that Robo-Friend once again! (Though hopefully he ran a virus scan on it, too, or there are further kidnappings in the prince's future!) There's only enough time left in the episode for Bow to provide us a zinger, in which he assures Adora of the many times he has saved She-Ra from the depredations of the Horde, while a twinkling Adora tips us viewers a knowing Filmation wink.

• She-Ra: These robots need a lesson in Space Manners.
• Prince Joel: All the kids on Antaris have Robo-Friends - they do everything for us.
• Prince Joel (quite peeved, to Bow): Well, friends don't ask to use your Robo-Friend. / Bow: Maybe not on your planet, Joel, but on Etheria we like to share things. / Joel: Not me!
• Imp: Okay Robo-Pal, the time has come for you to become friends with the Horde.
• Bow (threatening Grizzlor): Try it, Fuzz Face; make my day.
• Joel: When Hordak got control of it, I found out that robots are only friendly because they're programmed that way. People are friendly because they really care about you. / Etherian child (who looks like young Prince Adam): You know, you might be okay after all, Prince Joel. / Joel (bashful, looking down): Well, why, I-I think you're okay, too.

N/A

Two full

8:55 - Loo-Kee can be seen at the top center of the screen, clinging to a vine-wrapped branch and looking down onto Castle Bright Moon.
Did I spot him? YES!

According to Loo-Kee, today's lesson was not that you should learn to share your sweet technological knick-knacks; nor was it that you should give up your dependence on said knick-knacks; nor was it that, when you do finally manage to put down said knick-knacks for a few seconds, that you should put them in a safe place so nobody steals them and maliciously programs them to attack you. No: "he [Joel] learned out of all the things in life that people may have, there is nothing more precious and more important than the friendship of other people." Really? Are you sure that's what we learned, Loo-Kee? Well, if you say so.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Prince Joel will have to learn to be nice and let other people touch his Robo-Friend; ironically, the mature adults on the scene will have to learn to not let certain people touch Prince Joel's Robo-Friend.

• This will be Don Heckman's second of several POP writing credits (the first being 67028's "Bow's Farewell"); he also contributed three scripts to MOTU.
• As she has done in several previous episodes (most recently 67029), She-Ra begins this episode already transformed. Unlike in 67029, where our heroine spent the entire episode in her superpowered state, today we'll also see Princess Adora.
• This episode gives us a chance to see She-Ra visiting a place she's been to before: space! In 67028's "Bow's Farewell" (Heckman's previous POP script, so clearly he's enamored of this idea), She-Ra exited Etheria's atmosphere for the purposes of holding back an eclipse. In this episode, she seems to have done it just for funsies.
• I saw tips of the hat to several sci-fi properties in short order today: Prince Joel's spaceship, with its disc-shaped main portion, neck, and separated thrusters, looks very much like it could be flying the flag of Star Trek's United Federation of Planets. The prince's escape pod has a cozy nook behind the cockpit for his Robo-Friend, just like the droid port in an X-wing fighter. And our princeling's relationship with his helpful Robo-Friend seems like a nod to Will Robinson and his Robot, from a sci-fi series older than all the others: Lost in Space. In fact, just about the last thing the Robo-Friend says is "Danger! Danger!" which was sort of the Lost in Space robot's tagline.
• The Horde ships chasing the unlucky prince look to be the same "Horde flyer" that our heroes stole to make their escape from Beast Island back in 67002. They also appear identical to the so-called "batmeks" seen attacking Castle Bright Moon in the SOTS conclusion, 67005. These are definitely billed as "robots" by She-Ra, who also identifies them as "fighters."
• Swiss army sword: In an original and surprising choice of implement, She-Ra changes her sword to a giant tennis racquet to whack the fighters. It's definitely an Earth tennis racquet, since she makes a joke about an "ace" afterwards; raising some questions which I cover in the commentary section.
• Our ignorant brat - sorry, wayward child - for today is Prince Joel, who hails from what my DVD captions call "Antaris" but I suspect was meant to be "Antares." Antares is the real name of an actual star. According to Wikipedia, it's the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius (not Scorpia).
• A couple of characters are conspicuous in their absence from today's lineup. First, it's rare to see Kowl missing from Bow's side, as happens here (though there are some other previous examples: 67017's "A Loss for Words" and 67026's "Book Burning" gave Bow a break from his verbally abusive best bud). Second, and much rarer, this episode for the first time in the series sees Queen Angella appearing without her daughter Glimmer.
• One of the more vocal young Etherians to whom Prince Joel is introduced looks identical to the young Prince Adam, as seen in flashbacks from MU018 and MU096. The resemblance is truly uncanny.
• When asked where Antaris is located, Joel points up and says it's "about 600 million vectors (?) that way." It's unclear whether this unit of distance is one used only by Antarians, or is some kind of intra- or intergalactic standard that would be familiar to Etherians.
• Etherians may share with Terrans a love of tennis, but they also play their own sport, dubbed "arm ball" by the young Adam clone. Since we never see the kids play it, it's unclear whether the name derives from the body part used to throw the ball, or the shape of the ball itself - though an arm-shaped ball would be very clumsy to toss around.
• Trapdoor time again! "It's the water cure for you, Captain!" is how Hordak prefaces his trapdoor punishment for the Hordesman who brings him the bad news about the unobtained Robo-Friend. Lucky for Mantenna that he doesn't appear in this episode, or he'd surely be the one getting this treatment (see 67013, 67017, 67035).
• Hordak's little spy, Imp, shows his face for the first time since 67023's "The Crown of Knowledge." In Hordak's interactions with the little guy, we see the dictator expressing a marked preference bordering on affection. Hordak heartily agrees with Imp's opinions about the Horde soldier, then seems inordinately concerned for the spy's safety when Imp suggests going to Bright Moon to obtain the Robo-Friend. Finally agreeing to Imp's volunteered espionage, Hordak bids him farewell with the encomium: "You're the only one around here I can trust."
• Showing again his transformative powers, Imp in short order changes into a "bibble," a candle, and a rocket (just like his boss!). Later, he's a literal fly on the wall as Joel powers up his Robo-Friend. The bibble is clearly an Etherian apple, and interestingly calls back to Bow's expression "easy as bibble pie" (67019), showing an unusual attention to lore consistency across episodes.
• Spirit makes a brief and late appearance in today's episode. After Swift Wind's opening scene, there are no horses in evidence until about the episode's midpoint, when a freshly transformed She-Ra turns her sword on a suddenly present Spirit. The non-winged form of the horse later shows up again in the establishing shot of the rebel camp at Big Ditch Canyon, so we'll know he's available for the episode's second full transformation sequence.
• I've noted in the past He-Man's concern for (eventually) repairing the buildings that he damages to save people, or that get damaged during his heroic rescues (see for instance MU033). She-Ra displays a somewhat less public-spirited mindset today, when she simply drops the top of the obelisk Joel broke with his Robo-Catapult, offhandedly commenting "Looks like a safe place to unload" as she allows the thing to shatter to bits on the forest floor. Sheesh.
• In the panning shot that begins Imp and Hordak's scene after the catapult rescue, we see a dark and twisted sculpture at the foot of Hordak's dais. It's the same one labeled "OBEY" that he's shot to bits - twice (once back in 67001 and again in 67015). I love the implied running gag here, that Hordak keeps destroying this thing and his employees have to keep replacing it.
• Our characters visit a new Etherian location today, in the unimaginatively named Big Ditch Canyon.
• Imp shows off a cute wristwatch video communicator, probably the same one he used to talk to Hordak while he was disguised as an oil painting at the beginning of 67017's "A Loss for Words."
• Secret identity (non) problems: When Princess Adora and Bow catch a glimpse of the Horde hover bikes approaching their camp, Adora silently walks off, with Spirit cleverly catching the hint and following after her. Bow, however, perhaps distracted by the arrival of their enemies, doesn't notice Adora's departure at all, doesn't ask after her when She-Ra appears or at any point in the ensuing battle, and doesn't seem to remark at all on She-Ra's disappearance and Adora's reappearance for the ending scene.
• I found the argument Catra and Bow have over whether or not Big Ditch Canyon is Horde territory rather strange. Wouldn't Hordak claim all of Etheria as Horde territory? If the two parties have some kind of truce that forbids the Horde from invading the area around Castle Bright Moon, and presumably forbids the rebellion from infiltrating the Fright Zone, then neither side has been holding up their end very well!
• Swiss army sword: Another curious and unusual transformation for She-Ra's sword comes when she causes the weapon to emit a smokescreen to blind the hacked Robo-Friend. Her stated aim is to keep the robot, which currently has Joel in its clutches, from dropping the boy; but what the smoke ultimately does is cause the robot to drop the boy.

• The beginning sequence of this episode gives the nerd in me a lot to jaw about. Firstly you have She-Ra behaving as if going into space is no big thang. The ease with which she makes this transition is emphasized when we later see her following Joel's escape pod down to the surface of Etheria: the pod is animated as glowing bright yellow, clearly heating up as it enters the atmosphere, while just next to it She-Ra is sailing along, not even a little hot under the collar.
• Also you have the Horde craft, which when they appeared in 67002 clearly required passengers to fly them, but in this instance are entirely robotic - and capable of space travel.
• Then you have Prince Joel, who is by any measure a minor, for some reason allowed to pilot his own spacecraft unaccompanied. This kid hasn't yet learned that sharing is nice, but his parents thought it was all right for him to travel between solar systems??
• She-Ra's use of a giant novelty tennis racquet and reference to an "ace" seems to indicate her knowledge of the Earth sport of tennis. You could explain away He-Man characters having knowledge of Earth, under the assumption that Queen Marlena (a bona fide Earthling) had explained such things at some point; but when has Princess Adora had time to go back to Eternia and learn all about Earth sports from her mother? Or are we to conclude (nerd snort) that these two civilizations, Earth and Etheria, somehow independently developed the same sport and (nerd snort) named it the same thing?
• Animation error: In all the long shots of the Horde soldier who reports to Hordak, the Horde logo on his chest armor has its wings incorrectly colored black instead of red. (In closeup shots the wings are correctly colored.)
• As Hordak explains to Imp, he wants to steal Joel's Robo-Friend as a preventative measure, since he believes that if the rebellion had the robotic servant, "there's no telling what they could do." However this idea never occurs to the rebels themselves, who naturally wouldn't steal from a child - and who also already have She-Ra on their side. Seriously, Hordak: who needs a robot when you have a human superheroine?
• And another thing about this amazingly valuable robot: its value seems to lie in its ability to transform into anything on command, a fact Imp amazedly reports to Hordak. But, as this episode reminds us, there are a couple members of the Horde who can already do just that - Imp and Hordak. Do they really need a transforming robot ("Transformer," if you will) when they can turn into bibbles and candles and rockets whenever they want? You might argue, as Hordak does, that they need to keep this ability out of the hands of the rebels; but guess who wears a tiny skirt, has two thumbs, and already has a sword that changes into whatever she tells it to? Mmm-hmm. You know.
• It's been a while since we've had a clear case of "She-Ra is a crutch" on our hands - in fact, recent episodes have been leaning in the opposite direction, with Adora waiting until the situation has gotten perilously near catastrophe before raising her sword aloft (see for instance 67028). But today we're back in crutch territory, as Princess Adora spots Prince Joel preparing to fire off a catapult, and instead of just walking over and firmly telling him to stop being a moron, she says, "I've got a strong feeling She-Ra's going to be needed here" and walks off in the opposite direction. What's needed here, Missy, is a supervising adult of any shape or form!
• To give proper contrast to Prince Joel's naughtiness, we are led to believe that Etheria produces some of the best-behaved children in the galaxy. Our first view of the gang of five Etherian kiddies has them dutifully sweeping the floors so they can earn some time playing a healthy outdoor sport. They give very sensible advice to the selfish and heedless Joel about not firing off catapults willy-nilly. And even after all of Joel's rude behavior, they're still willing to accept him into their friend group and teach him how to climb rocks, rather than shun him as a stuck-up nerd (which would surely be the reaction of the majority of Earth children). These kids are saints!
• As I suggested in my description in the Connected Episodes section, today's lesson is a bit of a mixed bag. Certainly Joel should learn to share his Robo-Friend, as the word "share" or "sharing" is in the mouths of several characters today. But we also learn that Joel needs to free himself from his dependence on the Robo-Friend, as if he has a social media addiction or something. Fine: we can have more than one lesson in an episode, I guess. But the lesson seems to turn on its teachers, since just when Adora and the others finally convince Joel to leave his robot behind for a few minutes, it gets captured by the bad guys and hacked. What are we meant to learn from this? If we try turning to Loo-Kee for help, he will only confuse us further by delivering a lesson that isn't any of the ones I listed, and was never clearly conveyed in the episode proper (see PSA).
• I love how the deactivated Robo-Friend in the tent assumes a very casual and humanlike posture, leaning one elbow against a box and resting its other pincer on its robotic hips.
• I was very surprised that when She-Ra tells Bow to run along while she takes care of the bad guys, Bow just silently does exactly as she asks. Since the earliest episodes of the show, Bow has been insisting on assisting people to fight evil, usually against those people's strenuous objections (to go back to the beginning of this trend, see Adam's awkward refusal of Bow's company in 67003). Has our mustached renaissance man finally gotten tired of trying? In fact, this scene almost definitely exists to emphasize the irony of the ending zinger, where Bow boasts to Adora how She-Ra always calls on him when she gets in trouble.
• She-Ra's defeat of the three Horde minions by causing them to collide their hover bikes into each other is clumsily animated and makes little physical sense. I'd like to come up with something positive to say about the sequence, but nothing comes to mind.
• As I noted parenthetically in the plot summary, Bow's second and final reassembly of the Robo-Friend should worry us all. There's no indication that the rebels discovered the hacking device Imp planted on it, and no confirmation that it was destroyed; so how do we know that Hordak won't just co-opt the device again as soon as it's powered up?
• All in all, having reached the end of my analysis of this episode, I'm forced to conclude that it won't be making my top ten. It's a lesson-heavy story with a bratty kid, qualities which don't exactly make a landmark episode; but on top of that, its lessons are confused and messy, and it suffers from quite a few illogical and nonsensical plot points. There were things I liked about it. The outer space rescue was fun; the Robo-Friend had a cute character design; She-Ra's unique sword transformations, particularly the tennis racquet at the beginning, were wackily charming; and I enjoyed the chemistry between Imp and Hordak.