J. Michael Straczynski

Richard Trueblood

In an attempt to get rid of She-Ra for good, Shadow Weaver summons a muddy "Melog," a creature capable of mimicking our heroine's powers and strength. Can She-Ra possibly defeat - herself?!

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

Scorpia, Catra, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Modulok, Mantenna

Horde soldiers, Horde computer, Melog, horse, Farmer Carliss, bird, various villagers (including curious girl)

Horde shipping trucks, armored trucks, ground buster, Horde tanks, wagon

Oh boy! Today is going to be a great day for Scorpia. After a nearly year-long development cycle, she's finally succeeded in creating a terrible weapon for the Horde, sure to defeat those pesky rebels once and for all. The only thing left to do is to ship the weapon by truck convoy. Surely nothing could go wrong during transit - right? Wrong! An ambush sends the lead truck into a hidden pit, and the rest of the convoy domino into each other. Scorpia's day is ruined! And it's all She-Ra's fault, as is proven when the heroine appears to make a cheeky remark before flying away.

Back at the Fright Zone after this humiliating defeat, Hordak gathers his best minds in an impressive computer room, where the recently hired (and then demoted, to Horde cook) Modulok is working on a sentient algorithm to help solve this biggest of Horde problems. The computer is activated, and Hordak asks his question: how can he get She-Ra off his back? Processing the question through its logic circuits, Horde computer gives the logical answer: to stop She-Ra, you need someone with the same strength and powers as She-Ra. Hordak is incensed by this answer, since he knows there's no one on Etheria as powerful as She-Ra. But just as Hordak blasts the computer's pixelated face out of existence with his arm cannon, it repeats one cryptic word, "Melog," which inspires Shadow Weaver with a wonderful, horrible idea.

Weaver grabs the Horde toady Mantenna and drags him off to a nasty, skull-filled mud pit, where she uses her magic to summon the Melog. As she explains to the handy four-legged ignoramus she's brought with her, the Melog is a mud-made creature, lifeless but obedient, which can absorb and gain the powers of anyone it touches. Now all Weaver has to do is get this thing to meet She-Ra! The meeting is not long in coming. We find Adora with Kowl, Madame Razz, and Broom, in the process of receiving some much-needed supplies from Farmer Carliss, a friend and rebel supporter. Their handoff is interrupted by a giant Horde tank, with Shadow Weaver at the helm! The farmer and Razz ride off on their separate ways (on a horse and Broom, respectively), leaving Adora and Kowl to take on the attackers (in other words, just Adora). Adora makes a quick change and, as She-Ra, faces off against a smaller Horde tank that has been disgorged from the larger model. She slices the thing open with her sword and is surprised to find the vehicle hollowed out. Not quite empty, however: for inside lurks the Melog! The creature leaps out and grapples with She-Ra, immediately becoming more feminine and gaining our heroine's great strength. The pair then engage in a game of tug-of-war using She-Ra's sword-rope, but Shadow Weaver soon tires of the game and decides to take her new weapon away.

With her foes departed, a shell-shocked She-Ra tells Kowl that for the first time, she has lost a fight. Despite Kowl's insistence that the battle ended in a tie, She-Ra remains shaken, and makes a quick visit to mentor Light Hope for some advice. Light Hope delivers a brief lecture on Melogs, but also reassures She-Ra that she has the capability to conquer the creature. All she has to do is ask herself: since the Melog has her powers, what else does it have? Meanwhile, Weaver is plotting with Hordak back at the Fright Zone on how best to make use of their new Evil She-Ra doll. As they earmark She-Ra as a passenger on the next slave shipment to the horrible Mines of Mondor, we watch as a curious Melog stares out a window of the fortress and becomes entranced by a passing bird. The bird lands on her finger for a brief moment, to Melog's amazement, before Weaver calls her away for more evil-doings.

Changed back to Princess Adora, our heroine has teamed with Bow to check up on a village that is being visited by Horde soldiers. The troopers are threatening the populace and extorting protection payments. A disgusted Adora does her transformation thing again, and She-Ra wades into town to do some saving. She's once again fooled into coming face-to-face with Melog, who this time instead of hiding in a tank is disguised as a Horde soldier. Seeing this dangerous enemy returned, She-Ra urges Bow to get the other villagers to safety so she can take it on alone.

Given that both women have the exact same power set, it's no huge surprise that their duel settles into a stalemate. She-Ra can take anything the Melog can dish out - including kitchen sinks. Shadow Weaver is on the scene as well, however, and she rigs the game with a little magic of her own, conjuring a wind storm that blows She-Ra into the force field prison set up to capture her. She-Ra is undismayed by this turn of events, because she knows that her magic sword can break her out of the prison; but her bid for freedom is interrupted by an innocent bystander in peril. A curious young girl, who also happens to be a huge She-Ra fan, has crept too close and hidden herself in a large clay pot so she can witness the battle. Weaver's wind knocks the pot over and sets it rolling towards a ravine filled with razor-sharp rocks. Thinking quickly, She-Ra flings her sword - the only tool she has to escape the force field - away. It lands point-first in the ground, blocking the roll of the pot and saving the girl.

Things are looking bad now! She-Ra is at Shadow Weaver's mercy in the force field, and the powerful Melog is free to wreak havoc on Etheria. Or is she? When the Horde sorceress commands her slave to take the village girl, the Melog instead walks over and strokes the girl's hair. Seeing this, She-Ra realizes the answer to Light Hope's riddle: that along with her own strength, the Melog has taken She-Ra's feelings - her love and compassion and gentleness. Urging the Melog to focus on these feelings, She-Ra convinces the creature to disobey her cruel mistress and toss the sword of protection back to its owner. She-Ra uses her weapon to smash the force field, freeing herself, and a defeated Shadow Weaver teleports herself out of there.

Back at the rebel camp in the Whispering Woods, She-Ra has an awkward one-sided conversation with the Melog, who up until now has done nothing but emit a series of low grunts. Getting an idea, the Princess of Power takes out her sword and says her magic words, zapping the Melog with the same sword-gem energy that usually changes her horse. The power transforms Melog into a fully human being - one who can talk! Melog thanks She-Ra for making her into a real girl, but when offered a position in the rebellion, decides that she instead needs a gap year to wander Etheria and come to grips with her new feelings and freedom. An amenable She-Ra accepts this and bids Melog a fond farewell. Having witnessed this whole conversation, a wise Swift Wind points out that no matter how accurate a clone of She-Ra Melog is, she's still missing the most important thing of all: a flying horse. She-Ra guffaws.

• Shadow Weaver: Bone of bog and skin of swamp, where creepers in the slime do romp, grow and take from my enemy all - arise, arise, and hear my call. Come forth, Melog, come forth!
• Shadow Weaver: She-Ra! / She-Ra (sighing): It's getting so I can't go anywhere without being recognized.
• She-Ra: I lost; for the first time, I lost.
• Light Hope (to She-Ra): Did you.... touch it?
• Light Hope: The true strength of She-Ra comes not from the sword or the arm that holds it; it comes from the heart. The sword only magnifies that which is already there. And since the Melog now has your powers, you must ask yourself: What else does it have? When you find the answer, you will conquer the Melog and its creator, Shadow Weaver.
• Swift Wind: Too bad, isn't it? / She-Ra: What's too bad? / Swift Wind: She has your features, your feelings, and so much more; but she doesn't have the most important thing of all. / She-Ra: What's that? / Swift Wind: Me!

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: In our heroine's first appearance in the episode
• She-Ra runs at the viewer, bug-height: About to get onto her horse again
• She-Ra, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back: I believe for the first time in POP, this well-worn MOTU loop is used to show She-Ra's amusement at Swift Wind's ending zinger.

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one full, one alternate
Variation - In the "alternate" sequence, an exciting and surely unique use of She-Ra's magic words, she recites her "For the honor of..." line and co-opts the sword-zapping animation that would normally transform Spirit, this time for the purpose of transforming the muddy Melog into a real human girl.

3:38 - Loo-Kee hangs out in some very disreputable places! Today we find him clutching a slimy-looking arched spike at the top of the screen, amid what appears to be a muddy golgotha where Shadow Weaver has come to cast a devilish spell. Loo-Kee, didn't your momma tell you to stay away from golgothas?
Did I spot him? YES!

After reminding us of his truly dismal and macabre hiding spot for today, Loo-Kee stretches himself to find a lesson hidden in this episode. Shadow Weaver's unfeeling treatment of Melog is linked to the famous Golden Rule: instead of being a Weaver, we should treat others the way we would like to be treated. It may not be all that pertinent to what we just watched, but it's a valuable lesson, so thanks, Loo-Kee! But for real. Stay out of the golgotha.

Changing hearts and minds: Perhaps a stretch, since Melog has not joined the rebellion at the end of this episode; but it's hard to ignore the very important part She-Ra plays in changing the heart and mind of this interesting character. And chances are, if Melog ever returns, she will surely assist the Great Rebellion! I'm also quite tempted to tag this episode as a Landmark; the only thing stopping me is the already absurdly large number of preceding episodes I have already tagged in that category.

• We face another case of strange episode sequencing with this one, which is placed at position 24 on my POP Season 1 DVD set, but according to my Wikipedia source should be the 42nd episode of that season (was the DVD producer dyslexic?). The last time this happened was with what my DVD set called Episode 18, but which is production-coded as 67035. Curiously, both were written by show co-creator J. Michael Straczynski, and both feature the villain Modulok.
• We open with a nearly identical sequence to that which opened 67011's "The Peril of Whispering Woods," depicting a line of Horde vehicles trucking through a forest road. The deja vu continues as the trucks approach the very same crossroads and the lead vehicle falls into the very same pit trap, causing the very same pile-up. I guess the Horde are predictable!
• As in 67007 and 67010, She-Ra and Swift Wind begin this episode already transformed. Don't worry! You'll still get two transformation sequences today. In a rare omission, after Swift Wind's initial appearance he takes a very long break, and the only glimpse we get of Spirit is when he is about to be transformed again, in the episode's twelfth minute.
• It's a high Horde count today, with six of the evil fellows appearing, including (as noted earlier) Modulok, last seen in (the also aforementioned) 67035's "Gateway to Trouble," which told the story of his defection to the Horde. In a very satisfying continuation of the situation with which we left our red friend at the end of 67035, Hordak points out that Modulok is still rocking the job title of "Horde cook" to which he was demoted at that episode's conclusion.
• As I noted, a lot of Horde on the floor today, but the great majority of them rate only very short cameos. Scorpia, Catra, Hordak, Modulok, and Mantenna only appear in the opening quarter of the story, leaving Shadow Weaver to perpetrate today's evil deeds all by herself.
• Hordak transformations: nothing fancy or original today, but Hordak does change his arm into its standard laser cannon for a fun blasting of a minion who has displeased him.
• To add to the Horde count, though I'm not counting them as official members in the character categories, we first have the Horde computer, who I think counts as a character because he has a face and a voice before Hordak shoots him dead. Unfortunately he doesn't hang around long enough to make much of an impact, though the way his face is constructed out of many color-changing facets is very cool; and he does give Weaver the hint she needs to summon up the episode's other new villain and today's monster of the week, "Melog."
• Summoned out of a pool of mud, Melog is clearly meant to mimic the thing that you get when you spell its name backwards: a golem. For those who don't know, a golem comes from Hebrew folklore and - well, I'll just quote some interesting info from Merriam-Webster: "the original mythical golems started as lumps of clay that were formed into figures and brought to life by means of a charm or a combination of letters forming a sacred word. In the Middle Ages, golems were thought to be the perfect servants; their only fault was that they were sometimes too literal or mechanical in fulfilling their masters’ orders. In the 16th century, the golem was thought of as a protector of the Jews in times of persecution. But following its entrance into English, golem acquired a less friendly second sense, referring to a man-made monster that inspired many of the back-from-the-dead creations of classic horror fiction."
• Weaver describes her Melog as: "a thing of mud and magic, with no life of its own" (usually code for: it's OK for the good guys to violently kill it, though in this case that does not happen). "But it has the power to absorb the strengths and abilities of anyone it touches." This actually makes our mud monster less like a golem and more like Superman's recurring foe, the Parasite. Parasite has the very dangerous ability to suck Superman's life force - and his powers - out of him, just like the Melog does to She-Ra (though Melog's mimicking seems to be a permanent thing, while Parasite's adopting of Superman's powers is thankfully only temporary). In fact, I'm almost certain this is what Superman fan-boy and episode-writer Straczynski had in mind when he invented this creature. I've had call to connect some of Straczynski's previous MOTU plots to elements of the Superman mythos (see MU073 and MU093), so I'm not surprised at this connection.
• The wide-bodied, catepillar-treaded tank that Weaver uses to get up-close-and-personal with Adora and friends brings us back to the already well-mined 67011. It looks very similar to the special tank Hordak was using to chauffeur around Prince Zed. It turns out the vehicle is so humongous that it can hold more typical Hordak-faced Horde tanks inside of itself!
• Madame's Magic: surprisingly, Madame gets off a spell with no hitches and no misspoken words, causing Farmer Carliss's wagon of supplies to levitate.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra again changes her sword to a lasso today (using the obvious magic phrase "Sword to lasso!"). On other occasions where she's used this command (67014, 67035), her sword has changed into a sword-shaped length of coiled rope; this time, it turns into a more pedestrian loop. Oddly, in a later part of the episode, her cry of "Sword to rope!" does the same thing the lasso command did in 67014 and 67035, with one very important difference: the sword-shaped pile of rope proves to be split off into four strands at one end, each of which is tipped by a metal hook-shaped nub. It's very useful for pulling split-apart chunks of Etheria back together.
• Light Hope returns again today, having become a fairly solid recurring character since their first appearance in 67021; and here serving very much as She-Ra's Sorceress, offering magical knowledge and encouraging advice. (I still find Light Hope's existence to be irritatingly redundant, since we know that She-Ra could just call up the Sorceress on her sword stone whenever she wants and receive all the same services. Is He-Man's bird lady not good enough for you, She-Ra? HMMM??)
• Hordak mentions the "Mines of Mondor," a location that will garner its own episode and title later this season (see 67024's "Mines of Mondor").
• The villager who emerges from his hut to be abused by Horde soldiers is the oft-used clone of MU033's Palos the Cave Dweller. A young blonde child who later hops into a pot to get a dangerously close view of She-Ra is a clone of MU037's Podi - another oft-used character design.
• Secret identity? No problem! Adora tells Bow they should split up to take on the Horde; then She-Ra appears in place of the princess. Does Bow ask after the vanished Adora? Nope!
• The village center where She-Ra and Bow try to defend Etherians from a Horde protection racket is clearly the same one used in 67006's "Duel at Devlan," because it features the same bizarrely distinctive statue of a warrior man clutching a lady who is draped over his shoulders. In 67006 the villain Dylamug melted this statue, so maybe it's the kind of cheap, mass-produced town decoration that's sold in every Etherian Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
• This story has a very clever denouement, with the Melog developing She-Ra's feelings and compassion; but it just so happens to be nearly identical to the resolution of MU113's "Happy Birthday Roboto." In that episode ending, He-Man (who it just so happens is also trapped in a force field) convinces a Modulok-corrupted Evil Roboto to turn good again and save everyone. Here a force-field-encased She-Ra convinces Melog, Shadow Weaver's evil tool, to turn to good and save the day. You'd think both of these episodes would be Straczynski scripts, but MU113 was penned by fellow POP creator Larry DiTillio.
• As noted in the transformations section above, today She-Ra uses her magic words and sword gem for the highly unique purpose of transforming the Melog into a real human. Again, a very cool ending to the episode; but, again, hauntingly reminiscent of the ending of another MOTU story. This time the one I'm thinking of is Straczynski's first MOTU script (and one of his best), MU073's "Origin of the Sorceress." At the conclusion of that story, the one and only appearance of the toy-accurate Stridor, the mechanical horse has proved itself a loyal and very heroic companion to He-Man by sacrificing itself to save the universe from the designs of the evil Morgoth. Having repaired the badly damaged robot back at his lab, Man-at-Arms then attempts to communicate with the creature using a telepathic device. They learn that the creature has become self-aware and yearns for freedom, so He-Man and Duncan decide they must set it free. Here, She-Ra attempts to communicate with Melog, then turns her into a fully self-aware human, then sets her free so she can learn what it's like to be alive.

• Though both 67011 and this episode open with a very similar animation of a truck convoy, this version seems to have been corrected so that the far and closeup shots of the trucks and tanks actually correspond. (Later reuses of this sequence - and there will be others - will continue to reproduce the inconsistent version.)
• Poor Scorpia! Not only does she have an insultingly small part in today's episode (along with many of the other Horde characters), but her apparently months-long development of a doomsday weapon is quashed by She-Ra before we even get a chance to see the thing.
• We suspect Modulok's conversion to Hordak's band in 67035, and the logical continuation of his character arc in the series, is the cause for the sequencing adjustments in the DVD set - we needed to see him move to Etheria so that it would make sense for him to appear in the Fright Zone in this story. Also as noted above, this story sees him still on punishment detail as Horde cook, a very unusual case of character continuity across episodes.
• I like She-Ra's line about how she can't go anywhere without being recognized. She's really just being facetious, but it's nice to imagine it as a meaningful comment about the character's growing fame, both in the screen (on Etheria) and out of it (in Earth children's living rooms).
• It's odd that when She-Ra cleaves open the Horde tank, she seems to expect for there to be some kind of pilot inside, because in other episodes featuring this class of tank (see 67012) the suggestion was that they were entirely robotic - so that it was OK to smash them.
• When the Melog takes She-Ra's powers, it changes into a more feminine form. But oddly, we don't just get a mud-colored She-Ra (POP's Faker, if you will); instead, we get a generic woman who has only the vaguest similarity to She-Ra, with no boots, no cape, no skirt, and no tiara. (In fact, at the episode's conclusion, when she becomes fully human, her character design belies Swift Wind's claim that the Melog shares She-Ra's "features" by even sporting different-colored hair.) I'm not sure I understand this choice by the animators, but I guess it's more imaginitive to create a distinct creature than to just duplicate one you already have.
• I noted in the lore section above that She-Ra's flying horse features in the episode's introductory scene, but is not seen again for a long time. This is particularly illogical considering that, at the midpoint of the story, She-Ra - by herself - visits Light Hope. As we established in Light Hope's introductory episode (67021's "The Stone in the Sword"), the usual way that She-Ra reaches Light Hope's crystal residence is by flying her horse there. Only very dire circumstances (such as those of 67021) would persuade her to use any other, less convenient method.
• I complained about Light Hope above, but the speech they give to She-Ra to buck her up for her return engagement with the Melog is actually really cool, vintage Straczynski stuff.
• It seems like a goofily paltry reason to change the order of episodes, but it's suggestive that this episode features a reference to the Mines of Mondor, given that they are the subject of the story that should, based on production codes, actually appear in this position (67024).
• It's a poor reflection on She-Ra's intelligence that Shadow Weaver essentially fools her twice today by using the same trick. First she hides the Melog inside a hollowed-out Horde tank; then she hides the Melog inside a false Horde trooper suit. Both times She-Ra is caught wrong-footed by the ruse.
• Straczynski plucks some low-hanging fruit in the scene where She-Ra remarks that Melog has thrown everything at her but the kitchen sink. In a punchline worthy of Looney Tunes, Melog then immediately throws that very item at She-Ra. The hilarious part is that the tired joke is given a sort of visual rimshot followup in the subsequent scene, which shows the village girl popping out of her pot to smile at the audience. "Wasn't that funny, folks?"
• The nerdy nitpicker in me has a couple of objections to the scene where She-Ra flings her sword of protection to stop the curious girl's pot from rolling into a spiky pit. For one - wouldn't throwing the sword out of the force field... break the force field? This really feels like a "two birds with one stone" situation, here. Secondly, in a laughably incongruous resolution, the rescued pot (complete with girl) rolls back upright on a random patch of open ground - which already has three other pots set up next to it. Is this the villagers'... pot field? This looks to be a bit of an animation error, actually: the place where the pot was originally sitting had the same three pots next to it, only it was in a sort of open arcade, not an expanse of grass. It looks as if the wrong background was used here, or was changed at the last minute.
• In the lore section above I noted a couple of MOTU episodes I was reminded of by the conclusion of this story. Melog's immediate departure from the series after having become an interesting, compelling, and potentially sidekick-worthy counterpart for She-Ra reminds me of yet another MOTU episode: MU098's "Search for the Past," in which a newly unearthed King Miro, Adam's long-lost grandfather, immediately decides to ditch his family and go wander Eternia rather than get embroiled in any further He-Man plots. (To be fair, Miro eventually popped up again - in POP! See 67013's "King Miro's Journey.") I highly doubt that we'll see Melog again - but I'd love to be proven wrong!
• An interesting question is raised by Melog's comment, after being transformed to a non-mud, flesh-and-blood human, that she is "just like everyone else now." Does this just mean that she's become human, or does it also mean that, as a regular human, she no longer has She-Ra's superpowers? She certainly doesn't look or sound much like She-Ra, in mud or human form. Swift Wind's final comments listing off all the things Melog has in common with She-Ra probably means this is not the case, and that Melog can still chuck huge rocks whenever she wants. If so, you'd think that She-Ra would have tried just a little harder to gain this lady as a member of the rebellion. After all: imagine how much damage you could do (in the name of freedom, of course) with two She-Ras! And what if you get a crossover going and add He-Man to the mix? Hordak doesn't stand a chance! She-Ra should have told that dang woman to put her "feelings" on hold for a day or so, and just headed to the Fright Zone to knock some Horde heads together.
• There are a couple of writers you can dependably rely on to give you fun episodes, and Straczynski is certainly one of them. This was a very entertaining yarn with some great ideas. Sure, as I've noted above, they aren't exactly 100% original ideas, even to Filmation; but what idea can you really claim as 100% original? JMS cobbles together some great concepts in a new and enjoyable way, and gives us another She-Ra home run. I particularly liked the way he foreshadowed the Melog's eventual rehabilitation in the subtle but emotional scene where the creature is looking out a window in the Fright Zone and becomes fascinated by a bird that flits in and lands on its finger.