Michael Utvich

Tom Sito

Force Captain Catra rules Elf World now, and all the elves living there will have to work in the Crystal Mines forever after. Not even She-Ra can stop her! ... Wait, what am I saying? Of course She-Ra can stop her - with the help of some new friends.

Bow, Princess Adora (She-Ra), Glimmer, Kowl, Swift Wind

Catra, Scorpia, Imp, Mantenna

Horde soldiers, King Varn, Prince Storm, Facet, Prince Arkion of Vargon (tree), Granita, Stonedar

Horde air cruiser, destructo tanks

We join the latest conquest by the Evil Horde, already in progress. Catra has successfully wrested the throne of Elf World from its little elf king, and is all ready to make this kingdom the Unhappiest Place on Etheria. There's only one little snag: neither she, nor assistant Scorpia, nor their army of robot guards have quite managed to capture the king's young son, Prince Storm. Storm makes a break for the castle's exit, pursued by Horde troopers and the words of his father, who urges his son to get the help of She-Ra and Etheria's rebels.

Storm tries to follow his father's advice, but has great difficulty in shaking his pursuers. Scrambling over the countryside with the troopers just behind, the prince attempts to scale a short cliff by way of a vine that's tucked under a boulder; but the vine snaps before he can make the top, leaving him stunned at the cliff's base. Just then, the boulder from above comes rolling down, neatly crushing the soldiers at his heels. That was lucky! Or was it only luck? Storm's eyes boggle as the rock continues to roll under its own power - coming straight for him! It chases the terrified boy into a body of shallow water before finally unfolding itself to reveal a humanoid form. It's one of the Rock People who recently emigrated to Etheria thanks to She-Ra (see 67044)! This young specimen introduces herself as Facet, and assures Prince Storm that she is his ally: any enemy of the Horde is a friend of hers.

The relieved elf boy explains that he's trying to find the rebels to enlist their help in freeing his kingdom from the grip of the Horde. Facet realizes she's not yet done assisting her new friend, since she happens to know the way to the secret base of the Great Rebellion. She leads Storm to the Whispering Woods, showing the prince how the magical, knowing trees move aside to allow well-meaning Etherians to pass within.

Led to the rebels at last, Storm finds that it's a busy day for visitors at the hidden camp. Bow, Princess Adora, Glimmer, and Kowl have already gotten a mischievous introduction to another prince, Prince Arkion of Vargon, who made himself known to the freedom fighters by pelting Bow with fruit and throwing his voice to fool the archer into thinking he was a talking tree. Arkion is a funloving scapegrace who has fled the confining rules of his father, King Seymour, in favor of having adventures and playing pranks. When Prince Storm bursts in on this assembled group and tells his story, they're immediately ready to drop what they were doing (they didn't seem to have any other plans, anyway) and go help the elf win his kingdom back. Adora just has to run off for a moment to fetch She-Ra, and then the rebels - minus Adora, who's no longer around for some reason - are on their way!

Without realizing it, our heroes' plans (whatever they might have been) are hindered before they're fairly begun; because as they approach Elf World to scope the lay of the land, they are themselves observed by the Horde spy Imp. Concealing himself as a tiny sapling, Imp accidentally falls off his lookout point and into Bow's hand, and the unknowing archer tosses the "stick" away; but the damage has been done. Imp returns to Catra in the Elf World throne room and warns her of the impending rebel attack. Forewarned, Catra is able to get the jump on the small party, and quickly surrounds and disarms them in an exciting battle that we don't get to see.

Meanwhile, She-Ra has opted for a much more direct approach in her own part of the offensive. She simply rides Swift Wind in through the front entrance of the castle, finding head villain Catra lounging on the throne. Catra signals the waiting Mantenna, who drops a huge transparent dome over the heroine and her winged horse. She-Ra scoffs at the ploy, since normally this kind of obstacle would be no problem for her; but it seems this dome has been fashioned from the local crystal taken from the kingdom's Crystal Mines, and is so strong that even the mighty She-Ra can't punch her way through it. Yikes!

For a brief moment, it seems all our heroes have been defeated, and Catra even has time to boast to our heroine of having enslaved her friends; but She-Ra gets an unexpected save from an old friend, when our second Rock Person of the day, Granita, comes bowling through the castle wall. One assumes that young Facet let her people know what was going down in Elf World, and Granita has arrived to lend a rocky hand. She-Ra urges her friend to fly at the crystal dome at full speed, while the blonde wonder strikes from the other side. Their combined impact is enough to shatter the dome. Together, the mounted She-Ra and Granita dodge laser fire to escape the castle and the frustrated Catra.

She-Ra's friends have not been so lucky. The captured fighters were divided into two groups of three - Bow, Glimmer, and Kowl and Storm, Arkion, and the elf king - and forced to work in separate chambers of the Crystal Mines. It turns out they have their own craggy savior, though, in Stonedar. The Rock Person charges into the mine to help free the prisoners. In the scrum, Scorpia grabs hold of Storm and Arkion as hostages. Arkion suddenly realizes that adventure is perilous and that slaving away in mines and being gripped by the exoskeletal limbs of a scorpion woman are not at all fun. The boys both wrench free of their enemy, but Arkion flees the mine in abject terror. When the others are all safely rescued and She-Ra has rejoined the party, she learns from Bow what happened and goes to track Arkion down.

Finding the dejected prince sitting outside on a rock with his head in his hands, She-Ra bucks him up with words of encouragement. She assures the shamed fellow that everyone gets afraid sometimes, but that he can face up to his fears. Convinced that he is still needed in the fight, Arkion returns with her for the final battle. When She-Ra and the prince land by the mine on Swift Wind, they find the others already well entangled with the Horde forces, and Prince Storm in particular has once again gotten himself captured, this time by a Horde soldier. Bow tosses Arkion his weapon, a magic staff capable of manipulating objects at a distance through a magical green aura, and Arkion uses it to free the younger prince. He then proceeds to use it to beat the tar out of the rest of the Horde, including several more soldiers and at least one destructo tank.

For a little while it seems like the newly emboldened Prince Arkion could single-handedly take out the Horde and save Elf World; but he's stymied at last by Catra and Mantenna, who swoop in on a Horde air cruiser (Catra having browbeat Mantenna into letting her use the vessel to stop the rebels instead of allowing Mantenna to make his mining quota for Hordak). The flying ship is fitted in the front with a giant hinged mouth for gathering chunks of crystal from the surrounding hillsides, and Catra uses it to scoop up the two princes. She-Ra sees the boys' plight and flies to the rescue, leaping from the back of Swift Wind to pry open the cruiser's jaws and climb inside. She establishes that the princely pair are safe, then punches a way through into the ship's cockpit, where Catra and Mantenna still seem to believe they're in charge of things. Arkion proves them wrong by grabbing them with his magic staff and flinging them out of an open hatch. It's hard to tell whether he intended to murder them or not, but whether by chance or design the Horde villains slide along a handy slope and have their potentially deadly fall further softened by landing in a puddle of mud. The heroes then make use of the air cruiser to scoop up and dump the remaining destructo tanks.

The day is saved! Time for an epilogue. Everyone gathers in the throne room, where King Varn has resumed his seat of power and is doling out thanks and congratulations. She-Ra and Storm both give a lot of credit to Arkion for finding his courage and really pummeling the Horde, and Arkion in turn expresses his own gratefulness for the lesson he's been taught by the heroine and his fellow prince: "growing up means standing by those who care about me." He announces his intention to go home to his father and some mature responsibilities. A satisfied She-Ra turns to the screen to tip us a finishing Filmation wink.

• Prince Storm (said very aggressively while shaking his fist directly at the camera): Get out of Elf World, you rotten robots!
• Bow: But - but you're a tree. A-and you're talking. That's very strange. / "Tree" (actually Prince Arkion): And you're talking to me. That's even stranger.
• Catra (to Imp): Rowwr, what do you mean you have a headache? You are a headache! Get out of my sight!
• Catra (channeling her supervillain energy): I am surrounded by empty-headed, know-nothing, worthless fools! / She-Ra: Couldn't have said it better myself, Cat.
• Arkion: You and She-Ra taught me more today than I've learned in years, Storm. / She-Ra: And what was that, Arkion? / Arkion: The same thing you helped me see, She-Ra: that growing up means standing by those who care about me. It's time for me to go home - and help my father.

• Arkion runs at the viewer, bug-height: Fleeing from the Horde
• Bow runs at the viewer, bug-height: In a very similar move to Arkion's, running through the Crystal Mines

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)

2:59 - Our elusive elfin friend is barely showing himself today. A tiny portion of Loo-Kee's profile is poking out from behind a lumpy fungus-covered tree trunk (or is it a rock formation?) on the left side of the screen, as Prince Storm desperately attempts to evade his Horde pursuers.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee reveals himself and then falls through the ground, landing in the completely different location of the Whispering Woods. Unholy abomination! Anyway... his lesson today, in a similar vein to Arkion's final revelation, is on how much our parents do for us, how great they are, and how we should respect them and not take them for granted. Why not thank yours right now? You know, unless you're an orphan - in which case, um... sorry.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: A big stretch, because it's hard to argue that the deep-voiced and adult-sized Prince Arkion is a "child;" but he's definitely immature, and he's definitely wayward, and he definitely learns a lesson - about respecting his elders and standing up to his fears. So I'm going to take it.
Hordak-less episodes in Season 1: Again, as with the recent 67052, though Hordak gets a name-drop, he does not appear.

• Writer Michael Utvich has previously brought us two tales of the cowardly Sorrowful the Dragon, in 67010's misleadingly named "The Laughing Dragon" and 67012's "The Prisoners of Beast Island." If those scripts and this one can tell us anything, it's that Mr. Utvich doesn't believe the hefty array of action-figure-based characters already provided for the series are nearly adequate for his storytelling purposes. We need more! Bring on the cast of zany C-listers!
• Welcome to Elf World! It's an unimaginative name for the kingdom of some elves, who apparently own a valuable crystal mine. These elves seem somewhat more advanced and less ignorant than the "sea elves" we've seen depicted in episodes featuring Captain Sea Hawk (67007, 67016), though they look similar - pointy-eared and slight.
• Returning after a brief (two-episode) absence is Imp, who makes a typically prankish entrance masquerading as a blue goblet. Unusually, however, someone other than Hordak - in this case Scorpia - actually finds Imp's hijinks amusing. The spooked focus of the prank, Catra, is definitely not amused - a more typical reaction to the blue devil.
• It's the return of the Rock People! For the first time since the transforming geological entities' debut in 67044's "The Rock People," we see evidence that these interstellar refugees are well settled on Etheria. Our first of what will be several Rock People for today is the previously unseen young Facet, a fitting companion for our juvenile elf prince Storm. The existence of a smaller and younger Rock Person begs the question of just whether/how Rock People can grow larger as they age - does it take millenia, like with non-sentient rocks?
• The new characters come hard and fast, with another pranking prince for this prankish, prince-filled episode. He's Prince Arkion of Vargon, the son of a "King Seymour." The pointy-eared young adult is a fun-loving reprobate who enjoys ventriloquy and humor at the expense of others. Like MU094's Vokan, this guy reminds me of the Marvel Comics superhero Namor.
• How about a new Horde vehicle to go with all the new characters? Why not! Today's addition to the Horde fleet is an "air cruiser," a flying ship with a hinged maw in the front for mining elven crystals.
• Imp adds a tiny dead tree to his repertoire of disguises, in a choice that proves ill-considered.
• If we needed any further evidence that Catra is high on the Horde pecking order, we get it today, as she takes the throne of Elf World and orders Scorpia and Imp around. (We've seen Catra ordering around the other Horde members since Mr. Utvich's previous script, 67012, and we learned in 67031 that she holds the same Force Captain rank as Adora formerly did.)
• Recent episodes, particularly 67052, have seemed intent on minimizing or eliminating the presence of Spirit. Today follows in 67052's footsteps by omitting the horse entirely in favor of his winged alter ego. Spirit is not included in Adora's transformation sequence, but we later see She-Ra flying around on Swift Wind, leading us to believe she transformed the horse at a later moment - or that he was somehow already transformed. This is a fumbling of the horse's continuity that we've seen before, in episodes such as 67026's "Book Burning" or 67041's "Glimmer's Story."
• It's worth noting in passing that today shows a counterexample of the usual theme of Kowl avoiding being captured when his fellow rebels get caught. The bird is rounded up in the same Horde ambush that nabs his friends. Still, I don't feel the event is central enough to the story to earn this episode the category tag of "Kowl DOESN'T avoid capture."
• We get a second and much more familiar Rock Person on the scene today with the exciting entrance of Granita, the "girl one" from 67044's rock trio. It seems today's writer has decided to dispense with Larry DiTillio's insistence on the Rock People being pacifists, since Granita has no qualms about smashing junk as she aids in She-Ra's escape. She's soon joined by Stonedar, who proves just as violent in his return appearance, and makes me question my decision to place them among the "other characters" section rather than fully classifying them as "rebels."
• Note that Kowl is just as terrible at mining as Orko was in MU109's "Orko's New Friend." Perhaps in an attempt to keep the weak-winged bird from harming others as well as himself, the slavers have given him a shovel instead of the pickaxe that everyone else is using. The best Kowl can manage with the tool is an ineffectual wiggle.
• In the typical Filmation fashion of being parsimonious with character names, we don't learn the elf king's name (Varn) until late in the episode. I almost missed it entirely, as She-Ra lets it slip in a quick order to her friends to head back to the castle.
• Though writer Michael Utvich's Sorrowful the Dragon is nowhere in evidence, we eventually find that the lesson in today's episode is similar to that of both Sorrowful stories: learning to face up to one's fears. Pinch hitting for Sorrowful today is the fun-loving Arkion, who's shocked to find out that freedom fighting is dangerous work.
• It's been a while since we've seen the regular old Hordak-faced tank in use, as it is today. Though I've tried in the past to differentiate these tanks from the more vulture-like ones by calling them "Horde tanks" instead of "destructo tanks," I'm foiled in that endeavor today by She-Ra, who specifically calls them by the destructo name.

• I usually write these comments as I'm in the process of watching the episodes for the first time (or at least, for the first time since the dim mists of childhood have erased any former memory I may have had of their details); and just after watching Prince Storm's lucky save by the falling boulder, I wrote a long disquisition on how unlikely it was for that boulder to have rolled as it did: the angle of the ground, the position of the cliff with relation to the elf - my commentary was a tour de force in physics and logic. Then I discovered the boulder was actually a sentient Rock Person moving under its own power. Oh. ... Never mind.
• There's an odd theme in the top half of the episode, of people not being what they seem. First we find Imp pretending to be a goblet, the better to scare Catra. Then we find a seemingly inanimate boulder that turns out to be a Rock Person (Facet certainly had me fooled!). Then we meet a jerky prince pretending to be a tree. It's just a lot of puckish playacting going on.
• The other theme in today's story is princely sons and their obedience - or lack thereof - to their fathers. Storm is a plucky little boy who's only too happy to honor his father's wishes to rouse the rebels in their kingdom's support. Arkion, in contrast, has intentionally turned away from his own father to escape his royal responsibilities, and is eventually dismayed to find himself in a dangerous and unfun situation. There's a clever parallel at work here that I'd like to appreciate, but it's hard to look past the clumsier parts of today's plot.
• You have to wonder why the Horde needs slaves to mine those crystals, if they have a ship that can just chomp them off the cliffsides. Is the slavery just... for fun? (DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way suggesting that I find the concept of slavery fun; I'm merely suggesting that the Evil Horde might find it so, because they're evil.)
• Having just missed a battle scene that was apparently too expensive to show, we return to the exterior of Elf World to find the entire rebel force already defeated. "We're surrounded!" Prince Storm helpfully expounds, while Prince Arkion sadly adds, "And they've taken all of our weapons." Don't feel too bad, fellas; I'm sure it was a very exciting and thrilling contest. It just wasn't worth animating.
• It's very cool that Granita shows up to rescue our heroine from her crystal dome prison, but: She-Ra has a couple of very obvious ways to escape without anyone's help, which somehow never occur to her. The most obvious one would be to punch or drill through the floor - she loves digging into the ground and has done it several times, notably in 67036's "The Unicorn King" and the more recent 67051's "My Friend, My Enemy." (We even, later in the episode, watch as She-Ra punches through the metal hull of the Horde air cruiser - surely a more difficult feat than getting through the castle's earthen floor.) Also, no matter how unbreakable the dome might be, surely it's not too heavy for She-Ra to simply lift and huck over - she lifted an entire forest-sized energy shield dome from horseback in 67013's "King Miro's Journey."
• When Granita does show up, Catra reacts with a bewildered "What is that?!" prompting Granita to introduce herself. But she shouldn't have to do that, since Catra was in Granita's debut episode, and knows all about the Rock People, having been a central player in the Horde mission to dig them up.
• The scene in the Crystal Mines has both parties of enslaved heroes wondering about the whereabouts of the other, all while standing within one room of each other. I guess they're out of line of sight, but you'd think they'd realize!
• The repeated noise of the pickaxes hitting the rock is a terrible and terribly irritating sound effect. I guess if you were forced to slave away in a mine all day, the sound of your work would be the least of your worries. But they could consider the poor viewers!
• On finally seeing Prince Arkion in action against the Horde during the final battle, you really have to wonder how he managed to lose in the earlier deleted scene. That magic staff of his is pretty darn powerful!
• I also found it odd that Arkion never found a use for his called-out talent of ventriloquism. Why bring it up at the beginning of the episode if it wasn't going to be useful later? It leaves one with the suspicious feeling of having detected yet another deleted scene.
• I'm sure Storm was glad that Arkion saved him from the Horde soldier by use of the telekinetic-type powers of his magic staff; but the kid probably wishes he hadn't been grabbed by the throat to accomplish it. The scene where Storm is yanked to safety is painful to watch.
• Speaking of that magic staff... we heard from Arkion specifically that the rebels' weapons were taken away when they got captured. Glimmer even repeats that complaint later in the episode. But it's very unclear how they get them back. After Stonedar's entrance and a seemingly pointless scene transition, we find Bow armed again with his eponymous bow and some explosive arrows; and later, the archer somehow has retrieved Arkion's staff and is able to throw it to Arkion. We can only guess where he scrounged it from. Is this evidence of yet another deleted scene - or just poor storytelling?
• As hinted in the lore section, though Sorrowful does not appear here, and we end up with a lot of new characters and a new location, it's difficult to shake the idea that Michael Utvich has a singularly one-track mind. This is his third POP script, and it's also the third one about overcoming fear. This one also has a lot of the same air of wackiness and illogic that characterized his previous episode (67012).
• The more I went back to the previous Rock People episode (67044) to compare to their appearance here, the more I began to realize just how much Utvich has subverted Larry DiTillio's original purpose for the characters. In 67044, Larry depicted the Rock People as so staunchly pacifist that they didn't want to transplant their species to the war-torn Etheria, even though they saw no other clear way to prevent their extinction. Here, we watch as Stonedar and Granita casually knock over Horde soldiers and avow their desire to help their friends by any means necessary. It reminds me of when J. Michael Straczynski took over the duties of writing one of DiTillio's other characters, the awe-inspiring dragon Granamyr (my favorite MOTU character), and completely ruined him (see MU114).
• It's hard to see what the title has to do with the story. Yes, there are crystals in this episode, and they certainly play a part in the plot; but they don't give off any light, and I don't see any metaphorical message to be gleaned from the title phrase. We've gotten a fun enough story, but it has left me with unanswered questions and the unfamiliar feeling of wishing I'd seen more ventriloquism. Weird.