J. Michael Straczynski

Ernie Schmidt

A Horde rocket exploding in a portal flings Adora back in time to Eternia's ancient past - and She-Ra straight into a conflict between the planet's humans and dragons! Can she help stop a war - and find her way back to her own time?

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Light Hope, Visionary characters (He-Man, King Randor, Swift Wind, Orko), Spirit

Shadow Weaver, Imp, Hordak, Modulok, Skeletor (vision only)

various Eternians, Tarben, Brightstar, Nazghal, Slotty, Granamyr, horse

wagon

Hordak and his Horde scientist Modulok have developed a new secret weapon! (Reading between the lines of their conversation, it seems the Horde development cycle consists of Hordak yelling at Modulok until he invents and creates something independently.) The latest invention is a rocket which detects the presence of an interdimensional gate and then homes in on it. As the villains explain to the attendant Imp and Shadow Weaver, if everything works as intended, the next time She-Ra attempts to travel from Etheria to Eternia, the rocket will track down the portal and explode inside - sending She-Ra who-knows-where! Our villains get a chance to test the device almost as soon as it's completed, since Adora happens to have decided this same day to make a surprise visit to her brother.

Unfortunately for our heroine, the rocket performs perfectly: it launches towards the portal as soon as Light Hope opens it for Adora, and enters inside just before the door closes. The rocket disrupts the princess's casual drifting through the space between dimensions; she spots the Horde logo on the rocket just before it explodes, sending her barreling towards a random exit door. Landing in a pleasant and familiar green landscape, Adora has a brief moment to believe that she's arrived safely at her original destination: it looks like Eternia, and she recognizes King's Hill, on the other side of which should be Randor's palace at Eternos. On reaching the summit of the hill, however, Adora gets a big surprise: for the site of the palace is completely deserted! She hardly has a chance to process this disturbing vision, however, before another one meets her eyes: a lone human is being chased by four others, who accuse him of being a "dragon lover."

No matter the time or place, Adora will always assist those in need, so she raises her sword aloft and goes after the attackers as She-Ra. By the time she reaches them, the target of the foursome has tripped, stunning himself, and his pursuers have caught up to and surrounded him. She-Ra deals with the bullies one and two at a time, eventually chasing them all off. As they leave, the men speak of running to fetch "Nazghal." The owner of this name proves to be a white-haired, robed fellow with a pointy hat, who has a winged imp-like demon on his shoulder and laughs evilly as he spies on She-Ra from between the leaves of a bush. She-Ra, left alone with her rescuee, has hardly had a chance to assess the damage to the man before she's attacked again - by a dragon!

The dragon is an angry pink fellow who doesn't stop to ask questions, and She-Ra has quite a job protecting herself from the gouts of flame he spouts from his mouth. Luckily the man she's rescued comes to his senses enough to convince the attacker to stop. (Nazghal, having watched this much from the bushes, chooses this moment to slip away, promising future retribution.) It seems the dragon, whose name is Brightstar, is friend to the man, Tarben, and thought She-Ra meant his human buddy harm. After overcoming his embarrassment at the near-lethal misunderstanding, Brightstar provides the pair a ride to the nearby friendly locale of Dragon Valley, where She-Ra can meet the leader of the dragons and hopefully get some questions answered about where she is and how to get home.

Tarben leads She-Ra into a dome-shaped treasure hoard with a hole in the center, which will look very familiar to longtime MOTU viewers. Sure enough, out of the hole emerges the great dragon we know and love: Granamyr. She-Ra recognizes him right away, for though she's never met the guy, she's heard about him from her brother He-Man, who has helped the dragon on several previous occasions. Granamyr, however, though definitely the same person, hasn't heard of He-Man, and is confused. He uses his magic to look into She-Ra's thoughts, and is then able to explain the problem: She-Ra has been tossed by the explosion in the dimensional gate to a time on Eternia one thousand years before her present. To She-Ra's follow-up question, Granamyr must apologetically admit that his powers don't extend to sending people through time, so he really doesn't know how she'll ever be able to get home.

While poor She-Ra is left to contemplate her tragic circumstances, let's return to today's villains. Nazghal's imp, whose name is Slotty, was listening into Granamyr's explanation, and has passed onto his boss the information that the troublesome female is here to stay. Nazghal therefore decides it's time for him to accelerate his own devious plot - to sow discord between the humans and dragons. In pursuance of this, he and Slotty sneak around in the fields at night after the human farmers have finished gathering all their grain, and the wicked sorcerer destroys the lot with a giant magic fireball. When the farmers have discovered the destruction and gathered to consider the cause and depth of the calamity, Nazghal appears, claiming he witnessed dragons doing the fiery deed. Most of the townspeople, already attuned by their own prejudices to mistrust the dragons, are only too ready to believe him. They're easily convinced by Nazghal's angry words to mount a retaliatory attack.

The next day, as Tarben is attempting to offer comfort to the saddened She-Ra - desperate to return to her own time and people - they're interrupted by news that the farmers are preparing violence against the dragons. (She-Ra also incidentally learns that the handsome Tarben is king of his people.) The pair rush to the site of the battle, where Nazghal has directed the positioning of a line of catapults armed with glowing red balls. Any dragon struck by a ball will have its magic drained out of it and transferred to a rather hefty gem that Nazghal is keeping in the folds of his cloak. When enough of the dragons are hit, Nazghal's power will be irresistible, and he'll conquer all Eternia!

We know all this through the power of dramatic irony, having overheard the wizard muttering to Slotty. She-Ra and Tarben have no idea; but they definitely don't want to see war break out, so they wade into the skirmish, She-Ra knocking down the angry farmers while Tarben and Brightstar swoop in to wreck Nazghal's catapults. By this point, Nazghal has only managed to hit one or two dragons with the "mud balls." His ranged weapons rendered useless, the wizard orders his remaining forces to attack the dragon's town via melee combat, but She-Ra blocks the foray by creating a chasm between the two sides.

Infuriated but not defeated yet, Nazghal uses what power he's been able to suck into his gem to conjure himself another gigantic ball of fire, even bigger than the one he used to secretly destroy the farmers' grain. Little Slotty, struck by the similarity, voices the comparison aloud, thus revealing Nazghal's guilt in the crime to all the humans standing nearby. (Way to go, Slotty!) Now everybody has turned against the wizard; at least he still has his gem, with plenty of dragon power to fight them all off! Not for long: She-Ra shatters the thing with a throw of her sword. His plans now thoroughly foiled, the wizard sees fit to make a hasty exit. But his fireball is still floating above, and about to strike! She-Ra quickly uses a spin move to whip up a powerful wind and draw the fireball to her, where it harmlessly puffs into nothing.

War is averted! She-Ra joins Tarben, Brightstar, and a pair of apologetic farmers in Granamyr's home, where they've gathered to discuss the aftermath of the near-disaster. Brightstar reports to Granamyr that all the injured dragons have had their powers restored. The villagers point out that everything was actually Nazghal's fault, but Granamyr argues that the wizard wouldn't have been as successful in planting suspicion if the other humans hadn't been suspicious of the dragons to begin with. Forced to admit the justice of this claim, the humans ask forgiveness; Granamyr grants it, and more - he offers the humans food from the dragons' own stores to replace the loss of the grain and see them all through the winter.

The dragon's bounty is still not expended, for he's also had a brainwave about She-Ra's problem. It occurs to him that a combination of She-Ra's magic and his own should be enough to create a portal back to her time. Their ensuing attempt at this solution proves successful, and after bidding a heartfelt (and possibly flirty) farewell to the despondent Tarben, She-Ra steps through the generated gateway and is gone. When Tarben tells his friend Granamyr that he's really going to miss that lady, the dragon smugly answers that he had a feeling Tarben would say that. He hands Tarben a remnant of Nazghal's crystal, into which the dragon has injected a little of his own power. The king can use the gem to look in on She-Ra and see how she's faring, one thousand years into the future.

And how is She-Ra doing? Well, Tarben and the audience watch as, before returning to her home, she makes a pit stop at the Fright Zone; just long enough to snatch away Modulok's only plans for the gateway-detecting rocket, making certain Hordak never tries this plot device again. She then steps out of her second and last gateway in the Whispering Woods, appearing right in front of the relieved Spirit, who's been desperately wondering where his mistress was these past two days. It seemed like she was gone, the horse remarks, "forever;" but She-Ra flippantly disagrees, saying that it was "just a thousand years."

• She-Ra (hiding from the flames of a dragon, after having been flung into a different time): One thing after another! This is just not my day.
• Granamyr: What the mind does not understand, magic may reveal.
• Granamyr (to She-Ra): You have reached Eternia; but this is the Eternia that existed a thousand years before you were born.
• Nazghal: It's simple; the dragons attacked us. Now it's our turn. If the dragons want war, we'll give them war! / Farmer: But... Sh-shouldn't we wait? I mean- talk this over? To start a war is wrong! / Nazghal: No! The time for talk is over; it's time to fight!
• Tarben: If anyone can find their way home across a thousand years and millions of miles, you can, She-Ra.
• Granamyr (to the humans): Nazghal may have started it, but it was your hate for dragons that made it easy to blame us.
• Granamyr: And now, She-Ra, we dragons have a saying: here goes nothing. / She-Ra: We have a saying also: for the honor of Grayskull!
• Hordak and Modulok (in unison, while pointing at each other): It's all your fault!
• Spirit: You were gone so long it seemed like forever. / She-Ra: Oh, not quite forever, Spirit. Just a thousand years.

N/A

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one variant
As sometimes happens, in our heroine's only real transformation today, we catch a brief glimpse of the newly transformed She-Ra beginning to move her sword towards the absent Spirit.
Variant - at the end of the episode, She-Ra says her magic words again and, using the same animation she would normally use to transform Spirit, directs the magic of her sword to complete the portal that will bring her home.

20:09 - Waiting until almost the last possible moment, and choosing not to provoke any questions about his potential ability to travel through time, Loo-Kee appears in present-day Etheria just as She-Ra returns home. He's hanging from the magenta branch of what we have to assume is a tree in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Did I spot him? YES!

In Loo-Kee's usual opening to the PSA segment, he gives us another chance to find his hiding place; but the scene shown is slightly shifted to the left from the one seen in the episode, revealing much more of the strangely colored tree he's hiding in. His eventual lesson involves not passing the blame for something you did onto someone else - the way Nazghal did with the toasted grain in today's story. Presumably, though, in your hypothetical blame-passing incident, you'd be lying to avoid getting into trouble, and not for the purposes of causing an interspecies war.

MOTU crossover: A unique one so far in this category, since She-Ra doesn't actually meet any of the usual MOTU suspects (He-Man, Skeletor, Orko); but I think the fact that she travels to Eternia and meets a very special dragon is reason enough to tag it.
Gotta get back in time

• This episode represents the eighth (and penultimate) POP script from show co-creator J. Michael Straczynski.
• The red multi-limbed Horde scientist Modulok makes his first reappearance since he tried his own solo deviltry in 67050's "Just Like Me." Note that four of the eight MOTU/POP episodes in which Modulok has appeared have been written by Straczynski; does he have a particular fondness for this customizable villain?
• We find Adora for the first time speaking to Light Hope using the gem in her sword of protection, a method previously used solely for conversations with Eternia's Sorceress. See commentary.
• The space between dimensions, a surprisingly oft-visited place, shows up again here, looking much as it always does apart from some interesting variations - including a set of floating wooden doors. She-Ra and Hordak flew through the familiar part of this region in 67039's "Into the Dark Dimension."
• Seemingly recognizing her surroundings as being on Eternia, the freshly arrived Adora identifies "King's Hill," a feature which she claims puts her very close to the royal palace. This is an interesting bit of geography which we never saw on maps of Eternia or heard about in the MOTU series.
• Today's evil wizard is a totally new character who we've never met before, who just happens to look exactly like the evil wizard Tauron from MU027's "Orko's Favorite Uncle." He also has a little imp demon critter - totally new, never seen before - who looks identical to the imp Lokus with which the lovestruck Mallek made a terrible deal, in MU024's "The Wizard of Stone Mountain."
• Nazghal's name sounds very similar to "Nazgul," Tolkien's name for his Black Riders in Lord of the Rings (creatures we already saw Straczynski imitating in 67047). The way Slotty's name is pronounced makes me think of "Zloty," the name of Poland's currency. Straczynski is of Polish ancestry (a fact confirmed not only by his last name, but also his Wikipedia page), so maybe this is the inspiration for the imp's name.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra sensibly turns her sword to a shield so she can block the fire of an angry dragon.
• When I saw "Darksmoke" in the episode title, I hoped against hope that we were going to get to see the guy who lives in Darksmoke, my favorite character from MOTU, Granamyr the dragon. And we do! Granamyr, for the uninitiated, is The Best, and he appeared in four episodes of MOTU, three of which, including his debut and my candidate for greatest ever episode of He-Man (MU034), were written by Larry DiTillio. The last (MU114), and my least favorite, was written by today's writer, JMS. Granamyr is a dangerously powerful but ultimately friendly (to He-Man) character who gave aid to our hero and was given aid in return on several occasions. In the MOTU Granamyr episodes, we discovered that humans and dragons on Eternia had a troubled past, and were once at war - useful background information for this story.
• He-Man and/or his friends have visited ancient Eternia on several occasions before this: in MU003's "Disappearing Act" (where Orko and Cringer had to venture into Eternia's prehistory to fetch back the power sword) and MU008's "The Time Corridor" (where Skeletor had a very sneaky, ultra-long game plan involving planting a bomb on the future site of Castle Grayskull). He-Man and co. also met a former sorcerer-king of Eternos in MU097's "The Time Wheel." It's difficult to guess how the chronology compares in these different glimpses into Eternia's past, since exact years are never mentioned in the episodes; but in general I think it's safe to assume that the order I listed them is also their chronological order. In MU003, all Orko and Cringer find during their time trek are prehistoric beasts and untamed jungle. In MU008, Grayskull hasn't been built yet and several primitive tribes who speak a different language than that of present-day Eternians are still stumbling towards an eventual alliance which will lead to the modern-day kingdom. "The Time Wheel's" King Tamusk has to come from a time period after that seen in "The Time Corridor," and after the one Adora visits, since Tamusk speaks of living in a castle on the site of Randor's palace, and Adora finds that same spot completely barren and undeveloped. We can assume the alliance of the Snake and Ape clans from "The Time Corridor" led to the kingdom Tamusk ruled.
• Several characters appear today only in She-Ra's thoughts, as visualized by Granamyr's magic. I've listed them in the character section under "visionary characters" or with the note "vision only."
• She-Ra's friend (or more than friend?), Tarben, eventually has to admit to being a king - but a king of what, and over whom, is unclear. The only human civilization we see is a cluster of huts, and no castle - certainly no palace of Eternos - ever presents itself. I think we can assume that Tarben's domain is of narrower scope than the (notoriously amorphous and inconsistent) kingdom over which Randor eventually reigns.
• Today's more standard dragons - the ones other than Granamyr - look fairly similar to the standard dragons we've seen in earlier MOTU episodes, such as MU009 or MU079, except that they have friendlier faces thanks to their more human eyes - actually, they look quite a bit like Sorrowful the dragon (67010, 67012).
• The brief glimpse we get of the human settlement, in addition to showing typical human homes, also includes at least one hole from which a dragon is sprouting, showing that at this point in Eternia's history dragons and humans are actually living together in relative harmony.
• Note that Nazghal, just like Skeletor a thousand years later, has already perfected the villain's trick of teleporting away when your evil plans go awry. Way to go, Nazzy!
• She-Ra claims that she's going to use a "big wind" to blow out Nazghal's fireball, and she begins spinning in much the way He-Man has done in the past to create a mini-tornado. However the fireball just seems to smash into her spinning form and explode, rather than being blown out. Well, it solved the problem, so why quibble?
• Earlier in the episode, Brightstar flew King Tarben and She-Ra to a place called "Dragon Valley." We didn't get a good look at the landscape, but a shot a few seconds before they reach the valley shows green countryside and trees rolling along underneath the heroes. The next thing we know, we're in Granamyr's den. I made the assumption this Dragon Valley was a different location than the icy locale of Darksmoke where He-Man would find Granamyr living a millennium later. After all, in a thousand years, you can expect someone to move house at least once. (Also important to note that, per past lore about humans and dragons dating all the way back to the events of Granamyr's first appearance in MU034, no humans are supposed to know about the location of the dragons' home, as part of a pact between Grayskull and the dragons - so it makes no sense for Granamyr to be living in the same place in both time periods. Obviously he would have had to move in order to hide himself from humans after their relations went sour and the pact was made.) However, at the episode's conclusion we are given an aerial establishing shot of Granamyr's house, showing it to be identical to the Darksmoke of the present day. This puts it up in icy northern mountain country, in a place that could not logically be called a "valley." Confusing!
• In a unique use of She-Ra's magic words, her recitation at the episode's ending helps join her magic to that of Granamyr's and generate the portal that sends her home.
• I don't think I'm imagining the possibility of some romance between Tarben and She-Ra. Some touching music plays as they bid each other farewell, and She-Ra gives him a cheeky smile when he makes the very unlikely claim that they may meet again one day. (On the other hand... see commentary.)

• I've previously complained (see for instance commentary of 67041) about the writers' wishy-washy-ness with regard to whether to continue connecting Adora/She-Ra with the Sorceress and Castle Grayskull, or whether to cut her loose from her Eternia dependence and link her only with Light Hope and Etheria. Looking at the situation from the perspective provided by MOTU and the SOTS storyline, it's hard not to see Light Hope as an encroacher and a phony, invented only for the purpose of giving Mattel something else to market (a purpose famously subverted by this episode's writer, who conceived of the character as an unsellable beam of light). The real source of magic in this universe should be Grayskull, the place Adora mentions whenever she lifts her sword to transform. The real creator of dimensional gateways back and forth between Adora's birth world and her adopted world is the Sorceress - also the only person we've ever seen in the sword's gem before today. Having Light Hope taking over these duties is a clear break with She-Ra's MOTU origins - though today (conflictingly and ironically) ends up being a bit of a MOTU crossover, anyway.
• Animation error: The swirly, colorful vista that presents itself once Adora scales King's Hill has a fairly obvious vertical seam running down the left side, likely where two separate paintings were joined together.
• Animation error: Today's transformation sequence features the not-quite-edited-enough flub where She-Ra almost starts transforming Spirit, who is not there.
• Adora transforming herself in ancient Eternia makes me think about just how her magic works. In MU083's "Into the Abyss," Teela and the audience watched as the magic that transforms Adam into He-Man literally came out of the abyss under and around Castle Grayskull. If Adam's physical presence within reach of the castle is required for a successful transformation, is there some relic or power source Adora needs to be in range of so that she can transform? Apparently not, according to this episode! She's too far back in time and place to be anywhere near her usual transformational environs.
• Homoerotic undertones: It's been quite a long time since I used this sub-category, hasn't it? It just somehow seemed more prevalent in MOTU, with all those muscular, oiled-up men rubbing up against each other. ...Anyway. In the lore section I discussed a suggested romance between She-Ra and King Tarben. But if you're looking for these things, you can also see a suggested romance between King Tarben and his dragon friend, Brightstar. Think about it: the first time we meet the king, he's being chased by men who outright accuse him of being a "dragon lover." Brightstar is a bright pink male dragon that Tarben rides on; a dragon who reacts with what could easily be interpreted as extreme jealousy when he sees She-Ra leaning over the prone form of his partner. Hmm? Eh? (waggles eyebrows, nods head)
• The main reason I disliked Straczynski's previous Granamyr script, MU114, was because I didn't feel it depicted the character consistently. The present-day Granamyr as shown in his first three MOTU appearances is a near-omnipotent force of nature, the most ancient and wisest and most powerful of dragons, turned bitter and grumpy over a long life and many disappointments with untrustworthy humans. In JMS's MU114 script Granamyr showed himself to be pacific, indecisive, and easily hoodwinked, a pawn for a young, fiery upstart dragon (Morning Star). I hated seeing Granamyr get tricked and manipulated, and felt it wasn't true to his established personality. Here, however, Straczynski gets a chance to show a different side of Granamyr, and one that is logical and true: this is the Granamyr of 1,000 years ago, a younger, more optimistic, friendlier dragon, still modest and uncertain about using his magic, and still hopeful that humans can be allies and won't let their weaker natures rule out. I liked this depiction, though it was a tragic one, since we know how Granamyr's idealism will be ground away by the years. (But do we really know how things will turn out? See later comments.)
• You have to wonder whether, while Granamyr was fiddling around in She-Ra's thoughts, he stumbled across the fact that she has a secret identity. I wouldn't put it past him; if so, it was very considerate and tactful of him to not mention it aloud. It's also very cool to connect She-Ra's mention of He-Man to Granamyr's later recognition of the name when the two finally do meet, in MU034. Is the dragon's claim in that episode that he has heard He-Man's "name whispered on the winds of legend" a reference to his long-ago meeting with She-Ra?
• Animation error: During one of Nazghal's scenes, his eyebrows briefly change color from white to black and back again.
• I found it thoroughly hilarious how, just when Nazghal has cleverly manipulated the villagers into attacking the dragons, and is successfully sucking magic into his bulky dragon-magic gem, and everything seems to be going his way, little Slotty (such a terrible name!) gives everything away by stupidly revealing his master as the one who burned the farmers' grain. Everything down the drain in an instant! To be fair, Nazghal's choice of a giant fireball identical to the one he used to frame the dragons was not the ideal weapon for mixed company.
• Another funny scene was the strangely slapstick conversation between two dragons, one commenting on the possibility of humans attacking them just before being smacked in the face with a gooey red ball of magic.
• At the end of the episode She-Ra does what she usually does and saves the day. We see her get back to the present time and cheerily laugh at the camera, pleased with her success; but what does the present time look like now? Think about it: our heroine just meddled in the past. When, in MU097, He-Man spoke to the time-napped King Tamusk about compassion and peace before sending him back to Eternia's past, it was subsequently implied that our hero's words had affected the sorcerer-king and changed the course of the kingdom's history, causing Tamusk to become a kinder, gentler ruler for the remainder of his reign. What She-Ra did has an even more significant potential impact. She stopped a war between the dragons and humans. Without her presence, perhaps Nazghal would have been successful and taken the dragons' powers, making the human side a real threat in a dragon/human conflict. Was this brewing conflict the war that prompted the ancient treaty separating dragons and humans, making Granamyr the sourpuss he is today? (In support of this, note that when Granamyr meets He-Man in MU034, he specifically states that he hasn't spoken to another human in "a thousand years.") If so, did She-Ra's actions negate the need for that treaty and transform the landscape of Eternia? Let's be honest: the answer to that is very likely no, if only because drastic changes to the universe just don't happen in MOTU/POP. Nazghal's plot was feebly held together and depended on the discretion of the incompetent Slotty, so it probably wasn't fated to succeed anyway; at the point when She-Ra leaves to go to her own time, the great human/dragon war is almost certainly still to come. Still, very interesting to speculate, and as I said before, sad to consider that, though things seem happy enough with Granamyr and Tarben at the episode's conclusion, they have hard times looming on the horizon.
• What a joy to see my favorite guy Granamyr in action again, and what a great episode! Mr. Straczynski just about redeems himself here for his poor previous treatment of the character. I also absolutely loved getting to consider the deeper lore and history addressed in and suggested by this story. It reminds me of JMS's previous forays into back story and Eternian/Etherian history, which have been without fail among his best work: take MU073's "Origin of the Sorceress" or 67047's "The Price of Power."