Don Heckman

Bill Reed

A botanical blight and ghost-like figures in the Whispering Woods lead our heroes to discover the presence of a wild young girl who's been living secretly among them for the past five years - along with a pack of wolves. And guess what? This wild child is also a lost princess!

Kowl, Bow, Princess Adora (She-Ra), Madame Razz, Broom, Mermista, Glimmer, Swift Wind

N/A

various rebels, white fangs (including Ayla), white ghost (Princess Allegra), woodsmen, rebel children, King Arbor

wagons, sailboat

We all know how Bow dotes over the crops in his private vegetable garden, and we all know how much Kowl craves those fresh veggies. (Actually, we don't know either of these things, since neither fact has ever come up before this episode; but let's just give our Filmation creators the benefit of the doubt.) So it's no surprise that when Bow finds his vegetables missing, he immediately accuses Kowl; an accusation that quickly devolves into a name-throwing argument between the pair. Before the best friends can come to blows, Princess Adora, also on hand to investigate the raided plot, points out some withered leaves on the ground, suggesting the lost crops are more likely the victims of some kind of plant plague than the focus of one bird's midnight munchies.

That night, a pair of rebels guarding the camp in the Whispering Woods are disturbed by the sight of white, wraith-like forms loping between the trees. They look like... ghost wolves? Reporting the spooky events to Adora the following morning, the guards are still unsure of what they saw; but Adora finds more evidence of wilted plants near the spot, and the guards hand over a golden locket they found on the ground. The princess recognizes the locket's sea shell crest as belonging to the kingdom of the Green Islands - which makes little sense, since (as Bow points out) the islands are hundreds of miles away from the rebel camp. Adora decides the best way to get to the bottom of this will be to send someone out to the islands to question King Arbor, the local ruler. Knowing she'll need her A-team on the job, Adora selects Broom and Madame Razz, who leave for the mission right away - after a brief argument indicating they're unsure whether the islands are to the north or south.

But that's not enough! Adora wants to be making progress on this mystery right away, so she wanders out into the forest to look for clues. She quickly encounters the white fangs, who turn out not to be ghosts at all. They're just wolves, who are very real - and very angry! The growling animals make a leap for Adora, forcing her to change to She-Ra and hop up into a tree. From her higher vantage in the tree, She-Ra catches sight of the ghostly figure of a running woman, seemingly connected with the wolves; but by the time she drops down to pursue it, the mysterious figure has gotten away. The wolves, meanwhile, are so angry that She-Ra's usual methods of psychic animal communication are not getting through. She-Ra finds herself at the edge of a deep chasm, with nowhere else to run.

Fortunately for her, the wolves have abruptly cooled off and begin to walk away down a steep path. As they're descending, one of the wolves trips on a rock and falls against the others, sending them all sliding dangerously down the gorge! She-Ra acts quickly and lassos the whole pack, towing them back to safety. As the rescued wolves quietly file away (without even a thank-you!), they're chased off by angry voices and pursuing men. She-Ra intercepts and questions the irate group. It seems these fellows, who are employed in the Whispering Woods to gather lumber for the Great Rebellion, have been encountering the same plant disease in the trees that has been popping up elsewhere, and have attributed it to the wolves. She-Ra thinks it's unlikely that wolves can make plants sick, but doesn't have enough proof to allay the woodsmen's suspicions.

Adora passes what she's learned to Bow, who shares her perplexity. Don't worry, though: more info is on the way, because Madame Razz is back! After the standard crash landing, she and Broom tell an intriguing story: it seems that five years ago, King Arbor's seven-year-old daughter Princess Allegra was lost at sea. The locket is hers, and the king, who has been seeking his child ever since, is heartened enough by this evidence that he is already making his way to the woods in the hopes of recovering her. Adora decides that the best person to consult about happenings at sea is her fishy friend Mermista, so she and Bow visit Mermista's pond. Summoned via her wind chime "doorbell," the mermaid is happy to help. Mermista recalls a terrible monsoon about the time Allegra was lost, and uses an icky tentacled gadget to conjure televised memories of the sea creatures present during that event. Sure enough, our three heroes watch as a storm-tossed ship with the Green Islands crest is wrecked against the rocks. The body of what can only be Princess Allegra is tossed upon the beach, and the white "ghost" wolves She-Ra encountered can be seen dragging Allegra off into the woods.

Was the princess rescued, or was she kidnapped? Bow and Adora don't have to ponder this question long, as they're soon interrupted by the princess herself! Allegra arrives at Mermista's glade, garbed in primitive rags and with a single white fang at her side. She is clearly the "ghost" girl She-Ra spotted earlier. In a low whisper (presumably her voice is faint and rough through lack of use), Allegra assures the heroes that the white fangs rescued her and have been the closest of friends to her during her five years maturing in the forest. She has only revealed herself now because her wolf friends are being hunted by the rebel woodsmen. Allegra insists that the white fangs have nothing to do with the sickness of the plants, and just want to be left alone. They only attacked She-Ra because they believed the heroine meant harm to Allegra.

Adora informs the lost princess that her father is coming to visit her, and urges her to come back with them to the rebel camp to meet him. Allegra hesitantly agrees, but only on the condition that her wolf sister, Ayla, accompany her. This wild child and her giant wolf make quite an impression with the rebels; Ayla in particular provokes the wrath of the woodsmen, who still believe the wolves are killing their trees, and Adora must step in to defend the safety of her guests. To avoid any further awkward scenes, Ayla is placed in an empty house for the remainder of Allegra's stay, and Allegra is taken to Glimmer to get five years of knots and filth washed out of her hair. The other children of the rebel camp (suddenly there are dozens of them) make fun of the princess's rude appearance, strange behaviors, and lack of table manners; but she wins over at least some of the boys when she beats them at a footrace.

This cultural bridge-building is interrupted by an unpleasant surprise; for it seems Ayla has broken free of her kennel and is being chased by the woodsmen! Allegra angrily joins the chase to save her pet, and Adora - telling Bow to stay in camp and await the imminent arrival of Allegra's father - chases after the princess. This string of pursuers and pursued is stopped short when Ayla triggers a hunter's trap, dropping a cage over herself and in the process injuring her paw. Allegra reaches her wolf sister and faces off against the angry rebels. Before any violence can occur, the woodsmen are sent running by the return of the plant-killing phenomenon, which by this time is spreading fast and is also mysteriously making the ground too hot for their tender footsies. As Allegra frees the injured wolf, they're joined by She-Ra (who coincidentally showed up just about the time Adora disappeared). Speaking of footsies, She-Ra uses her healing powers to cure Ayla's paw, then sends the wolf and princess back to camp.

Determined to finally get to the bottom of this botanical mystery, our heroine does some literal digging and finds underground lava is to blame, which must be coming from the nearby volcano Mount Candila. She grabs some boulders and stuffs them into the cone of the mountain, but this doesn't help at all (logic seems to dictate that it would actually make things worse), and it turns out there's more than one volcano. She hops onto Swift Wind for an aerial view of the area, and develops an alternate solution involving the ocean (turns out there's an ocean right by the woods - who knew?). She and her horse zoom over the surface of the water, generating big waves that slosh into the volcanos' underground tunnels, finally cooling the plant-frying lava.

Whew, glad that's over! The blameless wolves can return to dwelling in the woods unmolested, and Bow can go back to growing his prize winners in the garden! At the rebel camp, Allegra is finally reunited with her old dad, King Arbor. Asked whether she is ready to come back to her kingdom and be a princess again, Allegra makes the difficult decision to depart her canine family. She embraces Ayla and, in the wolf language she's developed during her five years as a wild child, assures her furry sister that no matter how far apart the pair might be, part of Allegra will always be with Ayla - in the forest.

• Bow: Listen, Kowl, I know - and you know - how much you like fresh vegetables, but why did you have to mess up my prize winners?
• Rebel guard: When it comes to guardin' the rebel camp, no noise is good noise.
• She-Ra (of the white wolves she's just rescued from falling down a cliff): Some ghosts! They don't even know how to say thank you.
• Broom: I just wanted to be sure you got the story straight. / Madame Razz: What?! Deary, I always get my stories straight.
• King Arbor (after his daughter has spoken to her wolf sister in their own language): What did you say to her? / Allegra: I told her no matter where I was, part of me would always be with her in forest.

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: As she looks into solving a volcanic problem

Two partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)
She-Ra's first transformation features the flub where she starts pointing her sword toward Spirit, who is not there.

15:46 - I've talked about Loo-Kee phoning it in in the past, but today's so-called "hiding place" may well be his worst ever. We find him sitting out in the open, on the right side of the screen, looking right at us, his only attempt at concealment being the placement of his tail in front of his body.
Did I spot him? YES! The only way to avoid spotting Loo-Kee today would be to cover your eyes.

Loo-Kee reminds us, in the time-honored tradition of parents throughout history, that we should eat our vegetables. He probably felt obliged to do this since the only thing we saw Allegra eating in the episode was meat. In his final remark, Loo-Kee seemingly mispronounces "vegeta-tables."

Hordak-less episodes in Season 1: Not only Hordak-less but Horde-less!
Does this story fall into the "wayward child learns a valuable lesson" trope? I don't think it quite does. Though Allegra does change and grow and ultimately decides to go back to her human family, I don't believe she learns any lesson or is convinced to stop performing any untoward actions.

• Today's writer is Don Heckman, who gave us three so-so MOTU scripts, then began churning out POP scripts that increasingly annoyed me with their consistent lack of consistency and logic, until reaching a flashpoint with his preceding effort, 67057's "Jungle Fever," which I actively hated. Hopefully today's story will veer back into the so-so territory.
• I really thought I was done addressing the Season 1 sequence issues on my DVD set (see lore for 67018), but it turns out there's one more little switcheroo here, which swaps the logical order of 67064 and 67063. For my theory on why these two episodes were switched, see the lore for 67063 (short answer: it has to do with the appearance of Mermista).
• In this story, we're immediately asked to believe that Bow has his own vegetable garden. This is a logical enough thing for any rebel to have, given their problems acquiring enough supplies for their people (an issue just covered in 67062's "Magicats"). What's less likely is Bow's claim to have had "prize winners," implying the rebels run some kind of county fair "biggest pumpkin" contest.
• Also established early on is the idea that the rebel camp has guards who patrol it every night. Though this is a very logical practice for guerilla fighter camps on Earth, it seems mostly unnecessary in the Whispering Woods, which (as has been well established, in episodes as far back as 67011) provides its own magical protections against intruders. Are there dangerous animals in the woods? The only ones I can remember meeting before this episode were those in the beginning of 67005, who turned out to be fellow enemies of the Horde.
• Adora finds a gold locket which the heroes identify as coming from "the Green Island kingdom," apparently a series of islands a great distance from Etheria's Whispering Woods. (Note that Bow specifies the islands are "hundreds of miles away," using an Earth unit of measurement.)
• The islands are ruled over by one King Arbor, and are situated in the South (or is it North? Razz and Broom can't agree) Growling Sea, a body of water we've heard of before. Bow mentioned the sea while telling his tales of the great King Jared in 67023's "The Crown of Knowledge;" and we visited there in 67036's "The Unicorn King." This puts the Green Islands in the same general area as the hidden Unicorn Island.
• She-Ra attempts her powers of animal communication against the white wolves, but finds her transmissions are blocked by the animals' anger. The last time this ability was used was in one of the scenes in Heckman's previous episode, 67057, which I found objectionable because it had Adora demonstrating the power instead of She-Ra.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra changes her sword to a sword-shaped pile of rope so she can wrangle some sliding wolves. Usually when she uses this trick, the rope extends all the way down to the sword's hilt; but today we can still see the gem-embedded part of the blade, with the pile of rope beginning above. Once She-Ra has grabbed hold of the wolves, we see her holding only the line, with any sword-like part of the rope having vanished. We'll see this same use of the sword later in the episode.
• We're discovering all kinds of things about the rebels and their camp today - and so is She-Ra, it seems! Asking the identity of a pack of angry men she encounters chasing the white wolves, She-Ra (and us viewers) discover that there is a team of woodsmen living in the Whispering Woods, who cut down lumber for the rebels.
• Usually when Madame Razz crashes into something, we assume the fault is hers - after all, she's ostensibly driving Broom, and she's a senile old lady who is known for screwing up her magic spells. Today, however, it's Razz telling Broom to "watch out!" just before they crash, clearly suggesting that the vehicle is to blame for their tree collision.
• By the whiskers of Saz, are we going to be fed yet another long-lost character plotline? It seems so. King Arbor's long-lost daughter, Princess Allegra (no relation to the antihistamine medication, which the internet tells me was not introduced until 1996), will be the subject of the trope today. As my opening exclamation hinted, we just had a long-lost member of royalty showing up in the previous episode, 67062's "Magicats."
• Yeesh, Razz and Broom seem particularly tetchy with each other today. I guess the road trip to the Green Islands was not fun. Razz had better be careful what she says, or her friend/conveyance will wander off to find another witch or wizard to be ridden by! (See 67052.)
• Today at long last introduces us to Mermista, the French-accented mermaid lady of Etheria. She appears to live in a pond within the Whispering Woods, and is summoned by striking a wind chime. (This device must cause a lot of annoying fakeouts for Mermista on windy days.) As is usual for first appearances of characters, Mermista and Adora act as if they've already known each other a long time.
• Mermista (unbeknownst to Bow, who is surprised by her actions) has the ability to "consult the memories of my sea creatures," which she does by using a very gross-looking jellyfish thing which looks like it has a veiny brain on the top and has been wired up with technology. Honestly, it looks like the type of abomination Hordak would create in the Fright Zone. The device allows Mermista to get news of the lost Princess Allegra.
• Allegra's is a "raised by wolves" story, a concept that does have real-world precedent, and an interesting one. I did a little research and suspect the inspiration for this story might be the 1970 French film L'Enfant Sauvage (translated literally as "The Wild Child"), which was based on a true story of a feral child found in France around the turn of the 19th century. (The feral boy in the tale was found at around twelve years of age, identical to the age Allegra is when she reveals herself.) Luckily for our heroes, the princess was raised by wolves after she'd already learned how to speak English (or whatever the common Etherian language is called).
• Speaking of languages, it seems Allegra can speak to the wolves, but not using growls and grunts, and not using She-Ra's favored telepathy; Allegra uses her own unintelligible words which somehow convey meaning to Ayla. Unexpected!
• We are treated to the rare appearance of children in the rebel camp, something that I can't remember having seen since 67022's "The Crystal Castle." In fact, for the purposes of comparing the wild Allegra to other children her age, there are suddenly kids crawling all over the Whispering Woods!
• The rebel children and Adora gather around a wooden table piled with food, including what looks like roast turkey. We've seen a similar feast set in the middle of camp at the end of several earlier episodes, including 67051, 67052, and 67018.
• The boy who apologizes to Allegra after the footrace is a clone of the old Chad/Thad/Lad model we've seen used often in He-Man (MU042, MU112, MU049, MU070).
• The hot-footed woodsmen decide to head to the ocean - indicating the Whispering Woods are near the coast. A few seconds later, we discover that the Whispering Woods are also located right near an old volcano, named Mount Candila. I suppose there's an iceberg and a hot springs right nearby, also. And a salt flats, and a savannah...
• Having had a swing and a miss with her animal-communicating abilities earlier in the episode, She-Ra succeeds with her healing abilities on the injured Ayla.
• Swift Wind gets whistled up in the final minutes of the episode, even though we haven't seen Spirit at all, the horse having not been included in either of the two transformation sequences. This continuity issue, with Swifty somehow getting transformed without our knowledge, has happened several times before in the series, for example in 67026 and 67041 (the latter of which was also brought to us by the logically challenged Mr. Heckman). Other recent episodes with Swift Wind but no Spirit: 67052, 67054, 67056.
• Swiss army sword: As hinted above, She-Ra once again changes her sword to a rope when she's trying to block the flow of some lava, and it once again makes only a partial transformation, leaving the gem section of the blade unchanged. Unlike the earlier time, here the sword part of the rope stays in place; we even see it while She-Ra is swinging the rope around, making the sword look extra floppy.
• "I know; waves," says She-Ra, "we'll make some waves!" She then conjures up some tsunami-sized ones simply by having Swift Wind zip over the surface of the ocean. Okay.
• As noted earlier, it's not all that unusual to have an episode missing Spirit; but this story has a so-far unique set of missing characters: the Horde. This is the first episode of the series that has no villains whatsoever, since the only problem in the story turns out to be caused by Mother Nature. Given how rare this occasion is up to this point, it's surprising how soon it will happen again: see 67065.

• I'm having trouble separating my commentary from my lore - a longstanding vulnerability of my entries, perhaps accentuated in this episode. I'll admit that I seem to have an instinctual grudge against Mr. Heckman that taints a lot of my observations with criticism. In particular I feel the need to reiterate here that it seems unlikely for the rebels to need a night watch in their own magically shielded camp, especially since we've never seem them doing it before.
• It also seems particularly polite of those ghost wolves to pause in their attack and give Adora time to change into She-Ra. They're fighting by Marquis of Queensbury rules, then?
• Animation error: As tends to happen - and more frequently these days, given that we just saw it in 67061 - the She-Ra transformation runs just a bit too long, and has She-Ra beginning to move her sword toward the absent Spirit.
• Given the presence of the wolves during Adora's transformation, and the fact that - as we eventually learn - there's a girl who can communicate with the animals, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that these "ghosts" know all about our heroine's secret identity, and would have passed on the information. Adora had better play nice with these puppies - they've got dirt on her!
• The scene where Razz is trying to tell the story of King Arbor's missing daughter, but keeps getting interrupted by Broom popping out from behind her, is very amusing. Incidentally, interesting that the episode chooses to leave Razz's island adventure completely to the storytelling of the witch and her broom, without showing us any of it. I suppose it's an indication that there's a lot going on in this story.
• Razz and Broom state that the princess disappeared when she was seven years old. I suppose, given that she comes from an island culture which probably raises people to sea travel, we might overlook the questionable fact that, at such a tender age, Allegra was sailing a boat alone in a dangerous storm. But the eventual flashback vision we're shown by Mermista depicts a woman who looks much older than seven - and shows her, I might add, via an aerial view that seems unlikely to have come from the memory of a sea creature. It's only fair to say that when the heroes eventually meet Allegra in person, she looks much more believably like a twelve-year-old (which should be her current age, given that she's been missing for five years).
• I'll cut Mr. Heckman some slack here: Allegra's age probably took some difficulty to nail down, since the story required her to have been lost for a while, but still be fairly young when found, and also old enough at the time of her vanishing to be reasonably independent - so we aren't tempted to accuse her parents of wanton neglect.
• It made sense for the white wolves to be mistaken for ghosts; but when we eventually discover that the ghost girl is just a regular girl, it's hard to reconcile Allegra with the white spirit She-Ra saw flitting between trees.
• The other thing that's odd about the whole ghost storyline is that the rebels seem to have just started seeing these white things wandering around the forest, hence connecting them to the just-arrived wilting of plants; but according to the eventual explanation for the ghosts, the wolves and Allegra have been living happily in the forest for at least the past five years. Why are people just noticing them now?
• Note that Allegra has a connection to her wolf sister that transcends the physical or natural; when Ayla has gotten free and is being hunted by the woodsmen, Allegra learns of the danger through some kind of psychic intuition or message, indicated by the use of a shimmery sound effect. How did this magical connection get made? It's unclear.
• King Arbor, who appears late in the episode but is mentioned frequently beforehand, makes an interesting impression. We hear from the heroes that the father is very excited to see his daughter again, and has been worried sick and searching desperately for her these five long years. But when he ultimately finds her living the life of a wild person and hesitant to leave her wolf friends for her real family and responsibilities, he's surprisingly cool about the whole thing, and seems open to her just deciding to stay in the Whispering Woods. Would he really have been so accepting if Allegra had chosen Ayla over him?
• Though I think this story had the logical issues I've found to be characteristic of Don Heckman's scripts, it really wasn't that bad. Allegra was a compelling character and the idea of telling a story without any actual bad guys is an interesting and original one for the series.