Phil Harnage

Ed Friedman

A prince on a distant planet runs away from the pressures of palace life; the Twiggets are holding a carnival just outside the Whispering Woods; Hordak can't find any of his spy bots; and Madame Razz has a magic mirror that tells her she's ugly. How can all these things connect? You'll have to watch this wacky episode to find out!

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

Shadow Weaver, Mantenna, Hordak, Leech

Prince Kevin, King, Magic Mirror, spy bots (mentioned only), giant spider, Twiggets, various rebels, bull (cowatch), Horde soldiers

jetcycle, wagons, jetmobiles, Hordak-faced ship

Meet Prince Kevin. This kid (who looks to be about 8 or 9 years old) is definitely not ready for the responsibilities of kingship - he can't even be bothered to pick up his dirty clothes off the floor of his bedroom! Nevertheless, Pops (the king) is about ready to retire, and wants his son to prepare to take up the reins of leadership. So what's an unenthused heir apparent to do? Simple: hop on his incredibly sturdy jetcycle and get the heck out of there! Kevin does just that, not even bothering to leave a note for old Dad.

We'll never learn where on his unnamed planet Kevin was planning to go - he probably had no idea - because, through a series of crazy circumstances which I'm about to relate, he's going to end up on Etheria. You see, today the Twiggets are having a carnival, and they're holding the festival just outside the protecting environs of the Whispering Woods in an open clearing that's difficult to sneak up on. Since the rebels will be there too, Hordak, plotting in the Fright Zone, is anxious to get a man on the inside and ruin the whole thing; but his entire complement of spy bots is aggravatingly nowhere to be found. (Shadow Weaver tells Hordak where he sent them, but he ignores her.) Fetching Mantenna up from the trapdoor pit where the angry Hordak has already sent him, the Horde commander has his minion operate the dimension gate controls to start looking around for spare spy bots.

The very first gateway Mantenna opens just happens to be on Prince Kevin's planet, and just in the path of his speeding jetcycle. With no time to react, Kevin flies right through the portal and straight into the Fright Zone, crashing into the dimension gate control panel. Hordak - again provoked - wants to have the intruding boy thrown directly into his dungeons; but Shadow Weaver points out that a young kid would make the perfect spy for the Twigget carnival. Accordingly, she casts a spell to put Kevin under her power and totes him and his jetcycle off to an area just near the carnival grounds. Her plan is to have Kevin ingratiate himself with a passing rebel, to earn their trust and an easy way in. And what better way to ingratiate yourself with someone than to save them from a monster attack?

The passing sap happens to be Flutterina, which is perhaps why Shadow Weaver conjures a giant spider as the attacking monster. The butterfly girl is horrified at the sudden appearance of the eight-legged predator, creating the perfect opportunity for brave, brainwashed Kevin to swoop in on his jetcycle and bash the spider in the midsection. Grateful Flutterina questions her helpful new acquaintance, but all she can get out of him is his name and the fact that he can't remember much else. That's good enough to earn a plus-one invitation to the Twigget carnival!

The party between the trees is hopping, with some sick beats by live bands, magic shows, and a dunk tank featuring taunting insults from our favorite archer and dunk-ee, Bow. Currently Madame Razz is up at the plate, trying to aim her acorn at the dunk tank's target while friends Adora, Broom, and Kowl look on. It's possible she's a little crabbier than usual, and more susceptible to Bow's insults, because we saw her earlier getting insulted by her own magic mirror (it implied she's the "ugliest of them all"). Whatever the reason, the witch attempts to cheat by casting a spell on her projectile to send it right at Bow's nose; instead, the mixed-up magic flings the acorn on the horn of a bull. The enraged beast runs wild, and Princess Adora (not She-Ra!) has to step in to calm it down and save Madame, who has gotten herself stuck on the top of a tall pole.

These hijinks dispensed with, our heroes meet up with Flutterina and are introduced to Kevin, who seems ready enough to take a friendly pitch at Bow; but he's mysteriously distracted and wanders away instead. Hearing from Flutterina of the boy's mental confusion, a suspicious Adora sends Kowl off to check on the boy; so the bird is on hand to witness as the hypnotized Kevin pulls a little ball out of his pocket that breaks open, spreading a dark fog above the carnival grounds. It provides perfect cover for the immediate attack of the Horde!

Horde robot soldiers on jetmobiles come swooping down out of the fog, firing their stun beams, and led by Hordak in his self-branded air ship. Adora finally decides to find a private spot and transform into She-Ra, so the golden-haired heroine can strut her robot-bashing stuff. Bow, who very loyally stayed at his perch on the dunk tank, is finally plunged into the waters by the fifth or sixth shot of a Horde soldier; but the resulting splash from his dunking short-circuits the unlucky robot and gives Bow an idea of how the rest of the rebels can fight back. Everyone grabs a bucket of water and starts flinging, quickly turning the tide of the battle. Hordak is forced to call off the whole thing (due to water? really? so no battles when it's raining, I guess?), but before he leaves, he manages to net a prisoner in the form of Flutterina! The Horde really seems to be focusing their ire on the poor butterfly lady today.

She-Ra is horrorstruck at the capture of her fluttery friend; and even more surprising revelations come when Kowl rats out Kevin. Most everyone else is ready to condemn the boy, but She-Ra sees Kevin's confusion and trusts that he isn't perhaps in full control of his actions. Razz suggests that only Shadow Weaver could be capable of such dark influence. Normally in these situations, our heroes would simply assume that Flutterina had been taken to the dungeons of the Fright Zone, and rush headlong into the fortress to rescue her; but today She-Ra decides to be circumspect, and requests that Madame make use of her magic mirror. When they question the talking glass (politely), it shows the rebels an image of Hordak delivering orders from his throne room: Weaver is to take Flutterina to her place at Horror Hall, while Mantenna and Hordak await the inevitable rebel attack at the Fright Zone. That will fool them!

Our rebel friends have scooped their enemy's plans, and are all ready to join She-Ra in a raid on Horror Hall; but She-Ra insists the job is too dangerous, and the others should really all just stay here. All of them, that is, except Kevin. Yes, in one of her most questionable judgments, She-Ra decides that the best partner for her stealth mission is the memory-impaired young boy who they already suspect of being a puppet of the enemy. The pair mount up, Kevin on his jetcycle and She-Ra on Swift Wind, and make the journey to Shadow Weaver's eldritch manse.

However, Leech (a some-time lackey of Shadow Weaver, it seems) spies the approach of the heroes to the correct base, and Weaver alerts Hordak; so the Horde commander himself, with Mantenna as co-pilot, comes to intercept the two-person rescue mission in his Hordak-faced ship. During the attack, Hordak inevitably gets annoyed with Mantenna and drops him out the bottom of the vessel. Seeing that the falling Mantenna's parachute is not opening, She-Ra dives to rescue the miserable minion, leaving young Kevin to deal with Hordak. The boy decides to play chicken with the planetary dictator, and amazingly wins: in their head-on race, Hordak blinks first, veering off at the last second. She-Ra then returns and Swift Wind busts up the villain's ship with a good kick, sending Hordak into the same puddle where Mantenna was left to soak.

The heroic pair are then free to bust their way into Horror Hall; but Leech lassos She-Ra with a rope of dark energy, sapping her power and causing her to drop her sword. Kevin swoops in to retrieve the weapon, but of course Weaver immediately uses her power over the boy to freeze him in place. The heroine must coach the prince with some inspiring words. The power of her trust and love ultimately gives Kevin the strength to break the evil spell and swing She-Ra's blade through the restraining rope, freeing the heroine. It's then an easy feat for her to imprison Weaver and Leech in the same little bell jar that was holding Flutterina. And they finished up so quickly, there's still time to go back and enjoy more of that Twigget carnival!

At the carnival, Kevin confesses to She-Ra that he's remembered how he's a prince, and that he ran away because he couldn't face the pressures of his royal life. But his adventures today have changed his mind, and he's ready to endure the terrors of adulthood. She-Ra, who figured he'd say that, has already called his dad (I guess the king put an ad in the Etheria Times?), who comes flying down from the sky on a giant metal saucer. After a lovely visit of indeterminate length hidden in a jump cut, the happily reunited father and son return to their world, and Flutterina bids goodbye to "King Kevin."

• Prince Kevin: What'll I do? I don't want to be a king; I want to play! Maybe... Maybe I should run away. Hmmm. That's not a bad idea.
• Madame Razz: Tell me mirror, long and tall, who's the beauty of them all? / Magic Mirror: Not you, Deary; want to try for ugliest?
• Shadow Weaver (to Flutterina, seemingly employing the royal "we"): You will make a fine addition to our butterfly collection, my dear. Doesn't that make you happy? To know that you will be with us forever?
• She-Ra (subtly reminding us of the beginning theme of today's episode, though she's in the middle of an unrelated rescue mission): Kevin, you're running away from something, aren't you? / Prince Kevin: Yes. / She-Ra: Your parents must be worried about you. When this is over, let's talk about it.
• Shadow Weaver (egregiously lying to herself): My magic works every time. It's stronger than She-Ra.
• Kevin (laying out today's lesson and mincing no words): I'm a prince. I ran away because I didn't think I'd like the responsibility. But since I've been with you and your friends and seen how you love them and - and protect them, I know that helping others can be the best thing of all.
• King (to She-Ra): Most of all, thank you for showing our son the power of love.

N/A

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)

2:37 - Standing in full view of his audience, though in the shade of some Loo-Kee-colored plants, our elfin friend is creeping on poor Madame Razz while she has a disappointing conversation with her vanity mirror.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee directs our attention to Kevin, who at the beginning of the episode was not interested in doing what he was "supposed to." This makes him - and anyone else who doesn't do the things they're supposed to, such as household chores or homework - "irresponsible" and "bad." Look, kids: you think making your bed is a pain? Be thankful you don't have to run a freaking kingdom. So suck it up!

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson

• Writer Phil Harnage supplied the scripts for two MOTU episodes, MU084's "Fraidy Cat" (yes, it was about Cringer) and MU095's "A Bird in the Hand." Though he is a prolific writer of animated shows, this will be his only POP script.
• The sound that pulls the king away from his important discussion with Prince Kevin, which I assume is the buzz of some kind of pager, sounds like the noise Captain Kirk's communicator would make when he flipped it open in Star Trek.
• As an irresponsible prince who has no interest in settling down to rule his people and wants to get away from his pressuring dad, Kevin reminds me of the laughing Prince Arkion from 67054's "The Light of the Crystal." I would bet good money Kevin will be learning a similar lesson to Arkion by the end of this episode...
• Madame Razz, it turns out, owns a magic mirror along the lines of the one in Snow White - except this is a very rude one! Though it eventually compliments her by telling her her beauty is "on the inside," it first suggests she's the ugliest person on Etheria.
• Appearing for the second time in a row (after her origin story in 67068) is Flutterina! We never quite learned what her powers were in her previous appearances, but today we discover that one of them is being able to assume the form of a tiny butterfly. Later in the story, we also find that she can summon a cloud of butterflies out of her hand. Huh.
• It's trapdoor time! Mantenna, without much fanfare, receives the usual treatment from an irritated Hordak, who can't believe there are no available spy bots. This is the miserable minion's first trapdoor-ing of the new season; the last time he fell down one was in the wonderful 67063's "Flowers for Hordak." Mantenna comes back up at Hordak's peremptory command - only to be sent down again a few minutes later. Ahhh; this is a never-changing part of the show that I can get behind!
• Shadow Weaver reminds her boss that he sent all the spy bots off to "Horde Force Command," a place we haven't heard mentioned before. Is it on Horde World?
• By the way, Hordak's "spy bots" may be the focus of another case of poor and inconsistent naming in the series. In 67013 we met some Horde "attack bots," bat-like metal flying spheres with laser-beam eyes. They appeared again, slightly retooled and under the name "capture bot," in 67036. Hordak has also employed "spy bats," a bat-like device of a similar size and shape, but not spherical - see 67015. It doesn't look like we'll be able to confirm whether these spy bots also have bat-like qualities, since they won't be appearing in this episode. (To add to the impressive level of confusion, late in the episode Hordak uses the phrase "attack bots" to refer to his robotic soldiers. Sigh.)
• Hordak, as he has done in the past, steals several ideas from Shadow Weaver today and immediately claims them as his own. Weaver chooses to roll with it rather than get mad, as she so treasonously did in 67056's "Of Shadows and Skulls." (In that case Weaver's anger sprung from Hordak insulting her, not from his stealing her ideas.)
• Note that the existence of Hordak's "dimension gate" suggests that he has upgraded his technology significantly. Recall that in 67035's "Gateway to Trouble," Hordak was very pleased at the prospect of utilizing Modulok's gatemaker device, something that seemed like a fresh innovation to the Horde commander. The device was one-of-a-kind, and it was a big disaster when a certain He-Man and his sister smashed the thing to bits. However, afterwards the technology for interdimensional transport seemed to disseminate throughout the universe. In the recently mentioned 67056, we found that Shadow Weaver was able to make a gate through her magic so that Skeletor could come to Etheria; and Skeletor himself seemed to have no trouble at all transporting himself to Etheria by Episode 58's "Horde Prime Takes a Holiday" (67018).
• It makes sense that Flutterina, who's maybe half butterfly, would be particularly vulnerable to the attack of a giant spider. This particular spider, summoned by Shadow Weaver, is a familiar model that we've seen as far back as MU114's "Battle of the Dragons" - though that one, which lived in Granamyr's basement, was blue rather than red and orange like this one. This same character design was also used to represent Hordak's "pet" on Beast Island, in 67014's "Friendship."
• It's a Twigget carnival! The celebration brings Twiggets back to the series in a big way, with plenty of the sylvan sprites to see (and hear). Many of the faces we encounter look similar to Twigget models introduced in 67028's "Bow's Farewell."
• Madame's Magic: Madame Razz, inordinately peeved at Bow's dunk-tank taunts, tries to use her magic to hit "that animal" on the nose, but the mis-cast spell instead sends her thrown acorn onto the horn of a bull - with predictably perilous results. The animal in question looks identical to the "cowatch" let loose by baker's son Marcus at the beginning of 67023's "The Crown of Knowledge." It's actually been quite a while since Razz so thoroughly screwed up her magic; the last time her words caused a spell to go wrong was in 67048's "Birds of a Feather."
• The shot we see of Kevin's face, with the ghostly figure of Shadow Weaver superimposed over it, is perhaps the closest we've ever gotten to a character's face in any episode of MOTU or POP. Impressive!
• Having resisted the temptation to do so until rather late in the story, Adora finally lifts her sword to make her transformation after the episode's 11-minute mark. She does it without her horse; however, at 16 minutes into the episode, Swift Wind suddenly appears to provide transport for She-Ra to Horror Hall. This continuity issue with the winged horse has been practiced upon us several times previously, and as recently as 67064.
• Hordak transformations: He changes one arm into a long pole ending in a person-sized, domed cage, in order to "net" Flutterina.
• I've got to hand it to Kowl today. He usually makes a habit of being conveniently absent when any kind of battle is happening, but when the Horde invades the Twigget carnival, the bird actually assists - and saves She-Ra in the process - by dumping a bucket of water over a Horde soldier.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra changes her blade to an oversized horseshoe magnet to take out a group of soldiers. She made her sword into a similar magnet attached to a line in 67058's "Black Snow."
• We return to Horror Hall, Shadow Weaver's private dwelling place and the site of several memorable events - particularly those in 67027's "The Eldritch Mist" and 67047's "The Price of Power." We last visited there in the wonderful 67056's "Of Shadows and Skulls;" so maybe Horror Hall is a good-luck charm for POP episodes! (We'll be visiting again tomorrow - see 67070.)
• Mantenna is sent through what could be considered his third trapdoor of the day - a mobile one - when a disgruntled Hordak ejects the minion out the bottom of his air ship.
• Way to go, Swift Wind! He volunteers to "try something" on Hordak's ship, which ends up being a swift and very effective rear-leg kick that sends the vessel crashing to the ground.
• Swiss army sword: To break into Horror Hall, She-Ra changes her sword to a "battering ram." It almost seems as if the animators weren't sure what such a thing would look like, because the shape of it is largely obscured by the positioning of our heroine, and we find the blade has returned to its usual form as soon as She-Ra rides through the doorway.
• In the typical Filmation failure to name characters or places, we never learn the name of the kingdom or planet Kevin comes from, and we never learn the name of his dad. She-Ra speaks of Kevin's "parents," so we assume he has a living mother, but we never see her.
• The episode's kid leaving with his parent on a big spaceship, and having to go before the "warp gate closes," reminds me very much of the rushed exit of the bumbling Glitch and his father at the conclusion of MU087's "Things That Go Bump in the Night."
• Ending credits variation: For the third consecutive episode, the background painting on the credits is that of Castle Bright Moon instead of the Crystal Castle.

• Check out what an absolute disaster area the prince's room is! You'd think as a rich member of a royal family, he would have servants to pick up his crap. Maybe his dad is having the servants hold off on purpose, to try to teach his wayward child some responsibility. Good luck, pops.
• So Prince Kevin's dad (who is way older than you'd expect the dad of a little kid to be - maybe we shouldn't look too closely into that) plans on "retiring" soon and passing the kingdom to his son. I assume this unusual transfer of power is our writer avoiding the idea of the king actually dying and thus passing the crown in the more typical way.
• The scene where Hordak is looking for spy bots is curious when you consider how many other perfectly good - and more sentient - spies he has at his command. Remember 67041's False Face? He could turn into anybody he wanted, given some slight physical contact. Or what about Hordak's favorite little spy, Imp, who hasn't yet showed his piggy face this season? I kind of miss the guy. (Do you miss Imp too? You'll have to skip ahead to 67073's "The Time Transformer" to see him - and I'm not sure I'd recommend it!)
• I suppose we have to mark it down to poor communication on our villains' parts that Mantenna, in search of the spy bots, first opens the dimension gate in a random portion of forest on some planet, rather than at the Horde Force Command where Shadow Weaver has already mentioned the bots were all sent. Or we could chalk it up to poor Mantenna's sheer incompetence. But the clumsiness of the circumstances does serve to emphasize the gate's role as a contrivance to send Prince Kevin into the Horde's clutches.
• Incidentally, it appears we're meant to understand that Kevin lives on some other planet or dimension somewhere, that isn't Etheria. I didn't fully realize this until the very end of the episode, when Kevin's dad comes to fetch him in a flying saucer. One of the things that misled me was the scene where Kevin first drives into the dimension gate: the forest background he's jetcycling through looks exactly like a portion of the Whispering Woods.
• Whatever kingdom Kevin's dad rules over, it must be a plenty rich one, because they build their jetcycles extra tough! Kevin jets through the dimension gate and collides directly with the gate's control panel in the Fright Zone. There's a huge explosion and afterwards the panel lies in ruins; but the jetcycle is completely untouched, and still fully operable for him to use again against the giant spider - as a battering ram, no less! In fact, over the course of this episode, the jetcycle proves to be one of the most useful vehicles ever conceived in the POP series; without it, it's hard to see what Kevin would contribute to this story.
• Interesting that Adora tells herself she doesn't have enough time to change into She-Ra in order to save Madame Razz from the precarious situation atop a pole. I feel like other episodes would have happily afforded her the requisite time to do so. Instead, the human princess calls over the angry bull threatening her friend and calms it with words and a gentle touch. It's unclear whether, in effecting this rescue, she's employing any of the animal communication skills usually limited to her superpowered alter ego - though we've seen Adora somehow adopting these powers, in the much-hated (by this reviewer, anyway) 67057's "Jungle Fever."
• I have to admit that I was waiting with bated breath for Bow to finally get dunked in the dunk tank. I didn't expect that his dunking would be achieved by a Horde soldier! In the event it somewhat spoiled my satisfaction. But I do appreciate that the soldier very sportingly stood back at the game's counter to make his shot!
• Bow's resulting brainwave, that water causes the robot soldiers to malfunction, is something he should already be well aware of. It was how She-Ra defeated a bunch of the bad guys to conclude 67026's "Book Burning." Still, as I noted in the plot summary, it's a pretty glaring vulnerability for your robot army to have - perhaps Hordak should have Modulok look into creating a waterproofed version 2.0 of the Horde soldier.
• This episode feels very oddly paced. Up until around the halfway point, it doesn't seem like much of importance has actually happened: a boy ran away from his home but hasn't yet learned his lesson; the heroes are having a carnival but nobody has managed to get Bow into the dunk tank yet. Once the Horde attack occurs, events speed up to a crazy extent, with the setting flipping back and forth frenetically between the Fright Zone and the carnival grounds: Kevin's enchantment is discovered, Hordak makes some dubious battle plans that involve he and Mantenna stopping She-Ra (!?), the magic mirror gets employed for something useful, and She-Ra makes the imprudent decision to take the one person with her on the rescue mission who she knows is under an evil magic spell. All of this happens within the space of about one minute.
• She-Ra's choice to go after a plummeting Mantenna puts her in the very irresponsible position of allowing her colleague - an ensorcelled, slightly amnesiac young boy about whom she knows almost nothing, and who she never should have taken on this mission in the first place - to play chicken with Hordak. I was just talking about She-Ra's questionable judgment in moral trolley-problem situations like this (see 67068), and here we see it in action again! (The added irony is that, a few seconds later, she cuts the strings from Hordak's fully operable parachute.)
• Just how in the heck does She-Ra know how to contact Kevin's parents? She claims to have gotten Madame Razz to figure it out, even before the boy identifies himself as a prince. The only thing she knew about him was his name. Is there only one "Kevin" in the known galaxy?
• It's a very interesting choice to have Flutterina end the episode by bidding goodbye to "King Kevin." I think we have to assume that she's not just getting his title wrong, but is (in surprisingly subtle fashion) referring to the fact that he has now chosen to take on his royal mantle of responsibility.
• Though it seemed rather hastily put together, especially in its second half, this episode was a lot of fun, and clearly - based on the horrendous amount of screenshots I took of it - packed with many interesting sights. It was a "lesson" episode, but it didn't spend a lot of time hammering home the lesson, so I wasn't annoyed. I also really appreciated the way the writer gave all the heroes a chance to shine and use their abilities (even if She-Ra left almost all of them out of the ending confrontation), particularly Flutterina and Kowl, the latter of which hardly ever contributes more than his witty barbs. And let's not forget Swift Wind's donkey kick! Nice to see there are still entertaining stories to be squeezed from the POP merchandising lemon.