Don Heckman

Tom Tataranowicz

During an attack on Castle Bright Moon, Horde Corporal Romeo gets captured by the rebels and meets the very pretty and nice Princess Glimmer. Can this pink-haired maiden convince the brainwashed soldier that he's fighting for the wrong side? Or will Romeo betray the Etherians to his commanding officer, Hordak? Oh, what a heartrending, melodramatic choice he must make!

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Glimmer, Queen Angella, Bow, Flutterina (mentioned only), Kowl, Spirit (Swift Wind)

Hordak, Imp, Entrapta

Horde soldiers, Bright Moon guards, Corporal Romeo

Crawler (trapper tank), Horde air ships, jetmobiles, Horde trucks, ground busters, Horde tanks

Off in the gloomy, lightning-pocked wastes of the Fright Zone, Entrapta is showing Hordak and Imp her latest invention: the trapper tank. (It looks amazingly similar to Hordak's Crawler vehicle from previous episodes - probably just a coincidence!) Though both her boss and the irritating Imp complain that the giant vehicle is rusty, Entrapta insists it will be up to the job of penetrating the rebels' defenses at Castle Bright Moon. Over at said castle, Angella, Adora, and Bow can tell the Horde is preparing for an attack, because not only have they seen forces massing nearby, their scouts have captured a Horde prisoner. Angella's guardsmen arrive in the throne room to deliver the fellow, who's introduced himself as Corporal Romeo (if that really is his name). A loyal soldier, Romeo refuses to give up any information about the impending attack, and Adora quickly nixes Bow's attempts at harsher interrogation, pointing out that they're the good guys. Besides, Romeo has an injury on his arm that should be looked at. Glimmer approaches to assist; she's clearly attracted to the handsome corporal and the feeling is clearly mutual.

As the pink-haired princess treats her prisoner-patient in the medical bay, they fall into a discussion about the relative merits of their opposing sides. Romeo has clearly been taught that the rebels are evil usurpers, but finds that belief hard to reconcile with Glimmer's kind behavior and professions of moral purity. Meanwhile, the Horde attack proceeds. The first line of battle, a queue of Horde trucks, performs very poorly, merely creating an accordioned traffic jam when the lead truck rams into the castle's defense dome. Entrapta's tank proves a more effective weapon: its giant cannon fires a series of metal discs connected to flexible metal arms, which attach to the dome and begin draining its energy. The vehicle eventually breaks through the castle's shield! Fortunately for the rebellion, She-Ra soon shows up to deflect the tank's energy blasts, smash the arms, and toss it all the way back to the Fright Zone, where it busts into a shattered heap - with Hordak, Imp, and Entrapta lying in a disheveled pile inside.

Back to our episode's title couple. After Glimmer leaves the healed Romeo in an unlocked room with the promise to stay put, the corporal shakes away any doubts he may have been developing about his army and decides that it's his duty as a soldier to escape. To that end, he makes a rope out of tied-together towels and lets himself out the high window of the room. Most fortuitously for him, on the way down Romeo overhears a council of Angella, Adora, and friends, in which the queen mentions that the castle's dome has been greatly damaged by Entrapta's tank, and couldn't hold up to another attack. The prisoner's absence is quickly discovered, and a dismayed Glimmer, hurt that her words and promises don't seem to have gotten through to the handsome devil, announces her intention to go after him - alone. After some struggling, her mother agrees to the mission, on the condition that Glimmer take Kowl with her.

Kowl and Glimmer, therefore, head out into the woods and follow the trail of Romeo, catching up to him on a ridge just a little way from the Fright Zone. Glimmer holds the corporal at freeze-ray-point and demands he surrender, but she's surprised from behind by a pair of Horde robots. Kowl demonstrates his primary skill by flying away, leaving Glimmer to get grabbed by Romeo and hustled off as a prisoner. Rather than just run on home to get help, Kowl evidently decides to stealthily follow the corporal and party, because we see the bird outside the window of Hordak's throne room listening in on the Horde commander's interview with the new arrivals.

With very little hesitation, Romeo relates to Hordak the news about Bright Moon's shield; and he's also brought a very important prisoner in Princess Glimmer. But when the corporal dares to object to Hordak's treatment of the innocent pink-haired girl, an offended Hordak decides to throw Romeo in the same dungeon cell as the rebel. Entrapta urges Hordak to place the prisoners in Fright Zone's "deep" dungeon, right near her magnetic pole device. Not only will the machine be serving to re-energize the trapper tank for another foray - it will make a lovely trap for She-Ra, should she show up to try to rescue her friend!

Thanks to Kowl's spying on this whole scene, She-Ra's arrival will come much sooner than any of the Horde might have thought; for the bird takes his intelligence directly to Adora, who makes her full transformation (between scenes) and flies Swift Wind right on over. She-Ra enters by way of a mountain entrance we've never seen before, smooshing the two guards on duty there and sneaking down into the dungeons. Romeo hasn't managed to pick the lock on his cell door in the interim; but he and Glimmer have had a very productive conversation, in which the corporal has admitted to the realization that he's been playing for the wrong side, and a very pleased Glimmer has agreed to help him join the Great Rebellion. She-Ra tears the door off the couple's cell and tells them to make a run for it while she fights off some alerted guards.

Our heroine soon finds herself, as Entrapta planned, near the magnetic pole, which switches on and momentarily freezes She-Ra in place with its lightning-like force. But She-Ra changes her sword into a lightning rod, which absorbs the magnet's energy and allows the heroine to turn the weapon back on itself. Magnetic pole - kaput! For good measure, She-Ra uses what juice is left in the lightning rod to zap open the other cells in the dungeon, freeing a collection of prisoners who were apparently languishing there for an undisclosed period of time. Returned to Bright Moon, our heroes express general gratefulness that the Horde has once again been stopped (we assume) and that the rebellion and Glimmer have gained a new "friend." For Glimmer, Romeo is the kind of "friend" who you can stroke on the chest and hug - and based on the kissy noise that happens after the screen has faded to black, do even more intimate things with.

• Glimmer: A little antiseptic hurts? What kind of a soldier are you? / Romeo: A very good one - I'm the youngest corporal in my regiment. / Glimmer: A Horde regiment. / Romeo: What's wrong with that?
• Romeo (to himself): Hordak always told us that the rebels were like animals, but Glimmer isn't like an animal at all. Wait a minute, Corporal Romeo - you're a soldier. Your duty is to get back to your regiment and fight. No matter how nice, or - or pretty Glimmer is.
• Glimmer (to herself): It just goes to show: you can never trust a Hordesman. No matter how handsome they are.
• Hordak (to Romeo, after he's said one thing in defense of Glimmer): Silence! Horde soldiers do not tell Hordak what to do. (snorts) You need a lesson in manners. Throw Corporal Romeo in the deep dungeons with the rebel. / Romeo: But I've done nothing; I've been a good Horde soldier. / Hordak: But it pleases me to put people in the dungeon.

• She-Ra spin kicks the viewer: Smashing a fired projectile from the Horde's trapper tank
• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: Going to rescue Glimmer

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)
The first partial transformation features the common flub of She-Ra beginning to move her sword towards an absent Spirit. Late in the episode Adora and her (now-present) horse make a second transformation, but it happens entirely off-screen.

1:50 - Our Kon-Seal friend shows up early in the episode, in the panning shot that marks our first visit to the heroes' camp. He's in the upper-left part of the screen, looking down from a tree branch.
Did I spot him? YES!

Even though the main episode seems to have just ended with a sloppy makeout session, Loo-Kee tries to convince us that Glimmer's interactions with Romeo today taught us about "friendship." Hmm. Like the rockier parts earlier in the couple's relationship - you know, when Romeo was still an active member of the opposing army - sometimes we might find it hard to get along with our friends. But Loo-Kee urges us to stick with it, because "real friendship is the most valuable thing you can have." Except maybe a magic sword.

Love is in the air: With "Romeo" in the episode title, you just know that romance is in the offing!
Changing hearts and minds: I'm constantly having to consider what really constitutes an appropriate use of this category, which I usually reserve for times when Adora or She-Ra convinces a former enemy to join the rebellion. In this case neither Adora nor her alter ego have anything to do with the conversion of Corporal Romeo - but he undeniably changes both his heart and his mind, so I don't think we can overlook the tagging.

• Don Heckman returns with his eighth and penultimate POP script.
• The opening shot shows us the first of what will be quite a few recycled designs, characters, and ideas in today's story. This one is the Crawler, Hordak's imposing SUV which has showed up in 67029, 67056, and 67067. Or is it? In the typical fashion of confusing vehicle identification, this time it seems the Crawler is named the "trapper tank," and was built by Entrapta.
• Entrapta, like her "new" vehicle, seems to have been reimagined a bit since her previous appearances in the show. She last appeared in Heckman's previous script, 67073's "The Time Transformer," but that was only in a non-speaking role in the background. Her only other speaking role so far in the series was in the season premiere, 67066's "One to Count on." There, Entrapta liked building mechanical traps and also enjoyed a bit of gardening. In this episode, the botanical side of the character has been dropped, her voice has somewhat deepened and roughened (though it still sounds like that of an evil rich heiress), and her long red hair has become a tool and weapon. This last ability was entirely missing in 67066, though it will become a defining characteristic of Entrapta which will be carried into the Netflix reboot series.
• The soldierly looking fellows who interrupt our heroes' war council I have to assume are part of Queen Angella's guard, so I've identified them in my character listing as "Bright Moon guards;" but they don't look anything like the uniformed guardsmen we've seen Angella employing in other episodes (67022, 67028, 67067). They're much more casually dressed, in shades of green rather than blue or orange, and look more like hunters or rangers.
• These alternate-look guards bring us Horde Corporal Romeo, the absurdly named first half of today's title couple. He's dressed exactly like - and, apart from being a bit taller and with slightly different hair, looks nearly identical to - Horde Prime's heir Prince Zed from 67011's "The Peril of Whispering Woods."
• I think we can mention at this point how much this story has in common with another Heckman script, 67041's "Glimmer's Story." First there's the obvious connection in their titles, both signalling a story with the Bright Moon princess at its center. Both stories also gave Glimmer a romantic interest with uncertain loyalties. In 67041 it was Prince Highcliff, who for most of the episode was not himself, but the impostor False Face. Nevertheless, at the end of the episode, it seemed a relationship between the real prince and Glimmer was imminent. Here, another man, this time one solidly allied with the Horde (and with pointy ears), shows an attraction for our pink-haired princess. At stake in both plots is the defense of Castle Bright Moon, with Glimmer's love interest at the crux.
• Also at the crux of the castle's defenses is its "force dome," a shield that's been integral to several other plots beyond 67041. We learned that Bright Moon's protection was powered by Etheria's moons in 67022's "The Crystal Castle," and eclipse power was being used to try to break through it in 67028's "Bow's Farewell." This episode treats the shield a little differently, as a more solid defensive wall, especially in the scene where a line of Horde trucks smashes into it.
• Reminding us of the Crawler's first appearance in 67029's "The Price of Freedom," when Entrapta's trapper goes out into the field, it's accompanied by a bunch of Horde troopers riding the skiff-like air ships we also saw in that episode. I believe today marks the flying vehicle's second appearance in the series. Also seen are troopers wearing the big backpacks and connected flamethrower-like guns used first in 67025's "Small Problems" to shoot some shrinking dust, but also appearing as flamethrowers in the already oft-mentioned 67029.
• Imp changes into a pair of blue scissors to try to snip Entrapta's hair, a new shape for the critter that earns a rare rebuke from the usually partial Hordak. It's immediately followed by a similar rebuke to Entrapta, so Hordak isn't acting that out of character. In further Imp hijinks, the little demon gives Entrapta the raspberry several times in this story, the first occasion recycling an animation seen in 67073.
• Flutterina gets a rather odd non-appearance in today's episode. Adora asks Bow to team up with Flutterina to check the castle walls, and Bow even says "We're on our way!" seemingly suggesting that Flutterina is standing next to him - but she's nowhere to be seen, and never shows up.
• Entrapta refers to She-Ra as "the muscle maiden," a goofy label for our heroine that I don't think we've heard used before.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra uses the blade's dependable shield form to block a blast from the trapper tank.
• While She-Ra is fighting the trapper tank, we actually see her punch a piece of it - a rare occurrence, since from what I've heard in interviews, She-Ra was not allowed to punch people. Even though inanimate objects aren't people, we still are much more likely to see She-Ra kick stuff than use her fists.
• During Kowl's getaway from the Horde, Romeo calls the bird an "owl." It's a rather obvious way to refer to the owl-like creature, but not one that I think we've heard used before - the reason, I assume, being that writers wanted to avoid suggesting that Earth owls exist on Etheria. A few seconds later, Kowl insults a Horde robot by calling him a "turkey" - another Earth fowl!
• Another interesting fact from Kowl's getaway scene - Romeo instructs the robot guards to hit the runaway with their "tractor" beams, which is what he calls the rays shooting from the soldiers' typical wand-like guns. Most of the time these guns are billed as freeze rays (though, as I noted in 67052's "The Wizard," they can have widely varying effects on the things they strike), but given the new name, you'd expect a direct hit to grab hold of Kowl and start sucking him backwards. Since the soldier misses, we'll never know for sure.
• There's a weird concept inserted into this story that doesn't seem to be adequately explained, as if a scene is missing. I'd like to think that's what it is, and not that I, a grown man, am unable to understand a kids' cartoon show. What I'm talking about is the "magnetic pole," a big magnet machine that lives deep in Hordak's basement, which Entrapta says she's going to use to somehow power her repaired trapper tank. It also acts as a trap for She-Ra when she ventures into the dungeons to rescue Glimmer; but its actual purpose and usefulness remain vague and strange. How does a big magnet provide energy for a vehicle? And why would that same magnet hurt She-Ra? Does she have too much iron in her diet? Some later dialogue from our heroine seems to suggest that the device is an electromagnet that is harnessing the magnetic energies of the planet itself; but this is a pretty wide extrapolation based on vague and sparse dialogue.
• We find Romeo and Glimmer tossed into the same cell where Netossa was forced to cool it in the recent 67078 - also where Perfuma was seen singing and blooming in 67063. It's probably the same place where Prince Adam was imprisoned in 67015.
• The couple's conversation while in that cell, which brings up the history of Princess Adora and her own turn against the Horde, provides a pertinent parallel and is actually quite good - much as I hate to admit that in a Heckman script. It's inaccurate of Glimmer, however, to argue with Romeo that Adora isn't a traitor, just because Adora left the Horde over a matter of morals and principles. Adora definitely is a traitor to the Horde, by definition: she turned against them. Sure the word has a negative connotation, but the shoe fits!
• Spirit makes a late appearance in the episode and is quickly swapped out for Swift Wind (though Adora's second transformation, which includes the horse, happens totally off-screen). The winged horse is used entirely for transportation and has no lines. If he were a real actor, Swifty probably would have been offended.
• Another day, another infiltration into the Fright Zone. Today, we see She-Ra finding a completely unfamiliar cave entrance in a pleasantly verdant mountainside, which she tells Swifty "is in the right location for the deep dungeon." I suppose the fact that we've never visited the deep dungeon before is supposed to be the reason why the heroes have never used this particular entryway in any of their previous visits to the Horde fortress.
• The problem with that theory, of course, is that - as I previously mentioned - the cell where the prisoners are being held is identical to ones we've seen several times before, and doesn't look at all like some unfamiliar portion of the Fright Zone. To support this, we see She-Ra sneaking into this deep dungeon using a very familiar interior path and spiral walkway, seen already in 67015's "He Ain't Heavy."
• Also note, in the realm of recycling, that the animation of She-Ra stomping the two guards manning the dungeon entrance into flat little robot circles is identical to one used in the opening battle from 67052's "The Wizard."
• We see Hordak (and Imp and Entrapta) spying on the heroes using his giant projected screen, which has become a popular viewing device lately - it's been featured in four of the last five episodes.
• Swiss army sword: In a fun new addition to her weapon's repertoire, She-Ra changes the sword of protection into a lightning rod. It's the perfect tool for dealing with that pesky magnetic pole thingie.
• The episode ends with a downright icky level of physical love. Glimmer, calling Romeo "a new friend," strokes him lightly on the chest, causing the ex-corporal's ears to wiggle. Eugh. The scene then fades out with a red-tinged heart-shaped wipe. We don't see the embracing couple's lips touch before the fadeout, but after it we get a resounding - and very wet-sounding - smooch noise. Ironically, though it seems the animators were trying to tastefully hide the PDA and merely suggest it, the end result seems more explicit than otherwise. After all, we've seen Sea Hawk kiss Adora several times (67059, 67060), and it wasn't nearly as objectionable as this. (This heart-shaped wipe and kiss noise will be used again, to conclude 67085's wonderfully wacky "Sweet Bee's Home.")
• Ending credits variation: The streak continues! It's the alternate background painting we've been seeing throughout almost all of Season 2.

• Dialogue error: Queen Angella's first line sounds as if it's being spoken by two different people. "That can only mean one thing," her opening statement, was probably intended to be said by someone else; "Hordak's planning an attack," the second statement, is actually spoken with Angella's voice. Based on the lip animation, both come out of Angella's mouth.
• It's interesting to consider the eerie similarity of Corporal Romeo to Prince Zed. It made me wonder: what if the original idea in the script was to actually use Prince Zed in this role? An older Zed, who'd hardened against the rebellion after his initial softening in 67011? That would have imbued the story with heavier importance, in addition to acknowledging the continued existence of Horde Prime's heir - a fact that the show writers would probably rather we all forgot about. (Zed being Prime's "son" never made much sense, even if it does make for some fun succession possibilities.)
• There's a weird animation trend in this episode, which I'm not sure is in the mix here for the first time, or I'm just noticing it now: fluttering eyelids. Many of the characters do a double or triple blink while they're standing still for dialogue shots.
• Dialogue error: It's going around today! In a long shot of our heroes looking out at the approaching Horde forces from a balcony window at Castle Bright Moon, Princess Adora's lips clearly move in time with the line, "That's the biggest Horde army I've ever seen." It's definitely not her voice that's speaking, however; it's that same incorrect one that said "That can only mean one thing" earlier. I'm actually not sure what character it was meant to be (the missing Flutterina?), but it sounds like the voice Erika Scheimer usually reserves for young children.
• Animation error: We again see the same mismatched convoy of Horde trucks and tanks in the background, proceeding over a hill to the foreground, which we've seen many times before, most recently in 67077 and 67076.
• Animation error: As noted in the transformations section, the first She-Ra transformation doesn't cut off quickly enough and shows the heroine moving her sword towards Spirit, who is not there.
• Animation error/continuity error: When She-Ra lifts up the trapper tank to throw it away, there are suddenly black vertical lines running through the red centers of the vehicle's eyes - a feature that wasn't present in earlier shots.
• When Adora suggests Kowl as an escort for Glimmer on the mission to stop the escaped Corporal Romeo, Glimmer finds the idea laughable (and rightfully so!). Kowl, getting his back up, stuffily retorts, "You seem to have forgotten that I am well trained in the physical arts." Sure bud. When exactly did that ever happen - and when have you ever given any indication of it? The more logical reason for Kowl's presence is the one that Angella gives: that the bird is "said to be the fastest thing on two wings in all of Etheria." This, of course, is also not really true - the fastest thing on two wings must be Swift Wind, who can go so fast that he can travel back in time (67073). But we can all at least agree that Kowl is very good at running away.
• Kowl avoids capture: Speaking of which... Kowl does indeed make a run for it when Glimmer gets into trouble, and successfully avoids the laser fire of a Horde trooper to get away. All in a day's work for our elusive bird hero!
• Animation error: In the scene where Romeo is peeking over a rock on his way back to the Fright Zone, the visible portion of the Horde logo on his chest has been incorrectly colored black instead of red. The same error occurs in the wide shot introducing the ending scene of the episode.
• Glimmer threatens Corporal Romeo with a freeze pistol. Why not use her light powers? For whatever reason they are not on display in this episode.
• Animation error: In a couple of shots of Hordak sitting on his throne, we can see a portion of the throne directly behind his head, because the black part of his bone-edged "ruff" that should be there has not been colored in.
• When Glimmer gets grabbed, it seems as if the escaped Kowl should be avoiding capture by running back to the Whispering Woods to fetch help; however a minute later we see him hovering by the window of Hordak's throne room so he can overhear the conversation between Romeo and the Horde commander. It's hard to see what would motivate the bird to hang around for this bit, other than as a tool for moving the plot along.
• In the continuing history of Hordak being a terrible manager, we see him purposefully throwing away one of his most loyal - and useful - soldiers because, as the dictator puts it, "it pleases me to put people in the dungeon." The misguided but still zealous Corporal Romeo, who has just brought Hordak a valuable prisoner and given his boss priceless intelligence about the state of the enemy fortress, voices one opinion about how maybe Hordak shouldn't mistreat Glimmer, and Hordak tosses him in prison. This has the direct effect of turning Romeo into a rebel. There's no proximate cause, no indirect set of events: literally Hordak's actions turn Romeo to the other side. No wonder the Horde has been trying to take over the planet unsuccessfully for like twenty years!
• By the way, Hordak also completely fails to take advantage of that priceless intelligence, as no follow-up attack on the weakened Bright Moon ever materializes. I suppose we have to assume that this is because She-Ra smashes the magnet thing? That's enough to just make Hordak give up for the day? Clearly he just didn't want it.
• A very quick moment near the end of the story raises a disturbing issue that also bugged me while I was watching 67071's "Loo-Kee's Sweety" - though this one has a happier resolution than the former. In 67071, She-Ra helps rescue Loo-Kee's friends and fellow Kon-Seals from a prison yard on Beast Island; but she does nothing to free all the human prisoners that the plot established were also being held on the island. Today, after saving Glimmer and Romeo and then easily bashing the magnetic pole machine (easily because, let's face it, she was running out of runtime), She-Ra offhandedly says, "Next, I'll make sure those dungeons will never be used as prisons again." She turns her sword/lightning rod on one single prison door and zaps it open. In the next shot, we see lots of human prisoners heading for the hills, apparently all having been freed from that one single cell (I suppose we could be charitable and assume she zapped a few doors while we weren't looking). Well, gee, that's great and all, She-Ra, but I have some questions. If these prisoners were there the whole time - why didn't you do this earlier???? Our Princess of Power has been visiting the Fright Zone pretty much every episode this season to rescue her friends, and she only thought to rescue all the other people now?
• And just where are all those freed prisoners going to go? They're out of the cells, but they're just running loose through the dungeons of the Fright Zone. Unless She-Ra does some shepherding and defending, I have a feeling most of them will just get rounded up again by robot soldiers in the next few seconds.
• As Don Heckman scripts go, this one was really not bad. It was a fun story that (mostly) made sense and - for once - didn't patronize or belittle Glimmer's character, something I've accused various POP writers of doing. I found Romeo's conversion to the rebels entertaining, and I hope he makes a go of it with Bright Moon's princess.
• On the other hand, if you've read the lore and commentary sections thoroughly, you'll probably have picked up on a very distressing trend in this episode that makes me think POP's second season is really beginning to come off the rails. Filmation always saved time and money by reusing animation loops and various other elements; I even have a whole section of the database devoted to tracking this (though I admit I haven't done such a great job of it in the POP section). But those loops are usually short character movements that can be placed in different contexts and edited various ways. Lately, the recycling has reached a whole other level. Recall that in the recent 67077, an entire She-Ra/Hordak battle sequence (from 67017) was reproduced almost cel-for-cel. Today, we can find recycled vehicles, convoy animations, lengthy character animations, locations, and more. On top of that, there are numerous animation, dialogue, and continuity errors, at times making it seem as if the animators weren't clear on who was supposed to be in which scene. It ends up giving the feel of a very rushed and not altogether sane production process, even though this season's extended gap between air times and the much smaller episode total would seem to suggest a more relaxed workflow. I'm just a little worried about the Filmation staff at this point, is all. I hope Lou Scheimer at least tried to boost morale by supplying cakes for people's birthdays, or something.