Larry DiTillio

Lou Zukor

Tricked by a wicked plot of Skeletor, Man-at-Arms has been turned to a statue! The magic used is so old that it is beyond even the Sorceress's knowledge; He-Man and Teela's only hope to save Duncan is a wise, ancient, and very truculent dragon named Granamyr. But what will they have to do to gain his favor?

King Randor, Queen Marlena, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), Sorceress

Ambassador Therin of the Kingdom of Eastfen (Skeletor)

Lady Amanda (mentioned), Royal Herald, Ambassador Vorin (mentioned), Eternian guards, ice trolls, ice hackers, Granamyr, Tullamore the Treeprechaun, horned wolves, Skytree

Wind Raider

Prince Adam and Cringer arrive clumsily and unpunctually to an ambassadorial visit that quickly turns bad, as Duncan realizes the fishy ambassador (not a "fish fry" as Adam sold it to Cringer) is actually Skeletor in disguise! The brave man-at-arms leaps to stop the king from touching the "gift" Skeletor has brought - a bust of Randor's head - and is struck by the object's curse, turning to a crystal statue. Adam and Cringer run off to transform while Teela takes on Bonehead single-handedly in a thrilling sword fight. Skeletor foils an attempt at aid by the Eternian guards, but when He-Man bursts in, the villain decides to depart - leaving our heroes with a statuesque memento.

Desperate to find a solution, He-Man and Teela lug the crystal Duncan to Grayskull, where the Sorceress confesses that the magical artifact responsible for the transformation (dubbed the "Weird of Crystal") is so ancient as to be beyond her knowledge. There is one creature old and wise enough to know the answer: the great dragon Granamyr. The only trouble is, the Power of Grayskull (and so, by extension, the Sorceress) made a pact never to reveal his location to any human. Skirting the pact, the Sorceress says something cryptic about human knowledge and teleports the pair of heroes (and one cat) to the royal library, where they realize they actually have to read books. Fortunately for He-Man, he finds a book with pictures: specifically, a map, suggesting their route to the Ice Mountains, where the dragons' allies the ice trolls live.

The heroes crash their Wind Raider after hitting a force field in the Ice Mountains and make a dangerous trek on foot, avoiding avalanches, jumping gorges, and battling trolls and ice hackers to make their way to Granamyr's cozy den at the top of a mountain in the realm of Darksmoke. He-Man summons Granamyr from a fire pit in the center of the treasure-filled den and, after grudgingly given permission to speak by the ancient creature, explains the problem. In response, the cranky dragon complains to them about ugly, selfish, unappreciative humans, who he stopped dealing with a millenia ago. He-Man proposes to bring the dragon any gift he might require, so Granamyr tells them to go find and chop down the Skytree, an ancient entity even older than himself, so that he can watch it burn in his fire pit. The heroes agree, and the dragon grimly informs them that if they break the bargain he will send them to the Realm of Demons.

Transported to the Forgotten Forest where the Skytree lives, He-Man and Teela avoid an angry Treeprechaun and his pack of horned wolves and prepare to fell the aged tree. It turns out that the Skytree can talk, however, so it asks them why they're doing this. After hearing their story, the Skytree reveals its importance to all life on Eternia, but also remembers a time when a former man-at-arms saved its life, and so decides that it is willing to give itself up in exchange for Duncan. He-Man, torn between taking an innocent and powerful life and saving the life of his friend (and saving himself and Teela from the Realm of Demons), decides he cannot do it. With Teela's agreement, they magically return to Granamyr and explain why they reneged on the deal ("We will not take a life to save a life"), then submit themselves to his promised punishment.

It turns out that this was really what Granamyr wanted all along: "Wisdom, compassion, and the honoring of a bargain: who would have thought humankind would have improved so much in a thousand years? I accept this gift, He-Man." He gives them a book with the method to undo Duncan's condition, and tells them to never, ever bother him again. Back at the palace, a restored Man-at-Arms and a seemingly clueless Adam and Cringer listen as Teela recounts the events of the episode. They reflect with relief that He-Man managed to make the right choice.

End with a Joke: Prince Adam thinks he would like to meet Granamyr and suggests to Cringer that they should go hunt a dragon. Cringer, not surprisingly, demurs. Teela: "It looks like Cringer has made a good choice, too." And they all laughed...

• Adam: Cringer, stop! / Cringer: Well I will, as soon as I'm far enough away.
• Skeletor (in the royal throne room): I'm not fool enough to fight you here, He-Man, but I'll leave you that pretty statue to remember me by. (Cackles)
• Sorceress: Where magic fails, human knowledge may succeed.
• Granamyr: He-Man; I have heard your name whispered on the winds of legend. / He-Man: In that case - / Granamyr: Silence! ... Dragons pay little attention to the lies of legend.
• He-Man: I'm told you might know how to undo the spell. / Granamyr: Might? Am I not the wisest creature on all Eternia? Do I not know magics that were forgotten before humankind ever walked this world?
• Skytree: Though I may fall, I will always exist wherever a tree spreads its branches to the sky. Take up your sword, man of Eternia, and save your friend.
• Tullamore (to Skytree): But you can't go, you can't - it won't be the same without you. / Skytree: Then it will be - different.
• Granamyr: Wisdom, compassion, and the honoring of a bargain: who would have thought humankind would have improved so much in a thousand years.

• Adam from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Just before transforming
• Teela rolls along the ground: To avoid the swipe of an ice hacker
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Preparing to go chop down a Skytree

One full
Variation - There are added intercut scenes of Cringer running around a corner, then peeking back out to claim "Can't reach me here!" The Power of Grayskull then proves him wrong by going around the corner and turning him into Battle Cat anyway. (This will happen again in MU063!)

Brought to you by Teela
Given the emphasis of the story on the value of books, you'd think Teela would talk to us about reading them; instead, she talks about where books come from: trees. Specifically, caring about trees, and all life.

Granamyr episodes
Landmark Episode: Because it is easily one of my favorite episodes of the entire series

• This episode was written by Larry DiTillio, who we've seen credited on other episodes, but not for a long time. He shares the teleplay credit for MU001, "The Cosmic Comet," and was also responsible for MU008's "The Time Corridor," another lore-heavy episode which explores the past of Eternia. Both MU008 and this one share an interest in other languages which gives depth and (dare I say it?) verisimilitude to the He-Man universe. Larry will also be responsible for the upcoming two-parter, "The House of Shokoti" (MU040 and MU041).
• Larry DiTillio is credited as a co-creator of the character She-Ra, and in addition to writing for many classic children's animated shows and tabletop RPGs, he also is credited as the story editor on many early episodes of the sci-fi series Babylon 5. The creator and main writer of Babylon 5 is of course J. Michael Straczynski - who also wrote episodes of He-Man (though we haven't gotten to any of them yet).
• In the opening scene, Duncan stammers to explain what keeps Prince Adam so busy, and comes up with the highly unlikely "Government problems." Teela rejoins, "I wouldn't call Lady Amanda a government problem." This is the first we've heard of the mysterious "Lady Amanda," who does not appear in the episode (and will never be mentioned again in the series) but can be inferred is some royal floozy that Adam has been hanging out with - a beard, some might say.
• For the first time, we see a fancily dressed courtier standing at the doorway of the throne room - presumably a sort of herald, since he announces the phony ambassador. We will see in other episodes that Eternos has royal pages (MU049, MU111), and in the beginning of MU121 there will be a sort of town crier; but I don't believe we'll see this guy showing up again.
• Interesting that King Randor is the first person to recommend that the heroes talk to the Sorceress to solve their little "Duncan is made of glass now" problem. I've had call to wonder in earlier episodes, such as MU002, just how much of a grasp the king has on the importance of Grayskull and its Sorceress. In this story he seems very much in the know.
• In this episode the Sorceress links with "The Window of Knowledge," her all-purpose floating screen which has functioned in various ways in many previous episodes, depending on what is needed: as a mirror, a view-screen, or a Time Corridor.
• Skeletor's "Weird of Crystal," according to the Sorceress, comes from a time before the existence of Castle Grayskull - not-so-coincidentally (given what I was just saying about her window, and what we know about the episode's writer), the same time the heroes travelled back to in MU008's "The Time Corridor."
• This episode features the first appearance of what has to be my favorite recurring secondary character in the series, Granamyr - as Sorceress describes him, "Oldest and wisest of the dragons of Darksmoke." She doesn't mention that he's also very touchy!
• Long ago, we learn, the Sorceress made a pact with the dragons not to reveal their location to anyone (presumably, any humans). She does specify the "great dragons," so presumably she's not talking about the non-verbal, non-sentient dragons that were such a nuisance (thanks to Beast Man) in MU009's "The Dragon Invasion." By the final Granamyr story, MU114, we will see this pact morph into a peace treaty between humans and dragons - or perhaps the Sorceress's agreement was a codicil of this larger pact. (For more about ancient Eternian dragon/human relations, and a surprise bonus appearance by Granamyr, see the She-Ra episode 67061, "Darksmoke and Fire.")
• An oft-used animation sequence of He-Man viewed from below where he reaches out, usually employed when he gestures aggressively, sometimes with the power sword, is ironically re-purposed in this episode to show him pulling a book off of a shelf.
• A thrilling moment for lore buffs: He-Man examines a book containing a map of Eternia. It presents the Pangaea-like land mass that we often see in establishing shots of the planet from space, with a few of the larger areas labeled. We see Ice Mountains, Mystic Mountains, the Vine Jungle, a desert labeled "Sands of Time" (which we're destined to visit many times in later episodes!), and the palace of Eternos located in the midst of a huge fertile plain in the southern half of the continent. Grayskull is in a gray area just north of the plain, which appears to be labeled "Green Forest" but (based on other sources) is probably a cropped-off "Evergreen Forest." When He-Man points out their proposed path on the map, he also refers to the "Dark Mountains," unlabeled on the map but (based on his finger) likely on the northern border of the Evergreen Forest. (We see another version of the map in MU046.)
• Battle Cat does not seem to enjoy the Wind Raider ride to the Ice Mountains, where he has been crammed lengthwise into the back seat - he sounds downright airsick. In a memorable moment in MU013 we witnessed him standing up in the vehicle, but here at least he gets to lie down. In later episodes, he will appear to fit much more comfortably in the back seat.
• In an interesting exchange, when He-Man meets the ice trolls (who have been grumbling in an unintelligible dialect before now), he asks, "Do you speak the tongue of Eternia?" To which the troll replies, "Troll talk is tongue of Eternia - but I talk your speech, too." He-Man suddenly comes off as a tone-deaf colonizer, asking "Why can't they just learn English?" Later in the episode, Tullamore speaks his own silly language that just sounds like a lot of Scottish family names. Recall MU008's "The Time Corridor," where Orko had to cast a spell to translate the ancient language of Eternia.
• Granamyr states that he hasn't spoken to another human in a thousand years. He is bitter about a situation in which they asked for his help but, after he gave it, they showed no appreciation.
• Granamyr talks a lot about sending people to the "Realm of Demons." I don't think we've heard of this before, unless it's another name for the "Dark Dimension" of MU017. We will encounter a "Demon Zone" in MU078's "Betrayal of Stratos," and visit the "Realm of Evil" in MU125, but again, I don't think these are the same thing.
• More lore, from Granamyr: "In the center of the Forgotten Forest stands Skytree, the oldest tree on Eternia, and the only thing in all the world older than me." As the tree itself later elaborates: "From my seeds the forests were born; I am the soul of all that is green and good."
• Teela uses her wrist freeze ray several times in this episode. The last time we saw it may have been as far back as MU013.
• Some lore from the Skytree: "Through all of Eternia's long history, there has been a Man-at-Arms to uphold the cause of goodness. In a time now forgotten, one such man-at-arms saved this forest from the Witches of Fire."
• This episode does not include Orko. You might think: "So what? Who needs him?" But in fact an episode without Orko is incredibly rare. The only ones before this were MU012 (which was full of Widgets) and MU031 (which was so full of other/new characters that it had no room for regulars beyond He-Man and his cat). Without Orko, we are forced to rely on clumsy Adam and cowardly Cringer for all our comic relief. (A specific trend of writer Larry DiTillio omitting or abusing Orko will eventually make itself clear to the careful observer. See my comments on this in later DiTillio-penned episodes.)
• Trivia: Michael Halperin, who in 1982 wrote the bible for Filmation's Masters of the Universe cartoon, fleshing out the character origins and settings for the series, also adapted several Filmation scripts into minicomics stories that would be included with the third wave of Mattel action figures, in 1984. (Up until that point, the comic stories had been entirely disconnected from the show, making for some glaring, though very interesting, inconsistencies!) One of the scripts he adapted was this one, published as "Dragon's Gift." In the comic story, Duncan is still turned to a statue by a trick of Skeletor's, but he's definitely going to die after a certain amount of time has passed, because the statue will crumble. The story skips over He-Man's trip to the Sorceress, who is not featured - He-Man just knows that he needs to talk to Granamyr, and knows where to go to find him. The comic artist Alfredo Alcala colored Granamyr green instead of red (necessitating two different-colored toys of the dragon when it was eventually produced). On his way to Granamyr and the Tree of Life, He-Man encounters only thoughtless monsters he must battle, rather than sentient, speaking creatures who argue with him (such as the ice troll and Tullamore). It's necessarily a more simplistic tale, and though fun enough, lacks the depth and emotion of the cartoon.

• You wouldn't think Randor would be so easily enchanted by the naked play on his ego embodied by a bust of his own head. But his reaction while gazing at the sculpture of himself is: "Why, it's... it's magnificent!"
• The disguised Skeletor is recognized by his sword - especially odd given that we've never seen him wield this particular weapon before! But it does have his recognizable chest symbol of crossed bones.
• Even though Duncan is turned to a statue while holding up the little bust of Randor, when he freezes in place it's with his arms by his sides.
• Animation error: The fancy crossed-bones guard on Skeletor's sword is omitted in close-up scenes of his sword fight with Teela.
• A distraught Teela, desperate to learn the cure for her father, might not have yelled so harshly at the Sorceress if she'd known who she was talking to! ... On second thought, no, she probably would have yelled louder.
• As ambassadors for libraries and book-reading, He-Man and Battle Cat in their warlike armor seem incongruous and ill-fitting.
• Continuity error: During his fight with the ice hacker, He-Man's power sword mysteriously vanishes from the scabbard on his back, then reappears.
• "I'm frozen stiff," comments Teela after their trek through the Ice Mountains. Blame the animators, Teela: they're too lazy to draw you in a coat!
• In terms of memorable lines, I admit that I could cheerfully copy out pretty much every line Granamyr says in this episode, only it would get a bit unwieldy. I love this guy. I have a soft spot for gruff, crusty characters, and Granamyr is definitely one of those. To see how interesting Granamyr is compared to other characters in the series, ask yourself a simple quesiton: Is Granamyr a good guy? Pretty much everyone else in the series can immediately be placed in either the "heroic warrior" or "evil warrior" camp. Sure, sometimes there are bad guys who decide to become good guys: but it's always very clear when they do, and the implication is that they were once one kind of person and are now another kind. On the face of it, if you're a kid watching this, by the end of the episode you have probably concluded that Granamyr was a good guy, even though he seemed mean at the beginning. But think about it: Granamyr threatens our heroes multiple times with eternal banishment to a demonic realm. He wants to watch the only living thing on Eternia older than him burn in his fire pit. You can argue that he wasn't serious about this, as he wanted the humans to prove themselves wise enough to refuse the task; but they could just as easily (more easily, in fact) proved themselves unworthy and brought him a dead Skytree. How much would Granamyr have mourned over this death? I have the feeling that he would have been just as pleased to have been proven right about ugly humans. Even at the end of the story, when he has given the heroes exactly what they wanted, he commands them to never speak to him again. Granamyr is not really good or evil: he is a force of nature. He is cruel, unpredictable, and you can't reason with him or fight him, you just have to deal with the consequences of his actions. And that's what makes him so cool.
• When Teela and He-Man are transported into the Forgotten Forest, it's very much as if they've been beamed into a J.R.R. Tolkien story. Tullamore is like Tom Bombadil and he's surrounded by one of Tolkien's perennial enemies, wolves (or at least, wolflike creatures with horns!). The Skytree channels Treebeard of the Ents.
• This is easily and by leaps and bounds the best-written episode of He-Man we've yet encountered. The dialogue is dripping with Tolkien-esque drama and atmosphere, the plot is thoughtful and clever and goes to unexpected places, Eternian lore abounds, and the characters - even the tertiary creatures that have one or two lines - are varied and full of surprising depths. Tullamore's grief over the Skytree and He-Man's painful decision not to grant Granamyr's wish, even though it seems to doom his friend and himself, make for powerful scenes and some of the smartest, most sophisticated stuff we've seen in this series.