Larry DiTillio

Marsh Lamore

A precocious Stanlan, anxious to have a chance to explore the House of Shokoti, ends up being kidnapped by the evil sorceress who dwells there, forcing He-Man, Battle Cat, and Ram Man to charge inside for a rescue! Can Stanlan make up for his mistake and help the heroes prevent the awakening of the dreaded Sleeping Beast?

Cringer (Battle Cat), Ram Man, Prince Adam (He-Man), Sorceress

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Melaktha, Stanlan, Shokoti, cave monster, darklings, Sleeping Beast

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It's evening, complete with howling wolves, and our heroes are gathered about the entrance to the eerie tomb that the villain Masque summoned from the Sands of Time at the end of the previous episode. Melaktha, the royal archaeologist of Eternia, declares that it's his job to explore what's inside, no matter the danger, so Ram Man obliges by launching himself into the blocked-up entrance, exposing an imposing doorway which Melaktha recognizes as belonging to one Shokoti, a particularly evil sorceress from Eternia's distant past. Knowing this, the archaeologist decides it would be much safer to wait until morning to explore the place, and that his young assistant, Stanlan, shouldn't explore it at all. Stanlan is very upset at this disclosure and feels he's being treated most unfairly, since everyone else will be staying while he has to go back to the palace.

Still rankled by the situation even after the other heroes are asleep (excepting only Ram Man, who's been volunteered by Adam for guard duty), Stanlan gathers some equipment and sneaks out of the tent and back to the tomb, where Ram Man has been keeping himself awake by repeatedly mispronouncing Shokoti's name and trying to convince himself he doesn't hear her evil laughter. The boy persuades the easily swayed dunderhead to have a shot at breaking down the doorway. He stuns himself unconscious in the effort, giving Shokoti time to grab hold of the boy and start dragging him through the door. Luckily Cringer spotted Stanlan sneaking off and has fetched Adam, so the pair witness the kidnapping. Cringer braces himself and lets Adam know that he'd better transform now or his cat will be running home and away from this spooky place.

He-Man and Battle Cat slash their way into the evil House of Shokoti, followed a few seconds later by a recovered Ram Man (who has no doubt trained himself to quickly shake off severe head trauma). Stanlan, further ahead, has been lured on by the floating head of a creepy looking woman. He meets a giant rodent-type creature and is pursued, but the floating head reappears to chase the creature off; the head is then joined by a very curvy body, and the resulting person introduces herself as Shokoti. She brings Stanlan to a throne room with a murky central pool, in which a large, tentacled something is clearly lurking. Shokoti explains that this is the Sleeping Beast, which she will awaken so that it can cast its living darkness over all of Eternia. Stanlan decides that this is his cue to leave, but Shokoti summons hordes of blobby little tentacled critters (called darklings) which cling all over the kid's body and pin him in place.

Meanwhile, He-Man, Ram Man, and Battle Cat encounter various illusions and traps as they attempt to navigate their way through the dark tomb. Shokoti eventually calls them directly to her parlor, setting a trap with the darklings. To do it, she has fortunately freed Stanlan, who is able to scare away the bad guys with his glowing phosphor crystals. He-Man advises Stanlan to run off while he and the other heroes fight off the enemies; but the magic of Shokoti proves too potent, and He-Man drops his power sword in the struggle. Stanlan, unseen, recovers the sword and pauses to contemplate his plight in a side room. There, he is shocked to hear the voice of the Sorceress speaking to him from the power sword. She tells him he has nothing to fear and advises him to use the sword.

Shokoti has taken this intervening time to finally summon the hideous Beast from its slumber in the bubbling pool. He-Man, Ram Man, and Battle Cat have all been tied down by unbreakable magical bonds, and are about to be sacrificed to the Beast. A surprisingly fearless Stanlan, bolstered by the Sorceress's message, uses the power sword to deflect Shokoti's beam attack onto the bonds, freeing our heroes. After a brief attack from Ram Man, He-Man takes over the monster fight while everyone else heads for the hills. His plan is simple but effective: he shoves over a giant Shokoti statue onto the Beast, knocking it back into its pool. The statue then melts in the pool, sealing it over and imprisoning the hideous creature. Shokoti, who seemed to have departed earlier to go watch darkness spread over the land, comes back in time to see her Beast defeated, and promptly dissolves into nothing.

Back out of the tomb, Ram Man and Stanlan bask in a beautiful sunrise and recount their adventures to a seemingly amazed Adam and Cringer. Adam decides that Stanlan has learned his lesson from having disobeyed Melaktha, and that there won't be any need to inform the archaeologist of what happened in the night. Cringer expresses his desire to return home with Stanlan.

End with a Joke: In scoffing at Cringer's continued fear, Ram Man actually manages to pronounce "Shokoti" correctly. When Adam points out his success, Ram Man celebrates emphatically, then forgets what it was that he said right.

• Melaktha: Almost a thousand years after this pyramid was built, someone was afraid of something inside it; that wall keeps it in. / Cringer: Good idea! / Melaktha: And to find out what it is, we'll have to take the wall down. / Cringer: Bad idea!
• Shokoti: The darkness... I see the darkness once again!
• Ram Man: Duh, who is this Sha-booty? / Prince Adam: Shokoti. She was a wicked sorceress from the dark side of Eternia.
• Ram Man (talking to himself while standing guard): Uhh, Ka-booby, Ka-shooey... wicked sorceress... ehhh, nothing to worry about. (Sound of evil laughter makes him cringe)
• Shokoti: The Sleeping Beast - soon, it will rise! / Stanlan: And what will happen? / Shokoti: The living darkness will cover the world. And Shokoti will be mistress of it!
• Sorceress (to Stanlan): There is nothing to fear in the darkness. The power of Shokoti is the power of fear. Fight it - with the sword.

• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands in front of the temple entrance
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Meeting up with Stanlan
• Adam laughs, head back: For the ending joke; it's so funny, he tosses his head back twice!

One full
Variation - A short, added shot of Cringer cowering in context on the desert sands, before the usual transformation

Brought to you by Prince Adam
"In your world," Adam assures his viewers, "there are no demons or monsters." However, there are old, dark, abandoned buildings and caves, which you still shouldn't visit. "It's just dumb!"

Historians, archaeologists, and digging up old cities
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1
Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Unlike Part One of the story, since Stanlan only learns his lesson here.

• I suppose it's possible that the original airing of this episode featured some kind of recap, explaining what happened "Last time on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." However, the version on my DVD set does not. This episode is actually on a completely separate disc from Part One. It doesn't really matter either way, since the plot doesn't require much back story, and would be entirely understandable even if you hadn't watched the first part.
• Prince Adam describes "Shokoti" as being from "the dark side of Eternia." It's unclear whether he means that there's a part of the planet that literally remains dark (i.e., doesn't face the sun as the planet rotates and revolves), or there's just a part of Eternia that's like the wrong side of the tracks. We will hear this dark side of the planet mentioned again in relation to the villain Batros, in MU072's "The Great Books Mystery."
• Ram Man, just as he did in MU021, proves himself a terrible choice as a caregiver and/or supervisor of young children.
• Like many He-Man villains before her, Shokoti spies on our heroes. Her method is to gaze into the back of a human skull.
• The Sorceress demonstrates the ability to speak to others through the vehicle of the power sword, bucking up Stanlan when he needs the encouragement. The Sorceress will use this sword-speaking device again in even more dramatic circumstances in the She-Ra origin movie, Secret of the Sword.
• I feel it necessary to point out, since I haven't done it elsewhere, that Stanlan learns TWO lessons in this episode. First, that he shouldn't have tried to sneak into an old, abandoned tomb by himself in the middle of the night, particularly after having specifically been told not to; but also, second, that he should have studied his books more carefully, so that he could read the very lengthy warning message carved in runes into the stone wall of the tomb.

• The voice work for Ram Man while he's keeping himself company in front of the tomb entrance is very amusing; particularly all the incorrect pronunciations he comes up with for "Shokoti."
• Cringer has been terrified of the titular "house" since he first heard of it; so we have to credit him with plenty of courage for advising Adam "you'd better lift your sword now" and letting himself be turned into Battle Cat.
• The cave monster that threatens Stanlan looks like a sort of rat/opossum/armadillo mix. Great monster! The other monsters in this episode are just as creepy and fun.
• This episode seems more genuinely scary than previous episodes of the show. Stanlan's lone trek through the spooky tomb, and his envelopment by tentacled blobs, seems potentially harrowing for the main viewing audience!
• The giant, illusory mouth of Shokoti, into which the heroes walk to get to her, reminds me of the iconic close-up lips from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
• Stanlan is much less irritating than other young, male characters on the show. His transgression at the beginning of the episode, while foolish, is relatively slight and thoroughly understandable; and he proves himself incredibly brave and effective in assisting He-Man and friends! We will get a chance to see this kid again, being unfairly misjudged by his boss Melaktha, in MU095.
• The Sleeping Beast gives off a very strong Lovecraftian/Cthulhu type of vibe. (A fan of Lovecraftian monsters? See MU022 and MU075!) It seems a thoroughly apocalyptic, monstrous evil. So it's very anticlimactic when He-Man defeats it by kicking over a statue. How was he to know that the statue was going to melt and seal over its pool? Did he just get lucky?
• Once Shokoti has awakened the Beast, she teleports away, her job seemingly done; so it's very funny when she conveniently reappears in time to watch He-Man crush her monster.
• While telling Adam and Cringer about what happened, Ram Man mentions a "snake thingy," which I suppose is his way of describing the Sleeping Beast. That's not how I would have described it!