Robby London

Gwen Wetzler

It's time for a young boy to learn a valuable lesson about how people can get hurt when they mess around with weapons - and for He-Man to stop an eternium-energized Trap Jaw from taking over Eternia!

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

Mer-Man, Trap Jaw, Panthor

Burbie, Chad, Elden, spidersaur, orcs

Elden's jet chair, Elden's air car, Basher, Wind Raider

Man-at-Arms has called King Randor and Prince Adam down to the little-seen "energizer chamber" deep in the palace of Eternos, where he shows them a perilous sight: the kingdom's tiny chunk of eternium, which has been powering the planet for centuries, is on the verge of going out! If it does, power everywhere will die and the palace will be defenseless. They need to get some more, but eternium is very hard to find.

Cut to the desert, where a young boy named Chad is trying some target practice with a scatter ray while his pet fuzz-bee, Burbie, assists. Chad's Grandpa Elden, who is confined to a jet chair because his legs are paralyzed, shows up to try to convince Chad that maybe the kid (who is a terrible shot) is not cut out to be a member of the Royal Guard. Chad clearly idolizes Teela and He-Man and can't wait to go and shoot people, but Elden points out that in battle people can get hurt. Reference is made to his own disability - but Elden is distracted from war flashbacks by the sight of a huge chunk of eternium, which Chad exposed in the rock with a wild shot of his scatter ray. Elden informs the king of the discovery right away.

It so happens that in Snake Mountain, Mer-Man and Trap Jaw have been put on a punishment detail that has them chained to Skeletor's desk, forced to watch his little spy dome. Skeletor's plan has paid off, because his minions spot the discovery of the eternium! Now all they have to do is get out of their chains. Mer-Man kindly requests that Panthor, their jailer, bring over the key - but Trap Jaw shows off his eponymous abilities by eating through the restraints.

The pair head off in the Basher to intercept Chad and Elden, who are in an air car on their way to meet Teela and deliver the precious rock. When the two parties meet, a firefight ensues, during which Chad discovers that his grandpa is an amazing shot. Trap Jaw and Mer-Man decide the old man is too dangerous, so Mer-Man uses his fishy powers to summon a spidersaur from a nearby body of water. The villains are temporarily unable to chase after their prey effectively, since somehow Mer-Man has clogged up the controls of the Basher with seaweed (where does he keep it?!). It's at this point that Teela (who is already regretting having brought along Prince Adam, Orko, and Cringer) arrives in the Wind Raider, and sees the boy and man being menaced by the huge creature. She runs off to help, leaving Adam and Cringer behind a convenient rock shelf where they can transform without being seen.

Elden, we find, has sworn never to use his weapon on a living thing, and so is completely unable to shoot the spidersaur (his warning shots have no effect). Teela has no such qualms, but her direct hits with a laser just seem to piss it off. Luckily He-Man arrives to tie the creature's tentacles into knots. Mer-Man has psychically sensed that He-Man joined the fray, and in dismay our villainous pair try to return to the battle (I guess they cleared out that seaweed). Trap Jaw has by this point decided that, rather than just retrieve the eternium, he wants to try eating it - his special digestion can handle the stuff, and the volatile substance will surely make him as powerful as He-Man. Trap Jaw whips out all his special attachments. First, he tries lowering Mer-Man from a cliff on his dropper winch, so the fishy fellow can snatch the eternium from above as the heroes ride past. This idea fails before even getting out of the gate, since Trap Jaw seems to have a poor-quality rope in his dropper: it breaks, sending Mer-Man into the water below.

Much more successful is Trap Jaw's grabber, which does just what it says. He plucks the eternium chunk off the dashboard of Elden's air car and takes a bite, then drops the remainder, letting it shatter to bits on the ground below. He-Man comes to stop him, but the newly energized Trap Jaw, glowing eyes and all, seems to have become a match for our hero. He-Man does break his grabber hand, but doesn't seem to be able to make much other progress against his opponent. Very fortunately, the eternium power wears off just when Trap Jaw has lifted a large rock over his head (eternium can power Eternia for centuries, but Trap Jaw's metabolism processes it much faster, it seems!). He can no longer hold the boulder and it crushes him under its weight. Mer-Man, similarly betrayed out of his watery hiding place by a large flying rock, gets tied up by Teela.

But wait! Trap Jaw can still be a threat if he can just eat another piece of eternium. With his damaged but still functional grabber arm, he reaches for a fragment; Burbie, who is only trying to help, snatches the rock but accidentally (or foolishly) swallows it. It immediately makes him incredibly ill. Our heroes toss Trap Jaw into a porta-prison and He-Man rushes to Grayskull, where he takes the poor little fuzz-bee to the Sorceress. A tense attempt at magical healing occurs inside the castle, while a very distraught Chad waits outside with his grandpa.

Elden decides the time has finally come to tell the story of how he ended up in a jet chair. He was a hot-shot soldier during the Orc War, and tried some fancy shooting to scare off a band of orcs up in a cliffside. But his laser fire caused an avalanche, leaving him paralyzed and other of his companions dead. This is what made him swear to never again use his weapon against a living thing. Chad realizes that soldiering is not all fun and games, and when you use weapons people get hurt - and those people are not always the bad guys.

Fortunately, though, today it doesn't have to be Burbie who pays the price: He-Man emerges from Grayskull with a completely rehabilitated fuzz-bee. When Elden asks how he can thank our hero, He-Man wonders if he happens to have any eternium, and Grandpa gives up the little chunks he collected. He-Man fuses them back into one rock, ready to power Eternia for another few centuries. Chad is no longer sure that he wants to join the Royal Guard, but He-Man assures them that if he does decide to send in an application, Chad can count on a recommendation letter from the most powerful man in the universe.

End with a Joke: N/A

• Elden: When people fight, people get hurt. / Chad (about to lay down the cruelest burn on his own grandpa): Don't you think you'd feel differently if... Well, I mean, if you could walk?
• Mer-Man (after Trap Jaw has bitten off the chains binding both of them to Skeletor's desk): Oohhh, why didn't you do that before? / Trap Jaw: I don't like to eat between meals.
• He-Man (in the middle of tying up a spidersaur's tentacles): Teela, could you put your finger here for a second?
• Trap Jaw: Eternium is the most powerful substance on the planet. / Mer-Man: So? / Trap Jaw: Suppose I ate some of it? / Mer-Man (having a major Elmer Fudd moment): Why would you do that?
• He-Man (to Chad): Your grandpa tells me you want to be a soldier. / Chad: I did. I thought it was all fun and games. Now I'm not so sure. People get hurt when they fight. / He-Man: You bet they do. It could be you, or even someone you love.

• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: After transforming, again after defeating the spidersaur, and again while talking to Chad at the end
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: A couple of times
• Teela laughs, head back: At He-Man's knot-tying joke
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands after busting out of Trap Jaw's grabber
• He-Man picks up and throws a rock: To release a smushed Trap Jaw

One full

Brought to you by He-Man
Our muscle man lays some real talk on us, pointing out that he lives in a fantasy cartoon show while we live in the real world, where good guys get hurt and swords - or guns - can prove double edged.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1: Even though he is mentioned several times, Skeletor does not appear in this one, so it's another for the pile!

• For the first time, we discover that the palace has an elevator! Swanky.
• Prince Adam remarks that he hasn't been in the energizer chamber for a very long time. But we have seen He-Man restart the power to the palace, in MU033's "The Starchild." There, he simply had to start a big wheel turning again. This doesn't necessarily contradict the existence of an energizer chamber and the chunk of eternium; it's possible that the generator He-Man got going was powered by the eternium.
• Eternium is billed as "the most powerful substance on Eternia," a dangerous superlative that has arguably already been contradicted by other episodes (what about, for instance, MU036's Starseed? or how about the coridite the Widgets are guarding in MU012, and which seems to make Skeletor just as powerful as He-Man?). We will hear eternium mentioned again in the series, by a different writer who doesn't seem to have understood its powers as mentioned here, in MU069's "The Gamesman."
• We were just in the Sands of Time for the two-part series in MU040 and MU041, and now here we are again with Chad and his grandpa! It's a charming place to live. If only there weren't so many damn reptile men!
• Randor says that he received a "tele-beam" from Elden. Basically he got a FaceTime call, the kind of video communication we've seen before in the series; we've just never heard it called a tele-beam before.
• Mer-Man complains about getting duty with Trap Jaw chained to Skeletor's spying desktop dome (this situation, by the way, is hilarious and I love it), all because Trap Jaw crashed Skeletor's "Doom Buster." This is a vehicle we've heard named before (in MU003), but have yet to see in the series. Our typical Evil Warrior vehicles have included sky sleds, the Basher (which makes an appearance in this episode), and the Collector; but we've never seen the Doom Buster. It will finally show its metaphorical face in MU080.
• Mer-Man actually uses his ability to control aquatic creatures in this episode, with floating psychic rings, just like Aquaman. Though this ability seems like sort of a no-brainer for the character, we haven't seen very much evidence of it in any previous episode in which Mer-Man has appeared (though it does seem likely that he was controlling the kraken creature in MU032).
• The creature that Mer-Man summons, though he eventually identifies it as a spidersaur, is identical to the lava beast seen in MU007. In this episode, however, the animators have the chance to show it going through a wider range of emotions - which is fun!
• We've seen Battle Cat crammed lengthwise into the backseat of the Wind Raider, but in this episode Cringer is able to comfortably fit facing forward in a seated position.
• Secret identity problems: When Teela asks after the missing Prince Adam, Orko stammers and comes up with absolutely nothing. He-Man offers the excuse, "He wasn't himself," which Teela interprets to mean that he abandoned them in his terror.
• Things that come out of Orko: To get a better look at Chad and his grandpa being terrorized, Orko extends a periscope from the top of his hat. Later, he produces a bone for Chad's fuzz-bee with a third arm that comes from the same place. A few seconds later, a fire hose emerges to douse the fuzz-bee with water.
• Trap Jaw shows off some unusual attachments for his mechanical arm, including a "dropper" (winch and rope for lowering fish men) and an extendable "grabber" (much like the device used in arcade claw machines). Though the grabber does its job, ultimately both prove useless against He-Man. ("No wonder it's called a dropper," Trap Jaw says, after the device's rope has split and Mer-Man has plummeted into the water below.)
• Two recurring concepts make a reappearance in short succession, once Trap Jaw has been defeated. "You can eat all the rocks you want in the prison mines," says He-Man, hinting at the villain's next destination. We've heard of bad guys going to the prison mines before, in MU003 and MU010. Then Teela packages Trappy up in the good old porta-prison, seen in several previous episodes, most recently MU037. The weird thing about the porta-prison is, it seems to keep changing design. Duncan's versions typically expand out from a small device he holds in his palm; Teela's just instantly materializes. Its shape seems different as well, like a teardrop, with a pointed top.
• This episode was written by Robby London, who seems to really like showing He-Man commanding the Jawbridge of Castle Grayskull to open. He-Man does it here when delivering Burbie to the Sorceress. London also had him do it in MU004's pilot episode and in MU020's "Dawn of Dragoon." London also seems to have brought us the porta-prison, used in his MU003 and MU021.
• To save Burbie, He-Man must carry the little critter into the Sorceress's "Chamber of Life," which for some contrived reason or other the Sorceress cannot use directly. (One begins to get rather annoyed with all the things the Sorceress is unable to do.) Apparently it uses some crazy powerful magic, as He-Man looks as if he's being electrocuted while he stands inside.
• "It was near the end of the Orc War," says Chad's Grandpa, beginning his flashback story. So we now know there was an Orc War! We've actually seen orcs before, in MU022's "Song of Celice;" and we get to see some again, at least from a distance, during the flashback.
• This episode is a great example of the MOTU tendency to avoid naming important side characters aloud. According to many sources and the captioning on my DVD, Chad's grandpa is named "Elden." However, unless I missed it in my multiple viewings, this name is never once used by anyone in the episode.
• Look out for Chad's twin, Thad, in MU049! And how about "Lad" (MU070)? Also, Chad himself will return in MU112.

• Man-at-Arms says they've been using the same little hunk of eternium for centuries. That's fabulous! ...But that means you had plenty of time to plan for changing it out, right? WTH, Duncan?
• When Randor learns that the one piece of eternium in his palace basement is starting to fail, he claims: "If that rock goes, everything on the planet would come to a stop." Adam rejoins, "Everything but Skeletor; he'd just walk in and take over." OK, OK. We need to stop for a few minutes and think about all the craziness implied in these two lines. First of all: everything on the planet is being powered by this one rock in Randor's basement? Is he an egomaniac, or just delusional? There's no way that Granamyr's fire pit is going to go cold if the palace generator goes out, bro. Also, it's absurd to be worrying about Skeletor invading the palace if the eternium runs out. He and his minions - not to mention bad guys he's probably never even met, like MU010's pot-bellied loser, Jarvan - have been in and out of the palace in multiple episodes, with very little difficulty and very little lasting consequence. (The issue of home invasion is one I've explored in several commentary sections, notably MU009 and MU015.)
• Maybe it's not just Chad's poor aim, but the fact that he's using a "scatter ray" to attempt precise shots. Doesn't sound all that accurate!
• I love that Skeletor has chained his minions to his desk so they can spy for him on his desktop dome, but what makes it even funnier is that he's left the key with Panthor.
• The fact that the scenes in this episode where Trap Jaw and Mer-Man comically fail to obtain the eternium are set in the desert help emphasize their similarity to old Warner Brothers Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons. In particular, see the scene where Trap Jaw tries to lower Mer-Man on a rope to snag the precious stone. Their carping dialogue with each other is also very amusing: I like that Trap Jaw refers to Mer-Man as a "seafaring sissy."
• Trap Jaw makes a deal with Mer-Man that, when he takes over the planet, he will make either one-third or two-thirds of it into an ocean. Their argument on this score is humorous, but the idea behind it is nonsensical. Based on the images of Eternia we see from space, and the map shown in a couple of episodes (most recently in MU040), the planet has only one main supercontinent, presumably leaving the rest covered with water. Trap Jaw doesn't need to add any oceans.
• Mer-Man, by the way, gets a lot of grief in this episode. Apparently his seaweed keeps "gumming up the works" of the villains' flying vehicles. He does very little to assist Trap Jaw, and just ends up falling off of things, being flung around, and is easily captured by Teela without ever putting up a fight ("I should have stayed in Snake Mountain," he moans at the end). Basically, he seems to take the usual place of Beast Man. (I read a piece of trivia for this episode that mentioned Beast Man was one of the villains used in the first draft of the script, so I could very well be right about this!)
• According to the captions, Chad's little pet is named "Burbie;" but it sounds very much as though he owns a Furby. Perish the thought!
• The oddest line in the episode - and possibly also the funniest - comes when Trap Jaw charges at He-Man, misses, and ends up plowing right through a wall of solid rock, leaving behind a cartoonish silhouette of himself. "I used to make the same mistake myself," remarks He-Man. ...You did? I'll have to write that down to use in my prequel fan-fic...
• The idea that Elden was responsible for the deaths of members of the mining camp is a surprisingly dark one for the series.
• One just has to wonder: what happened to that one chunk of eternium that Burbie swallowed? Did it... come out, in the Chamber of Life? He-Man doesn't seem to have it when he emerges from the castle.
• I love it when He-Man uses his strength to fuse bits of rock together, as he does with the eternium chunks at the end of the episode. I guess I'm easily entertained by the demonstration of superpowers.
• This episode is a very obvious "lesson" story, the kind of tales which tend to come across as didactic and tacky today, and are little used in modern children's TV. But there's something to be said for casting aside art and artifice for a few minutes and coming right out and conveying an important lesson. This story's lesson resonates very strongly with me as I'm a passionate advocate for gun safety. Obviously that's a very complex issue, particularly in America with its overwhelming gun culture, and this little story doesn't come close to getting to the bottom of it; but I appreciate that this series made an attempt, at least, to talk about the very real danger of treating deadly weapons lightly.