Richard Pardee

Steve Clark

Orko has a secret - and the evil electroid, Aremesh, has travelled to Eternia from Orko's dimension to steal it! To make things worse, a curious and greedy Skeletor wades in to take advantage of the situation. Maybe He-Man can help...

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

Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Beast Man

Aremesh, Eternian guards

Wind Raider, Aremesh's floating disc

Man-at-Arms, Cringer, Orko, Teela, and Prince Adam are all hanging about the palace, with Orko doing a poor job of serving drinks while blathering about his hopes of being a brave warrior some day. Suddenly, a sound like thunder startles them. Everyone sees a mysterious glowy portal out the window and Orko gets particularly freaked out, hiding with a predictably frightened Cringer behind a curtain. "He's coming!" says Orko, and sure enough, into the palace strides the very caped robot (or "electroid") named Aremesh that Orko describes to the others, a being from the Trolla dimension who mutters something about Orko being an "icon" and that he wants the icon's "secret." Thanks to his zappy hands, the robot manages to kidnap our little Trollan over the objections of the other heroes, even a very aggressive Adam. To chase down his friend, Adam takes Cringer aside and does their transforming routine (it's easy to keep your secret identity a secret when all the potential witnesses are temporarily unconscious) - then He-Man mounts up on Battle Cat and they head off in pursuit, a re-awakened Teela and Duncan providing an eye in the sky from the Wind Raider.

Skeletor has, as usual, been tuned in to all this, and has decided that he can make a deal with this threatening robot and maybe steal whatever Orko's secret is, if he can just get a hold of the "light bulb" and his "wind bag" prisoner. With the help of his energy transporter, Skeletor manages to do just that, at the moment that He-Man seems about to overpower Aremesh. Trapped in a tube in Snake Mountain, Aremesh is coerced into a pact with Bonehead: Skeletor will help him get the secret in return for help in taking over Eternia.

Collected back at the palace, our heroes are wondering what to do next, when Skeletor and Beast Man appear and offer back Orko. They want something, though: the royal magician's secret. And the heroes have one hour to deliver, or else they'll have a rampaging electroid on their hands! In need of a plan - and some revelations - our heroes head off to Grayskull and the Sorceress, where Orko's secret is hidden. [SPOILER ALERT] There, we learn that Orko is indeed an icon, or a "keeper of the sphere" - the dimension sphere, to be precise. It's a MacGuffin that can transport him back to his own dimension, though he's never actually used it (having come to Eternia entirely by accident, per the events told in MU018's "Creatures from the Tar Swamp"). In fact, the sphere is very difficult to use, and even the Sorceress can only hold its portal open for a short while. With this knowledge in mind, our heroes hatch a scheme.

Skeletor, with Beast Man, Evil-Lyn, and his electroid confederate, come knocking again at the palace to conclude their wicked deal, but Orko and He-Man are nowhere to be seen. Man-at-Arms appears to seriously screw up, accidentally blabbing that the pair have gone to the tar swamp. Aremesh immediately sneaks off in pursuit, leaving Skeletor flat-footed. Duncan snares the bony demon's two minions in a trap door pit, leaving Skeletor to run off to the tar swamp by himself.

So our final confrontation is set! Zoar, He-Man, and Orko have clearly been maneuvering their enemies into this situation, and plan to trick Aremesh into returning to his dimension. When the bad guys show up, Orko and Zoar activate the sphere's portal, and Orko (holding the sphere) runs through it, duping Skeletor into following. Aremesh, however, smells something fishy and won't take the bait. Desperate, with the portal about to close again, He-Man grabs the electroid, whose special energy drains our hero of all his strength! Being He-Man, he still manages to toss the robot through the portal before collapsing. Orko pops back out of the door, it shuts, and our enemies have all been neatly disposed of. After a bit of celebrating, the Sorceress recalls that her gallant protector is eating dirt on the ground, but he rouses, apparently recovered from his momentary weakness, and our heroes (less Zoar) are free to return to the palace.

Back at Eternos, Randor and Marlena present Orko with a medal for bravery and declare that he is now "Sir Orko." A bashful and humble Orko demurs, pointing out that he can't really be a brave hero because he was afraid the whole time he was up against Aremesh. He-Man calls him over for some lessons on bravery, which he says is the power to act even when you are afraid.

End with a Joke: The "brave" Sir Orko, convinced by He-Man of his true identity as a brave knight, is terrified by a sudden rumble of thunder and hides behind Battle Cat, to everyone else's amusement - particularly King Randor's.

• Aremesh: I am Aremesh. I have come for the secret thing. And Orko, the icon, has it.
• Skeletor: Very interesting; so that little floating bag of wind has a secret hidden somewhere. Perhaps we should let this walking light bulb, Aremesh, do our dirty work for us.
• Orko: Skeletor help someone? Oh, brother.
• Man-at-Arms: As I remember from my studies in robotics, Teela, electroids cannot vanish by their own energy.
• Sorceress (making one of her scariest pronouncements, to Orko): Good luck; the kingdom is in your hands.
• He-Man (to Orko): Without fear, courage wouldn't exist; and courage to face a challenge when you are afraid is what bravery is all about.

• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: The better to insult Beast Man; and in reverse, to show him leaning back
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: As he leaves to follow Aremesh and Orko
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: When he confronts Aremesh
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: Celebrating his deal with Aremesh
• Sorceress spreads/unspreads her wings: As she turns from her falcon to her human form, and vice versa

One full

Brought to you by Teela
Teela reinforces the ending lesson about fear being natural, not something to feel guilty about. You should listen to your fears to help you stay out of trouble. Always run at the first sign of danger, kids!

Orko-specific lore
Dealing with Adam's secret and his connection to the power of Grayskull: It's a bit of a stretch, but this episode can be considered under this theme, since he briefly loses his powers.

• Orko begins the episode by serving drinks, an embarrassingly menial task. He also seemed to be serving the royal family dinner at the beginning of MU009, which made me wonder whether his royal duties include buttling.
• The evil Aremesh is an electroid. "That's a robot made of pure energy, isn't it?" asks Adam, expositionally. Later, Duncan delivers a short lecture on electroid abilities.
• Aremesh refers to Orko as an "icon." We learn later in the episode what this means (see my SPOILER ALERT explanation below.)
• Though we also see Skeletor doing his usual hero-spying using his desktop dome, when he searches for Aremesh he uses a larger, more typical video screen with a control knob that allows him to search and pan. This is a new device that we've never seen him use before. It may be directly connected to his "energy transport lever," which is what allows him to capture Aremesh.
• Man-at-Arms is able to remotely communicate with He-Man while he's in the Wind Raider and He-Man is galloping through the forest, through a wrist communicator very much like the "comlink" we saw used back in MU010.
• We've seen He-Man deflect laser bolts and other beams with his power sword many a time, but in this episode he actually deflects a few with his wrist bracer, Wonder Woman style. Good thing he didn't mess up his comlink!
• We learn that Skeletor has an energy transport device, seeming to function much like the transporter on Star Trek, except that it may only work on electrical beings (or "light bulbs," as Skeletor insists on calling Aremesh) and need to be tuned to their specific frequencies. It does also manage to transport Orko, however! The tube into which Orko and his first abductor are transported will be seen again, under slightly varying circumstances, in MU068 and MU119.
• In a rare break in the action for Battle Cat, we actually see him taking a nap! Nice to know Cringer is not the only one who needs his beauty rest. The last time I can remember either He-Man or Battle Cat ever having time to rest was in the first Widgets episode, MU012.
• SPOILER ALERT: In case you don't want to have the forty-year-old TV show ruined for you... Orko's secret is the dimension sphere. As the Sorceress explains: "In the days of the old kingdom, icons like Orko were the keepers of the sphere." Aremesh mistakenly believes that the sphere is how Orko traveled to Eternia's dimension; of course, we already know from MU018's "Creatures from the Tar Swamp" that Orko was blooped into Eternia because of a storm - an event that is actually referenced here.
• The dimension sphere reminds me very much of the "Sphere of Size" that He-Man had to squeeze to shrink himself through the portal to Trolla in MU020.
• Man-at-Arms may not be able to stop bad guys from teleporting right into the palace whenever they want, but at least he has some very conveniently placed trap doors! (Remember the trap door in the Castle Grayskull playset?)
• In the longstanding Eternian good guy tradition of very sub-par insults incorporating the word "face," both Adam and He-Man call Aremesh "Bright Face."
• Things that come out of Orko: the MacGuffin sphere.
• In an unusual and somewhat frightening event, He-Man's grabbing of Aremesh to throw the robot through the portal completely drains him of his powers! He soon awakens, however, with seemingly no lasting ill effects.
• Orko is knighted! They'll hand those titles out to anybody...

• Aremesh has a goofy, cute design, with a flowing cape and a monogram "A" for the clasp.
• Aremesh is fully verbal, but turns into a Frankenstein's monster when he's trapped in the transport tube, groaning and flailing. Another emotional robot! (See the Zaktons in last episode's MU047.)
• Home invasion strikes again! This time it's Skeletor and Beast Man, who effortlessly penetrate the royal palace. We don't actually see how they enter, but given the off-screen sound effect heralding their arrival, and their vanishing departure, it seems they teleported in much like Evil-Lyn did in MU017. When will Man-at-Arms get off his technological ass and build a teleport shield?
• Kudos to the show writers for actually referencing the events of another episode (Orko's first journey into Eternia)! I like internal consistency when I can get it.
• On the other hand: why haven't we ever heard about this whole "keeper of the sphere" thing before? It really seems like something that might have come up in, for instance, MU018 or MU020, when Orko was invested in proving his importance to other people. I suppose it helps that it was supposed to be a "secret," but this MacGuffin causes some real logical problems. What about in MU020, when He-Man desperately needed to get to Trolla to help Orko? What about all the years Orko was supposedly stranded on Eternia, unable to visit his people?
• Another problem with the dimension sphere being the thing that Aremesh desires: what actual use is it to him? If all it really does is allow him to move between Eternia and Trolla, Aremesh already seems to have proven his ability to do that without help, based on his appearance in the palace at the beginning of the episode. "It belongs to me," the electroid asserts; so maybe he just wants to reclaim what he deems as his property - and make sure the "icon" doesn't have it. But, given how the episode started, once Aremesh gets trapped on the other side of the portal, what's to stop him from just returning and trying for the sphere again?
• This episode includes another case, as most recently in MU047, of the enemies not taking full advantage of the fact that they have a very useful hostage. With Orko in his clutches, Skeletor could probably have demanded almost anything of He-Man and friends; instead, he just returns the little runt. True, he has other threats to make, but come on, my man - you just surrendered a bargaining chip! We will see Skeletor getting smart and actually leveraging Orko for something very valuable in MU104.
• When Skeletor returns to collect his due from the heroes, he refers to Orko as "that little mischief maker," while shaking his left fist up and down in the unmistakable "jerk-off" gesture. Geez, Skeletor... this is a kids' show.
• "I'm afraid you made a slip on this one, Man-at-Arms!" crows Skeletor; then he pauses to stare into the camera, jaws agape, like Fozzy Bear trying to milk the laugh after telling a gag.
• Beast Man gets no respect from anyone: when Skeletor realizes that Aremesh has run off to the tar swamp without him, he immediately turns to his favorite scapegoat, Beast Man: "You overgrown fur coat! You let him get away!"
• This may or may not be a continuity error, but: Aremesh is first shown shooting beams out of his palm, but in a later scene he fires a beam out of the tips of his fingers.
• After disposing of their enemies (and by the way, I really wonder how Skeletor is going to get back home after this!), He-Man, Orko, and the Sorceress waste some time congratulating each other. He-Man butters up the Sorceress, claiming it's thanks to her and Orko that they succeeded. "I will always be near when you need me, He-Man," replies the Sorceress smugly. What complete and utter slow tow poop! (Remember the slow tow from MU012? I figured it was the closest thing to a bull on Eternia.) The idea that He-Man would need the Sorceress all the time, and not the other way around - feh. Feh, I say! She's the neediest magic-maker on Eternia. It's always "Oh, He-Man, all Eternia is at stake if you don't punch these rocks! Oh, He-Man, there's a strange guy outside my castle and I ran out of magic after two seconds of trying to stop him! Oh, He-Man, I turned into a bird and got tied up!"
• More inconsistencies with the Sorceress's abilities outside of Grayskull. In a recent episode, MU046, a tied-up Zoar was entirely powerless to help the heroes. In this one, her falcon form can magically hold open a portal. And of course, there's the story from MU036 and suggestions made in other episodes, that the Sorceress shouldn't be able to hold her human form far outside of Grayskull: but in this episode, as in the recent MU043, she breaks that rule.
• I had some hopes on looking at the title of this episode that we were going to meet again the embodiment of Evil who first appeared in MU024's "Wizard of Stone Mountain." But no, it was just this angry robot guy whose "return," I suppose, is predicated on the fact that Orko has met him before and the others know his name - not that the audience has.