David Wise

Gwen Wetzler

Thad the royal page is frustrated that he's just a menial servant and no one pays attention to him. Good news, Thad! That fancy-looking ball you found in the palace garden will definitely get you noticed - by a gigantic Gryphon!

Prince Adam (He-Man), Teela, Orko, Man-at-Arms

Trap Jaw, Beast Man

Thad's boss (? voice only), Thad, Chandor villager (unnamed), Gailen, Gryphon, Eternian guards, many unnamed villagers

sky sleds, Attak Trak, Wind Raider

Into the night-draped Chandor Village steal two hulking silhouettes - it's Trap Jaw and Beast Man, on an errand from Skeletor. They not-so-stealthily break their way into a sacred shrine and steal the pretty gem resting on the pedestal inside, then leave the seemingly priceless artifact in the bushes of the royal garden in Eternos. Why? Because a terrible monster will come rampaging and destroying everything in its path to get the jewel back!

The following day, unaware of any looming threats, the royal page boy Thad is awakened by his gruff supervisor, who reminds the boy just how forgettable and unimportant his position is. Running headlong into Prince Adam does nothing but reinforce Thad's low mood. He longs to be important, special - a somebody. Hello - what's this very unique spherical jewel doing in the bushes? It will be just the thing to get Thad noticed! It works right away, since Captain Teela stops him to ask what he's holding. Thad figures that someone else owns the jewel and has lost it, but he doesn't see the harm in holding onto the thing until the rightful owner shows up.

Meanwhile, back in Chandor, a pair of the town's citizens (who all sleep very soundly and didn't hear Beast Man bashing through the doors) discover the ransacked shrine and find the stone has vanished. They are just arguing with each other over whether the old tale of the "curse of the Gryphon" is true, when the Gryphon appears just outside to handily settle their argument. The maned, dragon-like beast rages and roars, breathing fire and smashing things with its claws and barbed tail, ostensibly dealing out punishment for the loss of the stone. The villagers can do nothing but evacuate.

Back in Eternia, a befuddled Duncan is trying without much success (and with some unwanted assistance from Orko) to work out the kinks in his suspiciously familiar-looking "new" freeze ray invention. Thad brings his jewel in to show off, but Duncan is unable to identify the rock, and a touchy, possessive Thad won't let him keep it for study. The heroes are interrupted in their discussion of the page's bad behavior by a tele-beam from an Eternian guard, bringing news of the disaster in Chandor. Prince Adam tells Duncan to keep working the freeze-ray problem while He-Man goes to help the people of Chandor. After the usual transformation, our muscly hero hops into the Attak Trak and heads that way. With the town already safely evacuated, He-Man just has to deal with the Gryphon, which he does by emptying a mountain lake over it. The creature is very non-plussed and departs.

Back at the palace, He-Man brings Duncan the news of a shrine he noticed in the village, dedicated to just the monster that was attacking it, and the stolen jewel that supposedly incurred the monster's wrath. He wonders where that Thad has gotten to with his jewel. Thad, overhearing some of the conversation, believes that He-Man is accusing him of thievery; ranting to Teela about this, Thad runs off. Teela tells He-Man and Duncan what's up, but before they can act, news comes that the Gryphon has returned - and is heading for the palace! Man-at-Arms and He-Man go to defend the kingdom while Teela goes to find the kid.

For once, Duncan's inventing skills fail him, as his freeze ray is not functioning well enough to be able to stop the monster. He-Man takes over, spinning and tossing the Gryphon out into space - but the stubborn beast returns. It seems ready to burn down the whole city, but then catches a whiff of something and flies off. Uh-oh....In the meantime, Teela has finally chased down a fleeing Thad and convinced him that he's special without his jewel. When asked, she tells the boy that she likes him (even though, at this point, why would you?), and he decides he can surrender the object - but then the Gryphon swoops in! Teela and the boy run for it, becoming trapped in a ring of Gryphon-set flames, from which Duncan (piloting the Wind Raider) has to rescue them. In the process of being lifted up, Thad (who had somehow gone back to holding it) drops the jewel.

To solve his monster problem, He-Man once again resorts to hydraulic engineering. This time, he smashes open an underground passage to bring him underneath a mountain, so that he can lift the entire hunk of rock and toss it into another handy lake. The resulting splash seems to create a new river of water, dousing most of the flames and washing away the dropped jewel; our heroes spot it stuck in a floating branch amid the flowing waters. Suddenly, the gem wiggles and pops open - it was an egg all along! Inside is a cute little pink baby Gryphon, the source of all the momma Gryphon's stress. The big monster wants to rescue her baby, but is too afraid of the water to get near enough. Our wiser, more mature page boy decides this is his responsibility, so leaps out of the Wind Raider and into the rushing water, holding the Gryphonling just those few extra inches above the water that were needed for its reunion with Mom. The baby learns to fly in record time and sails off with its satisfied but unrepentantly destructive monster mother.

Together and back on the ground, our heroes talk over the events of the day. Thad is abashed at his self-centered actions with the jewel, but the others assure him that he will get a commendation for bravery from the king for the way he acted in rescuing the baby. Thad realizes he must be special after all. "We all are," Teela claims. Fade to black and cue the public service announcement!

End with a Joke: N/A; the heroes are too busy locking in the episode's lesson to get any jokes in

• Thad: That guy burns me up. "Who can keep track of all you royal pages, anyway?" You'd think I didn't even exist!
• Orko (having just been broken out of a freeze ray's block of ice): Terrific invention, Man-at-Arms; I've only got one thing to say about it. / Man-at-Arms: Yes? / Orko: It leaves me cold. (Adam cracks up)
• He-Man (having doused the Gyphon with the contents of a mountain lake): That should put a damper on your plans.
• Thad: If I give up the jewel, I'll just be a nobody again. I don't want to be a nobody. I'll run away - that's what I'll do!
• Teela: If people like you, it's because of who you are, not what you have.
• Thad: Gee, I guess I am someone special. / Teela: We all are, Thad.

• Adam laughs, head back: At Orko's terrible pun
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Confronting the Gryphon; and later, after running towards some water
• He-Man rolls along the ground: To avoid flame breath
• He-Man runs at the viewer, bug-height: Luring the Gryphon
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands after a very acrobatic leap
• He-Man juggles his sword: The beginning un-sheathing sequence is used as He-Man prepares to face off against the Gryphon
• He-Man spins the Gryphon in a circle
• He-Man runs away from the viewer: And through a ravine

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Orko and Man-at-Arms
Orko tries to guess what Duncan's "most wonderful moment" from today's episode was, by listing several of He-Man's more impressive feats. Nope: it's when that little dope, Thad, finally learned his lesson, took responsibility for his actions, risked his life by jumping from a moving vehicle, and thus became a man.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Why, it's the "wayward child learns a valuable lesson" plot trope! With a wayward child who looks disturbingly similar to the last one we met, in MU042.
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1: Though it does feature his lackeys, acting under his command, Skeletor nevertheless is again nowhere to be seen.

• The tower in which our young main character seems to live is identical to the tower from which Man-at-Arms was turned to stone in MU014. This tower is a familiar landmark in Eternos that we'll see used many other times, notably in the opening to MU068.
• "Thad" is drawn identically to the rhyming "Chad" from MU042, except that Thad's clothes are different colors. (Chad wore a matching red shirt and pants with white shoes; Thad wears a matching blue shirt and shoes with white pants.)
• Speaking of re-used character models: the pair of Eternians who discover the broken-in shrine of the Gryphon look very similar to the two villager shmoes we saw way back in MU007, who helped us learn a little bit about a certain Creeping Horak. In this episode, the old man character is voiced with the same high-pitched, grating tones we heard from Lokus the imp in MU024's "Wizard of Stone Mountain."
• Another "I thought it was only a legend" episode, whose most recent entrants include MU035, MU036, and MU038. The unnamed Chandor villager next to Gailen refers to the curse of the Gryphon variously as a legend, myth, or fairy tale - though he is very quickly and ironically disabused of the notion that it is any of those things!
• It's telling that not only does neither Cringer nor Battle Cat appear in this episode, but that when He-Man needs a form of transportation he blatantly doesn't mention that giant green tiger that he's always riding everywhere, and instead goes for the Attak Trak. I suspect the reason is the huge amount of voiced characters in this episode. I remember reading in earlier research that voice actors were only supposed to provide so many different characters per episode, and I would bet they hit their limit here. Cringer/Battle Cat must have been the easiest voices to cut!
• He-Man does a heck of a lot of running in this episode.
• More scenes in this episode occur in the palace's radio room, seen in MU047's "Keeper of the Ancient Ruins."
• I have gone out of my way to point out scenes and events in these episodes that seem to suggest that He-Man and Adam - or sometimes Cringer and Battle Cat - are different people/animals. So it's only fair that I point out an event in this episode that suggests the opposite. Prince Adam sees Thad with the Gryhpon's "jewel" in an earlier scene. Later, He-Man remembers that Thad has the jewel, something he would only know if he had Adam's memories.
• While jumping to save a falling tower, He-Man goes through the same animation sequence he's used when diving into the water in other episodes, notably MU032.
• He-Man uses his sword to "deflect" flame from the Gryphon's breath, something he also did during MU009's "The Dragon Invasion."
• In one of He-Man's more impressive feats, he spins the Gryphon by its tail and tosses it so far that it ends up in space! However the Gryphon isn't fazed by this, because he can apparently survive in space and through a very easy re-entry flight. Another impressive He-Man feat may occur later in the episode, though it's unclear whether we are seeing him running at super-speed, with the background blurring past, or whether the animators were just trying to indicate that he ran through a lot of jungle and fields at normal speed, using a hazy sort of transition. But he definitely lifts and tosses an entire mountain. Yeah, He-Man!
• Duncan lowers an anchor or grappling hook down from the nose of the Wind Raider to rescue Teela and Thad. We haven't seen the vehicle showing off a similar gadget since way back in MU019.
• It seems that it takes a very, very long time for Gryphon eggs to hatch - according to the old man, about 200 years! The Chandor village has been keeping watch over their egg for so long that its mother has become a legend.
• The PSA is set in the same corridor as Duncan's PSA for MU044. Fortunately this time he is standing more to the right of the wall decoration behind him, so it doesn't look like he has bug antennae growing out of his helmet.

• A bit of a continuity error: in the opening sequence, Trap Jaw starts out with his hook attachment on his arm. When Beast Man is fumbling at the locked doors of the shrine, we cut to Trap Jaw fitting his laser gun onto his arm, presumably in preparation for zapping the doors down. A few seconds later, after Beast Man kicks the doors down, we see Trap Jaw following him inside, his hook re-attached.
• Animation error: as Trap Jaw and Beast Man bicker in the royal gardens, the whites of Beast Man's eyes shift back and forth from the correct white to the same light orange as his face.
• You would think that "Gryphon" would be pronounced the same as "griffin" - that it's really the same word with a fancy, fantasy-based spelling. But no! The "y" is pronounced as a long "i."
• The animators and writers shamelessly try to sneak one by us in this episode, claiming that Duncan has just invented his "freeze ray." For one thing, both villains and heroes have demonstrated freeze rays in the past, in various shapes and sizes. For instance, Teela has used her wrist freeze ray several times, most recently in MU034; and the bad guys had a freeze ray attached to their Basher in MU026. But in an even more thorough case of deja vu, we have seen this specific weapon before: it's identical to the "stasis ray" that was used to freeze the dragons in MU009's "The Dragon Invasion." It's true that previous statsis/freeze rays didn't turn people into ice cubes, as Duncan's latest one does to Orko here.
• The Eternian guard who calls Duncan on the tele-beam seems to have the voice they commonly use for a very young boy, though I suppose it's meant to be a grown woman. (It's likely Erika Scheimer, daughter of Lou and Jay.) I definitely think Filmation ran scarce of voice actors for this episode!
• There's a great little sequence which just verges on the absurd as He-Man is prepping the Attak Trak to roll out: he begins flipping a row of switches, one after another, which look as if they could potentially go on forever.
• If you look carefully at the evacuation scenes in Chandor Village, you'll see that the many, many people running by behind Gailen are actually only three people being repeated over and over and over. Every once in a while, one different man in green runs past in the foreground, just to spice things up.
• He-Man does a weird hair flip when he's talking to Duncan about the village's missing jewel, almost as if he's hitting himself in the forehead with his palm. "I know what I saw," he asserts. It's unclear why the animators chose to have him make this gesture, as it doesn't seem to be related to his dialogue.
• Thad's genius plan for not being a nobody is to run away from everyone who knows who he is. Don't sit around waiting for that call from Mensa, Thad.
• Our technology wizard, Duncan, can't build a functioning freeze ray, even though everyone on Eternia can easily purchase wrist-sized ones at their local Radio Shack (yes, I'm extrapolating a bit from the given evidence). The only reason we see him being so incompetent, of course, is for the purposes of the plot: so that Thad has to learn his valuable lesson and give up the dang jewel.
• This episode is just filled with people not acting up to basic standards of intelligence. Once Thad hands over the jewel to Teela and the Gryphon comes swooping in, Teela cries, "Run, Thad!" and then runs - in the same direction as the kid. Um, hello? Maybe lure the incredibly huge and dangerous monster away from the vulnerable minor? And while you're at it: why not just take that stone which is the whole reason the monster is chasing you and throw it away?
• He-Man is just lucky that Eternia has so many conveniently located sources of fresh water for him to redirect and pilfer.
• The Gryphon has an interesting way of flying, seeming to alternately compress and extend itself in a very rubbery way, with lots of huffing and puffing, almost like a bellows. Surely it can't be propelling itself forward through exhalations from its snout, though. Is it farting its way through the air?
• You're a Gryphon mother and you have an egg of which you are fiercely protective, and you don't want anyone to touch it or move it, or you'll get incredibly angry and destroy everything in your path. So why did you leave your egg in a shrine in the middle of a human village? No idea. But the old Chandorian clearly states that the Gryphon left the gem "in our care," so this was a conscious decision on her part. (By the way, I acknowledge that I'm probably making some sexist assumptions by now referring to the Gryphon by female pronouns; I just got tired of using "it.")
• Animation error: In the scenes near the end of the episode where Duncan is shown at the controls of the Wind Raider, his hands are incorrectly flesh-colored instead of the usual green.
• Teela's comment at the end of the episode about everyone being special reminds me of Syndrome's line in The Incredibles: "And when everyone is super - heh, heh, heh - no one will be." Given that Syndrome was a supervillain, this episode seems on the surface to be taking the opposite view to that in the Pixar film. The positive lesson of He-Man is that everyone is special and deserves respect, but that you won't get friends or respect just by owning things. What The Incredibles was trying to say, in a rather oblique and somewhat confusing way, was that you shouldn't sacrifice or hide the things that make you unique and different just to blend in with everyone else. Both of them remind us that it's always better to be ourselves.
• Another episode from the well-known writer David Wise, who previously brought us MU036's memorable Starseed episode, "The Search," and MU039's study in gender equality, "Trouble in Arcadia." This one is a little too lesson-heavy for my taste, and I've never been a fan of the young Eternian boy-clone character; but it nevertheless gives us a cool monster and some fun adventure scenes.