Marc Richards

Ed Friedman

During a dramatic rescue, He-Man's power sword is lost to a rock creature who tries to use it to impress his fellow rocks. He-Man will have to use all his tact and ambassadorial skills to wheedle his sword back - and quickly, too, before people begin to notice that Prince Adam is missing!

Orko, Man-at-Arms, Teela, Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), Ram Man

N/A

two children, mother, rock creatures (including Raybar, Togar)

Wind Raider, Battle Ram

The weather is great in Eternia today - a great time to have a picnic! Out doing just that are Orko, Man-at-Arms, Teela, Adam, and Cringer. Man-at-Arms's back-to-nature attempt to start a fire by striking a spark with flint is foiled when Orko, who has been showing off to a pair of amused children by levitating a bucket of water, accidentally dumps the bucket over Duncan's head. Teela laughs at her father's predicament, but Adam - having just arrived with a length of iron vine that he picked up in the forest - thinks his friend has chosen a strange way to try to cool off. Orko, with great temerity, tries to give Duncan advice on how best to dry himself; his arm-flapping is at first mistaken as the magical cause for some tremors, which instead prove to be the result of a nearby volcanic eruption!

The volcano and accompanying earthquakes have forced open a large crack in the ground, separating the two children we saw earlier from their distraught mother. To make things worse, a rock monster has emerged from a nearby cave on the far side, and is menacing the children! Adam decides it's time for his pet and himself to sneak off somewhere and make a quick change, so he instructs Cringer to pretend to run off and not come back when he calls. The plan works, but annoys Teela, who doesn't think it's the right time for Adam to be chasing down his cat. In a completely unrelated event, He-Man and Battle Cat show up! Having determined that the gorge has already become too wide to jump, He-Man snatches up the iron vine, ties it to his sword handle, and flings his sword across the space, where it ends up thrust securely into the ground. The sinewy stud is then able to pull the entire opposite land mass closer, narrowing the gorge enough for Duncan to hop across and then back with the snagged children. Now to just pull that sword back! But it's at this point that He-Man's mighty strength gives out. He is forced to let go of the vine, which is giving him rope-burn anyway, and decides to fly to the other side of the gorge in his Wind Raider to retrieve the weapon.

By this time, however, that rock monster, whose name is Raybar, has decided he would like to have a nice shiny sword, and has plucked it from the ground. He-Man, having made the trip across in his Wind Raider, makes a half-hearted attempt to ask nicely for the sword, but Raybar swipes at him, and another rock creature (who proves to be named Togar) joins in the fight, complicating things further. In fact, He-Man ends up knocked down into the gorge, hanging by the iron vine, and must make some quick moves to get out when the gorge perversely decides to seal itself up again. The rock people, convinced the interfering beefcake is a goner, retreat to their cave, which is then blocked up by a pesky rockfall. He-Man decides the only way to clear the rocks and retrieve his sword is with the Battle Ram, which means a trip back to the palace. Time is of the essence, as well, because all this time Teela has been wondering and complaining about the absence of Prince Adam - who (unbeknownst to her) cannot return until the power sword is found.

Teela continues to address her concern and annoyance back at the palace, where a newly arrived Ram Man joins in the speculation, pointing out that Adam and He-Man never seem to be around at the same time. Duncan and He-Man exchange nervous glances and try to reassure them and change the subject, while Teela extracts a promise from He-Man to give that goldbricker prince a good talking-to. The Captain of the Guard stays at Eternos while the other heroes travel back to the cave, an excited Ram Man determined to try his own luck on the solid rock obstacle. In the end, the Battle Ram proves superfluous, as (despite the worrying head trauma) Ram Man's third or fourth ram forces an opening in the rock (and Orko finds an alternate entrance anyway). The heroes travel into the underground caverns, finding evidence of the rock people's peaceful tendencies in a series of friendly cave paintings.

They finally discover the central square of the rock people's home, built at the lip of a gaping bottomless hole which Man-at-Arms claims is their source of power, light, and heat. It seems Raybar has declared himself leader of his meek fellow creatures, based solely on his ownership of a sidearm. He-Man has a plan to get it back: Ram Man will provide a distraction while the blonde wonder swings down with that helpful vine and snatches the sword. The idea seems sound enough, but the execution leaves much to be desired: Ram Man's bouncy display sends him flying straight into the swinging He-Man, and the pair end up in a tangled heap right in the midst of the rock people. It turns out the rock people really are pacifists, and simply cower in the presence of the hunky strangers. Duncan and Orko approach to perhaps assist in some kind of negotiation, but their presence only makes things worse when a flat-footed Duncan allows Togar to walk right up and grab the laser pistol from his belt. (Our heroes are not performing at their best today!)

The now-armed Togar declares himself an even more impressive leader than his buddy, and to prove it he begins wildly firing the weapon, causing a disastrous cave-in. He-Man must hold up the entire ceiling, and asks for his friends' assitance in providing a "foundation" for him to set it on. He and Orko convince Raybar and Togar to help Man-at-Arms and Ram Man push a huge rock over to He-Man, who is able to set down his burden on it, thus saving everyone.

Oh joy! Oh rapture! The day is saved! And Raybar and Togar have learned their lesson about these devilish, troublesome weapons. They don't make leaders at all! Convinced that their sword and gun are worse than useless, the pair simply toss the weapons into the bottomless pit! Duncan and He-Man can only look on in horror. In the few seconds it takes them to realize the gravity of the situation, it has already become too late to retrieve the sword: it is surely lost forever, melted in the center of Eternia, making the restoration of Adam and Cringer impossible. With nothing else to do, the heroes say their farewells. The rock people have determined that the outer world is nothing but trouble, so they request that He-Man seal up their cave entrance for good. So, having said goodbye to his friends, and assuming that an absent Orko has found his own way home, He-Man makes one final vain check for his sword before blocking the way to the hole where it was lost. He-Man is understandably but unusually short with Orko when the Trollan shows up, all excited to show his heartbroken friend a new magic trick. The hero's mood is completely reversed, however, when Orko's trick proves to be the revealing of the power sword! It turns out that during the earlier celebration, the magician had made his way down into the rock people's hole to try to pick up some magic energy, and before giving it up as a bad job, had the chucked power sword land in his hands.

Back at the palace, Teela is telling her father how much she's looking forward to hearing He-Man browbeat Prince Adam, when a completely unrepentant prince shows up along with Cringer. Duncan stammers, absolutely flabbergasted and nearly speechless at the unexpected reappearance of his friend, and Teela is too aggravated by Adam having received no come-uppance to question her father's reaction.

End with a Joke: Alone with Cringer and Orko, Adam points out to his cat that if it weren't for the royal magician, Cringer would have been stuck as Battle Cat forever. To show his gratitude, Cringer gives Orko a big, wet, lick. A ruffled Orko vindictively threatens Cringer with a new trick: turning a pussycat into a dragon. Cringer jumps into a barrel.

• Duncan (to He-Man, who has fallen into a gorge and is hanging by a rope): Are you all right? / He-Man: Let's put it this way: I'm just about (laughs) at the end of my rope.
• Teela (of Adam): Still, he shouldn't have run off, and he should be told. (to He-Man) Maybe if you tell him it will sink in. / He-Man: I promise you Teela, Adam will know how I feel about the whole thing. / Teela: If you find him! He's never around when you are, anyway. / Ram Man (realizing): Yeah, you know, I don't think I ever seen the two of ya together.
• Orko: I can make your job easier. / Ram Man: A mosquito can't help a hawk.
• He-Man (of Raybar): He seems to think the sword makes him a leader; but all it makes him is a bully.
• He-Man (of the rock people): These people don't know what fighting is. I won't be the one who teaches them. There must be another way.
• He-Man (after his power sword has seemingly been lost down a bottomless pit): Then it's all over, Duncan. From now on, I'll never be Adam again.
• Raybar: No more outside world. We happy here. You - close entrance please.
• Teela: Hearing He-Man lecture Adam will be more fun than a party.

• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Just after transforming, and again later when setting off with Duncan
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man jumps out of the Wind Raider, and again later when he lands after sealing off the cave
• He-Man rolls along the ground: To avoid a rock creature
• Adam laughs, head back: At his fearless friend, who has just leapt into a barrel
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: During the PSA

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He-Man, clearly fearing that someone else will try the same thing as Raybar, warns us that his power sword wouldn't make anyone a good leader. To distract us from that sweet sword of his, he lists some other qualities of leadership: intelligence, respect, unselfish do-gooding.

Dealing with Adam's secret and his connection to the power of Grayskull
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1

• This episode, ironically enough given its later subject matter, showcases a rare instance of Adam actually doing a pretty good job of covering his secret identity, when he stages a chase after a runaway Cringer to get them both out of sight. The whole story has the heroes showing more concern over the He-Man/Adam secret than is typically required or exhibited.
• In the realm of crazy @#$% that He-Man does, we have him closing up a gorge by use of a rope tied to his anchored power sword.
• That iron vine really is unbreakable, because He-Man's power sword can't even cut through it!
• The familiar rock monster or rock creature character design used for Raybar and a couple of the other rock people was last seen used for Nepthu's sand demons in MU050. In the realm of recycled character designs, the look of the longer-haired of the two children in the episode's opening will be reused for Rayna in MU070's "Fisto's Forest" and was taken from Podi of MU037.
• For the first time, our hoodwinked heroes begin to realize all the achingly obvious clues there have been in the past to the connection between Adam and He-Man.
• Though I've had cause to speculate on the fact before (see Commentary for MU030), it has never been explicitly stated until this episode that He-Man is unable to transform back into Adam without the power sword. It may seem obvious logically that the same implement he uses to go from Adam to He-Man would be necessary for the opposite transformation; but the fact of the matter is, we've never actually seen that reversal happen, though we see the other transformation happen at least twice an episode (counting the opening animation). The only episode where we haven't seen Adam change into He-Man at some point during the story was MU016, because in that episode he remained He-Man throughout. (There are also zero visible transformations in MU079, MU081, and MU109, but this is because Adam changes to He-Man between scenes.) We will eventually see He-Man change back to Adam, in the tragic circumstances of MU110; and we'll "see" it happening to lesser degree in MU105 and MU127.
• Man-at-Arms sees a big pit and instantly jumps to the conclusion not only that it goes to the center of the earth, but also that it's the source of all the rock people's energy, light, and heat. A life hole!
• Man-at-Arms sports a laser pistol in this episode, a weapon he's not usually seen with but which is included for plot purposes.
• This story, in a less central way, is an argument for firearm safety in the same way that MU042's "Double Edged Sword" was.
• "Even you couldn't survive at the center of the earth," says Man-at-Arms of He-Man; so there you go. He does have limits!
• We've seen two people cram one behind the other to ride in the Battle Ram (MU021), and Teela took a very dangerous passenger position on the side of the vehicle in MU024; in this one, we get to watch Duncan clumsily clutch the top of the vehicle's cannon while Ram Man drives off with it. The animators likely realized what a ridiculous sight this made, since we only see it for a split second.
• One of the happiest moments in the history of the Things that Come out of Orko category: when a third arm pops out the top of his hat, holding the thought-lost-forever power sword!
• In the ending joke sequence, Cringer cringes in his classic shivering pose from the opening of every episode. We also saw the animators making use of this pose in MU051.
• He-Man's PSA about the qualities of a good leader is similar to the one he gave us at the end of MU050 - although that one veered more into being a good follower than a good leader.

• Marc Richards, the writer of this episode, is a newbie (this is in fact his only writing credit for the show); which is perhaps why, in the opening minutes of the story, he seems determined to show the side characters acting up to expectations in the most typical ways possible. Orko dumps water over Man-at-Arms's head, and Cringer points out that he finds dragon whales scary. Check and check!
• Adam somehow knows there's a downdraft that will pull Orko down into the chasm, even though it has literally just opened. We've seen Orko successfully float over chasms before, for instance in MU052's "Teela's Trial;" and later in the episode he even ventures partway down a bottomless pit, with no harmful effects!
• "Why don't you give me back my sword and just be a great guy?" He-Man asks Raybar; but he says it very sarcastically, as though he already knows it's never going to happen. That sounds like you're making snap judgments about rock creatures based on their appearance, He-Man! Tsk, tsk... When he later tracks Raybar back to the rock people's home, rather than make any attempt to bargain with or cajole the creatures to get the sword, He-Man opts for just trying to snatch it. All in all, our hero is lacking a little in diplomacy in this episode! At least he doesn't want to fight Raybar to win the sword back.
• It's very amusing to see all the knowing, anxious glances that He-Man and Duncan exchange with each other while Teela and Ram Man are annoyingly rattling on about how Adam and He-Man are never seen together, as well as Duncan's nervous stammering to try to change the subject.
• When Duncan is trying to take off in the Battle Ram, he gestures with his thumb and we see that his thumbnail has been drawn there, even though his hand is colored green and therefore presumably gloved.
• "I'm sure that once I've gotten my sword back," a heedless He-Man smugly states to Teela, "I'll be able to produce Adam." Whoa, whoa, dude! Do you want them to connect the dots?
• Ram Man's obscure reply to Orko's offer of help ("A mosquito can't help a hawk") is perhaps a measure of how much head trauma he's already given himself, bashing into the side of the mountain. Or maybe it's an old Eternian saying...
• Not having been filled in on the whole "Orko caught the sword" news, at the end of the episode Duncan repeatedly stammers "How?" in exactly the same intonation, providing his own special form of comic relief.
• The episode's ending pan-out shot taking us away from the palace and out into deep space is exceedingly slow and long, as the animators eat up those last few seconds of runtime.
• I wrote a ridiculously long and detailed plot summary for this episode, and in so doing realized how little a part Battle Cat plays in the story's action. Aside from serving as transport for He-Man once or twice, he does and says nothing. When the heroes get to the rock people's home, they find the only way down is by either swinging, bouncing, or climbing a ladder; since Battle Cat can do none of those things, he's stuck up on a higher cliff for the entire final battle. He doesn't even seem to have any opinion on the seemingly likely fate of being unable to become Cringer, when the sword appears lost.