Larry DiTillio

Ernie Schmidt

Granamyr is back! He-Man champions interspecies marriage! There's a dragon showdown in the offing! Want to know what it's all about? You'll have to watch this episode.

Prince Adam (He-Man), Man-at-Arms, Zoar (Sorceress), King Randor (PSA only)

N/A

Granamyr, Torm, Lyra, Brindle (Lyra's father), Zem (fly, frog), Braylok, woman with apple, centaur, Shadow Wing

Wind Raider

Prince Adam and Man-at-Arms are having a friendly sparring match in the courtyard of the palace. Duncan performs a tricky disarming move on Adam, and promises to teach it to the prince; but their training is interrupted by the appearance of Zoar the falcon flying overhead. The pair know what this means, so they head off to Castle Grayskull, where the Sorceress shows them a video message from Granamyr. The great dragon requests the assistance of He-Man. We are reminded that in their previous meeting (MU034), Granamyr had grudgingly helped He-Man to save Man-at-Arms after a wicked plot of Skeletor's left the weapons master turned to stone. Duncan is curious to meet and anxious to thank the dragon, so after a quick transformation on Adam's part, He-Man and Man-at-Arms jump into the Wind Raider.

They make the long flight to Darksmoke uneventfully and enter Granamyr's lair, where the dragon is displeased to encounter He-Man's plus-one, who was not invited. After some serious ass-kissing from Duncan has smoothed things over, Granamyr teleports them all to the home of Torm, a wormy little dragon (the youngest of his kind) who has gotten it into his head to marry a human female. As Granamyr and Torm explain: the female (who is named Lyra) is keen on the idea, but her father is a wizard and demands that the prospective groom pass a test before the blessing will be given. Since a human must undergo the challenge, and Torm cannot be changed to human form until just before the wedding, the wizard has agreed that a human champion may be appointed in Torm's place: He-Man! He-Man agrees to take the test, and he and Man-at-Arms jump back in the Wind Raider for the long ride to Lyra's home.

At their destination, Lyra's father the Great Brindle is having an unpleasant audience with Zem, the losing rival for Lyra's affections. Zem is trying one last time to convince Lyra's father to give up this crazy dragon-marrying scheme, but Brindle won't hear of it. Vowing revenge, a grumpy Zem scuttles off, taking a moment to insult an entering He-Man on his way out. Lyra is overjoyed to meet He-Man (maybe a little TOO overjoyed - rowr!), and Brindle is pleased as well, implying the test scheduled for the following morning will be a mere formality. He invites the heroic pair to a meal and gives them a pair of beds for the night.

That night, a disgruntled Zem summons Braylok, a demon of the night, and commands the creature to steal into Duncan and He-Man's bedroom and banish them to the demon's own land. Braylok is psyched to comply, and sneaks right in there. Fortunately Duncan spots the intruder and is able to warn He-Man a split second before Braylok strikes. The demon shifts his attack, instead disintegrating Duncan's bed. The hero throws on his armor and the two try to fight the demon, but Braylok gains the upper hand and seems about to banish them. Fortunately Brindle shows up and banishes Braylok instead, then sets a magical shield over his palace so there will be no more bumps in the night. Zem has been foiled - for now.

The next morning, as an anxious Torm watches via Granamyr's glowing globe, He-Man enters a hedge maze to take on Brindle's test. His task: to pluck a silver apple from a Tree of Many Fruits in the center of the maze. The father-in-law-to-be assures the hero that no evil wizards will be able to get into the maze while the test is on, since he's going to magically block it off; but Zem cleverly sidesteps the barrier by transforming himself into a fly and creeping behind He-Man's power sword sheath. Unaware that he is being stalked by the evil wizard, He-Man makes his way through the test's various obstacles, remaining undeceived by false flames, false women with harps, or antagonistic centaurs. In the final confrontation, He-Man avoids fighting with the manly centaur, instead settling for a game of tug-of-war. Once he gains the apple, Zem appears and snatches it; but He-Man easily overpowers the dope and takes it back. He extracts a promise from Zem to interfere no further - but we all know how much that's worth!

A blushing Lyra, her father, and our two heroes, convinced that all impediments have been overcome, fly to Darksmoke so that Granamyr can begin casting the great Spell of Changing on Torm, and they can maybe figure out how to arrange the seating for the reception (probably not a good idea to mix the bride and groom's sides!); but unbeknownst to them, an embittered Zem has one more desperate card up his sleeve. He slinks off to a craggy wasteland and a vile, cyclopean obelisk, where he recites a summoning spell and frees an ancient enemy of the great dragons and Darksmoke, whose name is Shadow Wing. Shadow Wing loves the idea of getting his revenge on Granamyr, et al, but he's just as crabby about humans as his archenemy is, and promptly changes his savior into a frog. Zem was hoping to get some help, but ends up abandoned and amphibious.

Shadow Wing wastes no time when he returns to Darksmoke, throwing nasty spells at everyone in sight. A brave Torm is turned to a hunk of stone, and the Great Brindle is changed to ice. Even He-Man, who takes off in the Wind Raider and tries zapping the villain, is having no success. He finally hits on an unexpected plan, crashing his damaged ride into Granamyr's dome. "Did I do it?" he asks Duncan. A confused Duncan discovers that he did, indeed, do it, when an enraged Granamyr bursts with a full-throated roar out of his lair and wipes the floor with Shadow Wing, sending him off to the Realm of Demons to think about what he did.

The episode ends, as all good romance stories do, with a wedding. The happy human couple are wedded by Granamyr, who thanks He-Man for his help and bids him a kind farewell. He-Man and Duncan agree that they will never forget this magical day.

End with a Joke: N/A

• Granamyr (grunting): At least you speak with respect. / Man-at-Arms (working hard at some buttering up): I wouldn't speak any other way to one as grand as you. / Granamyr: You show good sense for a human. You may stay.
• Granamyr: On the day of their wedding, Torm shall undergo the great spell of changing and become human as well.
• Granamyr: If you fail, my ears will ring for the next thousand years with the moans of this lovesick hatchling. It is a thought that frightens even me.
• He-Man: Anybody want to go to a wedding?
• Shadow Wing (to Zem, who has just freed him): Human insect, prepare to meet your doom! ... Enough! I shall destroy Darksmoke as you wish, though I am afraid you will not be there to see it! (turns Zem into a frog)
• Man-at-Arms (of Granamyr): By the Ancients, I've never seen such power! / He-Man: Like I told you, he's, uh, one of a kind.
• Granamyr: Once again you've proved to me that there may be some hope for humans yet. For that - I thank you. / He-Man: You're quite welcome. And if you should ever need me again - / Granamyr: I shall call. Farewell, hero of Eternia. / He-Man: Farewell, oldest and wisest of dragons.

• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands on his feet after tricking a demon into falling down some stairs
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Pursuing Zem through the maze
• He-Man juggles his sword: As he confronts Zem
• He-Man rolls along the ground: After jumping out of the Wind Raider

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by King Randor and He-Man
For the first time ever, and even though he did not appear in the story, the king of Eternia brings us this episode's lesson. His big moment is spoiled by He-Man, who enacts a bloodless coup after a few seconds, stealing the narration. He tells us not to be provoked into fighting someone if it's not necessary, just like He-Man avoided fighting the centaur in the maze. "It often takes more courage not to fight."

Granamyr episodes
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1

• Though in recent episodes (see MU058) Adam has easily communicated remotely with the Sorceress, in this one he and Duncan must travel to Grayskull for the meeting after a hint from Zoar. A meeting that could have been an email? You decide.
• Unusually, when Adam and Duncan show up at Grayskull, the Sorceress is not seated in her throne, but instead solidifies out of thin air in front of them.
• Granamyr initially appears via the Sorceress's all-purpose screen, having sent a video message.
• Lyra's father Brindle is a repainted version of Ileena's father, Zikran, from MU010. Zem the jealous wizard is a repainted version of Jarvan the Sorcerer, also from MU010. So not only were the animators poaching character designs from other episodes - they were poaching all their character designs from the same episode!
• "You know me?" He-Man says, rather surprised at being identified by name by the Great Brindle. "There are few on Eternia who do not!" Brindle replies. Several other characters from previous episodes would disagree - see for instance the citizens of Arcadia in MU039, the Targans of MU031, or even the Ice Lord of MU044 (who knows of He-Man but couldn't pick him out of a line-up).
• More character poaching! Braylok, the evil demon of the night, is a slightly adapted (and much smaller) version of Aru, the cool monster summoned by Demos and Tyrella in MU011's "Masks of Power."
• We get a rare, brief glimpse of Duncan out of his armor when Braylok attacks. We saw the man-at-arms in his pajamas when Darkdream disturbed his sleep in MU046, but in this episode the suggestion seems to be that he's sleeping in the nude! Is this a good time to bring up our sub-category, Homoerotic Undertones? He and He-Man were sleeping in the same room together (though, to be fair, in separate beds).
• As we have noted previously, our Granamyr writer Larry DiTillio really does seem to have it in for Orko. This is the fourth of his scripts entirely omitting the character. Cringer/Battle Cat is also missing, as is Teela - probably to make room for all the new secondary characters.
• Our overworked animators again seem to have poached a character design to give us Shadow Wing. Disappointingly, this big dragon villain uses the fairly standard Eternian dragon design seen throughout MU009's "The Dragon Invasion." The impressive differences are that Shadow Wing is a very advanced magic user and can shoot lightning from his mouth instead of fire!
• We finally get to see Granamyr actually banish someone to the Realm of Demons, a fate with which he threatened our heroes several times in his first appearance (MU034).
• As noted in the PSA section, this is the first of those spots to feature King Randor - even though he doesn't get to say much. The Eternian king will shoulder the public service duties only one more time, in MU124.

• It seems somewhat contrived that Duncan is teaching Adam swordplay when they both catch sight of Zoar, since in past episodes (for instance, MU024) the Prince's sword training has been Captain Teela's remit. Teela will also tax Adam's endurance with a record-long sword practice in the opening of MU108.
• Lyra gets up close and personal with He-Man as soon as she meets him, coming right up and embracing him and even kissing the big lug on the cheek (much to his amazement). Duncan's somewhat shaky conclusion is that she must really love... Torm.
• In my plot summary, I claim that He-Man was able to avoid Braylok's nighttime attack because Duncan warns him. But actually I'm suspicious. Something else seems to have been going on here. He-Man was already aware of an impending attack, because he wasn't in his bed at all. When Braylok lifts the sheets, he finds no one there, and He-Man is standing behind him, already in full armor (it's made very clear that Duncan has to put his armor on). How did he know?? And if he did know - why didn't he tell Duncan? It's almost like He-Man was pulling a Beowulf here, letting the monster go for Duncan so that he could attack from behind.
• I just want to give a shout-out to Brindle, who easily handles the demon Braylok which Duncan and He-Man were unable to stop. He also casts a spell of protection over his entire castle, which Zem the evil wizard doesn't even bother trying to penetrate. This guy is no joke!
• Continuity error: He-Man throws his power sword at the harp in the maze, somehow deducing that it's the source of the illusions he's seeing. But we don't see the power sword land anywhere, and we don't see him pick it up. In the next scene, the sword has returned to the sheath on his back.
• Seeing Granamyr get super pissed and take out Shadow Wing is really awesome. But as usual with these decisive battles, one has to wonder: why did they imprison Shadow Wing in an obelisk all this time if Granamyr could have just waved his hand and taken care of the jerk permanently?
• He-Man's solution for dealing with Shadow Wing is to crash his vehicle into Granamyr's house, basically pissing off the great dragon to make him come out and deal with the problem. It's a darn good thing Granamyr doesn't seem to realize it was He-Man that wrecked his dome!
• Not only can Granamyr kick some serious cosmic ass, he can also officiate your wedding.
• As I've noted in MU034, I love Granamyr and this is a great Granamyr episode - and an all-around great story, with fun characters, amusing dialogue (I could have happily quoted many more lines), a clever test for He-Man, and all kinds of exciting magic. I'm just managing to hold myself back from adding this as another Landmark Episode and inflating that category even further, but it's definitely a great one.
• I don't actually think DiTillio was trying to convey any radical message of inclusivity or acceptance by depicting a dragon marrying a human. I suspect it was just a fun fantasy tale, and an excuse to once again meld the two divided worlds of humans and great dragons. Note that before Torm can actually get married, he has to be fully changed into a human, and the wedded couple are clearly male and female. Regardless, it can be read as at least supporting of love in many forms, and it's nice to imagine that it symbolizes something more. This marriage is also a bit surprising given the later tensions between dragons and humans addressed in the final Granamyr episode, MU114.
• I took a lot of screenshots from this episode. I don't have any particular rule for how many stills I'm going to capture, but I generally try to get a picture of the important characters and any particular scene that catches my eye or looks funny. Curious, I scrolled back to find the last episode for which I'd collected so many pictures - and found it was the last Larry DiTillio episode, MU051. It's the DiTillio mark of quality I guess! (I find that this database suffered from content bloat as I progressed through the episodes, and by Season 2 you'll find that a good dozen screenshots is fairly standard for one episode.)