Paul Dini

Steve Clark

The evil Game Master wants He-Man as a competitor for his cosmic games. Little does he know that in the process of kidnapping Teela to draw the hero out, he makes the appearance of He-Man impossible by taking away the power sword! Can Prince Adam fill in for his alter ego and save the day? And just what kind of man does Teela prefer - a muscle-bound hero, or a muscle-bound klutz?

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

Beast Man

Game Master, dragon (briefly, in Game Master's clip), Game Master's crew (the spy, bear man, martian, robot bug), training robot, lizard men, Cragox the Terrible

Game Master's space ship, Stridor (robot horse/android horse), flying disc, Wind Raider

Orbiting in space over Eternia is a giant flying saucer, in which broods a pantsless mastermind. He wants to pluck one of the greatest warriors from the planet to join his cosmic games. But which fighter on the planet will he choose? The Game Master, as he is called, plays back some clips of some likely candidates, including Ram Man and Beast Man, but we all know who's going to be chosen: He-Man! The Game Master monologues his plan for us: send a fake distress signal to draw out the hero, then capture him.

Sure enough, on the planet below we see He-Man on Battle Cat, already transformed and on the way to investigate the call for help. Instead he is ambushed by Game Master's crew of enslaved gladiators: bear man, a four-armed bluish guy who I'm calling "the martian," and a robot bug. After seeing He-Man fight, Game Master reveals himself and makes a recruitment pitch, but the hero is not interested, and the villain lets him ride off; but as we soon hear, Game Master has not given up. He sends his little blue winged anteater spy to go watch He-Man and discover a way to trap him.

He-Man, obligingly enough, returns to the palace to find Teela having trouble defeating a robot with which she's sparring. He slides in to help, fills Teela in about the Game Master, and the pair have a conversation about how much they care about each other. The spy brings this information back to Game Master, who now knows just who to kidnap to bring He-Man running. In the interim, He-Man has reverted to Prince Adam, who is out in the courtyard showing off on Man-at-Arms's invention, the robotic horse Stridor. Adam tries to impress a pair of ladies of the court by instructing the horse to move, but it instead tosses him into a fountain. Teela comes along to explain to the drenched prince that Stridor's voice recognition has been restricted to just Duncan and herself. There is another discussion of how much the pair mean to each other, and when Adam prompts a comparison to He-Man, Teela explains that she likes the two men for different reasons: He-Man is a hero, and Adam is... funny? Pink?

Their conversation is interrupted by the Game Master and his crew, who leap into the courtyard to nab Teela. Teela grabs the nearest weapon to defend herself, which happens to be Adam's power sword (which he was inadvisedly brandishing). There is a brave struggle, but the heroes are overwhelmed: Teela is successfully kidnapped by the villains, and Adam's sword gets stolen to boot! Game Master departs, telling Adam to get a message to He-Man to come to the "cosmic arena" for Teela. Orko and Cringer show up, having heard the commotion, and Adam explains the scope of the disaster. He will have to prove to Teela that he can get things done as Prince Adam - by rescuing her without the aid of He-Man.

The trio hop in the Wind Raider and make their way to the Game Master's huge ship (which fortunately Adam is able to locate), landed in a clearing south of the Mystic Mountains. Inside, Teela has been locked in a prison cell, but not before she's had a chance to show off her own fighting skills to an impressed Game Master. Adam hatches a sneaky plan to break into the base without arousing the villain's suspicions: he convinces Orko to lead Cringer to the front door on a leash. The Trollan tells the guards at the gate that he is offering up a fierce jungle cat as a fighter for the Game Master, and he is let inside - along with, unbeknownst to the guards, a stealthy Eternian prince. Orko and Cringer put on a less-than-convincing demonstration of the tiger's might, which goes over just well enough that the Game Master is willing to accept the cat as a potential clown. The plan is all for naught, however, as Adam gets himself caught, and the others are revealed as frauds.

The prince and his cat get taken to the full-size arena that the Game Master has conveniently built inside his saucer, so the villain can have the prisoners face off against his greatest warrior, Cragox the Terrible. Cragox is a pincered green fellow with a projectile-firing stinger at the end of his tail. He enjoys firing his stinger, throwing his arms up in the air, and roaring (and probably long walks and sunsets). A tied-up Teela and Orko are brought out to spectate the battle. Adam does his best trying to survive against Cragox, getting in a good jump kick, but he clearly needs help. Orko obliges by magically releasing himself and Teela from their bonds. She grabs the power sword, which Game Master has been ostentatiously wearing, and jumps into the fray. In the subsequent scuffle, Teela conveniently gets herself knocked out by Cragox, while Orko conveniently throws a curtain over the Game Master and his bear man and temporarily blinds Cragox, leaving Adam free to take back his sword and transform. A newly arrived He-Man then does what he does best, taking out Cragox.

A disentangled and riled-up Game Master jumps into the arena to try his own luck against Eternia's protector, and fares just about as well as Cragox. He "cheats" by trying to use several weapons against He-Man, including an electrified trident and his disc-tructor (a Tron-like disc which He-Man crushes into oblivion). Having been defeated, Game Master discovers that his enslaved warriors are unwilling to come to his aid, deciding instead to just walk off the job. No more games for you, Game Master!

The Sorceress makes a last-minute appearance in the story, since the heroes have led all of Game Master's warriors over to Grayskull to be sent to their separate home worlds via her Time Corridor. That takes care of that! Now, to return to that character-developing conversation from earlier...

End with a Joke: Teela mentions her great surprise that Adam was so instrumental in saving her today. Asking a rare probing and very personal question, He-Man wants to know what kind of a man Teela would really prefer. "I don't know," Teela replies thoughtfully; "I guess I'm looking for a man with Adam's wit and your courage - but where would I find him?" He-Man smiles knowingly and the Sorceress tips us a big old wink, which He-Man returns.

• Game Master (neatly setting up the episode's plot in his opening lines): There it is - Eternia! Home of the mightiest warriors in the universe. Somewhere on this planet I will find the perfect gladiator for my cosmic games. But who will it be?
• Teela (to He-Man): I'd hate it if you were taken away from Eternia. I'd be losing one of the best warriors I ever knew - as well as one of my best friends. You mean a lot to me. / He-Man: You mean a great deal to me, too.
• Teela (to Adam): I wish you'd realize you don't have to show off to impress people. There's a real charmer inside you, Adam. And I like that fellow a lot. / Adam: More than He-Man? / Teela: I like you both - but for different reasons.
• Prince Adam: Teela said I'd never be the hero He-Man is. Well, I hope for her sake she's wrong.
• Teela (to the Game Master): Unlock this door and I'll show you some skills you won't forget.
• Orko: Just leave everything to me. / Cringer: That's it - we're doomed for sure!
• Game Master (reluctantly accepting Cringer): All right, I'll take him. I could always use him as a clown, or something.
• Game Master: No - I always win! It's not fair! / He-Man: If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a sore loser.
• Teela: I never thought I'd see Adam play the hero. / He-Man: Neither did I.

• Beast Man picks up and throws a rock: As Game Master watches
• Bear guy runs at the viewer, bug-height: Attacking Battle Cat
• He-Man juggles his sword: Ready to fight the Game Master
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Telling Teela what she means to him
• Adam smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Hearing Teela say what he means to her
• Teela, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back: At Adam's claim of being "pretty good with a sword"
• Teela rolls along the ground: To avoid the zaps from Cragox the Terrible's stinger
• Adam runs at the viewer, bug-height: Coming to the aid of Teela
• A look through widespread legs: Game Master lands in the arena

One full

Brought to you by Orko
Orko invites us into his bedroom for the episode's lesson, delivered in his typical rushed manner. Predictably it's about how being a sore loser, like the Game Master, is bad behavior that should be avoided. "Be a good winner - and a good loser."

Games and gladiators: It was this episode that inspired me to create this category, so it definitely belongs here.
Use of the Time Corridor (or other time travel methods): Though it's a bit of a stretch, this episode does make a brief reference to the Sorceress's Time Corridor.
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1

• The clip of Ram Man that the Game Master watches is from MU009's "The Dragon Invasion." The next clip, of Beast Man throwing a rock, is very likely also from that episode.
• Unusually, the episode begins with He-Man already in-character, negating the need for the transformation sequence. In fact, we have to wait until almost the end of the episode to see Adam make his change.
• The globular robot with which Teela is swordfighting is the same one she sparred with in MU026 - although then she was wearing some funky shades, and had much less trouble defeating it!
• Teela's grateful words at He-Man's having passed up the Game Master's offer (quoted in the Memorable lines section and ending in "You mean a lot to me"), and He-Man's warm response, make for one of the strongest scenes yet linking the two characters romantically.
• The scene that follows very soon after He-Man and Teela's tender moment, somewhat negating it, is when Adam is showing off Man-at-Arms's android horse to some giggling ladies. I have quite a few things to say about this scene. First, the giggling ladies are almost identical to the giggling ladies a blindfolded Adam was playing with in the very memorable scene in the beginning of MU051. Second, notice that Adam is actually holding the power sword - something I'd thought he'd gotten smart enough to avoid doing, when I saw the secret panel it was hidden behind in his bedroom wall in MU043 (an episode which, oddly enough, was also written by Paul Dini). Third, Adam claims that the android horse (now officially named after the toy, Stridor) is "Man-at-Arms's latest invention," but we have absolutely seen it before, way back in MU010, where Teela and Ileena rode on two of the same-looking horses like it was no big thing. (The robot horse reappeared in MU021, ridden by the annoying Jeremy; and we also saw robot horses in MU031.)
• I mentioned this obliquely in the previous comment, but just to call it out specifically: this episode features the first appearance of Stridor, or at least the first time that name is officially used in the show. This animated Stridor has a different look to the toy, most obviously in its color (the cartoon horse is blue while the toy was mostly brown and orange). We will see a different, rebooted Stridor, much more like the toy, in MU073.
• The surprisingly deep voice of the blonde lady is provided by Jay Scheimer, the executive producer's wife.
• Teela is just flirting with all the blonde oafs in this episode; she tells a drenched Adam that she likes him "a lot."
• Adam's flailing around with his power sword proves just as disastrous as it did way back in MU003, when he managed to get it banished to the ancient past. We'll see similar disasters befall the sword in MU090 and MU094.
• Game Master has some lizard men as guards, who surprisingly are once again a different form of lizard or reptile men than we have ever seen before. We also saw lizard men guarding Kor in MU026, and a tribe of yet another type of reptile men aiding Masque in MU040. And of course there's also Lizard Man, He-Man's friend seen in MU005 and MU022. Admittedly, these lizard men leave a bit to be desired design-wise: they appear to be unable to shape their lips when they talk, and the reversed joints in their legs make for a very awkward-looking walk cycle.
• Filmation will again make use of the idea of a tiny blue winged spy sidekick for the main villain, just like Game Master's spy, when they introduce Hordak's annoying little helper, Imp, in She-Ra: Princess of Power (see the introductory movie). We will also a see pink winged spy sidekick employed by the space pirate Sticky Fingers in MU090.
• Orko has the opportunity to provide some crucial aid to the heroes in this episode: he frees a bound Teela, removes some heavy rubble from atop the prince - and conveniently blinds everyone in the arena so that Adam can safely make his eleventh hour transformation.
• In the ending sequence when Game Master's enslaved fighters walk off the job, we see that there are actually multiple robot bugs, not just one. I was actually a little disappointed in this as I wanted the robot bug guy to be more unique. I do wonder whether they just did a copy-paste there to flesh out the crowd.
• He-Man returns to the tried-and-true "he's safe" excuse to explain Adam's absence, once again keeping his secret identity "safe" as houses.
• Sorceress mentions that the Game Master has gone to "the palace jail," one of those cases of a villain actually being incarcerated instead of just being left in a mud puddle or teleporting away. Interesting that no mention is made of the prison mines, a common destination for captured criminals referenced previously in MU003, MU010, MU042, and MU047.
• We get a surprise use of the Sorceress's Time Corridor, which is used to distribute the Game Master's various fighters back to their points of origin. Does this mean the Game Master traveled through time as well as space to collect his slaves? ... Probably not, but who knows?
• The PSA once again puts us in Orko's bedroom, which was the site of the PSA for MU002, MU035, and likely one or two others. This time we see a pink stuffed animal on his bed, sporting a raccoon-like tail and a single antenna.

• I love the way the Game Master talks, and I like his style, which I think could be described as "Mad Max chic."
• I was quite amused by the Game Master checking out Ram Man as a potential prospect for his all-star team, then finding a clip of Ram Man accidentally ramming into a wall, and upon consideration saying to himself, "No; no..."
• Animation error: As He-Man is about to deflect the Game Master's bolt, the soundtrack has him saying, "Since you like games so much..." but his mouth is clearly not moving.
• Game Master has a great crew of helpers with some really fun, new character designs: from his blue flying anteater ("spy"), to his many-armed Martian Manhunter-esque warrior, to his bear man and his robot bug. Unfortunately they all remain unnamed in the show itself, though Wiki Grayskull provides some working-title-type names, apparently pulled from the script. Given that they sound very unofficial anyway, and my own made-up names worked just as well, I have chosen to use my own names instead.
• The four-armed member of Game Master's crew gets some lines, and his rough, patchy voice makes him sound like he's going through puberty.
• Slight continuity error: When the Game Master's thugs show up to kidnap Teela, we get a shot of the bear man in the foreground, with the martian and robot bug hopping up on the wall behind him. We cut to Teela and Adam's reaction, and then back to the thugs - and the martian and robot bug once again pop up from behind the wall, this time jumping down.
• It's interesting especially coming after MU060, which recycled many old character designs to make "new" characters, that this episode features so many brand-spanking-new creatures.
• It's odd that Adam goes off to rescue Teela alone, claiming it is the only option he has, without ever trying to find or inform Teela's father of the situation. Where is Man-at-Arms? (Too busy performing the voices for other characters in this episode, I imagine!) By the way, though in this episode he is forced to the extremity, we'll see Adam choosing to remain his non-powered self to try to save his friends in MU105's "No Job Too Small."
• I like that the story shows Teela as much stronger than your typical damsel in distress (as the writers, especially Dini, were keen to do) when she takes out the bear man and locks him in the cell meant for her. "Perhaps I was wrong to insist on He-Man as my champion," comments an impressed Game Master.
• "I win - as always," remarks the Game Master, reminding me very much of a similar villain, Negator (MU054).
• The sequence where Orko tries to pawn off Cringer as a fierce jungle cat is hilarious. It's also reminiscent of the scene where Princess Leia (disguised as Boushh the bounty hunter) sells Chewbacca to Jabba the Hutt in 1983's Return of the Jedi.
• You have to wonder where Game Master scraped up the dosh to buy his souped-up arena saucer. My head canon is that he started out running a shadow beast fighting/betting ring, and that's how he made his millions. Then he graduated to humanoid fighters!
• I like when Teela spots Adam in Game Master's arena, and he gives her a kind of shrug with his hands, like "Whadda ya gonna do?"
• It's a mystery to me why there was never an action figure for Game Master. He was overlooked not only by the Mattel of the 80s but even by more modern MOTU Classic releases. I suppose as an entirely human guy he's kind of boring; but look at his accessories! His electrified "trident," his "disc-tructor" (an awesome, though difficult to pronounce, name, by the way) and his little blue helper - I mean, it feels very toyetic to me.
• I certainly have developed soft spots for my favorite writers, but I think it would be hard for any fan to deny that Paul Dini has delivered another fabulous episode with this one. You've got all the crazy creatures and monsters, a great villain, gladiator battles, funny Cringer scenes, and the Dini-trademark character development that teases romantic relationships for Teela with both He-Man and Adam. A definite winner!
• He-Man seems merely amused by the fact that Teela is unaware the favorite qualities she has for a partner are embodied by the separate personalities of the same man - himself. But wouldn't that be very upsetting? Wouldn't He-Man be just dying to reveal his secret to the woman he loves, and crushed by his inability to do so? Or does he love her? Maybe his tastes lie elsewhere...
• One regret I have for this database is that I haven't tried harder to capture every single wink in He-Man, though I know I've managed to collect quite a few of them. I think if you go through all the episodes you can probably catch almost every Heroic Warrior winking at least once. It's a definite theme of the series.