Ron Schultz & Sam Schultz

Bill Reed

Duncan's old friend and mentor, Rohad, is terribly ill - like, his skin is totally green. Duncan and He-Man embark on a desperate race to locate the only possible antidote to the insect venom that is killing Rohad.

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

N/A

Rohad, Mitro, Mitro's grandson, dauber, takdryls, octopus creature, Eternian gazelle, crybon, Spirit of Mount Zelite (floating male head and ghostly female), mandrone

Wind Raider

After having had several episodes off, Man-at-Arms is back and in fine form, forcing Prince Adam to be the beta-tester for his web cord device. With his usual determination and refusal to be discouraged, Duncan adjusts his invention and retests until it is functioning as desired - allowing Adam to climb along its rope-like beam and safely cross the lab. Before the friends can celebrate their success, Teela walks in with some grim news: Duncan's oldest friend and teacher, Rohad, is deathly ill for reasons unknown.

Teela and Adam accompany the grief-stricken Man-at-Arms to Rohad's home, where the ill man lies unresponsive in bed, his skin an unhealthy green. Rohad's friend Mitro explains what happened: he and Rohad were searching the Tundra Caverns for Mitro's lost grandson. They found the child, and during the rescue a tiny bug landed on Rohad's shoulder. Rohad blew the creature off, but seconds later he collapsed and turned green.

Armed with this story, Adam and Duncan visit the Sorceress, who explains that Rohad was bitten by a venomous dauber. The only antidote to the sickness is a little stick called vimward, which can only be found in a cave on Mout Zelite, among the Crystal Mountains. Time is of the essence, so Adam transforms to He-Man and he and Duncan jump in the Wind Raider and head off. On the way, Duncan tells an inspiring story from his youth with Rohad, when he accidentally blew up an invention they were working on. Rohad saved him and taught him that failures can be just as instructive as successes.

He-Man and Man-at-Arms quickly encounter difficulties on their journey when they fly through a fog bank in the swamplands and are attacked by an aggressive and territorial takdryl (a pink, horse-like thing with the wings and head of a dragon, which the heroes insist on describing as a "bird" even though it has very few bird-like charateristics). The Raider is then pulled down by a violent air current. The heroes are unhurt, but any repairs will take too long for Rohad - his only hope is the speed of He-Man! The blonde wonder starts running, while Man-at-Arms heads back to wait with Teela by Rohad's side.

Basically I could end the plot summary now by just saying that the rest of the episode is taken up by He-Man travelling to get the antidote and then making his way back. Of course, unless this is the first page on this site that you've visited, you must know that I would never actually write such an inadequate plot summary - I would die first - I'm just noting that as a way of indicating how simple this story is. He-Man travels across great swaths of the Vine Jungle, including what appears to be several rivers. He is grabbed by an octopus in one and must use Duncan's web cord to swing himself away. In another he is pulled down by a whirlpool and proves that he never skips leg day by leaping his way out. He swings on vines, outruns gazelle, climbs over and down rocks, and finally reaches the Crystal Mountains.

In the crystalline region he encounters another takdryl (or possibly the same one from earlier) that has gotten trapped in the web of a crybon (a silly name for what is really just a giant spider). He-Man knows that time is tight to save Duncan's friend, but he just can't stop himself from being helpful, so he pauses to rescue the takdryl and fight off the crybon. Luckily for him it becomes an Androcles and the Lion situation, because seconds later, when He-Man misses a jump and falls down a gorge, the grateful takdryl swoops in to rescue him. The pair fly the rest of the way to the cave on Mount Zelite.

At the cave, He-Man is trapped by the ancient spirit of Mount Zelite, who questions him suspiciously and bars his entrance to the "secret caves." He-Man shows his humility and compassion by going down on his knees to beg the spirit, and is rewarded with his little stick. Now he just has to get back! Fortunately the takdryl doesn't seem to think they're even yet, and is happy to keep carrying the hero for the return journey (won't Battle Cat be jealous!). To avoid the fog from earlier, he cuts through the Cragmoor Narrows and must battle a hungry mandrone (a vulture-like creature with beam-firing eyes). He uses the web cord one more time to leave the mandrone wrapped up, and finally returns to Rohad's bedside, just in time to rescue him.

End with a Joke: There isn't really a joke at the end of the story, but there is some happy banter. Rohad and Duncan swap some knowing lines about how inventions can always be made again, and likely better than they were before, and He-Man warmly says "That's what friends are for" when a grateful Man-at-Arms thanks him for his service.

• Man-at-Arms: Poor Rohad, my teacher. He taught me so much. Now he's desperately ill and nobody knows the cause. I must go to him.
• Man-at-Arms: When he was my teacher, he was always pulling me out of trouble. He saved my life so many times. We were working on his synergetic time machine...
• Man-at-Arms: But that's the strange part: I had ruined his whole experiment, and yet he wasn't a bit angry. He praised me for my eagerness and told me, "Sometimes, before you can make something work, you have to know how it doesn't work."
• He-Man (to himself): A whirlpool. Too late to get out of it. I'll just go into it. ... If I never see another whirlpool again, it'll be too soon.
• He-Man: I've always respected the ways of the ancients, but I thought the ancients respected the value of life. My time is short; I must have the vimward. / Spirit of Mount Zelite: Do you want it enough to beg for it? / He-Man: If kneeling and begging is what you want, there's no shame in doing so. (Gets on his knees) I beg of you to help me save another's life. I can't force myself against you: I can only ask for your help.

• A look through widespread legs: Adam lands off of the web cord; later, He-Man lands after having made an unlikely leap from the bottom of a river; and again later, he lands in front of a trapped takdryl
• Adam from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: The pause position is used as Adam is standing outside Grayskull with Duncan
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Talking to Duncan about takdryls
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: On his way to Mount Zelite; and again, once he's there in a cave
• He-Man runs at the viewer, bug-height: About to leap across a river
• He-Man swings sword overhand: Twice, to cut the web of the crybon, and again to try to break the spirit's force field

One partial (missing Cringer/ Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Teela
Teela explains how the day's episode was a lesson in the power of friendship. Just in case she's speaking to some lonely nerd kids who have no real friends, she points out that in a pinch, you can consider your parents as your besties. Now Teela just has to hope she wasn't talking to any friendless orphans.

Main character flashbacks
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1

• Mitro has picked up the Orko fashion choice of wearing his giant first initial in the middle of his shirt. Either that, or he stole a shirt off of Count Marzo!
• Speaking of Orko... this is one of those rare He-Man episodes that is missing the Trollan. In fact, this is one of only seven episodes of the first seasons's sixty-five that does not include our court magician.
• Even though Mitro is a very small man with pointy ears, his grandson appears to be a full-size human child. Not necessarily illogical, but interesting!
• Rohad has a "gamma ray" which not only allows him to see through a wall, but makes a hole through it as well. Recall Skeletor back in the pilot episode (MU004) boasting of Tri-Klops's "gamma vision, which can see around solid objects."
• We see Adam and Man-at-Arms arrive at Grayskull, and we see the Jawbridge coming down; but since Adam is just Adam, and not He-Man, he doesn't hold up his power sword and command the gates to open as he's done in other episodes (notably the pilot, MU004).
• This is a rare case of an episode with main character flashbacks that was not written by Paul Dini. We see a younger, un-mustachioed Duncan, showing how much smarter his mustache eventually made him, since the clean-shaven youngster very nearly blows himself up.
• He-Man gets plenty of chances in this episode to show off his full-out run, which we've seen him do several times before, notably in MU046.
• At one point during He-Man's dramatic race against time, the floating head of Man-at-Arms crabbily urges him on. I suppose this is just He-Man remembering the time-sensitive nature of his quest, but it somewhat begs the question whether he and Duncan have a psychic connection along the same lines as He-Man does with the Sorceress.
• The Crystal Mountains that He-Man has to run through the Vine Jungle to reach were mentioned before, in singular form, in MU058's "The Once and Future Duke." The mountain lay along the path to the Lake of the Lost, where David of Abra's ducal ring was hidden. In that episode the lake was shown on a map that didn't really match other maps of Eternia we've seen, but may indicate that the mountains lie east of the Vine Jungle. As I noted in MU058, the Crystal Mountain region looks much like the Crystal Sea of MU006, and not a little like the Ice Mountains visited in MU034.
• The animation that is used to show He-Man trying to jump a gorge is the same animation we've seen used for him diving into water in other episodes, notably MU032's "Search for the VHO."

• I can imagine some kids taking from this episode the rather terrifying idea that an imperceptible bite from a tiny bug can totally kill them. Why ever go outside again? Thanks, Filmation!
• The web cord is a kind of light saber that shoots a long, thick cable of sticky white stuff. It's... absolutely disgusting.
• He-Man keeps the web cord in his boot, which has to be incredibly uncomfortable.
• While they are flying in the Wind Raider, Duncan warns He-Man about air currents, but instead of saying "swirls," which is clearly the intended word, it sounds like he's saying "squirrels;" which makes for a much funnier line: "Be careful, He-Man; I've seen squirrels in this fog that could've pulled down one of those birds."
• He-Man's use of Man-at-Arms's web cord device to escape from the octopus creature makes very little sense. From a spot in the middle of a river, he shoots the cord at a tree; then suddenly he's swinging through the air - how is very unclear. Physically it seems impossible, since the arc of any swing he could make from his starting position would drag him through the river; and also the cord's job in an earlier scene was to stay stiff so that it could be used to support the weight of a climber, not swing around loosely like a rope. Afterwards, even though the cord should still be attached to the tree on one end, He-Man puts the now-cordless device back in his boot - again, how!?
• In the scene where Man-at-Arms returns to Rohad's bedside, Rohad's face is incorrectly colored a healthy flesh tone instead of sickly green.
• He-Man almost runs past the takdryl that has gotten itself stuck in a web, but changes his mind and decides to free it, telling himself, "I think Rohad would want that." How do you know what Rohad would want, dude? He wasn't your teacher. I think Rohad would want you to save his ass. Of course, He-Man is treated to instant karma for having freed the creature, which saves him from certain death in the following scene. Lucky schmo...
• I love the takdryl creature design: it's a sort of pink horse-dragon, and makes a good sidekick for a cat-less He-Man.
• This episode tries to make up for its lack of plot points by filling the screen with an array of beasts and creatures, as my "Other characters" list shows. There are no obvious recycled creatures, either, so it's a fun cornucopia of original, imaginary critters.
• The second and last use of the web cord is to wrap up the mandrone that is chasing He-Man - again seemingly contradicting its original purpose as a stiff cable. Maybe it was just being held taut at both ends when He-Man tested it in Duncan's lab?