Larry DiTillio

Ernie Schmidt

Dree Elle returns to Eternia to convince Orko to make a trip home and help his Uncle Montork, who has lost a magical duel, his post at the Academy of Magic, and his confidence. Was that duel with the young and ambitious Trollan, Snoob, completely on the up-and-up? Or is Snoob hiding a traitorous secret? Let's find out!

Orko, Cringer (Battle Cat), Teela, Man-at-Arms, King Randor, Prince Adam (He-Man), Queen Marlena, Sorceress

Whiplash

Dree Elle, Gark, Uncle Montork, Snoob, members of the Crimson Council, krooms, gaks, tree octopus, scarg

N/A

It's just another typical day in Eternos, with Orko about to try a new magical trick before the royal couple and usual suspects (Cringer, Teela, Man-at-Arms). It's "the magical mystery of the vanishing prince"! Adam gamely climbs into a mystical-looking cabinet and Orko says some magic words. The result is that he manages to make everyone else in the room disappear. Becoming worried about the status of Adam inside the cabinet, Orko opens it - and everyone he just vanished tumbles out in a pile. They are all trying to recover from this debacle when a tiny pyramid magically appears in the throne room. It's Orko's own magical pyramid and doorway to Trolla, which he accidentally created in an earlier episode - and out of it pops his love, Dree Elle!

Dree Elle has used the pyramid so she can tell Orko about his Uncle Montork, who has been replaced as head of the Academy of Magic after losing a magical duel with a younger Trollan wizard named Snoob. Orko can't believe that his uncle could have lost a fair magical competition, and he realizes how much this situation will have hurt his relative, so he volunteers to go back to Trolla with Dree Elle. Adam also wants to help, but since he won't fit in the pyramid, he drags Cringer off to Castle Grayskull to speak with the Sorceress about transportation.

In Trolla, Dree Elle and Orko visit Montork at home, where he at first refuses to admit that anything is wrong, but eventually relates his failure at the magic competition - he suddenly felt tired partway through and all his subsequent tricks went wrong. Orko and Dree Elle, along with Montork's pet Gark, decide to go visit Snoob at the Academy and get to the bottom of things. At the Academy, Snoob rudely refuses to let them in, so the pair of Trollans sneak into the building and follow Snoob into an inner room, where they find him giving a magic lesson - to Skeletor's evil minion, Whiplash! An offended Orko reveals himself so he can tell off the bad guy, and manages to get himself and his girlfriend abducted by some krooms (a gang of pig men who are working for Whiplash). Gark witnesses the krooms flying off with their captives and heads back to convey the bad news to Montork. Montork rushes out to help and fortunately runs into He-Man and Battle Cat, who have just arrived via a Sorceress-created portal.

The trio head through a spooky forest - pausing for a brief tangle with a tree octopus - to the krooms' fortress, where they face an aerial attack by krooms riding atop gaks (green dragons). Defeating the soldiers and reaching the fortress, they find a series of metal gates locked against them. Luckily He-Man has the key: his fist! Inside, a tied-up Orko and Dree Elle accuse Snoob of being a traitor. Snoob is convinced that he won the magic contest fair and square, but Whiplash reveals that he was present and shot a ray at Montork, which weakened him and allowed Snoob to win. The reptile man wanted the puny Snoob in charge so he could boss him around and get free magic lessons (apparently to impress Skeletor). A horrified Snoob realizes his big error and tries to fight back - but he just ends up tied together with the others. When the three are hung up in a private dungeon, Orko is able to release them with a pair of scissors that come out of his hat.

This is when He-Man, Battle Cat, and Montork show up to kick butt and take names. The krooms are no problem to handle, but Whiplash releases his secret weapon, a "pet" scarg! It's the nastiest critter on Trolla, a gigantic worm. Montork arrives, having been fetched by Dree Elle, to find that both Snoob and Orko have been grabbed by the creature. Orko's uncle frees them from the creature's grip, and the three Trollans together are able to cast a spell that shrinks it down to insect size. Dree Elle then picks up the scarg in her fingers. He-Man has meanwhile been taking care of Whiplash, finally smashing him into a water barrel, at which point Dree Elle puts the irritating worm into the villain's boot. The blonde hero then wraps everything up by enclosing an unhappy Whiplash in a handy trunk.

Time for a party! The Trollans and Eternian heroes reconvene around the dining room table at Montork's house, where a chastened Snoob apologizes for his behavior, and at Montork's urging, Orko grudgingly forgives the young wizard.

End with a Joke: He-Man is ready to leave before the Sorceress's portal closes up, but Montork invites them to stay for a feast of roast gooble. Battle Cat reminds He-Man that they have Whiplash trapped in a trunk, but He-Man decides that Whiplash "will keep," and they can stay long enough to enjoy some Trollan homecooking. Everyone celebrates.

• Orko: Your gracious majesties and friends, I proudly present for your entertainment - the magical mystery of the vanishing prince! / Man-at-Arms: Well I'd rather see the mystery of the vanishing Orko.
• Whiplash (on the subject of learning Trollan magic): I'd better learn it, or you'll be sorry, Snoob! I need your magic on Eternia so I can show Skeletor what I am really worth.
• Uncle Montork (of the forest he, He-Man, and Battle Cat are walking through): This place gives me the hopping hoobies.
• Orko: I never thought I'd see the head of the Trollan Academy of Magic dealing with villains. You should be ashamed of yourself, Snoob.
• Whiplash (appalled at his scarg having shrunk): Ah, my beautiful monster - those little pests have ruined it!

• He-Man picks up and throws a rock: Well, a tree this time, to stop a kroom aerial attack; and again a few seconds later, to toss the log again, with krooms attached
• He-Man punches the viewer: To break down the gates on the kroom fortress
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: It's very brief but I believe part of this loop is used to show He-Man entering the fortress, and again from the opposite angle as he breaks into the inner room with Whiplash
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Telling Montork to bring on the feast

One full
Variation - before his transformation, we get a cut-in close-up of Cringer commenting: "Oooh, Adam, that's cheating!"

Brought to you by Orko and Man-at-Arms
Orko, speaking to us from the Eternian royal library, explains how this episode taught us that respecting and working with your elders (such as the venerable Montork) is important and valuable. Man-at-Arms appears to tell the Trollan that "for once," he is right. "Aren't I always?" the deluded magician rejoins.

Orko-specific lore
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2: Skeletor is mentioned but does not appear, and is also not directly responsible for the events of the episode. You could potentially add this episode to "wayward child learns a valuable lesson," but only if you consider Snoob, the lesson learner, to be a child. He was very likely voiced by a child (the Scheimers' daughter Erika), and he's certainly a young whipper-snapper challenging the age and experience of Montork; but since he's considered old enough to head the magical academy, I think we'll treat him as an adult. However...
Everybody deserves a second chance: Snoob is given one, and turns out OK in the end.

• Orko's goofed magical spell actually seems to cause Randor's crown to be bent out of shape; but Randor is able to adjust it with his hands, indicating that it's made out of some very malleable metal.
• Several recurring Trollan characters and elements make a reappearance here: first, Orko's magical pyramid for travelling back and forth between Eternia and his home dimension, which he accidentally created back in MU020 and was also used in MU053 (here it has returned to its original yellowish color instead of the white hue it had in MU053). We also get to see Orko's girlfriend (or possibly fiancee), Dree Elle; good old Uncle Montork, who already has a couple of episode titles mentioning him (MU023 and MU027); and Montork's adorable three-eyed companion, Gark (see MU027).
• Uncle Montork was apparently the head of the Academy of Magic on Trolla, a fact that doesn't seem to have been mentioned in the previous episodes featuring him. There is also a Crimson Council, a trio of white-haired Trollans who get brought in to judge the contest between Montork and Snoob.
• We get to see Montork's cozy little cottage, which seems rather hobbit-like, though I don't think Bilbo had a hovering easy chair or floating place settings.
• What? Whiplash again?! This is his fourth consecutive appearance in the series (he'll show up in one more in a row, for a run of five). I wonder if it had any impact on his toy sales? (I know I personally owned a Whiplash figure, so maybe it worked on me.)
• We are introduced to "krooms," a race of armored pig men that Whiplash orders around - sort of sub-henchmen. Since Montork is familiar with them and they have a fairly impressive fortress there, we'll assume that krooms are indigenous to Trolla and not imported from Eternia.
• Gark has a Wookiee-like language of growls and grunts that Montork can interpret.
• The octopus that comes out of a hole in a tree and grabs Montork is identical to the more aquatic one He-Man had to battle in MU064's "The Remedy" - well, except that it's blue and lives in a tree. He-Man's river octopus was pink. This episode's creature will draw unavoidable comparisons to the infamous internet hoax, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus.
• Dree Elle asks Orko if he can't just use his magic to free them when they are captured and bound by the krooms. "Not when I'm tied up like this," Orko replies; but he's escaped from just such a situation before, in MU013's "Like Father, Like Daughter," and caused Teela no end of trouble in perfecting the laser lasso. (And, in fact, Orko later reveals that he can easily free them, so he was clearly talking out of his Trollan behind.)
• In MU053, we got the sense that Orko's habit of wearing his first initial on his cloak had caught on back home, since the horrible Yukkers had a "Y" and a Trollan guard sported a "T" on his outfit; but in this episode, we see the fickle winds of fashion have blown the other direction again. No one has a letter on their shirt except Orko.
• Things that come out of Orko: a pair of scissors, held by a third be-sleeved hand. Don't be alarmed - it's just magic.
• "Gosh," says Orko of the krooms's fortress, "this place has more twists than a pretzel factory" - so they have pretzels on Trolla, too! (In a very amusing echo, without realizing it, Montork begins making the very same remark a few seconds later.)
• Interesting that Dree Elle also refers to Orko's uncle as "Uncle Montork." Hopefully there's no hint of incest in her and Orko's relationship, and Dree Elle is just considering herself to already be a part of the family due to having seen Orko's face (see MU020).
• Like the earlier tree octopus, we've seen Whiplash's "pet" before; it was the sand devil that Kothos was tricked into thinking had killed Teela and Evil-Lyn in MU059's "The Witch and the Warrior." Also like the octopus, in its previous appearance it was a different color (red instead of grayish-blue). Orko identifies the pet as a "scarg ... the most dangerous beast on Trolla." There we go again with those MOTU superlatives. More dangerous than Dragoon?
• It's Trollan custom, per Uncle Montork's ending comments, "to forgive and forget."
• We learn of the Trollan delicacy "roast gooble," which is Orko's absolute favorite. If roast gooble is what's on the platter on Montork's table, it looks a lot like spam. Amazingly enough, we will hear tell of roast gooble again, when Beast Man demands some from Orko in MU118.

• This is an interesting episode for our writer Larry DiTillio, whom I've noted in the past seems to have an aversion for Trollans in general and in particular for our court magician. There are not many episodes of He-Man that do not have Orko in them, but DiTillio has been responsible for a majority of them (thus far in the series, four out of the seven Orko-less episodes can be attributed to Larry). I wonder if he wrote this Trollan-filled script on a dare?
• Adam claims that Montork has "helped all of us in the past." Hmmm, don't remember that; what I associate with Montork's appearances is trouble, as the bespectacled Trollan always arrives in Eternia due to the presence of at least one evil wizard. Here, the evil wizard is home grown - still not very helpful!
• It's interesting that previous Montork episodes have centered around Orko's own feelings of magical inadequacy - particularly MU023 - but this one turns the tables and has Orko trying to buck up his uncle.
• More careless inconsistencies about the method of travel back and forth from Trolla. In MU020, He-Man was forced to shrink to get through the tiny portal that was the only gateway the Sorceress could manage to open to Trolla. When he got to the other side, he was changed back to Adam, and (as he eventually discovered) had to say his magic words in reverse to become He-Man again. In later episodes, we've seen various ways that characters have gotten to Eternia from Trolla and vice versa, which progressively trivialized the difficulty of the journey. Here, the Sorceress makes a full-size portal with ease, and He-Man goes through it without turning back into Adam (as far as we know - though there's a long gap between when he walks through and when we see him on Trolla). The only similarity we see here with the rules laid down by MU020 is that the Sorceress's portal is on a timer, as He-Man points out at the end of this episode (though with much less sense of urgency than in the other story).
• In this episode, we are asked to condone Dree Elle and Orko's shameless spying on Snoob. Their Snoob-snooping does result in important discoveries of malfeasance, but still: shouldn't we all feel a little dirty afterwards at this invasion of privacy?
• It's true that we've been seeing Whiplash a lot lately, but he shows himself to still be a bit of a novice in the ways of Eternia and Trolla. After all, if he had any experience with Orko's magic, why would he see any value in going to Trolla to learn the same stuff?
• Animation error: In the scene where Orko is confronting Whiplash, his ears are not visibly poking through the brim of his hat as they usually do.
• I was very amused by the blatantly inapropos appearance of the barrel next to Whiplash at the beginning of his magic lesson, which was clearly only there so that he could later fling it over Orko. The heroes later have their revenge, when He-Man tosses Whiplash into a water-filled barrel.
• Some fun new character designs in this episode. I love the idea of the Crimson Council, and their visualization is all that could be desired. The krooms, though the idea of pig men is a fairly obvious notion, demonstrate an impressive variety of shapes, sizes, and armor; I love their cartoonish hijinks throughout, and I love the fact that they ride on their green dragon mounts ("gaks") like jousting knights, with big wooden lances.
• It's interesting that when Montork goes off with He-Man to help Orko and Dree Elle, Gark does not accompany them. I think we got the sense in MU027, even though the creature was quite mean when he got turned evil by Tauron, that he is by nature a very peaceful fellow and not up to any fisticuffs.
• Whiplash suffers from a shower of verbal abuse in this episode: "alligator breath," "crocodile face," "scale head" - everyone just relentlessly pokes fun. Shame on you, Heroic Warriors!
• Whiplash seems very fond of his scarg pet - until the tiny version ends up in his boot and starts gnawing at his leg. Then he removes the boot and mercilessly beats the thing with his tail - presumably killing it.
• Continuity error (possibly): Montork convinces He-Man to stay by tempting him with the roast gooble, which he claims is "in the oven." However, in an earlier shot we clearly see some food already set on the table (not in the oven), which is likely meant to be the gooble.