Robert White

Ed Friedman

Space pirates! Need I say more?

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

N/A

Eternian villagers and farmers, village children, blacksmith, space pirate soldiers, Rose, Harro, space pirates (stone pirate, frog pirate, cat pirate, winged spy, Sticky Fingers, snake pirate), the Tracker

farm vehicles, pirate spaceship, hover scooters, Wind Raider

A charming scene of fertile fields and idyllic farming is suddenly overshadowed - quite literally - by a spaceship which proves to be stuffed to the brim with space pirates! The meek farmers and villagers are quickly cowed by the band of pirates, who explain they are going to take half their victims' gathered food, and in the meantime won't be allowing anyone to leave. A young village girl (whose name, we will learn, is Rose) defiantly runs off to get help, but draws the eyes of the pirates, who send a snaky member of the band to hunt her down.

Nearby, our friends Cringer, Orko, Teela, and Prince Adam are exploring some ancient ruins and making note of the site's location, when they overhear Rose's cries for help. Teela runs to the rescue, telling Adam to stay behind and thus conveniently giving him the chance to transform himself and his tiger. Teela spots the threatened girl and manages to freeze the pursuing snake pirate's hook hand (which doubles as a laser gun) with her wrist freeze ray; she then bumps into He-Man, who defensively excuses his presence by saying that he heard a cry for help. The blonde oaf uses a length of perma-vine to rope the giant boulder that Rose has precariously climbed onto, yanking the thing back from the edge of a precipice. He then throws a log at the snake pirate, who has managed to break off the ice block on his hook, and knocks the villain into the gorge, where he floats away.

Back at the ancient campground, Prince Adam is back with the rest of the heroes to hear Rose's tale of space pirates. Teela wishes that He-Man had stuck around, since he would be useful in this situation; but all she gets is the royal prince and his scaredy-cat tiger. Orko is sent back to the palace to fetch Man-at-Arms and some palace guards (our friends having finally learned that it's best to keep the trouble-prone Trollan out of the way at these times). Striding into the village to rescue the populace, the trio of heroes doesn't fare well: the first pirate they meet manages to steal Adam's power sword, and all three Heroic Warriors are pinned to the spot by the tar that squirts out of the fingers of the lead pirate, appropriately named "Sticky Fingers."

Who will save our endangered heroes, now locked in a prison cell by the wicked pirates? Why, the girl they were trying to rescue in the first place, along with her father Harro, who has decided to assist. Rose distracts the prison guard (a cat-like pirate) with a huge meal, while her father sneaks into the cell through an underground tunnel and hatch, letting the prisoners out.

Quickly learning of the jail break, Sticky Fingers berates his incompetent underlings and instead sends "the Tracker" to hunt down the escapees. It's a snuffling, elephant-like creature that easily sniffs out the trail of our heroes; but fortunately they've chosen to hide in a building with great sacks of nose-tickling spices, which Adam uses to incapacitate the creature.

The pirates are enraged, but rather than waste anymore time looking for the heroes or indeed paying any attention to the villagers, they focus on stealing all the remaining food from the town. Thus, Adam is able to rally the unmonitored farmers and direct them in constructing a series of traps. Cringer is given the task of locating the prince's missing power sword, which Teela thinks is completely unimportant but we know has the potential to help solve this whole space pirate problem. The tiger finally spots the sword in the icky hands of Sticky Fingers, and bravely snatches it from his grasp just as the villagers are beginning to spring all their traps on the other pirates (who've arrived to take one more pass through the village and steal any food items they may have missed).

Teamwork - and a restored He-Man - combine to take out all the pirates except Sticky Fingers, who (after watching in horror as He-Man actually manages to escape from his tar gunk) makes one last-ditch attempt to escape in his spaceship with the full haul of crops in its hold. He-Man won't be having any of that, however, and lassos the ship with a gigantic chain (which the farmers have lying around for some reason), yanking off the back thrusters. The ship crashes to the ground and our hero pries open the roof, plucking out the defeated pirate.

A celebration follows for the whole village, with Rose's father thanking He-Man and He-Man reminding everyone that it was their collaboration that really saved the day (though we know it was mostly He-Man's muscles). Having finally arrived now that the fighting's all done, Man-at-Arms takes charge of the tied-up Sticky Fingers, promising that the pirates' reign of terror has ended.

End with a Joke: Even though the heroes managed to keep Orko out of sight - and out of trouble - for the majority of the episode, he returns at the very end to mess up and provide an ending joke. Boasting that if he'd been present, he could have easily taken care of the pirates, Orko tries a disappearing spell that accidentally hits Duncan, leaving only a floating man-at-arms helmet visible in its wake. Teela laughs and suggests it's time for the Trollan to make himself scarce; Orko, seeing the sense in this, vanishes.

• Villager: Space pirates!
• Winged spy (spotting Rose running away from the village): Rah! That one's not trying out for the track team!
• Cringer (rather callous in his cowardice): Oh, come on; it wasn't a very loud call for help!
• Teela: There are more important things than your sword, Adam! / Cringer (looking at the audience): Huh; that's what she thinks!
• He-Man (to the collected villagers): It's what you did for yourselves that matters. Once you got together - worked together - you got the job done.

• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Preparing to rescue a girl menaced by space pirates; and later, preparing to stop Sticky Fingers from escaping
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: About to jump off to save that girl
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: The sequence starting from the pause and continuing as He-Man runs off-screen is used as he hurries to save some children in danger
• He-Man juggles his sword: Unsheathing it
• He-Man swings sword overhand: To (improbably) slice away the tar he's stuck in
• Teela, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back: At the fact that her father has been magically disappeared
• Adam smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: To deliver the PSA

Two full

Brought to you by Prince Adam
Our prince explains that this episode taught us the value of cooperation and helping others to get a tough job done. After all, if other animators hadn't come up with lots of character designs and backgrounds for previous stories, we wouldn't have half the people and places used in this episode!

Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2: If you really wanted to stretch things, you could group this episode into the Historians, archaeologists, and digging up old cities category based on the brief appearance of the ruins in the opening; but I think that's cheating, as the ruins had almost nothing to do with the main story.

• The farm vehicles we see in the episode's opening look surprisingly similar to the toy version of the Attak Trak, with similar treads and a small, open cockpit.
• It's character recycling time! The blacksmith in the village looks a heck of a lot like Garn, the impressive gladiator from MU031's "A Tale of Two Cities." The purple-hooded farmer we see a few seconds later is Palos the Cave Dweller from MU033's "The Starchild." The winged critter that perches on Sticky Fingers's shoulder is Lady Valtira's pet, Sago, from MU035's "The Sleepers Awaken" (though here he's been repainted pink instead of green). There are other familiar villager designs among the various farmers and tertiary characters (I spotted MU024's and MU059's pervy wizard, Mallek, for instance); and late in the episode we see a boy matching the Chad/Thad/Lad build of MU042, MU049, and MU070.
• Don't worry, the animators can recycle backgrounds, too! The ancestral "campground" that our heroes discover is just the ruined city where Skeletor awoke Colossor in MU014's well-titled "Colossor Awakes." (The giant stone throne is a big giveaway.) This venue was already reused more than once, for instance as the ruins on Dark Mountain in MU073's "Origin of the Sorceress."
• Things that come out of Orko: on the end of a third arm that comes out of his head (and, unlike other recent iterations, is not clothed in a sleeve), his "special map;" which seems largely useless, though we don't really get a good look at it.
• Promising that "Adam will stay here," our prince uses a semantic loophole to follow Teela as He-Man - and coincidentally also suggests that Adam and He-Man are two different people (a cherished theory of mine).
• He-Man makes use of "perma-vine," which seems to function much like the iron vine we saw in MU056.
• Teela is back to using her good old wrist freeze ray, which we haven't seen used with that specific ability since way back in MU066.
• "We've had trouble with space pirates before," declares Teela. Well, not on screen you haven't; but they were mentioned as being a problem she and her father were handling at the beginning of MU040. So that checks out!
• Not doing a great job with the old secret identity: Adam returns to the campground after the village girl is rescued, and Teela laments that He-Man has departed, since they still have a big space pirate problem. Orko pointedly announces, "I've got a feeling he isn't all that far away," and visibly elbows the prince. Thanks, Orko...
• The plot of this episode, with a small band of heroes rescuing (and encouraging bravery in) farmers menaced by piratical raiders, recalls the classic film The Seven Samurai - or, if you like, The Magnificent Seven.
• You'd think Adam would have learned by now to never, ever draw his power sword unless he's alone and about to use it to change into He-Man. We see him draw it here to fend off the pirates and immediately lose it; something very similar happened with MU061's "Game Master," and before that as far back as MU003's "Disappearing Act." (He will again screw up with his power sword in the upcoming MU094.)
• The space pirates' "Tracker" is another reused character design. We saw a gigantic form of this elephantine creature toying with the Attak Trak in a cave in MU016, and it was used to flesh out a pack of kidnapped creatures at the end of MU065. This smaller version is actually more disturbing, since it relentlessly chases our helpless heroes when He-Man is not available.
• In a recycling of some of the animators' favorite backgrounds, the interior of the space pirates' ship is the same as Negator's high-tech base from MU054's "Game Plan." These paintings are the go-to interior for bases and ships everywhere in Eternia! We've also seen them in MU065, MU066, MU068, and MU076.
• You don't get a good full shot of the space pirates' vessel until near the end of the episode, so it was only then that I realized it's yet another instance of recycling: it looks like the Keeper's fish-blimp-ish ship from MU065's "The Heart of a Giant."
• Man-at-Arms makes a very late appearance in the episode, getting a couple of lines in after the pirates have been defeated, and then getting himself zapped by Orko. Poor son of a gun.

• I love the way the generic space pirate soldiers look, with their Mad Max-esque skull helmets that appear to be equipped with sunglasses.
• Thank Grayskull we're back to a simple adventure story, with He-Man fighting space pirates! We've endured a several-episode run of annoying children (or immature Trollans) being forced to learn not to behave like idiots. So glad that's over - for now!
• There are a lot of recycled characters in this episode, but most of the main band of space pirates are new designs, giving us a fun variety of fresh-faced miscreants. Wiki Grayskull has actual names for them, but since none of those except "Sticky Fingers" are used in the episode itself, I've given them generic monikers in the character list based on the animal or thing they most closely resemble.
• There's a hilarious exchange between the villagers as they're being threatened by the stony space pirate: one says, "We've got to do something!" prompting the Palos clone to pipe up with a chipper "Not me!"
• It's interesting that, after having played such a central role (albeit one that was definitely not altogether positive) in the preceding MU089, Orko gets sent off to the palace by Teela, thus missing most of the pirate fight. Heaven knows we could do without the Trollan's special brand of "help" for a change! The writer (Robert White, who also gave us MU058 and MU076) also contrives to leave Orko out of the introductory battle against the snake pirate, after the Trollan sails directly into a stone statue, stunning himself.
• Sticky Fingers is the one full-size pirate whose design is vaguely reminiscent of an existing character: he reminds me of MU059's Kothos. His dialogue is sprinkled with piratical terminology such as "landlubber" and "swabs." He also shoots tar out of his fingers, which is unique as well as very disgusting.
• We see some stereotypical pirate clothing/prosthetics on the other characters, like eye patches and hook hands - though the snake pirate's hook also functions as a laser! The pirates use a logo on their armor and flags that looks like a sci-fi version of the classic skull-and-crossbones.
• In the typical practice of not bothering to mention secondary character names, Adam somehow already knows that Rose's father's name is "Harro" when the guy arrives to rescue them from prison. When did they get introduced? There wasn't much time to chat during the pirate fight. We're forced to assume that Rose told Teela and Adam her father's name off-screen, when she was filling them in about the space pirates back at the campsite. Or does Adam have to memorize the names of everyone in Eternia as part of his prince training?
• Animation error: A very slight one; but in one scene where Cringer is about to go find Adam's sword, Rose's dress is colored incorrectly, with both her top and skirt colored the same shade of pink. In other scenes, her skirt is a slightly lighter pink. I feel an incredible pall of nerdiness descending on me after having written those sentences...
• The space pirates have already shown us from the earliest scenes in the episode that they have a veritable army of skull-helmeted soldiers at their command. So where are all these watch-dogs while the villagers are blatantly building defenses and traps in broad daylight? The finished "traps" are furthermore not hidden or constructed all that well, with one very obvious seesaw plank having only its lowered end perfunctorily covered with a scattered handful of hay. The dug-out cell into which one bunch of pirates is locked gets closed with a pair of bolts that (it seems) could be very easily shot back from inside the cell.
• Way to go, Cringer! Even though Adam didn't ask him to, the tiger takes it upon himself to nab the power sword from the head pirate, Sticky Fingers. This is a good episode for showcasing the tiger, who - even though he recently had a story devoted mostly to himself (MU084's "Fraidy Cat") seems to be relegated to the sidelines more often than not this season.
• I'm not sure why, because it seems like he should just be irritating, but I found Sticky Fingers' little winged companion amusing and a nice addition to the ensemble. He makes a lot of sassy side comments that help punch up the dialogue.
• It's a fascinating choice to keep He-Man out of the story for most of this episode, giving Adam a chance to show his ingenuity and charisma when he convinces the farmers to work together and fight back. It does remind me somewhat of an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon (which google tells me was, in a choice flying dangerously close to copyright infringement territory, called Shazzan) about two children and their friendly genie slave - er, assistant. The plot of almost every episode involved the introduction of some contrived obstacle that kept the kids from summoning the genie - because naturally, as soon as Shazzan appeared, all their troubles were instantly ended at the hands of the omnipotent magical being. Remind you of anyone? An all-powerful blonde beefcake, perhaps?