Shelley Karol & Warren Greenwood

Ernie Schmidt

It's "the Trollan who cried wolf," as Orko's visiting buddy Squonge's tale-telling makes it difficult for our heroic Eternians to believe his story about Orko being kidnapped by the intergalactic criminal, the Slavemaster. But it's true - honest!

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

N/A

Squonge, intergalactic police officers, the Slavemaster, Jawbreaker, sentry robots, enslaved creatures (including bug man, elephant man, snail man, bear man, pink alien, many others), Eternian villagers, Slavemaster's honor guard (chicken ladies)

space pyramid, intergalactic police space cruiser, Slavemaster's ship, Wind Raider, Slavemaster's flying chair

Orko is excited for his friends Prince Adam and Teela to meet his old school buddy Squonge, who is about to arrive for a visit to Eternia. Orko explains somewhat sheepishly that Squonge is a great guy...except for one thing...he tends to make claims that don't fall entirely into the realm of truth. Sure enough, when Squonge arrives in a giant pyramid-shaped ship and begins to describe his journey, it includes several anecdotes of questionable veracity. As Adam and Teela are awkwardly smiling and nodding, another ship suddenly arrives: it's the intergalactic police! Two space-suited officers disembark and warn the heroes to be on the lookout for a pair of dangerous criminals: Slavemaster and his hulking robot sidekick, Jawbreaker. Slavemaster's MO is unsurprising once you know his name - guess what? It involves slave labor. The officers have helpful visual aids to show, including pictures and vital statistics of both criminals, an image of their spaceship - the police even leave Adam with a video that he can study afterwards!

All this information reminds Squonge of some ridiculous story or other, but the prince and Teela are too anxious to make a report to the king, and can't stay to listen. After they leave, Orko complains to Squonge about his absurd tales, and Squonge gets huffy, wondering why he came all this way just to be insulted. The friends separate, each taking some time to cool off and regret their hasty words. As Squonge is floating along through the woods, he happens upon a clearing where a spaceship is parked - one he easily identifies (thanks to those visual aids) as belonging to the Slavemaster! The Trollan rushes back to Orko to impart this exciting news; but Orko is annoyed all over again, certain that his friend is right back to his old lying tricks. At Squonge's repeated urging, he's finally convinced to be led into the forest himself to see if his friend is being truthful.

In the clearing, they do indeed find the ship, just as Squonge described; the entrance is flanked by a pair of scary robot sentries, but Squonge believes they can fly in undetected through the roof air vents and nab the criminals (by the way, why does a spaceship have air vents?). Orko finds the plan crazy - just the right kind of crazy - so they fly on in. The Trollans stumble on a prison area filled with many occupied cells, and soon enough overhear the Slavemaster himself, who is complaining to his minion Jawbreaker about the poor quality of his latest batch of slaves. If only he could find a big, strong specimen on the planet Eternia!

At this point the Trollans are betrayed by their sinuses, as Orko lets out a sneeze. The pair try to make a run for it, but Orko is caught inside an automatic cage which the slaver activates. Orko pleads with his friend to escape and fetch help, and a reluctant Squonge eventually agrees. Unfortunately Squonge is once again a victim of his own bullshit, as the heroes (Teela, Adam, and Man-at-Arms) have no faith in his tale of intergalactic criminals and kidnapped magicians. Worried of what might happen if Orko actually is in trouble, they at last consent to follow Squonge to the forest - where they see nothing (the Slavemaster's ship having departed for other climes). Luckily for Squonge, a diligent Man-at-Arms finds a ring on the ground which he knows belongs to Orko - Duncan having been the one who gave it to him. Horrors! How will they find their little magician now? The only other information Squonge can relate to the heroes is Slavemaster's comment about looking for someone strong. Which gives Duncan an idea...

In an unnamed Eternian village, a bullhorn-wielding Man-at-Arms invites his audience to get a load of the strongest man in the universe: He-Man. The blonde wonder is right there, performing amazing feats of strength for the awestruck villagers - and another cloaked stranger, who soon reveals himself as Jawbreaker. Slavemaster was still disappointed with his work force, who he compels to mine for precious minerals deep underground. Particularly underwhelming was his latest acquisition: that pointy-hatted guy with no legs really sucks! So Jawbreaker was sent out to look for men of stronger mettle, and now believes he's hit pay dirt.

The robot clears the village very quickly with a sweeping spray of sleeping gas from the nozzles on the ends of his arms, then nets He-Man and toddles off with his prize. In his underground throne room, Slavemaster gets a look at the bulky stranger and approves, so our hero is sent right off to the mines. After a cheeky wave of greeting to fellow slave Orko, He-Man breaks out of his bonds and takes on Jawbreaker. With some help from his Trollan friend, who dumps water on the robot and extinguishes his flamethrower, He-Man restrains his opponent, then frees the slaves (who are just thrilled about the swift reversal in their circumstances) and leads them on a march to the Slavemaster himself. He-Man trips up the criminal's robot guards and punches and kicks them into gears and springs, leaving only the slaver to face. The villain has a cool floating chair with laser guns attached; but He-Man is an old hand at deflecting laser bolts, and eventually throws his sword at the chair, smashing it to bits. Slavemaster then reaches for his pistol, but again Orko helpfully intervenes, magically causing a little "BANG!" flag to pop out of the barrel instead of anything more lethal.

He-Man is victorious! The hero leads everyone off to Castle Grayskull, where the Sorceress uses her window/mirror/corridor to send everyone to their respective homes - and Slavemaster and Jawbreaker to their home planet to stand trial. Afterwards, the heroes convene at the palace to see Squonge off. The Trollan still has the temerity to complain to Orko about not being believed, so the others point out to him that he has a compulsive lying problem. Squonge apologetically admits that he tells stories because he wants people to like him, and He-Man deftly claims that they like the little squirt just the way he is. (Easy to make these kinds of statements when the irritant in question is about to return to his home world!)

End with a Joke: Though it just seemed as if Squonge had learned his lesson about telling crazy stories, he begins describing all the incredibly unlikely dangers he's about to face on his perilous journey home, including space pirates and three-headed hyperspace weasels (which sound really awesome and should perhaps be considered as a band name). Orko interrupts him warningly, and Squonge assures them all that he was just kidding. Ha ha ha...

• Orko: Squonge, you're completely crazy - but I like your style.
• Slavemaster: Jawbreaker, come over here a moment. (Jawbreaker comes closer) (Muttering about Orko) I don't think that new slave of ours is going to work out; he's virtually useless.
• Man-at-Arms (of their plan to draw Slavemaster): It's kind of like fishing, with He-Man as the bait.
• He-Man (commenting on an elevator ride down to the mines): This is better than an amusement park! / Jawbreaker: Oh, shut up!
• Jawbreaker (of He-Man, said in the dumbest voice possible): Huh, you're stronger than I thought!

N/A

Zero (!)

Brought to you by Orko
Speaking to his audience at a surprisingly normal, almost slow, speed compared to his normal PSA babbling, Orko reiterates today's lesson about not crying wolf. Squonge was making up stories so that people would think he was important - but we're all important, regardless of whether we've faced three-headed weasels. So you should stick to telling only the truth - that the world is protected by a magic bird lady in a skull-faced castle, who calls on her muscular pool boy when she needs help.

Orko-specific lore: This episode would also be a really strong candidate for "wayward child learns a valuable lesson," except that - as immature as they often seem - I don't think we can consider Trollans such as Squonge or Orko to be children.
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2

• This episode introduces us to a new Trollan character: Squonge. Squonge and Orko are, as Orko says, "old buddies from the Academy of Magic." We got to see the Academy in MU077's "Trouble in Trolla." Squonge wears an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles. He does not have an initial on his robe. He does have a scarf just like Orko's, but the ends of Squonge's dangle loose behind him.
• Another Trollan visiting Eternia, and making it seem a mere trifle compared to the trouble that was gone to in MU020's "Dawn of Dragoon." I suppose it's possible that Orko's accidental creation in that episode of a magical pyramid that allows transit back and forth has started a whole technology trend back home, because Squonge arrives in his own pyramid - much larger than Orko's and seemingly propelled by rockets in its base. The Trollan speaks of dropping out of hyperspace - which would be interesting if we're meant to take it at face value, since I don't think we've ever heard that term used in MOTU before - but it's unclear how much truth there is in his statement.
• Squonge's unbelievable story of meeting a space hydra on an asteroid involves a part where the creature was "nested in a tunnel, and I flew my ship right into its mouth," which sounds very reminiscent of the asteroid-nested space-worm mouth that the Millennium Falcon accidentally flies into in The Empire Strikes Back. (The Star Wars creature is named an exogorth - just a little trivia for you there; I had to look that up.)
• The abrupt arrival of the intergalactic police makes us realize something - there are intergalactic police! That's cool. I love the very stylish space costumes the police officers wear. The logos on their chests look like the logos on the classic Lego space mini-figs of the same era.
• The police show our Eternians a video screen with various data about the criminals they're hunting. It includes numerical values for such made-up stats as "dax," "apt," "crz," and "waj."
• The space criminal of this episode, the Slavemaster, reminds me very much of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars bounty hunter character, Cad Bane. I guess the Slavemaster is a bit more robotic. Still, compare their hats! And their holstered pistols!
• Slavemaster's guards remind me of the very imposing Gort from the absolute classic sci-fi film, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Near the end of the episode we even find they're capable of shooting rays out of their visor-like eye bands, just like Gort (though thankfully the beams are not as destructive).
• While we're comparing things: Slavemaster's saucer-like ship is reminiscent of that owned by another "master" of the series (though not of the universe), MU061's Game Master. Game Master's ship had a whole arena inside it though!
• In terms of plot, Slavemaster's ship full of an imprisoned collection of interesting critters, to which Orko is swiftly added, strongly recalls the events of MU065's "The Heart of a Giant," with the Keeper and his fish blimp full of curious sideshow oddities. To give the animators their due, they did not take this opportunity to just rehash a bunch of old character designs for the slaves, as was largely done in MU065. Slavemaster has captured a bunch of unique organisms, with designs heavily based on various Earth animals (as can be seen by my identifications in the characters list above).
• We learn that Orko owns a magic ring, given to him by Duncan as a birthday present. Awwww. The ring, which we've never seen or heard of before, reminds us of the one Skeletor was suddenly wearing which so distracted Drak in MU099's "Hunt for He-Man."
• Slavemaster's righthand man, Jawbreaker, has the typical "big dumb guy" voice that makes me think of old Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons. His claw hands can be swapped out for nozzles that shoot out sleep gas, nets, jets of flame, and various other things. Very...handy!
• As I note in other comments, there are an amazing amount of non-recycled character designs in this episode; but He-Man should have recognized the chicken lady guards flanking Slavemaster's throne in the scene where the two characters first meet. The pair look exactly like Gleedil, the alien from Trannis who helped him in MU019 when he had amnesia! Also, in the immediately following scene in the mine, we get a couple of glimpses of good old Lizard Man (MU005, MU022), who has clearly fallen on hard times! (Since He-Man doesn't remark on finding his old compatriot here, we have to assume that this isn't the Lizard Man, but merely a lizard man.)
• He-Man's flip move that he uses on Jawbreaker is one that we've seen him use before, on Man-E-Faces in MU043 (and likely elsewhere). He also uses again the cool spin kick he showed off in the recent MU106. He assumes a pose just after doing the kick that makes it look as though he's been taking martial arts classes in his spare time.
• At the end of the episode, we see Slavemaster's many slaves being returned to their homes by walking through Sorceress's all-purpose window. Something very very similar happened at the end of MU061's "Pawns of the Game Master" (an episode I've already had call to reference). In MU061, the window was specifically dubbed her "Time Corridor," allowing me to tag that episode with the Time Corridor category; but here it is not so dubbed, so I'm going to let it go.
• This is one of those unusual stories that has no He-Man transformation sequence. The most unique episode of this type must be MU016, since it actually does not feature Prince Adam at all (because He-Man is already transformed at the episode's beginning, and never changes back). In this one, as in the other non-transformation episodes MU079 and MU081, Adam does his transformation off-screen between scenes.
• The sixth consecutive episode to feature the variant ending credits with the flat-painted Jawbridge in the background.

• I love how the intergalactic police, whose ostensible job it is to catch the Slavemaster, just land on Eternia, tell the first person they meet (who claims to be a prince, though they ask for no proof of his identity) about the criminal, and then leave. They've done all they can! Those brave heroes...
• It's interesting that our first look at Slavemaster's slaves show a bunch of very animalistic looking creatures; but when we visit the Slavemaster's mine, the people working in the opening panning shot are in general much more humanoid. Of course, Slavemaster was complaining about the poor quality of the former batch, so maybe that's why we don't see them working! (Subsequent shots, however, do reveal many of the slaves from the ship, including the bear man and snail man.)
• In the scene where the slaves are seen digging away at the rock, there are several very obvious glittering gems poking out of the material they're mining. Um, maybe take a moment to grab the easy stuff first? Work smarter, not harder! We also see the slaves making use of what looks to be a very inefficient one-wheeled mine cart, precariously perched on a single rail, and making us really wonder about Slavemaster's organizational skills.
• This episode really does feature an impressive and almost overwhelming variety of original character designs - and vehicle designs as well! The animators were outdoing themselves here. Even in a later scene showing off a huge crowd of villagers, though there are familiar Eternian characters, they've been tweaked in such a way that doesn't make them straight recycles.
• Slavemaster discusses with Jawbreaker his concern that they won't make their "quota," and later mentions a "deadline." Um, whose quota are you trying to meet, dude? As an intergalactic criminal, don't you kind of set your own rules? Or is he associated with some more formal black market that buys an established quantity of conflict diamonds?
• Animation error: Jawbreaker clearly brings He-Man into Slavemaster's throne room by means of an elevator, and after entering the room it seems the pair must be standing just in front of the elevator doors and the wall they are set in; however in a subsequent shot of the robot and his prisoner, the wall behind them has vanished, replaced with a rocky cave background.
• It seems rather short-sighted - dare I say, stupid? - of our slavedrivers to go and find the strongest man on Eternia, and then be amazed when he turns out to be really strong - strong enough to break his bonds and cause a ruckus. "Strongest" - it's in the name, see? (Though his bad judgment is undeniable, we can forgive Slavemaster for not knowing about the legend of He-Man, since as the story indicates, the criminal hails from a different planet.)
• After taking out Jawbreaker, He-Man restrains the robot man by popping the tool end off of a mining pick and bending the metal handle around the villain's arms, which have been crossed behind his back. But He-Man barely encircles Jawbreaker's limbs, and based on the length of their fight, it really seems like the guy would be strong enough to get out of this predicament. I suspect he feels psychologically beaten at this point, however; we don't see him making any attempt to escape. At the end of the episode as he and his boss walk dejectedly through the Sorceress's window, they are seen wearing more impressive manacles on their hands (presumably provided by Duncan or the Sorceress herself).
• It's only fair, since I've been irritated with Orko lately and called him out on his aggravating behavior multiple times, to point out the fact that he materially helps with his magic in both of the big villain fights in this episode. He creates a big pot of water to tip over Jawbreaker's head and put out the robot's flamethrower arm, and he turns Slavemaster's laser pistol into a gag toy. It almost seems like, with Squonge there to fill the role of derpy Trollan, Orko is free to demonstrate some real competence.
• In the lore section I mentioned the Gleedil-clone bird ladies who are flanking Slavemaster's throne, and seem to be a sort of honor guard for him; but at the end of the story, we see those same bird ladies walking through Sorceress's window, implying they're to be numbered among the criminal's many slaves. Is it really wise to have your slaves guarding you? Of course I'm asking as someone who's never owned slaves, so maybe I just don't know how these things are done.
• At the episode's end, we hear Squonge mention that he's returning to Trolla to "complete my studies at the Academy of Magic." Huh - he is? Orko said at the beginning that they knew each other from the Academy; so either Orko is a more senior student, or he dropped out early. Actually the chronology here makes very little sense, if you recall that Orko's unplanned diversion to Eternia's tar swamp, resulting in his adoption by the royal family and the beginning of his lengthy stay at the palace, must have been many years in the past (since he met a pre-teen Prince Adam and kitten-sized Cringer on arrival). It seems unlikely that Orko found time to take classes on Trolla during those intervening years (especially considering how difficult it used to be to get back to his home dimension), so his days at the Academy must have come before the tar swamp incident. Has Squonge been flunking classes for like ten years, or is he working on a post-doctoral thesis? It would have made much more sense if Orko and Squonge were just old school buddies who have long since graduated, and Squonge is returning to some civil service job on Trolla - perhaps, given his confabulating propensities, a career in marketing.
• Another sign that the animators were working very hard this episode: though there are undeniably some reused sequences, I wasn't able to identify any of my usual library of animation loops being used here.
• This episode features a couple of elements that should by all rights lower it in my estimation, but for some reason I found it quite enjoyable. It's one of those "lesson" episodes, built around Squonge's naughty storytelling trait; and it also features some fairly derivative themes, like the enslaving bad guy and the annoying Trollan scapegrace (recall MU053's dismal Yukkers, or perhaps MU077's Snoob). But actually the lesson part of the story is largely confined to the beginning and end of the episode, and the characters' reasonable disbelief of Squonge helps drive the plot along. Also, any recycled ideas are more than outweighed by the fun and creative array of original character and ship designs seen here, as well as the amusing interplay and dialogue given to the villains.
• Speaking of derivative, though... this episode was written by Warren Greenwood, whose only other script, MU081's "The Arena," turns out to have been a fairly direct rip-off of a Star Trek story (see the lore section for that episode).